Okay, here we go. We are finally at the Mahora Festival. Whoopee. Expect me to go crazy here. I've been debating on this part of the story for a long time. A very long time. Longer than this story has been around even, for, if you remember, the previous version of this story is still on my roster list. Expect some insanity and some regality. Speaking of regality....
Oh, did I mention I don't own Negima?
Another thing, I still have a poll up. It only has seven unique voters on it. I'll wait until it claims thirty of them, or perhaps fifty. Then I will take it down....I already have another poll waiting for it after that, but afterwards, I'll give the polls a rest for a bit. I have another story I'm debating on writing, but everyone seems to want me to stick to one. We'll see.
A slight mistake. I typed in "Fulgoris" out of habit on the mental spell Negi unleashed, but I meant "Grandinis." I'll change it. Just in case someone saw the other way, I am sorry there...done. Changed. I also, finally, changed the chapter titles to roman numerals. Now I can put more of my actual chapter title on there.
Yes ArchangelWings, all of them are fourteen to sixteen years of age.
+---+
Chapter Twenty Four: Wishful Thinking.
"Nyaaaah!"
What else could she say? Chao held on as best she could to Setsuna's form, feeling like a tiny, helpless child as the girl jumped from rooftop to rooftop to avoid the shadowy forms of dark puppets that were following them. Negi and Kotarou were not far behind, smacking down upon the flat rooftop of a building, kicking up gravelly tar in a spray of black dust before they broke into a run to reach a good vantage point for the next roof.
Negi's hands were glowing, and his familiar, one Albert Chamomile, was hanging on for his own dear life in one of the boy's coat chest pockets. He needlessly yelled to Negi that using magic at this time, in broad daylight, was a bad idea, something Negi gritted his teeth and grumbled at, for he already knew that.
While she hung on to brace for another rooftop, Chao couldn't help but look over to where Negi was. This little boy was supposed to grow up to feed her line. She tried to compare him to the extremely old and hard headed man she knew and loved. It just did not fit. Not only was this boy younger than he was supposed to be, he was already so bitter and world weary....the Negi Springfield she had known had an action filled life, but he wasn't dark and bitter...
Although a person could change, she could only assume that when she jumped back in time, she snagged the wrong timeline. Her own timeline, the one she came from, was probably a few stops back...she had always thought the ride here had been a bit too bumpy...or maybe Springfield was lying about his age and life, trying to save her from undue sympathy? Maybe the old codger just forgot...
Her head slammed into Setsuna's midsection as they landed on another roof, and Negi was the second one there, kicking up more gravel in a spray and spinning around, letting loose powerful, brilliant arrows of light right at the opponent, which exploded on contact and looked artfully like fireworks.
Clever. Making your magic look like fireworks. She could faintly hear a few trademark "oooh's" and "ahh's" from the crowd of students below. Surely it would feel like a festival to them now! Negi shot off more arrows at a different angle, catching a few of the dark puppets from where they were trying to swoop in from the side. Kotarou joined him with a few well placed blasts of his own.
"Got damn puppets. Come closer so I can cut your damn strings and feed you to the chipper, I dare you!"
Setsuna jumped off the rooftop they were on, although she did not aim for another one, and Chao's stomach plummetted as they fell. The idiot was heading right for the alleyway! Negi jumped down right alongside her, and Kotarou followed after shooting off the last of the dark puppets. Setsuna landed softly, despite the speed at which she feel, which went easy on the scientists jarred nerves. If they had caught her and erased her memories, her entire plan would be ruined...and she'd be stuck here with no idea that she belonged in the future. Feh.
Negi landed easily next to Setsuna by jumping off a few walls. Kotarou went for a more noisy, "manly" approach and just flew straight down, right into a dumpster he had not anticipated being there. Negi, whipping around at the crash, rolled his eyes and walked over to the bin, kicking it on it's rubber side so it made no more noise than a dull thud, and it's lid fell down with a definitive clunk.
"Finally, you decide to go in the trash where you belong, dog breath. Just try to make more noise on your way in why don't you, I could barely hear you that time."
The sarcasm was lost on the hanyo, who popped his head out of the dumpster, his face looking a bit hurt while his voice was angry. He seemed to forget it was time to be quiet...
"WHO YOU CALLIN-"
Negi cut him off with a sharp retort, bitten off at the end and proclaimed in his trademark deadly calm, whisper of a voice.
"Zip it, you bag of fleas. Can't you tell it's time to play the quiet game?"
Kotarou may be a hot head, but he wasn't stupid. He shut up instantly, realizing what he had been doing for the past minute or so, and extended his senses to sweep the area, just like Chamo and Setsuna had already been doing. Chao, out of her element, stayed off to the side where Setsuna had put her down, looking at Negi swivel his head this way and that, as if to cock those human ears like a wolf might, to get a sense of where it was.
"There are three groups of them out there."
This came from Kotarou, who seemed to have finally crawled out of the dumpster and was in scout mode, straining his ears to catch another glimpse at the odd, calculated footsteps of those who were chasing them. He himself, being familiar with the use of summoned spirits, knew that whomever had fired off those puppets had to be close. Setsuna added her input to the pool he had created.
"I can't determine the size of the, but they already have us surrounded. They have to be small to travel inconspicuously, and I have a feeling the largest party is only comprised of three."
Negi narrowed his eyes and turned his head slightly to the side to nod at Setsuna. His eyes moved up to the roof, which was a slinet indication of where he wished her to go. He took a glance at Kotarou, and indicated his head to the back ot eh alley they were in. He himself focuses on the front, and his voice was not even above a whisper as his face came dangerously close to bruising itself on the brick wall he was leaning against.
"Three opponents, three parties. I'll go to the front, Kotarou-san, behind, Setsuna-san, the top. Kotarou, I don't need to tell you to stay in the crowd, we'll surprise them by initiating. Chamo, get off me and stay with Chao-san. I don't need to ask you if you blocked mundane telepathy, do I? Good. Move."
Three parties shot out, and Negi was the first to spot his target, three robed figure walking along at a measured pace. Negi zeroed in on them just as Setsuna landed on the rooftop and charged her lone target, who turned around to initiate. Kotarou sped and managed to snag his target, weaving in and out through the crowd to capture them from behind.
It was a good plan, just against the wrong party. Negi reared back his fist as his opponent turned around, revealing herself to be one person with two shadow apparitions, and his fist froze an inch from her midsection as he recognized who she was from the mages meeting not a day before. Kotarou found himself mentally beating himself up, for he had attacked a girl who seemed to have caved in at first sight of him, getting bowled over in a very undignified fashion. Setsuna paused in mid-strike to see she was about to hit one of Mahora's faculty members.
All in all, it was not a pretty thing to find out you were fighting amongst yourselves. Negi found out they had been after Chao because she had found out the existence of Magic, and was labeled as dangerous because she had been warned three times before. Still, the boy argued upon their methods of attack on one of his students, and he found himself on the wrong end of an ermine transfiguration threat. Yet, in the end, Negi won out, and the three who had come to capture Chao left, all a bit when about sixty seven percent of the party was reluctant to do so...Negi then found himself on the wrong end of Chao's gratitude, and she gave him an odd magical trinket as her thanks for "saving her life". What was this, a video game where he got a mission prize for completing the quest?!
+--1--+
The sounds of carnival music warming up to the times, the wind was nonexistent as the sun beat down, there was not a cloud in the sky. All was beautiful and calm with Mahora, well, as beautiful and as calm as Mahora can get on any given day. The sun was just about to decide to get on with setting, and the local bullet train was rolling into Mahora, letting some college students with late classes and night workers out, and accepting some late leaving workers and students heading home in. The train also let out one familiar, blonde haired woman, who stared out past the open air turnstile of the station to set her eyes on the campus of Mahora.
Arika Anarchia Entheofushia, or Arika Springfield, had finally landed on Mahora campus to feast her eyes on it's visage in the daylight. It was huge, quite a bit larger than she had anticipated, and, even at this hour, there were so many girls milling about, Nagi and Rakkan would have probably lost all of their blood and died "happy men in heaven" or some such other nonsense.
In all honesty though, what was Japan feeding it's children these days anyway? Those girls were a bit too mature looking for her liking. This was why so many got into trouble, looking older than their years and sneaking into clubs or what not... the degradation of morals was appalling! Still, who was she to talk? She nearly got executed on the base of "improper" behavior for royalty, and then, scandalously, was rescued and escaped, fleeing to the old world and having a child.
She sighed and picked up her light luggage, going through the turnstile with a bit of difficulty, it wasn't made for people with luggage in their hands it seemed, and she had neglected to notice the access door on the side, so she struggled a bit for it. She got through relatively quickly however, and sped off for the campus in the distance to make up for lost time. Her heart measured her pace, but that beat was also for the proximity to her destination, the nervousness she felt for meeting her son on his turf.
Before, Negi had been on her grounds and had been a bit subdued, without his natural magic, he had little control over the situation, and her appearance had sent his mentality reeling. Now however, he was in his element, and his magic was pulsing freely through his fingers. He could happily blast her right back through the door she came through when she walked into his dorm room, his power was sufficient for it....
..and while she could handle Nagi's overbearing idiocy at times with royal magic, which, no matter Nagi's power, superseded him because it was of a higher arch, she could not do that to Negi. He was hardly idiotic, and that same royal magic flowed through his own veins, more powerful than even her own, if untrained. Negi was a quick learner, and you could hardly pull the same trick on him twice. He almost instantaneously devised a way to prevent you from pulling it again, and learned how to implement the trick himself to boot.
She continued to travel at her measured pace, simply listening to her shoes hit the sidewalk for awhile. It was here that she felt something reach for her. A large mental presence that clumsily flitted about, flying like a buffalo would if it had a bees wings. She, out of instinct, clenched down her mind, hardening her conscious until it erected a shield about her mind, in which nothing could enter or no thoughts could leave, but the huge conscious fell on her mind with a heavy, consuming blow, and shattered her fortifications, leaving her mentally breathless, her body swayed a bit on the road.
A voice, far too loud and booming it's authority, slowly turned down it's volume as it painstakingly lifted itself off of her own mind, giving her a chance to breathe. She recognized the voice and marveled at the size and power that was behind it, even if she paled at the closeness that she had just attained to losing her mind.
Shit. I still don't know how to frigging fly this thing.
Negi was trying to drive his own mind for one, initiating the royal magic extension of telepathy, which, unlike mundane tactics, which used up magic and or needed a pactio, had no such restrictions, it did not even tire out the mind unless one was trying to reach someone extremely far away, which Negi was not. The more powerful the mind, the farther someone had to be for that distance to be called far.
Negi...?! My god, you almost killed me!
She felt a mental shrug, which almost equated to an earthquake where she was. Negi lifted his mind off hers a bit more, striving for the kind of simple connection Arika could achieve, but the simple fact that his mind was just that much faster and stronger than hers meant he had to hold back so much more of his contact ability than she did.
Hey, this is my first time trying what you do oh so easily. You never taught me anywho. Hell if I know what the heck I'm doing here. Am I still too loud?
Still to loud? He was making her deaf. While her mentality told all, she still answered him. After all, it was incredible for the boy to be able to actually make contact on his first try after all. Phenomenal, absolutely so.
...A bit. You're still weighing down on me too...
The weight lifted a bit, almost painfully, and Arika could almost feel his consciousness "creak" as he tried to reign in his the gravity of his mind to a suitable amount to allow them to talk, one to the other.
All right, all right, keep your panties on while I adjust...
She should keep her panties on. Well sure, just don't kill me, will yah...finally, the weight settled into a more manageable amount, and as she responded, she felt him lifting more off and putting more on, as if experimenting with how much he could place upon her mentally and still have her be comfortable.
Negi, why are you trying to contact me, did something happen?
The boy scoffed, and his mental aura bristled at the thought of him being "helpless" enough for him to need to call her for anything serious as such. He was a lone player and he liked it that way. He called for help little, only trained and pushed himself harder so he wouldn't even think about needing help.
I'm "calling" you to tell you you're headed the wrong flipping way, you're headed towards the college campus, and I am on the middle school one. I'm also testing out this area of royal magics to get a feel for it. Hell I'f I'm going to let you continue popping in on me whenever you feel like and I can't tell when you are...or stop you.
I also saw you trying to stop my contact, although I couldn't stop my connection at that point and broke your shield...that's the next thing I'm going to master. Blocking you from contacting me. I've seen you do it, so all I have to do is emulate the technique, right? Speaking of which, since I can do this now, I can take an eye for an eye....
You try to contact me without any warning, and I'll come knocking on your door...with all of the weight and gravity behind my thoughts behind me. Think about that next time you want to give me a late night call for no damn reason Arika. I've set the table, and dinners ready. We're expecting you soon.
Negi left her leaning against a building she didn't remember running by, her luggage having left her hands and fallen to the ground, were it sat, looking dejected in the setting sun's dying light. She was breathing hard, as if she had just come from a marathon, and her mind felt like it had just been wrung by a pro wrestler like a sponge before an elephant decided to sit on it.
Negi wouldn't try and crush her consciousness underneath his own weight, would he? She was his mother after all...yet, even as she thought that, her mind replayed Negi slicing viciously right through a demon's neck and then smacking his head clean off his body with a decisive swipe. He wouldn't not do anything, that was his point. He was hard enough by now to hate his own father. What was stopping him from crushing the mind of his mother?
She shivered a bit and picked up her bags from where they had fallen. The table was set for her already, and they would be expecting her. A nice way to end a chilling conversation, started just for the sole reason to tell her she was going the wrong way. She noticed her body had stopped conveniently right next to a map of the campus grounds.
Conveiniently, or by Negi's design? The boy was powerful and crafty after all. If he knew how to contact her now, what was stopping him from learning the next level of extension to this art? The usage of your mind to overwhelm another, driving them crazy, crushing their mind completely, or...or taking control of their body through their mind, while they helplessly watched, or rendering them completely unable to resist by snatching that awareness too.
Then there was the visible extension of royal magic, the things she had used to reign in even Nagi's impressive powers. If Negi learned that, there would most likely be nothing to very little that would be able to stop him, he who was the genetic combination of a powerhouse hero and a royal genius...
Arika made no motion to show her thoughts as she studied the map in front of her. It didn't take her long to find out where she had to go, and, fingering it with one pink nailed index, she mentally imprinted the route from here to there, before turning around dutifully and walking off at a measured pace where she had to go.
+--2--+
Nightfall fell on a peaceful Mahora Campus...I don't need to tell you what I mean by peaceful right? Good. A couple of parties began to build up in momentum, many students, to excited to sleep, were deciding to get a head start on the festivities by starting now. Negi on the other hand, wanted nothing more but to catch some shut eye.
Yet still, his life would not let him achieve this simple joy, for it was Negi's life were talking about, and he never gets any peace, for the heavens above won't let him. Currently, he was washing dishes while his mother, now chatting with Konoka, spared him a glance every now and again. Was she afraid he was going to vanish into thin air? Or was she afraid she was going to be the one doing a disappearing act? '
When she had first walked through the door, he had noticed she had looked different. More like the pictures in history books depicting Ostian Royalty, and the Queen of Calamity. Her hair was lighter, had face a bit younger, and her eyes a different color. Before, they had been that of the light colored, mossy bedrock, which was just deep enough in the water to have a blue tinge, now it was hazel.
It was obvious that, in order to shy away suspicions from potential mages, she had gone with small changes in her appearance, but to simply drop them upon coming here was brash, illogical, unless she thought herself completely safe now, that or she just wanted to meet her son face to face, actual face to face.
For Negi, he had his night planned ahead of him. He would do some training, take his shower and hightail it to his designated patch of carpet for this weekend. Anya had his room, Arika had his couch, so he had to take up a patch of floor for himself, and no, he was not going to sleep with his mother, he had long since out grown that, he never even got into that phase. The day he slept with his mother was the day he was going to see the world end in front of his very eyes, or the day he lay on his death bed.
Finally finishing with his dishes, Negi put them to dry on a cloth he had laid out on the counter and picked up a wet rag, rinsing it in some warm water and wringing it dry before he went to wipe the counters. The rag glided smoothly over the surface, but Negi's mind was running circles on a Ferris wheel of the things he had to do come the beginning of the festival. His students had bombarded him, and each wanted him to make time to visit them do something. How the hell was he going to get it all done? There was one Negi, one day in which he could do it all, and thirty one students to placate. Hell if he knew what he was going to do.
He shook himself out of a trance when he realized he was wiping the same area for the third time and went back to the sink to rinse off the cloth again so he could wring it and hang it to dry. He then grabbed his coat and HeartBreaker, piquing Arika's interest with that simple action. Negi regretted it the moment she turned around and her eyes landed on him.
"Where are you going Negi?"
God, another person who resorted to calling him just Negi, but this one had authority to do so. She was his mother, and so she needed no honorific in using his name. Negi sighed and, defeated, he turned around to allow his eyes to meet hers, which burned a with their surprising hazel to his ember red.
"I'm going to train, Arika. It's what I do before going to bed. It's how I relax, how I get tired enough to go to sleep."
Arika looked him up and down. She'd never actually seen him train before, but to think he did it every night as a habit...! Yet, even as she was about to discard it as an excuse to get out of the dorm room, she remembered just how dedicated the boy was in his arts. How quickly he picked up things. Perhaps not all of it was just from him being a genius, perhaps quite a bit of his ability to pick up things so quickly was due to his extreme hard work, the amount of time in a single day he put into learning and perfecting his skills. She got up, and as she rose, Negi's face fell, yet the woman would not be denied.
"I'm coming with you then, I'd like to see your routine. There's no harm in that, is there?"
The boy let out a breath through his nose and looked away from her, towards the bathroom. Yet he wasn't really seeing the bathroom, he was seeing past the place, to his own little world where he could debate in peace about such things as letting his mother see him in his daily training routine. He mutely make a "come on" gesture with his right hand as his left gripped HeartBreaker all the tighter. Arika caught the message and picked up her coat from where it had been on the couch before following him out.
"Come on if you want then, just don't get in my way."
A bit later, Arika could only stare. Negi had begun his training with a bit of what he called "warming up". He had pulled his short sword from its sheath under his clothes and held it bare with HeartBreaker in the other, which sprang into a brilliant blood red glow. Negi held them both out in an "x" like formation before he lunged forward into the air, bringing both blades out to slash straight down vertically before his foot pushed him right back into his starting position, stopping him on a dime.
He did this a few times, lunge and slash, jump back, and stop and repeat... before, when he lunged forwards again, he continued slashing, wheeling his arms now to slash from the upper left or upper right to the lower right or lower left. His blade came out, flashed down and traveled to his back before coming around again. He continued this for about twenty seconds... then he stopped his blades in midair and began a flurry of forward stabbing with them. This carried on for about thirty more seconds before he became still again.
Negi then extended his blades out and began to spin around with them, slowly at first, and then faster until he became a near whirlwind of steel in her eyes, blades flashing out at all different heights available to him as he spun, managing to stay in one place like a top. He tried to stop on command, but his momentum carried his blade for a while before he could force them to halt.
He sheathed his blades and quickly jumped up in the air, pulling his daggers from his boot soles in one fluid moment and slashing at the air in front of him. He spun the weapons in his hands, going faster and faster until they became discs of brilliant metal, which he used to slice at the air and pivot them on command, changing direction in mid-slash at the height of momentum to force his muscles to respond. His daggers flew back into the soles of his boots and, almost faster than she could see, kunais were in his hands from his pockets, which spun and snapped in one direction before Negi threw them quickly in the direction of a nearby tree.
They almost touched the tree, but stopped a few inches from the bark, glowing green before they zoomed back into his hands, only to be thrown off again in a different tree's direction. His aim was near perfect, although she did notice that his last throw almost had one of his kunais hanging in midair. They zoomed back to him and his gun came forward fro it's holster, and the boy spun around throwing up dark spheres Arika assumed were targets. He raised his gun and shot them down, three, five, ten, eighteen, twenty, twenty five, they fell to the ground, glowing green. Yet one landed near her feet, and it was dark. Had he neglected to shoo it in fear of getting her instead?
His face showed a grimace of anger as his gun went back into its holster and his hands came out now, an odd tattoo along his wrist glowing brightly as he resisted into the cool night air.
"Rastel, Mascir, Magister, Sagitta Magica, Trignita Spiritus Lucis!"
Sagitta Magica Trignita Spiritus Ingus!
Even as the arrows of light ripped from one palm, and the arrows of fire ripped from another, flying into the sky, Negi was not done as he called up arrows of ice and darkness right afterwards, allowing those two to join their fellow in the sky before the other two disappeared. The boy sent a few of lightning and of wind right after them, and finally called up the rare arrows of earth, which were slower than their other arrow counterparts but had more power behind them in the momentum department. Yet Negi still wasn't done as he pointed to a different angle in the sky, yelling out once more his power to the night air.
"Evocatio Valcyriarum Contubernalia Gladiaro!, Age Capiant!, Contra Pugnent!"
Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis Centum, Iaculatio Grandinis!
From around him, stemming from his right hand, came the magic to call up the mid level copies he had summoned of himself, yet from his left came lances of Ice, which bored down upon his copies and neatly anihalated each and every one of them, kicking up smoke and dust in the wind, which masked Negi from view, but did nothing to mask his voice, which was still reciting magic to throw at the air.
"Sagitta Magica, Quinquagnita Spiritus Obscurans!"
Sagitta Magica, Quinquagnita Spiritus Lucis!
Both sets of arrows sprung from Negi's fingertips, dancing in the night, but Negi looked up at them as they soared, and, in the height of their flight, he reached for them with his hands and clenched them into fists, redirecting them to come right back down at himself, where he waited until the final seconds, near impact before he began a fevered dance.
Dodging in and out, all around, the boy spun to avoid his own arrows as they slammed into the ground, canceling in neat tome with the rhythm his feet beat out. Not an arrow even came close to touching him, it seemed like he was used to doing this before. His mouth opened again, this time forming a curious spell.
"A universitas per pacis, per somnium, per vita , vultus inter mihi , adveho in res , Rectus of Decor."
Around her, around them both, a brilliant light came into being, Arika had to shield her eyes to the blinding light. Yet, when it faded, she was met with an incredible sight.
It was daytime, and the two of them were in a field of flowers, beautiful, numerous flowers. Several little insects, butterflies, mantises even dragonflies, flitted by, a tug on her pants alerted her to the ground, where a squirrel had run over her shoes for a nut on the ground. It was wonderfully warm here, peaceful, even the wind, which chose that time to sent a soft gust, carried the perfume of the area around them.
Where were they? She looked at Negi, who was frowning. He held his hand out, and a butterfly actually landed right in it, peacefully flitting it's wings. He turned to her, and the insect flew away. She looked about a bit more, and her eyes fixed on a hummingbird flitting from one flower to the next. Negi shook his head.
"As always, it is beautiful and full of detail, sometimes I wish I could make this real..."
Make it real? That meant...wait...if this wasn't real, then Negi could cast....illusion magic?! Yet, an illusion this detailed would take incredible focus, or an incredible...and incredible mind, just like the boy's who stood in front of her, as a red tern called from a tree in the distance before flying off. He sighed and raised his arms.
"Se Dissolvant Circumstantia Falsa!"
Just like the illusion it was, the world around them frankly shattered into a million pieces, revealing the dark night in Mahora city for what it was. Arika blinked. That...that was simply...incredible, but Negi looked unhappy.
"A true master of illusion would have been able to spin a world at least ten miles in radius from the center, and fill it with false people and a truly layered life, just like our actual existence, they would even be able to muddle the victims mind to the point in which they believe they lived here their entire life, and they had a place in this false society, yet, what can I do? Create something maybe thirty meters at most, and fill it with the simplest of life forms, programmed to perform simple actions. The rest is mist. I can't even create a proper muddling of minds, only allow the victim to accept their surroundings for a few seconds."
He looked over to Arika. His face was blank even as his bearing was disappointed. Magic pooled in his hands again. He was about to try one of his creations...This spell had drained him before, but now, he was confident, now, after Swallowthorn, he was certain he could cast it. Raising his hands to the smoke around him still suspended in air from his arrows, and he recited:
"Aestuo continuo in nox noctis meus flamma incidere per obscurum valde levitas, convenio...ego sum vestri famulatus rip continuo, Abyssus...Levitas!"
Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes...Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!
Both the higher arch he had created and an original higher mid level spell ripped from his palms, just as the dust had cleared so Arika could see. Negi had been bold today, unbelievably bold, for he had been fired by the need to let himself see just how far he could push himself, let his mother see just how little she could mess with him. He could only hold the both of them for about five seconds, but those five seconds had to have been the longest ones Arika had ever felt, besides all those long seconds with Nagi. Seeing the boy spew such power from his small form, she was filed with both a fierce pride and a touch of fear. This was her son at his spell work. He fell to his knees after that stunt, and Arika, breaking out of a trance, ran to him.
But the boy quickly sprang to his feet and fixed her with a glare that rooted her feet ot he spot she had traveled to. His hands went up to the sky again, determined to prove to her he was not a weak child to be protected, he was Negi Springfield, a professor of English, a professor of numerous degrees, a magister magi. His mouth opened again, and he recited yet another spell, this time focusing on a large boulder on the ground, off to the side, near the trees.
"Incendia Laqueus!, Undecim Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Fulguratio Albicans!"
Ex Somno Exsistat Exurens Salamandra Inimicum Involvat Igne! Captus Flammeus....Flet Une Vente! Flans Saltatio Pulverea!
Needless to say, as Negi fell again to one knee, completely drained of his stores of magic for the night, the boulder had never received so much abuse and crumbled to dust. First being captured in a cage of fire and darkness, then having fiery ropes snake around it to strangle it before the lances of lightning ripped forward and struck it right through and through, finally shattering it before the final spell sent it all blowing away. Negi was breathing hard at the end of that last blast, but he was smiling, or at least, he was smirking.
Arika looked down at him from where he was. Nagi used to carry a book of spells, and would flit through it to find the one he needed. Master of a Thousand Spells, he was called, but at most he might cram and remember six spells and then almost instantly forget them all the moment he saw a pretty girl or something.
Yet, Negi had just recited, off the top of his head, nine spells or so, and she knew he had not let out his big gun, the end of the world spell he was shown to be capable of casting, even more capable than she knew, because of his catalyst stores. Negi had not even recited his Deflexio, which, as Anya had told her, he was a master in manipulating. He had not called any barrier spells he knew, and who knew how many of them Negi could cast.
Perhaps, if he was given time to grow up and train, he would overcome Nagi. In fact, if he was put in the same situations Nagi had, she had no doubt the boy would, but she prayed he would never have to go through something like a full fledged war...
The boy stood up by himself, fixing her with another glare. No help. At all, that was what he was saying in those eyes. She backed off a bit and let him be. Her son was a maze, and there was only one correct path, all others where instant pitfalls. She had yet to find the right path, she kept falling down holes. She'd find it though, she had to.
+--3--+
The festival has begun, and Negi has a long list of things to do, obviously. Just thank god that he woke up early so he could study just what the heck was the object Chao had given him. So far, the only thing he could tell was that it was magical, looked like a watch, needed a ton of magic to operate, more than he had, and that it was probably something that would be labeled politely under: Forbidden Artifacts, in a library.
He still decided to carry it with him though, as he went over his list of things to do. He had to visit just about everyone while he patrolled the grounds and keep a promise to Nodoka about an explanation of his magic. Hell if he knew how he was going to keep a date in all of this, but he would. First on his list was a visit to what else but a haunted house, perfect for the late October air and mood...
Negi later found that his students wanted him to "help" them in the horror house, which meant they wanted him to put on a costume. He was fine being Dracula, but when another student approached with something fishy, he bared his fake teeth and hissed. Nope, he was not going to dress up in something stupid, no way, no how, they should know that by now. Negi left the haunted house a bit later, after scaring off a couple college kids by hiding in the drapes on the "ceiling" of the house and dropping down on them all like a bat out of hell, lunging at them and screaming bloody murder.
After that bit of fun, Negi visited Konoka's "fortune telling" stall, he had met Kotarou along the way, along with the class president, so he took them for a ride. Kotarou received "Worst of luck." from her, which really put a damper on his spirits, although it gave Negi a bit of a smirk for the dog boy. It wasn't long before Negi was in the martial art's dojo, visiting Ku Fei to do an exhibition against the general public. Unlike the other students, who went easy and occasionally lost on purpose, Negi had no such mercy against the opponent. If they challenged him, they were going down.
He did make sure to take them down as quickly as possible however, he did not prolong their suffering, which was perhaps the only plus to the whole situation of smacking them down. Yet, Negi could only stay for a few minutes. He left in a hurry, going to change and freshen up, or he would miss his little chat with Nodoka, and the girl was a wreck enough without getting stood up.
He bumped into someone on the way however...
"Ahh, Sensei! This is the first time I've seen you today, which surprises me. You don't have to be so careful with it, you know?"
Negi narrowed his eyes a tad. What was she talking about? She seemed to look at him expectantly, as if waiting for an answer, and Negi felt like he had missed something. He cocked an eyebrow.
"Excuse me?"
She looked him up and down, and then mentally slapped her forehead. Of course, she hadn't given him the manual last time, baka. She reached into the pocket of her current outfit, and there it was, her finger caressed the edge of the book gently. Should she give it to him? Last time, she had given it to him out of thankfulness, but she didn't have to give him everything, did she?
Her mind flashed back to the future, or her past.
An old man was there. The backs of his hands held an innumerable amount of wrinkles, the veins outstanding and blue. Yet in those fingers one could see an incredible strength. Long, flowing silver hair fell from his head, sheeting down to the middle of his back, shining in the dim light. Even in his incredible age, he still had a full head of it, and it still shone as it had in youth. One of those hands reached out and quickly tugged a scrap of paper form in between a shelf of books.
"My dear girl...."
He turned around, and she could see the face. Strong of jaw he was proud, and his thin physique allowed his face to still carry some youth, youth it shouldn't have held. Yet his eyes showed bags and the skin was thin, soft to the touch. Yet, even as she clutched the object in her hands to her body tighter, she knew that this man was still near indomitable.
"Take this with you. It's the manual for that. This device will let you escape them...go and do what you must. I may try to stop you in my younger state, but even in performing that action, I calculate I will be put on a course to achieve the goal you seek to anyway, that is, if you fail. Try to go for as young as possible in the world, if you can manage, before I am even born, although this may stop my birth, I care not. I've lived long enough..."
Her eyes grew wide at that. Stop his birth..? Never! He was her confidant, her best friend. Only he knew all the secrets, only he could understand her. His mind was incredible, even at his age, when the government knocked on his door every other day to check if he had become senile yet. Never would she try to stop his birth...he bent down to come to eye level with her, and his hand came out to stroke her hair while the other put the paper in between the device and her chest, where she clutched it too.
"Don't be too soft my child. You know my mind now, know that this same mind will be against you if you come to a time where I am alive. A bit less experienced, but no less clever and reams worth more agile. If you can prevent my birth, do it, for my influence in this world, while great, is nothing compared to what the world would have been had I not been born..."
Those words echoed...but she had not the guts at the time to travel before he had been born on her timeline, she had not even, in her naiveté, even wound up on the right timeline, even though, in her traveling back to this point, it mattered not which one she was in, not really. She pulled out the manual and handed it to him...like he had to her all those years afterwards. God, that still doesn't make any sense...not even after living two years in the past. It was his invention, he had created the Cassiopeia, and all the models afterwards...up to model number three, which she held close to her heart.
"The manual, ne. I forgot to give it to you yesterday. Silly, ne. I'll see you, Negi-bozo!"
Just like that, she was gone, and the boy didn't get to see her sniff, yet even if he did, no tears would come from her, she had given those up long ago, when she traveled back in time and gave up her Sensei, the great Magus, Negi Springfield, for the world's future...
+--4--+
Negi clutched the thing to him tightly, the Cassiopeia, it was called. For some reason, the handwriting seemed incredibly familiar, as if he himself knew very well the hand that wrote it, but he had never really seen the writing style quite before...he had a feeling he had seen one eerily similar however. The book Chao gave him expressed in simple words how to use the device, and what it did.
In essence, it was a time machine.
That alone was incredible. Negi looked up into the sky. At this time and place, a great amount of magic was flitting through the sky. Negi had been forced to "stand up" Nodoka in the end of this day, for, after Chao had bumped into him, several errands assaulted him, including patrolling. He had gotten to her just in time to tell her he could not go, for another teacher approached him with duties.
She had seemed fine, but he saw the say she had dressed. She had been expecting him to go along with her...hoping for it even, by the way she barely held her face together. Perhaps it was just his incredible intuition but...He caressed the object in his hands...so small, and so familiar. The craftsmanship seemed to echo something deep inside him, yet still be somehow foreign.
He stared up at the dark, cool night. He was alone, but that was the way he wanted it. If this was fake, a falsehood, he wanted to be alone in his idiocy. Based on the fact that the world tree was active, he could use the incredible amount of magic it was spewing out to use this. He closed one hand over the front of the watch-like apparatus, and focused. If he was being an idiot, well then, let him be an idiot.
The magic he called up swirled around him before getting sucked into the device in his hands, drawing upon his power and that around him, and feeding on his desire, where he wanted to go in time. The swirl of magic consumed him, and when it dissipated, no sign of him was there...
... ... ...
Negi opened his eyes and had to shield them from the bright sun. Hell? He looked off from where he was, on a balcony of sorts. He had to dodge back his head, for a shadow puppet flew by, almost knocking him silly. Negi almost instinctively shot at it as it flew past, but just in that moment, an exploding arrow hit it from the front, and Negi ducked to peep between the railing bars, to see his own face off in the distance, set in a hard grimace before spinning around and shooting at more of the shadow puppets, this time coming from the side.
He really couldn't believe his eyes. He had forgotten that this balcony was near the place where he had fought on the rooftops against those things this morning. No, not forgotten, just hadn't thought about it. Now he was witnessing that same event again, in a different perspective. He saw Setsuna jump down between the alleyways, and saw himself jump down after her. It was extremely odd...seeing yourself do something like that, and knowing it's not a video.
Negi waited a bit before getting back up. He heard a crash and smirked. It must be Kotarou crashing into that damn dumpster again. He took a glance at his watch. Hell, it still said 8:48 PM. But when he called up a spell, it claimed it was the same day as his watch, but the time was not 8:48 PM, it was 8:39 AM. Leave it to magic to supersede some minor technologies like his watch. Hell, he had a whole day to do...whatever! It was an addicting feeling, but he reigned it in.
Time travel was not something you wanted to get hooked on, for obvious reasons...
Negi looked down at his current clothing, pajamas. Well, he was in the dorm, alone. Why the hell not change and go back out? He would just have to watch out and make sure not to run into...well, himself. He smiled at that. Now he was his own worst enemy, and that was a feeling you didn't get everyday. Only he had the advantage here. Avoidance is best played when you know exactly where you opponent is going to be at any given time after all.
This time, Negi drunk in the sights and sounds of the festival, going for a more relaxed approach instead of rushing around doing errands. He took an earlier shift to patrol by relieving Takahata and swearing him to secrecy on it, after all, why would the man want to admit he left his duty? He took a glance around and spotted Yue and Nodoka walking around. He approached them and tapped Yue on the shoulder, making the girl spin around. She almost fell, but the boy caught her shoulder and steadied her. She ended up quite dangerously close to his face.
"Damn. You must have a whole bunch of friggin bruises if that's how you respond to someone tapping you on the shoulder. Miyazaki...is it okay if we have that talk now? I might be busy later on..."
Negi noticed that the girl was still dressed the way she had been when it was time to meet her. Apparently, she had decided to put on the dress so she wouldn't bomb herself later on and forget or become to nervous. She had no excuse if she was already ready.
"N-now sensei? But, I..I'm not ready, not dressed for it.."
He rolled his eyes. Her physical was ready, but not her mind. He smirked a small one and looked over to Yue, who was still being held up by his arm. It seemed she didn't have the will to set herself right, so he set her right. She blinked. Maybe the girl was a closet shotacon?
He mentally shook his head. How the hell did he get to that conclusion? Anywho, Yue was safe to talk to, she was after all, one of those who he had decided to leave the memory of the demon attack in. In fact, as she continued to look at him, a blush crept up, as if she were remembering that very event right at that moment.
"It's just a talk Nodoka-san. Just a talk. Yue-san can come too if you like, you both need to hear this. I was planning on talking to you two separately, but time is against me..."
Negi usually called them by their last names, so the switch to first name basis visibly shook them. He had been counting on that, and was not disappointed when Nodoka agreed. Yue made no comment, but the girl looked interested to say the least. Negi swept out his arm, as in an after you gesture before saying:
"Then let's head for a private cafe, shall we?"
+--5--+
"My dear...what is the matter?"
She looked up. He was always there, no matter what happened, he was always there. That old man was faster and smarter than even the most advanced tracking systems. She could fool them, but not him. Chao looked up into those slightly faded red eyes. Faded after eons of use, after all the injustices they had seen. They blinked now, slowly, but they did not waver from their stare at her. Her own black ones, not tainted by time, blinked in response. She clutched the Cassiopeia tight to her. It was her lifeline to him now. Her only part that she would have left, the tangible one. The third generation was already hidden somewhere safe. The second had been broken years ago. The man bent down to clamp his hands upon her shoulders, staring at her face.
"Are you ready?"
No, she wasn't ready. This would kill him. The amount of magic needed to activate the Cassiopeia...she knew that he could draw magic extremely well for his age, but he was far from his prime, and she could only shoulder so much of the burden. Magic, softly glowing magic, pooled in his hands, even as one of them reached out and deftly brushed a tear from her eyes. She didn't even realize she had started crying. She had always praised herself for being stronger than that...
"Now now. Calm yourself. It's not that bad. You'll always remember me. Right?"
"I-I-I...I can't kill you! I just can't!"
He pushed a soft finger to her lips, and she could feel the magic radiating through it, ready to cast. The intensity increased with every moment of passing time, as he drew more and more of his power into himself, looking for that one, final signal that he had gathered enough. In a world where magic was falling apart at its seams, Negi Springfield still had complete control over his art, regardless of his extreme age. He shushed her as the swirl of magic encompassed her...no. She wasn't ready!
"You can and you must. Go now, and know that no matter what happens, no matter how many times your close friends and family may say you are useless...that I will never think so. Take this old man's love and do what you must."
Before she could even squeak again, the magic encompassed her, and in a flash, she was gone from his sight, off into the past to do her duty. Yet, even so, Negi knew she would not be able too. She would try to stop the magic before it's time and she would wind up, most likely, in a different timeline. As such, Negi prepared another blast, this time, even with his steadily tiring body, he would transfer himself...
+---+
Finally, an end to this one. Took me long enough!!!! See you all next time, hopefully it will be better than this time.