Mahou Sensei Negima! is the creation and intellectual property of Akamatsu Ken and Kodansha.

Duck Tales is the creation and intellectual property of The Walt Disney Company.

All other franchises and characters mentioned are the intellectual properties of their respective copyright and trademark holders.

Twenty Five Other Times Negi Made a Pactio.

"I've been thinking about your problem last night..." Rakan shared that morning, having called them all out to stand by the lake after brekfast.

"So you'll be charging us extra over a night of missing sleep?" Asuna asked.

"Of course I will, but it'll be money well spent since I came with a solution for the problem of your missing partners. Basically, you need something that can reach far into any direction and provide you with means of transport anywhere, right? Sure thing, Mousey here can build you flying ships but those are easy to detect and bring down," the man lectured. "What you need is a sneakier way around, like, say, Feathers' shadows that can take her and anyone she's with anywhere."

"But my shadows have a short range," Lena reminded her, "and I can't take that many people with me. I'm nowhere as powerful as Aunt Magica, so..."

"Heh heh heh," Rakan said, a nasty gleam in his eye. "That's right, but if you were to get a magical boost from, let's say, a Pactio...?"

"A Pactio, is that your solution?!" Asuna said. "Are you really gonna charge extra over that?! We're Ala Alba, we've solved like half of our problems with Pactios, even when the pickle jar won't open Chamo will suggest Negi should make a Pactio!"

"Well, I finally could open it without one anyway, couldn't I?" Negi frowned. "Are you ever going to let go of that one, Asuna? It was just a suggestion!"

"I agree with the brute on this!" Louise said. "The lady brute, I mean, not you! Negi's not some article of white slavery to be swung around so he kisses others, and-!"

"I never said the Pactio had to be with him," Rakan said piously, bringing his hands together and manifesting a golden halo, floating over his head. Spike frowned, blew on it from behind, and changed it to two sharp devil horns. "I could be the Magister, or Collet, or even you, Pinkie..."

"W-What?! You gross minor abuser, she's your junior and could be your daughter if you were a hideous deformed duck!" Louise wailed. She paused, then looked at Lena. "I mean he's already hideous and deformed with all those extraneous muscles, not that you are..."

"Good to know," Lena deadpanned.

"And as for me, we're both girls, and it's clear I disgust Lena! Look at her, she's obviously this close to vomiting at the mere idea even when I've never done anything to her whatsoever!"

"You're growing perceptive, Zero," Lena complimented in the same deadpan. "I guess I wouldn't mind much if I had to kiss with Negi or Collet, but-" She looked dubiously at Webby.

Webby only smiled and waved. "Not at all! Do what you must with a clear mind! But I suggest you do it with Negi, he's got more power to spare after all, no offense, Collet..."

"N-None taken," the dog girl said weakly, an eyebrow twitching.

"Well, since we're all in agreement then..." Rakan whistled, starting to draw a circle on the sand.

"I haven't said I agree, and with Negi being my Familiar, I-!" Louise shrieked before Tsukuyomi covered her mouth with a hand.

"From one Kugimiya voice character to another, let it go," the psycho said, "let it go. You're making me look good and reasonable, and I hate when people do that."

"I... I haven't agreed either," Negi gulped nervously. "Not that I find Lena-san disgusting or anything, but..."

"But...?!" Lena, Webby, Rakan, Tsukuyomi, Gadget, Spike and Asuna all looked at him.

Negi pointed at Spike. "He could've drawn the circle, just like he did for Yue, and we wouldn't have to pay as much as we'll have to pay Rakan-san!"

Tsukuyomi, Spike, Twilight, Yue, Louise and Asuna all facefaulted.

"Too late, too late, it's done already, covered by my honoraries!" Rakan stuck his tongue out at him. "Now step on there and make it worth my money!"

"Oh, all right...!"

The extremely mismatched couple stood before each other, Negi trying to smile awkwardly as he made a subtle push on the tips of his feet to be face to face with the slightly taller figure in white feathers. "I must warn you," Lena uneasily said, clearly unhappy with this whole twist of events, "I'm not a good kisser, I guess. Those kinds of things, I have never been into them, and, frankly, well... I suppose your type of mouth, and my type of beak, just aren't meant to go with each other, you know...?"

"Maybe rubbing jelly over them will help?" Webby offered, producing a jar of cherry jelly out of somewhere and holding it up.

"From where did you- Never mind," Yue said.

"The answer's rather mundane, girl, my kitchen," Rakan explained, then clapped his massive hands at Lena and Negi. "Well, are you gonna do it, or not?! Geez, it's only a little peck- I mean kiss- I mean both! It's not like it's gonna kill you!"

"Well, not until Chisame learns about it," Asuna said. "I'm pretty sure she'll draw the line at ducks."

"How about ponies?" Tsukuyomi asked, pointing a thumb at Twilight Sparkle.

"Yes, how about- N-No, why would you even say that!" the unicorn backed away, rattling her head.

Spike sighed. "And you told me my thing for Rarity wasn't healthy..."

"I'm... pretty sure that I, in a completely hypothetical case I wouldn't ever approach out of respect for Louise, would be okay, w-would I?" Collet hesitated, taking a hand to her collar.

"No," Louise grumbled, lightly slapping the whip on the palm of her hand. "No, you wouldn't."

"Pika pika," Jean-Luc warned her back.

Rakan simply rolled his eyes at all that mounting idiocy that had ruined her earlier mystical mood to show her cold divine superiority off to its fullest, and merely grabbed the still reluctant Lena and Negi by the shoulders and pulled them towards each other, their faces coming together in a very physically awkward kiss.

So Lena had been right, after all.

"This feels so much like watching a dirty farm video in the net," Tsukuyomi mused, adjusting her glasses (much like Gadget was adjusting her goggles) and leaning ahead to get a better view (again, much like Gadget).

"You're gross and I regret all those times I fell on you," Rito said the words he'd never dream to tell any other female.

"The two of you have chemistry, you should try dating sometime," Rakan estimated before turning his attention back to the light erupting between Negi and Lena and laughing, slapping himself on a knee. "Ho-ho, see, I toldja it'd work! Right now, any moment now- YES!" his muscular arm snapped ahead, over the heads of the youngsters, to catch a card that had appeared between them right then, and he twirled it between his fingers as the kissers pulled back from each other, breathing hard. "Ex Umbra in Solem," he read aloud from it, while Lena slapped herself on the blushing cheeks and Louise fumed. "I see, so this is one of the cases where the spirits get all philosophical and stuff."

"What does that mean?" Asuna asked the philosopher present.

"From the Shadow into the Light," Yue said. "If I remember correctly, that's the motto of a University in Spain, the Federico Santa María if I'm not mistaken, so..."

"So what?" Louise frowned. "Am I missing on anything?"

Rakan chuckled, giving the card to Lena. "Congrats, Feathers. You know what to do!"

"I... I guess I do. Adeat!" Lena said, taking the shiny new card before herself and then moving her hands as flashily as possible, with the practiced showmanship of a con woman, but what came next was no con or mere trick of sleight of hand. Auntie had refused to share much of her true power with her, but what little she had received as her legacy was now, and she could feel it in her feathers, growing tenfold as her clothes changed around herself, reshaping into a tighter, darker ensemble very reminiscent of her aunt's, although thankfully without the goofy looking shoes. She hated those stupid shoes, after all.

Webby had huge pink and lavender hearts in lieu of eyes now. "Woweeee!" she gushed, fluttering to Lena's side and hugging her, to rub her cheek against hers. "That's gorgeous, I'm so happy for you, Lena...!"

"Th-Thank you, Webby... I think...!"

"It was certainly an intriguing display of energies I hadn't the chance to catalogue ever before," Gadget nodded, folding her arms. "I look forward to the chance of examining it under the microscope!"

Collet gasped in awe and wonder, impressed by what she saw, even after also witnessing Yue's Artifact in action. She gave a quick glance around herself, and saw than other than Louise, who was just chewing angrily on a handkerchief, the others did not look terribly fazed by what they, too, had just borne witnesses to, moving her to quietly wonder exactly how much had they lived through after all. She barely could imagine it, and although the idea of their adventures in other, alien worlds coexisting beyond what she had known of reality until now was not enough as to fully rattle her, she still could allow herself a fair degree of respect towards those levels of strangeness, now she had seen it with her own eyes.

Lena took her hands to her amulet, which was now surrounded by a much thicker and heavier, golden and jeweled square frame, just as Rakan said, with a shit eating wide grin, "Well done, buddy-gal! It wasn't that hard, was it?! That's your Artifact, the proof of your bond with Negikins! It'll do wonders for the extent and reach of your powers, I'm sure. With it, looking all around the world will be a piece of cake!"

"W-Will it, for real?" Lena caressed the amulet, rubbing it carefully as several long, oily, thick tendrils of black began oozing all around her, flowing out from the Artifact and spreading across the rough ground, rising proudly and slowly spinning around her, until she gradually cracked a wide, slightly insidious smile that made Yue narrow her eyes in alarm. "Yes, yes, this is good..." she said. "I haven't ever felt like this before. I-"

One of the tendrils suddenly darted away into the distance, Eastwards, stretching across the dead prairie like a single black line whipping along until it was lost in the distance. "I can see through them now," Lena said, somewhat stilted, as she tested her new power and felt a faint buzzing in her head. "It still goes and goes, faster than I thought possible, and... and... I think I've reached it now. Our limits. That's as far as I can go now, moving through shadows."

"Well, exactly how far is that anyway?" Asuna asked.

Rakan placed a hand over his eyes to scrutinize in the direction the black line had taken into the desert. "The Mountains of Creteria."

"THAT FAR?!" Lena shouted, positively giddy with joy now. "I, I mean, that is kinda dangerous, that's Bugrom territory!" she amended quickly, waving a hand back and starting to ply the shadow back to herself, trailing a now slower moving path back across the sands. "But to think I could do that, wow, what a rush! I agree, now I feel like we can find anyone anywhere...!"

"Well, that's good," Louise said coldly. "When will you be leaving, then? I'd say it has to be as soon as possible, after all you can't-"

"Pinkie's speaking out of pure petty jealousy but she's also completely right," Rakan hummed, massaging his jaw. "Cosmo Enchilada won't be giving us any time and you've already wasted too long looking for me. The sooner you go and I can start with Negi's training the better."

"HEY!" Louise protested.

"Please don't call her 'Pinkie', I have fond memories of that name that I wouldn't like having soiled," Twilight required as Spike nodded.

"Hey to you too!" Louise now snipped at her.

"I'm going with Lena!" Webby offered immediately.

Negi exhaled. "Yes, I figured you would. For the record, since none of you are wanted, I think you two should go along Rito-san, Skuld-san, Gadget-san, Collet and Jean-Luc. You can move freely wherever you want, while Asuna and Yue would be instantly recognized and arrested."

"Um, newsflash, the same applies to us as well, remember?" Rito raised a hand.

Negi addressed that too. "You can use disguise glasses, while Asuna cannot, since her antimagic cancels them. Besides, you kind of have to go. Skuld-san needs to look for her sister," at this Skuld nodded very gravelly, "and you need to pursue the quest the Keyblade has given you."

Rito sighed. "You're right, and mostly, I need to find Haruna-chan soon."

"When you do, Sempai," Yue asked him, "please tell her and Lala... I can't wait to see them again. Same thing if you find Nodoka, of course."

Rito smiled and nodded. "Of course I will."

Tsukuyomi rolled her eyes. "Sooooo sweet... Then I'm staying as well? My master doesn't trust me to go with his little charges on my own then?"

"No," Negi replied frankly.

"You do well," Tsukuyomi approved. "Besides, my contract's only to protect you and nobody else."

Collet gulped and tried to smile at Yue. "Well... I'll try to be back as soon as I can, Yue-san."

"Yes," Baka Black said. "Please take care of yourself."

"This Nodoka," Collet said, "is she very pretty?"

Yue blinked. "Why... She is, but..."

"N-Not that I'm concerned about her being so," Collet waved a hand nervously, "not that it has anything to do with me, I just ask out of the most basic curiosity, why would there be an ulterior reason or anything...?"

Yue cocked her head aside. "You lost me, Collet."

Rito facepalmed. "Dammit, after all the times you've called me out on this, too?"

"What do you mean?" Yue asked him innocently.

"Aaargh!"

To be Continued?