Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha

All the Wrong Numbers

Prologue

Several hundred years ago, somewhere in the north-western parts of Midchilda, just before the Belkan controlled regions of the planet, was the proud, prosperous, somewhat arrogant and very aggressive city of Neueburg. It sits on a sort of inland island, with the ocean to the west and encompassed by the two rivers that converge to the east of the city, the Festung River to the north and the Schloss River to the south. It was a relatively large city. Not as large as Cranagan, the capital of Midchilda, but for an Earth comparison, we could say that it was almost as large as the city of London.

The one thing that made Neueburg so famous was its people, their love for a good fight, and their weapons. They’d join fights. They’d end fights. And most noticeably, they’d start fights for no apparent reason, other than the obvious: they wanted a Glorious Fight. And surely enough, the Glorious Fights eventually became Glorious Wars.

So when it came to war, the people of Neueburg were known to be aggressive and fearful soldiers, who would relentlessly charge at the enemy with no thought for their own personal well being. Of course, they were often short lived, but a platoon of raving mad, screaming Neueburgians, charging towards you with their weapons held overhead or blazing away would make anyone leave a puddle of wet nervousness as they ran in the opposite direction, even if they did have a bigger platoon of their own. Not much could be said for Neueburgian leaders though, who often lead battles with the belief that eventually, if they fought long enough, they too will be able to enter the Glorious Battle again.

In other words, they ran into every fight blindly, while watched over by anxious men who wished they were in the Glorious Battle down below and were looking for ways in. But the Glory had blinded them from the consequences of defeat (which was considered to be Glorious as well). It was never thought of, because if they were Gloriously Defeated, they’d then arrogantly Gloriously Fight in revenge for those who were Gloriously Defeated.

On the other hand, their weapons are responsible for just over a quarter of all the abandoned cities on the current day Midchilda. And for some bizarre reason, the leaders of Neueburg believed that everyone should be able to join in the Glorious Wars that they were holding, and began exporting their weapons to their soon to be enemies.

So it comes to no surprise that today, Neueburg is a desolate and dying city on the verge of becoming a ghost town as only one tenth of it is still standing. The other nine tenths lay in ruin from several wars where they were Gloriously Defeated, and the only thing that prevented the remains of Neueburg from being pulverized into the ground by its own weapons was the creation of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, which put an end to all the wars on Midchilda and very politely took all those nasty weapons of mass destruction away from everyone. Including the Neueburgians. They had a little Glorious Battle over that too.

The remaining buildings of Neueburg are in a little section to the south east of the island, surrounded by demolished city on all sides. Only one bridge remains standing, leading across the Schloss River to a partially ruined industrial estate that sits just before the green ridges of the North-Western Midchildan Mountain Ranges. The airports were destroyed, and the sea port is rubble. Those who survived held their heads high; boasting that they’re Not Dead Yet, and got on with life in the now overcrowded city that no longer has any import route or export interests.

Those who could swallow their pride joined the Bureau, or spent their remaining money to move further into Midchilda, leaving their pride and the Glory of War behind. Those who didn’t arrogantly remained behind and proudly continued to run their failing businesses as the population of the city and their bank accounts dwindled. And eventually the proud and arrogant realized that they were proud, arrogant and stupid, as they saw there was no hope for their city and were now too poor to move further into Midchilda. So they remained arrogant and proud, and occasionally, they’d admit they’re a bit stupid, and got on with lives with a vacant look on their faces, dreaming faded dreams of War and Glory.

But they were only faded dreams. Eventually, the faded dreams slowly began to pool together, and started to gather form. The remaining Neueburgian residents began looking for a common enemy. They carefully reached for their household weapons that the Bureau allowed them to keep, held them close, and then they all nervously looked to their neighbors across the road.