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

"Sakura-taichô! Sakura-taichô!"

The other black-clad individuals didn't pay much attention as the young woman hurried through the streets, frantically searching for the named individual. It wasn't a common sight, per se, but it was not any reason to become alarmed—Aoi Zakida was a very dutiful and hard-working lieutenant, and her captain, while certainly a respectable and beloved and efficient and expert and any number of other positive adjectives commander, also had a tendency to be flighty and vanish somewhere if the mood struck her.

She rounded a corner and slammed into a new individual, who expertly caught her. "Whoa, Zakida-fukutaichô. What's your rush this morning? Is something wrong?"

"Oh! Kankotsu-taichô! I-it's Sakura-taichô! She's gone!"

"All right, all right, calm down. Gone, is she? And how long have you been looking for her?"

Aoi Zakida took in a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She was of somewhat average height and appeared to be in her early twenties, although to Soul Reapers age happened almost randomly. Her brown hair was tied in two pigtail loops behind her head, and her eyes were, appropriately enough, blue (as aoi is the Japanese word for blue). She wore the standard black kimono, shihakushô, that all Soul Reapers wore, and on her left arm she wore an armband with a five-sided plate, bearing an insignia with the Japanese character for three.The man addressing her was called Minoru Kankotsu, and had a very Japanese appearance about him—short black hair, dark eyes, a slender and somewhat short appearance (he was only a few inches taller than Aoi). In addition to his black garb, he wore a white haori, the captain's overcoat. On its back, instead of the diamond that was the usual symbol for the Gotei 13, there was a concave square, with sharp points on its bottom left and top right corners, and loops in its top left and bottom right corners, and inside this symbol was the Japanese character for eight.His major curiosity was two swords belted at his waist—one with a red handle and round guard, and the other with a white handle and square guard, both belted on his left side, and both full-sized katana.

Finally Aoi was ready to speak and she stammered out, "It's been over an hour, and I still haven't found her! She's gone, completely gone! We were supposed to meet for our Company's weekly meeting, but there's just no trace of her anywhere! Despite everything, she never misses meetings…."

"Yes, yes," Minoru soothed her. "I understand. She should turn up soon enough. She always does. Why don't you just return and wait for her, and leave this to me for now?"

"Y-yes…thank you, Kankotsu-taichô…."

He finally sent Aoi away, still dejected but somewhat comforted that a responsible captain was seeing to the matter.

Minoru stared after her to make sure she was fully all right before he began to ponder the situation. Yes, Sakura could use her power to voyage at will, but to her, time was something that happened to other people…she had taken them all on epic adventures that allowed only minutes to pass by the time they returned. If she had completely vanished for over an hour…what was she doing? What had happened to her…?

There was only one other captain who could offer any answers. He turned to head for the offices of the captain of 13th Company.

Sakura finished dressing herself. She examined herself in the mirror and twirled a little, girlishly. It was her favorite kimono, the same red-with-blue robe she had worn the previous evening at the pre-battle tournament, a very fine piece of attire that would require a normal woman have attendants and quite some time to properly equip.

She couldn't help liking the clothing. Something in it seemed to call to her, beg her attention. It seemed like an old friend. Except for parties and ceremonies, she rarely got a chance to wear attire like this…the bland and all-business shihakushô was her usual garb, along with the haori, and it just didn't suit her. She always wondered…had she been born in another place and time, could she have worn this often? If she were a princess in the imperial days of Japan, perhaps?

Ah, but then she certainly wouldn't have the father she knew, nor the mother. Her father often spoke of having wished after other places…and lo, they had been granted. "Be careful what you wish for," he often said with a smile.

She would also have been little more than property, she knew as well, but maybe that would have been for the best. As Kurosaki-taichô had said, in her heart she was a pacifist, not really cut out for the duties of a Soul Reaper. She smiled at the thought. ('If only he could see me now...')

Still, she honestly had everything she could have ever wanted. She had a family, friends, responsibility, purpose…and the doorway to everything she ever thought she could have lacked. She had so enjoyed these last two years, living as a student, a teenaged girl growing up alongside other silly, foolish, vain, sweet and romantic girls. Friends like these…were so refreshing, so fun to be with. She was sad that she would be unable to finish at least their middle school years with them, but such was life…with everything else she already had, she did not dare dream of more.

"'What a delight this is!'" she quoted to herself. "'All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing, lively dream'. My dream is nearly at its end, for now. But it is not yet time to wake up…not until the ending has been decided."

She rose and turned to head for the door. It was time. Her tournament would soon begin…she could not see what it would bring, but she knew, whatever happened, he would only emerge stronger than ever….

Author's Note: Character Introduction: Minoru Kankotsu

And so we begin the second day of the Festival, which will be dominated mostly by the tournament…and partially by the machinations of Sakura, who is obviously planning on going out with a bang. Act 3 ended with a revelation of her as a power player, suggesting that she is a Soul Reaper; Act 4, of course, delved more into her and began to set her up as a villain, but it also established the fact that she is, indeed, a Soul Reaper, although it was hazy about her origins; and now Act 5 opens by showing just a small snapshot of her home, a Soul Society…but populated by completely unfamiliar Soul Reapers. What is the meaning of all this? We won't learn for a while…like many, this Prologue is a bit of a teaser.

But I thought I'd go ahead and introduce Minoru Kankotsu, who will not really be of any importance in this story, but since he has actually appeared, we'll go ahead and show him off. He is a character of my design, and is the hero of my Soul Blades story. Now, as my longtime followers know, I often spawn story ideas from other sources that I find enjoyable—I've made stories based on Final Fantasy, RoboTech and Gundam, and far too many others to count or name. And when I say that, I'm not talking about FanFiction stories like this one—I actually often create my own, far more unique but still heavily 'inspired by' variations as well. As I mentioned, after getting into Bleach I was somewhat captivated by the idea of the zanpaku-tô, and have played around quite a bit with a lot of ideas based on this marvelous weapon. The primary one, however, is the story of the Soul Blades, which is a novel outline I have that is also partially Final Fantasy-ish influenced, about a mostly medieval world where magic exists, at least in the hands of humans, only within individuals called Soul Blades. The magical power inherent in them manifests itself in a weapon that they call from their soul, made of their 'Soular' energy….

And the hero of this tale is Minoru Kankotsu, a young Soul Blade from the Oriental nation of Rendoku. On the continent where it opens, there are four great kingdoms that have only recently ceased a war between them that lasted nearly a hundred years. Minoru is a young man on a quest, traveling about this ruined countryside in pursuit of his older sister, Sazuka, who disappeared a couple years previous. He is a Soul Blade, wielding the sword known as Hinome, but he also carries a regular sword, Masamaru, which is his family's heirloom and is supposed to be Sazuka's. His continent-spanning journey expands into a world-spanning one as he follows her trail and learns why she was forced to flee their home in the first place….

Minoru is calm, controlled, well-trained and educated, and in general behaves like a proper Japanese son should be raised to do—as a member of a rather more religious, 'priestly', you could say, than noble family, he is serious and dutiful, and generally tries to avoid trouble and violence…but he is also stubborn and determined, and won't let anything stand in the way of his goals (in the original case, finding his sister), although he also is forced to answer his noble heart, which distracts him, as he can't leave people in distress. As I often do, I grew fond of my little hero, and have recently put adaptations of him into several of my FanFiction works. I was beginning to work him into my original My-HiME/Bleach FanFiction that I got started on a few years back, and, when I started constructing the Bleach-based skeleton from which Sakura originates, I needed heroes to fill up these special Thirteen Court Guard Squads…and so my Bleach-based hero, Minoru, made a natural choice, and he settled quite well into his new part.

I shan't yet explain just what this pseudo-Gotei 13 group is about, but I can explain that Minoru has a somewhat sadder past. Said sister made the transition into this world, but she was killed in action at some distant point in the past. Now he carries her old zanpaku-tô, even though it has no power left (hence why he has a rounded guard sword—Masamaru, Sazuka's old sword—and the squared guard sword, his own Hinome). He does this to remember her, and also because his own sword, Hinome, as a zanpaku-tô, has a curious personality and utterly detests violence. It gets upset when he draws it for anything less than a duel to the death with an evil foe, and so most of the time for basic fighting purposes he uses Masamaru.

Shall I say…? Yes, why not. Sakura boldly declared early in Act 4 that she already had a boyfriend waiting for her 'back home', although her classmates were so shocked by that declaration that they didn't even consider the 'back home' part. Minoru is the man she shares a close relationship with, although, as is often the case amongst the Soul Reapers, they are so duty-bound and long-lived that they often…ignore romance for as long as they possibly can.

No more to say about Sakura's origin or her comrades at this time. Let's get this party started!