The Haruno Chronicles

by Bobby8795

A brand new story with beats taken from the original series, featuring brand new characters, as well as ones based off the series we all know and love. It is about the journey of a group of friends to try and save their world from the threat of the Saren Stones, and in the process discover new things about themselves and the world around them, let this brand new epic begin!

22. Chapter 20 - Aftermath and Consequences

Chapter 20 – Aftermath and Consequences

Lee woke up in a bed. He didn't know where he was or how he'd got there. He sat up in bed and realized that everyone was waiting in the room they brought him to rest in. Lance, Sarah and General Grayson were by his bedside using a combined healing spell to try and heal him back to consciousness. When they saw him wake up though, they stopped, apparently exhausted from all the magic they had to have poured into him. Everyone looked relieved. Lee, "What's going on? Where am I? How did I get here?" Everyone looked at Lee with a sort of mixed expression of awe, amazement, and worry. His father though was the first one to answer.

John smirked at his son, "First of all, I am pretty sure you remember this but you shot that spectacular attack straight into space, and as a consequence of such a display or raw power, you fainted on your feet. That being your own fault, I being your loving father was kind enough to carry your sorry behind here myself. This is the base's private hospital facility. It's state of the art, or at least was state of the art. Unfortunately, you broke mostly anything that ran on electricity on the entire planet so unfortunately, we had to heal you up the old fashion way, with our own power." Lee looked down, "Sorry about that, I didn't know that was going to happen. I would have found another way otherwise. But was that it, or did I damage something else?" Everyone looked around with a "You tell him" type glance. Lee thought they weren't going to tell him when General Jackson stepped forward.

Jackson, "You're all a bunch of worry-warts. Nothing good is going to come from hiding it from him." Jackson then turned to Lee, "First off, I would like to say your final spell was bad-ass to look at. There was something damn good in that attack. Unfortunately, it is also true that because it was done on this planet that has a dead core, there was no natural or magical protection to prevent the dimensional shift that resulted from the final explosion of said spell. That said, don't worry about it too much," he saw Lee's face go into a very guilty expression, "It isn't anything big. I've done worse. You just knocked out communication for the first hour and a half and stopped anyone from leaving or entering the planet for the next day or so." Lee, "That doesn't sound like a small thing. I can't imagine the universe would have survived if that was a normal occurrence…" Jackson, "Well I mean that's a fare point. Very few people possess the kind of power that seems to come naturally to you, but there are others, such as myself, given that such power is one of the major requirements of our positions as Generals. But along those lines, something that none of the other Generals will admit to is that it's sort of a hidden requirement of the job to have made at least one really stupid mistake usually resulting in a dimensional shift. I did once while trying to impress my friends back on my home world. I went maxed like you and tried to drain it all at once. Like your attack, it caused a dimensional shift that completely isolated the planet for about ten days and kept anyone from going or coming for at least double that, and admittedly I got in a good deal of trouble for it. But even that fails to register with the good general's," he pointed at Grayson behind him with his thumb, "complete screw up. Why his knocked out everything on this one planet for almost a month and killed all electronic anything's on the planet, billions of credits in damages incurred. And you know why he did it, he–." General Grayson interrupted mid-sentence, "Okay, that's enough of that. That old incident is so old, I don't think I remember it at all." Then he gave a look to Jackson that clearly said, "You talk, you die." Jackson knew the general to be a seriously literal person, and so he abruptly changed the subject.

Jackson, "Okay Lee, the point is to not dwell over this. It isn't a big deal. Well, it is but not as big as you think. The repair squad will have the mess throughout the main facilities cleaned up by the end of the day and the rest soon after. It's not like this is the first time something disastrous has destroyed this base anyway. Among its other uses, this is a testing facility; this stuff is going to happen and we're more than prepared for it. But with that, out of the way, I can now tell you your results."

Everyone turned to listen at this. They were all curious to find out what Lee actually was. Jackson started, "According to the data our scanner picked up before you destroyed it, your power level was around 816 million. Luckily, the one at the base, the really big one, remained intact. In fact, it is probably the only thing still intact. With its data, we got some final results. Power level for you as a mage with no other factors is at a power level of 827 million. This puts you right up at the SSS+ rank, which is considered the second highest rank any mage can hope to achieve, and puts you so beyond the pale of ordinary mages that on some worlds, such powers would get you worshiped as a god and feared as the devil. That said, at least right now, right here, you are in good company since as rare as this kind of power is, being a minimum of a SSS mage is one of the requirements for becoming a General and they generally look for SSS+ when possible, so myself and Grayson fall squarely in your bracket, and though he won't admit it, so does your father as well. In addition, I believe Nanoha Takamachi is also officially listed under this rank if I'm not mistaken." Lee and his friends looked over to Nanoha again. Of course, they knew she was powerful, they all had seen her fight before, especially against their latest enemy Fate, but once again they realized that none of them could say they had really seen her go all out, with most of them wondering why, but left that as a topic for later.

In any case, Jackson continued, "Next is your max output result. Before I tell you this one, I will tell you that the power difference from general power output while gathering power and an attacks power are completely different. Naturally, an attacks power is multiple times stronger than a general output and is rating system is different as such. But still, it was an exceptional level. The Maximum output level with that attack you used was a whole 2.5 billion, enough to put the attack towards the very top of the special SSS+ level. That is literally the second highest attack ranking there is, the only higher ranking of "Z" which for spell power level starts at 2.8 billion, or a mage at 1 billion. It's the mythical last level on the power scale that doesn't have an upper limit, only achieved by a very scarce few throughout history, though that's not really a concern of ours right now. What I'm most interested in is the form of your final attack. I have never seen that kind of attack before, what exactly was it?"

Lee was about to say he had no idea what the attack was when Haruno sort of sent the data directly to him into his mind. Lee paused for a moment, making sure he understood it correctly. "Okay, according to Haruno, the attack's name was the SHOOTING STAR, RANGNAROK BREAKER. If I remember correctly, I called it a "combination" type attack, and I think I did it by fusing two attacks together. One is mine and the other one is supposed to be an attack of near equal power from a close by friend according to Haruno. My half was my PURE LIGHT BREAKER and I think the other one was called STARLIGHT BREAKER. That said, I don't really get the specifics of it, and I've never heard of anything called a 'Combination' spell before today. Anyone have any idea?"

Grayson was the one to answer this question, "I've heard of it before, but I msut confess this is my first time seeing it up close in person. It is an immensely rare ability that some mages are able to utilize, an ability simply known as KOU, or the Combination Ability, which allows you to create what are known as Combination Spells. They are spells that are made of multiple regular spells, usually one of the users one of another person the user is related to in some way, which allows them to create an all new, and usually much more powerful spell. But to be honest, not much is known at all about combination type spells as a whole, but I do know that they are much more advanced than a normal spell, and have even been documented breaking a few rules of standard magic. Only a very few mages have the potential for this ultimate skill and most of those who could aren't able to use it at will. They were only able to use it when pushed into a corner. But in any case, given what I witnessed, that seems to be the most likely answer, since you clearly used two separate spells for that immense attack you fired."

Lee looked around the room for a second and then turned to Nanoha, "I don't really get it, but I understand that I used someone else's spell. That said, now that I thought about it, I remember this spell coming up in conversation before as being one of yours. Any insight into what it is?" He waited a moment, and then Nanoha spoke up, "Yes, that would be my attack. It's my strongest spell, the STARLIGHT BREAKER. It's an attack that summons magic from every possible source, not just the user, in order to bombard the target with extreme force. It probably took a bit of power from everyone here to gain its attack power. Of course, it is still completely dependent on the user's own magic for the main power as well as control. I was surprised when I saw you start to form it since no one else has ever been able to use it before, and trust me, many have tried." Grayson, "That makes sense. For reasons that are not well understood, a mage is able to use spells that they are generally unable to otherwise when using combination spells, though only in that context."

It was at that exact moment that out of nowhere, a woman barged into the room, apparently very tired from doing something strenuous recently and red in the face with anger, "YOU'VE BETTER HAVE SOME DAMN GOOD EXCUSE READY FOR THIS TO TELL TO THEM BIGWIGS BACK AT HEADQUARTERS JACKSON. I ALREADY TOLD YOU TO STOP HIDING OUT AT FACILITIES UNDER MY JURISDICTION TO AVOID WORK AND I DON'T WANT THIS TO ESCALATE. MY SECTION COULD BE GIVEN HELL IF YOU DON'T START TALKING, SO GET YAPPING ALREADY." Everyone turned around to look at the new visitor. The woman, upon realizing that there was people other than just the target of her extraordinary frustration in the room suddenly changed gears at an absolutely freaky pace, her aggressive demeanor replaced by something borderline cheerful and giddy, "Hey," she did a quick scan of the room, "where's Jack?" Everyone looked around to see where Jack had gone, but somehow he had disappeared when they weren't working, a somewhat extraordinary feat given that teleportation was still impossible from all the radiant magic in the area. That said, the new woman was not dissuaded in the least as she walked over to the closet in the corner and opened the door, Jack tumbling out of it as she did so, with Jackson now wearing a forced goofy smile, "You found me!" The woman once again changed moods on a dime and went back to her more aggressive persona, then took Jackson by the collar of his uniform and pulled him to his feet. "Damn, I was hoping I could leave before you got here," Jackson muttered under his breath. The woman in question clearly heard the commentary as she suddenly gave him a nice right hook to the chin and sent him surprisingly far across the room, hitting the opposite wall where he then slumped down almost comedically. Jackson though recovered relatively quickly from the onslaught, moving himself upright speedily enough as he was rubbing his head, "Ow, that hurts you know." The woman stomped across the room and once again brought him up by his shirt. "So, I'm waiting, what explanation do you have this time?" It looked like she was going to resume her beatdown until she was interrupted with a muffled grunt from John, which for some reason got her attention as she remembered that there were many other people in the room. Upon this realization, she immediately dropped the half beaten to death general on the floor, whereby he immediately retreated behind a couch for cover.

The new woman suddenly turned to the rest of them, "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I am General Lindy Verona, General of Section 3, a pleasure to meet you." She then saw General Grayson, "And hello again Grayson, long time no see." Grayson just smiled while still sipping tea on the couch, one of only two people alongside John who didn't have a distressed look on their face, "Same here." Then she turned to John and immediately, her face lit up with a big smile, "Johnny, how you been getting along? Didn't expect to see you here. It's been so long since I saw you. How are the kids?" John smiled back, "It's been good, and as for the kids…" He suddenly pointed behind him to Lee, Sarah and Sora. "These are the kids right here." Lindy froze for a moment, a puzzled look spreading across her face, "I thought you said that your kids weren't mages, or even had an ounce of magic for that matter. I remembered you were all depressed when the tests showed them all with nothing." John, "Well, they didn't until about a few months ago, a bit before I was able to go home. It was very sudden too. Wasn't really prepared for it actually."

"Okay, okay," Jackson, seeing that General Lindy seemed to have calmed down finally, decided it was about time that he stopped hiding behind the couch, "Why don't we go to my office, I was told it wasn't damaged too much and most of the repairs on it are finished so it would be much better than here in this cramped medical room." At Jackson's insistence, everyone in the room got up, and Lee was about to do the same when he suddenly felt his bed move on its own, much to his surprise. Jackson, "You don't get to move until you're fully healed, which at this point you are far from, even you should of noticed that you probably still can't move your legs." After Jackson finished, Lee realized that he was quite right so he, his bed and all moved into the elevator, though he was still in a state of semi-shock from the scene he had just witnessed so he didn't even have time to be enamored with the fact that his bed was floating on its own. In any case, he had to go down first due to the amount of space he took up. That said, by the time they were in the elevator, Lee finally found his curiosity to wonder about how his bed was moving when Jackson turned to him, "Magic, obviously."

They headed across the complex towards the general's office. In the back of the procession, Sarah had decided to walk with General Lindy, somehow finding the older woman equal parts terrifying and awesome at the same time, and Lindy seemed excited to talk to her, "So your John's kid, Lindy Verona, a pleasure." Sarah, "Correct, I'm Sarah Cross, and the same to you. So, how do you know my dad?" General Lindy, "Myself, your father and that worthless stump of a general behind us went through the same training courses for becoming T.S.A.B mages and we all became friends pretty quickly after he and Jackson shot down a training drone that had gone berserk and tried to kill me. We were also in the same unit for 3 years after that and we've kept in close touch. We were something of the TSAB's golden trio for a while too, we all kept getting promoted until we landed where we are now. That said, if I'm being truthfully, we've actually met before, but you wouldn't remember since you were just three weeks old at the time. That was the only time I actually visited John's home world now that I think about it." Sakura went back to hear their conversation and also to ask a question herself, one that had been on her mind once she realized that General Lindy hadn't been on world before Lee's power test, "Um, Miss. General Lindy, can I ask you a question?" "First off, you just did, second, I hate formality with a vengeance, and probably more so than Johnny so none of that Miss. General crap please and thirdly, sure, fire away." Sakura was taken aback by this abruptness, but then preceded to ask her question, "How did you get here to the base, I thought it was impossible to leave or come to this planet due to the Dimensional shift." Lindy, "Ah, good question. Actually, it isn't impossible, just very, very difficult. No normal mage could even come close to the planet to be sure though. In fact, only a portal type mage has even a slight chance due to their inborn talent for teleportation magic and spatial awareness. I happen to be one of the best damn teleportation mages in the entire T.S.A.B. I have even been given the nickname, 'Goddess of the Gates.' What you have to do is try and find the weak point in the dimensional shift, a point as far away from the source as possible so it has the least dimensional damage, and concentrate on pushing your gate through it. It takes a lot of effort, even for me and there is no guarantee that the weak spot is weak enough to break through. It just happens that this is a REALLY small dimensional shift so the weak spot was both obvious and weak enough to penetrate. Unfortunately, under most circumstances it's a one-way pass. If you get into the Dimensional shift, you can't get out so you have to be careful." Sakura looked at General Lindy with admiration, "I hope I get good enough at portals someday to be able to do that. I've actually only made a portal once before, today in fact. That said, magic in general is still new to me, just a few weeks before Sarah actually." Lindy had to pause for a moment, surprised to hear that Sakura was a portal mage, "Really, another portal mage. You don't see that every day, we are an incredibly rare lot after all, but good for you. Here is a bit of advice though from your senior in the subject, don't just focus on the location, try to extend your senses and pretend you are there. That should make your ability to sense the dimensional space at your destination easier."

They arrived at the room Jackson was currently using as his office, which didn't look at all damaged like the rest of the building. "One of the perks for being a General, you are always a first priority," said Jackson. They all sat down, except for Lee who was still confined to his bed for the inability to walk for a bit. He found that he could move the bed with his magic if he focused a bit. He remembered that he could levitate stuff with his magic as well so he wasn't too inconvenienced, especially since this was only supposed to last a day.

After they were all situated, Lindy turned to Jackson for her explanation, "Okay, enough stalling. Are you going to tell me just what in the hell happened here or what!?" "Okay, Okay," said Jackson, "I will explain everything. It all started with a training exercise. We were testing out someone's total power level output and max peak output when all this happened. We though we were prepared, especially since this was actually the second time this person has destroyed everything around him during a power testing. Yesterday he basically totaled John's ship on accident during a similar test. But in any case, when they reached their maximum, they couldn't power down due to the enormous amount of energy they had gathered. Thus, to kill two birds with one stone, they were told to direct all of it into one attack so that we could get a peak output reading. That said, I doubt even the mage in question knew how strong that attack would be as it was apparently their first time using that particular spell. But as you can guess, they fired it off into space and the resulting explosion from the attack was what caused a small Dimensional Shift. And that's the story. It was just a training accident so no harm done, you can just let it slide. I'll even handle the paperwork, so no harm no fowl." Lindy looked at Jackson for a second as if waiting for more. When no one said anything, she continued, "Well, is that all the detail you're going to give me. I asked for a full report. We may both be generals but I still feel like yelling at you anyways. I want details, footage, names, and power readings. Get on it already."

He fumbled around for a bit, getting things together. Then he passed Lindy an electronic tablet with all the data on it. "Okay, let's see what we got here. Mage's name: Lee Cross, so it's one of John's kids obviously. Next we have his power level. Now that's a hell of a number, 827 million with a SSS+ ranking… She had to pause at that part, not sure she read it right, but upon double checking let her surprise show on her face as she continued, "Next we have a Max peak output reading." Her eyes widened even farther as she saw the number. "It say's here that it's at 2.5 billion with a "SSS+ special" ranking. Is that correct Jackson?" Jackson in a low voice, "Yes, that was the reading." She continued on, "There's a side note here too, wonder what that is." She pressed on the note to bring it up on the tablet, "Says here that the spell used for the peak output test was a real 'combination spell, didn't expect that one." She looked over the data again, since even for her it was a borderline ludicrous report, but she knew that it was probably accurate from everything thus far. That said, she suddenly grinned wildly, "Damn, I like this guy, all his stats are insane. I have got to meet him in person. Jackson, arrange a meeting with this mage on the double. I want to see him personally." Jackson replied, "No need for that, he's already here obviously."

She looked around the room at the seven candidates in the room, donning a sort of mock detective impression, deciding she was going to have a little fun. She mentioned that the data said it was a male so she knew it wasn't Nanoha, who she had already recognized at any rate. She looked around the room for a second. "Okay, it obviously isn't you two," she pointed at Matt and his dad, "I don't even get a real reading from you," she said while looking at Gary Kaiten. She walked over to Garret and Chrono and peered at them closely, holding up a magnifying glass in comical manor as if examining them (wherever she got one of those from). "You two are decent, I'll give you that but not quite there. My guess is that the two of you are in the mid to high A class, probably either AA or AAA or something like that. Still, those are pretty crazy ranks for young mages. Keep it up." She got to Lance, "And I know who you are. You're that Scrya kid from the Beatha Reactor incident back a few years. I heard that you weren't really much of a combatant so that rules you out." Then she got to Sora and Lee. "Well, both of you are definitely the most powerful ones out of all the other candidates." She looked at Lee for a second and then to Sora in what could only be stated as a bad Sherlock impersonation. "You're both Cross's children too so obviously it's got to be one of you." She looked at Sora for a second. "Taking into account that a bit may still be gone from the test, I would say you are the best bet. You're Lee, right?" Sora then said, "Sorry, you got it wrong. I am strong, but not that strong. I am only an S ranked mage. HE," he pointed at Lee, "is Lee, the supposed SSS+ wonder mage." She looked at Lee for a second, and then said, "You're the SSS+ mage?" At this point her mock surprise was more obvious, it was clear she was just having some fun at this point. In truth if any of them thought about it, it was obvious she already knew who was the mage of interest. Beyond being apparently best friends with John and therefore almost definitely knowing which kid was which, Lee was the only one confined to a bed due to magical depletion. Still, they let her have her fun.

That said, after a moment she dropped the fun act and got a bit serious, "But seriously, if someone had asked me yesterday, I would have never guessed that, a teenage SSS+ mage and able to do true combinations to boot. You're all right in my book kid. You've got the stuff, and a lot of it." She then suddenly turned face towards the rest of the room, "Alright, as we're all stuck together on this rock with a nice training facility, we're turning tomorrow into a field day everybody, that includes you, Jackson. It will be a ton of fun. Not like there's much else to do around this joint. Besides, been forever since I've actually had a good workout, mostly due to the lack of worthy training partners. It's tough being a strong mage." Jackson was about to refuse when General Grayson stepped forward, "Good idea, I think I'll join in too. Been stuck behind a desk for too long recently. Got to stay in shape else my age will decide to get the better of me one of these days." Knowing he was outnumbered even with his authority, he gave up, "Fine, I'll have them clean up the magical residue on the training field by tomorrow. And as an extra precaution, I'll also set the training barrier as a top priority as well. I would have put it up in the first place but I really didn't expect that attack to do what it did." Lindy, "Very good, but later today you and me are going to have a nice long talk about you commandeering one of my section's facilities in order for you to play hookey…" Jackson suddenly felt sweat fall down his face, he was not looking forward to that conversation.

In any case, a short while later, Jackson had a lower ranked subordinate officer show the rest of them to the guest rooms, which were already repaired per Jackson's orders. While Lindy stayed in her room watching videos of Lee's testing session, analyzing it for herself, Lee was basically confined to his room due to his leg's temporary pseudo-paralysis. According to the doctor who had examined him while he was out, it was only due to something called a magic block in his nervous system due to the power he exerted during his power test, and that it wasn't anything to worry about. Thus he was told to just rest until tomorrow when it would be good as new. Luckily, he wasn't stuck there alone as he had the constant attention of his friends who stayed to keep him company.

Sora and Garret meanwhile had already left the building and had been shown to the underground training hall which was for the most part still operational so that they could both get a workout in. It was there even though there was the main testing area for stormy days and to let staff at the base have a place to work out and train when the main area was in use. In any case it was much smaller but it was still big enough for some good training. They even sparred with each other for a bit, and Sora honestly was surprised at how even it was given the difference in their apparent Mage Levels. Even though his rank was 3 levels below Sora's, Garret was a tough opponent, so it was obvious that he had extensive training. It was tough because as with everything, power wasn't the only thing. There were other variables as well to consider and Sora was learned real fast that Garret had all those pinned down as well. All in all it ended up being a good sparring session. While that was happening though, communications were repaired enough as to allow John to call Chrono and Sakura's parents to tell them that their children and Nanoha had decided to stay over at a friend of Lee's for the weekend and wouldn't be home for another two days. They were worried at first but then John told them that he would guarantee their safety. He was, after all, a famous bodyguard and security consultant having completed contracts for both families in the past. John was still an actual certified bodyguard that took real assignments on Earth. Jackson even made a joke that John had to be the only Captain Commander to have a second job, something that John had apparently made a condition of being allowed to continue as a stipulation of joining the TSAB, since they generally didn't allow enlisted personnel to hold other jobs. In any case, it was fine since it was still spring vacation, so they wouldn't be missing any school either. The rest of the day passed by in a flash.

They were all surprised when they woke up the next morning, except for the general's, Lance and Nanoha who had already expected it. When they woke up, they were surprised to find that everything looked as good as new. Not even a crack was left from yesterday's events. In addition, they were equally surprised to find that out in the common area, there was a fully laid out breakfast table with a full assortment of breakfast's from Earth. And true to form, Lee found that he was able to get up and walk no problem, the previous day's effects completely gone. They were all digging in when a message appeared in front of each of them on a floating intangible screen reminding them to meet at the training field entrance gate a 9 am sharp. It was only then they realized it was already 8:30, and so they all ate the rest of their food hurriedly and headed out to meet at the gate. When they got there, General Lindy was waiting for them in something akin to a red tracksuit and wearing a white bandana of some kind around her forehead. "Okay maggots and general's alike, today we're going to have some fun."

Jackson opened the giant door in front of the training grounds, and then he walked in with everyone, including all the Kaiten's following suit. "Okay, first we are going to do a warm up. Let's see…" She looked around for a minute. "Okay, we'll start off with 1 lap around the inner area for all mages over AA rank, about 2.5 kilometers. That includes you Jackson," she added while spotting him trying to walk away. "General Grayson, can I ask you to help by flying up and making sure no one," she eyed Jackson, "tries to cheat or otherwise run away." Grayson smiled, "Sure, I would be glad to help." The General suddenly looked to his watch, "Release WATUSE" In a brief flash, Grayson was now wearing a gray and black vest with a T.S.A.B. badge on it with pure black armored pants. He also had a staff that had a triangular point with a round, empty bulge near the top point. He flew up and to the middle of the grounds to get the best view. "Okay WATUSE, bring up the necessary data and area tracking." WATUSE was now a gray square in the middle of the round bulge blinked a few times and said, "IT SHALL BE DONE." 3 pf those strange semi-transparent screens appeared in front of him with various bits of data and other things displaying on them. "Good to go," he yelled to them. "Good." Lindy then turned to everyone, "One more thing, no magic." Everyone besides people with Cross as a last name jumped back at this. For a Cross, a 2.5-kilometer jog wasn't much to complain about. It was child's play compared to their sword training, and for the other active TSAB members this fell under the category of basic fitness, but for the rest, it seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. "Sora," Lee turned to his older brother, "Want to have a race, my legs are all better now." "Sure, why not. Dad, you should join us too." "Nah, I wouldn't want to beat you two that badly, I think I'll just keep Jackson company." They all got to the starting line. "Alright," said Lindy, "I forgot to mention that there is a prize, the first one to get back without cheating will get a prize. I of course will also be competing so don't get your hopes up." She got into line with them. General Grayson materialized a large screen in front of them. It had a countdown on it.

"3 2 1 GO!" They sped off the starting line with Lindy in the lead. For an average person, she was pretty fast, and her endurance was good too, as she wasn't tiring while running at what appeared to be her full speed. Lee though suddenly had a thought and had to ask his father about it telepathically, "Does Lindy know about our swordsmanship and the stuff that goes along with it like SHUNPO?" John, "Not to the extent you're thinking of. I haven't seen her in a while and I never used those skills openly during mage training or on assignments, but it's not like I ever attempted to hide it from my friends like I do normally, it just never came up. They do know I practice a family sword style though, so if you want, go wild with it since I trust them with my life." Lee turned to Sora, "He says it's okay but she won't expect it." Sora, "Okay, how about we have some fun then." Lee looked confused so he went on, explaining his plan. After hearing it, Lee agreed thinking it would be fun. They sped up to catch up with Lindy, "My, my, aren't you guys the fast ones. But let's see who is faster." She sped up a little and they followed suit.

Back at the very rear of the procession, Sarah was running with Sakura who, despite her solid gymnastics' skills and generally decent athleticism, was terrible at long distance running, or running of any kind. Sarah could have even finished the race on her own, but she didn't want to leave Sakura behind by herself and thus decided to give her older friend a helping hand, literally, "Sakura, try to stay close to me," and she grabbed her hand. Of course, Sarah wasn't as good as her older brothers, not able to really use Ki yet and so couldn't use a true SHUNPO to make herself faster, but she was able to use a sort of basic form of the technique still for a significant speed increase. "What are you-," Sarah pounded the ground, giving them both a little bit of acceleration and speeding them towards the pack. "I can't do too much, but it should be just enough to make it look good." Sakura smiled at Sarah, "You're a good friend. I thought I was going to look like a loser coming in last place kilometers (literally) behind everyone else."

Lee and Sora were almost at the halfway point. They had been steadily keeping up with Lindy for their amusement but at the halfway; they were going to start their own race for real. Lindy saw as they sped up a little, "You guys are fast but not fast enough…" Lindy suddenly went into an all-out sprint. They let her pass them for now, as the had decided to wait until the halfway marker before they truly went at it. When they passed it, they hit the ground hard, pounding it down and speeding forward. They were using their Ki enhanced SHUNPO now and going at a lightning-fast pace in a dead heat race between the two of them. In any case, they sped past Lindy as blurs and left a track of dust in their wake. Lindy for her part had no idea what the two of them were doing, but it was obvious to her that they must have been using some type of magic, and so simply decided to call them out for cheating after the race as to claim victory for herself. Grayson watched as they sped the second half, though he admitted that it was hard as visually, he could only keep track of where they were by the dust clouds. Of course, he too was surprised at their speed, believing that they must have been using magic, and so he looked to the magic scanning data to find evidence of such, and thus was surprised to find that there wasn't any reading at all, not even a faint one. By the time looked back up, the frontrunners had already finished, Lee reappeared first followed by Sora a second later. Lee quickly claimed victory and sat to the side on some benches to wait for the others. It took about another hour before everyone was across the finish line.

Lindy, "Okay, now to announce the winner. Due to cheating scum being disqualified, I get the gold." Lee looked a bit upset, "What do you mean cheating scum, I won fair and square!" Lindy, "What do you mean fair, you used magic for a super boost and sped right past me? I saw it myself." Sora, "That wasn't magic." Lindy, "What do you mean not magic? You were booking at least 20 times my speed and you say you did it without magic, that's a good one." Nanoha suddenly stepped in, "That's right, they did it without magic, right guys." She turned to her friends. Chrono, Sakura, Lance, Sarah and John all shook their heads in agreement. Lindy though just turned to Grayson, "You tell them Grayson about Lee and Sora's little stunt. You were keeping track of everyone's output and location, surely you noticed it." Grayson though looked a bit baffled, "Actually, that's been puzzling me, I didn't pick up any trace of magic at all, and trust me after they took off I looked." Lindy, looking outnumbered, though still skeptical, admitted defeat and gave Lee first place, along with the special lunch box he got as the prize.

Lindy, "Okay, save that for later Lee, we still have time before lunch which means we have time to train. Next, we have the other warm-up, and this is for everyone. We are going to do a simple target practice." She turned around, "And those will be your targets." In the distance, a few glowing orbs were floating around. "If you hit it correctly, it will disappear. There are ten of them in all. In addition, you can't use any staffs or focuses, in other words, no devices, and let's say no incantations as well. You can only use magic you can do yourself. It will be good training for learning how to use spells without staffs or incantations. Spells can generally be used without incantations and a staff if you focus hard enough, but their power is severely limited without the incantation in most cases, at least initially." Jackson continued the explanation, "In truth, an incantation is just another kind of focusing tool to help us control magic. The words meaning invoke a response within us, a form of self-conditioning if you will, that allows us to control the magic for a specific spell correctly. Thus, for most spells, it is possible to bypass this requirement if you can mentally recreate that conditioning, either by reciting the incantation mentally if that helps you, or if you can just remember the feeling of a spell outright so you don't need it at all." Lindy, "Exactly, though without either a staff or an incantation to act as the focus, spells are generally much weaker, and you'll have to do all the aiming calculations and other possible logic required yourself." Lance suddenly chimed in, "Though if you're like me and regularly don't use a staff, that weakness basically goes away after a while, and personally I've never had a problem with math…"

They all nodded, understanding the explanation for the most part and started thinking about how to start applying it. Well, at least most of them, for there were three people there that couldn't even start to do that much. "Um, Miss Lindy," Matt said in a sort of quiet voice, "What if we can't do magic yet or are just beginning." Lindy, "What do you mean? I can see everyone has at the lowest a B ranking. I see no problem here, everyone here seems to be pretty good considering." Matt looked confused for a second, "What are you talking about, neither of my sisters can even use any real magic and I can barely make a ball of magic, let alone shoot one."

Now it was Lindy's turn to be confused. "What are you talking about? I'm sensing at least A from you and B from BOTH of your sisters. If this is a joke, it isn't funny." Now everyone turned around looking confused. Now it was Lillian's (Mrs. Kaiten) turn to speak out, "I don't know what you're talking about, my daughters can't use magic and I am pretty sure I would be able to tell if my own son was an A class mage." Lindy suddenly came to a realization, "Okay, you all go and practice over there, I'll let Grayson try to teach you all something while I get these three ready. Now, you three," she looked at Rachel, Louise and Matt, "You'll be going over there with me. It looks like I need to teach you proper magic focusing technique. It seems you were never taught, or at least never taught right." They all went over with confused expressions to a separate area of the training grounds as the others did target practice.

Lindy, "Okay, you three are about to learn to harness you magic, correctly." She snapped her fingers and the area within 20 yards changed suddenly. The ground disappeared and was replaced by a rough stone floor, "Its usually easier when not on the ground, and more comfortable." Then she told them to all sit down, "Okay, proper magical focusing is relatively simple but most mages who've already learned it don't have to bother with it a second time. Some are also just born with a natural aptitude for it, and some aren't and that's okay. Once you get it down once, it is impossible to forget, it will become second nature instantly. Think of it as a baby learning how to move its hands." Matt, "Okay, but how does that translate into us being B and A level mages. Only elite mages ever get to be that strong." Lindy, "Here's some advice. Despite what you've probably been taught; all mages have the capacity to become A ranked mages unless born with some kind of disability. It all has to do with how they use their magic. This includes how they focus and draw it out and how much they apply themselves, though in your cases, you yourself already have the power necessary, and your sisters are honestly not that far off." Louise, "Are you sure I have magic, I've tried everything and didn't get a drop." Lindy, "100% sure little girl. Okay, for starters, I'll use you," she pointed at Matt, "As an example of how not to draw out magic. Show us what you got, kid." Matt tried and managed to summon a very small ball of magic above his hand. Lindy though looked less than impressed, "I think I see your problem right off the bat, but for learning purposes, please tell me how you summoned that." Matt, "Right, I did it the way my mother said she was taught. She said to focus on one spot and the magic would flow there with enough concentration."

Lindy looked like she was about to laugh herself to death, "Well it's no wonder why you suck, you're effectively trying to pull something from nothing. This explains everything. I bet your mother was one of the ones who basically started knowing how to summon magic instinctively. What she told you only applies to those who are born with that instinct. In fact, I would be prepared to bet that you attempting to do so has probably kept your linker core from awakening naturally, I've seen it before. But no matter, I guess I should tell you the correct way now. You say you concentrate on a spot and nothing else, right? Well, this time, try to feel out the magic and where it's coming from." He did and he tried to feel out where it was coming from. "Okay, Lindy, I think I found it, but I'm not sure." "Good, now just keep doing that, just keep locating the source until you know you've got it. Now I am going to work with you sisters."

"Okay little girlies, time to get started. By the way, what are your names, I don't think you introduced yourselves yet?" Rachel responded first, "My name is Rachel and her name is Louise. We're Grayson's nieces." Lindy, "So your Grayson's family, no wonder I sense good potential. Getting on with it, unlike Matt, I am guessing that neither of you are able to even summon magic, right?" Louise answered, "That's right, and I've tried everything." Lindy, "About what I expected, you two are probably still a little young to be at the point to summon it yourselves. Matt has reached the typical age that all mages brought up in a non-mage family usually manifest their powers naturally if they were left untrained and weren't accidentally hindering their own growth, but in your cases, you haven't reached that stage yet, and even with training, you guys would only be at the very beginning of when you would be able to start learning magic properly under normal circumstances."

Rachel and Louise looked a bit disheartened, Rachel, "Does that mean we have to wait until we are his age then?" Lindy smiled, "Don't worry, for those of this type of background where they are not old enough for it to have happened naturally but have strong enough magic that it would be safe to do so, like you two, there is another method, equally as effective. Watch." Lindy produced a small ball of very pale pink magic in each of her hands, though it was obvious that it was strong, stronger than they had ever felt before, easily in the S range, but strangely it also felt weirdly passive for such a massive amount of power. Lindy, "Magic is typically drawn to magic, especially if its as neutral as this. Watch, put your hands out." They did and to their surprise, Lindy simply dropped the balls of immense magic in their hands. They were scared for a moment, but soon realized that they could hold them and they weren't going wild. Lindy, "Good, now your own magic should try and find my magic and if I am right, the color will probably change when your magic takes over. When that happens feel for its source." They looked at the balls of magic. Suddenly, Rachel's started to turn purple and Louise's started to turn lavender. "Good, good, now feel out the source." It only took about ten seconds before both of them said, "Found it."

At this, Lindy gathered the three Kaiten children back together, "Next is trying to make a ball of energy about as big as the ones I handed the girls just now. The actual power doesn't matter, but try to match the size. But this time, try and guide the magic there from the source you all just located." Matt went first, and to his surprise, a perfect sphere of lime green magic as big, if not slightly bigger than Lindy's appeared almost effortlessly. Next Rachel tried it and to her delight, a nice sized ball of purple magic appeared before her, also seemingly effortlessly. Next Louise gave it a try, and she managed to make one too without too much trouble after a few minutes, though it was a bit smaller than the others. Lindy, "Okay, that's good, you've all just finished proper magic focusing instruction 101, congratulations." They all looked confused, "What are you talking about, you just taught us how to make a ball of magic." Lindy, "I mean that's proof enough that it worked, but if you don't trust me, just try and summon as much magic as you can, but this time, don't direct it, let it flow out your body. I'm guessing you'll be quite surprised…" Matt thought this a waste of time but did as he was told.

Chrono was in the middle of shooting practice while everyone watched. They had just about finished already when out of nowhere, they felt a surge of energy. None of them recognized it so they quickly went toward the source. When they got there though, they were all quite surprised. Matt was standing on a concrete surface with a lime green magic circle under him and pouring out magic, and a nice amount of it too. "What the hell is this," said Mr. Kaiten. Lindy, "Okay, next the girls." They tried to do the same as their brother and to everyone's shock, two more surges of magic appeared from each of the girls. Everyone looked on as they saw the three seemingly magic-less kids summon their magic all at once. A purple circle appeared under Rachel while a lavender one appeared under Louise. Lindy, "Ok," she took out a pyramid shaped jewel and spoke to it, "BUTAI TETSUJIN, can you get me a reading?" Her device, "Main scanner connected." A screen appeared in front of Lindy, "Keep it going you three." Their magic got stronger. After about another 10 seconds though, they all suddenly started glowing, then the glow seemed to be sucked away from them into a sphere in front of each of them. Lindy, "Okay, that's enough, you can stop now." They did and as they did, their circles vanished and the glowing spheres got smaller until they turned into a green triangle jewel for Matt, a small purple cube jewel for Rachel and lavender pentagon jewel for Louise. They then hung themselves around their necks. They looked confused so Lindy explained, "Your own devices made from your own magic. They are sometimes created the first time a mage hits their peak like you guys just did. Though it doesn't happen every mage, and also even to those that can, not always on the first try. In fact, the majority just can't manifest them at all so count yourselves lucky. I also have readings for you. Louise is a B ranked mage, Rachel is B+ ranked mage and Matt is himself just barely an A ranked mage. All are exceptional readings for teens and lower. Nice job you guys."

Everyone went over to congratulate the three on their accomplishment, with Lillian heading over to Lindy, "How did you know, I thought I tried everything? What did you teach them?" Lindy, "Honestly, I didn't really teach them anything. They already knew on some level, at most I just brought it to their attention. That is how it usually is in these types of cases." Lillian, "But how did you know that they even had magic, I couldn't sense anything in my youngest daughter for the longest time, nor could Grayson for that matter, and even after she started showing signs, it was nothing like this." Lindy, "Now that would be something that only someone like me could do. I was born with overly acute magic senses, so I can generally pick up on most any trace of magic, no matter how small or suppressed or hidden it is. It is also one of the traits of a person who is able to shift through dimensional shifts develops as well. To put it bluntly, your children's magic was like gold in a mine. You had to dig for a bit but when you found it, you hit the jackpot." Lillian, "Well thank you, I know you made them happy and you made me happy as their mother too." Lindy smirked, "Don't mention it, just part of what I do. My 3rd Section is responsible for the training of mages so I do this type of thing all the time. You could say that this is literally my job…"

Nanoha meanwhile was curious about the newly minted mages and their manifested devices, "So let's see you transform." Sakura, "Good idea. Got to make sure its at least fashionable." The three agreed, and Matt decided to go first, "Okay, lets see here," he took out his green triangle, "So whatcha called?" The triangle replied, "ZAMARETSU, here to serve." Matt, "Okay ZAMARETSU, SET UP!" Next came a flash of light and then Matt was wearing a green blazer with a black shirt underneath with dark green pants with a black stripe going down each side. He was holding a staff with a white handle and a light green head that looked like a "U" with a complete circle at the top, connecting the two ends. Matt, "Cool." Next, Rachel gave it a go. Her cubes name was VIOLET JOY, "VIOLET JOY, SET UP." She transformed into a pure purple blazer with a pure white shirt underneath. She had a light violet dress with white stripes on it. She was holding a small staff that had a very light white handle and a light violet head which was a perfect sphere surrounded by three thick circles, all connected making a sort of mini barrel. Rachel looked very, very happy. Next up was Louise, who found out that her lavender pentagram's name was ROSE LIGHT, "ROSE LIGHT, SET UP." She transformed into a white shirt with a pure lavender blazer with a white L on the back. She was wearing a white dress with lavender stripes going down half way from the bottom up. It also had lavender frills on the edges, not unlike what one would expect to find on a character from a children's anime. Louise looked overjoyed as she found that with a bit of effort, she was even able to float around for a brief bit. Her oldest brother though had to fly up and catch her before she went to far away, given that even with her awakened powers, she probably couldn't stay afloat for long. Though she could fly a bit, Lindy made a point of telling her to train it up slowly since she was not quite at the level where flying would be second nature and so it would consume a good amount of magic and exhaust her if she wasn't careful, as was expected of a B class mage.

Lindy, "Okay, now that we all know how to at least use some magic, we can get to get back to the training program for today. A generic to every mage is that they should have the capacity to do at least three attack type spells, what would qualify as a minor, medium, and extreme level spell for them. This exercise is to launch each one successfully at a target. For those who use close range attacks, you can move to the target, otherwise, your planted where your feet are. Understood?" Everyone nodded his or her heads with uncertainty.

Everyone transformed into his or her barrier jackets and their staffs appeared before them. They all started to prepare and were thinking what attacks they were going to use. Lee went up first for an example. He knew which attacks right off the bat. He first shot his GLOWING SHOOTER at the target, hitting dead center, followed up by his SHINNING BUSTER, which they couldn't tell if it was a bull's eye because he had destroyed the target along with the dummy. Next, he prepared to fire his original (the first one he used) PURE LIGHT BREAKER and was thinking that he was probably overdoing it with this attack, which was probably true given the wide path of destruction he left between him and the target after firing it. To his surprise though, when he fired it off, he only felt a tiny bit of fatigue, and it disappeared almost instantly. He looked surprised at this when General Grayson turned to him, "Surprising, isn't it, how little that attack seemed to tire you. The reason though I imagine is quite simple. I bet you've grown quite since you last used that spell at that lower level. Based on your reaction, I would guess that when you first used it, you exhausted yourself, right?." Lee nodded at this, Grayson continued, "Well, without knowing it, since then, you've most likely used magic that takes multiple times more, like the attack you used yesterday. That spell yesterday took at least 10 times as much as that, and that's a conservative estimate if I say so myself. Thus, after doing that, this should seem like a walk in the park, but it still shows great improvement." Lee felt good with himself. John though who overheard the conversation had some additional thoughts on the subject himself "It doesn't hurt that he also has a huge amount of raw magic capacity naturally. We were almost drained completely trying to heal him yesterday" Elsewhere, all the newbie's looked at Lee's handiwork. His breaker attack not only destroyed the target and dummy, it had created a deep ditch in the ground starting from where Lee was and ended at a large crater.

Next, Nanoha went, she used DIVINE SHOOTER, DIVINE BUSTER, and then her ACS, albeit only the strike flame. That said, it seemed less impressive then most people thought it should be, given that her own power assessment already put her around Lee's level. Lee, "Why didn't you use your breaker? We all heard about your level already, so why hold back?" Nanoha walked back from where she had just made a nice sized crater, looking a little apprehensive, but answered Lee regardless "Well, I don't think it would be a good idea to use it here, it might be dangerous considering its special ability." Before Lee had time to question further, Lindy had shoved them aside so they could continue. Next, Lance went up, but instead he showed three different barriers and shields, the third one with enough power that it could have defended an SSS class attack with ease. He even said that if he really tried, he could pump it up to SSS+ class without too much effort. Nanoha made a point of saying that even though he wasn't a fighter, Lance had never lost a one-on-one fight the few times she had seen him have to do so, and it was always due to his opponents inability to hit him, after which he could just go in with a weak generic magic attack and get the easy win, and even when they used to spar she could almost never win. Sakura followed with a display of her SCARLET SHOOTER, SCARLET FURY BUSTER and her CrimsonSniperShot DRIVER. Chrono soon followed with his three, CRASH SHOT, GRAVITON STRIKE and OverBlazeStriker. Everyone was impressed with the last attack as he plummeted towards the ground, creating a huge explosion along with the largest crater of the day so far. What was more, he didn't look as exhausted as when he first used it. If nothing else, this exercise made it clear to all of them that they were getting stronger (though Chrono held most of his power back on the last one). Sarah was next in the line up with her set of three. Her first was a new attack that they had not seen before, it was called DESTINY BULLET, it shot a small blast of white magic at the target that went ½ the way through. When it was half way through, it exploded causing the training dummy to do the same. Next was LIGHT SMASHER. Finally, she used her BLAZING DESTINY to finish things off, once again amazing the newbies or otherwise new people.

Next, Sora was up. He knew exactly which ones too. He started off with a FLARE SLASH, with a downward strike, sending the attack shooting along the ground vertically up, eventually ending up slicing up the drone in half. Lee was reminded of the EZUNA. Next was his ever-fast FLAMING BLITZ CRIEGE that hit the Drone so fast, most of the people hadn't registered it with their brains until it was over. Next was his FLASH FLARE CANNON, creating a crater slightly larger in width than Chrono's but was shallower. Following Sora, the Generals and John went up to bat. That said, it was honestly a bit of a let down to the spectators. Each of them decided to do it the easy way just to show off, with all of them deciding to just make spheres of magic with their hands that had the appropriate levels to get away easy. Each one was obviously flawless but the audience thought it somewhat anti-climactic. They were expecting a spectacular show of the Generals super impressive attacks. Next, Lillian (Mrs. Kaiten) did the same obviously not wanting to be bothered showing off, though as just a low B level mage, it didn't amount to much, especially since she had apparently left active TSAB duty quite a few years ago.

Next was Garret, who used three attacks he called ANCIENT SIGNETS. It was actually quite an interesting spell. They were all technically the same overall spell but each one was called a different level, which apparently changed the effect quite a bit. His first one was called ANCIENT SIGNET Level 1 – SIGNS OF JOY, a small ball of silvery magic. The second was ANCIENT SIGNET Level 4 – SIGNS OF SADNESS, which produced a ray of spiraling silver energy. The third one was ANCIENT SIGNET Level 7 – SIGNS OF SHOCK, which was a two-part attack that started off with a small bolt of magic shooting at the enemy, followed by a giant blast of spiraling energy. Though he was only ranked a AA+ mage, he created the biggest impact by far if the force they felt wash over them was any indication. Grayson, seeing their surprise explained it to them, "The only reason he isn't a S class elite mage or higher is because my nephew is probably the laziest person in the universe. He has the power, but not the drive. So, by his own request, he remained a AA+ rank taking on less difficult assignments."

Lee went over to his dad and asked, "What type of attack was that, I've never seen it before?" His father explained it to the eager crowed who came over to listen, "Garret uses a very rare spell type called a Gate spell. These spells are superiorly strong compared to normal attacks of the same level. For example, if a B mage did a simple blast with B+ ranking, then a B mage who did a simple style blast with a Gate attack with the same amount of magic would create an attack of A+ power. These users Gate Attacks are highly concentrated beyond what a normal mage can do through a unique method of magic construction theory whose specifics go even over my head. These attacks also generally have 8 Limits or Levels. What he showed you was his Level 1, 4 and 7 attacks. He could still go up one more level and rumor has it that the 8th level of a Gate Attack is almost 5 times as strong as the seventh, and are usually on par with Breakers and the like, which are the top class in terms of raw power, though they are supposed to be very taxing and cause a good amount of strain and backlash. It requires a mage of immense talent and in most cases a natural disposition in order to use Gated magic, so it is quite rare." Everyone looked over at Garret with surprise, including his own siblings who looked over with amazement; all accept his own Mother who already knew the full extent.

Last were the magic newbies, and then Lindy stepped in, "Since you are all new to the game of magic, your exercise is modified a bit. You all only need to do an average attack type spell if you can manage it. That shouldn't be too difficult. If you aren't sure, ask Nanoha, who pulled off much more when she was younger than all of you or Sarah for that matter." They all lined up and transformed. They were all wondering what they should do when Matt's green triangle, ZAMARETSU lit up, "Try METEOR CRASH." Going with the flow and the directions that he mentally got from ZAMARETSU, he pointed his staff at the target and a medium sized sphere of green magic appeared in front of his staff. It shot off at high speeds, leaving a glimmering trail of sparkles in its wake as it passed and hit the target, obliterating it. Next was Rachel, who asked her cube VIOLET JOY what she should try. It responded by sending the instructions directly to her head, "Okay, let's do it." She pointed her staff straight up, "VIOLET RIBBON!" A sphere appeared atop the staff. Then she brought the staff down and aimed it, "SHOOT!" A single ray of magical energy shot at the dummy from the staff, hitting the dummy and shattering it. "Cool" said Rachel. Lastly in the line up was the youngest of the entire group, Louise. She looked at her lavender Pentagram and asked it what to do, to which it responded, "INNOCENCE CANNON." Going with the mental instructions, she pointed her staff up and said, "The Chariot of Light, summon forth the power residing in me, INNOCENCE CANNON!" A ray of lavender light with a glowing silvery white aura faintly around it shot at the target, destroying it along with the dummy. It then hit the large boulder behind it, piercing it leaving a clean hole behind. Everyone looked surprised at this attack, which was obviously more powerful than the previous two despite it using roughly the same amount of overall magic. Lindy, "Didn't expect that, an attack that uses its aria for extra focusing power, who would of guessed a kid would use it first try." Everyone went over to congratulate them on their first successful spells.

Lindy, "Okay, on to today's last exercise." They all looked with apprehension all over their faces. Most of them didn't know if they could go on. Most of them were also running low on their supply of magic as well due to all the exercises. Lindy, "I know you're all probably exhausted most of your magic right now but don't worry, the last exercise doesn't require any magic at all. It is going to be a purely self defense lesson about how to defend yourself without magic." Everyone except the Cross's looked a little frightened at the idea of fighting without magic. Garret was the first to speak his opinion, "Now wait a second, just how is this going to be useful. We should be able to use our magic for this kind of thing, shouldn't we?" Lindy smiled, "That is where you are wrong lazy mage, there are several situations you will probably find in during your future battles. The most common of which would be inside an AMF or Anti Magic Field. It is a special type of barrier field that negates any magic used inside of it. Also, any magic from the outside below the level of the barrier field is also nullified. And if your thinking you could just over power it, think again. This field takes an enormous amount of energy to maintain, and as such, the minimum level of an AMF is a SS rank, which is roughly the same as the level of magic and thus mage needed to use one. Out of everyone here, the only ones who would even have a chance of destroying it is us generals, Nanoha and the all-star mini mage over there," she pointed at Lee, "And besides, they can only be destroyed from the outside at any rate."

Lindy, "Back to the topic, another scenario which especially applies to you all is if you're in a situation where you cannot use magic due to the risk of exposing yourselves to the ignorant non-magic civilians on your planet. It's not like Mr. Lance over there will be able to get a barrier up the second something comes up or something." It was Matt's turn to speak up, "What about erasing memories, that could be an easy solution. I know he did it just the other day, he told me himself." This time, Lance spoke up to answer the question, "Actually, that is a very improbable idea. You need several things to already be in effect before it can be done over such a wide area by a single person. First, a special type of barrier has to be put up to hide the battle from the outside but at the same time keep the people on the inside from disappearing into a space shift like a normal displacement barrier, and that barrier took a lot of work before hand, I was charging it for almost an hour before use. Second reason why it is not probable is because even if the first requirement is achieved, there is no guarantee that someone left the space before the barrier was put up, even with preparation, I need at least a 5 minutes warning to put the thing up. The third reason why it is improbable is even if by some chance, the first two are achieved somehow, you would need to also prepare a memory modification spell powerful enough to erase all of their memories. Doing it one by one would take to long for just one mage, and again I had to pre-charge the spell that could affect a whole area for half an hour. I was just lucky that time that the battle was so long as I couldn't charge two spells at once. Generally, a whole specialized TSAB unit is required for such an operation." Matt was looking for what to say next, "But it is possible, and that time a few days ago when you did it is proof of it, you just need practice." Lee, "You can't account that time for a real-life situation. That particular battle was set up and manipulated by us from the beginning to find out some facts, we even chose the location and timing for it so Lance had already charged the first of the two spells before the battle started. And before anyone asks if he could pre-charge them every time, he has personally told me that pre-made spells only last about a day before disappearing so that is the end of that idea." None of the otherwise new people could come up with a different scenario so they decided to just go along with it.

Lindy, "Okay, okay, settle down everyone. Now that the reasons for this exercise have been properly explained, shall we get on with it? First, we will get into pairs, and for fun, the opponent has to be a non-relative, except if there is an odd person out." All the Cross's looked a like they were going to laugh. The Cross's had their exceptional sword skill for just such a occasion. But before they could start, Lee saw his father, John walk over to Lindy, "Great idea but I think the rest of them are already outmatched in terms of skill compared to my family." Lindy just, "Yes John, we all know you all are an exceptional family of AAA+ class or higher mages but that means squat for this exercise, everyone is on an equal field here, or did you forget the no magic rule already." John, "If you are not going to take my word for it, why not just see for yourself, you versus, let's see now," he looked at his children, "Sarah, yeah, that'll be good. She could use the training. I'll even tell her to go easy." Lindy was now looking flustered at John, who was suggesting that she face a little girl. She decided to take his supposed bluff head on, "Okay John, have it your way, but remember, as the previous head Advanced Non-magic combat teacher as well as the current champion Strike Arts master, I will not hold back, no matter how much of your fancy little sword tricks you've taught her."

It turned out that Jackson was much more skilled than he looked. He was also a master of barriers as well as some other things. As such, making an AMF was no problem for him what so ever, so he covered a circle, 20 meters in diameter for the anti magic practice space. Originally he was only intending on making one around 10 yards but increased it to this bizarrely large size at John's insistence. They decided to have the exhibition match between Lindy and Sarah before the last exercise for, what Lindy though, would be a good demonstration. There was a rack of training weapons next to the makeshift arena Lindy had summoned with magic. Though the AMF was 20 meters, the arena was only a standard 10m by 10m (It was a physical object summoned before the AMF was erected so it remained when the AMF was put up.) Thanks to John, there was a wooden Japanese sword on the rack so she chose that. Lindy on the other hand chose a wooden pole for her weapon. Then they put on their training suits. On the armor, there were four red dots, one over where a vital organ was. Lindy explained that all you had to do to win was hit the red dot, either with your weapon or your bare hands. They both took their stances, Sarah remembering the message from her father, "Do it nice and quick. Fast enough to stun the pants off of them. Try using ZERO YUREIGENZAI to spook her a little." She didn't know what her father was thinking but decided to listen to him. She took her stance, preparing for the attack.

Lindy had no idea what she was doing when Grayson yelled, "Begin." Except for those who knew it was going to happen, no one knew what happened. To them, it seemed that at the exact same moment that Grayson said to begin, three things happened. The first was that Sarah had gone from being on the opposite side of the arena to being several yards behind Lindy on the opposite side from where she had been. The second was the large ditch that appeared from where Sarah had started and ended where she was now. The last one was the single long slash mark on Lindy's armor, touching three out of the four vital marks. Then, another two things followed the first set of anomalies. The first was that both weapons were broken or otherwise. Lindy's staff then split clean in two right there and both pieces fell to the ground while Sarah's sword then turned to ashes in her hands and the dust was blown away. The last thing was that a few seconds after the attack transpired, Lindy fell to the ground. Due to a combination of the armor and Sarah's efforts, there was no scratch on Lindy but the force of the impact alone to an untrained person was enough to render her unconscious for at least a half an hour normally.

As no one said anything, still trying to comprehend what was happening, John stood up and claimed a Sarah as the obvious victor. Lee then ran onto the arena and revived Lindy from her unconscious state. Due to the shock of what he witnessed, Jackson slipped up and lost control of his AMF, which dissipated at just the right moment. As such, Lee was able to use his magic to heal Lindy to as good as new in a few seconds given that she had fallen unconscious from shock more than any real damage that Sarah had inflicted. Tus a few moments later, the lady general sat up and looked around. By this time, everyone had gathered around her, still not sure what had just happened. To most of their disbelief, the entire event up to Lindy sitting up was only about a minute.

After she pulled herself together, Lindy turned to them, "What happened, did I faint or something?" John decided to chide her a bit, "No, you were just rendered unconscious by Sarah, thereby losing the match. I had hoped you would put up more of a challenge than that, but she is my daughter so don't feel too upset about it." She looked around at the arena to see all the damage, "Could someone show me footage of it, I've seemed to have amnesia or something because I don't remember the battle at all." Nanoha's Raging Heart had recorded it so she displayed it on a screen that came out of nowhere. All it showed was Sarah disappearing and reappearing at the exact same time and so on. It looked more like a slide show of photos than a video as everything appeared at once. Lindy though did not look amused, "Funny, now if you're done, can I see the real footage." General Grayson was the one to tell her the reality, "That there was the footage. I don't know how but she did that in front of our own eyes. Though that isn't saying much because we didn't actually see any of it. It just seemed to happen. One second, you were both taking your stances, the next, all of this happens and you probably know the rest." Lindy didn't know how to react, none of them did until Grayson spoke up, "John, I am guessing you know what happened. Care to explain it to us?"

John knew that this was going to happen sooner or later, especially with his children here and all, but luckily he was always prepared for this exact situation "Okay, but on one condition. Whatever I say here stays here. In other words, this is our secret. I don't want people to know about this. I kind of like to think of it as my little secret weapon." Lee guessed that John knew and predicted that this was going to happen at some point in his life because he pulled out a document for them all to sign, swearing to secrecy. They all signed it, and John made sure to point out the inter-dimensional stamp of approval meaning that the contract to secrecy was good anywhere the T.S.A.B had power or any of its associates and all other forms of official hoopla. Lee telepathically to his father, "Little much, don't you think?" John, "Okay, now that you've all agreed, to start off, know that what you saw was not a magic of any kind. If you need proof, the fact that an AMF was up should suffice. But now that that fact is established, I need you to try and broaden your horizons…" and John proceeded to tell them all about it.

The Cross Family and friends waited a few minutes as to let the larger faction get to grips and try to comprehend what John had just said, which was basically an introduction to Ki theory, though he stopped short of a visual demonstration of raw Ki, not wanting to show all his cards. After ten minutes, Matt asked his question, "So how do you even train yourself to that level. Without magic, it seems impossible." John, "Well, as you're sworn to secrecy, I guess there is no harm in telling you. The secret is that we are always training, even during our daily lives." They looked confused at this, so John took off one of the weights under his socks, which to them looked like an ordinary sweatband. He then put it on the ground. "That is the most crucial part to it all. That is a training weight. We each have at least 8 of those on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and in Sora and my own case, we have at least 12. See for yourselves." He walked away and waited, looking at them. Lindy approached it first and picked it up, or it should be said she tried to pick it up. When she pulled up on it, she realized exactly how heavy it was. Even with both hands, she fared no better.

Thinking something was wrong; Garret went over and tried to pick it up. The others soon followed, individually having no luck as well. Finally, with the combined efforts of all three generals, they were able to lift it about a foot before dropping it. It created a small crater as it hit ground. John then went over and picked it up with ease. To everyone, it looked no harder than picking up paper and he easily slid it back on his wrist. Jackson, "So exactly how heavy is this thing?" John answered, "about 45 kilograms (around 100 pounds)." Everyone just looked wide-eyed at the Cross's and they were all thinking "and they wear 8 of these things!" John then proceeded to explain that the bands were special in that they only exerted their full weight on things that exerted force on them, otherwise they would all break floors and ground when they walked around, and also pointed out that while his and Sora's were that heavy, Lee's was just over half that and Sarah's was half of Lee's since they had only started training recently and were younger to boot.

After a few more minutes, Lindy decided that she had had enough of her mind being blown for now, "Okay, now that were done with today's class on insane stuff that should be impossible, let's get on with the exercise. If your last name is Cross, just do whatever the hell John tells ya too. If you got a last name not nearly as stupid as Cross, then you're with me for some more realistic training, that means you too Jackson." They split off, Cross's one way and everyone else another. While Lindy taught the majority on some very basic defense maneuvers (Like a simple block to stop punches and a few throws, all of which she tested out on Jackson), John decided to use the time he had to do something useful. He first showed Lee and Sora a technique simply called Ki Sharpening, a technique that allowed the user to basically layer their Ki over a swords edge, making it significantly sharper. Moreover, with concentration, it could even extend the cutting edge out from the sword a bit. It was both a good focusing exercise, as well as a good control exercise for Lee, who was getting better by the day but still needed to learn more output control. Also, it was a generally useful technique as it allowed one to give a sharp edge to any sword, even a wooden one. And beyond that, it was a good gateway technique for Lee into the upper levels of Ki manipulation, for even though it was a very, very basic application of it, at its higher levels, this technique did make very small use of Ki manifestation if one extended the cutting edge out, so it would be good practice for Lee later on when he was ready to learn about it, which was why in their family it was also considered a gateway technique to that ultimate level of Ki mastery. Given the speed at which Lee was learning to harness his Ki though, John knew that it wasn't going to be long before he was at that point, which frankly was terrifying.

As Lee and Sora practiced their Ki Sharpening technique, John decided to try Sarah's hand at very rudimentary Ki again. While she didn't have the raw stores of Ki her older brothers had, John could tell that she wasn't completely without any to use either, even if it was a more normal amount. It had only been about a week since he last attempted to help her activate her Ki but he thought that a lot had changed since then, and after Lee's display the previous day, chances were that Sarah's competitive spirit was at a peak right now, which meant that for what Ki she did possess, this would be an optimal time to try and access it. And if she could do it once here to the point of being able to at least see it, it would open the gateway for her to start learning about it more effectively. After all, while it was true that if he was being honest, he would have to say she didn't have as much raw natural talent as his middle son or, if you didn't include Lee, Sarah was probably the most naturally gifted swordsperson he had ever seen. In truth, there were even a few ways where she even outshone not just Lee, but even Sora with her talent. Her analytical mind was unlike that of her two brothers, and for what she lacked in Sora's finely hone skill or Lee's innate power and ability to copy techniques, she had in spades for her ability to finely grasp a concept, to see, break down and understand, and then figure out an optimal way to apply it as she best demonstrated when she created her own Zero Time attack after deconstructing John's. Thus, John had a feeling that despite what he had told her earlier, Ki might not really be beyond her at this point, at least the basics. At a minimum, it was obvious she had some subconscious control over it anyway since some was required to use a Zero Time technique like her ZERO YUREIGENZAI.

He found his prediction to be spot on as Sarah proved that she was every bit as capable as her older siblings. It took a bit, but after a few hours, which lasted long after the rest of the group had finished their training for the day, she had somehow been able to do it. Her Ki, though meager in quantity currently, sprung to life, and with that, she was just able to focus enough to her senses to feel, if not quite see normal Ki, which at the regular level John was currently using wasn't visible to the naked eye. It wasn't quite to vision, as she still couldn't actually see it, but she could definitely feel its presence, and while there wasn't any kind of physical light to see, somehow just looking at the space where John's Ki was in his hand, Sarah knew even visually that something was there. It was a weird feeling, but she tried to hold on to it as best she could, for her father had stated that getting used to that feeling was a good first step in learning how to harness Ki, and now that she had felt it, it should be easier in the future since she now knew what to be looking for.

In any case, around 5 in the afternoon after they had been training hard, the two of them headed back to the complex they had been staying in and met up with the others that had stopped a bit ago. When they got back, it was to find that during their time inside the training field (they couldn't see anything from the middle as the field was surrounded by a tall wall and was 3 km in diameter) everything had been repaired and fixed to the point that everything seemed as good as new.

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Authors Note:

Ok, so a few things to talk about, but before that, I wish to apologize on two counts. The first is the length of this chapter, since it is quite long, and the second is that going forward, this is actually going to be the norm. The chapters in the first saga I think averaged in at around four to six thousand words, but following chapters will be at least double that as the world expands and fights and events get more complex.

In any case, lets talk about the chapter. The first, and obvious thing in this chapter is Lee. He's not even the main focus of this chapter, but if nothing else, it solidifies him as both a power house and our protagonist. As mentioned last chapter, he's finally revealed what I call a "Shonen Power", in this case his ability to use combination spells, which as demonstrated are immensely powerful, and I guarantee you a massive part of his battle kit going forward.

That said, I added this chapter more to showcase the rest of the cast as opposed to our main group. We get more interaction from the three generals and the Kaiten family, especially the three youngest children of said family. Now as I've said previously, the purpose of the Kaiten Family is as a sort of foil to the main cast, an example of ordinary. That said, they still needed to be relevant as a measuring tool, which meant that they couldn't be complete zeros on the scale either, thus I decided to give the three children an ordinary amount of natural talent for magic. I like to think of them in terms of school athletics. There's always the one or two people in your class that happen to be really good at a certain sport, and then there's that one person at your school that's probably good enough to be the star of the A team. In this scenario, Louise and Rachel are the top of their class and Matt is the star athlete. They are talented by all accounts, but not in that beyond-the-pale kind of way that our main cast is. They exist to exemplify that concept within the story.

Beyond that, the other purpose of this chapter is to simply highlight the abilities that Ki can provide even in a magic setting. I don't want people to think that it's a useless addition, it is versatile, and even if used at the same time as magic has immensely useful applications, such as increased stamina and reflex speed, as well as durability and augmented strength, and that's before any kind of formal technique is employed. Also, if you haven't picked up on it yet, as much as John is carefree and trusting, he still considers Ki and its associate knowledge to be a guarded secret, only letting others know about it this time because they were lifelong friends that he could trust. From an outside perspective, my reason as the author for justifying this now, even though John hadn't told his close friends for decades, is purely because his children were now involved with the greater universe that magic is part of, and so he would probably want at least a few others to be aware of it in case his children needed help in that regard, especially if they were trying to hide their Ki from prying eyes.

Beyond that, the chapter's pretty self-explanatory, with the decision for turning it into a mock training session simply to allow a forum from which I could expand on the powers and abilities of the other characters, but I admit it went on a bit long.

The last thing I'll touch upon is General Lindy. Her personality is pretty easy to pick up on, but like all story characters, without pictures they're hard to visualize. An author can try their best to describe them, but everyone will eventually create their own image, and THAT'S FINE. That said, in General Lindy's case, her character design and the bulk of her personality even is actually based off another minor anime character from BLEACH, Kukaku Shiba. If you don't know who that is, feel free to look it up.