Disclaimer: I own neither Negima! Magister Negi Magi nor Fairy Tail.

Italics text = character thinking to themselves.

Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy

Bold text = shouting

Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability

Chapter Four

Meeting Erza

As Lucy and the other six new members of Fairy Tail walked towards the Guild, a small boy ran past them and entered. When they got inside as well, they noticed him talking to the Master.

"Have you gotten word from my father?" the boy asked eagerly.

"Marco" Makarov sighed "I already told you he's working on a job."

"That was a week ago! When he left, he told me it would take three days at most!" Marco reminded. "Can't you send someone to see him?" he pleaded.

"No way! Macau is a mage, he can handle it. Now go home and wait there!" Makarov replied rather childishly.

"Meanie!" Marco yelled and smacked Makarov in the nose before running off.

"Isn't the Master a little harsh?" Lucy asked Mirajane as the group reached the bar.

"Oh, he's just as worried as Marco." Mirajane replied.

"And everyone else in the Guild for that mater." Setsuna added with a glance at the people around them.

"A good leader must at least try to hide his emotions at such times" Asuna sighed.

"Oh, did you learn that in Ostia?" Eva teased.

"Actually, I learnt that from Incho." Asuna said with a small smile.

"Mirajane-san, about that missing person, maybe I should..." Negi began, still staring at the door Marco left through.

But before he could finish, Natsu forcefully put the poster he had taken back on the request board and dashed out.

"What's with Natsu?" Lucy asked surprised.

At that point Mirajane explained Natsus relation with Igneel and Lucy went after Natsu to give him a hand.

As Negi and his friends had lunch - even Chachamaru ate some lightning-like meal that was initially added to the menu for Luxus - Elfman entered the guild with a grim look on his face.

"Erza's back" he announced, making everyone Mirajane, Makarov and the newcomers freeze.

"Hey, who's Erza?" Asuna asked as she turned towards Gray who was sweating bullets. "And why are you undressing?" she added as she took a few steps away from him.

"Damn! Stupid reflex!" he muttered looking down at his bare chest. "She's the strongest woman in Fairy Tail" he said as he jumped behind the bar and hid, adding "and she's damn scary!"

A few moments afterwards, a girl wearing an armor breastplate entered the guild. Her hair was blood-red and she was quite attractive, despite the serious look on her face.

"Hello Erza, I see you finished that job earlier than you thought." Makarov greeted.

"Good day Master. Yes, it was rather easy" Erza responded with small smile.

"Heh. Well, I have job request for a demon extermination, interested?" Makarov asked with a slight grin.

"Yes, of course. But it's rather rare for you to make job suggestions. What's the catch?" Erza asked suspicious.

"I want two of the new members to go with you. There are some old ruins in that area that might interest them" Makarov.

"Ruins? Then myself and Negi-sensei should be ones to go and collect data." Chachamaru said.

"Oh, how come you should go, boya?" Eva asked.

"Well... do you remember that I made Pactio with Theo during the Ostia Festival? And it's power?" Negi began hesitantly.

"Yes." Eva answered as she noticed Konoka and Asuna looking the other way with a slight blush.

"Well... I remembered that Albireo Imma had the same artifact from all his contractors... so I tried to make a pactio with Asuna but I got a diferent one and then with Konoka and got that one." Negi said with a blush.

"And why didn't ask me first?" Eva said in a dangerous tone.

"Well, your power was still limited at that time so..." Negi began.

"Baka! I meant why wasn't I consulted!" Eva said with a blush.

"Well, I thought you would be happy with the power boost." Negi shugged.

"I am, just keep me in the loop, got it?" Eva sighed.

"Sorry for the interruption, but what's a pactio?" Mirajane asked curious.

"Look at the time! Erza, I'll escort the three of you to the train station. You can pick up your equipment and I'll give you details on the job on the way there." Makarov said in one breath as he got up and started to push the three towards the exit. Soon, they were out of sight.

"So, what's this pactio thing?" Gray asked as he emerged from behind the counter.

Before anyone could stop him, Kamo jumped on Mirajanes shoulder and started whispering in her ear and Gray went closer and listened too. After about 30 seconds...

"A KISS !" both of then shouted in surprise.

"Keep it down, will ya?" Asuna shushed them.

"But all five of you..." Mirajane said in disbelief.

"Actualy, there are even more back home" Kamo grinned.

"So, Negi is something like a Master to you" Gray pondered.

"Yeah, something along those lines." Asuna said, distracted by her process of torturing Kamo.

"So he must be an amazing kisser, right?" Gray asked in the same tone, but with a grin on his face.

"You do realize you're pissing off three S-Rank mages, don't you?" Eva said as her hands began to gather energy.

Gray blinked, turned towards the vampire and then did the only intelligent thing possible under her death glare: he ran for dear life!

But before he moved more than four meters he was encased in ice. The other occupants of the room smartly decided to not look at her at this point.

"Oh dear!" Mirajane squeaked before looking at Eva in fear.

"I just confirmed my theory that most men are shameless bastards, no mater which world they're from" the vampire said in a bored tone as she turned towards the bar and took a sip her .

"Still, you didn't have to freeze him like that" Setsuna sighed.

"He'll be fine, he's an ice mage too, isn't he?" Eva said in a completely unconcerned voice.

"And I can say from experience that the temperature on that snowy mountain I had to spend a week on was at least twice lower than this ice prison." Asuna finished.

"I guess we should go unpack the rest of our stuff?" Konoka said as she looked at the clock on the counter.

"Yes ojo-sama" Setsuna replied and the four girl got up.

"Mirajane?" Asuna called out the frightend girl, who jumped at the sound of her name. "We're not mad at you, calm down" Asuna said with a warm smile.

"Or that exhibitionist, as a mater-of-fact. I just want to se how good he is as an ice mage." Eva added. "Let me know if he can get out of there by nightfall."

"If he doesn't, I'll drop by and release him" Asuna said.

"Okay" Mirajane sighed in relief.

"Oh, and Mirajane?" Eva said over her shoulder as they walked away.

"Yes?"

"That's a 'yes' for Gray's last question" the vampire grinned with a dreamy look on her face.

It took several seconds for the silver-haired mage understand what she meant. When the realization struck her, she blushed and looked at the door the four had left through.

When the girls reached their new home, they headed for Eva's place. The only things inside were the two black backpacks that Eva and Chachamaru (well, mostly Chachamaru) had carried. From one of the enchanted backpacks they pulled out the magical glass sphere that contained Eva's castle.

"Good thing there's no time requirement for objects on this thing." Asuna said with relief.

"True. Konoka, you should come with me inside to help me chose what furniture we'll use. Setsuna, Asuna, you two will be in charge of moving them out of the way when we transfer them. You'll have two minutes for each shipment." Eva ordered before she and Konoka disapeared in a flash of light from the magic circles they drew on the ground.

At Negi's side

Erza was enthusiastically discussing with Negi about the magical weapon collections they both possessed.

"So you can summon any weapon or armor from just about anywhere at any moment in time?" Negi mused.

"Yes, it's called Exquip magic." Erza nodded.

"Exchange and Equip, huh?" Negi smiled. "Quite the suggestive name."

"Indeed. Originally, it was only for weapons, but I managed to upgrade it for armor. I call it 'The Knight'" Erza said.

"Hm, the transfer process must be similar to our artifacts. Initially, I thought they were stored inside the Pactio Cards. But after I got my own artifact, I noticed that instead of an identical artifact coming out from my partner's card, the one I was using was transferred to her." Negi said with a frown.

"Bad timing I take it" Erza asked with an understanding look.

"He was surrounded by enemy troops and got his right arm cut off." Chachamaru said. "Again" she added a little annoyed.

"WHAT?" Erza's yell sounded in their compartment.

"Well, I got it healed almost instantly, thanks to Konoka" he defended. "And I really couldn't let you take that blow!" he added, making Chachamaru turn her head the other way to hide her blush"

"She reattached your arm?" Erza asked in disbelief. "I've never heard of someone able to do that. Healing magic is considered a lost art around here"

"Well, from what I've seen, it's pretty common in Mundus Magicus. You see, there are a lot of fighters and many of them work as gladiators, so there are many healers at the arenas." Negi explained. "

"However, Konoka-san isn't at that level yet. For now, she uses her artifact to heal major wounds." Chachamaru added.

"Hm, the artifacts that come with these pactios are quite diverse and powerful." Erza said deep in thought. "And it's even a common thing in your world..."

"Every mage must have at least one partner, that's what Kamo told me over a year ago." Negi nodded.

"Hm, would it be possible for mages in this world to perform pactios? Now that I think about it, Master rushed us to leave before you could say how those pactios are made." Erza said, looking at Negi and Chachamaru expectantly.

"Well, both mage and partner must sit in the magic circle that is drawn by the supervisor of the pactio and the two must... uh... provide some proof of the complete trust between them. And then the supervisor says 'Pactio' and it's done" Negi said hesitantly.

"I see. It appears quite simple. But what is that 'proof of trust'?" Erza asked.

"Well, that is... um..." Negi mumbled, avoiding her gaze.

"Yes?" Erza asked, leaning closer to him.

"A kiss" Negi finally said.

"Oh, just a kiss..." Erza said before blinking in realization "A KISS!" she yelled.

"Yes" Chachamaru said simply.

"And all five of you have pactios with him?" Erza asked.

"Yes, we are among his partners" Chachamaru confirmed.

"'Among his partners'? You mean there are more?"

"Yes, Negi-kun has over a dozen partners" Chachamaru said.

Erza's eyes widened as she turned towards Negi and stared at him.

"This kid had already kissed over a dozen girls..." she thought. Then, when Negi raised his head and their eyes met, she blushed a little and avoided his gaze "Well, he IS very cute." she thought.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Erza decided to take the 'kiss' subject off their minds.

"So, besides the artifacts, what kind of magic do you use. I wasn't at your bout with Luxus, you see." Erza said.

"Oh, well I use Lightning, Wind, Light, Darkness, Fire and a little Ice" Negi said.

Erza blinked a few times, and then steeled herself not to scream again.

"You mean you can already use six elements at the age of ten?" she asked with her mouth dry.

"Yes, that is correct. Furthermore, he has already mastered" Chachamaru said.

"I did?" Negi asked surprised.

"Yes, that's what Master said when I showed her the recording of your fight with Rakan. Actually, she said that by merging two shots of the ultimate lightning spell, the 'Thousand Bolts', with a lightning spear to form a new attack you have taken lightning magic to a whole new level. Not to mention that merging the energy of different spells is unheard of" Chachamaru explained.

"Well, the fake Eva from the scroll told me that Master theorized on the possibility, but she said that Ice magic isn't malleable enough and Darkness is too dangerous. And such energy manipulations are only possible with spells in their stagnant form, thus the Magia Erebea is a requirement, so there's no surprise I'm the first one who did it." Negi explained.

"Negi-kun, how do you know so much about magic?" Erza asked in awe.

"Well, mages usually start training at the age of four and I graduated the Academy at ten. And I've always tried to become as strong as my father, since he is considered the most powerful mage ever in both Mundus Vetus and Mundus Magicus. I've been training particularly hard in the past year" Negi said with a smile.

"And you have already reached your father's level by scoring a draw with Rakan" Chachamaru said with a smile.

"I kind of doubt that." Negi said, looking out through the window at the passing sceneries. "Rakan may have been dad's equal ten years ago, but Rakan retired at that point. Even if dad's power hasn't increased in the past ten years, which I seriously doubt, let's not forget that everyone gets a little soft after retirement." Negi said.

"Negi-kun, what could have you experienced that made you grow up so fast?" Erza asked in a low and serious voice, before adding when he saw his slightly pained expression "It's alright, you don't have to answer that, I was talking more to myself. I also hold some painful memories, I understand it's hard to talk about it." she said as she turned towards the window as well. "Actually, most people in Fairy Tail are like that." she spoke thoughtfully.

"Yes, Mirajane-san mentioned something like that before we met you" Chachamaru said.

"But still, isn't Darkness magic something a little too dangerous? I've never heard of good dark mages either" Erza said a little upset.

"It was a choice I made in order to obtain the power to protect my friends. I don't regret my choice. As for darkness being evil... Well, if you lose yourself in it then you will surely become evil for your remaining short life" Negi said seriously.

"'Short life'?" Erza asked a little disturbed.

"Turn into a murderous monster and end up killing oneself" Chachamaru explain.

"Oh!" Erza said as the train stopped "Well, we're here".