Chapter 27 – Last Minute Fun

Everyone spent the last two days doing whatever they could do now that they couldn't do once school started. This included one full day of non-stop sword training. Lee was now training at a higher level of Ki manipulation, having gotten the first part of the very basics of Ki Manifestation down, and was moving towards full manifestation, and so was currently working on its most basic skill, the ability to generate raw, unfiltered pure Ki. It turned out to be a harder thing to do than Lee initially thought it would be given he had been repeatedly told that he had an abundance of Ki from which to pull from, but the training had other benefits as well. Training to manifest Ki required that one also basically constantly keep their Ki active on all their senses in order to actually observe the Ki they were supposed to be manifesting, which worked as good conditioning practice for the first three levels of Ki use, so it was making his use of Ki in general much more efficient and potent at the same time.

More than that though, between that and other conditioning that John had been putting Lee through, Lee was developing what John called a natural Ki Sense, the ability to naturally sense Ki around him even without one's Ki active. He simplified it to just state that once a person got used to sensing Ki, they basically opened their senses up to feeling it naturally without input or effort. He likened it to awakening a 6th sense, as when it got to that point, it worked like any of the other senses in that it was just another form of sensory input, something that like hearing or sight he would feel regardless of if he was trying or not. That said, it was a very important thing to develop, because with it, one could start to develop their ability to perceive Ki, something that John said was one of, if not the most important ability to hone. Basically, to perceive Ki was to be able to read its intention, which could let someone feel if it was hostile, or if more finely trained be used to sort of feel out an opponent's next move, allowing one to react a split second faster than they would have otherwise, which could make all the difference. John didn't mention though that Lee, among other things, seem to have a natural version of this ability already, but in any case he still wanted Lee to hone it consciously regardless.

Lee though was not completely ignorant of his staggering progress, for as of recent he could tell that he had been growing immensely. So much so that at one point, he arrogantly imagined that he must be getting at least close to his father's level in swordsmanship, but he found out the hard way how far he was from his father. Something he learned by accident, and to his surprise was that his dad had never actually gone full out, against anyone, in a very long time. John didn't go into details, but he did mention that if he was being truthful, the last time he had actually tried to fight someone at his absolute best without holding anything back was 17 years ago, before Lee was even born, but that was a story for another time. He even noticed for the first time that his father, if he looked closely, had no less than twenty four different restricting weights on his person, and Lee was pretty sure that they were all most likely heavier than the one's he himself had on. That said, when he asked his father why he hadn't upped the number of weights for them, he just said that it was a matter of experience, and that at their current training level, it would do more harm than good. That said, this only piqued Lee's curiosity even more, wondering how much training it would really take to get to where his father was, and what was more what he would be capable of when he got that strong, and thus asked his father what his full power actually looked like. John, to Lee's surprise said that he would have no problem showing him if he was really that curious, a departure from what Lee expected as he knew that his father liked to be cryptic with this kind of stuff. That said, John just told him in this case, he didn't see any point in keeping it a secret, especially because it could coincide with one of the things he was trying to do this weekend anyway, so he just told Lee to come with him on his one errand and find out.

Therefore, due to all of their interest, Lee, and Sarah (Sora left for college) went with him out of town for a bit to a deserted area the Cross's owned on a mountain not too far from the mountain compound that they were supposed to have been staying at based on what John told Chrono and Sakura's parents, though this time they merely teleported to save them the long trip. "This area is one of the best for using Ki. It naturally has a high Ki tolerance so we won't do as much damage if I do my demonstration out here." They had appeared on a small patch on the mountainside. That said, not even a second after they teleported in, they saw Lance of all people do the same, appearing right in front of them. John, "Good Lance, you came. I couldn't do this without you, at least not as safely."

Lance for his part was equally confused as to why John wanted him there, given that John said that this was something to do with Ki, of which Lance knew basically nothing of beyond what the Cross family had explained to him. That said, at the same time his academic mind was fascinated by the concept of it, and so he readily agreed to come if only to witness more of this foreign power. In any case, John simply requested that Lance create one of his famous barriers around their general area, and so Lance complied, creating one that could easily cover a football pitch. John, "Thanks, and now to spice it up a bit." John suddenly raised his hand, and above it, he suddenly formed a rather large ball of raw, concentrated Ki, so potent that it had easily entered the visible spectrum, allowing even Lance to see it in its entirety, something he had never witnessed before given that except for incredibly potent Ki such as what John was demonstrating, it was invisible to one's normal senses. That said, before Lance could even properly comprehend what he was looking at, John simply threw it directly into Lance's barrier. "What the-," Lance said as he got a funny feeling unlike anything he had ever felt before, a foreign feeling he assumed must have been the Ki itself.

That said, what was even odder was that the sphere of Ki didn't disappear on contact with the barrier or even dissipate, but instead it slowly seemed to be assimilated into the barrier. That said, to everyone watching, the whole process looked forced, almost unnatural like it wasn't supposed to be done or work, that said eventually it did, shown by the barrier now giving off a gold aura. John turned to Lance, who looked a bit woozy, "Sorry about that, but don't worry, I just gave your barrier some Ki protection. Even if Ki and Magic are different and normally incompatible, you can still use them together if you know how, though it is a bit tricky to be honest." Lance was still unsure about all this Ki stuff, having never heard of it before meeting the Cross Family, but as an academic he admitted it made him curious, which was why he took John up on his offer to help him here right now with the promise of getting, as John described, "A once in a life time demonstration about the upper limits of what Ki was capable of." Of course, Lance was a bit hesitant, mostly because he knew that to generally even see this mysterious energy required skills he didn't have, but John waved those concerns aside, "In this rare instance, you'll find that you'll be able to see plenty, I promise."

With his three onlookers watching on enthusiastically, John proceeded to take off all of his training weights, all 24 of them, and then gave himself a few good stretches before explaining what he was about to do, "Okay, before I start, I will explain exactly what I am doing in order, both for Lee's and Sarah's education and so that Lance who won't be able to see a lot of it will know what I'm doing. What I am doing here today is that I am going to release all of my strength, most especially the stored Ki that I keep bottled up, all at once. Every once in a while, when you are at my level, you need to let out your excess energies so you don't go on power overload for health reasons. If you store too much for too long, one of two things will happen, and neither are good. You either atrophy, and your overall power wanes and weakens increasingly fast over time, or at the higher levels like I am, it is more likely that the power will start to damage your Ki pathways, causing you to either continuously leak power, in which case you would constantly damage yourself or your surroundings, or ultimately you could literally explode from the pressure." Lee and Sarah nodded that they understood. Lance understood this much as well, given that magic worked similarly in that it was bad to keep too much pent up within one's self for too long.

Lee and Sarah had to admit that they were quite anxious, for they were curious about how strong their father was, and Lance was also ready to bear witness to it. Thus, without further ado, John told them to stand back and watch, and with that he started. John released what he called his first of ten real levels, the restrictions he placed on himself with RETASETSU, the Ki limiting technique. In response to the release of power, a few cracks appeared under him and his muscles visibly expanded a little, much to Lance's surprise. He had heard Lee try to explain Ki to him, but honestly, he felt like a lot of it sounded like spiritual hoopla, like a lot of it was mental more than real, so to see such a physical manifestation of it was a bit jarring, but it only served to make him more curious.

Next, John jumped to Level 3. The amount of power released this time caused the ground below him to crater a bit, followed by more and larger cracks appearing along the ground and to the Ki senses of Lee and Sarah, they could see that their father suddenly seemed to start shooting out Ki in all directions, though only Lee could see this clearly though Sarah could sense the Ki at least, but all of them, even Lance, could feel its effects as it was blowing them back. They watched, completely amazed at John's sheer power as he dug even further. Lance didn't even know how to comprehend what was happening, as John was letting off an immense amount of this energy that was clearly not magic, but something that he wanted to call imperceptible if it wasn't for its effects, though he couldn't deny the phenomena that was happening in front of him right now.

John, "Okay, that's it for the warm up, now I start getting serious." The three onlookers didn't know what they were in for if John didn't consider what he was doing currently serious, but in any case they simply braced themselves. Then in one moment, John's sheer power seemed to quadruple as he jumped quite a bit and went up to what he called his level 7. Now a tornado of his Ki was surrounding him blowing them all back, and at this point, the Ki was so potent and powerful that even Lance could see it clearly at this point. Lance and the rest had to steady themselves down with magic just to keep themselves upright. John at this point was visibly glowing and his eyes almost looked like they were glowing white from the Ki they were radiating. John, "And honestly that's nothing. Watch when I really hit the max."

Lance was nervous now. His barrier was about to break under sheer force that wasn't made by magic and the man behind it claimed he could go farther. It just went to show that there were just certain things that couldn't be explained, and to Lance this was one of them. John then went to what he referred to as Level 9. Suddenly the ground started to shake and the crater under him expanded to the edges of the barrier. His Ki tornado was now out of control. His muscles were now so big; they literally ripped through his shirt and disintegrated it. Even Lance's barrier started to crack from the raw energies swirling around them. All of the onlookers, who had been on the ground, fell into the crater when it spread under them. Lee himself tried to stay where he was by flying, but found it impossible for the raw energy oif his father's Ki was literally intensifying the gravity around, too much to remain airborne, and so he dropped like a bullet along with Sarah and Lance. Honestly, it felt like the entire mountain side was shaking, and Lee was relatively sure it extended beyond even that. Lee, awakening his own Ki to do so, made his way over to Lance and started to assist him with the barrier. Though Lee was admittedly less than masterful with wide area barrier magic like this one, he was still able to support Lance by sending some of his magic to him, and thus indirectly to the barrier to strengthen it. That said, as Lance had told him before, there was a limit to how much he could help like this so they hoped that he didn't have too much more to go. In terms of Ki, John felt like he was at least a hundred times as strong as Lee could imagine himself at his own max, and frankly quite probably more.

John, "Okay, I got to the half way point. Now let's go for the full." Lee, Sarah, and Lance's eyes widened, partially in disbelief and partially in sheer awe, but in total they all simply thought that John was insane. Without their magical protection over the area, the power that John was giving off right now felt to them like it could almost sink the entirety of Japan as is and he claimed he was at half. That said, at this point there was nothing for them to do but brace themselves and hope John didn't flatten them all with his awesome power. Thus they simply watched on as John released all the remaining limitations on his power, his Level 10, and by doing so, they found themselves consumed by a blinding flash of light, obscuring everything from view

It took the spectators a few moments for their vision to return, but they were shocked at the sight that met them when they next laid eyes on John. For one thing, everything cooled down at once. The quakes stopped, gravity returned to normal and the barrier no longer had any pressure being exerted against it. That said, all of that paled when compared to what they saw from the man himself. When they looked at John, his entire appearance was so vastly different from what it had been before, so much so that he could almost be mistaken as someone else, except that if one looked closely, it was clearly John, or at least some version of him. He was now in a golden Gi, and His hands had black skintight wrappings on them. His feet were bare except for some other black wrappings and his hair had gone from its normal brown to pitch black and got a bit longer, now going down to his neck. That said, the biggest difference was his apparent age. No longer was he the middle aged man they all were used to seeing, but instead, somehow, it was like John was able to force back the hands of time itself. He clearly appeared as a much younger version of himself, or at least what they assumed a younger John to look like, for his physical appearance was clearly something akin to a normal person's late teens or early twenties. So complete was this mysterious reversion that even John's voice changed, becoming a bit crisper to match his more youthful looking appearance, like his voice had lost its rough edges that it accumulated with age, "Okay, level ten, reached."

Lee and Sarah simply looked at their father, still having no idea what just occurred. Lee, "What happened to you? And what is with the hair?" John smiled, "This is what happens when I go all out. This power and physical transformation is what is called the ZENRYOKU ZENKAI form. It roughly translates into 'The Maximum State' or 'Full Power Form', though it's official moniker is the 'Enlightenment beyond Strength', and in a sense it is an ultimate pinnacle of Ki mastery. While in this form, any and all power you possess instantly comes under your control and your body returns to the form that can harness this overwhelming power. In other words, it reverts you to your body at its peak condition, and you immediately take the appearance that you envision as your strongest self, physically reverting your body to the age and time that you had the most potential, which for me is when I was a swinging 20-something. You also obviously gain abilities like strength and speed not possible for a normal human body that become possible when transformed into this state. This form effectively provides the highest level of power that a normal human can achieve, at least through the use of Ki. In addition, you gain the ability to use special Ki powers that aren't normally possible, such as sustained flight and true physical hardening among other producible phenomena. Watch."

He asked Lee to come at him, throwing over his solid metal katana at Lee. Lee nodded and grabbed the metal katana, showing off his immense progress with Ki by infusing the blade with as much Ki as possible, which for Lee was quite a bit. Then at full force with all the physical strength he could muster, both from magic and Ki, Lee charged at his father and thrust the sword straight at him. That said, before it ever made contact, the sword broke to a million pieces. Lee, "What the!" John in response simply walked over and, as gently as he could, like one gently brushing off a cobweb, flicked his son on the head. Lee didn't know how, but he was launched a good 30 yards back FROM A FLICK, and what was worse was that Lee could tell that his father was still holding back, a lot, like as much as possible.

John, "This form is virtually untouchable to anyone below its level, though I am not sure what would happen if you used a nice breaker on me. Never really tried this out on anyone besides my father and a close friend and never showed any mages. Mind you in truth, even after learning to use it, I don't know a lot about this form. I don't use it often for various reasons, one obviously being that releasing this much power isn't good for the terrain around me and I have yet to master it to such a level that I can prevent that. Also, an opponent that I would need to use this against doesn't come around that often. Truthfully there has only been one that I actually had need of this for. Thus I haven't had a lot of opportunity to practice with it either."

Lee and Sarah simply looked at their father in pure awe. Lance himself was speechless as well, for clearly even without any proper ability to sense Ki, he could instinctively tell that this form held immense power, so much so that none but the strongest of mages could possibly stand a chance, for it was that kind of intimidating. If they hadn't accepted it before, then this simply cemented the fact that as far as his children were concerned, their father was a literal superman, and that was without his magic. Neither Lee nor Sarah could ever imagine themselves being a match for their father, even as strong as they had gotten, for it was clear that in all aspects, John was clearly far beyond them. In any case, the three spectators simply sat there shocked silent in awe as John went about his regiment. He did after all not only do this to show them what Ki was capable of, but also to release his pent up power, and so started to do some intensive training while they watched. He even demonstrated some of this forms other abilities to Lee and Sarah, but eventually he realized that they were running short on time, and so to burn off the rest of his excess energy quickly, he started some intense Ki blasting, where he fired one mass of Ki and then launched a second one to collide with the first, canceling both out in a thunderous explosion that shook the literal ground they stood upon. This continued for almost ten minutes before John felt that he had finally let enough of his power out, at which point he finally re-sealed his power with a lot less dramatic fanfare than the unsealing had caused, and thus reverted back to normal.

As soon as John reverted though, not just Lance, but Lee and Sarah as well suddenly collapsed to their knees, taking a deep breath of air in like they had been deprived of oxygen. In truth, they had been so focused on John, their danger instincts telling them not to let something their entire beings could perceive as a natural threat to their very existence, out of their sights, to the point that they may have actually forgotten to breath regularly, for it had been that overwhelming. But in any case, it was clear that John was finally done, so Lance at least let his barrier dissipate. John turned to them to make sure that they were alright, "Okay, I've burned enough, lets rest for a few minutes and then head home."

Lance was near completely wiped, so while he could still muster the energy, he split off from them there, changing into a ferret and teleporting directly to Nanoha's room where his ferret bed currently was. During the next few minutes though, Lee and Sarah asked John a bunch of stuff about what he had done. "Do you know of anyone else that can reach the ZENRYOKU ZENKAI STYLE form?" John answered, "As I know it, only a handful of people, myself included, on Earth can go up to that Level." Then Sarah asked her question, "Have you ever tried fighting someone in that mode?" John then said, "As I've said, I have only twice used that mode seriously against two opponents who could also use it, and truthfully the only fight that I was really forced to use it there was only one. That was against my own father, your grandfather. Honestly it was probably the hardest fight of my life. That said, I ended up losing by a hair because I used up too much Ki on a failed final attack and he got me at the last second. But despite that, it was also probably my most enjoyable defeat too. I didn't feel bad about it either because I knew that I had given it my all, and truthfully out of that fight came the realization I needed enter the ZENRYOKU ZENKAI, as that was my first time doing so, and beyond that, from that experience, I figured out how to create my greatest technique, the ZERO TENSHI." Lee and Sarah continued to grill their father for more details while they rested up, John himself still needing to recover from his exertions.

After they got home, Lee felt inspired so he spared with Sarah. They continued on until dinnertime when they stopped. When they went in though, their father had a surprise for them, a new set of weights. As he told them before, couldn't give them more weights because they weren't big enough and at this point it would be more detrimental than anything, but he instead gave them weights that were a bit heavier to replace their current sets. They were surprised at the difference, and it wasn't that they didn't expect a big difference given that it was effectively near doubling the workload, but it was just the amount of difference that got them. Their Dad had them place the weights in different locations than before, with many of them on places like their wrists and ankles, only having them place four of them on farther up regions like their thighs and forearms, where the majority of them had been placed before. This made the ones on the ends of their arms feel four times as heavy, not twice due to the extra distance, and John said that they were expected to make up the difference through Ki reinforcement, as this was all designed to get them used to controlling their Ki subconsciously in addition to being physical training. In any case, predictably, dinner was a disaster that night as they tried to get accustomed to the new weight. Their dad said if they trained tomorrow for a bit that they should get the hang of them in no time, and in Lee's case, releasing a few levels of Ki and leaving it active could also help at the start.

After dinner, they both agreed that they were too tired to go back to training so they decided to go to their rooms instead. Being too lazy to move from their beds, they were having a mental conversation, mostly talking about their upcoming schools. It wasn't like Lee wouldn't see Sarah anymore though. The high school and the junior high school were right next to each other after all, the only thing dividing them was a fence and Lee knew from Sora that there was a hole that was never fixed up in it where a bush covered it so it was easy to get from one side to another, though honestly at how powerful the two were magically, the idea of a simple wire fence being able to stand in their way was actually laughable. On another subject, Lee was telling Sarah about the school and what teachers to look out for that he knew would be there. Sarah was going into the 2nd year of junior high while Lee was going to go into the 1st year class of the high school, which still shared the same name as the junior high, Seihou Gakuenn.

According to one of Lee's friends who was a year ahead of him, the high school had one really cool teacher names Yamamoto who was primarily the chemistry teacher alongside one reputably evil teacher who went by Nora. She was the primary history teacher for the 1st and 2nd year students, and she had a reputation of being both strict and harsh, and apparently hated the male sex most of all. Apparently Nora didn't mind the girls so much but she was the devil as far as the male faction was concerned. It was also known that there was a large faculty rivalry between Yamamoto and Nora for the Vice-Principle's job, which apparently was constantly being emptied and refilled. Every year or two, the current Vice-principle seemed to always retire or change positions for some reason so the job was always up for grabs.

Inversely, Lee could tell his sister that her trouble was easily going to be Miss. Warne. She was very old and what most would call a traditionalist in the most extreme sense, especially since she was half English, her father's family having hailed from London. That basically translated into her extreme distaste for the unordinary and a super athletic genius girl such as Sarah fit the category perfectly. Lee generally felt that Ms. Warne was probably older than the tradition itself but she thought that all girls should be slim, naturally shy and good at cooking and housework, with them having no need to strain themselves athletically unless it was towards a proper ladylike pursuit such as dancing or gymnastics, which she found acceptable. In other words, she wanted everyone to be a traditional Japanese housewife, which was somewhat ironic as it was widely known that she herself had never found a husband and was herself half English in decent. Inversely, her expectations for the boys in her class was that they were to be muscular, polite little gentlemen at all times and always conform to her outdated views of chivalry. Moreover, though there was nothing in the school rules about any of it, she would as good as punish you for not following these guidelines. Luckily, the generations of the middle school populace had since written an in-depth written guide on how to avoid her. Sakura was never part of it because she miraculously was one of the few students that Miss. Warne liked, since Sakura actually met all her criteria for perfection, and so usually was given less homework among other things, but for the rest of them, they had compiled the 'Guide to Warne Avoidance`, a widely distributed notebook of everything the common student needed to handle the decrepit teacher. Lee had given his copy of the guide of Warne Avoidance to Sarah a few days ago as a present. After a bit, they ended their mental conversation t as this was their last school free night of the vacation and they didn't want it plagued with nightmares about evil teachers. Tomorrow was going to be their last day of vacation.

Lee and Sarah woke up the next morning late, for the last time for a long while, and ate a quick brunch with their father. That said, as much as a rush they were in to make the most of their last day of freedom, when they walked out of the house they realized something quite crucial to their plans for their last day before the new school year started. They had no idea of what to do. Thinking about it, they realized that in previous years on this particular day, were always doing homework as Lee, and even as smart as Sarah, would be the first to admit, the two were both guilty of were being first class procrastinators. That said, this year for the first time in their lives, it wasn't an issue since their father had been so kind as to have some Bureau members take care of their summer assignments so that they could focus on training and heading the search and capture of the Saren Stones. Thus they found themselves lacking that normal rush that they associated with taking up all their time on the last day of vacation. In the end, not coming up with any plan themselves, they decided to call up Chrono and Sakura, who after thinking about it they were sure were having the same problem, having also receiving John's 'service'.

Sure enough, they were right on the money. They didn't even need to dial the number when Lee's cell phone rang with Sakura on the other side. She invited them to go shopping with the group, apparently having already contacted Chrono after coming up with the plan with Nanoha who dragged Lance into it.

Of course, Sakura contacting the whole group for this wasn't any sort of surprise to Lee, since at a minimum her parents wouldn't let her go alone, even if Sakura's father and stepmother were a lot more lenient with letting Sakura go into public, due to the incident when she was kidnapped years ago that they never seemed to get over (ref chapter 5). In any case, Sakura's parents had finally been letting up more lately, no longer demanding the strict curfews and constant calls that they once had required of Sakura, something Lee could only attribute to both the fact that Sakura was getting older along with the fact that there was now a lot more of their general group then before. Of course, it also probably didn't hurt that John let Lee's talent at swordsmanship 'leak out' when he was talking to Sakura's parents a bit ago, even going so far as to state that Lee would probably make a pretty good bodyguard in the future if he wanted to follow in John's footsteps. That particular endorsement actually held quite a bit of weight with the adult Kuonji's, as they has employed Cross family security services before, including John himself on one occasion, and thus knew about their expertise in the area.

In any case, they met at the mall shortly after noon. They met up with the rest at the food court where they were having lunch while waiting for them, grabbing a quick bite themselves before they finished up and went shopping. As usual, this fell into the predictably pattern of Nanoha, Sakura and Sarah having all their fun dragging them in almost literally every shop in their local mall, and the rest were carrying the bags. Now for a normal group of friends this might not be so bad, as the quantity of items purchased would be severely limited purely from a financial standpoint. That said, such restrictions didn't apply to Sakura, for while she always kept it quiet and didn't like to show it off, she was after all the only child of one of the richest families in the entirety of Japan, and fashion was the one instance where she didn't hold herself back in this regard, thus the shopping load being carried by Chrono and Lee was starting to quickly become quite cumbersome. Chrono personally felt a bit of male trust being broken by Lance who had decided to stay in ferret form, most likely to avoid the workload. Of course, in truth it was more to the effect that Nanoha wanted him on his shoulder to tell her if she looked good in certain pieces of clothing but as long as he wasn't a pack mule as he saw Lee and Chrono being, he preferred his current situation, which when he stated as much only served to annoy Chrono even further, to the point that Chrono was already plotting his revenge when they exited the first store. By the time they finally decided to call it quits, the raw amount of bags and items purchased was quite staggering, especially since as usual, Sakura had bought the majority of Sarah's clothes as well. Of course, whenever this happened, at first Sarah was a bit hesitant to accept Sakura's assistance in buying most of her purchases, never wanting to feel like she was taking advantage of Sakura's generosity, but Sakura as normal pushed her way into doing it anyway, stating that it was something that Sakura herself wanted to do, simply stating that she liked seeing people be as fashionable as possible, and so as always Sarah relented and let Sakura do as she wished, simply announcing that life was good when one of your friends could get you as many clothes as you wanted.

They spent a few hours in the mall. After they were done shopping, they went to see a movie, well two movies if they were to be precise. The girls went to see some romance drama. Luckily for Lee, he had Chrono who was brave enough to put his foot down and said that he was going to watch an action movie that had just come out, not up to watching some romcom after being dragged around the mall all day at the girl's whims. Lee for his part would never have the guts to tell Sakura or Sarah that and would eventually end up watching said chick flick, and thus was thankful for his more outspoken friend. Chrono of course also had one other reason for doing this, for he had already come up with the perfect punishment game for Lance. Chrono, "Okay, Lee and I will go see the action movie, and you guys can see your drama. And I guess as Lance seems comfortable, he'll go see the drama with you." Lance's eyes widened. Chrono knew that he hated over emotional movies and even more, all the yanking he got from the closest over emotional girl also known as Nanoha with her surprisingly strong grip strength. That said, one look at Nanoha's enthusiastic gaze of Lance wanting to watch with them was all it took for him to give up any attempt at resistance. Chrono was quietly laughing his guts out as he saw the expression on the ferret's face and heard the various colorful words and insults said boy-turned-ferret was sending telepathically. Lee for his part did feel a little sorry for Lance, but at the same time he was also partly on Chrono's side after realizing the amount of they had to carry with them into the movie theater.

When their movies were over, they met up in the mini arcade located in the theater lobby. Lee and Chrono were there before the rest because their movie had ended 15 minutes earlier. That said, when the girls and Lance appeared, Chrono was happy to see that his petty revenge was complete, for Lance looked all ruffled and dazed, even twitching a little as if he had gone through something dramatic. Part of Lee, the part that sided with Chrono, admitted that it was also content with Lance's predicament as well. That said, Lance was currently only cursing at Chrono mentally, Lee's poker face working for once. Finally, though, Lee thought to put a stop to it after it had been going on for almost half an hour after they left the theater. He got the perfect opportunity not long after while they were walking home from the family restaurant they had stopped at for dinner when the girls spotted a little boutique shop and wanted to see what was inside. He told Chrono he would go in to help them, making it sound like he was giving the other two a break as they looked 'tired', emphasizing it enough out loud for the girls to hear. As he predicted, Nanoha overhearing them didn't even give it a second thought as she placed Lance on Chrono's shoulder before he could object. Lee meanwhile quickly slipped away when he went inside, asking to use the restroom so he could enact his own plan undisturbed. He had remembered that way back when he had first learned about magic, he had found that he could use a litany of basic abilities, things Lance said at the time were simply things he was naturally inclined to and were really basic, and one of them was an ability to immobilize something, even if it was only for a few minutes. Thus, while it had been a while, he tried to do it again, this time targeting Chrono and Lance. Outside the shop on a bench, Chrono and Lance suddenly froze in place, unable to move a muscle, as they felt a familiar feeling magic overtake them. Before either of them could even attempt to mentally ask Lee what he was doing though, Lee contacted them first, "So as you are no doubt aware, you should be sort of stuck together right now, and so as you're already together, try and make up. What Lance did wasn't that bad. That said to Chrono's benefit I also think he needs to start acting less like a pet and more like a friend. So take this time to settle it. The immobilization will wear off in a few minutes. Have fun…" Before Lee cut them off telepathically, both Lance and Chrono send a few choice words to Lee, though Lee did have to admire how they were both suddenly working together, even to his detriment. That said it didn't last long for Lee, as a few moments later he simply blocked the telepathy.

On the bench, Chrono and Lance were frozen together in position, but the passersby didn't really notice. It wasn't that the stasis that Lee had put them under was even that strong, especially given that Lee had never really practiced much with such spells, just that getting out of it wasn't possible without a very visual display of their magic. Thus, Lance and Chrono were simply stuck, though Lee did get his wish where when they got bored enough and annoyed at Lee enough to start talking to each other again, albeit telepathically due to the whole stasis thing. Meanwhile, the girls and Lee were inside, where Lee had somehow been turned into a fashion judge and had to tell them whenever they tried something on if it was good or not. Being a reasonably sensible guy, he gave them the only answer he could, and simply told them everything was good. The last thing he wanted to do was get any of them upset after all, and in truth, he knew next to nothing about anything fashion related, with his own wardrobe only being 'fashionably acceptable' because like Chrono, Sakura had held final approval over most of his clothing purchase decisions ever since they were old enough to shop for themselves. In any case, after about 10 minutes, Lee was wondering why Chrono and Lance hadn't come in yet. His immobilization power only worked for a few minutes' tops, and he honestly thought by this point they would have already come storming in to give them a piece of their minds about it.

After another ten minutes, the girls were done with their purchase and they headed outside. When Lee turned to the bench though, he was honestly shocked to find Chrono and Lance were still stuck in position, exactly where Lee had left them, and thus clearly still under whatever effect he had imposed upon them. Chrono and Lance were now sending a bunch of unpleasant words to Lee mentally who had let the telepathy through again. Lee though dispelled his stasis upon them immediately while the girls backs were turned, finally allowing them to talk again Chrono, "WHAT THE HELL WAS UP WITH THAT!" "Sorry," Lee looked apologetic, "It wasn't supposed last nearly this long. Last time I used it, it lasted all of 3 minutes." Lance, "And when was that, a year ago?" "No, I think it was just a few months actually." Both Chrono and Lance fell backwards in shock. "How stupid can you get," they both said in unison. Lance, "Your estimate was back when you barely knew how to use magic, and definitely not as efficiently. Obviously with you being as strong as you are now, the effects would be multiplied."

The good news as they were all walking home was that now Lance and Chrono had made up and it was like nothing had happened. The bad news was that now they were now on a vendetta against Lee, who walked in front to stop anything from starting. When they got to the point where their houses were in different directions after Sakura's house (they were told by Sakura's over protective parents to bring her back the entire way themselves), Lee and Sarah split with Chrono and they each headed their own way.

Unknown to Sakura and Nanoha, who were too busy with hauling in their considerable shopping, they were missing a small ferret who was still on Chrono's shoulder. Chrono, "You remember the plan?" The ferret jumped into the air and landed down as a human, "You bet." They each disappeared on spot to start their little scheme. Each went to gather the supplies from various locations and then met back in the park. Chrono, "You got your stuff?" Lance nodded and Chrono confirmed Lance with a bag as well, "Now let's put the plan into action." They disappeared again.

Lee and Sarah were already on their home street. They walked into their house, greeted their parents and went to their respective rooms. Lee went to sit down on the bed after the long day. As soon as he did though, out of nowhere a green chain bind appeared out of nowhere and a green magic circle appeared under him and he felt something flow out and go through his whole body, filling him with an immensely weird feeling unlike anything he had ever felt before. Suddenly, he felt some pressure in the chest area against his shirt that was now, to his unpleasant surprise, a tight blue blouse-like shirt and his pants had turned into a skirt as he continued to feel his body somehow change shape completely, much to his horror. That said, upon whatever magic overtook him finishing up, he had an idea of what happened, but he looked down at himself to confirm his worst nightmare, which was hard given the things that were now attached to his upper torso. He squeezed them to make sure they weren't fakes, and to his complete nightmare they weren't. He quickly dashed over to the mirror in his closet to assess the damage while his mind was still spinning, noticing his hair had lengthened a bit down to his neck and it was now straight. He also noticed that most of his visible muscle was gone and his legs and arms were now much more effeminate. With the mirror, he was now properly able to see himself in his new ensemble, a white mini-skirt and a blue shirt that was tight against his new bust. It was hard to believe that he was the girl looking out at him from the mirror. That said, the one last rational braincell he had that was still functioning had an inkling of who and what had just happened, and so he immediately ran downstairs and yelled as he got into the living room, "WHOSE FUNNY IDEA WAS THIS!?" Suddenly, Lance and Chrono popped out from behind the couch and Lee saw a bright flash of light come from a camera in Chrono's hands. A picture popped out the bottom and Chrono held it up. "I think we can call ourselves even."

On the couch, Lee's father was choking on his own laughter, "Sorry Lee, at first I was going to stop them, but when they explained what they were going to do it sounded too funny to pass up. Besides it's rare that someone is good enough with both transformation magic and sealing magic to pull off something as hilarious as this." He was on the floor rolling in a laughing fit. His mother looked at him, giggling a bit, "Well I've always wanted another daughter." Sarah came running downstairs, "What's so funny. I can hear you from upstairs." She looked around at everyone, then the feminized Lee. She needed a moment to put two and two together, and then fell down laughing her head off. Lee, "Shut up!" Lee tried to sound threatening but to even more of his shock, his voice had turned high pitched. This only led to another laughing fit from both John and Sarah. Meanwhile Chrono approached them, somehow already producing multiple copies of the picture, "I'll sell you prints." They both agreed immediately, knowing this was a once in a lifetime chance. Lee though was not amused, "Okay, ha, ha, I get the point, now can you undo this already." Lance and Chrono were already walking towards the door. Lance, "Don't worry, it'll wear off in a few hours or so." Chrono, "Oh, and by the way, you won't be able to take the girly clothes off until then. For the full effect and all that." They both walked out of the door laughing. Chrono, "I think we're all even now." Chrono was with Lance out on the street. Lance was still laughing, "You got that right." Chrono handed Lance two memory cards. He looked confused until Chrono took out a video camera hidden in his jacket, "Make sure to show Sakura and Nanoha, okay? Doubt they would forgive us if we kept such a hilarious secret from them." Lance laughed a bit more as he teleported. Chrono followed suit.

Lee was begging his father to help him turn back but unfortunately, John said he couldn't. He was still smiling at the humor of the situation. Lee didn't believe him until he explained, "Sorry Lee, Transformation magic is quite tricky on its own, and Lance is frankly a real master when it comes to sealing magic. If it was weaker then I might be able to do something, but honestly Lance has done quite a thorough job here, especially with the sealing layer over it which he even encrypted, and given his proficiency with Innate Sealing magic, that's saying something. At this stage such a spell can only be dispelled under certain conditions. The first is if the person who casted it dispels it, which is unlikely given that he's already left and second is if a preset limit is met if it has one like it does in this case according to Lance, in your case it will wear off in a few hours, so until then, you will just has to deal. The third is for you to be exposed to a ton of magical power enough to disrupt the spell, though given that its almost time for dinner and we don't really have the time to set up an area for you to do that right now. Then fourth is for you to use your own transformation magic to counteract it, which is pretty much impossible for you from what you told me, and probably too hard for you to do in this case given Lance's thoroughness. Fifth is for a specialist or machine to decode the spell, both of which are more than 5 hours away, especially since Lance seems to have done an exceptional job of it, and frankly I doubt that you would want anyone else to see you like this. Then lastly is in the case of a seal of this nature, to simply wait the magic to naturally expire. Short of using an AMF or some other canceling magic, there isn't anything I can really do in the short term before it would simply dispel."

Lee for his part looked defeated at this proclamation. For the next few hours, he was stuck being a girl. When he went to take a shower, he found that he really was stuck in the shirt and skirt combo as he had been told, learning the hard way how such a rule was to be enforced. Every time he tried to remove the humiliating outfit, something worse happened instead. The first attempt resulted in the skirt getting shorter. The second try caused his boys underwear, the last remaining piece of his original attire, to turn into girls' unmentionables which just didn't feel right on him The third and last attempt he tried before learning his lesson caused his bust size increased a bit, making them feel tighter against his shirt. Clearly Lance and Chrono had been thorough in making sure his humiliation lasted in full. When he, or now be she, gave up, she left the bathroom even more defeated looking and went to lie down on the couch. His/her mother came over and tried to comfort him or her as of now, to no avail, though it didn't help that Mary was clearly very amused by his current predicament. Then when that was done, Sarah came rushing downstairs with a bunch of hair accessories and tried to force him into some, which annoyed him enough to simply retreat to his room and simply go to sleep early, trying to forget the entire incident. Even with his current situation, he knew that Lance and Chrono would be true to their word, and so this would all be over by tomorrow, and so he wanted a good night's sleep for his first day of the new school year. Fighting manifestations of magic, he had basically mastered, fights with friends were something he could handle, high school, that was another matter…

Authors Note:

Not much to say here, this chapter was mostly slice of life with a slight bit of character development thrown in, followed by a hilarious predicament for Lee. In terms of why I included a chapter that clearly doesn't serve the overall plot that much, the simple answer is I did it precisely because it wasn't part of the main story. It is a reminder that as much as Lee and company train and fight and have gained powers comparable to super weapons and could honestly take over the world if they even had the slightest interest, at the end of the day, they are still regular kids, and enjoy simply hanging out with each other just as much as anything to do with magic. What was more, I felt that it was important to show that their friendship is still strong, and honestly I believe one of the best ways to show a healthy relationship is to allow minor conflict within it, and thus show that even when they are upset with each other, they are ultimately still the best of friends.

On another note, if anyone was curious how much was added and improved with this story compared to the original, one need only look at the word counts after I post this chapter, and you'll see that at only 28 chapters, this story has almost 8000 more words than the entirety of the original posted stories 38 chapters. That said, if you remove the bonus chapters and authors note + introduction, they are actually about even at just over 200,000 words at this point in terms of actual story, but given that it's still 10 chapters away, you can see how much has been added and filled out comparatively.