Return to my Hometown - A Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Puella Magi Madoka Magica Fanfic

[Repentant_Dragos]

Chapter Thirteen-A: The Restoration of Hirose Rika

Disclaimer: I don't own Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Puella Magi Madoka Magica (or its spinoff, Oriko Magica), nor the face of one character from Ensemble Stars (that I am using for my OC). Solomon (yes, that Solomon) is a Historical Domain Character, but this take on him is mine.

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Hirose Ren
TSAB Warship Illumina
8 Days after Walpurgisnacht


Our shuttle returned to The Illumina, where the crew was busy monitoring readings from the Sun-Snuffer parked close to Earth's Sun. As we docked, with Jail Scaglietti in tow, I realized that even with Kyosuke and Sayaka by my side, I was still pissed off.

But considering how my sister may be saved because of this, maybe I had to hold on to that silver lining.

Admiral Janneth, Lucas, and a few elite guards in black cloaks with tiny anachronistic spiked pauldrons walked over to us, and the Admiral faced me and asked, "I see it's done. For the record, I wish we didn't have to make such a sacrifice, but at least we'd save millions of lives by making it."

Lucas, meanwhile, was sizing Jail up, his gold eyes facing down Jail's own as they glinted with cold, playful curiosity. Before Jail can open his rotten mouth, my adoptive brother pre-empted him with the words:

"I am to be your handler. Let me make this clear: Unlike with Precia and Alicia Testarossa, this is not an amnesty, nor a pardon; your skills are merely being used to turn my adoptive brother's blood sister back to someone capable of living a normal life. The moment you step out of line, and we both know you'll do so when you feel it's safe, you'll be back in Gruen - or you can go to Hell; I'm not picky."

I didn't know Lucas had such viciousness in him. Then again, this was Jail Scaglietti, the infamous mad scientist, he was talking to.

And before Jail could respond, Lucas gestured for him to follow as he went to guide him to the Illumina's Laboratory Wing, where he was supervising a project that already had a person of dubious moral character and massive magical power involved with it (Precia) and…

Oh, no, Jail Scaglietti was going to meet Solomon, wasn't he?

Ugh, I wanted to do anything but watch that interaction, but I had to, didn't I? So I walked over and said, "I think I'll stay with Jail a while longer; just to make sure that he, Solomon, and Pre - Ms. Testarossa do not get ideas."

Lucas nodded a little bit curtly; he must have some important scientific work to do, then asked, "All right, but I would prefer that the rest of the team sent to bring Mr. Scaglietti here goes with Admiral Janneth for mandatory debriefing - She wants to know their opinions about the mission."

He led the way through a few winding corridors and an elevator that led to the laboratory wing, where Alicia Testarossa was testing a 'Grief Compress', a bandage-sized version of the equipment her mother had invented to drain despair en masse, on a serene, eager Mami Tomoe, who had been spending more time with her and Lucas, thus filling the space with gold hair and pairs of gold eyes.

"Ah!" Jail Scaglietti said, "So this is what a truly resurrected being looks like in the flesh; not that I haven't already made acquaintance with Alicia back when she was just 'genetic material'..."

As the compress she held grew black with the gathered despair from Mami Tomoe's Soul Gem, Alicia turned towards Jail and told him to, "Shut up, you creep; once Mother returns from her excursion to Earth, she has a lot of words prepared about your false promises in the past."

My eyebrows rose as I registered that one, Jail was careful not to say that he met Alicia when the latter was dead (as Precia would put his head on a spike), and two, Precia Testarossa took frequent trips to Earth. What was she doing there?

"Earth has become the center of the Multiverse nowadays, hasn't it?" Jail quipped, but before I could respond, there were footsteps, and Solomon Ben David entered the room with a quip of his own.

That being, "Isn't that as it should be? My little planet being the center of the Multiverse?"

Ugh, classic arrogant Petty Middle Eastern King. Like our world needed that 'honor'!

Solomon then continued, "So, you must be Mr. Scaglietti; I am Solomon Ben David, pleased to meet your acquaintance."

Both of them looked at each other, and as I feared, their gaze was one of mutual understanding and sizing each other for usefulness to each other's plans.

Then the mood in the room turned colder as Precia Testarossa, clad in a white labcoat and dress shirt plus grey trousers that did not reflect her heart, casually teleported into the room; we only gave each other a crude nod of acknowledgement as she said, "Scaglietti. You're back. Now, shall we brief you on the groundwork we've already made in the process of 'Reversing Witchdom'?"

Jail nodded, and I was treated to the sight of five of the greatest scientific and magical minds in the cosmos discussing the relation between the body and the Soul and Mana, as well as the various cultural lenses that people viewed Magic and Souls with.

To summarize, the problem with Witchdom was that the Soul, being separated from the Body in a Soul Gem, accumulated despair when generating Mana/Emotional Energy, which subtly warped the Soul's self-perception. This self-perception can take on a physical form using Magic, and warp the disembodied Soul into a being that reflects its 'corruption', a monster that upon completing its shift to Witchdom, throws away its original body and creates a new one from congealed Mana/Emotional Energy.

To reverse this, the emotional resonance of the 'Corruption' must be cleansed away from the raw soul, returning it to 'Humanity' (Alicia and Lucas argued for it always have been Human, just warped by suffering). But that instantly kills the Witch anyway because the Soul now drifts free without a body and 'passes on'.

However, during the 'reversion' to Humanity, the Witch may attempt to transform what remains of its body with it, or more rarely, create clumps of organic matter that approximate a Human's, and that can be recombined with the Soul to create something that is like a living, breathing Human being, but will stop living and breathing unless given cybernetic organs, a skeleton, or in some cases, a regrown brain that's half-made of nanomachines.

"So, let me get this straight…" I blurted out, condensing their discussion to one sentence afterwards. "The issue is that the soul is easier to save than the body but we need to save the body because if we don't save that, it'd be no better than murder."

I ignored the looks of surprise from everyone but Lucas as I continued, "Doesn't that mean that Science and Magic can advance to the point where we won't need clone parts or cyborg conversions to save Witches? Note that we are not at that point, nor is it right to wait for that point, but this means that Jail needs to prove his usefulness now, right?"

Precia and Alicia looked at me in surprise and the former asked, "You were able to keep up with that? It appears your adoptive brother raised you to be more than a blunt instrument…"

Lucas scooted over to stand beside a somewhat mystified and bored Mami Tomoe (who looked a lot like Alicia, which was why I didn't notice her continued presence) and said, "I do not appreciate the attention. The point is that we can return Hirose Rika back into a Magical Girl or even a full Human right now."

At the mention of that, my thoughts fluttered back to seeing my sister again.

I know she loved me; that's why she wished to send me to where I had my new family. Four years of love and joy have not erased my memories of her and of that.

But it had created a gulf, a gulf that I only noticed just now.

Did Rika ever want to come back? Or if she did, did she really want to be my sister again?

Were we even family at this point?

I barely noticed Lucas gesturing Mami and me to follow the 'New Team' to the containment chamber where my sister's Witch, Mara the Barren, had rebuilt her Barrier, albeit caged by the chamber's wards.

Another blast door, a corridor, and another blast door followed to the closed habitat, observable through a transparent glass-like window, where a smaller version of Mara the Barren's desert and bitter lake stood, with Mara herself standing tall in robes of grey and black, her unnaturally ovoid face, with eyeholes that wept waterfalls of real tears and a mouth and lips that, though corpse-white and starchy, were able to wail loud enough to shake the window pane.

Lucas looked at me with guilt in his eyes, then said, "You don't need to see this. You literally do not need to see this. Ren, your sister will go through a lot of pain as she returns to Humanity and again, you don't need to see it. Now go back to your boyfriend; your sister can wait a little longer."

I nodded and returned back the way I came. To be honest, I wanted to see Kyosuke right now!

So I walked, and Mami Tomoe followed me, glancing back at Lucas with what I could have sworn was disapproval, maybe even suspicion.

"So, tell me about your sister, Hirose Rika," the older teen blurted out. "She's not the only reason you're doing this, but she's important to you, right?"

I flashed back to her wish. The wish she had made for me even though she knew enough to ask that damned Incubator for what her wish entailed. The times she had taken a beating for me when I was much younger.

The times she had endured my constant questions as to why Mom hated us and why we weren't a normal family.

And of course, when she comforted me when I cried, which was a lot back then.

"I'm strong enough to protect her now," I said to Mami. "I owe her… Even if she doesn't want to be my sister after this."

I then asked her, "What about you? I will be honest, we fought together but I don't know much about you."

Her gold eyes flashed with pain as she said, "There's not much to tell; my parents died in a car accident and I wished to live; the exact wish was to 'connect to life'."

She then told me about how she began fighting Witches, how she met Kyoko and trained her, and how their friendship was lost, seemingly forever, after Kyoko's father snapped and murdered his entire family but Kyoko.

Then she weaved a tale of how lonely the time after that was, and how even now, she can't help but fear losing everything again.

We went to the teleportation bay; Kyosuke and Sayaka had gone back to their homes to sleep, meaning I couldn't see either of them after all.

Then Mami said, "You'll wake up tomorrow and Hirose Rika will be back as your sister. As for me… I have another chance to make everything right."

A flash of light as we teleported down. Then we parted and went to our homes; I almost forgot that Cody had been keeping a house back on Earth safe.

I then had my dinner and bath, watched a few shows, and then slept when it was time.

Upon waking up, my wishes were fulfilled; ringing the doorbell was a young woman of eighteen years of age, her body from neck to toe covered in a shell of reddish-brown (russet?) metal.

Her face was recognizably organic, pale but flush with life, her blue eyes lit with… peace? Calm?

"Little Brother," Hirose Rika said with a smile as the rising sun caught her crimson hair, "You've grown so tall…"

I was permitted to cry. I'd earned the right to shed tears with my blade.

So I did.