Summary: Years after Mahora white wing has split up and each gone their separate ways, including Negi who wouldn't give up on finding his father but wouldn't allow anyone to go with him after the near disaster of the trip to Wales. This is following Nodoka's story and well guess who turns up? NegixNodoka KonoSetsu
Me: Negi-kun, come do the disclaimer for me
Negi: why me?
Me: because this is a story about you and because I said so and I'm the author
Negi: walks over um okay, 'Ranee-san does not own me or any of my students, my friends or any villains…how was that?
Me: that was fine, you can go now
Negi: thank you runs off
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Chapter 1
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Nodoka was sitting in her shop, she'd bought the bookshop three years ago and the business was still going strong, just at this moment in time there was no-one in the store, she didn't mind though. She decided to read one of the books and stood up to find one she liked, she walked into the backroom and looked at shelves there was a lot of dusty books on the very top, the ones she hadn't touched for fear of her own memories, now she picked one up wondering if she had the courage and brushed the dust off, a dragon looked back and she closed her eyes for a brief moment, dragons, her thoughts briefly returned to the past before she quickly turned her mind back to the present determined not to go back and dwell in memories.
She put the book down gently although it raised a cloud of dust. She sneezed and stepped backwards, her foot caught on a pile of books behind her, she toppled over, the books falling with her; raising even more dust. She sat for a moment surrounded by the fantasy books she'd loved so much as a teenager before standing up and brushing herself up, she noticed a book that stood out from the others, it was bright and had collected no dust unlike the others, it was simply red, she picked it up and looked at what she thought was the title before dropping it quickly, the two Latin words on the front had told her exactly what it was. "Diarum Ejus" she whispered, it had once been her most prized possession, her magical artifact.
She walked out of he room unable to stand the sight of it, she bit her lip to keep from crying, ten years had past without so much as a word from him but the artifact was still intact, that meant he was still out there somewhere, No, she wasn't going to let her mind wander back to that. The thoughts were unbearable even now, she still loved him and she knew it, tears began to fall from her eyes silently, she squeezed them closed her shoulders now shaking with quiet sobs, ten years of tears flowing out, the bell rang as the door opened and she looked up trying to wipe her eyes, through the haze she could make out the shape of a woman with long dark hair standing still
"Is this a bad time?"
"n-n-no come in, I'll be alright in a minute"
"Are you sure? I can come back later"
"n-no, please" she wiped her eyes for the final time forcing herself to stop crying "I just got some dust in my eye"
"uh, okay" Nodoka took another look at the woman, she had black hair and was a little taller than her, she looked clearly uncomfortable
"I'm sorry, what was it you wanted?" she forced a smile
"Oh well it's my-uh-friends birthday next week and I wanted to get her a book"
"Oh, what does your friend like?" she'd picked up on the strange wording but didn't mention it
"Well, she really likes those fantasy style books, dragons and angels and things"
"oh" she wasn't about to turn a customer down "follow me" she said walking back into the back room, the other woman followed her "These are exactly what you want, I'm sorry they're so dusty, most of them are old and don't get used much, they're not exactly in high demand, I was just trying to tidy up a little when I got dust in my eye and-well" she shrugged
"Do you mind if I look around?"
"not at all, I'll be out the front once you've picked" she walked out of the room and sat behind her desk once more. A few minutes later she heard a clatter from the back room, she ran in "what happened?" She looked at the young woman who had apparently dropped everything she was holding and was staring open mouthed at- "oh, sorry that's mine, I must have dropped it earlier" she said picking up the diarum ejus
"but-but-but- Miyazaki-san?" Nodoka frowned
"Who are you and how do you know my name?" She looked closely at the woman, she seemed vaguely familiar
"I, Uh, I'm- never mind"
"I want to know, who are you?"
"Setsuna" she said quietly
"Sakurazaki-san?"
"not exactly"
"what?"
"I'm married"
"You are?"
"yeah, we wanted to invite you but we didn't know where you were"
"Who's we?" she had a feeling she already knew the answer
"Kono-chan and I" she said with a blush
"Congratulations, I see you dropped the ojou-sama then" Setsuna nodded
"Have you been here all the time?"
"Yeah"
"But we've walked past here lots of times, we looked everywhere for you and you turn up here, right in front of us"
"I guess so" she looked at the floor sadly, she thought she'd finally left it behind and now this "Um, Setsuna-san could you do me a favour and not tell Konoka I'm here?"
"Why not?"
"because I like my life the way it is" Setsuna thought for a moment
"What were you really crying about?"
"what?"
"When I came in you were crying, what were you crying about?"
"Nothing"
"were you crying about N-"
"Don't! please" she wanted to run off, to disappear, anything, she found herself clutching the diarum ejus even closer to her
"-egi?" she finished, Nodoka felt herself starting to cry again and turned away, she managed a nod before running out of the room and up the stairs to her flat above the shop. She heard the bell ring as Setsuna left the shop but she didn't go back down, nor did she stop crying, about ten minutes later the bell rang again and there was quick footsteps on the stairs.
"Nodoka?" she recognised the voice to be Konoka's but didn't look up "Set-chan's really sorry but she says she had to tell me you were here, are you alright?" Nodoka nodded "you never were very good at lying Nodoka" Konoka swept her into a hug, Nodoka let her and sat crying into her shoulder "We all miss him" she only sobbed harder
"t-ten y-years" was all she could say through her tears
"I know, I know" They sat quietly the silence broken only by Nodoka's quiet sobbing. The bell rang again downstairs "I'll get it" Konoka said seeing her friend was in no state to serve customers, she dropped the hug and smiled sympathetically at Nodoka before leaving the room and walking down the stairs. Nodoka wiped her eyes and looked at the diarum ejus that was still in her arms. She opened it, the pages were blank
"Negi Springfield" she whispered quietly to the book but the pages remained stubbornly blank, she sighed she hadn't expected it to work. She closed the book "abeat" it turned into her pactio card, she stared at it, the picture was of her teenage self lost in thought she didn't hear the bell signal the customers exit or Konoka's footsteps returning
"Is that your-?" Nodoka nodded
"I found it earlier" she sniffed "It's what brought all this on"
"I see" Konoka studied her for a moment "Come on, let's go out, we need to catch up after all" Nodoka allowed herself to be dragged out of the shop pausing to lock the door behind her. "first things first, let's get Set-chan" They walked down the street Konoka talking nineteen to the dozen about everything that had happened to her since the incident, Nodoka was half paying attention to her, She was smiling slightly at the girls enthusiasm towards everything, she hadn't changed much. "Wait right here I'll go get Set-chan" Konoka said heading into an apartment block she returned moments later with Setsuna behind her.
"Hello again Nodoka-san" Setsuna said awkwardly "I'm sorry I-"
"It's okay" she cut her off "It's fine, really" she added as Setsuna opened her mouth again
"Come on you two" Konoka said starting off down the street, they followed her
"We're coming Kono-chan" They went to a café just down the road and sat at one of the tables
"So-" Nodoka said uncomfortably "Have you heard from…anyone?" They knew what she meant
"We're still in contact with Asuna but other than that no, it all just sort of fell apart after he left and then you left, Yue wouldn't talk to anyone for weeks, Eva-chan was angry, even Paru stopped being…Paru, the rest of the class were devastated too, we moved away a little while after you did and haven't heard from anyone but Asuna since, we looked for everyone when we got married but we couldn't find anyone" The waitress came over
"What can I get you?"
"We'll just have three coffee's please" they said
"Why did you just disappear?"
"I-I guess it just got too much" she looked at the floor "Every time I thought I'd got over it the reality just came flooding back and I just had to leave"
"You really love him don't you"
"more than anything" she wiped her eyes before she started to cry once more, Konoka and Setsuna exchanged glances of sympathy, Konoka reached forward and placed a hand on her shoulder
"It's okay, It'll all work out you'll see"