Lyrical Sword

Chapter 4: Initiation Part 2

Beta read by Opal

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-Midchilda-

Shirou wasn't a stranger to awkward interactions, especially when it came to conversations with his neighbor. 

Back in London, the times Rin accidentally blew the room due to a malfunctioning spell and other types of the experiment was a dime a dozen. Complaints stormed in despite the numerous bounded fields they set around the perimeter, she always found a way to break them. The brunette on the other hand barely cared, leaving him to handle everything and if things started to spiral too much out of control — she would be this close to resorting to memory-erasing spells and on rare occasions… shooting a Gandr straight to their faces. 

Of course, he stopped her every single time, furthermore, Shirou suspected she knew it as well. Though such things would happen only whenever she and Luvia would meet. 

"Uh, hey guys… I didn't expect to see you two here. Um, let's have a good fight?"

He had to admit, their shocked reaction did give him the urge to smirk which he suppressed. The blue-haired girl — Subaru if he remembered — had her jaws opened like she had seen the most unbelievable sight ever. Honestly, that expression of hers did feel a bit too extreme, they only met once!

'Oh right, they think I'm a beginner mage, so having to fight against me must be a shocker.'

Tea's reaction was much more tamed and normal, only her eyes widened at his arrival. 

"Shirou?" Subaru spoke first, the look of confusion getting stronger. "Erm, are you lost? You may have ended up in the wrong training ground." 

"Yes, this is the ground for B-ranked mages. The D-ranks are not scheduled until another day if I remember correctly." 

"..."

Shirou was not one to show off or care if someone underestimated him as a Magus. Given he was a third-rate mage, that judgment was valid — so he didn't know how to feel or even respond to these two, there was a saying that actions were louder than words. 

So better wait and let them judge him again after their fight.

Nanoha who was watching their reaction from the beginning couldn't help but wonder how these three met each other. She knew that Shirou and Hayate got to know each other better thanks to her helping him out with a living arrangement, but how that made him familiar with the newest recruits was a mystery to her. 

Maybe Hayate instructed them to each other? That did sound like something she would do. 

"Shirou, have you met before?" 

"Huh, yes, we met yesterday while I was trying to find my apartment. They were very helpful and guided me and my luggage to my room." 

"Guided? Yesterday? But… then where did you sleep the night you came to Midchilda? Hayate mentioned that she successfully managed to find you a place to live upon arrival…"

"Ah," Shirou stumped, his mind going through countless mental gymnastics to formulate a phrase that wouldn't make things awkward if he revealed that he slept in her apartment. No matter how he twisted and turned the words, it sounded weird regardless of how he would say it. "M-my bad, she actually had me sleep in another r-room the first day."

Yes, that sounded good enough in his opinion. 

Meanwhile, Nanoha narrowed her eyes, one aspect of the redhead she came to recognize was his lack of talent at lying — he was horrible at it. Now suspicion arose as to why he needed to lie to her in the first place even. But, this was not the time for an interrogation, the training needed to carry on as they were on a time limit along with her other responsibilities for the day. She also promised Fate to help her out with some work and introduce the blonde to Shirou.