The characters and situations of Magister Negi Magi are the creation of and rightful property of Ken Akamatsu. They are used here without permission. This story may be freely redistributed, but it should not be altered substantially or used for profit in any way. Original characters appearing in this fanwork belong to their respective owners, whomever they may be.

-MMR-

Konoemon Konoe hadn't been feeling all that well as of late. In fact, it was downright awful trying to keep up the appearance of a healthy, decrepit old wizard. His back was hurting, his left foot was swelling up considerably, and the bags under his eyes were beginning to compete with the wrinkles on his forehead. To top it off, the plants in the nearby park were beginning to mutate into magical phenomena and the Imperial Magistrate thinks it's Mahora's doing.

It certainly wasn't good to be Dean right now.

And to make matters worse, the young, rambling woman that the Imperials sent seemed to not even understand the rules of hospitality and demanded the most rediculous...

"Are you even listening to me, Konoemon!?"

Snapping up out of his comfortable position and quickly wiping the small bit of saliva at the corner of his mouth, the wizened Dean of Mahora Gakuen quickly nodded and tried to look alert. It was still pretty tough.

She was a very beautiful woman, with a pale face, narrow waist, and a rather perfect bosom. In her strange clothing, it was incredible that nobody noticed her sulking around the city. At least, none of Konoemon's attendants seemed to notice her. A dark green dress that completely exposed the arms and left leg was the only thing that seemed to cover the woman's lithe body, not including the two Japanese swords on her right hip.

Suddenly Konoemon got to wondering how she acquired such weapons. She wasn't Japanese, that was for sure. Bright green eyes, yellow hair, and that impressive bust definitely gave her away. Before his wandering mind could make any sort of reasonable hypothesis, the woman began to snap her slender fingers for attention again.

"I do hope you've been paying attention. I'll repeat once more... Mahora must..."

Miracles do happen. The door to the office burst open, quite effectively so by the twin kicks supplied by Mahora's finest mercenary dispatch. They were surprisingly accompanied by a third person, who they carried with highly differing looks of irritation and sheer joy.

Better yet, it shut up the woman.

But not for long.

"Jonah Lawson! What are you doing here!?"

The tired-looking and defeated man slumped even further in the students' arms, mumbling a half-hearted, "Good afternoon, Sera." Her name, however, seemed to cheer up his disposition, and he very casually lifted himself up from the girls' hold, thanked them for their assistance, and made his way to the center of the room.

Konoemon smiled weakly to his renegae self-defense team, "Girls, would you please take a seat? Miss Sera here is the leading investigator from the Imperial Magistrate in Tokyo. She's here to... investigate." And with a sigh of either contentedness of irritation bubbling from his cracked lips, he leaned back into a very lax manner, readying himself for the maelstrom of cruel nagging.

The Sera woman took her left hand and snapped it expertly to her hip while her right went to rub her temples, "This is rediculous... who are these girls!?"

"You might say that they are my personal guards..."

"Then why did they attack Jonah? He's a documented and recognized mage of the Imperial Magistrate's Dilemma Committee..."

If Konoemon could make his face look sinister, the slight tilt of his head and furrowed brow was about as close to it as he could get to it. "The only recognized document for outsiders on Mahora campus is a visitor's pass."

A mask seemed to fall away from Ms. Sera's face, for the contempt, shrewd glare seemed to disintegrate and reveal a pale facade of utter surprise. It was swiftly replaced, however, by a countenance of absolute anger. "How dare you, Konoemon!? How dare you!? Your insolence and hubris has gotten you into this mess, and, in respect for the alliances of the Eastern Magicians, Tokyo has come to your aid! Yet you act like a spoiled child who refuses to acknowledge that he's in the wrong!"

"I love it when you're chosen to be the diplomat~"

If not for the awkwardly-dressed young man's sudden interjection, the pretty woman would have likely continued her rant far into the oblivion. Instead, she merely tightened her lips and pouted. With a tired smile, Jonah bowed and directed himself towards the Dean of Mahora. "Good afternoon, sir. My name is Jonah Lawson, Silver Rank Alchemist from the Nippon-Alchemists Guild. May I stand in to explain what we're all doing here?"

Konoemon nodded off briefly, but waved his hand slightly as though to instruct the young man to continue on with his explanation. Besides, it was certainly better than the angry commands of that other woman.

"I... we were sent here to check up on your guys' special flowers. We're just waiting for them to go back to normal, so that we don't have such an outrageous chance of a normal person stumbling on something... unnatural..."

"What about the kidnapping?"

The moment the words came out of Setsuna's mouth, she regretted it. Sera, already upset about being overshadowed by the alchemist, now looked utterly horrified. Jonah turned his head around so quickly that he nearly snapped his neck. Even Konoemon looked a little dismayed by the small slip of the tongue.

When the blonde woman's tongue finally found its way back home, she immediately turned to Konoemon with eyes ablazed, "You never told me about any kidnapping!"

"Oh damn. More paperwork..."

Sera took the strange man's arm roughly and looked at Konoemon, the two girls, then back to the old man, "This sort of information would have been much appreciated before now! I'll be back tomorrow morning, Konoemon. By then, my demands are to be obeyed, otherwise I assure that penalties will follow. Until then..."

The door slammed sut behind her, sealing off the outside world from the room's three inhabitants.

"I'm... sorry..." Setsuna stammered pitifully as she slowly closed the distance between herself and the great desk that concealed much of the Dean's lower body. Such a tragic miscalculation... the girl didn't know much about the secret politics that encompass Japan's magic socieities. They were so numerous and interwoven that they were much like a spiderweb over the entire peninsula.

Instead of looking like he was expressing any form of anger, the old man merely stood up and walked slowly to the window, smiling faintly. He coughed twice, then reassured Setsuna, "Don't worry about it so much. I was hoping to keep it secret for a little bit as a safety measure, but... I suppose it's better than they find out sooner than later."

Mana finally rose her voice, "What were they here for?" She smirked when Setsuna's confused look came over her, "I don't believe that they just caught wind of the blue flowers and came to check in on us..."

"Oh!" Setsuna turned back to Konoemon with a look of surprise, "That Jonah man attacked us in the hallway!"

"I wouldn't worry too much about that..."

Mana's insistent voice said otherwise, "He deliberately acted so that he wouldn't have to face you! I think this Jonah guy is a little dirty."

"Again, the Imperials are much more secretive that we Mahora types..."

"But...!"

With a wheezing laugh, Konoe Konoemon turned and smiled at his underlings, "I keep forgetting that you two weren't here to listen to that Sera woman." he took a few sweeping strides towards the girls, raising his arms into a protective gesture, "Come, sit down. This news could be... a little difficult to hear standing up."

Without even a questioning look, the two young girls slowly sat down, their respective weapons hanging off their fingertips and silently grazing the wooden floorboards. Although their bodies seemed to be relaxed, their minds were antsy and ready for a fight. One would suppose a new face does that to a person.

Yet the wise, collected Konoemon seemed to be at peace in both mind and body. He very slowly took his right sleeve and eased it towards his shoulder revealing one, two, three, four... seven gray bands lining his arm like tattoos. A simple roman numeral stood out faintly on each band, almost appearing to glow on the man's wrinkled skin.

"W...what have you done?" the ponytailed girl remained seated, but the sword slipped slightly out of her slender hands.

In a sort of resigned manner, the old wizard put his sleeve back in its place and lounged into his chair, "One of the Imperial's great plans... they're sealing the magic of every mage they meet around here." He shook his head in a half-angry, half-bemused way, "It's some sort of safety check... they can do it without being near you too. Some sort of specialist magician can perform it just by knowing your magic unlock rite. A cheap trick, I'd say!"

At least that explained his anger over the Imperial mages. Setsuna's thoughts, though, were on a different person, "So... who hasn't been affected?"

Mana, who until now has been silent, finally made her interjection, much to Setsuna's chagrine, "Don't worry about your girlfriend. She's unregistered, remember?"

Before the swordswoman could retort, Konoemon made a quick comment, "Yes, and I "misplaced" the forms of mage names located in the city. Unless they sniff you out, the secret mages should be safe." He snapped his sleeve back, revealing only the pale skin of his hand, "Shame, long sleeves in the springtime."

"Why would they do this though? Why are they so fearful of internal troubles?"

"Because of the fourteen members sent to assist Mahora, four went insane and one killed herself." A rather cool voice answered Mana's sincere question with a collective sigh, "The school staff hasn't taken that sort of news lightly..."

A rather tall fellow appeared from within the shadows in the back of the room. It seemed that in the duration of the meeting between the young lady and old Konoe, a certain bespectacled teacher hid himself from sight in the corner. Finally revealed, Takamichi Takahata wavered between sitting and standing, finally choosing to pace in the background, "We found Professor Akashi in the park last night. He suffered from a mental breakdown and was, apparently, attempting to dig underneath the Hibiscus plant." The gray-haired hawk of a man quietly raised his glasses up off his face and exhaled on the lens, "A few of the others merely ran off in that time. As soon as he was properly cared to and sent to the infirmary, the Imperial Magisters arrived."

"Sounds fishy."

A weak chuckle broke the tension with its casual demeanor, but Konoemon's voice held all the security of Mahora in his words, "I trust the Imperials. Even if they're a bunch of paranoid fools."

"Well, I hope this ends quickly," With the fear and anxiety in the air having been dispersed by the pincer-tactics of Dean Konoe and Glasses of Death Takamichi, the youth of the two stood up and smiled tenderly, "Then we can resume the normal cycle of things."

"So..." The two girls followed their teacher's example, looking about questioningly, "What are we to do?"

As though the two older fellows actually forgot about the younger girls, they did a quick double-take and interchanged a pair of worried smirks, "Just go about your usual day. The Imperials have officially taken over. Nothing's wrong."

Mana snorted and turned to walk out, Setsuna hot on her heels "Yeah, nothing ever is."

The doors shut quietly behind them, about the same time Takamichi took a single, stubby cigarette from his inner pocket. He jammed it into his mouth roughly and began to shake his head angrily, "This isn't going to end at all well..."

"What else can we do?" Konoemon swiveled his chair so that it faced outside. With a faint squeak it slowed to a stop, then moved slightly backwards to account for his weight plus the weight of the world, "They're all that we have left..."