Endless Waltz

By: Daishi Prime

For a change, Hayate was in class before her students, instead of after them, on the first day. Only three of them had not been jittery with excitement that morning, and one of those three did not count, being always jittery. Her checks through the day had, understandably, shown no diminution of that excitement. Everyone knew what today's topic would be, and they were patently eager to begin. So she was there early, to help keep everyone calm, and to make sure they could begin immediately on the bell.

Early or not, she did not step up to the podium and actually start until the bell rang. Even before it did ring, she had their complete attention, even more so than normal. Even Laura, Noriko and Yussef were giving her their undivided attention. "Good afternoon, students," she said, "As I'm sure you all realize, today we begin work on your devices. Since none of you opted out of the class, that means we're going to have quite the demanding semester. As you know, Noriko, Yussef and Laura took approximately four months to design and construct their devices, working in secret in stolen hours, figuring things out for themselves, and attempting to avoid my notice." She smiled, remembering Noriko's consternation on realizing their 'secret' had been no such thing, and found Noriko returning the expression ruefully.

"In this class, we think you should be able to move along quite a bit faster, even if we do intersperse the device lessons with other theoretical work. The fact that I'll be able to actually answer your questions, instead of making you look up absolutely everything, will help, as will access to proper tools in the practical side of the course. We'll also be better able to help you avoid design errors such as those that delayed the trio.

"Before we get down to specifics, though, there are some things you need to be aware of." She delivered the lecture she had planned on the dangers and responsibilities of having and using a device, but was quietly pleased at how much shorter the lecture was than the one she had written out prior to last year. Her children had proven much more mature than she had originally expected and feared, and they had demonstrated remarkable restraint – for the most part – over the summer with their training devices. They also had the shining example of Noriko's injuries to drive home the point about dangers, and none of them let their attention drift in the least while she was speaking.

When she finished with that, she opened the floor to questions, and was immediately met with a room full of raised hands. Chuckling at their eagerness, she pointed to Luke, right up in front.

"Just a curiosity, sensei, but why are Noriko, Yussef and Laura in here? Shouldn't they be in their own class?"

Hayate shook her head slightly. "Iie, not yet. The three of them managed to build devices, yes, but they did not really study the underlying theories and principles. To be blunt, they know how to make it work, but not why it works. Also, their practical experience will help all of you in designing and building your devices. They'll be a cross between fellow students, and teacher's assistants. It also relieves me of the headache of retooling our curriculum for three sneaks." Then she pointed to Allison.

Allison leaned forward on her forearms, "Are we all going to be building Midchildan devices? I had some ideas for a Velka device, like Laura's."

"We will allow Velka designs," Hayate said, smiling at the memory of the non-debate when she had broached the subject with her Knights. Their down-right eagerness to allow Velka devices was a little vexing, given how militantly opposed they had been to letting her build Reinforce into one, before she received Sara's bequest, but she could understand their point. "I would be facing a mutiny if I did not, from both you and Vita. We will not, however, be allowing Deva designs. Noriko received those components through even more underhanded means than the rest of the parts they used," if not quite the underhanded means she thinks, Hayate silently amended, "and I am still unwilling to encourage anyone to pursue Deva magic. Which is not to say you have to construct a Velka device. They are not suited to all magical pursuits. Shamal, for instance, does not have a Velka device, in the common understanding. Such devices are optimized for combat, and delicate work such as healing is far more difficult with such a device. That decision is one of those we will help you make."

Allina barely waited for Hayate to look at her before asking, "Is it possible to have devices communicate, like a computer network?"

"I suppose it's possible," Hayate said after a moment, thinking it over. "But no one ever does. A device is, after all, an extension of the mage. Even without Deva Magic's unique fusion, a device is very closely tied to the mage that uses it, roughly analogous to a PDA that also contains your personal diary and health information. Not something anyone wants to grant easy access to."

Allina's answering smile was not reassuring, and her whispered comment to Niranjana, just audible, was even less reassuring. "Hear that, 'Jana? Devices can be hacked!"

Kami-sama help us all if she's right, Hayate thought, then made a mental note to check over her devices, and her Knights', to protect against such an assault.

00000

After their introduction to Lotte-sensei's idea of 'a light workout', Ekavir headed straight for the library. His classmates, unknowingly emulating their predecessors, went back to the dorms to clean up and change, but he had another mission, and hoped to get a jump on any competition. It had not taken much effort, once his father accepted Hayate's invitation, to find out whom among the second-years, had gotten the best grades, and he had felt more than a touch of pride when he found out it was a fellow Indian. Now he was looking for her, and had a fairly good idea where she would be. Sure enough, when he entered the front door, he saw her sitting at one of the tables in the main area, using one of the workstations.

He moved over to stand across the table from her and said in Hindi, "Excuse me, Miss Konoth? Could I bother you for a few minutes?"

She looked up, blinking wide brown eyes at him, then nodded, "Certainly, Ekavir. You can call me Niranjana, though. As Noriko is fond of saying, we are not so formal here. What can I do for you?"

For a moment, Ekavir did not hear her, finding himself staring at her eyes, then jolted when she blinked again. "Ah, sorry, thank you," he said, settling into a chair across from her. "I was wondering, if I could ask you for a favor?"

"That depends on the favor," she replied, "though I would guess, you are looking for someone to tutor you?"

He flushed, embarrassed both to be making the request, and to have been so transparent, but nodded. "That is what I was hoping for, yes. Headmistress Yagami's course, in particular, is worrying me."

Niranjana shook her head, "I think, Ekavir, that you should give it a few weeks before you worry about such things. I do not object in general, but you should learn where you actually need help, and who is best to provide it. It took all of us several weeks last year to come to such conclusions."

At least she didn't say no outright, Ekavir thought to himself. "I thought of that, but after what we started with today, I am already concerned."

"Oh, I understand," Niranjana told him, "Just... it's a little early to be this concerned. Trust in our teachers, they know what they're doing."

Further protest as interrupted by a shout from above in Japanese, "Oi, 'Jana-chan! Found it!" Ekavir could hear someone running upstairs, and watched Niranjana look up there, a small smile appearing on her face. Looking himself, he saw another second year, who he needed a second to remember was the Brazilian girl, Allina. She completely ignored him to wave a book over her head, "Takamichi Yuuno-san's book on advanced device programming!"

"Bring it down, please, Allina-chan," Niranjana called up in Japanese. Then she turned back to Ekavir, reverting to Hindi. "Like I said, give it a few weeks, give yourself a chance to get your feet under you and get up to speed. If you really are having trouble then, I'll see who would be best to help you. For the moment though..."

Allina landed in the chair next to her with a thud, dropping the book on the table, and finally noticing Ekavir's presence. "Hey, Ekavir," she said absently, before reaching across Niranjana to snatch up the PDA on the table, "so, 'Jana-chan, you think we can do what I was talking about over the summer? Hayate-sensei said it was possible."

"She said she supposed it was possible," Niranjana replied, then shrugged at Ekavir. "I'm sorry, Ekavir, but would you mind? This project has been our focus all summer, we're rather eager to get started."

He was a little put out by Allina's unthinking interruption, but not enough to overcome his unwillingness to in any way challenge one of the older students. Noriko's reassurances the night before had been nice, but Ekavir still agreed with Jun – the second years were just plain scary. So instead of protesting, he nodded politely, "I will ask again in a week, Konoth-san."

He was not actually disappointed, he had half-expected to be outright refused. So he was actually in a fairly good mood as he headed into the shelves, studying the layout of the library for future reference.

00000

Confident that Signum would not expect her instantly after class, Laura went hunting for her latest prey immediately after class let out. Conveniently, she found the twins in the last place most of her classmates would have expected to find any of the first-years – a workroom. Precocious of them, she thought happily when she felt their magic through the small room's shields, so they're just what I'm looking for. She triggered the locks herself, stepping through to find matching pairs of bright blue eyes staring fixedly at her. "Hey, girls! No worries, just me. Wanted to talk to you about an idea of mine."

The two stared at her for a moment longer, then said in unison, "we are trying to study, Sims-san. Please leave us be."

Laura felt the laughter bubbling up, but limited herself to a smile, "Oh, you poor silly girls. You have to realize that was a challenge, and I never turn down a challenge."

They blinked at her and frowned, one a fraction of a second before the other. "Please, Sims-san, we only wish to pursue our studies in peace."

"Booorrrrinnnggg! Nope, not gonna let ya!" The frown deepened, but Laura plowed on, "Look, I need a little help, and you two are perfect for it. Just enough magic to get the job done, but not enough to be suspicious. You're also freaky, which is cool, and no one knows what to make of you, so they'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Hence, you're perfect for what I'm thinking."

"We are not interested," they told her flatly.

She was not really surprised by their abruptness – they had militantly kept to themselves since arriving – and rather enjoyed the challenge. "Look, Hayate-sensei and Signum-sensei told me to be nice to you two, so that's what I'm going to do."

"Which would entail leaving," one of them said, the first solitary comment Laura had heard from either of them.

Laura chuckled, waggling a finger at her. "It's not polite to interrupt your elders, Sa-chan."

"A guess," Rhys said, "no one but Mother and Father can distinguish us."

Laura could not help laughing aloud at that, shaking her head, "No, no, Rhys, that wasn't a guess. Saeryn's got better control than you do over her magic and herself. Your eyebrow keeps twitching, Ry-chan. I've got more bad news for you, too – Hayate-sensei and other teachers can tell you apart as well." She reached out, putting just a little magic in her hand, and slid that hand over Rhys' head, pausing when it got just behind her ear, and a corresponding glow appeared. "You've got trace markers, all of us do, and I know how to tell them apart."

Rhys swatting her hand away was a surprise, and Laura reacted without thinking, grabbing the younger girl's wrist and twisting it to lock her arm. Rhys snarled at her, but it was Saeryn who said, "Let her go."

Laura glanced over at her, to find her holding out one hand with a glowing charge cupped in her palm. The older girl chuckled, and let go of Rhys, backing off a step. "Man, I thought she was the violent one."

"No one is permitted to attack us," they told her unison.

"Wasn't an attack. I'll show you both some of those later." Laura straightened up and shivered all over, relaxing out of the combat-tenseness Saeryn's threat had woken. Then she gestured past Saeryn's shoulder. "You also need to work on your awareness, if you're going to dance with me."

The twins stared at her distrustfully for a moment, before Rhys shifted her head to look past her sister. Floating a meter or so behind Saeryn's head was a small contraption of plastics about ten centimeters long, half that around, and terminating in what looked like a gun barrel. That was when Laura became convinced the twins were not telepathic or 'twin linked', as Saeryn did not react until Rhys overcame her shock well enough to reach out to carefully tug her out of the line of fire.

"That's one of my BFB drones," Laura said, as the drone faded back into Paradox's dimensional pocket, "I've improved on them some, over the summer. Better camouflage, a little more efficient, much more survivable. But! I'm not here to threaten you girls, quite the contrary." She grinned at them again, letting her anticipation and amusement boil over again, "I'm here to recruit you."

"We're not interested," Rhys repeated.

"Yes you are. Look, you girls can brush me off. Enough stubborn refusal has been known to convince me to turn my attention elsewhere... once. Of course, that punk had to move to another state to pull it off, but it did work. I should look him up, actually, see if he remembers me." Laura thought that over for a second, making a mental note to look up her old buddy Jeff and see whatever became of him. Then she shook her head and refocused on the subject at hand. "You can do that, and let everyone here go on thinking you're the creepy little Stepford Twins, in which case you'll leave here with exactly as many friends as you arrived with, after you flunk out. Or, you can take a little risk, lend me a hand, let me lend you a hand, have some fun, and maybe make a few friends in the process. At the least, you'll convince everyone that you're human. I think it was Didier asked at breakfast if you two were robots or something. I think he thinks Hayate-sensei builtyou out of spare device parts or something."

"We do not..."

"What do you want us to do?" Rhys blinked, and stared at her sister in obvious surprise when Saeryn cut her off.

Before Laura could answer the question, the two launched into a rapid argument in a language Laura did not follow. It was obvious to her, though, that Rhys was confused and doubting what Saeryn was telling her, and Saeryn was arguing to go along. Good, Laura thought, if I get one of them, I get both, and the sooner they learn to play well with others, the better. I wonder if I can convince Signum-sensei to take them on?

"Fine," the twins said, breaking off Laura's thoughts, "what is it you want of us?"

Laura could not help giggling as her plans came together. "Oh, nothing much. I just need you two to deliver something for me, and set the trigger after delivery. Gather round, girls, I'll give you a quick primer on magical triggers, and explain precisely what's going to happen."

She gave the two a short but detailed explanation of what she had planned, which earned her a matched pair of disbelieving looks. "Isn't that going a little far, Sims-san?"

Laura shook her head, "not really, it's all inside the rules."

"Rules?"

"Rules, prank rules," Laura said. At their blank looks she sighed heavily, "why does no one ever bother to learn the rules? See, if it doesn't fall inside the rules, it's not a prank, and probably criminal. Rule one is 'no permanent damage', nothing that's going to be irreversible. If there's damage, that makes it impossible to follow rule number two. Rule Two is 'initially upset but later amuse the target'. It has to make them angry or embarrassed at first, but they have to able to laugh at it later, once they calm down. There's a third rule out there somewhere, but I kinda forget it most of the time. Something about bystanders, but that one's easy, just redefine who 'the target' is. Crazy as what I'm planning is, it still meets the rules."

"If you say so," Rhys muttered doubtfully, "it still seems excessive to me."

"That's the ticket to making them remember," Laura protested. "If it's not excessive, they'll just brush it off. It's also half the fun, seeing what craziness you can get away with."

"Yagami-sensei lets you get away with all of this?"

"Generally, yeah. Depends on how far I push, but it's usually Signum-sensei who gets me for things. She's the resident disciplinarian, though her idea of 'punishment' is pretty fun, too. That's how I got her to start teaching me weapons-work last year, pulled a prank on Shiro-chan that relied on the reflexes she'd already been teaching me. She saw it, got a little unhappy, and took after me with Levantine in the next session. Fun all around!"

The twins looked at her for a moment, then said in unison, "You're insane."

00000

First day or not, as soon as classes were over for the day, Mariachi snagged his guitar and headed out into the quad. The weather was nice and he needed the break, though not as badly as the year before. He also figured it would give him a chance to watch the new kids after they'd had a chance to adjust to the campus' oddities.

He found his favorite tree from last year, and settled down in the hollow of two roots, facing the dorm at a bit of an angle. Cidela was sitting on one of the benches in the dorm courtyard reading, Toushiro and Ichigo were arguing their way across the quad back towards the workrooms, and Juliet was jogging the path around the quad. As he was tuning the guitar, he watched Esmeralda trot out of the Girls' Wing towards the library, following Verner and Chen-Chi, but he did not see any of the others.

He started playing, simple tunes to get his fingers warmed up, and noticed the trio of new kids stop and look. They watched for a little bit, talked it over, then headed on. Mariachi watched them go with a mental shrug. If they became interested, he would enjoy the audience, if not he would find someone else to listen, he always could.

He started tuning out the world again, focusing on his music, shifting to more complicated, newer music. Despite Laura and Toushiro attempting to convince him, the year before, to pursue their favorite types of music, Mariachi had found very little of either to like. Their requests had, however, lead him to new music and he had taken a library of songs home on his PDA over the summer. Learning to actually read music had been a challenge, mostly due to conflicts between what he had learned himself and what he thought he was reading, but he had managed it well enough. Now he began working his way through a few of the new songs, and he smiled in pride and pleasure as music made famous by Page, Hendrix, and Fogarty soared across a Japanese valley.

He was about half way through Travelin' Band when a quiet step interrupted his focus. He managed to keep playing until he looked up and realized who was standing over him.

"Ano, Mariachi?" Cid-chan was looking at her feet more than him, Rafiq curled loosely around her neck. "Would you mind if Rafiq and I sat here?" She gestured at another hollow, partly around the tree, then back at the bench, "we could not hear very well from over there, and it was very nice."

To say he was surprised was an understatement. No one asked to listen to him play, they just did, it was one of the reasons he played. But Cidela was quite obviously worried about being rude, so he nodded. "Sure, Cid-chan, you don't have to ask. If there's anything you want to hear, just ask."

"Could... could you play the song you used to use in the Library all the time?"

He smiled at that. "Sure, Arabia's easy by now. Never quite the same, it's a jam piece, but fun."

Cidela smiled back, not quite as hesitantly as she would have prior to February, and moved around to her chosen spot, folding her legs under her. "Thank you, Mariachi. Everything you play sounds different each time, though. I like that, it keeps the music new."

"That's not really any skill on my part," Mariachi protested as he segued Travelin' Band into Arabia, "it's just an effect of live music. No one plays the same song the same way twice."

"I still like it," She said, re-opening her book as Rafiq slid down to curl in her lap. "I got used to it last year, and missed it over the summer."

00000

Esmeralda trotted out of the dorm after a shower and change of clothes, and mentally thanked her lucky stars once again that she had always loved dancing. The training from her mother and previous school meant that, unlike most of her new school-mates, she was used to strenuous physical activity and in excellent shape. Of course, what she was used to was relatively predictable dancing, not standing around lobbing magical energies or, more worrisome, dodging those same energies unleashed by classmates and teacher alike – but the principle held, and while Mercedes, Chen-chi, and Jun had been complaining about aching knees and general tiredness while walking back from class, Esmeralda was actually feeling pretty good.

She noticed Verner and Chen-chi ahead of her, and accelerated to catch up. She was almost there when the gentle sound of guitar strings caught her attention, and she paused to look around. She found the source easily enough, one of the second years sitting under a tree. Huh, I guess his nickname's not a joke, she thought, watching his fingers plucking at the strings. She was no musician herself, but she had danced in front of enough of them to recognize the skills. She could tell he was not so much playing as warming up, but even so she found herself tapping one foot, contemplating dancing instead of checking out the library as she had planned. But discipline and first-day homework won out, and she stepped over to her classmates. "Come on, let's go see what the Library's hiding, huh?"

Verner nodded, and began walking again. "We'll get a chance to listen later. He'll probably never stop playing, if his nickname is any indication."

"Unless the mouse distracts him," Chen-chi commented.

That comment confused Esmeralda for a moment, until Chen-chi jerked her head back towards the dorms. Looking over, Esmeralda finally noticed Cidela sitting on a bench, a book dangling from her hands, watching Mariachi warm up. She almost giggled at the thought of the quiet girl distracting a musician, but was quickly distracted herself. A motion in Cidela's lap resolved itself into a snake slithering around her torso and shoulders, apparently without Cidela noticing. Recognizing the girl's 'familiar', Esmeralda shuddered a little. "Oof, just when I start thinking normal things about this place," she muttered.

Chen-chi chuckled at that. "Yeah, but imagine how cool it would be to be one of them? Especially her, she's created her own servant."

"Rafiq is not a servant," Verner told them. "He is a familiar, as are Zafira-sensei, Aria-sensei and Lotte-sensei. There are differences. Remember Hayate-sensei's explanation – she maintains three permanent flows of power to her familiars, without those flows three of our teachers would cease to exist. Cidela must do the same for Rafiq. Given how much power maintaining that life must take, she cannot have much left over for such things as schoolwork."

Esmeralda nodded at that, remembering when the question came up that afternoon. Hayate had explained only a little, not getting into how the familiars were built or how much energy they required, but she had made it clear that it was no minor undertaking. Of course, that line of thought only brought her to one conclusion, one Chen-chi reached at the same time.

"That just makes them scarier," the smaller girl commented, "didn't she create Rafiq early last year?"

"They're not scary," Verner insisted, "they just know more than we do. A lack we can correct, if we merely pay attention to what we are learning, as opposed to who learned it before us."

Chen-chi gave him a jaundiced look, "You always this dull?"

Verner shrugged, "it's easier to just take things in stride. Everything works out in the end, if you just stay calm and focused. We have more important things to worry about than our schoolmates, like passing. According to Noriko-senpai, they may even help."

"They don't intimidate you in the least?" Esmeralda could not believe that. Even her parents had been impressed by what the older students had accomplished here last year.

Another slow shrug, what she realized was probably the German's signature expression. "I'm impressed, yes, and I respect them, but being intimidated is pointless. They are not our enemies."

Esmeralda nodded, seeing his point and taking some comfort from it. But those kids still made her nervous, for fear of being held to their standard, if nothing else.

00000

"Mercedes, do you have a few minutes?"

She paused, one hand on the door, turning back to see who had called her. She found Aria gliding across the dining hall, one hand raised in greeting. "I was going to head over to the library, sensei," Mercedes said, "to get started on the homework."

"That can wait, at least a little bit," the familiar said, opening the door for her. "Yussef came down somewhat hard on you yesterday, and I wanted to show something to clarify why."

Mercedes was unsure what to make of that comment, but decided it must be some sort of apology. "Shouldn't he be the one 'clarifying', then?"

Aria shook her head. "No, because he did nothing wrong, as he explained yesterday. But I wanted to show you, in part, why he responded as he did, why Luke did."

Mercedes felt a spike of annoyance, and could not help grimacing at that. "Yeah, everyone's made a real big point of explaining that," she said. "It was one mistake, okay? I already apologized to Laura for it..."

"Which is probably why your hair is still black," Aria said. A gesture from her altered their course when they reached the end of the dorm, towards the classroom building. "Laura's favorite prank, though far from the only one in her arsenal, is to turn her victim's hair strange and visually painful colors."

"Allison warned me about that," Mercedes admitted, contemplating the other girl's dire warnings. The hair did not seem so bad, but some of the other incidents Allison had related would have been frighteningly embarrassing.

"There's no avoiding her pranks," Aria warned, "but apologizing probably mitigated the damage she'll do. Laura is fair, if nothing else, and if you find a way to prank her back, she'll take her medicine. Would you mind flying? The best observation point is from the roof."

Mercedes was more eager to learn how to do it herself than to be carted about, but nodded her head. A moment later, she caught her breath as something lifted her off the ground, then she and her teacher were airborne. They approached the roof of the class building as fast as she could run. Aria took them up and over in a short arc, then weight returned, and Aria resumed walking.

To Mercedes' surprise, they were not the only ones on the roof. The twins were at the far corner, crouched behind the low wall. "Hey, you two," she called as they approached, "what are you guys up here for?"

"Probably the same thing we are," Aria said, as the twins flinched and dropped completely behind the wall.

They turned to look, and relaxed almost immediately. One of them gave her a strange look Mercedes could not identify, before the other replied, "We were observing Sims-san. She spoke to us earlier this afternoon, and we were curious."

Mercedes grimaced again, "Laura? We're here to watch Laura?"

"Yes, but in a specific setting," Aria said. The cat-woman stepped right up to the ledge, and gestured below.

Mercedes moved to stand next to her as the twins straightened again, and looked down. Below and somewhat behind the classroom building was a cleared circle of dirt, surrounded by concrete pillars. Off to one side, near the path leading up to the teachers' house, Mercedes saw Signum standing with her arms folded, her device planted tip-first in the ground at her feet. Inside the circle was a substantial crowd of figures, over a dozen, most of them purplish un-detailed human shapes.

The one that was not indistinct was Laura. She was whirling, ducking, twisting, weaving, punching and kicking as the surrounding figures attacked her. As Mercedes watched, she seemed to be dancing around the figures, untouchable as she tossed her opponents about with apparent ease. Mercedes knew a little self defense, had taken some courses until she grew bored with it, and it was painfully obvious Laura was pulling maneuvers she did not think were humanly possible.

Then she got one good strike, spinning to her left in a reverse round-house as one of her opponents lunged at her back. The blow went in under its arm, slamming its side hard enough to launch it sideways. Before it went a meter, it flashed red, a shrill alarm sounded loud enough to be heard on the roof, and all the figures vanished. Laura recovered from the kick, then visibly slumped, and started walking over to Signum.

"That is the second time she has stopped at one good hit," one of the twins remarked.

"Not even to very dangerous places," the other said.

Mercedes glanced at them to find them staring past her at Aria, and turned to look at the teacher as well.

Aria sighed softly, "Last year, Signum trained Laura in martial arts, with an emphasis on weapons. She originally intended it merely as a method to try and burn off the girl's excess energies, but Laura soaked up Signum's teachings like a sponge, better in some ways than she learned magic. You have all heard of what generally happened in February. In Laura's case, she put both her magic and her martial arts to necessary, but unfortunate, use. She killed the man most responsible for the attack. It was a very difficult experience for her, and at the end of the year, she swore never to kill again. So now, Signum trains her to rein in her strikes, to moderate her attacks. The simulations allow Signum to more accurately judge the force of Laura's blows. Admittedly, she has the settings of what constitutes 'lethal' set rather broadly, but still within plausible limits. That last kick, for instance, would have broken ribs, and could easily have collapsed a lung, had she put enough force behind it. There would even be a small chance of driving bone fragments into the heart, or generating sufficient shock to stop the heart outright. Small chances, but Signum takes no chances with her apprentice now."

Damn, Mercedes thought, that little bi... punk is that dangerous? "How likely is she to keep her oath?"

Aria flicked an ear at her, "you need not fear her doing you harm, Mercedes. What I wanted to show you was not how dangerous she can be. The mere fact of her presence here should be proof enough of that, as it is proof of how dangerous you can be. I actually intended quite the opposite, to show you that her control is that good. Also, to demonstrate just how hard she works. What you are seeing is not part of the school curriculum, it has no effect on Laura's grade. It is merely Signum's personal training.

"Laura was up this morning at five, to run Signum's obstacle course through the woods behind here a few times. Then to shower, breakfast with the rest of you, then her full day of classes, where Paradox earned her more work, demonstrating for my sister's class how a device functions, then to her room long enough to change and come back out here. She'll be here until dinner, then do her studying after dinner. This is her routine at least two days a week, sometimes three, and she usually spends Sunday training with Signum, or working on her own.

"In their own ways, Noriko and Yussef are almost as bad. Those two spend more of their time working with others, but they still put in far more work than teenagers should. Yet for them, it is that extra effort that makes being here worthwhile, that extra workload that makes this school so much fun and such a good place to learn. This here, Mercedes, as much as the reasons for this specific lesson, is why the others are so respectful and protective of Laura, Noriko and Yussef. Niranjana may have scored higher than them, but those three are quite definitely the leaders at this school."

Mercedes mulled that over in her mind for a few minutes, watching as Laura returned to the center of the circle, and another dozen figures appeared. Everything Aria had said made sense, and with the sparring match going on below, she could not deny how brutal that schedule sounded, but two questions occurred to her. "How does she have time for pranks, then? And what about Cidela, why's everyone so protective of her?"

"Because she was one of the ones kidnapped last year," one of the twins muttered.

The other twin followed it up with "obviously."

"Iie," Aria said, before Mercedes could form a response. "She prefers Cid-chan, by the way, and we prefer it if you called her that, rather than her full name. As for why we all treat her the way we do... her situation was not as immediate or extreme as Laura's, and has mostly resolved itself, but she was one of only two orphans at the school last year, and Mariachi has always been one. Also, spend a little time with her. Cid-chan is very calming, but at the same time she is painfully shy. You'll see by the end of the year that most of your classmates will react similarly to, if my analysis is accurate, Didier, and possibly you two, Saeryn and Rhys.

"As for Laura's pranks..." Here Aria smiled, and finally looked away from the combat as another figure flashed red, "... my theory is that Laura gets bored extremely easily. She has, in many ways, the most intelligent mind on the campus. But she is too intelligent, she understands things too easily, and thus gets bored easily. So her mind wanders, frequently, and she spends a lot of time thinking about things other than what is right in front of her. That is part of what so annoys Yussef, her habit of pulling a non sequitur in the middle of even the most serious conversation. She's not an 'air head', she's just not paying attention. Because of how often and widely her mind wanders, she can be sitting in class taking notes, but thinking up plans to execute her next prank. I went back over some of the security tapes, over the summer, and matched a few of her 'random outbursts' to later pranks or spells."

Aria paused, and actually giggled, a soft little sound, "The best was when she shouted 'Schroedinger's cat!' in the middle of one of Vita-chan's lectures. It turned out to be her most powerful spell." The small smile vanished, to be replaced with a more pensive look and an insulted tone, "it should not be, though. The blasted thing should not even work." A shrug, "But that is Laura. Does this help clarify yesterday, for you? Both why they came down on you so hard, and why Laura did not walk away unscathed herself?"

The logic was convoluted, and Mercedes was uncertain she believed half of what Aria had told her, but she nodded anyhow. "Yeah, it does. I'll keep it in mind." She grimaced and shook her head, "all this over one accident."

"All this over a potentially serious altercation," Aria countered. "Keep in mind, this is new to us, as well, having to integrate two classes. The fact that you are older than some of the second years does not help, nor does the mix of backgrounds. You and Laura having a standing dislike is one thing, but yesterday, especially with Yussef's intervention, could very easily lead to a simmering feud. We would prefer to avoid that, and the best way to manage that is understanding. I assure you, Laura has already gotten her own talking to.

"It is not all bad news. We have a class trip to Kyoto planned in a month, a chance to see places we missed last year. The current plan is to divide all of you into groups irrespective of year, so you should have a chance to see that Yussef's protectiveness, all of their protectiveness, is not limited to each other. By the time the third years arrive, you will no doubt come in for your share of such overbearing watchfulness, and distribute some of your own."

Mercedes just shook her head. Perspective was all well and good, and the second years' intimidating presence was already being moderated, though she was positive that was both deliberate and temporary in Noriko's case. Watching Laura's training, hearing about her schedule, and realizing just what standard she now had to live up to promptly undid all of that. "Man, I'm almost sorry I came here," she said, "but at least it won't be boring."

00000

Yuuno watched the circle work with focused intensity, completely oblivious to the early afternoon heat of the desert. He was sitting off to one side while they worked, just observing, notepad forgotten in his fascinated observation. The flows of energy the twelve men and women were shaping were delicate things, little slivers of power, weaving together to form a complex latticework of a spell, one that hovered just at the edge of a massive expanse of utter nothingness.

He had seen this exact scene four times already, and knew it was being repeated at three more places spaced around the massive null-space in south-western Egypt, yet he was still deeply impressed. He had come to Earth expecting to find a group of half-trained superstitious warmongers attempting to contain something they could not even describe, let alone comprehend. Instead, the Circles were proving to be deeply knowledgeable, if in surprisingly limited and paranoid ways, and to have at least one flat out impossible skill, which they were proving again as he watched. Before his very eyes, they were oh so slowly shrinking the null-space created to trap Hayate. If they managed to maintain this pace, he calculated they could seal it in just under a year. According to them, they would have it sealed within six months, the work accelerating as the null-space shrank.

He watched in still silence for nearly an hour, before a gentle touch on his shoulder distracted him. He had to shake his head and rub his eyes a few times to get them to re-focus, then looked up to find Tai-yu crouched next to him. "Ah, good evening, Tai-yu-san."

"Good evening, Takamichi-san," she gave a slight bow of her head. "My apologies for interrupting, but I was a little concerned. You have not moved in quite some time."

He grinned a little sheepishly, "Ah, sorry about that. Watching the impossible tends to do that to me."

"From the stories I have heard of your wife, I would think you would be used to the impossible," Tai-yu replied, making both of them chuckle.

"It's different, with Nanoha. I'm used to her doing the impossible, it's somewhat expected. But this," he shook his head slowly, "this is incredible! I did some quick research before I came out here, and there is no record of anyone ever managing to repair or even just seal a null-space. There are a couple old theories, one even comes close to what I think you people are doing here, but no one's ever actually done it. There are null-spaces that we can trace all the way back to Al Hazred, still sitting there, consuming anything that falls into them. If we can convince you to teach us how you do it, how you repair other dislocations, or even just hire a few circles to do the work themselves... the possibilities are vast!" He would have continued, but caught Tai-yu grinning at him, quite obviously amused about something. "What?"

"Vita-san told me some amusing stories about you. I'm glad she wasn't lying." She paused, rising to her feet, "but I do actually have a business reason for interrupting you. Master Adept Sauvageau is ready to speak to you. He's in charge of this operation, the ranking member of the Modern's Containment division, so far as I know."

Yuuno shoved himself up with a grunt, waving for the shorter woman to lead the way. "It's about time! I've been waiting two days to talk to him. Just watching has taught me a lot, but we need an agreement to do anything serious."

As they walked from the working tent across the desert sands to where more permanent housing – in the form of air-conditioned trailers and mobile generators – had been anchored, he noticed something that uncomfortably reminded him of the delicate nature of the situation. There were quite a few Circle mages about, beyond those in the working circle. Most of them, he knew, would be taking turns in that circle, keeping the complicated spell going continuously until it was time to move the working, which happened every few days from what he had learned so far. A few more were on security, and more were simply there, for no reason he had been able to discern. What caught his eye was that those who were outside watched as Tai-yu led him towards the trailers, and it was soon apparent that they were not watching him, but her, and their looks were anything but friendly. The guards were the worst, several of them patently watching her instead of watching outwards.

"Tai-yu-san, is there..."

She interrupted by shaking her head, "Do not concern yourself, Takamichi-san. By Circle standards, I am a traitor, due to my cooperation with the Bureau. They will not harm me, out of fear of Hayate-sama, but they also will not trust me again."

He stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I know how hard it was for you to cooperate, but it was the right thing to do."

Tai-yu shrugged. "I'm aware, but thank you. It's part of my sentence, I think, forcing me to deal with my former comrades. At least none of them will come near the campus, so I can relax there. But... here we are." She opened the door to the trailer, and preceded him inside.

Master Adept Sauvageau proved to be a ruggedly built older man, enthroned behind a desk with subordinates waiting at the wings. The dark suit and tie had to be uncomfortable, even with the trailer's whining air-conditioning, but he showed no sign of it, merely watched Yuuno and Tai-yu approach with narrowed eyes.

"Yuuno Takamichi," he said in English, "I must admit, I find your appearance frighteningly unsurprising. A bookworm I expected, and a bookworm stands before me."

That was annoying, but only a little. Yuuno had long since gotten over being called a bookworm, but the fact that this meeting was starting with an insult, however wide of the mark, meant it was going to be difficult. He had hoped for better. "You have me at an advantage then, Mister Sauvageau," Yuuno said, moving to sit without being invited, making himself comfortable. If he wants to play the insult game, I'll play. "I had no real mental image of you. I'm afraid I've been rather busy these last few weeks. Managing the Infinity Library would be a full-time job for any three people, but the Bureau's rather short-handed on the administrative side right now."

Sauvageau's eyes narrowed further. "A common problem in all bureaucracies, even one as decentralized as ours used to be. So let us be brief, hmm? Your thugs have made it abundantly clear that you regard this world as being Bureau property, as a place where you have free reign."

"That is incorrect, Mister Sauvageau, as you well know," Yuuno interrupted. "Our Armed Enforcers have secured this site, yes, because it remains dangerous and to our knowledge no one on this world had the knowledge and experience to approach or study it safely. Your teams outside have convinced the Operations personnel responsible for this sector that you do know what you are doing, and the demonstration outside has convinced me of the same. The rest of the world is not our concern. It is Hayate Yagami's concern, and she is the only authority the Bureau recognizes here on Earth, but given the excessive lengths your fellows went to in order to eliminate her, you can't really blame us for that, now can you?"

"Yes, I can. The woman represented a clear and demonstrable threat the stability of our world, a threat that was fully realized in February. More Circle members have died to violence since her arrival than in the preceding century, Mister Takamichi. On top of that, we never invited her or you to this world."

"But your actions met the Bureau Charter's threshold for uninvited intervention. The Bureau does not involve itself in the local affairs of member worlds, or in any affairs of non-member worlds, without invitation. But we must and will intervene to prevent and contain any detectable dimensional dislocations. Not out of aggrandizement or self-importance, but because we exist to safe-guard the entire universe against a repeat of the terrible devastation that followed Al Hazred's fall, a cataclysm millennia old that left terrible scars across all of creation, many of which remain to this day. We cannot fulfill that mission if we ignore catastrophes such as last February's. I understand your objection, but the Bureau learned long ago that it is in everyone's best interests to act first, ensure the scene's security, and apologize later."

"Yet I have still not heard any apology from any of you."

"Nor will you, in this case." Yuuno shrugged, "this situation is of your making. You created the engines that created this null, thus requiring our intervention. It was only Hayate's intervention which prevented the Bureau from moving in, in force, and seizing every member of the Circles." As well as your ridiculous numbers, Yuuno's conscience insisted on reminding him. That aspect of the Circles was still stumping Bureau planners. "Because of that intervention, and the current stalemate, we have an opportunity I had hoped to discuss with you, one that would benefit both of our organizations, and countless billions of people the universe over."

"So I was told when your request for a meeting was first forwarded to us from Hughes." Sauvageau finally relaxed, face loosing its set glare. "I understand you want to exchange knowledge, techniques, information. What makes you think we would be interested? The Circles exist to contain and eliminate any attempt to artificially create and control magic. Even what was done here was proscribed, by most interpretations of our laws. Acceptable in the face of the threat it was aimed at, but still proscribed."

Yuuno actually chuckled at that. "Do you think everything we do is done through a device?" He spread his hands, turning them inwards to indicate himself. "I have not had a device in over a decade, yet I am considered one of the most accomplished mages of my generation. I routinely teach courses at the Bureau's Officers Academy on advanced principles, and conduct research into old and new magics. My skills with bindings and data retrieval magics are some of the best in Bureau. All without any device or artificial enhancement. Oh, I can and have used such things in the past, but most of what I use magic for these days does not require the power a device makes available. That is part of what we offer.

"The other part is reassurance, through history. We would make available to your people our histories, our records. Nothing classified, of course, but the public sections should be quite sufficient to reassure you, both to our goals and intentions, and to the safety of our magic, even our artificial enhancements. We won't try and tell you to take up our ways, but we can convince you that we are not a threat. At the same time, you can convince us that you are not a threat. Mutual understanding leading to mutual co-existence. There are any number of worlds that are both fully aware of the Bureau's existence, and non-signatory worlds. They are fully aware of our charter and methods, yet do not fear to be invaded or dictated to, precisely because they are aware. At the same time, we are aware of their ways and views, and do not worry that they will cause the sort of problems our organization exists to prevent. We have similar information exchange arrangements with most of those worlds, for this very reason."

Sauvageau leaned back and thought that over for a few minutes, speculative gaze floating from Yuuno to Tai-yu and back again. Finally he leaned forward, planting his elbows on the desk. "Interesting in theory, and the high ideals make for lovely PR, but let's hear what the details are, shall we?"

00000

Ichigo was a little nervous knocking on the door, but more because of where he was than who he was here to see. While he was more relaxed about it than Yussef, all the guys shared their leader's discomfort at being in the Girls' Wing, mostly just because it was the Girls' Wing. But Natalia had been hiding since the new kids arrived, and he wanted to make sure he was right about why.

When she did not answer his first knock, he knocked again, calling out, "Come on, Talia-chan, I'm not going away any time soon. Lights out isn't for a couple hours yet."

The door wrenched open to reveal a glaring Natalia. "You're not Laura, Ichigo. You suck at coming up with nicknames. What do you want? I'm trying to study."

He glanced past her, and quirked an eye at the book on the table. "You playing hermit again? It's only the first day of classes, and you're already hiding?"

She glared a little harder, "I'm not hiding, I just..."

"The new kids think you're scared of them," He laughed, but her glare faded to a guarded glance towards the common room. "Don't tell me you are?"

"I just..." she grimaced and shrugged, turning back into her room, "I just don't like seeing them."

That statement neatly cut off any thoughts he had of getting her to laugh. "Still can't turn it off, huh?" Natalia just shook her head as she sat back down at her desk. Ichigo followed her in, and closed the door behind him. "I thought of something over the summer," he told her, getting her to look up again, "but I'm not sure if it'll work. Can you see through walls?"

"Wha...? Walls? No, nitwit, I don't have x-ray vision."

Ichigo shrugged off the insult, "what about your eyelids? Do you still see things with your eyes closed?"

She looked thoughtful again, "No."

Ichigo fished in his pocket, and pulled out a small cloth square, holding it out to her, "try this, then."

She stared at his hand for a second, then her eyes went wide and she lunged for his hand. She fumbled for a second and almost dropped the eye-patch, then slapped it over her left eye, pulled the four strings tight behind her head, and stared at him for a moment. Her eye went a little wider, then she did the last thing he expected, and tackled him. They bounced off the door before he realized she was sobbing 'thank you' in Hazred.

"Hey, no big," he told her, patting her back a little uncomfortably, "Partly my fault you've got that eye, after all."

Natalia shook her head against his chest, "No, it was mine. But I don't have to see anymore! Why didn't I think of this?!"

"Far be it from me to suggest that you're too stubborn and proud to ask for help, or admit you can't handle things... Talia-chan." She kneed him in the thigh for that, but he just chuckled. "I figured, since you see things, and don't 'just know' like Laura does, it had to be tied to vision, the physical process of sight. It was worth a shot, at least, though... I would suggest seeing if Hayate-sensei can get you something a little more stylish."

"This'll be fine," She said, "anything's better than seeing all the time. I almost tried to take it out, over the summer, almost. I saw... saw..." She hesitated, then whispered, "My grandmother's going to die before Christmas next year, Ichigo. She won't even see my third year start."

"Kami-sama," he muttered, "I'm so sorry, Natalia. Is there anything..."

"No, nothing," Natalia interrupted. "It's not even really a surprise. She's seventy, she's hardly had the easiest life. When I told her, she just smiled. Said it would be nice to finally rest, get some peace and quiet away from 'the rowdy kids'. She's started going to church every day, started calling old friends, family who're out of the city. She's saying goodbye. I gave her the chance to say goodbye, but..."

"But you're still going to loose her."

"I'll still be alone."

He pushed her back a little at that, just enough to glare at her, "Oi, what're we then?"

She sighed, then gave him a sad little smile, "You know that's not what I meant, Ichigo. You're all my friends, but she's family. I've got a couple cousins, an uncle in the Ukraine somewhere, but... they aren't family. No one can replace family, Ichigo."

"Replace, no," He agreed, "but look at Cid-chan. You won't be alone, Natalia, unless you insist on playing the hermit."

She studied his face for a couple seconds, then stepped back, crossed her arms, and demanded, "Okay, who's feeding you lines?"

He grimaced at that, and shook his head. "No one is 'feeding me lines'. Though I will admit Noriko and Shamal-sensei put me up to this, and gave me some advice on what to say. They figured, since you and I got along so well last year, you'd take it better from me. Also, I had to give you that eye-patch, which you're still not actually wearing."

She did not laugh, but did smile at that. "You're hopeless, Ichigo." She settled the patch over her left eye again, then struggled with the ties for a minute. "How's that?"
"Lopsided," he admitted. "looks a little low on the outside." Natalia fixed, fiddling with the ties again to make sure it stayed. "Perfect. Good enough, at least. Come on, let's go see if it works against multiple targets."

Natlaia shook her head, "Thank you, Ichigo, but no. I really was studying, and no, nothing illicit. I didn't do as much over the summer as I should have, and need to do some catch up."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Well, crap," he muttered, fishing his PDA from where he had stashed it under his belt in back, "I guess I'll just have to study as well, won't I?"

"You're not going to leave, are you?"

He shrugged, a little embarrassed. "Sorry, orders. I can either drag you out to the dining hall, or sit in here and try not to be 'dead last' again this year."

"All right," Natalia allowed, "how does Arabic sound?"

"Boring. Languages are easy."

"Then you can help me figure it out," Natalia commented, sitting at her desk again, "all these letters look like someone just flicked a brush at the paper, or something."

00000

Per multiple requests – here's a list of First Years and Second Years. If I've got it, the meaning of the name is also listed, though not always relevant (if there are multiple meanings, only the most meaningful is listed). Format is: Given Name Surname - Nation of origin. Meaning of Name. Relevant Notes.

First Years (Alpha by surname)

Hector, El Mariachi – Mexico. Trojan hero. No family name because he is an orphan. 'Mariachi' is a type of Mexican music that Hector can play, but he lacks the band members to really meet. 'El Mariachi' is also how the character of the movie Desperado was always referred to, and Hector is partially based on him.

Yussef bin Hammad Al Khan – Qatar. Yussef is the Arabic version of Joseph. 'bin Hammad' means 'son of Hammad', and Al Khan is the actual family name. 'bin Hammad' both is and is not treated like western middle names, used more frequently, but still somewhat formal.

Noriko Asegawa – Japan. Child of ceremony, law, order. The Japanese Imperial family does not actually have a surname. I understand there is a 'place-holder' they use when absolutely necessary, but could not locate it, so I made up 'Asegawa' as a sort of publicity cover in case of media attention.

Allison Caeghlin – United States, Navajo Reservation. Variant of 'Alice', just a pretty name.

Luke Henderson – Australia. Derived from Greek word for 'from Lucania'.

Niranjana Konoth – India, New Delhi. 'She who stays unattached' – chosen more because I thought it a pretty name.

Marcel Lafitte – France. From Roman name 'Marcellus', derived from 'Mars'

Allina Maricopa – Brazil. Precious.

Ichigo McClure – Japan. First born son.

Natalia Morisovich – Russia, Moscow. Derived from 'Natalie', which meant 'Christmas Day'.

Noah San Cristobal – Philippines. Biblical reference.

Toushiro Senizawa – Japan. Intelligent & Wise.

Cidela ni Shamal – Egypt, now Japan. Named for a girl I knew in Bahrain who is her visual basis.

Laura Sims – United States, Rhode Island. Short form of 'Laurel'.

Megan Sommersby – England. Short form of 'Margaret', from a Greek word for 'pearl'.

Juliet Van Saar – South Africa. Greatly derived from 'Jupiter'.

Second Years (Alpha by surname)

Didier Akalé – le Cote d'Ivoire. Derived from Latin term for 'longing, desire'.

Mercedes Garibaldi – Italy. Spanish for 'mercy'.

Esmeralda Lecuona – Spain. Emerald.

Chen-chi Mao – Taiwan. Brilliant dawn.

Rhys Marterosian – United States, Georgia. Enthusiasm (a boy's name, used deliberately here).

Saeryn Marterosian – United States, Georgia. I found a meaning, but can't find the name anymore...

Kaemon Matsuo – Japan, Osaka. 'Joyful' – a traditional samurai name.

Verner Metzger – Germany, Nuremberg. Derived from two words for 'guard' and 'army'.

Ekavir Naruka – India. 'Bravest of the Brave', fitting for a Rajput.

Jun Xie – China, Beijing. Truth (turns out it's a girl's name? Found 'Jun' listed as a boy's name originally on the 'State Approved List' of baby names, but now I can't find the list...)

On an amusing note, while re-checking the names, I Googled 'Cidela', and chapters of Academy Blues. Talk about self-reference...

00000

Seaotter: Shamal won't be in 'mother mode' very often, but she'll probably be very bad when she is, given that she's never done it before (Hayate mothered the Knights more than they her, in my opinion). Yussef is more mature, due to the attack and talking with his father. I will admit to having some personal issues with the Middle East, mostly because of personal experiences there, but it's one of my 'self-challenges' – keeping as honest a presentation as a non-expert can. Laura is mostly back to her old self, though she'll never take battle as lightly as she used to. Noriko has essentially recovered from her injuries, her 'favoring her right' is more lifetime habit than residual injury, and the Circles always have plans, it's why they're still around. I was debating the Myrmidons until the plot for this story started coming together, and I developed a use for them as a team. Yussef's not happy about it, but more on his reactions and opinions on the matter will be coming up. I was originally going to have Laura get on their cases about it, but realized that she's too much a warrior to make light of what the Myrmidons are meant to be. The twins have their own oddities and story, they'll probably be the most used characters in the new year. Mercedes also has her own issues & role, as shown above – I was worried she might come across as too much of a spoiled brat – which she is, but only to a limited extent. The Circles' team is currently aimed at the Revenants, but as Schuster commented, they plan to finish Li's work. There' a list of students above for you, but as for length... my incomplete outline projected 60 chapters, but I've no idea if I'll fall short or exceed that. Like I said, the outline's incomplete. Sorry!

pfeil: I'm glad you're liking the new kids, and the meetings are the major point of these chapters. Here's the first reaction to Cidela, and there's only one 'i' in Rafiq.

Tsukino Kage Spectre: I am more than happy to admit that the creators of the Gundam Wing movie made use of a common euphemism (though I have, naturally, seen the GW movie). 'Endless Waltz' has been used by historians, philosophers, and authors for years (that I know of) as a euphemism for both 'war' and 'history'. I first ran into the term back in the early nineties, though I don't remember where. Both the title here, the title of the Gundam Wing movie, and the quote from chapter 00 reference the sad fact that there has always been a war going on somewhere in the world, for all recorded history.

AceStarleaf: Nope, the Circles aren't done yet. Probably the only way Hayate could really guarantee the Circles would leave her alone, without spending a couple centuries re-working their training and mythos, would be to kill the lot of them. Even as bad as they are, that's too extreme for her. I'm glad Megan's intro worked as intended, at least once:).

Auroua: I'm glad you enjoyed the prior stories, hope this one lives up to them. As far as the new kids, I'm trying to keep them from being too similar to their predecessors, so there won't necessarily be a 'Laura 2.0' running around. I've no comment on the Deva magic, save the teaser that one of my characters will get to play with it eventually... but I'm not saying who!

TheWhiteMonk: I'll do my utmost not to disappoint with the new kids, but can't make any promises – I've honestly never dealt with this many simultaneous characters at once, it's one of the challenges I've set for myself here. The focus will stay on the 'good guys', especially these first few chapters, but plot will require input from the various and sundry evil forces... but preference noted. As for Honor Harrington... I still have a copy of the first print run of On Basilisk Station, from when it was brand-spankin' new, as well as a 'back up copy', so I don't have to worry about the original falling apart, given how often I re-read them. While I haven't read all of Weber's books, I have read most of them, and he has remained my all-time favorite author since I picked up the first Honor book.

CrimsonDX: You like the twins? They're supposed to be creepy and weird, dammit. Ah, well, they are developed, at least. Mercedes has her own issues, and I'm fairly certain people will either end up loving or hating her before long (possibly both).

Eternal Longing: Thanks for the compliment. The Myrmidons were a debatable point, honestly right up until I wrote that scene. The grades thing is mostly just a repeat-joke, from Academy Blues right after winter break (they had roughly the same spread then). While I have a few plot-lines thought out, the only fully detailed background I came up with was for the new kids, but I'm going to try and avoid repeating any characters. Chen-chi'll have some similarities to Laura, but only a couple. As for the twins skipping dinner, they didn't – they were there, just off on their own being reclusive.

Natimus Prime: Know what you mean about the 'new chapter' e-mails. Now if only my favorites would hurry up and post more often...:). There's a list of students above, divided by class, which should hopefully keep things from getting too confusing. I'm horrible with names myself (way back in Path of Vengeance, I had to keep typing 'Hinata' when I meant 'Hayate', for instance). I really was trying to put quotes at the end of each chapter as a back-reference, but by chapter 04 I was revealing too much information about what was yet to come. A few of the better ones may sneak in there, once the bits they spoiled show up, but nothing regular, I'm afraid.

SpaceBrotha: I'm afraid I've no comment on what Yussef's eventual fate will be, but I can say he's not Achilles (Yussef's not nearly enough of a spoiled brat). Laura's response to the Myrmidons is a bit of a twist, but as I told Seaotter, she's too much a warrior to make light of someone else's warrior tradition (unless she's fighting them at the time...). Hughes has his plans, as do the Revenants, and all those plans do, eventually, involve Bad Things for the school, it's just a question of which gets into position to move first, given that they're rather focused on each other at the moment. Shiraz's decision to send his girls to Hayate was pretty much explained by him, and while it is strange, he is sending them to someone he can be fairly certain will give them back – basically, he's thinking more as a father than as a Circle mage. I don't get all this hostility towards Mercedes' name, though... I always liked it. One of my first favorite authors was Mercedes Lackey (though I don't know her personally, so maybe...?). As far as the names, they're listed above. Chen-chi (there is a hyphen there!) and Jun both use the Asian convention, because they are Asian. I'm sorry it's confusing, but it's a reminder to myself of how they think, as much as anything. Laura calls Megan 'Tigger' specifically because of the 'Winnie the Pooh' reference, and directly in relation to Megan's liger form – it's cute, it's fluffy, and demonstrates Laura's absolute fearlessness for all to see, while also annoying Megan no end. Noriko's explanation wasn't supposed to be boasting, though it could be taken that way, she really was just trying to settle the new kids' fears. As for the Black Dogs, you're the first to mention that, though keep in mind, that section references a few things that have not necessarily happened yet. Thanks for the reminder about Natalia – the above scene was supposed to be in last chapter, but I flaked on writing it out. As for Tai-yu, what she teaches hasn't come up yet, and her position's somewhat tenuous at the school – she's only been on-campus a couple days longer than the new kids, and the second years are all busy catching up on their summers and the new kids (what's more interesting, a new 'teacher' not in your class list, or new fellows living just down the hall?). As for 'The Reborn', 'Mad Maudlin' and the rest, I'm afraid you'll have to wait and see, though I will admit to finding the guessing games amusing.

Kell Shock: thanks for the two reviews, I'll reply to both here. First up, thanks for the corrections, I've fixed them on my copies and hopefully I'll actually remember to upload them with this chapter. You're also right about Nanoha's rank - author mistake, my apologies. For simplicity's sake, I'll argue she was promoted over the summer – it has been six months since the major events of Academy Blues, she's supposed to be one of the best the Bureau's ever seen, and I've no idea how long she was a Captain. The references in the opening section of Chapter 00 will be referenced again, though probably not for a while. I don't think I'll give Tai-yu a device, as I don't think it will fit with the role I'm planning for her. As far as America and Japan surrendering, I can't answer directly until many chapters in the future, but I will ask my own questions for you to think on – were they the only nations to surrender, or even the first? What condition were they in when they surrendered? What were the conditions of their surrender (unconditional, or retaining some sort of local authority/autonomy)? I think, given the eventual answers to those questions and a few more, you won't be disappointed. The new kids will settle in to their new surroundings, but no meeting of two new groups is ever really smooth, there are always issues. I admit the grade range is narrow, but keep in mind they're not only very bright, but were in all the same classes, and shared notes & study time liberally, so they would be very close. Also, it gave an easily-mis-interpreted lesson to the new kids about how 'it's not that hard' (which most of them mis-interpreted). I think that the story of how Laura got the 'Black Mage' moniker will, like Lotte's reference to tying her to Yussef one class, remain a 'Noodle Incident' – referenced, but never explained. Lastly, as I said to SpaceBrotha, the aliases not already revealed are supposed to be knowable, but not obvious, so please keep guessing. You may be right, you may be wrong, but I'm liking the guesses so far:).