"Tsubasa-nii! Kaa-chan's calling for you!" shouted Nanoha.

"Hai!"

Tsubasa raced down the stairs. His mother laughed as he skidded on the floor a little.

"No running in the house," she said with a smile.

"Hai, hai. What do you need?"

"Nanoha said that you two had joined a fun club that is taking a trip for a month. I wanted to know if you needed anything."

Tsubasa's first reaction to the TSAB was to call it a club to disguise it from their parents. It made more sense than to call it a family emergency when their older siblings weren't going to be taken out in his reasoning.

Admiral Lindy was the chaperone/adult in charge of this club while Chrono was the 'leader'. It kept things nice and tidy and it explained their disappearances until the Jewel Seed incident was over.

Lindy had heard the cover-story and had even spoken to their parents about the 'club' and how they had room for two more on their yearly 'trip'.

"Ano...a few new books would be nice..." said Tsubasa. He was learning 'Earth Magic' on the side, despite not being old enough to actually practice like most.

"How about I let you pick what you want to read on the trip?" suggested his mother with a grin.

Tsubasa cheered.


"Storage complete. This upgrade is excellent!" said Dark as he stored all of their gear.

"It's certainly easier than before. Sealing was never a problem, but those seeds were becoming rather difficult to keep in here,"said Krad.

"It beats having to carry all those books with me," said Tsubasa.

Since they were on the Arthra, Tsubasa didn't have to keep their conversations quiet. In fact he was half tempted to let them out to wander around, if they didn't need to be on call.

"So what sort of books did you bring Tsubasa-nii?" asked Nanoha.

"Most of my basic books," said Tsubasa.

Lindy and the others had expressed an interest in his schooling up till this point so he had brought most of his magic books with him.

"So are you going to take up Chrono's offer to train with him during our hunts?"

"I have to, if I want to be able to reach Fate. You're good Nanoha, but I think someone who understands Fate at a deeper level would be a better idea to face her."

It was something he had discussed with Lindy before. He knew exactly what Fate was going through, only he had escaped in time before he developed something any decent psychiatrist would call 'Stockholm Syndrome'. It was a mental condition that caused the victims to sympathize with their abusers, even to the point where they convince themselves that the pain was normal or that they deserved it for some perceived slight.

Which was why he was the perfect one to challenge Fate and hopefully break whatever hold her abuser had on her. Had he not bonded with Dark and Krad when he had, he never would have been saved...and now he felt it was his turn to do the saving.

The only catch was that he had to learn how to fight. At least he had a head start, as he had been training with Kyouya and Miyuki for well over a year now.

Now he just had to find a way to fight using Mirror Wings.

Mary looked over the books Tsubasa had brought with him while he sparred with Chrono. For now Nanoha and Yuuno were out collecting the seeds, so he wasn't required to do anything. However he always had trouble sitting still.

Chrono leveled his Device at Tsubasa, who was in Kagami form. So far he had all the capabilities all devices had, but he had no idea how to attack. Well, outside of using Krad's feather blitz, but he needed something that wouldn't do minor damage to an enemy.

Kagami learned quickly to get used to his much longer legs and arms. It had been rather awkward walking around in a teenage body when his real one was only nine. He had resorted to using his wings to keep balanced. That was the first thing Chrono had broken him out of.

Nanoha came back to find her brother on the ground passed out.

"Another loss?" she asked with a giggle. It was nice to see Tsubasa reminded of the fact he was still learning.

While Tsubasa had been introduced to magic earlier than her, and had started training more than she did, he also had to learn the first thing she had from scratch.

Combat spells.

"He's decent, but his reactions are a bit slow and his movements are beyond awkward. Considering this is his first actual training into fighting with his magic, he's actually doing rather well," said Chrono.

"He hasn't gotten a big head has he?"

"Surprisingly not. He's an okay fighter, but he's hasn't figured out how to activate the combat mode of his device. At best all he's been able to do is shoot off some bizarre magic spell that looks like feathers of all things," said Chrono.

While his combat experience was sorely lacking, his tactics only needed a bit of refining. He had a set limit of spells that he could do and do well...and he used them to efficiency.

Chrono had lost count of all the times he had found his linker core bound without warning, giving Kagami time to shoot his magic at him. Not to mention the bizarre trick he had picked up from Krad, the more violent of the twins.

He was able to shoot odd magical creations at Chrono, though the effectiveness of them was lacking.

"Ow..." said Kagami. They had finally managed to get rid of that annoying echo quality in his voice. Apparently he had been using too much magic when he merged, hence the odd echo.

"How was training, aniki?" giggled Nanoha.

"Ow..." was all he would say about it.

"Perhaps you should separate and head to the infirmary..." suggested Chrono.

Two balls of light came off Kagami, revealing Krad and Dark. They each took a side of the exhausted boy and put him on Dark's back.

Tsubasa had set the device to allow them out in the event of injury or magical exhaustion, though they could only manifest their bodies. Using magic was out of the question until he recovered.

Considering they had been stuck in a mirror and sharing the bodies of others for centuries, they could live with a little restriction like that.


"Mou, Tsubasa-san, you shouldn't be so reckless!" said the doctor.

"I almost had it this time though..." pouted Tsubasa.

"What were you doing?"

"I'm trying to see if the feathers can be made into weapons, since neither of these two chuckleheads have ever used any before," said Tsubasa.

"Technically we are weapons. Besides, if we had used any back then, chances are we would have done more damage. At best I can use the standard tools of the shinobi trade but that's mostly as a last resort," said Dark.

"Shinobi? You mean like ninja?" asked Nanoha.

"Yeah. The Niwa clan used to make learning how to use things like shuriken, kunai and ninjato a requirement to be considered worthy of awakening to my talent, but once the class system fell apart the practice went into disuse. I think I can still remember how," said Dark.

"So the Niwa were a clan of shinobi?" said Nanoha.

"Actually they were something else, but no one ever told me which planet they originated from. But I do know that the Niwa aren't from Earth...they only became that way after a few centuries," said Dark.

"What?" said Yuuno.

"The Hikari clan were artists in nature who learned magic by accident. But the Niwa came from another world and brought their magic with them. If I remember right, the original disagreement between them stemmed from the fact that the Niwa realized what the Hikari were doing and were trying to stop them. Then we were accidentally sealed into one of each clan, and things deteriorated from there," explained Dark.

"So the Niwa aren't from Earth, but another world and knew enough about magic to train their children... but when you two appeared by mistake, they lost the teachings and had to resort to Terran magic as their back-up..." said Yuuno.

"Ano, is it possible for me to visit the Niwa mansion for a few days? Maybe we can shed some light on why I've been having trouble making a weapon," asked Tsubasa.

"I think we all need a break from hunting Jewel seeds," said Yuuno.


The first real clue as to where the Niwa originated from came from a klaxon sound that was telepathic in origin. Nanoha, Chrono and Yuuno all winced while Tsubasa was unaffected.

"What in the world was that?" asked Chrono.

"What was what?" asked Tsubasa.

"There was some sort of harsh sound just now!" said Nanoha. Her ears were ringing.

"Opps...I think I remember the Niwa talking about a barrier around the house..." said Dark sheepishly.

'And you didn't think to inform us?'

"Well to be fair I thought the thing was gone by now. I mean the last barriers added were mostly to keep the Hikari from getting close without an alarm," said Dark.

'How do I turn it off?'

"I have no idea. I wasn't even aware that the thing was still active...and the Niwa haven't practiced with a device for as long as I was awake," admitted Dark.

"Hang on guys while I try to find the source of the alarm... apparently the Niwa had a barrier around it...though I wonder why I didn't hear anything."

~Just hurry up. We'll be in the backyard until you turn it off,~said Chrono.

'Dark, wide-area search. I have the feeling whatever set this thing off wouldn't react well to Krad doing it,'said Tsubasa.

~Wide Area Search~ intoned Dark, casting a spell to do just that. He ignored the Niwa artwork, he was already familiar with those...but finally he felt a 'ping' on the other end of his search magic. It seemed to resonate with him for some reason.

"Found it. Tell them it will be a few minutes before we turn it off...it's pretty far down."

'Dark, that's what wings are for,' retorted Tsubasa.

"Guys wait outside while I turn this thing off. Apparently it's really far down in the house," said Tsubasa.

"I'll contact the Arthra...call us when you have it shut off," said Chrono with a wince.

Tsubasa opened the door to the basement, ignoring the sealing chamber and the room full of Hikari artwork that had gone berserk. He had been able to sell off a little of it, most of the magic had been removed a while ago and he had no reason to keep it...though he did leave a magical tracer on it should it prove necessary.

It took him thirty minutes to safely get down, as the area was too narrow for wings and he had never really gotten the hang on flight spells to even consider it an option.

He put his hand on a door, only to yelp as it nicked him. The door was completely out of place and it was a wonder that no one had thought to find this before.

Strange lines danced throughout the door frame, eventually moving aside to reveal...a rather irate fairy?

"It's about time! Do you have any idea how long I've been stuck down here to maintain the defenses?!" he yelled at the surprised boy.

"At least five hundred years by my guess?" asked Tsubasa.

"Try seven! It wasn't bad at first, but then those idiot terrans had to make that damn mirror and you lot quit coming to check on me! If I hadn't put myself into a forced hibernation I would have died from boredom alone! Now what do you have to say about this?" demanded the tiny boy.

"First off, we didn't know there was a Unison device down here. And secondly, after Dark was sealed into the clan they forgot a lot about magic...so much so that I'm the last Niwa alive to even use it... You are a Unison device aren't you?"

"Of course I am! Shadow Night is my name," said the boy.

"Could you possibly turn off the alarm system? My friends were driven off by some weird noise earlier," asked Tsubasa.

"You mean those dumb Mid-Childans? I thought they were a bit young for an assault team, but I assumed that they tried to bring you down here by force or trickery," said Shadow Night.

"Actually we were trying to learn more about the clan. It seemed that forgetting about you wasn't the only thing they lost," said Tsubasa.

Shadow Night removed the alarms, though he kept them inactive. It took them fifteen minutes to find Tsubasa in the underground room.


"Tsubasa, what was that all about?" asked Chrono.

"Chrono, meet Shadow Night."

"Yo," said the unison device.

"Oh good lord, not another one. It's bad enough you have a twin-soul unison device..." said Chrono in annoyance.

"How long ago did the Niwa clan come here?" asked Yuuno eagerly.

"Last time we were back home, we had narrowly escaped being attacked by the Tome of the Night Sky...some idiot Mid-Childa mage had managed to break the Defense program. I feel sorry for Nacht," said Shadow.

"Wait, what?" said Chrono.

"Tell them the same thing you told me," suggested Tsubasa, who looked like he was sporting a massive headache.

"Which side won the war?" asked Shadow.

"War? Don't tell me..." asked Yuuno.

"I'm fairly certain that the Niwa clan escaped your known territories during the Belkan Wars," said Tsubasa, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Which would make two Lost Logia, though at least this one was intentionally made," said Chrono.

"Shadow, can you lead us to any material before Dark's first appearance, or preferably before the clan came to Earth? We're hoping to at least piece together how an entire clan managed to survive the war," asked Tsubasa.

At the very least Yuuno would be happy.

"I can do better than that. Part of the clan's duties was to act as spies, and despite what my users wanted, I kept most of the data. Plus I know where they hid the books and other Intelligent Devices."

Shadow had been bored, so every so often he would explore the house that he could reach. Eventually he found the vaults where they sealed everything from before they were known as the Niwa clan. Probably to keep the Hikari from ruining everything by mistake.