By the time school started up again in April, the five of them were able to come up with a believable cover story. What they came up with was that Tatsuya was tinkering with a new device of some sort when there was a sudden power surge, causing the device to unexpectedly emit a jolt of electricity and causing Tatsuya to lose consciousness for a couple of minutes. Once he regained consciousness, the story went, it was as though he was waking up from a bad dream, with a flood of emotions surging to the surface. Daniel explained that their theory was that the jolt somehow served as a reboot of sorts for the emotional portion of his brain, allowing him to fully feel and express his emotions once again.
With the way that Tatsuya and Honoka were now interacting with each other, their group of friends mostly bought it and congratulated the new couple on being able to finally get together. Two people, however, weren't completely convinced that this was the entire, or real, story. Upon her return to the house, Minami noticed Tatsuya's change in demeanor almost immediately. Although they fed her the cover story (so that Maya wouldn't discover the truth and act on it), Daniel could tell that she was a bit skeptical, though Minami never said anything about it. In addition, Mayumi was also skeptical of the story when Daniel told her. "That doesn't sound like Tatsuya, doing something so careless in his work," she said to Daniel. While Daniel tried to brush it off as "a million-to-one shot," Mayumi could feel that Daniel was holding something back, thanks to the amulet Daniel had given her. However, since everyone seemed alright with this development, she decided to not push it further for the time being.
The end-of-year exams from the previous school year brought a couple of minor changes. Tatsuya and Mizuki remained in the engineering section, and most of the others also remained in their respective classes. While Erika and Leo remained in Course 2 for their third year, they were able to do well enough to move back into Class E. As for Daniel, his hard work to catch up to his friends in magic theory and magic engineering had paid off, as his end-of-year scores were enough to place him in Class A for his third year. In addition to joining Miyuki, Honoka, and Shizuku, Daniel would also be joining Lina, as she had been re-enrolled at First High for her final year of high school. Lina also seemed to buy the cover story when she asked about Tatsuya's sudden emotional awakening.
Over the course of the first month of school, they settled into the usual school routine, though with a few caveats. First, Miyuki was busier than ever with her duties as the student council president, though she still maintained her status as the best overall student in her year. While Tatsuya was still the best engineer in the section and a regular at the Robot Research Club, he also managed to find time to go on dates with Honoka, and was overall much more expressive of his emotions. While he was still more subdued than most people, it took some getting used to from everyone else.
Most significantly, Daniel began to train Lina after school and on weekends in the basics of the Jedi arts. For this, he would use the more isolated areas of the local parks and even master Kokonoe's temple on occasion with his permission. Daniel could feel that the Force was emerging within Lina, and he tried to help her connect with the Force in a similar manner to how master Kenobi had helped him in the initial stages. However, things were not going quite as he was hoping. While Lina was occasionally able to display instances of channeling and using the Force, she was not able to do so for any sustained period, nor was she able to fully control it.
At first, Daniel tried to allow Lina to work through her frustrations herself, thinking that it would be good for her to overcome the challenges through her own skills and abilities. However, it became clear that it was not a matter of skill and ability that was preventing Lina from connecting with the Force, but a matter of there being a mental and emotional block. One day, as Lina was expressing her frustration at her inability to get better with Daniel's training, Daniel took her aside and said, "The problem here isn't that you are incapable of doing this, it's that you are blocking yourself internally from doing it." Lina looked at him in confusion before he explained, "There is a mess of emotions within you swirling around in chaos and blocking your path to the Force."
As Lina complained that she didn't know what to do about this, Daniel came up with an idea. "Meet me tomorrow at master Kokonoe's temple complex. I think I may be able to help you with your block, but you will have to trust me." Lina sighed as she replied, "Very well. Tomorrow it is, then."
The next day was a day off from school, so Daniel, along with Tatsuya, met up with Lina at master Kokonoe's temple complex mid-morning. Mayumi also made a surprise appearance, curious as to how exactly Daniel would help Lina break through her block. They had talked to each other about the progress (or lack thereof) he was making with Lina, and Mayumi was concerned that Daniel was getting frustrated with himself at the lack of success so far with his first student.
When they arrived, Daniel asked master Kokonoe if there was a place in the complex that was particularly good for meditation. Kokonoe gladly pointed it out, though he requested that he and his disciples be allowed to observe. Daniel reluctantly agreed to this, as long as they didn't disturb them. When they got there, it was a clearing surrounded by bamboo trees with a stone lantern being the noticeable object in the area. 'This will do nicely,' Daniel thought as he motioned for Lina to sit down right across from him. He then explained that he would initiate a mind meld with her to help guide her through her emotions and whatever else may be inhibiting her from connecting with the Force. Having seen this ability in action before, Lina agreed to it, though was a bit nervous. Sensing her hesitation, Daniel assured her that she would be safe. "Just relax," he said, "and concentrate on finding what it is that ails you."
Once they were both relaxed and ready, he placed his right hand gently on Lina's cheek as he began, "My mind…to your mind…My thoughts…to your thoughts." After their visions cleared once the mind meld was initiated, Daniel and Lina found themselves inside Lina's mind, visually manifested as the interior of a military base, or embassy, or some other government facility. 'Considering it's Lina, and everything she's experienced in her life, it makes sense,' Daniel thought to himself. "So where are we?" asked Lina, as if on cue. "This is a visual manifestation of your own mind," Daniel explained. "It is here that we will find what is causing your mental block."
Lina nodded in understanding as she began to follow Daniel. "So, what's the plan?" she asked. Daniel looked around before replying, "Once we determine what is causing your block, you will have to be the one to confront it. I will be here for support and guidance, but you must ultimately be the one to overcome it."
As they went down the corridor, Daniel could feel the source of Lina's mental and emotional block getting stronger. 'We must be getting closer,' he thought. Finally, he stopped in front of a door labeled 'Memories' where the source seemed to be its strongest. "It's here," he said, "something in your memories must be holding you back from moving forward as a Jedi." Daniel gave Lina the honors as she opened the door, and the two of them walked inside. There, instead of the film-like images he had experienced in Sayaka's memories, it was more like a swarm of ghosts and orbs swirling around.
Once they walked in, the ghost-like figures immediately came towards them and began to swarm them menacingly, though they weren't actually coming into contact with them. As Daniel was trying to make out what they were wailing, he noticed that Lina had collapsed to the ground and wrapped her arms around her head, as though she was trying to block out everything around her. "Do you know what these ghosts are?" Daniel asked. Lina slowly nodded as she replied hesitantly, "These…They're all people…people that…I've killed…in the line of duty over the years."
As Daniel listened closer and began to make out what the ghosts were saying, he began to understand. 'I see,' he thought, 'her past continues to haunt her…somewhat like me.' He then stated to her, "You've never had to deal with these deaths, have you?" Lina then immediately responded, "What are you talking about? Of course I have! This was all a part of being the Sirius!" Daniel shook his head as he replied, "But you've never truly reconciled yourself with what you had to do, did you? You may have compartmentalized everything, but you never dealt with it head on!" Lina looked down, unable to answer, though she knew he was right. "If you're going to move forward," Daniel explained, "You must reconcile yourself with what you have done and use that to shape your future."
Lina nodded as she slowly got up and faced the ghosts swirling around her. She then began shouting about how sorry she was that she was responsible for taking their lives and asking their forgiveness. When the ghosts continued swirling, she shouted at Daniel, "It's not working!" Daniel then shouted back, "Apologizing isn't enough. You have to show that you want to change going forward. What is it that you want for your own future?" Lina thought about this for a few moments before answering, "I don't want to kill and destroy in order to be considered useful. I want to live up to the ideals of protecting and defending those that need me. I want to know what true strength is!"
As she said this, the ghosts began to stop swirling and their wails began to quiet. They then got in front of Lina and bowed to her in respect before disappearing from the scene. After they were gone, Lina collapsed to the ground. Daniel then ran over to her and got her head up to eye level and asked, "Lina! Are you alright!?" Daniel could see that she was trying to say something, but couldn't, as tears began to fall from her eyes. She then began to wail as she buried her face in Daniel's chest, just crying her eyes out. Daniel just comforted her for a few minutes, saying softly, "It's OK – just let it all out."
When Lina finally started to calm down and wipe away her tears, she looked up at Daniel and asked, "How could you still support me and encourage me? After everything that I've done?" Daniel gave a soft smile and said, "It's because I have a certain understanding of what you've been through and what you've been forced to do." He then added, "I can also tell that at your core, you're the type of person that I want to pass on the Jedi way to. The only thing you have left to do to move forward is to forgive yourself and be determined to move towards a different path." Lina nodded as she gave a small smile and wiped her tears away. "Alright," she said, "Let's do it."
As they stood up, Daniel gave one more bit of wisdom, "Also, Lina, keep this in mind – the Force binds and connects us all. While there may be times in life when you have to do things on your own, you are never truly alone as long as you keep those you care about close to you. We are all in this together." Lina gave a nod of determination in response. At this, Daniel released them from the mind meld and their consciousnesses were sent back to the real world. Once there, they awoke to find Mayumi, Tatsuya, and master Kokonoe looking on in concern. When they asked what was wrong, Mayumi exclaimed, "Are you alright? You look like you've been crying!" Lina then touched her face to find that she had, in fact, been crying. "I guess the experience was so intense that it showed out here," she said.
Both of them slowly got up, as they were quite tired from the ordeal. "That's enough for today," Daniel said. "Get some rest and we'll pick it up tomorrow." As they began to walk away, Mayumi came up to Daniel, pecked him on the cheek, and ask, "Is she going to be alright?" Daniel nodded as he replied, "She will, now. And we can finally, truly, begin her training in earnest."
"Well done, Daniel," came a voice that was familiar to both Daniel and Mayumi, but that was unknown to everyone else, as they looked around to find nobody else there. "Ben? Is that you?" Daniel asked. A glowing light then appeared which got bigger and brighter before finally flashing and revealing Ben Kenobi with a ghostly hue. "Ben! Good to see you!" Daniel exclaimed as master Kenobi came into vision. He then greeted him with a hug before he noticed everyone else (except Mayumi) looking on in a mix of confusion and anxiety. "Don't worry, everyone! It's alright!" Daniel exclaimed to everyone as he attempted to quell their fears.
"Uh, Daniel? Who exactly is this?" asked Lina, with Tatsuya and Kokonoe indicating that they wanted an explanation, too. "This," Daniel explained to the others, "is Ben Kenobi – the Jedi master who taught me." While Tatsuya's face seemed to express his sudden understanding, master Kokonoe immediately tried to shake Kenobi's hand as a fellow master of "magic" arts. Meanwhile, Lina seemed to understand what Daniel had told her, but was still a little freaked out at seeing an "actual" ghost.
Master Kenobi, sensing her uneasiness, called out to Lina, stating, "You have nothing to fear from me my child. Come, let me have a look at you." Lina slowly made her way towards Kenobi as he took a deep look, seemingly right into her soul. He then smiled, turned to Daniel, and said, "I see why you took her on as a padawan. You did well to help her connect with the Force and reconcile her past." He then turned to Lina and said, "And I see much potential in you as well, young apprentice. I'm very interested to see how your training with Daniel goes." Not quite knowing how to react, Lina stuttered out, "Uh…Thanks…I think."
As master Kenobi chuckled, he once again turned towards Daniel and stated, "You have done well for yourself, and are now ready to pass on our knowledge to a new group of Jedi knights." He then sighed as he continued, "However, there is one more great challenge you must face in order to secure the future of the Jedi." Daniel looked confused and asked, "What do you mean, master?" Kenobi shook his head and said, "I'm afraid that you must discover what it is and what to do on your own."
He then put his hand on Daniel's shoulder and stated, "To that end, however, I have one other thing to do here. In the time I've known you, you have shown not only an intelligence, but a wisdom that is beyond your years. You've been resilient and have become a better Jedi than I." When Daniel tried to say that, no, he was not better than his master, Kenobi insisted, saying, "As I have said before, it will be up to you to make sure that the Jedi survive going forward. Therefore, as the last and best of my disciples, I am hereby bestowing upon you the title of Jedi master. Carry it well."
As Daniel stood there stunned, not knowing what to say, Kenobi informed them that he could not stay for much longer – that the Force was calling him back. "However, I may drop in from time to time to check up on you," he said. As he once again began to glow brighter, he bid everyone farewell, stating, "Good luck to all of you – and may the Force be with you!" As he disappeared, Mayumi gently put her arms around Daniel from behind and said, "Looks like the future of the Jedi is all up to you now." Daniel smiled and brought her in tighter, knowing that while he was currently the last full-fledged Jedi, he was not alone.