Chapter 17 – Only One Mystery Solved

Due to severe exhaustion, everyone in the family slept for the next day. This was mostly because of the tournament the previous day but also for the lateness of the party. Lee didn't even train the next day like Sora and his father. After a few days though, he got back to his training. More importantly, he was starting a new type of training. His father decided to teach him about Ki. He first started by explaining exactly what Ki was. This was essential for knowing how to use it. Sora would also be joining in, though more as a refresher as he had already learned many of the fundamentals of it. John would have taught Sora more advanced Ki before now but didn't because Sora was both not around since he was mostly away at college as well as the fact that John found that building up the physical side a lot first made learning more advanced Ki techniques easier. But first, John had to teach Lee the very basics, and so he started explaining it to Lee.

Ki could be used for many things, but mainly had three primary uses. The first, and most common one was for enhancing the capabilities of the body, basically enhancing physical traits, done by increasing the amount of Ki circulating actively in the body, which produced this effect. According to John, the body of every living thing was actually always using Ki on some miniscule, unconscious level to do something similar. That said, that was using what John called inactive Ki, or more specifically Ki that wasn't being consciously brought forth. In these cases, all the Ki was really doing was supporting the body's normal functions. That said, when one became aware of Ki, it became possible to, for lack of a better word, activate their Ki, which then went from merely supporting the body's normal functions to enhancing them, allowing one to use their body at higher levels then what it could normally support. This had the effects of general increase to physical traits like strength and endurance and could be refined to heighten these things to new levels.

That lead into the second use, which was the next step up, which was actively controlling how Ki was moving within the body, leading one to be able to use Ki to not just further reinforce specific parts of the body, but more importantly better control them, both in terms of precision and reaction speed, which allowed a person to do super human feats, be it significantly enhanced strength or speed and movement beyond normal human potential, which opened up a whole new world of skills and techniques that could be mastered. If a person trained this to a high enough level, things that would otherwise be written of as only possible in fiction like running up the side of a building or cutting down a bullet mid flight were all theoretically possible, and John did brag that he had in fact done both of those many times to the awe of his youngest son. In any case, this use of Ki found its home in allowing one to use these techniques that were beyond purely physical potential.

Then the third primary use was the next level beyond that, what John referred to as focusing Ki. This was the skill that allowed one to take their Ki, which up to this point was being used solely internally, their internal Ki so to speak, and harness it outside the body. At this level, it was commonly used to reinforce and control external objects much the same way as one did to their body with the first two uses, but this time on something outside their body. It could be something obvious like a weapon, but it could also mean something more abstract, like a person's own skin, or even the air. In swordsmanship though, this obviously meant their sword most the time. By using it on their swords, a person could reinforce them to be more durable and even enhance their cutting ability, but those were just basic applications of focusing. John brought Lee's attention back to the EZUNA technique that he had shown Lee during their tournament fight that Lee then preceded to copy as an example of a more advanced application. The EZUNA was performed by focusing one's Ki to their sword, and then advancing it one level to affect the air immediately around the sword as well, finely controlling the forces that both the sword and the air came into contact with, in this case to make a vacuum that was sustained by the Ki you focused on the air, and then flung forward using the Ki you controlled in your sword, resulting in the flying slash that was called the EZUNA. The EZUNA was a technique often used to train in Ki focusing for swordsman because it required all the basic focusing applications, as well as the other two primary uses of Ki, in order to accomplish. John even took it a step further explaining that focusing wasn't just limited to physical things either. One could even focus Ki on their spirit so to speak, more specifically using it on what John could only liken to a persons presence, for a multitude of effects, either strengthening it for intimidation, or concealing it in order to better elude detection, since whether someone was aware of it or not, on some primal level every living thing could sense very rudimentary Ki, and did so at all times subconsciously, and so if one hid their presence and with it their Ki, they could become much harder to detect.

John, "That basically describes the 3 primary uses of Ki." Lee was enamored by the whole thing, Ki just sounded awesome, but he felt like there was something missing, "Ki is amazing, isn't it? But why do I feel like there is something missing here, like a final puzzle piece?" John smiled, "I'm glad you see that. Notice in my explanation, the three primary uses of Ki all build on the previous one, starting at merely activating one's Ki, to build upon the previous skill and apply it at the next level, initially taking the Ki you activated and up a level, controlling it in your body, then at the next level being able to do the same outside your body. That said, you are right, there is one more level you can go that builds on top of the first three. Can you guess what it is?" Lee had to think, "Well first you learn to activate your Ki, then you learn to control your Ki, and then finally you learn to focus your Ki. What comes after that?" John, "That would be the fourth level, and truthfully the ultimate goal of the first three, and that is to manifest Ki."

Lee looked confused at this, "Manifest? What do you mean manifest?" John, "Well think of it this way, for the first three, you are using Ki to do enact some kind of effect, right?" Lee, "Well yes, I follow that." John, "Okay then, then following that, what would you think if I said manifestation allowed Ki to become that effect." Lee, who had been following up until that point had completely lost his father at that point, so John took a more direct approach, "Honestly, this is probably easier to explain with an actual demonstration. Now observe."

John simply held out his hand and started staring at the space above it intensely. Lee had no idea what his father was trying to do, but then, in the back of his mind, he felt a strange feeling, similar to what he had felt at the tournament, like a sense he had never really used before, and it was alerting him that there seemed to be something where his father's hand was, something just beyond his sight, but he knew it was there. John smiled, "You can feel it, right?" Lee, "Yeah, sort of. It's like I can see it, but I can't really see it." John, "Right on the money. Right now I'm manifesting my Ki in my hand, but at this level, it can't be seen by the naked eye. That said, your natural SHOU seems to have advanced enough to let you see Ki, so why don't you give it a go." Lee obliged, and focused in hard on his eyes, trying to remember the feeling from the tournament, and suddenly those same eyes became wide as they seemingly flooded with a sort of warmth he hadn't noticed until now, but looking at his father's hand now, he could see it. It was dim, transparent almost, but clearly there was a glow above his father's hand, a sphere of something that Lee couldn't identify. If he didn't have a good sense for what magic felt like, he would have thought his father was making a sphere of magic above his hand. That said, it was clearly something different. Also, Lee could see it, but he was having trouble maintaining that vision. Clearly his SHOU needed more work.

John, "Having trouble maintaining your vision?" Lee, "Yeah." John, "Understandable, you've just awoken to your Ki, but with some training, you'll find that it will become second nature until you'll find that you'll be able to see Ki even without actively trying to. But just to make it easier for now, let me show you what happens when it gets even stronger…" John focused in a bit more, and suddenly, the sphere was no longer in any way transparent or dim to Lee. In fact it was bright, and solid as it could be. In fact, it wasn't just him, Sarah by this point had walked over too, "What the hell is that?!" Lee looked over to Sarah, whose eyes were clearly glued to the sphere of what had to be Ki in their father's hand. That said, as soon as he caught Sarah staring at it, he realized something, that his currently not Ki seeing sister could see it. John smiled again, "Seems you caught on. Ki in all of its forms becomes visible to even the naked eye when it becomes strong or dense enough, like I have done here, though to be honest most people who use Ki can't use it to this level, and those that can outside of an actual fight are less still, but to those that can…" John flicked his hand, where in the ball of Ki flew out of it at the wall, where it made a sizable hole in said wall with cracks flowing out from the point of impact, "At its last level, manifested Ki can be expressed as raw energy, which allows for many things, such as that." Lee and Sarah just looked dumbfounded at their father. Of course as mages, they could do similar and frankly significantly more destructive things easily, but somehow what their father did with this Ki stuff was completely badass, and the fact that he was doing it despite not using any kind of magic was blowing their minds.

Lee, "Ok, where do I begin. I've got to learn to do that." John laughed. Of course, frankly under any normal circumstance, teaching someone how to harness their Ki was something that happened after many years of physical training, even for a gifted person, and given that Lee had only been seriously training for less than a month, John would ordinarily tell him that it would be a long time before they started that training, like he had with Sora and was planning to do with Lee and Sarah. That said, Lee had two things going for him that made John reconsider. The first was that, despite generally downplaying it when Lee asked, Lee wasn't just a prodigy, but a prodigy of the highest order the likes of which he had never heard of before. Frankly the progress he had made in four weeks was enough to account for what most people learned in their first few years, not just in techniques learned but in application. He absorbed everything like a sponge, and was immediately able to put it to practical use. That said, most of that could also be said about Sarah as well, which while not quite to Lee's level, was expected since she was also younger by almost three years, and she had proven that what she lacked in raw talent, which even compared to Lee wasn't much, she more than made up for with sharp thinking and determination, as demonstrated when she systematically took apart what could be called his ultimate technique and reconstructed a version to work for her. That said, what Lee had over Sarah, and if he was being honest even over Sora, was that he wasn't just blessed with the talent and the innate skill to use it, but the power to as well. It was one thing to be a natural at using Ki, for while rare John had seen others, and even being modest he believed himself naturally gifted at using Ki from a young age, but what Lee had was the raw power of Ki. No matter how talented, John had never seen anyone as untrained as Lee have so much raw Ki at their disposal. It generally took years, for some even decades to build up their reserves, but Lee seemed to have a large reserve naturally. It was frankly so insane that John wanted to call it borderline unique. It was for that reason, the sheer quantity of Ki that Lee possessed, that made it frankly more dangerous to not teach Lee more about Ki than anything. And so, John smiled at his middle son, "Okay then, lets begin."

His father started to explain the particulars of Ki use to him. First he explained exactly what it was. It was created from the unconscious instinct mixed with the energy of the body's cells. When this reached a certain level in a person of equal physical level, mixed with what John explained as willpower, the mental portion, Ki could be manipulated. Luckily, once all three of those things were in alignment, it was possible to consciously control it. Most of the time, this became immediately apparent at the point one was able to consciously see Ki. In other words, just seeing it with your own eyes after you attained a high enough level would effectively unlock the potential to use it. This was called 'Seeing the Brink.' John described it as the power of observation at work, the fact that you knew it existed meant that you knew what to look for and what to focus on. The way to manipulate it was also as surprisingly straightfoward. You just think about how you wanted it to work and with enough concentration and the required prerequisites, Ki would naturally follow the desired action. John explained that in truth, learning any particular Ki technique was basically about training the body to remember the feeling of the exact actions you wanted your Ki to take until it was second nature. Of course, just because it was straightforward did not mean it was easy. One still needed discipline and training to do it, a lot of it, which was why it was so rare for anyone to develop any formal Ki abilities on their own. Neither Sarah nor Lee quite got the explanation. Unfortunately, Sarah was disappointed that her father said she wasn't ready to start Ki training, but she understood once he did the first Ki manifesting demonstration again. Despite all her straining and focusing, she couldn't see the ball of Ki like Lee had been able to, and so accepted that she needed more training. John, "Don't be discouraged though. At a mere 11 years old, you recreated my strongest technique in just under a month. I'm sure that you'll be able to do it sooner than you think with some training."

John started Lee on some basic Ki exercises, which Sora was joining him for as a quick refresher. Sora already was proficient with the first three levels of Ki manipulation, since he had been learning to use a sword from their father effectively since he could walk and had clung to it like glue, and he was talented, but John had been cautious, and even seeing Sora's talent had wanted to take things slow and build up his skills the right way, so he hadn't even started Ki training until he was in high school, though he had him building up his Ki stores from before than with mental training, so by the time he got to college he had the first three uses of Ki down flat, and was currently working towards mastering manifestation. But a refresher never hurt.

That said, he could understand if his eldest son felt some jealousy towards his younger brother. Things even his talented eldest took at least a few weeks to learn to do consciously, to activate one's Ki, Lee demonstrated the ability to do immediately like it was second nature. To Lee, he had already felt his Ki before, and so mentally flipping the switch to turn it on was something that he just felt he knew how to do, a feat that completely shocked both his brother and father. He could feel the difference though, his body felt warm and light, and he immediately found with a single sword string that his strength had gone up considerably, his Ki augmenting his muscles and physique to a much higher level than he was used to. John couldn't believe what he was seeing though, someone who could harness Ki that quickly. That said, he didn't say anything, and merely moved on to the next exercise. That said, this time was no different. The second use, inner control, Lee was able to demonstrate that one without any difficulty as well, demonstrated by reinforcing his legs and jumping so high that he almost bashed his head into the ceiling. Sora at this point had to say something, "Okay, I admit it, your Ki skills are crazy little bro. How are you picking this up so fast?" John was wondering the same thing. Lee had to think for a moment, "Well, isn't it the same thing as with SHUNPO and SHOU and ZERO TENSHI. I sort of remember the feeling I had going through my body when using them. Isn't this just the same thing?" John and Sora both looked at Lee dumbfounded. Of course he wasn't wrong, those techniques all at their advanced levels, and frankly ZERO TENSHI at all times, did require this kind of Ki manipulation, but to pick up on it to this degree just from some emulated techniques was astounding.

Thus, neither of them were surprised when they went through exercises for the third fundamental Ki use either, Ki focusing. Frankly they both already had a suspicion about this one since Lee had picked up ZAE SHUNPO and the EZUNA, both moderately difficult Ki focusing techniques, just by looking at them in the middle of a tournament, and he demonstrated quickly that those weren't just flukes either by doing them again. Lee seemed to have an innate talent for all three primary uses of Ki. That said, there were some things even an innate talent like Lee's couldn't emulate, and that was experience, and his lack of it showed up in portion control. Unlike most people, who had to struggle to learn Ki and practice even more to make it stronger, Lee was starting effectively from the top. His Ki was already strong, but he seemed to run into his first problem when John tried to get him to regulate it. Inwardly though Sora sighed a bit in relief. Not that he wasn't happy that his brother was so talented, but Sora wanted to feel that all his hard years of work couldn't just be copied literally overnight. But even then, it was obvious to both John and Sora that Lee's learning pace was fast and just getting faster. Sora was actually a bit worried that Lee was going to overtake him in the not so distant future at his current rate. Especially since Lee was pushing ahead past the normal progression for learning Ki. Frankly, while John currently said that until he mastered the first three uses and learned to regulate his Ki's output, he wouldn't even consider trying to teach Lee any form of Ki manifestation, Sora knew that at the pace Lee was going, it wouldn't be that long before that happened, and frankly that was just crazy for either him or John to think about. In any case, their training continued on helping Lee get a better feeling for Ki for most the day.

Later, he went over to Chrono's house with Sarah and Sora to go and discuss their next move. When he got there, he went up to Chrono's room and found that everyone was there already. He sat down and then he remembered something from the reunion that had frankly on the back of his mind for the last few days and decided to bring it up, "I have something on my mind that's bothering me." Nanoha, "What would that be?" "Well," Lee thought back, "During the match with my dad, we were in Zero Time so I am guessing you didn't notice but when me and my dad did Zero Tenshi, we ended up going into intense combat. It was a risk all sword fight inside Zero Time and dad accidentally made a mistake. He swung a little too low and it was going straight for my head. At that moment, I thought I was going to die but then, for only a second, that mysterious dark gold barrier appeared in between Dad and me and sort of pushed the sword to the side a bit towards my left shoulder, probably saving my life. And another thing was for the first time, I was able to feel the source. It was strong, really strong. If it were an enemy, we'd all be dusted in no time flat. The strange thing though was that I couldn't pinpoint it but it was definitely inside the building in the room with us. It also felt strangely familiar but that could be a deception. I just wanted all your input on this."

Everyone thought to themselves for a few minutes and then Lance spoke up, "I'll be honest, I actually have a theory on this already, but no actual proof so I was planning on keeping it to myself, but I guess I'll lay it out." They all nodded, curious to know who their mysterious savior was. Lance, "Okay, lets put the facts on the table. First off is the list of what they have done so far. The first time was when Lee's life was in danger in the first confrontation we had with the girl named Fate. The barrier saved his life and in due course allowed him to win. The second time was when Sarah's life was in danger right before Sora got his powers. The third time was a few minutes later with Sora when he actually did awaken his powers as well and finally there is the most recent time at the reunion during the sword fight. Now we should list what we know about this person. One is that he so far doesn't seem like an enemy. Two is that he can produce barriers on the fly from great distances. Three is that he is a master of hiding his own traces as to not be detected. And four, from all the previous, we can assume that this is an exceptional mage with extensive training and experience. Then for the final and probably most important piece of information, it seems that this person has a strong connection or other point of interest with Lee's family. So far, they have only protected Lee, Sarah or Sora. From this bit of information, I am going to assume that the person was in fact, one of Lee's relatives."

Everyone looked astonished at Lance. From tiny little clips of incomplete information, he had deducted a fully reasonable and complete theory on the mysterious guardian character. Before they had comprehended all of this however, Lance started again, "And I still have more. Due to the barrier that formed during Lee's championship match with his dad, we should also assume that this person is also a great fighter, even in terms of Lee's family's kind of fighting. It formed when Lee and his dad were at there fastest, which means that the person who casted it must have been able to keep up with them. With this in mind, we can also assume that it was someone in the final few matches or someone who didn't participate but is of that level." "But wait," Lee interjected, "Now the theory is sounding a little bias. It would be impossible for them to keep up with me and my dad." "Why is that?" Lance retorted, "If you can run at that speed, then logically it should be possible for someone else to do the same." Lee, "Lance, you just don't seem to get the idea of this attack. It doesn't use magic so its laws and limitations do not bind it. ZERO TENSHI means ZERO. When in the attack, you enter Zero Time. There is no faster or keeping up after that. Not even a 1000th of a second passes by between the start and finish of the attack. Therefore, the other person could not have reacted fast enough. It would take at least one one-thousandth of a second to react and that is far more than the attack itself. Once we enter Zero Time, there is no way for someone outside of that frozen moment to interfere. There is no time, no distance, no sound, not even light can keep up." Lance though smiled at this, "All that does is all but confirm my initial suspicion though. Based on what you've said, you enter a sort of impossible by the laws of physics time freeze where the only two anything that can do anything is you and your father. If this is true like you said, then my original theory must be correct." Lee looked shocked. When everyone looked at him to go on, he said, "Well isn't it obvious, the only other person in that space is your father. Therefore, your father must be the mystery mage."

Lee, Sarah and Sora looked shocked at this supposed proclamation of their dad. They just couldn't fathom the idea of their dad being the mystery mage without their knowing. Sarah, "And how are you so sure that it wasn't just a special type of magic that you don't know about." Sora, "I'm with Sarah, I can't believe its dad with just that much evidence. If you can prove it, I'll believe it." Lance, "Well frankly, there is plenty of proof. Lee gave the first bit with the part about reacting to Zero Tenshi. But even without that, there is a lot of proof supporting the idea. For one, they always knew exactly where you were when it happened or they wouldn't have been there in time. Secondly, Lee mentioned the power this last time feeling familiar. Third, all of this started AFTER your father returned home. Then beyond that, there is also one more big piece of crucial evidence that makes it the most logical choice." Lee, "And what is this so-called great evidence" Lance, "It's you, Sarah, and Sora. You three are the final piece of evidence." Sarah, "How do you figure that one?" Lance, "Well, for starters, like I said, they knew where you were each time; who better than your father to know where you were. A father keeping tabs on his children's well being is nothing new. Two, the mystery person only protected you three. That is something a father would do to look after his children. The final reason though is the most important one. It is all of your magical powers, all three of yours. Remember Lee, when I first met you; I told you how I thought you had gotten magical abilities. I told you then that a very, very, very minute amount of the population on this planet, maybe 1 in every million people has magic and they are all at random, and those who manifest it are far fewer still." Lee, "Yeah, I remember." Lance, "Then don't you think it a bit odd that three of those numbers would be as closely related as being siblings'? Now it is more probable that Chrono and Sakura had gotten powers like that but for all three of you to have also gotten magic on top of that would be unthinkable in that fashion. Then the question would come up of where they were from and that is the proof. The origin of your powers must be your dad. You probably inherited your powers like most mages do. And if you need more proof than that, the fact that your powers activated to their fullest on their own is proof. Most of the time, mages like Sakura and Chrono, who get magic by chance need a catalyst to fully awaken their powers since they have no exposure to magic to stimulate it; in their case I had to use my magic to hasten their activation, though given the level of their powers they probably would have manifested on their own given enough time. On the other hand, yours, Sarah's and Sora's all came out at once. And that's all the evidence that you should need. Your father is the person who has been protecting you three, and is thus by default, a mage."

Lee, Sarah and Sora almost fell out of their chairs. They couldn't believe it but at the same time, they couldn't see a flaw in Lance's theory. It was perfect. All the points were explained, suitable reasons given and all flaws amended. In other words, it just made perfect sense. Lee, Sora, Sarah and the rest were silent for almost five minutes absorbing what had just been concluded. But Lee still couldn't accept it, that their father was a mage and he never told them about it. He had never known his father to lie before and didn't want to believe he would hide such an important thing from them.

He decided that he needed to test it out for himself. Lee suddenly spoke, "Okay, I'm almost ready to believe Lance, but I need to see this for myself, so here's what we're going to do. I am going to have my dad follow me around all day. And I am going to make a little test. Lance said that he felt a very faint signal from the large city park across town. Assuming that it really is a Saren Stone, I will force my dad there and while I am doing that, Lance will try and forcibly activate it somehow. Then at a point half way through the fight I'll make a mistake on purpose and then we will see what happens. Any objections?" They all agreed on this and made preparations. They decided to let Lee fight alone but would be hiding out of sight just in case. Lance would follow them as a ferret so he could put up the barrier quickly and to activate the Saren Stone. Lee decided to tell his dad it would be a good place to train.

When Lee got home, it was already dinnertime. During dinner, Lee brought up the subject of a different training regiment for tomorrow. His father asked what they should do and Lee asked if they could go outdoors for tomorrows training as a change of pace. His dad almost immediately suggested the large park on the other side of the city. Lee was a bit taken aback that it was so easy, even to the point where his father even suggested the right place, but he didn't show it and just agreed and like they planned, when his dad was about to ask Sora and Sarah to come too, they heard the phone ring. They had telepathically sent a signal to Nanoha and Chrono to call. They both called to confirm a made up reservation with Sarah and Sora for a made up plan they were supposed to have made a week ago. John, disappointed said that it would be good quality time with Lee. Lee knew he wouldn't try to move the date because his father always goes through with something once he had planned to do it. They decided to leave at noon the next day.

During training that night, they continued with Ki training. What Lee had in innate power and talent for manipulation, he lacked in regulatory control. In other words, he had trouble tempering the output, which meant that while it was true he could use some Ki techniques; he couldn't regulate them that well. And so John was having him go through some control exercises. That said he had to get creative with the method, since he obviously never taught anyone like Lee before. Thus John decided to teach him the enhanced sword technique. It was a good technique to start Ki training with because it was simple but very useful and great for practicing Ki with, and for Lee it had the added benefit of being a well known control exercise. It was a technique that enhanced a sword's striking power and speed a bit by putting a good amount of Ki through the entire sword, which involved practicing both focusing and control. It was a useful technique for learning how to harness Ki, since the majority of Ki's uses stemmed from enhancing either an object or the user, allowing either to exceed normal limitations, generally from within. In any case, Lee found it surprisingly difficult. It took a lot of concentration to maintain the Ki within the sword, for it had to be done at a specific level, for either too little and the technique would be useless or too much would also cause the technique to break, so it was a good exercise in precise Ki control. Another thing he learned about Ki during this exercise was that it always wanted to move so keeping it in one place was like trying to hold water in your hands. You may be able to hold it for a bit but it drains away eventually through the tinniest of cracks. Therefore, you had to make sure you left none of those holes open. In terms of Ki, that meant concentrating on the entire sword constantly until it became second nature. His dad said that this type of conditioning took a long time to achieve. Lee was able to maintain it for only about 15 seconds at a time even though he had immediately gotten the Ki going into the sword part down. That wasn't a long time. Lee ended up being really frustrated. Sora who was also doing Ki training with Lee to refresh himself on the fundamentals was a good bit better but that was to be expected, as he was both almost 7 years older and had been practicing swordsmanship a lot longer than Lee and from a much younger age. Not that Sora minded at all, but John had basically been teaching Sora since he could walk as he was their first-born and for awhile John and their mother weren't sure they were going to have more kids, so John was a bit more pushy to pass on his life's work to his at the time only heir. In any case, Sora was able to keep the technique going pretty much indefinitely without much effort and it was a bit more powerful than when Lee did it. That said, as this was a refresher course for him, this was to be expected. That said, Sora did find it intimidating that with just a few hours of training, Lee had already started figuring out the fundamentals of the technique, something that had taken him a good bit longer to do. He knew it wouldn't be long until Lee had this technique mastered as well. Of course this only became another motivator for him to improve himself as well.

Sarah was still a bit upset that she couldn't start Ki training yet, but she understood well enough that it was too soon, but this didn't stop her from frowning for a bit until her father taught her another sword technique perfect for matches as well as practical self defense. It was an intense high-speed triple thrust combo that hit the three Freeze points in the chest. When all three of these points were hit at high speeds in quick succession, it produced a temporary weakening in the arm and leg muscles by a significant portion. This reduced their strength and speed to a minimum allowing for an easy win. Sarah, though determined had a little trouble with the technique. Even with her more regular SHUNPO, it all had to be done in 1.5 seconds. She was still at it when the training session was over. Her father told her she could resume later and that he didn't expect her to learn it in one night. This was a high level technique which took an exceptional amount of practice to master.

Lee got a good night sleep and woke up late the next day. It was eleven when he had breakfast with his dad and mom. Sarah and Sora had left earlier to make the necessary preparations for their plan. Lance had to meditate for an hour to concentrate all of his power into a small glass object. It would be his conductor for the spell. Lance, not wanting there to be any flaw or reason to doubt was making a special barrier spell that would hide any and all traces of magical beings while not making normal people disappear. Also, it made it so magical beings couldn't hurt normal people and normal people couldn't see them. It was an extraordinarily difficult spell to do that required a lot of magic. As such, it had to be prepared beforehand to gather up the amount of magic needed. To keep it all in one place, he was using the special glass ball. It was due to all this complexity that Lance didn't use this spell all that often.

At noon, Lee and his dad set out for the large park. Its real name was Hoshina Park but no one ever called it that. It was just the large city park but back in the feudal era, it was the sight of some famous battle. They decided as part of their training and to test out Lee, they would go there on foot. Lee had learned another technique with no name that released a short burst of invisible Ki from his feet that let him jump a good three or four times higher than normal. They decided to have a race and they ran around the edge of the town using SHUNPO. Lee had never used SHUNPO for long distance before but figured it couldn't be too much different from running around a ring. It turned out that it wasn't. He just turned a lot less. At full speed, Lee ended up beating his dad by only 2 yards. Considering the distance was almost 20 kilometers, it was pretty close. It took them only 30 minutes to get there. The one difference Lee found though was not going near absolute full speed, since doing that constantly drained a lot of energy.

When they were approaching the park, Lance sent a bunch of small pulses of his magic all through the park to force the Saren stone to react and activate to test Lee's father. He knew it would take time to do it this way instead of one really big pulse but he was supposed to be as subtle as possible so he decided slow and silent was the best way. Lee knew this and they had estimated that this method would take at least an hour for a full reaction so in the mean time; Lee really did train with his dad. John for a change of pace was teaching him another important skill but for use out of battle, but it was another skill that could be used to help Lee learn control. It was called RETASETSU. It was a special technique that let you limit your overall power output. As John explained, it was basically like being able to apply mental limiters on ones self, but for it to have an actual effect on Ki. He had already taught Sora the technique a while ago. The technique was created as a standardized way of limiting one's Ki during normal life, as well as hold back against lesser opponents and even regulate power during a fight as to not wear oneself out. It would allow Lee to act normal when in public like if he were at school playing. He could limit his power output to that of a normal person. Lee thought this would be very useful. Ever since he had started training and gained above human strength and speed, he was worried what his peers would say when they saw it. Despite his father telling him that he wasn't alone in learning these skills at his age, Lee had never heard of anyone else his age being able to do what he did. Thus he was afraid he would either be labeled as a freak or a superhero and he didn't want to be known as either.

The technique was also good for Ki training in general, though Ki was hard to maintain, since it liked to flow around in the body a lot when active. This naturally enhanced muscle performance but also made the muscles grow. This technique therefore as a byproduct reduced the muscles size as well to what it would be at that level, or in other words, by holding back ones Ki, their muscles would return to their normal size and or definition without the enhancement. It would also look weird if he came into school all muscled up and looking like a jock. It also sealed up almost all of his Ki at its more advanced levels as John was going to teach him as well. It allowed for a little Ki but not enough to do more than to enhance his performance by a tiny bit.

John was once again amazed at his son's innate talent. This wasn't the hardest of Ki techniques by a large margin, but it wasn't so trivial that one should be able to get a basic version of it to work in just half an hour, though that's exactly what Lee did. To him, it was easy and complex at the same time. It wasn't a temporary state either. He more or less sealed the power and he didn't have to exert any effort after that. The actual suppression was the hard part but Lee got it down very quickly. His dad also taught him to release it quickly. All it took was a brief moment of concentration but during that moment, you had to concentrate at an almost unthinkable level. If done improperly, it could damage the muscles but it was hard to mess up. You would have to be hit pretty hard during that one moment to mess up. Another thing was that when he released the technique, it seemed that a single pulse of Ki emanated from him creating cracks and tearing up the ground near him. His dad said that this was normal at first. It was due to Lee's excess of natural Ki. It resulted from the pent up Ki that had been suppressed that was bursting to go. To eliminate this was very easy. Right before releasing, just focus on the Ki and release while still focusing on the Ki, effectively activating ones Ki the moment one released their RETASETSU. This would make it flow through the body instead of flowing out. Lee again got it in only two tries.

His father had 2 tests for him to see how well he could do it. The first was to see what levels he could do it at. This technique could also release percentages of the sealed power so the user could release some but not all of their power. It was this part that Lee had some trouble with, as this had to do with regulating his Ki, which he wasn't super good at yet. That said, clearly he at least was starting to grasp the concept, since he was able to figure out how to do half and a quarter power after a bit. The second test was also one just for fun but also to test the basics. With all but 25 percent of their power suppressed and using no other Ki based techniques, SHUNPO included, they would have a sort of unannounced exhibition match in the center of the park. It would be fun to try a fight like a normal person. They started fighting. The passers by stopped to watch this fun duel. Due to the suppression of their fighting power, to the audience, it only looked like a really good kendo student and his father were practicing. It looked positively normal. Lee kind of liked it. This way, while still looking impressive, he wasn't going too fast so the audience could see him, which allowed him to be cheered on. Also he wasn't getting odd looks like he did at the reunion for having amazing skill. In the end, Lee and his father tied when they both for a split second released a small burst of speed like adrenalin, trying to catch the other off guard. They ended with both of their wooden swords at each other's throats. Then they went and bought some ice cream. They were having a lot of fun when they heard a crash.

They ran outside, but Lee was temporarily distracted by Lance telepathically, "Lee, change in plans. The barrier spell is not ready yet so we are going plan B." Lee knew what plan B was because they made it last night. The plan was to make a simple physical containment barrier with a dimension shift. This would keep everyone in the barrier from going away. It would be the size of the park and anyone who tried coming near the city would be frozen in stasis until the barrier was released. To Lance, this type of thing was child's play. Later, Lance would erase everyone but those with magic's memory. Though this part was extremely difficult, Lance had prepared for it by preparing the spell beforehand. The barrier went up and as it did, the sky seemed to fade out in place of a multi-colored swirl of lights and the people inside it shrieked and started saying weird things in a panic. Some thought aliens, another said it was the end of the world and others just fainted. Lee and his father left for the scene. They went to where they had been fighting before but now there was a large crater. In it there was what seamed to be a giant three-headed dog. Lee's dad took out a metal katana and then took out another for Lee, though from where Lee had no idea. "Lee, I'm going in." John suddenly hurtled straight at it. He used his much more advanced version of the empowerment technique to slice the monster to bits. Lee then did the same, though obviously less powerful than his father's, he was able to do it, though the technique faded as soon as his attack was completed. Unfortunately, the monster just regenerated.

Lee was looking at the public and saw them with looks of fright on their faces. He went over to them and told them that everything was going to be all right. He went over to try and cut the monster again. This time he collided with the monster and to his great surprise, the monster broke through the sword cutting it into two and Lee felt it, his Ki was wiped away, He then realized that Ki wouldn't help him here, at least not at the level he could use it at. He was sent through the air and back several yards. His dad looked on in horror thinking his son was about to die. Lee then remembered that everyone's memory would be erased anyway so he thought, "What the hey." He stopped himself in mid air with his magic. Everyone looked on in misbelieve at the floating teen. He then tossed away his broken katana. His dad looked on in amazement as his son flew towards the monster unarmed. Lee gathered his power in his right fist to strike. He hit it straight on with his BREAK IMPACT.

He flew down to his dad. Lee, "Are you alright," he asked. John though just had a shocked expression on his face, "Wow, who could have guessed." Lee though thought it was about time to stop playing around, "Give it up, I know you aren't that surprised that I can use magic." This was a gamble but it didn't matter right then. There was a short pause but to Lee, it felt like an eternity. He actually had no idea about this but decided that if he were wrong, his dad's memory would just be erased anyway. Just then, a blast of black magic came hurtling at them.

Suddenly and without warning, a dark gold barrier formed right in front of them. Lee looked to the barrier, and then he turned to his father, who he was only half surprised to see was smiling, "So you finally figured it out." His dad was glowing gold now with the energy output for the shield. Lee, "So it really was you all those times, like at the park and during our match." John smiled, "Well what type of father would I be if I'd let you die on me when I could have prevented it, especially because I know your mother would behead me if anything happened to you guys. So, you ready to do this," John took out a dark navy blue marble. "You know it," Lee replied, taking out his own. "MYSTIC FURY, SET UP." In a bright flash of light, both transformed at the same time. Lee looked over to his father. His father was now wearing black-ish blue, wide ended pants with a dark navy blue vest with gold stripes over it at odd angles, and some official looking insignia on his chest pocket that Lee didn't recognize. Also, he had a bluish-black handled staff with a darker than Lee's golden head. It looked almost identical to Lee's staff head though.

John then surprised Lee. He shouted, "GLOWING SHOOTER," and shot a small but concentrated blast of magic at the beast, which deflected it with its tail. Lee looked surprised when he saw his own attack being used by his father. "SHOOTING MODE." His father's staff changed into the same as Lee's in shooting mode except that the head was a bit longer and closer together, and Lee followed suit, John, "Watch and learn. ENERGY TWIST SHOT." John's staff shot out a weird beam of energy. It seemed to be spiraling at an insanely fast rate. It shot straight at the beast and to Lee's amazement it went straight through it. Unfortunately, it just regenerated. Lee then set up to do his SHINING BUSTER and when his dad saw this, he pointed his staff at the monster and prepared to fire and said, "Lets make this a double." They were both gathering magic now. "SHINING BUSTER!" and then both of them at the same time launched an amazingly powerful buster wave. Mid-way, the attacks melded together in a spiral to create one super drill-like wave. It took off the monster's heads and then it fell over. But as they expected by now, it just regenerated and got back up again.

Lee was running out of options. Lee, "Dad, can you get it into the air." John, "Sure, but why?" Lee, "Just trust me on this." Lee's dad decided to go with it and prepared for his assault. "PILAR OF LIGHT!" His father shoved his staff downwards into the ground and it seemed to send powerful pulses of power through the earth. It left the surface where it traveled looking like rubble. Then, under the monstrous three-headed dog, "RISE!" a giant dark gold pillar of pure magic shot up out of the ground right under the beast, launching it high into the air. "Okay, my turn," Lee said, pointing his staff into the air right at the dog. Three super large rings appeared in front of the staff. Lee felt a new power he had never felt before. "PURE LIGHT BREAKER, NEW VARIATION." A giant sphere of magic appeared in the middle of the three rings. Then a super large magic circle appeared under him. It covered at least a good 20 yards. More power than Lee had ever felt before was being gathered before him, it was almost overwhelming. His father even looked at it in sheer amazement and no small amount of shock, "No way, it can't be…" Lee took aim, "Take this! PURE LIGHT BREAKER!"

A giant wave of pure bright golden magic shot from the giant sphere Lee had created. The three-headed wolf summoned a large blast of black magic from each of its three mouths. Then it combined them into one huge blast of energy that it shot at Lee's attack. They collided in mid-air but it was no competition. Lee's attack disintegrated the monsters blast, then it continued until it collided with the beast itself. The monster was instantly disintegrated into nothing. The attack didn't stop there though; it continued to the sky where it parted the clouds from just passing and it eventually went into orbit. It completely demolished Lance's physical barrier just by touching it. Lance put up another one quickly to be safe. The air where it had passed through was still full of static, even after the attack disappeared, not even ashes remained. The only thing left was the Saren stone. "SEALING MODE," said Lee. The head changed back to normal and wings appeared from right below the staff head. "Number 14, SEAL." The Saren stone floated over to Lee's staff and Haruno absorbed it. Haruno confirmed, "NUMBER 14, SEALED."

Lee, now exhausted, landed just next to his father. John, "Good work Lee." Lee, "Thanks." John suddenly put a thumb over his shoulder and pointed behind him, "And Lee, you can tell your friends to come out now. I know they've been following us." With shocked expressions on their faces, Nanoha, Sora, Sakura, Chrono and Sarah all came out from some bushes behind Lee. Lance suddenly transformed back to his normal human form, "So you knew we were there the whole time?" John, "I noticed since we left the house. If you're going to hide, do it properly. I could feel your presence from a mile away and then some. You might as well leave signs saying 'I'm over here,' for all the difference it would make." Lance turned to Lee, "So I guessed right Lee." Lee, "I guess you did."

John jumped in again, "So what gave it away. I thought I was being super careful." Lance, "Well, lots of stuff really. I had a small suspicion when Sarah got her powers, which grew when Sora discovered his, but the real undeniable proof was the time Lee saw it at the dojo. It was like the corner piece of the puzzle connecting the two different sides." John, "Very smart. Now I am guessing someone like you, being as smart as you are has a good cleanup plan." Lance, "On it, I prepared this earlier." He took out another glass ball. "It contains a premade spell for memory erasure. It only works on the non-magic so its okay for us." He threw it at the ground and it shattered tiny pieces. Suddenly, a huge shockwave washed over them and proceeded to expand until it had covered the whole city. When it died down, everyone was frozen. "They will unfreeze once we return to normal space with no memory of what happened." They all released their Barrier Jackets and Lance dismissed his barrier and then everyone unfroze in the exact same spot, and due to the memory manipulation Lance had made, they all thought that no time had passed from when the barrier first went up. They all continued as if they hadn't seen anything.

"So I guess you want some explanations now and I think you deserve them but we obviously can't talk here can we. I also think it would look weird if we just went to one of your houses. A full-grown man hanging out with teenagers doesn't look too good and our house isn't big enough. I guess I'll have to bring you aboard then." Everyone looked confused at this last statement. They weren't sure what he meant. John then took out his Dark blue marble and said, "MYSTIC FURY, can you make a connection." It lit up for a second, then said, " Connection made." As if to talk to his marble, he said, "Amy, could you open the door for our guests please." Suddenly, a girls voice came out from the marble, "Oki Doki Mr. Captain Sir." John, "You know I don't like being called that Amy." At that point, a sort of weird glowing circle appeared in front of them. Lee, Sarah, Sora, Sakura and Chrono just stood there but Lance, Nanoha and John just walked straight onto it, disappearing when they entered. Not wanting to be left behind, they followed suit and walked into the circle. They reappeared in a strange techie looking room. They saw the others waiting at the room's door. "Come on, I'll show you to the control room." They all followed John through a series of complicated hallways until he stopped in front of a large door. "Here we are." He placed his hand on a panel on the door and the panel turned green. Then the door opened.


Author's Note:

Okay, so John is also a mage! Who saw that coming? Hopefully, the answer was almost everyone. This was not meant to be subtle out of nowhere surprise to anyone but my main cast. Truthfully, I thought it was quite obvious from a reader's perspective basically from the moment that Sarah and Sora got their magic after it was explained that it was super rare for there to be mages on Earth, and this is on purpose. I specifically wanted this to be the kind of "mystery" that has an obvious answer from the reader's perspective, but that the cast has no idea on, and so holds the reader in suspense in the "When are they going to find out" kind of way. I personally always find it more fun to be the person planning the surprise party than the one who's surprised with it, so I tried to impart that kind of feeling with this particular subplot.

That said, one important thing I'll clear up now, because I realize I never do too much of a job at it in-story directly, I'll state right now that while John is a mage, and quite a strong one, it has little to do with his abilities as a martial artist who has mastered kenjutsu, and that his skills with the sword are genuine. Even without magic, he is still a massive force to be reckoned with, and so between the two, he's one of the stronger characters shown thus far. How strong though, that will have to wait until later. That said, at the end of this chapter, it is also revealed that he's more than just an average mage, but some kind of "captain". Of what, that will be revealed real soon, but honestly if you don't have an idea at this point, then I'm not sure what you're doing reading a story placed in the MGLN category, so I'll leave you with that.