Authors Notes: Yeah… It's been a long time. Some things happened that I don't feel like talking about, needless to say, they've left me a broken person. Whatever, this here isn't for me to dwell on that and you aren't my therapy. And to certain people, I'm not going to talk about it. Anyway, I apologize for the extended delay and hope this still lives up to the quality of the previous chapters. If not, I'm probably very rusty. If you recognize the reference during the fight scene, you rule.

Negima: Femella Intra Machina

Written by Dark Dragon Dave

Chapter 12: Wake the Dragon

Ayaka sits at the table in the room she shares with Natsumi and Chizuru. She looms over a yellow note pad with a pencil in her hand. She's written names on the pad, with Negi's being at the center, surrounded by a few hearts, with arrows leading to other people's names.

Little graphite spots are left behind as she taps the pencil up and down. She is trying to figure out what has been happening under her nose for a while now. Under each name are several bits of info, some of it is about what she knows about the relationship between the parties. There's a puzzle here, but she feels she doesn't have all the pieces.

Under Asuna's name is a lot of graphite rage. Through process of elimination, she decides she is not going to corner Asuna about what's happening. That will just lead to frustrations she doesn't need. She needs to figure out who the weak spot is.

Kaede? No. She may be a "Baka Ranger," but she not as dumb as she seems and her physical skills aren't anything to laugh at.

Setsuna? Perhaps, if she can even be found. She's very mysterious.

Konoka? Maybe. She's dependable and smart. Slightly airheaded. She may very well blurt it out.

Reina? She'd be a great choice if it wasn't for the giant robot she's got. Maybe if she can get her cornered in a building.

Yue? Maybe, but getting her alone might be an issue.

Nodoka? She'd be perfect, but again, getting her alone would be difficult.

Kazumi? No. Probably got something she could blackmail her with.

Haruna? No. She's like Yue and Nodoka but not as likely to crack.

Ku Fei? Not likely. Ku's kung-fu is better than her kung-fu. Maybe if she can hire Chuck Norris.

Ayaka groans in frustration. There's no one in the group she can easily manipulate… Then an idea hits. Nothing like going straight to the source, right? She pulls a picture of Negi she keeps with her at all times, just in case of an emergency. Her heart picks up its pace as she stares longingly into the small teacher's eyes… The picture's eyes anyway.

"Ayaka, we're going to be late," says Natsumi, drawing the blonde back to reality. "Quit staring at that picture of Negi-sensei."

Ayaka crumples the list up and puts it in the kitchen trash can before heading out with her roommates. This mystery isn't going to be buried for long.

A chill runs down Negi's spine, causing him to shiver. He quickly puts on his suit jacket to counteract the sudden temperature drop. With that done he meets Asuna and Konoka at the door and heads out with the two of them.

The day ticks away to the end of school with nothing much happening, a typical day down the drain. After class, some of the girls head to their clubs, while a few hang around to chat before leaving.

Negi is supposed to be heading to Evangeline's place, along with his pactio partners, for a stress test today. He steps out of the school building only to find Ayaka waiting for him.

"Oh, Iincho-san… Hello."

"Hello Negi-sensei, I was wondering if I could talk to you."

"Of course. Is there something you didn't understand about today's lesson?" Negi asks the obvious question.

Ayaka shakes her head. "No. It's not about that at all. You're a good teacher when it comes to that. It's not your fault if some students are… thicker than others."

Negi can't resist a slight smile at that. "So what did you need?"

"I was just hoping I could get some time to talk with you is all."

Okay… This was bordering on strange. "Oh, okay."

"Listen Negi-sensei, I was there in Kyoto. And I've come to realize that there's something going on under my nose. I saw you and the others… plus there were the stone statues that looked like people. Something was going on there and I've come to notice that you, Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna, Reina, and Kaede seem to be at the center of things."

Oops… "Er… Well… Cinema Town went crazy. You know how actors are."

"But that doesn't explain those statues in Konoka's home," Ayaka points out.

"Probably some sculptures. It is a large castle and all."

"Negi-sensei, I swear I saw someone turn to stone that night. If something is happening, I'd like to know about it."

"I don't know anything about that," he lies.

Her blonde hair shakes along with her head. "Negi-sensei, I respect you too much to have you lie to me. Please, I don't know the truth about what is going on but I can tell that there is something special happening. Please don't treat me like a fool."

It was right that he had been doing just that, treating her like a fool when she clearly isn't. Grades alone can speak volumes, but… Asuna is a bright girl; she just needs to apply herself.

"Ayaka-san…"

"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. Just don't lie to me."

Negi feels a bit of guilt pressing down on him. "Ayaka-san… I… I wish I could tell you."

"Tell me what? If there is anything I can do to help please let me know."

"It's nothing really. You don't need to worry." Negi forces a smile on his face. While he doesn't like lying, her safety is of greater concern than a silly lie.

"Well, okay. But please do not hesitate to tell me anything."

"Of course," the boy says as he nods. "Unfortunately, I've got somewhere I need to be."

"Yes. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to delay you."

They bid small goodbyes and part each other's company. However, Ayaka soon turns right around and begins tailing her favorite teacher.

It takes a bit before they reach the woods, with Negi taking the usual trail to Evangeline's house, his blonde tail darting between trees in case he should turn around for any reason. She brushes some small branches out of her face as she makes her way through some trees.

As she continues along, she runs into a dark haired boy with freezing blue eyes. His gaze sends a chill up her spine. Her mouth opens up to say something but it gets silenced at the last moment when he interrupts her.

"Who are you?" he asks at last. The pressure of his stare is measurable. "Don't you know the trail is over there?"

Thinking quickly, Ayaka lies. "Well I have some... business to attend to. And it's such a long distance to the nearest restroom." People do that in the woods, right? Hopefully it'll gross him out.

Hisao's face doesn't change expression. "Be careful then. There are some lacquer trees there and they are running sap. In case you don't know, they are very toxic."

Her opinion of him changes slightly. "Oh, well thank you. My name's Ayaka Yukihiro."

"Hisao Ishikawa." He remembers her from that group of girls around the boy that just walked past. "Don't go too deep into the woods. Someone like you is ill equipped to go very far."

"Uh… I just planned on…"

"Yes," Hisao interrupts, his inflection cold and disinterested. Without any more words, the icy boy begins walking away.

When he's out of view, she hastens her pace towards where Negi was heading, not wanting to lose track of him.

A knock on the door causes Chisame to scoff, sighing at having to get up and answer the door. Her mouse rattles as she drops it heavily on the pad. Why can't everyone just get lost? When she gets to the door she opens it ever so slightly.

"Yeah?" she asks.

"Is Reina-san there?" asks Asuna from the other side of the door. She has Setsuna in tow.

Thankfully she isn't here. "No. She got some letter this morning that she acted like an idiot over and headed out. I think it was about special permission for flying around in that giant tin can of hers."

"Ah. That's right. She did get in trouble for that. If you see her sometime today, let her know we're in our usual spot. Well, we'll let you get back to your day then," Asuna says and both her and Setsuna turn to leave.

With that annoyance out of the way, Chisame decides to not waste any more time and begins getting things set up for what will hopefully be a very fruitful photo shoot.

The Chao Bao Zi sits out in the World Tree Plaza, surrounded by hungry patrons. Chao and Satsuki are there, of course, but Corentin is also helping Chachamaru wait tables. Hisao told them earlier that wasn't really interesting to him so he was going to go check on the mechs.

When he comes back half an hour later, the place is a little less busy. There are still customers sitting around talking at the end of their lunch, before heading back to where they came from.

Corentin makes his way over to where Hisao is sitting. He heaves down, sitting in the seat next to Hisao. He flops down, taking a moment of rest where he can get it.

"Mon Hisao, how—"

"They were fine. I did run into a blonde girl, Ayaka Yukihiro I think her name was. She was tailing that boy teacher. It's none of my business but I told her that there were some lacquer trees running sap. I didn't need to, but she doesn't need to know that."

"Good to see you back," Chao tells Hisao as she sits down with the others. "No doubt you've seen her flying around today."

"I have. Thankfully, when she's like that she tends to just fly around for the enjoyment."

"I suppose you'd like to get out there too?" his employer asks.

"I'm perfectly fine, if just a bit bored."

"We could use some help cleaning up. The few customers left are just hang-abouts, want to help us?"

Hisao sighs, "Might as well, haven't got anything else to do."

Hisao and Satsuki stand beside each other to do the dishes, Satsuki cleans, Hisao dries. When they get a big enough stack of them, Hisao picks them up and asks where Satsuki where they go. She points up to a cabinet. Hisao lifts them up and into the one she pointed at and gets back to drying.

"I haven't done this in a while," Hisao comments. "It used to be me and my sister would always help our father out at home."

"(Oh?)"

"Yeah. But when I left, I ended up with a group that's basically like a PMC. So I haven't needed to clean my plate for a while."

"(You do have an aura of melancholy around you. You're perfectly welcome to come back. I'll always cook you something really good, and I'll even let you clean your own plate.)" She smiles a gentle smile at him.

"I'll think about it. Your food certainly is leagues above anything I usually eat."

"(It's nice to have good food now and again, isn't it?)"

Hisao dries what he realizes is the last plate and nods. "Yes it is." His phone beeps and he checks the message. "It looks like you'll have to excuse me, there's something I need to do. Have a nice rest of the day."

"(You too.)"

"Where's what's-her-face?" Evangeline asks, obvious irritation in her voice. She looks at the group of four girls. Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna, and Kaede.

With her hand behind her head, Asuna answers. "Well… We tried to get her but she got special permission to go flying around so she took it. At least that's what Chisame-san told us."

"Well this isn't going to be a proper test then, is it?"

"Er…" Asuna turns to the others. "Anyone got her phone number? She called me once and I forgot to save her number." She turns slightly red out of embarrassment.

"I do!" Konoka exclaims and looks through her contact list. "Oh wait… No I don't."

"Hey wait! Negi, use that telepathy thing you used earlier."

"But I do have her phone number. And I think calls placed to her while she's in the Ivory go directly to her."

"Well call her up then."

Negi pulls out his phone and calls Reina. "Hello Reina-san… Er… Well, we need you here for a test Evenageline-san wishes to run… Yeah. Out in the woods… Okay. I can leave my phone on for a bit yet… Oh? That was fast… Right. Okay!" Negi closes his phone. "Okay," he says to everyone, "She'll be here in a bit."

"So she's coming here in that tin can of hers? Just what I need, a giant, mechanical, pain in my ass," laments Eva.

"She's not all that bad, Evangeline-san. Besides, don't you think giant robots are cool?" Konoka asks.

"Not really. Regardless, she's one of your partners, so she has to be here."

Not much longer and Reina is flying overhead, landing with a wind strong enough to rustle the leaves in the trees. She sees that there are quite the number of girls around and swiftly elects to stay in her mech for the time being, kneeling down to get closer.

"How long is this going to take?" she asks.

Not wanting to babysit something so overtly large, Evangeline asks her to get out of the Ivory Knight. "Get out here. You're a gamebreaker otherwise."

"I'm quite fine where I am. Thanks."

"Listen, if you're going to be his partner like the rest, then you can't always rely on the iron giant there," Eva tells her harshly. Asuna and Negi understand her hesitation. "Besides, the fresh air will do you good, and we can't really do this properly without everyone present and accounted for."

"I'm here, what more do you need?"

"Until you get out of there, how can we test Negi's full contract ability?"

"His what now?" Reina asks.

Evangeline sighs. This is going to be a long, unnecessary road. "When you activate the card, or he activates it on you, it draws some magic from his reserve."

"Oh! Well, I can use the pacti-thing when I'm in the Ivory Knight here," Reina tells her.

The small vampire raises an eyebrow. "Really…? Color me intrigued."

"Adeat!" With that, a tangible force field surrounds the Ivory Knight, which she quickly dispels.

"And what do you think would happen if he activated the contract while you were still in that metal monstrosity? Your fuses would burn and you'd probably shut down."

With a sense of pride, Reina remarks, "Not likely. The Ivory Knight is rather resilient."

"Do you want to test that thought?"

Negi intervenes. "Listen, Reina-san, just come down. I don't want this escalating into a fight. Can you come down now?"

"But…" hesitates Reina.

"I know. Do it as a favor, okay?"

"We don't have all day!" Evangeline fires off.

The mech takes a more upright stance and the front hatch opens up. After a few moments the lights in the eyes shut off. Shakily, Reina grabs the winch and lowers down. She has her mother's sword with her. She goes and stands over near the others with a look of desperation and slight panic on her face.

"Fine, now that the peanut gallery has assembled, we can begin. Firstly, Setsuna, you'll have to lower your ki, as magic and ki are very conflicting without the proper training."

"Okay, Evangeline-san," Setsuna nods.

Negi holds up the cards for all of his partners. "Right, well, here goes… I invoke the contract for 180 seconds! Minestra Negi… Konoka Konoe, Setsuna Sakurazaki, Asuna Kagurazaki, Reina Whitehall, Kaede Nagase."

Ku Fei watches from the sidelines. She found out about Negi's secret when he thanked her and Mana for their help back in Kyoto. All they really did was help take care of a few scrubs. She quickly marvels at the auras shining from the small group of partners.

"It feels like someone tickling me," Konoka remarks.

"Yeah, it does, doesn't it?" Kaede says.

Asuna looks at Setsuna. "This something you just never get used to."

"It's not all that bad. Right Reina-san?"

Reina has her right eye closed and is gritting her teeth lightly. Her head hurts a bit too much to be afraid of the fact Setsuna is a girl. "Feels like I got a splitting headache. My dad did say I couldn't use magic, maybe I'm not meant to use someone else's magic too. It's like it is conflicting with the machine parts of my brain." She props herself up against her sword.

"Are you okay Reina-san?" Negi asks.

"Good enough. Don't worry about me." She waves them off.

"Well then… Expand the anti-material shield onto everyone at maximum power. After that, do the same with the anti-magic shield."

"Right."

"After holding that for three minutes, fire 199 arrows to the north. I've expanded a barrier so there shouldn't be anything to worry about."

"Three minutes?" Reina thinks to herself. "Hope I can last that long…"

The time dwindles down to the last remaining moments before Negi is to fire the arrows into the sky. Before he can, something comes out of the woods, running right for them through a gap in the wall.

"I knew something was up!" A flash of long blonde hair announces Ayaka's arrival. Just at that moment, before he can grasp what has happened, he fires off his 199 light arrows. Her eyes light up, as well as those of the other girls watching the fireworks.

Evangeline simply places her hand to her head and sighs.

After the light show is over, Negi is unable to cope with the sudden shock of such a deep mana use, he drops.

"What… was… that?" Ayaka asks.

"Damn it. Not another one, especially her." Asuna knows this will only lead to trouble. She walks over to Ayaka. "H-H-Hey…! It's just a bunch of fireworks. We were having a picnic."

"I don't want to hear it Asuna. That wasn't fireworks, it was something else."

Evangeline groans. "Okay, it was magic! There, the stupid waltz of obfuscation is over."

Asuna tries to tell Evangeline about what will—

"What? Screw it, I want to go home at some point and I'm not bound by the Mageocracy's idiotic rule. They know better than to mess with me anyway. As far as the boy is concerned… He may be the inheritor of such tremendous magic power, but it might as well have gone to waste. Fainting at something as minor as that is pathetic."

Chamo speaks up as Konoka, Setsuna, and Asuna tend to the exhausted boy. "Woah hey… Aren't you being a little too harsh him? I mean, he's only ten years old, after all. He's used up more magic than he ever has before. The Kyoto trip pales in comparison."

Evangeline glares at him with a quite anger in her eyes. "Silence you miserable excuse for a rodent. Don't think being ordinary mage will get you anywhere with me. And if you disagree with my methods, back in my younger days I developed a taste for rats after living on the streets." Her intent is quite clear to the cute woodland creature.

Chamo hops down off the rock he is sitting on and runs over to Konoka. "It'll be okay. I won't let her eat you. You're too fuzzy. Plus she'd get the world's cutest hairball."

Ayaka is taking a moment to process everything. "So… Magic is real?"

"Yeah. You've seen it for yourself, didn't you?" Konoka says.

"So that would make Negi-sensei some sort of wizard, or witch, or something?"

Konoka smiles. "He's a mage. But you have to keep it super secret okay? Otherwise the powers that be will abduct him and turn him into an ermine."

That idea sends a shock through Ayaka. "There's no way I'd ever let anyone turn Negi into an ermine! But… If they did I'd make sure he was an ermine with an excellent life! It would be hard, but we'd work something out!" The thought of a cute Negi ermine sitting on her shoulders causes her to blush.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Asuna asks. Ayaka seems to ignore her in favor of fawning over Negi.

The blonde puts her hand on Negi's forehead. "Are you okay, Negi-sensei."

Negi comes around to look at her. "Ayaka-san? Did you follow me?"

"I did. I am sorry Negi-sensei. I know I shouldn't have, but I worry a lot about you and only wish you to be safe," she explains.

Everyone just looks at her, knowing better.

"Well if he doesn't start getting is act together, he won't be safe much longer. Asking me to train you then making excuses when you aren't prepared for hell. Make one more complaint and I'll drain you of every last drop of blood. Don't forget that," advises Eva.

"Blood?" Ayaka asks as Negi picks himself up off the ground and says he's counting on Eva.

"You see…" Asuna explains. "Evangeline-san there is a vampire."

Ayaka thinks this over for a moment. "Wait! I won't let anyone harm Negi-sensei!" She places herself between Evangeline and her beloved Negi.

The vampire just looks at her. "Do you even have any earthly idea what is going on here?"

"Ayaka-san," Negi says from behind the blonde wall, "she's a trainer for me. I'm studying magic from her since she's much better than I."

"As long as that's all that is, I'm okay with it. But if I find a single bite mark anywhere on him and I'll be sure that you're put away so long you'll forget what sunlight is like."

"As for you," Evangeline turns to Reina. "I'm not even going to attempt to train you in this as you're simply incapable of using magic. So you can go swing your sword around or something." Her tone is both frustrated and haughty.

Not only does Evangeline freak her out, but Reina thinks she's been called worthless in a roundabout way. "R- R- Right." She takes it as bittersweet blessing. She picks her sword up and heads over to the Ivory Knight, riding the winch cable up and into the cockpit.

When she's inside, she sits down in her seat, leaning forward with her head down.

"You okay Reina-san?" Negi asks loudly.

Reina simply looks up at the hatch door, watching as it closes. "I'm trying to step into a world I am not compatible with. I'd love to be of more use, but I'm just a sword and robot," whispers through her head. She stands up and puts her sword back where she had it during transport, duct taped to the wall.

Slightly miffed, she comments to no one in particular, "Stupid vampire." Reina sits in her chair, plugs herself in, and gets strapped in. When she awakens inside the Ivory, she looks down on Evangeline. Without a word, she turns around and walks to a safe distance away to fly off to continue the day as she had planned earlier.

"It's complete sir!"

That statement brings a smile across William Whitehall's face. "Now maybe this will get the government jerks off my ass for a while. It saddens me that the industry relies on these huge contracts, but needs must I guess." He pulls his phone out of his coat pocket and searches for his daughter's phone number.

He speaks in English, "Hiya."

"Hi dad."

He tries to make this sound good. "I've got some news for you."

"What's up?"

"The Red Dragon is done. So if you want, you can grab a couple of your new friends and bring them around to check out a live fire test."

Reina becomes uncomfortably quiet. "Err... I'll probably just show up alone. Everyone else is out training and since I can't use magic… I'm kind of left out in the dark."

"Oh… Sorry. I didn't think…" Reina can hear something like a slap coming from the other end. "Well, if you can bring someone that's fine, if not, don't worry. They're the ones missing out."

"Okay. I'll see if I can talk to them."

"It'll only be for about 15 minutes, and then you'll be able to head back."

"Okay. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Alright. Goodbye."

"Bye."

William closes his phone and sighs. "And we thought it'd make her life better… Of course, that is how things naturally work, isn't it, Lore?" He pulls the picture he has of her out of his left shirt pocket. "If only they'd made a book for parents like us."

Back in the ruins, Ayaka is being brought to speed about magic.

"Okay, and that time in Kyoto, with the statues, you remember that, right?" Asuna asks her.

"Yes I do. That's part of the reason I knew something was up!"

Negi comes in at this point. "Well, that was magic. I never intended for you, or really any of them. But you got wrapped up in something by accident when you grabbed a hold of Reina-san."

"Speaking of that, why didn't she just help out with that thing of hers?"

"Well she tried… But she ended up in parts around the lake by Konoka's place."

Konoka paints her own lovely picture. "Yeah, Iincho-san, she got her limbs torn off by a large demon. And she could feel it happening."

Ayaka shakes her head, somewhat out of pain. "So there are such things as demons too? This is all sounding very dangerous. Negi-sensei, I cannot simply allow you to continue along this path!"

"Please. He's far more capable than you'll ever hope to be," Evangeline chimes in.

The class rep has nothing to counter this. She does however formulate a plan. "Fine, but if anything happens to him, I call foul."

"And then he gets turned into an ermine," Evangeline states, her voice sending a chill up everyone's spine.

"How do you mean?" Ayaka asks, probing deeper into a subject she knows nothing about.

Eva smiles a devious smile. You know, her normal smile. "Oh you pathetic simpleton, there's a council of mages, and they oversee the world of magic at large, and more specifically, magic users like your dear sweet Negi-sensei there. And if someone opens their mouth about the existence of magic, they come in the night and abduct the person in question, erase their brain, and in turn the mage that let it slip gets polymorphed into an ermine.

So if you blab, even word one about magic, you can kiss Negi and any designs of a happy life with him goodbye, because you'll never have another thought that doesn't concern drooling on yourself for the rest of your life."

From Ayaka's throat comes an audible gulp. "Err… Well. Okay then. If being quiet about it would be more beneficial, then silent I shall remain. But let it be known that it's under protest."

"Duly noted and forgotten," Evangeline concludes. "There's much you don't know about magic and a lot you never will."

"If it involves Negi-sensei, I'm willing to help in any degree I can!"

"Oh, well there is something I think you'd love to do that would be very beneficial." Negi's face changes to a look of shock.

"What's that?"

"Oh yeah!" Chamo elates.

Negi sees where this is going and begins silently protesting behind Ayaka. Even the other girls are getting antsy.

"All the girls here have done it. Heck, even that useless tin can Reina has done it twice now, three times in total that I know of. See all you gotta do is…" Negi is making neck chopping motions behind Ayaka. He loops an imaginary rope around his neck and begins lifting himself up over an invisible branch. When Ayaka notices Eva looking at something she turns around and looks at Negi, he nervously quits.

"What is it?"

About that time, like a giant mechanical angel from above, Reina returns. She lands with another heavy thud.

"Speak of the mecha and she will come," mutters the vampire. "Come back for sword training? You don't really need to; just go swing your hunk of metal somewhere. It really is just as useful."

"No, actually I came to invite everyone to a sneak peek of the Red Dragon if you're interested and it won't take up everyone's time and there'll be huge explosions!" She points at Evangeline. "You can even come along."

Evangeline scoffs, "Like I'd want to go and see that. Besides, we're all busy here."

"What the heck is your problem?" Reina asks hotly. "I've done nothing to you!"

"You can't use magic, simple as. Once you can, I might actually recognize you."

It all seems like ancient history to Negi, but his original purpose in going to the convention all those months ago was to observe high technology. What Evangeline just said triggers the memory. Evangeline is a very magical being, whilst Reina is a very technological person. Could there be a disparity between the two, like some unbridgeable schism?

"That's pretty high and mighty talk coming from someone who could be killed by a nailgun full of toothpicks!" Reina fires back in a rare showing of backbone towards a female. Negi knows it's purely because she's in the Knight. If she weren't, Reina would be a wet paper towel right now.

"Listen, the both of you!" Negi says firmly. "Fighting like that isn't really helpful."

"Stay out of it!" comes from both sides. Negi gets an 'I've been told' face.

"And what makes you so special besides you being useless outside of that metal monstrosity?"

"The same can be asked about you too."

Evangeline turns away from the giant robot. "I've got the power to back up my mouth."

"As do I." Reina seems to stand up taller. She flares her sword. The heat from it is palpable.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah!" Asuna says and gets in between Eva and Reina… mostly on Eva's side. "Can't we all just calm down?"

"I would but she seems to have it out for me when I've done nothing to her," Reina explains. "And I even tried inviting her along." Her sword dissipates.

"Well, see, she can't leave school grounds thanks to a curse," Asuna explains.

Reina snickers a little bit. "What?"

"Damn it you idiot!" Evangeline complains.

Reina has a taunting tone to her voice. "You're not so scary then, are you?"

"Enough the both of you!" Kaede says, breaking a silence she's held since they gathered. "There's no reason to carry on with this. You're both quite powerful in your own rights."

Being the level headed person she is, both parties cool down, but the tension is still recognizable.

"Now about your offer… We've really been in need of a training session," Asuna tells the mech. "That and we're currently dealing with Ayaka learning about magic. So it's a pretty bad time."

Reina nods. "So another one joins the group, huh?"

"Not exactly. And really, don't say anything else about it. It would just add another problem we don't need."

"So she hasn't…"

"No."

It's obvious that they are talking around something. "What haven't I done? This is why I'm a little angry with everyone. You treat me like I can't handle these things. I know I'm a little… enthusiastic about some things, but only because I care. So do not treat me like some fool or second class citizen."

"Well," Reina tells her, "in all seriousness, mine was totally accidental. And if it didn't happen, I wouldn't know any more than you. And what I've gotten into really hasn't brought me any joy. Trust me when I say this, but really, you'll be doing yourself a favor in not knowing."

"What are you talking about?" Ayaka asks.

"It's minor. You're making more out of it than it is actually worth," Reina tells her.

Ayaka closes her eyes and takes a breath. She opens her eyes again and says, "I can only assume that it's the fact that most of you can use magic on some level, with Evangeline-san being the best."

"See, that's where you're wrong. I can't use magic on any level actually," Reina explains. "In fact the only reason I know anything is because… Well…" Her voice becomes meek. "I was kidnapped." If metal could blush, she would.

"Still, you're all acting very secret society on me and it's making me feel like you don't want me here."

Negi decides to bite the bullet on this, as it were. "Listen Ayaka-san, it's not that we don't want you here, it's just that I'm trying to protect you. I'd hate for you to get hurt. Something like that would make me feel really bad. That's why I've been trying to keep you at bay, not because I dislike you, but because…"

Ayaka turns really red at this. He is thinking of her after all. "Oh…"She hugs him. "I'm glad you think that much of me. Just promise me you'll stay safe."

Negi can't say much with her chest in his face. "I'll try."

"Okay then. Well then I suppose I should leave you all alone then. Goodbye Negi-sensei." Ayaka bows then begins to leave.

"Ayaka-san…" Negi says. "Why don't you go along with Reina-san?"

"Er… What?" Reina asks.

"Me go with Reina-san? I think I may have caused her enough problems already." The thought of the passionate liplock she gave her during the Kyoto trip springs to mind. She was really close to doing something that makes her stomach wobble.

"Yeah… I don't think that she'd even really care." As a matter of fact, the same thoughts running through Ayaka's mind run through Reina's mind simultaneously. While entirely coincidental, Reina wonders how far Ayaka had intended to go. If she only knew.

"Nonsense. Reina, you could use someone to go along with you and Ayaka could use the view of someone totally new to magic. It's beneficial to both of you. And you could use the company Reina." The mech pilot knows what he's driving at. The only other person that knows anything is Asuna.

"Do I have too?" The mech crosses her arms and taps her foot. Her voice is irresolute, shaky.

"I think it would be good for the both of you."

"But she tried—

Ayaka interrupts. "Reina-san! Please don't bring up such terrible memories."

"How do you think I feel?" Reina asks, distressed.

"What happened between you two?" Setsuna asks.

"She kissed me!" The mech's large metal hand points to Ayaka.

"Geez… Is there anything you haven't locked lips with?" Evangeline asks.

"What?" The mech jerks around like the small vampire scared the heck out of it. "She was the one that ran up to me and started it during the Kyoto trip. I freaked and ran to the restroom in case she wanted to start making out. When she was gone I brushed my teeth so much they haven't been so clean since my last dentist appointment. I'm telling you they don't make water hot enough."

Almost everyone looks at Ayaka. She just stands in astonishment and her face. "B- B- But I thought you were Negi-sensei."

Cheerfully, Konoka asks, "How did you do that? She's so tall."

"She was kneeling."

"Poor thing," Asuna mutters.

Negi responds, "I know." He walks up to attract attention. "See? This is the perfect time to talk things through. Just trust me on this." Reina and Ayaka groan at the same time. "No complaining. Consider it a favor for your teacher."

Both of the parties break down and accept the young boy's terms.

"Good. Now Reina-san, be sure to answer any questions Ayaka has," the mech girl sees a small wink on his face, "and Ayaka, make sure not to be to forceful, okay?"

"Right," answers Reina. Don't talk about pactio is what the wink said.

"Yes sensei," Ayaka replies.

Reina opens the hatch door and lowers the winch. Ayaka walks over to the foot step reluctantly. With sigh, she grabs a hold of the cable and braces herself for the short ride up. Once inside, she sees Reina in her chair, plugged in just like the last time she was inside the mech.

"Promise you won't try to kiss me?" Reina asks as she lifts off.

"Okay, with them gone, everyone back to training! Now!" Evangeline barks.

"I'm sorry about that, okay? We… We were having a contest and I guess I got a bit wrapped up. I never meant anything by it."

"It's okay I guess." Reina says this knowing full well if it weren't for the mech she's in, there would be no way the two of them would talk to each other.

"Thanks Reina-san. As the class representative, I try and make sure to get along with all of my classmates. I think having a good rapport with the other girls is an essential part of the duties placed upon me. And the incident between us back there was something that's been bugging me for a while. I just wasn't sure how to go about repairing the damage I made in the relationship between us.

"It's just that… the contest obviously involved Negi, and I got a little carried away. So again, I'm sorry."

"You like Negi a lot, don't you?"

Ayaka flushes hotly. "I! I'm only looking out for his welfare! He's much too young to be on his own and I worry! And besides, what about you? First day in our school and you planted your lips on his."

It seems to get warmer in the cabin. "It was an accident. I'm not good with public speaking," Reina lies. "I got up there and couldn't handle everyone looking at me."

"So what was it that Evangeline-san was talking about that you've done twice with Negi-sensei? You hadn't better have done THAT."

"NO! No, no, no!" Her flight patter wobbles roughly. She briefly looks like she's trying to tread water. "What she was talking about was dealing with magic. I've… run defense a few times as it were. Since magic requires a charge time, a mage is left unguarded while casting spells, so a good mage has a partner or two to keep themselves defended while they cast. And you can't get much better than me for a partner since I am what I am." She sounds a bit proud that she basically pulled that explanation out of thin air.

"Perhaps I should speak to you. I do not understand most of what you said. But you sound like an old pro at it."

"Bah. I really don't know anything, plus I can't ever use magic. So in a small way, Evangeline-san was right. I'm not all that useful as a partner, since a mage can quickly power up their defenders. Since I can't use magic, when Negi was practicing, I got a pretty bad headache."

"You're not completely useless. You have this mech, like you said."

"But Evangeline—

"Oh forget what she said. Inside this thing, I'm sure you don't need any powering up. I dare anyone to take you down with an entire army."

"That's just it. Outside the Ivory Knight here, I'm worthless to them since I can't ever use magic."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, neither can a lot of people."

"You can hear me but you aren't listening. The average person you find on the street could probably use magic in some capacity if given the proper training. I've got definitive proof that I can't ever."

"How do you have proof? If you just apply yourself, I'm sure you could use magic," Ayaka tries to support her classmate.

Reina disagrees. "See I literally cannot use magic. It turns out the stuff in my head was made to prevent me from doing so. A lot has happened since the last we spoke. I'll explain along the way."

When the two girls arrive at Kaminari, Reina's brought Ayaka up to speed on everything, save pactios. That's a nightmare she and the others simply do not need. As she flies in, she can see the large, red, shape of the Red Dragon. It is much larger than the Ivory Knight, which becomes apparent when she lands next to it.

"Got a whole load of friends with you?" he shouts up.

The Ivory shakes her head. "No. Just one." Reina opens up the hatch and Ayaka rides the cable down.

"Oh, hello. My name is William Whitehall," he bows, "but I'm sure you've heard all that earlier."

"It's good to meet you, sir. My name is Ayaka Yukihiro." She bows her greeting.

"Yukihiro… I should know that name." He crosses his arms, looks thoughtfully upward, and taps his foot.

Ayaka has seen Reina make this gesture on a couple of occasions, but only from a distance. "Whitehall-san, my family runs a zaibatsu company."

"Ah. That's probably it. Well, anyway, it's very nice to meet you. It's not very often Reina brings a friend over. In fact this is the third time. I'm glad she's able to make friends easily despite basically living here and not really having any."

"In all actuality, this was the suggestion of our teacher."

"That Negi boy. I was surprised to find out he was a teacher. When I was his age, I was too busy playing with toy robots. I suppose I never really grew up," William mentions. "Ah, but you're not here to listen to the life story of some old man," he says jovially.

"You were gracious enough to invite me along so I can at least listen to my host." Ayaka smiles a courteous smile.

Reina comes down in the cable, swiftly taking an apprehensive stance when she is on the ground. Sometimes a giant robot can make all the difference when it comes to interpersonal relationships.

"How are you?" William asks his daughter, already knowing.

"O- O- Okay… en- enough."

"Good. Well, let's get going. I don't want to keep you all day. Um… Ayaka-san, if you wish, please sit over here with the rest of the technicians behind the special blast shield." He motions over to the small group of technicians and their cluster of computers.

"Okay." She steps over to them and sits in one of a number of empty seats.

"Non-company personnel in range!" shouts a man in a stern black suit.

She can see a seat much like the one Reina sits in while inside the Ivory Knight. Sure enough, Reina takes a seat in it and plugs herself in. "Excuse me, Whitehall-san?"

"Yes?"

"If I can ask, how does this work? Since I've found out, I'm very curious about how something like this is possible."

"Well, it's complicated. You don't strike me as someone who'd be interested in all the technical jargon, so I'll summarize. It takes the mind and places it within the robot. It doesn't copy it since that'd just cause a lot of mostly ethical problems, and it doesn't remove the physical brain as that would just be overly traumatic and is a once only thing," he explains. "So it moves the mind into a special computer inside the mech, and from there, the mech becomes her actual body. What we're doing with the set-up here is testing a wireless transfer protocol as well as testing the mecha."

"So amazingly advanced! Now how does it actually move the mind then?" Ayaka follows up.

"Reina's brain has a network of biological chips and wires. When she plugs herself in, she initiates the upload when she wants and it moves her brainwaves over… I hope this is making sense. I find it hard to explain without going in to deep."

"No it's fine. I get the gist of it."

"Okay!" Reina says from inside the larger red machine and flashes a thumbs up. "I can tell it's still slower than the Ivory Knight. In truth… I feel a little fat."

The technicians check all kinds of numbers and make all kinds of notes.

"It's probably the fact the Red Dragon is much larger and slower, so it's natural to feel that way. We're going to do a regular target test with live ammo, so, you know… try and avoid shooting in our direction."

"Of course!"

"One more thing," William says before the test starts. "The Red Dragon was created with one purpose in mind, to hang in the air and lay down a carpet bomb." The techs at the monitors can tell Reina's not too happy about such a statement, but as her father, he already knows. "Keep in mind what you're fighting are dummies, okay?"

"Right… Right."

William hands Ayaka a headset with a microphone. She puts it on and hears, "It might get a little loud."

Reina lifts off, generating a forceful gust with the engines made for the Red Dragon. It is a lot different than the virtual test she took a while ago. There is a lot more power in the engines than she had originally thought. It's not long before she finds herself high in the air.

She reports, "The horizontal movement leaves a lot to be desired, but the vertical liftoff and thrust are incredible."

"Exactly. Like I said, it's meant to hang in the air precisely as it shouldn't."

Using the boosters in the feet of the mech, she tries to coax as much forward movement out of the Red Dragon as possible. Traveling at a snail's pace, for a giant red walking tank, she feels like it takes forever to reach the target dummies.

A split second later, the new targeting system gives her all sorts of data regarding statistical splash damage, target data, and any number of other stats about the current situation. The numbers flow about in her mind forming thought and information. Within a few seconds, she knows the best course of action.

She aims her two arm mounted grenade launchers and the two grenade cannons on her back at four different points on the field. Knowing full well the recoil of the weapons, she quickly stops boosting and fires all four weapons at once, the force of which knocks her higher into the air.

Explosive force and fire rips across the field, destroying the mechs and ripping out larger chunks of ground and pavement, leaving a sizeable crater. The concussive wave can be felt deep in the technicians, William's, and Ayaka's bodies.

Not being a Hollywood style explosion, the smoke and dust clear quickly, revealing the devastation. The technicians… hell, everyone within eyesight, has their mouths agape.

"I really don't like this. This is overkill, isn't it?" Reina ponders.

Someone contacts Reina on a private channel "So so so… This is the Red Dragon. It looks so slow. But isn't that always how it goes? Big and slow, but with lots of power."

The voice is so familiar to her. "Damn it! Why now?" She turns to the direction the signal is hailing from.

"Reina? What's up?" William asks, puzzled by the sudden change in her current readings.

"He's coming."

"WHAT? Damn it! Why now?" William groans and everyone else begins to get out of the area.

"What's going on?" Ayaka asks.

"Just come with us. Some really bad stuff might be happening," William explains, "and as a non-combatant, I don't want you, me, or any of them to get hurt or worse." He whistles loudly and makes a looping hand gesture to get everyone in gear and moving.

A black globule flies from out in the distance and splatters over the Ivory Knight. "Just to keep you from jumping ship. After all, I'm here to see what this new mech can do."

Reina grunts in frustration as her speed is a main focus of her personal style. "Shit." This is just what she loves, being gimped in a fight.

William, Ayaka, and the others get inside a room in a nearby building where they can watch what's happening. Them, along with others that were already inside the building watch with rapt attention. William hurries to a nearby computer and cancels out of whatever the employee was doing before the fight broke out.

"Sir, I was…"

"Not important right now," William offers. He works quickly to cobble a connection to the Red Dragon. The signal is being patched through so many systems there's annoying wait time before a connection is established.

"Dad?"

"Yeah, I had to go this route because we hadn't quite installed the mobile connection yet. We were saving it for last, but whatever."

"That black stuff is preventing the Ivory from moving."

William suggests, "Try pulling it out with the Red Dragon. It's quite powerful in hand to hand. It might be able to tear the Ivory out of that glop."

Reina puts down the grenade launchers and tries his suggestion, lifting as hard as the Red Dragon can to pull the Ivory out of the mess it's in while also trying to keep it off the Red Dragon. In case it happens to be contagious or something.

Before any real progress can be made, she's getting shot at. She quickly abandons the Ivory in favor of not getting covered in bullet holes.

"So I'm stuck in this slow body huh? Gotta do the best I can then." Rather uncoordinatedly, she leans forward as she slides in order to grab the launchers she dropped earlier. "Maybe if I don't fire them all at once, there won't be as much splash damage."

Hisao knows what's happening and dashes out of the way before the barrels can even be pointed at him. "That's not going to work." He zigzags his way over to her, the barrels trailing him constantly.

The moment he's right up on her, he fires up his blade and angles it to rip through up through the cockpit. If he succeeds, then Schwarzerschutz has nothing to worry about. If not, then they'll get more data.

Reina cold clocks him with the barrel of the launcher before he can move to stab her. Moving swiftly, she dumps the ammo containers for both weapons and tosses the launchers farther away. "Sorry dad, they're just too slow. And if I happened to hit him, then there's a chance for splash damage."

"Understandable, just do your best. I know you can defeat him. Maybe you'll even be able to knock some sense into him."

"I'll try my best."

Ayaka watches the fight and can hear father and daughter interacting when something crosses her mind. She thinks back to when Reina mentions having a brother.

"Whitehall-san… Is that her brother?"

William looks surprised. "Err… Yeah. But how did you know that?"

"She mentioned it once back in Kyoto. We were talking about… Well it was nothing." Ayaka lets it slide.

"Ah. Not by birth though. He's not my son. I'll just say that things are complicated right now and things are made worse by the fact he took our Ebony Knight."

"Does that mean he's like Reina? With those connections?"

"Yes."

Reina plods around, swinging and missing with club-like arm strikes. Hisao's mobility is just too much for her to counter. Many possible battle strategies run through her mind when an opening appears. Giving it her all she reaches forward and grabs a hold of Hisao. She keeps him off the ground with one arm.

"Damn it Hisao!" she shouts and slams him to the ground. Shuffling her weight, the Red Dragon's heavy metal foot moves to stomp the Ebony Knight's head in.

Hisao rolls to the side and avoids eating Reina's foot. He's able to get the Ebony Knight to fly to a standing position. Reina flares her jets as she begins an upward club swing. When the impact connects it sends Hisao tumbling over. Easily working the momentum, Reina brings about both arms into a sledgehammer strike.

Hisao boosts back ever so briefly in reaction. It isn't much good as she clips him anyway. "Damn thing is too strong!" He actually bounces off the ground as Reina reaches out and catches him.

She lifts him up easy and slams him hard on the ground again. As Hisao lies on the pavement, he rolls to one side to avoid getting stomped on.

"You! You!" Hisao complains.

"Yes?" asks Reina, a hint of smugness in her voice. She knows it will get to him and cause him to make mistakes. It's not often he loses his cool, but when he does…

He seems to relax, crumbling Reina's plan. He boosts around to her side, dodging a swing from the Red Dragon's club like arm, and gets around behind her. With a swift movement, he tried to hack away at the back of the Red Dragon's knee joints. After a few swings, nothing much happens.

"Plasma resistant metal," Reina alerts him. "Just for cases like this!" She twists with her boosters and tries to grab a hold of him again. As he backs away, she fakes him out and instead straight punches him. "I've always been better at hand-to-hand, and I've made the fight just that. Give it up."

She plods slowly forward, every step threatening, shaking the ground with intent.

Hisao goes over all of his options, slowly backing up while Reina marches towards him. He gets an idea. Jets flare up and he rises up into the air. He swings his leg around while flying forward, attempting to kick Reina in the head. Before he can do that, she reaches into the air, grabs him, turns around and slams him down on the ground.

The damage is starting to rack up quickly from all of her powerful attacks. Several non-vital systems shut down. If he needed to breathe, Hisao would be doing so now. Several points were going into critical state. Time for one last—

His sister opens her power source to maximum, and gives joints priority. Reina grabs him by the head and spins around several times before—

"Genesic!"

She tosses him skyward. His thrusters having cut out, probably a result of the previous attack where she slammed him on the ground.

"Emerald!"

Reina leans back and blasts her jets as hard as she can, hurtling through the air to meet Hisao. She grabs his head and quickly changes the direction her thrusters are aimed by twisting herself around.

"Reina!"

Gravity and her engines send them literally rocketing towards the ground. The g-forces build to an immense amount when—

"BUSTER!"

Hisao's vision statics out and then goes blank as great chunks of concrete jut up from Hisao's impact crater. Safety systems prevent as much damage to his living body as they can.

Reina slumps over from both the weight of her systems taking some strain during the last attack and the heavy handed reference it made. "Damn it Hisao," she mutters.

Ayaka, William, and a few of the technicians sit in silence as a shockwave works its way through the building. Lights flicker, loose objects rattle, and a few things fall off of the shelves. Most of the technicians, as always, are more focused on the data they've gotten from the battle.

"The hydraulics are nominal, power circuits are all showing strain, most important joints are stressed, and several of the thrusters are burned out. Sir, it wasn't made for that kind movement."

William replies, "I know that, but as always, she's shown us just what these things can do and where we need to do some work."

"Wow… Reina-san. I didn't know you had that kind of power," Ayaka thinks to herself. "But I think it's probably too much for Negi-sensei. It's this kind of thing that must have lead to Negi-sensei's head injury. If you keep hanging around with her, you're likely to get severely hurt, and I can't have that."

Reina musters the last of the Red Dragon's reserves and gimps her way over to the Ivory. She grabs it in a bear hug and begins pulling with everything that the Red Dragon's systems can muster. The black goop begins ripping apart as bits of it splatter about. She grunts with one last pull and the Ivory Knight is free from the mucky prison.

"No… energy… left to…"

"Reina?" William asks.

"I'm very tired. I gotta try and… transfer…" She weakly begins to transfer her mind back over to the Ivory Knight. She shuts down energy flow to any non-important areas like the legs and arms. It's not long before she reawakens inside the Ivory Knight. "…A dream within a dream."

Outside, several larger ships begin approaching from the air. William recognizes them right away. "No surprise there. Looks like Schwarzerschutz has come to pick up their scavenged goods." His phone begins to ring. "Hello Ms. Rachel Lynch. Come to take my mech again eh?"

"You know very well that the moment he left, he became a free agent. I'm just taking advantage of a situation. Just. Like. You.

"All those recent battles your daughter has had, the expo a while back… And don't forget that newspaper interview with that school that InfinIT attacked. You've done nothing but make yourself look good. Pitiful."

William responds, "This stuff happens when you get to the top. What's it feel like huh? To be the second best? And you totally discredit my daughter. She's the one who is basically the face of this company. I'm just a guy at a desk."

"And you're a bad parent too. Leaving your daughter to fight all your fights."

"Big talk from an old crone." Rachel scoffs at him and hangs up. "That damn woman knows just which one of my buttons to push."

Back out on the battlefield, Reina take a moment to recover and then dive back into the Ivory. Quietly, she whispers, "Adeat!" She concentrates the force bubble within the Ivory and rapidly expands it. The black slime that covers the mech flies off in every direction."

"Ready for action Ivory Knight! Let's go!" Reina shouts as the takes off towards the biggest of the incoming airships.

In response they start to open fire. Red hot chunks of lead zip past the white machine, wanting to tear a hole through it. She loops through and around the bullets and lands on the ship's "deck." The crew members inside see the face of the Ivory peer inside the bridge. Several crew members begin crying out in fear.

She fires up her sword and the crew members that can see from the bridge begin screaming and fleeing, turning all those around Rachel into a sea of chaos.

"You wouldn't dare," Rachel says to herself since everyone else around has already lost their heads.

Reina lowers down and in one swift twist, begins carving away at the base of the bridge tower, her plasma cutting the steel slowly but effectively. Its snaps and crackles sing a sick song of destruction with the sound of groaning metal caused by the shifting balance of the tower.

Rachel Lynch pounds her fist down on a nearby desk. "Damn it all."

The lights around her go out, signaling that the tower was now free from the rest of the ship. Reina stands up and braces her foot against the tower and presses forward. Inside, Rachel can feel gravity seemingly change direction. She soon finds herself sitting on the wall that was originally behind her.

With a deafening crash, the tower falls and Rachel is covering her face to protect it from breaking glass. She stands up and steps over the clutter all over the new "floor" and climbs down out of the door that was at the back of the room.

Hisao awakens inside the landing bay of the Schwarzerschutz air ship. It takes a minute for the cloudiness to leave his mind. He's still inside the Ebony Knight. A few company people are trying to enter the hatch.

"Another failure…" He leaves the Ebony and comes back to his own body. He can feel the damage inflicted on his actual body from the final move Reina used on him. "What the hell was that move? There's no way it should have been able to move like that."

The hatch opens and several technicians and company doctors are on the other side, shining lights down on to him, obscuring their faces.

"Maybe I should have listened to that Chao girl," he thinks to himself as someone lowers themselves down in the cockpit.

Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna and Negi see Reina rise from the stairs leading to their floor.

"So how'd it go?" Asuna asks her as she walks by.

It takes a moment for Reina to answer. "Horribly. I- I'm dead tired a- a- and everything w- went to hell. First Ayaka tod- day and then my br- brother showed up while I w- as testing the n- newest machine. Really… at th- the end, I w- would have rather stayed -d with you g- g- guys. Th- Thanks for the s- sug- gestion." Her exhaustion and general malaise keeps her from being too afraid to talk or really caring much.

"Your brother?" Konoka asks, oblivious of the discontent her friend just displayed. "I didn't know you had one. What's he like? Is he like you?"

"Not now K- Konoka-san… I'm really j- just tired and he has th- th- this way of rub- bing me the wrong way at t- imes. I j- just want to- to- today to b- be over."

Reina quietly makes her way into her room to go to sleep.

Negima: Femella Intra Machina Chapter 12: End

The End of the Chapter Stuff: Again, sorry to any fans of this for the ONE YEAR delay. If I hadn't messed up when I did, we'd probably be done with this, or at least six or so chapters further in.

Also, yes, I love me some BlazBlue. I rock with Tager, to the point I don't even see Jin as a threat anymore. (And Arakune is slowly losing his threat level.) And Jubei had better be playable in the third game.

Thanks this Chapter: TheAnsemMan for proofing what he did. The one fan whom messaged me recently, you helped a little in pulling me out of my slump.

Thanks for reading, especially after the long wait, and reviewing if you so decide.