Chapter Text
The Strange Senpai
Three members of the black bulls stood looking over a massive tower coming out of a chasm in the ground.
"Why do I have to be here?" Gauche asked.
"Because we're Black Bulls, what Bossman Yami says! we do!" Magna stated, "and we're some of the best of the Bulls, it's our duty."
"Alsooooo~" Sally sang, "the last dungeon that opened had a trove of magical items, and we need them, and this one isn't on the border of anywhere so we can take a little more time with it."
"Whatever, lets just get this over with." The mirror mage said walking onto his broom and taking off.
"Hey! quit running off!" Magna said jumping on his Crazy Cyclone and speeding toward his teammate.
Sally just smiled and shrugged getting on her own broom and following the two, stopping only briefly as she studied the open chasm, "How strange, looks like it was dug recent-" then her eyes turned to the ''tower'' only to realise it wasn't one, far too thin for any human to scale, and now resembled more like a gigantic hammer, Sally would've kept studying it but a fireball sailed by the front of her and she looked finding Magna waving her over.
She joined him and they lowered themselves to the entrance, stairs leading down to a massive hole in the ground, flying down it they found Gauche doing what Gauche does when he's not fawning over his sister.
"Reflect ray." echoed up to where they were.
"He's fighting the door isn't he?" Magna asked.
"Could be dungeon dwellers," Sally said, "wanna bet blood on it?"
"Keep your needle over there crazy." Magna responded as they went lower finding the stairs changing texture, going from the ground to a sterile white.
Sally drew closer, "Hmm, seems like metal," she said brushing her fingers against what felt like polished steel, she turned and looked up at the stone stairs, "ah!" she said seeing scrapes on the wall, "so this is actually the ground above, looks like it uses a mechanism to rise and lower.
"Uhh it's a dungeon though, why would it need that?" Magna asked, then rubbed his chin, "wait, more importantly who made it do that?"
Sally brought herself closer to the stairs adjusting her glasses, "There's no magic trace on the stone meaning whoever did this did so a very long time ago, the polished steel however has clear magical traces, from seven... maybe eight different people."
"Weird," Magna said, "c'mon we'd better see whatever Gauche is blasting before he gets inside."
Sally nodded and they moved forward, finding to their shared shock Gauche still blasting something, and that something was blasting him back forcing him to dodge.
Through her enchanted glasses Sally could see a large magical trace in front of the Mirror mage, one that matched his magical energy exactly.
"That's odd." she said.
"What is?"
"Apparently Gauche is fighting himself."
Magna raised an eye at her, which then narrowed as they drew closer, seeing a replica of Gauche guarding what looked to be a door, the replica stood on his broom with a mirror in front of him, flanked on either side by twin giant metal fists which had something to do with the magical double, the replica Gauche glared at them just like the real one would've.
"Fascinating" Sally said, "it's a double of Gauche down to his magical energy."
"They even got the glare right." Magna noted.
"Leave now trespassers," A cheery feminine voice said from the double Gauche's lips, "your strongest has been analysed and understood, and I've yet to activate my defences, you won't survive."
Magna snorted, "That voice with that face." he said.
Sally drew closer, "I'm sorry who are we speaking too?" she asked, "and just what type of dungeon is this?"
"You are not speaking to anyone trespasser, these are recordings I have played just in case my secret fortress was discovered, as warnings to interlopers so I don't trip over any corpses when I come home."
"And your recording can answer us?" Magna asked.
"I'm very thorough, and ignore any screams of mercy, or noises you hear from these, I had to record them while I was out."
Sally landed and walked down the stairs, looking over the Gauche double, mostly taking stock of the metal arms,
"Hey Crazy, I think we need a plan of attack here!" Magna said, "more so seeing how Gauche's 'blast it till it dies' plan didn't work."
Sally just drew closer, slowly, she raised her hand to the double's face and then, "Got your nose!" she said touching his nose, then quickly backing away, the fake mirror mage just stared ahead, not even at her.
Sally leaned forward again and poked his cheek, then his stomach, then she started messing with his face.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm studying him," Sally said opening his mouth, "no saliva, can't take a swab test," she said raising a pair of scissors and snipping some follicles off his bangs only for them to dematerialise and reappear back where she'd cut them from, "likely there's no blood either."
She looked around, "Ah" she said seeing two crystals on the wall that left a faint trail from themselves to the fake Gauche, "now what are you?" she asked approaching them.
"Hey Sally you mind telling us what you're doing?" Magna asked.
"Don't really care myself," Gauche said readying another spell, as he did the fake Gauche's grimoire opened, Sally pulled a thin sewing needle out of her coat,
"Let's see" she said sticking her tongue out and stabbing it into a crystal's base, causing it to crack, and then shatter, the Gauche double started to fade and Sally leapt to the other crystal and destroyed that one too. "done~" she said as the light Gauche disappeared, and the twin metal arms fell to the ground.
"Oh darn," the voice out of the intercom spoke again, now more annoyed, "you somehow figured out how to stop my defensive double, you're a cleaver one, or just way stronger then I had anything ready for," the voice said, "I'd be worried, if there was anyway you could enter, but sorry, that door's too thick to bust through, and it regenerates any damage done to it, so don't even try hacking away at it for hours."
As the two males approached, it seemed Sally had stopped listening as she instead started looking over the two metal arms intently.
"So, think she's right?" Magna asked, mostly trying to figure out if coming here was a waste of time.
"Right?" Sally asked as she stuck her head down one of the metal arms, "about what?"
"The door," Gauche stated, "the voice said there was no point in trying to smash them."
"Oh so you can listen?" Magna asked with a sigh.
Sally pulled her head free of the arm, she looked to the door and adjusted her glasses, "Let's see" she said, first taking in the wall, then adjusting to see the magic.
She nodded, "From the looks of the magic inside, we may need.... two maybe three Magic Knight Captains to bust up the door," she said, "and even then, we'd have about 0.3 seconds to enter before the wall crushed us." she leaned back on the arm, continuing to study it.
"And those things?"
"Some type of manmade weapon" she said, "interacts with magic somehow, maybe a magic amplifier?"
"Gauche contact Captain Yami for us, maybe he can get some Magic Knight Captain's to help?" Magna asked.
"Get bent." Gauche spat.
"Wouldn't bother," Sally said, "those doors feed off magical power, the more powerful of a mage we bring them, the tougher their defences, and the harder to get in it'll be." she said as she bit her lip, "but what if I..." she frowned and placed her hands on one of the arms.
"And the Anti-magic brat?" Gauche asked.
"Asta could in theory remove the magic regenerating it, but then he'd still have to smash through a wall." Sally said, watching the fingers of the arm twitch, she smiled, "that's right, come to momma." she moved over to the other one and started the same process.
"What are you doing?"
"Working on what I said before these are magic weapons, thus I'm trying to register myself as their new user." she said sticking her tongue out and focusing, she looked to them and found thin strains of magic trying to connect to one another.
Sally turned them around, lining them up with one another, and then lied between them, she took a breath as she felt them looking for her magical core, she felt them lightly rub against her core, and then jolted up as they connected to it.
"You okay?" Magna asked.
Sally looked to the arms, both now emitting a nice hum, and she could feel them, almost as though they were part of her body, one of the hands took her back gently, as the other pressed against the ground helping her up.
Her team's eyes widened as they saw the arms start floating at her side.
Sally looked towards the door, seeing a lock now, "Ah..." she nodded, "so that's how it is." she raised her arm to it, but turned toward the metal arm which stayed stationary, she shook her arm trying to move the other one, but it remained.
She took a breath, "I think these are the key to entering," she frowned, "but I can't use them without practice,"
"So... we just turn around and go back home?"
"For now, that seems like our best option." Sally said,
"Waste of time!" Gauche spat.
"Think about it like this, we got here, we looked around, now you can go back to fawning over your sister." Magna stated.
"Huh," Gauche said with a nod, "that does make me feel better."
The three returned to the Black Bull's Hideout, where Sally manipulated Magna into informing Yami about their mission so she could get back to studying the arms she found, she walked over to the girl's side of the hideout, and found Vanessa outside Noelle's door,
The wire witch lightly rapped on the door, "Honey, are you okay?" no answer came from inside but sniffles, causing Vanessa to frown, "do you want anything? food? books? water?"
"Just leave please," Noelle choked out,
Vanessa sighed but saw Sally, who she gave a reluctant expression to before letting a breath out of her nose and calling her over, "Noelle's hasn't been to breakfast yet, we think it might have something to do with what her brother said to her." she explained, "we've all taken turns to try and get her outside, you got any ideas?"
Sally thought for a second, then her eyes widened, she ushered Vanessa to step back, then walked over and crouched in front of the door, using her needle she picked the lock and then pushed the door open, "Hello~" she sang entering, finding Noelle on the floor with her bed sheets wrapped around her,
Vanessa put her hand to her head and let out a groan, while Sally entered Noelle's room, "Good morning Noelle, what are you up to?" Sally asked like she was the most tone deaf woman on the planet,
"Why'd you come in? I locked the door,"
"Yeah most royals have problems with people who can pick locks," she said walking over and sitting next to Noelle, "I remember your brother having that problem too when an artefact of extreme importance was stolen by someone."
Noelle's eyes widened, "Mother's..." she frowned, "the Silva family panicked loosing that, the manor was turned upside down trying to find it."
"As were the streets being turned over to find who had stolen it," Sally nodded, "of course that's not something someone who 'doesn't have to concern themselves with issues of the Silva name' should care about right?" Sally asked.
Noelle's head fell, "So that IS bothering you?"
Noelle turned her head away from Sally "Of course it bothers me, I knew they didn't think much of me as was, but to just tell me I shouldn't bother with the Silva name," she frowned, "might as well have said what he meant, 'you failed, you're here with the bulls now, we disown you'." she scoffed, "would it have killed him to for once be straight with me, just look me in the eyes to tell me what he thinks?"
Sally nodded, "You know, being sad is one way to deal with it," she said, "but a better way I find is revenge."
"R-revenge?"
"Say... we," she said, "you, me, Vanessa, found that thing that was stolen from your family, then you'd be the Silva who reclaimed the family... whatever it was right?" Noelle nodded, "and then you can be throw those words back at your brother, 'sorry Nozel, this is your family's lance, but I shouldn't concern myself with matters about the Silva name right?' and then just keep it."
Noelle nodded, "Y-yeah, yeah!" she said, "and then they'll have to see me, to see my worth!" she stood up, "and when they finally want me to acknowledge them, I won't." she smirked.
"Atta girl," Sally said, jumping to her feet, "so lets go,"
Noelle turned to look at her, "Go where?"
A few minutes later and the three women, all dressed in long robes covering their usual clothes, having left their black bull robes at home, no metal arms, two of them holding brooms, walked through a portal and found themselves in the Capital, Sally took the two other women outside the Capital, "Now, thing about royal treasures is they're too hot to sell, and often radiate magic, meaning they gotta be stored safely, and far away from any magic tracers," she said.
"Where are we going?" Vanessa asked sceptically,
Sally mounted her broom, "Noelle who are you riding with? me or Vanessa?"
"She'll ride with me," Vanessa said, "so where are we going?"
"Best place to store magical items you don't want to be found, is by hiding them in a dungeon," she said, "and there happens to be one near the Capital, guarded by the Purple Orca's."
"Guarded?" Noelle asked, "why guarded?"
But Vanessa's eyes narrowed at Sally, who pretended not to notice.
"Come on then," Sally said taking off, and Vanessa and Noelle were forced to follow her,
They flew for a while, a few hours at most, with Sally taking some odd routes over trees, sometimes even dipping into their leaves, Vanessa tried to follow her, feeling yet more weirded out by the woman,
Soon Sally stopped them and set them down in a clearing with a small shack, nearby there was a giant warped old tree that opened into the ground, several people were around it, just guarding it.
Instead of even looking at them Sally went over to the small shack, a lock hung on it's door, "Hoods up ladies, and if you get spotted, knock them out." Sally said taking her own hood up, and was followed by Vanessa and Noelle.
The shack when opened actually turned out to be an elevator, and the three took it down, the wait was long, but Noelle's eyes widened as she took in a mountain of treasure, she almost gasped, but Sally covered her mouth, "Quietly Noelle," she turned to Vanessa, "kill the elevator."
Wires shot out from Vanessa's hand, and stopped the elevator, meanwhile Sally crept over to the edge, "Can you see the treasure there?" she asked Noelle studied the massive pile of items, biting her lip, as she studied each piece,
"I-" Sally took off her glasses, "here try these." she said handing them to Noelle,
Noelle put them on, and first her vision blurred, but then focused, Sally tapped the glasses twice and suddenly tons of items in the room started glowing different colours outlining the various items,
And Noelle gasped, among the items was a Lance, it's outline was silvery, but it was being watched by several guards, "I... think I see it," she said taking off Sally's glasses and giving them back, "The silver outlined lance," she said, "but how do we get it?"
"Leave that to your lovely senpai Noelle." Sally said. she pulled a gigantic needle filled with an odd substance out of her robe, "First I need you to make a bolt of water at the end of your wand and point it at the treasure, big as you can make it."
Noelle took her wand out of her robe and made a large water bolt, Sally jabbing her needle into it, "There we go." she said injecting it inside, causing the bolt to grow and shake, "now launch it off, and we need to lay down,
Noelle tried and fired the ball away, but the ball just vanished, suddenly the upper treasures were in the air falling down causing the guards to cry and scream out, the wall behind the treasure was smashed through, but Sally's eyes turned upwards to the now airborne, but intact lance, her grimoire opened, "Time for Sticky Sallyminnions" she said, conjuring up several small Bipedal Salamanders wearing a robe matching Sally's current one, each even having the hoods on their faces, her and the minions then shot gel out at the lance and several other treasures quickly pulling them back to them,
Sally pulled a sack out of her robe and caught all the items inside, "Going up Vanessa."
Vanessa grabbed her and Noelle and used a thick wire cord from her hand to pull them all up, the Sallyminnions sticking to Sally's robe.
The three were on brooms, and back in the Capital, where they hid the treasures and waited for Finral to pick them up,
And back in the Black Bulls base, Sally opened the sack, and magic power radiated out of it, she reached inside and found the very thing they'd gone to fetch, "Here." she said setting it on the counter and backing away from it.
It was an ornate silver lance, engravings ran down it shaft, it's hilt was well designed and beautiful, an etching in the hand guard had several names etched into it, Nozel, Nebra, Solid, Noelle,
The girl in question had tears in her eyes as she saw her name in the lance, she reached over her fingers gliding along the surface of the weapon, she lightly hiccupped as her tears grew, she turned to Sally and wrapped her in a hug, then repeated the same to Vanessa before then just hugging the two of them tightly,
Wordlessly she walked over to the bar, took the lance, and rushed up the stairs, still crying, but soundlessly.
"Alright" Vanessa said crossing her arms, "explanation time."
Sally rolled her eyes, "What you can't figure it out on your own?" she asked,
"Oh I know what just happened, I want you to admit it."
"Ooh sorry, can't speak, Captain Yami's orders and all," Sally said, "but..." she frowned, "when I can... I'll explain everything, down to the letter."
"Orders from Yami?" Vanessa asked with a frown, "what kind of orders?"
Sally sighed, "Again can't speak, but... let's just say your Kohai has a few dark secrets she's gotta keep secret for a little while longer."
Vanessa shook her head, "Then I guess that's that, you might want to talk to Yami then, make sure he knows what just happened."
Vanessa took her leave and Sally took the Sack over her shoulder, she went upstairs to her room, finding Yami smoking leaning against a wall, "Weird thing Noelle was just carrying." he said, Sally smiled back at him and he exhaled, "were you seen?"
"Not that I noticed, but we did knock over a large pile of magical items so they'll know something happened." Sally said.
Yami nodded, "Full report tomorrow, and one for that dungeon you pulled those metal arms outta." he said before walking off.
Meanwhile Sally took the bag to her room, she placed the items down on the floor by the desk she'd left the metal arms on, and then sat down, and prepared to study these arms.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEND OF CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPTEEER,
Next one's half done already, so it'll be posted soonish. skipping reviews this time as I'm sure I barely got any.