Author's Notes:
And here we are! Chapter 4, with only a mild delay woohoo! We get to an event anyone who's seen WaSuYu is probably going to appreciate. Inspired a bit by Gin's first SSR from the YuYuYui mobile. Looked up multiple videos on how to make Yakisoba, so hope I didn't get anything wrong.
Secondly! This chapter also introduces spell chants to the story! Now, given how Negima's spell chants are largely in Latin or Ancient Greek, that is something I will be keeping for this story where I can, as both of those are SURPRISINGLY accurate for all the canon spells. As breaking up things in the middle of the chapter to write the English TL would be bad, I will be including translations for the spells used in a chapter at the bottom of the post chapter author's notes for where they appear.
Even though it had only been two days, it had felt like a small eternity to Gin, given how eventful they'd been. But, things felt like they were finally starting to slip back into some semblance of normalcy. The day where she and Sumi were going to teach Sonoko how to cook had finally arrived, something all three of them were excited about. Unfortunately, they weren't going to have as much time as the girl would've liked. The group had, before heading back home for the night, been told by Negi that the magical demonstration was schedule for today. Apparently was partially due to the fact a storm and heavy rain were scheduled to roll in for the remainder of the week. Disappointing, but, thankfully, it was to be later in the day, which amounted to still having a good several hours to practice, more than enough to cook something up and enjoy it. Still, it felt a little weird how Negi had been the one to notify them, instead of the Taisha, but maybe it was because they were the ones showing off? She wasn't going to worry about it much, it didn't seem like a big deal.
For now, Gin was going to enjoy the chance to relax at home a bit with her family, until Sonoko arrived to pick her up. Between everything that had happened, she didn't get much of a chance to spend time with her family, aside from a brief visit in the hospital. She hadn't even gotten to give her brothers the souvenirs from the field trip, till late last night! They'd both seemed to enjoy what she'd brought them, thankfully. Her baby brother, Kintarou, was probably a bit young to really understand outside of it being something new and shiny, but oh, well. It made him happy and smile, and seeing that was all that really mattered to Gin.
Her friends were likely to arrive any minute now, so Gin had decided to spend what she assumed would be her last few minutes at home, with her younger brother in question. Tetsuo had gone out to a friend's, being taken by her dad, which left Gin, Kintarou, and their mother at the house.
"Nee-chan's gonna have to go out for a while soon, so be a good boy for okaa-san while I'm gone, alright?" Delicately rocking her sibling in her arms, Gin softly said.
Her brother responded with a few happy noises and reaching his hands up toward her face.
"Hehe, I know I can count on my future underling." Chucklingly lightly, Gin added, using her free hand to softly poke at Kintarou, the boy grabbing onto one of her fingers with his small hands.
"Oho, someone's getting a pretty strong grip. No surprise, when you're related to a great hero, like me!" Grinning, Gin continued, her voice full of energy.
To say that she was more than happy at being able to continue life like this, would've been a massive understatement. When she'd gone off to confront the three Vertex two days ago, Gin had been fully prepared to fight with everything and sacrifice herself if it meant ensuring the world, her friends, her family, everything she held precious in her heart, got even one more day to live their lives. The girl by no means wanted things to end that way if she could help it, but the situation had been looking pretty bad during the battle, and if it saved everyone, she was ok with it. But, thank to how everything ended up turning out, Gin could still enjoy moments like this, still stay together with her friends and keep their promise for today. If it really was intervention by the Shinju or just random chance was irrelevant to her, all that mattered was everything was going to be fine now and teaching Sonoko how to cook today.
Still, she'd really need to try and think of something to properly thank her rescuers. Now that things were starting to settle, a simple 'thanks for the help' didn't feel good enough for saving her life. But, she didn't have the foggiest idea for what, since she barely knew Negi or Fate at this point. Maybe Sonoko and Sumi could give her some help? They'd done a great job at helping get presents for Tetsuo's birthday a bit back.
At the thought of Sonoko, Gin's mind briefly flashed back to her comments from yesterday, and she felt her face heat up slightly. The novelist's various ideas could get more than a bit embarrassing, but Gin thought that she'd sort of been able to get used to them. Then, Sonoko had to go and start making comments about a boy her age and casually mention her dream in the same breath, the perfect combination to fluster her. Just getting held like that had been embarrassing enough! Maybe she'd have to be careful asking Sonoko about this…
A ping came from her phone, interrupting Gin's thoughts. Carefully setting her brother down, Gin reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, seeing a message from Sonoko saying that her and Sumi were waiting out front.
"Hey, hey." Picking up a nearby rattle, Gin waved it a few times in front of Kintarou's face with a smile, the toy making a few noises that immediately drew her brother's attention and caused him to reach for it with a few excited sounds. "Time for nee-chan to go. Remember, be good!" Handing the rattle to her sibling, Gin stood up and started making her way towards the front door, quickly slipping on her shoes and calling out toward her mom in the room over, before sliding the door open and leaving for the outside. "I'm heading out now, bye!"
Closing the door, Gin saw Sonoko's familiar and expensive looking pale colored car sitting outside her gate. Sticking out of the window to the car, was Sonoko herself, enthusiastically waving her arms and calling out, with an apprehensive looking Sumi sitting in the car beside her. "Hey, hey~! Mino-san, let's go! Everything at my house is ready and waiting~!"
Sonoko definitely was more than excited over their current plans for the day, but that didn't surprise Gin. The blonde had mentioned it several times since they'd made the plans. Still, how far she was extending herself out the window didn't look very secure.
"Sonocchi, you re-" Sumi, slowly reaching an arm up toward her friend, started.
"Waaaaah!" With a surprised scream, Sonoko suddenly lurched forward, nearly falling straight out of the car window. The only thing preventing it, had been Sumi quickly jumping into action and wrapping her arms around the other's waist, trying to pull them back into the car and prevent Sonoko from hitting the pavement.
"Sonnochi! I told you this was going to happen again!" Sumi, frantically maintaining their grip on Sonoko, scolded. Even trying their best, it was clear they were struggling and fighting a losing battle against gravity. "Gin, help!"
"Ah! Hold on, I'm coming!" Rushing off like a rocket, Gin ran over to help her friends as quickly as her legs could move. The day was off to an eventful start.
Aside from Sonoko's mishap with the car window, the rest of the trip to Sonoko's house proceeded without incident, the group making some idle chatter and discussing some basics for the plans for the day. After arriving at the extravagant Nogi household, the trio quickly headed for the kitchen, which the various servants of the household had vacated for use by the girls at Sonoko's request. The room was equally fancy as the rest of the house. Everything looked virtually spotless, with enormous shelves containing a great number of objects related to cooking neatly laid out. The kitchen looked more like one you'd find in a high-class restaurant, rather than someone's house.
"Alright!" Gin, fastening her red color apron, loudly started. Beneath it, she wore a long sleeve shirt with pink and brown colored stripes going horizontally, adorned with a bright red jacket, the sleeves stopping just above her elbows. Blue shorts covered her lower body. "Sonoko! What's step one, before we start handling anything?"
"Wash our hands, right~?" Sonoko answered, glancing over towards Sumi, who was doing exactly that. Sonoko's outfit was far plainer than Gin's, being a shirt slightly lighter than her hair, with two yellow patches covering the collar, and a simple red skirt. Her apron was much livelier, with vertical white and pink stripes, and decorated with hearts on the tie at the back.
"Correct, but don't forget to roll up your sleeves." Sumi spoke up with an approving smile. It may have been obvious, but with Sonoko's demeanor, better safe than sorry. Her outfit was the most elaborate of the three. A long tan dress, extending to slightly above her ankles. The area around the chest was a dull green, with orange poking out just below her neck. The long sleeves of the outfit were a faded black. Contrasting the more muted color, her apron held a checkered pattern of white and pale green, comparable to her eye color. "Sonnochi, could you help me with the utensils and pans we'll need?"
"I'll get the food!" Gin declared.
A few minutes later, the three had gathered together everything needed to begin preparing the food.
"Sumi, you start mixing the sauce, that's pretty easy. Sonoko, let Gin-sensei show you how to cut everything." Gin started, taking a knife and carrot in hand.
"Yes, Mino-sensei~!" Sonoko enthusiastically replied. Eyes eagerly trained on Gin for any possible instructions, the blonde looked less like she was going to be taught a simple cutting technique, and more about to learn some great secret of the universe.
"You wanna hold it like this while cutting, like a bear claw, see?" Gin raised her hand with the carrot, highlighting the 'bear claw' style she gripped the carrot. "Keeps your hands away from the knife." Gin started slowly cutting the vegetable into segments, ensuring every cut she made was perfectly done and each section relatively even sized, technique refined and practiced from many cuts before it. "Annnnnd you chop it like this, nice and easy. Wanna give it a try?"
The blonde vigorously shook her head, taking the knife and moving to start cutting. "Bear claw, bear claw…" Sonoko repeated to herself while trying to mimic Gin's hand motions. Taking her concentration one step further, Sonoko did her best impression of a growling bear, which sounded far less like an actual bear and more along the lines of a harmless kitten.
Gin could help letting a good-natured snicker escape her mouth at the display. "K-kinda like that, but you're just a little bit off with the knife, don't raise it that high with each one. Now, let's move onto the next couple of things."
After the carrot, Gin and Sonoko moved onto cutting up the next few ingredients, such as green onions, lettuce, and the meat. Things proceeded rather smoothly, with Gin only having to step in to help Sonoko a few times. She took quite well to preparing things, helped by the fact it didn't take very long for each task, which left less time for Sonoko to start spacing out or get distracted with something else. Overall, while her technique needed some improvement and the pieces she cut were not as perfectly distributed as Gin's, it went well for a first time experience.
"Good job!" Gin praised Sonoko, giving an approving smile and thumbs up. "Now, we can start getting ready to put stuff onto the pan."
"Eh? What about the noodles? It's not yakisoba without 'em~." Sonoko, tilting her head, questioned. While the meat and various other ingredients had been prepared and cut into pieces, the main part of the dish had yet to be prepared by the girls.
"We're gonna be doing that while preparing everything. Sumi will show you. Something very important you gotta remember about cooking: you don't cook everything the same length and at once if you want to get it juuuuuust right. Cook the hard vegetables, like the carrots, first before the soft ones and it brings out the flavor in each one. That's how you really make it taste good!" Gin lectured, scooping the various ingredients on the countertop onto a plate to better dump them onto the cooking pan.
"Mino-sensei's really good at this~." Sonoko observed while watching Gin, eyes sparkling.
"Course I am! You pick up a few things when you help with the cooking." Gin boasted with a proud smirk. She helped around the house with many things, including cooking, given how her parents often worked, leaving her to sometimes watch her siblings alone. She may have been young, but Gin was proud of her skills at being such a good cook.
"As expected from the one who wants to be a bride~."
That immediately deflated any and all bravado the axe user might've had, a light red covering her cheeks. "S-stop it, you're embarrassing me!"
"First need to put some oil onto the pan. Sonnochi, I'll show you while Gin gets what you cut together." Flicking on the burner, Sumi interjected, seeing where this was headed and offering Gin a lifeline out of further embarrassment over Sonoko's antics.
"Okay~." Sonoko, successfully distracted from her current train of thought, leisurely strolled over to Sumi's side.
Gin breathed a sigh of relief, before going back to collecting everything. Ever since she'd told Sonoko and Sumi about her life goal of being a bride and having a family, now that her other dream of being a hero had been fulfilled, the blonde loved to bring it up now and again to fluster her. Apparently, Sonoko thought it was cute and it gave her plenty of ideas, considering how much it apparently contrasted with her usual demeanor and being one of the only things that reliably got to her.
"So, you spread it just like this and get a thin coat on the pan…" Sumi instructed, methodically and carefully spreading a light coating of oil across the cooking ware. She may not have held the same level of skill as Gin, but Sumi still knew a couple tricks and skills to making good food. "Here, try the other half."
Taking the measuring cup, Sonoko tried her hand at spreading the oil. Her attempts at replicating the task with Sumi's precision was somewhat messy, but she'd still managed to cover the majority of what was needed without wasting any of the oil.
"Your technique could use a little refinement, but it's off to a good start, Sonocchi." Sumi observed, giving a friendly smile toward her friend.
"Yay~. Wasshi and Mino-sensei praised me~." Sonoko beamed, feeling proud of herself for her attempts at cooking going so well this far.
"Eh? Why does only Gin get called sensei?" Sumi, looking forlorn and tone mildly dejected, questioned.
"Hm? Wasshi didn't say anything earlier~. Teach me what's next, Wasshi-sensei~." Sonoko replied with a hopeful look.
Red ever so slightly tainted Sumi's face. "R-right. Next are the noodles."
Moving over to the sink, Sumi took a bowl in one hand and dumped the noodles into it with the other. "Before we cook the noodles, it's important to run them under water and loosen them up with your hands, stir them up a bit like this. Be gentle, not too rough. This shouldn't be difficult, so go ahead and try for yourself, Sonnochi." Turning on the water, Sumi stepped aside for Sonoko.
The blonde took Sumi's place and started carefully and leisurely stirred the bowl's contents with one hand, while steadying it with another, a relaxed smile on her face.
"I think that's good enough." Sumi spoke up a short time later. "Gin, how's the food coming along? Is it ready for the noodles, yet?"
"Just about! Smells great too!" Gin replied back energetically with a wide smile. The delicious aroma and sounds of sizzing food were starting to fill the kitchen. "Come on over and I show you how to put everything else on."
Taking that as her cue to go to Gin's side, Sonoko strolled away from sink, turning the water off and taking the bowl of noodles with her. However, the girl had rather quickly pulled the bowl from the sink, before allowing the water a chance to properly drain from it, which caused a splash of it to leak from the holes designed to drain it, right onto the floor and in Sonoko's path of walking.
"Wai-" Sumi started, seeing impending disaster.
Too late, Sonoko stepped onto the puddle and let out a surprised shout, slipping forward and catapulting the bowl out of her hands, directly into Sumi's face. The entire thing had happened in barely a second.
Looking up from her cooking at the commotion, the first thing Gin noticed was Sonoko, face first on the floor. "Sonoko! You alright?" She quickly put down her utensils and rushed to check on her friend.
Rising with a slight groan, Sonoko looked up at Gin with one of her usual smiles, a slight bump on her forehead, chuckling lightly and rubbing the red spot on her head. "I'm ok~. Guess I slipped on a little water, ehehe."
"Sonnochi." Sumi flat and muffled voice spoke up, drawing the attention of both her friends. The bowl on her face slid off, hitting the ground with the thud. The mass of circle shaped noodles affixed to her face soon followed suit after its container, leaving a few noodles stuck to her mouth. A scowl and menacing glare staining her face.
"So, how are the noodles, Wasshi-sensei~?" Sonoko asked, a very subtle shakiness in her voice.
Sumi spat out the noodles stuck in her mouth.
Were she not quite familiar with how Sumi could get in situations like this, Gin would've been laughing at the hilarious display. As it was, the girl froze, despite not even being the subject of the raven-haired girl's ire.
"This is why you need to let the water drain before removing it from the sink." Sumi scolded, thoroughly unamused.
"Sorry~. I'll be more careful next time~."
Sumi sighed, her features relaxing slightly, before bending down to pick up the items on the floor. "Let's just get back to cooking, we're almost done, aren't we?"
Gin's eyes went wide at the current task being brought to the front of her mind again. With having left the food to sit still for a bit, there was the possibility some of it might've become burned on one side. "Ah, crap! The food!"
They'd had to redo some of the ingredients, but the group had finally managed to cook up some yakisoba on the second attempt without any further disasters. Sonoko had ended up doing more of the work on the second go around, she was getting wrapped up in the fun of cooking and eager to do more. It'd all gone pretty well the second time, aside from when Sumi had to reprimand her once for getting distracted by the sizzling of the pan. But, after much work, her first attempt at cooking had finally produced edible food and the moment of truth had come. Each of them now had a plate of food in front of them, hoping it tasted as good as it looked. Each took a mouthful of the Yakisoba. Finishing her's, Sonoko intensely starred at Gin and Sumi, waiting for any indication of their opinion on the food. She liked it well enough, but what she really wanted was the approval of her friends.
Gin's brow furrowed into a contemplative look for several seconds after eating her bite. "It's great!" The girl suddenly looked toward Sonoko with an approving thumbs up and cheeky grin.
"It's delicious, Sonnochi." Sumi, likewise giving a happy smile, added.
"Yahoo~!" Sonoko energetically threw her arms in the air with a shout of victory. Her first time cooking had, aside from dumping noodles on Sumi's face, been an amazing success. It'd been a fun bonding activity with her friends, she'd started learning a new skill, and it'd ended up some delicious food.
"I guess I was right on the field trip. Eating together really does make the food taste better." Reaching for more of the Yakisoba, Sumi commented with a cheerful look.
"It's even better then what we made then, cause we all cooked it together!" Gin agreed with a nod, taking another bite.
"The noodles kinda taste like Wasshi, too~."
Face twisting into an incredulous look, Sumi nearly spat out her food, recoiling just in time to swallow her current mouthful and avoid it ending up on the table. "W-w-what? W-w didn't even u-use the same noodles and washed the pan!" The girl stammered, trying to form words and completely caught off guard by Sonoko's comment.
Gin let out a hearty laugh at the absurd and completely out of left field comment. "I dunno. I think Sumi's stern attitude would ruin the flavor."
Sumi turned her attention toward Gin, looking thoroughly perplexed and a touch offended, trying to decide how she was possibly supposed to take a comment like that.
Without warning, Sonoko suddenly and playfully bit into Sumi's arm, electing a quick and small shriek from the girl. "S-Sonnochi!? I'm not food!"
"Hmmmm." Pulling back from her sudden taste of Sumi, Sonoko hummed in deep thought. "Yep~. Definitely tastes like Wasshi~."
Gin instantly fell out of her chair, howling with laughter.
Her friend's good mood infection, Sonoko started giggling at the situation. These were the moments she loved. Spending time with her friends having fun and being able to take a break from the worries of their duty. No Vertex coming to destroy the world, no life threatening battles, just being together with everyone. Sonoko was content.
"They should be getting here pretty soon, shouldn't they?" Gin commented while mashing away at the buttons on her controller.
After finishing their food, Sumi pointed out they still had some time before Negi and Fate arrived to demonstrate magic. Already at her house and figuring it best to stay where they'd told Negi they would be, the group decided to pass the remaining time playing at Sonoko's place. Gin was starting to feel a bit restless, having already asked if the time had arrived for the 4th time already.
"Gin…. We'll know when they arrive. It should be any minute now." Sumi replied back with a weary sigh, handling her controller much more delicately than the energetic tapping of Gin.
Gin glanced over from the screen toward her friend with barely contained excitement. "Come on, Sumi. Aren't you excited? It's magic! We get to see how you use it while fighting, and it already did some amazing stuff. I wonder if they have any awesome attack names. There's got to be some awesome attack names or a kind of secret finishing move with something like magic!"
"I bet there's magic words, like-" Sonoko began in a relaxed tone. "-Abracadabra~!" The Hero deepened her voice as much as she couldn't and shot her arm forward dramatically, trying to do her best impression of the stereotypical image associated with using magic, that of an old wizard. Being she was only an 11 years old little girl, her attempts at changing her voice into that of an elderly man weren't terribly successful.
"Yeah, bet it's something like that." Gin snickered at the display. "But, hey. That reminds me." Pausing, the girl gave a sidelong glance toward Sumi, eying her with a cheeky look. "We never got to hear what you'd want to do with magic." The groups musings on what they'd do with magical abilities yesterday had been interrupted by Sonoko…. Being Sonoko, before Sumi had gotten a chance to say anything. Naturally, it left Gin curious as to what her friend would do, considering their personality and demeanor. Surely, they'd have come up with something of interest.
Sumi looked up, a contemplative expression on her face while thinking about the various possibilities. "Well… I'm not sure if it's within their power, but considering what they were able to heal, I wonder if they have anything that might be able to protect against the virus outside the wall… Maybe we could see the outside world a bit… Even if we couldn't explore it much while the Vertex are around."
"That's a great idea! That's just what I'd expect from Sumi. We'll have to ask them about it sometime. I wanna see all the Innes across the world." Gin said with a nod. It made perfect sense for why Sumi wanted to see the outside world. After all, she'd said she wanted to be a historian when she got older. "Hey, speaking of those two. Do you think the-"
Sumi's expression shifted to a mild glare, silencing any further words Gin might've had.
Sonoko's phone started ringing, drawing everyone's attention. The blonde reached into her pocket and pulled it out, answering it. "Hey, hey~."
"Is that them?" Gin asked, leaning in with curiosity to try and hear anything from the call.
Sonoko gave a nod of confirmation before focusing back onto the conversation. "Yep, we're ready…. Out front? Alright, we'll meet you there~."
Sumi raised an eyebrow from the exchange after Sonoko hung up. "Why didn't he just ring the door?"
"It's Spring-san's friend, and he said he didn't want to waste time dealing with people who answered the door and weren't us~."
"… That definitely sounds like him." Gin commented with a disappointed sigh. She'd been hoping that Negi would've been the one to come along, maybe get a chance to talk to them a bit before the magic show happened. Negi was a much more sociable and generally pleasant person to be around when compared to Fate. She still needed to find out any of his interests to give ideas toward a gift.
After a quick announcement of leaving, the trio exited the house to see Fate standing outside the gate of Sonoko's house.
"Good afternoon." Fate's neutral voice greeted the girls, his tone and expression making it sound thoroughly unwelcoming.
"Heeeeeeey~." Sonoko, undeterred by the greeting, replied with a friendly tone and smile.
"I trust you're prepared to leave?" Fate questioned.
All three girls nodded.
"Then we'll be leaving." Without any further delay, a gigantic, pitch black key materialized in Fate's hand. The only defining feature of it, was the globe sitting at the very tip of it, the features of it resembling Earth, but it oddly not perfectly. "Relocate."
It had been a long two days for Negi. He'd spent most of yesterday arguing with the Taisha, and then the majority of today setting up an immense number of wards and protection for the upcoming magical display. The Taisha had agreed to at least see a demonstration of magic before further considering the matter of allowing him to instruct the three Heroes. That was good. However, they had made no mention of picking up the Heroes to also witness this display. That was bad, considering he was handling transportation. As Negi had feared, it seemed like the Taisha were going to try and keep this under wraps as much as possible. He could understand their concerns; however, they weren't the ones on the battlefield risking their lives. Not one to be outdone, he'd sent Fate to pick up the Heroes, while he gathered the Taisha who'd come to witness the demonstration. The child had used an excuse that Fate would be a few minutes late, saying he had a few things to take cause of, such as his morning intake of several cups of the muddy water known as coffee. This wasn't exactly a lie either. Like him with tea, Fate always made it a point to have morning coffee. He even carried some of the grounds with him in a pocket dimension as an emergency! Though, Negi wasn't one to talk. He did the same with tea.
The location Negi had chosen for the display, after scouting much of the island as anywhere the Taisha offered had predictably been far too small, had been a remote area in Shikoku's more mountainous regions. He and Fate weren't going to go all out, that was far too dangerous and destructive, but even holding back and limiting themselves, it was easy to cause collateral damage. But, restricting the highest level of their magic and keeping it to a confined area of just a few hundred meters at most, meant that Fate could likely repair any damage they did. His specialty was Earth Magic, after all. To ensure the spectators could properly see the event and not need to stand during all of it, Negi had used his own Earth Magic to set up some chairs.
"Right. Everything's in place and the last of the wards are set up. Fate should be arriving any second now." Negi declared to the Taisha present.
One of the people present spoke up, the apparent highest ranking one here. Her outfit, compared to the otherwise identical ones everyone else wore, possessed a hood with green highlights, making her stand out. "Are you certain this is safe?" Her voice was that of a woman's, cautious and reserved.
"Absolutely." Negi replied with a nod. "I'll be happy to demonstrate just how secure all the barriers I've set up are, once Fate arrives. Which should be right now." Detecting energy on his magical senses, Negi glanced over to the side, seeing a brief flash of light, which soon faded to reveal Fate, Sonoko, Gin, and Sumi.
"Wooooooah. We really teleported~." Sonoko said, glancing around at the new surrounding leisurely with a curious face.
"Sonnochi, we're done this before with Forestization." Sumi added, though some of the surprise and wonder in her voice was quite clear.
"Hey, Aki-sensei's here!" Gin commented, looking at the masked woman.
In a rare display, some of the Taisha present visibly stiffened up in surprise at the sudden appearance of the Heroes, exchanging looks between each other.
"Hm? Is there a problem?" Negi asked with feigned ignorance. "Considering the location, I assumed Fate and I would be handling all transportation. As this is something that the Heroes might be learning in the future and help them in combat to avoid any more disasters, I assumed you would want them to see the demonstration to understand what they're working with, correct?" Negi finished, starring directly into the masked face of the apparent leader of the gathered group. There was a possibility this was tipping his hand a bit too early. Negi, being a kid, was often underestimated in multiple respects by people older than him who were unfamiliar with his history. It let him catch many opponents off guard in both physical combat and ploys like this, but it wasn't something he could rely on after the first time or two. After this, it wasn't likely he could so easily pull a fast one on the Taisha like this. On the other hand, this was still early into everything. If he got a stronger hold on matters early on, it'd make it much harder for the Taisha to try and maneuver things around to distance the Heroes from magic. Theoretically, Negi could just force the matter, as it didn't appear the Taisha had the strength to stop him, but he wasn't that kind of person. The world didn't work in a way where just because you have power, it meant you should constantly throw it around to get whatever you wanted. Negi still genuinely wanted to try and form a good relationship here.
Several seconds passed in awkward silence, the atmosphere and mind games obvious to most present. The tension rising with each moment of the stare off between Negi and the girl Gin had called Aki-sensei. "…. Continue." The older one finally spoke up. The declaration seemed to further surprise the remaining Taisha.
Inwardly and outwardly, Negi smiled at the victory. He'd have to remember this person. He doubted that the Heroes were solely self-taught, which when combined with the term Gin used and her apparent special rank in the Taisha, made Negi believe it was likely this was their combat teacher. It'd explain why they'd been sent to oversee something that might become a part of the Heroes' learning. He might have a better chance at reasoning with her than the other members as well. Being a teacher himself and having seen his own students put through dangerous situations, he could imagine she must've been just as concerned for the wellbeing of the girls as he had been for his own students. "Fantastic. Fate, let's prepare." Taking the skies, Negi floated a distance away from the group and into the confines of the invisible barrier he had set up, followed by Fate.
"Now." Negi began, projecting his voice with magic to ensure everyone heard him properly. "As some of you had concerns over safety, let me demonstrate that this barrier will keep everyone protected from any of the spells we use." Raising a hand and holding it off to the side, directed away from the crowd, Negi began chanting. "Ra Tel Ma Scir Magister, Veniant spiritus aerialis fulgurientes! Cum fulguriationis flet tempestas austrina…" Energy started to swirl within Negi's hand, lightning crackled and danced across the air in arcs that formed a small storm, the wind intensified around him to those surpassing even the most powerful tornadoes, the power of the spell flowing directly into his hand, shaping itself to Negi's will and prepared to obey the command he gave its energy.
"Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!" An immense storm of lightning and wind exploded from Negi's palm in an instant, more intense and deafening than the greatest thunderstorms, fierce and destructive energy surpassing any tornado nature could possibly muster many times over, creating a surge of terrifying energy dozens of meters wide. Traveling with speed that matched its ferocity, the full might of Negi's spell slammed into his barrier, sending sparks of lightning and wind blasting in all directions against its walls, stretching over a hundred meters to encompass one end of the wall, struggling against the confines and just waiting to break out. But, the barrier refused to so much as budge as inch. It's defensive abilities surpassing even the storm's wrath. The barrier resolutely endured the onslaught of Negi's spells, before the destructive energy quickly started to fade away, vanishing completely in moments. The entire display, after Negi's chant, had only been several seconds at most.
Checking for audience reactions, Negi could see a variety of them. Even with their bulky clothes, Negi could see some of the Taisha were completely and utterly terrified of what they'd just witnessed, a few of their hands shaking or gripping the chairs like their lives depended on it. While this was a strong spell and part of the point was to look flashy, this was a demonstration after all, there still existed an entire class of them which eclipsed this one, so he didn't consider it overly special. Still, perhaps he'd overdone it just a little bit…. On the other end, the Heroes reactions seemed generally more positive at least. Gin's smile was absolutely glowing, grinning ear to ear with excitement. Sonoko's mouth had shaped itself into an 'O' shape, surprised, but she also looked eager. Sumi seemed to be the least receptive of the three, the black-haired girl looking more shocked than anything else.
"That was amazing! I gotta learn how to do that!" Gin loudly shouted, unable to contain her growing enthusiasm.
"We're not done yet!" Negi shouted back. "There's plenty more to demonstrate." Grinning, he glanced over toward Fate. "Ready?"
Taking a combat stance, Fate nodded. Hands raised, one high near the head and the other held close to the waist, to perfectly guard all areas of his body, legs spaced apart to provide the best ability to respond to any attack and a strong form against being tripped up, his primary style of Ba Gua Zhang. The Averruncus form was flawless, the sign of someone clearly an experienced master at melee combat.
Mimicking Fate, Negi took a similar and equally perfect stance, the starting form patterned after various types of Chinese Kenpo Negi had learned, reflected in his opening stance. It'd been a long time since he and Fate had a chance to fight, not since the battle at the Grave Keeper's Palace had they dueled. Even if they couldn't fight to their fullest potential and the focus was more on demonstrating magic, Negi was still looking forward to this. "Then, let's begin!"
SPELL TRANSLATIONS:
Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens:
Latin: Veniant spiritus aerialis fulgurientes! Cum fulguriationis flet tempestas austrina… Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!
English: Come wind, thunder spirits. Don lightning and blow, storm of the South Seas. Thunderous Gale!