Disclaimer: I do not own Negima?! Magister Negi Magi.

Chapter 3-First Day of Training

Carmen's POV

Today was the first day that Carmen would start her magic tutoring and let's just day she was anything but excited. She was sitting in her class, already finished with all her work again. There was still about an hour until class ended, and time seemed to be moving a little too fast for her.

Carmen wrote down all the spells she knew how to pronounce perfectly, which was about fifty or something like that. Anyways, it was a lot. She was good at remembering things whenever she read it several times, but that didn't mean she was any good at magic just because she knew how to pronounce the spells perfectly. Carmen pulled out a doodle of her beginner's wand. It wasn't long after that the bell rang, ending school day for everyone else.

"Carmen, Asuna, Nodoka. Could I see you?" Negi called for them. Only them and the others that were asked to stay after class the other day knew what Negi wanted. Konoka smiled at Asuna and her before she left with Setsuna, and Yue whispered "Good luck" to Nodoka and Carmen. Then everyone else left.

Asuna, Carmen, and Nodoka made their way to Negi's desk. He smiled at them and said, "Well let's get going to Evangeline's."

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, why are we going to Evangeline's room?" Carmen asked

"Ah, Carmen. You don't know Evangeline doesn't live in the dorms, like everyone else does," Negi explained.

Carmen was surprised and still confused. Why doesn't she live in the dorms? she thought. I know she's kind of rude, but she's not too bad when you look past that. The whole way there, she was thinking about why Evangeline would live in the woods but still on school grounds if she wasn't going to live in a dorm. Finally, they arrived at a small cottage.

Negi went up to the door and knocked. Then he called, "Evangeline?"

After a while, the door never opened, and Asuna yelled, "Hey, Eva! Where are you?"

Then Chachamaru walked out from behind the cottage. She was wearing a kimono. She bowed then said, "Sorry for the delay. We were having a tea ceremony."

"Oh, sorry to disturb you then. I just wanted tell Evangeline that we were here," Negi explained.

After that, Evangeline came out from behind her house. She, too, was, wearing a fancy kimono, and her hair was tied up like Chachamaru. She also had an extremely annoyed expression plastered on her face. Carmen wondered if that look actually even left her face. She always seemed to be annoying about something. Still, despite her annoyed look, Evangeline looked quite beautiful and cute.

"If you didn't want to bother us, you could've gone on with your silly tutoring lesson without coming here to tell me," she said, sounding extremely unfriendly.

"OH, well, ok," Negi responding, laughing nervously. "I just thought you would want to know."

Just get on with your tutoring and leave me alone," Evangeline said, waving a hand to dismiss them, and returned to the tea ceremony behind her cottage. Then Chachamaru bowed and followed.

"She's just as fiery as ever," Asuna commented on the british-sounding girl's attitude.

"But Asuna, you're about the same as her," Nodoka responded. "Only twice as violent."

Asuna just laughed at what her shy classmate had said. It seemed if Negi ever said something offensive to her, she would click and start violently picking on him, but she would just laugh it off if it was classmate that siad something offensive.

Asuna and Negi's relationship was too complicated. One moment, she was teasing and hurting him, and the next, she actually seemed to be taking care of him and looking after him. With most of his students, it was easy to see what that girl thought of him. Nodoka and Yue obviously have feelings for him. Evangeline was denying her feelings. Fuma and Fumika admired him since he was adult-like even though he was os young. Haruna and Kaede saw him as just a kid that was their teacher. All of these were obvious to Carmen, but Asuna was different. She seemed to have all these things she sees Negi as. It was almost as if she was a combination of his big sister and his friend.

"Well, we should get started," Negi finally said, clapping his hands together. When his two partners that were there nodded, the moment that Carmen had dreaded came.

"Ok. I brought beginners' wands for Asuna and Nodoka. I thought we could start with some low level spells," Negi said. He showed them a short demonstration. "Now, you try it, please."

As Asuna and Nodoka practising, Carmen pulled out her own wand. It had the head of a cat on it. When Carmen looked towards the woods, she spotted a calico kitten with a star-shaped patch on her forehead. It winked at Carmen, and she smiled at it.

"Carmen?"

"Huh?" Carmen said, turning around to face her kid teacher.

"Are you ready?"

"Oh, uh, yes," she responded. Carmen closed her eyes and held her wand out in front of her. She said the spell and hoped that it would work.


Negi's POV

Negi watched as Asuna, Nodoka, and Carmen tried to preform the spell. Whiel nothing happened with Asuna and Nodoka, a thick cloud of smoke came from where Carmen was. From somewhere in the middle of the smoke cloud, there was light coughing that grew louder as the smoke cleared.

When Carmen could be seen clearly, her face was almost as pink as her hair with embarrassment. "I-I-I'm sorry," she stuttered. She didn't look any of them in the eye.

"It's okay, Carmen. Let's try some more," Negi said.

"Yeah. You're bound to get it eventually," Nodoka added.

"You did better than us. At least something happened," Asuna exclaimed.

"Well, Asuna. The spell would work if you pronounced it correctly," Negi stated.

A vein popped on Asuna's forehead, and her hair moved to look like one. "DID I ASK YOU, NEGI?! YOU ARE SUCH A LITTLE KID!" Asuna exclaimed, rubbing her fists into his head hard.

As soon as Asuna calmed down a bit, they started practising magic again, they being Asuna, Nodoka, and Carmen. The same thing happened every time Carmen tried to cast a spell, no matter what spell it was. The strangest thing was that every time she tried to cast a spell, Negi felt the presence of very powerful dark energy.

It couldn't possibly coming from Carmen, could it? Is it just my imagination? Negi thought.

After a while and enough smoke to suffocate the planet, Negi thought that it might be best to stop for the day since Evangeline came out several times already to complain about all the smoke. Plus, it was already getting dark.

"Why don't we stop?" Negi asked.

"Sure!" Asuna yawned. "I was getting tired." She stretched and turned to Nodoka. "You ready to go, bookworm?" she asked.

"Um, sure," Nodoka responded.


Carmen's POV

As Asuna, Nodoka, and Negi headed back, Carmen spoke up, "Would it be alright if I maybe stay behind for just a little while longer? There is something I would like to try," she lied.

Negi stopped for a moment. Then he responded, "Of course. Do you want me to stay with you?"

"No. I'll be fine on my own. Thank you though. I'll only be a moment," Carmen said, smiling.

For a minute, Negi looked unsure, but then he smiled back and nodded. Then he, Asuna, and Nodoka left Carmen by herself, unknowing of the calico walking toward their new classmate and friend.

"You all finally finished," the cat mewed. "I thought you would never stop."

"You could've come out when they were here, you know, Star," Carmen said, giggling a bit.

"Nah. Didn't feel like it," Star responded, licking her front right paw daintily.

"So, why did you arrive so late?"

"I had something to talk about to someone in Whales only to find out that he wasn't there," Star sighed and put her paw down. "I see you're still as bad at magic as ever."

"Thanks for the confidence booster," Carmen mumbled.

"Whatever. We should get back. You told that little kid that you wouldn't be long," Star said. Her tail laid down in a straight lina in front of her." Lead the way, please."

"that little kid is Negi, and he's my teacher," Carmen sighed, starting to walk toward the dormitories.

"I thought that might be the case here."

"And you never bothered to warn me at all."

Star didn't answer her while she continued padding beside her human friend.

Suddenly, Carmen got a very bad feeling and stopped. She looked around, the wind blowing through her bubblegum pink hair. She couldn't shake the feeling.

"Carmen?" She looked forward at the kitten who was a few feet ahead. "What's wrong?"

"There's something wrong," Carmen commented. "Can't you feel it?"

There was a brief moment of silence. Then Star sighed and said, "I don't feel anything. Your purrobably imaging it."

"Sure, that's it," Carmen said, unsure. She continued walking behind Star, casting around worried glances every once and a while. After a little bit, Carmen once again stoppen because the feeling was almost unbearable. She leaned against the tree as she tried to locate the souce of the feeling.

Suddenly, a rustle came from the tree. While Carmen looked upwards, for some reason, Star looked downwards. She realized what they were standing on a little too late. "Carmen! It's a-" she was cut off by something unknown to Carmen.

"Star!" Carmen called out, but something pinned her against the tree. A figure walked towards her that she couldn't see in the dark. Soon, she recognized this as a spell. Before Carmen knew it, the person was up on her and pressing his/her lips against Carmen's. Her eyes widened as the ground around them warmed and glowed. A pactio circle! Carmen thought in alarm. In the light, she could see the boy clearly now. He had light brown hair that up in all directions. He was wearing short jeans, a white shirt, and a bright red jacket. After he finally stopped, he whispered, "Pactio." His voice sounded naturally playful.

"See you later, Carmen," the boy said. Then he stepped back and seemed to be swept off his feet into the wind.