Disclaimer:Natsumi Murakami andassociated characters of Mahou Sensei Negima are the property of Ken Akamatsu. Koremitsu is the property of fellow author Serac, creator of The Dreamer and Life in a Bottle hosted by FF.
- Eternal Longing
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Runaldi, Secretary of the Script, Being of the Ascended Chair, tapped her slim, crystalline fingers on a desk made of glass.
Her eyes of pure white stared intensely at the only other object in the otherwise empty room of white floor, white walls, and even whiter ceiling.
The clock was of a design from the world 11156032, oddly fitting considering the nature of the reason behind her patient waiting. The tenth hand struck the hundredth mark and ended its rotation with a click.
"It's time," Runaldi announced to the emptiness around her desk.
With a rush of sound as if the Being of the Ascended Chair was not motionless in her ten-legged chair carved of wood from the world 300023, the white floor, white wall, and white ceiling disappeared leaving a single square of light in its place. Everything disappeared, the glass desk, the ten-legged chair, everything except for Runaldi.
Silently, she floated in the absence of anything but thought and consciousness, staring intently at the square of light which slowly faded into something called a 'window' from world archetype 78211.
Within, a young boy sat upon nothingness, lounging as if he was not in danger of being devoured by the void.
Runaldi never did understand why the weak mortal hadn't just been dealt with in a more… physical way, but it wasn't her place to judge the Masterpiece of Heaven and Hell.
Like all the times before, he looked up as if he knew he was being watched, and said:
"What one promises does not always come true. What one hopes for does not always work out. Tell me what matters more, the wish or the reasons behind it?"
Natsumi and the Emerald Seed
"Natsumi-chan, are you done with the dishes yet?"
"Almost!"
Natsumi sighed as she worked diligently through the evenings dirty dishes and silverware. With a sponge, she slathered soap onto the plates, rinsed them thoroughly in the sink, and stacked them neatly on the side.
"I'm going out to find Ayaka-chan and Kotaro-kun. I'll be back later, will you be all right?"
"I'll be fine."
She hummed as she worked. It added a nice contrast to the monotony of dish-washing and almost drowned out the faucet's dim roar.
As she turned to stack another plate onto the growing pile, a gleam caught her eye. At first, she ignored it, but as it became more persistent, Natsumi dried her hands on a dish rag and started looking around. Soon, she had forgotten all about washing the dishes.
"From the window?" she asked the air.
Pressing her face against the kitchen window, she stared out into the night. Under a silver crescent, a sea of trees spread out into the horizon. With all the trees blocking her view, it took Natsumi several minutes to locate the tiny flash of light, and she only found it by chance: a small golden light covered by the boughs of two trees.
Natsumi glanced at the pile of half-washed dishes.
I won't take that long, she thought and then, without further thought, took her keys, opened the door into the dormitory'shallway, and closed it behind her.
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A cold wind blew outside, one which urged the trees to sway in a slow kind of dance, left, right, left, right.
Above, the sky became a portrait where twinkling lights shone through an endless sheet of dark blue.
Natsumi shivered as she walked through the forest, but not just from the cold: the night was deathly quiet.
"It was around here somewhere," she whispered aloud to fill up the emptiness. No sound answered her. Almost as an afterthought, she added, "I knew I should have brought my jacket…"
Her regret was soon forgotten however, when she ducked under a low-hanging branch. A bright light caught her off guard and she lifted a hand to shield her eyes, but though it helped to block the harsh glow, her hand also blocked her view.
With a cry of dismay, Natsumi tripped over a large root, waving her arms frantically in an attempt to regain her balance, but all she managed to do was to fall onto her back instead of her face.
By the time she pulled herself up into a sitting position, the light had gone, as quickly as it had come.
Natsumi warily got up. When nothing happened, she looked around, and there, on the ground, was a small golden object. Bending closer, she saw that it had the shape of a small oval, almost like a bean and, when she looked even closer, she found that it was in fact a bean, albeit a golden one.
Hesitantly, she reached down for it.
As her fingers touched the golden surface, another bright flash of light exploded into her eyes to her cry of surprise. Blinded, Natsumi lost her balance and fell onto her back yet again.
A crack split the air and she yelped again, this time in fright. Instinctually, she covered her head with her arms, hoping against all hope that it would be enough to protect her.
It didn't seem like her hope would turn into reality when a loud crash hit her ears and something cold pierced her. Natsumi stiffened involuntarily, tensing as if all the warmth of her body had been drained away by a needle.
"Help… somebody, help…" she whimpered, but only the silence answered her, and nothing happened.
Natsumi lay there in the complete quiet, shivering. Slowly, slowly, the warmth returned to her body. With warmth came a sort of courage that came from a well deep within that she hadn't even known existed.
So… slowly, slowly, Natsumi opened her eyes.
What she saw shook her to the core. On the ground a boy with hair that blended in with the long shadows of the moonlit trees lay sprawled, unmoving. Despite the strangeness of finding a boy in the middle of a forest, Natsumi's attention was completely focused on something else.
Behind the fallen boy existed something that broke all the rules of reality. A rift, a crack, hung quietly in the air. Within, there was nothing but darkness, nothing but a cold empty void.
A low groan came from the boy, but Natsumi did not hear it. The world disappeared.
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"Hey… Freckles, wake up. This is no place to fall asleep, what with all the people roaming around at night. Trust me when I tell you that you don't want to meet one of the more unsavory types of that lot."
Her bed felt like it was made of ice. A cold wind blew over her; she must have left the window open before she went to sleep. Shivering, she tried to pull the covers over her head but her hand wouldn't move.
"Still not awake? You must be a deep sleeper or something, Freckles."
"Five more minutes Chizu-nee…"
"Geez, you really are troublesome. Where do you think you are, in a warm hotel room? Well, you're not. You're sleeping on a bed of dirt with a pillow made of grass."
Natsumi rolled over and opened her eyes.
She stared. Green eyes stared back.
"Gyaaaah!" Natsumi exclaimed. She scrambled, frantically backing away from the unfamiliar face that had hung inches from her own. When she finally stopped, she was a good distance away, on her feet with a tree against her back. "Who-Who are you?"
The boy sprang up from his crouch, completely unperturbed, and bowed low, answering, "Koremitsu, Keeper of the Green Whatever-You-Call-It Bean, at your service."
Natsumi let the words sink in.
"Wait, what?"
"I said, Keeper of the Green…" he tried to repeat, but Natsumi cut him off.
"Please tell me you're not some sort of thief!"
The fact that he rolled his eyes at her didn't help her internal panic a tiny bit.
"All right," the boy answered easily, "I'm not."
"Thenwhat are you?"
"Oh, I don't know," he mused, placing his hands on his hips, "something related to attacking you and eating your soul? Oh, but my name really is Koremitsu. Kinda…"
Natsumi didn't reply. Instead, she slid down to the ground, limp.
"Hey, don't faint on me again Freckles!" the boy exclaimed in what Natsumi didn't feel like believing was genuine worry. After all, he sauntered over to her, sauntered!
At the base of the tree, Natsumi whimpered into her hands, "Don't call me that!"
"How about Mousey then?"
"That's even worse!" Natsumi cried, trying in vain to hide both her face and her hair with her arms.
"H-Hey, don't cry. I didn't mean it, honest!"
Her ears perked at that. There was something about the tone of his voice. She didn't want to believe it but the boy, strangely, seemed to be seriously concerned about her.
So, slowly, cautiously, she looked up and asked, "Do you really mean that?"
"Yes, absolutely! Please forgive me, stunning, beautiful lady, who is also whatever flatters you!"
"You're overdoing it a little," she frowned, but to her chagrin, a hesitant smile forced its way to her lips.
He waited eagerly, expecting her to say something more.
With a sigh, she muttered, "Yeah, yeah, I forgive you, whoever you really are."
"Oh, thank you," Koremitsu shouted to the heavens with all the fervor of someone who had just survived a harrowing encounter with death.
With a groan more for show than out of sincerity, she shook her head at the boy's antics and pushed herself off the ground… Or, to be more exact, she tried to push herself off the ground.
She groaned again, this time in frustration, sprawled on the ground and shut her eyes tiredly. Though she felt significantly better than when her knees had given way, her legs still refused to support her weight.
From behind her eyelids, Natsumi could sense the moonlight bathing the clearing in soft light, a gentle reminder of what time it was.
They're probably worrying frantically right now…
With a sigh, Natsumi opened her eyes, only to find a large shadow stopped only inches from her face.
"Huh?" she blinked and looked up.
With an outstretched hand, the boy stood smiling warmly down at her.
"Th-Thanks," Natsumi flushed. Taking the hand, she let herself be pulled up by the boy. Carefully, she stood fully upright, balanced, though her legs still felt numb.
"You're very much welcome, my lady," he beamed in reply.
He's not that bad after all, she thought with more than a little doubt, but took it as the truth. He's a little… different, maybe, but not that bad.
Pointedly, Natsumi ignored the voice that nagged at her. She didn't want to admit that she had probably jumped to conclusions and still knew nothing more about him than his name. Still, something deep within her urged her to trust him.
Of course, she didn't trust herself all that much at the moment, but she had to do something, start somewhere.
"So… uh, Koremitsu-san," Natsumi ventured cautiously. "Where are you from and uh… how did you get here?"
"Oh, well," he shrugged, "I've been around so many places, here and there, that I guess you could say I don't really have a home. As for how I got here, it must have been you."
"M-Me?" Natsumi stammered.
Didn't expect that.
"Yeah, I like to think that I exist to make pretty girls like you happy."
"Pretty?" Natsumi blushed. Quickly, she looked down at the ground to hide her face. "I'm not pretty… I have freckles, and messy hair, and I look like I'm still in middle school…" she muttered.
"Your freckles are charming and your hair doesn't look messy, it looks natural. As for looking like a middle school student, if you would kindly point me in the direction of said middle school, then I just might be able to die a happy man!"
Natsumi could only gape at him. It was all she could do to keep from slapping herself. How was it possible that someone could find turn every sentence a person said into blatant flattery?
Not that it was that bad a thing; she knew she wasn't cursed with bad looks, but to think Koremitsu still had all that much to say… It was shocking.
As if he hadn't said anything out of the ordinary – and it seemed to her that was exactly how he felt - he looked up at the sky and cupped his chin with a hand. "So, you still have this kind of school system in this world?" he mused as if pondering some hidden meaning in life, as if she wasn't right next to him.
Wait a minute, she frowned, wondering: What do you mean by, this world?
So she asked him what he meant, long convinced that though there was something abnormal about the boy, it wouldn't hurt to ask some questions.
To her immense disappointment and more than a little bit of anger, he didn't respond. Instead, he continued staring at the sky. Natsumi wasn't sure if he either hadn't heard her or didn't want to answer the question, but either way, she couldn't bring herself to ask again.
The silence that had settled between them was tranquil, peaceful even. A slow wind blew through the trees, rustling their leaves as if they were small wind chimes.
Far-off clouds danced to the soft song. They flowed across the sky, covering and uncovering the moon little by little so that the two youths were covered with a mosaic of light.
For some strange reason, Natsumi felt completely at peace. She was sure that she could have just sat down and fallen asleep if she so wished, despite the other boy's presence…
Suddenly, Natsumi's head snapped up from her chest. "Did I fall asleep?" she muttered to herself groggily.
"Ah, I guess it wouldn't hurt!"
The sudden words made Natsumi jump. Wildly, her head whipped around in search of the source.
Suddenly, her head froze in place, locked towards where two glowing emerald orbs stared at her from the forest. Fear froze her in her place.
"K-Koremitsu…?" she ventured, but whatever it was, it didn't respond.
It took a few seconds before Natsumi's eyes could pick out a pair of baggy cargo pants and a plain pine green t-shirt. It was indeed Koremitsu.
With a sigh of relief, she looked back up, back at the boy's eyes, and found them not as intimidating as before. Sure, they still glowed, but Natsumi thought it was a warm, bright, and vibrant sort of glow, but although she thought that way, she was still unnerved to be the subject of that stare.
"What," she growled, but he didn't answer; he didn't do anything other than stand there and stared at her.
She blushed, and thought, There's nothing on my face, right?
"What are you looking at?" she tried to say, but her voice broke midway. Instead of a complete sentence, what came out was a mangled "W-What… looking at…?"
Unexpectedly, the silence ended abruptly with a sudden bout of laughter.
"Hahahaha!" Koremitsu sniggered, trying to hold in his mirth in but failing miserably.
Certain that she was the subject of his laughter, Natsumi flushed. "What are you laughing at?" she demanded.
"You!" he cackled.
Natsumi flushed again, but this time out of anger. Her voice was devoid of all emotion when she glared, "And what's so funny about me?"
"You're just too cute, Freckles!" Koremitsu wiped his eyes. "Really now, isn't there a way for you to not rob me of my purpose in life? If you keep on blushing, I'm afraid I'm going to have to marry you!"
Natsumi's anger reverted immediately back to embarrassment.
"Hey, no need to hide it, Freckles," he grinned when she ducked her head under her arms. "Marrying you isn't that bad of a prospect after all."
"Why are you doing this to me?" she groaned.
Koremitsu crossed his arms and cocked his head. "Would you prefer I do something else to you?"
Stunned, Natsumi could only splutter, "You're a pervert!"
"Hey, it was an honest question!" Koremitsu defended himself.
Natsumi shook her head angrily. "There's nothing honest about that!" When the boy tried to reply, she spun around and ran through the trees.
And to think that I thought he wasn't such a bad person after all! Natsumi raged inwardly.
"Hey, wait…" Koremitsu called after her, but she was long gone. He stared at the empty clearing with a faint smile and looked to the sky for answers. "Now what am I going to do…?" he asked, but the sky held nothing but a watery rebuke.
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"Where were you?" the Authority demanded the moment Natsumi walked through the door.
"Class President…" Natsumi stammered. "I just took a walk and…"
Ayaka strode towards her, arms crossed with tightly controlled rage. "You've been gone for at least an hour, and haven't I told you to call me by my name a million times by now?"
"Y-Yeah, sorry," Natsumi hung her head.
It's kind of hard not to when you're in 'authority mode' though, she added silently.
"Ah, give Natsumi-nee-chan a break," Kotaro called from the living room. "She probably had a good reason."
Thank you, Kotaro-kun! Natsumi crowed inwardly as Ayaka strode back into the living room, standing just a little bit taller. The heiress had a habit of haughtily staring down her nose at others when she argued. It didn't help her victims that she was so tall.
Her happiness was short lived however as it met the edge of a butcher's knife when Kotaro added, "She just probably got lost somewhere and couldn't find her way back. My sister's hopeless if you haven't noticed by now."
Natsumi stomped into the kitchen, muttering under her breath, "I'm going to kill him one of these days…"
"Natsumi-chan?" a voice greeted her as she crossed the threshold. It was gentle by far in comparison with Ayaka's anger-laced scorn and Kotaro's boyish lack of tact.
"Chizu-nee, I'm sorry," Natsumi apologized with a bow to the other resident of their dormitory room, "I'll get to washing right away…"
"No, it's all right, Natsumi-chan," Chizuru replied, holding up a clean plate in one hand and a dish rag in the other. "I finished it for you. I figured that you really should get to bed soon anyways, it's getting late."
Natsumi was touched but Chizuru's remark just added fuel to her irritation. "I'm not a little kid," she stated firmly, but Chizuru wasn't listening.
"Off to bed, ma petite, off to bed," the other girl smiled benignly before walking past her. The lights switched off as Chizuru exited the kitchen leaving her friend alone in the silent kitchen.
In the dark, Natsumi clenched her hands.
"Why does everyone treat me like a kid? I'm not childish at all!" she grumbled. "I wish they'd see me as, not a child, but someone more mature!"
Suddenly, a brilliant light filled the dark kitchen. Natsumi gasped at the ethereal, green glow that surrounded her and realized with a start that it came from her jacket.
Tentatively, she reached a hand into the pocket where her fingers met small and hard. Cringing, she quickly pulled out the object and brought it before her eyes.
It's the bean from before! Natsumi made out its round shape. But when did I pick it up?
Her pondering was interrupted by a sudden prick of pain in her finger. In response, she dropped the glowing bean and clutched her hand to her chest. Through a few unconscious tears, Natsumi saw that her skin had been torn and scratched in many places. She hadn't noticed the scratches before because the pain in her finger had taken up her attention – and still did. As if she had accidentally poked herself with a rose's thorn, a small drop of blood formed over her
Life was becoming stranger by the second.
The sudden appearance of Koremitsu had given her a shock, but the strange peacefulness of the forest and the boy's quick wit and charm had distracted her from thinking clearly. Now, she shivered at the thought of the void that she assumed had brought the boy to her world.
He did say something about the 'school system of your world,' didn't he? Natsumi pondered. Dimly, she realized that the bean had stopped its mysterious glowing.
Almost absentmindedly, she bent down to pick up the bean. Without warning, the green oval burst into motion.
It split open with a soft crack. From within, stems grew out with the swiftness of a striking snake. It wound around Natsumi's wrist, forming a perfect circle. As if it wanted to flaunt the night's increasing departure from the norm, leaves popped out from underneath the mesh of stems.
Natsumi was feeling particularly open-minded that night, but this last display of the unnatural proved to be too much for her. She ran into her room, threw the leafy bracelet into the corner, and jumped. She plunged her face into her pillow as she landed on the bed.
Before the springs of the bed had stopped moving, she had already fallen asleep to the light drumming of rainfall.
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Part I - End