Disclaimer: I don't own Negima. I own only my OCs.
Author's Notes: I really don't have much to say at this point. It's Reina focused, but for a good reason. You'll see why when you get to the end.
This chapter's title comes from the "Lacuna Coil" song of the same name from their "Karmacode" album.
Negima: Famella Intra Machina
By Dark Dragon Dave
Chapter 10: Our Truth
A new day dawns over Mahora as the sun leaves the Western hemisphere in its wake. As per usual, with the arrival of a new day, the information networks of the school spring to life and people start their day checking email, voicemail, webpage hits, and news, getting sports scores, updating blogs, and getting in a few minutes of online gaming before going to school or work. All of this activity is seen by a recent resident to the data streams. It bobbles within, scraping the tastiest bits of data for itself. Images don't load, games disconnect, and instant messages aren't received.
Being simply a compression of data and given artificial intelligence makes it quite easy to slip in and out of restricted access areas. It swims about in the great digital expanse seeking all kinds of information to add to its body. The more data, and the tastier it is, the more power it gains.
It ramps up its eating, causing a noticeable lag in the network, forcing servers down in several places.
Chisame, who is in the middle of uploading a batch of Chiu pictures she took while Reina was out yesterday, suddenly finds herself disconnected from the server.
"What the hell is going on? This kind of stuff has been going on since she showed up." She thinks as she looks back at Reina, who is still asleep. "I suppose it's wrong to blame her for it, but maybe that mech of hers is eating up a lot of the bandwidth around here."
With a groan, she turns back around and shuts her computer down. "Damn it…" Chisame stands up and walks over to the bed to wake her roommate when she catches the time.
Another day of classes is about to carry on like usual at Mahora. As Negi runs along, warning Asuna of the upcoming test for the middle of the semester, he catches a large gathering of people on a lower level from them. He stops and watches a group of tall, older, men and some women surround a smaller girl.
"Ku Fei-san?" First thing he does is panic. "Ooooh… This isn't good! She's going to get hurt!"
Kaede happens by and reassures him. "Those guys are making the same mistake they make all the time." She lets out a small sigh.
They all rush in to attack her, but one-by-one, they all get knocked around like rag dolls.
"You'll probably want to avoid going to the nurse today, Negi-kun," advises the ninja. "It'll be full up for a while."
Negi watches on in awe as the small blonde girl with the wiry frame tosses people twice— three times her size around like it is perfectly normal. As she fights, he recognizes an elbow strike she uses as the same kind that Fate boy used back in Kyoto. He begins to think, settling on a decision rather quickly.
He gets a little too close when a random challenger comes up from behind him, standing over him like a great wave about to crash on the beach. Ku rushes in and straight line punches him in the stomach.
"You okay, Negi-bozu?" she asks while the random man falls over.
"Yes… Yes. Thank you."
Class begins and then class ends as it always does. The students stand and bow.
"Ku Fei-san…" Negi says. "I need to speak with you. Would you please wait out in front of the memorial in World Tree Plaza?"
"Can do."
"Thank you! I'll see you then!"
This information is like a dam leak. Gossip begins to splash out like so much water. Most of it deals with the possibility of him confessing some hitherto unknown feelings towards the martial artist. With that distraction going on, Reina takes the opportunity to duck out of class—
"Oh no you don't!" Ayaka tells her as she wasn't but one step away from the door frame. "I've got some important business with you concerning the trip."
Reina turns and realizes Ayaka is piecing things together. Time to come up with a well executed and believable way out of this. "I… I w- would but… I have- have to… get my foot removed?" Damn it!
"I'm not buying that for a second! Now what's going on here? First you get all flirty with Negi and he's moved on to Ku Fei! You I could halfway understand, but Ku Fei?!"
"WHAT?!" Reina boggles.
Misa adds, "She's not very smart."
"Nor is she sexy…"
Yue, who is standing nearby, simply sips her juice box and walks away, rubbing the bridge of her nose. As she leaves, she grabs Reina by the cuff. "Come on, it's starting up and it would be best if we just got out now."
"Uh…" Reina swallows her throat. "Th- Th- Thanks."
"Oh no you two don't!" Suddenly, Ayaka is dragging them back. "I'm not allowing you two to get away that easy. You were both there and I'm going to get some answers when this Negi-sensei crisis is over. Now you are coming with us to check out what Negi is going to do with Ku Fei because I do not want you out of my sight. Something big is going on, and as the class representative I am not going to be left out in the dark."
Reina reaches for her phone.
"Haruna-san, take that if you will… and don't touch anything on it."
"Right." Haruna follows orders and snags the phone from Reina. "No mech support for you this time."
Reina protests, "Mother—!"
"Pucker."
"Huh?" Hisao looks up from his small map. They are sitting on a bench near the World Tree.
"These lemon candies. Pucker is something they make you do," Corentin tells him, unaware he is actually completing a joke. "Would… you like to try one?"
Hisao comments slowly, "…I don't really like sour things."
"Perhaps some sweeter ones I should have got instead."
Hisao sighs. "Okay… If you are so set on sharing your candy with me, fine. I'll take one."
"I would not want you to be displeased!"
"No, it's alright." Hisao reaches into the bag and removes one of the pre-wrapped candies. He takes the wrapper off and puts the sour treat in mouth. And much like Corentin said, Hisao puckers. "Godommot," he comments through his sudden facial disability, "thos ur suer."
"This is what I said," Corentin issues with a smile.
Hisao suffers through it for a little more before spitting it out into the wrapper. "I'm sorry… I just cannot stand sour things."
Corentin continues to smile nonetheless.
Hisao's attention gets drawn to a far away cluster of girls gathering by some nearby bushes. It's not long before he spots Reina among them. He quickly shuffles the map up, obscuring his face. "Keep me informed as to what's going on."
"Of this, I think they are doing what we are now doing."
"What?"
"Spying on someone."
Hisao realizes he asked a stupid question. "Not like that. Who are they spying on? What could possibly have Reina along with them?"
"This I cannot tell from here."
Hisao takes Corentin's flight cap, resulting in much protest from the French boy. Since Reina isn't paying attention to them, Hisao tosses it somewhere over near the girls. "While you're over there, take a look at what's going on."
Corentin takes his bag of candies with him when he goes to get his hat.
They are all watching some blonde girl stand around and eat. He situates his hat back on his head when they all start swooning. Some boy, around ten or so, comes running up to the formerly eating girl who is now licking her fingers.
"Negi-kun in casual clothes is so cute!" remarks one of them.
"Negikun, huh? Is that his name or perhaps a title," he thinks, "I'm still not sure of nicknames here either. How do they work?"
Just as he is about to turn away, he sees the small boy take a swing at the girl. The two of them look like they are hugging.
"Who started the hug?!"
"You mean they do love each other?!"
"Well, I did see Ku Fei leave her room during the trip…"
Ayaka piques up. "Could she be wrapped up in what happened during the trip?" she asks herself quietly. "Reina-san, Kaede-san, Asuna-san… what is going on under my nose?"
"Hey, he's about to confess!"
Interrupting all of that, Asuna, Konoka, and Setsuna break up the supposed confession. "There you are Negi. We've been looking for you," Asuna informs him.
Corentin witnesses most of the girls falling over behind the bushes.
"Really?"
"Yeah. We're going bowling and karaoke since Setsuna-san's never gone before. You want to come along? You are welcome too, Ku-chan."
"I go then."
"So they're all getting together for a meeting… Reina-san!"
The timid girl responds. "Ah! W- What?"
"Why didn't you tell me about this meeting?"
"I… Don't know a- anything about a m- m- meeting."
Ayaka suddenly stands up and begins heading over to the slowly forming group. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this."
"I think they said they were going to go bowling," Makie says.
"A meeting at the bowling alley? Hah! Now I have an excuse!" She climbs over the bushes and rushes over to her favorite child teacher. "Negi-sensei! If you're going bowling I'd love to go!"
"You can't just invite yourself along," Asuna tells Ayaka.
Chimes Makie, "Well, I think I'll call some of the others if we're going bowling."
Corentin walks back, hat firmly on his head, and informs Hisao of the goings on.
"To me, it seems, they are getting all excited about a small boy named…" Corentin takes a moment to think. "Negikun."
"Well, 'kun' is a title, much like your insistence on calling me 'monsieur.' So who's this Negi person then?"
Corentin answers, "A primary school student he looks like. Short, reddish-brown hair, cute tiny little glasses."
"Well the first name is unique enough. Perhaps I can search for him. Come on." Hisao stands up, still using the paper to conceal his face.
The best, and only, place to go bowling in Mahora is "Kaiser Bowl." Their mascot, a raven with a white beak, sits atop the building, surrounding a red bowling ball with its black, black wings. Every noon, it lets out a loud cawing noise and extends its wings forward, shading the entrance.
The bowling alley gains some booming business this evening as over half of class 3-A arrives.
Ku Fei gains a small following as she racks up strike after strike, ending up with a seven-in-a-row strike.
"It's hard to control the power," admits Setsuna.
Everything that's been going on recently wells up inside Ayaka, causing Ku Fei to take notice of the nasty ki building up in Ayaka's general direction. The class rep decides she just cannot let things stand as they are.
"That is it!" Her shouting draws a fair bit of attention and shocked reactions. "I do not care if Negi-sensei has made up his mind! To just sit idly by and do nothing about it is just not something I can do!" She points right at the martial artist. "Ku Fei-san, I challenge you to a competition!"
"I always accept contest."
"During the Kyoto trip some pretty strange things went on. And all of it seems to center around Negi-sensei. When I win, I want some answers. And just to make things interesting, whoever loses gives up the chase for Negi-sensei for good."
"Sure is okay? I good at everything but studying."
A smile of strained determination nestles on the taller blonde's face. "I'll show you what I'm made of." She turns to the other girls. "Listen up! Anyone who wants to try to make a claim, or has intentions on Negi-sensei, we are going to have a bowling competition. Winner takes all!"
Negi overhears this, which wasn't hard to do. "Whaa!"
The owner of the alley approaches the one employee behind the counter. "So what's going on over there?"
"I think it's some kind of competition or something," the kid at the counter answers. He looks over to the white haired girl sitting at the counter who happens to be dressed like the rest of them. "Excuse me, I don't mean to be intrusive, but do you have any clue what's going on?"
"Actually," she looks at his nametag, "Sloan-san, I really would rather not be involved with whatever they are doing down there."
A smile crosses his face. "You must have spent some time in a major English speaking country."
"My father is from the U.S. We speak English a lot at home. My name is Reina Whitehall by the way."
"Nice to meetcha."
The two shake hands.
"Hey, Reina-san!" comes Ayaka's voice. "You're a part of this too! Get down here!"
Time to come up with another lie, she thinks. "I… c- can't b- bowl. C- Court order!"
Ayaka gets a strange look on her face. "What? Why is that?"
"I- I b… owl overhanded."
"Quit lying and get over here before I drag you over here."
Reina sighs and slides off of her seat. "Sloan-san… How often do people die from bowling accidents?"
"Uhh… Never, that I know. There may have been one in an X-Files episode…"
"Okay… Thanks." Reina ambles slowly over to the group.
Over near the toilets, where all important movements happen, Asuna is brought to light about what was going on before she and the others interrupted.
She shrugs it off. "Oh that's just not true. I mean I could see him and Honya-chan, hell, even Reina-san, but Ku-Fei? What, did you hear this from Paru-san?"
"Hey, it's true. A lot of us saw that he was about to confess," Haruna says.
"Either way, why tell me?"
Misora explains, "Well, you are Baka Red and are sort of his guardian… So how do we fix this? Do we tell Ku-chan?"
"I still think a Paru rumor is just that."
"Hey! Excuse me for just telling you what most of us saw."
"So let's just watch the game for now. We'll just keep Ku Fei in the dark for now."
As they do that, Haruna gets a phone call, not on her phone, but on Reina's.
"Oh! I forgot I had this." She flips it open. "Hello?"
"Ummm… Hello. Who is this?"
"This is Haruna Saotome. I just happen to be carrying Reina-san's phone right now. If you can spare a moment I can give it to her."
"Would you please? That would be greatly appreciated."
Haruna moves around some of the others to get to Reina, who is bowling unenthusiastically. She places the ball on the floor and shoves it forward with her foot.
"Excuse me, Reina-san?"
Reina slides away slightly. "Ye… W- What is it?"
"Someone wants to talk to you." She hands the phone over to her timid classmate.
"Hello?"
"Reina, we've got an issue," says the voice in English while she abandons her game. She heads back to the counter and sits at one of the stools.
Reina switches to English too. "What's the matter?"
"It seems the InfinIT Foundation wanted a match against the top mech pilot in the field after seeing your performance at the convention a while back. They are sending an A.I. controlled mech to challenge you now."
"WHAT?!"
"I know. It's all legal and everything. Both sides have the air clearance, and a good sized area to fight in. Unfortunately, some of Mahora is involved."
"Someone could get hurt!" Her sudden outburst draws some unwanted attention.
"They're trying to prove themselves in the most ass way possible I guess. Listen, please be careful and do your best to keep everyone safe Reina."
"Right. I'll make sure everyone is safe."
"Thank you. I'm sorry about this. Impetuous fools. You show 'em, okay honey?"
Reina nods needlessly. "Will do, dad! Goodbye."
"You stay safe as well. Goodbye."
Both sides hang up and Reina runs outside. The owner of the alley asks Sloan, "You can speak English, right? What was that about?"
"Not good from the sound of it."
Negi is busy applauding everyone's efforts when Reina ducks out the door.
The mech pilot presses the button on the outside of her phone, sending the summoning signal to the Ivory Knight. She begins a tense waiting session.
Inside the alley, Nodoka is getting a lecture.
"Listen Nodoka! Are you just going to give up the fight over a stupid bowling game?! In your heart of hearts, does it really sit well with you that after all you've done that Ku Fei just walks off the winner."
"First it's Reina and now it's Ku Fei. I can't fight against all of them…" Nodoka whines while thinking about the insurmountable odds of fighting all the girls in class.
"Hey! Don't think like that! You can still come out as the champion of Negi-sensei's heart. You really need to leave an impression. Just get him alone and kiss him." Just then, something catches her attention. "Alright, look there. Negi's going to the toilet."
"Kissing him after he's done…" She shudders.
"Just go fight for his heart!"
Yue chimes in, offering what little support she can to the shy librarian. "Do your best Nodoka."
Nodoka nods and wanders after Negi.
After a couple of minutes of small talk, a quake rocks the area with a metallic thud. Negi looks around. "Was that a quake?"
Nodoka observes, "It felt like just a small jolt."
Several panicked people run inside, causing Negi and a few others in his group, namely Asuna, Konoka, and Setsuna, to rush outside. Reina is riding the winch up into the chest and Negi rushes after.
"What's going on?" he asks at the top of his lungs since the sounds of panic try to drown him out.
"Don't follow me, alright? Stay here, have some fun with the others. I've got to go stop an idiot."
"But—!"
"No! You're not going with me. End of discussion." Her voice is oddly commanding. She climbs into the hatch and flops down in her chair. The wires drop down like usual, and she plugs herself in, waking up a few moments later as the Ivory Knight.
As Negi pushes ever forward, the Knight thunders away and lifts off, quickly leaving quite a distance between the two.
Haruna sees this as a golden opportunity. She grabs Negi by the shoulders and begins pushing him back in. "Come on, I'm sure she can handle herself. She was doing that stuff since before you met her."
Hisao wakes up in the Ebony Knight and immediately masks his signal. No need to leave a trail, right? Diving into Mahora's network initially gives him a feeling of tripping forward. MAC Addresses and IP Numbers stream by him like little glowing particles. He, in a monochromatic, digital holographic representation of his human body, flies around the various numbers and places his hand on a random light orb.
"All I have to do is find one connected to the school's proper network. Man it looks like someone's been eating the information around here."
He flits about different orbs.
"Maintenance schedule… Daily lunch specials… Illuminati meeting… Chiu…" He floats over to yet another orb and touches it. "Ah, here we go. Finally!"
The system is pretty routine as far as security goes. He's looking through the files on all the students, coming across Corentin's and his. When the student files turn up nothing, he does a global search on the name Negi and comes up with several recipes and a file on a teacher. He looks at the picture and comes to the conclusion that this Negi is the same one that Corentin described.
"So they were all getting worked up over some kid teacher? Ugh… Idiots."
He's about ready to leave when he spots something further out in the distance. It's larger than him, and looks much like a red demon. Hisao runs a trace on it as it feasts on some of the digital expanse. He gleans its vital information, things like its file name, and decides it's best to skip out.
With another tripping sensation, Hisao finds himself back in the Ebony Knight.
"Corentin, start up the Falchion, I found something in the network that we should block."
"Uh… Okay."
They had both parked their machines out in the woods near the school before they came, covering them with dark colored tarps to prevent birds from using them as toilets and to keep anyone from spotting them too easily. Corentin lifts part of the tarp up and finds the hatch quickly.
Not wasting a second, he hops in, flops down in his seat, and presses a button on his right. The lights start up as power flows to the systems. Hisao's voice comes over the speakers.
"That's good enough," Hisao tells him. "No point going through the whole process. Anyway, I'm going to update everything from here. I'd send this to Reina, but I doubt she'd even listen."
Reina lands just outside the city limits, near the river, as a few vehicles go across the bridge. Some of them stop and look on in awe, most of them consisting of people from out of town. She scans the horizon with both her cameras and her radar. Everything is quiet on all fronts for a few moments, and then something pings on her radar. Coming in from the south, moving at a speed she rarely opens her engines up for.
It quickly changes from a speck on the horizon to a full scale machine in a matter of moments, landing with a thunderous noise as the flares from its engines dissipate. The mech now before her is mostly red, with some pieces being white.
"Greetings and salutations," it says in an artificial voice that sounds male. "I am the A.I. for the InfinIT Foundation's mecha, the 'New Dawn R/H-20.' And my name is 'Ozzymandus.' It is a… pleasure… to meet the number one mecha pilot in the field today."
Reina doesn't know what to say. She was expecting it to come in, guns ablaze. Instead, it's all niceties and fanboyism. "Yeeeeaaah… Well if we can keep destruction to the town behind me at zero, that'd be great."
"Oh, of course." With that, it brought up a rifle and started firing.
Reina weaves between the bullets, trying to deflect them off course. "Hey! I said let's not cause any damage to town!"
Ozzymandus simply points an arm mounted rocket launcher at her, forcing her to move out of the way. The New Dawn turns to follow her as she dashes to her left, playing in to her want of not destroying the road to her right.
Reina lifts off the ground, deciding that an aerial battle is less likely to get someone hurt or killed. The New Dawn follows her lead and also goes airborne. As it does, it takes the opportunity to fire a few more rounds at her. Ozzymandus increases the engines output in order to draw closer and up the chance of hitting the Ivory Knight.
Reina suddenly stops, using her boosters to drop her speed instantly. The New Dawn is unable to react quickly enough, slamming face first right into Reina's elbow. To prevent itself from crashing, it grabs Reina's leg, causing both of them to fall right out of the sky. Before the dust settles, both combatants are up and facing each other.
Once again, Reina heads up to prevent anyone on the ground from getting injured. Ozzymandus toggles a switch on the rifle and aims upwards as the A.I. takes off after the Ivory. Reina dances around, preventing her opponent from drawing a lock on her.
With an audible "skushing" noise, Reina forms her blade. She switches her direction, changing from going up to backward while stopping her elevation. The New Dawn quickly boosts backwards, preventing Reina's sword strike from hitting.
Ozzymandus fires his rifle again, though it now seems to be acting like an assault rifle. It targets Reina as she dashes around him. Oddly, she circles around the New Dawn twice before suddenly thrusting backwards and then towards Ozzymandus.
It grabs her arm before the blade can rip through the New Dawn, the light of the blade glowing off the paint of both machines. Reina shifts and lands a couple of punches in before the A.I. swings itself around and rushes backwards, shooting at the white mech the whole time.
Reina heads to her left, and spins around to face Ozzymandus, bringing her missile pod up and over her shoulder. It opens and lets loose with three missiles. They are all shot down by the A.I. before even coming close. Reina fires three more, hoping the smoke cloud from the others will obscure the next volley.
The battle isn't just observed by a few curious out-of-towners and interested locals. Several members of the aviation committee are contacted about doing some fly-by's in order to get some pictures, Kazumi Asakura being one of them. Through the use of blackmail, er… bartering, she secures a ride.
Satomi Hakase finds a nice place on the roof of a building and watches through the use of a pair of binoculars. Chao Lingshen joins her in short order, unfolding a steel chair next to her.
Satomi looks away from the battle and at Chao.
"It's not every day," comments Lingshen with a cunning smile, "you get to see a real mech battle."
Satomi turns back to the fight. "You think someone would have ordered an evacuation or something."
"Actually, the section of Mahora the field of operations includes is so minor that there's no reason to, and besides, this way we can get a close look at her in action."
Using a similar idea, the man with the rusty orange hair, sometimes known as the Artificer, is doing the same as Satomi and Chao. On a roof, observing from afar, the attached lenses on his black glasses shifting around. He turns a tuning knob on what looks like a pair of bulky headphones.
It will be making its move. He knows he will have his chance.
Before the group of school girls and their young teacher leaves, another group, consisting of four people, enters the alley. Negi happens to be up at the counter, returning his shoes as he overhears them talking about the mech fight going on south of town.
"Yeah… It's totally preliminary but the white one looks like it's getting its butt kicked."
"My money is on the red one, hands down. All the white one is doing is flying around getting shot at."
Negi knows right away what they are talking about.
One of the two girls in the group speaks up. "Aren't you guys the least bit worried? What if they decide to fight in town?"
Negi puts his shoes on quickly and rushes out the door.
The other guy in the group comments, "Now there's a boy who likes his mecha."
Asuna, Konoka, and Setsuna follow along outside. When they head south they can clearly see the mechs flying around, the Ivory Knight getting chased by the red one, the lights of tracer bullets streaming towards the Ivory.
"Why didn't she tell me anything?" the boy teacher thinks.
"It's a long shot Aniki, but why not try contacting her through the pactio?" asks Chamo from his spot on Negi's shoulder. "Maybe this is all part of her plan?"
"Do you think it'll work?"
"It's worth a shot."
He finds an empty alleyway and ducks inside.
"What are you up to Negi?" Asuna questions.
"I'm worried about Reina-san!"
"Listen…" Asuna trails off, unable to come up with a sentence she thinks would keep him from worrying needlessly.
Filling in, Setsuna answers, "She seems quite capable as a fighter. Maybe not on her own, but she's been in that mech probably as long as I've been training with my sword."
"I'd still like to make sure she's okay!" protests the boy. He takes her card out and presses it to his forehead. "Reina-san!" he shouts in his mind. "Can you hear me?!"
Ozzymandus again shoots down all the missiles and begins firing at her again.
Ivory Knight Reina is doing her best to dodge all the bullets being fired at her when something happens that catches her by surprise... She hears Negi's voice.
"Reina-san! Can you hear me?!"
"Negi-sensei? How are you… What… Why?" She continues dodging bullets.
"I'm using the pactio card. I wanted to make sure you are okay."
"I shouldn't think that is possible considering I'm currently out of my body. And I am okay. I've been doing this for years now so I can handle myself."
"You should have told me!"
"Seriously Negi, what could you possibly do in this fight?" Before he can answer that, she finally gets close enough to Ozzymandus to grab its arm. She flies around it and twists the gun out if its hands.
"As your teacher–!"
"Negi, Negi, Negi… You need to stop worrying so much." Reina takes the gun and bends the barrel of it. "I broke your gun. Now you're on my terms," she tells the artificial intelligence.
"Don't be afraid to activate your contract if you think you need it," Negi advises her.
"Then I'd have a shield bouncing around in here. I appreciate your concern Negi-sensei, but you have to trust me. Okay? I have this."
"I do trust you Reina-san. You're the only person I know that can do what you do. It's just as a teacher I am concerned about the safety of my students."
The hands of the New Dawn sink into its arms. "I am not so poorly equipped." Holding its arms forward, flames spew forth.
Reina boosts side to side to put the fires out, only to get blasted with another fiery assault. She flies backwards to get away from the New Dawn. As she does, two large barrels rise up from the shoulder area of her opponent. The cannons lean forward and erupt in two massive yellow lines.
Reina grunts in frustration and side steps the beams, narrowly missing getting hit. "I don't want to, but…" The missile pod on her right back lifts up and forward. She launches a missile in the New Dawn's direction. Leaving a trail behind, it rushes headlong towards the New Dawn. Heat and flames wash over the surface of the New Dawn.
Seemingly as a countermeasure, Ozzymandus shoots flares further up into the air. Their heat and brilliant light overpower Reina's equipment for a brief time. When things die down, Reina starts by looking around to get her bearings. Her eyes and radar seem to confirm that…
There are now six different New Dawns!
If she could open her mouth and have it agape, she would do so right now. Heat signatures, radar pings, everything checks out as being there. Unsure of what to do next, she looks around at four of the various New Dawns, the ones in front, behind her, and to her left and right. She makes a slow spin to try to keep them all in view.
"Reina-san?! What's going on?" Negi asks, worrying about the sudden things he is hearing. "Listen, the card, your card is different! Use the pactio and see what happens."
"But if I do… then… I'll not have gotten through this on my own. I've always been able to do this on my own Negi-kun. I… I don't see how this should be any different."
All the New Dawns begin to charge the cannons. Apparently, the first shot was already charged. All the barrels begin to go through a strange "unlocking" as gear shaped parts expand out and begin to spin as the barrels generate more and more power. The electrical hum becomes quite noticeable.
"Okay, so the first shot wasn't charged…" Reina mutters to herself.
"Please Reina-san, try the pactio! Maybe it'll help!"
Just as the New Dawns fires off its energy cannons, Reina shouts "Adeat!"
She remains still for a few moments, sure her circuits were fried. Her arms in front of her face out of natural reaction. When she realizes that she's still conscious, she takes a moment to look around. In fact, everything is fine. It takes a moment, but the way the sunlight plays around her suggests…
"A- An energy barrier?"
"Are you okay?!" asks Negi, his mental voice strained.
"I'm fine. Negi-kun… the pactio worked I think."
Negi draws her card and sees the image is different. It now bears the image of the Ivory Knight. It still has Reina's name on it as well as the metallic sheen.
"You know Aniki," interjects Chamo, "she technically has two bodies, so I was sure of this from the moment the pactio happened."
"Really?"
"…No. It was just a guess. I'm really glad I was right."
"Chamo! You can't just guess when it comes to something like this!"
At Kaminari, the fight is being watched anxiously by a team of scientists and Reina's father.
"Sir… What is that? I didn't…"
William looks at the energy readings on the Ivory Knight. "It's generating an energy bubble?"
"I thought we were still experimenting with that and weren't going to load it on the Ivory."
"We are. We've never been able to get the Particle Maintenance to keep together at larger distances. Something human sized, yes. But something on this scale is still a few years down the road… Unless…"
"Sir?" asks Daiki, Reina's friend and William's employee.
"It's nothing."
The New Dawn simply hangs in the air. "Data does not mention an energy barrier within your specs."
"No time to hesitate…!" Reina acts quickly and slashes at one of the New Dawns. When she does, the illusion of that one is broken, revealing itself to be nothing more than a pod meant to distract radar by giving off several signals that matched the true New Dawn's.
"So that's it? Nothing more than false signals and a holographic field."
They all begin to disperse, putting an ever increasing distance between themselves. The one Reina follows is heading to town. Not wanting that to be the real one, she opens up her engines and catches up as this one flies above town.
People below start panicking and, even though it never helps, run about in random directions. Negi, Asuna, Konoka, and Setsuna can clearly see both machines as they fly over head. The Ivory Knight wraps its arms around… another illusory Dawn.
Farther away, the Artificer is really keeping his headphones tuned. He walks around like someone on an important phone call, his hands holding the device closer to his ears. Only a creepy smile passes his lips as he looks up and reaches into his inner lab coat pocket.
The decoy in Reina's hands begins sparking and starts on fire. In response, she flies off and heads to the river. She drops it into the flowing water of the river to prevent the fire from spreading anywhere. Strangely, one of the two remaining New Dawns flies down towards the illusion pod.
Reina can't quite figure out why one of the other two, decoy or not, would choose to get closer in this situation.
"What's the matter, a bug in your tactical software?" No reply comes from it when it lands. She can sense the small shockwaves from each of its steps. "Well, you're the real deal it seems. Now to finish this." She rears back her sword and lashes out at the New Dawn.
It dodges her attack by leaning and aims its shoulder cannons at her. She boosts to her right and avoids the beams. "I've been watching you girl… From the first day you came to Mahora," it says as it stands up properly, its voice markedly different from when it spoke earlier, the tone deeper and more threatening. It fires again, causing Reina to move out of the way once more. This time, the New Dawn predicts where she is going to be and ends up right in front of her. It wraps its arms around her in a bear hug and picks her up off the ground like an older brother.
"I was thinking about taking your body for a while, and then I saw this thing kicking your ass, so I changed my mind. And as soon as I'm done wiping the floor with you, I'll be able to take this mech and cram its foot right up his ass."
"Who are you talking about?!" asks Reina as she struggles against the New Dawn's grip.
"Don't try to cover anything up!"
"I really don't have a clue what you are talking about!" Reina slips down a little and hooks her own arms around the New Dawn. "One thing I never do is reveal my engines full power to anyone." She rises up into the air in one could only describe as a rocket taking off.
The two of them quickly end up above the clouds, the evening sun shining upon them. Reina decides to play with the size of her new energy barrier, drawing it into a tightly concentrated sphere near her chest. "If I… just… do this…!" She rapidly expands the barrier, shoving the New Dawn away. "Heh… Didn't think it'd work."
"Reina-san? What's going on? You've left our view," Negi asks.
"Nothing to worry about." As she responds, Reina takes several swings at New Dawn.
She puts on quite a light show as her engines work and her sword cuts the air. Deciding they are high enough, she even lets loose with a salvo of missiles. This time they connect as large parts of the metal plating falls off due to the force of the explosion. Part of the facial plating, a good majority of the torso and some of the limbs are now exposed.
"Damn it!" shrieks the voice of the New Dawn as Reina goes in for the finishing blow.
The energy of the blade rips a hole through the insides of the red mech. Reina follows up by wrapping her legs around the midsection of the New Dawn and shutting down the thrust of her engines. The New Dawn's engines aren't strong enough to keep both mechs aloft, causing both of them to plummet to the ground.
"What the hell are you, crazy?"
"I might ask the same of you. You're not Ozzymandus. Who or what are you?"
"You're really willing to destroy yourself, and that cute human body of yours, to defeat me? Remember, you are just flesh and blood."
"Oh, I won't get destroyed. In fact, I'll likely come out of this drop unscathed. You however, will probably end up getting wiped or disconnected or what have you."
They continue their freefall, neither side trying to change a thing. They fall, and fall, and fall.
"Three… Two… One…" Before Reina can react, the engines of the New Dawn kick in again as the New Dawn locks its arms around Reina. Slowly, the angle at which the two machines are falling, which is to say straight down, begins to arc. If kept, this path will end with both of them crashing in Mahora.
Reina tries adjusting the boosters on her legs, but the New Dawn's controller keeps repositioning its boosters to account for whatever Reina tries to do. Trying what she did last time; Reina tightens her energy barrier and expands it quickly. This time, the New Dawn continues the hold as sparks issue forth from the shoulder joints. The connections are loosened at least giving the mech girl hope that she can break the lock the New Dawn has on her before they both become smoldering heaps.
Negi's voice comes through her mind again. "Reina-san?! What's happening?! We can see you again and you're falling!"
"We're both free falling. If I can't break the hold, we'll end up making a hell of a crater. Have people fled yet?"
Negi checks around and sees the streets have deserted while he wasn't paying attention. "There are only a few people left."
Reina doesn't want to tell Negi what would happen should they both hit the Earth. Needless to say, she'd likely end up severely injured or dead.
This battle has quickly grown on Reina's nerves. Who gave the authority to have a mech battle near the school? Why weren't people evacuated? What happened to Ozzymandus? Something is going on. She plans on getting to the bottom of things when this is over, if she can.
Reina focuses the energy barrier right between her and the New Dawn and fires three more missiles, protecting herself from the point blank range blasts. The ground swells beneath them, approaching closer and closer. She figures these are the last few moments before they both crash and burn, with the New Dawn still not loosening its grip.
Putting all she can into it, she tries to break the hug manually. Servos whine and metal scrapes as she combos that with the shield trick again. She can almost… feel… it… loosening…
Not a moment too soon, Reina breaks free. Tossing the New Dawn to the side, she powers up her engines to their maximum, and does a roll to end right side up. She comes close enough to the ground that she ends up scraping the pavement of the street as she tries to slow down. She can't get into the air soon enough and ends up flying down the street.
It's only now that people panic. Negi and the others can see her fly by above them. She lands anyway and turns around. Negi, of course goes bolting back out into the street. Much like the first time he met her, the sheer scale of the machine leaves him in a sense of awe, compounded by the fact that he's now on the ground as opposed to being in some stands.
"Reina-san!" he shouts up at her.
Looking down she replies, "Get out of the way. There seriously isn't anything you can do here." Reina proceeds to step over him. As the New Dawn is standing up, Reina runs over and plants a hard kick to its head. It flops over as a result.
"This is it. I'm sick of this fight. It's over!" For the second time today, she speaks English. She flares up her sword and holds it to the head of the New Dawn. "I'm just glad no one got hurt." As she moves, a bright beam of light comes from nowhere and strikes the head of New Dawn.
While the new operator of it screams, Reina turns to look where the beam came from. On the ground there is a weird man with scraggly rust orange hair and matching beard and moustache. He drops his weapon and runs up to the New Dawn, slapping a small circular device to the mech when he reaches it. The mech twitches as of going through convulsions and eventually stops.
"I must remember to watch my containment protocols next time."
Reina is confused. "Erm… Excuse me?"
"Oh my, yes. You are excused."
Negi, Chamo, Asuna, Setsuna, and Konoka come running up to the Reina and the weird man.
"I told you I'd be fine, didn't I?" Reina tells her teacher. "Abeat…" After she mutters that, the energy barrier of the pactio dissipates.
Negi smiles at her. "I guess I should have known better." He turns to where the scraggly haired man with the white lab coat was, finding him to be a short distance away already.
"Oh, no you don't." Reina kneels down and places her hand in front of him, blocking his current path. "You seem to know a bit about what's going on. Who do you work for? InfinIT? Schwarzerschutz?"
"Is that supposed to be a threat… Reina Whitehall?" asks the man, putting Reina on guard.
"Okay, that's bordering on creepy," Asuna comments.
After thinking about it for a moment, Reina replies, "I can understand you knowing my name. I'm not unknown, but then again I'm not a major celebrity either. Still though, who are you? Who sent you?"
"I work for myself, or rather I do now. I used to work for Kaminari Grand Industrial, if you must know," he answers.
"So that's it? You're a disgruntled employee?" Asuna asks.
"Disgruntled? Perhaps. It's all in the past now. No real relevance on anything. Except it does have a massive impact on the past. Quite a bit, quite a bit. Yes."
"Firstly, who are you? Secondly, what do you mean?" Reina asks.
"People call me 'The Artificer.' Perhaps we should away to more private surroundings?" asks the Artificer. "Perhaps just the two of us, since I highly doubt these people have any need to hear our conversation."
For once, Reina was glad to have other girls around. "No. Negi and the others will come with us. Coming back out…"
Inside, the pilot can feel her mind return to her body. Outside, Setsuna holsters her sword to better unsheathe it if necessary. This motion doesn't go lost on the Artificer. He has something ready if things go south as well.
"Please don't tarry," issues the Artificer, "it may not look it but I have things to do."
Reina comes down on the winch. Again, fear creeps back into her with the girls being there. But now isn't the time. This man is up to something.
"There's this nice little coffee store down the road–!"
"Blegh, Starbooks?" asks the Artificer, disgust in his voice. "Only if I have to."
Konoka asks, "Is there somewhere else you'd like to go?"
"Preferably someplace quiet and not as filled with people. I'm being asked to talk, not jack my blood pressure. You know," he says, suddenly changing topics, "I'm really not amazed your father has never mentioned me." The lenses attached to the outside of his black steampunk goggles switch around on their own as he looks at her.
Konoka snaps her fingers. "I know the lady at the occult store down the street. She might let us use her séance room."
"Fine by me."
All of them are eventually seated in the room at the back of the occult shop. Strangely enough, séance room seems to also mean stock room with a table and chairs in it. All the important parties are seated. The Artificer, Reina, Negi, and Konoka. Asuna and Setsuna are standing nearby.
The Artificer remarks, "The atmosphere around here is quite hostile, wouldn't you agree? I didn't expect the third degree when I came here."
"I j- just want some an… swers," Reina states. "You s- seem to know a- an awful lot about m- me."
"I worked for your father's company after all."
"You… You've stated that. W- What exactly did you do?"
"I actually helped design that giant metal body of yours, or rather, the hands and joints. I also designed the flying turrets around the Kaminari building."
"How can we be sure that you're telling the truth?" Asuna asks.
"Quick, tell me… Is William your biological father?"
The pilot shakes her head. "N- No. He ad-opted me and m- my brother. Neither one of us had families."
"So that's his story? Heh. Let me drop a huge shocker on you kid. Your father is just that… Your father. You aren't adopted; William Whitehall is your biological father."
"If he is, why would he lie to me about it? And what happened to my mother then?"
"Well, has he mentioned his wife?"
"Yes."
"Do you know how she died?"
"No."
"Back when you were about five, Schwarzerschutz Special Machine Design decided to send someone in to steal the plans for the Ivory and Ebony, which you and your brother were already chosen to be the pilots of. You were with your mother that day.
"The spy didn't get into the offices without tripping the alarm system, setting my turrets after her. Unfortunately, tragedy struck when she came across you two. Your mother… Your mother was a well trained combatant but she quit before you were born so maybe she was a bit rusty. When the spy came across her she elected to defend you over everything.
"The spy ended up becoming an assassin. She had a sword with her and ended up… cutting your mother down. My turrets caught up to her a moment later, preventing her from doing anything else. Operation Carlsbad, in his 42nd version at the time, was brought up to speed and dispatched to retrieve you.
"Your father was honestly more concerned with you, which is wholly understandable. OC #42 picked you up and shielded you all the way back to a safety room. My turrets eventually ended up getting the case out of her hands but missed trying to stop her from leaving."
"B- But why w- w- wouldn't I remember this?"
"That shoots," states Asuna, "a hole in your story. And I'm going to have to also ask the same question she did. Why would her father lie to her?"
"He offered her up as a sacrificial lamb to test a new and totally unknown technology! She could have ended up dead, mentally challenged, or simply brain dead!" answers the Artificer. "More than likely, he had them fiddle around in your head. Probably so he could distance himself from the situation. Better for you to think he took you in out of love rather than thinking your own father turned you into what you are now by."
"Is that even possible?" asks Negi.
"Y- You're saying th- that everything I know… Is wrong?"
The Artificer stands up. "You should probably ask your dad about this stuff. I've opened the door, but you're the only one who can step through. One last thing before I depart. You look a lot like your mother. She was a beautiful woman and I respected her. That day hurt me deeply and things between me and Kaminari started falling apart that day.
"And when you talk to your father, use my name. Crispin Jones. He'll likely blow his top at the mention of my name."
He stands up and with a flap of coat, prepares to leave.
"One more thing," asks Asuna, "what business, exactly, did you have with that other mech then?"
"Oh. Right. See I created a little artificial intelligence." He sets out a device that looks like mine of sorts. "When it got out I tracked it to this school here. You may or may not have noticed the network being draggy recently. When he eats, computers won't load, emails become lost, and so on. He became a little independent and has been trying like the dickens to get revenge on me for some kind of slight or something. Likely, he was looking at you Reina, what with the mech and all. But when that pod of the red one's got too close he used it as a bridge to take over. The other A.I. is likely destroyed."
Crispin Jones steps to the door and walks out.
Reina continues to sit, all of what the Crispin said still swimming around in her head. Has her father really been lying her whole life? Why would he do such a thing? He removed her memories of her mother… Her memories of him being her father… What else did he remove? Is anything in her head correct? She feels entirely alone.
"Listen… Reina-san…" Asuna says slowly, "Why don't you call your father before you start feeling all crappy?"
Negi agrees. "It would be best. Perhaps this man just has a grudge against your father. Adopted or not, he's still your father. He seems like a really nice guy from what I remember."
"A- And if he is m- my real dad… Why all of the th… ings he did?" asks the despondent girl. "How could he have d- d- done this to me? He to- took my memories away from me. He could have k…" she finds this thought horrible, "He c- could have ended up killing me when they m-messed around in my brain. I d- don't know what to think a- an- anymore. And even then it's probably all wrong."
Setsuna speaks. "It still does not change who you are now. I think you should take Negi-sensei's and Asuna-san's advice and talk to your father first."
"The thing ab… out it is, I was being r- readied for this f- from before I was five. And… my m- mother would have h… ad to have be- been okay with this."
Negi stands up with an air of purposefulness around him. "Come on Reina-san. We're going to talk to your father. Right now."
"Huh?"
"You're going to get into the Ivory Knight, you're going to go to Kaminari, and then you are going to talk with William and find out the truth. I won't sit idly by as one of my students suffers with a life crisis."
"We'll go too if that's okay," Asuna says.
Amazing Negi, Reina nods. "P- Please."
"Okay. Let's go to Kaminari and get this sorted out."
For Reina, piloting the Ivory Knight feels like a hollow experience now. Could her father really be capable of such things? She realizes it's too late now to expect things to be different. As she flies, she thinks about what she's going to say to him, what she's going to ask him. There are so many things floating around in her head. A real father, a real mother, the fact they were willing to perform a massive operation on her to test an unknown technology, all the lies… Needless to say, today is ending on a sour note.
She has Asuna, Negi, Konoka, and Setsuna riding along in her cabin.
"I'm sorry guys… Let me find something to watch at least." The screen in the cabin blinks on. "We've got some magical girl anime," the screen changes before everything she mentions, "Spongebob, news, some game show, infomercial…" she trails off but the channels continue to change anyway.
"Reina-san?" Negi asks.
"Huh?! Oh, I'm sorry. Just everything right now has me kinda scattered. I'll kick it up a bit so we don't waste the rest of the day on my issues." She opens her large booster up and flies as fast as she can to Kaminari.
Reina's arrival takes a few people by surprise, despite being tracked on radar. William is notified right away, allowing him to be ready to meet her. She breaks the horizon rather quickly, a glowing white tail behind her from the flames her engines are making. Nothing seems to out of the ordinary. William stands in front of Reina as she lands.
"What brings you home all of the sudden?" William asks the mech standing in front of him.
Reina says nothing; instead she opens her hatch door and brings her hands up, allowing the group inside to walk out on to her hands. She lowers them down and stands up, preparing to face this man, father or not.
"Well hello. Nice to meet you all and Negi-san again." The group, given the disturbing meeting with the Artificer, seems a little cautious around him. "Something happen to Reina? Something happen to Mahora or someone?"
"Err… Weeeell…" says Asuna.
The winch lowers and Reina rides it down. The look on her face is one of someone who is about to shatter. William can see tears forming in her eyes.
"What is the matter?" He tries getting closer but she ducks away from him. "Is there something I did wrong?"
Reina inhales deeply despite the forming hitches of crying. "I meet someone today… And he said he used to work for you."
"Uh… Okay. Who?" With her reaction he has a fair guess.
"His name was Crispin Jones." The mention of this name causes her father to wince. Apparently he does know him. "And… he told me some things."
William remains quiet for a moment. "What… What exactly did he tell you?"
"He said you are my father, my real father. He also said my mother was… murdered right in front of me."
Everything that had been building in William for the last 10 years suddenly lets loose like water bursting forth from a collapsing dam. "Oh god Reina…" Tears flow down his cheeks. "I'm so sorry! You and your mother meant everything to me. When I lost her, I was so afraid! I wondered what kind of horrible effects that day would have on you so I could only think of… removing those memories.
"I ended up deciding that it would be best if you didn't know that I let your mother die, that it would best if you thought I wasn't your father. I'm no good without your mother, but I knew you still needed me so I kept telling you I was your adoptive father. Best you think that your real parents were gone and I never let your mother die. I'm so sorry. I really am." He drops his head. "I won't expect you to forgive me."
Reina shakes her head. "I… don't know what to think. You've acknowledged that Crispin is right, but that means you've lied to me for most of my life. I should be mad… but you're still my father."
"I won't ever lie to you again," her father says and gives her a hug. "I'll tell you everything you want to know about your mother. Would you like to see a picture of her? I made sure to take a lot of her and you, especially when you were born."
Reina nods again and they both begin to head over to a limousine. The others are a bit apprehensive about going along, what with it being a family moment and all.
William turns to them and motions to come. "I know it's probably uncomfortable right now, but there's no need to be left alone out here."
They arrive at the Whitehall residence about half an hour later. Reina has quelled her tears for now, looking as if she's okay as the group files out of the car. The house they are in front of is huge, with four large pillars frame the entrance nicely.
"Wow, this place is huge. How many girls in our class have large houses now?" Asuna boggles.
Konoka adds happily, "It's kinda like my home."
"N- No… Not e- everyone can l… ive in a forest c- c- castle," Reina tells her.
They eventually make their way inside, and sit down in a comfortably appointed room. OC #45 comes in shortly with a tray of tea, coffee, and treats of an assorted variety.
"Whoa!" Asuna says. "Who's the big fella?"
"I am Operation Carlsbad, the 45th version," the big blue robot introduces himself, "I am pleased to make all of your acquaintances. And it is nice to meet you again Negi Springfield. I hope you remember me."
"I do."
The four red lights around OC #45's camera blink happily. "Memories are the lasting bonds of friendship. Hopefully you will all remember me as I will remember you. Perhaps if you could all say your names, I could add them to my memories." Once the others introduce themselves he thanks them, bows, and heads out of the room.
"I apologize for any rudeness he may have shown you in addressing you directly. We've had problems with programming honorifics. It's like he ignores them," explains William.
Negi is fine with it. "It's okay. He means well and that's what counts."
"Silly thing was made as a combat machine but he actually prefers making friends and serving them food. Okay, now Reina… I have a picture of your mother I've always kept locked in this desk. I have plenty actually, but this one means the most to me." He gets up and moves over to the desk in question. From his pocket he produces a small golden key. With it, he unlocks the drawer and pulls the picture in question.
"This was before you were even being thought of…" he heaves heavily. Slowly, he hands her the picture. "We had this taken in a park in Boston in the U.S. She said she always liked the trees there so I pay for the upkeep to it. I figure it's something I can do that would make her happy."
Reina looks at the picture and can instantly see what the Artificer meant by looking a lot like her mother. Negi peeks at the picture as tears form in Reina's eyes again. Her mother had long white hair and emerald green eyes and Negi could swear it was of an older Reina.
"What is mom's name?" Reina asks her father.
"She was blessed with the name Lorelei Morgen, but changed it when we got married, taking my last name."
"She's pretty," comments Konoka while she leans in. "She looks like she could be Chizuru's mom, with the hair and chest. I see where you get it now. You should let your hair grow."
Reina turns as red as red can be. "I- I'm fine."
"Wow, you do look a lot like her," Negi says in agreement.
Well, it turns out there is a deeper red color. "Th- thank you…"
William mentions, "I have a tape of your mother you can look through when you get the time."
"Thank you, dad. I do have one last question for you."
"Anything honey."
"Why me? Why did you and mom decide to make me the pilot to the Ivory Knight? It was a very dangerous thing to do, wasn't it? Why was I selected?"
"That… is a different story. We weren't going in totally blind. I had worked on, and personally tested a similar system a while ago called the "H.A.L.O. System." The "High Algorithm Logical Operating" System. The user, or rather I, would wear a ringlet around my head and it would allow a control style that was similar to what you do, but my mind was technically in two places, and it was difficult to utilize. It was around the same time that the "Human Digitalization Frontier Program" came into being.
"We postulated that it would be possible to come up with a system where the mind could be placed within the machine yet the brain wasn't removed. We ended up creating the stuff in your head. As for why you chosen… can you kids keep a secret and suspend your disbelief for a moment?"
Everyone else nods their heads.
"Good," William nods. "Okay, I know this is going to be hard to believe but… magic exists." Everyone else remains quiet. "I'm being truthful here!"
"We already know," Konoka blurts. "Negi-sensei is a mage."
"Konoka-san!" Negi squeals.
"What?" she giggles. "He already knows about magic."
"Y- You're a mage?" asks William. Negi confirms this making him sigh with relief. "Okay then. I suppose I won't have to go and describe a bunch of technical terms then seeing as you didn't react to the reveal. Anyway, Reina's mother was part of a special order of knights that served during the war. The knights were sought after beforehand due to their magical abilities. Not so much how much magic they had, but their inborn ability to filter it, refine it, and how fast they could cast because of it. Unfortunately, she didn't tell me much else."
"I think I heard of some group like that during class once," Negi comments.
"She was quite deadly with a sword and magic. I used to love watching her show off. That and her hair, but I digress. I've never been to the Magic World, and she never wanted to go back, basically telling me she was afraid to. When you were born Reina, she knew you would have magical potential like her… and it scared her. She was afraid someone from there could come and use you or would try to harm you in some way so she wanted a way to block your magical power.
"We ended up linking it to the Human Digitalization Frontier Project. By doing what we did to very specific locations of the brain, we were able to block your magic from responding to you and make it so you could do what you do with the Ivory Knight. We never intended for you to find out… We never intended for a lot of what happened to happen, but it did. And I can't ever forgive myself.
"I carry something with me to remind myself of my greatest failure, and I think you should see it." He reaches into his front coat pocket and pulls out a very familiar looking style of card.
"It's a…" Asuna says.
"A pactio card, yes. I was her partner, but… as you can see, it…" he swallows, "is inactive." He looks at it, his dead card, and closes his eyes briefly. He remembers her so clearly.
Reina inquires, "You okay dad?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just reflecting a little. When you get some time, I'll have to take you to where she's buried. But you guys have school tomorrow and it's getting late."
"Right." Negi stands up along with the students and William.
Everyone heads to the door, ready to head back to Mahora.
"Reina," William says as they are leaving.
"Yeah?"
He hugs her. "It's nice to have my daughter back."
"And it's good that I have my dad." She hugs him back.
That night, William sleeps in his bed as usual, but tosses and turns in discomfort. He looks at the empty spot on the other side of the bed. The thoughts of Lorelei running through his mind are keeping him up. He rubs the empty spot begins to think, which just makes it worse.
He doesn't fall asleep and stay asleep for some time.
Negima: Femella Intra Machina Chapter 10: End
The End of the Chapter Stuff: So now we have a major development, and while this certainly may have seemed like an infodump, I've only really scratched the surface. While we now have some answers, many things are still buried and unknown.
Also, this chapter took a while because I bought all the Fallout 3 downloadable content and was (not really) busy freeing Anchorage, helping the Outcasts, wandering around Pittsburgh, and walking around a bog avoiding "Swampfolk." However, I've recently been abducted by aliens, but seeing as this might be my last adventure in the Capital Wasteland, I should be back on some regular schedule eventually.
And for anyone interested, I have another fic out called "The King of Dust." It's rated M so that's why you may not have seen it. So check it out and its one chapter so far, if that's something you feel you want to do.
This chapter was powered by "Brainsick Metal," an OC Remix of the "Spark Mandrill theme," "Lonely Petals," another OC Remix, this one of the "Red Soil Swampy Area" theme from Super Metroid, and the BlazBlue Original Soundtrack.
Thanks this Chapter: The Ansem Man for shooting ideas off of, and Eternal-Longing for being a draconian proofreader. I mean that in a good way.
Thanks for reading, and reviewing if you do.