Negi
"Wah!" That was all I could hear, aside from the wind rushing past my ears as my five students and I fell down this hole.
As we descend down this hole, panic overtakes my mind as I begin to flap my arms in a desperate attempt to stop falling. "Why, of all the days, did I choose now to seal my magic?" I ask myself for the umpteenth time tonight. As I begin to think back on the events that led me and these five girls into this predicament, I register a pair of arms encircling me.
I look up and see the last person I ever thought would help me, hold me close. "Asuna-san." I say softly just before I black out.
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I hurt. My body hurts all over as I struggle to open my eyes. Why is the sun so bright today? Wait a second, sun? Wasn't I underground?
I lift my body up and open my eyes, but what I see, really isn't what I expected. I find myself and my five students on a beach, at the bottom of a cave.
"What is this place?" I hear to my left. Asuna had just regained consciousness.
"Oh, that's right." Another voice said from behind me. "We failed that English test and the statue dropped us into this place." Kaede said as she got up.
"Oh wow! Look! It's a giant library down here!" Konoka had shouted once everyone was awake.
Looking around, I notice many bookshelves lodged into cliff sides, submerged into the lake, even hidden behind the waterfall.
"Incredible we survived, considering how high a fall we had." Kaede observed. "And why's it so bright? The walls are glowing!"
"It's an illusionary underground reading room!" Yue said excitedly.
"A who, what now?" Asuna asked.
"What are you talking about, Yue?" Ku Fei questioned.
Yue suddenly started to tremble as sparkles appeared around her, with a serene look on her face. "It's underground, but designed to give you a feeling of warmth, light and peace. It's the perfect illusion of paradise for book lovers."
The girls began a heated debate on what to do next as I glanced around. In the distance I could make out a building of some sort, more book shelves, and an area that looked like something had crashed through the ceiling. "I will have to check that out later." I told myself.
"I was afraid of this, no place to climb out. This is bad and getting worse." Yue stated after taking a look around.
"God I feel stupid now. Damn Nobility streak in me. I just had to seal up the chance to let them cheat. If I didn't, I could easily get us out of here." I thought. "Well, just going to have to count on my leadership skills."
"Cheer up everyone! We'll be out of here, and back home, soon enough... somehow." I added in my mind. "Meantime, let's study for the final test!"
"Study? What would the point of that be?" Ku Fei asked as she laughed.
"You're being awfully optimistic, aren't you Negi-kun?" Konoka asked.
"No... Negi-kun is right. I mean, granted, Asuna and I got us into this spot, and we lost the magic book." Makie said sadly.
"Who did what isn't important. Only doing your best on the exams counts, book or no." I reassured them.
"You know if we start studying now..." Kaede started.
"We could easily raise our grades by at least 10 points before Monday." Ku Fei finished.
"Yeah!" Was the unanimous decision. I could only smile as they ran off to get books and food. "It looks as though I won't have to leave them after all" I tell myself as I run off after them.
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One day has passed since we came to Library Island and, so far, the Baka Rangers are doing well with their studying. Right now, everyone is taking a break. Asuna disappeared, Yue and Konoka are sunbathing and reading, and Kaede, Makie and Ku Fei have gone to take a bath. As for me, I'm going to check out the crater I saw the day before.
As I get closer to it, I can't help but feel a strong magical presence. "Wow, I shouldn't be able to feel anything with this seal on." I thought as I came closer to the center, looking for the source of the crater.
After finding nothing on top, I began to dig, the aura around this area stirring my curiosity into action. Digging deeper, I come across the last thing I expected, a human hand.
I stare at it for a few minutes, before I jump back and scream bloody murder. This action brings the girls running to my position.
"Negi-bouzu! What's with the screaming?" Asuna asks. I point a shaky hand to where I had been digging. Asuna looks in that direction, curious as to what it is. As she approaches and sees the hand, she too jumps back with a horrific scream. "It's a human hand!"
"What?! Quick, make sure it's connected to a body!" Konoka tells us. "The person could still be alive." She jumped into the pile, taking the rocks off the hand and arm it seemed to be attached to.
After about a half an hour of digging, we managed to pull a body from the stones. It was a boy, who looked to be no older than fifteen years old. His hair was black with gray streaks through it, a scar cutting across his left eye, from the top of his nose to just below his left ear. His white shirt and martial arts pants tattered from the fall, and he was wrapped in a black robe, which was also tattered. "That's a Magi's cloak."
Konoka places a hand on his face. "Oh my, he is so cold." She then places her fingers to his neck. "But he does have a pulse; a faint one, but its there. Let's bring him to our camp for now."
Asuna and Kaede get on either side of him as we begin to walk back to the 'camp' we made.
"How do you think he got down here?" Ku Fei asked.
"If I could guess, I would say through that hole there." I say, pointing to the hole in the ceiling above the crater.
"No way. The only people who could survive that are Martial Arts Masters." Ku Fei replied.
"Well, maybe he is." Makie said. "His clothes suggest he at least practices it."
"Yes, but he is much too young." Kaede said. "Masters are usually in their later portion of life."
"Maybe he's a genius?" Ku Fei suggested.
"It's possible..." Kaede started before she was stopped by a rumbling of the ground.
"W-w-what's going on?" Asuna asked.
"It feels like an earthquake." Yue replied as she struggled to stay on her feet.
"Ho Ho Ho!" A giant voice rang from beneath them. The ground had then exploded upwards as a giant fist came up and grabbed the unconscious boy.
"Look! It's that giant from before!" Asuna yelled.
"And it's got that boy! And the magic book!" Yue said as she pointed to the book caught in the giant's armor. "Kaede! Ku Fei! Makie!"
"Right Baka leader!" The three girls shouted as the jumped into action. Ku Fei went first, as she punching it and causing rubble to fly from it as its armor cracked. Kaede took that moment to get the boy out of its grip, as Makie came up from behind and used her ribbon to snatch the book that was lodged in its armor.
Their deeds done, the entire group made a dash for anywhere away from the stone giant.
"S-stop!" The giant stuttered after them as it started to give chase. "There is no escape; the only exit is back through where we fell!"
"That can't be true! Let's keep looking!" I told the group as they ran for the waterfall.
"Hey! There's some sort of door behind this waterfall!" Yue shouted to the group as she approached first.
"W-what?!" The giant said.
Asuna began to push on the door as Ku Fei delivered a high kick to the Giants head, keeping it back.
"Why won't it open!?" She shouted. "Huh? What's this?!" She asked, looking at the writing on the door.
"There's a problem on the door." I answered.
"It's an English quiz." Yue said as she began to read the problem. "Question one. What is the past principle of, in English, read?"
"What the heck?!" Asuna had protested as Makie whined "You've got to be kidding me!"
"Wait! Wait! I know this!" Ku Fei said as she looked back. "The answer's 'Read'!" As she said it, the door opened.
Upon entering, a spiral staircase loomed into view, seemingly spiraling up forever. We ran up the stairs, just as the Giant began to crash through the wall, still giving us chase. As we began our ascent, we came upon many walls with more problems on them. Each time we came to one, each of the girls would hold the book and answer the question to advance forward. Apparently, just by holding the book, your brain gets a jump start helping you think more clearly.
Finally we reached the top of the staircase and found an elevator. We got on and hit the button to go up, only to discover that we were over the weight limit. The girls began to panic, until Makie noticed that stepping off slightly put us under the weight limit. So, in a desperate attempt to lighten the load, they stripped down to their undergarments as I watched in a state of confusion. However, that still wasn't enough, so they tossed those away too.
In a last ditch effort, I decided to sacrifice myself for my students.
"Negi! Don't be crazy!" Asuna protested as she reached out and pulled me back. "If he wants the book! He can have it!" She shouted throwing the book at the giant, only for it to miss.
"Ho Ho Ho! It was a good try little girls, but now that you've seen this place, I can't let you leave!" It said as it reached its hand into the elevator. While the girls began to scream, a black blur exited the elevator and struck the stone monster dead center in the chest. The guardian screamed as a huge indentation showed on its chest as it cracked away, and it fell back down the stairs.
"What was that?" Konoka asked.
We all looked up to see the boy we had brought with us, with his fist extended into the place the giant had just been.
"A-are you alright?" I asked, approaching the boy, who didn't answer. As I got closer, my eyes widened once I got a glimpse of his face. "He's still unconscious." I told them.
The boy's eyes were half-lidded, and what you could see of his hetachromatic (one blue and one green) eyes was glazed over with a look of just waking up. He suddenly fell back over, and everyone could hear the faint sounds of snoring coming from him.
"Well, let's get moving! We still have that test!" Konoka reminded us as we got back on the elevator and exited the underground library paradise.