Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Fan Fiction ❯ Movements ❯ XX - New Game ( Epilogue )

The boy hesitated for a moment as he raised his hand. Then he looked towards the girl who stood impatiently beside him.

 

“Oh, just do it,” she fumed, combing her blond hair nervously with her fingers. Two small pigtails adorned her hairstyle at the side, adding a childish look to the hot-tempered girl, “We travelled around the globe, trekking and interviewing through the countryside of Germany and now we are back here again. Just do it.”

 

With a weary sigh, he rapped his knuckles on the wooden door. It was only a simple apartment located in an urban part of Japan. Nothing on the door indicated anything different about the inhabitant of this particular home, except for the fact that they knew who might be behind the door. The librarian had told them (or at least, shown them journals, considering that all he spoke was `Ook.') stories about the person they seek.

 

“The door is not locked,” a loud, mature voice boomed from behind the door, “Come in.”

 

The boy pushed the door open, stepping cautiously into the cluttered room, followed closely behind by the girl. There were books everywhere the room, books on rocketry, books on mechanics and more importantly, books on alchemy. A single suit of armor stood proud and tall at the corner of the room, watching over the mess in the room in stoic silence. It was almost a library.

 

No wonder, the librarian knew about this man they seek. Chances are that the ape had access to the apartment through L-space.

 

Across the small apartment, in the sun-lit balcony, there was a small coffee table with a chess set placed on it. The boy could not help notice that all the pieces had been nicely laid out, as though it was expected to be played. There were two chairs. One invitingly empty.

 

In the other, sat an aged man. He was not exactly tall, with streaks of youthful, surviving blond marking his graying hair. His beard was neatly trimmed and hanging to the left of his head, was a long ponytail. He was dressed somewhat formally, sleeves and trousers but with the top buttons of the shirt undone and the sleeves folded in.

 

Most intriguingly, where his right arm should be was an intrinsic, mechanical metal arm that gleamed in the morning rays.

 

“Care to join me for a game of chess, young man?” the old man asked. He turned to face them and nodded towards the girl behind him, “And young lady.”

 

The duo looked at each other, then the boy approached the man, leaving his backpack down in the room. Turning back and without waiting for the boy to be seated, the man started to move the pieces on the chessboard.

 

“You see,” he said, lifting the white king with his mechanical arm, “Life is like a chess board.” He paused in contemplation. “No, no, I was wrong,” the old man corrected himself, “Life is like a chessboard created by Bloody Stupid Johnson. Multiple sides, multiple colors, perhaps even four, five, six-dimensional. Who knows, with Bloody Stupid Johnson involved, what one gets?”

 

He placed the king back on the board and removed the black queen from play. “Everyone is a player on this chessboard. I make a move,” he moved the white knight, “he makes a move,” then the black bishop, “she makes a move,” the white pawn.

 

“Every single move by every single person adds up,” he whispered as he knocked a white rook off the board, “It all adds up. The best part is,” he smiled, “no one knows how. Everything can be so confusing, so messed up. But in the way things work, it all adds up and everything fits into place.”

 

“We place our pieces down and anticipate each other. I make my first move and you take my queen. I move my pawn to the end and you swept the board. However, in the end, we go for the king,” he moved all the pieces to surround the black king, “The game ends and we start all over again. Everything comes in circles. Some call it by the cheesy `Circle of Life' but in a way, it is true.”

 

He looked at the chess board before him and smiled to himself in satisfaction. Then he grinned at the young boy, “Forget what I said, that was all bullshit. So what is it that you want to learn from an old man?”

 

“Alchemy,” the boy answered confidently and definitely.

 

“Hmm…” the man mused, scratching his beard, “I have not heard of that since the Second World War. Tell me more.”

 

“I am Gabriel Testarossa,” the boy introduced himself and he pointed towards the blond girl still in the apartment, “and she is my partner, Arisa Bannings.”

 

“Elder sister,” Arisa corrected with an annoyed frown, “We- I mean, he would like to learn alchemy from you.”

 

“I'm afraid I cannot help you there.”

 

“You are Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist from your dimension, one of the best alchemist there and now, probably the only true alchemist left on this dimension,” Gabriel argued, “We know of your stories from the Librarian. You and your brother brought your mother bac-

 

Mr. Elric raised his arm to stop Gabriel from continuing, “Don't do that. I can see it in your eyes.”

 

Having stopped the boy, he leaned back into the chair, staring at the chessboard in deep thought before he spoke again.

 

“What is the main principle of alchemy?” he asked.

 

Gabriel shrugged and answered, “Alchemy is the instant application-

 

“No, no, no,” Mr. Elric waved his hand in dismissal, “I don't want that textbook answer. You still have much to learn about alchemy if that is the first answer that you intend to give me.”

 

“Then teach him!” Arisa burst in frustration, stomping forward, her pigtails bouncing at her head in indignation, “What's with all those chess stuffs? He came all the way here to learn more about alchemy; we spent so much money to track you down. So teach him your alchemy!”

 

The man looked at her in curiosity before he smiled, “You sounded like my brother. Except he tended to be a lot more polite… so you want me to take your little brother in as a student?”

 

Arisa nodded against Gabriel's protest that he was not really the younger of the `siblings'.

 

“You…” Mr. Elric pondered, scratching his temple before he removed himself from his seat and walked towards the pile of books on his work desk. He shifted the books away, shuffling them around until he found an old telephone beneath the mess.

 

Picking up the telephone, he asked without turning back, “How long more before your school starts?”

 

“Two more months before the end of summer break,” came the answer.

 

“That would be more than enough,” the man said as he dialed the number, “I shall give your little brother a task to complete. If he can complete it, I shall take him as my student. You, as his sibling will do it with him.”

 

“Wait! What do you mean?!” Both children asked in unison over the strange condition.

 

“I'm not the one learning alchemy!” Arisa protested indignantly.

 

“Yeah! I don't need some interfering, bumbling girl by my side!” Gabriel added in agreement.

 

“Yea- What did you say?! I am NOT- I bet you simply don't want to expose your weakness to your big sister, heh?!” She folded her arms and smirked at him smugly.

 

“Oh, and I bet you simply don't dare to take the challenge!” The boy retorted with a scowl.

 

Mr. Elric ignored the squabbling siblings and continued to talk through the telephone.

 

“Yes. Yes. Instant teleportation, please. Yes, I owe you one. Thank you.”

 

The surroundings around them seemed to blur for a moment; then before they knew it, they were no longer quarreling with each other in a middle of a cluttered, badly maintained apartment full of books. Instead, tropical greeneries surrounded them. Just beside them, there was a stream filled with crystal clear water. The call of birds and wildlife could be heard everywhere around them. The remnants of an ancient, glorious civilization lay in ruins around them, engulfed by creepers.

 

Most bizarre of all, there were books everywhere. In the trees, on the ground, even drifting in the water. Stacks after stacks of them in perfect condition despite the surroundings and the lack of human maintenance around. It was enough to stop the petty squabbles and force the pseudo-siblings to gap in wonder of the surrounding sight.

 

“There,” Mr. Elric dropped their belongings before them, “This is almost the same task my teacher gave me when I first started. In fact, you have it easier.”

 

“Where are we?” Arisa asked, dumbfounded.

 

“Mahora Library Island,” the man answered without a pause before he continued, “You two are to survive here without the use of magic or alchemy for thirty days. You are free, and in fact encouraged to explore everywhere. At the end of it all, you must be able to answer my question, `What is the main principle of alchemy?'”

 

Arisa looked around her. The calls of the wild were starting to sound creeping. There were way too much roaring, howling and hissing in the background.

 

“Wait! I don't even know much magic!” Arisa tried to argue.

 

“Don't worry! No magic required, just survive,” Mr. Elric said with a cheerful smile, “Oh, I almost forgot.” He clapped his hands together and brought them to the ground. The trademark streaks of alchemic energy leapt from his hands onto the soil. Something began to take shape from the soil, pushing itself upwards into the hands of the aged alchemist.

 

When he was done, he held a single machete in one hand and a huge timer in another.

 

“Here, you might need these,” He said as he placed them in Arisa's hands and started to blur, fading away from sight before them, “Good luck, both of you!”

 

He disappeared into thin air; probably back to the old, untidy apartment before any of the children could reply.

 

Arisa sank to her knees in despair. What had she gotten herself into? Why had she done so… Ms. Testarossa's last words came to her. Oh… Was she always so responsible? Somewhere at the back of her mind, she could imagine all her friends cheering her on. Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Suzuka… maybe Ferretboy in ferret form, waving his furry paw on Nanoha's shoulder.

 

Fight on! They would say. She can do it! … Somehow… She was starting to wish she had chosen to drag Gabriel to their gathering in London with everyone else, rather than accompanying him, as his elder sister (she reminded herself) to meet that eccentric cyborg man.

 

She looked miserably behind to Gabriel. He was surveying what was around him glumly, looking just as surprised with the encounter as she was. Obviously, this was not something he had expected.

 

With a sigh, he opened his bag and looked into it disapprovingly. He was already taking up the survival challenge.

 

Then he turned towards Arisa and shouted, “Come on! Help me out here!”

 

With a sigh of her own, Arisa got up and walked towards her `adopted' little brother. It will be a long thirty days for the both of them.

 

 

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NEW GAME START

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