8 years later, on a cold winter morning...

Suzuhara Misaki found herself hurrying through Tokyo Station just like she did four years ago, eyes and head darting around in search for platform D6. But this time she was not going anywhere; it was Kotaro and Tamayo instead.

The girl slowed to a stroll, feeling her heart sink somewhat. Kobayashi Kotaro and Kizaki Tamayo... Her best friends and most faithful companions ever since she uprooted from rural Wakayama to come to the bustling city in search of her mother. She had made many friends in her years spent at Eriol Academy as well as her sparrings on the Layer, but the couple had always had a special place in her heart. But Tamayo's father had found work in another neighbouring town and since it was far from Tokyo's city center, the family had to move since they could not afford a car. Tamayo thus applied for a school in that neighbourhood and with her grades got in fairly easily. Kotaro, once he learned of what had transpired, did the same and qualified. The Kobayashi elders maintained an ancestral home there so it was easy for him to get permission to follow his love. But that meant leaving Misaki and Hatoko behind...

Misaki closed her eyes as she remembered the snowy night when Kotaro and Tamayo, with Hatoko in tow, suddenly showed up at her doorstep. Many tears were shed as they broke the news. But Misaki knew that they had to go so she wished them well and hoped to see them soon. She was certain that they had done enough crying over the decision.

"Misaki-chan!" "Misakichi!" "Suzuhara-san!"

The three different addresses snapped Misaki out of her daydream. They led her a laiden group of three waving at her from another platform. Misaki pulled her yellow anorak closer and hurried over, leaving a trail of mist in her wake.

"Sorry minna!" Misaki panted when she arrived. "I got lost again..."

"It's okay Misakichi..." Tamayo croaked towards the last syllable. "You made it. That's what really counts..."

The champ returned the hug and nodded silently, afraid to talk lest her roiling emotions burst out again. Kotaro kept mum as he looked on sadly. Hatoko looked away, hiding her eyes under her black fringe. Tamayo gave Misaki a light pat on the back and unwrapped herself from the champ as she stood up.

"Look out for Hatoko for me alright?" Kotaro said to the brown haired Deus as Tamayo brushed aside her tears and went back to his side.

"Oi Kotaro!" retorted the dimunitive Inazuma Jounin (1) at his side. "I'm not some helpless little girl you know. Worry more about yourself." And she then turned to Tamayo. "Please keep him out of trouble for me alright?"

The older Kobayashi was ready to protest, but Tamayo already had her arm around his neck and half yanked, half throttled the boy to her head level. She flashed her trademark thumbs up. "You don't worry about Kotaro-chan when I'm around!"

There was a chime, then the public announcement system blared out that the train for Tomoeda was departing in a minute's time.

"We've got to go now," Kotaro added glumly, only to be conked on the head by the avid martial arts practitioner. "Itai..."

"Come on! Don't sound so sad! It's not like we're never going to see each other again..." Tamayo tried laughing away the little beads still forming uncontrollably in her eyes. "Right, Misakichi?"

"Look who's talking," groaned Kotaro as he massaged the bump on his head.

"Mm!" Misaki shook aside her sad feelings and nodded in agreement as Kotaro and Tamayo stepped off the platform and onto the waiting carriage, bags and all. "Keep in touch!"

"Remember to use the chat messenger!" The girl yelled back just as the automatic doors swished shut. Then came the traditional blast of the horn, and the Kansai Express began its slow chug out of the station. Misaki and Hatoko stayed where they were, waving the couple off until the locomotive turned out to the right and went out of sight.

It would be a while before Hatoko turned to Misaki and said, "Let's go."

------

Round #01 The Magic Knights of 4-C

1 month later...

"Class 4-C" said a sign above the sliding door Misaki was facing. The minor cacophony inside came across rather dulled and muffled.

Misaki glanced up for the umpteenth time to assure herself that she was not lost. After all, it was the first time that she had gone to a new class alone and without the boisterous rachings of Tamayo beating Kotaro to a pulp to distract her from her nervousness. She wondered how would the class be like. Would they swamp her like her fans often do whenever she's spotted at the Piffle Princess? Were there those nasty characters that challenge her to a fight outright? Misaki sweat dropped then chided herself for being so immature. So with a quick "How bad could it be?" Misaki slid open the class door and stepped through before second thoughts could get her.

And instantly, the warm atmosphere enveloped her. Friends were gathered in groups, chatting loudly and giggling away. Some choose to read novels quietly on their own, and a group of guys had bunched at the second last row of tables behind a laptop immersed in a recently released game. Surprisingly, no one bothered about her. Misaki smiled, the feeling of loneliness and silly anxiety slowly fading into the background. Not bad at all...

Misaki continued to survey the room, looking for a spot to sit while taking in the sounds. The light mood was half attributed to remnants of New Year's revelry, the other half due to the fact that everyone had survived a major promotion exam last winter and the next major exam would be due until three years later. The National champion was very pleased with herself that day, having performed exceptionally well for Math for the first time in her life. Her other subjects held on, and so here she was dressed in the forest-green-hemmed uniform of Eriol Academy's High School level. For everyone who made it, it was reason to celebrate.

It was at that thought of Misaki's when a girl seated at the back of the class caught her attention. First of all, she had an outstanding mane of glistening gold nicely cut and trimmed into a bob that sat on her green collar with the ends of her locks curling outwards; the champ had never seen such a shade for hair before. Secondly, Misaki recognized and almost balked at the piece of technology the blonde student wore. It was a blue-and-white resin-encased unit that had scaled cooling plates swept backwards from the ear grips like wings on a valkyrie's helmet --two-way collapsible wireless Albatross (TM) DS visors by the Razorman company, a machine with a price tag almost as long as its name. And thirdly, she seemed to be playing a piano made out of air as the girl's hands danced over an invisible keyboard, sometimes with fingers rattling away like a touch typist, sometimes poking and proding, and sometimes sweeping from side to side. Misaki was awestruck and intrigued, and subconciously moved closer until she was practically in front of the girl. Even then the champ got no response from her. The brown haired girl leaned forward to peer into the seemingly-opague tinted lense panelling.

It was then that the blonde girl stopped, looked up at Misaki and with a loud "Oh!" pulled the DS visor off. "Hi! What's the matter?"

"Na... Um... What were you doing?" Misaki replied along with a puzzled look.

The gray-green eyed girl smiled as she folded up her optical gadget. "I was just making adjustments to the plugins and parameters I just installed in my Angel."

"Really? But I don't see your Angel anywhere..."

"Oh I do! It's right--" The girl cut herself when she looked closer at Misaki and clapped both hands to her mouth. It was her turn to be amazed. "Oh. My. God."

"What is it?" The girl said as she turned around, thinking that the golden haired girl had seen something behind her.

The girl sprang from her seat and made a beeline for Misaki, wrapping her arms around the surprised Deus and squeezing the daylights out of her. "Its you! It really is you!"

The champ could only manage a sweatdrop and "Na...?"

"This day has finally arrived! I'm so so so happy!" The still-nameless girl squealed before remembering something and hastily backed off the ruffled champ. She shot out a hand. "Oh I clean forgot to introduce myself. I'm Claire-Marie-Eugenie de Kluize. But just Eugenie would do."

"Haha..." Misaki giggled sheepishly as she shook it. "I'm Suzu-

"-hara Misaki, 16, 2 time KTAL National Champyon, with a Y for an I since most Japanese advertisers can't spell." The young Kluize rolled her eyes as she finished for Misaki. "I did say I know you right?"

"Na..." A bead of sweat appeared by Misaki's forehead. Oh no another fan...

"Right this way!" Eugenie broke the girl's daze by dragging Misaki by the cuff to her own seat. "Come on! You've got to meet her!"

The girls stopped at Eugenie's left hand neighbour who was so engrossed in the novel at hand that she did not seem to notice that her dark purple fringe had fallen across her cheeks, obscuring her eyes from view, much less take note of all the commotion around her. Eugenie clapped her hands on Misaki's shoulder as she declared, "Suzuhara Misaki, this is a very good friend of mine, Moriyama Nanoka!"

"Huh? Eugenie?" The reader heard her name being called and tilted her head to the side. A bit of the violet curtain parted and some blue shone through.

"I said, this is Suzuhara Misaki, Nanoka!" Eugenie replied with force.

"Ah!" The girl's eyes went wide as she yelped suddenly and hastily returned to her book while muttering a meek "Erm... Hi..."

A surprised Misaki tilted her head a little to the side. "Na?"

"Oh she's like this when she's new to someone. Given some time she'll warm up to ya." Eugenie whispered into Misaki's ear. "She got quite a bad case of shyness with an inferiority complex."

"Na..." Misaki nodded slowly.

Eugenie went over and clapped both hands on Nanoka's shoulders. "As you can tell she's a Deus too."

"But I'm a very bad Deus. I always lose..."

"Oh don't say that! It just takes time to get used to a new strategy that's all!" Eugenie griped.

"Don't worry, Nanoka-chan," Misaki said. "As long as you're not so hard on yourself you'll be fine."

The purple haired girl just nodded in reply.

"And with all the introductions out of the way, the Magic Knights are assembled!" Eugenie proclaimed while doing a little twirl.

"Na?" Misaki blinked.

"I mean what I said, my dear Misaki." Eugenie intoned matter-of-factly as she felt under her table for something. "Nanoka, could you take your Angel out as well?"

"Ah...!" The purple haired girl hesitantly placed her book back on the table.

"Oh come on! I've been waiting so long for this day!" Her hand found what she was looking for and Eugenie pulled out a foot tall cylinder, holding it up for all to see. Nanoka then dug something similar out of her pack and set it gingerly on the table; her book had disappeared now.

"Hikaru, meet Umi and Fuu," beamed Eugenie.

"NA! Really?"

---\\\Mobile Angel Reiya Eyecatch/---
Misaki & Hikaru

"NA! Really?"

Misaki lit up at the mention of the other 2 Magic Knights. She peered through the transparent plastic that made up the most of the cylinder except the deep blue shutter cap and the similarly-toned base which served as a docking bay for the Angel inside. The doll within stood erect and asleep, and from its long blue mane, stylized head brace that held the hair in place and sharp haughty features Misaki could tell how much that Magic Knight had inspired the Angel's name and construction. But that was where the similarities ended. Like her own Hikaru, Umi was dressed nothing like the original character; instead, the Angel had gray mechanical feet armor that went up to and ended at her knees. Some of its panelling was painted in the Magic Knight's famous shade. Her thighs were exposed. Then came the chest-hugging mantle she wore over a swimsuit-cut inner garment complemented by generously-sized shoulder plates. Umi's upper arms were unarmored, only the lower arms, which were fitted into elbow-length blue-hemmed gauntlets. Most notable was the enormous weapon that was clipped to the shoulder hard points found on the mantle and rested flat onto Umi's back. It was shaped like a Y where the tail was folded over at a forty-five degree angle towards the V-portion, and a 4-barreled automatic cannon stuck out from between the V.

Misaki saw that there were many holes cut strategically into the Angel's armor. Other similar attachments could be seen peeking out from under the shoulder plates and the skirt armor as well. Verniers, Misaki thought as she recalled one of the recent rule changes. It's been a while since Angelic Layer first appeared, and more and more people have discovered the ability to manupilate the Layer to produce certain desired effects, which included conjuring up wings just like Hikari and Athena do just before they fire off their Angelic Blast attack. That meant that most Angels were able to fly, and to level the playing field for newbies, the ABC mandated that all Angels must have some sort of flight system. Lighter Angels can use flaps of laminar surfaces as a gliding mechanism while others depended on wing-like appendages, be it summoned or built in. And when a famous toy mecha company did a tie-in with KTAL, even heavier armored Angels learnt to touch the sky using the thruster-based flight system that had been patented by the partner company --the "verniers". It was this playing field levelling that also allowed the use of firearms and other ranged energy-based weaponry to counter the significant rise in number of veterans being able to throw projectiles at their foes, which would explain the existence of the once illegal gatling gun on Umi's back.

Eugenie noted how Misaki seemed entralled by the massive device and decided to give a commentary. "I built that from scratch! Ain't it beautiful?"

The girl took the capsule from Misaki and gave the cap a twist. The interlocking plates slid open like those of a camera shutter, hence its name, and Eugenie reached in to extract Umi. She set the angel in a sitting pose on the edge of her desk and twiggled the Angel's attached weapon a little. It came off with a click. Eugenie then held it up by the tail of the folded Y structure.

"Watch closely," she said, sounding like a magician eager to show off her tricks. Proceeding slowly and elaborately, Eugenie first pulled out the insides of the V such that both sides changed from rectangles to two right-angled triangles with their longest sides facing outwards. She then closed the V onto the barrel of the cannon, locking it within the space left behind by the triangles and forming a larger and taller triangle. The golden haired girl could then straighten out the I tail of the weapon, which she followed up by folding down the two top-mounted vernier outjets to the left and right of the I tail, and slid a displaced armor panel into position, locking the bottom half of the weapon to shape. It was at this point in time that Misaki realized the thruster equiped gatling had morphed into a giant sword, with Eugenie holding onto the hilt all along!

It was important to note that there were still some rules regarding melee weapons: while the laws were relaxed to allow such hand-to-hand devices, they must be configured such that they cannot do piercing or slashing damage to avoid permanent damage to other Angels. And so in an interesting twist of evolution, all Angelic Layer swords had rounded, sometimes flat edges, and were often dubbed as "blockswords". Umi's cannon-blade was no exception.

"Na... Amazing..." Misaki breathed, her jaw almost hitting the floor. "But it's almost as big as herself. How does she handle such a huge sword?"

"Umi doesn't look much like it, but she emphasizes Strength and Attack, so hefting this Tactical Arms (2) isn't a problem," stated Eugenie as she returned the sword to its backpack mode. "Besides, the original Umi wielded a blade way bigger than herself, didn't she? Anyway with a couple of venier tricks she's as deft as most of the other Angels. But you really should see Fuu..."

The student of foreign descent turned to face Nanoka, who had long found the floor rather interesting. "Your turn for Show and Tell, Nanoka." She then added softly, "You promised to do this yourself!"

"Ano..." The shy girl hesitated before picking her Angel out of her azure green capsule and set her in Misaki's hands. "Ah... She's not much to look at... I did my best but I'm a bad designer..."

Eugenie huffed. "Nanoka! Remember, be positive! Positive!"

Misaki took a glance at Fuu and agreed with Eugenie that Nanoka really had underestimated herself. Fuu's chestnut-brown turf and emerald green eyes were an accurate reproduction of the original's, right down to her big round-framed glasses. As for her armor, it was rather elaborately detailed, multi-layered and made of resin fabric as opposed to the newly-released powered armor plating Umi had. She wore a golden winged headband that linked both sides with a strip of azure green on her brilliant hair. The wings were repeated as a massive accent across Fuu's chest like many a "xxxRanger" character and it arched over her shoulders from front to back and sloped upwards towards the edges. It seemed to Misaki that those wings were held in place by a light green hemisphere at chest level in their center-front as well as center-back, and which the latter also held onto the two long green cape flaps that started from under the back sphere and could be seen jutting out from Fuu's sides at a slim angle when viewed from the front. Those flaps grew wider the further down Fuu's back they went and ended in small half-rhombus around thigh level. Her deep green sleeves were puffy at the shoulders, a bit like Blanche's shoulders, but quickly became form fitting as they went down the Angel's arms and ended in half-finger cuttings. The upper body suit started with a turtleneck in the same shade as those of the sleeves and, as it went down and connected seamlessly with the shoulders, the solid green became a panel that ran all the way down the suit's center till where it ended at slightly above the half of Fuu's thighs in short leggings. The core panel was hemmed with yellow and flanked by white sidings. The Angel had deep green resin boots that went slightly above the knee; it too was hemmed at the opening in yellow and on both boots there were lighter green ovals which one end touched the opening and the other reached the knee. (3) Like Hikaru, Fuu did not seem to be carrying a weapon or having any mechanism of flight installed, which probably meant that she could summon them using Layer manupilation.

"She's really very well done, Nanoka-chan," Misaki smiled as she handed back Fuu. "I've never fought any Angel with that much detail in her costume! What's her type?"

Nanoka nodded unreadably. "Ah... I customized Fuu to be a Defence/Speed Angel since we're almost always on the defensive... Because of that she can hardly do any damage, but since I can't even land a punch on my opponents I guess this is the most economical use of stat points..."

"As usual you left out something important," Eugenie interjected, eyes twinkling. "You can cast most of Magic Knight Fuu's spells! ESPECIALLY the three Wind spells."

Misaki blinked. "That means you can..."

And Eugenie gushed on. "...Fuu can heal herself in a middle of a fight! Add another shielding spell on top of all that solid defence and agility, Fuu becomes practically impossible to take down physically!"

Misaki, given her wealth of experience, had fought a few healer-type Angels in the past Championships and knew exactly how to deal with such opponents: Throw them out of the Layer. But she did not want to say it lest she made Nanoka's inferiority complex worse.

"Ah..." came Nanoka's meek reply.

"Yosh!" the golden haired girl clapped her hands together. "That settles it! As of today, we're going to be registered as official Angel contestants for the first time!"

"Na..." Misaki blinked again. "The both of you seem like very good Deus, but I never expected you to never have been in the Championships before..."

"It's a long story that goes back four years." Eugenie said waving a finger in the air. "The gist was that we made a promise back then, after hearing that an Angel named Hikaru had burst upon the Layer, that if the Magic Knights of the Layer were ever assembled together, we'd all join the Championships whether we're ready or not. In fact..." Eugenie spun in a brief circle, the excitement in her voice still growing with every sentence. "This is the first time Nanoka and I were ever in the same class! And when that happened you ended up in 4-C as well! We're really meant to meet here on this very day."

"Really..." Both Misaki and Nanoka intoned with a little residual sweat drop.

"There is no such thing as coincidence, only hitsuzen," quipped Eugenie in a knowledgeable tone before switching back to her more cheery one. "Or at least that's what I've heard from somewhere. But after today's events you can say I'm even more a believer now..."

"Na..." Misaki had begun to speak when the door slipped open and the class immediately fell silent as the class' homeroom tutor, a visibly-aged woman, Mizuki-sensei stepped in. The champ scrambled to an empty seat to the right of Eugenie as the rest of the class settled into their original placings.

The year was off to a good start.

---\\\TO BE CONTINUED/---

Author's Note

(1) Translated as Lightning Master-rank Ninja. Suzuka by now has become quite a vet of the Layer, and her deus Hatoko goes by another nickname since she's no longer a kindergartener. To demonstrate how close Angel and Deus are their nicknames are often applied interchangebly to each other. Hatoko's nickname will be revealed later.

(2) Reference to a famous mecha series Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED. The Tactical Arms is a weapon used by the mobile suit variant Gundam Ashtray Second L and was the inspiration of Angel Umi's, though the proportions of blade and gun have been changed in order to fit onto and be carried by a small-shouldered female figure. From the design of Umi, as well as from the previous Round it can be seen that Eugenie is quite a mecha fan. No prizes for guessing which mecha toy maker did a tie-in with KTAL. ;D

(3) This long paragraph is a desperate attempt to reference to Cardcaptor Sakura. I didn't think I did very well, so I hereby state that Fuu's armor is a green-colored version of Sakura's blue battle costume when she captured The Big and The Create, because only an ardent cosplayer and fan of CCS could discern it from my description when all my other friends were scratching their heads. :P

I never expected the introductory Round to be this long, so I decided to push the explanation of the meaning of the title to the next episode. But I can give a clue that Mobile Angel is the direct translation of Kidou Tenshi. I hope you've enjoyed this piece and do remember to leave comments and suggestions because all that would go into making MAR a better fic! See you next Round!