Ah! Megami-Sama was created by Fujishima Kosuke, and while I might wish I owned the series, I don't.

I wouldn't mind owning Negima, either, but I don't. It belongs to Akamitsu Ken.

Exchange Student

Seven: English

Taking the roll call was not something that every teacher did in Japan. Usually, it was sufficient just to note whom was not in their assigned seat. However, Negi came from a different educational system than the students present, where the roll was always called before class. Plus, he'd gotten into the habit of using the class roll to remember faces and names, and even once he'd learned them all, never got out of said habit.

There was one element, however, that both Japanese classes and the magical schools he'd grown up within had in common, and that was the introduction of new students.

He closed the class roll, and looked up. "Okay. As some of you may have noticed, Chao Rin Shen is no longer with us. She's transferred back to her home school."

There was a quick flurry of conversation. Negi waited until it faded before continuing.

"However, we have a new student joining us." He grinned briefly. "Though her spoken Japanese is excellent, her written Japanese is not up to the task of writing her own name." He indicated the Futhark writing on the blackboard. "Please welcome Skuld Jotunsdottir."

Skuld stepped forward, a bit of a blush colouring her cheeks. Thirty pairs of eyes were glued to her, and she was just a bit uncomfortable with that. "Pleased to meet you all. I have had private tutors in my homeland, as well as in Nekomi, so I don't doubt I'll be needing a bit of help in some areas, and be able to offer it in others; private tutors are not standardized." There was a bit of a chuckle at that. "My interests include mathematics, machinery and electronics, in no particular order."

The blonde girl in the first desk rose. "Welcome to Class 3-A, Skuld-san. I am Yukihiro Ayaka, class representative." She bowed slightly. "Negi-sensei, I believe we have three free seats. Seat one--"

"No," said Negi.

"Very well," continued the girl. "Seat nineteen was occupied by Chao Rin Shen, and seat thirty-two has never been filled."

"I think, given her interests, that seat nineteen would be appropriate," said Negi. "Skuld-chan, if you'd take your seat?"

"Thank you, Sensei."

She could feel the eyes on her as she walked down the aisle. A quick glance revealed that she was not the only non-Japanese person in the class. In the back row, seated next to Asuna, was a Chinese girl of tiny proportions, even smaller than herself - though still larger than Yue. Evangeline, of course, was German, and she spotted a darker-skinned girl that she couldn't place - North American Native? And another girl, with a couple of facial tattoos, that was obviously not Japanese.

But Skuld's appearance was patterned after the Scandinavians who had worshipped the Aesir and Vanir - and, to a much lesser degree, the Norns. So she was a new kind of foreign to these girls, and even those girls who were not of Japanese origin were eyeing her.

Except Evangeline, but that was to be expected.

She sat down in the free space, and glanced to her left. Sensei had told her that all the girls in this class were within a year in age, but this girl looked more like a ten-year-old. A brief glance at her Pattern showed that she was in fact nearly fifteen, but a decidedly late bloomer. Poor thing.

The girl to her right, on the other hand, was tall and slender, but well developed. She had short-cropped hair, wolf-grey in colour, and in general reminded Skuld of the wolf-God Gere.

She turned her attention back to Negi-sensei.

"...English is as good as her Japanese." Negi grinned at her. "So she'll be able to assist with that in this class. Now, we were working on Silas Marner," he continued. "This is one of the better pieces of fiction written in the English language, and I'm certain that you could probably find a Japanese translation available. But any translation always loses some of the flavour of the original, so any questions I ask will reflect that."

"Meaning?" asked one of the other girls.

"Meaning that if you try to read only the Japanese version, you will fail this unit," said Negi. "Because I've deliberately chosen passages that cannot be translated accurately."

"Great," muttered the girl to Skuld's right.

"Setsuna-chan."

"Yes, Sensei?"

Skuld glanced to her right. This is the fearsome swordswoman that even Asuna respects? The girl stood, and Skuld took the opportunity to study her. She had skin paler than even her own, a creamy true-white complexion that the blood in her skin brought to a luminous pink. The mark of an albino, but her hair was jet-black, and her eyes brown. Then Skuld caught a look at her eyes from just the right angle, and realized that she was wearing contact lenses. Which meant that she probably also dyed her hair.

"Please begin from page three."

"Yes, Sensei." She opened her book, and began to read in English. "For how was it possible to believe that those large, brown, protuberant eyes in Silas Marner's pale face really saw nothing that was not close to them, and not rather that their dreadful stare could dart cramps, or rickets, or a wry mouth at any boy who happened to be in the rear? They had, perhaps, heard their fathers and mothers hint that Silas Marner could cure folks' rheumatism if he had a mind, and add, still more darkly, that if you could only speak of the Devil fair enough, he might save you the cost of a doctor..."

"Aargh!" Asuna threw the book across the room, nearly clobbering another girl in the back of the head. "Stupid English! The language has no rules!"

"Sure it does," offered another girl - Skuld though she remembered her name as Kazumi. "but you have to remember that fiction doesn't always follow the rules. Unlike journalism."

"Like journalism has rules," scoffed Yue.

"It does! But we'll argue that point at a later time." Kazumi waved it off. "Look, the first thing to remember is that this book is old. It was written during the Meiji era. Have you read anything Japanese from that era?"

"Not really," admitted Asuna.

"It can be even harder to understand," said Kazumi. "Some words have changed meanings, others have vanished, and it's hard to tell the difference sometimes. English has gone through the same thing." She flipped the book open. "Look. Here's a fantastic example: 'a wry mouth.' Normally, we'd see that on Yue."

Yue frowned at being used as an example, and Kazumi smirked. "See? But when this book was written, a 'wry mouth' was a medical condition."

"What do we call that now?"

Kazui shrugged. "No idea. Try asking Izumi. She's got your book."

Skuld examined the small clique in the corner of the room. Asuna, Yue, Nodoka and Setsuna were among it, in addition to a few other girls she didn't recognize. One was bespectacled, and was doodling on a sketchpad. The Chinese girl was there, as well.

She stood up, and wandered over towards the group. One of the girls she didn't know looked up as she approached.

"Hello, Skuld-chan! I'm Konoe Konoka. Pleased to meet you."

"Asakura Kazumi." The journalist waved.

"Saotome Haruna!" This was from the bespectacled girl, who didn't look up from her sketchpad.

"And you've met the rest of us," said Asuna.

Skuld bowed to the group, then became uncomfortably aware of the fact that Setsuna was eyeing her.

Sizing her up.

They've already told her...

"So tell me," said Kazumi. "This section we've been struggling with. What does it say to you, Skuld-chan?"

Skuld frowned. "Isolation. This poor man has been singled out because he's different." She glanced up at Setsuna. "And because he's different, he is shunned by the people around him. But he's useful, so they pretend to tolerate him, but secretly talk about him behind his back."

Setsuna frowned.

"You've read this before," said Kazumi.

"Yes," said Skuld. "Plus, I watched the movie. There were differences—"

"Unavoidable," said Kazumi. "You can't change the medium without changing the message."

"So how does this man cope with being so different?" asked the Chinese girl.

Skuld grinned. "I won't ruin the book for you, but let's just say that once the people around him find out that he's a nice guy, they get past his looks."

Setsuna's frown deepened, and Skuld grew puzzled. Why am I upsetting her?

"Well, I can understand being different," chuckled the Chinese girl. "And these guys treat me all right, so--"

Setsuna turned and stormed off. Skuld blinked.

"What did I say?"

"You?" The Chinese girl looked puzzled. "I thought for a minute it was me."

Skuld sighed. "I better go find out what I said."

Setsuna was not quite running, and Skuld had to hustle to catch up with her. She finally drew even with her just as Setsuna reached the door of the dormitory.

"Wait!" Skuld grabbed Setsuna's arm, and the smaller girl turned and glared at her.

"Look, I'm sorry if I offended you," said Skuld. "But I honestly don't know why, or how."

"Don't you?" Setsuna narrowed her eyes, then turned and walked into the dormitory. "They told me what you are. Asuna and Yue. They told me you were a Goddess."

"So?"

"So you know what I am," she said. "A freak. And you stand there and talk about how it doesn't matter, try and draw a parallel between some literature character and me." She started climbing the stairs, almost running, and Skuld scrambled after her.

"That—"

"And in front of Konoka, no less." Setsuna shook her head. "Ojou-sama has told me that she accepts what I am, but—"

"Hold on," Skuld yelled. "I wasn't speaking directly to you, even if I knew what the heck you were talking about. And I wasn't trying to draw a parallel between you and Marner. Between me and Marner, maybe, but—"

"You?" Setsuna stopped at the landing, and glared at Skuld.

"Sure, you're an albino, but you're still Human. I'm the only Goddess in the class."

Setsuna's face darkened. "Human?"

White wings exploded from her back, even longer than Noble Scarlet's.

"Wings?" Skuld dropped to her knees in astonishment. "White wings...you look like an Angel."

"Rather the opposite," smirked Setsuna.

"You—you're a...Demon?" Skuld blinked. "But you've got no markings—"

"I'm only half-demon," said Setsuna. "Accepted in neither Human society nor Hanyu. The fact that I'm an albino Demon makes it only worse. And you have the gall to—"

"Seems that Asuna, Nodoka and Yue accept you," said Skuld.

Setsuna paused in mid-tirade.

"And Negi-sensei must, since you're in his class." Skuld got back to her feet. "And Konoka, and Kazumi, and that Chinese girl—"

"Ku Fei," supplied Setsuna. "Kazumi has no idea that I'm half-Demon. You're a Goddess. Can't you tell the difference between a Demon and an Angel?"

"There isn't a lot of difference," said Skuld.

"Oh, really?"

"Really," said Skuld. "I know of a Demon who was forcibly injected into a Goddess. The Goddess purified the Demon, and turned her into an Angel."

"...Really?" There was doubt now in Setsuna's face.

Skuld nodded. "Ever since then, she's tried to help other people, even though she's now bound to another Demon."

"We're getting a bit far from the point, here," grumbled Setsuna.

Skuld shook her head. "No, we're not. Don't you see?"

"No, I—"

"Then at least put away your wings, before someone else sees them," said Skuld. She grinned. "I imagine you don't flaunt them."

Setsuna retracted her wings, then winced. "I lose more shirts that way..."

"I can fix it," said Skuld. "I've seen my sister perform a spell to repair things." She raised her hands.

"Wait—you've seen your sister do the spell. Have you ever done it? Successfully, that is?"

"No, but what difference does it make?"

"I can just get a new shirt—"

"Don't worry," said Skuld. "I can do this. Retrace and re-spin." The shirt re-formed, the torn back repairing itself. Setsuna blinked.

"Not bad, kid."

"I did it! Wahoo!" Skuld paused, then frowned. "Don't call me kid."

"Okay, Skuld," chuckled Setsuna. Then paused. "One small mistake, though..."

"Oh, no—"

"The shirt's sewn up along the front as well."

They made it back to the classroom with three minutes to spare. Yue stood up and wandered over to her friend as she re-entered the room.

"Skuld."

"Hi, Yue." Skuld grinned. "Sorry, just chatting with my soon-to-be sparring partner."

"I thought that Asuna was going to be your sparring partner?" Yue scowled. "You should discuss any changes with Negi-sensei."

"I will be," promised Skuld. "I left my timetable on my desk...what's our next subject?"

"Math," said Yue with a grimace. "I hate math."

The Imp settled down on its perch, and whispered something in its gutteral language. Hild regarded it, her mind turning over the contents of its report, and then raised a hand.

"Mara."

The blond Demoness appeared in a puff of smoke. "You summoned, O Great Daimakaicho?"

"Knock off the toadying before I decide to assign you to King Augeus."

"Sorry, Hild."

The voluptuous Demon Queen stood up, and walked towards Mara. "You still have this unreasoning hatred of the Norns, do you not?"

"I wouldn't call it unreasoning," muttered Mara. "I've got enough reasons to be irritated with them."

"Don't we all," murmured Hild. "Even my own daughter—" She broke off, and looked up at Mara again. "The youngest of the Norns has left the Tairiki Hongan Temple, and abandoned all her defense robots. She is unguarded, at the Mahora Academy."

"Skuld is completely unguarded?" Mara rubbed her hands together. "She's not the one I really want to take down, but if I can—"

"Wait, Mara." Hild raised a hand. "We're not interested in destroying the Norns. I've had to rein you in for that on occasion, remember?"

Mara scowled.

"No, it is more important to neutralize them, not to destroy them. A living, but incapacitated, Norn is far better for our purposes." She paused. "And she is not completely unguarded. She has joined a small Cabal of Mages that exists at Mahora, and there is another such Cabal present at the school."

"I remember when we had a fair share of that pie," grumbled Mara.

"As do I, but at least our share is still equal to the Gods'," said Hild. "But the majority of Mages now serve the Neutral Powers, such as Gravitation and Electricity. A chance exists to swing the balance towards ourselves, however, if Skuld can be compromised."

"And how would I do so?"

"The Cabal she has joined includes a High Daylight Walker and two Hanyu."

Mara's face slowly split into a smile. "Does it now?"

"It does," said Hild. "But I cannot order you to take this assignment."

Mara blinked. Hild smirked, knowing what must be running through the blonde Demon's mind. Under most circumstances, it was most certainly within Hild's power to give Mara such orders. Of course, Hild had a bit of information that she'd as yet withheld from Mara.

"You will have to be integrated into this classroom. I will be giving you a cover identity, which will require bodily transformation and the subsumation of yourself into the role."

Mara gaped. "You mean, you're going to be turning me into a Human?"

"As I said, I cannot order you to do this."

Mara nodded. It was one thing that no Demon, no matter how highly-ranked, could order another Demon to do.

"Then, I volunteer for this assignment."

Hild grinned evilly. "Why, thank you, Mara." She raised a hand. "I was hoping you'd be willing to do so."

Mara paled. "Is this gonna hurt?"

"Oh...only a whole lot."