The Agent - A Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Puella Magi Madoka Magica Fanfic (with some elements f

[Repentant_Dragos]

The Agent - A Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Puella Magi Madoka Magica Fanfic (with some elements from Rebuild of Evangelion)

Prologue - The Interloper

Disclaimer: I do not own Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Rebuild of Evangelion.

A storm raged on in Mitakihara City, the howling of the winds and lashing of the rain periodically broken by explosions courtesy of Homura Akemi, the last Magical Girl in Mitakihara City.

As she emptied every weapon she had at her disposal against her foe, she hoped to hell that she'd brought enough ordnance to bring it down. A flying, spinning abomination the size of a building.

The 'Witch' was using the hurricane tearing through her home city as a cover for its brutal rampage, laughing manically as it did so.

Due to her specific powerset, Homura lacked the options for direct attacks against the witch. As such she had taken to looting heavy weapons, missiles, and artillery from nearby JSDF bases. It's not as if they'd ever need to use them anyway. And even if they did, there was someone she needed to save whose life far outweighed the value of their equipment.

She stopped the time so she could fire several dozen rocket-propelled grenades at once,

The cold, the rain, and the winds that would have lifted off a normal girl of her age didn't bother her. What did was the sneaking suspicion, one that grew as the battle raged on and on, that this was not going to be enough.

She ended the time stop, and the shot RPGs flew as one arcing volley, hitting the laughing, screaming form of Walpurgisnacht all at once, the blasts that blossomed afterward barely singeing the pristine blue dress that defied natural and man-made harm alike.

But Homura was already detonating her first set of plastic explosives to bring down two buildings directly on top of the Witch. She half-knelt to place her hand on the top of a fully loaded fuel truck and then began telekinetically guiding it to drive itself at Walpurgisnacht.

Jumping off the truck's back as it crashed and blasted the Witch with more fire, Homura landed on a battery of Anti-Ship Missiles she had concealed under the docks of Mitakihara City, and cloaked it in her magic so she could lift it from the waters below, turning on the systems with just her thoughts; the ordnance launched pushing the flying form of the enemy toward the pit of plastic explosives that were her trump card.

The resulting blast as those bombs detonated was enough to cover Walpurgisnacht in fire, light, and smoke, such that the roar of the hurricane and sheets of rain were drowned out for one brief second as even the grey gloom of the sky was chased off.

Then a tendril burst out of the fading explosion, battering her with starry force, as the Witch struck back, undamaged and unharmed.

Homura Akemi was now forced to zig-zag backward, using a trusty assault rifle she had pulled out from the pocket dimension in the shield she had acquired upon becoming a Magical Girl, to spray bullets at the starry silhouettes that served as Walpurgisnacht's Familiars, their feminine outlines a reminder that this monster was made from agglomeration of what had been Magical Girls like her.

She was on the back foot, every second she spent firing at the Familiars was time given to Walpurgisnacht to rampage through the city, lifting buildings and tossing them as though they were Lego bricks. The top half of a skyscraper had even been lifted to -

"Nanoha's Axel Shooter!" a voice, undeniably a boy's, broke through the roar of the storm and Walpurgisnacht's hideous laughing.

Then a different sort of rain, white laser beams instead of drops of water, showered down on the monster.

What?! Homura thought, thoroughly surprised for the first time in several time loops as she saw something that should not be.

Spoiler: Hidden for Size

Ken Illustrious Ikari; I paid for the Custom Art.
A Barrier Jacket looks like this.

A voice intruded - the callous telepathy of the Incubator named Kyubey.

So the would-be authorities of time and space now choose to get in our way, were the words blown through her mind. How parochial, to put mere individuals on a single planet above the fate of existence itself?

That was enough for Homura to regard the obvious impossibility before her, a Magical Boy, as a potential ally. But first, she needed to finish off the remaining Familiars that were pursuing her.

Perforating the animated starry outlines as they moved into her line of fire, Homura cleared the space before her so that she could grab a few seconds to just see what was going on with Walpurgisnacht…

The boy was using what seemed to be a mix of a Wizard's staff and a proper spear as his weapon, sending out lances of white, then blue, laser fire from its point to blast Walpurgisnacht over and over again, not letting it rest even as the holes burnt through its blue dress began to close up, and the upside-down feminine figure launched tendrils of starry light and orbs of the same that 'popped' into more Familiars, deranged parodies of Magical Girls that swarmed the stranger, forcing the latter to fly backward, his zig-zags slower than hers' had been in the same circumstance.

From her shield, Homura Akemi pulled out a Stinger Missile, one that required magically enhanced strength to lift, much less fire, and reminded Walpurgisnacht that she had one more enemy.

The explosion as the projectile hit shook the monster only slightly, but Homura was already zig-zagging closer, throwing away the Stinger Missile to pull out a Heavy Machine Gun and spraying Walpurgisnacht's upside-down head with a stream of armor-piercing bullets whose muzzle flash lit up the air, taking pressure off her new ally, who got the memo and shot one wide beam of blue-white energy at the Witch's center of mass; this time, it pierced through, causing the Witch's laughter to turn into a shrill scream of surprise and hatred.

Ah, what a waste of power that could have gone into staving off entropy, Kyubey intruded one more time. It seems we will have to crush the Time-Space Administration Bureau after all…

A low noise, like the sound of a microphone being tapped as a sound test, and the boy's voice intruded telepathically, You can certainly try, Incubator - This is my homeworld too, and contrary to what you believe, we don't need your influence to have a civilization!

But Homura was already putting the trash-talk to the side, drawing a grenade launcher from her shield and blasting Walpurgisnacht over and over again before her eldritch regenerative abilities closed the hole the boy had opened.

Then, she stopped time again; if she can plant explosives straight onto the weakened Witch's body…

"Want help with that?" the boy's voice intruded. Looking at him with alarm, Homura saw that the strange intruder's uniform was shimmering as if cloaked in a heat haze. That must be what allowed him to function in her time-stop field without having to touch her.

While beggars cannot be choosers, Homura knew better than to trust people claiming to be allies right away, and so asked, "Do you even know how to handle explosives?"

The boy shook his head and said, "My group regards them as primitive anyway; how hard can it be to use them?"

Homura's estimation of her new acquaintance dropped sharply at those words as she said, "We'll talk later; stay out of my way."

The boy flew some distance above and behind her to wait for her to pull out more explosives and attach them to Walpurgisnacht's pierced form. Then, after Homura was done, he opined, "You know, Miss, why not target the giant gear that Witch's body is hanging from, too?"

She gave a small huff of irritation at that but proceeded to do so, attaching her last stockpile of C4 onto the giant floating gear before flying back and ending the time stop so that the bombs would finally explode.

This time, Walpurgisnacht was not able to shrug off the force of the explosion, nor heal the parts of its body that began to chip away on its own; it was falling apart into motes of flowing dust, its laughter fading to a slight trill.

"So…" said the boy as he floated a respectful distance from her, "You're Homura Akemi, correct?"

He then flashed a badge at her, seemingly pulling it out of thin air, "Ken Illustrious Ikari of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, at your service. We're the Magical United Nations, but our world has not joined yet so the authorities can do very little… Until now."

Glancing at a pink-haired girl in a school uniform who was running towards her, accompanied by a white cat-weasel-like thing whose deceptive cuteness hid a callous willingness to use young girls as its tools, Ken mildly remarked to the Magical Girl, "Now, you and your girlfriend should get back to your shelters - I'll collect a witness statement later."

Homura was already pulling a pistol at him, fully loaded and ready to fire, saying, "Who are you? Do you expect us to believe you?"

Ken merely remarked, "Yes. And do you think you're ready for another fight right now? You don't know if I have reinforcements, after all…"

And with that, several men and women wearing similar clothes to Ken suddenly teleported around her and Madoka - Whom she did indeed… How did he know about that? - and pointed several glowing magical staves/spears at her.

The boy, only about her age, looked at her and said, "Now go rest. Considering how the Incubators pride themselves on never lying, ask them about us."

Homura nodded, and even through her suspicion and paranoia, realized that this boy - Ken Ikari - had helped her realize a goal she had thought was almost out of reach: Saving Kaname Madoka from a fate worse than death.

She nodded with grudging respect, then took Madoka's hand and guided her away from the storm as it roared back with a vengeance, pushing back against the hope that threatened to flood her heart as it dawned on her that, It's over. Walpurgisnacht is dead; Madoka has not made a wish and becomes a Magical Girl and later a Witch.

Although there were still dangers, that Kyubey and its fellow Incubators would still try and have Madoka make a wish, Homura Akemi could now glimpse a future ahead of her… if Ken and whoever he worked for could be trusted.

But it was time enough for that later; she had to guide Madoka back to her family, then ask Kyubey about what he knew about this 'Time-Space Administration Bureau'.

After all, that boy was right that the Incubators never lied, only omitted the truth and filtered information to allow their pawns to jump to conclusions. But how did he know that? Was he the Incubators' enemy, as he said he was?

And did that truly mean he was an ally?

 

[Repentant_Dragos]

Chapter One: Witness Statement

The storm had faded, and Homura Akemi had returned to her apartment after accompanying Madoka back to the evacuation shelter.

Kyubey was lounging on one of the cushions as though he/it owned the place; Homura silently fumed at that but grudgingly tolerated that creature's presence as she had some questions to ask him. Using Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed - A small bead of ivory that was the last remnant of the Witch - to cleanse her Soul Gem of the corruption from overusing magic, Homura sat down on a futon on the other side of the table from Kyubey's cushion and said:

"So, what is the Time-Space Administration Bureau? Was that boy right?"

Up to a point, Kyubey answered, The Time-Space Administration Bureau is a governmental organization that spans planets, star systems, and multiple universes, dedicated to using Magic to better the lives of individuals and upholding the rights of all sapient beings in a safe and free environment… according to their definition of safe and free.

"What's the catch?" Homura didn't sit down herself, not wanting to show any hint of doubt and weakness in front of the cause of her and Madoka's sufferings.

They're naive, was the response. They push incomprehensible ideals above survival, they spend Magic that can be used to sustain existence on the comforts of life, and they let planets fall through the cracks due to complacency. Nevertheless, they believe they can have it all by just declaring that they'll save both their world and individual lives and somehow ending up lucky to do so.

Homura frowned, then remarked, "And yet, one of them is powerful enough to help me fight Walpurgisnacht at her strongest."

She followed up with a question, "Can they turn Witches back into Magical Girls?"

No, they cannot, Kyubey said. Nor can they negate a Magical Girl's necessity for Witches' Grief Seeds. That requires a rewriting of the Laws of Metaphysics which they are not capable of accomplishing without indulging in areas of research their rules and regulations forbid.

Which makes one wonder, what is the endgame of the person who helped you, Ken, was it? He is the sort of person to have his agenda, just like the traitors that crop up in the TSAB ranks every decade or so…

Homura did not need to be told that the boy was an object of suspicion; she had already assumed as much. So she asked, "Will I and Madoka be safe if I let him and his… helpers take their 'witness statement'?"

For the most part, yes, Kyubey cannot lie, and Homura consciously used that to pump out the information she needed.

"What resources do they have? Do they have spaceships? A Starfleet?" this was her next question; she had no casual interest in Science Fiction, but some works in that genre had helped her understand some of the concepts the Incubators kept throwing around as though they were game-winners in an argument.

The small cat-like creature nodded and replied telepathically, The TSAB should have a ship in orbit right now, with more arriving soon; we should have known it was a matter of time before they investigated our actions on Earth...

------

Admiral Janneth of the TSAB Dreadnought Spear of Midchilda looked over at Ken with a frown, her green eyes matching her short-cropped hair as she leaned down at her operative from her command chair.

"The footage of your battle with Walpurgisnacht, plus simultaneous investigations by our fleet's agents elsewhere, has reached the higher-ups at Cranagan," her brow furrowed a little, putting the slightest of imperfections on her smooth brown skin. "The only thing that would have stoked war fever even higher is if Takamichi Nanoha and her family are not currently busy stomping the Hucklebeins; even then, the TSAB is calling for a mobilization unrivaled in centuries."

She leaned forward, voice rising in a condemnatory pitch as she said, "Don't you understand what you've done?! We can't turn 'Witches' back into normal humans. Not just that, but the Incubators' civilization possesses technology rivaled only by the lost civilization of Alhazerd! What are you doing next? Find another way to open that place up as Precia Testarossa did a long time ago?!"

Ken nodded, not caring that this was intended to be a public dressing-down on the bridge of the Dreadnought, and said, "Precia's only crime was to abuse Fate for being a clone of her daughter! Had she wised up and realized that she - Fate - was her sole mobile asset and accepted her for who she was, she could have gotten her genuine loyalty and Nanoha's, and then we would all be showered with Alhazerd's lost technology, not fearing it!"

He then threw his hands up in frustration, "Our taboos have resulted in us completely ignoring an ideologically-opposed peer civilization right under our noses, a peer civilization who despite their abominable methods, has one legitimate point about entropy and the threat it poses to existence. Not just that, but Alhazerd's tech can also potentially turn Witches back into Magical Girls if combined with our Magic!"

Admiral Janneth was not going to be cowed by a fourteen-year-old who put Precia, of all people, on some sort of pedestal and glared at him, saying, "You're playing with fire, Ken. The main reason we let children join our military is because we've advanced to the point where the risk of death is 0.01% in most cases. That death rate will rise exponentially even in the best-case scenario."

Ken tilted his head slightly to the right, and then remarked, "Then we'd best hope for a quick victory, then."

------

Homura's next question to Kyubey was, "What do you plan to do next?"

The Incubator lounged on its claimed cushion as it twirled its tail in slow spirals, then responded, its red eyes gleaming, Before we began extracting emotional energy to combat entropy, our main method of postponing the heat death of the Universe was to shut down the stars…

------

They would not dare attack Midchilda first; the TSAB's capital was too much for even the Incubators to handle. But other Administered Worlds were a different story; the TSAB's elite Mages could not be everywhere all the time, and they who try and defend everything wind up defending nothing.

The Incubators were careful about avoiding the planets where Nanoha Takamichi, her friends, and her family were fighting the Hucklebeins, too, but there were hundreds of worlds that had a lower quality of protection; agricultural worlds, industrial worlds, garden worlds and 'cultural reservations', all of those would find their suns dimming, as the Incubators unleashed the first salvo of the war Ken was so eager to start.

Star-Snuffers, giant concentric circles of dark matter highlighted only by the light of the suns they consumed as the latter died. Protected by armies of geometric, polyhedral, sharp-edged drones made of hard light, these were obsolete tech pulled out by the Incubator civilization for their pre-emptive strike, targeting star systems whose light can be seen from Midchilda's prime city, Cranagan, at night, with the effect that the stars in the sky could be seen winking out en masse.

The TSAB were obliged to protect their people, and scrambled fleets and Magi in response; High Command was not completely unprepared for the Star-Snuffers. But every battleship, cruiser, and dreadnought deployed against a Star-Snuffer and its escorts was a ship not protecting the TSAB's core areas.

In the meantime, the war fever that was heating up in the Main Office was cooled by icy fear as otherwise brave men and women sat shocked by the sudden terror strike and the Incubator's willingness to put massive amounts of lives at risk.

But there was no giving in, no calls for capitulation. The Three Legendary Admirals ordered a Declaration of War against the Incubator civilization.

------

"Good job," Admiral Janneth's voice was barbed with sarcasm as she straightened her admiral's cap. "Ken Illustrious Ikari, you got your war and used the threat of a 'peer civilization' to get the TSAB to undo what Nanoha, Fate, and their friends and family have been trying to stop for years. In one single stroke, you have done what the now-dead TSAB High Council and Jail Scagilleti dreamt of; put us back on the course to unlocking dangerous tech that should have been best left dead and buried."

She stood up and walked over to Ken, so close that the latter flinched, fearing a slap.

Instead, she loomed over him, and said, "Nanoha taught you most of her techniques and you spit on her life's work in return. You'd better hope Alhazerd has the resurrection technology you expect it to have, because if it doesn't… I'd hunt you down myself."

Her green eyes were now glinting with reflected light and menace; the rest of the crew were either giving Ken glares of their own or looking at him in pity.

"Now go collect your witness statement from Homura and Madoka; make sure that you didn't ruin their lives later after saving them."

Her slightly glossed lip curled up before she gave her afterthought, "Oh, and take your boyfriend with you - Lucas is getting cabin fever."

------

Lucas was another fourteen-year-old boy, with dark purple hair barely distinguishable from black and which contrasted with his pale, mildly tanned, skin.

His hazel eyes looked at Ken with delight as he walked over to the other boy, saying as his head bobbed up and down, "We're going to teleport downside, right? Right? I've heard a lot about Earth ever since Mrs. Nanoha and Mrs. Fate told us about their adventures there - I can't wait to see how less advanced cities work!"

The other kid was dressed in the typical black uniform of the ship's executive officers, much like Ken was right now, but with the spikes on his shoulders replaced with miniature brass shields.

"Remember," Ken said to him in response, "Their society is also less advanced; so be careful with displays of public affection towards other boys."

He then patted Lucas' fluffy hair, so clean and soft, before saying, "Anyway, now that we're at war and Admiral Janneth won't be angrier at us than we are already, let's teleport directly to Homura's apartment; she must have finished interrogating the Incubator now…"

------

Akemi Homura already had a gun pointed at them when they teleported in; Lucas had drawn his own Magic Gun in response. Her next words were, "I heard everything from Kyubey; this was all to start a war, wasn't it?"

Ken was nonplussed, saying, "Yes. But we both know Madoka will be safe from that, won't she? When the Incubators are destroyed, she would never be able to make a wish, much less one that would doom her..."

Homura's eyes glittered with mirrored light, highlighting how icy her glare was - It exceeded anything Admiral Janneth could do to intimidate him. Her next words were, "Why didn't your group do something about the Incubators long ago?"

Ken shrugged, even as Lucas glared back at Homura, barely blinking, ready to fire if she did. Then he said, "We didn't know about them except from Belkan Legends. We thought Earth lacked Magic until just several decades ago when we recruited a very powerful Female Mage from there, one that the Incubators did not want to touch because of her very little potential for despair. Before that, the TSAB only recruited males from Earth like the ill-fated Gil Graham who was once in a blue moon. And of course… The Incubators tried to hide their involvement in Human History from us; from me and my family."

The girl before them mused, before saying, "Why should I help you, then? Heating a war won't help Madoka."

"Not true," Lucas interrupted. "My partner here has a plan, a plan to unlock both tech and Magic that can rewrite the Laws of Metaphysics to make it so the Incubators and the 'Witch System' can never be a threat again..."