Disclaimer: I own nothing except what I made up for this story.


April 10th, 2007, Mahora, several weeks after Negi's first class's high school graduation...


"Misora, you are being recalled back to Rome," Sister Shakti said as Misora loitered around near the confessional.

Misora just blinked and looked at the other woman as if she had grown a second head. "Er…excuse me?"

Sister Shakti gave her a rare sympathetic look and repeated her earlier statement. "They are recalling you to Rome."

Misora's usual carefree expression disappeared. "How can they 'recall' me to Rome if I've never even been there? Is something wrong? I'm not being excommunicated or something am I?" she asked worriedly.

Shakti shook her head. "No…I don't know anything about it other than what I have told you. But…" she said quietly, looking around quickly to make sure there were no eavesdroppers. "When someone is recalled to Rome, it is often in order to test them for some special mission or a promotion. It happened to me when I was your age, and it happened to several of my friends as well. Just behave yourself and you should be fine," she finished. "Now, here are the directions to the location where you will meet up with your contact. I understand she is a nun temporarily stationed in Japan as some sort of cultural exchange program within the church. Good luck Misora, and be sure to tell Cocone before you leave."


And that was how Misora found herself at Shibuya Station at 8:30 in the morning a week later, waiting at the statue of Hachiko for her contact to show up.

Misora chewed her gum for a moment, then started blowing a bubble. She watched as it grew bigger and bigger, until it was almost as big as her head, and then…it popped and she jerked her head back belatedly, unable to avoid the wet bubblegum now sticking to her face. She sighed and began the work of peeling it off. She was halfway through when she heard someone laughing.

"What's so funny?" she demanded as she pulled off a particularly large chunk of gum.

"Well, it's not every day you see a sight like that," the stranger said, grinning at her. Misora looked her over and frowned. The woman seemed to be in her late teens or possibly early twenties, wore a nun's clothing in an odd shade of blue belonging to an order she didn't recognize, and was of average height and build, though her chest was quite well developed. Misora sighed and grumbled something under her breath about cows.

"Yeah yeah, go ahead and laugh. Haven't you ever had bubble gum explode in your face?" Misora asked testily.

The woman shrugged and adjusted her glasses. "So, you're Misora-chan, right?"

Misora cocked an eyebrow. "That's The Great Misora-sama to you. What's your name?"

The woman seemed amused as she answered. "You can call me Ciel; I'll be your escort back to Rome."

"Ok, Ciel-san. Please take care of me," Misora said, bowing slightly.

Ciel grinned at her as she returned the bow. "So how old are you, Misora-san?" she asked as the two headed for the street.

"Eighteen, I just graduated high school. You?"

"Twenty," Ciel lied. "Have you ever been out of the country before?"

Misora shrugged. "Not really. I have been all over Japan, though."

They got into a taxi and rode in silence for a few minutes before Ciel spoke again.

"I'm sure you'll find Rome to be quite different from Japan, but stick with your friends and you'll be fine," she said reassuringly.

Misora just rolled her eyes. Some people thought they knew everything…


Misora grumbled quite a bit at the economy class seating, and even more so at the annoying brat kicking the back of her seat on the first leg of the flight.

*bump* *bump* *bump*

Misora clenched her teeth together to keep from saying something she might regret, and resolved to suffer through it. No point in making a scene.

*bumpbumpbumpbump*

N-no point in—

*BUMP* "Hehehe~"

No p—

This time, her thoughts were interrupted by a small toy bouncing off her head, followed by a childish giggle.

"Hehehehe~"

She clenched her fists, unhooked the seatbelt, and—

"Excuse me, ma'am. I'm sorry to ask, but would you like to trade seats with us? It's my friend here's first trip on a airplane, and she is quite nervous with the view from this window," Ciel said pleasantly to the mother of the brat seated behind Misora.

"Oh, sure, why not. You seem like a nice young lady, where are you two going?"

Misora looked at her traveling companion with a newfound respect as Ciel chatted with the woman as if they were old friends. When she was again seated comfortably, now behind the stupid brat, Misora gave the seat in front of her a sharp kick and sat back comfortably, a look of contentment on her face.

"That is rude, you know," Ciel said quietly. Misora glanced over at her and spotted the grin the woman was trying to hide.

"Yeah, and he deserved it," she replied, failing to hold back her own grin. "Thanks, by the way," she added after a moment.

"Don't worry about it," Ciel said as she took out a book to read.

Misora decided to settle in and get comfortable. No point in dwelling on things after all, and they still had a long way to go to get to Rome.


Misora slowly swam back up into consciousness as someone shook her shoulder.

"Wha…? What is it?" she asked groggily. She had been having a nice dream about strawberry shortcake and a more adult Negi-sensei.

"Misora-san, we're here," Ciel said as she let go of Misora's shoulder.

Misora sat up, rubbing her eyes. "What time is it?"

"Local or Japan?" Ciel asked, her grin coming through in her words.

"Local," Misora said as she looked out the window. The sun was pretty low…

"6:45 p.m., Central European Time," Ciel replied.

"Ugh, feels like it's midnight or something," Misora complained.

"Come on, get your things together, it's time to go."

Misora grunted in reply.


The taxi ride was fairly short, and Misora was quite surprised when the car pulled up outside what looked to be a regular apartment building with half a dozen scooters in various states of repair parked outside.

The driver said something in Italian to Ciel, who responded in kind and produced a handful of Euros. The two argued for a moment while Misora looked around at the neighborhood in a daze as her internal clock struggled to adjust to the time difference between Japan and Rome. Her body was telling her many, many hours had passed, but the sun said otherwise, and it was really messing with her head.

"Come on, let's go introduce ourselves," Ciel said, snapping Misora back to reality.

"Huh? Oh, yeah…" she said as she grabbed her things and scooted across the back seat. She staggered upon getting out of the car, but Ciel was there to steady her. "Thanksh…" Misora said.

"Any time," Ciel said as she took some of Misora's bags and grabbed her hand. "Come on. Let's go in, you need some sleep."

Misora quietly let Ciel lead her up the wide stone stairs and into the building. Inside, a woman behind a desk looked up at them disinterestedly and pointed to a heavy book lying open on a small table in the middle of the room. Ciel nodded and led Misora over to the book. She signed her name, then passed the elaborate, carved ivory pen to Misora. She looked over the names in the book, struggling to make them out. It appeared that the correct way to sign your name in this place was with as many loops and flowery designs as possible. A full half of the names on the page were totally unreadable! She wrote her name in roman letters in as flowery a way as she could, and placed the pen back into its holder. She glanced at the line where Ciel had signed her name. 'Elesia?' The last name was written too flowery for her to read. Misora started to ask Ciel about it, but she was speaking with the woman at the desk, who passed her a key. Ciel turned and waved Misora forward.

Misora approached awkwardly. "Ciel-sempai? Did you need something?"

Ciel glanced at her. "I just need to introduce you. Proper procedure and all that," she said absently.

Misora stood there awkwardly while Ciel dropped back into Italian. 'Ah…I wish I had paid more attention to Sister Shakti's lessons back home…' she thought to herself. She was looking at an elaborate metal paperweight on the desk when she heard her name mentioned and looked up to see Ciel and the woman looking at her.

"What? Is something wrong?"

"No," Ciel said. "Misora-san, this is Rachele Giordano. She works the reception desk here."

Misora nodded and bowed to the woman. "Nice to meet you," she said awkwardly, knowing the woman wouldn't understand her words.

Much to her surprise, Rachele replied in…rough...Japanese. "You, nice to meet. Today."

Misora looked to Ciel, who grinned crookedly. "She only knows a little. Come on, let's get to our room. You've got a big day tomorrow, and I have a hearing to sit through."

Misora bowed quickly to the woman at the desk, who nodded in return, and followed Ciel up the stairs.

"So…I thought we were going to the Vatican?" Misora said after they had climbed a few flights.

Ciel looked back at her, grinning in amusement. "Not a chance, not for someone of your rank. No offense, but you have to work long and hard to be found worthy of a place there," she said. "You're going to have to settle for the School for Special Skills for now," she said as she stopped on the fifth floor landing. "Come on, this way."

Misora followed her through a hallway and waited, yawning, while she unlocked a door.

"Come on in, Misora, welcome to your new home," Ciel said while Misora blinked owlishly.

"What…?"

"Your roommate will be in later tonight, but you've lived in a dorm half your life, so it should be fine. Here, I'll put your things here," Ciel said, putting Misora's bags on the floor next to one of the beds. "I have to go now, I need to get a few hours of sleep in one of the guest rooms downstairs, and then attend a hearing. Goodbye Misora-chan, and good luck."

The door shut behind Ciel and, just like that, Misora was abandoned, left alone in a strange city in a strange land, surrounded by people who spoke a language she didn't understand.

As far as Misora was concerned, however, all of that was secondary to the extreme exhaustion that had been building since her arrival. So, with nothing else screaming for her attention, she stripped off her clothes and climbed into the bed, not even noticing how hard the mattress was as she drifted off to sleep.


Misora swam up from the depths of a bizarre dream about flying penguins and wondered where she was for a moment. She glanced around the unfamiliar room, shrouded in shadows, and saw the lump of another person under the covers of the other bed.

She reached over the edge of the bed, fumbled around for a moment in the pile of clothes she had worn the day before until she found the lump of her cell phone. She dragged it out of the pocket it had been in and flicked it open to look at the time. What she saw didn't make much sense, however.

"7:30...?" she muttered. A quick glance at the curtained window showed no sign of the sun, and it took her sleep-addled mind a moment to recall that she wasn't in Japan anymore. "Oh, right. Rome." The person in the other bed began to move, so Misora stopped talking to herself and flicked her cell phone shut. The other person rolled over and settled down, and Misora relaxed and laid back down. Sleep was long in coming, but she drifted off eventually.


The soft sounds of someone attempting to be quiet dragged Misora from the depths of sleep and a dream about popsicles some time later.

She cracked her eyes open and the first thing she saw was some rather unattractive blue and green striped wallpaper that had last been bright and new just after the second world war. There was a thump behind her and someone muttered something that sounded like a curse; apparently they sounded the same no matter what language you spoke.

Misora quickly closed her eyes and carefully schooled her breathing in an attempt to look as if she was still asleep. She wasn't quite ready to face her new roommate and wanted some time to adjust to her new surroundings first.

The other person fumbled around for what seemed like hours before moving over to stand beside Misora's bed. Misora forced herself to remain still while the stranger looked down at her for a moment, and almost heaved a sigh of relief when she heard the sound of retreating footsteps, followed by the door opening and closing, and then she was alone in the room.

Now, to wait until her unknown roommate had left the building…


Some time later, Misora put on some clean clothes, straightened up her bed, and set out for the lobby and the only person around who knew some Japanese. She passed several people in the halls, realizing for the first time on a deep level that she was the foreigner in this place, not these other people. It was strange…she found it difficult to wrap her mind around the fact, and the realization of her status here made her feel very small.

She started down the narrow stairs, but had to press herself against the wall awkwardly to make room for another girl her age who was coming up. The red haired girl had a serious, no nonsense air about her, and Misora found herself staring for a moment. Here was someone who was totally focused in her life...it was sort of intimidating. The girl looked at her curiously as she made eye contact, raising an eyebrow, but Misora looked away quickly and the girl continued on her way.


The lobby was nearly deserted, and, unfortunately, the receptionist from the day before had been replaced by another woman, who looked up at her with a surprised expression. Another, older woman leaning over the desk also gave her an odd look, and asked something in Italian.

"Um…does anyone here speak Japanese?" Misora asked hopefully.

The two women looked at each other for a moment, and then turned back to Misora. The receptionist took a deep breath.

"Japanese. The language speak. Common fruit blue…uh…desu?" she said, trailing off.

Misora just gaped at the receptionist for a moment, then burst into laughter. The older woman standing by the desk grinned slightly while the receptionist clamped her mouth shut, looking offended and embarrassed and altogether abashed.

Misora managed to reign in her laughter after a moment and stood there, sheepishly wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. The older woman gave her a look that said 'Are you done yet?', and Misora tried again, turning to the receptionist.

"I'm sorry," she said in Japanese as slowly and clearly as she could, and gave a little bow. The woman shook her head as if to say it didn't matter.

The older woman took over. "Teresa Rossi," she said, planting a hand on her chest. She gestured to the receptionist. "Aurelia Russo." The she gestured to Misora, a questioning look on her face.

"Er…Oh! I see. My name is Kasuga Misora," Misora said politely. They looked at her blankly, so she repeated herself, more slowly. "Kasuga Misora."

The older woman repeated her name, only slightly mangling it, and Misora nodded. The two women said something to each other in Italian.

'That's getting very annoying,' Misora thought. She hadn't realized just how irritating it could be when you couldn't tell if someone was saying hello or threatening to sue you. She watched as the woman opened a closet and took out a couple of motorcycle helmets. She tossed one to Misora, who caught it effortlessly, and motioned for her to follow.

Having no other choice, Misora followed the woman outside and over to the row of scooters she had seen the day before when she arrived. Most of them were gone now; only four remained. The woman headed for an old two-seater Vespa and put her helmet on. She got on and looked at Misora, waiting.

Misora put the helmet on and climbed on awkwardly behind the woman. There was nowhere to put her hands, so she just sat there for a moment until the woman reached back and pulled Misora's arms forward, putting them around her waist. Misora blushed in embarrassment, trying to keep from getting too close to the woman as she backed the scooter up. She only had a few seconds to look around before the woman blasted off at breakneck speed and she clamped on for dear life. She felt the woman's body shake, and realized she was laughing as she darted in and out of traffic.

After a minute or so, Misora managed to work up the nerve to open her eyes and see the city that would be her home for the next year or so. Elaborate stone facades, plazas, fountains…it was quite impressive. She happened to glance down a wide street as the scooter darted across and was shocked to see what could only be the Coliseum at the far end.

"Was that the Coliseum? It was, wasn't it!" Misora said excitedly. The woman said something in Italian and laughed again, and took another turn. The sheer amount of old buildings was amazing, and Misora almost fell off the Vespa as they drove past a big, ancient stone temple on top of a hill. Seeing that type of thing in a book was a lot different from seeing it in person…!

Soon, though, they entered a more normal area of the city, and the ancient buildings were lost from view. Misora settled down, trying to balance correctly as the scooter made turns here and there. This part of the city wasn't unlike Mahora, and it made her feel a little homesick.

Eventually, they pulled up in front of a large building that looked sort of like a school, or maybe a university. The woman tapped Misora's arms, which were still wrapped around her waist, and Misora let go and climbed off the scooter, her legs wobbly. The woman took off her helmet and looked at Misora, who quickly took off her helmet and handed it over. The woman hung the two helmets on the scooter, nodded at Misora, and started climbing the wide stone stairs up to the building.

"Not wheel chair accessible, huh?" Misora muttered as she followed, looking around. Sure enough, there weren't wheelchair ramps or anything to allow access to the front door except these huge stairs…

When they reached the top, the woman looked back smiling slightly, and seemed quite surprised that Misora wasn't gasping for breath after the steep stair climb.

"Something wrong?" Misora asked, grinning, but the woman just nodded at her approvingly and continued on into the building.


The inside of the building was magnificent…high, elaborately decorated ceilings, marble statues on pedestals, with huge paintings and tapestries decorating the walls. Elaborate mosaics depicting all sorts of bizarre creatures and scenes made up the floor, and the whole scene exuded a sense of great age and beauty.

The woman walked ahead, the steady tapping of her footsteps loud in the deserted hall, and Misora followed quickly, her footsteps echoing crazily as she ran to catch up.

The woman led her into a side room, where she nodded at a secretary and continued on into another, slightly larger room where a man in a simple black suit sat behind a desk, typing on a computer. He motioned for them to take a seat, but continued typing for a moment.

Misora waited impatiently, her hands clutched together in her lap, while the other woman simply sat there next to her. 'That's very rude…the least he could do is put the computer aside until we're gone,' she thought.

After a moment, the man finished and looked up at them, saying something in Italian. Misora couldn't stop the sigh that escaped, and the man gave her a bemused look in response. She looked away sheepishly, but soon the conversation between the two adults turned to her. She heard her name mentioned several times, and then the man turned back to the computer for a moment. He clicked and typed and messed around, then gave Misora a serious, measuring look.

"What? Is something wrong?" Misora asked worriedly, looking from one to the other. The woman from the dorm building was giving her an odd look, as if she hadn't really seen her before.

The man pressed a button on the desk and spoke into a small microphone for a moment, then rose and, much to Misora's surprise, bowed to her. Nobody had bowed to her here…!

"What, what's going on?" Misora asked frantically as she half-rose from her chair. "What…?"

The woman took Misora's arm and said something that was probably supposed to be soothing, and then turned and left the room. Misora stood up and started to follow her, but the man behind the desk said something sharply and she stopped, looking back and forth between the door Teresa had gone through and the man. He gestured to another door off to the side.

'What on earth is going on here?' Misora thought frantically as she opened the door. This room was much smaller, containing only a table with six chairs and a TV hanging in the corner. The TV was turned off. The man said something she couldn't understand and she jumped; she hadn't realized he had followed her in. He gestured to the chair on the far end of the table, so she took a seat awkwardly.

"I'm not in trouble, am I?" she asked.

The man gave her an odd look and shook his head to indicate he didn't understand what she had said, and then left her alone in the room.

"What's going on…?"


A good thirty minutes later, the door opened and two people entered the room. Misora brightened up considerably upon seeing Ciel, but the woman gave her a severe look and shook her head slightly to indicate she should be quiet. The man that followed her in looked to be some sort of priest. The two of them stood there looking at her for a moment.

"What?" Misora asked.

"You're supposed to stand," Ciel said, the corner of her mouth twitching upward in amusement in spite of her stiff expression.

Misora stood up quickly, apologizing even though she knew the older man standing before her couldn't understand her words.

He sat down carefully at the far end of the table and Misora looked to Ciel, who nodded and sat down in one of the side chairs.

"What's going on?" Misora asked as she took a seat.

"Funny you should ask that," Ciel replied. "I wanted to ask you the same thing. You never told me you were trying out for the Burial Agency."

"…Burial Agency?" Misora asked.

"…I guess I can yell at you later. Right now, there are more important things to do. This is the Bishop Marco Costa, currently in charge of the Secret Agencies. He will be testing you in various things today. Unfortunately," Ciel said, slight annoyance coming through in her tone, "he doesn't speak Japanese, so I am to act as an interpreter as part of my punishment. You should be proud, Misora. Not many applicants get to speak with the Bishop in person like this. You must be something special."

Misora gave her a look. "Something special? Me? Wait, what punishment?" She looked back and forth between the two as the bishop rifled through a folder full of papers before finally pulling several sheets out and placing them on the table before him. He produced a pen next, and began filling out some blanks in one form while Misora craned her neck to see. Ciel gave her a dirty look, so she stopped and sat back in her chair.

The next couple minutes were quite awkward as the three sat in near silence, the scratching of the bishop's pen across paper the only sound in the room.

Then, it stopped. Misora looked up to see the bishop looking at her, and quickly looked away. He said something, and she looked to Ciel for a translation.

"The Bishop wishes to tell you that you may relax. You are not on trial or in trouble in any way."

"Okay…" Misora said, completely unable to relax.

"First question: What is your name?"

Misora blinked. It appeared they would start at the very beginning. "Kasuga Misora."

"Second Question: What is your date of birth?"


The questioning continued for almost an hour, growing increasingly more bizarre as time went on. The subject matter changed from the usual, such as name and birthdate, to the more unusual, such as visions, trances, and similar things, to flat out secret things. When asked about practicing magic, Misora paused, thoughts of the Spanish Inquisition running through her mind.

"Something wrong?" Ciel asked after a moment. She saw the stricken look on Misora's face and sighed. "It's okay to practice magic, Misora. As long as you're not trying to supplant Christianity or worshiping idols or making deals with the devil. Well, for this particular branch, anyway."

"…are you sure?" Misora asked.

Ciel sighed again and turned to the bishop, who had been watching curiously. He listened as Ciel explained, then grinned, took out an ancient wand, and held it up.

"Practe Bigi Nar, Vente," the old man said in a deep voice as Misora's eyes widened. A refreshing breeze swirled around the room for a moment as Ciel held down the stack of forms, and she smiled.

"I know about magic," she said simply as she produced her pactio card. Ciel and the Bishop's eyebrows went up in sync as she held it out. Ciel took it, looked it over very carefully, and passed it to the Bishop, who did the same. He made some notes on a separate form, carefully recording the information on the card, and then passed it back to Ciel, who gave it back to Misora.

"You really aren't the usual applicant, are you?" Ciel asked curiously.

Misora just grinned. "Hehe"


After the Bishop's questioning, Misora was led outside to what looked like a large sports field behind the building.

"Normally," Ciel said conversationally as she set up a large sun umbrella for the bishop and herself, "this part would be taken care of by lower ranked people. But apparently, the Bishop has taken a personal interest in you, Misora. Do your best."

Misora nodded. "Fine by me. Now come on, what's next? Track and Field is where I shine!"


That night, Misora barely managed to drag herself into the dorm building. '"Track and Field is where I shine!" pfft. I should've kept my mouth shut,' Misora thought grumpily. The receptionist from the day before was there, so Misora waved to her and slumped into a chair. The woman smirked and went back to the book she had been reading.

After resting for ten minutes or so, Misora dragged herself to her feet and started up the stairs, leaning heavily on the railing as she went. She made it as far as the second landing before she had to stop.

"Oww."

Misora grimaced as she rubbed her hip. 'Why did they make me climb that stupid rope anyway?' she grumbled to herself. She had lost her grip a little less than halfway up and fallen a good ten feet…it was a miracle she hadn't broken anything! "What kind of place are they running here anyway?" she complained aloud as she leaned back against the wall.

"Um…hehhh…Hello?" someone said uncertainly in bad Japanese.

Misora jumped; she hadn't realized anyone else was on the stairs. The girl standing across from her looked very exotic to Misora's eyes; but then again, so did most people here. She had dark brown hair and eyes and an olive complexion, and wore a rather understated T-shirt and pants. Something about her made Misora recall Cocone, which in turn made her recall the girl's sad expression upon learning she would be away for a year, and her throat tightened.

"Mi…Mi…sora?" the girl asked slowly.

Misora swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. "Kasuga Misora," she said, enunciating as clearly as she could.

The girl nodded. "Nina Bianchi," she said slowly and clearly, pointing at herself.

"Nina…Bi…Bi…Nina," Misora said, settling for the other girl's first name. She had no idea how Nina did that thing with her tongue to pronounce her last name, and she didn't quite feel like experimenting with it at the moment.

"So, since you can't understand me, I'll just complain to myself," Misora said aloud as she started climbing up the next flight of stairs. Nina watched her limp for a moment, then surprised her by throwing Misora's arm over her shoulder and supporting her like a crutch. Misora grinned when she regained her balance. The girl was taller than her, but not so tall as to make their current position too uncomfortable. "Hey, thanks Nina."

The other girl smiled slightly and nodded.

"Oh, so you know a word here and there, huh?" Misora asked, not expecting an answer. "Good thing, 'cuz I don't speak a word of Italian! Hahaha! …oww."

Nina remained silent as she helped support Misora up the stairs. They finally reached Misora's floor, and she was ready to say goodbye when the girl left her leaning against a wall and skipped ahead to the dorm room Misora had spent the night in. Nina pulled out a key and unlocked the door, motioning for Misora to follow as she entered.

"No way," Misora said. "You're my roommate, aren'tcha?" she said as she limped up the hall and stopped in the open doorway, leaning against the side. Nina grinned awkwardly at her as she removed the bags from Misora's bed and straightened the covers.

"Thanks," Misora said tiredly as she limped across the room and flopped bonelessly on the bed, grinning like an idiot. "Aaah, that feels good."

Nina laughed quietly and sat down daintily on her own bed while Misora reached over the side of the bed and dragged up one of her bags.

"You remind me of somebody," she said as she rummaged through the bag. After a moment she found what she had been searching for, and pulled out several small picture frames, all but one of which she laid on the bed beside her. She gave the remaining picture a good long look, then held it out toward the other girl. Nina took it carefully. She looked at the small girl in the picture for a moment, then gave Misora a questioning look.

"Her name's Cocone," Misora said, grinning crookedly. "She's awesome, much cooler than me. She got tall in the last few years too…that's an old picture. She looks a lot like you, you know?"

Nina caught maybe two words, but she understood the tone in Misora's voice perfectly. The girl in the picture was as close as family, and that was all there was to it. Nina opened a drawer in the small table between the beds and took out a picture of her own. She passed it to Misora.

"Oh, you're a lot younger here," Misora said as she looked at the picture. Nina was several years younger, maybe as young as eleven or twelve, looking at the photographer with big, solemn eyes as she posed in a school uniform next to a slightly older, smiling girl.

"Marie," Nina said, grinning crookedly herself in a way that was fast becoming familiar.

"Who's that? Your big sis? A cousin maybe?" Nina looked a lot more innocent, a lot less world-weary than Cocone had at that age. Then again, Cocone had gone through a lot before coming to Mahora, while as far as she could tell, it looked like Nina had had a much more normal life up to now. She passed the picture back and leaned back painfully on the bed.

Nina said something in an amused tone of voice, and Misora looked over at her, wincing as she did so. 'Arg…my neck is killing me. I probably shouldn't have bragged about track and field,' she thought. But then again, how could she have known that Ciel and the Bishop would have her out in the sun ALL FREAKING DAY, running, jumping, climbing, doing backflips, and lifting heavy objects? They claimed it was all some sort of testing, but come on…was all that really necessary?

Someone knocked on the door and they both looked as it opened and the receptionist poked her head in. She said something in Italian ('I'm really going to have to learn the language,' Misora thought) and stepped into the room with two plates.

Misora sat up on her bed, suddenly forgetting her aches and pains, as she eyed the plate the receptionist held out to her. It held some kind of cake. Not only that, but some kind of Italian cake, made in Italy, by an Italian…! That was like, ten times better!

Misora took it, grinning happily. "Mank mu!" she said a second later, mouth full of cake.

The receptionist grinned at her in amusement. "You're welcome," she said in halting Japanese.

'Well, this place isn't so bad after all,' Misora thought as she wolfed down the treat. Man, it was good! Not up to Satsuki's level of course, but not bad at all. Sure, the testing Ciel was putting her through was rough, and the training the woman had hinted at earlier was likely to be rougher still, but if she could have cake like this every day…Italian cake, too!…then things wouldn't be that bad.


As she lay awake in bed later that night, staring at the ceiling, her mind kept going back over the events of the day, her first full day in Rome. 'I'll need a good street map, first thing,' she thought sleepily. And some sort of pronunciation guide too, no doubt. Judging from some of the reactions she had gotten earlier, her pronunciation of place names was terrible. 'Got to learn the language too.' She knew a little English, less Latin, and had picked up a couple words of Italian, but other than Japanese, that was it. It appeared that few people here considered learning Japanese to be worthwhile. While that annoyed her in some deep way, she decided to let it go. She had never seen the need to learn Italian herself, so… But this could be bad. Thus far, she had only managed to confuse anyone she tried to communicate with other than Ciel, who wouldn't be around to translate for her forever.

'Besides, I have to learn how to ask for more of that cake,' she thought, recalling the cake the receptionist had brought. 'Rachele Giordano,' Misora thought, silently pronouncing the strange words as she did. The receptionist had seemed quite nice. Everyone had, for that matter. It was strange, but made things a lot more comfortable.

'And when all of this is over, I'll go back to Japan and see Cocone again. Heh, and show off to Sister Shakti too,' she thought mischievously.


Author's Notes: So, there we go with the first chapter in the long-awaited Misora story. Be sure to read it all the way through so you don't end up wondering wtf is going on when Still Waters 3 rolls around. Also, keep in mind that the events here take place several years after Negi arrived at Mahora; the girls have all just graduated high school and are starting to go their own ways, though I doubt any of them could just forget everything that's happened. Now, as for Ciel, she's Ciel from Tsukihime. Just look it up on wikipedia for a quick rundown on her character. Oh, and who was the redhead Misora ran into on the stairs...?