The Growing Dark. Ragnarok. The End Of All Things. It has been known by many names over the years as the world tried to prepare itself to face The Trial, The Final Battle for everything. The final battle that creeps irrevocably closer with each passing second, every swing of the pendulum. It has bided its time for millennia, but now its time is rapidly approaching.

Thousands of years ago, long before Rome or the Egyptian dynasties, the last pieces of a puzzle older than time fell into place and set the future into inevitable motion. Empires rose and fell, civilizations flourished and died, and the worlds moved on. Conflict changed from scattered battles to organized warfare, and still time marched on. Down the centuries, on toward the destined final meeting in which everything, EVERYTHING, rested securely on a single person's fragile shoulders. A hero, The Hero, the one fated to face The Adversary at the end of all things. Prophecies spoke of a young girl, the girl who will wield the world's power, that most powerful of forces, to face the coming darkness.

Still Waters 3, Chapter 1, New Beginnings Part 1

Times have changed and times are strange, here I come but I ain't the same.

Monday, April 6th, 2009, Morning

Mahora

Six years after the defeat of Gaze and Fate's ultimatum, an attractive young man strolled through the halls of Mahora, his footsteps echoing in the mostly empty hallway.

It was the first day of a new school year, and the few students who had not yet found their classrooms stopped and stared as he passed by. Cries of "Wow!" and "He's so hot!" would allow one to track his progress through the halls, if one so wished.

He finally came to a stop in front of a particularly familiar classroom and took one last look at the new class roster. 'Looks like an interesting class again this year,' he thought to himself as he scanned over the names and pictures. 'Abe, Miyoshi, Ono…' It appeared there were many children of old families in this class; it was something to remember if he wanted to do a good job as their teacher. There were quite a few foreigners as well, judging by the names and pictures in the roster. Seeing no point in wasting any more time, he took a deep breath to calm himself. After spending most of the past year researching some ancient ruins in Tibet with the university's archaeology team and a few of his former students, he was still having some slight trouble adapting to life back in Mahora…but there was no point in hesitating any more, it was now or never.

He abruptly snapped the class roster shut and opened the door, smoothly sidestepped the falling eraser, which he caught, and walked toward the podium, only half-conscious of the startled gasps of the students as they caught their first glimpse of their new teacher.

He nonchalantly stepped over the three trip wires and placed the eraser on the rail at the bottom of the chalkboard, then turned to face his new class, not even glancing at the puddle of clear glue on the floor. As he looked from face to surprised face, he realized they really did remind him somewhat of his first class; in fact, Evangeline was smirking at him from her old seat at the back of the classroom while Chachamaru sat calmly in front of her. He recognized the other gynoid Rally, the ghost Sayo-chan as she flickered in and out of sight, and a few other students he had seen around campus or in the city over the past few days. He smiled, and most of the class swooned.

"Hello everyone, I will be your teacher this year. My name is Negi Springfield."

He called roll and began introductions.

"So aniki, what do you think?" Kamo asked when the first day of school had finally ended and the two of them finally found themselves alone as Negi walked one of the many footpaths that crisscrossed the campus while Kamo rode on his shoulder.

Negi, now officially almost sixteen years old but possessing the body of a nineteen year old due to the time spent training in Eva's resort, smiled slightly as he recalled his first impression of his new class. They were refreshingly spirited, not nearly as rude or foul-tempered as many of his classes after the first one had been. But unfortunately, it seemed as though he had once again been saddled with a class full of weird students. For one thing, as a whole the class was uncommonly tall. For another, there were six foreigners in his class, excluding Evangeline, Rally, and Chachamaru, of course. The usual range of bizarre hair colors was present as well.

"It won't be like the class three years ago, I'm sure," he replied, frowning as he recalled several unpleasant incidents. That particular class had seemed to be little more than a repository for the grade's punks, rebels, and bullies, and he had been forced to fight several students seriously for the first time. He had long ago realized that Eva had merely been testing him when they fought six years ago; and Chao, while serious, had had other goals than causing him injury. Luckily, everything had turned out well in the end, and no one had been seriously hurt. Come to think of it, that had been the class in which he first taught Sakai Reiko, a rather powerful medium who had wedged herself into his group of close friends before anyone realized it. There were at least a few new ones every year, but rarely did they just show up unannounced the way she had. He grinned ruefully at the memory of the girl barging into Eva's resort that day—

"What's with that disgusting look?" The speaker was fairly tall for a Japanese girl; this along with undyed light brown hair and green eyes set her apart from the crowd everywhere in Japan except Mahora. She also carried a beat up leather swordcase slung over one shoulder, and wore the black dresslike uniform associated with St. Ursula High School. "Hello Kamo," she added after a moment.

"Hey, Reiko-ane-san. Got anything today?"

"Nah, nothing's going on. Hey Negi-sensei, I asked you a question."

Negi smiled at her. "Nothing, just thinking about things." He looked at her for a moment as they walked side by side until she turned to look at him, locked eyes with him, and stumbled. "Reiko-san? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," the girl spat in annoyance more at herself than the teacher as she shook his steadying hand from her arm. "Stubbed my toe."

"Oh…"

She saw Kamo leering at her and shot a warning glare at him. He muffled a laugh with his paw and turned his attention to the path ahead.

"Aniki is getting pretty good now, isn't he?" Kamo asked all too innocently. Reiko stumbled again and cursed under her breath.

"Reiko-san, please do not use such language," Negi said, lost in thought as he mentally ran through the class roster again.

"Sorry," Reiko mumbled. "So how's this year's class?"

"They seem nice," Negi said distractedly as he recalled the introductions and frowned.

"I see; not at all like the class I was in, eh?" the girl replied with her usual smirk.

Negi suppressed a flash of irritation. Like most truly powerful mediums, the girl's body had never been healthy; her health could fail at the slightest provocation. She had developed a rather caustic sense of humor because of her closeness with death and had no problem taking advantage of the reaction this little bit of knowledge brought about in others. It could be extremely irritating, but it was something he had decided to allow. Not that there was much choice; he couldn't bring himself to tell off a girl that could be dead this time next week, and she knew it. "No, that's not what I mean…" he trailed off. "Anyway, judging from past experience I doubt more than five or six of them are 'normal'." Reiko had never been a regular person herself, so it was fine to talk about this sort of thing with her. In fact, he had never had a class with more than a dozen 'regular' people, and every time without fail it came back many times over the school year to bite him in all sorts of new and interesting ways. It could be quite annoying at times. Sometimes he longed for the days when to him, magic had just been, well, magic, and wasn't divided up into hundreds of subtypes and bizarre methods he had never even heard of until they were blowing up in his face. Sometimes it seemed that there must be more magic users in the world than regular people...! And then there were the fighters. Oh Lord, the fighters...! He had seen so many varieties of fighting style, from mundane to downright bizarre, that almost nothing ever surprised him anymore. And every one of these people, almost without fail, tried to hide the truth from him, as if he didn't notice them rushing out of the classroom to 'go to the bathroom' or with claims of nausea, clutching whatever magical artifact or tool or weapon they used while talking to themselves about power levels and things. And, without fail, he or his friends and former students had to rescue each and every one of them when they got in over their heads. It was enough to make an otherwise sane man want to bash his head into a wall.

Reiko whistled and Negi came back to himself. "I'm sorry Reiko-san. What did you say?"

"Sounds like an interesting class. Better be careful though, you don't want thirty jealous girls with magic powers and whatnot fighting over you." Negi grunted in annoyed amusement at the old joke and they walked in silence for a time. Heavens knew it had come close to that before. Several times. He started to sweat as some of the more...intense examples came to mind. They walked in friendly silence for a while.

"Going to Eva's house?" Reiko asked after a moment.

Negi nodded as he led the way down the correct path into the woods; it was time for training. Reiko shifted her sword case (a small concession Negi had convinced her to allow as openly carrying a wooden sword tended to cause a lot of problems for a student…the P.E. teacher Max Linell was the only one he knew who could get away with such a thing these days; even his old student Setsuna had to carry her sword in a case) to a more comfortable position and followed. While not a common sight in Eva's resort, Reiko did go there from time to time when she wanted to try out something new that might prove more destructive or attention-getting than was wise in a public place like the Mahora campus.

They made their way through the woods, finally coming to the small clearing where Eva's home stood. It had been in constant use even after Eva had gone out to see the world after Negi released her from the Thousand Master's curse; his old student Misa, Eva's best apprentice, had made it a point to keep the place in good shape while Eva was away, even going so far as to live there in the guest bedroom. She still stayed there from time to time even now, in fact.

Negi knocked on the door, but there was no answer. "They must be in the resort," he said. Kamo and Reiko nodded as he opened the door and led the way inside to the basement.

Inside, the basement was much the same, but the resort itself had changed greatly. Gone was the simple four or five sphere structure Eva had set up during Negi's first year in Mahora. Instead, the resort had grown to fill almost the entire basement and looked like nothing more than a gigantic enclosure for pet mice.

"Whoa, look at that," Reiko said, pointing to one of the larger glass spheres that made up Eva's resort. Negi looked where she was pointing and raised an eyebrow. The entire sphere was filled with swirling dust and debris, evidence of a tremendous blast of power.

"Misa must've made Eva mad again," Reiko said, grinning.

Negi shrugged and entered the resort

The three of them found themselves standing on the wide entry platform. About fifty feet across, it featured roughly two dozen teleportation circles spaced symmetrically around the edges, each linked to a different section of the resort. It was all very nice and orderly, something Negi appreciated very much after his chaotic first day back as a teacher. After a moment, Chachazero sauntered up to greet them.

"Hello Albert, Reiko. Student. Have you come to play today?"

"Yeah," Reiko said, grinning at the murderous doll. "I think I've got a new trick worked out; wanna help me test it?"

Chachazero agreed enthusiastically, so Negi left Reiko and Kamo there on the platform with her and made his way to one of the teleporters. He activated the teleporter to the desert environment, and an instant later was standing on sand, surrounded by drifting clouds of dirt and dust. He uttered a quick spell that called up his own personal whirlwind to keep the dust away, and made his way toward the steady pulse of magic he felt from somewhere in the swirling dust ahead.

He trudged through the blasting heat and ankle-deep sand for almost ten minutes, calling out at intervals, before he got a response. "Master? Misa-san?"

"Over here, boy," Eva replied from somewhere in the drifting sand ahead.

Negi paused to strengthen the wind spell and increase its area of effect, then quickened his pace until he spotted two vague figures in the dust ahead. "Master?"

"This way."

He strengthened the spell as much as he dared with Master nearby, and watched as the air cleared to reveal Eva, seated comfortably in the sand, cradling the unconscious Misa's head on her lap.

Eva glanced up at him with an interested smile. "She did this all by herself," she explained as she looked back, almost proudly, at Misa's sleeping face. The woman had apparently run out of power and passed out. Misa, out of all the students from Negi's first class, was one of those who had changed the most. The fun loving cheerleader's figure had filled out spectacularly as she matured, and her almost constant training with Eva had revealed a tremendous hidden power. The girl was gifted with shadow and animation magic and could be extremely destructive when she wanted to be. Of course, those were things Eva liked in an apprentice, so she had practically forced Misa to join in after the kidnapping incident six years before.

But in spite of all that, this was a completely new level of power the girl had not shown before.

As the blowing dust and dirt finally began thinned enough to see a fair distance, Negi realized what had happened.

Where this part of Eva's desert environment had previously been a flat plain, most of it was now reduced to a massive crater.

Negi did some quick calculations in his head, and his eyes widened as he realized just how much power this level of destruction had required. "She was able to do this…where do you think she fits as far as power rankings go?"

Eva sighed in annoyance at the boy's question. That stupid ermine had created a power level chart several years back to show the boy where he stood in relation to other magic users at the school. Unfortunately, his students had loved the concept and, one by one, they had all begun to think in terms of power levels. It was quite annoying and virtually useless when one considered just how little of a fight was determined by raw power, but she decided to answer his question anyway.

"She is stronger than you were three years ago boy. She managed that," she pointed at the massive crater, "with no tricks or short cuts, just her power in its most pure form," she said, tapping the sleeping woman's forehead with her finger to emphasize the point.

Negi looked at the mountains and valleys appreciatively, then looked at the destruction she had wrought.

Eva smirked. "Well, I suppose that's fine, she isn't your student any more," she said, looking down at Misa again. "She is attractive, after all." She paused as Negi's face went red, knowing he had been caught 'appreciating' one of his old students. She grinned evilly. "Pick her up, boy. It's time to go back and put her to bed," she said as she carefully lowered the girl's head to the sand and then stood up, smacking her clothing to free the dust from it. "And don't throw her over your shoulder like a sack of flour, either."

Negi turned beet red as he knelt over the long haired girl—no, woman—and picked her up bridal style. He wasn't paying enough attention when he stood up, however, and she rolled slightly toward him and a certain part of her anatomy….squished against the side of his chest. "S-sorry, Kakizaki-san," he spluttered as she made a small sound deep in her throat and snuggled closer in her sleep.

Reiko squatted down, facing Chachazero and Kamo on the entry platform.

"No, I'm telling you it's Nodoka!" Kamo said dismissively. He took a drag on his cigarette as if saying the matter was settled.

Reiko shook her head. "You're all wrong, Kamo. As much as I respect her, that Nodoka is too much of a wallflower. I bet Negi wants someone more like Ku Fei."

Chachazero cackled. "You're both wrong! It's Asuna. Asuna!" she repeated.

They were interrupted by a flash from the transporter, and Eva appeared. "What are you lot doing?" she demanded lightly.

"We're talking about who the boy wants for love, Master," Chachazero answered. "Making babies."

Kamo took a sip of the wine Chachazero had brought out earlier and sent a measuring look at Eva. "I say he wants Nodoka, Reiko-ane-san says he wants Ku Fei. What do you think, Eva-san?"

Eva took up a glass and poured herself some wine. The teleporter flashed again and Negi appeared, looking incredibly embarrassed as he cradled the unconscious Misa in his arms.

"Judging from the boy's reaction, he wants that one," Eva said, gesturing with the wine glass while Kamo laughed and Reiko snorted in amusement.

"Masteeeerrrrr!" Negi whined.

Caro Shaw found herself standing in front of the big tree again after wandering through the mazelike system of pathways around the massive campus of Mahora for what felt like hours, now. She had only been here in the city for two days, and had now managed to get herself horribly lost. Somehow, no matter which way she went, she always ended up at the plaza with the giant tree. It was nice and she liked the feeling of the place, but she was trying to find her way back to the dorms, not the tree.

She had hoped to make some friends this year in a new school, but that hadn't worked out either. Everyone else in her class was so vibrant and pretty that she felt herself to be left in the dust. In a class of tall, pretty girls with all sorts of interesting skills and hobbies, she was short, brown haired, and not the least bit interesting. She had no hobbies to speak of, she tended to avoid sports, and had only joined the art club because she had been pressured into it by one of the members, a dazzling and intimidating sempai from the high school named Sakai Reiko. What the other girl had been doing recruiting for a middle school club Caro didn't know; all she knew was that it hadn't seemed so bad, and it was better than being pressured into something she didn't have any interest in at all.

She had hoped to at least find a friend among the other foreigners in her class, but when she had tried to make polite conversation with the short blonde girl she had decided on, the girl had given Caro a look that sent chills down her spine and almost sent her into a crying fit on the spot. As it was, she had had to spend a few minutes in the bathroom to calm down.

"I'll be alone this year too," she said aloud as tears began to fall in spite of her best efforts to avoid it. She wiped them away, but more came to replace them and she looked around frantically. Luckily, there was no one nearby to see her crying, and she soon regained control and forced herself to stop sniffling. 'I'm a big girl now, I can't cry so easily,' she told herself.

She wiped her eyes and trudged over to the big tree and took a quick look around. No one else was nearby, so she put her hands on the bark and scurried up the side like a lizard until she was well hidden among the leaves and branches, and looked for a branch that would hold her weight. Now, well hidden among the foliage, she began sniffling again. No one would see her here, no one would—she heard a noise from above.

"H…hello?" She hesitantly looked upward, but the branches were too thick; all she could see was a shadowy figure making its way down the tree toward her. Then it abruptly dropped down beside her so suddenly she forgot to scream and almost fell off her branch.

The stranger, with a mouthful of riceball, looked at Caro blankly and reached out to help her regain her balance.

When Caro was firmly seated on her branch again, she looked at the new girl shyly. "Thank you…for not letting me fall." The strange girl was a foreigner, but that seemed to be all she had in common with Caro. With dark skin and pale hair, not to mention the odd tattoos on her face, she was like no one Caro had ever seen before. Caro watched as the weird girl sat down and made herself comfortable on her branch.

"You're welcome," the girl said as she looked out over the city.

Caro started to fidget. 'Am I bothering her? Maybe I should climb down…' She moved to climb down but the other girl turned to look at her, and Caro settled back down. 'What do I do? Is she mad at me? She is, isn't she?'

"Um…"

The girl broke her rice ball in two and held out a piece to Caro, who took it hesitantly. She nibbled at it and was relieved to find that the taste was normal. She hadn't known what to expect, but… She stole a quick look at the strange girl and was startled to see her looking back at her.

"I…I'm Caro! It's nice to meet you!" she almost shouted, blushing wildly and hoping that she might have found a new friend.

"…Zazie." The girl took another bite of the riceball and continued looking out at the setting sun.

Urashima Taro stalked the streets, looking for prey. The local thugs all knew what they would be facing however, so they backed away as Taro approached, muttering things like "Look out!", "Be careful or you'll die!", and "So manly..."

Taro was sick of it. After two years in this town, no one was willing to fight anymore. Things used to be different; in the beginning, everyone had underestimated Taro, rejecting challenges out of hand and generally ignoring the new person in their midst. A few rounds with one street gang's leader and a baseball bat had changed all that, however, and for a time Taro could find a fight anywhere. It was fun. But…Taro had quickly gotten better and better while everyone else remained the same.

After a while, thugs had started to creep back into alleys and bars at Taro's approach, and the street gangs made sure to be someplace Taro wasn't. Taro's name became a thing to be feared, as though speaking the name of Urashima Taro would summon the devil himself. There were even rumors that Taro was a demon in human form…it was ridiculous!

Eventually, with no one to fight and provide that oh-so-addictive adrenaline rush during the daytime, Taro had resorted to going out at night. That was the time when Taro's story became legend. Thieves, muggers, and rapists were leaps and bounds ahead of the petty street punks that Taro had fought before, but they fell just as easily; soon enough, Taro earned the odd nickname of Street Sweeper as the streets of Mahora slowly became safer simply because of her presence.

Eventually, even the nights were no good. Shadowy villains and thugs would slink back in the darkness as Taro passed, ever present baseball bat in hand. When some fool brought out a cheap gun one night, Taro had broken both his arms for the trouble, and at the end had beaten the man over the head with the revolver and thrown it into the river. That was the last real fight Taro had for quite some time. It was said that even the yakuza feared the name of Urashima Taro.

Of course, Taro hated this and started to become increasingly irritable and bellicose. Eventually, however, things began to change. Strangers from nearby towns started to trickle in, searching for the legendary fighter who had defeated some person or other, and were quickly beaten in turn. Stronger people came from further away, and they were beaten as well. Fighters stronger and stronger arrived, and every one of them fell to Urashima Taro. Once, Taro had been surrounded by a biker gang of over fifty people in ridiculous clothes and wild hair, armed with all kinds of weapons from wooden swords to chains to knives.

The leader had parked his bike and swaggered up, leering at Taro and speaking in that ridiculous slang used by street punks who were trying too hard to be street punks. Taro had asked him to repeat himself, using Japanese this time. The man had cursed a blue streak; or at least, Taro thought so, judging from the man's tone and the look on his face. He had then reached out and ripped open the front of Taro's shirt. The ensuing whistles and rude comments quickly drew Taro out of her stunned surprise, and she swore to herself that not a single one of those bikers would leave the place unscathed; that no matter where they went, they would always be looking over their shoulders at any small sound, afraid that Urashima Taro had found them again. They would know better than to underestimate a girl like her, ever again.

For yes, Urashima Taro, despite her boy's name, was a girl. Born to a single mother who died in childbirth, no one knew why her mother had insisted on giving her a boy's name, much less a name so well known for that stupid old story about the guy who went to the undersea kingdom. The rest of the family had taken her in of course, though she had been shuffled around regularly due to her inability to get along with other kids who teased her. Her fondest childhood memories were of the time spent playing at her grandmother's inn with her cousins Kanako and Keitaro, and whoever else happened to be there. While she hadn't seen Keitaro in quite some time, she had trained often with Kanako in her early years, and learned much of fighting from the older girl. And, with ample willing opponents in the form of local bullies to practice on, she had progressed in fine form in recent years.

Fine form indeed, as she had displayed in the hours-long running battle with the biker gang. After the initial explosion of violence, she had led the rest on a merry chase throughout the city, picking them off in twos and threes as soon as they were far enough from their fellows or left an opening. While her name had been legend among the criminal element before, the incident with the biker gang raised it to a mythical level. The local street punks held her up as some sort of god of fighting, and arguments over whether she were better than the legendary Ace of Spades, Ku Fei, or Death Glasses Takahata were common. One thing everyone could agree on however was that if a strong fighter was causing trouble, Taro-kun, as she was commonly known, would beat the troublemaker down.

In fact, she was on her way to do just that right now. A new fighter had blown into town two days ago and quickly made a name for herself by marching straight into gangs of street punks and challenging the lot of them on the spot. She would make short work of one group, then move on to the next, occasionally offering advice on how her victims could improve their skills. Taro, having been busy trying to get settled into the start of the school year, hadn't had time to clear up the trouble until now. But now that she had a whole afternoon with virtually nothing to do, she was going to make it count.

"C'mon Taro-kun, she's over here. They're calling her the 'Red Head Whirlwind'," the boy said nervously as he led her to the site of the upcoming battle. She couldn't help but wince at the horrible nickname, and sighed. Street Sweeper, Death Glasses Takahata, Red Head Whirlwind…these people had no imagination. It was almost like some cheesy shonen manga from the 80s! She took another glance at the young man; he was perhaps a year older than she was herself and she had a feeling she had seen him somewhere before, but the street gangs had so many young people that she couldn't even begin to remember all the faces she had seen, much less which gang he belonged to, or which 'big time' punks he hung around with.

As they rounded the final turn and entered the empty lot hidden between buildings, Taro stopped short, a new sensation she had never felt before stirring in her chest.

There she was, sitting comfortably atop a pile of defeated challengers, long red ponytail blowing in the swirling breeze that was always present in this little vacant lot lost among the buildings. The woman was facing the other way, but raised her head and turned to look at the newcomers as they entered the section of bare concrete.

"It seems there is someone interesting here after all," she said as she stood up and dusted off the seat of her pants before turning to face Taro and the scared boy acting as her guide.

Taro found herself staring at the woman in awe; here, finally…here was someone she had to beat! She took an excited step forward and tried to make herself to calm down and do this right.

The strange woman set herself in an unfamiliar stance and simply…waited.

Taro smirked crazily and, quick as thought, darted forward, all thought gone but for the fight. She had a brief glimpse of blue and green eyes and found herself on the ground an instant later with the woman standing over her.

"You're not done yet," the stranger said. Somehow, coming from her, it wasn't as aggravating as it would have been from anyone else.

Taro got to her feet as the initial burst of excitement faded away and logical thought returned. She recalled her lessons with Kanako-nee and took a stance. She watched carefully as the other woman shifted slightly, and frowned. She hadn't faced someone like this in a long, long time. She went at her again, feinting from the right, and then the air was driven from her lungs as she hit the ground hard, the other woman's movements so fast she hadn't even seen how she threw her.

The woman stepped back and let her get to her feet again. The stranger was smiling…and, strangely enough, Taro felt a smile creeping up on her own face as well. She wiped it from her face and cleared her mind of distractions, just the way Kanako-nee had taught her. Less than fifteen seconds later, she was flat on her back again, and the other woman was grinning widely.

"You can do better than that," she said, urging Taro on.

Taro lay there for a moment, catching her breath, and finally sat up. The stranger backed away to give her room, and Taro got back to her feet. "Yeah, you're right. I can." This time, she really did cut out all distractions; the small group of onlookers, the boy who had guided her here, the constant wind...it was just Taro and the stranger, facing each other.

"Now that's better," the woman said.

Taro didn't reply. Instead, she moved to attack and the woman moved to meet her, and for a long time there was nothing but the fight as the two went at it, neither landing a hit in the flurry of blows.

On and on and on they went, and Taro found herself pushed further than she ever had been before. Her heart was pounding, her breath was racing, it felt as if her blood itself were boiling…! But the woman simply slipped around anything she tried with ease, and it was all Taro could do to keep from getting—a glancing blow spun her half around, but she used to momentum to keep going and completed the spin, knocked the woman off balance with a backhand blow with her left hand, and…she landed a solid hit with the right.

Asuna had known the girl had potential from the first instant she noticed her rounding the corner into the back lot. It was plain in the way the girl walked, the way she stood, the way she had looked at her. She had been looking for people like this girl, but until today her search had been fruitless. There were plenty of strong fighters in Mahora, but the majority of them hadn't had a real feel for it, not like Ku Fei or Mana or the others. Most would never even have lasted through the training. Already, most of the old fighters she used to know, people like Gotokuji and Daigouin and the others, had denied her offer. She had to gather strong people, the visions she had seen required it. If she didn't, then…

She hit a glancing blow on the girl, shifted her weight, and her foot slipped on some loose gravel; there was no time to recover her balance as the girl spun around, power flickering around her, and Asuna's eyes widened. 'This is going to hurt.'

Taro's fist took the woman full in the stomach and she had a quick view of the stranger's eyes widening almost comically just before an explosion shook the alley and blasted her away.

When the dust cleared, Taro got slowly to her feet and looked around warily. Where had the woman gone? What had caused that explosion? What— She paused mid-step.

Taro gaped at the wall of a building across from her, and the new hole it had aquired. Her mind raced as she finally took in her surroundings. Bricks and broken masonry littered the back lot and the pavement was ruined, cracks radiating out from the place she had stood at the time of the explosion. The onlookers were all gone.

Someone chuckled and she turned back toward the hole in the wall to see an arm reach up and grab the edge. The arm was followed by a disheveled head, and then the strange woman stood up and climbed out through the hole as a few loose bricks fell. She coughed to clear her throat.

"I'm sorry! I don't know what happened!" Taro wailed.

The other woman ignored her, however, and began brushing the dust from her clothes. "Prepare yourself," she said as she held her hands up oddly. "Magic in the left, Ki in the right…"

"What…?" Taro said, trailing off as something she could just barely see flared violently into being around the woman. The wind kicked up wildly and Taro had to shade her eyes from the flying dust.

The woman across from her made a quick movement and then Taro's world exploded into brilliant whiteness as pain jolted through her. More pain than she had ever experienced before, so tremendous that free thought was lost and she abruptly, mercifully, blacked out.

Author's Notes: Well, there is the first real chapter. I hope everyone enjoys this new story in the Still Waters series. I included some character profiles below, please read them to get a better feel for the characters. Also, if you don't know who Reiko or the 'legendary Ace of Spades' is, please see the short story The Ace of Spades on this site. Also, if you're confused, check the date at the top of the chapter.

Caro Shaw - Student number 21

Born 2/28/1995

Height - 5'

Art Club

Likes: Bunny rabbits, tall trees, peaceful times

Dislikes: strife, loud music.

Roommate: Sasaki Rina

Little Known Facts: Very good with her hands

Urashima Taro - Student number 28

Born 4/18/1994

Height - 5'5"

Fighting Club

Likes: Kanako-nee, Keitarou-nii, justice

Dislikes: Criminals, lawbreakers

Roommate: N/A

Little Known Facts: Probably pretty attractive if she took the time to clean up.

Sakai Reiko - Student at St. Ursula, Sarcastic Medium

Born 1/23/1993

Height - 5'5"

Art Club

Likes: Freedom, foods with lots of cinnamon

Dislikes: Noisy people, receiving orders

Roommate: N/A

Little Known Facts: She lives in the city rather than the dorm; she also has a weak constitution.