The Haruno Chronicles

by Bobby8795

A brand new story with beats taken from the original MGLN 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!

30. Chapter 28 - High School, the Experience

Chapter 28 – High School, the Experience

Lee woke up the next morning to find that Lance and Chrono's 'prank' had finally worn off. Even the dress and all other things girly magically attached to him had disappeared and he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday right before the transformation magic Lance had booby trapped his room with took effect. At first, he was already planning a get-back prank but the he decided to give them each a smack in the head and be over with the whole incident. After all, it was pretty much how it all got started. He ate breakfast early and was running to the door. He didn't want to be late on the first day. Just as he was getting to the door, his father came and handed him a package. Lee opened it, and was honestly surprised to see a full metal Katana, shorter than the swords he was used to and bordering on being a Wakisashi, but given its thin profile and lack of full guard at the hilt, Lee knew it was the type of Katana his father used for a lot of his bodyguard assignments given that it was much easier for him to conceal. Of course, the first thing that crossed Lee's mind was how was he expected to bring this to school as his father so clearly intended given that carrying a real sword in public without some special kind of certification was so clearly against the firearms and sword possession control law. That said, his father, as if reading his middle son's mind, gave him the answer, "Don't worry, some 'relations' within the family allowed me to get you a license that allows you to carry a sword pretty much anywhere by registering you as an employee of my bodyguard business, which also gets you around the normal restrictions regarding weapon concealment which would otherwise not be allowed, but would still be less weird that you creating a sword out of thin air with your device. Also, the principle knows and has signed an agreement permitting it on school grounds as long as you don't use it to harm other students or purposely damage property and other obvious misuses. I figured that with all the dangerous situations you've been getting into, it might be best for you to carry some protection that doesn't rely on you using magic for secrecy purposes, at least as inconspicuous as a sword can be in the 21st century." He handed Lee an official looking document with some important signatures. Lee hid the katana in a special pocket of his pants that his mother had tailored in without him noticing, which surprisingly didn't hinder his movement at all, proving that his mother was clearly accustomed to such tailoring for his father. In any case, the sword was short and light so it didn't look like it was there at all, though it did make him feel a bit like a ninja. In any case, he thanked his father before running out the door.

He had sealed most of his Ki with RETASETSU so he wouldn't stand out, but not all of it so he could still look impressive. Most people trained to get better at something after all and it would be a waste not to use at least some of it on the regular after all. Thus he was still able to use his SHUNPO, which had been virtually cut to a hundredth between the sealed Ki and his new weights to make the bus on time, which he just barely did, running in before the doors closed to find a seat in the back, where Sakura, Chrono and Nanoha were waiting for him. Sarah meanwhile had taken an earlier bus since the junior high school started 15 minutes earlier and she apparently had something to do at the school's office before the day started, something about an issue transferring her grades from her time abroad that they needed her to resolve quickly. In any case, Lee sat down next to Chrono and Sakura, with Nanoha to Sakura's side. Lance was at home due to the fact that there wasn't a way of entering him into the school currently without suspicion, and besides according to what he had told them, academically he had already exceeded what would be the collegiate level on Earth in terms of academics, which reminded the group once again that while Lance didn't overtly advertise it often, that he was that kind of brainy genius smart. In any case, he went on patrol from time to time to keep an eye out though for any signs of Saren Stone activity to keep himself busy during the day.

They were all laughing when Lee, true to his word the previous night, hit Chrono on the head before saying, "If I hear or see any 'rumors' going around, I can't promise the building will hold up." This made them all stop, but Sakura still giggled a bit, "Well, if it makes you feel better, you were a very cute girl." Lee was about to say something but decided to look the other way. Chrono, "Yes, you were very sexy." Lee, "Just for your information, as of this morning, I have a license to carry my sword anywhere, including the school grounds. Now we both know I won't hurt you but it could just slip, tearing off your clothes and what little dignity you have left." Lee then opened the pocket of his pants with the blade in it. He seemed to get his point across as Chrono had turned almost sober by the time they got off the bus, when Lee finally said, "It was a joke, I may be a bit vengeful, but not evil."

They walked through the doors to the school. Lee felt some people starring as they passed, but paid it no mind. After all, Lee no longer had the vast majority of his more defined muscles he had developed over the vacation showing so to normal eyes, so he just looked like a normal, maybe even wimpy freshmen, and so assumed that they were simply sizing up the new kids. In any case, they each got their schedules and went to their new homeroom. Due to Chrono's family's 'influence' over the city's public functions and in particular that of Seihou Gakuenn, they had all been placed in the same class, a big relief to Nanoha who was still getting used to the Earth school thing, having only attended one for a little over a month. They entered their homeroom to find to their delight that there was a grouping of four desks in the back corner that were still available, and so staked them out since, if it was anything like the junior high, then for homeroom they could probably choose their desks instead of going by class number given Seihou Gakuenn's penchant for student autonomy. In any case, they sat down and placed their books in their desks as they prepared for the first day of school. As soon as everyone was in his or her seats, the teacher came in.

Honestly, Lee, along with the majority of the class were quite surprised when they actually saw their homeroom teacher who greeted them accordingly, "Good morning. I am going to be your Homeroom teacher this year. My name is Mr. Kenton, A pleasure." He looked like he had just come out of college or even was still attending. He was easily the youngest teacher Lee had ever had. That said, one thing that was immediately noticeable was that most of the girls in the class were staring at him, clearly finding the young teacher attractive in some way. Thus, inversely the majority of the boys were just sizing up the enemy. That said, Lee felt that there was a bit more to their teacher then appearances showed, though he couldn't really pin it down either. It was almost like there was something warrior-esque in his demeanor or something else he could feel it a bit through his developing Ki sense, but at the same time it was still hard to place. Of course, most thoughts of this disappeared when suddenly out of nowhere, his new teacher tripped on the step up to the blackboard, causing the whole class to laugh at his clumsiness.

Mr. Kenton for his part got up and laughed it off, and then started to write some stuff on the board mostly pertaining to the schedule for the day. The class started off with basic introductions. They stated their name and class number and something about themselves. When Lee came up, he said that he liked practicing his swordplay, to which he got an enthusiastic response from his new teacher, "That's good. I am pleased to say that I am also the new Kendo instructor, which in this school also includes all matters of kenjutsu disciplines as well. Can I expect you to join the team?" As they were required to take a sport or club at Seihou Gakuenn, Lee said yes. He had planned to join it from the beginning due to the club requirement anyway, and Chrono was even going to join him. As one of his weapons could be a sword and Lee was already there, he figured it was his best option. That said, Lee thought that this might explain what he was feeling from his teacher. Maybe he was some sort of sword-master, but that would remain to be seen. Sakura meanwhile had pretty much decided to join the girls archery club along with Nanoha, thinking that if nothing else, they could at least work on their projectile accuracy. Though their magic usually auto guided their shots to have pretty good aim, John had told them that at the root, it was the mage who supplied the skill required so the better the mage's skill, the surer the spell control. After all, magic could only enhance what was already there.

Homeroom lasted until lunch, as it was the first day, mostly so they could get to know their new classmates. The second half of the day though was entirely devoted to the proper entrance ceremony and finding a club or sport to join. Thus after they ate their lunch out on the roof, they made their way to the official entrance ceremony taking place in the gym. It was pretty much as they expected, with the principle fiving a speech about a new start and other stuff, followed by a small speech from the current student council president and the first-year representative who had gotten the highest score on the entrance exam, something thankfully that none of the group had to take since they had gone to the high school's feeder school, and therefore got automatic acceptance as long as they met the grade requirements. Following that, the student council president explained what would proceed the ceremony, the club fair, with different clubs and organizations set up all over the school for them to go and look at. They were to go and look at the ones that interested them and chose one by the end of the week. Those who hadn't would be placed in the club with the fewest members automatically and be forbidden from changing for the first three weeks, basically a good motivation to not be lazy about it and choose one for yourself. In any case, when they exited the gymnasium, there was a big map of the whole school posted on the noticeboard outside to show which rooms had which clubs in it today. There were also ones near the stairs and at the main entrance. Lee and Chrono split for the school's dojo, where the two martial arts and the Kendo teams met together. It was quite large so it could be split in half easily with a sliding divider. Meanwhile, Sakura and Nanoha headed for the back of the gym, which was where the archery range was located.

When Chrono and Lee entered the dojo, they walked up to the kendo booth located inside that was currently manned by three people. One was Mr. Kenton, and the other two introduced themselves as Drew Hokkaido and Norman Tints, both seniors, with Drew introducing himself as the captain of the Kendo club. Lee though immediately noticed that had the perfect build for a swordsman. He had a lot of muscle but they weren't big. He wasn't huge but medium sized, meaning that he was balancing his power against his agility and speed equally, sacrificing neither. It was clear that he was an avid practitioner of swordsmanship, well beyond the sport of Kendo. Norman meanwhile who had introduced himself as the vice-captain was a bit bigger in comparison, not overly so, but it was clear that he had focused more on strength development than anything, making Lee believe that in a bout that Norman would be slower, but he could probably make up for that shortcoming with excessive power. His naturally big frame though did make sense as he was clearly only half Japanese, the other half most likely of European descent As far as normal swordsmen go, these two seemed to be pretty good, Drew especially.

Drew for his part looked like he was sizing the two newcomers up, "So are you two beginners. Chrono, "I am." Lee, "I wouldn't call myself a beginner per say, but no one is perfect." Lee was still curious about how good their club instructor was, not able to shake the feeling he got off his homeroom teacher earlier and also curious as to how good his senpai were, and so he released one level of his sealed Ki, which to the eye was unnoticeable but obvious to anyone with a form of Ki sense. Neither of the two seniors showed any signs, though Lee thought he may have seen a slight change in the captain's expression so he wasn't sure about him. That said, Mr. Kenton smiled and looked at him directly, giving Lee a clear sign that he understood. Lee at least now was confident that the instructor had some talent, which also confirmed his feeling from when he first saw him. He couldn't tell by how much, but Mr. Kenton was clearly no amateur. In any case, with the introductions out of the way, Drew asked them to start warming up for their first practice which would start in a bit after the waiting period for others to come and look at the club.

At the same time as Lee and Chrono were at the Kendo Club, Sakura and Nanoha went to the Girls Archery club to sign up. When they arrived, they were greeted by the two people manning the sign up table, the first was a student and the other a teacher. They introduced themselves as Fuyumi Joshi and Miss. Aoko. Fuyumi was a senior and the Captain of the Archery club and Miss. Aoko was the instructor. Ruka Hibari, a junior and vice-captain was in the archery range setting it up. Sakura and Nanoha said they were beginners with no experience, but were eager to join, for which they got a nod of approval from their soon to be captain. In any case, after signing their names, they went over to help their upperclassman set things up while waiting for the sign up period to end for the day.

Back at the Kendo club, they were all set up and the waiting time had finally expired. In total, 6 boys, including Lee and Chrono had signed up. Along with 16 old members from the previous school year, there were 22 in all, including captains and a few absentees. There were 2 others that weren't there as they were helping some of the other booths and so would not be with them until tomorrow, both seniors of the club by what they had overheard. In any case, those that were there had all already completed some basic warmups and stretches and so were now splitting up into three groups based on skill level. The Beginner group was made up of ten students, four freshmen (Chrono included) and six 2nd years, led by Mr. Kenton. The intermediate group had 7 people in it, one freshman an six 2nd years, led by vice-captain Norman. The last group, the experts, only had two people, Lee and a returning senior.

Drew smiled, "So you think you're some hot stuff, don't ya freshmen." Lee looked at him as if daring him to say something else. Drew, "Don't worry, I ain't mocking ya or nothing. I did the same thing freshmen year. I will just warn ya now that I don't go easy. With that said, do you want to continue?" Lee nodded. Drew, "Good, then let's get started. As to ascertain the strength of our newcomer, lets have a little spar between the two of ya. We can use the karate side of the dojo sinceI think they're still jogging around the gym and we don't want to get in everyone else's way." Sure enough, the other side was empty when they went through the dividing curtain. "Okay, this is a free style full arena match. While officially we are the Kendo club, we also take part in other types of tournaments as well, including the increasingly popular unrestricted Kenjutsu format that's been gaining traction lately. Thus for the sake of this match, there are no restrictions on the fighting style at all. Honestly if you want, you can use your bare hands for all I care, though if you think you are better with them then a sword I suggest joining the Karate club instead. But without further ado, please go to your starting positions."

John had taught Lee a bit about formal matches for the family tournament. This was basically the same type they used in that tournament, which was good for Lee. While he had joined the Kendo club because it was the closest thing to proper Kenjutsu training he could get at school, he honestly wasn't too crazy about the sport itself. To be sure, Kendo had its place, but ultimately the style of swordsmanship that Kendo lent itself to was purely for sport, and what Lee was training, what his father had taught him, was proper swordsmanship, the type meant for actual combat. It was why he was glad to have heard before hand that this club took part in the newer unrestricted Kenjutsu matches in addition to traditional Kendo, a move that in recent times was seen as an attempt to revive a dying art that was considered a national treasure to the people of Japan.

Lee went to the opposite side of the arena before turning around and bowing to his opponent. The senior smirked, thinking of this as an easy win, but did at least bow in return. Drew "Begin!" The senior rushed at Lee, but to the newer member of the club, it seemed unbearably slow. Lee hadn't really even thought about it until now, but when he was training with his family, they were training at speeds lightyears ahead of an ordinary person, so by comparison this ordinary club member might as well have been standing still. Lee simply dodged his first few attacks without using his sword at all. Then with a rather graceful and well-timed step, Lee circled around the senior in a flash. The senior to his credit though didn't panic, but instead turned around while doing a sweeping side slash.

That said, what happened next shocked not only his opponent, but everyone watching their spar as well. Before the slash could get even close to landing, Lee stopped it gracefully with the point of his sword, holding the sword down. Then, just using that, along with a little Ki trick John had shown him to effectively stick two objects together, held it in place, with his opponent unable to move it even an inch. Of course, the technique that Lee was employing's actual purpose was meant to be used on hands and feet to climb walls and stick to ceilings, as John had demonstrated when Sarah had asked if he knew any actual ninja tricks, but it worked for this situation too. "What the?" The senior was in shock, he was trying to move the sword with both hands and with no luck. From the sidelines, Drew even whistled, "Well, you've got style Lee, I'll give you that." Lee though, not wanting to humiliate his club member finally let his opponent's sword go by releasing his Ki, though it had the unintended effect of causing his opponent to fall to the ground. The Senior though didn't take too kindly to, in his mind, being made a fool of, and so got up quickly, looking furious, and rushed towards Lee, clearly attempting to get some sort of retribution. He did a violent slash downwards, but Lee evaded it with ease and then did an immensely fast counter swing, too fast for his more ordinary opponent to even register, but stopped right before his wooden blade made contact near his victim's stomach. It was at this moment that Lee's opponent though near inexplicably blacked out, falling to the ground

Next thing the senior knew, he was on the floor, looking up at Lee and Drew who were looking down at him sleeping on the floor. "What the hell happened? I remember his sword being right near my stomach and then it was all a blur." Drew, "Don't worry, most people would be knocked out by 13 straight blows to the stomach." "13?" The senior was in a bit of shock, looking where the pain was only to notice that there indeed were at least a dozen different small sharp welts developing. Lee, "Sorry, I tried to hold them back a little bit, but I may have still gone a bit too hard." The Senior, "Goro, the name's Goro Isuma. Remember it; I will not go down so easily for you the next time." And with that semi-ominous warning, he walked away.

Drew whistled, "Nice attack, 13 hits and I almost lost track, mind you I was caught off guard by the sudden shift in skill level." Lee though, upon hearing this, just smiled, "That's fine. I mean no one's perfect," and he pointed at the floor where he had made the attack. On the ground, there were exactly 19 slash marks. "I made a few of the slashes to the ground to hold back since once I'm going, I like to do the whole form properly, but I guess you were just distracted by the actual fight, no big deal." Drew looked both shocked and excited at the same time, and a moment later started laughing heartily, "I have got to face you; how about a small match between the two of us, and this lets not hold back so much. I could tell earlier that you were flaring your suppressed Ki. So how about we both release our powers a bit and do an exhibition match for the whole team. If nothing else, it will be a good moral booster. Hell, I'll even throw in a bonus. Beat me in less than 2 minutes and I will make you the new vice-captain. Norman is strong, and frankly he is quite skilled as well, but is as fast as a rock. It's always his downfall, as I'm sure it would be if you faced him." Lee to that kind of statement could only agree, the only thing running through his mind now was that being the vice-captain could be an interesting experience.

5 minutes later, they were on opposite sides of the arena, with the rest of the team as spectators. Mr. Kenton was going to be ref and timekeeper. "This is a free, anything goes match. If Lee wins within the first 2 minutes, he will be the new vice-captain." Drew, "By the way, I don't think I caught your family name, I would like to know my challenger's and next victim's full name." Lee, "Sorry, allow me to introduce myself then. It's Cross, my name is Lee Cross." To Lee's surprise, upon hearing his name, Drew's eyes seemed to widen, as if he recognized the name, and clearly he had as his entire demeanor suddenly shifted, "Cross, that explains it." In a single movement, 4 training weights suddenly blew off Drew as if repelled by some invisible force, almost by instinct on Drew's part to not hold back. By the sound they made on contact with the floor, Lee guessed they were quite heavy. Drew for his part took a much more serious looking stance as he prepared to face Lee, "I am sorry for matching you up before with such a mediocre opponent. For a Cross, it is necessary to have a worthy challenger, of which a Hokkaido is more than suited. That said, I will no longer hold back, so I suggest you prepare yourself." With that, Drew released his own inner restrictions on his power. Lee felt a good amount of Ki radiate from his club captain. Of course the quantity wasn't a huge amount, Lee's reserves would run circles around it, but Lee could tell the quality of it just from the feeling he gave off, this senpai was skilled, both in swordsmanship and Ki discipline. In any case, it was clearly well far and beyond that of ordinary people.

Lee knew that he had to be cautious here, and so released another level out of the ten he made, and with this increase in the natural flow of Ki in his body, his muscles gained a bit of size a definition, being much more pronounced than before. That said, he took it a step farther, releasing another 2 levels of his internal limitations so that he was at around 40%, and with that he felt that he was ready to fight. His muscles had gained even more definition compared to before, and even through his clothes they were clearly visible. He no longer looked like some newbie freshman, but someone who had been honing their strength with intense training, something that didn't go unnoticed by either his opponent or those paying close enough attention to the match like the club coach.

Mr. Kenton looked quickly between the two competitors and judged them to be ready, "Take your stances." Drew took a stance Lee recognized as a kind of Battojutsu technique. Though normally done with an actual sheathe, John had shown him before that by using Ki, once could reinforce the off hand holding the sword to replicate the sheathe. Battojutsu was a school of techniques that revolved around sheath drawing, a technique of moderate power but amazing speed. At Lee's current level of Ki emission, he estimated even he would have trouble reacting based off the Ki Drew was putting out. It was a technique that could appear to transpire in the blink of an eye when performed by a master according to his father, and Lee could tell that Drew was no amateur. Thus, Lee decided to try and finish this match as quickly as possible.

Now his father had told him that the technique he was about to use was not meant to be used lightly, and was certainly not meant for use in sport. Thus, under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have considered using it at any point during club activities, but that had been because he had also never imagined that there would be anyone of Drew's caliber to go against. They hadn't even clashed swords yet, but Lee knew that Drew's skills were likely greater than his, even if Lee had the talent and massive Ki to his advantage, and so he felt like in this instance, the use of this ultimate technique was justified. Lee took his sword and with his right hand, broguth the hilt level to his face while he placed his left hand on the swords tip. To Drew almost 4 meters away, it looked like some type of thrusting technique, but that couldn't be right. Drew didn't need to know Lee's height or stride length to know that his opponent was much too far outside a thrust's range, which was generally that of the user taking one step with the sword fully extended. Drew though thought it was a challenge for him to make the first move. That said, on the side, Mr. Kenton eye's widened, as he thought it resembled a move he had seen before, a perfect, undefeatable technique that had defeated him many times before.

Chrono on the sidelines was the only one in the room who knew what was about to happen. He looked at Norman, who was next to him, "Prepare to be demoted." Norman looked over at Chrono, "So do you know what your friend is about to do?" Chrono, "More or ;ess. It is impossible to see but the result is as clear as day. It will be over in zero seconds flat." Norman, "Well I can appreciate your faith in your friend, even if misplaced, but I can only caution you to not over exaggerate. But I take it that I can assume that this is some type of high-speed technique eh? If it is, then I'm sorry to tell you, but Drew is probably one of the fastest men. No one I've ever seen can beat him in that department." Chrono though just smiled back at Norman, "Sorry to say this, but this technique goes far beyond just speed. To someone who can't use the technique, its pretty much" Norman, "Tough words from the beginner."

Back on the arena, Lee and Drew were ready. Mr. Kenton looked at both the combatants. He could feel the power around the room. "And GO!" The moment that he said go, it was over. Everyone rechecked they're eyes after what happened. One moment they were taking their stances, the second, Lee was behind Drew, who was standing motionless. If one blinked, they missed the fight. In fact, even if one didn't blink, they missed it still. That said, it was clear that whatever Lee had done must have been strenuous as not only was Lee sweating quite a bit, but his wooden sword, even with the Ki he put into it almost subconsciously at this point, splintered into pieces. Lee though was satisfied with the result, and so walked away from the still standing Drew in order to find himself a place to sit down, turning to his teacher in the process, "Kenton-Sensei, might be best see to it that he is properly taken care of." Mr. Kenton gave him an affirmative nodded in response before walking towards the still standing Drew. Lee though, at noticing his teacher's reaction to his display, as if it wasn't even the first time he'd seen it, realized that the kendo instructor was probably several times more powerful than Drew. He was likely the only one who noticed what had transpired, though Lee knew that most likely he could only tell from the effects on the dojo still left from Lee's technique. It was only at this point though, after the technique had concluded, that a large crack from where Lee was to where Lee had reappeared appeared on the floor as a shockwave flew forward. Mr. Kenton walked over and looked at Drew's face. "Hey," Norman was staring at Lee, "Where are you going, the match is still on." Mr. Kenton though had to correct the now former Vice-Captain, "No, it isn't. Mr. Drew here is most definitely unconscious. Lee already won, which I guess makes him the new number two. Sorry about that, but fair is fair."

It took a few minutes but Drew finally recovered. He sat up on the bench he was placed on where Mr. Kenton was bandaging him up. "I can't remember a thing from the fight." Mr. Kenton smiled, "That would be because the fight as far as we are concerned consisted of a little disappearing act by Lee where he somehow reappeared behind you at the same time." Drew, "So what was the final fight time?" Mr. Kenton takes out his pocket watch and hands it to Drew. It reads "00:00:00." "There wasn't enough time to press the button. If you blinked, you missed the battle." Most would expect Drew to be down after such a crushing defeat, but then again, those people didn't really know Drew that well as Drew started laughing, "This is interesting. This year's is going to be fun."

Drew walked over to Lee, who was resealing his Ki down to one level, his physique following suit. Behind Drew was Mr. Kenton, "So that technique, was it ZERO TENSHI?" Lee's eyes widened and he almost choked on his own breath at hearing the name of his technique given that it was only known to the Cross family given that his father invented it, and so it hadn't seen a lot of use enough that Lee would expect people to know it, "Where did you learn about it?" Mr. Kenton, "By any chance, do you know a person named Sora Cross. I've seen him use that same technique." Lee's eye's widened some, "Yeah, he's my older brother. Do you know him?" Mr. Kenton started laughing, "I knew it. I knew I recognized the style. Your Sora's brother, that would explain a lot. Sora used that technique many times on me during practice last year. We were on the same Kendo team in college, though he was two years behind me. How is he doing?" Lee responded, "Good, he was actually home until 2 days ago."

Drew suddenly butted in, curious as to what they were talking about, "So what exactly is this ZERO TENSHI anyway." Mr. Kenton answered, "A thrust. It is a thrust of such amazing speed that the opponent cannot defend against it, or even move from what I've experienced. This almost mystical technique seems to always work, regardless of the distance, speed or position of the target. At least that's how Sora explained it to me. I have a feeling that there is more to it than that, but Sora declined to share the finer details with anyone." Lee, "Understandable, since it's a family secret created by my father, but you're mostly right, and I'll admit that its more complicated than you make it sound. But you got the essence of it right, for it is a thrust that, as my father puts it, is a technique that expands a single moment in time, allowing you to move and attack from within that single moment. That said ,I hope you don't feel bad though about losing to it To my knowledge, except for my father, no one has ever won against this technique, and he was the one who made it so that loss only makes sense." Lee looked to his captain, expecting to see him demoralized as Lee was sure he would be if he had been defeated by something so esoteric and unrecognizable, but to his surprise Drew. was anything but down. In fact, he seemed ecstatic at the prospect of trying to overcome this new obstacle, "Interesting, this is very interesting. We will be having another match sometime very soon, count on that." Drew got up, preparing to leave, but then remembered the promise he made before the match and turned around, "Oh yeah, despite the fact that Norman will be a bit disheartened by it, I guess you won yourself the vice-captain's seat. Be sure to go to Norman and ask him for the extra spare set of keys for the dojo. I will have the vice-captains badge ready for your uniform once they arrive as well. But in any case, this year's going to be fun." Lee was thinking the same thing, bowing quickly to his opponent before he went and found a place to sit down, exhausted from the use of his ultimate sword technique, and thus spent the rest of the club period watching everyone else as they resumed their own practice, now with a renewed vigor.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Sakura and Nanoha were sitting down on some benches with about 20 or so other girls, listening to the captain, Shizuku Kairi, explain the basics of archery. She also explained the tournament styles and other stuff newbie's needed to know. When she was done, she asked them to come over to get fitted for a bow. They were each given a bow at the beginning of the year that they were expected to maintain for the rest of their time in the club. Sakura and Nanoha each got themselves a fairly new bow, apparently the older ones having been replaced the year prior, and walked over to their club advisor and archery teacher, Miss Aoko, to be measured for their uniforms, though they were also given temporary wrist guards for use until the properly sized equipment was in. After that, they were led in droves of two to one of the ten archery stations. Nanoha found that she was up first. Carefully placing the arrow on the bow like Shizuku had demonstrated to them not ten minutes prior, she emulated her Captain's form the best she could, pulling the bow back and holding it up to eye level. She looked closely at where she was targeting, trying to keep her arm straight even against the tension she was holding on to, and then she then let it go. To her credit, it was a great shot, for it hit just outside the bulls-eye zone. That said, Nanoha looked a little disappointed, though the vice-captain, Ruka, told her that it was actually a great shot for a beginner who purportedly had no experience.

It was several minutes before Sakura got her shot at the range. She took up her assigned bow, she knocked the arrow, trying to emulate what she had seen Nanoha do given that out of all the new members, Nanoha had the closest shot, and so with similar motion, drew the arrow back, leveling her elbow in line with her sight as she aimed. That said, Sakura knew nothing of shooting bows, with her only reference to such an action being her magical prowess. Thus, instead of trying to aim it like an arrow that she knew nothing of, Sakura instead pretended that she was firing a blast of magic. Unnoticed by her or virtually anyone else, but noticed by Nanoha, a bit of Sakura's magic seeped into the arrow's tip subconsciously. To everyone's surprise, when Sakura let her arrow loose, it didn't just hit the bullseye dead center, but went through it, along with the entire target and came out on the other side where it embedded in the hay bales behind the range. This extraordinary shot did not go unnoticed by the club captain, Shizuku, "Damn! Are you sure you're a beginner? Are you sure you don't have any previous experience?" Sakura though just shook her head, not quite sure the best way to explain what just happened, only realizing what she had done after the fact and simply glad that she hadn't done anything too showy. Shizuku, "Well in that case, you've got a real talent there. Let's see what you can do after another three shots."

Sakura, unable to explain what just happened directly, simply went along with her captain's request and so prepared to shoot again. This time though, with some telepathic advice from Nanoha, requested her device CERENITY to hold her magic back. Thus, she attempted another three shots, this time without magic, expecting to make a fool of herself. Thus, Sakura was surprised when, using the same aiming method even without magic, got all her shots in the innermost ring, with the third shot, to her immense shock, hitting once again dead center. It was so surprising that Sakura mentally checked with both her device and Nanoha herself to make sure she hadn't accidentally used magic again, which this time they both confirmed. In any case, her captain and club sempai just looked at Sakura excitedly, "You've got stuff freshmen. I like stuff. You are going to be an amazing addition to our team, I'll make sure of it."

From then until the end of practice, Shizuku took Sakura to a station at the end to work alone on her shooting. Apparently Shizuku's family had strong roots to Kyudo, and she had been practicing her archery since she was 5. She spent a lot of time explaining the finer points, including the specifics about her bow and the slight variations in how to fire it. She used her own bow as an example, a bow that Sakura could only think was a bit too big for her, but apparently this was characteristic of traditional Japanese ceremonial bows that she was used to, and since it fell within regulation limits for professional archery she used it over the more traditional bows most school archery clubs employed. In any case, she showed off her amazing archery skills to Sakura to show what she though Sakura was capable of. In a row, she fired off five arrows in rapid succession, each one precisely hitting a dot that she had preplaced on the target. Sakura was amazed, but then again, Shizuku was the captain of the Archery Club. She had Sakura try the same thing next, something that Sakura didn't think she could possibly replicate, but was once again surprised with herself when she actually hit three of the targets and got pretty close to the remaining two, to which Shizuku just kept praising her for.

Meanwhile, the rest of the club just kept alternating between the remaining targets. Nanoha for her part decided to take Sakura's advice on how she aimed, imaging it more like aiming a spell than an arrow, and found for the most part it was working for her. Nanoha was even able to get a few bullseyes in, though not as frequently as she would like, but still well in excess of any of the other new club. Riza, the vice-captain, took notice of Nanoha's apparent skill, recognizing it as well above the average new club member, and even gave Nanoha a few pointers and even a visible demonstration for the form she though Nanoha should use. That said, when Nanoha tried to copy her almost move for move, but her arrow went well off. "No, No, NO. You're doing it all wrong. You are trying to copy me, who for one thing am left-handed. You are right-handed, so instead of mimicking me, reflect me like a mirror, doing the same and at the same time, the opposite of me." Nanoha tried again, this time changing hands to 'reflect' the vice-captain, and to her shock, it resulted in their two two arrows collided into each other while hitting the target dead center. Ruka just smiled, "There we go, perfect shot. Guess you just needed a push." Nanoha, now with renewed confidence, continued to practice the form Ruka had showed her for the remainder of the practice.

Eventually though, the day had come to an end, Shizuku declaring that practice was over for today, but that they should all meet here tomorrow for practice as well at normal club times. That said, Shizuku asked Sakura to stay behind and help clean up. It was honestly a bit tricky for Sakura given that there was a car waiting for her out front, her parents still wanting her driven home from school if she didn't have any additional plans, but Sakura decided two minutes wouldn't hurt in the long run so she went and helped bring the arrows to the door of the Archery clubs supply shed. "Thanks," said Shizuku, locking the shed. "You are a really good teacher," said Sakura. Shizuku at this just blushed a bit, "Don't worry, it is mostly you. I don't remember anyone besides Riza or myself who got a bull's eye first try on their first day. You and your friend Nanoha are naturals." Sakura blushed herself, not used to getting praise for anything athletic related, "Well my friends say I have a keen eye. That's the real reason why I joined." Shizuku, "Well I'm glad you did. There is ever lasting demand for talent in any sports club." Sakura simply said thanks, but realizing the time she quickly excused herself and ran to the car where Nanoha and Sakura's family driver Hioshi were waiting for her to go home.

At the same time, the Kendo club had also just been dismissed for the day. Lee and Chrono were already leaving the building when they realized that they had missed the bus they were trying to catch. That said, they weren't that upset, for among other things, they were mages now, and with that came some perks. Thus in celebration of their first day of school being over, they decided to have a race… in the sky. When they weren't transformed with their devices assisting them, it was a more even playing field between the two-speed wise when it came to flying, though truthfully Lee was still the quicker of the two. That said, the two original best friends had fun nonetheless. Afterwards though, they couldn't just land in plain view of the people below, and so each teleported to their homes, with Lee teleporting right into his bedroom.

When Lee went downstairs, Sarah was already on the couch watching TV, so Lee simply joined her, tired after what was quite a long day. Sarah, "And how was your new prison today?" Lee, "Not that bad, but long though. Joined the Kendo team, stole the vice-captain's position ect… Would have possibly been captain but its currently set up so that you need to be a returning club member first, seniority and all that. Besides, my captain actually seems to be really strong. Excluding me using Zero Tenshi, I'm actually not sure how I'd hold up in a full out match. Besides that though, I didn't get any homework though, so that's good. And how about you? How was your day?"

Sarah turned to look at her brother with a very worn expression, "Would be dead in detention if it wasn't for your 'Guide of Miss. Warne avoidance.' You were right, she was all over me the instant I walked into her classroom. She even swapped my chair for one that forced me to sit straight back and she called me out if I slouched even a bit. Honestly it was agony, and it was all I could do to hold back from making her desk explode. Though I did at least manage to make her pen squirt ink in her face with some magic, which provided some satisfaction at least." Lee and Sarah laughed when John came in. "So what's so funny." They stopped for a second, and then decided that telling their father was all right, as long as mom didn't learn about it. She was a fun mother, but a strict disciplinarian. She generally didn't approve of this sort of behavior, in excess at least. She would sometimes turn a blind eye of it was a harmless little joke or something funny to someone who truly deserved it, but that would never pass for doing it to a teacher. That said, their father was a bit more easy going with this kind of thing, and he did appreciate it, though did tell his daughter to keep the pranks to a minimum.

After dinner, Lee and Sarah went into the dojo for a little nighttime workout. Lee also told his father about joining the Kendo club, which was when Sarah mentioned that she has also joined her junior high girl's kendo club. That said, as the junior high Seihou Gakuenn didn't have a club requirement, Sarah's club was a bit smaller and had less resources, and also met only three times a week due to them having to share their practice space with other clubs, and thus also hadn't met for practice yet. In any case, team assignments hadn't been handed down yet, and so her practice tomorrow would be used to evaluate not just new members, but the entire club, and Sarah's status within said club was still an unknown. Lee though had a hunch that she would also rise up the ranks very quickly.

In any case, their father approved, stating that he himself had also joined a school Kendo club before, though he also said he left it after his first year of high school, since unlike the current trend, back in his day there was no additional Kenjutsu aspect to the sport, meaning that the Kendo club practiced the Kendo sword arts exclusively That said, John was aware of the changing trend towards a more open format allowing for other forms of Kenjutsu beyond traditional Kendo, something he learned from when Sora had joined his high school team, even if it was a different high school than the one his other children were going towards, and so had a feeling his own children would get more out of it than he himself had, and so told them that they had made good choices. That said, he also warned them not to overdo it. John was clear that the swordsmanship he had been teaching them, while it could be used in competition, was not explicitly designed for it, for it was a true martial art meant for actual combat, which is one of the reasons why their current skills could very easily surpass that of ordinary athletes, even without magic.

Lee, "Yeah, we'll be careful, but at least I have one good training partner at a minimum." At this statement, John admitted himself curious. He knew Lee's talent and skill better than anyone, and so knew that Lee was honestly well beyond the level that someone at a high school level would normally be able to deal with. Thus, John wanted all the juicy details, and so Lee told his father about his match with his new team captain, Drew, "Honestly at first, I thought he would either be an average sportsman or a boastful idiot, but I was wrong. He's definitely more than just good, and his training goes beyond just a club or general athletics since he clearly has gone through some kind of intense training, even for honing his Ki. He had most of it sealed when I first met him, and I honestly don't think he showed it all even during our match." John at this looked quite surprised. It was true that in some families and styles, the basis for training one's Ki was started young, but the results of such training generally took decades to manifest, most definitely past normal schooling age. His children were the extreme exception to the rule after all, not the norm. Beyond that, the fact that Lee mentioned that his opponent had been able to seal and unseal their Ki must have meant that they had mastered Ki to quite a high level, since RETASETSU was an advanced technique of the second stage of learning Ki, Inner Control, and frankly bordered on Ki Focusing. Lee continued, "Honestly, I believe if he was trying for real that he would at least close to my current level, if not stronger. I at least felt like I had to use ZERO TENSHI to beat him it under 2 minutes to get the vice-captaincy. He felt that strong, and I'm pretty sure that his Ki training is farther along than mine." John looked even more surprised at that last statement. Even if he didn't ever explicitly tell Lee how extraordinary he was, he knew his son must have some concept of it. After all, to John's knowledge, Lee could very well be the youngest person he knew of that could actually manifest raw Ki, even if that title could very well be taken by his youngest daughter before too long, but in any case, for Lee to state that his club captain was farther along than Lee with his Ki training must have meant that Lee thought this Drew character was capable of the same.

John himself was actually quite famous in the world of modern day swordsman, and so to him, to not know of such a skilled swordsman, even if they were in high school, was a bit of a shock to him, especially given that the community of martial artists that were at his own level was not exactly large. John turned to his youngest son, "If you think that highly of him, then he must truly be something, this captain of yours, a true prodigy even. Might I inquire as to his family name?" Lee had to think for a moment, trying to remember it since Drew insisted on everyone using his first name from the get go, but Lee finally recalled his captain's first introduction, "Hokkaido I think, though the Kanji is different than for the prefecture. I think he said his spelling translates into 'Raging Water of the North'."

John's eyes widened, but even at his surprise, he could suddenly see the pieces fall into place, "Ah, Hokkaido. That would explain it, that would explain everything." Lee looked confused, so John continued, "If you say that you and your cousin Sam are rivals of a sort, then you would have to say that the Hokkaido's were something like the Cross family's rivals, though for the duration of my lifetime it's been very amicable. That said, their ancestral line is almost as old as ours, so there's a lot of history here. Though we've always had similar goals, we have also been butting heads for generations, trying to outmatch each other. Apparently earlier on in our shared history up until a few generations ago it could occasionally get pretty nasty, but that's all in the past now. But in any case, they are one of the most prominent families in the Japanese martial arts community, so I could see how one of their members could have such prodigious skill. For instance, I'll tell you that not just one, but two members of the Hokkaido family are on my shortlist of known ZENRYOKU ZENKAI users, including a man named Moran Hokkaido. In fact, as skilled as Moran is, I would bet that he is directly related to this Drew, probably his father, or uncle at the most. Moran Hokkaido is to my knowledge the current strongest member of the Hokkaido family, something I'll personally vouch for having actually had the honor of facing him more than once myself. That said, I didn't realize that they lived in the area. Last I knew the majority of the family was based somewhere in Aomori prefecture." Lee looked surprised at all the new information he had to digest. He knew that there was quite a bit of history to his family, and he admitted he didn't know quite as much about it as he probably should, but he didn't think that they had anything as heavy as a multi-generational rivalry spanning back hundreds of years. That said, with this new information, it suddenly made sense to Lee how Drew had known so much about Lee's ability just from hearing his family name.

After absorbing the information, Lee continued, "There was actually one more anomaly with the club as well. Mr. Kenton, the Kendo team sponsor and coach, apparently used to be on the same Kendo team as Sora last year when he was in college." John upon hearing the name grinned, recognizing it instantly, "Now that is a laugh, I know that name quite well. I think that from what I know of him, his family actually has some history of its own, though I think that it was one of the older smithing families, another dying breed. That said, he was the only person I know of outside our family that ever officially beat Sora, at least since Sora entered college. In fact, I had to teach Sora my Zero Tenshi to help Sora win against him, and he still only won by a nose hair, and even then it still took him 4 tries since Sora always messed it up during his match, even though he could do it in practice. In fact, even once Sora got the hang of it and finally defeated Mr. Kenton, Sora said that he always felt like his captain had been holding back. But in any case, you most definitely have found yourself one interesting club. I will definitely make an effort to watch your tournaments." They got back to practicing, where John had Lee working on Ki manifesting exercise as well as continuing to refine his output control before going to bed. Sarah though had to stop earlier than the guys because she had actually been given homework on her first day, courtesy from the spinster Miss. Warne.

The next morning, Lee slept in late on accident, and so didn't even make an effort to catch the bus. After all, there had to be some benefit to his being a mage in his ordinary life, even if he couldn't just come out and show it most the time. Thus, he took his time eating breakfast and simply teleported to school, having already found a few spots he knew would be safe to reappear in. In this case, he teleported to an empty closet near the door to the school roof and simply walked to class, arriving right on time for Mr. Kenton to start homeroom, "Good morning class. I have some good if not odd news. Unfortunately, due to paperwork and a travel delay, he couldn't come yesterday, but we have a new foreign exchange student joining us. That's your cue," Lee and the rest almost jumped back in shock. A very familiar and mostly unwelcomed face walked into the room, one which made brief but clearly purposeful eye contact with Lee and company before introducing himself, "Hello, my name is Andy Santo. Pleased to be here."

His accent was so different from when they met him in the hanger that it was almost believable that he was an exchange student, for he clearly sounded American with his speech cadence. Mr. Kenton for his part was currently looking around the room, "Now let's see, as for your desk. I think there is a free one next to Lee in the second back row, so how about we have you choose that one." Andy smiled and bowed to Mr. Kenton before he proceeded to go over and sit down next to Lee. When he did though, Lee didn't fail to that Andy was sporting a bandage around the area where Lee had basically imprinted "BAKA" into his skin as a mild bruise mark. Lee though just smirked a bit, "So, you like the title?" Andy smiled, "I think this planet had an expression "What comes around goes around," or something along that line." Lee smiled, "Fair enough. What happens happens." And with that, suddenly, the bandages around Andy's head unraveled of their own accord to reveal the BAKA bruise mark on his forehead. Before he could cover it up again though, Lee made the bandages fly to his hand telekinetically and put them in his desk. That said, Lee had to at least give the unpleasant git props for being prepared for he had in fact put on an additional covering bandage below the first. Andy for his part laughed quietly while Lee just said mentally, "Well that's a bit over the top." To which he got a reply, "If circumstances warrant it. If we're going to play childish games, then I am not above lowering myself to your level to stay competitive." Lee, "Well these games wouldn't be necessary if you simply weren't such a tool." Andy, "If by tool you mean someone who has had to work hard for the position he is in and doesn't simply get to act as he pleases due to his family's influence, then I'll take your comment with pride."

Lee had to pause for a moment to think about Andy's last comment. Was this why Andy didn't like him and his friends? Lee never thought about it from that perspective before, but he would admit that he and his friends had certainly gotten a lot of help from his father, and through him the TSAB. After all, Lee had found it strange that such an organization was going so far out of its way to accommodate what was effectively a group of kids with what was clearly quite a serious issue. Sure, there was the apparent jurisdictional issues his father had mentioned with the Earth not officially being under the TSAB's direct authority, but Lee had also felt that that reasoning had been kind of flimsy. He and his friends even broached it with John when they were aboard the ship over break, and though he wouldn't give Lee a straight answer, John said that they weren't necessarily wrong, but didn't elaborate further. But given how much support they were receiving, Lee could see how someone like Andy, pretentious as he appeared, could get the wrong impression, given that from what Lee knew Andy had to work quite hard to get to his current position, and so it was possibly quite frustrating for him to be made to work with Lee and company, who Lee would admit seemed to be getting a lot of accommodations and resources, just as a matter of course.

That said, even if all that was true, Andy had still been overly rude when they first met. One could after all be frustrated with their circumstance and not decide to be so clearly a jerk as he had been. That said, before Lee could think about this any further, Andy preempted him, "Well, outside this little verbal slugfest, I am supposed to tell you that I am being placed in this schooling environment to provide your group with tactical and information support as necessary in case a situation arises that requires your attentions during your normal learning hours." Lee, "In other words, you're here to tell us if anything happens?" Andy, "Yes, as frustrating as it is, I've basically been relegated to babysitting you guys, an egregious waste of my training, but a General's orders are absolute so I will carry out the assignment to the best of my abilities, as demeaning as they may be." And there it was, once again, Andy's special personality at the forefront, which once again removed any kind of sympathy Lee held for the git. Andy though didn't stop there, "By the way, a message from your father. After you guys are done with your school activities, he wants you to meet him at the hanger, though I'll need to show you the alternate entrance today." To this, Lee just nodded in conformation as Mr. Kenton finally got settled and started their homeroom for the day.

Their second period of the day led them to the chemistry lab. The teacher, Ron, who Lee had been told about by a friend, was supposed to be one of the cooler teachers at the school, and that statement was quickly proven true. For their first class, they were working with sulfur, carbon dioxide, oxygen, propionic acid, and a bit of hydrogen gas, which as those who were new to chemistry soon learned, was a standard formula for the all-famous original stink bomb. Everyone got ready quickly for the experiment, putting on his or her gloves and protective goggles, as well as air masks for good measure and started the experiment. It was admittedly harder than any of them figured making a stink bomb would be, and so it took the entire class to complete before Ron let them in on the second part of the experiment, "And now for the fun part. We WILL be testing them tomorrow so be prepared, since you will be testing them yourselves." Everyone looked a little pale but not surprised. Many of them, including Lee had already guessed this scenario.

They had lunch near the dividing fence today, as they had decided to meet up with Sarah. She appeared 5 minutes after they got there with her lunch. Sarah, "Hello." They all said hi back and they started talking about how they were fairing. Sarah apparently was doing all right, though found most of her classes boring, though that didn't surprise most of them. Despite not seeming like it, Sarah herself was immensely gifted academically, hence her acceptance into an elite foreign exchange program for the greater part of the previous year. In any case, she had P.E. next and was going to play girls vs. boys' dodge ball, so that was at least something she could look forward to. That said, chatting amongst themselves made the time fly by fast, and they all soon realized that they were going to be late so they said bye quickly and split, Sarah running towards her school's gym while Lee and company headed to the dreaded history room, home of Nora, the male hating feminist.

They entered Nora's classroom and, not seeing the supposedly dreaded history teacher, simply sat down, got their books out, and prepared for class. It was only once every had sat down and had done the same that the classroom door opened once again, but this time it was a young woman, around her mid-20's, with long light black hair that seemed to border on dark brown, that entered. Objectively, she was actually quite pretty in that traditional kind of way, and so normally it would be the boys' turn to start starring and for the girls to size up a potential enemy, though neither of these things happened as their teacher's reputation preceded her. In any case, she went to the front of the room and after putting her papers down at her desk, started the lesson, "Hello class, I am Miss. Nora and…" She suddenly paused, aiming her full attention at each of the boys in the classroom in turn before she continued, "And I WILL expect you to call me as such. I want to be open with everyone from the start, so I will get right to the point. I do not put up with childish antics in my room. Just one strike and you're out in the hallway holding buckets for those who do not comply. Also," again she looked at all male members of the class, "I will not put up with boisterous delinquents. I hope I've made myself clear. And with that, here's a guide that shall help us start us out in a civil manner." And with that, Miss Nora had the entire class move their desks to match a seating chart she posted on the board. Unsurprisingly, it split the room up by gender, having all the boys together in the back and all the girls grouped in the front along with a clear divide between the two sections large enough to prevent any reasonable note passing or anything of that nature. Miss Nora though simply nodded approvingly at the new arrangement, "Good, I am glad we could handle that. Now let's begin today's lesson."

For the male section of the class, it was as close to hell as they imagined they could get without dying. For the first part of class, when their history teacher asked the class questions, she always chose a girl to answer the question, even if a good number of the boys' section of the class had their hands raised, all the while commenting on the poor participation of the male students. There was also one instance where, in appearance at least, she seemed to be fair by asking both a girl and a boy to come to the board and answer a question. From everyone's perspective, each answer was 100% right and almost word for word from the textbook they were reading. That said, Miss. Nora's bias was in full effect where she stated immediately that the answer the girl had written was perfect. Then came the boys answer. It was perfect, and even Nora said it was perfect, but she had to be a killjoy, "But unfortunately, even though the question was right, you get zero points. This is word for word from the text book, which mean that you only copied the answer from the book, you didn't know it." It was at this point that most the boys in the class were about ready to pop, which in Lee's opinion was what she wanted so she could send them all out of class or something. It was clear at least that she was trying to rile them up at least.

Lee put down his book to get a pen out of his bag, his current one not wanting to work currently, but that was all it took for her to be all over him like a hawk. "Looks like we have a slacker here. Class is not over yet. Pick your book back up." Lee though retaliated, "Excuse me Miss. Nora, but why you yelling at me. All I did was get a pen." She looked a bit miffed at this, and then, to everyone's surprise, she pulled out what appeared to be a small wooden katana from seemingly out of nowhere, though Lee noticed that there was a slit towards the back of her long skirt that probably held it, odd as that was. Nora though just pointed it at him, "As I said before I don't put up with riff raff in my room, and as a master of my family's sword school, I have many methods available to me, especially since I've heard you're on the school's Kendo team, so this kind of method may be more effective. I warn you, stay on guard or else."

The rest of the class was watching on. The boys though immediately thought that their teacher was taking a bit too far, and truthfully many of the girls shared the same thoughts. Lee though to his credit wasn't dazed in the least, and in fact just casually grabbed the top of the wooden sword with two of his fingers to hold it and asked again, "So what did I do to deserve this again?" Miss. Nora at that tried to move the sword out of Lee's grasp, but surprised when it didn't, finding out the hard way that it was being held firmly in place, though Lee had to release a level of Ki to keep it that way. Miss. Nora though was not amused, "Why you!" She was literally starting to turn red when Lee finally let go. The boys cheered momentarily until a menacing glare from their teacher shut them up quickly. That said, Nora simply refocused her angered attention back upon the source of her current frustration, and with that swung her wooden sword down at Lee. That said, Lee simply hardened his hand with a bit of Ki and grabbed the sword with both hands, leaving most of the class, and frankly Miss Nora herself, speechless with his performance of the legendary "edge catch". That said, Lee didn't feel like holding the sword forever, or continuing to put up with his teacher's crazy ideas of punishment, and so he simply broke the wooden sword in half by bending his half to the side. The boys watching on cheered quietly.

Nora didn't know what to do; she had never come across someone like Lee. He wasn't, even to her eyes, even really being that unruly if not a bit dismissive, but still rebelled against her and broke her bokken that she had used to intimidate any number of previous students. It had been a surprise of course, but between knowing that he was on the Kendo team and recognizing the name Cross in the world of swordsmanship, she suddenly thought of what she thought was the perfect solution to her current predicament, "Mr. Cross, as regular discipline seems wasted on you, let's try something more novel. You will hold an exhibition match with me for demonstration of how the samurai class fought during the late 1700's. In fact, I'll even throw you a bone. If you win, I will assign no homework tonight for anyone and you personally will be exempt from any further punishment for your current behavior. That said, if you lose then you, along with the rest of the class will have to write an essay, 10 pages in length on what we learned in class today, which is to be ready by next class. That said, putting the entire class's fate on you without your choice would of course be unfair on my part, so I'll also offer you another option. You may back out, and if you do, only you will have to do the essay and the rest of the class will still be let off from any work tonight."

Miss. Nora had to admire herself, her current plan was ingenious. Sure, the whole concept of the exhibition match was borderline ludicrous, a teacher challenging a student to a match of swordsmanship. In fact, it was so ludicrous that she couldn't believe that any student would ever take her on. Stacked on top was the consequence of Lee losing. As a teenager, being responsible for an entire class such an insane extra assignment, especially so early in the school year, would effectively be social suicide, so there was no way that he would ever risk taking it up, not to mention the concept of fighting a teacher in itself should have been quite daunting. Logically, there was only one choice for Lee to make, to take the dive and bow out. Thus, not only to Miss. Nora, but everyone in the class, were shocked when Lee responded, "Okay, I'll you're on. Where shall we do this?" Miss. Nora was stunned silent for a moment, admittedly not knowing how to respond, as she had never thought that Lee would actually go through with it. After all, it had been a spontaneous plan. Luckily, for her, Lee decided to intervene, "The dojo is empty, if that works for you. I even have the keys." She agreed reluctantly, not actually having a spot pre-decided for the match, but not wanting to back down now.

Miss. Nora could only go with the flow now that Lee had called her bluff, and so without delay they hurried to the school dojo, not wanting to waste time given that there was only a bit left in the period. The central arena was clear and the wooden Katanas were in a cabinet near the entrance. Lee picked up two of the wooden training swords and handed one to Miss Nora, as he had broken her personal one. Once all the students were situated, all waiting with a sense of anticipation at this most unusual turn of events, Miss. Nora explained the guidelines for this match, "Very well, now before we begin, lets lay the groundwork. As much as you may deserve a good thrashing, this is still a school, you're still a student and myself a teacher, so this shall be a civil affair, something I am sure your male hormones are unused to, I'm sure. Rules of the match are quite simple, no going for the head, no excessive force and no other physical contact than with your bokken. This match is over whenever either of us lands the first hit. Do you understand?" Lee nodded in confirmation. Miss. Nora, "Okay. Now then, I know you are supposed to be a swordsmanship prodigy or whatever, but I suggest you prepare yourself."

Miss. Nora quickly chose a student, a girl obvious, to signal the start of the match, "Begin!" She waited for Lee to come and try and hit her, wanting to humiliate her young opponent by countering any of his feeble attempts to attack her. She was not just a certified teacher after all, but a master of her family's famed sword-style, Noraken. She didn't care how talented her opponent supposedly was, no matter how famous his family name was in the world of swordsmanship, he was still but a teenager. She had a full decade of experience on him, and so she could not imagine herself being all that challenged by him, and thus looked forward to showing him, and the class, the immense difference in their skill levels to inflict as much humiliation as possible. Unfortunately though, her initial plan to lure him in wasn't going to work for Lee had decided to be chivalrous and give her the first move, literally waving to her to do so.

Not wanting to back down from such an obvious provocation, Miss. Nora decided to oblige her opponent and started a charge, swinging down quickly at Lee from above. That said, to her immense surprise, Lee didn't even bother blocking, simply sidestepping her attack with ease. Luckily, that wasn't enough to distract Miss. Nora, and so she quickly proceeded to try and strike again, and again, and again. But to her growing frustration, Lee simply proceeded to dodge her continuously, as if he was a leaf in the breeze, even if the force of his movements said otherwise. Lee clearly wasn't going all out, but he, and frankly his teacher as well, were moving at relatively high speeds, enough to make it hard for many in the class to properly keep track of their movements. To the spectators, they were awed silent by the perceived voracity of the two combatants, to them the situation being an amazing spectator sport.

Even while dodging her attacks easily, Lee would freely admit that he had underestimated his teacher. She was good, not nearly as good as himself or Drew, but still very good. She was definitely far better than the other senior he fought the previous day for sure. But that wasn't the strangest thing. The longer they fought, the more Lee felt a small sense of anticipation, like something was coming. He could even see it, the more his teacher attacked, the sharper her moves were becoming, her speed and reflexes increasing rapidly. Even her Ki, something that Lee had barely registered from her at the start, was becoming more active and noticeable to him. It specifically reminded Lee of a style of swordsmanship his father had told him about once, one that made the users abilities rise after the battle had started through a unique kind of Ki manipulation. It was designed for onslaughts, whereby the user could conserve power initially, measure the opponents abilities, and by the time such an analysis was complete, have channeled their power to much greater heights, with this particular method of Ki control allowing for the continuous expansion of one's physical abilities far in excess of their normal limits which was why the style was feared at one point in history, with some accountings stating that a master of this style's abilities could rise almost indefinitely if they used it for a long period of time. That said, the downside to the style was obvious, as it clearly started off slow, with the user having lower than their average ability, and so John had told him he believed the style was really only suited to more prolonged battles, and thus the easiest way to counter it was simply with speed.

If Lee was correct about his assumption, and his teacher was in fact a student of that style, then he could see how she was as good as she was, and probably even better at her height than she was currently showing. This was quickly proven true to him though as without any warning, on her next downward strike, she let off a very quick EZUNA like attack off her swing, a flying slash of compressed air held together with Ki that was invisible to everyone watching, but noticeable enough to Lee to force him for the first time in the match to directly counteract her attack. That said, Miss. Nora admitted herself completely shocked when Lee in response unsealed a level of his own Ki, infusing it into his wooden sword and blocked her attack, with his Ki release having the added effect of making his muscles expand slightly. The class watched on in amazement, not quite sure what their teacher did swinging at the air since none of them could actually perceive Ki, but seeing its effects as Lee was pushed back, despite clearly blocking whatever it was.

Lee though decided it was better to end this match sooner rather than later. Until now, he had purposely prolonged the match for a few reasons. The first was obvious. It was only the second day of school, and so he wanted to be on his class's good side and so held off ending it to fast as to entertain the class and frankly show off a little bit. The second reason was that after her first attack, Lee had become curious as to the level of his teacher's skills, which had exceeded his initial expectations quite a bit. And then the last, true reason, was that as much as he would have liked to do otherwise, and as unfairly as Miss. Nora had treated him earlier, she was still first and foremost his teacher, and his parents had raised him to show respect, and so he also prolonged the fight as not to embarrass her too much. That said, at his current level compared to her growing strength and speed, he would actually have a hard time ending the match smoothly, and so he proceeded to quickly cast off two of his training bands from his ankles.

The effect was immediate, as he suddenly felt light as air, though that didn't surprise Lee in the slightest. The bands weren't just for limiting his power after all, but they were primary for weight training, which was quite effective due to the properties of the Ki that John had imbued them with, which allowed them not to directly interfere with his weight compared to anything else, only imposing their restricting weight upon his movements. Thus, with those restraints undone, Lee then took a quick stance and once again waited for his teacher to resume her attack, and she obliged.

Miss. Nora charged once again, clearly a bit exhausted, but still by far stronger and quicker than at any previous point in the match. That said, with his unbound strength, Lee was more than ready to, for the first, and last time, go on the offensive. When Ms. Nora swung at him, Lee moved with the speed of raw lightning, circling around her in but an instant. Most of the class only saw a blur when witnessing Lee's movement. Even Miss. Nora couldn't keep track of her opponent, and thus was completely helpless when Lee landed his winning blow. That said, Lee, as to not hurt a teacher, landed his blow softly on her right shoulder. Not enough to hurt her but enough to make sure she felt it, leaving no doubt as to what just happened, "And with that, I believe that's game. I guess no homework tonight then, right?"

Miss. Nora was speechless, she couldn't even comprehend what had just happened, she was speechless. This was the first time she had been taken on willingly by a student, and so directly as that, and to top that off she was beaten. Honestly, she felt humiliated, and her resentment of her opponent could only continue to stew, but her pride wouldn't let her back out or a promise she made with her sword, and to maintain her dignity, she admitted her defeat and confirmed that Lee had won the class a break from homework for the day to the rest of the class's cheers. Of course, Miss. Nora was already plotting what she would do next to the boy that humiliated her so, but for now, she simply told her class to hurry back to their normal classroom, where she concluded the lesson with telling them a story of a legendary battle in the 1700's between two well-known samurai from around the time period where they would begin their current coursework. She followed it by dismissing them for the day, reminding them all, even reluctantly to the boys, that there was no homework tonight. Unfortunately for Miss. Nora, this had the expected result of everyone cheering for Lee, congratulating him as they exited the room, though unsurprisingly to Lee himself Andy was the sole member of the class that didn't so much as offer a 'thank you' to him, simply ignoring Lee entirely as he walked past him.

Their last class was Gym, which for a treat from their teacher was going to be dodgeball. That said, as was theme for the day, it was set to be guys versus girls, and it was honestly quite fun. The boy's side originally thought it would be an easy match, especially with Lee on their team, but what they didn't know was that many members of the other team were secretly enhancing themselves with just a little bit of magic, mostly to even the playing field against said Lee. In fact, even Chrono, and to Lee's immense surprise Andy, enhanced themselves a bit magically, and so the match was actually quite a bit of fun. That said, after the first match, they realized they may have taken it a bit far when Nanoha of all people did a near five-foot leap, grabbing the ball before it could escape her, and with her momentum launched it at Lee so quickly and precisely through the use of her magic that he couldn't possibly catch it as it grazed off his shoulder, earning the girls the first victory. Thus, they toned it down a bit for the subsequent matches lest their classmates and teacher get suspicious, but it was quite fun all the same.

After their last class, they split up to get ready for their various clubs. Sakura and Nanoha were heading out to archery and Lee and Chrono were going to the dojo for Kendo practice. When Lee and Chrono arrived, they found their upperclassman and captain Drew and the now third ranked Norman were already beginning to set up for practice. The first thing though that caught Lee and Chrono notice was the two large boxes in the middle of the dojo. Drew explained that the practice uniforms and new sets of protective armor were ready to be divvied out for use in standard Kendo. While it was true that their school competed in the newer open Kenjutsu format, they were still a Kendo club, and so they still took part in traditional Kendo matches as well. Thus, for general tournament Kendo, they had to wear a full set of kendo armor for traditional Kendo was scored on a points system, not to mention that it was a strong tradition of classic Kendo. Luckily, they had all new Kendo gear this year, as the old sets they had previously were falling apart so the school had spung for some new ones. They also received their regular practice uniforms as which were just a white t-shirt with the club and school logos on them along with normal martial arts pants and a sash for a belt.

When everyone had assembled and changed into their practice wear, Drew started off the club session with a small meeting. Today, they would spend some times going over the rules of a proper Kendo match for traditional format competitions. He went over all of the main rules and differences from normal fighting. For instance, a hit was only counted if it hit one of the target spots determined by the location of vital organs in the body, if you were hit in the head, neck, heart, stomach, liver, lungs, intestines or either kidney spot, it was a loss. There were three rounds in a match, 5 people on a registered team, and 2 schools in a single 1-1 tournament style and 8 or 12 schools at the main tournament once a semester. Then based on those tournament rankings, in January, there were district finals, and then the winner of those would go to the nationals in February. That said, due to the advent of the introduction of other styles of Kenjutsu to supplement traditional Kendo in competition in the last few years, there was some variation in the tournament styles used throughout the main tournaments leading up and through the inter-high finals. The rounds up to the semi-finals of the national tournament were all fought using the traditional format unless a change was agreed upon previously. Then for the semi-finals onward, in order to preserve the origins of Kendo, which was derived from traditional Kenjutsu, it was unrestricted style matches, with victory decided by either forcing an opponent beyond the ring boundaries, a vital hit as determined by a judge or if a competitor was rendered unconscious. That said, even in the unrestricted format, a competitor could be disqualified for excessive force and or hitting in the privates or eyes. That said, Drew made sure to mention that despite that, headshots were legal as long as it didn't contradict the rules governing excessive force.

In addition to the more regulated matches for the inter-high, their team also participated in matches against other schools directly. For these more direct matches, they used the team format where five members from each school would face off, with the team that won the majority of matches claiming victory. The format for these matches could vary as agreed upon by the two teams, and so could be either a traditional Kendo match or an unrestricted one. And finally, he explained that in addition to the above, there were a few other tournaments held throughout the year, including a special exhibition tournament and one in very early March at the end of the year that was solely for traditional Kendo.

After he finished his explanation of the rules and tournament schedule, he announced to them that they had an early tournament they were participating in soon between 8 schools in their district to kick off the start of the season and to see which schools had promising prospects, being held at a city owned location meant for sports exhibitions. Some were curious about the timing, believing it was a bit early, but Drew explained that it was due to the odd schedule of the school year this year. As it was mostly an inter district competition, it was going to be held using the regular five-person team format. But with that, Drew left the team with a juicy nugget of motivating information. At current, there were currently only 3 people that he had already decided for been decided for tournament participation this time around, which predictably was Drew himself, his new vice-captain Lee, and the old vice-captain Norman. Thus, Drew announced that the other two spots were open to those who showed the best effort during the next week, regardless of their current club standing since as they had a slew of new members that had yet to really demonstrate their skill, he felt it was fair to give everyone a chance. He even mentioned that he did something similar the previous year, and in the end, he did in fact choose someone who was basically a beginner at the time that ended up winning his first match, a story that brightened the faces of all the beginners present.

For the rest of practice, the less experienced team members began learning basic sword forms from Norman while the returning members or those with more actual experience under their belts were being taught more advanced techniques by Mr. Kenton. Then finally, for the most experienced in the club, currently four including the captain and Lee were sparring against each other. In particular, Lee kept facing Drew who said that he was one of the best training partners he had ever had, and Lee had to agree. To make sure they could get the most out of their spars though, Lee specifically restricted his use of ZERO TENSHI, for a few reasons. The first was that using it wasn't really of any benefit to either of them given that this was supposed to be training and an attack that was basically impossible to see or avoid wouldn't help someone improve. There was also the fact that Lee, at his current level, could only really pull it off once before being completely exhausted, and he wanted to keep going for as long as possible.

Lee learned quickly though why his instincts had originally made him resort to using ZERO TENSHI in his first fight against Drew, for without it, Drew was actually a very difficult opponent for Lee. It quickly became evident that he was clearly Lee's superior in skill and technique, most likely from the years of rigorous training he had experienced that Lee had partially skipped, even if it turned out that even in his casual training with his father, John had in fact been cleverly laying the foundation for his current skill without his knowledge. That said, in terms of raw Ki ability, Lee found that was still far ahead, for the quality and quantity of his Ki was well beyond his years and training. But even with that, Drew was strong enough that Lee had to remove over half of his weights to prepare to face him, especially after he realized that even when Drew tried to take him seriously before, he hadn't gone full out. Lee was surprised to find that Drew also had four more weights to take off in addition to the ones he took off yesterday, and they looked heavier as well. Of course the existence of him using the weights was a surprise unto itself, though not completely unexpected as well. Lee had learned from his father that though the Cross's were the only ones who had ever done it to such an extreme, there were other styles that used similar training methods, which dated back thousands of years and obviously weren't the sole providence of the Cross style. John even recalled hearing a ridiculous story once of an ancient martial arts master, once said to be the worlds strongest, that apparently wore a giant tortoise shell while he trained for similar effect.

The result of both of them taking off their training weights was that their movements appeared as blurs to most of those watching watching. Only Chrono and the other club senior who had apparently started the very foundations of his Ki training could keep up. Lee though was still surprised that even at this level, he still had more than a bit of trouble keeping up. When Norman said that their captain was fast, he wasn't kidding. Lee ended their first match by resorting to his SHUNPO. Though Drew could also use regular SHUNPO, even with it he couldn't go nearly as fast as Lee, especially since Lee quickly learned that the Cross variation of ordinary SHUNPO which he had been taught was still much more refined than the apparently normal version he was seeing now, and that didn't even take into account the even more refined version using Ki known to the Cross family as ZAE SHUNPO, which beyond the physical enhancement to the special running style, also used Ki on the soles of the feet to reduce both the rebound force and friction of a step, allowing a user to effectively near perfectly transfer their force into momentum.

Drew could instinctively tell that in terms of speed, Lee was clearly his superior, for he was literally running circles around him to distract him. But in this case, Drew also knew his experience and technique was still far above his kouhai. Thus, pulling from that experience and technique, Drew used a Ki technique Lee had never seen before. When Drew found a brief moment to pause, he stopped where he was and held his sword straight up. Lee could sense that Drew was focusing a good deal of his Ki into the sword, but even then much to Lee's surprise, Drew did something that Lee never could have expected. He knew that in terms of skill and technique Drew was most likely his superior, but given how difficult it was, Lee hadn't expected Drew to be so far along with his Ki training as to be able to use Ki Manifestation. That said, he clearly was capable of doing so as out of his raised sword sort of shot it out in thin pulse of Ki, resulting in a 360˚ attack around him. The Ki though was so thin that not just to ordinary people, but even Lee had a hard time discerning it visually, and between that and its omnidirectional spread, the Ki attack hit Lee who was currently just going in circles around Drew, and while the attack couldn't even be called damaging, felt like a wave from the ocean hit Lee, the force of which knocked him over. Before Lee even hit the ground though, Drew dashed behind him, placing his sword at his neck. Lee could see his senpai's experience in that assault, and readily admitted defeat, but getting back into place to start again right away.

The next battle only lasted a few minutes with Lee ending up the victor by using a move his dad taught him. It was a move that used pure power and virtually no speed to beat the opponent. It was a pure downward slash that using Ki focusing, sent a brief but powerful shockwave of Ki though the ground on contact, aimed at the opponent. The technique aimed at the person's feet, the result being that after continuous use, the person's feet would be too damaged to keep them stable. It worked like a charm. Lee won after Drew's legs gave way. Even though Lee admitted he wasn't going full out, fighting Drew was still amazing training. Lee knew that if he pushed his Ki all the way, he could probably just out power Drew, and he also had Zero Tenshi to fall back on, but the truth was that doing either of those things wouldn't be good training for Lee. What John kept telling Lee was that what he needed more than anything was experience and technique, two things Drew had down to near perfection, and from which Lee could learn a lot from.

Truthfully, Lee's decision to sign up for the Kendo team, it had been more because it most closely aligned with his current interests when told there was a club or sport requirement. His father even said that while he thought it was a good idea, that given Lee's prodigious talent, it was most likely that very few people in his age group would be able to compete with him at the high school level, and so the chances that anyone in his club would be able to keep up with him were slim. But despite all that, Lee had found one person able to do so, his captain Drew Hokkaido. Even if he didn't have Lee's raw Ki, in terms of everything else that made up a swordsman's abilities, he was currently Lee's superior. That said, Lee was nothing if not a quick study, and he would learn everything he could from his new captain while he could, making his club practice all the more worthwhile.

At the beginners group, Chrono was making good progress. They were still doing simple forms to get used to handling a sword, but it was clear to Norman who was leading the exercises that Chrono was clearly a step better than the others. In fact, even when they had the beginners do simple sparring exercises afterwards, it was obvious that Chrono had a talent that none of the others in the group had. That said, it wasn't even strictly a talent for swordsmanship, which Norman could tell that Chrono did indeed have if not as much as the captain and new vice-captain, but a more general talent. Chrono seemed to have a girt for raw combat. It wasn't so much as technique as it was movement, but Chrono carried himself well, his reflexes were naturally sharp, and he instinctively knew things like when to dodge versus block that one normally had to gain through experience. In truth though, Chrono already had a pretty good idea about this, as it was one of reasons according to John that Chrono had good close-combat potential with his magic. It also helped that Chrono had a naturally strong build to him, He had always been a size or two up from his best friend Lee, to the point that without the training Lee had been receiving from his father in Kenjutsu since he was young, Chrono would have no doubt been the physically stronger of the two. That said, Chrono even had a natural athleticism that Lee had to work at to obtain that also made sure that speed and finesse were not lost on him either. Norman was honestly reminded of himself quite a bit, and so ended up pulling him aside after a while and asked him to try and fight him in a spar to gauge his current potential. Chrono agreed and, given that Chrono knew nothing of any other type of swordsmanship, they had a single traditional style Kendo match, but with only one round. To Norman's surprise, Chrono immediately charged him, and even got one hit to his neck for a point, though that ended up being the only point Chrono got as Norman then proceeded to hit Chrono in both kidney spots, stomach, and heart. That said, Norman had trouble doing so, with Chrono parrying or meeting his blows directly quite a bit, which was not an easy feat given Norman's raw strength. In fact, to get his final hit, Norman ended up using an odd technique not normally associated with Kendo, a thrusting technique that caught Chrono off guard due to its sheer speed, a lightning fast and deadly swift attack that Chrono hadn't expected from the larger Norman. Chrono got blasted back by the attack and landed on his butt, though he didn't stay down for long as Norman went over to help him up. "Good match." Chrono, "Thank you, it was fun." Norman, "I bet it was. Honestly, you've got talent, I never expected you to hit me, but your first charge was quite a surprise, but a good one."

Norman suddenly went over to a wooden post set up at the side of the dojo and motioned for Chrono to come over as well. Norman, "I want to show you something, watch closely." Norman took his sword out, and Chrono watch as he slashed his sword next to the post in a very quick, smooth fashion, but for some reason didn't hit it. That said, it turned out the contact was unnecessary, as to Chrono's complete shock, the wood right next to the sword splintered a bit as if it was hit with a rock. "This technique actually has a lot of names, but I learned it as MUNITAISHU, the unseen hit. This is the basic form of a set of technique multiple styles of swordsmanship use that employ air pressure for their attacks. It was a technique that our captain Drew taught me in our first year when we first joined to help me deal with the lack of finesse and speed that my naturally large build is not normally suited towards. You are very much like me in that you have a naturally strong build so you don't really need to worry about strength training, so I believe to most improve, you should focus on speed and finesse. In fact, this will probably benefit you more than me because unlike myself, you seem to be naturally athletic, and so speed and finesse are not lost in your many talents. Learning this technique will most definitely help you in this regard." Chrono admitted himself interested, but also a bit nervous. Honestly the attack looked kind of crazy, since while he had seen these kinds of 'air pressure' attacks before, but only in anime and video games if he were to be honest. That said, given what he had seen Lee and his family do with a sword, it wasn't that unbelievable, but it was more surprising that Norman believed that Chrono could learn such a cool looking technique. That said, he still at least wanted to give it a try, "Okay, I'm game."

Norman stated explaining the technique to Chrono, "The form itself is pretty natural. You must use your swing speed and a perfected pivot of the sword to make a sort of small vacuum of air right behind the tip, and then stop it right before you hit your mark, causing the air to transfer some of the force of your sword to the target. This can be done by starting with the tip of the sword a bit farther back and then using your wrist to torque it forward so that the end of the sword is moving faster than the rest of it, and if done right, the vacuum will result, which along with a hard stop, will execute the technique, allowing the air to transfer some of the force of your sword over short distances, and if done well enough, it can transfer enough power that it can even crack the wood as I have shown, which wouldn't be an insignificant blow in a fight."

Norman reached into his pocket and gave Chrono four weights, "Another training technique I learned from Drew. They aren't that heavy, wach of them is only 1 kg, but you will be surprised at the results. Master this technique using them and I have no doubt good results will come." And with that, Norman walked away to attend to the other beginners. Chrono was still stunned, he didn't even get past three days of kendo and he was expected to learn some special move that looked straight out of a Kendo manga. At least the weights seemed manageable, as he thought to himself it wouldn't hurt given that they were pretty light and so he put on the 1 kg weights, (~2.3 pounds). That said, he felt an immediate difference upon putting them on and trying to swing his sword, only to find that he could barely move his sword up and down let alone swing it properly. That said, what really shocked Chrono more was the realization that if this was what just one-kilogram bands did to him, then what did that say about his best friend Lee who wore weights magnitudes heavier than these on a regular basis. He couldn't understand how it was humanly possible, but decided not to dwell on it as he started to get to work.

During Lee and Chrono's Kendo Practice, Sakura and Nanoha were at their own club practice. It seemed everyone was improving. More and more people were getting the hang of it, which was good seeing as they needed ten archers for a full team. Their captain Shizuku had started the session off with an explanation of a typical archery tournament. At the start of an Archery tournament, each person from both teams would shoot 3 arrows. The top half of each team with the highest accuracy would advance. The next round consisted of five, two person sets, one from each team. They would each be given three arrows and the one with the most points based on their accuracy would claim victory. In the result of a tie, each archer would shoot an additional arrow until a clear victor was decided. The team with the most winning archers won. In other words, the team consecutively needed 3 wins to claim victory. Also, in addition to normal inter-high ranking tournaments, some team members occasionally were invited to participate in optional proper Kyudo exhibition matches, where an archer was judged based on how well they executed all the principles of proper Kyudo form as well as accuracy and scored by a panel of judges, generally 3 of them but sometimes more, on a 100 point system. That said, the Kyudo competitions were for individuals, not schools and participation was optional, as currently only the captain and vice-captain actually went to them.

When Shizuku was done explaining the tournament format, she handed out uniforms, which were navy blue Hakamas with no separation, (Hakama= Old Style Japanese Legwear. No separation means they are like a dress.) They also wore a white kimono shirt on top. They were the traditional clothes of female Japanese archers. These were only to be worn for tournaments and matches. She then proceeded to give them a rough schedule of said tournaments, of which there were only two large events. The first was in 4 months at the beginning of October, which was an exhibition tournament for the district meant for scouts and also to honor a local god. Then the other one was near the end of the school year in early February, which was the actual inter-high nationals where they competed if they had one of the 2 best records in their district. In truth, the first one wasn't an official tournament for ranking purposes but the school that won it gained a lot of prestige and the winning prize money for their school's archery program. This tournament was meant to honor a local deity, who according to legend saved the land by sealing a cursed spirit with an arrow into a tree. They won third place in the district last year and almost made it to finals but lost miserably in the second round at the exhibition tournament. That said, Shizuku made no secret of her plan to win both this year, which started with winning their normal district competitions.

After the explanations were concluded, they got to practice. Shizuku said she wasn't going to announce who was going to be in the tournament until Friday witht the goal of motivating them to work harder in hopes of being chosen. Sakura for one was was working hard to improve her skills. She even got a bit of training from Nanoha to make sure she wouldn't user her magic accidentally. That said, even without magic, Sakura's talent and practice were clear for all to se. At current, s was able to get a bull's eye every other time, but was improving fast. It was still surprising to her that she was able to shoot this accurately even without her magic. Nanoha felt much the same way, for her progress was also coming along well By the end of practice, both Sakura and Nanoha had solid rhythm going, mostly getting dead center. And so it was that they ended on a high note when practice concluded, with the two girls running to the school gates to meet up with their friends.

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Author's Note:

Okay, so this chapter was LONG. Honestly, it was much longer than I intended it to be, so much so that I tried to split it into two chapters, but it never felt quite right. Honestly, I've tried rewriting the chapter many times, especially since I admit its bloated with world building, a common trap that I've done my best to avoid, but unfortunately for reasons I can't reveal yet, I was unable to shave it down much. Some of the stuff was definitely over explained though, and I thought about taking it out, but decided against it for personal reasons so I apologize for that. That said, I wish to state something right now, and that is this is not pointless setting construction, or me going off on a random tangent. I promise you that this is in fact not just important, but vital to not just a future plotline, but also the the main plot. But even without those, I felt it was important to, like I explained last chapter, ground the vast majority of my main cast as regular teenagers, and what more symbolizes that than going to school. That said, for the length, I did at least put in a few pop culture and anime references for you all to sniff out, so I hope you appreciate them.

Now as for a bit of explanation, on the part of Drew, in truth, he is basically a friendly Kendo rival for Lee. Lee is frankly too talented for his own good, but having a lonely chad character would make for a poor story, and so Drew is to act as a counterpart for Lee in terms of Ki and swordsmanship. Make no doubt, if Lee brought his all, he would probably win, as demonstrated by his use of Zero Tenshi. That said, barring that and Lee's naturally strong Ki, Drew is generally superior to Lee, having trained harder and more seriously for much longer, meaning he has much more experience and a much more varied skillset than Lee currently. He also has more refined Ki control, something very abnormal for their age group, with Drew having such skill in its use that he is even able to manifest it.

On another note, I wish to state that this will most likely be my last chapter upload for around two weeks. I'm heading out on a trip that will most likely leave me little to no time to work on re-editing these chapters. That said, I will do my best to try and get at least one more chapter out by Thanksgiving, after which I will return to my regular clip of at least once a week, though I hope to speed that up. Luckily, the later chapters require less editing, as my writing skills had improved greatly by the time I finished the story, and so its merely a matter of reading through it for simple typos.