Finally! Finally, finally... finally... I have come back! With another Chapter!

So sorry for not updating. Allow me to break it down. First week, normal. Second week, actually took the whole week off, and read The Sealed Kunai written by Kenchi618. Been a long time since something actually distracted me off writing this. And the weeks following that... some personal problems cropped up. I was only able to get back into making this chapter work last week so hopefully, you guys like it.

On the chapter itself, this time we see Gamiya in one of his lowest points of his life. Trying times are up ahead and having him all depressed and down in the dumps... would be a challenge for him. I also remembered a previous comment asking if there would be others coming in. cooking samurai, I thought about it and decided that I will be bringing in another OC from RO. Just not right now but I will definitely bring that person in somewhere in the future arc. And if anyone was wondering, the title chosen for the chapter is sort of misleading. All will be explained in the next chapter.

Please read and review.

I do not own Negima nor Ragnarok Online.

Whisper in italics. (Not much whispering, mind you)

Consolation Prize

Gamiya's fuse on his temperament was slowly being burnt away. He had arrived a few minutes earlier outside Evangeline's resort after a Teleport. He remembered asking Chachamaru to tell Setsuna that he was going to start her training that afternoon, the first of the two substitute holidays that was scheduled to come immediately after the end of the festival. Also part of the message was that she had to go and get a day's rest inside the vampire's resort prior to training. Yet, as he started walking in a circle out of boredom, he wondered if she even got the message at all, or if she had overslept inside.

"Sensei, what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for her to come out, that's what," he started to grumble before his mind realized that it was Chachamaru that asked him that question.

"Hold on, did you even pass my message to Sakurazaki?" he questioned, eyes narrowed.

"I'm sorry, sensei. I did give her your message, however Konoka invited her over to her dorm room and…" explained the gynoid.

"…she couldn't refuse, of course," finished the high priest, his shoulders sagging in dismay. Letting out a sigh, he muttered as he shook his head, "So I've been waiting here for nothing… Just my luck…"

"If you are feeling bored, sensei, you could always follow me. Hakase called me over for another check up," she stated.

He stared at her for a moment before letting out another sigh. "I guess I could. I need to get her to check out my mace anyway," he finally said, deciding to accept her invitation, "Let me get my mace and I'll meet you there then, Cat."

"What's this?" Gamiya asked as he pointed at something covered up that was leaning against the wall on the side of the lab.

Satomi took her eyes of the screen for the moment and looked in his direction. "Oh, Chao-san was working on some project… 'Looking Glass' I think it was called. Something to do with the parallel universe theory," she explained in short before turning back to the screen that showed the data recovered from Chachamaru.

He scratched his head, trying to make head or tail to what she said. Shrugging his shoulders, he then carefully removed the cover. Underneath it was a rather large mirror with a plain metal border. Taking a peek behind, he noticed a small box which was connected to the mirror's edges with wires and such.

"Huh, strange contraption she made," he muttered to no one in particular as he set the mirror back to its resting position. There was something eating him about this, like he had to do something about it.

"Did she ever get it to work?" he called out again, running his hands over the metal border.

"Never did, sensei. She mentioned it could run on magic but all that did was charge up the battery, which in turn electrified the border. It didn't do anything else," she replied, still staring at the screen and was now typing away on the keyboard.

"There is a possibility that the mirror didn't give the results that Chao projected, and so she abandoned it," added the gynoid. She had detached herself from the laptop and was now dressing herself.

"Magic, huh. What if I tried this?" he muttered as he held the mirror on both sides of the frame. He sent his mana coursing through the contraption just to see if it was possible. He also had that disturbing feeling from before return to him.

Much to his surprise, the surface of the mirror started rippling and taking on different colors. As the surface settled down, he gawked as he recognized the scenery shown to him. Green fields dotted with flowers and trees. He could recognize the fauna there; porings, lunatics, fabres, and more. He could even see a group of novices being taken on a field trip by a priestess. Recovering from his shock, he wondered if he could see the city walls from where he was. As if following his wishes, the view swung around and affixed itself on the stone wall that surrounded Prontera.

"Unbelievable…" he mumbled softly as he took in the sights. The view then went aerial, the wall suddenly shrinking as the full top down view was suddenly presented to him. He gasped at the sight, marveling at the change of viewpoint.

"Amazing," he muttered as he sat down, his hands still on the mirror to maintain a steady flow of mana. He then had a morbid thought, "I wonder what they put on my gravestone."

The mirror zoomed in on the church of Prontera, more specifically, the graveyard behind the rather grandiose building. However, he couldn't help but notice that the side of the church was painted rather extravagantly with Scripture-inspired murals.

"Don't tell me that idiot archbishop splurged on the building again," grumbled the high priest, "That guy's worse than a woman."

As the mirror's view slowly went round the building, he caught sight of a brown haired young man armed with a claymore and clad in platemail. He was carrying a small bouquet of white lilies, and was seemingly to be on his way to the graveyard. The high priest's face became etched with a small, knowing smile.

"Keiichi… ah, how I wish I could speak to you now… to tell you how proud I am of you, my son…" he thought longingly.

The mirror slowly followed his path, which led to a plot fenced off from the rest of the graveyard. Therein were two tombstones. The high priest started to have a bad feeling and something urged him to turn away. But he kept his eyes on the mirror, wanting to know what was so bad about it. As his son lay the flowers in front of both stones, the sight of both tore his heart. The first gravestone was for him, detailing his date of birth and date of death, with the commemorative words, 'Loving father, devoted husband'. The second one belonged to his wife, Curina Lidskjalf. He could feel his throat run dry, his limbs starting to feel a slight tremble. He somehow couldn't bear to look at it. He felt that if he did, he would fully break down there and then. He slowly took his hands off the mirror and got to his feet. He mumbled his goodbye to the professor before leaving with an aching and saddened heart.

"That's weird. Why was sensei in such a hurry to go? I haven't even run the tests on his mace," wondered Satomi aloud after she watched the assistant teacher shuffle out of the lab with a gloomy expression.

"I believe sensei saw something quite disturbing, Hakase," stated Chachamaru, "It had something to do with the looking glass Chao used in her experiment."

"Ah, you saw it didn't you, Chachamaru. Come, show me the video logs!" the professor requested eagerly as she gestured to her laptop.

A few minutes later she was gaping at the screen. "Wha-wha-what! This is an amazing breakthrough! Sensei actually got that mirror to work! This is revolutionary! This actually proves that…" she started to stutter and rant excitedly about scientific theories.

"Hakase, please pay attention to the screen," reminded the gynoid.

"What else can take precedence over… oh," she then said softly as the image of the assistant teacher reacting to the image in the mirror. "I had no idea," she finally said after the silent shock.

"Sensei is probably in much emotional pain right now," the robot stated.

"Er, I really don't know how to react to this," admitted the professor, "I think neither of us could help sensei with his pain right now." She scratched her head before crossing her arms in front of her chest with a frown and continuing, "This is a bit of a problem, I want to help but psychology isn't exactly my field."

"Perhaps we can consult someone who has gone through the same experience," Chachamaru suggested.

"Perhaps," Satomi mulled. She sighed and said, "Ah well, can I leave it to you, Chachamaru? I still need to run some tests on sensei's mace. It's the least I can do for him."

"Of course, Hakase. It will be difficult, but I believe I should be able to find such a person," acknowledged the gynoid before she left as well.

Gamiya trudged on aimlessly. After beating a hasty retreat, he assumed that he would be able to move on, that he would be able to reason it away. He couldn't. The image got plastered all over his mind, unable to remove, unable to forget. The slight tenseness in his heart had grown to a full blown, throbbing pain. He felt consumed by it, like it was hollowing away part of his heart, that he was losing part of himself very slowly. It was driving him mad. That was only part of it.

The despair, the sense of helplessness, the feeling of sorrow, the anger, angry he couldn't be around when she died, angry he couldn't be around to help his children move on; he could only guess why she died, and even worse, angry at himself. If only he didn't find that damnable gem! Damn the Phreeoni! Damn the gem! Now he was damned! Because of his selfish decision to try and survive, he ended up killing the person he loved the most! He was damned indeed!

Thoughts of death swirled in his now unstable mind.

"Oh? What brings you here, Chachamaru?" asked Mana as she stopped sweeping the temple steps.

"To request your help, Mana-san," Chachamaru replied, "Iroi-sensei discovered something disturbing to him and now he has disappeared. Hakase and I are worried."

"Really?" the student-miko asked quizzically, "I find that hard to believe. We are talking about Iroi-sensei, you know."

"Before you come to that conclusion, I should explain what happened," stated the gynoid before giving a precise and detailed description of what happened in Hakase's laboratory.

The now unsure mercenary stood there in silence for a moment as she digested the news. "But why come to me for help? Shouldn't you go to the Dean or…"

"I have taken that into consideration," cut off the robot girl, "However, he rarely mixes around with the staff and hardly confides with them. Furthermore, the ones with the most interaction with him would be Negi-sensei and the class of 3A. Even so, we are mostly acquaintances to him with the exception of the two of us. Between us, you are the closest."

"But…"

"There is also the consideration of people who had one through similar experiences," she explained further, "Out of everyone in the class, I can only place you and Negi-sensei as the people who had the similar experience of losing a friend or loved one. Logically speaking…"

"Why are you doing this, anyway?" interrupted Mana, falling back to her professional self, "Why do you care what happens to sensei?"

"Sensei is a friend," the gynoid state, much to her hidden surprise, "Although technically speaking, I would place myself between friend and acquaintance. But, yes, I consider him a friend. I went far as to assume you would as well, Mana-san."

She stared at the robot before her in silent contemplation. True enough, the assistant teacher vocally admitted he thought of her as a friend, yet she couldn't help but to think she could also earn something out of it.

"I suppose I could attempt something," she finally relented into saying, "Though I cannot ensure a positive outcome. If it's true what you told me, sensei would be quite emotional right now. There is also the issue with…"

"Please do not worry about that for now," cut off Chachamaru, "Hakase and I may not have that much in monetary value as of yet, but that subject can and will be discussed at a later date. For now, let us focus our efforts on finding sensei first."

Mana blinked at her once, quite surprised. Then again, that is normally the first thing she negotiates first. Thinking that she might as well go along with it for now, she set the broom against the nearest pillar, patting the dust off her red hakama, and said, "Well, let us be off then. Do you know where sensei is right now?"

"I do," the gynoid stated, "I received a message from Master. I quote, 'Chachamaru! Come back to the cottage and kick this moronic bastard out of my resort. How could he just show up unannounced…', and I believe that sensei is treating the Master's resort as some place of refuge."

The miko smirked and shook her head. "It seems even on an off day, sensei can still rile up the Dark Evangel. That's just like him to do that," she commented as both of them left for the vampire's cottage.

"You sure took your free time, Chachamaru," grumbled Evangeline as the two stepped into the cottage. The vampire tapping her foot irritatedly on the wooden floor while crossing her arms in front of her chest, looking quite annoyed.

"I'm sorry, Master," the gynoid apologized, "I was with Mana earlier. I have brought her in to assist with sensei."

"You better! That moron barged into my cottage without my permission while I was beating someone to a bloody pulp online," she started ranting as she threw her hands up in exasperation, "He ignored me! Me! All the while, he was walking around with that stupid, glassy look on his face. Then, he walked downstairs and headed straight for my resort! It is called my resort for a reason, you know! And he just ignored me and walked right in! Chachamaru, you must kick that stupid idiot out of my resort immediately!"

"Don't worry, Evangeline-san. Sensei will be taken care of," said Mana seriously before the gynoid could reply.

Said person growled and grumbled something that sounded like, "You better," before going back to her gaming console. She had hastily turned it off earlier to attempt to kick the stupid priest out of her house. She fired it up once more, an evil grin n her face. "Time to bloody more noses," she was heard muttering before the other two turned to walk downstairs.

"This is quite impressive," noted Mana after they were transported into the resort, "I mean, I've seen spatial magic before but this is beyond my imagining. Evangeline definitely lives up to her reputation as a powerful mage."

"Master does have lots of time to practice previously," explained Chachamaru, "Not just spatial magic, but magic involving time and space. One day here equals an hour outside, and we cannot leave until a day passes."

"Quite a feat for the Dark Evangel to accomplish. I guess I shouldn't expect anything less than that," the miko surmised.

"Ah, sensei," the gynoid calmly mentioned when they had just came off the bridge that connected the landing zone with the top of the tower. He was prostrate in the middle of the concourse, with his arms encircling his head. Wordlessly, they went around to face him.

"Sensei?" she asked.

The high priest's fists became clenched. "I should have died," he said, voice devoid of emotion, "All because of my selfish desires to survive, she is dead."

"Sensei, there was nothing you could have done to prevent it," she started before getting cut off.

"Kill me," he muttered, much to their surprise and horror, "This way, I can return to Curina." He turned his gaze to the other girl present and said, "Please, take out your gun and kill me."

"Sensei, stop this nonsense," said Mana as calmly as she could, "Grieve as much as you want, but asking me to kill you is out of the question."

"Then, allow me to force your hand," the high priest shouted as he sprang towards the gunslinger.

With the lightning reflexes she had, Chachamaru stepped in and batted away his outstretched arms.

He glared at them and growled. He moved to attack her when he got struck in the head with a five hundred yen coin.

"Sensei, please come to your senses," the miko said coldly as she tossed coins at him akin to the speed of a machine gun and the accuracy of a sniper. The coins struck him all over his body and limbs as she attempted to weaken and slow him down. He stood there and took it as he shook all over from the impact of the coins, like he was getting electrocuted. The shots stopped a few seconds later, the high priest having a rather staggered posture, his head nodding forward as if quite tired. Very slowly, he fell to one knee. She raised an eyebrow when she noticed something wet falling under his head. It was his tears. The assistant teacher was crying.

"CURINA!" he shouted, akin to a battle cry as he sprang at her with renewed vigor, only for him to get his head slammed down to the ground by Chachamaru's punch. The gynoid quickly took his arms and held them behind his back in a vice grip. What she heard immediately after struck her robotic heart. Gamiya wept.

Night had fallen and they were getting ready for rest. The time spent at the resort had been quite trying. The two girls had wrapped up Gamiya into a futon and tied it up as a precaution, just in case he had another breakdown.

Mana sighed as she prepared her own futon. "This is not what I had expected when I decided to accept the job," she admitted aloud, "Still, I'm always up for new challenges." She then turned to face her fellow conspirator and asked, "How long before you run out of energy? Don't you have to go outside to recharge, being the person you are?"

"My reserves are adequate. Thank you for your concern," the gynoid replied, "On another note, about the monetary payment…"

"Never mind that," said the miko with a wave of her hand, "I think I have a better way of getting paid from all this, and it doesn't involve either you or Hakase paying me anything."

The other girl tilted her head to one side questioningly. After a moment, she straightened and said, "I understand. Perhaps you can ask for Master's help."

"Oh, you figured it out?" the gunslinger asked with a sly smile, "And do tell me why I should need Evangeline-san's help in this?"

"Because Master has done such a thing before," was the simple reply, "But of course, she had help from her first doll."

"I see… that explains a bit," she surmised after a silent pause. Stifling an incoming yawn, she then said, "I guess I need my beauty sleep. Good night, Chachamaru."

"Good night, Mana-san. I shall keep watch for now," was the reply as the miko tucked herself in.

Gamiya groaned as he woke up. He remembered passing out due his distraught nature but something was not that clear to him. Much to his surprise, he found himself tied up and wrapped in a futon like a hot dog. Annoyed, he tried wriggling out.

"Ah, so you're awake? You gave me and Chachamaru a lot of trouble yesterday, sensei," said a rather amused voice. He stopped his struggling and turned to his side to find Mana leaning against the wall.

"Hmm, I must be out of my mind, since I don't exactly remember what I did yesterday," he retorted softly, "In truth, I rather you leave me alone. I…"

"Well, what if I told you that you tried to force us to kill you? I doubt you would take it that well," she said with a smirk.

He went back to being silent. He felt doubly tortured now; not only did he find out he lost someone precious to him, but he also attacked his own students out of despair. He felt quite depressed with the facts presented to him.

"I can see you are hurting, sensei," she said softly, "But, telling others to kill you really isn't the answer. We are your friends. It hurts to see you like this."

"I almost lost her once," he stated quietly, "It took me a very long time to get her back. I swore not to lose her like that again." He then locked eyes with her while continuing, "This time, I didn't even know until it was too late. It hurts."

He suddenly started shouting with a pained expression, "It hurts! It feels like my very soul is being torn apart! How can I cope with this! It feels like I'm dying!"

"I know!" he suddenly heard her yell, right in front of his face. He was unaware that she had moved away from the wall and had pulled him up by the string. Currently facing her, he could see her face quite clearly; he could read the uneasiness in her eyes and he noticed an uncharacteristic tremble in her hands.

"I felt the same way too, once before," she said, her loudness suddenly giving way to a certain softness. She hesitated to look him in the eye in that moment, but when she resumed eye contact, there was a steely determination to it.

"Grieve," she continued, "Grieve as much as you want sensei. You have every right to. Grieve, moan, cry, mourn… just do it. But don't for a second think of killing yourself, just because you want to be with her or just to stop the pain. It wouldn't stop then… the pain will only get transferred to the others… to your students… to your friends… to me…" He could barely hear the whisper that carried the last part of her reprimand, but it was there.

Having said her piece, she unceremoniously dropped him back on the floor. He stared at her as she knelt down beside him. Her words got through to him. It was true, that all the actions he took before were in the past and he couldn't change anything. Yes, he would grieve. Yes, he would mourn. He will do it in his own way.

"I'm sorry for getting you dragged into this," he apologized.

"Don't be. Isn't that what friends are for?" she asked him with a smirk. He returned the gesture in kind.

"So… tell me," she requested, still smirking, "What was she like? Your wife… she must have something about her to make you crazed enough to ask me to kill you."

He sighed. There was so much about Curina, so many things he loved, that he didn't really know how to begin. "She was with me for half of my life. I don't really know where to start about her."

"What about when you first met?"

"Ah," and he paused, the memories beginning to flit through his mind. Twenty over year's worth of memories. Then, he began with, "Well, when we first met…"