A/N: Sorry for this being such a short chapter. I've decided to go ahead and post Chapter 4 today as well to compensate. A special thanks to all my reviewers and beta readers. Reading your thoughts are half the fun.
Chapter 3. Fuka and Fumika
"What do you mean you struck a deal with Eva-san?" Asuna said angrily waving a menacing fist in front of the ermine as the three of them raced towards class. "What was she doing in our room?"
Negi felt sorry for Chamo, but he was a little annoyed himself. Chamo announced to them that morning that they could officially mark Eva off the list, but wouldn't go into details. Negi was sure he could trust Chamo in this; aside from his underwear kleptomania, lecherous tendencies towards the girls, and his perverse ambition to get Negi into pactio contracts with his entire class, he was basically a trustworthy familiar.
Negi thought about what Eva could have seen in the mirror and shrugged it off. To be honest he hadn't been looking forward to trying to get her in front of the thing and this solved at least that one problem. He supposed waking up a pint low was worth it.
Negi took his place at the head of the class as all the girls bowed. He had three girls done and now only had twenty seven more to go. He looked around the room to make certain everyone was present and accounted for, and stopped as he looked at Chao's empty seat. No one sat there, and Negi really didn't feel like rearranging the seating chart. The empty space just seemed like the best way to remember her.
Negi was just about to start the class when a knock came at the door, and Shizuna-sensei stepped into the room. "Please pardon the interruption Negi-kun, but the dean asked me to relay to all the homeroom teachers that Nitsuta needs help with the guidance counseling interviews. All homeroom teachers are to schedule time with their students after class to complete these questionnaires.
Negi took the questionnaires and bowed to Shizuna, it seemed the dean had found a way to help with screening the girls. "Thank you, Shizuna-sensei. I'll see if I can get the girls to come by later in the dorms to get these filled out."
Negi could barely contain himself for the rest of the day. The dean had supplied him with the perfect excuse for getting ALL the girls into his room. Negi made certain to give questionnaires to all the girls who didn't normally stay in the dorms, namely Chachamaru, Eva, and Hakase. Fortunately, these three were already done so they wouldn't have to make a special trip to his room and the mirror.
After class, Negi headed back toward the dorms to start the interviews when he saw the Narutaki sisters doing their usual strolling activities. Negi smiled to himself and decided they would be his next victims. "Hello girls, enjoying the beautiful weather?"
"Hello Sensei." The two chimed in unison. Negi was always amazed by how they could be so dissimilar to each other in their personalities and still be twins. Then, as if by magic they would start talking in unison like they were one person.
"I need to get the student interviews done and I was wondering if the two of you were free?" Negi said looking the twin terrors over as if assessing the potential threat level to Konoka's clean room.
"That sounded like you were asking us out on a date!" Fuka said mischievously.
"Yeah. Hey! I know! Why don't we have sensei treat us to pudding and parfait again?" Fumika said excitedly. Negi felt his tenuous grasp of the situation swiftly dissolving, which was typical with the twins. At times the two had all the self restraint of deranged chipmunks let loose in a peanut butter factory… with a sugar rush.
"Well, I really need to do it near my desk back at the room." Negi said when inspiration struck him. "I know; I haven't had dinner yet. Why don't we order out and we can do the interviews while we wait for the food to arrive."
The two girls squealed with glee. "Yaaay! Negi-sensei asked us out to dinner!"
Negi groaned as the two girls each looped an arm around his on either side and began walking back to the room with a rather possessive glare directed at any girl they came across. Which being an all girls academy, pretty much included everybody.
When they finally got back to the room, Negi called out for pizza and tried unsuccessfully to get the girls separated. He tried getting them to split up to fill out the questionnaires, but the two always seemed to be together whenever he turned to move into the reflection along with them. Finally, Negi managed to get Fumika alone in the reflection and cast the spell; unfortunately Fuka came into view before he completed the invocation. Finally giving up, Negi just decided to go with the two of them together and hopefully he'd be able to sort out the visions later.
Dinner wasn't much better. The two girls nearly started a food fight trying to be the next one to feed Negi pizza. After ending up with tomato sauce in his hair, pepperoni in his ear, and cheese down his shirt, Negi finally managed to get the two girls out of the room before they destroyed anything else.
Finally, after cleaning up the mess, Negi sat down in front of the mirror and began sorting through the visions that the mirror conjured. The mirror reflected Mahora academy. Confused, Negi began scanning the crowd of young girls and boys until he located something interesting. A fight was in progress. The combatants were a young boy and an older student. The younger boy was obviously Negi's son. Negi would have been able to pick him out as his kin in a crowd of hundreds. The two were standing toe to toe fighting next to a young girl that looked like a slightly older version of one of the Narutaki sisters, possibly his child as well. Negi smiled as he imagined a brother standing up for his sister.
Negi watched until the two young fighters were surreptitiously snatched up by their shirt collars by an almost elderly Takamichi. The old man lifted the two boys as if they were kittens and pulled them apart. "Alright you two, that's enough. The bell is about to ring, I recommend the two of you get to class."
The crowd quickly dispersed as he stared down anyone who might argue. As the last of the children disappeared, Negi noticed that Takamichi was staring at him. He looked around before reciting a quick spell. "Well, Minister Negi, it has been a while. Is this official council business or are you just spying on your offspring." Takamichi said pleasantly. "Is that tomato sauce on your chin?"
Negi quickly wiped off his face and grinned back at his old friend. "Not really. I'm not the real Negi you remember. I'm scrying into the future from the past."
"Ah." Takamichi said knowingly. "You must have Professor Konoe's mirror then."
"Professor Konoe's mirror? You mean Konoka?" Negi asked incredulously.
Takamichi grinned. "Yeah, she's the professor of magical healing here. Setsuna, her partner is the athletics director. She inherited the mirror when the old dean died."
Negi could hardly believe his ears. Konoka could one day be a professor of magic! "Actually, the reason I'm scrying on you is to see the possible future that might result in Chao's birth."
"Ah. Temporal mechanics, it's never been my strong suit. Well, if you want to look in on your descendants in this divergent reality, I'll go get your daughter. She's magically aware." Takamichi offered.
"Was that my son you stopped from fighting?" Negi said proudly.
Takamichi immediately looked uncomfortable. "Yeah, he doesn't have any magic and doesn't know about our world. It's kind of complicated, I'll let Fujiko explain. She's in my class, so I'll excuse her to speak with you."
Negi moved the perspective of the mirror to the alleyway outside the school. It took a few minutes, but eventually Fujiko appeared in the mouth of the alley and approached his image warily.
"Wow, that's some powerful magic even for you pop." Fujiko said whistling low as she circled the image. "So this is what Konoe-sensei's fabled mirror is capable of?"
Negi remarked how much she looked like the twins. "Yes, this is me when I was only ten years old."
Fujiko nodded and looked around. "Silentium Sanus." Fujiko recited. Negi recognized it as a basic spell to prevent eavesdropping.
"I'm glad to see I'll have a daughter capable of magic. Takamichi said that your brother doesn't have any powers, what was that all about." Negi asked pointedly.
Fujiko visibly paled and shuffled her feet. "It's a bit complicated, and a pretty long story. Negi doesn't know he's my brother."
"What do you mean he doesn't know he's your brother!" Negi asked aghast.
"Well, pop, he isn't my real brother. He's only my half brother." Fujiko said uneasily.
Negi gulped as the realization hit him. He had recited the spell with both of the girls present. Negi nodded slowly. "Which one of you is which?"
"My mother is Fumika. His mother is Aunt Fuka." Fujiko said uneasily.
"How in the world…" Negi started.
"I don't know all the details either." Fujiko said desperately. "Apparently, mom and Aunt Fuka were both competing for your affections. Somehow they both ended up pregnant. I think that Aunt Fuka might have disguised herself as mom and tricked you. Anyway, Negi and I are the same age. You and mom moved back to the magic world when you became first minister of the council of magic. You sent me here to be educated, and that's when I met Negi."
"So Negi doesn't have any latent powers?" Negi asked quietly.
"Not as far as Konoe-sensei, can tell. Sakurazaki-sensei says he's the best fighter she's seen since, well, you." Fujiko said quickly.
"I see." Negi said cryptically. "So when did you find out that he was your brother."
"Konoe-sama told me when we…" Fujiko said hesitating.
"Did what?" Negi demanded getting more alarmed by the moment.
"When I became his girlfriend." Fujiko said miserably. "Papa, I want to ask Negi to be my Minister Magi! He's strong and he cares about me Papa, he really cares!"
Negi's head was swimming as the impact of what he was hearing settled in on him. "You know that's impossible Fujiko. That type of bond…"
"I don't care, Papa!" Fujiko shouted. "I love Negi! Just because we both happen to be half siblings doesn't mean we can't be together…"
Negi pinched the bridge of his nose. "You haven't told the future me yet have you. You haven't told your father."
Fujiko looked miserable again. "No." She said meekly. "I figured this was a good chance to test your reaction. To be honest I'm terrified to face you. I hate to think what mom's going to say. She hasn't talked to Aunt Fuka since before I was born. She lives out here and told Negi that his father died in a car accident before he was born."
Negi thought about everything he was hearing. He finally looked at the young girl. She was obviously torn. "What about Negi? How do you think he'll react when he finds out you're his sister?"
"I don't know." Fujiko said sadly.
"Well, my recommendation is this: you need to have a talk with your Aunt Fuka. At the very least, you need to let Negi know you're related. If not that he's your brother, at the very least that he's your cousin. His feelings about the two of you being together may change if he knows this. Becoming bonded to a minister magi isn't your decision alone to make. It has to be made together, and you mustn't allow any secrets to be between you when it happens. You owe Negi that much." Negi said seriously.
Fujiko nodded slowly. "Thanks pop. That sounds about like something your future self would say too."
"Now, as for why I've come calling on you. Do you know anything about a woman named Chao?" Negi asked seriously. "She's a time traveler that came back to the time period in which I was a teacher at Mahora academy and tried to expose our world."
"No. I can't say that I've ever heard the name." Fujiko said seriously.
"Well, she's supposed to be one of my descendants, and I guess one of yours as well." Negi said uncertainly.
"Well pop, if you're scanning through divergent realities in order to find her lineage, it's possible that she won't exist in some of the more radically divergent ones. If for instance you were to scan a dimension where you were killed before having children, you might not find her at all." Fujiko said astutely.
"You sound quite well versed in temporal mechanics." Negi said appreciatively.
"A+. You helped me write my term paper." Fujiko said smiling. "Here, I'll call Konoe-sensei and ask her. She'll be able to tell me if this Chao girl exists in this reality."
Negi waited while the girl pulled out a cell phone and called Konoka's future self; or possible future self. Negi had a hard time keeping the ideas separated some times. A few minutes later the girls closed her phone and looked back up at him.
"Konoe-sama said that she's never heard of a Chao before. I guess she isn't born in this reality." Fujiko reported dutifully.
Negi sighed with relief. He'd hate to think that Chao came about as the result of inbreeding. "Well, you better get back to class, and remember what I said about your brother." Negi admonished.
"I will, pop. And if you do end up getting married to mom and having me in your reality, please don't make me go to camp when I'm eight, I hated that." Fujiko said grinning.
"I'll try to remember." Negi said laughing as the image faded. He thought about the possible future. He never would have imagined that he might one day hold office back in the home country. Negi chuckled to himself and started stripping. He was covered in food, and for once he had to agree that he needed a bath. Hopefully he could grab one quickly before the girls got back to the dorms from their club activities.
A/N: Hope you all liked this chapter, even though it's a little shorter than the rest (much like the twins). I'm going to try to get all the girls worked in eventually, if not in chapters by themselves, then at least as groups. It might be a little difficult with some of the less popular characters who haven't gotten much coverage, but hopefully as new releases come out I'll be able to get a better idea of the character's history and personality in order to come up with a somewhat feasible storyline. Next chapter: BATH TIME!