[Red String: Worlds Appart]
A Mahou Magister Sensei Negima fanfiction.
-Disclaimer-
This is a Love Hina crossover, if your'e offended by that stop reading. (This also poccesses mild language, suggestive themes, slight nudity, shoujo-ai content, Japanese honorifics, ocs and oocs just so your'e warned). Love Hina and Negima were both created by Akamatsu-Sensei and owned by their copyright holders. I own nothing in this fanfiction except whatever original characters that are in it and the situation. I've also made no money in the making of this fic, so please don't sue me. Please enjoy the story.
Original Manga: Ken Akamatsu Original Fanfic: Me
[Chapter 1]
Ten years ago:
In Kyoto there was a girl, she was a beautiful child. With her little pink kimono on and her waist long, black, silken hair and porcelin white skin she looked every inch the princess. This was Konoka Konoe, heiress to the Konoe familly and she really was a princess though she did not yet know the extent of her powers both magical and polictical.
Right now she did not care about any of that, right now she was crying into the folds of a hakama being worn by a tall and regal looking woman. Apart from her traditional garb she also had an insanely long katana at her side. Most the time the woman would be described as 'intense' or perhaps 'scary' even by her mentors, but right now as she comforted the crying girl Tsuroko Aoyama could now be best described as 'tender'.
Tsuroko continuosly stroked Konoka's head, holding the child close to her and humming a soft lullaby. Her heart went out to the girl for Konoka's heart was breaking and the princess did not know why and if her grandfather had his way she never would.
If there was any consolation it was because the Magister Nagi asured her that one day she would be whole again, though that could be years into the future and there would most definately be resistance and hardship along the way. The Shinmei Ryu master was confident, however, that Konoka would endure. She held a strength that Tsuroko knew that many did not suspect.
Eventually Konoka stoped crying, having falling asleep in Tsuroko's lap. They stayed like that for several minutes, with Tsuroko stroking Konoka's hair and humming her lullaby. Than suddenly she became silent and looked away from the fitfully sleeping girl. Her gaze fell suddenly upon Konoemon Konoe, and a sword wouldv'e been far gentler than the look she was favoring him at that moment.
Konoemon couldn't meet her gaze for long. Had Tsuroko been in a more charitible mood she would say it was because of guilt that made him look away, however she was not in a charitible mood. She knew his inability to meet her stare was from his lack of strength. The Magister left the room as silently as he entered, perhaps to spin more plans.
He would undoubtibly try to keep Tsuroko out of Konoka's life as much as possible, knowing full well that she did not approve of his interference. 'Let him try, all his meddling in her life will be to no avail,' Tsuroko thought to herself, stroking Konoka's hair and humming again.
Someday Konoka would be whole again...
Meanwhile, across the world in England there was another girl. She too was beautiful, except in a different, wholly exotic way. This girl was swallowed up in a set of robes that were several sizes to big for her and had short-croped, raven black hair that was tied to one side of her hair in a ponytail and she had pale skin though she was not fragile looking. Her face was mared by red rims arround her eyes, indicating that she been crying very hard recently. Her name was Setsuna Sakurazaki
Right now, though, she was grasping onto the robes of the man she was with, gasping at the sights arround her.
They were in a clearing that had a thick, perpetual mist and looming out of that mist was a set of large stones that was jutting out of the ground in a series of circles. With its layout the site couldv'e been easily have been mistaken for Stonehenge except this place was larger, more intact, and in its center was a large pinacle-like rock.
It was an awe inspiring site to be sure, even for the grief striken girl. Even the man she was with had a hard time not gawking at the majesty and sheer enormity of it. The man himself was wearing robes similar to the ones that Setsuna was, though his fit better and he also wore an enormous pack on his back with a shinai straped to it. The man himself was tall and had jet-black hair and brown eyes on his kind face. His name was Hajime and up until a few days ago he was a repesentitve of the Shinmei Ryu.
He tore his piercing gaze away from his surroundings and the people arround him to look down at the girl beside him. Despite the wonderment in her eyes Hajime could tell she would still hurting and that it was only a matter of time until the tears would return again. She would hurt for a long time and never know why and it it tore at Hajime's own heart.
"She will be whole again, Hajime-san." The swordsman looked over his shoulder to cast his gaze at the man standing slightly behind him and Setsuna. He was not as tall as Hajime but still had a very commanding presence. He too wore robes like everyone else in the clearing except he wore his hood pulled up over his head, obscuring his face though strands of his red hair still stuck out. Hajime did not blaime him, Nagi Springfield was an extremely famous mage, prone to cause all sorts of commotion whenever he got reconized.
He motioned at the pinacle rock with his staff, which was so distinctive with its ligthening shape and the tattered bandages tied on as if to function as a makeshift grip Hajime was surprised no one reckonized it. "This will not be enough, she will be whole again."
Nagi could not speak any plainer, not with Setsuna present; even if she was not paying attention to the two men. He didn't have to, Hajime understood perfectly well. The day would come when Setsuna was wholle again though it would take years. And Hajime swore that he would train her until that day came, train her so that she would b ready to face what would come.
"Its quite amrible what youv'e given up to stand by her side."
"That is nothing next to what she gave up."
Nagi nodded in agreement, than left Hajime and Setsuna. Hajime did not know it but he would not see the Thousand Master again for several years.
Suddenly there was a stillness in the air and than the stones in the clearing gave of a magical light that light up the night, like the dawning of a new day. Magical particles danced lazily in the air not unlike dust motes and then all that magical light gathered onto the point of the pinacle and shot high into the heavens.
The clearing was now empty...
Years past on by and the two girls, two worlds appart, grew up in very different circumstances in very different places. Time managed to heal their wounds bit by bit as they lived, learned, laughed, made friends. But there were always those half-remembered dreams, moments in which they would stare off into the distance not knowing why, times which they would turn to say something to that other person who was not there... ten years passed on by and that hole never healed.
And now the time had come, they would be whole again...
Present day:
Within Evangline's stronghold of castle Leben Schuld there was yet another party going on. Once again the British Culture Research Club (otherwise known as Ala Alba, or White Wings) had invaded the vampire's lair, causing a chaotic raucous. This time she said nothing to them, knowing that soon they would be leaving for England to search for the where abouts of the long missing Nagi Springfield. It would likely be a long journey and a dangerous one too, despite her reasurances to the contrary earlier. It would be foolish not to expect otherwise, but she had to say something to convince the uncooperative Chisame Hasegawa to go with the group as well.
The hacker girl did not know it but she had Evangaline's respect. While Chisame wasn't an experianced warrior like Kaede Nagase or a magical powerhouse like Negi Springfield, she had a level head and a very grounded view on life. With so many romantics on the team they would need someone like her to keep them ancored and on track. It was just that because she had yet to encounter any real hardships in life that she had a slight cowardly streak.
A little adventure into the magical world, far from the famialliar comforts of life, and Chisame would be better for it; Evangaline felt.
Evangaline decided to take a page out of Chisame's book and cut out of the party early and let the girls to it, not being one for parties herself; with a bottle of sake in hand that the vampire somehow managed to secure from her classmates. The vampire muttered a few unflattering remarks about 'stupid classmates' before realizing where here feet were taking her. She was headed towards the aviary, perhaps the only part of the castle that the other girls haven't really explored despite how larger than life it was.
Briefly Evangaline wondered why she was headed there when she remember thinking that she hadn't seen the Konoe heiress at the party. The vampire realized too late that she was acting worried over the healer again, not that she was worried about being called out for it. She had been charged with Konoka's magical training, so it was her perogitive to worry over her. Besides, everyone in class was worried about her, it was very hard not to be.
The healer had been acting very strangely as of late, causing even her ninja protector to worry. Lately she had been staring off into the distance more often than she usually did, an unreadible expression on her usually cheerful face. There were other things as well, and it was all very mysterious to most of her class mates. Evangaline herself did not know the whole story, but knew enough to understand what was going on.
When she came to the aviary she found Konoka where Evangaline expected her to be. The healer was sitting in one of the many great windows set into the wall, leaning against the masonary work. There was, of course, no glass in the windows so that the birds of the resort could go in and out of the aviary unimpeded. Only a large grate would be keeping her from falling to her death if she gotten careless.
She was apparently alone, but Evangaline's heightened senses could pick out the resident ninja who was perched outside the window. Kaede was dedicated to protecting her, but was sensitive enough to respect Konoka's privacy.
With her left arm outstretched Konoka had a bird perched on her hand. It was, of all things, a crow. The healer was smilling at the bird without actually 'seeing' it. It might be that she didn't know the full details, but Evalaine had lived hundreds of years and experianced a great deal. So she knew enough, 'The old man really has no idea what he's dealing with,' Evangaline thought to herself...
[End Chapter 1]