Disclaimer: No Saki does not belong to me. I am just borrowing Ritz-sensei characters because I'm horribly bored waiting for Teru next week. Hopefully, she'll say something other than ron, pon, chi and tsumo. If not hope, I hope the members of Shiraitodai will have some interaction or lines.

Prologue

"Very pretty!" said Gandalf. "But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone."

"I should think so-in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and I have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them," said our Mr Baggins -

Miyanaga Saki stopped reading - a sakura petal had fallen on the book. Looking up, she saw many more petals falling toward the ground. As her eyes tracked the petals dancing with the wind, she become aware of her surroundings.

The sun has reached the zenith of its climb and is now showering the grassy fields with its bright light. A nearby river is singing merrily as it passes by the bridge. She could feel the tell tale touch of the breeze beginning to pick up.

Saki wondered if this is what the Shire looked like at the morning of Gandalf and Bilbo's meeting. The flow of the world peaceful with a tang of excitement in the air, as the land waits for the main actors to enter the stage. Now, the question is when will Gandalf and Bilbo arrive?

Or are they already here just waiting to meet? Perhaps even, she was unwittingly playing as one of them?

As the absurd thought crossed her mind, Saki almost laughed. The thought of her as a main character in an epic fantasy filled her with amusement. If there is one thing, she was sure that will not happen it's that. The spring air was probably making her see patterns, which is not there – after all spring is the season of beginnings.

Brushing the petal and her wild musing away, Saki prepared to go back to reading when a movement by the other side of the bridge caught her attention.

A girl was crossing the bridge, which is ordinary enough, but this girl was anything but ordinary – she is simply too beautiful. With lustrous locks of pink hair, a creamy white complexion and one of the most well endowed chest Saki has ever seen, the girl is a treat to the eyes. However, it was not the girl's physical features that astounded Saki.

What astounded her was the girl's aura. It gave the feeling that everything is all right in the world. The sun will always go up every morning and set every afternoon without fail. Every rock you throw will fall down. Such a strong and comforting presence … Saki almost stretched her own aura to touch …

Saki's own aura was only a hair breath away from the girl's, when stranger deigned to look at her direction which effectively snapped Saki back to reality. Realizing her staring toward the girl was a gross breach of conduct, Saki immediately grabbed the book sitting on her lap and used it to cover her face. Then, she pretended to read, flipping the pages here and there.

Luckily, the girl did notice anything amiss and calmly walked toward her destination.

"Pweww... " Saki exhaled, the moment the girl was safely out of sight immediately dropping the pretense, her mind zeroing on the mysterious girl.

"Who is she?" Saki thought to herself. She was wearing the same uniform so she must also be a freshman. Though, she must not be on the same class as Saki or else she would have noticed her before. Still,the mysterious girl must also be a freshman so it would be easy to meet her and then…

Saki's thoughts grounded to a halt and her excitement dropped. After meeting the mysterious girl, what then?

She cannot imagine an approach wherein she does not sound like a crazy stalker. How will she introduce herself?

Hello, you are one of the most beautiful person I have ever seen and I just want to meet you.

Saki could only imagine the girl's reaction if she ever said that. Saki and the girl will most likely die of embarrassment if that happens.

Besides, the girl probably has not noticed her at all. Someone sitting besides the riverbank reading does not leave a lasting impression. It is a perfectly normal thing to do. And that is what Saki is - normal and average which is exactly the way she likes it.

Calmed down, Saki once again looked at the book that she was supposed to be reading and remembered her earlier musings. It really seemed like fate has a wicked sense of humor. One moment she was musing about the current scenery seems to be fitting for a fantasy series then she sees a mysterious girl that would be at home in it. Chuckling to herself, she wondered if the mysterious girl would be the one playing the wise old wizard?

If that is the case, the only one that was missing will be Bilbo. Bilbo comfortable in his hole who was about to have his world turned upside-down. She suddenly felt a great kinship for the old hobbit, dragged out of his life just because he said good morning to the aged wizard. She wondered if it would be better for Bilbo if the fateful meeting have never taken place. It certainly would lessen the old hobbit's future suffering for sure. In any case, she certainly won't be making that mistake, fate would have to find another Bilbo or try harder.

Glad to have made a resolution, Saki would have began reading when a masculine voice called out from behind her.

"Saki!"

Turning around Saki watched a boy with blond hair ran toward her. It was Suga Kyoutaro, her classmate from middle school.

"I finally found you." The boy panted out coming to rest under the shade of the tree.

After regaining his breath, he asked, "Why are you here? If someone had not seen you walking toward the bridge, I would have never known where to look."

Saki thought the answer was obvious.

"I was reading."

"Why go here and not the library?" The boy undeterred by the excuse.

Saki considered the question. Logically the library should be the perfect place to read except for one glaring problem – the library of Kiyosumi High was filled with students. It seemed that the students of Kiyosumi High were the diligent sort which is to be expected considering the grade required to enter and the academic curriculum enforced. Though, it's not rowdy or anything, in fact the library was quiet and peaceful… its just…

"… uncomfortable for me in the library." Saki answered.

Hearing that answer, Kyoutaro just sighed.

"Kyou-chan, do you want something?", The bookworm wanting to end this line of discussion asked her friend.

"Let's go to the cafeteria," the boy unexpectedly said.

Saki was confused was there something important happening in the cafeteria.

"Cafeteria? Why?"

"The ladies' lunch menu at the cafeteria looked specially tasty today." Kyou-chan said with a big grin and a thumbs-up to Saki.

And here she was thinking it was something serious. Its now Saki's turn to sigh. That was why Kyou-chan looked for her? Saki was about to say no when she noticed how much her friend is sweating and how he was leaning on the tree. He must have scoured the whole school looking for her…

"Let's go to the cafeteria", Saki weakly grumbled.

Carrying her friends ladies' lunch special, our bookworm was beginning to get annoyed. There are so many students in the cafeteria and she was having a hard time looking for Kyou-chan. She cannot distinguish his transparent aura in this mess. Worse yet, packed in close quarters the auras of each student mingled with each other giving her a mild headache.

"Here!" Kyou-chan waved as she directed her to their table.

Relieved to have spotted her friend, Saki hurried to the table. Then, she proceeded to dump the tray with a heavy thud.

"Here's your ladies' lunch."

"Thank you ~."

"I can't believe you only asked me to come to the cafeteria to order this for you."

"But the ladies' lunch looked tasty today." Kyou-chan enthusiastically dug in

Looking at her unrepentant friend who was happily eating his food Saki felt her irritation melt away.

" Kyou-chan, don't use me like that," Saki said without any real heat in her voice as she took her seat on the table.

Whether her friend heard her was to be debated as Kyou-chan practically inhaled the food. Saki watched in amazement as the boy swallowed one bite after another without needing to chew.

"You are really hungry huh?" Saki asked after Kyou-chan has swallowed the last bite.

"Yeah, I haven't eaten breakfast yet and someone decided they need to read in a weird location".

"I didn't know you're going to look for me," Saki defended. "Besides, I haven't seen you for weeks now. You said you found the girl of your dreams and you're planning to confess."

At the question, Kyou-chan got a blissful look on his face. Making a weird laugh, he said, "Yup I found a treasure trove of beauties ku ku ku …"

Hearing that laugh, Saki knew that her friend was on la la la land again. Sighing once again, Saki poked him a bit to bring him back to reality.

"Have you confessed yet?" Saki asked gently knowing Kyou-chan's track record with the opposite sex.

"No, but I have found a perfect way to make her like me."

Kyou-chan with his eyes, flashing declared. "I'm learning mahjong."

"Oh?"

Kyou-chan deflated a bit from Saki's weak response, "You know I'm expecting you to be more excited."

"But, everyone learns about mahjong during high school. One of the subject that we were taking now is Mahjong 101 isn't it?"

"No! No! No!" the boy emphatically declared. "What I'm talking about isn't theoretical mahjong; I'm talking about the practical side. You know manipulations of energy and real life battles, the ones we saw in TV?"

"Here, I'll give you a demonstration," her friend, said. To an outside observer, Kyoutaro just closed his eyes for an instant. However, Saki can feel him tapping to the flow of energy and gathering it to his fist.

"Alright, here it goes." Kyoutaro raised his fist up in the air.

On the other hand, Saki was paralyzed.

A red haired girl raised her fist on the air causing a vortex of air and energy to swirl in the atmosphere. With one swift motion the red haired girl punched in Saki's direction causing the vortex to move into Saki's direction.

A loud smack rang into the air.

The table proved itself stronger than Kyou-chan's fist.

"Ouch! ," the boy yelped cradling his throbbing hand.

Saki released the energy that she was instinctively gathering with a sigh of relief. What was she thinking Kyou-chan isn't her sister there was no need to actively prepare a defensive array against him...

The boy oblivious to her thoughts was ranting, " Owie.. my hand... What did I do wrong, I'm pretty sure I finally managed to remember all the yaku so the energy pattern should be right…"

Feeling guilty about her aborted course of action, Saki tried to reassure her friend, "You didn't do anything wrong. You had the correct form - the mana here is just a bit scarce and wilder compared to a proper battleground so you weren't able to gather enough and mold it properly. To be able to gather mana in an ordinary place one must put ten times more effort and time. "

Finished explaining, Saki was surprised to see Kyou-chan watching her closely.
After a few unnerving moments the boy finally asked, "You know mahjong?"

Saki realized she have said too much. True, they were studying mahjong at school now; however, as first years it was just basic memorization of terms and history. Practical mahjong comes after they have covered that and what she just spouted was advanced theory on how to do mahjong without proper equipment.

There is no use crying over spilled milk though, her friend deserved an answer.

"I can do mahjong. But, my result on the potential test was pretty average."

Saki hoped that what she said was discouraging enough that Kyou-chan would drop this line of discussion. She was confused when the boy eyes glinted at her answer.

"You tend to be average at everything, Saki. But, I guess you're better than nobody at all… why don't you come with me to the mahjong club?"

"Ehh? Why? I'm no good at mahjong."

"We don't have enough members so please come just for today." Kyou-chan put on a pleading impression.

Saki was about to say no when she recalled Kyou-chan expression when he mentioned the mahjong club. He looked happy. How curious, she never thought using mahjong can give anyone happiness quite the opposite in fact.

Besides, it would not hurt to check out the mahjong club if there was any sort of danger to it. After all, Kyou-chan was one of the few people that are close to her.

"Just for today."

Author Notes:

Have you guys wondered what will happen if all those special effects we saw in canon is actually real? And when I meant real in the sense that they can affect reality itself. Well in this story it will be...

So what that does this mean for everyone. Well, for one the monster players would have reality hacks.

For example:

Koromo's no tenpai ability will literally drown other people.

Toki will literally see a few seconds into the future.

And everyone will have rpg costume like the imaginary sequences in the original Saki.