Akamatsu Ken and Kodansha created Mahou Sensei Negima!
Twenty Five Other Times Negi Made a Pactio.
Everything that Moves- Preview?
Special thanks to Darkenning for this chapter's setup, which takes place in an alternate, 'What If' version of our crossover between the Unequally Rational and Emotional saga and his Anything that Burns.
This might be canon for the URAE continuity but not for Burns. If that makes any sense, that is.
Anyway, as long as you are over eighteen and don't mind sexual content, go give Anything that Burns a chance!
Negi Tiberius Springfield is the Negi from Unequally, currently stuck in the Burns world with Asuna, Yue, enemy-turned-awkward-ally Tsukuyomi, Skuld, a Pikachu and Yuuki Rito. Negi John Springfield is the much more sexually aware Negi from Burns, and at the point this chapter is set has had sex with Yuna, Haruna, Misora, Kaede, Makie, Ku Fei, Nodoka, Yue, Fuka, Fumika, Mikado Ryoko, Itoshiki (not Matou) Sakura, Minamoto Shanna (not Shizuna), Momioka Risa and Sawada Mio, Fujino Shizuru and Kuga Natsuki.
"So... you're Fate-sama," Tendo Akane said skeptically as she regarded the boy teacher.
After introducing her to Negi Springfield, Haruna had led Akane and Negi out of the room being used for the main gathering of the party to a smaller, more private room just a bit down the hallway. (Akane had noted that the total floorspace of the rooms and hallways she'd already seen was much larger than the building's actual dimensions, but under the circumstances, she wasn't about to question that.) Having done so, Haruna had then made the more complete introductions.
"Yes, that's the name I use when I wear that helmet," Negi agreed. "Minus the honorific, of course. I don't blame you if you don't believe me, since I-" here he paused, seemingly troubled by something, and took a moment to run a hand down the lower half of his face. "No," he finally said. "I don't think I really should be doing this."
Haruna blinked. "Negi? Now what's gotten into you?"
"Oh," Akane said slowly, folding her arms before her chest. "Then you're not Fate-sama after all?"
"I am, but... it's not as simple as that," Negi admitted, looking away from the girl's reproachful expression. "Follow me, please. There's someone I believe you should meet."
"Oh, sure thing," Akane plainly said, beginning to follow him out of the room and back into the hallway. "Let's see what else do you have to pull out of the hat on me..."
Haruna stood there just gasping for a moment, then rushed out after them. "Negi!" she called out, trying to grab him by an arm, only to have Akane casually swat her hand away. "You can't be thinking of that! That's not one of the secrets I brought her here for!"
"Oh, then it's definitely one of the secrets I want to learn!" Akane noted, even as she followed Negi up a flight of stairs that were at the end of the hallway, looking oddly placed in an awkward angle, and frankly quite narrow, given one a sensation of uneasiness as one walked up them. "Whom do you have up there, the crazy aunt biting chickens' heads off?"
"Not quite," Negi sighed, stopping by a small door at the end of the stairs and rapping his knuckles on it. "It's me," he called out for whoever was inside. "Please let us in."
Akane blinked curiously even as Haruna grouched behind her, and the door was opened from the inside by a girl with long orange hair tied together into twintails with tiny golden bells securing them. She looked the same age as Haruna, and her eyes were strangely mismatched, one green, the other blue. "Good afternoon, Asuna-san," Negi bowed respectfully at her. "This is Tendo Akane, and I would like her to have an audience with Tiberius-san, if such a thing is possible."
The girl blinked several times at Akane, and Akane had the nagging impression this complete stranger was recognizing her from somewhere, but that only was adding to the girl's muted shock and growing discomfort, until she just groaned and glared at Negi. "Well, I guess it has to be possible now, doesn't it? Get in, quick," she urged, gesturing at the three to walk in, which they did as Negi hurried up an apology. The girl apparently named Asuna glared at Haruna, which already was netting her some sympathy points with Akane. "This is your fault, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I can't deny it this time, it was," Haruna admitted. "If it's any consolation, I didn't want to bring her to your doorstep. For that blame, you want him," she added, pointing down directly at Negi.
"Akane-san, please meet Kagurazaka Asuna. Her favorite color is red," Negi said.
"And... what does that have to do with anything?" Akane asked, while Haruna closed the door after them, and out of another room at the back stepped a girl in a white dress, with large roung glasses and the appearance of a foreigner, or at least a mixed blood. Her hair was light and very long, but the strangest thing about her, on a first contact at least, was the small starkly yellow animal sitting on her head, which made Akane gasp and pull back in a mixture of instinctive revulsion and sheer lack of understanding. "Wha-What is that?!"
"That little animal is very dangerous despite its cuteness, Tendo-sempai, and shouldn't be approached under any circumstances," Asuna deadpanned, plopping down on a couch and crossing her legs. "The little buddy on its head is completely harmless and friendly, however. We call him Jean-Luc, but rest assured, it's not because we're like Shiratori Azusa at all." She frowned, then asked the girl with glasses, "That was her name, right?"
The girl with glasses smiled very adorably, so much that Akane felt briefly tempted to pinch on her rosy cheeks. "Aye! Asuna-han can remember names just fine, it seems, when they belong to people she's fought! Another thing we're exactly alike at, tee hee!" she giggled with a marked Kyoto-ben accent.
The other shoe finally dropped in Akane's mind, and she spun back towards Asuna, gasping hard. "You've fought Azusa...? Twilight Red!"
"Her favorite color," Negi repeated blandly, "is red."
Asuna waved faintly with a small smile. "Nice to see you weren't caught after all, Sempai."
"And you!" Akane spun again to point at the girl with glasses. "You must be White Death!"
The girl bowed very grandiously at her, with the small yellow animal hopping off her scalp and to the floor. "Better known as Tsukuyomi, at your service, ma'am! As long as you can meet my price, that is!"
"Then... Then you really are Fate-sama after all!" Akane nervously told Negi. "I'm sorry if I ever doubted you, well no, ah, I didn't just mean I wasn't sorry, but that I didn't really doubt, it's just-"
"Easy, easy, Akane-san, please," Negi requested softly, placing a hand on her arm. "Like I said, things are not as simple as they appear. It is true I invented the identity, but-"
"John-san," said an identical voice from the doorstep Tsukuyomi had just come from, and Akane paled, seeing another Negi Springfield now standing right there, with a black haired girl, a very petite girl with thick braids she had just seen downstairs, and a taller and older boy with short, spiky orange hair, lighter than Asuna's.
"Tiberius-san," Negi nodded at his lookalike, using the same formal, dry tone he had just used on him, both glaring quietly at each other. "Akane-san, allow me introducing you to Negi Tiberius Springfield-san. He is the Fate you have crossed paths twice by now."
"Then… you really aren't Sensei's brother, or anything like that?" Akane asked a while later, sitting at a small table in another room, along the Negis, Haruna, Asuna, Yue and Tsukuyomi. Skuld and Rito sat by on a nearby couch, with Jean-Luc resting on Skuld's lap. "Sorry, I—I'm still not sure I can believe that part. I mean, I have no problem accepting you're Fate-sama, actually. That part makes sense when you think about it. You're about the right height, you move about the same way even though you're in a safe situation and don't need to be under guard, and even though the voice isn't right, the way you talk is. But all of that stuff about other worlds, that's just too wild for anyone to believe…"
Asuna shrugged. "Hey, don't sweat it. I wouldn't believe it either if I were you. It took me a whole team of other us to convince me these things can happen!"
"Pika pika pika pi," Jean-Luc opined.
"And that… that anime animal, does that mean you come from the Pocket Monsters world, then? Are you videogame characters or—" Akane hesitated, glancing towards the small yellow rodent uneasily.
"Not at all, he's from yet another dimensional plane, summoned by… an acquaintance of us, you could call her," Skuld replied. "Our dimension's version of Earth isn't that different from yours, actually. The most striking difference would be Second Impact—the disaster from fifteen years ago—was far more contained thanks to my sister's sacrifice, so mankind and the ecosystems didn't quite suffer the same level of damage. The skies are still blue, for starters."
"Your sister," Akane told Skuld.
And Skuld smiled proudly. "The goddess Belldandy!"
"And you're a goddess too?"
"Well, isn't that obvious?"
Akane tossed her hands up. "See, this is why I just can't take you guys seriously!"
"I knew showing her this part of the house would be a bad idea," Haruna told her Negi. "Why couldn't you just take the credit? It'd have made everything was easier for all of us…"
Akane grumbled. "Don't even say that! If I'm going to be fed lies, I'd prefer these ones to being told someone else was the Fate-sama I knew. Then, is there another Tendo Akane where you guys come from?"
"Actually, this merits some amount of background info first," Yue exposed, sipping from a juice carton through a straw. "Our Saotome Haruna is not Ranma-san's sister, as Haruna-san here is, but she's his daughter with your sister Nabiki-san. So, you're her aunt, and you have met Nodoka and I quite a few times before, actually…"
Akane cringed, obviously disgusted. "Ranma and Nabiki?! Really?!"
"It's a long story," was all Yue offered for means of an explanation.
"Uh-huh," Akane said. "I bet it is." She looked at Negi John next. "What about you, then? Have you already met -"
"Nope," interjected Haruna.
"I'd like to, but Haruna hasn't introduced us yet," Negi John explained. "I'm not particularly versed in curses - neither bestowing them nor lifting - but I can at least take a look at it and then refer them to someone who might be able to do something."
Akane grunted in understanding, then raised an eyebrow. "'Them'?"
"The appropriate pronoun for a genderfluid individual."
"Fluid is the right term," Akane muttered. "So why haven't -" she started to ask Haruna.
"Because if he gets it that easily, there'll be no stopping him from running off back to China in order to get even with our dad, and I'd really rather he stuck around for a while," Haruna answered. "Among other reasons. Anyway, he wants to find it himself, not have it handed to him, and since I'm a good little sister, I'll see if I can help him with that."
"And of course, there's no guarantee that it would be that easy-" Negi John started to say.
"What about the 'goddess'?" Akane poked a thumb towards Skuld. "She'd have to be much more knowledgeable about curses, wouldn't she?"
"She isn't that much of a goddess, frankly speaking," Tsukuyomi said bluntly.
"HEY!" Skuld protested.
"Skuld, sorry, but you've gotta admit she's right this time," Asuna said.
"Are you taking her side now?!" the outraged deity said.
Akane sighed. "Great, a comedy troupe. I have to say you fellows are a lot more impressive while fighting, rather than… squabbling."
"Well, I can't deny that's certainly my forte," Tsukuyomi accepted the backhanded praise rather easily.
"Don't feel too wounded about anything she says, that's just the way she is," Haruna advised.
Akane shot her an annoyed stare. "Again taking cheap shots at me? What is your problem with me?"
"Oh goody goodness, how could I possibly have a problem with dear sweet you?" Haruna asked. "I mean, someone who loves her daddy so much that she hopes he'll die in the next three years? You're clearly a boddhisattva!"
"To be fair, I can't say I haven't ever had those thoughts myself," said Rito, muttering under his breath and really wishing to be elsewhere.
"Also, it's kind of galling she is accusing her of taking cheap shots when she's been taking cheap shots at us the whole time," Tsukuyomi observed.
"Twice in a day I agree with you, now I'm really scared," Asuna shivered.
"Excuse me?" Akane snapped at Haruna, taking a mental note of answering the others after that. "I don't hope my dad will die at all, but let's not kid ourselves about this crappy world we live in, and how the hell do you know about that, anyway?"
"Ranma might not have told me about your little crush on Fate-sama, but he sure as hell did tell me about what you said about hoping the world would end before you had to marry him. Did you not even think that might piss off people who cared about Ranma?"
By this point, a Negi was staring at the other Negi. "I'm starting to agree with Haruna-san, I really think you shouldn't have brought her here."
"Yes, actually, I didn't think about that!" Akane retorted. "I don't know why, I guess it definitely fits the pattern that all of this shit takes, resulting in people sticking their noses in my life and deciding how it should go and what I should feel and do! I suppose it is a bit much to understand for someone who's lived on easy street their whole life, like you two!"
"Us t-" Haruna repeated, more stunned than anything else, before she reached a new level of anger that would have shocked and horrified her fellow librarians. As a matter of fact, it was horrifying Yue, even despite already having realized this young woman was far more troubled than the disturbing but happy-go-lucky Haruna she knew was. "Okay, you can say whatever the hell you like about me, and all I'll do is laugh at you, but do you seriously have the gall to claim that Ranma's life has been 'easy street'?"
"What's so hard about wandering around China like a damned circus performer!?" Akane demanded.
"Gee, I don't know, it's not like China isn't a damned war zone, you shit!" Haruna snapped right back, ignoring Rito's attempts to calm her down and the way his hand clumsily went over to her breast, making him shriek and pull back, only to drop onto Skuld, who then punched him into a wall. "And that was before he got that curse!"
"Oh, yeah, that made his life so difficult," Akane sneered with a roll of her eyes. "I've seen how he uses it to get cheap meals from the local merchants, you know, acting all cute and 'feminine'. It's disgusting!"
"I'd call it 'practical', myself, but then I'd have just stabbed them…" Tsukuyomi idly observed, looking at her fingernails and gaining another glare from Akane.
"Yeah, I bet it was just a load of fucking laughs being used as our Dad's sex toy!" The words were out of Haruna's mouth before she quite realized what she was saying, and she wished them back as soon as they were gone. But she was a long way from having her wishes granted just for the asking.
Akane stared. And blinked. And then stared some more, mouth open now but no sound coming forth. Finally, she managed to stammer out, "W-What!?"
Everyone else in the room, Pikachu included, had fallen into wide-eyed, paling shock and disgust. All but Tsukuyomi, that was, who just chewed on her lower lip and purred, huskily, "Kinky…"
Haruna looked fairly reluctant and weary for a moment, during Yue found herself thinking she had grown to look fairly older than she actually was for some reason, and finally looked back at Negi Tiberius. "Maybe," she adviced him, "you should be leaving this room right now."
"I'm not willing to run away from problems, whether mine or any friends', anymore," he grimly told her.
"And I'm not that sure we've ever agreed on being friends," Haruna said back, "but whatever, your choice." She turned back to Akane. "It was practically from her first night as a girl." She was committed, now, and so she might as well let this wretched girl have all the horrifying imagery. If the others took on it too, well, their own loss, she had given them a choice. Although the sicko- the only person present right now who somehow kept her current opinion of Akane above that given to trash- was no doubt enjoying this, judging from her amused expression. "And you know why Shanpu's never had sex with him as a boy? Because that would be adultery, because she's married to our - to her dad, and apparently thinks he's great in bed. We're really fucking lucky that he's stayed behind in China, otherwise both of us would probably be on the old pervert's menu!"
Asuna was starkly pale, presing both hands on Tiberius' ears from behind. "That's it, I'm never complaining on Paru's family again!"
Tiberius sighed tiredly. "You know that only works in cartoons, don't you? I still can hear reasonably fine. Maybe you should tend to Rito-san instead, I don't think that way of trembling and twitching is natural at all, and he might even choke to-"
"You - You can't be serious!" Akane said, taking a step back, towards the door. "This is your father you're talking about -"
"And he's a monster. Get over it, I have," Haruna snapped.
"I don't -" Akane broke off, shaking her head, which was good because Haruna would really not have taken a statement like 'I don't believe this' all that well. "Is this what you brought me here to tell me? That I'm marrying into a sick family!?"
Tiberius then raised a hand, frowning. "Stop it, please!"
Akane looked at him now. "Ah...?"
"I understand the reasons behind your outrage," he dryly said, stepping ahead and out of Asuna's reach despite her attempt to keep on blocking his ears, "but that's a victim... if not more than one... of terrible abuse you're insulting here. Say whatever you want about that man, about how sick and vile he is, and I won't stop or question you. But, when you start calling those who have had the misfortune of suffering at the hands of others 'sick', just because they happen to be related to those who have abused them... well, I won't be having any of that in my presence. I became Fate to combat injustices. I won't stand for one being carried over right before me."
Akane grimaced at him. "What business is this of yours, this isn't even your world..."
"Oh, so now she believes it!" Skuld rolled her eyes.
"... and this isn't your family, and I doubt you'd know the first thing about horribly messed up families, so why don't you take your-!" Akane began shouting at him.
Tiberius stomped a foot down. "My sister tried to kill me siccing a magically revived mythological figure on me!" he told her. "Do you think you're the only one who has been thrown into matters they didn't wish to deal with?! But you know what, some of us don't take that out on others-"
"I think," Tsukuyomi pointed out, "that's exactly what you're doing right now, though..."
"I don't pay you to question me, Tsukuyomi!" he told her, leaving his ever present '-san' when dealing with her aside.
She looked aside and mumbled. "I still haven't seen the first payment of what you're supposed to be compensating me with, either..."
"See that? That's a selfish person who only cares about herself!" Tiberius angrily told Akane, pointing back at Tsukuyomi. "Those who don't develop empathy for others end up that way! I want to believe you're better than that, and that you're just lashing out because you feel that crushed right now, and sorry if that's it, but please, please, stop a moment and consider you aren't the only one suffering in this situation, goshdarn it!"
John blinked. "This fellow... he has some serious repressed anger issues, doesn't he?"
"They aren't that repressed when he's around Kotaro," Yue shrugged. "And what would be your suggestion for him to deal with them? 'He needs getting laid', I suppose?" she cynically commented.
John scratched the back of his head. "I imagine it wouldn't hurt, seriously..."
"Of course you would..."
Akane and Tiberius were pretty much locked in a standstill of sharp glares now, both all but short of tearing up, and even Haruna had sort of stepped back, slightly baffled at being pushed out of her own argument.
"Don't you dare judging me after all of this!" Akane said.
"I'll stop doing it as soon as you stop judging others!" Negi cried back.
"Don't do that! You're painting me as the part at fault here...!"
"And you aren't! All I want you to do is to stop and consider, your fiance and Haruna-san are not either!"
"And what gives you the right to say that?! How long have you known her?! This her, that is, not whatever weirdo you know from your-"
"Don't ever," Tiberius clenched his teeth furiously, the white wave of booming frustration pulling back fond memories of happier times and that he was defending now, "insult any of MY students in MY presence! Including Haruna-san!"
This was said with such fierce determination borderlining a paroxism of rage that even Akane was slightly rattled, pulling back. Tiberius, blushing and recoiling himself, rubbed his watering eyes and lowered his head. "I... I'm sorry." He hiccuped. "That was... unbecoming of me. I should know better, but I... I think I can remember her now, far more clearly, and... thank you, for making me remember, but... every time I remember one of them, the pain of losing them becomes so... oh my God," his voice grew very small and still, "Maybe that's why I'm not remembering..."
Akane blinked, visibly disturbed to the point of not really being that upset anymore. "Oh... Okay, s-sorry, maybe I, I overreacted too, but..."
"Sempai," Asuna told her, walking over to place her hands on the shaking shoulders of Tiberius, steadying him in place like a mother. "Do you see now? This, right here, is the big problem with Negi. He cares too much. That's why he'd pull us along to help others we don't even know, and he even wanted to do it alone at first. That's why he took over for Lookalike here's duties as Fate, as to distract suspicions away from him. That's why he gets mad at you. Because he cares, he cares about strangers, he cares about you and doesn't want you to be consumed by your own anger, the way his sister was by hers. And of course, because he doesn't want you or anyone else to end up a murderous, self absorbed piece of crap like Tsukuyomi..."
"Bite my cute fragant perky butt, Asuna-han," the killer for hire deadpanned gracefully.
Asuna kept a hand on Tiberius' still cold and shaky shoulder, but placed the other on Akane's, making the older girl wince slightly. Asuna only smiled. "But mostly, even when he doesn't remember us that well, Negi cares about us above all others, except his other sister, the good one, I guess. And his father, that's another whole big fat can of Negi Issues. But, when anyone insults us, he goes ballistic, and I guess he can't help but feeling that way too about the copycat class of Copycat Negi here, so please don't feel too bad over this, will you...?"
John blinked, unsure of how to take this. "Copycat?"
Tiberius breathed deeply, still flushed and ashamed but already straightening himself up. "Well, you are younger than me, so in a way, one could say you have followed my steps..."
"This world doesn't have a set date right now, though," Tsukuyomi observed, "so for all we know they are doing this before you... we?... did. We came from our future to their past after all, or is this their present to our past? Who can say, when time and parallel dimensions are involved? Great, now you've given me a headache, I hope you're happy...!"
By now, Akane was too confused and perplexed to really keep on being mad at all. "You are all... uhh... well, I don't even what kind of word should I use for you! But maybe... most likely... it won't be the kind of word that I only could fit into four letters."
"Awwww, that's so kind from you...!" Tsukuyomi cooed sweetly.
"Except you, that is," Akane coldly told her. "Even back there it was obvious you were just the worst, White Death..."
Suddenly, Yomi's saccharine disposition turned into a vicious scowl. "It's Tsukuyomi-sama for you, bitch."
Then, without any warning or signal, Akane began quietly sobbing to herself. "This is all, just so unfair," she lamented.
Negi Tiberius blinked, then shyly placed a hand on hers. "Well... As I've just said, I'm sorry for treating you that way. I'll be glad to help you any way I can, and I'm sure so will-"
Akane pulled her hand back in such a way it actually startled him. "Please... No," she all but begged. "Please don't touch me. It's... It's better this way..."
Tiberius grew agitated. "Oh dear, oh goodness, of course, an apology that light is not enough, is it? Of course not, how could it be, I'm such a fool and-"
"Yes, you are," Yue told him, "even if not for the reasons you're thinking of."
Negi looked at her. "Ah? What's that supposed to mean, Yue-san?"
His younger counterpart sighed, rubbing a hand down his own face. "It's obvious she likes you very much, Tiberius-san."
The other of him recoiled. "What? Oh, no, of course not, I've just offended her, you're always seeing physical attraction everywhere..."
"I'm not sure it's a case of physical attraction this time," Tsukuyomi opined disgustedly, "but then, what do I know about the matters of the heart, other than how to rip it off your chest?"
"Pika pika pika pika-chu," Jean Luc told Tiberius, sounding mostly unflattering at his stubborn denseness.
"I hate you so very much, brat," Rito weakly decided from his spot at the floor.
"Why are you so young!?" Akane asked, suddenly back on the brink of tears. "Why aren't you my age, and from my universe, and your dad an old friend of my dad, so we could meet and I could be happy with my Fate!?" And then she threw herself at Negi T., wrapped her arms tightly around him, and kissed him, deeply, much to his bug-eyed shock.
"Okay, so maybe there's some physical attraction, too," Asuna guessed, while Yue paled rather starkly and Rito only muttererd quite darkly.
"Annnnd Pactio," announced Haruna, who'd used this interval of deep reflection and communion between two people to draw a circle around the two of them. She'd studied the circle quite a bit after using it for the first time, and it was easy for someone of her skills to reproduce. It was nice to be the third, or like tenth in this case, she guessed, wheel sometimes. Then she looked at her Negi. "Sorry, maybe you won't get this one, but I'm pretty sure that's for your best."
John sighed, raising his hands. "It's not a competition," he said, sounding slightly unconvicing regardless.
"P-Pactio?" Akane repeated, blinking away the dots on her eyes.
"Um, we've just made a magical alliance, thanks to Saotome-san," Negi T. explained, tinting these last words with iciness as he glared at the grinning Haruna. "Here, um, this is your card that signifies -"
"Why does it show me with a mallet?"
"And what's wrong with mallets, hmmmm?" Skuld asked grumpily. "They're the elite weapon of choice for the expert Yggdrasil debugger, after all..."
"So, we aren't having sex this time either?" Haruna asked.
"NO!" Asuna, Rito and Yue all said at once.
Akane blinked cluelessly. "... sex!?"
To be Continued?
