Still Waters Run Deep: Communication Breakdown
"We're on the Shinkansen again! Weeee!" Konoka said, running through the aisle with her arms out to the sides.
"O-ojou-sama!"
"Konoka! Stop that, it's dangerous!"
"Ahahahaha!"
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It was already the second half of summer vacation, but they were finally on the Shinkansen, heading to Kyoto. Everything had not gone as planned, however. First of all, Takamichi had approached them as they left the dorm and given them a look. The implications were obvious. If they caused any trouble in the search for Akira, they would be on the first train back to Mahora in no time.
"Oh Negi-sensei, if you feel tired, feel free to use my lap as a pillow~" Ayaka said, all but climbing into Negi's seat from across the aisle.
"No fair, Iincho! I was here first!" Makie yelled from the seat behind him as she hung over the back of Negi's seat, arms around his neck possessively..
Negi sighed. And then there was the other problem. Somehow, Iincho-san had found out about their rescue mission to Kyoto and brought along half the class, on the grounds that she could vacation wherever she wanted.
"Quit hanging all over Negi, you shota-con! And you too, Makie, you're almost as bad as Iincho!"
"What?" Ayaka exclaimed. "Odd to hear something like that from you, Asuna! Why don't you go and bother Takahata-sensei?"
"What?"
Yes, all hopes for a peaceful trip had been shattered.
If he had been any younger, Negi might have curled into a ball and cried.
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Motoko and Max walked along the edge of the lake during a rare simultaneous break in training. Akira had made stunning progress since Motoko arrived, and neither one of them really knew what to do about it.
"She has amazing potential," Motoko said after a moment.
"Mm-hmm." They both looked back at where Akira stood knee deep in the waters of the lake.
Akira was building a pillar of water, trying to see, at Max's behest, how tall she could make it. It was currently well over twenty feet tall and only trembling slightly.
Akira lost her concentration for a moment and the whole thing slumped back down into the lake with a small splash. She looked down at the place it had collapsed with mild annoyance…it had taken a lot of effort to make it that high, after all. She settled for making long snakes of water and playing with them instead. Already she had found that more natural, organic forms were easiest; other than that, her repertoire included giant waves, blobs of water that could be thrown like snowballs, and an ability to cram a lot of water together into a very small space, making it dense enough to set rocks and things on without having them sink. This was also how she managed the water blobs, though they were more of a jelly-like consistency.
In any case, she was incredibly curious about what else she could manage, so she kept experimenting. Just this morning, in fact, she had managed to make a very steep wave almost ten feet high. She had been able to send it a good thirty feet inland from the lake, and was delighted.
Max and Motoko stopped walking and stood side by side, watching Akira manipulate the water from the lake. She had discovered that she could by accident several days before when she attempted to playfully splash Max when he had been lecturing her on sword forms. When Max regained consciousness, they had begun experimenting, and the sheer volume of water Akira could move was astounding. Even Motoko made it a point to take a break from training now and then to watch. It wasn't every day you saw a water elemental at play, after all.
"There's no telling what else she can do," Max said to Motoko.
"What do you mean?" the swordswoman asked.
"She can manipulate water to a tremendous degree already, but I'm talking about the more difficult aspects. Actually creating water rather than just manipulating it-" he created a flame above his hand as an example "-or using it in combination with other elements. And then, some elementals can use naturally occurring instances of their element as a transportation medium. For example, wind elementals can sometimes become a gust of wind, moving around at will. While fire elementals like me can't for obvious reasons, I would imagine that water elementals can do the same thing fairly easily. Of course the problem with that is the possibility of losing yourself in the element. It happens occasionally with an intensely gifted elemental without the proper training, from what I hear. They're so at home in the element that they lose their sense of self, and that's that."
Motoko nodded. "It is the same when a swordsman becomes too absorbed in the sword and loses himself. Often they become murderers, seeking only to use their skills, forgetting about everything else that goes along with learning the sword. It is as though they become a different entity."
Max remained silent, watching as Akira playfully chased a bird with a water-snake.
"To be honest, she scares me," Max said after a moment. Motoko looked at him and nodded.
"I know what you mean. She could destroy Kyoto in a day with this level of power, it is quite terrifying." Motoko fixed Max with a stare, which he returned. "If something were to happen, the Shinmeiryuu would be forced to act."
Max looked down at the fierce woman; she was tall for a Japanese person. "That's what the training's for. She's a good kid, she won't hurt anyone intentionally. This training will make sure she doesn't hurt anyone unintentionally either."
Motoko nodded, satisfied. Max seemed to know what he was doing, so there was really nothing for it but to trust him. Akira though…the girl's abilities were mind blowing. Freely manipulating water and molding it like clay? Channeling water with a sword with the same ease as the Shinmeiryuu did with ki? Not too long ago, she might have considered the very thought preposterous, but the world had a way of twisting your beliefs when you weren't paying attention.
'Isn't that the truth,' she thought, recalling a certain boy with glasses back home.
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Arvel stomped into the hotel room, looking even more disgruntled than usual.
"Well hello, beautiful, nice to see you too," Nil deadpanned as the mage slammed the door. He was trying to put together the super-high end machine HQ had sent. It was quite a complicated process, many things had to be changed to work correctly with the local networks and power sources and whatnot. He also had some new parts he wanted to try out before going up against whoever was protecting the Mahora networks…it was quickly becoming a personal challenge to him, and he wanted to give it his best.
"Shut up and die," Arvel growled back at him. He dropped down on the couch next to Marlin and glowered.
Marlin glanced at the younger man. They were all used to Arvel's 'moods', and it was usually simpler just to ignore them until they went away on their own.
"Find anything?"
The mage heaved an irritated sigh and took out a small notebook with a large bullet hole through the center. "They've got snipers, that's what I found out." Marlin took the notebook and looked at the hole thoughtfully.
"Looks like a big bullet," he said.
Nil looked up and gave a whistle. "Put a couple holes in the tail of your badass longcoat too, by the looks of it," he said appreciatively.
"What?" Arvel pulled off the coat and cursed loudly as he examined it. "Do you have any idea how much a coat like this costs? Leather is expensive, you know? HQ had better reimburse me for this," he said.
"Good luck with that," Nil said offhandedly as he popped one metal case shut and opened another. "Better see if you can get that fixed, you don't want to go around looking like a hobo or something," he muttered.
Arvel nodded thoughtfully and exited the room.
The two men waited for the door to shut and the mage's footsteps to disappear, and then burst into laughter.
"'Badass longcoat'? Where did you ever come up with anything so ridiculous?" Marlin asked, laughing for the first time since Nil had arrived in Japan. Nil was glad to see it, the other man had become very morose over the past week or so.
"Read about it on the internet somewhere," he said and grinned. "Anyway, how long do you think Arvel's gonna hang on to that thing? He can't pull off that look at all."
Marlin snorted.
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While their first trip to Kyoto had been rather chaotic, what with the crazy monkey woman and all, the tone of this trip was more subdued. Even Makie and Iincho seemed to have picked up the general vibe by the time they were halfway to Kyoto. A steady rain had sprung up some time ago, and the train car was mostly silent, with over half the class dozing. Once in a while someone muttered something in their sleep, but overall there was little noise other than the train itself.
Negi was thankful for the silence, but couldn't help but feel a little down. Their last trip to Kyoto had been more for fun, this time was much more serious. They would have to rescue a friend and possibly take down a colleague…it was quite stressful for a ten year old. He couldn't understand what would have possessed his friend Max-san to do such a thing, the big American had seemed like a nice guy after one got past his looks. Negi turned around in his seat and looked back at where Takamichi sat, some distance back on the other row. The older man was always so calm and cool, Negi wished he could be like that some day.
*bonk*
"Owww!" Negi whined, looking up at Asuna with tear filled eyes as he rubbed his head.
"You worry too much, Negi," Asuna said, ruffling his hair.
"Awawa," he replied as he rubbed the spot where Asuna's fist had connected with his head.
"Don't worry about it. We'll find Max-sensei and take back Akira-chan, and then everything will be back to normal, you'll see," the red head said, her tone decidedly upbeat.
Negi looked at the girl worriedly. He knew she had been as hurt and confused as he had when Max took Akira away; the two had become fairly close before the incident, and Asuna had felt like it was a betrayal.
"Mm-hmm!" Konoka said as she leaned over the seat back in front of him and smiled. She had taken the whole incident much better than Asuna had, but whether that was due to dislike of Max-san or something else, Negi didn't know.
"She is a fellow classmate, it is our duty," Setsuna spoke up from her place beside Konoka. He could only see the top of her head above the back of her seat.
"Nin, Nin!" Kaede said from across the aisle, on the other side of Iincho's sleeping, drooling form.
The others nodded.
Negi looked around at his students and friends and felt an absurd feeling of pride; he stood up, clutching one hand into a determined fist. "All right, thank you Asuna-san, everyone! Let's go to Kyoto!"
"…we're already here, the train pulled into the station three minutes ago. Please take your belongings and get off the train, please," a rather frazzled looking attendant said.
"Eh heh…heh."
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The students departed from the train in a wild flood of teenage girl; the excitement in the air was almost palpable. Negi gently detached himself from Makie and Iincho and straightened his suit as he looked around. The sun was shining brightly, it seemed that the rainstorm the train had passed through earlier had missed this area of Kyoto, at least.
"Wah! Kyotoooo!"
"I want to see the Kiyomizu Temple!" someone squealed.
"We saw that the last time."
"Haha, I bet Yuuna will jump off the Kiyomizu Stage this time!"
"No way!" Yuuna said.
Ayaka saw her chance as the others were distracted and quickly approached her teacher. "Negi-sensei, come with me to get our love fortunes!"
"I'm sorry, Iincho-san. I don't have time to play, I have business to attend to today," Negi said, looking apologetic. The resultant look on Ayaka's face was positively heartbroken. "Ah, don't worry! I'll have time to play before we leave!" Negi explained, trying to reassure the girl.
"But Negi-sensei, I've been planning—"
"Sorry Iincho, no time," Asuna said as she cut in and took Negi's hand. "Negi has somewhere to be, see you later!"
Ayaka was left among the milling tourists on the train platform, wondering what had just happened.
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When they finally lost all their pursuers, Negi stopped the group, which had quickly increased in size as the others slipped away from their classmates to join Negi.
"Wait, everyone. Master gave me something for all of you before we left, she said I should give them to everyone once we got to Kyoto," Negi explained when they had all gathered together in a handy alleyway. He pulled out a small bag and emptied the contents into his hand and held them out so everyone could see.
"Go ahead, there's one for everyone."
Konoka picked one up. "Oooh, it's like a white wing. How cute!" Setsuna's face turned red at that.
"So what's this for, Negi?" Asuna asked as she inspected hers.
"Master said that these are a symbol of your place in the group. The words on it, Ala Alba, mean 'White Wing', in reference to my father's group, Ala Rubra, or 'Crimson Wing'."
"W-white wing…" Setsuna muttered.
"Cool."
"Here, Secchan, let me help you," Konoka said as she grabbed the spluttering Setsuna and tried to pin the badge on her shirt.
Soon enough the badges were all handed out and Negi decided that that was enough foolishness for now.
"Anyway, let's go to Konoka-san's home, we don't have any time to waste," Negi said with determination. "It's time to figure out where Max-san took Akira-san!"
Author's Notes: Yeah, not much happened in this chapter, sorry about that. We're getting closer to the climax!
Shinkansen = The train everyone rode when they were on the Kyoto Class Trip.