Disclaimer: Negima does not belong to me

Author's Note: Here is the second chapter! Where Negi finally embarks on the journey to find his father! I know it's short, but if I get good response, the next chapter will be out pretty soon too!

One note on the time frame of this story: it's set roughly just before the Mahora Festival.

Many thanks to my reviewers!

Please review and give me comments. I really long for feedback from my dear readers!!

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Chapter 2 On the Plane


Negi hadn't slept for the whole night, although he pretended to be asleep when Asuna woke up and got out for her newspaper delivery job at 6 am sharp. Negi then crawled out of his bed, careful not to wake the sleeping Chamo in his bed, and gathered the backpack he had prepared last night.

Just as he finished brushing his teeth and freshening up himself, Konoka was already up and preparing breakfast.

"Good morning, Konoka."

"Good morning, Negi! Why are you up so early? Today is Saturday! Are you going training so early? "

"No, I'm not going to train… Konoka, there's some urgent business back in Wales that require my presence immediately." Negi tried to sound as inconspicuous as possible.

"Really? " Konoka looked at Negi worriedly, "What's the matter? Has something bad happened?"

"No, no. It's nothing to worry about, " Negi said hurriedly, grateful that he had chosen to do this when Asuna was not here, as she would see straight through his lie. "It's just some minor business… I can probably be back on Monday or Tuesday. "

Konoka looked relieved that it was not something grave. Negi felt so guilty to have to lie to her – but there was no other way.

"Could you please help me give Takahata-san this letter on Monday?"

"Of course! " Konoka accepted the letter from Negi immediately.

"Thanks so much, Konoka. " Negi said as he picked up his backpack and his staff.

"Why don't you have breakfast before you leave? Then Asuna would be back too!"

"Sorry, Konoka, but I've to catch the plane! See you soon on Monday or Tuesday!"

"Stay safe, Negi!" Konoka waved Negi goodbye as the boy-sensei left the room in a hurry.


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Negi just got to the airport in time for the plane. As he settled down on the seat, a flight attendant quickly came and spoke to him.

"Are you traveling alone?" she smiled good-naturedly at him, probably awed by the fact that such a young child would travel alone by plane.

Negi smiled back, "Yes. But I've travel alone for several times already."

Negi politely refused the attendant's attempt in bringing him orange juice or breakfast, saying that he just wanted to take a nap. The flight attendant quickly brought him blankets and pillow. Negi rolled his eyes as he heard as the flight attendant's excited squeak and giggles to her fellow colleague about a cute kid traveling alone… sometimes he just hate being treated as a kid(although there was no denying that he was…. )

Again, Negi took out the letter he received yesterday, and read it perhaps for the hundredth time.

'As you're reading this, Negi, it meant that something dreadful must have befallen on me… '

The beginning of the letter saddened Negi every time he re-read it. It was a letter from a friend of his father. Professor Epstein was an old scholar from the Magical School, who remained friendly with Nagi despite his dropout of the school. He specialized in magical healing and other magical charms, and had assisted Nagi and his comrade greatly during the magical war fought years ago.

'The world believed that your father died ten years ago, just shortly before you were born. But the truth was that he went onto a secret search for an artifact, which I'd rather not disclose lightly over this letter. This artifact was very powerful, and Nagi's mortal enemy, the evil mage that started the magical war, was also on hot pursuit of it. It was vital that the evil mage would not be in possession of this artifact, or else he could easily overtake the whole magical world. Nagi took it upon himself to search for it.'

"Indeed, I also thought that Nagi was dead, until three years later when he dropped unconscious on my doorstep. He was gravely injured. Indeed, if I discovered him with any delay, he would have truly passed into the world of the dead. But I saved him, just barely. He told me about how he discovered the location of the artifact, and how he was ambushed by the evil mage and four of his most powerful demons. He escaped, but not before they cast a dreadful curse on him. After an update on the situation Nagi faced, I could do nothing but to cast a freezing spell on him – the curse was very too powerful. I did not have the power to reverse it completely. But I could slow its progress down, so that Nagi's inner magic had a chance to fight against it. All that was required was time – given sufficient time, Nagi could heal himself. I had to hide his living body in a location where no one, especially not the enemy hot on his trail, could find him. "

"So I hid him in the place that he specified. Three months had passed since then, but it would still be months… even one to two years before it would be safe to unfreeze him. However, I'm afraid that I might not live that long. Just shortly after I returned from hiding his body, my old house was destroyed. I was luckily out visiting some old friends. I knew they had somehow found out that Nagi had sought my help. So now I'm on the run, yet I don't know how long I could escape. I'm afraid that I've been caught up if you are reading this, Negi. "

"But rest assured that your father's secret would be safe with me. No one except me, and one of Nagi's blood and magic, could undo the freezing spell I have cast on him. So he must still be dormant in the place I have hid him – it's where the stars shine most beautifully on a clear winter night, according to him. "

"I'm really sorry for putting this responsibility on you, Negi. But being Nagi's son, I know you can do this. However, be careful, be very very careful. Cause the enemies ear and eyes are everywhere. They wouldn't forget about Nagi and the secret he held, no matter after how many years. "

Negi folded the letter again carefully. His instinct told him that every thing on this letter was true – he shuddered to think about what must have befallen on the old scholar, who saved his father. He was also awed by the way his father conveyed his whereabouts to him - where the stars shine most beautifully on a clear winter night – Negi knew where the place was as soon as he saw the sentence. It was a place where his sister Nekane had taken him once during the winter break, shortly after the fateful encounter between Negi and his father. Negi was very still very upset and shaken, and Nekane brought him to this place in the country side of Wales. There was a little cottage near a big, beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. And during the night, the sky would be lit by thousands, no millions of stars, so large and so clear that when Negi's small hand reached out, it seemed as if he could almost touch them.

"Nagi took me here when I was small." Nekane had smiled down at Negi. Negi felt his eyes were again filling with tears, his little heart flooding with emotions too complicated for him to understand.

Negi had no doubt about the location; however, as he read the letter again and again, something just didn't seem to add up. An alarm was ringing urgently inside his head, yet Negi just couldn't pinpoint the exact problem. Perhaps… it was the time. In the letter, it said that Nagi showed up at his friends' doorstep three years after his supposed disappearance. Then this Professor Epstein wrote this letter three months after he hid Nagi. So… why did this letter reach him now, six years after that incident? If professor Epstein had just been recently caught, then he could have already unfrozen his father. As his father was still missing, it probably meant that the scholar had been caught before Nagi's healing was complete, so that he had not yet unfrozen Nagi from the spell…

The question that Negi desperately wanted the answer was: why the letter reached him then?

Negi rubbed his temple in frustration, and decided that his sleepy brain could function no longer.

Decided to really have a nap first, Negi carefully put the letter back in the envelope. As he stared at the envelope, something suddenly clicked in his mind.

How could he miss this possibility before? He had to admit that he was too careless… too inexperienced. His mind was blinded by the possibility of finding his father, throwing all caution out of the window.

Negi closed his eyes and concentrated on the envelope in his hands. He opened his senses to magical energy… and found it. Just a light brush, but it was unmistakable.

Someone had opened the envelope with magic, and re-sealed it, before Negi had read the letter.

Negi shuddered at the horrid realization – he was walking right into a trap.

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