Disclaimer: I do not own Negima! Mmkay?
About my fifth Negima oneshot. It doesn't really have any pairings (TINY mention of Negi/Nodoka) but feel free to interpret it however you want to. I can't seem to help myself writing about the Sports Girls, but Yuna's my favourite character and she needs more stories! Dedicated to my fellow Negima! fan, Wizela.
Enjoy!
"Tatsumiya-san! Come join our group!"
Mana Tatsumiya was by no means a social woman. In fact, if there was a ranking of the more stand-offish students in class 3-a, she had no doubt she would at least be in the top five. Which is why she was taken slightly by surprise when she was rapidly approached by none other then the Sports Girls, who were likely one of the more noisy factions of the class.
"You want me to be in your group?" Mana asked, as though she were testing their decision.
"Sure!" replied Yūna Akashi cheerily, apparently mistaking Mana's question for uncertainty, "You're in biathlon, right?"
Mana considered this.
"Alright," she said, simply.
She wasn't sure exactly what had prompted their inexperienced sensei to suddenly announce this trip to Kyoto, but she knew perfectly well that she was obligated to join the class. And she had no doubt that Negi-sensei would run into some sort of trouble (the ten-year-old seemed to attract trouble almost as much as girls) and she figured she might as well stick around, in case she was needed.
"Hey, look, there's the train!" Makie called, excitedly, pointing at the sleek silver train that was indeed pulling up in the platform. Yūna whooped and ran after Makie. Akira and Ako followed them, Ako looking nervous.
"Ugh...I'm not so good on trains," she muttered, glancing at the train, "I wish I hadn't eaten so many of Satsuki-san's pork buns..."
"I'm sure you'll be fine," replied Akira soothingly, neatly stepping onto the train as the doors slid open, wisely choosing a doorway that was not being sighted by her hyperactive classmates.
Mana shook her head at the ridiculous antics of her classmates, and then followed suit, stepping onto the train, allowing the doors to slide neatly shut behind her.
The train journey, as Mana had predicted, was noisy and chaotic. And that was before all those frogs appeared everywhere.
"Ne, ne, Tatsumiya-san!"
Mana looked up, jerked from her thoughts, to find Yūna holding a Taiyaki in front of her, its sweet jelly-like filling oozing slightly from a tear in the edge of the pastry. Mana couldn't help noticing Yūna's fingers had gone slightly purple from the paste.
"Have one! They're delicious!" Yūna urged her, waving the Taiyaki in front of Mana tantalisingly.
"I don't want to owe you money," responded Mana, glancing away from the Taiyaki as though she thought it would jump into her mouth if she stared at it for too long.
Yūna grinned and instead thrust the Taiyaki into Mana's hand, who stared at the fish-shaped confectionery in surprise before glancing back up to see Yūna heading in the opposite direction, although she was still close enough to say over her shoulder,
"Don't be silly, Tatsumiya-san. It's free!"
The Sports Girls, Mana began to find out, had a strange habit of stumbling into massive secrets, only to forget about them hours later. It was actually quite funny how many things they came across, and yet still remained fairly oblivious to the presence of magic.
Yūna, it seemed, was the most responsible for the unwitting luck of the Sports Girls. It always seemed to be Yūna that dashed headfirst into situations without thinking things through, which usually spelt trouble for her friends, who more often then not ended up sucked into whatever adventure Yūna's headstrong actions brought them.
"Ne, Tatsumiya-san! Did you see that carnival? It looked amazing!"
It was also Yūna who seemed to demand Mana's opinion on most things and engage the bounty hunter in conversation, which Mana found oddly disconcerting. It wasn't in Mana's nature to be sociable, and she often didn't know how to react to Yūna's open personality.
"Hey, this stuff tastes good!" commented Yūna, staring excitedly at the pink-tinted liquid. "I want some more!"
"Ooh, lemme try some!" Ako cried, watching as Yūna held her cup out greedily for more, "It sounds good!"
"Me too!" squealed Makie, no doubt with Negi-kun in mind when she heard the words 'true love'. Akira politely declined the offer to join in- she was usually the most reluctant to join in on Yūna's crazy schemes, and it seemed today was no exception. Makie wheedled that Akira would like the 'tasty water', but Akira merely smiled and shook her head and Makie pressed no further.
Tasty Water...? Repeated Mana sceptically in her mind, frowning slightly as she leant forwards, index finger extended. She lightly dipped her finger in the steady waterfall of the pink-tinted water and tasted it.
Sake.
Mana was torn between disapproval and amusement that the Otowa waterfall was offering sake to high-school students. She wondered if this was some sort of ploy, but she could see no real purpose in it, aside from seeing a bunch of schoolgirls get drunk.
"Oh no, what are we going to do?!" squealed Negi-sensei, flapping his arms in panic. (Mana couldn't help but shake her head at his unprofessionalism)
"Quick! Get them out of here!" hissed the Ermine on Negi's shoulder. Mana rolled her eyes at this obvious display of magic that everyone else seemed to miss, but she followed suit of her fellow non-intoxicated students and knelt down, shaking Yūna in an attempt to rouse her.
When Yūna only groaned and feebly batted at Mana, she simply sighed and hauled Yūna into her arms, trying to ignore Yūna's head lolling against her chest. Sighing so heavily that it made her bangs flutter; Mana followed Akira, who was half-dragging, half-pulling Makie along up the stairs, Makie giggling drunkenly. Yūna moaned and accidentally smacked Mana lightly on the shoulder with her arm. Mana rolled her eyes.
Normally, she would have simply dropped Yūna back on the ground and let someone else to the work, but just this once, she could make an exception.
Just this once.
And so it went on. It seemed that Negi-sensei was utterly incapable of avoiding disaster or strange things from happening, no matter where he went. It was something that the girls of 3-A found endearing about their child teacher.
The same thing seemed to hold true with his class.
"I don't know if it's a good idea..." Akira asserted, her face betraying more anxiety then her voice. "I mean, if you get caught by Nitta-sensei..."
"Pssh!" snorted Yūna, flapping her hand, "We can deal with that old ogre. Besides, Makie-chan's not about to let Class-rep get to Negi-sensei without a fight! Right, Makie?"
"Right! I have to...I have to fight for Negi-sensei." Makie replied, her voice trailing off to an uncertain giggle at the end of her sentence.
Mana privately thought that it was Nodoka-chan that Makie should be most worried about, but she decided not to voice her opinion. She didn't feel like giving the girls an analysis on that. Not now, not ever.
"Well, what do you think, Tatsumiya-san?"
Mana gave an imperceptible jolt, snapping out of her musings, so find all four Sports Girls staring at her expectantly. Her intuition told her that however the discussion about the upcoming Kiss Negi game was going, it was not going in the way Makie had wanted it to, so now they were asking for a fifth opinion. Mana blinked, keeping her face impassive, before leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes.
"Do what you want," she replied, speaking perfectly truthfully. "I won't stop you either way."
"Yesss!" cheered Yūna, hissing her 'yes' triumphantly. "See? If Tatsumiya-san doesn't have a problem with it, then I say we should go for it! Are you with me, Makie?"
"Yeah!"
Mana's lip quirked as the Sports Girls continued to bicker good-naturedly. She knew that unless she had given a definite 'No', Yūna would still have interpreted her answer to mean 'Yes'.
Still, a tiny bit of her couldn't help but feel slightly flattered they had even asked her in the first place.
On the seemingly tranquil moonlit night, Mana perched on the windowsill of the hotel room, Mana held the familiarly cold barrel of her shotgun, the sleek black metal glinting in the silvery light. Glancing behind her, Mana saw with some satisfaction her room mates all completely asleep.
Mana had made sure that tonight, they would be. She had been following the mysterious attacks circling Negi-sensei and the abduction attempts of Konoka Konoe.
She had a feeling in her gut that her service would be required during this seemingly spur-of-the-moment trip, and Mana never ignored what her gut told her. Negi-sensei, she knew, had planned this trip for a reason, and now it was time for Mana to play her role. And this time, that role was to protect.
She hadn't felt particularly proud of herself, spiking the Sports Girl's drinks like that, even if it was just some strong sleeping pills, but it was necessary. Knowing them (well, Yūna, mostly), if they saw Mana sneaking off into the night with numerous guns strapped to her person, Yūna would definitely follow her. And if Yūna followed, then so would the others.
Mana couldn't let them do that. As much as she hated to admit it, the Sports Girl's had grown on her since their departure to Kyoto, and now Mana had decided to repay them for their companionship.
Lingering only a moment as she carefully shut the window behind her, Mana glanced inside the small hotel room one more time, before turning and leaping from the wooden railing on the balcony, vanishing into the night.
"Ah, I'm kind of sad this trip is ending." Lamented Makie, scrubbing at her upper arm with a washcloth. "It's been so fun! Like an adventure!"
You have no idea. Mana couldn't help remarking. Inside her head, naturally.
"The Negi battle was fun, though!" Makie continued, giggling.
"Yeah, but we had to seiza-sit all night!" remarked Yūna, rolling her eyes. "The best part was the cinema village! Right, Tatsumiya-san?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, I guess so." Replied Mana, never failing to be mildly surprised by Yūna's abrupt request for her opinion.
But it was something that Mana had grown used to, despite the random timing of the question.
Then, suddenly, she heard a distinct clicking noise. Almost as though she suddenly went onto auto-pilot, Mana's hand reached from one of her concealed guns, hidden in one of the wash baskets. Then, a squeak from Makie or Ako (Mana didn't really think it was important who it came from) and a giggle suddenly alerted the sniper to the identity of the assailant.
"Ooh, this is a good one!" crooned Kazumi, waving a picture of the unsuspecting (and naked) Sports Girls.
"KAZUMI!" shrieked Ako and Yūna diving for the redhead, and Kazumi managed to wriggle out of the way, flapping the Polaroid tauntingly.
Mana could have got it back off her easily- she wasn't particularly happy to see that her backside was a prominent feature of the shot, but Kazumi had provided a decent enough distraction for her to hide her gun again, although Mana was not convinced it had gone completely unnoticed.
"Sheesh, man!" Yūna growled, glaring at the bushes where Kazumi had vanished, wrapping an arm defensively around her ample chest, "She could have asked. Who does she think she is, a spy or somethin'?"
You REALLY have no idea.
"Hmmm? Tatsumiya-san? Why are you smiling?"
"Oh, it's nothing, Akashi-san. I think I'm about ready to get out."
"Yeah! Let's go souvenir shopping, everyone! C'mon, Tatsumiya-san!"
"All right."
Later, upon their return to Mahora Mana couldn't help noticing that Kazumi had indeed compiled a selection of photos from the trip to Kyoto, the infamous hot-springs shot a prominent feature. Mana thought back across the trip to Kyoto and felt an unexpected stab of nostalgic satisfaction.
And in a rare moment of sentimentality, Mana decided to get herself one of the photos.
When Kazumi wasn't looking, of course.
Any feedback would be wonderful!