Mahou Sensei Anya

by Sereg5

If Anya was assigned to be the teacher in Japan and Negi, the fortune teller in London, how would their lives and those of class A have been different?

21. Meetings

A/N: 1. I LIVE! Sorry about the delay. I've been really busy. You're going to have to get used to longer periods of time between chapters. Thank you all for all the new support. By the way though, one of you who sent me a PM has PMs turned off. You see how this might be a problem when I want to respond? Also, I think that I should announce that faving a story doesn't mean that you'll be alerted about updates unless you ask for story alert as well. I had to discover that the hard way myself and as I have several faves who aren't alerts...just thought that I should warn you.

2. This chapter includes two scenes not originally written by me. I'll point them out at the bottom.

"I can't believe that you made a pactio without letting me witness it!" Chamo complained. "I thought that we were friends!"

"There were more pressing issues than your need to watch me kiss other girls." sighed Anya as she headed for the Tatsumiya shrine. "You are going to duplicate the card, right? I don't know how and we were busy last night."

"Yes, I know my duty." Chamo sighed melodramatically. "Even if my aneki takes away one of the perks of that duty." They walked into the shrine, searching for someone they recognised, they soon found one of her students sweeping the floor in a miko uniform.

"Ah, Midori!" Anya called to her. Midori turned around to face them with a wide-eyed expression.

"Midori, could you tell us where your aunt Mana is?"

Midori smiled and nodded before miming taking a bite, rubbing her stomach and raising her eyebrows.

"No thank you, we've just eaten, but thanks for the offer." replied Anya who was used to Midori's more common gestures by now, even if she needed to get Barahime or Hikari to translate most of the time. She had found it weird that Mana had a mute niece only two years younger than her, but Kazumi had informed her that Mana apparently had a large family that for some reason was incredibly difficult to get information on. Plus she was grateful for all the gifts that the girl gave her. Midori smiled and nodded before indicating that Anya should follow her. She quickly led them to Mana who was also sweeping.

"Anya-sensei?" Mana asked. "Did you want to speak to me?"

"Yes." replied Anya. "About last night's 'plumbing accident'." Konoemon had already made Mana's explanation to Sakurako the official one.

"We need to speak privately, Midori-chan." Mana ordered her niece. Midori smiled and bowed, leaving them alone. Mana turned back to Anya. "I'm glad that you wanted to speak to me as I need to speak to you as well."

"Oh?" asked Anya. "I brought Chamo to duplicate the card. I also never got to ask you about your magister last night or if you wanted to start training with us now that you're one of my partners." Mana pulled out her card and handed it to Chamo.

"Of course. I have no objection to you having a copy of my card. I know that as my magistra, you're entitled to it." Chamo frowned as he looked at the card.

"This says that your family name is 'Arcana', not 'Tatsumiya'!" he exclaimed.

"What!-?" asked Anya.

"Pactio cards are named according to what the owner believes their name is." Chamo elaborated.

"Why do you think that your name is 'Arcana Mana'?" Mana scowled.

"It's a long story." she replied.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't delve into my family. Not even Midori-chan. She's naïve, but I'd prefer it if she didn't turn out like my sisters or myself.

Therefore, please don't discuss magic or related phenomena with her. That's actually what I wanted to discuss with you. Unlike her, I don't do things for free. I had a special interest both times that I helped you, but I'm a mercenary.

I made a pactio with you out of necessity and I would not have done so if there was another option. You have several other partners already, so I will not aid you in normal circumstances.

I know my duty as your partner. I will take a lethal attack in your place, but I already failed in that function once before and I'm not eager for the duty again. I already have duties to others that pay well, so I will not neglect them. For anything other than defending your life, I will not be available. Do you understand?"

"I…think so." replied Anya with widened eyes.

"Good." said Mana. "Is there anything else?"

"N-no." replied Anya. "I think you covered everything."

"Then finish making the duplicate. I have work to get back to." Mana said.

/

"Well, that sorts out most of the business of the events of last night." finished Konoemon. "But I believe that the reason that you brought Yue-chan with you was because she wished to speak to me about it. Is that true, Anya-chan?"

"That's right." said Anya.

"Well, Yue-chan. What do you have to say?" asked Konoemon.

"Well, Principal-sensei, Kotaro-kun is on our side now, right?" Yue asked.

"It seems that way, yes." Konoemon replied.

"Well, surely that means that other former enemies of ours could also join us?" asked Yue. "Maybe, if they were given the chance to see why it's better to work together, they'd be willing, just like Kotaro-kun was." Konoemon shifted in his seat behind his desk.

"It would be beneficial if lasting peace could be forged between former enemies." he responded. "But some are unlikely to cooperate with us in a way that all are happy with. Some have too much hate or are unwilling to compromise on certain issues or are unwilling to stop acting in a way that others find repugnant."

Yue remembered what she read in her artifact in her attempt to help in the fight against Tsukuyomi and shuddered.

"I realise that, Principal-sensei, but surely we should at least try to see if we can reform them before just giving up? Wouldn't you rather have them on our side?"

"I would, but Kotaro-kun joined you of his own accord and aided you against Amagasaki-san and the slimes to prove his new allegiance to you. The others haven't done anything like that."

"That's true and I'm grateful that Kotaro-kun did that, but maybe Amagasaki-san and the slimes will agree to help us in the future if we give them a chance. If we put in some effort from our side, maybe they'll decide to follow Kotaro-kun's example." Yue countered. "Besides, from what I hear, Amagasaki-san developed her antagonism with the West based on her experiences as a child and the slimes were imprisoned in a bottle for years after doing being summoned. If we can help them get beyond their pasts, maybe they can become good people…and slimes."

"And you think that you could do this?" asked Konoemon.

"I'd like to try." replied Yue.

"I'll have to discuss this with you some more and arrange for a safe method of trying this before allowing you to try." Konoemon said. "They have endangered a teacher and multiple students of this school including my granddaughter, but I'm not completely unwilling. If Amagasaki Chigusa sees the light, that would benefit our relationship with the Kansai Magic Association."

/

"Dangit, even that stupid bottle was more comfortable than this." Suramui grumbled as she pounded her glutinous fist against the thick glass wall of the cell, "At least it had some style. This glass cube thing is just boring." She turned around as she heard a quiet mumbling come from behind her. "What did you say?"

"I don't think it's all that bad." Purin said.

"I actually think it's a rather nice change of scenery." Ameko said, "The bottle wasn't that nice, and after being in there for years, I'm rather glad that they put us somewhere else."

"Are you two serious!-?" Suramui said. Her foot made a dull squish as she stomped it for emphasis. "This sucks! We finally escaped from the bottle and you went and got us captured on our first job!"

"We're just a little rusty." Ameko said, "After being sealed in that bottle for so long, it's only natural that we'd have trouble adjusting to the-"

"Oh shut up." Suramui flailed her gelatinous arms in frustration, "That's why we got an easy job! All we had to do was capture some mundanes and beginner mages and you two screwed it up!"

"We didn't know that they would be able to use the sealing bottle..." Purin mumbled, "You said that they wouldn't be able to-"

"I had plans! I had shows that I wanted to catch up on! I had like six seasons of The Simpsons that I was going to watch! And you got us stuck in the bottle again!"

"You were the one who lost the bottle and let that dog boy get a hold of it." Ameko replied without even bothering to look at her sister, "Besides, I've heard that that show isn't as good as it used to be."

"I was going to be the judge of that myself, dammit! Now we have to figure out a way to get out of here before-"

"Will you please SHUT UP!-?"

Suramui ceased ranting long enough to turn around and see Chigusa sitting in the corner of a more conventional cell on the other side of the room.

"Oh, hey! You're awake!" Suramui scampered over to the wall of her glass enclosure. Her voice was muffled a bit by the glass, but apparently not by too much.

"No thanks to you." Chigusa grumbled. "By the way, we never really spoke much to each other in the short time we worked together. So, what are they charging you for anyway?"

"Aiding a known hostile akuma, kidnapping, reckless endangerment, selling counterfeit consumer goods, stuff like that. What about you?"

"Besides the other night's events? Kidnapping the daughter of the Kyoto Magic Association and

using her to unseal an ancient kishin lord."

"Wow, you pulled that off and still got caught?"

"Yes, right as I was on the verge of victory...well, you've heard of Evangeline, right?"

"The-the undying mage?" Purin stuttered, "What about her?"

"She showed up out of freaking nowhere just as I was about to win!" Chigusa said as she crossed her arms, "I got cheated! My enemy was supposed to be that little red-haired girl. It's not fair, calling in a ringer like that."

"A red haired girl?" Ameko's ears perked up, "So, was she the mage who teaches a middle school class that you wanted to fight?"

"Yeah, actually. I don't go picking fights with little girls without good reason. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know if you noticed in the battle, but we got sealed by that same girl. We were just going to help an old buddy kidnap some of her students, but you wanted to fight." Ameko said, "Turned out she got our old sealing bottle from someplace and we got stuck again. I guess she turned us over to the principal and that's how we ended up here."

"I suppose we have a common enemy, then." Chigusa said. She stared pensively at the wall of her cell. "Perhaps if we ever get out of here-"

"Let's get her!" Suramui bellowed. Or rather attempted to bellow, as her voice wasn't all that loud.

"Maybe if we ever get out of here, I'll take you up on that offer." Chigusa said, "I wouldn't mind getting a third chance at taking her out."

"It's a deal!" Suramui gave Chigusa a gooey thumbs up. "If we ever escape, we'll team up again and this time we'll take her out!"

"Fine, whatever. I don't suppose you have any idea of how we could-"

Chigusa stopped as a loud screech sounded from the top of the stairwell leading down into the dungeon. It was quite a distinctive sound, and she had to listen to it every time someone brought her food. Somebody really needed to oil the hinges on that door. She had no idea who it could be, though. It wasn't time for lunch yet...

"Well well well, how is everyone doing?"

She groaned as she recognized the two figures descending the stairs. One of them was the old man who was responsible for siccing Evangeline on her. The other was that short girl with the enormous forehead; one of Anya's students.

"Hey, it's that old guy who let us out of the bottle!" Suramui said as she squished face against the glass. "I don't suppose you can get us out of here?"

"Unfortunately, not at the moment." He said as he shook his eggplant-shaped head, "That's a bit too much of a risk."

"Is that one of the girls we kidnapped?" Ameko asked, finally getting up and approaching the edge of the glass enclosure. "What's she doing down here?"

"She requested a meeting with you. It seems that she wants a chance to work together with you."

"Work together with us?" Chigusa said incredulously. "Why on Earth would you want to do that?"

"I don't entirely understand her reasoning myself." Konoemon said with a shrug. "But she makes some good points. I'll let her explain her reasoning herself."

"Well, I do not believe in wasting potential..." Yue began. "I believe that you are rather skilled in a variety of magic that none of our team is proficient in. I see no reason to leave all of you languishing down here when we could be accomplishing something."

"What do we get out of it?" Suramui asked. "After you guys screwed us up, we're not just going to just help you unless there's something in it for us!"

"Depending on your behaviour and willingness to cooperate, we may be able commute your sentences." Konoemon said. "Or at the very least, move you to more comfortable accommodations."

"That's it!-?" Suramui grumbled, "Forget it. You want my help, I want an ice cream machine and a tv, with cable, in here by tonight!"

"You realize that they don't actually need our help with anything, right?" Ameko grabbed her sister and hauled her away from the edge of the cage. "We're in no position to make demands."

"We should at least consider the offer." Purin said. "I mean, we could at least get a nicer cell..."

The slime girls retreated into the far corner of their cell, where they began to hold a low, mumbled argument.

"It appears that you are having trouble making up your minds." Konoemon said. "We'll give you a day or so to consider the offer."

"I'll think about it." Chigusa snorted.

"Good. Dinner will be in an hour or so."

He turned and began to walk up the stairs, Yue following reluctantly behind him. The door squawked again as they closed it behind them.

/

Negi Springfield was really, really happy.

He hadn't seen his dear friend Anya Cocolova ever since she was sent to teach English at Japan's Mahora Academy. He hadn't been sure the fiery, short tempered Anya would do well as a teacher but now he was relieved to see that apparently she was very, very loved by her students. Very.

Anya cleared her throat before talking again, a bit embarrassed and a bit angry herself. "Ahem. Well, I suppose that explains it, then. Sorry about all that. Your arrival kinda scared the girls. They aren't used to boys accidentally landing at the bath".

Negi laughed it off, not minding his black eye or the bandages around his head. "Ha, hah, I don't care. It was my own fault".

"I guess so" Anya quickly complied. "Anyway, this is my... roommate and pactio partner, Hasegawa Chisame" she pointed to the scowling older girl with glasses sitting next to her.

"Chisame, this is Negi Springfield, the classmate I told you about".

Chisame barely acknowledged him with a bow of her head. "Yes" she deadpaned. "She has talked a lot, a lot about you".

Negi felt it was almost as if this girl didn't like him at all. Then the words Anya had just uttered hit him like a runaway truck. "Pleased to meet you... your pactio partner!-?".

Anya blushed deep crimson. "A ton of things happened!" she sputtered. "I've had to fight a lot, and I needed pactio partners, and your stupid ermine friend came here and has been busy ever since!". Honestly, the way Chamo liked seeing her kissing other girls was simply worrying.

"I see," Negi blinked. "So, how many—".

"Me, the three librarians, a ninja, the class reporter, a ghost and a shrine maiden," Chisame quickly replied.

Negi's eyes widened as his face paled and his jaw dropped.

"So, um, how's your fortune telling in London doing?" the short redhead changed the subject as

fast as she could.

"Oh, err, it has been okay," Negi struggled to speak. "Nothing as interesting as your adventures here, but that may be about to change".

"Why's that?" Anya asked. Chisame noticed her subtle growth in concern.

Negi grew serious. "I'm going into the Magical World next month. That's why I came here. To say goodbye. I don't know how long will I be there. But I must go. I found some clues about my father's whereabouts".

Much to Chisame's shock, Anya stood up immediately. "I'll go with you!".

He backed away in a second. "N-No, you don't need to! You have your own duties here!".

"We have a month-long vacation starting on the eleventh of July!" Anya said. "I'm free for that time! If I go with you, I'm sure we'll find your Dad very quickly! Is waiting just a bit longer really such a problem?".

"Are you really sure?" he asked.

"Hah!" his old friend laughed. "Of course! I've become very, very powerful since I arrived here! You won't believe who's been training me! Seriously, Chiu, we can't let this guy to do anything by himself. He's always been a whiner and a loser. When we were at—".

Negi stood up as well, his visage shifting to a frown. "Thank you. But I don't think I need the help".

He started to walk for the door, making Anya dart forward in a beeline for his right arm. "Wait, you idiot! I was just joking! Look, I'm sorry. Fine? I know how much your Dad means to you. I just... want to help. Honestly. Let me go with you".

He hesitated. When he thought about it, what Anya said made sense. It was far more in line with the caution that his sister had advised and his sister had never led him astray before. Besides, he really did want to spend more time with Anya. There was a reason that he had planned to see her even before deciding to go to the magical world. He thought back to those original plans before softening his expression and smiling again. "Thank you very much, Anya".

Chisame sighed.

"Then it's decided!" Anya took charge once more. "In the meanwhile, you can stay at our room!".

Chisame did a wild take. "What?".

Her young female teacher looked back at her. "He'll sleep at the couch, Chiu. I promise he won't be a bother. You already got over your sleepwalking habits, didn't you, Negi?".

"Well, I, um... ehh...".

Anya patted him on a shoulder. "No worries! We'll just tie you down to the couch then!".

He smiled nervously. "Surely the difference between a couch and a bed would make it more difficult for me to sleepwalk, making that unnecessary." Any lowered her eyelids and stared at him.

"Has that ever helped before?"

"Er...no...but..."

"Don't worry! We'll use scarves instead of rope. You'll still be comfortable!"

"I...guess that you've really worked this out thoroughly."

"Of course! I've planned for everything!"

"...Well thought, Anya!". His nervous smile shifted, but only to become even more awkward.

Hasegawa stared in disbelief. She didn't like the shape that this was taking at all.

"Is Ako-chan still there, or can we come in now?" asked a girl with long brown hair as she peeked in.

"Yes Konoka, you can come in." sighed Anya.

"Good!" said Konoka as she walked in. "I can heal you!"

She was immediately followed by a scowling girl with a long, black side ponytail and a fairly flat chest. He remembered that she had a sword her came the redhead with pigtails that he had crashed into earlier. He wondered how that had happened. He thought back to the events leading to him being in the nurse's office.

/

He had taken the train from the airport and been amazed at the number of women on campus when he arrived. Not knowing where Anya would be, he darted out of sight and drew a magic circle in chalk before muttering, "Quaero puellam investiga. Ad suam semitam mihi ostendo. Dic mihi, quo suam quaerere indigeo. Reperi.".

It was much easier to track someone that he knew as well as Anya, especially now that he was more powerful and that she was a much shorter distance away than Amelia had been. He got onto his staff and flew towards the area where he sensed Anya's presence, switching direction for a while whenever he sensed that someone was about to spot him. He eventually arrived at a large building. Anya was clearly inside. "Lapides murorum dicebat in voluntatem sua. Solum cognoscebat muros quae stabat supra id. Centrum cavum inventum erit. Facito chartam labyrinthi." he muttered, pressing his hand against a wall.

He now knew the location of all the walls, doors and windows and Anya's position within them. He flew into the building, up the stairs and along the corridor. There didn't seem to be anyone in sight and he smiled to himself as he concentrated on Anya's location. She appeared to be behind the door in front of him. He was just about to slow down, when the door flew open and a girl with red pigtails wearing a towel walked out. Why hadn't he detected her? In his shock, he crashed into her and the two of them tumbled through the door and into his least favourite place in the world. A bath. He had landed with his face pressed against Anya's bare chest and the air was suddenly filled with the screams of girls.

"Pervert!" yelled the girl that he had crashed into as she punched him in the eye, sending him flying through the air.

Another girl had pulled out a sword and cried, "You won't harm Ojou-sama or Anya-sensei with me around, foul voyeur!" Negi's eyes had widened and he began to crawl back before being kicked in the head by a short girl with pink pigtails.

"Kaede-nee-chan!" he heard her say as he'd struggled to maintain consciousness, "I got the pervert!" When he had come round again, he was in the nurse's office with Anya, Chisame and a girl that Anya had introduced as Ako. Anya had explained that she had already explained who he was and that he was not a threat. Judging by the way that the two girls who had followed Konoka in were staring at him, it didn't look like everyone was convinced though.

/

"Kenko to unmei. Vestri gratia Strenua sit. Quamquam hic corpus iacet nocitus et vulneratus, is ascenderit denuo et factus erit sanus. Omne carnes factum erit statis optimis suis. Denuo, hic corpus est sanus denuo. Is est potis ad habebit mundum denuo. Medicato vulnera parva." said Konoka, holding a wand above Negi. His body glowed and he felt the pain retreat as his swellings went down and his bruises vanished.

"Konoka-san, you know magic too!-?" asked Negi. "Are you one of Anya's partners?"

Konoka pouted.

"No." she said. "Even though I've asked, Anya-chan doesn't want to make a pactio with me. She hasn't made one with Asuna or Se-chan either."

"Well, a pactio is a serious commitment." Negi smiled nervously, placing a hand behind his head.

"Do you have any partners yet, Negi-han?" asked Konoka.

"No. Not yet." Negi replied.

"Aren't you trying to become a magister magi?" asked Konoka. "And haven't you already gone out into the world if you've come to Japan? Doesn't that mean that you should have partners?"

"Yes, I will need partners," replied Negi, "but I'm still young and it will be a while before I'm qualified, so I still have some time." Konoka furrowed her eyebrows, considering those words.

"We have another problem though." Chisame said as she folded her arms. "Won't the rest of the class notice that his wounds have suddenly healed with no explanation? They didn't notice the robot, but we can't expect their poor observation skills to work in our favour."

"Well, he can keep wearing the bandage for a while and we can use your makeup to make it look like he still has a black eye." suggested Anya.

"Wait, why do we have to use my makeup!-?" complained Chisame as she leaned forward and placed a hand on her chest.

"It's for a good cause, Chiu." replied Anya.

"And I said that you shouldn't call me 'Chiu' in front of the others!"

"Anya-chan has a pet name for you?" asked Konoka. "I think it's cute!" Chisame covered her face with her palm as she sighed.

"Anyway, now that you're here, you can help us prepare for the school festival. You can also train with us if you want. We've found out the hard way the importance of becoming more powerful. We've had to fight a lot of strong enemies."

"I see." said Negi, his face falling in concern. "Are you all right? Are you safe from these enemies?"

"Sure!" said Anya. "I'll tell you all about how we defeated them!"

"Well, that's good then. I'll be happy to help out here and my sister will be happy that I'm going to get more training done before my trip so I guess that that will be fine."

"Then I suppose that we'd better see the principal about this." Anya said.

"Yes, we can all go together!" Konoka agreed.

/

"I must say that I'm very glad to meet you, Negi-kun." Konoemon said from behind his desk. "And I'll be happy to host you. I assume that you're going to be working here for a while."

"I would really appreciate that." replied Negi. "I'm a fortune-teller so I need to work in that area."

"I see." replied Konoemon. "Well, there is some empty space in the Mahora shopping district. You can set up shop in one of the stores there."

"Thank you, Konoe-sensei." said Negi, bowing.

"By the way, my granddaughter is a big fan of fortunetelling and she's single. If you don't have a girlfriend, then…"

"Grandpa!" complained Konoka. "Stop trying to set me up with everyone!"

"Well, then we just need to arrange for a place for you to stay." Konoemon said. "Konoka, Asuna-chan, can Negi-kun stay in your room for a while?"

"Sounds good." replied Konoka as Asuna widened her eyes and stepped back.

"At last!" Chisame cried. "For once, the world isn't conspiring against me!" Anya turned and scowled at Asuna's breasts.

"What!-?" asked Asuna, leaning against the desk. "Why do we have to look after him!-? He's Anya's friend!"

"Yes!" Anya cried, leaning forward herself. "He should stay with me! I'm the one who knows how to deal with him!"

"Are you sure, Anya-chan?" Konoemon asked, raising an eyebrow. "I've recently approved having a fourth person move into another dorm, but is that what you want for your dorm as well?"

"No, she's not sure!" cried Chisame. Why had she tempted fate?

"Yes, she is!" argued Asuna.

"I'm absolutely, positively sure!" Anya said. "I've grown up with him! I know how to look after him! And Asuna's not good with kids!"

"Well then, as you're his friend and a member of staff, I guess that that would be fine." Konoemon said. Asuna sighed in relief while Chisame placed her face in her palm.

"All right then." smiled Anya, clasping her hands together. "Then, I promised to introduce you to someone. Come with me and I'll take you to her place."

/

"So, who are we going to go see now, Anya?" asked Negi as the group walked across the field.

"Remember that I promised to introduce you to someone who knew your father?" asked Anya. "Well, I'm going to fulfil that promise now."

"You're going to introduce me to someone that Father knew?-!" gasped Negi whose eyes were now shining.

"Yes." Anya sighed. "Just follow me." She walked over to the door of the cabin and knocked. It was quickly opened by Chachamaru.

"Anya-sensei." she said. "What can I do for you?"

"We need to see Master." replied Anya.

"Again?" asked Chachamaru. "Very well. Come inside." She stood aside as Anya led the others in through the door. Eva was sitting on the railings again but perked up at the sight of Negi.

"You!-?" she cried.

"Good afternoon. I'm Negi Springfield." he introduced himself. "You must be Sayo-san."

Konoka and Asuna began laughing hysterically at the name. Then Anya and even Chisame began to join in.

"...Are you serious?-!" asked Eva. "You really don't know who I am!-?"

"Yes." Anya said, still laughing. "Why would you think that she's Sayo!-?"

"This isn't Sayo-san?" asked Negi. "Didn't you say that you had met the girl that my prediction was about and that she was a nice girl named Sayo-san?"

"Negi, you idiot!" said Anya stretching her hand towards Eva. "This is the Dark Evangel, the Doll Master, the Gospel of Darkness, the Maga Nosferatu, the Disciple of Destruction, the Advent of Evil, the Girl Queen of Darkness, the Visitation of Woe, the Tidings of Evil and the High Daylight Walker. You know, Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell. The most evil mage who we learned about in school and were told would eat us if we were bad! How is it that you don't realise who she is!-?"

"You didn't realise who she was at first either." Chisame reminded her.

"It was a different situation!" Anya snarled, turning towards Chisame. "How was I supposed to realise that someone like that was in my class!-?" She turned back to Eva and said, "Was it alright for me to call you all those things, Master?"

"You were just introducing me, so it's fine." sighed Eva. "You also left out some of my titles."

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember learning any of that." said Negi. "Why would people call you those names, McDowell-san?"

"You don't remember!-?" shrieked Anya. "Didn't you ever pay attention in our lessons on famous mages!-?"

"You know that I was never good in that area, Anya." Negi sighed. "I don't complain about your weaker subjects."

"Fine." Anya sighed, lowering her head. "This is Evangeline McDowell. She knows your father and he fought her and sealed her in the school. Now she hasn't been able to leave for fifteen years, except once under special circumstances. Your father promised to free her one day, but then he disappeared."

"That's awful!" Negi exclaimed. "Why hasn't anyone else freed her?-!"

"Up until now, no one else has been able." Anya replied. "Only your father is stronger than Master. If she couldn't free herself, it makes sense that no one else could free her. Because she's so powerful, I've been learning from her."

"Really?" asked Negi. "If you're willing to teach Anya, would you be willing to teach me as well, McDowell-san? I'd really like to learn from someone who knew my father and who was powerful enough to fight him."

"…And why should I help you?" asked Eva. "After all, your father trapped me and never freed me even though he promised he would. Now you expect me to take time out of my schedule to help the son of the man who trapped me in a living Hell? It doesn't work like that. Your very presence is a reminder of how he betrayed me. I shouldn't even allow you near me!"

"Master, didn't you want to meet him so that he could break the curse?" asked Anya. "Surely if you trained him, it would be more likely that he would be able to break the curse?"

That's right. thought Eva. I never let her find out what I'd need to break the curse.

"I would be glad to help free you of this curse, McDowell-san!" said Negi pressing his fists together in a pleading motion. "And I'm trying to find Father as well! If I find him before I've broken the curse, I'll tell him to honour his promise!"

"You'll free me of the curse?" asked Eva, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course!"

"Despite my enmity with your father?"

"He promised! That promise should be fulfilled!"

"And you're willing to endure the cruel training of a vicious vampire willing to take out her frustrations towards your father on you?"

"I...Well, I'm sure that it will help in the long run, so yes!"

"But are you willing to pay for the training?" grinned Eva, baring a fang.

"Of course!" Negi said. "If you become my teacher, then I'll happily pay your fees!"

"She doesn't charge cash." Chisame informed him.

"What do you mean?" asked Negi.

"She's a vampire." Anya explained. "I have to let her have some of my blood as payment for her lessons."

"Oh…" said Negi. "Well, I suppose that you need to eat. In that case, you can take blood from me as well!"

Well, this may be an amusing distraction after all. Besides, this will prevent any new suspicions from being raised. "Accepted." said Eva with a grin. "From now on, you'll call me 'Master' as well."

/

The next day, Anya brought Negi to class to the early meeting that they had previously arranged to discuss the festival. "All right, everyone. Some of you met him yesterday, but for those of you who didn't, this is a friend of mine from Wales. His name is Negi Springfield." she announced, indicating Negi with her hand.

"I'm glad to meet you all." Negi bowed. "I'm happy to meet Anya's precious students and help you all with your plans for the festival."

"He's so cute!-!-!" squealed a large portion of the girls. Makie jumped up and rushed forward and she was quickly followed by the cheerleaders, Kazumi, Ako and Yuuna. Haruna stood up and began to make her way to the front, but slowed down as she approached Nodoka's desk, turning away from what was happening in front and towards her shy friend. She seemed to be trying to make herself look even more inconspicuous than she used to do when they were taught by Takahata. Once Haruna was close enough to her face, she saw that she was also red. Was she still embarrassed by the previous day's encounter? Haruna leaned over Ako's desk and began to sniff her friend. Meanwhile, the girls at the front were fawning over Negi as Anya's eye twitched.

"Are you the same age as Anya-sensei?" asked Sakurako.

"Um…Yes." Negi replied.

"I'm almost a year older than you!" Anya protested.

"What were you doing in the bath yesterday?" asked Madoka. Negi blushed.

"That was an accident!" he cried. "I was just looking for Anya!"

"How do you know each other?" asked Yuuna.

"We were neighbours in our old village and went to school together." Negi answered.

"Where are you living now?" asked Misa.

"I've moved in with Anya, Chisame-san and Hakase-san." replied Negi.

"Wait!" said Ayaka as she rose from her seat. "Negi-san is staying with Hakase and Hasegawa-san?-! Shouldn't he be staying in a room where the occupants have proven that they can take care of a young boy? Like ours?"

"If you want him, go ahead and take him!" said Chisame from the back of the class.

"There are already four people in your room!" Anya cried. "There's not enough space to fit a fifth in! And I have plenty of experience in dealing with Negi!"

"I see." Ayaka replied, raising a hand to her mouth. "…I apologise, Anya-sensei. I meant no offence." And I was so easily distracted by Negi-san, that I forgot my efforts to win Kotaro-kun!

"Hey are you also really smart like Anya-sensei?" Yuuna asked.

"Well, we did study together." replied Negi.

"All right, that's enough." said Anya. "We're here because we need to plan for what we're doing for the festival. Seeing as though we can't do a maid cafe like you all suggested..."

"What's a maid cafe?" asked Negi.

"Let me show you the pictures so that you can find out." Kazumi offered, handing over a wad of photographs.

"No wait! Stop!" Anya protested, but it was too late. Negi's eyes bulged as he looked at the pictures. Ku Fei punched some numbers on her calculator.

"That cost 62800 Yen to look at-aru." she announced.

"Wha...!-?-!-? I have to pay for just looking!-?-!-?" squealed Negi. "Take these back! I haven't earned anything since arriving here! I can't afford this!"

"Does this mean that you are unemployed?" asked Mana, raising an eyebrow.

"No. I'm opening a fortune-telling shop in the Mahora shopping district." Negi explained.

"Ooh! Could The Fortune-Telling Club visit your shop, Negi-kun?" Konoka begged, grasping her hands together and giving a puppy-dog eyed look.

"Oh everyone's welcome, Konoka-san." Negi replied.

"Okay, if we're done discussing Negi," Anya sighed, "we're supposed to be discussing what we'll be doing for the festival."

"Aw, but that's gonna be a tough problem, Anya." Yuuna complained, closing her eyes, lowering her head and touching her chin.

"Eh?" asked Negi.

"Yeah, we've got to think of something that can surpass even the maid cafe." Kazumi agreed, turning away and doing the same.

"Well, that's why we have to spend this time thinking about it!" Anya said.

"Oooh, me, me!-!" Sakurako squealed, raising her hand.

"What's your idea, Sakurako?" asked Anya.

"I propose we do a 'Heart-Pumping Swimsuit Extravaganza Cafe'." Sakurako squealed as she stood up. Most of the class collapsed as Nodoka's blush deepened and Chamo grinned lecherously while scratching his chin.

"What the Hell is that!-?" screeched Asuna as tears dripped from her eyes. "It doesn't make sense at all!-!-!"

"Eh, wouldn't it be fun?" asked Sakurako as she imagined Misa and Madoka serving drinks in bikinis as they walked on lilos, floating in a pool before Madoka fell and lost her top.

"Of course it wouldn't be fun!-!-!" Asuna replied.

"We might just fall." Sakurako said as she raised a finger.

"...That's it!-!" Haruna and Yuuna said as Haruna pushed up her glasses.

"She's talking rubbish!-!-!" squealed Natsumi and Ako.

"I have to agree!" Anya added. "Wearing swimsuits to show off your breasts is the work of the enemy!"

"Let's do a 'Girls' Mud Wrestling Tea-Shop' then. Yeeees!" Makie cried as she jumped up and threw her hand into the air.

"That's even worse!" shrieked Anya curling her fingers into claws.

"Eh?-! Wait a minute." Negi tried, holding his hands out in protest.

"Can't we do something more normal!-?" asked Anya.

"How could our class impress the outside public if we do something unoriginal?" asked Haruna as she glared at Anya.

"A 'Cat-Ear Nude Bar' then!-!-!" squealed Fuuka, throwing her arms into the air. "I won't admit defeat!-!"

"Do you even know what that means!-?-!-?" asked Madoka as she screwed up her eyes and blushed.

"That's completely ridiculous!" Anya cried, now tugging on her pigtails.

"Why don't we just do an 'Undergarmentless Tea Shop'?" asked Chizuru with a smile as she rested her cheek on her hand.

"That's iiiiit!-!-!-!" declared Yuuna, Kazumi and Haruna who pointed at Chizuru as Haruna adjusted her glasses again.

"That's not it!-!-!" complained Asuna as her face reddened. "I don't even know what the Hell that is!-!-!"

"It was part of the Eighties. There seems to be records of it still." Chachamaru informed her. "It's illegal now though."

"Still so 'obasan' at this age." Chisame mumbled.

"Oba...?" Chizuru smiled dangerously as she pressed her hands together.

"Ha?-!" squealed Chisame.

"She reacted so quickly!-?" Chachamaru said.

"I don't understand what they're talking about!" Negi began crying. "Did I fail in my studies of Japanese?"

"We don't get why there'd be something like that either!" Fumika joined in the crying indicating Nodoka who had also begun crying. "What's going to become of us?"

"Um...That's something you can all live without." Mana said. "And if you're good kids, never ask your parents about these even though you don't know. That's a promise between us, all right?"

"Anyways, it's all because you all were too noisy. If not, the 'Maid Cafe' idea would have worked!-!" Ayaka complained, throwing up her fists.

"Iinchou, you're noisy too!" Yuuna protested.

"Ah!-? Everyone, please calm down. Calm down. Calm down." Negi begged.

"Does anyone have any ideas that aren't illegal or depraved!-?" asked Anya lifting her face to the Heavens.

"Aaah...And to think that Anya-chan just wanted to introduce her friend and work hard for the festival." Konoka said.

"I can't believe that she was fighting Amagasaki-san just a few days ago." Yue sighed. "If I told her, she'd probably laugh. Maybe I should try that."

"To try to control our class is an extreme job." laughed Setsuna.

"Indeed, using cute girls as a selling point is too unoriginal..." Haruna said, adjusting her glasses again. "How about we do it the other way round?" She raised a finger.

"Oooooh!-!" said Sakurako, Kazumi, Yuuna and Makie.

"What you mean, aru?" asked Ku Fei.

"Are you saying that we should use cute boys as a selling point?" asked Fuuka.

"That's it!" said Haruna.

"Oooh! Good idea!" squealed Sakurako.

"But who we use, aru?" asked Ku Fei.

"Negi-kun, of course!" said Haruna as she grabbed his arm and pulled him forward.

"Good one, Saotome-san!" said Sakurako.

"Yay!" squealed Makie.

"I like the idea," said Yuuna, "but what are we going to do with him?"

"We'll have Negi-kun without undergarments!" explained Haruna.

"Kyaaaaa?-!" screeched Negi.

"Hey!" Asuna screeched.

"How would that even work?-!" asked Chisame.

"Saotome-san!" complained Ayaka as Chizuru laughed behind her.

"Are you listening to me at all!-?" Anya cried. "Negi isn't here to be a toy!" The lack of listening didn't change as the girls argued among themselves until Nitta opened the door.

"You guys!-! What are you all doing so early in the morning...?-!" Nitta cried.

"Ah..." Sakurako said. "We're just preparing for the festival!" Nitta winced as he covered his ears.

"I can hear you arguing from the other side of the building!" cried Nitta. "This is a school! A place of learning! People are trying to sleep! You should all be in your dorms, resting for your next class!"

"But we came here so we wouldn't wake up anyone on the other floors of the dorm!" complained Sakurako. Nitta covered his ears once again.

"You have break for discussing non-academic activities! All of you, squat! Anya! Come with me and bring your friend with you!" The two preteens followed Nitta into his office. They all sat down at his desk. "Anya, you really need to discipline your students. You can't let them yell at each other! Especially at this time! You should all be asleep! Or at least be getting ready after having just woken up! And what was your friend doing there?"

"Negi's just here to help with the school festival." replied Anya.

"All right, but you still need to control the class better." sighed Nitta. "Even though you're still young, you still have to work harder."

"Will do so." sighed Anya.

/

Yue paused from reading as the slimes laughed at the tale and Suramui rolled across the floor in hysterics.

"Wahahaha! This s a really funny story, Yue-san!" she giggled as she tried to hold back the tears. "But I bet you don't even need your book to entertain people."

"Oh?" Yue asked. "Does this mean that I don't have to read from it anymore?"

"No!" Ameko begged, pressing herself against the glass. "Please, we need to hear your stories, Yue-sama!"

"Well, without my book I think that Paru's still better than me at relating humorous stories. Maybe I'll bring her along some time. But…if you're sure about wanting me to read some more, then…" The slimes and Chigusa all turned to face her with widened, expectant eyes. "I guess that I can read to you some more, but first we need to discuss some things." Her audience slumped. "Do you want to reach a point where you're allowed out or not?" Yue asked.

"Yes. We'd like to go out eventually." Purin replied. "Preferably soon. We were glad to be free again."

"Well, that brings me to my first point." Yue said. "You were working for Fate-san and Wilhelm-san after being let out weren't you?"

"Yes." Purin answered.

"And you were working for them as well, weren't you Amagasaki-san?"

"Yes. That's right." replied Chigusa.

"Well, why were you working for them?" Yue asked. The slimes looked at each other in confusion.

"Graf Wilhelm-sama was our partner for a while." Purin replied. "It was only natural that we would work together. And as Fate-san freed us, working for him was natural as well."

"So you are obviously capable of loyalty." Yue said. "Would we be entitled to that loyalty as well?"

"Well, you haven't freed us yet, have you?" replied Ameko.

"These things take time!" Yue said. "And what about you Amagasaki-san? Why were you working for them?"

"Besides the fact that Fate-han offered to free me?" Chigusa responded as she turned towards Yue. "They offered me revenge. Fighting against your teacher was its own reward to me. Do you still think that you can recruit me to your side when I have that mentality?"

"…Well, that's rather disappointing, but not unexpected from what I know about you." Yue sighed.

"What could you possibly know about me!-?" Chigusa snarled.

"Even from the few times that I've visited you so far, I already know the themes that you like in stories." Yue replied. "I know that you like stories about people who find justice for their dead parents. That already tells me something about who you are. Plus it agrees with what Konoka's father told me about you. You blame Western mages for your parents' deaths and you hate them as your way of trying to honour your parents, but you've lost sight of how to truly honour them. You've even worked with Fate-san, a Western mage himself, just because you hated Anya-sensei more. Do you really think that this is the way to honour your parents? Following a path that has led you to become a criminal?" Chigusa clenched her teeth.

"You expect me to listen to someone who has learned Western magic rather than the magic of her homeland?-!"

"Have I ever been anything other than kind to the four of you?" asked Yue.

"No." replied Ameko.

"I enjoy your visits, Yue-san!" Suramui said.

"We all benefit from them." added Purin.

"…No, you haven't." Chigusa finally relented.

"Then maybe your prejudice against Western mages is clouding your ability to realise that Western mages include decent people in their number and you should try listening to them. I personally never gained the opportunity to learn Eastern magic before I was comfortable using Western magic and the same applies to many people. Konoka, however, has begun learning Eastern magic herself. If you were to cooperate with us, you could help train her to become a powerful Eastern mage. Isn't that the kind of thing you would rather be doing? Don't you think that that would be a better way of promoting Eastern magic?" Chigusa's eyes widened.

"…Yes." she responded. "I…would be honoured to teach Ojou-sama."

"All right. Then we are getting somewhere." Yue smiled. "She'll be glad to visit you for some tips, but we're still doing most of our training elsewhere."

/

Negi, Anya and Chisame carried their supplies towards Eva's cottage. "You have a lot of students, Anya." Negi said. "How do you keep track of them all?"

"It's not that hard." Anya replied. "But I can lend you my class roster to help you familiarise yourself with them." She reached into a bag and pulled out the roster, handing it to Negi. He opened it and looked inside.

"This will be really useful!" he said. "Thank you! But all these notes are from Takamichi! Why didn't you write anything there yourself?"

"Why would I?" asked Anya, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah, it's not like she needed to show some kind of audience what she really thinks of us." Chisame added. They arrived at the cabin and knocked. The door was opened by Chachamaru who held out a hand to beckon them inside as she bowed.

"Welcome, Anya-sensei, Negi-san and Hasegawa-san."

"Thank you, Karakuri-san!" Negi said as he lifted his head from the roster and smiled at her. Chachamaru's face reddened and she lowered her head.

"You may call me 'Chachamaru', Negi-san."

"All right, Chachamaru-san. Thank you for your hospitality." They walked into the room where most of the others were waiting and Negi instantly lost his smile. "It's happened again!" he said. "I keep losing my ability to see the future!"

"What are you talking about!-?" asked Anya , turning towards him and widening her eyes.

"Onee-chan taught me to keep a sprite active to let me know what was going to happen in the immediate future to prepare for ambushes." Negi explained. "She said that it was a good idea to learn to use my talents to protect myself and that it was a good idea to stay prepared for danger. But since arriving at Mahora, I have lost the ability just before entering the bath, just before I was healed by Konoka-san, this morning in the class room and as I entered this room!"

"I see…" said Eva. "Have you realised yet what all those instances had in common with each other?"

"No, I don't know what you're talking about, Master." Negi replied.

"Think about it." Eva said. "Who was the person who left the bath as you arrived?"

"That was Asuna-san."

"And who did Konoka have with her when she came in to heal you?"

"Setsuna-san and Asuna-san."

"So what do you think all those situations had in common?"

"B-but before I left Wales, an Akuma attacked me and my sister and it happened there as well!

Well, not all the time. Onee-chan said that it was when he was activating 'magic cancel'."

"Wilhelm!" snarled Anya.

"Probably." Eva said.

"What are you talking about?" asked Negi.

"The akuma who helped kidnap me." Asuna explained.

"You were kidnapped?-!" asked Negi.

"You are naïve if you think that you won't have to deal with violence and kidnapping as a mage, Boya!" Eva said.

"I still don't understand why I supposedly have this effect on magic." Asuna interrupted. "It's useful for having the others practice with me, but why would I be able to cancel magic?" There was a knock at the door and Chachamaru opened it to usher in Yue, the last of their number.

"We were just discussing Asuna and her abilities." Eva informed her. "I don't suppose that your pets have shed any light on that subject?"

"Amagasaki-san claims to know very little about it." Yue replied. "She said that Fate-san wanted her to find out if Asuna-san was capable of magic cancel and told her how to find out, but not what it means. She says that Asuna-san clearly does have magic cancel, but that's all that she knows."

"Well, the best you can do is prepare for Fate's reaction by training." Eva said. "So get to it!"

/

Negi's store quickly became a popular attraction. "So, what does it say?" asked Juliet.

"It says that you are close to achieving your dreams, but that others will try to snatch them from you." Negi replied, gazing into his crystal ball.

"Can you be more specific?" asked Juliet.

"Um, Juliet-chan, we have to give everyone in the club a chance." Konoka said from behind her in the rather long line. Juliet turned around to grin apologetically at her sempai and noticed Setsuna's scowl.

"All right." she sighed, standing up and handing over her chair to Konoka. Outside the shop, Yukino was begging her girlfriend to enter.

"He's a fortune-teller." Aya said as she screwed up her face in disgust.

"But he's so cute!" Yukino protested as she tugged on Aya's arm. "Everyone else is going to see him. And we can use him as the token shota in our films."

"You said the same thing about Anya-sensei's other friend!"

"But he has even more appeal! Wouldn't you agree, Misato-chan?" Hinamori Misato lowered the binoculars that she had been using to peer through the windows.

"Absolutely." she said. "Have you seen her other friend's ears? Clearly, the Murakami family was performing experiments on him to turn him into a mutant super-soldier!" Aya rolled her eyes.

"I thought that fortune-telling was one of the few things that we both agreed wasn't real."

"That's obviously a cover. A boy sent all the way to Japan to run a shop on campus? Clearly he's the son of wealthy entrepreneurs who've sent him to find an appropriate wife. One who is blonde, can roller-skate, isn't taller than him, has experience with journalism..."

"You mean experience with failing to get any of your articles printed." Aya said.

Misato glared at the taller girl. "It's not my fault that the editor fails to recognise the truth! But soon, I'll have proof of Negi Springfield-san's identity, I'll get my first article published and his parents will acknowledge me as his soul mate!"

Chao sighed as she waited in line and her eyes darted between Ayaka, Barahime and Hikari. How am I supposed to take notes withthemhere. she wondered. Satomi shrugged at her, clearly wondering the same thing.

"Hey! Watch where you're going! There's a line here!" Barahime complained. She slammed someone against one of the shelves. Chao looked at who it was and battled to avoid smirking in approval.

"Hands off, girl!" Kotaro yelled. "I'm escorting a teacher!"

"Barahime, Kotaro, behave yourselves!" ordered Anya. "Do I need to give you another detention for fighting, Barahime?" Barahime looked at how close she was to the front and let go. It wasn't worth risking her spot.

The two newest arrivals walked past the line towards the front. Chao clenched her fist and gritted her teeth as Kotaro walked passed her. Satomi raised her eyebrows and then her hands in a calming gesture. Chao relaxed. It would not be pleasant if she lost her cool. Especially this early in the game. It would be dangerous if anything happened before Asuna had gained her first pactio. She hadn't realised that meeting Kotaro face -to-face would have had this affect on her. She knew, intellectually that he had been trying to be helpful and that others were more to blame than he was. As an intellectual person, that should have been enough for her, but because of what he did, she would never be solely intellectual without the assistance of the Princess of Twilight. She needed to hurry her up.

"Negi, weren't you going to help, now that we've decided that we're doing a haunted house?" Anya growled as she slammed a palm onto his desk.

"That's right." he said. "I'm very sorry everyone, but I have to close early." The shop was filled with sounds of disapproval. Negi was amazed that he had become even more popular since arriving at Mahora. He wondered why his services were so sought after.

/

Misato prowled the corridors, looking for club mates. Luckily for her, it wasn't long before she spotted one. "Asakura-sempai!" she called out waving her hand to beckon the older student. Kazumi forced a smile and headed over to the short girl in roller-skates.

"Yes, Misato-chan. What is it?" she asked, even though she was fairly sure what the answer would be.

"How come my article about the world tree got rejected, but another one made the front page?"

"For the last time, Misato-chan, there's no reason to believe that the world tree is infested with glowing ooze monsters that are plotting to eat the students." Kazumi sighed.

"Of course there is! Why else would it glow?"

"Misato-chan, I'm supposed to be helping my class right now."

"Your mission to uncover the truth is more important!" Kazumi sighed again. This was probably going to take a while.

/

Meanwhile, in the classroom, the same article had just been brought up. "Hey, have you guys seen the Mahora news yet?" Makie asked, holding out the newspaper and pointing at it.

"What does it say?" asked Anya.

The girls began to gather around the article which discussed the legend of the world tree's ability to cause love confessions made during Mahorafest to result in successful couples. As some began to express doubt over the story's validity, Misora raised a finger.

"This is from a senior two years older than me. She said that at last year's school festival, a couple who was said to be an impossible match tried this out..." she said, "...and it worked right away!-!-!"

"Really!-?" asked the others as eyes widened and heads turned.

This sound a bit like what the twins told me. thought Anya. Were they right? If I were to take Negi to the tree...what would happen?

Haruna narrowed her eyes as she watched Nodoka turn towards Misora. She knew that she had smelled the love stench from Nodoka! Then there was the fact that she was watching Negi's store from the bushes. The subject of confession quickly swept the classroom. Asuna had just finished complaining about Setsuna and Konoka's advice when Chao tapped her on the shoulder.

"Takahata-sensei is a powerful martial artist, ne?" she asked. "That's why they call him 'Death Glasses', ne?"

"Huh?" asked Asuna. "Where did you hear that? And where are you going with this?"

"You can already fight, yo. But it looks unimpressive to brawl with Iinchou, ne? Maybe demonstrating more sophisticated fighting to him would impress him, ne? But the school festival is coming up very soon, yo. If only there was a short-cut for you to become a much better fighter very quickly." She walked off and got back to building the sets. Setsuna narrowed her eyes.

"What was that about?" she asked. Asuna held her chin as she furrowed her brows in thought.

/

"Don't stay out too late, Kotaro-kun!" Ayaka called out. "You'll make as worry!"

"I'll be fine!" Kotaro replied as he left the room. He quickly found himself in front of Chao. "Hi, Nee-san." He greeted her. Chao forced a smile.

"Hello, Murakami-san." she responded. "Looking forward to the festival, ne?"

"I…guess so." he replied.

"Good." Chao said. "Planning on entering some competitions, ne?"

"Well, I haven't really found out about the events except for those that me and…Onee-chan are involved in."

"Oh! Well, I can say that as a member of the Chinese Martial Arts Club, I heard that the martial arts events this year are going to be bigger than normal, with more prize money, yo. That sounds interesting, ne?" She smiled and batted her eyelashes.

"Oh. Yeah, maybe I could enter that." Kotaro said, wondering why his heart rate had just gone up.

"It would be a good idea to let your friends know then, ne?" Chao asked. "You could tell them that with a lot of hard work, one could win a lot of money."

"Yeah, I'll do that." Kotaro said. "Thanks, Nee-san. Bye" He headed off. Mana walked around the corner and into view.

"You wanted to see me. Are you going to ask me to throw the fight against him as well?" she asked.

"No. Feel free to beat him silly if you end up fighting him. I want you to let me know about how much progress Kagurazaka-san is making. I especially want you to let me know when she makes

a pactio."

"Kagurazaka-san in particular?" asked Mana.

"Yes. I need her to master her artifact sooner than she did in my timeline as a precautionary measure. After my efforts today, the ermine should take care of the rest."

/

Kotaro entered Eva's cabin and found himself in the middle of a conversation. "I need to step up my training, Setsuna-san." Asuna said.

"But you're already progressing so quickly!" Setsuna protested. "It's almost like you already knew most of this and are just remembering it!"

"But I need to become more powerful for the festival."

"If you need to become more powerful, Ane-san, why don't you make a pactio?" Chamo suggested as he ran up to her shoulder.

"And kiss a ten year old? No thank you!"

"If you are done, I have an announcement." Eva interrupted them. She pointed at Negi. "Boya, I've been watching you practice and I've decided the combat styles that will suit you the most. First is the wizard style which I have been teaching a bit of to Anya, Yue and Haruna even though Anya has decided to make combat mage her main style and the other two haven't decided yet. The other style is 'scry support'. Every team needs a leader. Someone to provide orders and information. As scry support, you'll fill that role. Rather than fighting yourself, you'll use your fortune-telling to discover how to use your allies most effectively and then order them to act appropriately. Knowledge of the future is an effective tool when developing strategy and tactics. Especially among those like you."

"So he'll be a typical Western mage who stays at the back and lets others fight for him." snorted Kotaro.

"In his capacity as a wizard, he'll still do some ranged fighting." Eva responded. "And the non-fighters still have their place on the field."

"He's a boy! He should be fighting in the front to protect the girls like me!" Kotaro protested.

"Kotaro, while we agreed to let you come with us, you're not officially my protector. That's my partners' job." Anya sighed.

"Well I should be your official protector." Kotaro complained. "I'm going to enter the martial arts tournament and then you'll see that I'm a better protector than any girl!"

"You're entering the martial arts tournament?" asked Asuna.

"Yeah! And I heard that the prize money is bigger this year, so I'll face the best in the school and show you all!"

"My partners have useful powers." Anya said. "You can't even use most of your powers anymore. Being a protector is the reason that people become partners."

"He'd be able to protect you if he became your partner." suggested Chamo.

"Fine then! ...Make me your partner like Chamo-kun says!" Kotaro said. "Then you'll have no excuse for not letting me protect you!"

"What!-?" asked Anya.

"It's a good point." Chamo said. "If he wants to protect you, you should make a pactio with him."

"But…then we'd have to kiss." said Anya.

"Well…if we have to kiss for me to protect you…then I guess that that's what we have to do." Kotaro said as he looked down and scratched his head.

"But I don't want to be a pactio-slut! I already have seven partners!"

"And not only have you needed all of them, but Mana-anego isn't coming with us." Chamo replied.

"Plus they're all girls!" Kotaro added. "You need a boy protecting you!"

"I have no problem with you making pactios with girls," Chamo said with a shrug, "but do you really have a problem with kissing boys?"

"Well, I planned to make a pactio with a boy eventually, but…"

"Then what are you waiting for!" Chamo interrupted. "You'll need all the help that you can get if you're going on a mission to the magical world!" He jumped down and drew a pactio circle.

"Um…Okay." Anya said, stepping into the circle. Kotaro followed her and after a moment's hesitation, pressed his lips against hers.

"Pactio!" Chamo yelled and a card appeared in the air as the purple glow dissipated. He grabbed the card and duplicated it, handing a copy to each of Anya and Kotaro.

"Speaking of pactios," Eva said, pointing at Negi, "both of the combat styles that you are suited for depend a lot on allies."

"In other words, they're for cowards." Kotaro muttered.

"While you have many allies here, it is difficult to rely on an ally for a long period of time if you don't have a contract with them." Eva continued. "As such, it would be prudent for you to make pactios of your own. Preferably with those planning to join you on this mission."

"That's right Aniki!" Chamo said as he climbed onto Negi's shoulder. "You have a lot of catching up to do!"

"It's not a race!" Chisame cried.

"And boys should be the defenders, not girls." added Kotaro.

"Then maybe you should be Negi-kun's partner, Kotaro-kun." suggested Haruna.

"What!-?" squealed Anya, Asuna, Chisame, Negi and Kotaro.

"I don't want to kiss him!" Kotaro said, pointing at Negi and blushing. Konoka's eyes lit up and she smiled.

"But it really is unfair that Negi-kun doesn't have any partners and not everyone here is Anya-chan's partner, so I can be his partner." she offered.

"What!-?" squealed Setsuna and Negi.

"And Se-chan can as well!"

"What!-?" squealed Setsuna and Negi.

"Well, Se-chan, it's not a kiss between girls, so you shouldn't have a problem with it." Konoka explained with a shrug. "And this solves the problem of us not having pactios as well as the

problem of Negi-kun not having partners."

"But Ojou-sama!"

"I don't think that I should." Negi said. Konoka pouted and made puppy-dog eyes.

"It's not very gentlemanly to deny a girl a kiss, Negi-kun." she complained. "Are we not good enough to be your partners? Don't we deserve the power that a pactio will give us, even though we're helping you?"

"I…don't mean to offend." Negi replied.

"Plus, Master said that you need partners, didn't she?"

"Well, yes."

"Then let's do it!" Konoka said with a smile, dragging him into the circle and pressing her lips against his. Setsuna's jaw dropped. She then closed it again and bit her lip as she watched in interest.

"Pactio!" cried Chamo before grabbing the card that was produced and duplicating it.

"That was nice! Your turn, Se-chan!" Konoka said, letting go of Negi and grabbing hold of Setsuna.

"Ojou-sama! Is this really a good idea!-?" Setsuna cried.

"Well, I have a pactio now. It isn't fair for someone who has a pactio to be protected by someone who doesn't have one. You said that you still want to protect me, right?"

"Um...Yes, I do." said Setsuna.

"And you're not kissing another girl, so it's fine!" said Konoka. She pushed Setsuna into the circle.

"If Setsuna-san doesn't want to do it, she shouldn't have to!" Negi protested.

"No." said Setsuna, straitening her back. "If this is what must be done to protect Ojou-sama, then I shall do it!" She leaned forward pressed her lips against Negi's. Konoka smiled as she watched the two kiss.

"Pactio!" said Chamo and another card dropped as the light dissipated. He duplicated the card once more.

"Good." said Konoka as she hugged Setsuna. "Now we've had an indirect kiss."

"An indirect kiss!" squealed Setsuna.

"So a direct kiss shouldn't be so bad, right?"

"Ojou-sama, this is inappropriate!" Konoka sighed. She'd have to try again another time.

"Is everyone getting a pactio except me!-?" asked Asuna.

"Why don't you get a pactio as well, Ane-san?" asked Chamo.

"I may want to be more powerful, but I'm not desperate enough to kiss a ten-year old."

"Is this about what Chao-san said?" asked Setsuna.

"Well..."

"It's just a kiss, Asuna-san." said Haruna. "With your reluctance, it looks like you're afraid to show that you're attracted to one of them."

"What?-! That makes no sense!" said Asuna.

"Yes! What kind of ridiculous logic is that!" agreed Chisame.

"Don't you know about tsunderes?" asked Haruna.

"I think that you're interpreting tsunderes according to your own convenience." said Chisame.

"I'm not attracted to ten-year olds!" Asuna protested. "I like Takahata-sensei!"

"Then prove that you're not just avoiding a completely platonic kiss with them." said Haruna.

"That's ridiculous!" cried Asuna and Chisame.

"If it's ridiculous, you should have no problem with kissing them." said Haruna with a shrug.

"Fine!" said Asuna. "If I'm still not ready for the tournament, on the day before the festival, I'll make a pactio."

"All right, but I'll remind you of that promise!" said Haruna. "Now let's see what the rest of you can do!"

The air was soon filled with cries of, "Adeat!" Setsuna's card turned into a dagger. Konoka was covered in the flowing garb of an Eastern mage and she held a pair of fans. Kotaro was dressed in black leather, zips and studded collars.

"Ooh! Looking good!" said Haruna.

"So Asuna-san, did you really want to become more powerful for Takahata-sensei?" asked Setsuna.

"Well, I've already tried confessing before and it's never worked!" Asuna replied. "I was hoping that a different approach might work."

"I've got an idea!" Chamo said with a grin. "Leave it all up to me!"

/

"Chamo, what are you busy with there?" asked Anya.

"Oh. These are for my plan to help Asuna-anesan." said Chamo, pulling out a bottle of round pills.

"What are they?" asked Anya as she raised an eyebrow.

"And are you hiding them well enough that Hakase won't find them?" asked Chisame. "Never mind those from other rooms like..." she shuddered, "Saotome."

"They're perfectly safe." Chamo reassured them. "They're 'Red Candy. Blue Candy. Age Deceiving Pills'!-!-!-!-!-!"

"How are they going to help Asuna-san?" asked Negi.

"We'll age you up and Asuna-anesan can go on a practice date with you so that she's not as nervous when she's with Takamichi!"

"You want me to go on a practice date with Asuna-san!-?" asked Negi.

"Yes."

"And you really think that that'll work?" asked Chisame.

"Of course it will!" replied Chamo. "Why don't you try them and see? Go ahead, Aniki!"

"Wait, why do I need to be aged up and go on a practice date?" asked Negi.

"Don't you want to help Asuna-anesan?" asked Chamo.

"Yes."

"Then go ahead! This is the best way!"

Negi grabbed a pill and swallowed before a poof and a cloud of smoke revealed a much taller, more handsome teenager. He was now exposing far more skin as his clothes stretched. Anya and Chisame widened their eyes and they blushed.

"Let me try!" said Anya copying Negi. After the smoke cleared, Anya looked down at her chest.

"Oh come on!" she complained. "Surely there should be more after this much time!"

"Maybe you're a late bloomer like Yuuna-anego." Chamo said with a shrug.

Anya pointed at Chamo and snarled, "Don't mention Yuuna's betrayal in front of me!"

"Well, it looks like we'll need some extra clothes." Chamo said, changing the subject.

/

Setsuna was busy giving pointers to Asuna and Konoka in their room when there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it." sighed Asuna as she stood up and headed for the door. She opened the door and gasped at the sight in front of her.

"What the...? Are...you Negi's brother or something?" Her face reddened as she stepped backwards and held her hand in front of her face.

"No, Asuna-san." The handsome teenager in the suit replied. "It's me, Negi. And I don't have a brother."

"Wh-why do you suddenly look like that!-?" Asuna cried as she backed away even more and pointed at him. It's just like in my dream!

"Look like what?" asked Konoka as she entered Negi's field of vision. "Oh! You can make yourself look older!" She squealed as she saw Negi. "You look so handsome! As expected of foreigners! Can you make me look older as well?"

"Sure, Kono-chan!" Chamo said as he popped out of Negi's pocket. "I got some pills off the Maho-net that'll change your age. All you have to do is pop a pill!"

"Then come in!" squealed Konoka. "We have to try them!" She grabbed Negi's hand and pulled him inside. "Se-chan, look at Negi-kun! He's made himself look older!" she called. Setsuna walked into their field of vision and gasped, turning bright red.

"N-Negi-san ...I wasn't aware that you were capable of this kind of magic." she said.

"It's just these pills causing the effect." explained Chamo, pulling the bottle out of Negi's pocket.

"Wow! Do will they turn me into an adult?" asked Konoka.

"Try it, the red one is for adults." Konoka swallowed a pill and with a puff of smoke she became taller and her breasts grew as she developed a more hourglass figure, stretching her clothes. Setsuna's eyes bulged and her jaw dropped as her face turned beet-red.

"What the!-?" said Konoka, but she was evidently pleased with the result from her smile and her

sudden interest in trying out different ages for herself and Setsuna.

"Konoka-ane-san, please don't eat so much, those are expensive!-!" Chamo complained.

"Oh, but Asuna hasn't had a turn yet!" complained Konoka and she advanced towards Asuna with a red pill.

"Wait! What!-? Konoka!" complained Asuna as she held up her palms. Konoka popped the pill into Asuna's mouth and a puff of smoke surrounded her. But when it cleared…

"Awww! Nothing happened!" complained Konoka. "Why's that!-?"

"Maybe the magic cancel?" suggested Chamo as he scratched his head.

"So did you just come to show us this?" asked Asuna as she examined her hands with a frown on her face.

"Well, this is part of my plan to solve your problems with Takahata." Chamo explained. "You need to go on a practice date with Negi-aniki."

"What!-?" cried Asuna as she pointed at Negi. "Go on a date with Negi!-?-!-? Why should I go on a date with him!-?"

"Chamo-kun, I wasn't sure about this from the beginning, so if Asuna-san doesn't want to, she shouldn't have to." Negi said.

"Yeah, why do I have to go on a date with this guy first?" Asuna asked as she shoved Negi out of the way.

"Like I said, this is practice for the actual thing. Practice." Chamo explained taking a puff from his cigarette. "Like in battles, you need 'experience' in love too. After having some experience, the anxiety will gradually fade too. That way, you can finally invite Takahata to the festival, right? And besides, you haven't gone on a date before, right?"

"Well sorry for that." Asuna said with a deadpan expression.

"Me neither." said Negi.

"Me too." added Konoka.

"Me three." Setsuna said.

"But that's a really great idea, and conveniently tomorrow's a holiday." Konoka said with a smile.

"But why with Negi?" asked Asuna. "Isn't there a better option?"

"Well…unless you'd prefer Kotaro-kun…" said Chamo with a shrug.

"Fine!" said Asuna. "We really need older male friends."

"Well, this candy will make it easier to treat you date with Negi-aniki like a date with Takahata!" Chamo concluded. After they had made their arrangements, Asuna stayed behind and picked up the pills that she had taken from the jar. She popped a blue one in her mouth and shrunk to the size of a child in a puff of smoke, just as Konoka and Setsuna had. She looked at her hands once again and her frown deepened.

/

Yuuna, Akira and Makie were walking across campus when they noticed Ako carrying her bass guitar case on her back. "Hey, what'cha got there, Ako?" Yuuna asked as she waved at the girl.

"That weird looking bag. Doesn't the class preparation start only in the afternoon?"

"Oh, Misa and her band invited me over for practice." Ako explained as she turned around and allowed them to catch up. "They wanted a fourth member and Hakase didn't want to join, so they got me instead. Plus they were grateful to have a bass guitarist as they already had vocalists."

"Now that you mention it, I've heard about it too." Yuuna said.

"Wow, playing live sounds fun." Makie said.

"I'll go and watch too." Akira decided.

"That sounds fun, but I'm no good at music at all." Yuuna said as she placed a hand behind her head.

"Hey hey, think they'll let me dance?" asked Makie as she raised a finger.

"Um, I don't think dancers are needed." Ako said as she took a step backwards. As she did so she started to lose her balance. "This bag is kinda heavy."

"Ah!-!" squealed Yuuna as she held out her arms.

"Ako be careful." Maki cried as Akira joined her in dropping her jaw. But a handsome teenager caught her as she fell over and righted her.

"You all right there, Izumi-san?" asked the man.

"Ah, yeah…" said Ako as she turned to look at the man and blushed. "Thanks for helping me."

"Heh, playing in a band huh. Sounds fun." the man said with a smile. "I'll go watch your performance."

"Ah." said Ako as her face reddened even more.

"Goodbye. I'll see you soon." said the man and he walked off.

"Wow, who was that handsome guy!-?" asked Makie.

"Eh? I don't know him." Ako said, still blushing.

"Liar! If you don't know him, how did he know your name?-!" asked Yuuna.

"He looks familiar." said Akira as she watched his back. The man continued walking past Kotaro and the cheerleaders.

"Hey guys, check it out." Misa said, elbowing Sakurako.

"Eh! Wow, handsome!" Sakurako cried as she turned to look.

"Yeah, a student from over there perhaps?" Madoka wondered aloud. Curious, Kotaro turned to the man causing the commotion.

"Eh? That handsome guy…kinda looks familiar to me." he said. The man continued walking till he was out of their sight. Eventually, he arrived at Starbooks Coffee where a girl was waiting for him.

"Sorry to make you wait, Asuna-san." he greeted her with a smile.

/

"All right, Chachamaru." Chao said. "It seems as though Negi-bozu is using his aged up form to go on a practice date with Kagurazaka-san today. This is as expected, but there has been an accumulation of minor differences from my original timeline that I haven't always been able to predict. The teachers are more suspicious and I do not want one of them to discover Negi-bozu's use of age-changing magic. I must avoid suspicion myself as they've been curious about me lately. As such, I need you to watch them and ensure that they are not discovered. We will pretend that you have been malfunctioning and therefore you cannot work to explain your absence."

"This deception will be more plausible as we'll have to erase the knowledge of the future that you learn in this meeting at the laboratory." Hakase continued. "This is a precaution in case you become compromised and the data will be backed up so you may have it back once it is no longer classified. We will claim that this is when you were fixed. Are these conditions acceptable?"

"Of course." Chachamaru stated. Chao got up and fetched a steel case before sitting down again and unlocking it.

"Very well. This contains hard copies of data on Negi Springfield." she explained. "I will be using some of it at Mahorafest, but I'll let you use some of it now." She pulled out some photographs and handed them to Chachamaru. "This is roughly what Negi-bozu will look like. This will help you find him. Commit these to memory and return them." Chachamaru slowly turned red.

"Chachamaru, what is the matter?" Chachamaru began to get up but tripped over her chair and fell over.

"I'm not sure." she said.

"Chachamaru, are you uncomfortable?" asked Satomi.

"No. There are no system anomalies present. I'll go complete the mission." She scrambled for the door.

Satomi turned to Chao and said, "Maybe we should do an actual check-up."

"Maybe you're right." Chao replied with a frown. She picked up a spoon which was immediately crushed in her grip.

"Chao, leave the worrying to me." Satomi said. "You know that it is dangerous for you to worry. Especially as Kagurazaka-san hasn't gained her first artifact yet."

"Of course." sighed Chao and she put the bent spoon back down.

/

Chachamaru watched as Negi guided Asuna around the festival preparations and Setsuna, Konoka and Chamo spied on them. Asuna was acting irritably even as she ate the ice-cream that Negi had brought her, though she cheered up after doing so well at the shooting stand. After that, everything seemed to be going well with them, but she battled to keep up with them due to how often she was tripping. This lasted until Negi accidentally grabbed Asuna's boob while helping her scoop goldfish. Chachamaru fell over again and when she got up, she saw that the Negi had fallen on the floor and the red-faced Asuna had ended up in a position where she was exposing her panties to him. Chachamaru collapsed again and missed Asuna punching him across the street. After that, things calmed down again. Finally, it seemed as though the problem that Chao was worried about was going to occur. They were headed for a table where Takahata and Shizuna were sitting. Chachamaru launched herself at Negi and Asuna.

"Isn't that Takahata and Shizuna-sensei?" asked Negi as Asuna turned around to run. "Hey!-? Asuna-san!-?" He turned around just as Chachamaru slammed into them, knocking them to the floor. "Chachamaru-san!-? Are you okay?"

"I-I'm sorry, Negi-san." Chachamaru said as she raised herself off of them, her face now very red. "I didn't mean to knock you over."

"Are-are you all right, Chachamaru?" asked Asuna, now occupied by the kind of distraction that being slammed into the floor tends to be.

"I-I'm sorry. I've just had some coordination problems." Chachamaru replied. "Hakase is planning to perform a check-up on me tomorrow to determine what the problem is." Setsuna and Konoka came running up to them, the latter carrying Chamo.

"Are you all right?" Konoka asked.

"Yes, were any of you hurt?" Setsuna pressed.

"Chachamaru isn't feeling well." Asuna said.

"Are you sure that you'll be all right until tomorrow, Chachamaru-san?" asked Negi. Chachamaru's face reddened even more.

"I shall be perfectly fine, Negi-san. Thank you." she said.

"And what about you, Asuna-san?" asked Setsuna.

"…It looks like Takahata-sensei already has someone. I should have realised. I already had suspicions about their relationship." Asuna said as she cast her face down.

"But maybe they were just eating together as friends or co-workers!" Negi protested. "I'm sure he likes you! We all like you!" Asuna smiled.

"Well, for now we have to make sure that Chachamaru is all right." she said.

"Yes. Let us take you to your check–up tomorrow, Chachamaru-san!" offered Negi. Chachamaru reddened some more and fell over.

"Th-thank you, Negi-san!" she said. Negi reached over and helped her up.

"Are you sure that you are all right for now?" he asked.

"Yes, thank you."

"You know, I'm impressed that you recognised Negi-kun." Konoka said.

"I'm familiar with this kind of magic." Chachamaru explained. "Master uses it, after all."

/

The next day, Chachamaru opened the cabin door at the sound of knocking. Her face reddened as she saw Negi, now in his natural form again. He was carrying Chamo on his shoulder and was accompanied by Asuna, Setsuna, Konoka and one other person that she hadn't expected. "Anya-sensei!-?" she gasped.

"Negi told me that he was worried about you." Anya explained. "What kind of teacher would I be if I showed less concern about my students than my friend did?" They walked to the laboratory where they met Satomi. After they calmed down from seeing her wearing her equipment, she apologised for startling them, saying that she'd been working on an experiment.

"Please remove your shirt." she requested as she held the end of a stethoscope towards Chachamaru. "Oh. Right...Right here?" asked Chachamaru.

"Yep!" Satomi replied with a smile.

"Looks like she'll be naked." commented Konoka.

"Yeah." said Negi.

"Don't just smile at her, you perv!" Anya complained, grabbing Negi and covering his eyes with her hands. "You can't watch a girl while she's changing!"

"Sorry Anya." Negi squealed. "You're right! I'll wait outside!"

"Aiyah, quick." Satomi ordered, ignoring the others as Negi left the room.

"Okay." Chachamaru agreed and she took of her shirt, revealing her mechanical body.

"Wow. Chachamaru's really a robot." said Konoka.

"Wow, Hakase-ane-san, so you're Chachamaru's creator?" Asuna asked.

"It's okay. You can look now." Anya called out. Negi slowly walked back into the room.

"Yes. That is correct. Even though mobility is powered by magic, she is different from Eva-chan's other dolls." Satomi explained. "Chachamaru's actuation, body structure, atomic computer, artificial intelligence and so on are products of science made by me. The basic structure of the 'Mutually Wisdom System' was given to me by MIT."

So that's how it is. Chamo thought as he scratched his chin.

"Wait a second!" Anya interrupted. "You mean that you've known about magic this entire time!-?"

"Naturally." Satomi replied. "Did you really think that a scientist would have her robot creation

work for a mage and never find out about magic?"

"And you just mentioned magic in front of all of us?-!" asked Anya.

"...You are all involved with magic, are you not? You and Negi-san are mages, Sakurazaki-san is a shinmeiryuu employed by Konoe-sensei and has been teaching Konoe-san and Kagurazaka-san." Satomi replied, raising an eyebrow.

"You knew all that but you never discussed it with us before!-?" asked Anya widening her eyes and holding out her palms.

"Well, it's not really my business." Satomi replied with a shrug. "Just like the blog that you help Chisame-san with isn't my business."

"Chiu is not going to be happy that you knew about all this the whole time." sighed Anya, lowering her head.

"Anyway, this is strange." Satomi said, returning her attention to Chachamaru. "I can't seem to detect any anomalies, yet your motor rotation counts keep rising...What's wrong with you?"

"It's this special feeling..." Chachamaru replied, lowering her eyelids and looking away. "How should I put it into words? I'm afraid it's-it's what you call em-embarrassment...I guess."

"What!-? You're feeling shy!-? An artificial feeling shy!-?" Satomi gasped, backing away suddenly.

"Is that normal?" asked Anya.

"Well, I didn't think that she could feel shy!" replied Satomi. "Anything else?"

"I feel anxiousness around the main activation switch on my chest." Chachamaru explained. "My face feels hot too." Satomi pressed her hand against Chachamaru's forehead.

"Wow, it's really hot!-!" she exclaimed. "This is too weird. Chachamaru having all these signs. What exactly does this all mean?"

"This is nothing strange at all. Your heart speeding up..." Konoka said as she rested her cheek on her palm, raised a finger and smiled. "This means that you're in love."

"Can robots be in love?" asked Anya.

"Uh? Love!-? No way!-?" Satomi cried.

"How can this be?" asked Chachamaru.

"That's impossible!" cried Satomi before she began a huge rant about the statistical improbability of a mechanically based being showing the characteristic signs of infatuation.

"Mad scientist again." sighed Asuna.

"Yup!" agreed Negi.

"But is this really possible!-?" asked Anya.

"Wow, a robot that is able to fall in love. Isn't that sooo romantic?" asked Konoka, still smiling with a finger raised.

Wait, wait a minute. An AI that is able to fall in love...equals a Nobel Prize invention? Satomi wondered. "Heh, heh, heh. So that's how it is. This might be love after all."

"Yeah!" agreed Konoka.

"Are you sure?" asked Anya.

"There's a way to find out! All right! Let's begin the experiments!-! Leave the checking for next time." Satomi announced while adjusting her glasses.

"Yahoo!" cheered Konoka, raising a fist into the air.

"Wait!" cried Chachamaru.

"What kind of experiment is that!-?" asked Asuna, screwing her eyes shut.

"How do you perform an experiment to find out if someone's in love?" asked Anya. "It sounds like something Haruna would come up with like that 'love-stench' thing she goes on about!"

"Saotome-san?" asked Satomi. "She doesn't know enough about real science! Watch me and I'll show you how to discover if someone is in love!"

/

Satomi had Chachamaru walk through the cafeteria of the laboratories. The male scientists watched eagerly. "Umm..." asked Chachamaru, "...What's happening now?"

"This is to help you get the feeling you get when you wear something you're not used to." Satomi explained with a smile. "This is to recreate the situation that causes your motor rotation counts to rise. Come on, Chachamaru. Do some more cute poses and let the boys of the Technical Block concentrate on you more!-!"

"But that..." began Chachamaru as she turned to look at Negi.

"Pretty." he said, smiling and pressing his palms together. Anya glared at him.

"Wowow, there's some movement already!" Satomi cried.

"No. That's..." began Chachamaru, but Satomi didn't listen and pulled her away, only bringing her back after she had been changed into sailor-fuku.

"Next is this!" Satomi announced.

"You should dress her in something that makes her boobs look smaller." suggested Anya.

"Really?" asked Satomi. "That's not what the literature seems to suggest." Asuna covered her face with a palm.

"Ah!-?" cried Chachamaru, looking down at herself. "My mechanical body doesn't look good in these clothes. The joints are too obvious." She raised an arm to examine it.

"Nothing of the sort." Konoka disagreed, raising a finger again and smiling.

"Yeah, it's quite cute." Negi added, blushing.

"What are you blushing for!-?" Anya snarled, grabbing his collar.

"Eh!-?" cried Chachamaru.

"Wow!-? What an amazing rise in numbers!-! Keep it going!-! It's working well. This may be

it!-!" Satomi cried. Anya let go of Negi and turned towards Satomi.

"Kyah!" squealed Konoka as she grasped her cheeks and blushed.

"Ah!" Chachamaru said as she held up her hands.

"But if it's really love, who's the other person then?" asked Konoka.

"Hm, my sentiments exactly, Konoe." said Satomi as she turned towards her. "Then, let's try searching the memory database." She turned her attention back to her laptop.

"Wow, you can do that!-?" gasped Konoka, reddening even more.

"Wait a minute!" cried Asuna, whose eyes widened dramatically. "Isn't this an invasion of other people's privacy?" She reached out a hand.

"Yeah, this really is too much already!-!" agreed Konoka.

"Yes!" added Anya. "You're still my students! I can't let you disrespect each other's rights to privacy!"

"FOR THE SAKE OF SCIENCE, THIS MUST BE DONE!-!-!" declared Satomi.

"This is wrong!" Negi protested.

"Heh, heh, heh! She placed all the video shots into her most precious folders! This..." Satomi squealed.

"Hey, hey. Stop it already!" Asuna ordered.

"THIS IS IT!" Satomi cried.

"Satomi!" yelled Anya. "Stop it! Or I'll have to give you detention!"

"Detention is a small price to pay for the advancement of science!"

"Ah. No." begged Chachamaru. On the screen, several pictures of kittens were displayed. Dispersed among the more recent kitten pictures, were pictures of Negi. Chachamaru's arms suddenly extended, knocking away the audience, missing only Negi and Satomi. Negi turned to the pile of bodies, missing what was on the screen.

"Ow...What was that?" asked Asuna as she sat up and placed a hand behind her head which was still red.

"Awwww. Who was that in the pictures?" asked Konoka as she sat up herself.

"I didn't see it either." Setsuna replied, scratching her ear.

"Neither did I." added Anya as she got up from the floor. "But I was serious, Satomi! You're getting a detention! And Chachamaru! I know that you're upset, but assaulting your fellow students and your teacher is no way to behave! Your getting detention as well!"

"Girls do love romance stories after all." Chamo said as he held his smoking cigarette.

Satomi, however, ignored Anya. "This is too amazing Chachamaru. So this is true after all?" Satomi cried as she made a fist. "But I'm amazed, the person you actually love is Ne..." She stopped looking at Chachamaru's sudden shaking. "Eh!-?" Chachamaru had stated to cry. "Cha..."

"Chachamaru-san." said Negi.

"Ne-Negi-san, this isn't what it looks like...No..." she said, covering her reddening face with a hand. "HAKASE, YOU IDIOT!-!-!-!" She launched an extended punch which slammed into Satomi's cheek.

"TWO detentions, Chachamaru!" cried Anya.

"UWA!-?-!-?" cried Satomi. No way, she actually attacked me, her creator? Changing her priorities programmed into her, all by herself? Hohohoho, you've grown, Chachamaru.

"That's not...That's not what it looks like...NO..." Chachamaru said, her face still red, before starting to run off, "...NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!-!-!" Steam poured out her ears.

"EH!-?" cried Negi.

"She's, she's gone berserk!-!" cried Satomi as she got up. One of the lenses of her glasses had cracked. "It's too much of a load on her memory route!-!"

"Wha!-?" cried Negi.

"No, it's not like that!" Chachamaru cried as she charged through the crowd of scientists, sending them flying.

"Chachamaru-san!-!" called Negi as he reached out a hand.

"Come back, Chachamaru!" cried Anya.

"We need to capture her as quickly as possible!" Satomi said. "Mages can fly, right? I need you to do so!"

"What about secrecy!-?" asked Anya.

"If you do it here, it'll be passed off as an experiment!" Satomi replied, waving a hand dismissively. A message about Chachamaru was broadcast over the intercom. As Negi started flying and Anya got out her broom.

"Please press Chachamaru's right breast!-!" Satomi yelled.

"WHAT!-?" cried Anya.

"Since we're in the middle of a test, it should be possible to completely eliminate any transmissions to her that way!-!" Satomi explained.

"The breasts!-? Gotcha!" cried Negi as he flew off.

"Oh no you don't!" cried Anya, lifting off. "If she needs to have her breast pressed,youwon't be the one doing it!" She flew after Negi. He was just about to press Chachamaru's breast when Anya crashed into him at high speed. While Chachamaru's breast was pressed which reverted her to her calm self, the resulting tangle of limbs was a large mess and Konoka had some injuries to remove afterwards. Afterwards, Satomi agreed to keep Chachamaru's secret to Konoka's disappointment and offered to give her "dirty parts" which Chachamaru assured her were unnecessary.

/

Two days before the festival, Negi arrived at class 3A to help again when the cheerleaders gave him tickets to their performance. That signalled a cascade of girls asking him to attend their functions. "Wait, why are you all asking him, to come!-?" asked Anya as she flailed her arms in the air.

"Well, you and Kotaro-kun are welcome as well, Anya-chan!" replied Sakurako with a smile.

"Naturally." agreed Ayaka and others began murmuring in agreement. Kazumi soon made a schedule for the three that was incredibly overbooked. From off to the side, Nodoka, Haruna and Yue watched.

"This is your chance, Honya!" Haruna said. "You should ask him out!"

"I-I just..." began Nodoka.

"You like him don't you!-?" Haruna asked. "I've been watching you!"

"Well, I-I do like him but..." Yue's eyes widened.

"If you like him, you should go for it!" she said. "He's the first boy you've liked, so you should take this opportunity before someone else tries!"

"Um, I understand!" said Nodoka. The three girls walked up to Negi.

"Hello." said Negi. He stood up and touched his head.

"Hello." replied Nodoka.

"Any problem?"

"It's...it's...about...The Library Exploration Club is having an adventure meeting! You must come...Please!" She held out a pair of tickets. Her flanking friends nearly collapsed before taking the opportunity to invite him to their own events.

"Nodoka, it should not be like this." complained Haruna.

"You must work harder!" Yue whispered in agreement.

"Ok-okay...erm...err...erm...err...during the school-school festival, would you like to go out with me?"

"Nodoka! What are you...?-!" Anya started yelling.

"Ah! Go-go out together?" asked Negi.

"It's so embarrassing." Nodoka cried, running off. "I actually said it out loud!"

"NODOKA!-!-!" everyone called out.

"This child didn't even get to hear it twice! Negi, are you okay?" asked Haruna.

"Yes-yes. No problem with me."

"Please push it to the last day!'" asked Yue with a raised finger before she ran off with Haruna after their friend.

"But-but...How can she just...?" spluttered Anya.

"Nodoka is so...courageous." said Asuna. The others began to laugh to Negi's indignation until they were interrupted again by Chachamaru's invitations and failed attempt at asking Negi out. After that, Kotaro ran up to them.

"Hey! Anya!" he called, waving as he ran and carrying a form. "I'm going to register in the battle tournament! Then you'll see how well I can protect you!"

"You're still on about that!-?" asked Anya. "I told you that all my partners are useful. It would be stupid to act like you were my only one!"

"Wow!" exclaimed Chamo as he looked at the form. "The prize money is ten million!"

"Ten million?" asked Asuna.

"That's right!" said Kotaro. "Chao-san told me that the prize money would be high! So there should be lots of tough guys to prove myself against!"

"She told me that as well." Asuna said, touching her chin. "I've been wondering if I should enter."

"You!-?" asked Kotaro.

"What?" asked Anya, scowling. "You don't think she can do it because she's a girl?-!"

"NO!" cried Kotaro. "Asuna-nee-chan is strong and can fight like a boy!"

"But only Asuna?" asked Anya.

"Of course not!" cried Kotaro. "Setsuna-san, Kaede-nee and Ku Fei-san are strong too!"

"And what about me?" asked Anya.

"Well, you're a Western mage and haven't really used your martial arts in a real fight before so..." began Kotaro, turning his head away.

"Well, I'll prove that I can do it!" Anya declared. "I'm also entering."

"...Are you sure about..." began Kotaro.

"Yes, I'm sure!"

"Well, all right. I had a small problem, but it shouldn't be too bad for you." Kotaro sighed.

"What problem?" asked Anya.

"Anybody below twelve will be sent to the junior section." explained Kotaro. "If I fight with them,

isn't it like bullying them?"

"Plus, the prize money will be smaller." added Chamo.

"This is not good." sighed Kotaro.

"Heh! Heh! I've got an idea!" announced Chamo.

"Really?" asked Kotaro.

"You could get us both into the adults section?" asked Anya, giving a quick glare to Kotaro.

"Idea...Ah! Don't tell me you mean..." began Negi.

"Something like that! Let's go Kotaro!" cried Chamo. The two of them ran off.

"Snow leopard seemed to have a really good idea." said Kotaro.

"Wait for me!" called Anya as she chased after them. Soon after they left, Ako and Madoka arrived.

"What's up?" asked Asuna.

"...Actually we've been asking around about..." began Ako.

"We met a handsome guy the other day." Madoka explained as she raised a finger. "He had the same hairstyle as Negi-san and we were wondering if any of you knew him. Maybe you, Asakura or Negi-san?" Everyone's eyes widened.

"Oh! That was...!" began Chisame.

"Negi's cousin!" finished Asuna. Chisame turned to Asuna.

"Cousin?" she whispered. "Isn't brother more believable?"

"My...?" began Negi.

"Your cousin, riiiight!-?" asked Chisame.

"Yes, your cousin visiting Japan for a tour!" added Asuna.

"That's right!" said Negi. "My cousin, Nagi Springfield." With that, Anya and Kotaro arrived in their aged up forms. Chisame's eyes widened.

"Oh look!" she cried. "It's friends of Negi's cousin, Nagi!"

"Friends of...?" began Kotaro.

"That's right!" Anya interrupted. "We're Nagi's friends!"

"Nice to meet you." said Ako.

This guy looks like he's even more my type than Nagi-san is. thought Madoka. "Are you two a couple?" she asked. This girl is tall and beautiful. I don't want to have to compete with that.

"NO!" cried Anya. "We're just friends and both single."

"Well, we have tickets to our performance and wanted to give one to Nagi-san, but you're also welcome to come." Madoka said.

"Please give Nagi-san his ticket!" said Ako.

"Okay." replied Kotaro as they handed over three tickets.

"Got to go!" cried Ako as she ran off.

"Hope to see you again soon!" Madoka called as she ran off. The next arrival was Eva, who ignored them until she noticed that the two new teenagers looked surprisingly familiar.

"You've been using age-changing magic!-?" she asked after she froze and turned towards them.

"Um...well...yes." replied Anya.

"How about you?" she asked, turning to Negi.

"Yes. I've used it too, Master." he replied.

"I see." Eva smiled. "Any particular reason, or just experimentation?"

"Kotaro and I needed to age ourselves up to enter the martial arts tournament." Anya explained.

Eva raised her eyebrows.

"And what about you, Boya?" she asked Negi.

"Well, I don't know martial arts, so there's no point in me entering." Negi replied.

"But this is a good reason for me to enter." said Eva, raising a finger. "I should see how well my primary student has progressed. Also, as I've now seen the aged-up forms of two of you, I'd like to see the third. So if neither of you gets further than me in the tournament, Negi will have to spend the last day of the festival with me in his aged-up form."

"But-but..." began Anya.

"I have other arrangements!" cried Negi.

"And I'm your Master." said Eva. "If neither of you gets further than me, you obviously all need more lessons from me and I'll start with you. This is your teacher's command, you don't have any other choice. Got to go, I am looking forward to it." Finally, Sayo asked if they could spend time with her as well, if they were already spending time with the other girls.

/

The next day, Shizuna spotted Anya as she left the school building. "Ah, Anya-sensei. The principal has asked me to summon you to a meeting." she said.

"All right." She turned around.

"Wrong way." Shizuna said. "He wants you to meet him in the clearing in front of The World Tree. Oh, Sakurazaki-san, if it's possible, he wants you to come as well."

"That's all right, Setsuna-san." said Asuna, ho, along with the rest of Anya's team from 3A, had followed her out.

"See you later." added Konoka with a wave. Setsuna was surprised to find the area become deserted as they approached. They did not notice Kazumi and Sayo following from a distance. When they arrived, they were met by several students and staff-members. Kazumi and Sayo quickly summoned their artifacts to spy on the proceedings.

"The people assembled here…" Konoemon announced, "are usually scattered and working among the University Town's various locations. Elementary, middle, high schools and university…magic teachers…and magic pupils. Well, Negi-kun is technically a shop owner rather than a teacher or pupil, but he is also associated with the school. Let's do it everybody." After the surprised reactions by some as well as introductions, Konoemon explained the purpose of the meeting, "I've expressly gathered us today because a problem has come up. Ladies and gentlemen, we must decide how to use our strengths to defeat it."

"An enemy?" asked Kotaro with a smile as he formed a fist.

"A-again? Is it someone very strong?" asked Negi.

"Why does this school have so many enemies anyway!-?" asked Anya.

"It's not like on the field trip. It's a serious matter, but not along that line." explained Konoemon as he raised a finger. "But still very serious. You know the legend of unrequited love."

"Aaa, it's a worthless story among the kids I'm living with. On the last day of the school festival, people wish on The World Tree, hoping it will grant their desire. Exactly the sort of thing…" began Kotaro as he held out a hand dismissively.

"That?" asked Negi, turning to Kotaro. "They use it to get a lover? Yuuna-san said that. What nonsense."

"Well, what's the big deal?" asked another teacher.

"It is possible…" began Konoemon as he stroked his beard. "It's time to tell you the truth about the matter."

"Heh?" asked Setsuna.

"Seriously, the request will probably come true!" announced Konoemon as he raised a finger. "It's helped with such things once every twenty two years."

"Ha…Wha…?" began Kotaro as his jaw dropped.

"You mean to say that if I wanted the tree to do something…!-?" began Anya.

"Not so fast…" interrupted Konoemon as he shook his finger. "Ladies and gentlemen, from now on, throughout the time of the school festival until sunset of the final day, the legend of The World Tree will come true. So you must watch out for this behaviour, and block any confessions made by the pupils."

"Huh? You're not going to let their wishes be granted?" asked Kotaro.

"Isn't that just a superstition?" asked Setsuna. They all widened their eyes and dropped their jaws again.

"Ho ho ho. To be brief, the students call it The World tree and take care of it, but it's not just an ordinary tree." Konoemon explained with a raised finger. "Its official name is 'Sacred Tree Bontou' but a very strong magical power is hidden inside. In other words, it's a place where the 'wood magic' builds up. Once every twenty two year period, that magical power gains strength and overflows its boundaries. From The World Tree in the centre, six points around it gather its strong magical power. This plaza is one of those places. This huge magical power does not give a person anything they desire to have or do. In short, things such as world conquest, a desire for a hundred billion Yen or selfish nonsense such as a girl's panties, it won't grant. What it does grant can really be a trap for the young. The reason we're concerned with restricting the confession is, it achieves a success rate of one hundred and twenty percent!-!-! A spell of such a power class must be used correctly."

"Ha…Wha?" asked Kotaro.

"So, what you're saying is that the wishes it grants will be made twenty percent cooler?" asked Anya.

"No." replied Konoemon. "Not twenty percent cooler, twenty percent more extreme and therefore, more dangerous!"

"So, if you were to tone down your wish by sixteen and two thirds of a percent…?" began Anya.

"It would still be too dangerous to make such a wish without absolute certainty!" Konoemon interrupted. "Really, this should occur next year, but because of the abnormalities of weather due to sunspots, it's one year early, dammit! Accordingly, in this time of emergency, I'm drafting you to help us in dealing with this situation."

"Bu-but having a sweetheart's normal isn't it?" asked Negi. "That's the way it is in The West."

"Ridiculous! What a thing to say!" replied Konoemon, raising a finger again. "The underlying principle for a magic user is completely opposite. A person needs permanence to manipulate their spirit. But if love isn't there, one becomes a slave if the person they love cannot shoulder the burden and the situation becomes unpleasant."

"Is that how it is?" whispered Negi. "Then making love potions like the one that Grandfather gave me ingredients for should be prohibited."

"Well, the fact that they're temporary isn't an excuse for making them." replied Chamo. "If you used the ingredients, you'd be in hot water, Aniki. Keep cool. They're illegal."

"What!-?" cried Negi.

"Please explain?" asked Konoemon.

"It's all right. He's just overwhelmed." explained Chamo, waving his arm dismissively. They were busy discussing the prevalence of the rumours, when a girl carrying a broom with her hair tied in pigtails interrupted them.

"Somebody's watching us." she said.

"What?" asked Konoemon. A teacher with dark glasses and a beard who was smoking clicked a small device and flicked his fingers and a massive shock wave spread out and sliced a drone out of the air.

"There's a strong feeling of magic in that machine…" he declared. "Students…They're finding out who the mages are. There are intelligent pupils who despise us, aren't there?"

"Chase them!" ordered Konoemon. "If they get too far, there'll be too much publicity about this. Limit the number of pupils who find out! Well, as long as they don't think of confessing! The main concern is that the adolescent students don't make a big mistake. However, sincere magic users may properly make a successful request. Use discretion. Fine, now all of us will take patrol shifts until the end of the festival. Everyone scatter!-!"

/

"Oh no! The spy plane was destroyed!-! They saw it!" Satomi cried from her hiding place.

"As expected." said Chao. "We disagreed on this Hakase. You believed that its stealth mode was flawless. I didn't want to take the risk. We have to get away from our pursuers, yo."

"Yes, fellow troublemaker." said Satomi. "They might wipe out our memory."

"We can't risk that, yo! I've already removed my backup system in preparation for when Hasegawa-san gains her second pactio! Hakase, take the extra stealth camouflage and hide separately. I'll lure them away." ordered Chao.

"Will you be okay?" asked Satomi.

"I'll be fine!" replied Chao. "I'm much faster than they are and if I become worried, it'll make me faster, yo!"

"But we must not let that happen!" Satomi protested.

"Just do it, Hakase!" She jumped into the air, crushing the tiles to dust as she launched to a height that dwarfed the buildings. It would probably be amusing to see the faces of her pursuers, but she had at least attracted their attention. She darted from roof to roof, covering ground far faster than any other mode of transport available on campus. She actually had to continually double back to make sure that they were still chasing her rather than Satomi. They had sent Gandolfini, Mei and Takane after her. Takane at least gave them a massive numerical advantage with her summons. She couldn't let them spread out and discover Satomi. She then spotted Negi, Kotaro, Setsuna and Anya walking down the street, discussing their schedules. She decided to take advantage of this and jumped down onto the street. Her feet cracked the ground as she landed. "An-Anya-sensei. It's you! Can you help me out? Suspicious people are chasing me!-!" she cried.

"Chasing you!-?" cried Negi. "Then we should help!"

"I'm fine with helping," said Kotaro, "but how would you be able to help?"

"And what do you need protecting from, Chao-san?" asked Setsuna. "You're by far the most powerful martial artist on campus! The only reason that Ku Fei-san is captain is that you have so many other duties!" Chao leaned forward and held a hand next to her mouth.

"I'm being chased by mages!" she whispered.

"Mages!-?" Negi gasped.

"Of course!" whispered Anya. "You work with Hakase on Chachamaru who has a magical power source! It makes sense that you'd know about mages!"

"If we're facing mages, we need to get you to safety!" Negi whispered.

"And you as well." sighed Kotaro. "You can't keep up with us."

"We'll need to carry them then." said Anya, pulling out her wand. "Cantus bellax." She then lifted Negi bridal-style.

"Anya! What are you doing!-?" complained Negi.

"You're slower than us, so you have to be carried." replied Anya. "What about Lingshen?"

"I'll do it, Anya-sensei." Setsuna replied. She picked up Chao bridal-style and the three that weren't being carried jumped. The conversation had allowed the pursuers to close the gap and shadow puppets were nearly on top of them. Setsuna swung Chao and used a still sheathed Yuunagi to batter her way through the shadow puppets. As they all became surrounded, Kotaro kicked his way through one, letting them know that they were not alive and that they could therefore use lethal force. Setsuna and Anya put their passengers down.

"Ras tel mas cir magister!" began Negi.

"Aniki, it will be too flashy!" cried Chamo from Anya's shoulder.

"No problem!" cried Negi. "Sagitta magica series lucis!" Thirteen arrows fired at the puppets, blasting through them. Setsuna drew her sword and began slicing through those that were left.

"Fortis la tius Lilith lilioth!" chanted Anya. "Erchomai, fotia apo pyrkagia, karfitsono kato. Kafteros gipedo pirouni." A flame formed in her fist and grew into a long, flaming pole before splitting into a pair of prongs in front of her. She stabbed the flaming pitchfork into a puppet and watched it burst into flames in front of her. Chao and Kotaro punched and kicked and Setsuna slashed and they had soon destroyed them all. They quickly entered an alley to hide. However, they were soon discovered and when they began to fight once more, they recognised the pursuers from the meeting at The World Tree.

"Why are you all chasing Lingshen?" asked Anya.

"It's us that want to understand the situation, Anya-sensei." replied Gandolfini. "Why are you protecting the student that causes so much trouble?"

"Eh…Trouble…?" asked Negi. "Why? It's the duty of those who want to become a magister magi to help those who ask for it. Besides, she's Anya's student. If a student is being attacked, a teacher should go and help. In fact, anyone should help, but especially a teacher!"

"What!-?" asked Gandolfini as he turned to Anya. "You are Chao Lingshen's teacher? I see. So that's what's going on…Ah…I was wondering about when another mage entered the academy. It got me sweating there. Back to the main subject. You haven't heard of the stuff about Chao Lingshen?" He leaned forward.

"What stuff?" asked Anya. "Lingshen couldn't possibly be a bad person!"

"Ah, you haven't. So we will handle things on this side. Please come here, Chao Lingshen."

"No." replied Chao. Two shadow puppets grabbed her arms. "Ouch! An-Anya-chan!" They tried to pull her forward but she wouldn't budge.

"Plea-please wait! What are you going to do to Chao-san?" asked Negi.

"Yeah!" added Anya. "She's my student! What did she do to deserve this!-? I can't think of anything that she would have done that was bad enough!"

"You still don't understand the situation…" Takane explained. "We are planning to erase her memory of mages."

"Ehhh…Her memory…?" gasped Negi.

"B-but hasn't she known for a while!-?" asked Anya. "Isn't that unethical!-?"

"It's become too risky to leave her memory unaltered." Gandolfini replied. "This won't be a standard memory erasing spell. We'll leave most of her memory intact."

"Bu-but why so sudden?" asked Negi, holding out his hands.

"This is not sudden…We have already warned Chao-san three times." Gandolfini replied. "Negi-kun, for the sake of us mages to live peacefully within the modern society our existence should be kept a secret. You should have known this. Normal people should not be allowed to know this."

"Thi-this of course, I understand…" said Negi.

"But some of us have normal partners!" said Anya. "Is it really fair to be so arbitrary!-? Just because she knows, doesn't mean that we'll be exposed! Any partner or mage could slip just as easily!"

"We have laws to control our own people. They know that they are subject to those laws and the punishments should they fail to uphold them." replied Gandolfini. "Because of a certain event, Chao-san found out quite a bit. But there is no reason to tell her everything. She will eventually use cameras to spy on meetings where no one else can enter." He scratched his chin and turned to Chao. "If a school rule is broken, even if it was by a normal student, there will still be punishment. You ignore our warnings. This is already your third time. If you are found out again after the third warning, you will receive punishment. Wasn't that what we told you?"

"Hmm…That's right…" Chao replied, looking away.

"Hmm…But-but she doesn't want to." complained Negi. "It is not good to erase people's memory as a mage."

"Chao-san is a dangerous person. This is a must." Gandolfini said. "Even that criminal Evangeline is helping her. We have to be careful."

"McDowell-san is not a bad person." Negi objected.

"We're also being helped by Evangeline!" added Anya. "With support from the principal! Does that mean that we must also have our memory erased!-? Someone like Lingshen couldn't be a bad person!"

"Anya-sensei!" Gandolfini growled.

It doesn't look good from this point. thought Chamo.

"So that's all?" asked Gandolfini. "Can you hand over Chao-san to us now?"

"I have also heard a rumour about a few students that know that you are mages." added Takane. "You don't have a problem?"

"I can handle my students." growled Anya.

"You can't just assume that someone is a criminal or a dangerous person!-!" complained Negi. "Chao-san asked for our help and it is my duty as a someone who wishes to become a magister magi to help her! Please hand over all the responsibility to me!-!"

"Exactly!" cried Anya. "Chao is my student! I know that she couldn't be a bad person!"

"…Hmm." Gandolfini said as he scratched his chin. "I understand. If you really do vouch for her, then I will trust you two for today."

"But can you please be careful." Takane advised.

"If there is a next time, there's a chance you will turn into an ermine." added Mei.

"So the rest is up to you, Negi-kun." Gandolfini said before leaving with Takane and Mei. "Remember that you are not even a teacher at this school. Merely an employee. Even the most important mages are subject to our laws. If you fail to control her, you will definitely not escape punishment."

"Ah…You really helped me out." said Chao with a smile as she grabbed hold of Negi's hand.

"Negi-kun is my life-saver. And you all helped too."

"Nah…You are over exaggerating." Negi said. "But Chao-san, they called you a dangerous person. What have you done before?"

"Huh huh. This is a secret" replied Chao with a raised finger.

"Ah…This can't be! I have a responsibility." complained Negi.

"But Negi-kun, do you have anything troubling you?" asked Chao.

"Eh?" asked Negi.

"Because you helped me, I will help you!" replied Chao. "I will use my power of science."

"Well, our biggest problem right now is our busy schedule for the festival." replied Negi.

"Then, I can give you something right now!" said Chao with a smile. She pulled out a small pocket watch. "Keep this with you. It will help. Goodbye!" She handed him the watch and ran off.

"What's it for asked Anya as she walked over and looked at the watch.

"I don't know." replied Negi.

/

"All right, Asuna-san!" said Haruna. "It's our last practice session before the festival, so it's time for your pactio!"

"No it isn't!" snarled Asuna. "I said that I would make a pactio if I wasn't ready for the tournament!"

"And you think that you are?-!" snorted Eva.

"Well, no." admitted Asuna as she lowered her eyes, "But, I'm not entering anymore."

"You're backing out?" asked Kotaro.

"I can't impress Takahata-sensei if he already has Shizuna-sensei!" said Asuna.

"You can't just give up like that, Asuna!" complained Konoka.

"Yes!" cried Haruna as she raised a fist. "You have to fight for your man! If you give up without even trying, you'll be a coward!"

"I'm not a coward!" said Asuna.

"Then prove it!" said Haruna. "Make a pactio and compete!"

"Fine!" said Asuna. She grabbed Anya and led her into the circle.

"I didn't agree to this!" Anya protested.

"Oh, so you're attracted to Asuna-san then, Anya-chan?" asked Haruna.

"Of course not!"

"But you've had no problem kissing the rest of us." said Haruna.

"No! These kisses are all completely platonic! I'll show you!" Anya said.

She pressed her lips against Asuna's and the purple light faded as Chamo yelled, "Pactio!" once more. He grabbed the resulting card and duplicated it.

"Ah, so there was a reason that you eventually chose Anya-chan instead of Negi-kun. Obviously you're attracted to one of them and are trying to throw us off!" Haruna said as she raised a finger and gave a grin.

"What are you talking about!" Asuna cried. "I chose at random!"

"How are we supposed to believe that without proof?"

"Why does she need to prove anything!" asked Chisame, throwing her hands into the air.

"Do you expect me to kiss Negi as well?" asked Asuna.

"Well, he is the one who needs pactio partners more." Haruna said with a shrug.

"Fine! If it'll get you to shut up!" Asuna said, pulling Negi into the circle.

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" asked Negi. "I'm not sure."

"It's just a platonic kiss, right?" said Asuna. "I've already done it with Anya and you need more partners right?"

"Well, I was hoping that I wouldn't need a lot of partners, but if you're sure…"

"Then it's fine!" said Asuna. She leaned forward and kissed Negi.

Once again, Chamo shouted, "Pactio!" and a card dropped as the light vanished.

He duplicated the card as Haruna asked, "You can have a pactio with more than one person?"

"It's possible, yes." answered Eva.

That sounds great! Haruna thought. But wait! Nodoka likes Negi.Sheshould be the one who gets a pactio with him.

"So are you also going to do it, Ku Fei?" asked Asuna.

"No. I not make pactio until I defeated in combat by the person I going to make a pactio with-aru." Ku Fei replied. "If I not defeated by them-aru, it proves that I able to protect them-aru."

"All right, let's try these out!" said Asuna. She lifted the card she received from Anya into the air and called out, "Adeat!" The card transformed into a harisen fan. "What!-? But it had a picture of a sword on it!" she complained.

"Well, Mana's card shows all her weapons even though she can't use them all at once." Anya said with a shrug. Maybe it's like that?"

"Well, it seems unfair to be promised a cool sword and end up with a fan." Asuna replied as she slumped her shoulders.

/

That night, Negi received a telephone call. "Hello, Detective Forsyth." he greeted his old partner from his final evaluation in English. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Hello, Negi." sighed the detective. "I'm calling you because I wanted to tell you this myself rather than have you find out another way."

"What is it, Detective?"

"Please Negi, call me Warren. We're friends."

"Yes, Warren. What is the problem?"

"Okay, I'll tell you," replied Warren, "but first let me assure you that we have everything under control and you have no need to worry. I'm only calling because I know that you'd want to know."

"What is it Warren?" asked Negi clutching the handset.

"Roger Andrews has escaped."

"The man who kidnapped Miss Baker!-?"

"Yes." sighed Warren. "He was obviously magically aided. We discovered that he had been replaced with an illusion."

"But…"

"Negi, don't worry. We will catch him!"

/

Omake:

/

"Andrews, are you all right?"

"YES! I am FINE! For I am Roger Andrews! THAT is who I AM! I am most definitely NOT an imposter!"

"Are you sure, you're all right?"

From the files of Chao Lingshen, Temporal Renegade:

Full Name: Detective Warren Forsyth

Birth Date: 17 September 1977

Death Date (In My Original Timeline): 6 March 2014

Blood Type: O

Likes: Justice, helping others, peace, chats.

Dislikes: Criminals, unsolved cases, misunderstandings.

Religion: Anglican.

Sexuality: Heterosexual.

Noteworthy Family: Elisabeth Matthews Nee Forsyth, his sister, is the wife and primary pactio partner of the mage Joseph Matthews. However, they are unlikely to travel to Japan.

Affiliations: Employed by the London Police Department, an informant for the London Magic Association.

Background: Warren was inspired in his youth to join the police force. After he did, his sister married Joseph Matthews. As she had officially become the member of a mage family, in accordance to the policy of the London Mage Association, she was given the opportunity to request that close family members of hers be informed about magic. As the association had recently lost its main informant in the London Police Department to death, the request to inform Warren was granted unusually quickly on the condition that he agree to become an informant himself. He decided to support his sister by agreeing and has since aided in multiple supernatural cases. One of those cases was the kidnapping of Amelia Baker by Roger Andrews, a case which he worked with my ancestor on. However, Roger was later broken out of prison magically.

Abilities: Warren is a competent British police officer with all the skills that that implies. He has been involved with the London Magic Association to know enough about magic to recognise it and is aware of the nature of some spells though he cannot perform magic himself and as a mundane has been left ignorant of everything about magic that he does not "need to know".

Possible Impact on My Plans: Probably only going to be indirect as he has responsibilities in London that he is unlikely to abandon to go to Japan. I do need him to involve himself n my ancestor's life the same way that he did in my original timeline though, so I should not interfere with his activities in London.

A/N: 1. I decided that I liked OverMaster's explanation of Mana's family.

2. I'm naturally busy with Mahorafest and it's giving me a headache as I predicted. Oh well. I have clearly lost my remaining sanity by doing this, but hopefully the readers will enjoy the result of me effectively smashing my brains in with a hammer.

3. Recently, we at Ala Iridia decided to do a bit of guest writing for each other. I wrote a chapter of Equal and Opposite Attraction as I wanted to get practice for writing Nanoha and Japanese Teeth wrote the scene here of Chigusa's conversation with the slime girls. He also proofread this chapter again. Why not check out his work?

4. I was thinking about having a scene before Negi's talk with Anya and Chisame, but I decided that it'd be funnier if I did a flashback later based on how this scene starts. This is actually the original scene by Over Master which inspired this fic. One of my original goals was to have the original scene by Over Master appear unaltered in my fic. I soon realised that that was impossible based on what I wanted to do with Negi as it required me to have him arrive far earlier than the original scene implied. However, I still wanted to keep it as close as possible, so here we go. Thank you Over Master for your inspiration and support! At least I came close and I fulfilled some of my other goals, like upping the epicness of the Eva fight (at least, one of my reviewers says that I succeeded with that) and having the girls pactio in the exact order that Chisame mentioned them in the scene. Also, while I've always been open to suggestions and still have extensive, long-term plans, my openness to suggestions increases drastically at this point as I'm no longer working towards a prewritten scene. In some ways, this can be regarded as the true beginning of MSA.

5. "Lapides murorum dicebat in voluntatem sua. Solum cognoscebat muros quae stabat supra id. Centrum cavum inventum erit. Facito chartam labyrinthi." should mean, "The stones of these walls speak of their purpose. The ground knows the walls that stand upon it. The hollow centre shall be found. Map the labyrinth."

6. "Vestri gratia Strenua sit. Quamquam hic corpus iacet nocitus et vulneratus, is ascenderit denuo et factus erit sanus. Omne carnes factum erit statis optimis suis. Denuo, hic corpus est sanus denuo. Is est potis ad habebit mundum denuo. Medicato vulnera parva." Should mean, "The grace of Strenua be with you. Though this body lies beaten and damaged, it shall rise once more and be made whole! All flesh shall return to its optimal state. Once more, this body is healthy again. It is ready to endure the world again. Cure light wounds." Strenua or Strenia is the Roman goddess of strength and endurance.

7. Some were wondering about the divergence point of our AUs. Well, unless I decide to make it earlier for some reason, the divergence point for MSA is Chao's arrival in the timeline because she is NOT the Chao we know and love. In fact, MSA!Chao is less like canon!Chao than I believe anyone has realised (well, those at TVTropes started to work it out and began asking questions so I explained.).

8. Medinoc wanted to know what Negi would have read from Chao. My answer: Probably a lot of spoilers. But she was never intending to get a reading from him anyway.

9. I've been convinced to put links to the pactio cards on my profile page. Besides the old ones, Mana's card from Anya, Asuna's pactio card from Negi and Kotaro's pactio card from Anya should be there. For Asuna's card from Anya, it has her canon card's front and the back is the same as Anya's other cards. You already know what Setsuna and Konoka's card's look like. Also, you may have noticed by now that I really like it when Asuna wears armour.

10. dRoy said, "Haruna's reasoning [in convincing the others to pactio] is much more effective than it should be". My response: True. But I get the feeling that Haruna would be able to manipulate Anya and Asuna pretty easily.

11. Before anyone asks, the latest chapters do not joss any scenes here. They do give them more implications though.

12. Boristus said: Truly, Hakase's eyes see all. Or Chao keeps her informed. My response: It's a bit of both. (More of the latter though.)

13. Yeah, I decided not to replicate Satomi's wall of text.

14. Yes, I know. But that "20% cooler" meme was begging to be put there. And I was suffering from pony withdrawal at the time.

15. "Erchomai, fotia apo pyrkagia, karfitsono kato. Kafteros gipedo pirouni." should mean, "Come, fire of the inferno, pin down. Flaming pitchfork." But I'm even less confident about that than normal. Translating to Ancient Greek is harder than Latin.

16. To clear up some worries that Nightmare Syndrome had, the reason that Negi and Anya are supporting Chao is that as I tried to establish in chapter 1, Anya and Negi see a big difference between erasing the last few minutes and erasing multiple old memories. Most other mages do too. Chao's a special case and Negi and Anya don't see how Chao could require such treatment, due to Negi's idealism and the fact that Chao is one of the flatter members of the class.

17. Dundundahah! Cliffhanger!:-3 B-)

18. A few things from recent reviews: On Kotaro: Believe it or not, his chauvinism has been reducing ever since he first showed up. Just...slowly. He's not that different from canon!Kotaro after all.

19. Mana's presence and pactio weren't luck. It's what Chao ordered in a previous scene that I left deliberately vague.

20. Nekane is meant to be pretty powerful. I wanted it to make sense that she's managed to cope so long without a partner. Even with all the unwanted attention gained from being a Springfield. Canon!Negi passed her while training under Rakan and she's still learning (though at a much slower rate).

21. For those who are wondering about Negi's insistence at remaining a fortune teller, he has to stick with his assignment if he wants to up his rank which, naturally, he does. This is something that those with experience with Western mages would understand well.

22. Japanese Teeth has expressed concerns about Negi acting a little too much like the protagonist and the girls falling for him or becoming overly familiar with him too quickly. These are valid points and I tried to tone that down a bit in editing, but I do have stuff to say in my defence. Firstly, I never intended Negi to be a side character in this fic. He's more important to it than, for instance, Kotaro is in canon (actually Kotaro is also more important in this fic than he is in canon as well). Secondly, I see Negi's chick magnetism as naturally increasing over time, making those he meets later more susceptible to it. Thirdly, some of the girls knew quite a bit about Negi even before meeting him. Chachamaru actually knows more about Negi than Negi does. Fourthly, this chapter is a month long and includes daily practice sessions in Eva's resort.

23. Accidently placed the chapter withing itself. Fixed.