Hi there. In between chapters of Teana's Travels Book 5, I'm sending out this one-shot that popped up into my head during my perusing of a certain terrifying meme (with details worked out in my head while watching the NHRA Winternationals… from the bleachers at the actual speedway in Pomona, CA. Though waiting for them to clean the track after nearly every trailing-smoke run was kinda annoying, albeit rather understandable once Doug Kalitta's engine visibly "jumped" and caught fire in Top Fuel Round 2, complete with something big and important-looking flying free from the car and landing on the track (or was that Terry McMillan who left a four-to-six-foot belt-looking thing launched about 20 feet in the air from his car to fall onto the pavement behind him? Can't remember). And then when Langdon's engine caught fire halfway down the track and he still won. And then Antron Brown's engine did the same thing as Kalitta's in the semifinals. And then Morgan Lucas' engine caught fire mid-run and he still won because poor Del Worsham's engine went out even worse at the same time).
Sorry. Went on a tangent there. Enjoy the fear!
-STORY START-
"Negi-kun's causing this?"
"Something's wrong with Negi-sensei?-!"
The girls of 3-A (plus Kotarō, and minus the recently-departed Chao) gathered round in the otherwise-empty square, illuminated by gibbous moon's glow. The bizarre well-ups of wild magic had endangered most of the group, with those more capable saving them but not without revealing their own abilities. A brief explanation (basically "Magic is real, Negi's a mage, and if you tell anyone the mage higher-ups will erase all memories of Negi from your minds and take him away forever") and some minor freak-outs later, the entire group gathered here… except for Negi, who was still missing.
"Well…" Chamo started, feeling the rather negative looks that several - Asuna, Setsuna, and Ayaka in particular – were giving him, "aniki may be a super-powerful mage, ultra-mature for anyone, much less someone his age, and more than a bit of a badass, but… he's still a kid. And because he hasn't reached physical maturity yet, his control over his magical energies isn't absolute. First off, several of you know how he casts a clothes-shredding wind spell whenever he sneezes…"
Asuna and Chisame nodded, looking none too happy at the memories, while several of the previously-mundane students nodded in comprehension as those "perverted winds" suddenly made a lot more sense.
"Besides that, if aniki loses control of negative emotions, his magic may run wild. I first saw it a couple of months ago, when that Count Wilhelm guy showed up. He was responsible for… something very bad that happened to aniki when he was little, and so Negi shifted into some unstoppable, bloodthirsty rage for a bit."
Ayaka, the Sports Quartet, the Twins, the Cheerleaders, and Haruna stared. Negi-kun… bloodthirsty? That… that didn't sound possible…
"I mean, sure, he wasn't, like, growling or screaming out in rage. In fact, he was completely, eerily silent throughout his little rampage. But his eyes… they weren't aniki's anymore. They were cold, hateful… the sclera of his eyes even turned black, and the irises took on some freaky shade of gold. Old texts say those are signs of "intermediate-stage" corruption, something involving "the darkness of a person's Heart". It took Kotarō-kun literally whacking some sense into him to stop him from completely flipping out… or getting himself killed by trying to rush the old bastard head-on."
"But this doesn't feel like rage-related loss of control" Konoka said. "When that happened, all of Negi-kun's power went inward, and supercharged his physical abilities. It didn't make shadowy… things pop in and out of everywhere, or stuff start getting tossed around like by a poltergeist."
"It's not anger" Evangeline cut in. "I can sense it. It's fear. Something's got boya so flat fucking terrified that he's partially out of his mind from it."
"But that doesn't make sense!" Haruna said. "I thought that Nodoka-chan's artifact told us that the only thing Negi feared was people he cared about being hurt because of him, or something like that!"
'How gallant…' Ayaka thought.
"Well, I… think I might have a theory" Chamo said nervously. Several of the girls turned to stare/glare at him.
"Spill it, rat" Asuna said in a low, even, and very dangerous tone. "What did you do?"
"It wasn't me, I swear! And you were the one who said it was okay to go on that site, so you're kinda at fault, too!"
"What site?" Chisame asked.
"TVTropes, I think. Aniki was going on a bit of an archive binge, and he found a page on… something really creepy. I didn't read much of it, just a few basic things, but there were lots of links to other works and videos regarding the 'franchise' and stuff, including a couple of multi-episode YouTube series."
"What was it?" Kazumi asked. "Creepy Disney movie? Old, cheesy horror flicks?"
"Something about a really tall, freakishly skinny guy wearing a business suit, with long tentacle-arms and no face, and who can teleport or something like that."
There was silence for several seconds. Kazumi, Chisame, Haruna, Mana, and Yue had gone very pale. After several seconds, the silence was gently broken by Chisame inhaling, gathering oxygen for…
"YOU LET A TEN-YEAR-OLD READ ABOUT SLENDER MAN?-!-?-!-?-!"
The glasses-clad girl's outburst sent a flock of birds that had been sleeping in a nearby tree flying off in terror. Fūka & Fumika, already a tad on edge, latched on to each other.
"Uh… maybe? Slender Who?"
"YOU FUCKING IDIOT!-!-! I KNEW YOU WERE A LAZY, LECHEROUS, CHAIN-SMOKING PANTY THIEF, BUT I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD BE SO DISGUSTINGLY IRRESPONSIBLE AS TO LET A CHILD GET INTO IN-DEPTH ON THAT SHIT!-!-!"
"Chisame?-! What's-"
"And you!" Chisame stopped Asuna's surprised response, pointing a very angry finger in the girl's direction, causing the redhead's mouth to snap shut. "How could you not make sure he didn't find something like that?-! Letting a child read up on that… it's worse than showing him porn! What were you two thinking?-! 'Well, he's starting to recover from the mental scars from seeing his hometown massacred at the age of four; let's traumatize him some more'!-!"
"How the hell was I supposed to know?-!" Asuna snapped back. "I put the content blocker program in for whenever he uses it!"
"That only blocks pornographic stuff! It doesn't stop the stuff that's good-old-fashioned-scary enough to give hardass adult men paranoiac nightmares!"
"It was Chamo's job to make sure Negi didn't get into anything like that!"
Both redheads turned to Chamo, glaring evilly.
"Um…" he squeaked out. "Would it help if I said I was sorry?"
"NO!-!"
"God…" Mana muttered. "As if the kid didn't already have issues…"
"…Do I even want to know?" Kaede asked.
Meanwhile, Ayaka was barely resisting the temptation to stomp the little white muskelid into the dirt for inadvertently traumatizing her little shota… er, I mean 'sensei'. Right.
Wait…
"Wait… Negi-sensei witnessed a massacre at the age of four?-!"
"It's a long and very depressing story" Nodoka replied to the tall blond. "Negi-sensei wanted his father – who everyone said was dead – to appear so he could meet him. So he kept on deliberately getting in trouble in the hopes that Nagi-san would appear. Well, one day his wish came true… with disastrous consequences. The horde of demons and other things turned about half of the villagers to stone, and just plain slaughtered the rest in brutal, bloody manner. Negi-sensei and his older cousin were the only two people there out of 360 people to survive. Nagi-san appeared and killed all the demons, but by then it was too late for everyone except Negi-sensei and Nekane-san. Negi-sensei… had to see his hometown in flames, hundreds of people – all of whom he knew on some level – dead all around him, either as stone statues with looks of terror on their faces, or as mangled corpses surrounded by blood and viscera and… yeah. And he was only four years old when it happened. Since it happened after all those tries he made to get his father to appear, and since his dad did appear to save Negi-sensei and his cousin… Negi blames the massacre on himself. He thinks that all those monsters came and slaughtered everyone because he'd been trying to make his dad appear by getting in trouble."
Ayaka had gone pale. So, for that matter, had everyone else who hadn't already known. Their seemingly-cheerful little boy had serious issues. Needless to say, hearing this had also given nearly all of them the urge to find Negi, hug the little guy, and tell him everything would be okay.
"So if we find Negi-kun, all this weird wild-magic stuff will stop?" Yue asked Chamo, who was more than a little roughed up after Asuna had used him as a baseball with her harisen as the bat while Nodoka had been explaining things to the others.
"Yes" the ermine wheezed out. "If we can calm him down."
Asuna transformed her harisen into its Longsword Form, hefting it over her shoulder. "Okay, people" she said. "Let's go find our little genius idiot and bring him back to his senses."
And so the group set off, creeping through the trees and empty walkways, Chamo sensing out Negi's energy while Asuna, Setsuna, Kaede, and Mana took out any "emotion-beasts" that popped up. As they moved out, Chisame had gotten out her laptop and was giving those not in the know a semi-abridged crash course on Slendy, so that they might understand what was freaking Negi out. It hadn't been long before they all understood just why Negi had freaked out. For that matter, all of them were now more than a little nervous: the twins clung to each other rather tightly, jumping at each noise, as did the Cheerleader Trio; Kazumi, video camera in hand, was looking every which way, engaged in conversation with Chisame to try and break the tension; even the likes of Mana and Evangeline were on edge, their heads on a swivel as they checked every corner and shadow. Between the very real manifestations of wild magic, and the sheer paranoia-inducing fear from reading up on the Slender Man Mythos at night while outside, they were all jumpy ("Crap, I thought that tree was something else" "Shit, I think that shadow just waved at me", etc.). Whoever had created the legend of Slendy, they all thought, was a pro at scaring people.
"So he can teleport as long as you're not looking at him, he can cloak, he can form a bunch of tentacles to be used in the least naughty way possible, he kills his victims by either driving them to madness or by ripping them open, tearing out their organs, and putting them back in randomly, and he has some kind of power so that if you try to hurt him, he doesn't get injured and whatever you tried to do to him happens to you instead?"
"So shooting at him or taking a baseball bat to him is a no-no."
"So… Asuna…" Misa said. "How exactly do you have a humongous sword? And Haruna mentioned "Artifacts"?"
"I can explain that" Chamo replied, currently sitting on top of Chachamaru's head. "Asuna-nechan was the first to make a Pactio with aniki. A Pactio is… well, sort of a magical contract. The Minister or Ministra – gender-specific titles – forges a contract with a Magister or Magistra. The Ministra gets a power boost and a unique and powerful Artifact, in exchange for protecting the Magister and/or assisting him in battle. Negi's gone the 'Mage-Knight' route, meaning he mixes magic with close combat so he can fight alongside his Ministrae instead of having them do all the work. Asuna, Nodoka, Setsuna, Konoka, Yue, Haruna, and Chisame all have Pactios with aniki."
"Magic weapons?" Yūna asked. "What do you guys have?"
"Asuna-nechan has that huge sword, which can transform between a harisen form, as you saw earlier. Nodoka-jōchan has a book that can read the surface thoughts of a person – good for exposing secrets, foiling liars, and predicting enemy attacks. Though if she doesn't give it a target, it reads her own mind." He giggled pervertedly. "…Who woulda thought our shy little bookworm had such a naughty subconscious…?"
Nodoka went beet-red, feeling as several sets of eyes looked at her. Chizuru patted her on the head.
"Setsuna-san has a set of 16 magic/ki daggers that she can control telepathically. Konoka-nechan has probably the most powerful Artifact: she can heal any injury, so long as her target is still alive and that less than 180 seconds have passed since the injury happened."
"…Any injury?"
"They can even be clinically dead. As long as there's life in them – their brain's still got neurons firing and their soul's still inside – she can heal the person completely. She can't do anything if they're completely dead, though, so if you get chopped in half or sniped through the head she can't help you. Yue has an all-purpose magical encyclopedia, with access to Level-AAA restricted data. Haruna can bring anything she draws to life."
A few of the girls got a little wary at this, understanding just what Haruna was like.
"Chisame-chan's artifact lets her and a few others travel into cyberspace, and gives her control over nearby technology, and can fire a concentrated bolt of Lightning magic."
"…Wait" Makie said. "So, back at the Festival, when me and iincho…"
"Yep!"
"How does one go about getting a Pactio?" asked Chizuru.
"There are two methods. The first is a Blood Oath – usually, this involves both participants either drawing a small and rather simple symbol on their palm with their own blood and then pressing the palms – and therefore the symbols – together, or two small open wounds – one on each person - pressed together. The other method… is a kiss…" (AN: Hard to capture Chamo's "lecherous" tone of voice in print…)
Several of the new girls blushed.
"…K-kiss Negi-sensei…"
"Ne, which method did the seven so far use?" Fūka asked excitedly. When the seven involved all blushed and averted eyes, the answer was clear.
"You… you all kissed Negi-sensei?-!" Sakurako cried. "I thought I was supposed to be lucky! How did I miss this chance?-!"
"None of them were in the most ideal of circumstances" Setsuna replied, her face still a little red. "Asuna was first, when Negi-sensei was up against two powerful foes alone and needed immediate assistance. In fact, their contract was formed while their enemy was preparing an attack to hit both of them. Life-or-death situation, really. Nodoka-san's was… accidental; Chamo-kun had set up a huge Pactio circle around the building we were all in, and Nodoka-san tripped and fell on top of Negi… and her lips landed on his. Mine was when ojō-sama had been kidnapped back in Kyōto, and-"
"Konoka-san was kidnapped?-!" Ayaka interrupted. "Why was I not informed of this?-! I understand the whole secrecy bit, but you could have at least informed me that one of my classmates was in danger?"
"It was after one of our enemies there had turned you – and nearly everyone else – to stone. As I was saying, we needed something to tip the scales so as to be not quite as severely against us, so we formed our Pactio and I immediately put it to use in slaying the summoned demons that had set upon us. Konoka-sama's Pactio happened after Negi-sensei had been partially turned to stone, and the petrification was slowly spreading up his body at a slow enough rate as to be dangerous, rather than the reversible instantaneous method that struck you all; had she not formed the contract and healed him, the petrification would have reached his lungs and he would have suffocated and died."
"N-Negi-sensei… almost… died?" Ayaka had gone a little pale again.
"Yuecchi's and Paru-san's were… less dramatic" Chamo picked up where Setsuna left off. "Basically, it was a 'why not' decision; y'know, being better prepared for future conflicts. …Haruna-san was kinda scary…"
Haruna licked her lips and grinned at the memory.
"Chisame-chan's was another 'kiss or lose' circumstance, since the enemy was using magically-assisted cyber-warfare."
"…So… oh, yeah! How'd Asuna kill that demon in one punch?"
"Asuna-nechan has an extremely, extremely rare ability, thought to have been extinct for decades: Selective Magic Cancel. Basically, any magic directed at her not meant to help her – basically, anything other than status buffs, healing spells, a levitation charm to stop her falling – will be completely nullified when it gets close enough to her. And it's not related to her Pactio; I performed a little analysis using a blood sample from her, and the ability is inherent – Kaede-san called it a kekkei genkai. And what's more, she's learning how to weaponize it; she can send a concentrated 'wave' of magic-cancel with a swing of her sword."
"It… doesn't protect me in every way, though" Asuna said. "If someone, like, uses magic to summon a huge boulder and chucks it at me, my Magic Cancel will have no effect on it. Also, it… doesn't protect my clothes. So, when that weird stoic white-haired boy tried to turn me to stone back in Kyōto… have you ever had to fight completely topless? The only thing stopping me from running to cover myself was that I was so damn pissed at the arrogant brat that kicking his ass was Priority Number One, above all else." She smirked. "And then Negi punched him full-on in the face with the hand that had been turned to stone; I think I heard the guy's jaw crack."
Kotarō's ear flicked as a slight wind picked up. Ayaka noticed.
"You've been hiding something too, haven't you?" she asked.
"…Whatcha mean?" the boy feigned innocence. Ayaka responded by lightly grabbing his ear, feeling how it was very much not a prop, and then ran her hand down the side of his head, feeling that there was no ear where a human would have one. She then absent-mindedly rubbed his actual ear, and against his will his tail began to twitch visibly in response.
"…Kotarō-kun…" Chizuru placed a hand on his shoulder.
Kotarō stopped walking, the rest of the group quickly stopping as well. The boy looked downcast, focusing his gaze on his feet, his bangs hiding his eyes.
"…I'm not human" he said in a low voice. Even Ayaka could tell that the boy was troubled, and her shota senses implored her to hug, but she resisted. He turned to look away from the group, staring into the night as he spoke. "At least, not fully. I'm half-human. My father was a kuzoku – a dog yōkai. I'm not related to Natsumi-chan; that was just a cover that Chizuru-nechan came up with. I… don't have a family. I never have. Half-breeds like me get tossed out to fend for themselves. I've been taking mercenary jobs since I was five to get food; got my first kill when I turned six… at least, I think so, 'cause I can't remember my birthday. Back in Kyōto, I thought that, in Negi, I'd found a rival that could finally match me. But… afterward, when he beat me… he didn't kill me. Every fight I'd ever been in, it was kill or die. He had me beat. He could've killed me, but he didn't. …He should've killed me… but he didn't. I didn't understand why… and I still don't. And I don't get why when I heard that Wilhelm was comin' here to kill Negi, I felt like I just couldn't let that happen. So I broke free, came here, and helped Negi kick the old bastard's ass. Living here has been nice, but… I guess good things don't last, do they?"
With that, he slowly started to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Madoka asked.
"Away. You heard me right? I'm a filthy half-breed, a street-rat, a wolf with no pack. Now you all know what I am. …You're sickened, aren't ya? I been down that road too many times before; folks learn what I am, and they see me for the disgustin' thing I am, an' they try their damndest to kill me." His voice had begun to waver. "I… things like me… ain't got the right to be happy."
He slowly started to walk away, using every ounce of willpower not to let the tears fall.
And then Ayaka's arms wrapped around him from behind.
"You… stupid kid… how could you think that?"
She turned him around, bringing his brown eyes to meet her blue ones; he and she both had unshed tears.
"How… could you think you don't have the right to be happy?"
"…I… I'm a monster. I shouldn't be alive. I've killed people. My own father saw my mom get ripped apart by a lynch mob when I was 2, and then he said it was my fault and tried to kill me. I've seen too much, done too much… and I-"
And she hugged him. The look of surprise on the 10-year-old's face was evident in the shocked look in his eyes, visible peeking over her shoulder. All the girls were looking at him. But none of them with hate or disgust. Most of them were teary-eyed, and a few were actually crying. Even Evangeline gave him a look of unambiguous sympathy, his tale hitting quite close to home. Chizuru walked up, embracing the boy from the back, and whispering into his ear.
"That part of your life is over now. You've earned your happy ending. You don't have to run and be afraid and kill anymore. You're safe with us. You have a home with us. You have a life with us. You're not alone anymore… and you won't ever be again."
It started with one tear. Ayaka carefully reached up and wiped it away. Another fell down the other cheek, to be brushed aside by Chizuru. And then the dam broke. Kotarō tried not to break down and cry; this failed when Chizuru started gently stroking his head, while Ayaka pulled him in and held him close. He tried to keep from sobbing, to keep his cries silent; this failed when Madoka, Kaede, Natsumi, and Asuna walked up and each put a hand on him.
After about 10 minutes, Kotarō had finally calmed down; the last three minutes of this had included being 'passed around' for hugs between some of the girls, to his mild embarrassment. The mood was ruined when a particularly large 'emotion-beast', four-legged and around five feet high at the shoulder, roared a challenge and charged. Setsuna 'killed' it with a Raimeiken.
"We need to find Negi-sensei" she said, "before things get worse."
The group gathered themselves and moved out. Five minutes out, a pack of the fiend-things attacked. One leapt at Chizuru… and was literally sliced in half by a kick from Kotarō, who then went on to intercept the one running toward Ayaka and crack its skull with his bare hands, 'killing' it. Kotarō then called forth a pack of shadow inugami, which spread out and engaged the pack of shadow-beasts, quickly destroying them. They neared the base of the World Tree, and Chachamaru's sensors & Kotarō's ears picked up the faint whimpers coming from the other side of the titanic trunk. They started making their way around. Suddenly, they heard a scream. They hurried, and saw a massive bipedal shadow-beast, easily 20 feet tall, walking toward Negi, who was curled up against the tree, pale and shaking. The boy tried to fire a barrage of magic arrows, but he was unable to call up the mental focus to do it, too unstable.
Before anyone else could react, Asuna dashed forward and leapt high, using her sword to bisect the creature vertically from the top down. It fell to the ground in two halves and then dispersed into nothingness. She slowly walked toward the boy, who instinctively pressed himself against the tree.
"Negi, it's okay. It's me."
Negi looked closer as the girl came into proper view. He tried to whisper her name, failed, and as soon as she came close he lunged forward and latched on in a hug, clinging to her as tightly as he could. She held him, gently stroking his hair.
"It's okay. I'm here."
The others came forward, keeping their distance but still gathering around. After a minute or so, Negi finally managed to speak.
"What's going on around here? These things… his minions…"
"No. They're not. He's not real. These monsters… came from you."
At this, his head shot up. He then noticed that the entirety of Class 3-A (plus Kotarō, minus Chao) were there.
"Chamo-kun explained everything" Chizuru said. "Reading about that… thing… got you so paranoid and terrified that you lost control of your magic, and the wild energies manifested as those creatures. Kinda like what happened to Raven in that Teen Titans episode 'Haunted'."
Negi went pale when the ramifications of what was going on hit home. They know! I'll get ermine-ized for this!
"Don't panic, Negi-kun" Misa said as she walked up. "Chamo-kun also told us what will happen if we tell anyone. We don't want to lose you, so we'll help you keep the masquerade going. We won't tell anyone who doesn't already know."
The rest of the group nodded.
"…So… these things are only from me?"
As the realization sank in, the unnatural darkness of the area began to fade to normal night, and the remaining shadow-beasts faded from existence. Several of the girls breathed sighs of relief. Asuna and Ayaka each offered Negi a hand, and he took both.
"Readings show that the wild-magic has completely dissipated" Chachamaru stated. "This little crisis is over."
"Now can we go home and get some sleep?" Chisame said.
"I got some top-grade anti-nightmare candies here!" Chamo said, pulling a glass jar full of silver candies from out of nowhere. "50 yen a pop!"
"I think we'll all need one" Kazumi replied. Everyone else nodded.
"Let's go home, please!" Fumika said. "It's way too spooky out here!"
Chisame sighed, partly in exasperation… and partly in relief that the kid was okay now. She just hoped that the rest of the group could keep their mouths shut when it counted. She turned from the group, looking at the dimly-lit buildings ringing the World Tree, and the small trees about 35 yards away, swaying in the wind, and…
Wait a minute.
That's not a tree.
"Ch-chachamaru…?"
"Yes, Chisame-san?"
"Y-you're sure that all those things from sensei's magic are gone?"
"100% sure"
The glasses-clad redhead went pale and started to shake.
9 feet tall.
Kazumi turned to face her friend, and then followed her eyes. "Chisame, what's-". After a few seconds, the view through her camcorder started to shake around as she trembled.
Long, thin arms.
Haruna and Asuna noticed their friends' sudden silence, turned, and saw it.
"Ffffffuuuuckk…" Haruna whimpered out.
Business suit.
The rest of the group turned to look at where the other four were looking. After several seconds, you could practically hear their hearts hammering. Mana activated her Demon Eye… and went pale.
"That's not an illusion…"
No face.
FOU
ND
YOU
He took a step forward.
They all screamed.
-END-
Just because it's legend doesn't mean it's not true.
Well, at least Slendy doesn't really exist in our world… right? …Hello? Guys? Am I ri