Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Prologue

The door creaked slightly as it was tentatively pushed open. "Come on in, Lina," a tired old voice called out immediately. "Your sister is out right now."

Lina laughed sheepishly as she entered. "Thanks, old man," she muttered.

It was a pleasant enough family restaurant that nearly doubled as a bar; of course, in Wyoming the two were not mutually exclusive. The reality, however, was that this was the primary drinking hole of this town, this 'village' at the edge of the border between the world of magic and the world of no magic. It was modeled after a medieval pub, the kind that was still prevalent down the rabbit hole, and simply expanded the menu to cater to a wider variety of tastes.

It was Lina's family's restaurant…theirs, that is, and the old man's.

His name was Harold Brandan. He was old, with a long snow-white beard and bushy eyebrows that stuck out from under his wide-brimmed hat. The hat was old and worn as he was, with its tall point drooping and almost seeming sad. He was the kind of man that, when looking at him, you would see what you wanted to see: perhaps a powerful old mage, but perhaps just a tired, broken old man.

"Come on, now, come over here." He motioned to Lina. "You know my legs don't work that well. You come here if you want to see it."

Trying to act proud and not like an eager schoolgirl, Lina walked over to the table as Harold pulled a letter out of his jacket. He opened it and threw it down onto the table. The image of Kain appeared above the letter.

"Heya Uncle Harold," Kain declared cheerfully. "Kain here! How are you faring? I'm doing well. School continues to be…well, more exciting than it ever was for me back home!"

"I imagine that's true," Harold muttered, "at least when you didn't stop by to bother him."

"Shut up!" the girl hissed back.

"It's quite…unusual here. This school is supposed to be part of the 'normal' world, but I keep finding more and more evidences of magic at work here. Of course, the principal is a relative of the headmaster's and all, but still….

"In any case, now we're going to Kyoto on a class trip. My father had a home there, so I'll finally be able to learn something more about him! Of course, I already learned more than I thought I would here at the school, but…well…that's a story for another time, maybe.

"Anyway, all the best to all of you. How's Lina doing? Has she been kicked out of Arcanus Myrror yet? From what I hear, that can't be too far in coming. Haha. Well, I'd send her a letter, too, if she had a permanent address to send one to, but she wouldn't be Lina then, would she?

"I've got to go…still got things to prepare. Take care of yourselves, and I'll send you another letter soon!

"Ciao!"

The image winked out.

"Damn kid," Lina growled. "Who's he think he's talking about?"

Harold chuckled. "Well, amusing how often you've been coming by recently, hoping for a letter. Concerned about him?"

"What?! As if!" Lina screeched, reddening slightly and turning away. "Who'd be worried about a punk like him?"

"I said concerned, not worried…."

"Poh-tay-toh, Puh-tah-toh! In any case, he can't be in any danger, in Japan of all places. Seems like he's having fun." Lina sniffed disapprovingly.

"Oh, I don't know. He is teaching an all-girls class…."

Lina twitched.

"Twenty-nine girls, all his age…and him, with no experience with girls, apart from wild barbarians…oh, what danger could he be in…?"

Lina twitched again.

"Well, it's not as if it's any concern to you, is it?"

"Right," Lina scoffed, taking a seat. "In any case, I'm starving! I can at least have some grub before I take off. Stupid kid…."

There was the sound of a door opening in the back.

"Oh dear," Harold remarked. "That might be your sister, coming back…."

Lina was out the door in a flash.

Harold chuckled to himself. Ah, youth. It was a shame he'd never had the opportunity to have children of his own, but he was always too busy….

His little rascal of a nephew Kalan had managed it somehow, even if he—and his wife—had never been around to take care of their child. It was sad how they had disappeared….

But Kain still wanted to find him. Kain believed he could find his father, that he would, one day.

If it was Kain…and if it was Kalan…maybe he would….

Author's Note: Welcome to Act 2

This chapter introduces the older brother of Kalan's mother, Harold Brandan. He is loosely based on Negi's (unidentified true relation) uncle Stan. Stan sacrificed himself to save Negi when his village was attacked, despite the fact that he did nothing but badmouth and curse the name of Nagi, Negi's father. Negi's other unidentified 'relative', his so-called onee-chan, was the one survivor of Negi's village (besides Anya, who wasn't present at the time), but I really don't have an older sister to use for Kain, so I decided to give him an uncle (great uncle, technically) to be his family back home in Wyoming. More on this in a later flashback.

A nice, desolate part of America, Wyoming makes a fine place to have a magical portal to another world. It isn't the only one—just the one Kain comes from. Out in the middle of Wyoming at an undisclosed location (sorry, the Magic Circle is making me keep it secret), the portal to Arcanus Myrror is surrounded by several small villages of mages and mage descendants. One of them, Kalan's hometown, is where Kain was raised until he was five years old. The full history of what happened to that village will be revealed later. Kain and Harold, after the incident, moved to another nearby village and stayed with the family friends, the Inverses, who owned a diner/bar as described in this Prologue. Veterans of Slayers lore know that Lina is deathly afraid of her older sister, who is a powerful world-saving adventurer in her own right but who prefers to stay and act as a waitress at the family eatery.

With this small bit out of the way, on we move into Act 2, armed with more laughs…and much more action….