A/N: chappie no. 2 . cameo appearances from Mahora Gakuen, the setting of Negima!: Magister Negi Magi and Negi as the kid in the street, Mana as the city guard, and Chao and Satsuki as the chefs.
Declaimer: I don't own Mai HiME OR Negima!... now that's REALLY depressing…
Chapter 2- Use ONLY IN EMERGENCIES
As the sun rose fully above the mountain ranges in the east, Kuga Natsuki was stretching and yawning, ready to go to bed. She always went to bed at daybreak and woke at Twilight; even without the regime of a vampire hunter (that required that you be active at night) she had always preferred it. The kids at her first orphanage often teased her bout it.
Today, Natsuki had chosen an inconspicuous tree with high branches and lots of foliage to sleep on just outside the city of Mahora. She placed her bedding roll on a net of overlapping branches that were strong enough or her to sleep on with no worries about the support breaking. Curling up in bed, she quickly fell into a dreamless, deep sleep.
The girl stared out from the folds of her cavernous robe at the sleeping form of Natsuki. She counted her breaths as her chest rose and fell, staying completely unmoving as she witnessed the spectacle through a tinted facemask. Using her left hand to take two small bottles out of her left pocket, Shizuru, silent as the grave, descended upon the tree in which the beautiful girl was sleeping, snoring slightly. She placed the two bottles inside her traveling bag and chanced a look at the azure-haired hunter's sleeping face. Without thinking, she got to her knees and placed a chaste kiss on her pale, pink lips.
One of her fangs accidentally grazed the delicate skin and Shizuru recoiled, thinking that Natsuki would awaken. Instead, her rosy tongue just flicked out and licked away the blood on instinct. The young vampire gave a small chuckle and mumbled to herself:
"You haven't changed a bit, my dear Natsuki…" before she glided away to a safe distance.
Natsuki awoke at around six-thirty and stretched her sleepy limbs. After clearing sand from her eyes, she packed up her bedroll and jumped down from the tree, landing lightly on the front of her feet. She turned her gaze over to the city of Mahora, trying to decide how she should approach it.
"Looks like a Gakuen-city… roofs too high to scale and buildings too far apart to jump from… the only option is to cloak up and walk through by foot." She observed to herself, fumbling through her bag to look for the cloak in question. Her hand settled on a strange object that she hadn't seen before; two bottles bound together with a length of bandage, the bigger one about the size of a bottle of Karuporu and the smaller one about half that size. She pulled it out and undid the bandage, unsure of what it was. The bigger bottle had a label stuck onto it, and written in spidery handwriting was:
USE ONLY IN EMERGENCIES. May have adverse effects if antidote is not taken in less than 15 minutes. Keep away from children and Humans.
What a strange label. Natsuki thought, unscrewing the lid of the bottle and taking a sniff. It was a smell that she both loved and hated at the same time; it carried the unmistakable and all-to familiar metallic odour of blood yet also smelled sweet and flavoursome, both alluring and repelling Natsuki at once. She shut the lid immediately, not wanting to get so curious as to try it. She then looked at the antidote; it was a smaller, clear bottle of greenish liquid that the hunter didn't chance a smell at. Dumbfounded but really needing to get going, Natsuki shoved them back into her bag and pulled on her cloak, heading towards the sparkling city of Mahora at a brisk pace.
She was met at the looming gate by a tall and professional figure bearing armour with the fleur-de-lys symbol of the city emblazoned upon her breastplate. Yes, oddly, her breastplate. This city guard was a girl, with tall with cascading charcoal-black hair tied in red ribbons at the front and intimidating yellow eyes. She peered down at Natsuki, saying in a surprisingly deep voice:
"What business have you here at such a time?"
"I seek a bed for the night and passage through the city," Natsuki replied; this was the easiest and most viable excuse.
"Don't lie to me, girl. You have only just woken up; that is obvious from your refreshed appearance. Take down your hood!" barked the guard, gripping her sword tighter.
As asked, Natsuki lowered the hood of her cloak slowly, not wanting any sudden movements to give the guard any more reason to run her sword through her.
"I am a traveler; all I seek is an Inn to spend the night in, do you need to delve any deeper into my business?" she replied coolly, taking a step forwards as if to assert her authority.
"A pretty pale face you have for a traveler, girl. How many girls your age you travel, alone, at night in times like this?
"I must travel like this because of my work." Natsuki curtly relied.
"I think not; show me your teeth."
Obediently, Natsuki opened her mouth. She had nothing to fear; she had normal teeth (admittedly her canines were a little sharp at the points, but not long a quill-like like vampires), so she saw no harm in it.
"There. Happy now?" Natsuki breathed impatiently, giving the guard a chesire cat smile to show off her pearly whites.
"You forgot to wipe to blood off…" the guard said sarcastically holding her shiny sword to so that Natsuki could see that there was indeed a few bloodstains on her teeth.
How did I get those?
"GUARDS! Vampire at the Gates! To Arms!" Yelled the Guard on duty, pointing her large and intimidating sword at Natsuki as the cries of guards came from all around her.
Not bothering to try and explain herself, the Hunter pulled her sword out of its concealed scabbard and coolly looked around for an opening in the circle of guards. Strangely, they were all young and female, but Natsuki knew that you should never underestimate girls.
Sighing, she knew that Vampires were just killed outright and not even taken into custody. She was in a real pinch. Remembering the USE ONLY IN EMERGENCIES bottle that had appeared in her pack, her mind saw that that was possible her only chance at escape and her reflexes drew the bottle out of her bag at lightning speed.
The guards tensed, and the one that had been talking to Natsuki earlier (whom the others had called 'Mana') pulled out a surprisingly modern gun (Natsuki recognized it as a Desert Eagle) and let out a shot.
Time went in slow motion as Natsuki pulled the bottle up to her lips and gulped a mouthful. Before she knew what was happening, she had he sword to Mana's neck and the gun in her hand. A newfound power coursed through her veins and she quickly knocked Mana out with the flat of her sword and began a series of incredibly graceful twists and turns, each one knocking out another guard. She jumped and thrusted with inhuman power and speed, using moves she had only seen in the ancient scrolls on dojo walls.
This went on for several minutes and afterwards, only slightly out of breath, Natsuki stood in the middle of a circle of unconscious guards.
Amazed at what she had done, but not wanting to linger any longer for fear of reinforcements, Natsuki ran into the city and merged with the crowd outside a restaurant called Chao Bao Zi. She needed to find a dark alley to sit down and rest-
Pain ricocheted around her body and Natsuki gave a shudder. What was this?
May have adverse effects if antidote is not taken in less than 15 minutes…
Cursing herself for being so careless, Natsuki attempted to grab her backpack t get the antidote out, but she fell to the floor as another spasm racked her body. A young boy beside her let out a gasp and rushed to her side.
"Miss, are you alright?" he asked, feeling Natsuki's forehead and pulse. Her heart was beating twice as fast as usual, he brow laced with cold sweat. Natsuki gave another violent shudder and cried out in a shaky voice.
"Anti- urg-Dote!"
The boy called over the two chefs from Chao Bao Zi and asked them to carry Natsuki to his dorm quickly, as it was just around to corner. Natsuki's senses seemed to regularly change from Dead to fully alert, her vision misting over red and clearing. She could feel the warmth slipping from her skin; feel the potion that was trying to reach her heart.
But suddenly she realized that it wasn't a potion. She remembered. The stuff was- Vampire blood! It gave you great speed, skill and power for a short amount of time, but if you didn't take the antidote shortly afterwards it could kill a human, or even worse…
At this point Natsuki felt the brink of consciousness, and just after that, the brink of death.
In the young boy's dorm, Natsuki was laid out on the floor whilst he examined her. He made a small slit in her wrist and took a blood sample. Almost immediately, his pupils dilated in alarm.
"This is vampire blood," he stated, turning to the two chefs, "but not hers. She must be a vampire hunter, just out of a big fight, who didn't take the antidote in time. Quickly search her pack for green liquid!"
The second chef pulled open the satchel, and no sooner had she done so than she found a small green bottle of liquid. She handed it the boy and he immediately uncorked it, but hesitated. The antidote had to be administered mouth to mouth.
"Let me do that." Came a voice from the doorway. Not really wanting to have to administer the antidote mouth-to-mouth himself, Negi handed the phial of verdant liquid to her (for she had long, dark crème hair) and sat back.
She worked quickly. Taking the entire contents of the beaker into her mouth, the mysterious cloaked girl wasted no time in pressing her lips to Natsuki's and pushing in the antidote. Once she had pushed it is, she began what looked like a checkup, but wasn't really very like the checkup Negi had done. She went down to the cut the boy, Negi, had made at her wrist and licked a bit of the blood.
"It's as I thought: the only blood she can take is mine." Shizuru observed out loud, taking another phial form her pocket. This one was empty. Negi was about to ask what she was doing when the vampire made a cut in her own wrist and filled up the bottle. She then corked it and placed it in the girl's pack.
"Excuse me, miss, but what are you doing?" Negi asked, trying to sound as polite as possible. This girl had administered the antidote, after all.
Shizuru ignored him and went on with her 'checkup'. She felt Natsuki's heart rate (which had now settled at just above normal), her temperature (down to its normal chilly) and then proceeded to make Negi and the chefs yelp by leaning down upon Natsuki's quivering form and giving her a kiss.
If that wasn't enough weirdness, she then took out a small jar of white goop and licked some up onto her tongue. Shizuru leaned down and inserted her tongue into Natsuki's mouth, making sure to move it around a bit.
Natsuki woke of to the taste of- Mayonnaise!- in her mouth. She greedily licked it all off what ever it was on and opened her eyes. The world was a bit fuzzy, and all she could make out was a pinkish blur above her.
Seeing that her work was done, Shizuru quickly stood up and got ready to leave. Realizing something, she threw a few gold coins at Negi and the Chefs, saying,
"Take care of her for a few nights."
And with that the mysterious cloaked girl was gone.
And there's the end! What d'ya think? I don't think this is as well written as the first chapter, because there is a lot of action that's isn't really interesting and I struggled to find alternative names for people because I couldn't reveal their actual names.
This is a bit longer than the last chapter, I promise to try and keep them short enough to make sure it isn't an essay to read.
Omake:
Natsuki: I wanna enter the city.
Mana: no can do, sorry lady.
Natsuki: why not!?!?!
Mana: because you might be a vampire!
Natsuki (shows teeth) good enough for ya?
Mana: I'm sorry, but that plaque Is just too gross! You definitely can't come in!
Natsuki: I'm sorry- it's all the Mayo I've been eating..
Emiri