Author's note: It's about time I focused on someone different for a while, don't you think? But it's back to Ako, and now Natsumi, too. I've decided that for convenience's sake, I'll keep Natusmi's and Ako's stories together. You, my wonderful readers… If you say crows are white, then I will go out and dye any instance of crows in my fictions (which is none) white! ENJOY! And then write me a review, please. Christian Doppler, Google him.
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Tempestas Aegrotatio: Seal of Scar
Chapter 1
Ako bolted from her comfortable position on the bed, her arms wrapped around her waist, subconsciously poking at the scar on her back. Her breathing was shallow, her eyes wide, though no one could see, no one could hear. Without realizing, she began to speak in a slow, whispered tone.
"Scar… Scar… It burns… Scar…" She whispered, and followed with a monotonous groan that was not at all the scream she had uttered so many years back.
The darkness around her slowly faded as her wide and fearful eyes adjusted from that sudden shock. She was in the dorms, the dorms she would be using for several more years to come. For now, she was a middle school student, in the class 3-A. Her life was normal compared to the rambunctious group that situated themselves around the ten-year-old teacher of her class, Negi Springfield, and wit the festival's end, her life become even more normal.
She admired a guy. She got decent grades. She had a steady group of friends who supported her all the way. She had her own problems, but that was it. No magic, secret dealings, nothing that had been so graphically described in her dreams. Then she realized. Dream. The entire time, she had been dreaming about Takahata-sensei. Ako blushed heavily and wondered what was wrong with herself. She certainly hadn't been hanging out with Asuna that much.
Passing off the dream as something stimulated from a movie she had watched some time ago, she stared at the wall clock, attempting to adjust to the dark enough to read it. Four o'clock in the morning. Her breathing slowed, her heart settled, and the blood rushed out of her flustered face. The horrific scar on her back stopped aching, and she let out a sigh of relief. Izumi Ako was at peace with the world once more, and fell asleep to the rhythmic breathing of her roommate Sasaki Makie.
By the time her alarm clock rung the next morning, the odd dream had been completely eradicated by a strangely satisfying dream about Nagi, that beautiful boy. Misa had told her that Negi would grow up to look exactly like him, but somehow Ako could not see Negi as a smooth, sophisticated man like Nagi. Now, if only she knew the truth!
The morning's trek to school was brightened by the ever-cheery Yuna, who listened enthusiastically to Makie's recounting of Ako's dream-induced spasm. The girl in question, who had been daydreaming of Nagi once more, was rudely awoken by the image of Takahata jumping from building to building. She blushed once more with perfect timing, and wondered secretly if Takahata could really do that, while laughing to conceal her thoughts.
As soon as the oak doors slid open the quartet of athlete girls were subject to the mysteriously loud classroom that housed 3-A. They migrated to an empty spot and continued to chat away, plucking nikuman buns from Satsuki as she walked by.
The bell rung its Big Ben chime and the girls slowly and grudgingly swapped places with each other until they reached the spots they had been sitting at for nearly two years. It was at this point that their beloved child teacher would begin the homeroom class, yet instead the spot was filled by their beloved child teacher screaming down the hallway, breaking as many laws as possible and kicking Christian Doppler in the shins. At least, that was how Ako imagined it.
The door was violently kicked aside by a rather miffed and sleep deprived Asuna, who had stuffed under her arm a struggling, and still screaming, Negi. Konoka and Setsuna walked passed the struggling pair without so much as a glance, though Konoka let out a small giggle which rippled through the classroom and grew into a full-fledged roar. Negi, shaky and rather terrified, made his way to the podium and stood up on the stool set there by the class, once more began attempting to calm the collective horde of insane teenaged girls. To say the least, the recent events of the school festival proved easier tasks than this.
Indeed, not a week had passed since the end of the festival, and none of the girls showed any sign of exhaustion from the war game that had taken place, or for that matter, the endless parties that ravaged the campus. It was as though the classroom itself was a spring of endless energy, though only for those not constantly engaged in life-threatening battles.
Asuna, upon reaching her seat, had collapsed. Setsuna was noticeably less alert and oddly prone to nodding away. Konoka, although bubbly, had been hiding away dark rings under her eyes with makeup for several days. Chisame was already asleep on her desk, her glasses beside her. Evangeline and Chachamaru were missing, though this time because of the damage Chachamaru had received. Mana and Kaede sported various injuries. The two girls outside of this group of life-and-death battlers who were noticeably tired were Yuna, who had her chin in her hands and stared blankly at the board, still drained from her amazing physical feats during the war game, and Ako, who had a fitful sleep despite dreaming of her prince, Nagi.
Negi wearily accounted for the members of his now-quiet class, hardly looking up as the girls responded to their names. However, he had found that it was necessary to look up for the last member of his class. This one was the only one who hardly spoke; forcing Negi to look up, otherwise he would think that she was a mute. Yet this time some surprise came to him, as if none came to him whenever he interacted with this girl. Zazie Rainyday was not present, though it seemed to hardly make a difference. On one hand, Negi wanted to say she was sick and leave it at that. On the other hand, her absence had a strange effect on the class. Maybe it was because they were all staring at Haruna, who likewise was staring at the empty seat behind her.
It was at that point that another man walked into the room. He was wearing sunglasses, and kept them perched high upon his nose, as though he wanted none to see his eyes. They were, due to their size, ineffectual, as everyone managed at least once glimpse of his eyes. Ako, however, got much more.
A noticeable glare was pointed in her direction as he passed over to Negi's podium. The sunglasses even seemed angled to allow him to glare at her in such a subtle matter. Such a horrifying stare forced Ako to look away and blush, and at the same time hope that no one else saw it. He whispered something into Negi's ear, a motion which caught the attention of every student in the classroom; the collective murmurs interested Ako enough to look back up.
Negi nodded a few times and glanced about the room. The newcomer smiled and ran out of the room, waving as he closed the door. The class went silent as they watched him leave, and remained so for a few more moments. As soon as Negi opened his mouth to continue the class, a torrent of questions ran him over.
A whole lot of "Who was he?"s and "What did he want?"s screamed through the room, with the occasional snide comment sneaking through. Negi was once again unable to calm his class, though it really was easier with several students half-asleep. This continued on well after the end of homeroom, slowing down with the occasional hint whenever it seemed his guard was down.
After Nitta terrorized the students and reprimanded Negi, all in one fell swoop, the incident with the 'Sunglasses Man', as he was now referred to as, had fallen to the back of the minds of all the students except one, possibly two. Akashi Yuna was plotting a devious stalking, involving equipment from the presumably curious Asakura Kazumi. The answers that she fabricated jumped around in her head, lowering her attention span to an unheard of level. At this point, one would have regarded her as suffering from a deficiency.
The Big Ben chime rung once more, signaling the end of classes, and the pistol shot that sent Yuna off in a sprint that put Misora to shame. With that hyper-powered sprint, Makie, Akira, and a daydreaming Ako were sucked into the vortex known as Yuna's hands, and their collective screams stabbed Christian Doppler many times in the abdomen.
However, Christian Doppler was not stabbed, but stifled; Yuna smashed through the door of an adjacent classroom and waited for Negi and company to depart, all while struggling with Ako, Makie and Akira. The struggle did not last very long, as amidst the confused murmur of class 3B, Yuna listened for any hint of where they might go next. It came in the form of Konoka's giggly voice: Chao Lingshen's old restaurant stand, Chao BaoZi, now run by Satsuki and Ku Fei. Yuna kicked the door aside and charged in the other direction, running Christian Doppler over.
Along the way Yuna picked up Kazumi, and together the five girls, four girls dragged by Yuna, rushed to the dorms. Yuna spouted out a quick explanation which Kazumi picked up at once, and responded merely by shouldering a bag that lay in the corner and walking out the door. Smiling, Yuna grabbed the remainder of the unwilling Sports Girls by their collars and dragged them to the cart. Slowly.
Negi sat at the bar of the main car, nervously waiting for the man earlier. Asuna, Setsuna and Konoka were sitting by him, leaving an open seat for the Sunglasses Man next to Negi. They had not been waiting long when Yuna and her party arrived, sitting in a position that hopefully was obscured from Negi's view. Ako watched them with mild interest, munching on some dim sum that Chachamaru had sent over two minutes ago. Thirty seconds ago, five of them were gone, snatched up by the ravenous Yuna.
Twenty dollars and sixteen plates of nikuman later, the man in question arrived, apologizing in a language they were all struggling to learn. He no longer wore his sunglasses, revealing standard issue brown eyes that seemed as though they were made for blending into crowds. There was nothing particularly special about this man, other than his mastery of English.
"He must be an American," Yuna said through a mouthful of meat. "He has no accent at all! Asakura, is it set up?"
Kazumi gave her enthusiastic approval, flicking a switch on an inconspicuous device placed casually in the middle of the table. After a few seconds of static, their dialogue crackled through. They spoke Japanese now, possibly for the convenience of the three girls beside them.
"The old man wants me to fill you in on some of the students in your class. A few of them you've already found out, it seems, so it's been narrowed down to…" He counted on his fingers quickly, and then subtracted one from the final count. "Three. The first is a little more obvious, as I saw she wasn't present in class. Zazie Rainyday. Lord knows where she came from, most of us don't really know. What is known, however, is that among those already in the Nightmare Circus, a student-mage prodigy group with a common interest, Zazie is the biggest loose cannon. She's taken as many deals as Tatsumiya o'er yonder, not at all for a common benefit. However, it would appear something has gone awry in the course of her actions."
The American paused for a moment, staring off into the setting sun, as though to give Negi time to digest the information. Indeed, that was what Negi did with the time, but also began to worry for Zazie. No matter what, Zazie was still his student. That was his mentality.
"What do you mean by 'gone awry'?" Negi said shakily, after several moments of thought.
The American did not respond, his chin resting upon his hands. Finally, he looked up, as though he hadn't been listening, and laughed before apologizing once more.
"It would appear that either she's taken a job too big for herself, or, she's gotten herself…" Another pause, as he rifled through his vocabulary for a softer word, "Restrained."
He did not look happy with this choice, but tried to hide his emotions. Still, while his mood was obvious, his face was hard to read, possibly because it seemed so generic. Setsuna had spent the past few minutes holding the information while trying to discern his true purpose. This was information even she, the bodyguard of the headmaster's granddaughter, did not know. The fact that there could be a threat in her class was troubling.
"Restrained?" She asked warily.
There was no pause this time, though he still looked away, troubled.
"One of the following: Killed, captured, enslaved, incapacitated. She herself has stated that she would not miss class for a job."
"She told you that?" Asuna looked up, bewildered. To Setsuna and Negi, it seemed as though she regarded the whole conversation as a joke.
Relief filled his eyes, and the American laughed once more, and then stopped. After staring into space for a moment he laughed again.
"No, she didn't. It's an oath that Nightmare Circus members must take. Anyways, I've failed to introduce myself, huh? I know all you guys. My name is…" He paused once more, before what appeared to be a sudden realization. "Minami. If you'll believe that. I know the Shinmei girl won't."
Setsuna nodded complacently, growing more and more wary. It was no secret that Setsuna was a Shinmeiryuu practitioner, but for him to be so lax and point out suspicions so easily…!
"Now, next is your class president. Yukihiro Ayaka. The reason the Yukihiro Group supports Mahora Academy and all its endeavors so much is out of a sense of security. The Group already has several mages whom we've accepted as part of us, working with us to protect one of the school's greatest treasures. If she is captured, it could very well expose and diminish the Yukihiro Group's power. Yukihiro Ayaka, as a result, is not exposed to magic, and has been kept a secret from all her staff excluding the butler who has served her from young age. The mage members of the Yukihiro Group, to protect their own estate as well, stopped practicing magic, vowing only to do so in dire situations."
'Minami' paused again, but this time to accept the food that Satsuki had placed before him. He picked one up and began to devour it, motioning for the rest to begin. And as he began to eat, Ako and company stopped. Magic. That certainly described what had been going on during the festival. It seemed to make perfect sense, yet it shocked them all the same. The lights. Magic. The battles. Magic. The guns. Magic. However, while failing to notice the dim sum soup dribbling down her uniform, Yuna noticed that Asakura was barely surprised. In fact, she was contemplating. The four girls would have thought she was taking the shock a different way, had her next phrase not revealed her.
"Never expected that Iincho and Zazie would be mages too. Ah, well, Negi isn't the only one."
Ako stared at her for a moment, and opened her mouth to say something. However, Makie beat her too it, though with much more gusto than accepted.
"What?! Negi-kun's a mage?"
However, she shot up when she did this, smashing the microphone device. It caused an even greater clamor, as Kazumi now jumped into the fray, looking very well ready to strangle Makie. With the normal scuffle around Chao BaoZi, neither any of the Negi party or Minami turned.
As they ate, Setsuna watched Minami. His name certainly wasn't Minami, surname or given. She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but he wasn't Japanese. Maybe Korean. But his lack of any deficient accent astonished her, as his English was also perfect, albeit American perfect. She turned back to her dim sum, deciding that it was the headmasters order, and therefore must be maintained. As she took her first bite, Minami began again, slapping his chopsticks to the table.
"The last of the three you need to know about is by far the most protected. Her tendencies act as a natural barrier, and make guarding her very easy. She stays out of the spotlight, out of the field, and inside, working. If she had partaken in the Mages vs. Mars battle her shots might have destroyed significantly more. That's the case with mages of her caliber. However, I've been told to be careful with her, mentioning her name at this point in my speech will threaten her safety."
After he whispered into Negi's ear, the ground behind them exploded.
Elsewhere, as her friends and classmates had been off enjoying their supper at the dim sum cart, Natsumi was being treated to Chizuru Naba's cooking. With each bite, she squealed with delight, as though she had been eating her cooking for the first time. As it so happened, Natsumi was so in love with Chizuru's cooking she would have requested to marry the buxomly girl as soon as they both hit legal age. However, that was a fantasy of selfish desires to eat as much of Chizuru's orgasmic cooking for the rest of her life. She had a different fantasy, one which she was less proud of. Living with Yukihiro Ayaka, however, she had a better stance. While Yukihiro Ayaka was hopelessly in love with the gentlemanly ten-year-old teacher Negi, Natsumi was strangely attracted to the older version of the young boy sitting across from her, Kotaro 'Murakami' Inukami.
Natsumi was aware of magic the day she met Kotaro. His transformation from dog to boy, the encounter with Herrman, all of it had to be magic. Then she thought back to the festival, the tournament. If Kotaro wasn't magic, then the entire fight had been fabricated. Natsumi was completely unwilling to believe that the entire tournament was just a well placed hoax. She had seen the injuries that Kotaro received, the damage the stage took each round. Chao had said it herself; magic, and the dark world. It was all very confusing, but Natsumi soon began to accept it as time moved along.
Natsumi also felt a strange shame from being attracted to Kotaro the day she met him. First of all, when she first actually 'met' him, he was lying facedown, naked, on a towel, before assaulting her and Chizuru. Second, for the first week or so, he was running around wearing her clothes, which forced her to spend an awful lot of time with him. Third, she had seen a glimpse of his older self. She fainted that day at the festival.
However, there was the inconvenience that rooted itself also on day one. Kotaro's last name was officially listed as 'Murakami', which made him her younger brother. Yukihiro Ayaka would practice incest for Negi, but Natsumi had no such wish. Natsumi, on the other hand, wished for the magic that could make Kotaro older again. If he was older, maybe no one would recognize him. All this thinking made her blush.
"Oh? Natsumi-chan, what's wrong? Do you have a fever?" Chizuru cooed, reaching across the table to feel her shy roommate's forehead. "Or... Is it something else?" The mischievous girl shot an all-knowing glance at Kotaro, who was staring right into his rice bowl. The only person Natsumi really feared was her beloved Chizu-ne.
As Natsumi slipped her loaded chopsticks into her mouth, a loud explosion knocked them right back out.
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Next Chapter
An army of mages marches through Mahora, fended off by two individual groups battling the mages and each other. As terror strikes the Mahora Campus, an old friend strikes the Negi party.