Play For a Spell by Storychan
Chapter 1
Chisame Hasegawa didn't normally like to test her boundaries. She liked boundaries-safe little havens that made her school life at Mahora Academy more normal. Of course, regardless of her wishes, the boundaries of her normalcy as a student of Mahora Junior High for Girls Class 3-A had recently been tested, severely, sickeningly, and to her great ire. It wasn't bad enough that most of her class was populated by freaks. That had made jr. high difficult enough to grit her teeth and get through, until, hopefully, life would even out in high school and she could live a relatively boring, yet normal and sane, school life. No, no…Chisame's boundaries and patience had to receive another little test before she could simply graduate in peace.
It was her last year of jr. high, and then Takahata-sensei, a teacher that even though she didn't necessarily like, she had gotten used to for the last two years, had quit her class and been replaced. Not by any normal, sharp-suited and intelligent English teacher, no…..by a ten-year-old child who had randomly immigrated to Japan from Wales. The worst part was that her class, not questioning the fact that a little boy five years their junior was supposed to finalize their jr. high-level education in the English language, actually liked this random, out-of-left-field change. In fact, some of them wanted to date the sawed-off brat who was trying to pass himself off as their teacher…which, in itself was creepy.
Chisame's boundaries had recently been pushed even farther during MahoraFest, the school's annual festival. She'd found out that Negi Springfield, the aforementioned ten-year-old claiming to be a teacher, was also, if Chisame could keep up the willing suspension of disbelief to believe it, a wizard. She'd figured it out after Negi- the brat-had performed a bunch of flashy, couldn't-possibly-be-real kung fu-magic-Dragonball-looking moves at the school festival's big tournament show about half a week ago. She'd wondered at first if it was all a set-up….was the snot-nosed brat trying to scam the kids at school or something? The other students in the audience, of course, had just gone with it, all too willing to accept that a kid like Negi who could barely be old enough to enter the 5th grade was capable of such crazy-impossible skill and power. She'd wondered if this was some kind of publicity stunt, if Chao Lingshen (another freak in her class, a girl who'd randomly transferred in from China a few years back and in a freakishly small amount of time became some sort of famous, genius billionaire) had set the whole tournament up to increase business for her dining-car Chinese place. Chisame wouldn't put it past her. She had no idea why a classmate of hers would sponsor an event like that anyway….or why so many of her other classmates had entered it. Chisame would have been perfectly happy to believe that the whole class had dreamed up the whole thing as an attention-drawing charade….but then a robot (who somehow also had wound up in her loony-bin of a class) had informed her that the tournament was so crazy because it was magic…and that Chao was from the future, and trying to use it to make everyone believe that magic was not only real, but entirely normal. Chisame, rather than suffering a nervous breakdown after her head exploded from all this craziness, simply Googled some of Chachamaru's (the robot's) claims. As it turned out, the whole school was buzzing about magic. And, somehow, Chisame has been forced to help out Negi and his freaky friends in a plan to stop people believing in this magic stuff that had been driving her crazy.
She'd wound up beating Chachamaru in a hacker-battle in order to preserve some shred of the normal life she knew, hoping to stay even a bit sane after she'd seen Negi travel through time and throw magic arrows at Chao. Her life was totally losing it's boundaries….but today, she, against all odds, was testing the boundary between herself and magical lunacy once again.
In order to beat Chachamaru, she'd been coerced into acquiring the artifact she now held, a long staff that looked like it belonged in a magical girl show. She still seethed, flushing, at the memory of how….Paru-chan (another annoying classmate) had practically forced her, with the help of a talking weasel (Chisame wasn't even going to think about how crazy it was that something like that actually existed) to kiss Negi while he slept off the result of a spell that had forced her to believe in magic (and time travel). She'd hated even considering doing something so disgusting, but the creepy weasel thing, Chamo, had told her doing so, and forming a magical pact called a Pactio, would give her an artifact that could help her beat Chao's plan to make magic a part of already less-than-normal reality. Reluctantly, she'd agreed, knowing it was her one shot at even being able to pretend her life made sense. And, dammit, Negi had woken up, too, while she was trying to get it over with, that brat!
Still internally shuddering, she looked down at the staff she held as she sat in her dorm by her PC, wondering what the hell she was doing testing the boundaries of her normal life and magic again. As revolting as it had been to get it, the staff (called the Spectrum Virtuale) had wound up being immensely useful. It let her immerse her mental self (if not her physical one) in cyberspace, allowing her to essentially become the virtual entity she called herself on her homepage, Chiu. It was an escapist alter ego, and she knew it….but the alter ego had fans. Now, she was willing top test her boundaries for these fans, many of which had begged her to create a Chiu avatar on the RPG game that now sat before her on her screen, Magic Play. She had hypothesized that if the Spectrum Virtuale let a virtual version of herself actually live in cyberspace (which, once she'd accepted it was possible, was awesome) , then it could allow her to turn any computer game into virtual reality. So, sighing, she hit a button, creating a Level 1 Wizard character that looked exactly like her adorable, beloved alter ego, Chiu. The whole game was pretty dorky…all you did was cast lame-looking spells in order to beat dumb monsters, like dragons. But, then, most of Chiu's fans were at least a little dorky, but they loved her, and Chisame loved being loved, so she tried to appease them. Since actually playing the game normally sounded kind of boring, Chisame had decided to see how using the Spectrum Virtuale could make it more interesting.
"Here goes nothing…." She sighed, bracing herself to go virtual while her physical body slept in reality. She was so focused on preparing herself for the weirdness of using the Spectrum Virtuale that she didn't even notice Negi and some of his friends sneak in through her unlocked door behind her to invite her to tea…..
Chapter 2
"Oh, wow." Chisame said, shocked, as she looked at the new virtual environment surrounding her. The crappy graphics of the actual Magic Play game had transformed into a lush, beautiful world to walk in before her eyes with the help of the Spectrum Virtuale. Before her was a clearing full of thick-branched, vibrantly green trees, tall, thick grass, and a few rays of pale sunlight shining through it to the forest floor. Remembering what she'd read of the Magic Play guidebook she'd looked up earlier, she realized she must be in what was called the Enchanted Forest. It was supposed to be the game area where all newbies started out at to face their first monsters. "It looks so peaceful, though." Chisame said aloud, surprised. She almost jumped a whole foot in the air when a timid English voice said, "I agree, it's nice. Chisame-san, where are we?"
Looking behind her, Chisame was shocked to see what could only be Negi, decked out in the lame robe and wizard hat of a basic Level 1 Wizard! What was worse, a few of what looked like her classmates stood behind him. There was Yue Ayase, a shrimpy girl in the Library Club she sat next to in class who had also recently found out about Negi's magic. She apparently had somehow become a Level 1 Wizard as well. Next to her was her friend, another girl in the Library Club from Chisame's class who knew the truth about Negi (she was one of the ones who wanted to date the brat..eww) a shy girl, Nodoka Miyazaki. She seemed to be dressed as a Level 1 Healer. At her side, in the same white-and-pink Healer garb, was yet another classmate, Konoka Konoe, the school dean's airhead granddaughter. Glaring from behind her in the outfit of a Level 1 Warrior was Setsuna Sakurazaki, who Chisame recently found out not only knew about magic, but actually used it to attack people as part of some freaky magical samurai training to help guard Konoka, who apparently was some sort of wizard princess. "I'm curious, as well, Chisame-san." Yue said, apparently the least confused out of the group. "Where are we? A second ago, we were coming into your dorm room to ask you if you wanted to join us for tea at the school cafeteria. Can you please tell us what's going on?" she droned in her odd philosopher monotone.
Oh my GOD, Chisame thought to herself, her heart racing still from the shock of their appearance. They FOllOWED me. Ugh…those twits! They must have stepped in the circle with me when I activated the Spectrum Virtuale. Don't tell me…..their physical bodies are sitting back in my dorm room, as well? Oh no….why did they have to tag along? They're idiots. Always breaking into my freakin' personal space where they don't belong..Why would they invite me to TEA, anyway? Don't tell me that because of that hacker thing I did to help them out at that crazy MahoraFest incident, they think we're FRIENDS now, or something…Crap! I gotta get them out of here….Think, Chisame!
Taking a deep breath, she tried to explain things to the idiot Negi, who was stupid enough to follow her in here. "Listen, I'm sorry you wound up here, but you gotta get back to the real world, OK? Pronto. Let me think how to…"
"Oh, Chisame-chan!" Konoka interrupted her excitedly. "Wait a minute! This is Magic's Play, isn't it? I played this game once!" What? Chisame thought to herself, mind racing to come up with a plan to deal with this hairbrained situation her over-friendly classmates had started. Don't tell me Konoe-san actually PLAYS this sort of thing.. Before Chisame could actually think about that, though, Negi interrupted her thoughts again, saying excitedly, "Game? Oh, Chisame-san, don't tell me you're actually using your new artifact I gave you! The Spectrum Virtuale, wasn't it? By golly…are we in some sort of computer game?"
"That's correct, isn't it, Hasegawa-san?" asked Setsuna, recovering from her shock. "We've accidentally stepped into the middle of this Magic's Play thing Ojou-sama and Negi-sensei are speaking of, aren't we? It would explain the clothes we're in." Setsuna looked down at her fanciful armored costume and blushed. "Is that right, Hasegawa-san?" Nodoka demanded, speaking up bravely. "Are we inside some kind of video game?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Chisame griped, growing frustrated with all the demands of the group before her. It wasn't her fault they'd walked into her room behind her right when she'd incanted the spell with the Spectrum Virtuale to bring herself here. "First of all, when I look like this, call me Chiu-chan." she said, indicating the short fashion-idol skirt swinging in the breeze below her that she wore. It was perfectly coordinated with the cutesy tank and kitty ears she wore as part of her standard 'net-idol get-up whenever she posted on her homepage as Chiu. She also noticeably lacked the thick glasses she wore to class, and everywhere besides in the pictures she took for her 'Chiu's Homepage' fans. It wasn't like she made herself look like this for nothing. None of her geeky fanboys would recognize her as the bespectacled and incredibly ordinary schoolgirl she was in real life, and she wanted to keep it that way. Her 'Chiu' alter ego was much prettier, anyway. These idiot classmates of her could at least realize that. "Second of all," she said, resuming her irate speech, "I was trying to test out the Spectrum Virtuale to see what it did to this game by myself. You shouldn't have walked into my room and followed me in here! Besides, I've now I've got to get you all out of…."
Before Chisame could say "here", she heard a strange rustling in the bushes behind her, and turned to see what the heck else was in here with her. Then, she screamed, as a huge Level 1 Dragon stuck it's knobbly, acid-green head out of the bushes and roared at her! Apparently, the "game's 1st monster" was here after all….only now, she was actally inside the game, and there was no way she could hit the 'Attack' button back on her computer screen back in the real world to stop it!
Chapter 3
"Chisame-san!" Negi screamed. "Run!" His words were needless…Chisame was already running like hell. This had been a bad idea…what was she thinking, going inside a magic-themed video game? Hadn't she had enough freaky magic in her life? Now, she might not even be able to get back to that life, because a dragon was going to eat her before she could even get out of here and back to her actual body! She didn't even want to think about what would happen if her mental self was eaten alive while her body was still out there, in the real world, sleeping, while she was trapped here in cyberspace. She kept running, cursing her stupid boundary-pushing curiosity for getting her into this mess. She should have left this freaky magic stuff well enough alone…she'd been so stupid. And now, a dragon was going to eat her!
"Arrrrgh!" she screamed as she stumbled over some virtual rocks. "What was I thinking? Now I'm going to freaking die!" Negi ran past her, stopping a few feet ahead. "You're not going to die, Chisame-san." he said calmly, with a smile so irritating Chisame wanted to choke him with his own hat. He began chanting, holding up the dinky starter wand beginner characters in Magic's Play always started out with. Chisame raised an irritated eyebrow, stumbling frantically over another rock. What did the brat think he was doing? "Raster, maskil, magister…" Negi chanted, oblivious to Chisame's confusion. "Sagitta magica! Una fulgaris!" He flicked the ridiculously small wand at the dragon, and a burst of lightning stopped it in it's tracks. As Chisame cried out in shock, smoke filled the clearing where they stood. "What are you d-doing?" she coughed, waving the smoke away. Then, looking to where the dragon had stood, she gasped. In it's place was a small bag of coins, and the word "VICTORY ~" glowed vibrantly in mid-air. That was when Chisame, startled, remembered…she'd read that the 1st spell wizards in this game started out with at Level 1 was 'Lightning Arrow'…..As her mind struggled with the idea that Negi had beat Level 1 and saved her, she slowly began to notice the whole scene fade to black…..
With a startled yelp, Chisame found herself sitting in a glowing circle, leaning back in her computer chair, staring at the words 'LEVEL UP' blinking at her on her computer screen as she found herself pulled back into reality. Wiping sleep-drool off her chin, she blinked confusedly at her PC, and turned around to thank Negi for helping her beat the level and get back home, when heard a clatter and realized that Negi, still asleep and incredibly still, had collapsed onto her floor as the chair he'd been leaning on turned to reveal Chisame's shocked face. Apparently, the fact that Negi in his green teacher's suit and Yue, Nodoka, Konoka, and Setsuna in their school uniforms still lay prone and passed out on her floor meant that their minds were still trapped in the computer game Chisame had just barely escaped.
Freaked out by the thought that her classmates were still trapped in Level 2 of Magic's Play without her, with possibly no way for her to get them out, Chisame barely noticed a flashing icon on the bottom of screen informing her that someone named Kaiba_Man had sent her a message...and possibly, a friend request. Completely freaked out, Chisame screamed, "What do you want?" before reminding herself that Kaiba_Man was not actually present with her but somewhere else playing Magic's Play from wherever the hell he lived, and took a deep breath. Sighing, she clicked on the message, and opened it, not knowing what else she could possibly do to help with this horrid situation she'd gotten herself into, all the while cursing the magic…and magic-using 10-year-old teacher….who had started it.
The message, shockingly, looked almost helpful:
To: CHIU
From: Kaiba_Man
Re: Helping Your Idiot Friends
Hello…My name is Seto Kaiba. I'm from Domino City, and you may have heard of me. I helped create the hologram version of the card game, Duel Monsters. I've noticed you look exactly like the famous Internet idol with the same name as your username…Chiu. If you're her, I thought you might like help getting your idiot friends out of this game. It's obvious they only started playing because of you. I guess it's because you're famous or something. You might have noticed, but in the game chatbox they keep sending messages saying that they actually think they're somehow magically trapped in the game. No offense, but they're idiots. My guess is you've somehow created some virtual reality technology that they messed with, and now they're too stupid to realize they're using it, and think some sort of 'magic' has 'trapped' them in the game of Magic's Play. I think if I can help them beat the game, your virtual reality machine might shut down and they'll wake up and realize they're just too stupid to realize they're playing a game. However, once I help them beat it, I demand that you let me come to your location and let me see this virtual reality tech you've come up with. I'm interested in buying it.
-Seto Kaiba
CEO, KaibaCorp.
Chisame simply gaped at the screen before her. Seto Kaiba…wasn't he that guy in Domino City who'd hosted that dorky card game tournament a while back? Chisame had heard about it on the 'Net…it had been super popular. Hadn't been called Battle City, or something? Chisame would worry about showing this Kaiba guy her 'virtual reality machine' later….if he could help her get Negi and the rest of those meddling idiots out of cyberspace, she had to get him to help!