One year to the day after this thing went live ...

Conquests of an Accidental Stud Monkey
Chapter Thirteen

They gathered in Konoemon's office that evening, quietly surrounding his desk and staring down at the rotten branch, nearly as long as the desktop on which it rested. Well, most of the senior magical staff surrounded the desk. Evangeline - present as a courtesy and because no one present was equipped or inclined to stop her from being present if she'd a mind to be, which she did - had simply glanced at the branch on her arrival and then silently trotted over to the go board set up in the corner, waiting quietly and patiently.

"Then there's no possibility of a mistake?" Negi finally asked, the first to raise his voice in a while.

"No, Negi-kun," Konoemon said, sounding more weary than he'd ever imagined the old man could sound. "Higurashi has spent the last several days examining her in minute detail, trying to find some more mundane cause for this. If he and his army of gardeners can't find one in that amount of time, it isn't there to be found. The tree is dying ... and with it, all of our hopes, as well."

Thirteen gates to the World of Magic, all around the world. Mahora, Constantinople, Meridiana, Florida, New Jersey, Niagara Falls, Brazil, Ayer's Rock, a certain mountain in Eastern Europe, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Siberia, Sri Lanka, and one hidden in the depths of the Pacific Rim. Gates they were called, and truly, for they could allow for the passage of dozens or hundreds of travelers at once, where the smaller doors that occurred near to them might swing open for one or two at a time, at best, and were unstable and prone to malfunction. Gates they were called ... but they might also be called nails, holding down the fabric of the Magical World and tying it to the life-giving magic of Earth.

And the gate at Mahora, tied to the World Tree, had become the most important nail, which held the others in their place. If it failed, so would all the others. And if they all failed ...

"But why now?" Negi asked, well aware that his words might sound like he was whining. "The tree has stood for, for I don't even know how long -"

"As long as human beings have lived in this area," Nijuin-sensei said quietly, almost reverently.

"Then why is it dying now?" Negi asked.

"Come now, Negi-kun." Konoemon replied. To Negi's amazement, he sounded almost amused, as though he were chiding him for a simple lapse. "It should be obvious. What has changed, lately?"

"Uh," said the aged-up wizard who'd knocked boots with dozens of his students. The only positive aspect of it was that he got to see Takamichi looking off with an embarrassed face as well. "Could you be a little more specific?" he temporized, hoping that he was misunderstanding.

"Of course. What has changed in the magical landscape of this land, lately? What long-standing spells have been undone?"

The momentary relief of knowing that he had not actually been caught out died in its cradle as Negi realized what was actually under discussion. "You mean ... you're talking about Sa-Sayo-san's sleep?" he asked, appalled.

"Wait, Aisaka Sayo?" asked Kouko. "The ghost girl of my old class?"

"You were in class A when you went to school here?" Negi asked, welcoming any distraction.

"We didn't call it that, but yes. What does she have to do with -"

"When I cast the spell which saved her life, near seventy years ago, I sourced it with the most powerful magic I knew about," Konoemon said, welcoming any distraction from other issues. "That was the world tree. And when that spell finally came to an end, earlier this week, the end of the spell drew out still more."

"Then it's my fault," Negi whispered, though everyone present heard him.

"No," the old man said firmly. "It is mine. We can settle the question of responsibility at another time, perhaps," he added loudly as Negi began to protest. "For now, we must find a solution to the problem which confronts us."

"Of course," Negi said, nodding. "I'm sure that we can find one -"

"One has already been found," Konoemon said. "You have been working on it for quite some time, now, Negi-kun. The same solution to the problem of the magical world can be used to save it now.

"We will simply have to implement its first step much sooner than any of us would have wished."

"No," said Negi.

"Negi, I realize that you don't want to do it, and I don't blame you," said Takamichi. "But -"

"I'm not saying I don't want to do it," Negi quietly interjected. "I'm saying that I will not skip to the point where we have no choice but to use that last option until we have exhausted all others. Technically, I'm saying that we will not do that. I realize that it's probably very selfish of me to try and speak for everyone present, but I also think that the person for whom I am speaking would agree with me. She was the one who told me not to take the easy way out before, after all." He realized that he was starting to babble about things that weren't the business of anyone else, and restrained himself.

"Since the worst outcome clearly hasn't happened yet," he continued after a moment, "then I conclude that we have at least a little time before that happens. How long until the damage is irreparable?"

"From Higurashi's report ... I would say that we have less than a week," Konoemon said heavily.

"Five days," Negi replied quickly.

"Excuse me?"

"Give me five days to find a better solution, and if I can't find one by then, I'll agree that we're out of options. Except that I'll have found a better option and won't need to agree to anything. Five days. That should be more than enough."

"And what if that projection of the time we have left is too optimistic?" Touko asked, frowning.

"And what if that projection of the time we have left is too conservative?" Negi retorted. "Sir. My esteemed colleagues. Every second I spend arguing about this with you is a second I genuinely can't afford to spare. But I will, if necessary, beg." He began to lower himself to his knees.

"Stop," snapped the Headmaster. "There's no need to humble yourself."

"Oh let him go on, it's one of the things he does best," Evangeline said from the go board, not looking up as she spoke.

"I agree to your proposal, Negi-kun," Konoemon continued as though he hadn't just heard that. "But I would ask you to tell Asuna-kun what has happened before you start your efforts. She deserves to know the truth."

"Yes," Negi said. "She does." He bowed sharply, and then turned to quickly head out of the office.

"... amazing how he's exactly like his father," Kouko said.

In the same breath, Evangeline declared, "... amazing how he's nothing like his father."

"You are both right," Konoemon said into the silence that followed. "Nagi wouldn't have bothered to ask for permission. But that's the only real difference."

He put the fact that he didn't notice he was being followed until he was quite some distance from the administration building down to the fact that he was, after all, very distracted. Once he had noticed, though, it was fairly obvious who was doing it, and he stopped walking, turned and looked up at the trees lining the path. "I'm starting to understand why Chachamaru dislikes trees so much," he announced. "Would you two care to stop doing that?"

A moment later, the two petite pink-haired girls in ninja garb - thankfully, green and gray ninja garb, a step up from the ludicrous pink costumes they'd worn a few months before - dropped from the trees with nary a rustled leaf to be heard, landing as softly as a cherry petal before him.

The silence didn't last too long, though. "I told you he'd notice us. I told you," Fumika said to her sister. "But did you listen to me? Do you ever listen to me? Are you even listening to me now?"

"You're so skilled, Negi-kun!" Fuuka said admiringly.

"No, you're not listening to me. Why do I even bother?"

Ordinarily, Negi would have sympathized with Fumika, since he found himself wondering why he should even bother on a frequent basis. But now was not the time. "How long have you two been following me?" he asked, trying to sound stern.

"... how long do you think we've been following you?" Fuuka answered rather cheekily.

Assume worst-case scenario, he decided. "Since before I went to the meeting?" he asked, and was rewarded for his paranoia by the blanched expressions on the two crazy twins.

"I. Told You," Fumika hissed.

"Yes, and I'm not listening now, either," Fuuka replied.

"... that makes no logical -"

"You really are amazing, Negi-kun," Fuuka continued over her sister's tantrum. "Kaede-ne got wind of the meeting somehow, and asked us to keep an eye on you. We caught up with you as you were heading to the meeting, and we've been following you ever since. What's going to happen to Asuna?" she asked without changing her tone in the slightest.

"Nothing is going to happen to -" he started to say, then reigned himself in. The two of them knew something was wrong, and telling them that it wasn't would be both insulting and, honestly, useless. "All right," he said. "This is what's happening."

An interval elapsed.

"No!" Fumika cried, as Fuuka stared in shocked horror. "Negi-kun, you have to do something!"

"That's more or less what I'm planning," he told them.

"Let us help! I don't know what we can do, but we'll do anything we have to do in order to help!" Fuuka said, finding her voice at last.

As Negi began to open his mouth to thank them for their offer, another voice spoke from behind him. "There is absolutely nothing that the two of you can do, except to get in the way. You excel at that, but it is not helpful in the least."

Negi flinched, before turning around to look at Fate, who was standing a short distance down the pathway, positively radiating annoyance as he glared at the three of them.

"Fate," he started to say.

"Hello, Negi-kun. I find it somewhat vexing that I was not invited to the meeting these hellions spied upon," Fate said.

"Hey!" Fuuka and Fumika chorused.

He ignored them. "However, since I believe that I have gotten the gist of what was discussed from you just now, I'll overlook that insult. And, I suppose, it is true that it was a meeting of the senior staff of this institution, of which I cannot presently be numbered. So. Moving on, then. Am I correct in concluding that you have decided to abandon your plan?"

"No," Negi promptly replied. "If anything, I am attempting to keep following it. The plan didn't call for this to happen at this time, and it has always had room for modifications and improvements that develop while we're in the process of working out the details."

"I see," Fate said. "In other words, you never had any intention of allowing the Princess to make this sacrifice."

"No, that's not the case, it is simply a last resort that we don't need to use yet and which can be avoided -"

"Even though," he continued, voice raised over Negi's own, "she herself has accepted it as inevitable, and doesn't want you to spend time searching for alternate solutions. To waste time, as someone else might put it."

"... the situation has changed," Negi said, looking away.

"You're putting the entire plan in jeopardy on her behalf, Negi-kun. I cannot allow you to -"

"Hey, Fate, here's a thought. Why don't you just butt the hell out?" said Fuuka.

"Excuse me?"

"No," Fuuka snapped. "I won't excuse you. You say we're getting in the way? You're in the way. And you know, I bet that is what burns your skinny white ass the most, doesn't it, the fact that when we got in your way, we were one hell of a lot more effective at stopping you than you ever were at getting in ours. So now we're not in Negi-kun's way, we're pushing behind him and you're in our way, again. And you know what? I'm good with that. I'm glad you're in our way, because we are so totally going to kick the aforementioned skinny white ass, just like we did in the sports festival! So there!" she said, and opened her mouth to laugh.

And then, in less time than it would take to tell it, Fate was standing right in front of her, their eyes separated by no more than a couple of inches, the cold emptiness of Fate's glare boring into Fuuka's gaze. Laughter died. Speech was impossible. She couldn't even breathe. He hadn't laid a finger on her, not even lifted a hand, and yet all that she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and roll away as fast as she could.

"Fate!" came a voice as from a long way away.

Just like that, he had moved away from her, and was no longer staring into her. "Very well, then. If these are your allies of choice, far be it from me to criticize you for choosing them. May they give you all the help you could ask them for ... because you will get none from me.

"Three days," he added into the silence that followed.

"The Headmaster gave me five," Negi started to say.

"Good for him. Three days, then I restart Cosmo Entelechia. I told you that was my condition at the start of all this. Good luck, Negi-kun." And with that, he turned and walked away.

Fuuka's knees gave out at that point.

"Neechan!" Fumika nearly shrieked as she ran up to her sister, crumpled on the pavement in a way that Negi found distressingly reminiscent of the way that he'd left Sextum after their fight.

"I ... can't believe ... I'm still alive," Fuuka whispered, eyes still locked on Fate's back. "I really thought he was going to -"

"He wouldn't do that, Fuuka-san," Negi assured her, dropping down to the ground beside her. "Fate is maniacal about obeying the rules, and the rules of being a teacher here wouldn't let him hurt you. Frighten, yes, but not hurt. Can you stand?"

"... no," she said.

"Okay. Would you like me to carry you back to the dorm? I'm going there anyway, so it's not any trouble."

"If, if it's really no trouble," she said, looking away in a gesture he suspected was at least 40% unfeigned. Maybe as much as 45%. From the look on Fumika's face as her sister crawled up onto Negi's back and hung there as he stood up, he was fairly sure that he was the only one giving Fuuka that much credit, though.

That said, when Fumika finally spoke, it was to address the larger situation. "Then he's all bluff?" she asked, trotting alongside Negi as he walked steadily, as though Fuuka wasn't much of a burden at all.

"Not all, but since he didn't threaten Fuuka-san with an academic punishment, what he did just now was all that he was going to do." Not all bluff, not at all, even if what he'd said about restarting Cosmo Entelekhia was. As things had stood when he'd said that, he might have been able to do so. But time had passed, and now there were too many forces which were aware of him and which would align against him, and the majority of his allies - the other Averrunci, Dynamis and the others - had been made permanently unavailable.

But if it had been a bluff, the warning beneath it was clear. Negi now had three days to come up with a solution before Fate went from passively refusing to help to actively opposing Negi's efforts.

Well. He supposed that he should consider that an additional incentive.

"Are you going to go tell Asuna now about what's happening?" Fuuka asked from his back.

"That's the plan," he answered with a nod. "She ought to be back at the dormitory by this point, though she may have stayed back at the resort to help Konoka."

"Huh?" the twins chorused.

"Oh, right, you two don't know about the resort, yet," he said, shaking his head in self-reproach. "I really ought to have something typed up, to get everyone on the same page about what's been going on." Though deciding how much of that should be omitted was a bit daunting.

"No, we know about that. Kaede-ne told us about that when she told us about everything else to get us to stop from hiding ourselves in her luggage," Fuuka clarified.

"What's Konoka-san doing there, though? She hasn't been going to class since the end of the Sports Festival, but nobody's said anything about what she might be doing, other than when Setsuna-san had constipation."

"... when Setsuna-san had ... no, I suspect that I wouldn't like the elaboration, so don't elaborate on that," Negi replied. "Anyway, Konoka has been training."

"You mean like you do?" Fuuka asked.

"... sort of, yes."

Her palm lanced out, driven by the force of arms that hadn't ceased motion since the bout began, with just a bit more explosive power added from the motion of hips as well. She was moving faster than she'd ever imagined that she could move, and it still wasn't enough - the palm slapped against the shaft of her opponent's spear - nor did her immediate follow-through of a shin kick come close to his legs.

None of that was surprising. Konoka knew perfectly well that even if she were to study for a hundred more years, she would still not be able to equal his skill. She could never beat him with the arts he'd taught her. But she could fight him. And she was.

One more upthrust punch, one more millimetricly narrow duck under the tip of his spear, and then she halted.

"Had enough?" her opponent asked, his own cessation of motion seeming at most a pause.

"No," she said. "Not ever. But, unfortunately, Li-roshi, my ghost touch spell is about to expire, and so is our contract."

The translucent old man reflected a moment, then let out a sigh. "So it is. Well. Your practice is still rough-hewn, you still lack appropriate delicacy, and you rely overmuch on magic to give your motions force. Given a bit more time, I might be able to make a worthy student of you. Alas."

"Thank you, roshi," Konoka said, practically floating on the waves of that supreme compliment.

He accepted her thanks with a nod. "And please pass on my thanks in turn to our host. Let her know that I consider the debt I owe her for teaching me what it was like to a hit a person twice to be paid in full." Fading out even as he spoke, he let his head fall back and laughed quite a bit before he went away entirely.

She bowed to the spot where he'd been standing, took a deep breath, and walked away to where her friends were waiting.

"So, you done?" Asuna asked.

"It's never done, but I've gotten all the training I'm going to get from this source," Konoka said. She turned to Fei. "I hope you'll be willing to spar with me to keep me in -"

"Forget it," said Fei.

"Sorry?"

"Not talking to you for a while," Fei said, sounding rather cross. "You get Eva-chan to summon ghost of Li Shuwen - Li Shuwen, the Li Shuwen - and get him to teach you both baji quan and pigua quan for days and days down in here, and then you only invite me to watch your last training session? So I no can challenge him? No can even ask for autograph on underwear? No, not talking to you for a while." She sniffed and looked away.

"The path of the martial artist is indeed one of peril," Konoka mused sadly.

"And stop saying stuff like that, you schtick-stealer!"

"Well, did you have fun at least?" Asuna asked a little while later, as the two of them walked together along the path away from the resort. Though Fei had eventually accepted Konoka's heartfelt and certainly-not-at-all-tongue-in-cheek plea for forgiveness, she'd wanted to get in some training of her own and remained behind.

Konoka shrugged. "I'm not like you or Fei or even Setchan, Asuna. Training like that, being active, for me, it's ... not about fun." Her face went speculative. "I wonder if Mana-san finds it fun? I think ... well, anyway, I guess I understand all of you a lot better than I did, and that's good. And I don't have to be protected, but can help to protect everyone I care about, a bit more now. And that's really good. So ... it wasn't as much fun as healing someone is, but I didn't hate it."

Asuna stared at her for a moment, then grinned. "You're tsundere for training."

"What?" Konoka asked, blinking.

"Yes, you are. Totally. 'I don't hate it'? Sooooo tsundere."

"I am not!" she protested. "It's not like I - oh, hell."

"Tsundere. Chisame's going to be after you for stealing her schtick, next." Asuna began giggling.

Konoka took a mental picture of this moment, froze it in her memories forever. "I love you, you know that?" she said.

"Back at'cha," Asuna said, mimicking Konoka's faint accent.

"No, I really -"

"I know," Asuna said, smirk flowing to a gentle smile. "You don't have to convince me, okay? And you don't have to do stuff to make the next few months easier on me or nicer or whatever. Just ... always be yourself. That's all I need from you."

"Easy enough. Though I'm still worried about ... her." That was said in almost a whisper, accompanied by a rapid visual check of the surrounding area.

"I know, I know, but I'm telling you, she's in jail. There's nothing to worry about."

The phone rang. Konoe Kouko, just outside the train station, pulled it from her jacket pocket and flicked it open. The number wasn't familiar, but she recognized the area code, and promptly took the call. Long distance from the magical world was not something to be ignored.

"Hello?" she said, in English.

"Kouko-san?" said a panicked voice she didn't quite recognize. "It's Goedel. Where's your husband? I've been trying to reach him for -"

"In Kyoto, dealing with some issues," she replied. "Out of the transmitter's reach, of course. What's the matter, Mr. Governor General?"

"We've been tricked. She's not in the prison. She never was, the warden is in someone's pay and -"

Kouko started to run.

She'd parted company with Asuna, who was heading back to the dorms. For her part, Konoka found herself wanting to stroll around a little more in the evening. It had been subjective months since she'd seen her hometown, after all, and she'd almost forgotten how beautiful it could be. So she walked aimlessly, enjoying its sights with a pleasant smile, pausing only for a moment to look up at the World Tree ... and frowning. Something looked off about it.

Well, she was a people doctor, and to an extent an animal doctor. Plants were outside the area of her expertise, for now. Maybe she could go ask someone in the gardening staff about the situation, get some advice on the subject. She had time, now. After all -

She heard someone calling her name, turned to look in that direction.

"You know, I wonder," said Tsukuyomi, who was standing behind her. "What will hurt you most? Killing your mother, in front of you, or killing you, right in front of your mother, so that the last thing your eyes perceive before the world goes dark forever is the sight of her horrified face?"

Konoka stared.

"I'm really very curious. I don't have these sorts of bonds, you see, so I couldn't possibly relate. You get them, though. So which do you think it would be?" The girl in the glasses tilted her head just slightly, as she regarded Konoka with the same sort of interest a born doctor in a middle school biology class might regard the frog she was about dissect.

"Hello, Tsukuyomi-han," Konoka said, quietly.

"Ah, not 'you'? I was really looking forward to hearing you shriek 'you'."

"I'm actually sort of glad to see you," Konoka continued, as though the mercenary hadn't said anything. "Mostly because it's a relief to know that I wasn't crazy. And because if you really were locked up, and I'd just been imagining having seen you before ... that would really have been such a waste, don't you think?"

"Interesting perspective," Tsukuyomi replied.

Konoka heard her name called one more time, desperate fear in the voice.

So she raised her own. "Mom, stay back!"

And the little twitch of Tsukuyomi's eyes in response told her all that she needed to know, told her that no, the swordswoman's attention was not on her at the moment, and that she had more than a prayer. And in that moment, Konoka lunged forward, left elbow slamming into her opponent's unguarded stomach, then left hand up against the glasses on the other girl's face, pulling them away, sending them tumbling through the air.

"Agh!" Tsukuyomi shrieked. "My glasses! I can't see anything without my glasses!"

Right knee strike to enemy's side -

Blocked. By a still sheathed sword, directed by steady hands and guided by eyes that were now clearly focused on Konoka.

"- is what you were probably expecting me to say," Tsukuyomi nearly hissed. "Stupid princess, did you really think I wouldn't get that little weakness corrected? Isn't magic wonderful?"

"So it is," Konoka agreed. "ADEAT!"

"And here we are," Negi declared as he opened the door to his dorm room, Fuuka still hanging on his back and Fumika trailing along behind with a dissatisfied look on her face. "And ... she's not back yet. Of course not. Do you feel strong enough to stand, Fuuka-san?"

"Welllll," Fuuka hemmed.

"Yes," Fumika interjected. "She does."

Fuuka promptly made a face at her sister, who proceeded to make one of her own right back at her. Apparently oblivious to this byplay, Negi proceeded to squat down so that Fuuka could slide off of him, and she reluctantly did so.

"Well, it can't be helped. I'll just have to wait for her and start working on other aspects of my plan until she comes back -" he began to say.

"Negi-kun, can I ask you something?" Fumika said then.

"You just did, but go ahead all the same," he told her.

"It's about what Fate said," she continued, very hesitantly. "He was saying that Asuna is ..." Fumika fell silent at the look of obvious pain that crossed Negi's face.

"He said that she's resigned to her fate," Negi confirmed. "I don't know that I'd put it like that, but ... yes, Asuna believes that it's her responsibility to enter stasis for the sake of the magical world, and asked me to stop looking for other solutions to the problem. But that was when we had months to go before she'd have to do it, not days. Under the circumstances, I'm sure that she'll ..." Now he fell silent.

"Negi-kun?" the twins chorused.

"I'm not actually sure about that at all," he admitted. "I think ... she's hypnotized by the hard choice. I think that it's such a hard decision that she's afraid of any alternatives, that they'd have hidden costs which made them even worse. And I think that she's so fixed on this solution that it's ... making her act in ways that she normally wouldn't."

"You mean the sex stuff?" Fuuka asked.

"Yes, the se-"

Long pause.

"Did Kaede tell you about that, too?" Negi asked, trying without success to stop blushing.

"No, we spied on Asakura-san and Sayo-chan while they were talking about it," Fumika explained, looking a bit embarrassed herself.

"You don't have to give away all our secrets, you know," Fuuka pointed out irritably.

"Oh, come on, neechan, look how upset he is. We can't make trouble for Kaede-ne by letting him think it's her fault. That wouldn't be right."

"Eh, I guess not," Fuuka agreed. "So ... can we have sex, then?" she asked Negi.

"Okay," he said, starting to unbutton his jacket.

The twins blinked in stupefaction as Negi began to get undressed. "You mean, you're just going to agree to that blunt proposal? Just like that?" Fuuka asked.

"Well, there was a time, not so long ago, when I would have tried to talk you out of the idea," said Negi as he unbuttoned his shirt starting with the cuffs. "But that has never worked, not even once, and I'm afraid that I don't think it will work this time, either. So really, there's nothing to do but go through with it, and try to do the best job that I can, even though my heart isn't really in it. I hope that you're all right with that."

"I don't really think that I am!" Fuuka said, very affronted. "I mean, holy smoke, sensei, I think we at least deserve to have to use all of our girlish charms to wear down your resistance and hmmm hmmm hmmm ... hmmm?" she concluded as she realized that Fumika's hands were over her mouth.

"Neechan," Fumika said into her ear, voice quiet and deadly. "You're my sister and I love you, but so help me, if you wreck this for me, I swear to Lucifer, you will need to spend our entire high school career sleeping with one eye open. Got it?" Fumika hissed.

"Mm-hm, mm-hm," Fuuka agreed, nodding rapidly.

"... is something the matter?" Negi asked, deciding (as he often did) to pretend that he hadn't seen or heard certain things which had happened right in front of him and which he could not possibly have missed.

"Nope,' the twins said in chorus, Fumika's hand coming down from Fuuka's mouth just in time to ensure that her section of the chorus wasn't a meaningless mumble.

"I thought not," he sighed and unbuckled his trousers so that they pooled around his ankles.

"Wow, sensei is going commandoooooooooo," said Fuuka before she went slightly cross-eyed.

He found that this part of the unvarying routine ('girls are stunned by size of male member') was actually a bit comforting, and was moved to explain. "Well, I was in something of a hurry when I left Yuna's father's apartment, and -"

"Oh wow, you're having sex with Yuna's father?" Fumika gasped.

"No, no, with Yuna," he clarified. "Though I think he's a nice enough fellow, and -"

"Oh, so he wasn't there?"

"... no, he was there," Negi admitted.

"And he knew you were having sex with his daughter?" Fuuka gasped.

"He ... couldn't really not know it."

"You mean ... he was there, there?" Fumika said, going pale.

"You couldn't really get more there."

Dead silence. The twins exchanged a look. "Ewwwwwww!" they chorused again, and deliberately stepped apart.

With sudden hope, he continued talking. "If that revolts you, I can't really blame you for not wanting to be involved. We don't have to -"

"No, no, we're okay, it's just a little bit sick and wrong, and it's important that you understand that we don't want to do that sort of thing, do we, neechan?" Fumika quickly replied.

"... uh ... yeah!" said Fuuka, maybe just a little bit slower than she should have.

Since he was honestly still a bit uncomfortable with what he'd discovered Yuna and her father doing, Negi naturally had no objection to the twins not doing that with each other. On the other hand, as they proceeded to drop down on their knees in front of them, he was also aware that their refusal was causing problems of its own. They shied away from any contact with each other as they stripped off their jumpsuits and the underwear beneath, and while that was easy enough, they kept avoiding it as they began to suck and lick at his erection and testicles, which made the entire process far more awkward than it had to be. And the occasional 'ack' noises that they made when they accidentally bumped were a little disconcerting, too.

"All right," he said at last. "Let's try something else. Something that will - ah, of course. I'm going to lie down, and, um ... okay, Fumika, would you stop doing that and come up here so that I can - oh, Fuuka, please keep right on, that's very nice, yes - and here we go."

With that, he plunged his face between Fumika's spread hips and began licking at her, to her great satisfaction, loudly expressed.

Perhaps a bit too loudly expressed, in fact. It wasn't long before Fuuka paused in her ministrations to complain. "This isn't fair! Why does only Fumika get to have fun like that?"

"Because you're a hooli-" Fumika began Standard Reply To Inequalities Of the Narutaki Siblings #1, but was cut off.

"I'm sorry, but I only have one mouth, Fuuka, so there's really nothing -"

"You could use magic!" Fuuka suggested, eyes dancing. "If you used some sort of spell to be in two places at once and -"

"No," Negi said firmly.

"Awww!"

"Would you mind if I switched around?" Negi wearily asked Fumika.

"Oh, fine," said Fumika, more than a bit out of sorts. She grew steadily more and more out of sorts over the next few minutes as she was compelled to listen to her dearly beloved older sister shrieking about how good Negi's tongue felt in her and on her. It was so annoying, having to listen to that nonsense, which was completely different from whatever restrained and sedate exclamations of ecstasy she herself had made a few minutes ago. Yet here she was, busily sucking Negi's admittedly tasty cock, and unless she wanted to abandon that and go elsewhere, she had no choice but to lie here and listen to to to to ...

Wow, we're really not all that smart, are we? Fumika realized abruptly, after an idea occurred to her just as abruptly. She pulled back, shook her head, then reached down between her legs to make sure she was ready.

"Ah, yes, lick me there! Eeeeyahh! Oh, Negi-kun, you bad bad boy, you -" Fuuka declared, eyes closed.

"Ahhhh!"

Fuuka's eyes shot open as the sounds of flesh slapping against flesh rang through the room. Her neck craned up, and a strangled gasp escaped her mouth as she saw Fumika bouncing up and down on Negi's hips. "What are you doing?!" she cried.

Fumika didn't even bother to look at her. "Well, neechan, when a daddy and a mommy love each other very much -" she started to explain as she worked her hips furiously.

"But you can't do that! Not until I do it! This isn't right! I'm the edgy mischievous one!" Fuuka complained.

"Done it! Done it before you did it! Don't care if it's right or not! The cute nervous one is scoring first! Heeheehee!" she said (not laughed.)

"Gyaah!" Fuuka howled. Not only was she being humiliated by this, it was clearly distracting Negi quite a bit, since he wasn't licking at her all that often anymore. And there she was, her little sister, showing her up, her itty-bitty-titties shaking as she humped up and down, nipples so hard and and and and ...

Wow, I can't believe I'm about to do this, she thought, and proceeded to do it anyway.

"Aaaaaaauuuhhhh?" Fumika's sigh of release turned into a confused grunt as she realized that she was being kissed rather firmly ... and not by Negi. "Uhhhh?!" she grunted again as she stared somewhat cross-eyed at her sister whose tongue was in her mouth and whose hands were on her tits.

So much for not wanting to do that, Negi said, once again mourning the death of standards.

"Whuhhh?" Fumika mumbled loudly. Then she jerked her mouth back from Fuuka's mouth. "No, wait, no -"

"Oh, come now, dearly beloved little sister, you had to know this was going to end up this way," Fuuka cooed as her hands squeezed Fumika's breasts once more, then slid down her sides to wrap around her hips and start squeezing Fumika's buttocks. "It's not a real three-part unless all three parts work together, after all."

"That's not a real saying and stop it!"

"Mmmmnope!" Fuuka gloated, and kissed her again, exploiting Fumika's recoil to push her off of Negi's negi and onto the floor, where she crouched over Fumika's body. "Well, go on, Negi-kun, get back to fucking my cute little sister! Fuck her hard! Fuck her hard then come in her so I can suck your seed out of her and spit it in her mouth!"

"... that's a very detailed plan you have there," Negi said a bit dazedly.

"I've been watching a lot of porn recently!" Fuuka confessed sunnily.

"Get off!"

"I'm trying to get you off, silly!"

"Gyaaaah!" Fumika clarified as Negi, obedient to a girl's instructions as ever, began pounding into her. It occurred to him that he should probably cast a silencing spell to keep from bothering the neighbors ... but his heart just wasn't in it at the moment. Oh well. It couldn't be helped.

Once it became clear to her that no help was coming from Negi's direction, Fumika redirected her attention to her sister. "I hate you, neechan!" she cried as Fuuka rained kisses down her jawline.

"No, you don't," Fuuka cooed. "You love me. And even if it's wrong, you don't care if it's wrong or not. I know you don't ... because we are the same. We have always been the same, with only tiny superficial differences between us. We don't even know if I really am the older one, no matter what mommy and daddy might have said. We are the same, and so I love you, and you love me, and you can't do anything else.

"Isn't that fucking awful?" she asked, grinding her hips into Fumika's hips, their clitorises pressed against each other and wow clitorises is an ugly word for something so pretty.

"Fuck her!" Fuuka yelled over her shoulder at Negi. "Fuck her, then fuck me, fuck us both, fuck us like the fucking fuck fuckers we fucking are, get on with the fuckery, fucking Negi-kun!"

Ah, romance.

"Well well," Tsukuyomi said - with difficulty, since it's hard to talk with the arch of someone's foot on your throat. "Baji and pigua united, I see. Somewhere heroes must be sighing. Alas, I am a villain, and -"

With everything she had, Konoka kept Tsukuyomi pinned to the ground.

The hardest part had been keeping the mercenary's swords in their sheathes long enough for her to strike them out of her grip. If they'd come out, disarming her would have been a much harder and more dangerous affair. It had still been dangerous, since Konoka was well aware that Tsukuyomi had the same mystical connection with her weapons that Setsuna did and so could call them to her hands if they were out of them, and was not even a little bit aware of how far that connection could stretch. But she'd managed to get them far enough away that her mother had been able to snatch them up and take them further, definitely putting them out of Tsukuyomi's 'reach'.

She'd had to rely on her mother to do that. She'd taken advantage of the fact that her mother was in danger. It seemed likely that was contributing to the faint red haze that enshrouded her vision at the moment.

"So are you beat?" Konoka asked.

"It would seem so," Tsukuyomi replied with obvious indifference. "Clearly, I need to work on the unarmed aspects of my style, for next time."

The red haze got denser. "Next time?" Konoka hissed.

"Well, it's not like you're going to kill me. The pretty princess is never going to do that. You think life has value. That makes you so very very weughh." Her eyes bulged out as speech became not difficult, but impossible ... along with breath.

Crouched over her enemy, eyes livid as she held a hand over Tsukuyomi's mouth and nose, Konoka stared down at the woman she was going to kill. It was important to do this. She would not turn away from what she was doing. When the light in the eyes of the other girl - so young, really, for all her bravado and skill - went out forever, Konoka would see it, and acknowledge that this was the deed of her hands and -

"Konoka!"

The fact that the voice wasn't calling out 'oujosama' rendered it somewhat unrecognizable to her, and so she didn't react at once.

"Konoka, stop!"

Even when she did recognize it, she didn't look up. Didn't look in that direction. Didn't want to see the shame and horror that would surely be on that so-loved face. She'd have to eventually. But not now. Not while she was doing this.

And then strong, gentle arms wrapped around her midsection. "Kono-chan."

Not quite against her will, her hands on Tsukuyomi's face and her foot on the girl's throat eased back, and she heard, as from a distance, coughing and choking.

"She'll come back," she heard herself say. "She'll come back, and she'll try to hurt us, and she'll try to hurt our friends, the people we love, my mother, and she only has to win once -"

"- and we have to win each and every single time, you are not saying anything I have not said to myself before. But we are Ala Alba. We thrive on those kinds of challenges, Kono-chan. Every time they try to hurt us, we become stronger, wiser ... heaven help us, we become kinder. I would never be able to love you as I do without her to make me realize just how much our bond means. So we're going to put her in a cell, for a while, and when she gets out and comes after us again, we will beat her again ... and the sad part is, that is the only kind of bond this sick, sad girl can ever have with anyone."

Breathing heavily, Konoka closed her eyes ... and completely by her will, pulled her hand away from Tsukuyomi's face.

"If you start making out on top of me, I'm going to puke," Tsukuyomi rasped.

Her foot was still in position to slam heel-first into the girl's jaw, and she decided that doing so was still consonant with the decision she'd just made.

Fuuka and Fumika were lying on the floor, gasping in near exhaustion, while Negi sat at the table nearby and tried to focus his thoughts on a plan to save Asuna. The distraction from that goal that the twins had presented had been considerable. He had, as Fuuka commanded, fucked Fumika until he came inside of her, then watched as Fuuka, as she'd said she would, sucked the sperm out of her sister and then pushed it into her mouth with her tongue. (He supposed that not spitting it, per se, was a non-differential difference to her plan.) And then she'd had him fuck her and forced Fumika to lick the ejaculate out of her once he was done, then had him do her again while she engaged in tribadism with her sister ... a lot of variety.

Negi supposed that someone who found that sort of thing interesting would have found it all very interesting.

"Admit it," Fuuka said between gasps. "You loved that."

"I only did it because you wanted to," Fumika said without looking at her.

"Tsundere," Fuuka cooed.

"Oh, shut up."

"Hey, Negi-kun," Fuuka said, apparently deciding to give her sister some space. She lifted her head to look at him. "How you doing with the plan?"

"I'm still considering ideas," he answered honestly.

"Well, if you want to bounce them off of us ..." Fuuka said, trying to sound ingratiating.

"Oh, leave him alone, neechan," Fumika said crossly. "All we can do is help him anyway we can when he comes up with something. We're not nearly clever enough to help him do so. And he doesn't have time to waste fooling around with that! It really sucks, Negi-kun! If only you had more time!"

And Negi sat up straight.

"Hey, maybe you're not clever enough, but I'm the one who tricked him into thinking there's a stroll through Death Valley, so I think maybe I could pull it -" Fuuka started to say.

"Say that again?" Negi demanded.

"... okay, there's not really a stroll through Death Valley, and all we do in strolling club is come up with crazy ideas like that, but -" Fuuka replied.

"No, no!" he said sharply. "Fumika? What did you just say?"

"... if only you had more time?" Fumika said, confused by his intensity.

"That's it! I need more time!" Negi shouted, grinning broadly.

Silence fell.

"... I think maybe we broke him, neechan," Fumika said hesitantly.

"Wow! We're awesome!" Fuuka exclaimed, grinning broadly.

To Be Continued.