Hello again everyone. Another chapter coming right up. Truth be told, this one finished a bit early, but I decided to go through a few times just to make sure and to start on something that's supposed to be next week's chapter. Hell, it may not even come out next week cos it just might finish early too. I'm sure you all know what is coming next. And guys and gals, just so you know, feedback time on the "kicking Gamiya out of his room" idea will end the moment chapter 22 comes out.

I do not own Negima nor Ragnarok Online.

Thoughts in italics.

Memories in bold.

Rainy Days

Gamiya yawned as he took a seat at the Dean's desk. The old man himself looked quite calm and serene behind his desk but his eyes looked a bit troubled. The high priest wondered what could have happened to trouble him. In addition to that, he was called in at night.

"Does this old man even sleep or doesn't he?" he wondered in his mind.

"Kotarou Inugami has escaped from the Kansai Magic Association, Iroi-sensei," Konoemon stated, "Based on what Eishun said about him and his behavior, I would assume the boy would try and come here to try and have another fighting match with Negi-kun."

"So, is it safe to say you would want me to let you know if that happens?" the assistant teacher assumed aloud.

The Dean nodded. "Yes, that would be the case," he surmised, "I would also like to let you know in advance that young Kotarou is half youkai or hanyou. Of course, in your words, it would mean he is half demon. Just to let you know in case you somehow get too overzealous in trying to prevent the fight or try to referee it. I do not condone or condemn such things, being is that they are still young boys, but I also believe in err-ing on the side of caution."

"All right… all right… I get the picture… I'm not one of your students that you need to lecture… geez…" Gamiya groaned.

"That will be all, Iroi-sensei. Good night to you."

The next day, Gamiya was somewhat on time. It began occurring to him that there was something weird going on with Negi. The kid seemed to be extremely tired in the morning, whereas previously he was quite energetic. His was of conducting class also seemed to take a dive with him being half asleep in most of his lessons.

"What the hell is going on here? Normally the kid isn't like this," the high priest thought as he followed Negi out of class 3A when the English lesson ended, "Come to think of it… he started being this way after he started evening classes with that vampire… But surely even if the girl was tough on him, a good night's sleep should have refreshed him enough… I think I should look into this."

He decided he was going to follow the kid to the vampire's cottage and see what kind of tough training the dark mage was putting the kid through… right after his nap in the infirmary, of course.

After enjoying a restful reprise, he then tried searching for Negi. Bad news was he couldn't find him as he had no idea where he was. He also didn't want to go to the vampire's cottage in case they weren't there. The good news, though he didn't know it, was that he found a group of girls at a corner of the road.

"Hey, come on now!" one of them complained, "We can't tail him like this!"

"Tail who exactly?" he asked, surprising all of them and even frightening a few.

"Damn it sensei! You should stop doing that!" complained Asuna.

"Oh really?" he said drolly. Just then, he felt a few watery drops land on his head.

"Ah, it's raining…" said Nodoka, her hands facing up as if to catch the rain drops.

"Never mind that! Evangeline-san and Negi-kun is getting further away!" Kazumi exclaimed as she looked round the corner, immediately reminding the girls why they crowded around there in the first place.

Hearing that, the high priest smiled. Something was finally looking up.

"Oh, they're both going into Eva-chan's house," said Konoka. All of them were hiding in the bushes, observing what the vampire and the kid were doing.

"Are they going indoors because of the rain?" asked Yue to no one in particular.

"No way… if they went off inside that enclosed space…" started Asuna.

"It must be the top secret 'that'…" hinted Asakura.

"Would you cut that out? Jeez…" retorted the bell girl with a blush.

"Never expected you to hate erotica," teased the reporter.

Deciding that listening to all this banter was detracting, Gamiya immediately teleported to the front door and peered through the windows beside it. Everything inside was pretty much the way it was the last time he was there. Turning to his side, he noticed the door open and he could hear the girls talking inside.

"What…" he thought in disbelief, "That was fast…"

Walking inside, he wondered if they found the two yet. "Perhaps now we can find out why the kid was so drained the past few days…" he thought as he wondered where the girls were. They didn't seem to be on the ground floor.

"Ah sensei!" exclaimed Nodoka. The librarian girl seemed to appear from a door he didn't seem to notice before. "Down here, there's something in the basement. I have to let the others know," she said as she quickly went upstairs.

"Oh really?" he said to no one in particular. He quickly went downstairs and was astounded by the amount of dolls in the basement. Some smaller ones, the size of Chachazero, were on display shelves that were all against the walls. Larger dolls, most of them the size of Chachamaru, were all on display standing upright.

"What… is this why they call her the Doll Master? Now I have no idea if the title is an insult or some sort of praise…" he thought, dumbfounded as he looked at the dolls. He saw an open door on the side and he went in to find Yue, Konoka and Setsuna standing around what seemed to be a huge glass container that had some sort of structure inside of it. On the container were the words 'Evangeline's Resort'.

The high priest was, for lack of better terms, speechless as he stood in front of the glass container. Soon after, the rest of the girls showed up.

"What is this?" asked Asuna.

"What do you think it is?" asked Yue in return.

"Some kind of building… a miniature tower? Like a ship in a bottle, almost…" wondered Konoka aloud.

"It's too small to be a miniature. A hologram?" asked Kazumi.

"Just now, it seems that Nodoka saw Negi-sensei walking around inside," revealed the braided girl.

"What! What does that mean?" asked Asuna, a lot more confused.

"I said, there was a little Negi-sensei walking inside the tower," Yue said once again.

The bell girl fell silent and continued to stare at the container. Gamiya shrugged and decided to walk out, seeing that nobody else was here.

"Probably they went somewhere else. Maybe there is some secret compartment somewhere in the doll room there," he thought as he turned around to leave the room. Before he could step past the door however, he heard Asuna exclaim something.

"Where did you all go!" she exclaimed in concern.

He stopped dead in his tracks and quickly turned round in surprise. The bell girl was the only girl left in the room. She started stepping backwards and before Gamiya's own eyes, a magic circle appeared under her feet and she instantly disappeared. The high priest blinked once. He rubbed his eyes. He blinked again. He then felt suspicious and wondered if he should go after them.

"You know, this is probably going to lead us all to the kid and that vampire," he muttered to himself as he stepped on the circle. It appeared and he felt himself being pulled somewhere. It was a familiar feeling, similar to travelling in a Warp Portal. He reappeared on a platform that faced the tower he saw in the basement room.

"Well now, I guess this answers 'Where did the kid go?' eh?" he wondered aloud. He then took a leisurely stroll down the bridge, wondering what Evangeline would say to his presence here. As he reached the huge courtyard that was supposed to be the top of the tower, he thought he saw Ku Fei disappearing down into the shelter ahead of him. He quickly ran to it and found a set of stairs.

"Hey! What are you doing to that kid!" shouted someone that sounded like Asuna.

The high priest quickly raced down and found everyone downstairs. Asuna had her giant fan out and the vampire seemed to have her fangs clamped on Negi's forearm. She was sitting next to seated Negi while everyone else was standing before them.

"What do you people want?" Evangeline asked as she stopped her feeding. She looked annoyed.

"What do you mean 'what', what are you doing?" confronted the bell girl.

"He's just letting me suck his blood as payment for his lessons… like a blood donation's worth," explained the Doll Master, "I can't give training if my magic isn't replenished, you know…"

"That's what I thought what was happening to begin with!" exclaimed the bell girl with a huge blush on her face.

"Just what were you thinking," Evangeline asked drolly.

"She thought you were sucking a ten year old, you old cougar," the high priest suddenly said, immediately silencing everyone in shock. All the girls that were in the tailing party had faces as red as a tomato. Negi… just sat there confused and tired, not understanding what was happening.

Evangeline was shaking furiously now, her face just as red. She them said haltingly, "Will… you… stop… calling… me… STUPID NICK NAMES!"

She flew at him, her hands and nails aiming for his neck. He quickly reacted by striking the back of her head with his gloved fist, sending her face first to the floor.

"Seriously," he said as he flexed his right hand, "You really expect to get the drop on someone who is always ready for a fight? Especially since you seem quite emotional and plus, if I'm not mistaken, low on magical energy right now shorty."

"Damn you, bastard," she muttered, still face first on the floor.

"This is the 'Villa' I constructed," Evangeline started to explain after having recovered from her humiliating ordeal. "I haven't used it in a while though. I dug it out for the boy's training," she continued.

"Wow, you must be an awesome mage to make something like this-aru," praised Ku Fei in admiration.

"Really…," muttered the vampire, not really believing the martial artist. "I guess since you folks came barging in I might as well make one thing clear," she started to explain again, "This villa is only usable in one day units, so you people will not be able to get out for one full day."

The girls started to complain. "Will you girls can it? Let the pipsqueak finish first," reprimanded Gamiya.

The vampire's hands were trembling slightly. Not only were the girls being noisy but also the assistant teacher had inadvertently insulted her again. After clearing her throat, she continued, "Do you remember in the Japanese legend of Urashima Tarou, the castle called the Palace of the Dragon King? This is the exact opposite of that. Even if you spend one whole day here, only an hour passes outside. Using this, the boy has another full day of training within every day."

While the girls were amazed by this, the high priest asked with disbelief, "So, your training compounded by the loss of blood the kid endures every day makes him so sleepy in the morning he staggers around like a drunkard? Are you nuts, McDowell?"

"How do you expect me to make progress with the boy with only one hour of training? You're the one who's nuts if you think that's possible, you idiot," she retorted back.

"Negi, you're pushing yourself too hard again…" said Asuna, looking concerned.

"I'm all right, Asuna-san," assured the kid, "And besides, if something like the school trip happens again, we'd all be in trouble, so I can't lose heart in doing what I have to do to become stronger."

"Sure that's all good, but overworking yourself like that isn't too healthy," he thought as he went upstairs, "Looks like I'll have to help carry him until he can get used to the new schedule…"

So while everyone moved upstairs, Gamiya went downstairs to explore the library the Evangeline had in her resort. What he was looking for specifically were reagents that he could use for a few of his spells. He primarily used blue gemstones and he wondered if this world had something similar here. Sad to say, he found some tomes detailing ridiculous stuff like dragon body parts and sulphurous ash and other oddities. It made his head spin.

"Lord, have mercy on me… Do I really need to trawl around for a proper book down here?" he thought to himself as he put down yet another book, this time talking about mandrake root. Then, he heard a commotion coming from upstairs. He got up and made his way up the flight of stairs, only to find Ku Fei getting chased around by Kazumi and Yue.

"Hey, Asakura, Ayase, what's going on?" he asked.

"She tried to cheat!" accused the reporter, still chasing after the martial artist.

"Ah, it was only a little gag-aru!" the one being chased shouted back.

"All of us were trying to cast some beginner spells, starter wands provided by Eva-san, when Ku Fei tried to fool around with a lighter," said Yue, having stopped chasing the girl to explain the situation.

The high priest scratched his head, wondering what got into them all of a sudden. Then he shrugged and went back downstairs, ignoring the rest.

"Yue-chi! Yue-chi! There's something fun going on here!"

With a slight groan, Gamiya got up. It was in the middle of the night inside Evangeline's villa and change of time or not, there had better be a good reason for him waking up. Quietly, he followed the girls and found the vampire, Chachazero and Nodoko pouring over a book.

"What's going on, girls?" he asked after a yawn.

The vampire shushed him, the only one who was aware of him right now, and said, "Quiet, we are looking at Negi's memories using Nodoka's artifact."

"Is that so?" he asked, curiosity piqued. He then leaned over and looked at the book. The pictures were… awful… but at least the book showed a running narrator underneath. The high priest looked on as he watched a very young and mischievous Negi misbehave somewhat. He almost burst out laughing when the kid suddenly jumped into a lake. Then, he softened when the book worded out the kid's excuse to his sister.

"Because I think if I get into trouble, my father will come and help me…" said the sickly boy.

"The kid really wanted to meet his father," he thought as he continued to read the words that came out.

As the story continued, his face became grim as the book detailed a demon attack on the town Negi and his sister lived in. He clenched his fists with seething anger when he read about finding the petrified villagers and mages, and he wanted so much to jump in and deal out some righteous fury to all the demons that were summoned. He only relaxed just a bit when the kid's father came in to save the day and pounded the summoned demons to dust. He remained that way while reading the rest of the story, while entertaining a niggling thought at the back of his mind.

"Just who was it that sent all those demons in the first place?" the high priest wondered. So far the only hint of the 'who' were the assumptions of the mage Stan.

"… But the lesser demons that were summoned here were too strong and too many," said the petrifying old man, "Our enemy is not any ordinary spell caster. The whole village gathered together… originally we would not lose to even a battalion of soldiers… or that's how it should have been…"

When the book went to detail the kid's father talking to him, Gamiya got up and walked back to the sleeping area. He had a feeling there would be such a commotion after the memory viewing was done that he probably wouldn't get any sleep. So he took his reluctantly loaned futon and went to sleep in the library.

The high priest was still fast asleep when he felt something raining on his face. It didn't feel like a drowning sensation that he felt from the last time Sister Shakti woke him up with a basin of water. This time, if felt like a slight drizzle. Like a light shower that sometimes fall on the Pronteran fields. He could hear something calling him too, calling him by name. He was reaching out to something in front of him when the voice suddenly became loud and clear.

"Iroi-sensei, please wake up," said a lady-like monotone voice.

He opened his eyes and saw Chachamaru looking over him while flicking her wet fingers over him, which explained the drizzling sensation he felt. He groaned as he slowly got up. Even at the villa, he didn't like getting up in the morning.

"Sensei, Master and the others had left an hour ago," she informed him.

He stretched and cracked his joints, loosening them up. "Thanks a lot, Cat. Will the others have left already if we went out now?"

"Fifty percent chance they would have, not taking in the weather patterns. It is raining now, sensei," she stated.

"I see. All right, lead the way Cat. Let's get outta here," he replied with a grin on his face.

Gamiya had stepped on the circle a few seconds after Chachamaru had gone. When he appeared outside the Villa, he suddenly detected two distinct demonic presences. He couldn't tell where they were right now, but it one of them felt stronger than the one's Setsuna, Mana and the other girl was projecting. The other one was almost at their level and he guessed that this was the one called Kotarou Inugami the old man told him about. He didn't know why they were here, but he felt that he should go and investigate and determine if they meant harm. Well, the stronger presence at least. He would have to trust this Inugami not to make too much trouble while he looked into the other one. He quickly made his way upstairs.

"What is it, Master?" asked the gynoid.

"Nothing… was that just me or…" Evangeline replied, slightly muttering the last part.

"You felt it too?" asked the high priest, concern slipping into his voice.

"So… it wasn't just me. Do you want to deal with it?" she asked. "Truth be told, I want to see how the boy will deal with this. I want to see how much progress he made with my training," the vampire continued to elaborate.

"Hmm, true… but there are two presences here," he started.

"I know the lesser one. That would be the dog boy from Kyoto," she said, inadvertently confirming his suspicions, "It's the other one which I was referring to."

"I'm more concerned about whether it means harm or not," he finally said, "I think I'll go back and get something just in case.

"Hmph, fine… Meet me near the World Tree later," she grumbled.