"Mistress, we have to go to the hospital today. You should have had a check up yesterday," Shamal said, washing her hands off the remains of breakfast and drying them with a nearby rag. She gave a nod of thanks to Signum, who had finished with the dishes just a second ago, and removed her apron, tossing it carelessly into the table. It landed on top of the one Naruko had been wearing minutes earlier. Both were clean, as too much experience doing so prevented either Shamal or Naruko from getting anything other than their hands dirty.
"I should have?" Naruko asked. "I didn't know that."
"No, you didn't," Shamal agreed, "but it's important that you do."
"But we have guests, I can't just up and leave," Naruko said, tilting her head. "I already fell asleep on them last night, this'd be a new low as their host—"
"Don't worry," Signum interrupted. "Myself and Zafira will remain here, we will… entertain your guests," she mentioned, picking up both aprons and folding them before moving over to the table.
Naruko shrugged. "I guess that's okay," she said. "Okay, I'll tell Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan… Should I change?" she asked, looking down on herself. She wasn't wearing anything particularly unsuited to a visit to the hospital. Other than her fuzzy slippers, anyway.
"A pair of shoes might be better suited," Shamal agreed, "but if you wish, I could carry you there. Flying there is faster than walking," she said.
"Oh! That's right, I don't need you guys to carry me anymore, I can fly now!"
"… Excuse me, Mistress?" Shamal asked. "What… did you just say?"
"I can fly now!" Naruko said, grinning. "I woke up and… I just could. Like this… Sleipnir," she muttered, and six wings sprouted from behind her back. The wings did a very slow beating motion and Naruko lifted off the ground, floating there in front of everyone. "See?"
"…This is strange," Shamal said. "Mistress… By any chance, do you remember a giant tanuki made of sand?"
"What a bizzarre thing you came up with," Naruko said, laughing a little. "Why would I dream about such a thing?" she asked. "That's ridiculous."
"Your brain works in mysterious ways, Mistress, but the medical checkup just became a lot more important…"
"You know, now that I got a better look at it, that does look incredibly cool," Nanoha spoke, standing up from her chair. "Anyway, don't worry, we'll be waiting for you here! We still haven't decided who's the best at Street Ninja IV!"
"You better not leave until I can win back my title!" Naruko said, pointing a finger at Nanoha from above.
"It's best if we get to the hospital as early as possible," Shamal said.
"We'll fly there!" Naruko said, grinning. "I'll race you two," she added.
"That isn't a very good idea, Mistress," Shamal chastised. "You're new to flying… and until you can show me that you can fly at high speeds without risk, you won't be flying any faster than you can react to!"
Naruko pouted. "But I want to see how fast I can fly…" she muttered.
"We can test that later, Mistress, for now, let's try not to overshoot the hospital," Shamal said. "Anyway, Vita, you will be coming with us."
"Of course I will," Vita said, shaking her head as she tried to wake herself up fully. "Lead the way, Mistress…"
***
Vita was red when they finally got to the hospital. That was the end result of flying behind Naruko. The reason why was simple. Naruko had apparently forgotten she was wearing a skirt. While they were too high up for anyone to get a peek at Naruko's underwear, Vita was not far away enough not to. That, coupled with the mental images that still haunted her from that morning… Well, she was going to be having interesting dreams soon enough.
Naruko, too, was flushed, but that had more to do with her actually testing the limits of her flying agility, making all sorts of pirouettes as she flew. It was clear she was loving every second she was in the air. Both of her knights present could very well understand why she was enjoying the freedom of the air after being unable to even run for more than a couple of seconds.
Shamal wondered if this was actually the result of the surgery she'd undergone. Naruko had always been weak, but that had never been natural. Her chakra coils had been damaged. That in and of itself should've been fatal. Perhaps… The book had been the one to do that to Naruko in the first place. Perhaps it'd attempt to repair it, causing the damage to her actual body? It wouldn't be entirely impossible. The book had no idea how chakra coils worked until it started absorbing Linker Cores from ninja…
It had nearly killed her attempting to repair her body a short while ago…
"Oi. Shamal, we're here," Vita's voice cut through her thoughts, and she looked up to see Naruko diving downwards.
Almost frantically, the two knights shot like bullets after her, only for their mistress to pretty much kill her momentum just before she hit the ground, landing perfectly safely. The Wolkenritter had barely enough time to land normally themselves, perhaps a bit harsher than they'd intended to, and catch their breath as Naruko giggled. The hospital roof wasn't particularly crowded on a particularly busy day, so there was no risk of landing on anyone.
"Mistress! Stop doing those sorts of things, you're gonna kill us from a heart attack!" Shamal protested, grabbing her chest and attempting to calm down her heart.
"But I knew nothing would go wrong…" Naruko muttered, clearly somewhat down. "I'll be okay!"
"It doesn't matter! We don't know, and you're scaring US!" Vita said, stomping her foot. It only caused Naruko to giggle further, though.
"Let's… let's just go in," Shamal said, massaging the bridge of her nose. "I'll see if I can find Tsunade-dono."