Reunion
by Cyberchao X

Disclaimer: Just the usual "does not belong to me" crap; you've seen it a million times before.

CCX: I'd been considering this scene for awhile, and luckily, the manga pretty much glosses over what Negi's up to right after the battle because it's all focusing on Asuna regenerating the world and stuff, and then they just have a wordless montage. Plenty vague enough for a fan-writer to swoop in and elaborate on!

"Heeeey! Asuna!"

"Over heeere!"

"Are you all right – ?"

"Asuna!"

"Is it over?"

"Negi-kuuun!"

"Ah!" Negi said, "everyone—they're all alright!"

"Thank you, everyone…" Asuna said. "Your voices… they reached me."

"Asuna-san…"

"Leave it to me!" The imperial princess began the process of regenerating the world.

Negi stood back and watched. "Thank you, everyone…wait, everyone? Why…"

"We had no choice," Asakura said. "They don't know everything, but…"

"It was inevitable that they'd learn eventually anyway," Chisame said. "Somehow, everyone gets caught up in your weirdness."

"It figures that you'd end up revealing the existence of magic to your entire class, Negi. You're so incompetent."

Konoka started to tell Anya to be a little more lenient on him—he had just saved the world, after all—but Negi reacted first. "Anya! You're alright! Oh, I was so worried…!"

"What are you doing?" Negi had wrapped his arms around her. "Get off of me!" she cried, blushing. She pushed him away, in the process knocking off the cloak that Collet had wrapped her in.

"Ah, sorry, Anya. I guess I got a bit excited seeing that you're okay. I…uh…"

"Spit it out already."

Negi turned his head. "I'm sorry. I'll just…" he turned his head away. "You are okay, right? You've clearly been battling as well…"

"Wha? What are you talking about…" She suddenly remembered that she'd suffered some clothing damage in her battle against Shirabe. "Negi, you pervert, why didn't you turn away sooner?" She held the cloak against her side with one hand and moved to punch him with the other.

"Ah, I'm so sorry…it's just… I wish I could've seen you in that outfit before it got ruined. You look very cute, Anya."

"Ah…I…are you mocking me?" She flushed bright red.

"Not at all."

"Hmm…it's a shame that Anya-chan is attempting to be a magistra magi herself," Chamo said. "She and Aniki seem to have great chemistry."

"It's generally the minister magi's job to protect the magistra, right?" Konoka asked. "Because Negi-kun seems to be the 'protecting' type."

"That's true," Setsuna agreed, "but he's far too determined to settle for being a minister to another magistra."

"Well, he did make a probationary contract as a minister, so if it's just for probationary purposes…" Asakura said.

"The pactio chooses which one will be the magister and which will be the minister. With Aniki's power level, though, he's likely to be the magister. We won't know until we try it, though," Chamo said.

"So if you were so worried about me, why was I the last one you met up with? The entire battle's over, and I still have no idea how you did all of that cool stuff you did! Even Asuna-san, who was captured along with me, was at least with you first! Ah…I came all the way from Wales to see you for the summer, and we barely got to spend any time together at all…"

"Well, you were captured by the enemy right away. So I couldn't reach you."

"It's always the last boss you have to face to get the girl back, right?" Kotaro said. "Save the princess and whatnot. Well, I guess Asuna-neesan's the real princess, but still…if you're a hostage in the final boss's lair, that makes you pretty important."

"This isn't a video game."

"Yeah, but that maid outfit you're wearing, that's not your own, right? You served as a maid here, didn't you…the rest of Fate-san's girls wore outfits like that at one point, too."

Anya blushed. "Well, yeah… I kind of do want to get into something less embarrassing. Even if it weren't torn up…"

Kotaro smacked her in the head.

"What was that for?"

"Negi-kun complimented you on that outfit, didn't he? Geez, you two are perfect for each other."

"He's a lot more perceptive about other people's relationships than he is about his own, isn't he?" Chizuru asked.

"Indeed," replied Kaede.

Meanwhile, Anya wanted to lash out at Kotaro, but Negi was holding her back. "Come on, Negi!"

"No. No more fighting. There's been too much fighting already today. Please…Anya…"

"Negi…" Anya felt herself grow red as Negi's face moved closer to hers. "I…"

"Pactio!"

"N-Negi…"

"Anya…I didn't…that wasn't just for…"

"I know. But I…if it were you, I'd…well, you need someone like me as your ministra, right? You're always thinking about others, never worrying about yourself."

"She sounds like Asuna-chan," Konoka said, and Setsuna agreed.

"I…I couldn't ask you to do that. You're trying to become a magistra too."

"Well, it's only a probationary contract. And I haven't even made any contracts yet. So…perhaps Chamo can draw up another circle?"

"It's going to cost you," Chamo said, eyes drifting towards Anya's waist (currently wrapped up in Collet's cloak).

"…Forget I asked, you perverted ermine. I guess…this'll just have to be a regular kiss, then." And then she kissed Negi.

CCX: Anya completely disappears out of the story again once the Magic World arc ends, so there's really no way to prove that she doesn't have a pactio with Negi… Though I'm still mad at Shirabe for ruining Anya-chan's adorable outfit. It wasn't even enough to provide serious fanservice, either; yeah, the initial damage is nice, but while it usually gets creative with the angles, you can still see that Anya's outfit is mostly intact in the following chapters, with just the damage to the right side that's shown in the initial panel where she gets hit. And yet she still ends up with her whole body wrapped up in that plain, boring cloak afterwards…I was really hoping that Negi would see her in her full meido glory, but in a weird way, this works too. Ja ne!