Chapter One

April 1, 2003

Mr. and Mrs. Kurosawa,

Greetings. My name is Dr. Jun Miyazaki. Fifty years ago, I founded the Miyazaki Institute of Practical and Familiar Magic, a school dedicated to teaching the mystic arts to young people across the globe. I write to you today to humbly invite your son Yoshi to apply for the upcoming Fall term. Yoshi’s excellent scores on the Test of Arcane Awareness were brought to our attention by your city’s Commissioner of Education, who believes that the boy will excel here. We could not have been happier to receive the recommendation. Your family’s reputation as protectors of the Bonsai Dragon species is very highly regarded by those of us here on the Institute staff, and we would love to have your son join us.

Please allow me to explain our mission and philosophy. The Institute is dedicated to the teaching of all the mystic disciplines side-by-side, rather than focusing students on one specific type of magical instruction as most high schools do. The greatest breakthroughs in the mystic arts have come from those who viewed magic as one great tapestry rather than a series of completely separate fields. We at the Institute hope to produce magicians capable of seeing that tapestry while still excelling in their chosen fields.

Such a broad field of study naturally requires the most gifted and dedicated students, and so our admissions process is by invitation only. To match the quality of our student body, we employ the finest teaching staff available. This combination has served us well over the years. Miyazaki Institute graduates have gone on to become leading figures in their fields, from the practical arts of alchemy and prognostication to more esoteric disciplines such as quantum magics and immortality mechanics. And we have the lowest mortality rate of any school of the mystic arts in the world.

Of particular interest to your family, I imagine, would be our School of Familiar Magic, which is considered one of the best in the world. Our head Familiars instructor, Professor Keiji Tanaka, was Olympic Battle Familiars champion in 1984, and his advancements in the Familiar Empathy technique have revolutionized the field. He redesigned our Familiar Magic curriculum ten years ago, and his techniques are taught to our students from the beginning of their academic careers. Professor Tanaka is a challenging instructor, and dragons are a particular specialty.

Please look over the enclosed application forms, and if you think our school worthy of your interest, have Yoshi fill them out. Feel free to call the admissions office if you have any questions. Thank you for your time, and for the honor of communicating with you.

Sincerely,

Jun Miyazaki

Headmaster
Miyazaki Institute of Practical and Familiar Magic

June 23, 2003

Yoshi,

It was a pleasure speaking to you at your orientation session earlier this month. I hope that you have recovered well from the incident that occurred during the placement testing. Such mental shocks are not uncommon when a student first attempts mental contact with his Familiar. Dragons are particularly strong-willed creatures, and your dragon Ryuki seems more mentally active than most. So you should not feel shame over what happened. Professor Tanaka tells me that he was quite impressed with the way you calmed Ryuki before you succumbed to catatonia, especially considering that the beast had set your shoes on fire.

In fact, it is your placement tests that I am writing to you about today. Professor Tanaka feels, and I am inclined to agree with him, that the first-year exercises would be a waste of your time. So, based on your TAA scores, the high marks you received on your general placement tests, and Professor Tanaka’s impressive evaluation of your skills at Familiar Empathy, we have decided to advance you to sophomore status. Congratulations.

Such quick advancement can be a bit intimidating to a new student, I realize, but we feel that you have the skill and aptitude to handle the work. To help you along that path, you will be required to report to the Institute campus one week early, so that you can receive whatever first-year orientation and instruction is necessary for you to function as a successful second-year student. Once the semester proper begins, Professor Tanaka will introduce you to your fellow students in the sophomore Familiars class. Since junior instructors handle the first-year classes, the rest of your class will be working with Tanaka for the first time as well. Hopefully, this will put you all on an even footing. Tanaka believes so, and I trust his judgment implicitly.

Until the term begins, then, remember the school motto: Knowledge, Righteousness, Order, Magic, Might. Or, as the students say when they think I cannot hear...

KROMM!

Sincerely,

Jun Miyazaki

Headmaster
Miyazaki Institute of Practical and Familiar Magic