Crossover Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Reason And Accountability ❯ Miyafuji ( Chapter 42 )

Unfamiliar ceiling. This is not an unusual experience for me, really. It was a sort of grey color, and appeared to be steel plate. There were big rounded rivets in the corners of the room. I turned to examine the door and noted it was a hatchway, like you find on ships. I rose and stretch from the chair I’d been awkwardly resting on over some kind of steel desk, bolted to the floor. This bodes. Also, and I realize this now I’m standing… the floor is rocking and my ears note a humming sound. And a booming sound. And … gunfire. Big machineguns and cannons and some kind of “ZOOOAAW” noise, which makes for booms and shakes. The ship turns, offering a nearby wall as slightly more down than prior.

I got my balance and headed for the hatch, opening and shutting it till the heavy latch clicked. There was a metal hallway with rubber mats on the floor and people running in the distance, shouting. This bodes. The “ZOOOAW” sound came again and I headed for the nearest daylight. Engines, more noises, guns firing. And some great black and red aircraft with at least an 80 meter wingspan shooting red bendy-lasers from its top and bottom towards some very small aircraft, which fired a machinegun back at it… and did damage. I realized it was a woman, in a World War Two Japanese navy officer’s dress uniform… and panties. Because her legs were inside metal tubes… with propellers. And she was flying that way. Darting around acrobatically. A blue circle of runes flared outwards shielding her and around three meters a side, deflecting some of the red bendy lasers.

Because bendy lasers are a thing. I blame Space Captain Harlock for that one. I think it started with that show? Or should I blame Macross? Or Gundam? Actually the origin of that trope is going to bother me for a while. And there’d be no way to look that up until my vacation was over. I noted a flare of blue light, mana if I’m any judge, on the flight deck of what I now realize is an aircraft carrier. A sailor is down a white smocked girl no older than my Komachi was doing her best with magic to heal someone. I hurried over and heard her stopped by a corpsman in period costume.

“Make a hole!” I shouted and jumped in with Healing Hands. It has the benefit of ejecting shrapnel, which emerged quickly as I knelt to pluck the sharp pieces out using a bandage to protect my fingers. Yes, I could heal those, but why risk it? The giant alien plane made of hexagons was still making loud noises and blew up a neighboring ship, probably hitting their powder stores. The trouble with battleships is their top armor is thin, to save weight, so aerial attacks work extra well on them. This goes double for cruisers and destroyers. I noted the seaman coming around and the absence of sound from the men.

“A wizard? How is this possible?” said the corpsman. I shrugged.

“Who needs help next?” I demanded. I was directed to another victim nearby, lying on a stretcher. Too late.

“This one is dead. Next!” I called loudly. The next one was alive and I healed the stump of his lower leg. I don’t know where the missing part was, but in a jumble like this, it could be BBQ or shark chum. I saved him from bleeding out through the stump, but it would be touch and go. There were a series of wounded people, with the Komachi-chan following me.

“Hey, what’s your name?” I asked her when she handed me a roll of bandages.

“Miyafuji,” she answered. “What is yours?”

“Hikkigaya. I’m from Chiba. Where’d you train?” I asked her. She was using magic sparingly. The dogfight above was brutal, and the machinegun fire had stopped. The flying woman was using a sword now. Against a plane 200 times her size.

“My family are witches. We have a clinic in the mountains near Yokosuka. Mom and Grandma are both really good healers. I was going to take over the clinic when I was old enough, but Sakamoto-san convinced me to come with her. I might be able to do some good here.”

“Can you fly?” I asked her, watching the fight above. “If that’s Sakamoto she needs a new machinegun.”

“Uh.. I’ve never tried. Can you?” she asked me. I gestured to my blood covered hands and the line of injured men I was healing. There were burn victims I could save from death, if I hurried.

“Nope. I don’t grow ears or a tail when I use magic, either. If you can help her, it might end the battle,” I suggested. She looked around, noting the deck elevator was down.

“I saw something in the hold I could use. Thanks. See you later,” she promised. My sister’s size and age, but a lot more serious. I healed some burned tissue into fresh skin, and went on to the next guy whose breathing stopped as I neared him … dead from shock. I zapped his heart and he started breathing again, then hit him with healing, including in the brain and he sorted himself out. The next one was dead. Too late.

The deck elevator rose to the surface and I turned to regard Miyafuji standing in those plane leg things, props spinning around where her ankles would be. The mana circle was huge, probably reflecting her nerves and she surged out across the deck… a bit slow actually. She dropped off the end of the bow towards the water and men cursed nearby, but she rose into the sky a moment later and flew towards the dogfight. I saw her meet with the Sakamoto woman and the two white-clad fly-girls danced around, shooting and cutting at the attacking space monster plane and after a bit of stop and go managed to damage it properly, whereupon a streak of tracer fire flashed from the distance, reaming through the plane and killing it. It dissolved into motes of light and grey-white glass, which evaporated into some kind of nth dimensional matter or something weird. Probably conjured.

I went back to healing people. Eventually I found either minor injuries or dead people and the line ended. I healed a few of the medical corpsmen and some of the wounded firefighters, and got off the deck so the witches could land. Sakamoto and Miyafuji came down, and the ship was circled by a flight of seven others in various plane-pants leg aircraft, who eventually headed back towards a castle on the English coast, now in the near distance.

There were questions, of course. I wasn’t wearing a navy uniform. I was in my summer school uniform, minus the jacket. It was light, appropriate for the weather here. I’d read that the English Channel was often foggy and cold, but not today. It must be summertime.

First I was questioned on the deck. Then in the ready room, sadly absent of pilots. A few had been recovered from the cold waters, but most were killed with their planes. Lasers, bendy or not, were unforgiving weapons on aircraft full of fuel. The ready room questioners increased in ranks up to XO and then Captain, then MPs came and escorted me with the two witches and their equipment via small boat to the shore, offloading at a dock and handed over to the base security. Then it was another chamber, then some sort of larger chamber facing a long bench of grumpy old men, none of them Japanese. A good thing I speak English, because their accents were thick.

“Eh? Please repeat your question, sir,” I requested of the staff officers.

“I understand you saved thirty-four men from severe injury and another twenty five with minor injuries. That is a remarkable achievement for a… wizard. Why have we never heard of you from our allies in Fuso Empire?” asked a man with jowls like a bulldog.

“I’m just a tourist, myself,” I answered, confusing them.

“On a wartime vessel heading into combat? There are no reports of you in the ship’s manifest or logs. How did you stow away for the last three months of travel?” pointed out one of the other old men behind the bench. I shrugged.

“It is true this was your first contact with Sergeant Miyafuji?” asked Major Sakamoto. I noticed the family resemblance to Bug and Saki, but kept my mouth shut.

“Yes, I noticed her using magic to heal a wounded sailor, but she’s a bit… energetic rather than precise. I’m more experienced with this kind of work. I’m sure she’ll be great with more practice and training,” I assured the woman, who was actually a year or two older than me, probably old enough to drink legally. She enjoyed a boisterous laugh.

“That is certainly so. And you have the gratitude of the Fuso Navy for saving so many men, and convincing our sister witch to take arms and fight,” she slapped me on the shoulder, hard. I applied healing magic briefly to prevent the bruise I knew would form otherwise and gave her the side-eye. With my squinty and suspicious gaze this was noticed by the board, who harrumphed at us both.

“Be that as it may, the existence of wizards in time of war is an issue which needs answers,” insisted the jowly man.

“You have words for it. Wizard must be a thing. If they’re not participating in the war, maybe you need to offer them enough to come and help. I suspect gold works. Lands and titles are also a good option,” I hinted. “Many of the old folktales about wizards and witches have some truth to them. Do you still practice those fertility rites?” I asked Sakamoto, elbowing her. She coughed then, surprised.

“I uh… I dunno,” she admitted. “Most witches lose their powers if they lose their maidenhead.”

“Nah. That can’t be true. Miyafuji’s mother and grandmother are still powerful healers, aren’t they?” I disagreed. Sakamoto froze then, realizing this fact. “They’ve got kids, so this maidenhead thing must be a lie, right? May as well fraternize and start the next generation of witches and wizards when you meet a bloke you fancy, right?” I elbowed her again. She coughed harder this time. “Maybe someday you’ll have grandkids and great grandkids you can teach to fly on a broom, am I right?”

She finally caught on and boomed out her laugh at the great big joke the standing orders were and showed the resolve to break them as soon as she said her peace with the CO.

Released from the long series of questions and other nonsense I got an escort to the mess hall where I managed to get some food in me. It was English food, so heavy and lots of thick gravy, but there was food under there and I ate it and managed a piece of peach pie, of all things. Satiated, I found Miyafuji in the mixed baths in the basement of the castle. I washed then slipped in.

“Oh, Hikigaya-san. You’ve come into the baths,” she said.

“Obviously. We’re Japanese. I have a sister about your age.”

“Oh? What’s she like? Is… is she a witch?” she asked.

“Eh… wizard. Sorcerer? She’s still developing her skills in Skyrim,” I added, enjoying how the hot water was relaxing my muscles and finally removing that crick in my neck from sleeping in that chair.

“Skyrim? Is that what you call your magic?” asked Miyafuji, confused.

“Nah, it’s a place with lots of magic. Don’t worry about it. So what was that big black and red thing with the bendy lasers?” I asked.

“Those are the aliens attacking Earth. They’ve taken over Switzerland and most of central Europe, and they’ve attacked a bunch of other places too. The aliens appear in different shapes but they disappear if you can find their core and break it. The Strike Witches mostly use guns for that,” she said.

“Huh. I wonder if Ice Spike would work. Or lightning bolt would affect it or not?” I muttered. I leaned back and shut my eyes, resting. I heard a bunch of voices, all teenage girls, arriving and washing then sinking into the water. Then there was a gasp and silence.

“There’s a man in the baths,” said a stilted German woman’s voice.

“It’s the wizard. What was his name again Miyafuji?” I heard Sakamoto ask.

“Hikigaya,” answered the girl nervously. Sakamoto bellowed with laughter.

“That’s it. Tip of my tongue. Hey, is it true your mom and grandma still use magic?” I heard her ask.

“Umm… Yes? Why do you ask?” Miyafuji asked her sempai.

“Do you realize the entire Strike Witches protocol is to avoid physical contact with men because we were told we’d lose our powers if we fall in love or have relations with men? That we’d become useless if we get married or lose our precious virginity? Your mom and grandma proves that is wrong. How come we never knew that, Mina?” Sakamoto asked.

“I am unaware of this, but it does raise questions about standing orders being wrong,” admitted the German girl with her accented English.

“I’m not a stripper pole, in case you all get ideas. And I’m pretty sure I know Sakamoto’s great grandkids,” I admitted, still resting my eyes.

“What?” asked Sakatmoto, stunned at the statement.

“Yeah, in Chiba City. Around 80 years from now. My little sister is dating your great grandson. And your great granddaughter looks a lot like you. She’s in my class at school.”

“What a strange thing to say. Are you trying to imply you have travelled in time?” asked the French girl, Perrine if memory serves.

“Yes. Wizard, remember? You probably don’t find your local wizards because of either time travel or portals to other worlds. Both in my case. We don’t have these aliens where I’m from. You’ll probably beat them after suitable effort and difficulties and predictable drama. And some training montage involving brooms so you can become better fliers.”

“That sounds very specific,” said the Finnish girl.

“Oddly specific,” agreed Mina.

“If I open my eyes are you going to be flashing me? I warn you that I’m Japanese so semi-public nudity in baths is pretty normal. Sakamoto and Miyafuji can confirm this.”

“It’s true. Strange men are allowed to see us naked in public baths and hot springs,” agreed Miyafuji.

“Yes. And we’re still allowed to ignore it and pretend like everything is perfectly normal,” Sakamoto confirmed. “Even as we eye their wedding tackle and pretend we are ignoring it.”

“That’s really weird,” said the Italian girl.

“I should say so,” agreed the English girl.

“So Japanese people are exhibitionist?” Mina asked, aghast.

“Eh.. Probably? You’re supposed to control yourself. Getting aroused is very bad form,” I explained. “You’re supposed to wash, get into the baths, soak a while and relax, then get out and rinse off before dressing and getting on with your day. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that we consider cleanliness next to holiness?” I answered. I sat up and looked, many pairs of young breasts pointed at me. I blinked, but kept myself calm. Applying Japanese sensibilities to the bath is key.

“I’ve had enough soaking. Thanks for the company and conversation,” I said, rising up and turning to step out of the bath. I rinsed, dried, and dressed in some robe thing because my clothes were spattered in blood, bits of viscera, stank of fuel and explosives, and really needed a wash. I opted to use the laundry tubs nearby for that purpose and scrubbed the shirt, then trousers and underwear with soap powder, rinsed thoroughly, and carried it in a basket outside, where some poles were setup for laundry. Odd to see the Japanese style system here, but whatever. I used it and some pins and hoped my clothes would be ready before I jumped again.

Miyafuji found me later and directed me to a guest room, where I could turn in. The sun was going down, but it had been a long day and I’m seriously tired.