Chapter 11 – Father and Son

A few days had passed since Sakura and Lee's battle with no Saren Stones being found since then. Lance had thought he sensed one once but the feeling vanished as soon as it came and since no one else felt it, he dismissed it as his imagination. It was mid-way through the school-week and today was Bring Your Pet To School Day. Naturally, Nanoha convinced Lance to come in his ferret form. The truth is he actually wanted to see what Nanoha's and the other's school was like so he decided to go. He was a big hit during the pet show-and-tell. Also due to the fact that he could fully understand what everyone was saying, when they asked him do some fun tricks, he did them right away and amazed his audience. He even went up to a cat. This was a daring move, as normal ferrets would have run away from cats due to the fact that normally, they would have been attacked and most likely eaten. Luckily, the cat's animal instincts told it that this wasn't a normal ferret so it didn't try to pounce Lance. Everyone was in awe by the ferret's apparent bravery.

At the end of the day, everyone went home. According to the plan, everyone was supposed to be with a person who could seal whenever out of the house. The exception was when Chrono was going home. He had to go on his own sometimes so he just teleported straight home so nothing could happen in-between. Lance had made a good point when he said that for whatever reason, the Saren Stones seemed to activate more times then naught when they were in the vicinity as he has already hypothesized that power like the Saren Stones tended to drift towards those with power as well, such as themselves and had concluded that this could actually be seen as a good thing because it lessened the chances of regular people falling victim to them.

When Lee got home, he found his sister on the couch. That said, she wasn't watching TV like normal or reading a magazine, but a letter. That said, the letter she was holding wasn't normal local post nor was it from any of her friends from England. In fact it appeared to be from Hong-Kong based on the postmark, but Lee didn't know anyone from Hong Kong. This was especially weird because it was addressed to both Lee and Sarah. That said, Lee had a hunch about who it could be from that was merely confirmed once he saw the letter. It read:

Dear Lee and Sarah,

Sorry that I've been gone for almost 3 months now without calling or writing. Due to my work this time, I wasn't allowed to have contact with anyone for the duration of the assignment. It was a security measure. I cannot disclose more information about the assignment in a letter so I will tell you when I get home, which if this letter got to you on time means tomorrow. I should be on the plane by now if you got this on Wednesday. See you when I get home.

Love, Dad

P.S. – I hope you two have been practicing your sword techniques while I have been away. I WILL be looking forward to a sparring match when I get home so be prepared.

Sarah, "I was wondering when Dad was coming home. Guess I will have to tell them that there was no fencing club for girls at my school. Hope he buys it." At the P.S. part of the letter, Lee looked a little worried. His Dad had always tried to teach Lee swordsmanship from the time he was very little, and despite his father telling him that he had an incredible excess of talent for it, Lee hadn't ever really gotten into it or sometimes he just didn't want to do it. It wasn't that he didn't like it or anything. The times when his father taught him were fun enough, but he never had the motivation to pursue it outside that before. The truth was that he had never really practiced that much either, especially as of late. It sort of slipped his mind with everything else that had been happening. On the other hand, all of the fighting he did was training too. Also, he could also enhance his regular abilities with magic a little and make it look like he was training vigorously. And it also wasn't like he didn't want to learn it, he was just a bit lazy, and his father's training techniques were more than a bit hard borderline Spartan, so he had never been able to build up a strong enough motivation for the art before.

Both Lee and Sarah were anxious to get out of school and go home to see their Dad. It was more exciting for Sarah because their Dad had also been away the last time she had visited. When the school bell rang, Sarah went to Lee's school to go home with him. Sarah's school let out 15 minutes earlier so she had to wait on the steps of Seihou Gakuenn Junior High for her brother. When Lee got out of school, Sarah dragged him almost forcefully behind the school and before Lee was ready for it, she teleported and reappeared in the woods near their house. They ran to their house and when they got home, sure enough, there was a car in the parking lot across the street and a pair of familiar shoes in their door way. They ran inside and to the dojo and there was their father, a tall, long scraggly-brown haired man that looked just like an older, better built Lee, though just physically for his presence was another story. He has an impressive, almost overpowering aura about him, but at the same time, it felt kind and gentle. It was a feeling that they could only associate with their father, Jonathan Cross. He was currently warming up for a sparring session, but turned around when his kids entered. That said, he went wide-eyed for a moment when he saw them, not believing how much his kids had changed in the time he had been gone, especially Sarah who he hadn't seen in almost five months. Sarah yelled and ran over to hug him. Then Lee went over and hugged him too. Jonathan, "How have you been you two?" "Good Mr. what is it this time?" Lee's father's real name was Jonathan but he sometimes had a different name when on duty and it was always different. "It was Fujiwara this time but you guys can still call me Dad if you don't mind."

The sparring began and even though she gave him the excuse about her inability to practice, their father said she should just try to do her best. She wasn't actually as bad as she made herself out to be. Sure their father was going very easy on her and it was with wooden swords, but his "easy" would probably be enough to kill an average person. As much as Lee and Sarah said they were not as interested in swordsmanship as their older brother, so while he never forced his teachings on them like Sora had willingly asked for, their father had insisted on at least having the two of them do some basic training, or at least his version of it, if for no other reason than exercise, discipline and self-defense, so it wasn't like they were without experience. They both assumed that they would probably at least be good enough to be on a Kendo team at school if they had ever wanted to be. In any case, Sarah did pretty well considering. She lasted 3 minutes, a new record. Jonathan said that it was good improvement.

Now Lee was up. He had already activated the enhancement. He did the smallest one possible as to not look suspicious. He picked up his wooden sword and bowed to his Dad who bowed back. Lee, "I wont be going easy on you." His Dad smirked, "Let's just see how much you've improved." They started. When their swords collided the first time, John was unprepared for the strength of Lee's blow and almost lost his grip on his sword. Lee though was equally unprepared for the strength of his swing, but was able to not show it on his face "Seems like you have been practicing after all. Guess I'll take it up a notch." His father made a quick swing at Lee, which he blocked with equal speed. Then Lee went on the offensive making swing after swing at his dad who blocked them all, though John's eyes which before the match had been laid back were now fully attentive, if not wide eyed in surprise. He always knew Lee to have a significant amount of hidden talent for Kendo, more so than he'd ever actually told him, and he had already told him he had quite alot, but he hadn't been expecting it to surface like this given his middle son's apparent lack of interest in it.

John though was smiling, "You've come a long way since last time. Has your interest in swordsmanship finally awakened, or do you just want to beat me that badly?" It was true. Lee hated to lose at most anything. On the other hand, so did his Dad. It proved to be a good motivator. They continued going at it. Lee didn't realize it but his father was slowly going harder and harder and he was unconsciously using more of his magic to match his fathers skill. It eventually came to the point where their swords were going so fast that they were just blurs to Sarah who was watching them in amazement. The sounds of the swords clashing made a thundering roar through the neighborhood. What neither Lee or his Dad could realize was that they were also gaining speed. After 7 minutes (3 past his previous record) they were both moving at what could be considered beyond normal human speed. Of course, Sarah wasn't that surprised since they knew their father to have ungodly physical prowess. He had always appeared super-human to them. Sarah would have thought their father was using magic like Lee except that she could clearly sense that he wasn't. His strength was all homegrown, which actually made it even more ridiculous since his sheer physical prowess was keeping up with a magically enhanced Lee.

Lee had only remembered seeing his father go what he could only assume was all out once at a national Kendo competition. It was the last round and he was against the former undefeated champ. Also on that same day, it was mom's birthday and they had dinner reservations so he wanted to finish it as soon as possible, so for the first time, Lee had seen his father go truly serious. It was over in less than a second. He took his stance with his sword drawn back and his other hand on its tip. When the ref said to begin, it looked like he had disappeared, then reappeared out of the ring at the judges table. He then took the trophy and walked out the door, and then only at this point did his opponent fall to the ground. When they went over to examine the body, it had slash marks all over the chest guard and helmet. What was more was that the opponent's wooden sword was smashed into pieces. He appeared at the top of the audience a few minutes later so they could go out to eat. They then left the arena for the restaurant quickly to avoid the reporters. When they got to the restaurant. There was a re-run of the finals. As with the reality, it was over in an instant. The people over at the next table said that it was over too quick and they should of at least played it in slow-mo so they could see. The announcer on the TV then said that the footage just played was the slow-mo version as slow as possible at 1/100 of a second ratio. The people at the other table said to their children that this was a practical joke by the TV station to replace their mess-up or something, and Lee had almost believed them at the time, but at the same time, he just believed his father was that kind of godly superhuman strong, but he had never gotten another chance to confirm it with his own eyes.

Lee continued to strike wooden blades with his Dad. It continued until they had been fighting for almost 12 minutes. They just kept on getting better and better until Lee thought that his father was at his max. He planed to try and swing around from behind on the next blow but he couldn't. John though was dually impressed with his son. In fact, he decided to give his son a special treat. To Lee's surprise, his dad stepped back for a second. He knew he had taken the same stance he did that one time at the finals. Lee was about to raise his sword and enhance his senses so that he would be prepared to react to whatever his father was about to do, but he never got the chance.

It was a single, imperceptible moment, but that was all it took. Neither Sarah on the sidelines or Lee on the floor were able to see what just happened. One moment their father was on the opposite side of the dojo from Lee, then without any warning, any sign at all, their father was right n front of Lee, his sword so close to his neck that if it had gone any farther, Lee would have most likely have been dead, and beyond that, Lee's wooden sword had been cut in two, sliced by his fathers. John smirked, though he was definitely a bit winded, "That's Match." They both leaned up against the wall, exhausted after their duel. "Well," said John, "At least we both know that you have improved. That was probably the hardest duel I've fought in a while. It was one of the only ones that made me use that move at least. You've improved faster than I could've imagined, and I thought that you didn't even like to train. But then again, you are MY son." Lee then said, almost out of breath, "What was that final move you used." His dad replied, "Ah, that move. It's my strongest technique called Zero Tenshi. It is a move that I invented. Distance, time, failure, they all become Zero when using this technique. It is a thrust and slash combo. It goes so fast that the force that the weapon hits with is multiplied exponentially. Theoretically, if you didn't hold back like I did, you could kill someone with a blade of grass. Now imagine what would happen if I didn't know how to hold back. You could have died. Then again, that's what happens when you are strong." Lee just looked at his father with complete admiration.

Lee, Sarah, and their Dad left the dojo and went into the living room. Lee though had to lean on his father to walk. Lance had warned them of this before. Magic could be used to enhance someone's physical abilities, but with their current skill levels, their bodies probably wouldn't be able to keep up for extended periods of time, so Lee felt exhausted twice over. When they got into the living room, they both collapsed on the couch. Then their mother came into the room. She saw both the father and son collapsed on the couch. She asked what had happened. His father replied with "sparring." She asked why they were both tired and he replied with "I found a good sparring partner." He then asked her how long Lee trained per day. She said she never saw him train in the house but he was out of the house for almost all the day so he probably did his practicing somewhere else. His father said he did the same thing when he was a kid. It felt better to do it outside. Lee said that was what he was doing. It wasn't a complete lie either; he had been training his magic and fighting the beasts spawned by the Saren stones, and that experience had to count for something…

They ate dinner then Lee asked his father to go into the dojo with him. John, "So what is it Lee?" Lee, "I want you to teach me that move. I want to learn ZERO TENSHI." John paused for a moment, intrigued by his son's request, "Now why do you want to learn Zero Tenshi. I mean I know it must look impressive, since it is an immensely powerful technique, but more than that, it's an extremely dangerous technique not meant to be used in normal duels. If you don't do it perfectly, the bet case scenario you could end up tearing your muscles apart. I can use it because I can stop it before it becomes fatal but that took a lot of training. It requires power of the mind as well as the body. It is without a doubt my ultimate technique, and given what I know that is saying smething." Lee, "I need it to become stronger." John, "And why is it you want to become stronger all of a sudden?" Lee, "I can't tell you exactly why." His father looked suspicious at this, Lee, "All I can say is that I need more power."

His father looked at him for a bit. He looked straight into his eyes. To Lee, it felt like he was looking through him more than at him. John himself was debating whether he should. It wasn't even a matter of pride, for he had no problem with Lee wanting to learn from him and he had no desire not to teach him this move, for he always had intended to some day, but not this soon, for he was relatively sure Lee was no where near ready for it, for there were many, many prerequisites needed before it could even be attempted, and even after the showing in their spar, John knew that Lee was no where near ready for that level, so he was about to refuse his son's request. That said, one last look at the determination in his son's eyes made him change his mind. John smiled, "All right, I will teach it to you under one condition. This is a technique of the sword, the innermost technique of my style of swordsmanship, that took me reaching the pinnacle of what I thought of as strength and skill, then overcoming it in order to create. I can honestly state that it is the total culmination of my efforts and training over my life that coalesced and became this technique. Thus it isn't something that my pride will allow me to just hand to anyone who is looking for strength half-heartedly. It is my strongest sword technique, so learning and using it requires learning the way of the sword, so the condition is that you take learning my school of swordsmanship seriously, and that would mean even beyond this technique. I have no problem teaching you if you want, but this time it can't be like it was before, where you were half into it like a sport or a hobby. If you want to do this, to truly learn my technique, then you have to be willing to commit yourself fully to the art of Cross Swordsmanship. If you are ready for all that, then I will teach you, but the resolve to do this is necessary in order to learn this, as well as any other technique, so what do you say?" John looked at his son hard, trying to measure what his son's response would be. Of course, John would love nothing more than to get Lee to seriously train in swordsmanship, since it was his own life's work as well as his passion, and one he believed his middle son to be immensely suited to as well, but he also didn't want his son to be forced into it either, for he always wanted more than anything else for his children to be able to go down their own path, so he had also done this to make sure Lee didn't take this on lightly. Thus John was both surprised and secretly very happy when Lee with a very clear conviction and no hesitation answered almost immediately with "Yes!" John could immediately tell that this was different, Lee was different then the last time he had seen him, and that his answer was not made in haste or half heartedly, his son genuinely wanted to learn, and while he couldn't tell him the reason, Lee clearly believed he had a need for that strength, which would definitely prove to be a good motivator as well. Thus, all John could do was smile, "Very good then Lee. Let's begin.

Lee imagined his father's training would be hard but it was 1000 times as hard as he thought it would be. John said Lee would be learning all of swordsmanship from him, but he was also a man of his word, and Lee had asked him to learn his most sacred and difficult technique, and he would oblige his son. That said, John also said it was probably too early for Lee to even attempt this technique, but that he would still let him try and do everything he could to teach him. His father started of with telling Lee the mechanics of the attack, which sounded inhuman in and of itself. It started off in a special Kendo style thrust position with the right hand holding the sword back so the hilt was even with your face. The left hand would be on the top part of the tip of the sword. This was so the sword would stay still during the initial charge. If it moved at all, the entire technique would fall apart. Next was the leg position, they had to be positioned exactly. The left leg would be 3 foot lengths in front of the right leg. The right leg would be diagonal back right of the left leg. Both legs had to be bent, the left one slightly more than the right. Then came the initial charge. You had to push off with both feet at once by twitching your muscle in a certain way. Then you did an extra step. You moved your right leg forward as fast as possible and hit the ground with it with all you got. You hit with the heal first and then the front of the foot. You then twitched you foot in a way that uses 100% of the muscles power effectively (At normal, person only uses 20% of the muscles strength at most during most activities, 50% to 80% when doing something strenuous.). Lee didn't even quite understand how John described how to do this, since John only said it was achieved by focusing all of one's energies on a specific part of the body, but John said it was more of a feeling thing then a knowing thing. This combination was what produced the speed required for the attack. Everything had to be perfect down to a millimeter or the aerodynamics of the attack would be thrown off and the attack would ultimately fail. "Then as soon as you are charging, the rest is so fast, it beats even time itself. There is no way to describe it. You have to leave it up to your instincts to know what to do." This is the part that confused Lee. "Then finally, you have the end. This is the important part. If messed up, you will damage your muscle tissue to an extreme extent. What you do is the exact opposite of the extra step. You put your left leg out and hit the ground with the front of the foot first at medium strength to slow down and then slam your heal down with enormous strength to actually stop, followed by a pivot of the right foot at exactly the right time. As long as you do those two things, you can stop in any position you want, but the timing is crucial to make use of the forces involved as efficiently as possible to they are dissipated properly, else they will rebound on you. Now everything in this technique had to be done in the space of ½ a second and the thrust had to be done in 0 seconds. That is how fast the technique is. The ½ a second is for getting into the stance only." Lee didn't know how that was humanly possible.

Over the next two weeks, Lee did nothing else than train on his father's technique. He barley slept even. His father had to admire Lee's tenacity and spirit, and even beyond that, his sheer natural talent. It was clear that Lee, despite his apparent lack of desire to learn swordsmanship before this, had to be one of the most naturally gifted swordsmen that John had ever seen. In terms of raw talent, John was sure that Lee had even more then himself, and even if he was being modest that was saying something. Lee got down the positioning in just a couple of hours and while it was the easiest part of the technique, any normal person would have needed weeks to get it down. The most impressive part though was how fast he learned how to properly move into what John called Zero Time, the space that felt like a single moment where time effectively stood still, since for that one moment, for the user that was what truly happened, as ludicrous as it was to Lee that such a thing was even possible. It took Lee the better part of 6 days to get the extra step part down and charge at zero time. It was an incredible sensation; you felt nothing, heard nothing and except for the target, you saw nothing, though as of right now Lee only experienced it for a single fleeting moment, so short that if it wasn't for him moving from one side of the dojo to the other, he would believe it to be a figment of his imagination. Apparently that moment got longer when the technique was done correctly. The acceleration into Zero Time was the grand secret behind this attack, the skill to do it was one only John had ever figured out, making this technique the pinnacle of his branch of the Cross sword style, and something that took John immense amounts of time to develop and perfect. Not that he would ever stop trying to improve himself, but John did believe this technique to be the pinnacle of his own efforts in swordsmanship throughout his life, and so the fact that his son had figure out how to do at least part of the technique in less than a week was nothing short of miraculous. Especially because he had been somewhat intentionally vague on some of the finer points of how to do it, mostly because if he was honest with himself, he hadn't expected Lee to be able to do anything close to this nearly this fast. Especially because Lee had somehow, beyond all reason, seem to pick up not just the physical aspects of the technique, but even its other inner components just by observation like it was second nature, which to John was insane. Lee was truly a prodigy of the highest order, not that John would ever tell him that openly, at least not for now.

After Lee had got that part down, it took Lee only one day to learn how to stop. His father set up a crash mat so he could practice without getting hurt if he failed. The only part he had trouble with was the actual attack. His father said that once you got control of it, you could do as many slashes as you wanted but to actually learn the technique, you had to focus on learning the thrust part only. The slashes would come naturally after that. He tried as hard as he could but he couldn't make the initial thrust. The target was the heart of the opponent of in this case, the target on the practice dummy. The problem that Lee had was that he didn't know when or how in Zero time to do the thrust since his moment of acceleration was so fast to him that he never even had a chance to move when in it, so he always passed right by the practice dummy before having a chance to move the sword. The Zero Time part was tricky since while Lee was somewhat aware of it when he entered and exited that moment, John said unless the attack was executed effectively, one merely passed through it like any other moment in time near instantaneously, so to those watching nothing seemed to occur. It was the attack itself that actually slowed one down after one entered Zero Time, allowing them to move freely within that single imperceptible moment when time stood still. It was only when this was accomplished that outwardly it appeared that the user appeared to be in two places at once for a moment. His father could only give him a bit of advice. "You have to feel it out." He asked feel it out with what. "Feel it out with the thoughts of why you even fight. Feel it out with your reason to protect. Let that feeling fill you up and direct those energies into your blade." Lee didn't understand what that meant. John, "Well don't let it get you down, note that to have been able to achieve Zero Time while only training for a few days in it's own right is just completely amazing, even if it is only for a single moment. It took me 2 months after realizing the method to do so to get that far, and much longer to create an actual technique from it, and not to toot my own horn but I'm an expert. You may turn out a swordsman yet."


Authors Note:

So I finally get to introduce Lee's father in this chapter, and honestly I will state right now without any spoilers that he is one of my favorite characters. Specifically, his design is "a true modern Samurai", he is a true martial artist traveling the path of real kenjutsu (swordsmanship). That said, despite this, his overall personality is that of a generally kind, caring person, who merely wants what is best for those he cares for, and so sometimes he'll come off as aloof or mellow, which is what I'm going for. That said, below that, he is an immensely skilled individual, whose abilities as a swordsman are beyond immense. As for any other speculations that anyone may have about this man, I'll leave them to your imaginations as to avoid spoiling.