trans_9 | Sister to Sister

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Sister to Sister

Rein was in a state of semi-panic as she flitted around, straightening up the familiar view of the Yagami household. Cookies were baking to clear her mind, a sharp contrast to the Jonathan Coulton that she was listening to.

Chiron Beta Prime was not good relaxing music.

Still, the little device was preparing to meet her original self. Would she be receptive to her? Did she like the idea of a little sister?

If Rein was prone to it, she'd be nibbling her thumbnail.

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Reinforce wasn't sure exactly what the sensoriums were; mentions of them through comms, the name, and the rather confusing mishmash of returns she'd gotten when she'd scanned the relevant area of the ship suggested some kind of virtual reality, but...

She really wasn't ready for the picture-perfect recreation of the Yagami household her successor had prepared. Both the realism, the sheer physical - or was it purely sensory? - resolution of the simulation, and the care the little device had put into it, produced a level of familiarity she normally associated with the lucid dreams she'd once woven as a specialty.

"Hello?" She called. She was riding a thin line between the warmth the homey setting engendered and a sense of despair, waiting in the wings, at the faces that should have been here but weren't... but her voice was even as ever.

At the call of Reinforce's call, Rein looked up and flitted towards the door. "Welcome!" chirped the device as she smiled at Reinforce. My she was so pretty! "Come in, I'm just baking cookies."

Definitely a head taller than she was in any form, and with such pretty red eyes too. The ten inch tall device was smiling pleasantly, hiding her nervousness at meeting, well, herself.

Pretty, perhaps, but nowhere near as lively as the smaller device. The size difference was expected; Rein Zwei's small format was the standard for late-era unison devices, while the Book of the Night sky had been an older, even rarer composite system, with more mana to support her form and the aesthetic of an archive rather than the 'sword faeries'. The more-or-less opposite personality, on the other hand, was a bit surprising from a device that shared her name.

It... felt right, though, and was not so strange in hindsight. Rein Zwei might share her name and have taken on her role, but she was as much of Hayate as the old Tome, and had been raised in her house. That she should share Hayate's ebullient nature was... good. And nothing less.

She nodded politely in response to the greeting and stepped in with a quiet "Thank you for having me." So familiar was the image of Hayate's home that she found herself thinking she should take off her shoes, only to recall that this was illusion and, more to the point, she was in the strange bodysuit the ship had provided and didn't have any to discard.

Baking... that explained the smell. "Do you cook often?" she asked.

It was strange. She had been considering Hayate's new device for some time now, as she remembered things, and they shared a mutual connection with Hayate so from an abstract point of view she felt that she already knew Rein Zwei quite well... but as a person she was very much a stranger. She was not nervous as the little device was, but it did make things awkward in its own way.

Rein rubbed her head, giggling softly. "Yes I do actually. Please, make yourself at home."

Floating backwards, she gestured towards the oven that made a dinging noise. "Hayate-chan taught me how to cook, mostly because the others can't seem to handle it. Shamal especially since she lights everything on fire."

Floating over and pulling on tiny gloves, she levered the large pan out of the oven and set it onto the counter on hot pads to cool. "Doing this reminds me of Hayate-chan... because she's not awake and all."

"I hope you like chocolate chip!" chirped Rein finally, jumping from thought to thought in a slightly nervous manner. She hoped she wasn't much of a flake in front of her big sis.

Reinforce smiled at the mention of Shamal. "She hasn't improved at all?" From Rein's blase description it sounded like the Knight of the Lake had remained every bit the terror in the kitchen the other Knights regarded her as. She put so much effort in because of that, too...

She followed Rein Zwei into the kitchen, wondering if she needed any help, but she looked like she was able to operate just fine despite the huge relative size of the kitchen and food. 'In memory of Hayate...' Reinforce felt a pang of empathy for the little device. On that subject, at least, she knew exactly how it felt.

"I know," she echoed the thought quietly.

"I'm sure I will," she tried to answer Rein's exclamation in better cheer; she didn't want to drag down the not-quite-reunion with her own depression over her separation with Hayate. And besides, she'd never been a picky eater. The influence of the ever-hungry Book, perhaps... but at any rate, she'd never minded even Shamal's cooking the way the rest had.

Letting the food cool, she flit over towards the refrigerator and pulled out a gallon of milk and then fetched two glasses before alighting on the table. Still a little bit nervous, she sighed a little. "Hayate-chan often made cookies after a big battle. We just had a big battle actually, considering everything."

She sat down and rubbed her head. "I guess I'm not being very cheery huh? I'm just so nervous meeting you. One part of me wants to become full sized and hug you, the other wants to call you big sis..."

"Reinforce," she said. It felt awkward to use her own name like that, but the name was precious to her and she wouldn't dare assume it was any less important to the smaller device. "You don't have to be anything for me. You can do all of those things. You are my successor who protects the one I love in the times and ways when I cannot; I promise nothing you do or say will offend me. I know we have never met, but if you think of me as a sister then treat me as a sister."

She'd gone and made a bit of a speech of it... but the words were earnest, from her heart.

"Really? You mean it?" Rein let out a squeal of joy as she flitted over and hugged her sister. "Oh thank you big sis!"

In a flurry of light, the full sized Rein, a good head and shoulders smaller than the other Reinforce was there, hugging her sister tightly. "I was so worried you wouldn't be as open to the idea."

"Why?" The Book asked, patting her new sister's head lightly. "I admit I thought of you more as a successor than a sister, but we are without a doubt members of the same family."

And nothing was more important than the family. They had ended her curse, and she owed them everything.

"Just nerves I suppose," admitted Rein with a little giggle. "I wasn't sure how you'd take it but at the same time, I'm glad you think of me that way."

She smiled, pulling back and adding, "C'mon, there's cookies with our name on it."

'Just nerves'... how different her sister was from her, with all her carefully compiled regrets and worries.

She nodded and followed Rein into her simulated kitchen, wondering vaguely whether and for how long simulated food would stave off hunger. It didn't particularly matter; the acts of cooking and sharing seemed to be the main rewards for the little device. And she'd said it was something of a tradition, before...

"Do you come here often?" She asked, meaning the simulation of Hayate's house specifically.

"Yes I do," replied Rein as she sat down at the counter and started to pour some milk into a pair of glasses. "Since I discovered the sensoriums actually. I don't program anyone IN if that's what you're asking though; too many memories and I'd like to see them for myself when they do wake."

She smiled and peeled a few cookies off the pan and onto a plate for them to share. "I believe everyone's safe, so I visit the simulation a lot."

Reinforce nodded and took the glasses. "Replacing them like that would be surrender. No good would come of it."

She'd woven dreams innumerable after that fashion, as comfort for the lost... but she had become lost to them as well, and lived for nothing but to make the dreams of her masters as kind and gentle as possible, abandoning any hope that she could free them and make that mercy unnecessary.

"What do you do when you aren't here? Around the ship?" she asked. She wanted to know what her sister who shared her name did to live by it...

Rein smiled and dipped a hot cookie into the milk before taking a nibble of the end. "I agree."

At Reinforce's question, she smiled. "Well I work the internal communications on the ship for the most part and I also spend time down in engineering so I can maintain the devices for everyone. We have some powerful mages, Nanoha-san and Fate-san and Kala-chan, but at the same time they're not too good at upgrades and maintaining the others. I do my part with a Midchilda console and device repair tube we cobbled together."

She smiled at that. "Shari-san and I spent a lot of time in the lab together, working on upgrades for everyone."

"Do you know how they came by their devices?" Rein asked. Or for that matter, where had she found her own? It seemed only Reinforce lacked her device... and this despite the fact that, unlike all the others, she was essentially a component of it rather than a distinct and separate wielder.

Though it might be a better sign that she did not have it. It had been with Hayate, and she yet existed... so perhaps it was sleeping with her master even now. Too convenient a conclusion to leap to so easily, but...

"They were in the possessions locker for most of them I believe," replied Rein thoughtfully. "I dug into the unsorted items and found my book as well, the Tome of Azure Sky. But it's sized for myself."

"I helped Kala with finding hers so I can safely assume they're brought with them. Which probably, if hopefully, means that Hayate's is here too." added Rein as she dunked another cookie.

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Sister to Sister

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