The sound of a gun cocked.

"Next time you think twice about doubles crossing me." said a red headed young women. She paused for a bit then gave a groan, "Cut, cut, just cut. I'm sorry I am about to fall asleep here."

"CUT! CUT!" said another voice, this time louder and more defining. A man stepped down from a chair and started walking towards the center of the set, waving his arms to get everyone's attention, "Alright guys, great work today. Great work indeed. We got three full scenes done and where are halfway done with this one. It seems that Ms. Murakami is getting tired and let's be honest, we've worked pretty hard, so were done for the day OK? Everyone go home and get some rest, We start at nine tomorrow! I want to get the car driving scene then!"

Natsumi smiled at the director. He was an ambition person who did care for his crew and actors, just not enough to let them off the hook. She went to the changing rooms and change out of her spy uniform. In this role, Natsumi was playing the roll of spy agency's top spy but they decided to cut her off and kill her because she is too good. She knew that this was a cheesy role but she couldn't help it, acting out spies in spy movies was something that brought back memories of the old days in when in school with Negi sensei. Jumping into the spy roles was a way to pay a sort of homage to her pactio card and how they managed to save the magical world.

She walked outside, and was immediately meet with a wall of reporters fans and paparazzi that had become normal in her life as an esteemed actress now. She jumped back and closed the door immediately and let out a huge sigh. She took out her card and was about to activate it but stopped. She starred long and hard at her the pactio card with a mixture of emotions. It had come in handy as her popularity as an actress grew. Though she loved acting; she still was a bit shy and modest which made their constant bombarding of questions a hassle for her. She had used this to not only get away from fans and reporters but to escape the odd party every once and a while. However its handiness came at a price, giving her a pang of longing and sadness every time she looked or used it. Every time she used it she remembered the time she got it and his-

"NO!" she exclaimed to herself. She lightly slapped her face a couple time, "You are supposed to be moving on! Quit thinking about him! Adeat!" the card glowed brilliantly and was replaced by the half-mask. Now she didn't even need to hold it up, all she was place a finger on the mask and the small rode that was used to hold it up, wrapped around the back of her head and rested on her ear, looking like a true mask. She then turned, opened the door and stepped aside to let the unwanted attention storm in looking for her. Once most of then were inside she slipped out the door and began walking towards the car that was parked far from set.

As she opened the door and got in, the car revved to life and the driver asked, "Heading home for the night Ms Murakami?"

"Yes, if you please, Tonzan" she answered as she removed her mask. Tonzan was her chauffeur and he was probably the only one aside from her old class that new about her pactio card. He didn't know about the actual card but knew about her ability to not be seen when she wanted to. As magic was becoming more prominent in the world today, people have been introducing it into their daily live with slow acceptance. Tonzan was one of the people that always new something was off and had been some of the first to accept magic into their lives. He eventually came to the conclusion that whenever Natsumi didn't want to be seen she just did something and become invisible. He had then been able to tell when Natsumi entered the car when ever the door opened and the small moving of the car.

The drive home wasn't long and Natsumi almost dozed off in the run time. She was starring out of the window watching the lights of the city go by, then the light of small town then almost none at all. Natsumi had decided to choose a place to live that was very hard to get too for to main reason; the first was so that she could not be bothered by intruders or other such fans, the second was because it was closer to Mahora than she would like to admit. She didn't know why but entirely leaving the place felt like she was cutting all ties from there and she really didn't want to.

She felt the car slow down and she finally focused on her house. The car stopped and Tonzan lifted his hat in a salutary 'goodbye' saying, "See you tomorrow Ms Murakami."

"See you tomorrow Tonzan. Please pick me up at around eight." She said stepping out of the car. He nodded and let her walk to the door before leaving. She heard the car leaving as she opened the door and gave one last look back. She stepped inside, hit the lights and took her jacket and high heels off. Her house wasn't terribly big like others in her field of work but it wasn't a small hobble either. With four bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms, it was quite roomy for one person alone which was sad because she did live alone. Natsumi sighed as she she walked over to her fridge and looked for a small snack before she went to bed. There wasn't much; some left over soup from a very fancy French restaurant, some small cakes that she was sent for her work in another movie, milk, some champagne and some fruits.

Taking the milk out, she got a bowl and filled it with some cereal and milk. She didn't have a large bowl but it did take her a while to finish, her exhaustion making it harder for her to work at normal speeds. Once she finished she put the bowl and spoon in the sink, went to her bedroom and hit the answering machine. The answering machine took a couple seconds to wake up but began to recount all of her messages that she had missed that day. As this was going on she was getting undressed to get into bed, not really paying attention to the messages that she was left as a lot of them were just her agent telling her about roles that she had picked up and wanted Natsumi to look at next time she came in. After about the seventh message from her agent she fell down on her bed, ready to fall asleep. She turned her head and picked up a picture that stood on her night-stand.

It was quite an old picture, but she cherished this one the most of all of her pictures. It was a picture of her roommates when she went to Mahora Academy. Chizuru and Natsumi were both smiling at the camera while he was having a stare down with Ayaka. She smiled a bit a the memory of having to organize that particular photo shoot.

Upon seeing Kotarou face again, memories slowly began resurfacing. She remember the time they spent together in the Magical World and their time in the normal one. She remembered the feeling of loss when he suddenly disappeared the day after her graduation with a note that only read, 'I am not strong enough yet. I will be back someday. Don't worry. Its 'Ninja Training!'. She remembered how she had decided to hunt him down and force him home and how long it took to find him. It had taken her close to 10 months to find him again and he was probably in the worse situation she could have intruded on. Apparently, at the time Negi's plan was introduced, there was quite a large portion of the magical populous that didn't believe that Negi's plan would work and had begun to actively attempting stop it. Kotarou had been there and through some dealing with some sort of magical entity Kotarou had manged to save her and Negi's plan single-handedly. After that he hand left another note only saying 'Ninja training!' and promptly disappeared. After this she returned home and started on her acting career, only after Chizuru managed to help her out of her little depressive state. Then as she was about to place the photo back, a familiar voice came from the machine and Natsumi perked up.

"Hello Natsumi-chan. Its Chizuru, I am sorry I wasn't able to pick up your call earlier but the kids were becoming quite a handful. Anyway I just got back from a chat with Ayaka-chan and we decided that, because she is having a week off from work that we should get together and go somewhere nice. We figured we could have an old room mate meet up! Won't that be fun? Well, please call back sometime tomorrow when I am off work and we can make up a time where we can meet!"

Natsumi smiled as she placed the photo back on the nightstand. She had always kept in touch with her former classmates but being an actress that has won an Emmy and was nominated for two, it was hard to get around without the usual crowd following her. She thought about seeing her old roommates again and thought maybe the could take a small trip to the Bahamas or maybe even New York city. They could all rent a room together and they could all hang out, talk about their romance lives and Kotarou would get all embarrassed about something... She sighed and said out loud to herself, "You really can't forget him can you?" before finally managing to fall to sleep.

(line)

A young man was lying on top of a bus that was driving to the Mahora area. He didn't have any money so he had decided to the smart thing and hitch the ride anyway. He closed his eyes as he left the drive calm him down and rest a bit from the travel back. He smiled to himself as he remembered where he was going and thought about all the people that he had unintentionally left behind. He had a hard time getting back to Mahora especially because the elevator was still having some trouble and he had to go through the door in Russia which didn't end up well as he had to take down a small magical Russian gang that had taken to 'tax' use of the door. After that he had to run all the way from the middle of Russia to China and then manage to hoop on a ship that would take him to Japan. He sighed at his troubles just to get here.

"The things I do to get home." Kotarou said to no one in particular, taking in another deep breath through his nose.

He got up from the roof of the bus and jumped off as it was driving by one of his old favorite spot to nap when skipping school. His ragged cloak billowed in the wind and flapped widely, threatening to tear when he landed. Kotarou looked at the cloak with a little disappointment. It was the same cloak that he had gotten the time he had got to the magical world with Negi and the gang. He knew it was old, should be almost 7 or 8 years old, but when he bought it came with a self repair enchantment that was supposed to keep it from completely tearing.

"Chizuru-nee-san is going to be angry at me." he said with a smile. It was early morning and he decided that he wanted to see the sunrise and so began sprinting his old training spot. He ran through Mahora, passing students who turned to wonder who the boy was and familiar teacher who called out in anger at his absence. Eventually he reached the woods and he bent down and began to run on all fours, a bad habit he picked up when he made the deal with Delphi to unlock the full demon side of him. As he reached his old spot he stood up and breathed in long and hard through his nose, taking in the old familiar scent.

He stood tall in the clearing and watched then sun slowly rise from the mountains. He remembered the time he spent here training alone and then sometimes with Kaede. He remembered how he had created new techniques and mastered here. Then he remembered Natsumi who would bring him a snack to eat, and watch his training sessions occasionally intervening to tell of Kotarou for going at it too hard when he would fall do too exhaustion. He remembered the times where he was at first forced to go to her performances, and then growing to actually like them and start going to watch when they were having rehearsals just to see them without all the big flashy lights. He smiled at the memories, then he cringed as he remembered how she had not only managed to follow his trail but catch up to him and subsequently find him at the worst possible time she could have found him.

He stopped. He was thinking about her a lot more recently, and it wasn't for really good reasons, he would just start to thinking about her. He groaned out loud, was this what they called 'puberty'? He didn't really like. It came, interrupting training sessions and now instead of feeling indignant around girls he began to feel a little bit self-conscious ad wanted there attention. His tail began to wag almost without control which was terribly embarrassing. He wondered if Negi had gone through this yet. He would ask him next time he saw him, maybe Negi could help cause he was a lot more involved with girls before he ever was interested in them.

He looked back down at Mahora and yelled at the top of his lunges just for the sake of it "I'm home!"

Natsumi sat down, a little bit tired from her latest stunt. She decided to do her own stunts unlike many actors because it did help to keep in shape when she was to lazy or tired to go to the gym but also because another main reason; SHE HAD HELPED SAVE THE MAGICAL WORLD. There wasn't a stunt large enough that would ever make her think that she could never survive. Facing Fate and all those other evil magi had steeled her nerves so she found that stunt could never be that scary or dangerous. She found them fun and even enjoyable now and with the added bonus that her life and the fates of other weren't on the line, she never felt pressured to get them right on the first try. This stunt had involved her going from driving, to climbing on the roof of the car and then disarm a missile that was set to fly off a car and blow up a city. It was probably one of the more athletic stunts but she didn't mind as it was something that she could do.

Someone handed a bottle of water next to her and she took it and starting downing it. After a couple of mouth fulls of the water she turned to thank the one who had given it to her. It was one of the other actors from the shoot, Bolin Tenboe. He was a newly established actor and this was his first movie where he played a big role, he was supposed to be the main antagonist's lap dog in a sense. He did play the role well but Natsumi could tell he was looking for something more challenging. He smiled as he asked, "So, how was the stunt?"

"Oh you know, nothing to bad. How about you? Aren't your scenes not till this afternoon?"

"Yeah but the director wanted me here to keep the crowds at bay with the usual question and answers thing. But that not really why I am here."

"What's up then, looking for some advice?"

"I was going to ask that later along with a nice dinner if you wouldn't mind?" he said looking at her with a tentative smile. Natsumi could feel her cheeks slightly redden and she took another swing from the water bottle to attempt to hid it. This wasn't the first time she had been asked out, certainly not, but she did feel reserved about answering. It wasn't like she didn't like him, he was charming and funny at times but she couldn't help shake the feeling that this may be a publicity ploy which she really wouldn't mind getting into. The movie's sales would probably go up which would land both of them some much needed work but she did feel bad about agree to it. There was a nagging feeling in the back of her head that told something would happen today that would help her decided on what to do. In the end she decided to put the request in the pending status by saying, "Well, I wouldn't mind giving you some pointers over dinner in a nice restaurant but how about we finish this movie before I start relaxing ok?"

"No, no, of course. I can wait. No need to rush." He said, trying to not look too happy at this development. Natsumi then remembered that this wasn't what he was entirely here for, so asked "Now that's cleared up what was it that you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh Yeah, there is someone here for you. He says he knows you but he doesn't have any I.D or anything so we couldn't let him in but he has been causing a little of a ruckus, I was wondering if you could help out by sending him back or something."

"OK the. Let's get this over with. We have to shoot the next scene in ten minutes."

To say that Kotarou was surprised was an understatement. He decided to find Natsumi cause she was probably the one who was most angry with him and he figured that he should apologize to her first. To do this he had sent small dog spirits to go see if they could at least pick up on her most recent scent as he decided to walk around Mahora and see the changes that had happened. Not only was he surprised by the changes that had happened around Mahora but by what he had found. At the moment he was starring at a poster that sported some familiar faces. To be exact, one familiar face.

"When did this happen?" he said to himself aloud. He didn't realized how loud he had said it until he looked around saw many people starring at him with a little bit of surprise. He made an apologetic face and returned to the poster in front of him. It read 'Cutting Ties', 'A spy's story of vengeance'. The title sounded OK but that wasn't what was making Kotarou stare at with a sense of incredulity. Who was the face of the spy that was taking revenge on the agency or whatever the movie was about? Natsumi Murakami. What was she doing on the poster of a cheap movie?

He decided that because she was now some sort of movie star, he had to at least get her a gift. It would be rude to walk up to her now and say 'hi' and expect her to forgive him without at least giving her a gift. He thought hard about what to get her but nothing really came up, then he remembered that he didn't have any money on him. He had only a tattered cloak and some really tattered pants that only had one working pocket. He didn't want to steal a present for her because then he would probably have to stay in jail for a while which she would be even angrier about.

"My stash!" He exclaimed again, this time louder than before. He used shundo to jump to secret spot that he only knew about and where he had hidden money for occasion such as these. OK not really like this but a situation when he needed money and didn't have any. In around a minute he was back at his old training spot and was looking for a large rock. Once he found it he smiled. It was in the same spot as where he left it.

The rock didn't look special, it looked like any old rock but there was something special about it. If you looked at it the right way you could see that it was covering a hole. However even if you role the rock over, you wouldn't find the hole because it was a actual attached to another rock that was in the hole. So rolling it to any side would just make the smaller attached rock move up to cover the hole. The way to do was to lift it and that's what Kotarou did. It didn't take much effort before, but now he could life it up with one hand. In the hole there was a small metal nurse kit that he had swiped a while ago, and he hefted it up with pride. Inside the box was around 50,000 yen and some medicinal herbs and magical items. He took the money and decided to check to see of the herbs and magical items hadn't gone past there expatriation date. They were. In there he also found his Pactio card that he had made with Natsumi, he smiled as he looked at and said out loud, "So that's where it was!"

Kotarou thought long and hard about what to get for Natsumi as he went back into town. He couldn't get anything to expansive because of his limitations but he could at least get her something nice right? He knew he couldn't get a necklace or anything really pretty because she is a movie star now, she can get that kinda stuff whenever she wanted to. Then he remembered something at Chizuru said once about apologizing and forgiveness on behalf to girls, 'They love flowers, chocolates and heartfelt words.' Kotarou thought about what she said and decided that he would abide by her words. Once he arrived into town he had a good idea on the thing things he needed to get for his apology. He went to three separate shops but he eventually came out with what he needed. His apology attack plan was in motion.

Natsumi couldn't believe what she was seeing. Kotarou was standing there in the midst of quite of few stage hands who looked like they were ready for a fight with two bodyguards already on the floor unconscious. He looked a lot older than what she remembered, he was just as tall as her now, maybe taller, and he didn't seem to have care for personal hygiene in months as his hairs was tangled, matted, dirty and went all the way down to the waist. He was only wearing a large cloak that looked as if it wouldn't last any longer than a day and a pair of cargo pants that had more holes that pockets. He was holding something that she couldn't see as it was under the parts of the cloak that was still intact. He was standing there impatiently and trying to look past the large crowd of stage crews that were attempting to stop him.

Her hands slowly climbed upwards to cover her mouth that was turning into an almost elated smile as her eyes began to water. She couldn't believe that he was here. Her prince charming had returned... after about 7 years! She knew that she should be happy about seeing him alive again, but she couldn't get over the fact that he didn't call, send a letter, email or try to contact her in any way for SEVEN years. She was furious with him and she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

"KOTAROU-KUN" she yelled in his direction. The crowds turned to her and she can see Kotarou's face brighten and turned into a smile. Upon seeing this her heart did a little triumphant flip, sending a warm feeling all over her but she stopped herself from succumbing to it. She isn't going to have any of it. She takes out her pactio card and yells out, "ADEAT!" at this everyone gasped and Kotarou's gleeful smile turned into a confused lool with minor trepidation. As she put the mask on she briskly walked over to him. She disappeared around around 8 feet before reaching Kotarou and as she got close, Kotarou was wondering where she had gone. She got up to him as he was bringing his head up to try to smell her, she brought her arm back and gave him a big punch in the guts. He felt the pain but didn't keel over as she had hoped, instead it looked as though he was just hit by somewhat strong breeze as he only took a step back. Natsumi on the other hand felt as though she had just struck a steel door. Instead of using her first she resolved to just beating on him with object instead. She yelled at the mask, "Voco Sino". This was something she learned to do thanks to Yue when she wanted to know more about her artifact. It turns out that there were certain key words that would make it do certain things; the one she just uttered allowed her voice to be heard as if she was talking directly into the ears of anyone with a 100 yard radius, there were others but this would do for now.

"You idiot!" she yelled as she grabbed a large piece of plywood from a small pile,"You have the gal to come back to me after 7 and half years with nothing to say for yourself!" She brought the piece of plywood high and swung it down with all her might. The wood broke as it connected with his back and Kotarou grimaced with surprise as the pain hit him. She then ran and grabbed glass bottle of champagne that someone had decided to keep in the cooler and ran back to strike him with it, saying "You leave me a week after graduation with a note that says your off 'NINJA TRAINING'!" She went and grabbed a boom mic from an unsuspecting stage hand. She bent it over his leg while screaming, "Even after I go through all the trouble of finding you again, you leave me with the same damn answer! 'NINJA TRAINING'!".

She had started hitting him again instead of trying to find things to beat him with as they were running thin, all while saying, "I was worried about you! You go off doing your own thing and god forbid you at least call us back to tells us you're OK and that you miss us! But no, you have to be all self righteous and chivalrous and go off to train or 7 god damn years! Leaving me behind with only a memory! I can't believe you! What was going through your head you dirty dog! I missed you so much! You have no idea what has been going on with us! You have no idea how long I spent morning you after you decided to just up and leave! WHY DIDN'T YOU AT LEAST SEND ME SOMETHING TO KNOW IF YOU WERE ALRIGHT?" As the rant continued her punches and kicks became less violent and more like sad slaps. After a bit more slaps she took a deep breath, removed the mask and yelled at him again with her anger back, "Now you are going to get yourself cleaned up and we are going to discus your bad behavior and what happened over the diner tonight! Got it!"

Kotarou looked a bit flustered as he nodded vehemently at Natsumi, obviously hoping to get back on her good side. She gave him another glare before she grabbed him by the ears and dragged him towards her car. She threw him inside and shut the door on him as she then went up to Tonzan in the driver's seat and said "Tonzan, this man needs to be cleaned up and given some decent clothes, please take him a decent place to get him cleaned up and then get him a suit. I will pay for all of it. Make sure they do it thoroughly. Once done, drop him off at my place and come back to pick me up at around 5." Tonzan nodded and the engine roared to life and the car went off. She starred at the car thinking about the boy she had just thrown in there. Her eyes began to water as the happiness that had originally surfaced when she saw him again began to come back. Then she turned and ran towards her trailer to which she slammed the door behind her and picked up her phone, and dialed in a number. It rang a couple times before the other line picked up, "Hello, Natsumi is that you? Listen, I'm not really free right now but-"

"Chizuru-nee about the little get together!" Natsumi interrupted wanting to make sure she could at least divulge the surprise to the others who would have at least missed Kotarou a little bit.

"Y-yes?!" she answered, startled. Chizuru couldn't remember the last time Natsumi had this strange drive about her. It was something that she was happy about but still made her jumpy.

"Can I bring a friend?"

"Um- I don't see why not, but can we get his or her name. I mean we should at least know who-"

"Alright thank you! See you when? Monday? I think I can get out Monday. We should be done with shooting then. OK! See you Monday!" Natsumi said hastily and hung up the phone. She slumped down on the door and slide the way down, smiling with glee the entire one the way down. She looked at her masked and said "Abeat" and watched glow then become a card again. She kissed the card and gave small laugh of glee.

"He came back!"

Authour's notes.

Hey everybody. This is just me here making a small little story that I had always had in mind. I always felt that this is what the author of Negima had in mind when he wrote that she hit him several times from a blind spot. Anyway, I decided to get the idea out of my head. I actually have a small Idea of what the dinner might be like but i don't know if I should put it down now because I can see this be a nice ending. I could give you guys the dinner if you guys want but its up to you guys.

If you guys are wondering about the 'prince' part it was covered in a Negima!? Neo chapter. I don't think you can find the chapter online though cause I remember it being in Barns and Nobles but thats for those who are confused.

Anyway hope you liked it.