Chapter 3 – Birth of a Legend

Lee Cross is 14 years old. He lives in downtown Tokyo with his mom, Mary. He has a younger sister, an older brother, and a father but they have been away for a while, his sister at boarding school in England on an exchange program and his older brother off attending Tohoku University up in Sendai while their father was on a job as a professional bodyguard. Lee goes to Seihou Gakuenn Middle School where he is currently in the third year of middle school. Lee was walking to school like normal when he heard someone call his name. "Hey, Lee, wait up for me would ya!" He turned around to see his best friend Chrono. Chrono Dolmen is one of Lee's 2 best friends. Chrono, "Hey Lee. Sakura said she would meet up with us at school. She woke up early and got to school early." Lee, "That's unusual." Chrono, "I think she was excited, since its career day? Lots of different parents are coming to tell us about different kinds of careers and stuff does sound kind of fun." Lee was only half listening as he just looked at his watch and realized that they were 7 minutes away from being late for school. "Hey Chrono, we need to book it. We're going to be late if we keep going at this speed. School starts in six minutes." Lee and Chrono started to run towards the school.

They barely make it before their teacher entered the room. Suddenly, a girl who happened to be Lee's other best friend turned to them, "Hey, you need to be careful. You were that close to being late." Chrono, "Come on Sakura." Lee, "We can't help it if they don't put enough hours in the night to get a good nights sleep." "Well not everyone sleeps for half their life Lee. I'm surprised you get up at all," said Sakura in retaliation. The bell chose that moment to start ringing, and Chrono and Lee hurried to their desks to unpack their stuff and prepare to start the day.

Their teacher suddenly entered the room, "Okay class quiet down. Today as you all know is career day. We will be going to different classrooms that have been set up each with its own career specialist and some activities and information on the career. I believe we are going to start with the engineering classroom. Now please follow me in an orderly fashion so we can have time to visit all of the different stations."

Later during an afternoon break they got after the career presentations, Lee and his friends were on the roof discussing what jobs they would want. Chrono's family was deep inside of Japan's politics, so he was expected to become some type of politician. Sakura, unsurprisingly, had expressed an interest in the fashion career, which was big part of the business of the Kuonji Conglomerate, Sakura's family's corporation. Not that it ever got in the way of their friendship, but it did have to be noted that Sakura and Chrono did both come from some of the richest families in all of Japan. Sakura to Lee, "So what career do you want when you grow up." Lee really didn't know what he wanted to do. His father had a bodyguard business and was a somewhat famous kendo master, but his older brother was already planning in succeeding him in both endeavors so Lee was free to do whatever he wanted, though his father had always been trying to teach him swordsmanship, and he did admit that he liked it, though more as a hobby than anything, and he did practice a bit, but he felt like there was something more he was meant to do with his life but it was not one of the careers shown during career day. Lee looked up at the sky, "I don't know yet. Lets see where the wind blows me." Sakura pouted, "That's what you always say. You need to start thinking about it Lee." Chrono, "Sakura's right, if you don't find out what soon, you might miss your chance." Lee, "Well if I'm really meant to do something, then I'm sure it will come to me."

After school was over, they walked together part of the way home when Chrono and Sakura split away for cram school that Lee was very thankful he didn't have to attend. They said goodbye to each other and Lee continued on his way home. He didn't know why but for some reason, he had a feeling that made him want to take the long way home so he took a left and started walking the long way to his house. It was a few minutes later when he suddenly heard a scream. Then out of nowhere, he felt an incredible chill unlike anything he had ever felt. It was the strangest feeling he had ever felt. It was like the outside of his body was frozen and at the same time, his insides were on fire. He felt like something was burning at the core of his very being, spreading out all over his body. It felt both completely foreign, and yet at the same time also felt familiar in a sense he couldn't describe. It was so potent that it made him flinch and close his eyes, and in that moment, he felt like a wave of some immense pressure wash over him. When he opened them however, he got a bit of a shock. There was no one around; everyone, all the people Lee had seen walking up and down the street, and even those he was sure were in the stores and houses, they had all seemingly disappeared without a trace. The weird feeling though wasn't going away, though it had gotten milder. That said, he could still hear screams and other noises, so against his better instincts, he went to see what was happening, but what he came upon shocked him completely. There was a girl about his age miraculously floating in mid-air fighting a giant black wolf-like creature with bright red eyes. They were reminiscent of the color of blood.

He just stood there dumbfounded and double checking that he was in fact conscious as he watched the girl fighting the monster with what looked he could only compare to like blasts of energy he saw in anime. He didn't understand anything that was going on, but he could tell that it was an intense battle. That said, it was clear that the girl that was fighting was on her last legs, and then finally the girl looked like she could take no more of this and ended up getting trapped in a corner by the beast. The beast looked like he was charging up his final attack. He did not know what made him do it, but just as the monster began to attack, he made a life changing decision. He suddenly ran out and jumped in between the girl and the beast and shielded her as the beast fired a large black magic attack, not sure why of how he thought he could do anything but become more fodder.

In that moment, time seemed to freeze for all who were watching. Everyone felt it before there were any visible signs, but to Lee it was the most noticeable. In that single moment, the strange feeling he had gotten from earlier seemed to intensify exponentially. It was like a dam had just been broken inside of him. Everyone present felt a sudden shockwave come off Lee so strong that it cracked the ground, and then out of nowhere, he erupted in a powerful golden aura. Just as suddenly, without any warning at all, a glowing golden circle with a bunch of characters that Lee didn't recognize at all appeared and put itself in between Lee and the monster's attack. Then a ball of light left straight from Lee's body and formed a small blue marble and flew into his hand. The out of nowhere, Lee, without knowing how, shot a golden blast from his hand at the beast and shot it back a long distance. Then just as suddenly as it had appeared, all the light around Lee died down, and so did the emanating force and even most of the, for lack of a better phrase, heat that had welled up within him.

The girl with long light auburn hair was more than a bit shaken for a moment, not really sure what had just happened exactly. This random boy had shown up just in time to save her out of nowhere, having produced such an immense power so strong it made her feel numb. That said she also knew she couldn't think about it right now, there was more pressing matters to attend to. Thus she got herself up and turned to Lee, "Thank you for saving me, you must be a very powerful mage to deflect that monster's attack like that." Lee hadn't the foggiest as to what she was talking about. He looked at his hands, and back at her, "Um, well your welcome. But to be honest, I have no idea what you are talking about or exactly what the hell just happened. I don't even know why I came to protect you, and I certainly didn't know that I could do that." Nanoha looked more then a little surprised. There was no way that level of power could have been natural, it was too strong, and given her own prodigal talent she knew of what she spoke, "Wait, you're telling me you didn't know you could use that kind of magic and you just did such an advanced maneuver?" Lee, "I don't know. I mean I've never used any kind of magic or whatever this weird energy stuff is before." Nanoha was suddenly stunned frozen, trying to process and comprehend the impossibility of this boy's statement when suddenly she was forced out of it to deflect another incoming blast, but it was clear that she was tiring out and couldn't take much more, and amateur or not, it was clear that Lee could potentially be helpful, "Well in any case, you seem to have some fairly strong innate talent, would you mind helping me out a bit, this one's a bit tough to deal with alone." Lee "But I still don't know how to use whatever the hell I just did." Nanoha gave him a brief smile, "Don't worry, just look inside yourself and you'll know what to do. Magic tends to work like that."

The monster was back up and Nanoha went to resume the fight again. Lee felt that he couldn't just abandon her so he decided to at least try what she said and look within himself for the answer. Suddenly, a single word popped up in his head, "HARUNO." As he said it, the blue marble in his hand responded, "SAY SET UP, MY MASTER." Lee jumped back a bit at the fact that a marble had just talked to him, so much so that he dropped the offending object, but caught it before it hit the ground. Lee looked quizzically at the small dark blue orb, "What are you?" The marble started to blink, and responded, "I AM HARUNO, A CONDUIT MADE BY AND FOR YOU TO HELP YOU IN ANY WAY." Lee's gut was telling him to just go with it so that's what he did. "Okay then, you're the boss. HARUNO SET UP!" Lee held the marble tightly, but nothing happened. Lee looked at the marble intently, "What gives? Nothing happened." Haruno, "MASTER NEEDS TO USE MASTER'S POWER IN CONJUNCTION WITH ACTIVATION COMMANDS FOR IT TO WORK." Lee understood what it was saying, he needed to use the power he had activated earlier in order for this thing to work. That said, he didn't know how to do that in the slightest. Thus, he did the only thing he could think of and tried to follow the girl's advice, and tried to look inside himself. He tried to remember the feeling of what had happened earlier, that strange heat he felt inside him, and focused on that with all his might, and suddenly he felt it, he felt a spark and he knew what to do, "HARUNO, SET UP!"

A gold magic circle appeared below Lee's feet and all of a sudden, there was a MASSIVE powerful storm of golden light surging around Lee, so powerful that the ground below his was tearing itself up. Both the girl and the monster, and unseen even Lance, paused as Lee was completely enveloped in blinding flash of light from the ridiculous amount of power he was exuding. When he reappeared out of the flash of light he was no longer in his regular clothes but in navy blue and silver pants and a matching blue and silver-lined blazer. Then out of nowhere a weird sort of staff appeared before him. It had a gold head that was O shaped with the blue marble in the middle and the bottom of the handle was silver. The golden aura around him had died out, but the power was clearly still there to all those who could feel it.

Lee, "Whoa, what's with the clothes and this thing?" Lee admired himself and the staff he was now holding. Once again he was surprised when he actually got a response from what was now the jewel in the middle of the head of his staff "THE CLOTHES ARE YOUR BARRIER JACKET AS YOUR SUBCONCIOUS ENVISIONED THEM. THE STAFF IS THE SAME. IT IS YOUR MAGIC FOCUSING INSTRUMENT. IS MASTER READY?" Lee "Well I can't leave that girl alone to fight that monster. Okay lets go." Without knowing how he did it, he started to float into the air, but he didn't have much time to ponder about it, it was time for action. Lee flew over to the monster but didn't know what to do. As if responding to his thoughts, HARUNO lit up, "TRY USING GLOWING SHOOTER." Lee pointed his staff at the monster and then a golden circle appeared under his feet. "Okay HARUNO, lets do this. GLOWING SHOOTER," a small blast of shinning gold magic shot straight at the monster. That said, the monster could tell that this blast was packing more power than its size would otherwise suggest, and so it put up a magic field. The monster was able to stave the blast off, but its force field was cracked a bit. It had been a hard hit.

Lee was a bit bummed, "Well that didn't do much. Do I have anything else? Something stronger, like a nuclear missile maybe?" "LETS DO IT, SHINNING BUSTER" said HARUNO. Lee, "Is it strong?" Suddenly, an extra large magic circle appeared under his feet, the head of his staff became a vertical "U" shape. Haruno, "It is only as strong as Master." Lee, "Okay then, lets do it!" Suddenly, he felt the power inside him start to move as gold magic started collecting in the head of his staff, a huge amount of power based on the wind coming off of him. "Ready, HARUNO. SHINNING BUSTER!" Suddenly, a super powerful beam of shinning gold magical energy shot out of the head of Lee's staff with enough force to blow him back a few feet through the air. The mighty torrent of power tore straight through the defense that the monster had put up and made a nice solid direct hit, blasting the beast to the ground, where it exploded in a brilliant shower of magic and debris. The beast though was tough, was down but not out, though clearly very injured as it was struggling to try to get back up. That said, they weren't going to give it a chance. "LETS SEAL IT, MY MASTER" said HARUNO. "Okay HARUNO," said Lee. "SEALING MODE, SET UP!" The head of the staff changed back to it device mode but this time 3 gold wing like protrusions of golden magic appeared out of the top of the handle. Then suddenly, Lee was once again surrounded by his power, the shine he was putting off catching the attention of all in the area. "Okay ready" Lee said hoping this would work as he took aim. HARUNO, "SAREN SEALING, NUMBER 25!" Kota, "SEAL!" A burst of magic came from HARUNO and shot a flash of light at the monster, and in a blinding flash of light, it turned back into a Saren Stone in its original state. It floated to HARUNO and was absorbed by the blue marble, "NUMBER 25, SEALED." Lee though wasn't paying attention, as he found himself much short of breath. Suddenly took a deep breath, as he was ultra relieved that it was over. He felt exhausted, it was like he had suddenly used muscles that he had never used before, he was sore all over.

Both Nanoha and Lance were completely shocked to say the least, but then they both smiled. The exhausted Nanoha flew over to him, "That was excellent work Lee, good job. That wasn't half bad for your first time, not bad at all." Lee smiled, "Well thank you, but if you had told me this morning that I would defeat a giant monster and shooting giant laser beams, I would have thought you were mental. Who knew I could do all that." Nanoha, "Well now that I think about it that's not as surprising as I initially thought considering you live on this planet. Not many people on this world can do what you did. It is very rare for someone on this world to have any substantial amount of magic, or to be that talented at using it at that, and you've got both in spades. You're a natural." Lee suddenly was hit like a truck as he felt the situation turn from fantasy to sci-fi real fast and was about to start rapid firing questions about the mention of other worlds when Lance came running over to Nanoha and saw the new guy, "Hey I saw you battle that monster, that was amazing. You must be a very powerful and experienced mage to have been able to do all that." Lee just chuckled weakly, "Not really, that was a first attempt." Lance looked at him shocked, not believing that someone could be that strong out of nowhere, "So then where did you get the device. It's obviously a custom device." Lee, "Well, it just appeared in front of me and said its name was Haruno." Lance was a bit surprised; "Well I guess it was made subconsciously by your magic, just like Nanoha's Raging Heart, but to do that the first time you used magic, you must be some kind of prodigy."

As they were all tired, they all flew back to the ground. Lee, "Now I have a question for you. How do I go back to normal?" Haruno butted in, "Say MODE RELEASE, MY MASTER." Lee "Mode Release?" His barrier jacket and staff just disappeared and were replaced by the blue marble Lee knew was called Haruno and it floated towards him and put itself around his neck as a necklace loop appeared out of nowhere. He looked at the blue marble around his neck inquiringly, as if he half-expected something to happen. Lee, "So now what do I do now that I have super powers?" Lance "Well, to start out with, knowing exactly what you just did would be a good starting point. What you just used wasn't any sort of supernatural power, it was just magic." Lee, "Okay, it's just magic, that doesn't sound supernatural at all." Lance, "Well, I guess on this planet that would sound strange, but it's the truth. But as for everything else I'm sure you want to ask right now, the answer will have to come later when we have more time to sit down and talk." Lee, "Okay, so what can I do?" Lance, "Everyone's magic is unique, and so most mages end up having specialties. For instance you could end up having the ability to heal and teleport like me or be more combat oriented like Nanoha, as well as a butt load of other kinds of magic as well. I will say for now though that you have exceptional combat skills as a mage. Not just anyone could do what you just did. Not to mention you do have a huge amount of innate magical power. That is very rare." Lee was interested in hearing more, but then realized he needed to get home lest his mother start getting worried or suspicious. That said, Lance did promise to explain everything to him the first chance they got to meet up again.

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Authors Note:

So in this chapter, we meet with Lee Cross, and that is a name you won't soon forget if you continue with this story. He is one of the main protagonists, and truthfully he is central among them, and thus is the ultimate protagonist to this story (thus the name of this story being titled after his device). But that is not to say that its only his story, for each of the main cast will have their moments, some of which will not even involve him, and so I wish to impart to you that while a lot of the story going forward will be from Lee's perspective, it will not be the only perspective. This story is written in true "Third-Person Limited Omniscient" (if you don't know what that is, google is your ally). As is tradition from this type of narration, one usually follows around a main source, generally a character, and is privy to all the information that character has at that moment in time, including inner thoughts, feelings, ect… That said, it is not limited to just one source, but merely one source at a time, and thus the shifting of perspective to whoever the story is focusing on at a given time.

Also in this section, I will often expand upon story elements and plot points that I feel may need more explanation either due to divergence from normal MGLN canon or simply because while such points and elements may be understood by inference, sometimes I may just want to explain things directly, if only to clear up any possible misconceptions. Thus the very first topic I'll cover here is the nature of the objects I've identified as Devices.

Clearly divergent from MGLN canon, the existence of devices in this story varies greatly. Devices, like Haruno, are created directly from their mage as an extension of their latent abilities. That is highly different than the Devices of MGLN which are merely created by engineers. That said, there are some points that I'll clarify about this phenomenon from the get go. The first is that this kind of device, which will be referred to as a manifested device, while a known phenomenon in-universe, is not particularly common, and in fact makes up a vast minority. The reason for this is currently random (all I'll say on that for now), but because of that, most devices in-universe are of the type from MGLN, wherein they must be built. Moreover, as the only somewhat spoiler I'll throw in this AN, the categories of devices such as storage and intelligent types that exist within MGLN also exist in this story as well.

Also, while not a spoiler, I'll just directly state right now that Raging Heart is in fact a manifested device of Nanoha's. On that point, I'll also quickly state that YES, as an avid fan of the MGLN series, I know the proper translation of Nanoha's device name is Raising Heart, not Raging Heart. That said, if it isn't obvious by how old this story is, I have been a fan of the series for a long time, in fact I first saw it when it first aired, and I was a very young person back then, barely able to read the subtitles (Fun author fact, outside what was shown on syndicated tv like pokemon, yuyu hakusho, Naruto, dbz etc…, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was the first anime I ever watched, and also the first I watched with Japanese Dubs). Because I saw it that early, I was subject to the early translation errors of the series, where subbing groups showed it as Raging Heart since that is actually closer to the original Japanese pronunciation than Raising Heart is. Thus, both from seeing it written as Raging Heart as well as it phonically sounding like that in every Japanese Dub season and movie of the series, I have purposely left it as Raging Heart, since that is the name I associate with the little red gem when I imagine Nanoha's device in my head. I hope that is a good enough justification for the apparent name change, and if not, too bad, this story is mine, and that's what I like to call it.