Sitting motionless in the center of a small, shimmering circle, the white- and silver-garbed Angel waited with a calm, patient expression for its master's command. Its short, pale silver-white hair waved gently in the breeze from a fan elsewhere in the room, the only movement that could be seen from the statuesque figure. Eyes closed, arms resting atop its legs, the Angel appeared almost to be meditating – an appearance that almost exactly matched that of its Deus, who sat at the Layer's edge.

Slowly, as if awakening from a deep slumber, the Angel's eyes opened, though no other part of its body yet moved. The man beside the Layer did likewise, nearly in perfect sync with his creation. The Angel remained still for a few moments longer, before slowly rising to its feet; it stood perfectly straight, arms relaxed at its sides, eye-to-eye with its creator. At an unseen signal, the Angel gracefully shifted to a ready stance, feet planted widely apart, with arms at a guarding position. Smoothly, with virtually no unnecessary movements, the Deus directed the Angel through a series of combat techniques, each progressively more difficult than the last, with the grace of a professional ballet dancer, and the precision of a highly-trained martial artist. The session continued for several minutes, the Angel's movements becoming little more than a blur as it battled an imaginary opponent, striking out with a lightning-fast series of punches and kicks, occasionally evading an invisible counter before once again pressing the attack.

And all at once, the "fight" ended, the Angel landing from a powerful mid-air backflip-kick and remaining there, as perfectly still as it had begun. Satisfied, the Deus removed his headset, running a hand through his jet-black hair where the the top of the contraption had rested. He gazed at the Angel intently, where it continued to rest at the center of the practice Layer.

"We're almost ready, you and I," he stated quietly. "The real fun is just about to start, and we're going to be there to enjoy every minute of it…"


The enthusiasm Jonathan Blake had felt when he had first managed to get Nova to move had all but faded by now, as his Angel tumbled clumsily through yet another attempt at a backflip. The rest of the training to this point had followed a similar pattern; any movement more complex than walking or running had typically resulted in Nova either falling, tripping, or otherwise failing to achieve the desired effect. Even a simple 'sidestep' jump had resulted in Nova landing off-balance, tripping on his own feet, and tumbling out of the Layer entirely.

Matthew Lee, his mentor, had seemed to be patiently guiding Jonathan through these exercises for nearly half an hour now, but the would-be apprentice figured that the elder Lee had to be tiring of his fruitless efforts by now, and was ready to just call the whole thing off. The only good thing about this, Jonathan reflected, is that Steven hasn't been around to mock me the whole time. The younger Lee had gone straight home after school, ostensibly to work on a project for one of his other classes.

As if sensing Jonathan's thought, Matthew directed Shadow to a sitting posture, gesturing for his 'student' to do likewise as he deactivated and removed his headset.

"Hmm…you seem to be having just a bit of trouble here," he noted. (A bit!, Jonathan thought.) "Something bothering you, or are you just finding it a bit hard to concentrate?"

Yeah, that would be a very astute observation, Jonathan mused incredulously. "Well, it's just a bit frustrating…well, alright, more than a bit frustrating," he replied. "I know what I want Nova to do, I can visualize it in my head just fine, but when I try to actually move him like that, he just doesn't seem to follow quite right." He paused for a moment, as if trying to choose his wording carefully. "If I can't even get the basics right, why should I even bother trying for the tournament? I wouldn't stand a chance!"

Matthew seemed to ponder that for a moment, looking thoughtful. After a few seconds, instead of speaking, he gestured for Jonathan to look behind him. The teenager did so – and saw, at a Layer a couple rows over, what Matthew seemed to be indicating: a young girl, probably a first- or second-grader, focusing intently on an Angel wearing a simple pink gymnast's uniform. As the pair watched, the Angel stood stock-still, arms raised high above her head; slowly at first, the Angel bowed forward, arms extended outward, until they touched the Layer's surface. The Angel shifted her weight, using momentum to lift her body into the air, as if trying to do a handstand…but as they watched, the Angel seemed to lose her balance halfway through the movement, and tumbled to the Layer in a heap – much like Nova had done several times, Jonathan noted absently. What surprised him, however, was the child's response…or rather, the lack thereof. The Angel merely stood up, and after a few seconds' pause, tried the maneuver again. And when the same thing happened, she tried again.

Jonathan was beginning to wonder what Matthew was hinting at, when finally, after perhaps the seventh try, the Angel managed to perform a perfect handstand, balancing on the Layer for about five seconds before rolling back to a standing position. The young girl clapped and squealed in delight, obviously ecstatic at her accomplishment. Jonathan turned back towards his 'teacher', who simply smiled. "I figured that would get my point across better than anything I could have said."

"Anyone can learn how to control an Angel…the key is, simply, to not give up. If you don't get a technique right the first time, just try it again. And keep trying it, until you get it right. You can't learn everything in one day, after all; becoming good at any game, any hobby, takes lots of time and practice, and part of that practice is learning from your mistakes, and the mistakes of others. If you stay dedicated, you will become better."

With that, Matthew donned his headset and activated it. Shadow gracefully rose to his feet and waited patiently for Jonathan and Nova to do the same. When both Angels were standing at the ready, a thin, mischievious smile appeared on the elder Lee's face. "Let's try something a bit different this time," he said.

Jonathan was about to ask what he meant…but apparently, he wasn't going to get the chance: without any warning, Shadow launched directly at Nova, the Angel little more than a black-tinged blur as he virtually flew across the Layer. Jonathan had no time to think, no time to formulate a response to the unprovoked attack, no time to do anything…but, simply, to react. What happened in the next half-second, Jonathan was not entirely sure; it had happened nearly too fast for his mind to process. The end result, however, was something he had not at all expected, as Nova had somehow managed to evade the attack entirely. Not only that, but in that fraction of a second, the inexperienced combatant had actually landed a counterblow that had sent Shadow stumbling, though not quite out of the Layer, and his Deus had an appreciative, thoughtful expression on his face as he regarded Jonathan. "Not bad, not bad at all. Whatever you may lack in overall control, you more than make up for in gut instinct, Jon. I'd hazard that maybe only one or two people in here could have pulled off a move like that without a lot of practice."

Jonathan shook his head, still not quite believing what he had just seen. "I—I have no idea what just happened, much less how I did it…"

"What just happened," Matthew explained, "was a test of sorts. I wanted to see just how you would react to an attack with no warning whatsoever. Specifically, I wanted to see your instinctive reaction; if you had tried to think about how you would respond, you wouldn't have had a chance of defending against an attacker coming at you that fast. You have to respond instinctively, without thought. And you did well, for someone with so little fighting experience."

"Yeah, that was awesome, Jon!" The voice came from Jonathan's left; as he looked, he saw Steven weaving his way towards the Layer, a bottle of soda in one hand and his backpack in the other. Trailing behind was Matthew's roommate Kyle, with an Angelic Layer-branded laptop-style case hanging from his shoulder.

"We have an audience, it seems," the elder Lee remarked with a smirk.

Jonathan was still trying to figure out what exactly he had done as the pair reached their Layer, Steven waxing ecstatic about how Nova had actually landed a blow on Shadow when even Mirage and Chaos could not. Kyle simply observed the spectacle with an amused expression, though he did quirk an eyebrow slightly when he glanced at Jonathan, seemingly impressed.

Matthew Lee looked at his watch, then turned to Jonathan. "Well, we've got a bit of time left before I've got to head back…why don't we have a little battle to finish up for the day? You're going to have to practice fighting eventually, and this will be a good way to find out where you need to focus your attention the most."

Jonathan was about to lodge a protest about his absurd lack of fighting ability—but stopped short. He looked down at Nova, who almost seemed to look questioningly back at him. A few moments passed…and then, with considerably more grace than he had previously shown, Nova leapt back to his Deus' side of the Layer and stood at the ready. "I'll probably get beaten to a pulp…but you're right, I need the experience. Let's do it!"

With that, the fight began. Shadow, taking the initiative, charged across the Layer, closing the distance in mere fractions of a second. This time, however, the Angel stopped short of his opponent, and began peppering his opponent with quick jabs and light kicks. To everyone's surprise—except, perhaps, Matthew Lee—Nova was somehow able to evade most of the faster Angel's blows, if narrowly. Kept on the defensive, Nova kept moving, a slow retreat, trying to open a gap between him and his attacker, but Shadow relentlessly pressed the assault. Jonathan was at a loss for what to do; he didn't know how he could force Shadow to break off, to give him a chance to recover. Suddenly, a flash of insight came to him, as he remembered a move he had seen during the demo battle at the launch a few days before. Figuring it was now or never, he pictured the move in his mind, summoned his willpower, and mentally shouted to Nova: Now!

The Angel hopped backward slightly, just out of Shadow's range, and with one not-quite-fluid motion, arched over backwards with arms reaching for the Layer's surface, as if doing the reverse of the little girl's earlier move. Instead of performing a handstand, however, Nova continued the movement through, a complete if somewhat unsteady backflip – and to even Matthew's surprise, slammed his foot directly into Shadow's chin, sending the ninja-esque Angel flying to land on his back nearly halfway across the Layer.

Nova's own momentum sent him tumbling backwards, but Jonathan quickly recovered from the momentary shock at the success of his counterattack, willing the Angel back to his feet as his opponent did likewise. He noted, out of the corner of his field of vision, both Steven and Kyle looking at him with varying degrees of surprise, but kept the bulk of his attention on the fight. Matthew glanced up from the Layer, and gave Jonathan an appreciative nod.

"You caught me by surprise there; wasn't expecting a counter like that," he remarked. "Not bad at all for a rookie. Now, though, let's see how you intend to counter this…"

Shadow once again leapt into the battle, but this time, he moved much faster, the punches and kicks being delivered with much more force behind them. Nova was still able to evade or block some of the blows, but much less often–and the damage was adding up quickly. Jonathan could see, through the visor's heads-up display, that his single blow had knocked off nearly half of Shadow's damage bar…but Nova's own indicator had, in the space of about six seconds, dropped by nearly half itself, and was still falling. Jonathan was still trying to come up with a counterattack when Shadow hopped backwards, leapt nearly two feet into the air above the Layer, and delivered a devastating dropkick directly to Nova's chest.

Jonathan's Angel was sent careening backwards by the finishing blow, rolling end-over-end twice before exiting the Layer, landing on the floor a couple feet away from his Deus' chair. The battle ended, Shadow backflipped a couple times and then leapt out of the opposite side of the Layer, landing in his Deus' outstretched hands.

From somewhere behind him, Jonathan heard the sound of clapping; he looked, and was surprised to see that a group of spectators, perhaps a dozen or so, had gathered to watch the battle. He looked across at Matthew, who was removing his headset. He caught Jonathan's gaze, and smiled. "I did mention that we seemed to have an audience, didn't I?"

To his own surprise, Jonathan did not feel at all disappointed that he had lost the battle; instead, he felt…invigorated, somehow. After all, he had gone into the fight with no practical experience, and had landed a solid blow on an experienced fighter, even if said fighter was going easy on him. He was able to control Nova well, if not quite flawlessly, for the entire battle, outperforming his own expectations. "You know what?" he asked. "I think you might be right. I might be able to fight after all."

"That's the spirit!" Matthew responded with a broad grin. "Of all the things you learned today, that alone might have been the most important. I can teach you the basics– techniques, movement, stuff like that…but the most important thing is motivation; you have to want to learn, want to win. I can't give you that; it's something you have to come up with on your own. Without it, all of the fighting techniques in the world are useless. When you want to win, if you're willing to put forth the effort willingly, you will be able to accomplish anything you set your mind to." He coughed slightly, as if slightly embarassed. "Sorry…I can get a bit carried away sometimes. Seriously, though," he continued, "if you keep up at the rate you're improving now, I think you'll do just fine in the area tournament – assuming you still intend to sign up, that is…"

Jonathan thought about it for a few seconds, but in reality, he had already made up his mind.

"Well, if I don't sign up, that means I won't get the opportunity to beat you, doesn't it?"

His 'teacher' grinned even wider. "Now that's what I wanted to hear!" He glanced at his watch again. "Well, that's going to have to do it for today." He stood, shouldering his backpack. "I'm looking forward to practice tomorrow, Jonathan; now that I've got an idea of where you stand in fighting ability, we can get to the fun stuff. I hope you learned something from the battle today, because we're going to be doing it again tomorrow. Five-thirty sound good to you?"

Jonathan nodded his agreement. "I'll probably get here a bit earlier to do some solo work on the basics again." He groaned inwardly at his dismal performance earlier. "'Practice makes perfect', right?"

"Absolutely," the elder Lee agreed. "Five-thirty it is, then." With Kyle already heading for the exit, Matthew began weaving between practice Layers to catch up. "See you tomorrow!"


Author's Notes: Kyaa, another tough one to write. This chapter was started and aborted nearly a half-dozen times before I finally sat down and forced myself to come up with a decent outline. After I got that done, I finally had a concrete direction in which to take this chapter…the rest was as simple as overcoming a chronic case of writer's block. The end result could have been better, but all things considered, it's better to simply get something done and posted, and worry about damage control later.

The San Diego Area Tournament is coming up fast, and the competition is heating up for Jonathan and Nova! Will this novice fighter be up to speed in time for the first round? Keep reading Angelic Layer: New Horizons and find out!

Angelic Layer and all canon characters/settings are the creations of CLAMP. Original characters (pretty much everyone in this part of the story) are my own creation; ask me first if you want to use them elsewhere, for whatever strange reason.