Thanks to Stan's pessmisstic ramblings, a young Negi does not associate "saving people" with the Thousand Master like Nekane wanted, but instead he believes that "trouble" will bring him. So he gets himself into trouble. Falling off a tree, getting stung by bees, being chased by a dog and almost drowning in the river but no Nagi Springfield.in trouble isn't enough, then what if he was the trouble?
And then the demons came.
Nagi's willingness to fight off the demons, but not stay behind to help unpetrify the townsfolk, just reaffirms Negi's belief. If being in trouble wasn't enough, what if he was the trouble?
Negi starts on a path to fill Dark Evangel's void...just wanting to drag his father out of hiding...

Vox Victum

"Remember Negi, the Headmaster is an old man," a rather tall and stately blonde woman whispered out the side of her mouth to a smaller figure wearing a pointy hat. "If they don't call you up, I'm sure we could take him."

With a muffled groan, Negi pulled his hat down even further in an effort to hide his burning face. "I'm sure that won't be necessary, Nekane..." But even as he said it, there was a small sliver of doubt. He hadn't been paying attention to every name called, but he was reasonably sure that it was being done in alphabetical order and 'Springfield' should have come up by now. He hadn't exactly failed the finals, so technically he was qualified for graduating but...

They could deny him a diploma.

Nekane sniffed before giving the top of his head a look that was half way playful and half way worried. "If you are sure!"

And he was sure. Very sure. Whatever reasons they might have for not giving him a diploma would not be helped by attacking the Headmaster out of rage. He would have told his sister that he was better than that, had he not spent the last hour considering it.

'It won't be necessary.' He reaffirmed to himself and a second later, a certain name was called.

"MARCUS ZIMMERMAN!"

The very last name off the list. Negi bit his lip as applause began to resound in the hall, feeling the pin pricks of forming tears. Wiping the evidence away, he looked up at his sister and promptly began to fear for the Headmaster's life. That smile...Nekane was always smiling but this one was...not pretty.

"No innocents in the crossfire!" he said quickly.

"We can make them clear out faster."

"Nekane!" His voice was close to whining but not quite, because Negi Springfield does not whine. It was far too childish.

"We will have words with the Headmaster, Negi," she replied in a tone that brooked no argument. "I will not allow you to go home and mope in your room until we know exactly what is going on." He felt her tug at his hat affectionately. "You earned it, don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

'That's right!' He stood a bit taller, lifting his chin with a new determination. He had earned it; he had been earning it for five years! 'I have to take what's mine.'

It took the better part of an hour for his classmates to stop congratulating each other and stop walking on eggshells around him but eventually, the hall emptied. Gathering his courage as the attendants started to clean up, Negi stepped forward. "Headmaster!" The old man turned to look him dead in the eyes, momentarily choking his words. Did this count as insubordination? "My diploma..."

"Mr. Springfield," he murmured pleasantly, even as Negi's heart jumped.

Doki-doki...

"May I speak to you privately?"

-------------------------

Over the course of five years, Negi had been inside the Headmaster's office far more times than he was comfortable with. It was regal, it was impressive, it was large and he was there again. The very first time he had seen the room was when Nekane had been bulldozing the man into letting him move up in the academy early giving this situation an ironic flair.

"I don't suppose you would like some tea, would you? Oolong."

Negi was tempted but he was so nervous that he just might throw it up. "No, thank you." His hands were shaking.

The Headmaster made a noncommittal humming sound as he poured himself a cup from the plain white set. The old man took a sip, breathing in the steam. "Do you remember, the second to last question on your Magical Theory exam?"

The young boy blinked. That was a random question. "Yes, it was an essay on the benefits of having greater magical control." The man's mind seemed to have drifted away sometime during his answer, so Negi took a breath and pressed forward. "Was something wrong with my answer?" 'I know I didn't put down anything incriminating...'

"In terms of content and voice, it was horrible."

Negi nearly had a heart attack. "H-h-horrible!" 'Crud!'

"You didn't answer the question. What little examples of benefits that you included were minor at best. The whole thing was beating around the bush with a strong sense of disapproval. You know the material," the man asserted. "But you rebel against it so strongly that you can't even write it down?"

Negi couldn't believe they were having this conversation. Again. "I passed, didn't I? This is a school! Not a political campaign! Headmaster, I know what you are thinking..." The man raised an eyebrow. "But I'm not that reckless anymore! I was just...young."

The other eyebrow went up.

"Really young," Negi blurted before throwing his hands up. "Come on, that was three years ago! I've changed, really." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Power is not the end all be all of things..."

There was a heartbeat of silence.

"The Board worried that you would repeat that incident, with even more purpose." The old man took another, long sip from his cup. "You take well to Darkness, Negi. A little too well for anyone to be comfortable...." he trailed off as he reached into the left voluminous sleeve and withdrew a scroll, tied with a golden ribbon. "I trust you will give me no reason to regret this."

For a full minute, Negi couldn't speak because his heart was lodged in his throat. He wrapped his hands around the diploma gingerly, as if it would break into dust at any moment. "I..." He clutched it to his chest and smiled widely. "I won't!" And just like that, all lingering tension vanished as the new Magister-Magi-in-training stood up to leave. "Thank you."

"Think nothing of it. Make me proud."

"I will."

As soon as the door closed behind him, Negi felt a bit of regret worm into his heart. Lying never sit well with him. With a sigh, he began to chant a phrase that belonged to him and him alone.

...rastel...magister...

He only had one chance to do this. 'Put me somewhere where I can grow stronger.'

The scroll rebelled. Bucking, twisting with the staccato of crackling paper, it burned him. A scorching, icy heat was lapping at his fingers and then slithering up his arm...it was...-it was too strong! He struggled with it, a battle of wills as he tried to enforce his demand. Back and forth, a ripping sound and his hands abruptly went numb. Reflexively, his fingers snapped open and the scroll drifted down onto the ground. Sharp, angry letters formed.

A teacher in Japan.

Negi sighed again as he felt a geass snap into place. Oh well, he didn't really think it would work anyway. As he flexed his fingers, he nudged the diploma with his foot. Nothing. He picked it up, rolled it, tied it and stuck it in the closest pocket. And sighed once more. The two women in his life, Nekane Springfield and Anya Cocolova...

'They're gonna flip...'

...

'Japan, huh?'

He tried to imagine what it would be like to live there, what the people were like but all his brain could come up with was a big fat 'it's way out east.' He knew he had learned about it but only the bare bones information was filtering in. It was different, in almost every way possible.

'I wonder...'

Without really meaning to Negi drifted down the corridors of the school, taking the long way back to the main hall while completely lost in thought. Marble tile after tile streamed underneath his feet until it blurred into one dull grey-brown mess. Some part of him admitted that he was lucky that hardly anyone was in school, or he'd probably mow right over them.

'This changes things.'

And it did. Precious research time would have to be redistributed towards studying the language and culture of the country, and perhaps some light reading on the native magic. Alternatives were never a bad thing. He could get the language in three weeks, with the help of some minor spells, two weeks, if he pushed it. Culture could be taken care of on the plane...

A slightly uneasy expression crossed his face. 'A bit close...best to read up on it the day before, at least.' And then there were the limitations of being physically so far away from his usual haunts. 'I hope there will be a library nearby, and I'll have to stock up on my research materials...'

Books. Bone fragments. A few more vials of blood, speaking of which, perhaps his order had come in by now? Crystals, runes and the ritual knife he had cracked last week...he scrubbed the top of his head. Age pills were a necessity and those were expensive! He could almost feel Puru-puru cry out in pain. 'It will be a short dip in the red, I'll have a teacher's salary...' He felt a smile tug at his lips. More money as well as less supervision...

Now there was a pleasant thought.

"Negi!"

His head jerked up guiltily. He meant less supervision in the form of the Headmaster! How could he forget that it also meant less Nekane? Less of everyone...

"Sis!" He cried out after making sure that he could inject enough false happiness into it. "I got it!" With the tinkling, pure laugh he adored about his sister he found himself swept up into a warm hug. He thought about complaining, he wasn't so little anymore, but he kind of wanted it too before it was reduced to a letter.

"I knew it," she said and pulled away to pinch at his cheeks. "You'll be just like your father..."

That last word almost killed the happy mood for Negi. "Maybe." 'If any of us knew what he was actually like, maybe.'

Nekane stood, blue eyes shining suspiciously with something, and smoothed a few wrinkles out of her sky blue dress. "Why don't we go pay Anya a visit? Lira told me you two had some kind of bet...?"

He smacked his palm with a fist, feeling the diploma shift in his pocket pleasingly. "That's right! I told her I could do it! She owes me about ten..." He quickly calculated the girl's tab. "Pounds and three pence now."

His sister raised an eyebrow. "And you owe her how much?"

'Damn, she had to ask.' "...fifteen pounds..." The eyebrow crawled higher. "I can pay her back!" he blurted out. "I'll have a salary now, it'll be no problem!"

That just lifted the other one. "What did your diploma say?"

For a moment, Negi froze. He knew where he was going. He knew what he'd have to do to prepare for it. He knew that eventually, within weeks, he had to leave. But for some reason, telling his sister about it would make it seem all the more real.

He wanted to soften the blow but as always, his mouth jumped ahead. "A teacher in Japan."

And his sister deflated. Too little surprise, too much shock with a healthy dose of what looked like...fear. He stared at her and she stared back as her hand came up to her mouth.

"Oh..."

-------------------------

The day was dragging on towards its end. From the window, the red sun could be clearly seen hanging fat in the sky as the horizon rose to meet it. The smoky light filtered through the clouds to tint a house, the sidewalk, a tree, a subtle red. The deep afternoon before evening, quiet as the village tended to be, was the best time of da-

"Aaaaaannnnyaaaaaa!" Negi flung the door open, uncaring or just not thinking about what could have greeted him on the other side. It was a habit everyone in the hostel tried to break him of to no avail. Sometimes he caught the girl at a bad time, something she would reinforce painfully, but today he was in luck. "Guess what I got- Lira!"

Crossing her arms, a young girl of around nine with dark red-brown hair tied back with a red ribbon huffed while rolling her eyes. "That's Negi for you. He'll come in like I'm his best friend but instantly forget about me once he spots something shiny." She met his indignant 'hey!' with a dismissing wave of the hand, but smiling to take away the sting.

An olive skinned young woman chuckled as she closed the book. "I suppose that makes me 'shiny' then?" Flustered, the boy could only squeak as Lira slid the worn book back into its spot on the bookshelves covering the south wall. "Anya? Would you like me to help you into the chair?"

"Nah," the girl replied easily. "Negi can do it." He spluttered but slumped in defeat as the woman ran a quick cleanliness check on the room before passing him. For a brief moment, a hand was on his shoulder.

"Relax, Negi. Anya won't bite." And she was gone to her room right across the hall.

He sighed. "She doesn't know you too well, does she?" Watching the angry blush spread across Anya's cheeks was a sweet revenge. Whipping out the diploma before her stunned eyes was just icing on the cake. "Nyah!"

"You dork" were the first two words out of her mouth. "You really did do it and only a six months later than me!" She gave him a cheeky thumb up as he felt his left eye develop a tick. She was horrible.

"You owe me ten pounds and three pence now." He didn't know why he said it, chances were that she kept a running tally of their bets already. How long had this rivalry been going on? Funny how he forgot the details of each bet, but still remembered the outcomes...

She stuck her nose in the air, a fair approximation of some kind of a Baroness if it weren't for her lips twitching. "Negi, Negi, Negi," she murmured with mock despair. "Forgot about your fifteen pound whopper already?" She pumped a fist in the air. "You will never beat me!"

He snorted and embracing his age, took a running leap onto the bed. The mattress was just as springy as he remembered, making both of them bounce up and down for a good thirty seconds. He knew he had the largest grin on his face as Anya bopped him on the head.

"You dork..."

'So you always tell me.' But that was ok, he could always count on her to be brutally honest. Four years ago, he had taken people for granted. But she had called him a dork back then too so at least, that was one thing that hadn't changed. The village was both emptier and fuller than it had been in a while. Less familiar faces, more foreign attention. People were more...cautious around him now.

It was exhilarating. And it hurt.

He looked down at the bed, at the brown quilt with flame spirals stitched into each square; his eyes tracing the sparking edges of the pattern. "I'm sorry for-" his breath hitched.

N-Not me! Not -!

Surely, the young master has prepared a sacrifice-

Negi! What are you do-

'Pull yourself together!' he thought with some irritation. It never seemed to get any easier to say. "For giving up your legs, Anya." Fire. Did she keep it to remind her, to remind him or was it completely innocent?

Her eyes rolled again. "You are a bloody fool, Negi Springfield." She poked him in the chest and he was embarrassed to find that he curled into himself away from the accusing finger. "I know you." He pondered over the strange emphasis as her voice softened. "I know you. You don't have to keep apologizing."

"But I want to." And that was that. He got up and opened the door to the closet where a sturdy and, in his opinion, cool looking wheelchair sat just waiting to be used. He wheeled it by the bed and floundered over how to break the news to his volatile and fire happy friend...

...rastel.....magister....

A minor levitation spell later and he was put on the spot.

"Did you see what your diploma said?" He watched her hook up the buckle around her waist, with an intensity that could only come from a dogged determination not to look at what lay below the belt. Or what didn't.

"Tell me yours first. You promised for when I got mine..."

"Fortune teller in London, exactly what I wanted! It's not too far from home either..."

"Oh...well..." he stalled as he opened the door, and wheeled her out of the room. "You see...it's kind of like this..."

"You're stalling, Negi. Is it that bad? You didn't get ermine breeder, did you?"

"...I'm to be a teacher in Japan."

"WHAT!?"

-------------------------

Running through the list of last minute preparations was a pain in the neck. The taxi was waiting, his plane would not wait but Nekane was not letting him out of her sight without double checking everything. Everything.

"Are you sure you have enough clean socks?"

Negi slapped a hand to his face as Anya started to snicker. "Yes, sis. I checked this morning."

His sister didn't look wholly convinced but moved on with a slight pout. "Underwear?"

He pressed his face into his palm hard enough to completely block off his nostrils. "Yebth..." He snuck a glance at his time piece. Well, there went all of the extra time that he had planned into his departure. Surely, he could find a polite way to cut this short-

Before he could even think of moving, or protesting, Nekane had swept him up into a hug that was a little too tight.

"I will miss you, little brother."

He could not stop the goofy looking smile on his face and after a moment, decided that he didn't want to. Reputation building...it doesn't matter with family, does it? He turned to Anya with that smile and arms open wide...and she just gave him this...look that made his arms feel like lead.

She snorted, crossing her arms as she leaned back into the wheel chair. "Don't get me wrong, I'll miss your dorkiness too but a hug? Don't you think we're too old for that? I'm not your sister, you know."

"Yes, you are." He said automatically. She stuck by him just like Nekane did and in his mind that counted more than blood relations.

The girl turned red as Nekane giggled. "D-don't say that!" For a moment, it looked like she was going to say something else but she just 'hurrumphed' and switched the subject. "You better make that stupid dream of yours a reality or you'll never hear the end of it."

Negi's smile grew. She remembered. 'Of course she would.' "On one condition: You have to reach your stupid dream too."

A mock salute. "It's a deal, Negi." They shared a secretive grin before he turned to the last member and he flailed for something that wasn't too childish to say. She beat him to it.

"Try to stay out of trouble, hmm?" Lira said it teasingly but her amber eyes were not joking. "I shouldn't be hearing anything about international incidents involving one troublesome Mr. Springfield, understand?"

He gulped. "I-I'll try..." 'I'm doomed.'

She gave him a tiny smile and followed up on it by removing one of the three charm necklaces she wore: a simple silver chain with an elaborately formed eight point star with an eye in the middle. "Come here."

He inched forward warily and very nearly jumped into the air when she knelt down to his eye level, holding the chain up in his face. "Wha-"

"This was my father's and his father's before him and so on, understand? It's a Crest and as such I'm entrusting it to you." He held out a hand and the cool metal was unceremoniously dropped into it. "Take good care of it."

He stared for a good ten seconds. "Why me?"

Lira shrugged. "Do I need a reason?"

'YES!' He kept his mouth shut and just put it on without complaint. He'd run tests on it later. "I-I guess this is good bye then..." 'Nekane, you are the best sis ever. Anya, you are an invaluable friend. Lira, you better take care of her and...'

Anya started waving first, big sweeping arcs in the air that Nekane soon copied. Lira stuck a hand in the pocket of her overcoat, but had the other one up high. It made...it made his eyes start to prickle suspiciously.

Before his cover could break, he threw his backpack into the trunk of the taxi, startling the driver that had begun to doze off.

"You ready to go now?"

He gave the man a nod, swallowing past the lump in his throat as he stared out the window, fixing his eyes on the scenery so he wouldn't look back. the village began to disappear. The brick walls that lined the main road out began to get shorter, the grass became longer and the hills grew larger the further from the shallow valley he got.

And then he spotted it: a small thin trail leading up one of the hillsides. He tapped the back of the driver's seat. "Could you let me out here? I'll be right back." The man nodded and pulled over.

"You're cutting it close, Mr. Springfield..." he warned but Negi had already gone.

-------------------------

"I won't fail you."

It had started out as little more than a shallow cave in the hillside, barely more than a dip into the moist earth, which had been turned into a majestic granite cavern with a vaulted high ceiling, crude in a way that spoke of desperation. The walls were patched with an inconsistent polish, half of the slim windows at the top had collapsed and the door had ill fitting hinges that screeched every time it was opened.

A rush job. Aesthetics had not been the priority.

"I can't fail you."

The floor, which had once been sharp and jagged, had been scuffed smooth over the years from its constant visitors. A path worn into the stone...he wondered how much he had contributed to its making. This was the place that started it all; the place of his inspiration. Those familiar faces moved here as to be safe from the ravages of time and weather, he would accept the responsibility.

'Full Petrification is incurable.'

That, he would not accept.

Never.

And this was his last chance to tell them.

"I will succeed, no matter what I have to do." He lifted his staff, his father's staff, and let it fall on the stone with a sharp crack. "That is all." It might have been the sudden breeze that drifted in, but he could have sworn that those stone cold eyes watched him leave.

The next time he was in this village...next time...

This was where it all started, six years ago among fire, snow and once living stone. He would not give up. His dream...it would take time and resources but that was fine by him. In the same way that the wind could wear down a mountain to dust, he would prevail.

-------------------------

Rastel Magi Magister Viaticus Vox Victum