Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Prologue

Momo blinked her eyes slowly. She felt extremely fog-headed…she must have been asleep for a long time. She tried to sit up.

"You're awake?"

Momo managed to keep her upper body erect and turned to the speaker. "Shiro-chan…" she murmured.

Hitsugaya 'Shiro-chan' Tôshirô sat in a chair next to the bed Momo was currently occupying. He leaned back against the desk next to her bed hardly looking at her, his arms folded. He was just as he always was…his disheveled snow-white hair, ice-blue eyes, and tiny body, roughly ten-to-twelve years old in appearance, dressed in his shihakushô, sleeveless haori, and the white scarf he'd been favoring lately.

Momo glanced around, and considered her own position. She was dressed in a simple white kimono, the garb usually prepared for guests of the 4th Division, the Seireitei's hospital unit. Her long black hair was unbound, falling just past her shoulders. The room, the furnishings, the bed, the feel of the atmosphere…it had been years, but long ago she had far too frequently been a guest of the 4th Division's 'relief station'. "I'm…back in the Seireitei?" she mused aloud.

"That's right. A magic portal suddenly opened in the sky and dropped something into the Rukon district. We hurried out to investigate and found that it was you. You were unconscious…up until now."

"How long…have I been out?" she asked, concerned.

"Only a day and a half. You weren't terribly wounded…but obviously the fight you were involved in, and the travel you were subjected to, took their toll on you."

"The fight…that's right!" she suddenly exclaimed. "W-what about…Mai? Kagome? Kain? What happened to the rest of them!?"

"We don't know," Tôshirô sighed. "We know very little, really…."

"Just what the rest of the humans are saying," said another Soul Reaper as he entered with a sigh. "It's not good, in any case."

"Hirako-taichô…." Momo's current captain, Shinji Hirako, was tall, with his blond hair kept at a medium-length diagonal bowl-cut. Considering that his large, almost piano-like teeth gave him a unique appearance, he never tried to keep his hairstyle too normal, either. He was dressed as a standard Soul Reaper captain, including the long-sleeved haori.

"Unohana-san would probably insist that you need your rest before we show you anything like this," Shinji continued as he walked up to a TV high on the wall opposite Momo's bed, waving a cassette in his hand. "But I think you'd probably want to know." He inserted the video into the slot underneath the screen, and soon it flashed to life. Momo's eyes opened wide in horror as she began to watch the altered footage of the collapse of the Gateports, and of the 'fugitives' Randis Helam and his associates…amongst which was herself.

"That's not true at all!" she burst out. "We were attacked…by the Obsidian Star!" She gripped the blanket tightly in her hands as she tried to control her indignation. "They must be doing it again…just like before…."

"Take it easy," Tôshirô said with a sigh of his own. "We thought you should know, since you obviously wouldn't be able to rest if we kept it from you. Right now, we know nothing else about them…they disappeared after this incident. Of course, we don't believe any of these reports, but right now, there's not much we can do about it."

Momo thought for a moment, still with a death grip on her covering. "Where are my things?" she finally demanded.

"Things?" Shinji queried with an odd smile. "Not zanpaku-tô? Well, your uniform and blade are over on that table." Shinji pointed; sure enough, there were her usual possessions, the black robes folded nicely and her sheathed sword resting on top of them. "However…what you're probably thinking about is this, right?" He held up Momo's card with a wide grin.

"Ah! H-Hirako-taichô, that's mine! Give it back!" she pleaded fiercely.

Shinji did so. "So…you made a contract with his kid, huh? It's not something you mentioned in any of your reports…or your letters, right?" he continued, casting a sly look at Tôshirô, who merely scowled as he looked away. "Amazing that a shinigami could do that with a human. We haven't told Mayuri about it yet, and that's probably a good thing, because imagine how he'd like to study such a phenomenon…."

Momo, ignoring him, stared at her card. She began to raise it to her forehead. "Trying to contact him with it?" Shinji asked. "I doubt it will work…we're between worlds, after all…."

Momo slowly lowered the card. "I know," she whispered. "But…I've got to do something…." She shook her head. "We were…attacked at the Gateport…by the Obsidian Star. They were as powerful as I remember…they completely overcame us. Then Tear Grants used the gate's magic to send us all away…probably to safety, but…who knows what's happened to everyone else? We even had some of our classmates there who snuck in, who know nothing of the magical world. They could all be in grave danger…and Kain…he was mortally wounded…."

"There's nothing you can do right now," said the captain of 4th Division, Retsu Unohana, as she entered the room. She smiled kindly at the girl. "You still need to finish resting up. We're the Soul Society…we do not involve ourselves in ordinary mortal affairs. We can send out a few scouts, but that's the best we can do…and worrying about it will not help in any way, but only hinder your recovery. And now, gentlemen," she continued, giving her deadly, sweet smile to Tôshirô and Shinji in turn, "dear Hinamori-san needs her proper rest, so she should not be further bothered, hmm? I can inform you when she has proper visiting hours…."

"Y-yes, ma'am," Shinji muttered as he and his fellow captain excused themselves.

Momo sighed and stared out the window. Retsu smiled comfortingly at her, and laid a hand on her arm, causing her to look up in surprise. "There's nothing to be worried about," she informed the younger Soul Reaper. "If he is that man's son, he'll make it through this…and the son of Kalan Lockeheart would certainly be able to find a way to save everyone, right?"

Momo stared, then smiled slightly. "Yes…you're right, of course. Thank you, Unohana-taichô…."

Of course…of course he will…but I should be out there, helping…I owe it to him…to all of them….

8-8-8

Author's Note: Soul Society

We begin this Part by showing Momo's situation. She's not going to be involved in too many adventures for a while, so we'll show her often in these prologues as she recovers and starts prepping Soul Society…and I can't say more. We'll finally get to see a bit about Soul Society and its relationship with Kalan from her perspective….

I decided that dropping her here was the best course of action for her. Most of the time, of course, she takes the place of the swordswoman Setsuna Sakurazaki. The winged girl was originally paired up with Asuna during their travels…which was good, because it helped them 'complete' their friendship and relationship, as Asuna and Setsuna were originally only strangers (Setsuna kept herself aloof from most of the class, of course) and only had their separate friendships with Konoka tying them together…but after the Kyoto crisis and they fought together, they started training together and became closer and better friends over the course of the story. Of course, that isn't necessary here, since in my story I made Mai, Kagome and Momo, the equivalents of the aforementioned three, close friends and roommates already. As I will explain in the author's notes when they appear, it fit better for me to pair Hinagiku up with Mai.

So, I decided to have Momo return to her roots. Later during my plans this proved ultimately fortuitous, as it allowed me to have a reason for Kagome's situation, which will be addressed in Part 9 here. There is a small hole in the logic of my plan's origin, but I have a counter-plan for that as well, and it will be explained when appropriate in the story. In any case, Momo returning to Soul Society and getting their reading on things…it just kind of fit. I intended (and suggested in all of Momo's backstory descriptions, both in-story and in my author's notes) that the Soul Society and Kalan's hijacking of Ichigo's adventure was an important part of his story, and so Soul Society has significance to the story…and having Momo present here will help to enhance that.

In any case, let's move on…beginning with the story of Lina Inverse….