***Chapter Five***     

Early on Thursday morning, the three girls were called in to see Miss Une. They were shocked to see a bruise on her left cheek. She brushed their concerns aside and faced them with an austere composure. The girls were afraid to look into her eyes.

" Relena, tell me what happened."

With some help from Catherine and Hilde, Relena related the whole story up to the present point. There was no use hiding the truth from her. She had already seen it. Une could hardly believe her ears. To think Treize would be under OZ. It seemed ridiculous. As she sat there looking stunned, the girls were feeling uncomfortable. Although the boys had reluctantly agreed to let them tell Miss Une, they were still apprehensive. What if Miss Une decides to call the police? What if OZ finds out and kills her? It was a terrible thought.

" Miss Une?" Relena broke into her thoughts.

She blinked and looked up at them. Adjusting her glasses, she replied, " Actually, my childhood friend is in OZ. I didn't realize this until you told me now."

" What?" the three said, their breath taken away from them.

" I was fighting with that Lucrezia Noin yesterday – " she began.

" Lucrezia Noin?" Relena cut in. " The woman who tried to kill me?"

Une nodded. "Yes. Lucrezia Noin. I met him again after you were gone. Halfway through, he arrived and ordered us to stop. His name is Treize Khushrenada, my childhood playmate. I was shocked to see him there. He told me to ask you for the whole story, saying you might have even found out something about OZ. To think he is now the bad guy…" Her voice trailed off.

Catherine asked tentatively, " Are you okay, Miss Une?"

Une managed to smile a little. " Life is unpredictable huh? More than ten years ago, he was telling me with such gusto about him being a soldier and killing all the bad guys. But now…he has changed." She had a dreamy look in her moist dark eyes. The girls glanced at one another. " Can we be excused?" Hilde asked.

Une came back into focus again. " Wait. This is a dire matter we have in our hands now. Other than you, the boys and me, I pray you not to tell another soul."

" Do you have an idea Miss Une?" Relena asked eagerly.

She shook her head and then stopped. " Maybe. I have to find Treize again and talk to him. Maybe I will be able to persuade him but I cannot guarantee. He is an adamant fellow. Go back to your class now."

The three left her office. Une thought about the problem. How on earth is she going to contact Treize? Whatever it is, she cannot let him hurt her students or any innocent person. If she can persuade him to join her group, maybe they can turn the tables around on OZ. A knock sounded on the door and Relena's head popped in again. " I'm sorry Miss Une," she apologized. " But we forgot to ask you something very important…Do you know anything about Gundam Magic?"

" Gundam Magic?" she repeated the question.

At the Gundam Boys' School of Magic, Quatre was receiving more than his fair share of teasing on him dating three girls at one go.

" Way to go, Quatre," one remarked to him with a grin.

" You little devil Winner!" one shouted from across the class.

" Why didn't you tell us?"

" Tell me, is this a joke you're playing on them, Casanova?"

" Who would have dreamt of it? Our Quatre!"

And more. Quatre had never felt so embarrassed in his life before. Even Trowa was laughing. Duo was worst. Wufei could not hide his grin. Heero…Quatre was sure he was secretly laughing at him. How is he going to survive? Despite his explanations, his schoolmates still insist he was dating them, three at one go. His face grew redder by the second.

" Playboy Quatre," Duo stated. The other three nodded solemnly.

Quatre turned a bright red. " Please Duo, can you please stop?" he begged. " At most, I'll help you wash the dishes."

Duo feigned innocence. " Oh? Stop what? What was I doing?"

At this moment, Mr J walked up to them. He was smiling. " I just heard the rumours about you, Quatre."

Quatre jumped to his own defense, " Mr J, it's not what you think."

He laughed, amused. " I know," he told him reassuringly. " I had my share of teasing when I was young." They tried to imagine him as a young boy but simply can't. It's hard, you know.

" Mr J," Heero said all of a sudden. " Can we speak to you in private?"

Mr J looked at him in puzzlement. " Is anything wrong?"

" We need to ask you about Gundam Magic."

" Gundam Magic?"

The girls sat down as Une spoke, " Gundam Magic is an old legendary magic. Even I myself do not know what it is like though I have seen the tablets."

" Tablets?" Hilde asked.

" To understand Gundam Magic, you have to start from the history."

" Why do you boys want to know about Gundam Magic? Haven't I told you before that it's is an old legendary magic that could have already been lost to us?"

There was a pause. " Quatre?" J asked.

" We have no choice, Quatre," Wufei told him. " I guess we should tell."

Heero agreed. So did the rest. So Quatre told Mr J their latest adventure. J listened, rapt. " Trowa, is this true?" he asked for confirmation after Quatre finished. This was incredible.

" Every bit is true, Sir," Trowa answered.

" This is true?" he asked again.

And all five replied, " Yes."

Mr J leaned back in his chair, thinking. " I have read about the article you found. Never did I dream that it would happen on my boys. Never."

" Gundam Magic may be our only hope," Heero said.

Mr J agreed with him. " It may be. I hate to admit but our police force seems rather incompetent, in terms of magical abilities." He paused and then continued, "To know about Gundam Magic, you must first know its history. The creation of Gundam Magic happened nearly 1500 years ago, 1497 years to be exact. Magic was rampant then and many new magic spells were being created in this magical realm. When men first discovered magic, they were both fascinated and frightened of its powerful nature. Only a handful of them were not. And so, due to pressure and threats by ignorant fools, these few groups joined together and branched off to form this magical realm, the one we now lived in. Here, magic is practiced widely…"

"…They soon formed kingdoms and social circles. You are aware of the history of King Dust? He was a good king but his mind was narrow. His daughter WindSong, the Princess of Magic, fell in love with the son of his enemy. In a fit of rage, he threw her out of the kingdom and killed her lover. This sparked a deeper enmity between the two kingdoms and not long after that, both fell. WindSong fled to the mountains, washing her face with tears," Une stopped to take a sip from her cup of tea. " She was a beautiful lady, with raven-coloured hair and fair skin. Furthermore, she was a very talented girl. Her magical abilities were rumoured to have far surpassed her father's, who was a very accomplished magician then. And it proves to be true…"

"…In her isolation, WindSong began to create magic of her own and she wrote them down in her books. She even took in two disciples, Black and Serena, the founders of the Gundam Magic Schools. They were on good terms then but a misunderstanding drove our two founders apart and they separated the schools… but that's another story," Mr J stopped to clear his throat. " One of the magic spells WindSong invented was the Gundam Magic. Surprising eh? That a woman invented one of the world's most powerful magic?…"

Miss Une stood up and faced the window. "…It is a very, very profound magic, so difficult that not just anyone can learn. Only those who are fated can do so. And the few who have once learnt it are Black, Serena, General Caruss, King Lias and a mysterious woman. That was all. It had struck fear in many and awed others. WindSong had wrote the formulas on five different tablets."

" Five?" Relena asked. " You mean there are five kinds of Gundam Magic?"

" Originally there are five. Later, Black and Serena created other sub-Gundam magic but the five remained the main forces…"

" Where is it now?"

"…It's with our school. Black won a duel with Serena and he got to keep the tablets. Though it has been stolen twice, it was fortunately recovered. I have tried to learn the magic but…I guess I'm not fated. I don't even understand what the words mean, how can I see the secret behind it? It is said that if you can learn the secret from one of the tablets, it opens the door to the other four. So you see if you learn one, provided that you are the chosen one, you actually learn four different others. But one person can only have one tablet."

The boys frowned. " I don't quite understand," Trowa commented.

Mr J laughed. " Neither do I but that's what the books say."

" Can we have a look?" Heero asked eagerly. That was unusual of him.

The principal stood up. " Sure. It is said that if that particular person is fated to learn the magic, the tablet will glow. Every six years or so, I bring out the tablets and let every one boy in the school have a chance to touch and see it, just to test whether anyone is that special person. I will then pass the tablets to the girls' school and they will do the check too. But up till now we have yet to see another chosen one. Oh, wait here." He moved in to a storeroom.

" Why six years?" said Quatre.

J chuckled. " Everyone of you will have to stay with me in this school for ten years, that is, if nothing crops up. No hurry to show it to you. Besides, I would have got to know all of you well by then to judge your character. We don't want the tablets to land in the wrong hands, do we? – Here it is!"

He walked over to them and placed a wooden box on the desk. It was dusty and so old that none of the boys can be sure of the original colour of the paint on the box.

" Want me to send it to a museum?" Duo offered with a straight face.

Mr J gave him a short glare. " If this box is missing, you can be sure I'll look for you first."

He fished a bunch of keys from his pocket, selected one and opened the box. " It does not pay to be careless," he explained about keeping the keys by his side. The boys crowded round the box and Mr J took out the five tablets carefully, tenderly. Each one has a different colour – white, black, red, yellow and green. And to all their surprises, the tablets looked new, as if it had just been bought yesterday.

" Are you sure that these are the five? It looks new," Wufei said.

The old man nodded, " Remember, they are magical objects. Take one each, boys."

Heero and his friends reached out for the tablets. He took the white one. Wufei chose the green one. Quatre was drawn to the yellow one. Trowa selected the red one while Duo got the black one. Duo studied his. Inscribed on the front of the tablet was the word Deathscythe. The tablet felt smooth and hard. He knocked on it. Solid. It was not metal, neither is it made of any wood he know of. He raised a leg and brought the tablet down forcefully.

" Duo!" J cried in dismay.

But the tablet did not break. Instead, Duo's leg hurt. " Incredible," he said, impressed. " What is it made of?"

Mr J heaved a sigh of relief. " Don't you ever do that again!" he chided him. " I don't know what it is made of but one thing I can be sure – these tablets are protected by magic." Duo pursed his lips and turned to Quatre. Quatre's tablet has the word Sandrock. Trowa's tablet was Heavyarms. Heero's piece was Wing Zero. And Wufei's has Shenlong.

" What does this mean?" Heero asked his principal.

J shook his head regretfully. " No idea."

" How come you don't know anything?" Duo mumbled to himself.

" Can we take it home and study it further?"

Mr J looked at Heero, then at Duo, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei. He had always felt that they were an extraordinary bunch of pupils though he cannot explain why. It was simply an intuition.

" We'll bring it back tomorrow," Heero promised.

What if they are those chosen ones, those who are fated to learn Gundam Magic? What if they managed to figure out the secret behind it? These boys were known for their intelligence, only Duo put his to pranks.

" All right," he said. " But I want to see it first thing tomorrow morning. That is, if none of you here proved to be our long-awaited VIP."

" Thank you Mr J," they thanked him and turned to leave.

" Wait!" J said. They paused. " If anyone of you here spots OZ again, I want you to call me immediately. Those fellows are crazy. Or if you are feeling insecure, you can drop by at my house later with your belongings. I'll be glad to take you in and together we will deal with it. Only if the situation becomes unmanageable, will I call the police."

Heero shook his head. " We appreciate your concern, Mr J but we don't wish to drag you in unnecessarily."

" Yeah, we just want someone to know so he can collect our bodies," Duo added. He was known to be a candid boy.

And all of them became silent.

Back at Heero's apartment, the five boys were solemn. They could not take their eyes off the tablets and were constantly comparing the five. They could not spot any differences, or any similarities. It was…just a tablet. The door knocked and Quatre answered it. Relena, Hilde and Catherine stepped in.

" We found out about Gundam Magic!" Hilde and Duo announced at the same time.

" You did? Did you see the tablets?" Relena said.

All five put theirs on the coffee table and the girls scrutinized it. " Wow…" was all Catherine managed to say.

"Did you find out the secret behind it?" Relena asked.

Heero shook his head once. He handed his to Relena, to see if it glows. She mused over the words and then turned it over. " What's this?"