Please read whole Author's Note. Thank you

A/N: I'm back, bitches! What's up my readers!?

Holy hell, it's been a long time since I updated this! I apologize for the wait, but life and writer's block get in the way. I hope you're all taking steps to avoid getting COVID 19. The reason I put this chapter up early is because I thought you might want a little more entertainment as we all sit in self-containment. It's part 1 of 2 and will end the arc that I've titled the "Inner workings of Setsuna's Mind" arc.

Before I go on with the story I feel that as someone that occasionally posts things online and has a decent following (love you all) it is my duty to remind everyone that social distancing and listening when government tells you to stay home are very important not just for you, but everyone else you might come into contact or live with. Being young doesn't mean you're invincible to this thing. Plus, even if you get it and are fine, you are likely to transfer it to 2.5 others, including loved ones that may have weaker immune systems and could very well die. If that happens, I wouldn't hesitate to call the young person who breaks the rules and goes to a gathering an intentional mass murderer. Stay away from people, folks! Seriously, losing a little freedom will save a whole lot of lives. I myself am mostly holed up at home, except for food and medicine. I'm still employed at a job I've had for about a year as an office worker, but cannot currently work because it's closed. But, I'm willing to sacrifice pay for safety. Luckily, my country is working on a stimulus package to help the citizens out. I dislike who runs my government to the point of hatred due to his xenophobic beliefs, but at least some of us are finally coming together to help people other than their own party. Good job senate, you finally figured out how to work together! Mass sickness and death! I hope that's not what it takes every time they try to agree.

Anywho, to help remind people about health and safety, I've done something that's becoming popular in social media postings: the parody song. I wrote it to the lyrics of Disney's "Do you want to build a snowman". It will be posted below. I ask that you take a picture on your phone, or desktop and post it on Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites for me, as is the closest to a social media platform that I will ever get to. I'm notoriously anti-social media, and even if I'm stuck in this house for years before being able to walk outside and touch things without fear of death, I still would not get an account. They're way too full with hate speech and other oppressive things, so it's up to you to repost this for me.

Moving on to more pleasant business, I am still performing in plays, or was before this whole pandemic started. I wanted to share a happy story, so here it is. I landed one of three lead roles in this year's Christmas play. I was billed as a Star Wars fanatic in the program, but there's more to it than that. I started off talking about the Bible, then got into otaku mode and crossed the Bible, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and made Jesus into a mix of Luke Skywalker and Gandalf. It was fun to do, and I got to cap that off by singing a trio with two other talented people. It was awesome! The crowd loved it!

Moving on again, as I have mentioned before, please feel free to read my completed story, "The 7th Mouse" if you have any desire to laugh your ass off. This is a necessary thing people have to do to avoid depression during these isolating times. A warning though, please don't drink any liquids while reading. Sudden laughter may cause said liquid to shoot through your nose and burn the inside. Especially if it's pop. I only mention this because a friend of mine read it while drinking Dr. Pepper. It was a decision they regret. The soda, not the story.

Do You Want to Stop This Virus?

A Parody By DKthescribe

Elsa? Elsa?
Do you want to build a snowman? Do you want to stop this virus?
Come on, let's go and play! Just stay in, don't come and play! I never see you anymore Can't go outside anymore
Come out the door Don't come out the door
It's like you've gone away It's best to stay away!

We used to be best buddies We used to be best buddies
And now we're not And now we're not
I wish you would tell me why! But it's okay cuz we just might die!

Do you want to build a snowman? Do you want to stop this virus?
It doesn't have to be a snowman Self-isolation's a good start, sis

Go away, Anna Go away, Anna

Okay, bye (Cheerfully) Okay! Bye!

Do you want to build a snowman? Do you want to stop this virus?
Or ride our bike around the halls? CDC says stay out of malls
I think some company is overdue Oh, crap, well I just caught the flu
I've started talking to Fever's got me talking to
The pictures on the walls! The pictures on the walls!

It gets a little lonely The bathroom shelf's a little lonely
All these empty rooms With no TP
Just watching the hours tick by Just look at those people buy!
(tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock) (no stock, none left, price gouging, legal theft)

Elsa, please I know you're in there Elsa, please, people are real scared
People are asking where you've been People are asking should we stay in?
They say, "have courage" and I'm trying to They say, "stay safe" and I am trying to
I'm right out here for you Stay out of public view
Just let me in Group meetings are a sin

We only have each other People should care about each other
It's just you and me It's not just you or me
What are we gonna do? What more can we really do?

Do you want to build a snowman? Do you want to stop this virus?

If anyone knows how to Youtube and can make a proper parody video for this, I would appreciate it. If you make money off it, I don't need royalties, just don't take credit for the song. That's all I ask.

Disclaimer: I don't own Negima?! I only own my OCs. I also do not own Disney. Gotta mention that because of the song. Shout out to Kailor and to all my other friends, readers, and writers! And now, after all that A/N bluster…

Let us begin…

Chapter 9 Part 1

Their descent proceeded slowly; mostly due to Konoka's sudden fear of heights. She usually had no problem with being up high, what with living in a castle and all. In fact, she loved to frequently walk the parapets of her home, but not being able to see her destination caused a sense of dread to rise within her. Chisame, on the other hand, would've been halfway down by now, but she wouldn't leave her princess behind. Instead, she stayed right with her, constantly shouting encouragement. After belaying for much longer than she thought they should be, Chisame looked down. Her enhanced eyesight easily picked out the end of their climbing rope, and also, very faintly, the bottom of the chasm.

"Say, Konoka! Hold up!" Konoka immediately used her descender to stop.

"Yes, Chisame? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. We've just reached the end of our climbing rope. I need to rig up another one so we can keep going. On the bright side, I can make out the bottom, just barely. We're almost there, so bear with me, okay?"

"Alright." Chisame set to work and in no time at all they were moving downward once again. It took a good 15 minutes, but their feet finally touched solid ground. Chisame used her enhanced sense of sight, and Konoka her light to scan about the canyon floor. They quickly found what they were looking for in the form of staggered tracks leading down the left pathway.

"Well, at least she had enough feathers left on her wings to get down safely." Chisame knowingly commented. Konoka barely registered her statement as she set off in the direction the tracks were headed, knowing that at the end of that long, dark path she'd finally get some answers. The passage was narrow and crooked, twisting this way and that before branching off suddenly every now and again like some horrible labyrinthian nightmare. Fortunately for the determined princess and her reluctant companion, the hanyo's tracks stayed fresh and clear on the dust-covered floor.

Konoka charged onward, hardly looking where she was going. Chisame was hard-pressed to keep up, panting and wheezing behind her. In the back of her mind, Konoka knew she should probably slow down, since the raccoon was more used to being in the rear with the gear, rather than charging headlong into the unknown, but the princess noticed that Setsuna's tracks were getting closer together and dragging more and more frequently. She'd been in shock much too long, and if they didn't find her soon it would be too late. And, while the clear tracks on a dusty floor were an indication that Setsuna wanted to be found the long, confusing cavern contradicted this idea. Konoka could only hope Setsuna could overcome her conflicting emotions.

In the minutes that followed, the footprints began to get fainter, the dust on the floor disappearing as the cavern grew darker, and darker still. Soon enough, Konoka could no longer make out any discernible prints, and went back to relying on her locator spell, modifying it for continuous use. It was now just a single arrow, which turned in her palm like a compass. Eventually, the darkness swallowed them, leaving only their headlamps and the faint glow of the locator arrow to illuminate their path. A sudden chill blew through the tunnel, causing hair to stand up on the backs of the girl's necks. An ominous feeling of foreboding stole over the stalwart spelunkers, as if someone or something were watching them. All of a sudden, a bright light illuminated the cavern wall to their left, causing both girls to startle. Konoka nearly lost concentration on her spell, but just barely held onto the threads of her power, keeping the compass arrow fixated on Setsuna's energy. Strange shadows appeared out of nowhere within the illuminated space. At first, the girls were unable to tell what was happening, but the images began to become more focused and it was soon clear what they were seeing.

"Look," stated Chisame, "I think it's showing us Setsuna's memories." Indeed, as the princess looked closer, the image of the crow demon came into clear focus, but not as the girl they knew. This memory was of a much younger Setsuna…

A 7 year old Setsuna dodged swiftly through oncoming traffic; her enemy nipping at her heels. It had been 3 years since that fateful day when her mother had died, and a young child had been forced out into the cold, dark world to fend for herself. Much of those years had been spent hiding in one of the numerous forests that made up a large portion of Mundus Magicus' countryside. She'd been living off roots and the few survival skills her father had taught her. He'd been killed during a routine patrol of the tribe's borderlands, just before her forced exile. She'd been too young then, to see that he'd been the last barrier between his family and the murderous intentions of the tribal council. Well, she knew now. Knew why she'd had to leave; why her mother had died. And she hated them both for it. Hated them for falling in love. Hated them for ignoring tribal taboo and allowing her to be born. And hated them for not killing her immediately after they'd seen what an abomination their get truly was. If it weren't for them, she wouldn't have to deal with the bitter, freezing nights, or the uncertain, lonely days. But they'd made their choice.

And now she'd made hers…

It was winter, about midway through the season. At first, game had been plentiful in the heavily wooded valley she'd made her home. She'd managed to make a good spear, harvested many animal skins to keep the frostbite at bay, and had stored up a fair amount of dried meat, roots and wild vegetables as well. Then, about a month into the icy interval, a dreadful blizzard buried the countryside. The small, fur-lined hut she'd managed to build had been crushed by a mountain of snow. All the food and skins she'd stored were lost, her spear beyond all hope of retrieval. Setsuna herself had barely escaped unharmed. She knew if she stayed in the woods she'd never survive, so she made the decision to scrape out a living in an area where food was more readily available. It had to be a city; one with a rather large population. That way she could get lost in a crowd if she had need to. With only the clothes on her back she struck out towards the nearest community she knew would meet her needs. It was a city called Granicus, the 2nd largest in Mundus Magicus, and a beacon for tradesmen of all kinds. In other words, a thief's paradise. Now, Setsuna was no stranger to thievery. Though she did live outside civilization there was the occasional traveler that crossed her path, and she figured if they were going to pass through her woods, they should pay some kind of toll. Usually it would take the form of a water canteen, a knife, or a flint for fire, and she'd always been able to slip in and out without leaving any kind of track. But the art of thievery was different in the city. There were a lot more things to look out for. A city typically had guards patrolling, some tradesmen hired personal guards to defend their stalls, and there were other thieves to worry about as well. There was an etiquette to city stealing; one Setsuna was completely unaware of when she began her foray into urban larceny.

Things started out well enough. She picked a few pockets and found she had quite the knack for it; soon gathering enough currency to buy a decent blanket and a nice meal. She'd also lucked out on residential matters, discovering plenty of abandoned buildings in the lesser used part of town where a fire had raged several years prior. Most of the structures were in fairly good shape, certainly not worthy of condemnation, but Setsuna assumed most of the owners were rich enough that they just built a new shop somewhere else instead of bothering with reconstruction efforts. Whatever the reason, the free rent was too good to pass up for those down on their luck, and the empty architecture was soon housing for all the homeless citizens with plenty of room to spare. Setsuna settled on an as yet unoccupied printer's shop where she found plenty of starter paper for fire and a wood burning stove that was in fairly good condition.

Setsuna was scoping out targets at her usual spot a few weeks into her new life. This spot consisted of a small community marketplace where middle class merchants purchased their goods. The type of mark she was looking for needed to irradiate the area with his arrogance. The crow found that a person with this type of personality tended to be less cautious with the security of their wares, or money purses. These merchants blustered about the marketplace, oozing their affluency like a burst pustule. They gestured excessively and wildly with their hands, often keeping their arms up and leaving their pockets open to anyone with a deft and subtle touch. Setsuna was perched atop an old marble statue that was in the process of crumbling into dust. The statue's figure was meant to be on horseback, but his torso and the horse's head had fallen to decay years ago, leaving behind a grotesque and unappealing monument to a bygone war. The repulsiveness of the statue provided a perfect spot for an opportunist such as Setsuna to sit out in the open without too much fear of the guards noticing. The crow scanned the marketplace, her head never moving but her gaze taking in every detail as she slowly moved her eyes from left to right and back again. For the next hour she continued her scans, making note of some possible marks, but no one that really piqued her interest. It wasn't until near evening that she found what she was looking for.

"Quite…excessive…isn't he?" She asked herself, not strictly speaking of the man's flippant manner of spending. This human had absolutely no restraint! Anything that interested him in the slightest was bought without a thought as to what it cost. He piled a multitude of meaningless trinkets onto a cart pulled by two hulking servants before continuing his spending spree at the next market stall. Numerous other servants attended to his every need, constantly running off to the food stalls to satisfy the merchant's ravenous appetite. He was currently chewing on a turkey leg and lazily pointing at the next shiny trifle that caught his eye. As he became preoccupied with his next meaningless purchase, Setsuna stood up from her perch and slowly made her way into the marketplace proper. Weaving in and out of the sea of people bustling through the streets, she approached a stall and pretended to look at the merchandise while keeping one eye on her target, waiting for an opportunity to strike. The time came when a servant received a burden much too heavy for one person to carry and during their stumbling and struggles to get the item onto the cart they were bumped by a passerby and spilled their cargo, a large crate of melons, all across the roadway. The merchant noticed instantly and stomped over to his fallen attendant, going into a belligerent chorus of insults intended to motivate the man into retrieving the dropped goods. However, he only succeeded in causing the man to cower and shrink at his feet, begging the merchant to allow him to keep his job. While all of this was happening, Setsuna crept up behind the tyrannical trader, waiting for him to remove his hands from his hips and away from the heavy purse tied about his robust waist. The servant continued to ignore the demands of his master, groveling at his feet while the melons continued to be squashed by passersby. This further infuriated the merchant, causing him to lift his hands in an expression of exasperation, allowing the crow to nab her prize. Pocketing the purse, Setsuna made her way back through the crowd, the merchant none the wiser as he continued to berate his servant. The hanyo had nearly made it out of the market when several arms shot out of a nearby alleyway and yanked her by her tunic into the dank side street. A black hood was pulled over her face before she could identify her attackers, and someone attempted to hoist her over their shoulder. Setsuna began to struggle, twisting and shaking her body randomly in an attempt to dislodge herself. Her captor cursed, flinging her wriggling body back down to the ground. Before she had a chance to get up and run a severe pain blossomed on the back of her head, causing near instant blackout…

The memory faded from the caver's view, the projected image dwindling back into the rock wall. Chisame glanced at Konoka and shrugged, continuing down the pathway. They'd gone another 30 feet before another wall came to life, this time blinking erratically before coming into focus. The duo stared at the screen, desperate to know what happened next.

Dark eyes blinked blearily while trying to restore the crow's vision to singular images. The room her captors had placed her in was spinning rapidly, at least from Setsuna's point of view and it was causing her to become very dizzy. Closing her eyes once more, she breathed slowly in and out, easing her panicky heartbeat and reducing the pounding in her head. As her body began to reorient itself, she reopened her eyes and slowly took in her surroundings.

She was in…a supply closet. Her hands had been bound behind her with twine, her wrists tied to her ankles. The hood had fallen off her head while she struggled to wake and lay on the floor nearby. She was surrounded by brooms, dustpans, mops and wooden buckets, but nothing she could use to break free. The walls were very thin, and she could easily make out sounds and voices coming from outside. There were at least three individuals in the room outside the door. They appeared to be arguing about something and Setsuna did her best to listen in.

"…'s just something about her. I don't exactly know what it is yet, but my gut's telling me not to-"

"Oh, screw your gut! The last time we followed one of those feelings of yours we all ended up in a cell! And that's exactly what could happen if we do this, or worse! She's trouble, and the guild is better off without her! We should just get rid of her and be done with it!"

"Well, we've certainly heard your opinion on the subject, Kugimi and you know mine. We need us a tie breaker! Kasuga, what do you think? We need a voice of reason for this."

"A voice of reason? Nun-chick is crazy! And she never follows that weird religion of hers! She's supposed to conduct herself with the moral belief that life is sacred, and yet she walks around with her little murder child that she uses to carry out contract kills on anyone she deems to be 'problematic'! That's about as far from a voice of reason as you can get! I think we should just wait and let Misa decide. She's way more clearheaded than the one-woman cult over there!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, fine! We'll wait for Misa. She can have the deciding vote. That ok with you Kasuga?"

"Hmm? Yes, that'll be fine. Right, Cocone?"

"Mmm…" The person who'd been asked grunted in reply.

"Hmm, is that so? Hey, gang? Cocone says our guest is awake. Shall we have some fun with them until Misa gets here?" Setsuna's eyes widened at the realization that she'd been found out. Muffled sounds of movement were heard from outside before the door was unceremoniously flung open. Bright light streamed into the unlit room, causing Setsuna to squint from the harsh change in brightness. As her vision adjusted, she began to make out the features of a figure. The girl was standing with her hand out and arm extended in a dramatic fashion after opening the door. A devious smile was painted across her face as she slowly lowered her arm, leering knowingly at the captured bird...

And now the chapter's at an end, and that's an unfortunate fact my friends. So, now you know Setsuna's past, or at least part of it. Who could the mysterious hand belong to? I know what you're thinking, based on the names I gave, but I bet you're wrong! I would love to know what you think, and you know what that means. (Takes deep breath) REVIEW! REVIEW! RE-FUCKING-VIEW! You'll notice I've been cussing quite a bit more, both in stories and in author's notes. I've been quite stressed. Hope that doesn't bother you, and if it does, just bleep over them. Anywho, right now, the most important thing I want to hear in those reviews is your opinions on the chapter and especially if the whole spelunking (caving) thing was too weird. It's one of the main reasons I had difficulty getting this chapter out, the other being how to figure out a representation of Setsuna's mind. I got really stuck wondering how to proceed, decided to just use a cliche for Setsuna's mind, and I hope it worked out. Also, I know my beginning author note is more like a short story, but I promise to try and keep those shorter in the future. I can't, however, promise to be prompt about the next chapter. It's a crazy world out there, and even though I'm stuck at home, I will still be going to class online and getting an internship in place for when the crisis is over. I may be able to finish the second part sooner, if this pandemic continues. There's your silver lining for this crisis! Possible quicker chapters from me! Well, that's it for now. Peace out, readers!