Chapter 1: The Beginnings of a Beautiful Friendship
Navigating the underground labyrinth of the Mahora Library was more difficult than he'd anticipated. The young man tossed his battered cloak aside and begun unbuckling his chain mail. He'd nearly been killed four times on his journey, twice what he'd predicted. Although, to be fair, two of those times were from the same dragon. Remembering the firefight, he bent down to brush ash off of his pants. Although he was quite certain it wouldn't make any difference, he wanted to look his best before meeting with the woman he hoped to apprentice under. Casually combing his messy beige-brown hair with his hand, he stepped forward over an enchanting (and, given the surroundings, likely enchanted) flower garden and looked Evangeline A.K McDowell up and down.
She did not look like much, considering her reputation. But then again, being locked in a basement for a decade would be hell on anyone. Still, he'd expected her to retain a little more dignity. The little blond was chained by her wrists and ankles to the wall with just enough slack to sit down. Her eyes and nose were red and swollen, and ten year's worth of dried allergy-induced tears and mucous covered her face. She was asleep at the time, and a string of drool hung out her mouth. Remembering that first impressions are always important, he plucked a flower from the garden and tossed it into her face. She immediately began sneezing herself awake. After she was done, the young man held a handkerchief to her nose for her to blow into, and used another one to clean up her face. Contrary to her nature, Eva looked up at the man with puppy-like eyes filled with gratitude. Then, as if waking from a spell, a harsher look fell across her face, and she studied her visitor more closely. He had an average height for his age, which she guessed was around eighteen, but he had a slender build. She noticed his hands seemed particularly delicate, like one might expect from a pianist. His face contradicted that impression completely; it was stern and round, with two sharp brown eyes that seemed eternally contemplative. He seemed to be waiting for her to speak first, which she thought was odd, but decided to humor him.
"Well, you wouldn't have come here if you didn't know who I am, so why don't we start with an introduction from you?"
He responded in Japanese with a distinct American accent, though he'd clearly had plenty of practice with the language.
"My name is my own business. However, I came here hoping that you might call me apprentice."
Eva cackled, and her laughter echoed about the room. It was soon replaced by a fit of sneezing, however, and the young man sighed impatiently.
"Why don't we do something about those flowers, eh?"
With a wave of his hand, the plants erupted in flames. Eva sniffled and muttered pitifully, despite herself, "They'll just grow back later…"
"Then we should use this time we have to discuss an arrangement…"
Eva chuckled again. "Why should I help you? I've got a long sentence in this prison to look forward to, and other than cutting it short there's not a damn thing I want. Why do you want help from me, anyways?"
"There is a technique you developed, long ago, that Negi Springfield used to become extremely powerful. I want it, because I want him destroyed. You should too."
"Why is that? Because he didn't bust me outa here? No, even I can't hold that against him…"
"Mr. Springfield has become…different since you saw him last. It's been years since you talked, correct?"
Eva sniffed. "Yeah, the last time he was down here was to tell me about Asuna's death. I still can't believe she goes adventuring around the world of magic without any serious injury and ends up getting gunned downed by some trigger-happy idiots in a no-name bank."
"In all fairness, she probably didn't expect her Pactio card to fail her. Negi hadn't told anyone he was going to the other world for a vacation."
"Yeah. Poor guy took it hard."
"Harder than you know. I think you could use a little history lesson, Eva. I promise, by the end of it, you will see exactly why you must give me the power to defeat him. And so you know you can trust me…"
The teenager closed his eyes and held his hands above his head, and a golden glow drifted over the two of them.
"Ketril, Aylt, Delt! I pray to the All-Seeing Eye, bind our tongues from telling lies!"
As the glow settled over himself and Eva, enshrouding them in a faint, golden aura, he reopened his eyes and cleared his throat.
"Ahem. Although it's new Western magic, you should be able to recognize it as a binding truth spell. Neither of us will be able to tell a lie for the next twelve hours or so. Plenty of time for a little story-telling. Now, to begin: you probably remember that the existence of magic was revealed to the world due to the monster invasion known as the Hellstorm in the year 2010. But, seeing as you were imprisoned at around that time, you wouldn't know about the turmoil that occurred afterwards."
"Not the specifics, but I have a general idea. Obviously it became necessary for magic users to gain official representation once it was clear that they would no longer be able to operate in secret, and there was a battle for the top position in that representation. Since Negi and his White Wings were regarded as heroes due to their integral part in quelling the Hellstorm they ended up being a deciding factor in the political struggle. Of course, they backed the Konoe clan, and after that I stopped getting contacted by Negi or any of the girls. Guess it wouldn't be very good for their reputations to keep in contact with a convicted criminal."
"Well, let me fill you in on what happened next, and some details you left out. The Konoe clan gained full political power due to association with the White Wings, true, but only over Japan. As it stood, all nations were going to be assigned a magical body of government to stand alongside the original one. However, Negi had other plans. He selected a handful of individuals he trusted more than any others and formed the White Wing "Honor Guard", a group that was publicly disclosed to be bodyguards-slash-envoys for the Konoe. However, in reality they were a black ops group who were placed in charge of convincing all other nations in possession of a World Tree to turn control of it over to the Konoe for the annual festival of their blooming, and to do so by any means necessary. The public motivation for this was to throw a world-wide celebration on the day the trees bloomed. In reality, Negi planned to use the trees for casting a spell on all of the planet Earth, similar to what Chao Lingshen had attempted some years earlier. Only in this case the intent was not merely to reveal magic to the world. The spell Negi planned to use the trees for would rob the entire human race of their free will."
"Hold on a second. None of this makes any sense. Why would the Konoe clan go along with all this? They've never been the type for world domination before."
"No one knows. Maybe Negi convinced them to change their ways. Maybe they didn't have the backbone to stop him. Or maybe they realized that the key support of their political stability, the Honor Guard, was under his control and not theirs. In any case, they backed him completely, and in the year 2012 Negi harnessed the power of the world trees to rob every living being on earth of their willpower for twenty-four hours. And in that time span, activated automatically by a sleeper switch, the only things on the planet with any drive delivered the world into Negi's hands. A magic-powered robot army he'd commissioned from Satomi Hakase stormed from nation to nation, disarming entire militaries and capturing entire governments. At the end of the day, they were replaced by hand-picked members of his following, and just like that Negi Springfield became the ruler of the world. He was nineteen years old."
"I don't believe it…The kid finally went and got his hands dirty enough to do what needed to be done. Pity it took Asuna's death to light a fire under him, she was a fine kid. But damn if her death didn't go to waste. So how'd the world turn out under the rule of my little boya?"
"I believe the most appropriate description would be 'Orwellian'. The White Wings and robot army made an efficient world police with almost all possible opposition removed, and since the most powerful magic forces were allied with him there was no way for the other world to interfere with him without inciting a literal world war. He was free to do whatever he wanted, and his first act was to coerce the world into peace through a strict and brutal regime fueled by the terror and eventual apathy of his subjects. His second was to marry his new girlfriend: Nodoka Miyazaki."
"Ol' bookstore, eh? Heh, guess I could've seen that coming."
"Perhaps. More of a shock, however, is that not all of Negi's friends agreed with his new ideals. Some of them banded together to form a secret society that quickly expanded into a complete rebel group. It was funded by Ayaka Yukihiro, who was wounded by Negi's partner choice. It was lead by Chisame Hasegawa, who felt partially responsible for Negi's dark methods. Its primary combatant was Kotaro Inugami, who was determined to bring Negi back to his senses even if he had to kill him to do it. They launched a well-planned attack on the day of the wedding, and might've succeeded in forcing the boy dictator to submit to them had they not overlooked one thing: that Negi was now a soldier of darkness, and those who submit to dark magic do not think twice about taking the lives of those who threaten them. Had they revealed their identities to him ahead of time, they might've been spared, but because he saw them only as attackers he reacted with the full force of his power. The entire rebel strike force was murdered by him single-handedly."
"My god…"
"However, our story does not quite end there. A few strands of the rebels still remained, and after many years of lurking in the shadows they obtained information that would give them the advantage they needed, if used correctly. Before long they devised a plan that would bring down the totalitarian rule of Negi and the Konoe clan. But to enact it, they needed more power. So they sent their most promising young soldier to receive training from the one person in the entire mortal world who could best Negi Springfield in single combat even now, over twenty years after she'd first dueled him."
"And here you stand. Well, I must say that was a fascinating tale, but I'm afraid I missed the part where you tell a lowly prisoner like me why I should give a damn about the outside world."
"Ah yes, that. Tell me, did you ever think it was odd that your arrest occurred mere days before the Hellstorm? Or that the invading force had conveniently chosen Japan as their first target? Or that Negi and the White Wings were able to fight so effectively, despite the fact that they shouldn't have had any time to prepare for the assault?"
The boy grinned with devilish amusement as he watched Eva's eyes widen in realization. Her mouth moved without making any noise, and as her face contorted with rage he went on to explain what she'd already figured out.
"Negi knew there was only one way to reveal magic to the world without waiting another twenty-two years for the world tree to become primed again. And that way was a full-scale assault by one world on the other. As long as he came out of the battle a hero, he'd be the one in control of the aftermath. Ensuring that meant being the most powerful mage in Japan at the time of the assault, which was easy enough. All it took was one little call to some authorities in the magic world, and the legendary villain Evangeline A.K McDowell was buried in a deep, dark hole with nothing to keep her company but her hay fever and a self-sustaining grove of flowers."
He paused, taking a moment to revel in sadistic pleasure, and then he asked Eva in a voice dripping with innocence,
"So, Eva, is revenge a good enough reason for you to care?"
Eva stared straight into his eyes, and for a moment he was actually afraid she might break free of her bonds. She took three deep breaths and drew herself up to her full (albeit nonetheless diminutive) height, and sneezed five times.
"Hetcheew Hetcheew Hetcheew! Etcheew TCHIEEW! Alright, sniff, let's start lesson one."