Right, here's the next one!

CHO TO MA TEI!

If you want, you can skip to the bottom of your screen for my tips on how to make you reading experience a little better.

Disclaimer: As usual, same as the last chapter which was the same as the last one.

Word of the Voice

Once again night has fallen onto Mahora. And with the day coming to an end, Shinji prepared himself for his patrol. He decided to leave his weapons behind, thinking he wouldn't need them. Later he learnt that not bringing his 'tools' was a grave mistake……..

Things started normally enough; in fact everything was fine till the end of his patrol.

It happened on his way back to the dorms.

Courtyard

Shinji was by now minutes away from the dorms, his head lost in thoughts. The events that had transpired earlier ran through his mind like a broken record. Over and over again, he heard the voices of his classmates, mocking him for reasons he didn't know. He was used to it though; it was no different back home.

A voice suddenly came with the wind. Like the wind, it sent a cold chill down Shinji's spine. It was one that he knew well, one that he dreaded, one that he never wanted to hear again.

It was that voice that brought him pain.

It was that voice that drained the colour of Shinji's face.

It was that voice that brought Shinji his nightmares.

"WHY SO SERIUS?!" mocked the mysterious voice. His voice was low, deep and sinister.

Shinji immediately got into a defensive stance. His eyes turned blood red as he scanned the area for the source. Then he saw it. A lone figure walking slowly towards him. Clapping his hands in mock applause.

"It's been a while………………Shinji" greeted the individual. He smiled evilly as he saw Shinji shiver. "Miss me?"

"Arashi ……….," said Shinji as he eyed the new arrival.

Without thinking twice, Shinji dashed to his opponent with breakneck speed. Flames appeared from Shinji's hand as he made his way to this Arashi.

"C'MON! HIT ME!" taunted the man. He too readied himself, blocking each of Shinji's attacks as it came.

"I SHOT A BULLET THROUGH YOUR HEAD SHIROU!" shouted Shinji as he exchange blows with man.

"It's a wonder what aspirin can do for you, hyHHIHAHiHEHEHE!"

The battle went on for a while. Shinji moved with all of his dexterity to avoid Shirou's attacks. Punch after punch, Kick after kick, flame after flame, Shirou still stood, laughing like the maniac that he is.

It wasn't long till one of the dorm's resident noticed the bright flashes of fire and light.

Dorms

Kazumi Asakura didn't have the luxury of sleep, unlike her fellow classmates. Photos needed to be developed, articles to be written, deadlines to be met. Never had she imagine that pulling an all-nighter would allow her to witness something that can never be described in words.

(Yet here I am, trying my best. How Bloody Ironic).

There! In the courtyard, she noticed two men engaging in combat. Fire. Lightning. blue flashes of light, all appeared one after the other. Kazumi may know about magic but this was something else. Like second nature, Kazumi took her camera, focus in on the battle and snapped away.

Courtyard

One minute Shinji was at one corner, his hands holding the flames of Hell itself, the next, Shinji was facing his enemy, delivering a fierce right hook with his blazing right hand, then another with his left. Soon after, a fierce kick to his enemy's neck followed, bringing him to his knees. Shinji finished his onslaught by grabbing his enemy by his collars, holding him above the ground and engulfing Shirou's body with a mix of Hellfire and lightning. This brought a point blank explosion right at Shirou's body. The force of the explosion flung Shirou a few feet in the air before he fell back to the ground.

But to Kazumi's surprised, Shirou stood right back up rather casually, held his head back ,and laugh in a maniacal manner.

"MORE……. I WANT MORE!!" shouted Shirou.

He was about to say something else but something caught his eye.

After looking at the general direction of the dorms, Shirou looked back at Shinji and gave him an evil smile. "We're not alone Shinji………,"

Taking a dagger from his pocket, he flung it at Kazumi's direction.

"Till next time….hyhHEHAHAHAHA"

With that last laugh, Shirou Arashi disappeared back into the shadows. He had enough fun for one night, though he fully intends to play longer the next time he visited Shinji.

But, as of now, Shinji had other things to worry about.

Dorms

Kazumi saw that dagger coming. She tried her best to duck, but she was too stunned to move at all. All she could do was close her eyes in fear and scream. Luckily, Shinji saved her from an early grave. With a quick teleport, he managed to appear in front of her and stopped the dagger in the nick of time.

Kazumi heard the sound of steel going through flesh. Opening her eyes, she saw what happened.

The dagger had missed Kazumi, but was now lodged into Shinji's gloved hand. You could see the tip of the dagger sticking out of Shinji's hand. Blood slowly cascaded down from his wound.

Shinji grimaced in pain as he pulled the dagger out of his hand.

As luck (and common sense) would have it, Kazumi's scream brought the attention of her other classmates. Soon, knocks were heard from her door but Kazumi had other things to worry about. She had an injured stranger in her room, holding his hand in pain.

"You're hand! It's bleeding," said a worried Kazumi

"I'll be fine….." was all Shinji said.

Eying the window, he quickly made a dash for it. Jumping out of the window, Shinji eyed the dorm's roof top and focused. In midair, a flash engulfed him and he reappeared on the roofs, safe from harms way.

After making sure nobody was in sight, Shinji leaned against the wall and took a huge breath. Again, he inspected his wounded hand. He tried to move it…….nothing. His right hand, paralyzed from the dagger. Shirou must have dipped the weapon in poison beforehand.

Shinji took a good look at his paralyzed bleeding hand. "Damn it…."

With his good hand, he reached to his back pocket, after fiddling around for a good minute; he took out a small glass tube. In it was filled with a light blue substance.

Slowly, Shinji poured the content into his wound, grimacing in pain as the strange liquid touched his skin. As the liquid evaporated into the air, Shinji felt blood pumping back into his wounded hand. After a few good minutes, Shinji opened and closed his fist, checking if the potion did the job. Satisfied with the results, Shinji made his back to his room.

Next Morning

Morning came again to Mahora. The class was abuzz over last night's incident and in the centre of attention was Kazumi, the only witness. Ever the reporter, Kazumi showed the girls the pictures she took and told them what she saw.

"So…. Did you catch a glimpse of 'him'? " asked the cheerleaders.

Kazumi nodded in acknowledgement. "Better than that, He even used his body to protect me!

The whole class went berserk at this new revelation.

" KYAA! That's so romantic!" exclaimed Misa

The twins joined in, both had a dreamy look on their face "Auu!… wish he rescue me…."

Ne Kazumi-chan, did you get a good look at his face?" asked a rather exited Makie.

(Ok! Pause right there. Now dear readers, you may be wondering, where the hell is Shinji? Well…..)

Corridor

Shinji was on his way back from the School nurse. As you expect, he was there to have his hand bandaged. Nothing serious. It was just to prevent an infection. With his bandaged hand (which incidentally, is his right hand,) a little sore, Shinji decided to take things a little easier today.

3A Class

Shinji took his seat quietly. Not many realized he was there since most of them were still preoccupied with Kazumi. Though those who did noticed Shinji didn't bother to give him a greeting.

Save one…….

Konoka waved at the newcomer. " Ohaiyo Minato-kun!"

Shinji was shocked that someone actually said hello to him. Of course this brought a slight blush on our dear protagonist's face.

Shinji returned the greeting. Although his was a little less…. 'enthusiastic'.

" Ohaiyo Konoka-san……"

Little did Shinji know, by returning the greeting, he accidentally used his bandaged hand to wave back at Konoka.

(Great job Einstein. Really! Ten points straight up front!)

" Ahh! Minato-kun, why's your hand bandaged?!

This peaked Kazumi's interest. "Bandaged hand?"

Shinji quickly pocketed his right hand. His face sweating as he tried to find an alibi.

" Ahh, its nothing really, it's just a cut. Nurse-san thought it could get infected hence the bandage" explained Shinji.

(Smooth…. Real smooth Shinji. Like hell she'll believe that sorry excuse.)

"I see, hope it gets better soon Minato-kun!" said Konoka. She gave Minato a worried look before going back to her seat.

(Then again this is Konoka we're talking about……)

End of class

Nothing interesting happened in-between today at 3A. And by interesting, I mean out of the ordinary, so the usual spats between Asuna and Ayaka were present. Nothing new there……..

It was after classes went it happened. Shinji was summoned by the dean to discuss matters. Nothing serious, the dean just wanted to introduce Takahata and Galdofini to Shinji. Both senseis were a bit surprised when they saw Shinji. With his credentials, they expected someone a bit……older.

So since Shinji was out, that leaves us with the rest of the girls. As usual, they hanged around for awhile, chatting with each other.

Corridor

Negi was outside his class with Zach. For the first time in a long time, Negi was angry. Well anger was not exactly right; it was more of a mix of disappointment and anger. Zach on the other hand was pissed. Even though he played pranks on Shinji on a daily basis back at the magic academy, Shinji was still one of his best friends. The both of them had a lot in common and both had their fare share of pain in the past, though Zach dealt with it better.

Both Senseis made their way into their class and naturally all the girls greeted them in their own special way.

('Special' ahehehehe……..Get it? Special……ah never mind…..)

But before they could proceed with their borderline 'erotic' hellos, Zach slammed his fist, hard, on the blackboard. His face was red from anger.

Negi could only remain silent. His little head deep in thought.

"I'm shocked girls…… I'm honestly shocked on how you treated Shinji yesterday, you call yourselves young ladies? What? You think we didn't know? You! Ayaka! Is this how a class rep is supposes to act? And you! Makie. You didn't bother about Shinji's feeling did you? Saying all that crap!

Not a sound was heard. All the girls could only look down in shame.

Zach almost lost control his anger. "You weren't so quite yesterday (slams board again) C'MON!! ANSWER ME!!"

Negi couldn't keep quite anymore. He too wanted to have his say in the matter as well. "This isn't like you at all……..what happened?

Again, nobody answered. It was a while before Negi continued. "This is about Chao-chan isn't it?"

Zach looked Negi with a puzzled look. It took him awhile before he connected the dots.

When he did, he cooled down considerably. It all made sense now. Perfect sense.

"Ladies……We all miss her ……. everyday. She was a dear friend to all of us and can never be replaced. But it's not fair to take it out on Shinji-san. He didn't come here to replace her. Understand that……. Okay ladies? Explained Zach.

He gave a small smile to the girls to ensure them that he wasn't angry at them anymore.

Some of the girls broke down in tears after Shinji's talk. Those who didn't could only look down at their desks in shame.

After seeing this, both Shinji and Zach panicked. They wanted to make the girls understand the situation. But this………This was something else.

Zach made his way to Ayaka and gave her a pat on her head. "All of us make mistakes; we just have to learn from them. Besides, I'm not the one you should apologize to."

After letting the waterworks die down, Zach came up with a brilliant idea.

"Now that we got all of our pent up emotions out of the way, let's say we celebrate? Dinners on me and Negi!" exclaimed Zach. Negi beamed in delight, Zach took the words right out of his mouth.

"I got a plan for you girls to get to know Shinji better. I'll run it through you girls at dinner okay ?" Continued Zach.

"What about Minato-kun? Isn't he coming along?" asked Konoka

"Unfortunately Shinji can't join us tonight, besides…..That would ruin the surprise right?" answered Zach.

Once again, Kazumi's brain began to process this new information.

"Something doesn't feel right here……. Is it a coincidence? Shinji's hand's wounded, just like 'him'. Shinji can't join us for dinner, which is generally around the time 'he' appears. Gotta check on that latter." Thought Kazumi.

Dorms, Night

Shinji was in his room, reading his magazines. He didn't see any of the girls when he came back to the dorms, but that was because he was back before the rest of them did. Unlike the rest of the class, he didn't do any extra-curricular activity. And unlike Negi, he didn't bother using his free time to train. He prefers to do that in the mornings, alone. He's been doing that for the past couple of years, why should he stop now?

(Knock)

Shinji heard the knock coming from his door. Putting aside his magazine, he made his way to the door.

"Who's there?" asked Shinji

"It's me, Zach. Negi's here too" Answered Zach

Shinji opened his door and greeted the two senseis. Once inside, Zach whistled after inspecting his room.

"Wow! You have a better room than mine Shinji! That's not quite fair." Said Zach

Shinji chuckled at his friend's statement. "Hehehe, Yea, I pulled a few strings..."

After Zach and Negi made themselves comfortable, Shinji asked them why they were here.

"Sooo……..Anything on you minds?"

"I've talked to the girls today Shinji. What they did to you was unforgivable but you have to understand, they lost a dear friend not too long ago." Explained Zach.

Shinji put his arm up in protest. "Yea, I heard about it from Dean-san. It's ok man, I understand. You know me better than that. Was no different back in Wales."

Negi got angry when he heared Shinji's answer. "Ni-san!

(No, not the car maker, its big bro in Jap……..)

"Didn't Onee-chan tell you to stop saying that!" pouted Negi.

Shinji smiled at Negi's 'lecture'. The whole Springfield family treated him with so much kindness. They were like the family he never had.

Negi's 'lecture' went on for a couple of minutes. Zach on the other hand suddenly remembered his purpose here. He gave Negi a light nudge to shut him up for a while.

"Oh yea, All the girls are going out for dinner tonight. Me and Negi gotta fork the bill so we're following them. I told them you couldn't come. That's ok right?"

Shinji nodded in acknowledgement. "Yea, I gotta do patrol tonight, so I can't join you guys. Thanks for covering for me."

"Alright man, there's some food in the fridge near the common room if you're hungry."

Again, Shinji nodded in acknowledgement. Just before Zach left his room, he noticed Shinji's bandaged hand.

"Heard what happened last night. Don't worry about it. He won't be coming back anytime soon. You know that's not his style." Said Zach.

Negi on the other hand went straight to Shinji. "Do you want me to cast a healing spell?"

"Don't bother; I'm taking the bandage off first thing tomorrow morning." Was Shinji's answer.

And with that, the two senseis left Shinji's room. They had to get ready for dinner; they can't keep the girl's waiting.

Just when Shinji thought that he had some time for a quick nap, another knock came. Thinking it was still Zach and Negi, he didn't bother to ask who was at the door. Instead, he immediately opened his door. When he did, a blush quickly formed on is face.

Corridor

Ayaka and Makie were the one's who made Shinji react that way. They wanted to give their apologies in person but took them quite a while before they mustered the courage to do so.

"Minato-san I erhh…..eh?" stuttered Ayaka. She couldn't finish her words. The reason? Well, the person she saw was different from the Shinji she knew in class. In class, Shinji wore glasses so thick and as an added bonus, was reflective. His hair was also combed properly. In essence, he resembled a geek, a nerd even.

But the Shinji she saw here was a bit different. Gone were the combed hair and glasses. Instead, she saw a Shinji wearing a dark coloured t-shirt and pants. His hair was back to its natural state and most importantly, no glasses in sight. That gave both girls a good look at Shinji's true features.

Shinji wasn't that bad looking actually; he could even give teenage Negi a run for his money. But since he always wore reflective glasses, very few girls bothered to get to know him. Works for him, Shinji never did well with girls.

(Trust me when I saw very. It was that bad!)

"Can I……..Can I help you?" asked Shinji. He quickly put on his specs, though the girls saw more than enough.

Getting her head back together again, Ayaka stated her intentions.

"Gomenasai Minato-san! I shouldn't have said those things" said Ayaka. She bowed over and over again, a sign that she really is sorry. Makie did the same as well.

Shinji, still fighting a blush, gave the two girls a sweet smile. "It's ok. Things like this happen all the time. I'm fine with that.

"Really? Asked Makie.

Shinji nodded in response. "Yea."

The girls bowed again, said their farewells and headed back to their respective dorm rooms.

"Enjoy dinner Yukihiro-san, Sasaki-san." Said Shinji as they were leaving. He closed his door before either of them could answer.

A Minute later

Ayaka and Makie looked at each other.

"Did you……." Asked a dumbfounded Makie.

"Yea……." Answered an equally stunned Ayaka

Makie looked at Ayaka with a mischeavous smile. She was plotting something. You could see it in her eyes.

"Wait till the rest hears about this!"

Shinji's Room

"Gotta get some sleep before patrol….. Thank god tomorrow's the weekend."

Zach's room

Zach was in his room, plotting his plan for tomorrow. Through out the whole time, he had a sly look on his face. "And done!…...Man, I'm good!"

OMAKE

Something that I found out about Negima.

The actor for Shizuna-sensei in the live action adaption of Negima used to be an Av idol. That's Adult actress to you folks stateside. Trust me, I did my homework on this

(Oh yes you did he he he he he)

Chefselecta : Any comments Shizuna-sensei?"

Shizuna-sensei: …..don't tell Takamichi"

Chefselecta: So you're not denying it?

Shizuna-sensei: Guilty as charged... Promise me you won't tell Takamichi.

Chefselecta: Too late sensei, He's in the AV (Audio Visual) room with Akashi-sensei, Dean-san, Gandolfini-san and Nitta-sensei. Apparently Akashi found one of your old movies.

Shizuna-sensei: WHAT!!

That's it for today! This was one of my first action scenes if you count out 'The untold tale". So more then ever, review please! Chefselecta here! Going back to bed.

Writer's note: Since I always name my chapters after song, and listen to them while I write, here's a list of songs to help you get in the mood while reading.

Before the Fight: Word of the voice by Flow. It's off Persona trinity Soul. (My fav anime as of now.)

During the fight: Molossus from the Batman Begin soundtrack or Unstoppable by E.S Posthumus.

You can get all the songs off YouTube, I checked. Enjoy!