New Releases by Atsushi

Kid has been freed from Noah''s greedy clutches, but The Book of Eibon remains at large. Noah was a troublesome foe, but the vast knowledge contained within the book could itself be dangerous - and information is not all that lies in its pages... Meanwhile, Crona has resurfaced in Moscow, his madness and Medusa''s maternal pressure having all but consumed the friend Maka once knew. The question is how many will be devoured by Crona''s madness before he can be stopped?!

The DWMA student body is still reeling after the news that one of their own is a witch. But as one young witch flees Death City, another has come back to DWMA hoping to strike a deal with Shinigami-sama. Medusa has already proven herself a traitor to the school, but the information she offers is critical to DWMA''s efforts to take down Arachnophobia and curb the spread of madness. Can Medusa be trusted to lead a team of students into the heart of enemy territory?!

Tsubaki and Black*Star set off on their most difficult mission yet: a battle with the Uncanny Sword Masamune, a soul on the brink of becoming a Kishin. But this fight holds personal significance for Tsubaki - their target is her older brother. Jealous of her inherited talents, Masamune is holding nothing back. Usually docile and complacent, Tsubaki must find the strength to overtake the Uncanny Sword before she too is sucked into the darkness.

Like the other members of the newly formed Spartoi unit, Maka and Soul undergo rigorous training, probing the boundaries of Soul''s hard-won new potential as a weapon. Maka''s soul perception ability has made her the enemy''s next target, and she and Soul will have to kick it up to a whole new level-and fast! Noah and his followers are coming, ready or not!!

Death the Kid and Black*Star race after Free and Eruka, ready to do whatever it takes to stop the Black Blood before it is used to revive the slumbering First Kishin. Meanwhile, Maka has allowed herself to slip into madness in an effort to reach Crona''s troubled soul. In addition to being horribly embarrassing, her actions carry a great risk. If Maka can''t find Crona fast, she too will be consumed by madness!

As Maka and a team of DWMA students slip into Baba Yaga Castle in the guise of Arachnophobian guards, Black*Star opts for his usual style of entrance: loud and without a trace of subtlety! But although Black*Star doesn''t seem to have changed much on the outside, inwardly he has at last found the way to harness the true power of the Uncanny Sword. And that means he''s ready to test his blade in a round three rematch against swordsman Mifune! Will Black*Star''s transformation be enough? Or will he once again find himself at the mercy of the great samurai?!

Arachnophobia has taken the offensive and spreads the Kishin''s madness throughout the world, using "BREW" to threaten anyone who stands in their way. In the wake of attacks at home and abroad, DWMA sends its top students to quell the madness and gather information wherever they can. But the madness is spreading much quicker and is stronger than they had anticipated. When confronted by an incarnation of the Kishin''s madness itself, will Maka and Soul fall victim to the sinister Clown''s manipulations?

While Black*Star and Tsubaki keep Mifune and Mosquito distracted, Sid is able to locate Arachnophobia''s demon tool and put an abrupt end to their sinister plans. But though the evil organization won''t be manipulating anyone''s morality anytime soon, the blueprints for the dangerous tool are sealed away in Shinigami-sama''s secret vault rather than destroyed. Surely Shinigami-sama would never think of constructing a demon tool himself?!

Shinigami-sama summons the strongest weapons from around the world to contain the rogue kishin and the spread of his madness. As these powerful weapons strategize for what will be the most difficult battle of their lives, the students of DWMA try to get back to their normal lives as best they can. For Maka, adjusting to the dangerous times is nothing compared to Crona''s struggle to adjust to life as a DWMA student!

The DWMA student body is still reeling after the news that one of their own is a witch. But as one young witch flees Death City, another has come back to DWMA hoping to strike a deal with Shinigami-sama. Medusa has already proven herself a traitor to the school, but the information she offers is critical to DWMA''s efforts to take down Arachnophobia and curb the spread of madness. Can Medusa be trusted to lead a team of students into the heart of enemy territory?!

As Kid struggles against the madness deep in the Book of Eibon, a group of Spartoi members race to rescue their friend. Through page after page of Lust, Gluttony, and Envy, the students must conquer the seduction of their own fears and desires to reach the final chapter! Will their efforts be enough to give this tale a happy ending?

In his madness, Death the Kid has embraced a new notion of "order": Only in nothingness can there be true balance and equilibrium. But for Black*Star, being on equal footing with anyone is not his style. Black*Star has always wanted to "transcend the gods"-now his only chance may be to overpower his shinigami friend and take Death down if he wants to save him...!

At Maka''s request, she and Soul meet with Doctor Stein for an intensive tutoring session. Although Stein warns that they may never be able to resonate again if they fail to complete the training, Maka insists, desperate to become stronger so that Soul is never hurt again. But Soul''s strange nightmares have made him reluctant to seek power, and his unwillingness to share his fears only frustrates his partner. With their soul wavelengths pulling apart, will Maka and Soul be able to come together when danger emerges on their next assignment?

On the night of DWMA''s anniversary celebration, every meister and weapon in Death City has gathered at the school for an evening of music and dancing. Little do they know that the witch Medusa is about the crash Shinigami-sama''s party. Trapping the meisters inside, the witch makes her way to the chamber where the First Kishin is imprisoned. Will the few meisters who''ve managed to escape be enough to prevent Medusa from rousing the madness that slumbers far below in the Kishin''s domain?

Crona''s loyalties are torn as Medusa regroups and plots to beat both DWMA and her sister, Arachne, in the arms race for Eibon''s demon tools. As the madness of the Kishin continues to spread, Maka, Black*Star, and Kid begin even more rigorous training to master their weapons and work together as a team. Will they be ready to face Arachnophobia in time for their next mission? Or will internal strife tear them apart?!

Deep in the belly of Baba Yaga Castle, Maka, Soul, and Medusa prepare to face Arachne in her own chambers. Arachne has grown even stronger since their last meeting, and even the crafty Medusa is caught in her sister''s twisted web. As Arachne''s intense madness threatens everyone in and around the castle, Soul must perform a string concerto that will move his audience to their very souls...or be caught in the witch''s net himself!

With Doctor Stein unable to carry on, Maka, Kid, and Black*Star enter the magnetic field to take up the mission and locate the tempestuous demon tool known as Brew. Time is quickly running out as the three face off against Mosquito, struggling to harmonize their wavelengths within the magnetized vortex. They''ll be lucky to escape with their lives, let alone the demon tool!

Ritual was a cradle of archaic philosophy in India. Mythological concepts were synthesized in the ritual context, and its results gave a new interpretation to the rituals themselves and to the life of man. The Agnihotra ritual is experienced differently by those who know what it is, and life is experienced differently by those who carry out the Agnihotra. A ritual presents us with a riddle which actually has no answer. What matters is not the intrinsic meaning, but the process in which the meaning is generated. It is true that ritual is pure activity without meaning or goal, but it is not meaningless in the sense that it generates riddles, and eventually meanings. This study is a philological study of the Vedic mythology, while also being a contribution to ritual studies. (Series: Nijmegen Buddhist and Asian Studies - Vol. 2)

How the complex interplay of academic, commercial, and military interests produced an intense period of scientific discovery and technological innovation in computing during the Cold War.

This book, based on extensive original research in previously unexplored sources, including the party archives, provides a great deal of new information on the disintegration of the Soviet communist party, in 1991 and the preceding years. It argues that, contrary to prevailing views, the party was reformable in late Soviet times, but that attempts to reform it failed: reforms succeeded in preventing the party interfering in the state body, and thereby abolished the party''s traditional administrative functions, but without creating an alternative power centre, and without transforming the party from a vanguard party into a parliamentary party. It demonstrates that the party, having ceased to offer career paths for aspiring party members, thereby lost its reason for existence, that an exodus of party members then followed, which in turn caused a financial crisis; and that this financial crisis, and the resulting engagement in commercial activity, fragmented and dispersed party property. It shows how the failed coup of 1991 was led by the military rather than the party, and how having lost its reason for existence and its property, the party had no choice but to accept the reality that it was de facto dead.

This volume deals with the sultanate of Banten from the outbreak of the rebellion of 1750-52 to the launching of the Cultivation System in 1830. After the suppression of the rebellion by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), local society showed considerable vitality. The introduction by the VOC of forced exploitation of the pepper cultivation did not lead to a significant increase in production, but enabled the local elites to augment their power. In the late 18th century Asian traders (many Bugis and Chinese) and English country traders integrated Banten and its Sumatran territory Lampung into a vibrant inter-regional trading network. This trade pattern, which involved the exchange of pepper and the maritime and forest products demanded by the China market for opium, contributed to the emergence of a new economic order in insular South-East Asia. This study shows how the the society of Banten was in a state of constant transformation in reaction to the Western presence and the shifts of the world economy during the period from 1750 to 1830.

This book describes baryon models constructed from quarks, mesons and chiral symmetry. The role of chiral symmetry and of quark model structure with SU(6) spin-flavor symmetry are discussed in detail, starting from a pedagogic introduction. Emphasis is placed on symmetry aspects of the theories. As an application, the chiral bag model is studied for nucleon structure, where important methods of theoretical physics, mostly related to the semiclassical approach for a system of strong interactions, are demonstrated. The text is more practical than formal; tools and ideas are explained in detail while solving actual problems. By checking each step of the computations, readers can learn not only the calculational techniques but also the essential ideas behind them.