Gin strolled around her room, getting ready for the day's events. Everyone would be meeting up at her house for them soon. However, despite the fun plans Sonoko had suggested, Gin couldn't shake the weight that had settled in her heart, once more feeling herself troubled a bit more then she could understand the reasons for. Compounding her confusion, she felt herself looking forward to this outing a lot, more than she expected to normally feel about going out with friends.

Between their training and reports on magic, the girls had been informed that the mages would likely be leaving very soon according to the information relayed by the Taisha. She knew they were going to leave eventually, but having an actual deadline on that given to her, had once more stirred those thoughts and feeling she had thinking on it during Negi's stay at her house not too long ago. Sonoko appeared to notice this and had suggested trying to organize one more fun outing before they left, explore and show Negi around the town a bit, considering Gin had wanted to do that as some repayment for all the help he gave, but only had the chance to show off Ines. That had lifted her mood a little, but it seemed a bit odd how Sonoko suggested the idea 1 on 1 instead of in their group chat.

Almost finished changing, the notification of another text message came from her phone, drawing Gin's curiosity, her handing reaching for the device to see what it could have been. What she saw, a few messages from Sonoko, caused her face to heat up.

"Oh, Mino-san. I just had a great idea! you should wear that cute dress we bought while shopping a while back, Spring-san thought you looked cute in it, so I bet he'd like it~.'

"S-Sonoko, what the hell?" Gin audibly stammered in response to the text, certain her face was quickly turning red. Where had that even come from anyway?

"Dresses aren't my style, dammit..." Gin muttered, texting the reply back. She had only bought it in the first place because it was common courtesy to buy at least something when you tried on clothes and not doing so would've been extremely rude! But… She couldn't bring herself to not hang onto it. Thinking on the dress and what Negi had said about it simply furthered her blush, along with stirring an odd lightness in her chest, a bit as if she was nervous, but it didn't seem exactly like that…

Would Negi even remember that outfit if she wore it? It'd been a while ago when the Ines visit had happened with him. What if he did remember and Sonoko was right…?

Gin shook her head as if it would clear away whatever thought just entered her head. Where the hell had that come from?

Another text notification drew Gin's attention back to her phone for Sonoko's latest message. 'Aw, but Mino-san looks so cute in it. I bet you'd be really eye catching~."

A low groan rumbled from Gin's throat. Of course, Sonoko was just teasing her and trying to find an excuse for her to wear something 'cute'. Her and Sumi loved those styles on Gin way too much.

But, even trying to brush away her feelings as explainable under that. Gin couldn't help her eyes wandering over to her closet, thinking about that long-sleeved tan over shirt with a black dress and ruffled skirt. Like someone constantly tapping her shoulder, the thought just wouldn't go away now that it was planted in her head, but there was no way she was actually going to wear it just because Sonoko had suggested Negi would find it cute…

She had actually spent the time changing into the outfit.

She had actually walked out of her house wearing the outfit.

She had left her house to meet Negi and everyone wearing the outfit.

Why the hell did she do this?

Gin's mind was a mess questioning her own behavior while she walked to the entrance of the wall surrounding her house, expecting to find the others on the outside of it. She could already hear Sumi and Sonoko, especially the latter, losing their minds over Gin having chosen to put on a skirt, unlike all the times she needed to be forced into one. Gin wasn't even entirely sure herself why she had done it, but the thought had just kept bothering her, along with being unable to shake the curiosity of if Negi would actually remember it. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if he did…?

Wait, why didn't she see anyone outside her gate? Gin was always the one who had issues with time, and especially with how she had changed her outfit, she should've been the last one there, but the only one standing outside her gate right now, was Negi. She didn't see or sense her other two friends anywhere. What was going on?

With her entrance, Negi's gaze shot over to Gin and locked with her, making the girl's face heat up upon remembering the clothes she was wearing. "Ah, hello, Minowa-san!" Warmly as ever, Negi greeted with a wave.

"H-Hey, Negi-san!" Gin returned the gesture while she approached, doing her best to suppress the annoying nerves that wouldn't leave her. She only had moderate success at best, given the brief stutter in her voice. Gin felt like she was going to explode every second he looked at her, waiting for the boy to make some kind of acknowledgment about her unusual clothing. At least it was only him right now…

"Um, so, where're Sumi and Sonoko? They were supposed to be here." Gin muttered, glancing up and down the street for any sign of them.

"Ah, about that. Nogi-san said something came up between her and Washio-san and they can't make it. She said she tried to tell you but didn't see you read her text."

Gin raised an eyebrow, she hadn't seen anything before changing. Pulling her phone out to check, there indeed was a text message from Sonoko on her phone. How did she not see that? Was it because she was too distracted from changing and rushing out the door to not keep them waiting? Or had Sonoko sent it during that brief gap? That wouldn't have made sense with how they should've been here now.

Confused, Gin opened the message and felt the urge to scream at what she saw.

'Hey, Mino-san~. Sorry, forgot to mention, but I thought Wasshi could use some help with her writing skills after she got a really big and bad review on her work. I'm sure you two will still have plenty of fun with just the two of you, together~."

Sonoko had been setting her up this whole time!

Dammit, what the hell was she doing? Her friend could often be teasing with her antics and when it came to romance, but she was usually there to witness it to get 'ideas'. Sonoko was going to be busy, so why did she do this just to get her alone with Negi? Sonoko was being so aggressive lately compared to her usual antics….

"Since things didn't pan out, we could always try another time. I don't think I'll be here too much longer, but it shouldn't be hard to fit in a short trip when everyone can come if nothing's busy on your end." Negi's voice brought Gin out of her thoughts.

"Huh? No, it's fine!" Gin's mouth spoke before her head could think of what to say. She didn't want to miss this. They were going to kept extra busy with practice for a bit due to the Taisha expecting another attack soon, something quite big, so this was going to be the last day Gin would've likely had enough free time to do this with Negi. She'd been looking forward to this enough that it surprised herself, and who knew when another chance would come up to see him after Negi left?

"I'm gonna be pretty busy with a lot of extra training soon, so I don't mind even if it's just us two..." Gin muttered, the normal fire in her voice degrading into a more meek shyness at stating the fact herself. Why was it so difficult for her to just act normal right now?

Negi's positive grin stayed firmly on his face, looking at Gin reassuringly with gentle eyes. "Then, in that case. Why don't we get going? We should be able to go a lot of places if I'll be teleporting us there."

That was the advantage of magic and being able to go anywhere they wanted, distance wasn't an issue and so much more could be fit into the day with travel time eliminated. She really hoped to learn that someday herself. Maybe she could finally stop being late without help then…

"Oh, and I see you're wearing what I saw you in at Ines a while ago." Negi stated with a smile, briefly glancing over Gin's clothes.

Gin felt her heart seize up, a horrible mixture of anxiety and curiosity overtaking her. He actually did remember? That was… Thoughtful.

Wait, why did his opinion feel so important to her!? It was just a dress!

"O-Oh, y-yeah. I only got it cause, um, it would've been rude not to get anything, you know?" Gin tried to brush it off with a nervous chuckle, but that answer didn't feel right to her either. That was the reason she got it though, wasn't it? One was expected to buy at least one thing when trying on outfits.

Negi tilted his head. "Really? I think it's quite different from what you wear, but not in a bad way. It still looks cute on you." Without an ounce of reservation at such straightforward praise, Negi shamelessly stated.

Once more, Gin felt her thoughts grind to a crashing halt. There was that word again. Cute. Sonoko had been completely right.

Just like before, Gin felt her face ready to explode, a torrent of jumbled thoughts and emotions stirred within her. Sonoko and Sumi had said it before and it was an easy way to fluster her, but this felt so much worse! But, meant changing into this wasn't pointless, right? That was oddly relieving to her… Arg, she had to say something already instead of just standing here like an idiot!

"I-um-" Gin stammered, trying and failing miserably at forming words. Trying to sort her mind enough to speak properly felt like trying to calm a whirlwind. This was way worse than the last time! She was acting like some l-

"Anyway, since Nogi-san and Washio-san aren't going to make it, shall we get ready to go? I can teleport us anywhere you want to go. You probably know better things to see than I do. We can go whenever you're ready. Just think of where it is." Interrupting her train of thought, Negi's warm voice spoke, holding out his open hand invitingly.

Oh, right, places to go! Gin had spent a while thinking of some of the best places to go, aside from the #1 place in the whole island, Ines. Being able to zip around to anywhere on the Island in an instant was a perfect power for something like this and made any normal issues of transportation at her age, completely irrelevant.

But all that planning had been lost in the current jumbled mess of her mind. Dammit, she needed to calm the hell down already.

Taking a quick and deep breath to try and organize her unusually frazzled thoughts, Gin felt some semblance of organization start to return to her. Alright, she had an idea of where to make their first stop.

"Okay, I'm ready to go." With a touch of her usual confidence coming back, Gin raised her hand, carefully taking Negi's within her own and trying to focus more on their destination than the fact she was holding a boy's hand. As if this whole thing wasn't awkward enough already...

"Okay, I think I have the place, follow me." After only a moment of pause to focus, Negi spoke up. Stepping inside of a nearby shadow, Negi vanished inside, the darkness swallowing up Gin's hand as she followed behind.

With her currently jumbled mind, Gin had decided to make her first stop somewhere that always helped her feel at ease and was easily among her favorite places in the whole world, Ines. Specifically, Gin had decided to go with Negi to the food court for some of the gelato. Sure, starting with food, even a light snack this may have been, was a little weird to kick off with, but this seemed like a good idea to calm her still jumpy nerves and they didn't go here last time after Sonoko's stunt with the clothing store…

Dammit, just thinking of that made her starting heating up again, it was so embarrassing! This wasn't what she needed now!

Looking for some solace in her snack, Gin quickly took a mouthful of her cool, soy sauce flavored gelato, feeling the wonderful taste help melt away some of her nerves almost as easy as the food itself did. Yep. Coming here first was definitely a good idea…

"I can't say that I've ever thought of soy sauce being a flavor for gelato..." Negi commented, snapping Gin away from the soft served treat.

Gin pulled back to respond with a small, but mostly good-natured frown, feeling a little of the snack on her cheek. "You too, huh? Maybe Sumi was right..."

"W-Wait, I didn't mean it was bad." Negi quickly apologized.

"Hey, don't worry about it." Gin likewise spoke up in time with her own apologetic frown, that reaction made her feel guiltier than it should've. "I brought Sumi and Sonoko here and had them try the flavor before. It wasn't that popular… Sonoko said it was 'complicated' and Sumi said it was an 'adult' taste." Gin trailed off with a subtle sigh, yet feeling a small grin rising from the flashback.

"If you recommend it that much, then maybe I will have to try it sometime." Casual once more, Negi spoke before trying some of his own food. The mage had gone with some green tea flavored gelato.

"Do yo-" Gin opened her mouth, ready to offer some and test Sumi's statement, maybe he would like it with how unusual a kid Negi was, before Gin swallowed her words. If she hadn't been feeling self-conscious as she was earlier over this, then she might have gone through with it, but the idea of doing so with a boy suddenly seemed a lot more personal next to with Sonoko and Sumi, who both girls.

"Hrm?"

"Uh, so, um, what do you think of the gelato?" Stammering, Gin made an attempt to regain her composure and brush aside the almost fatal mistake.

Negi took another bite of his own snack, tasting it for a few seconds before speaking a reply. "It's good, this place was a great suggestion, Minowa-san. You know a lot of good places in Ines."

With the praise over having chosen well, Gin felt the pressure on her lighten, a smile once more spreading over her face almost uncontrollably. "Of course I do. I told you when we came here the last time, Ines is one of my favorite places in the whole world. There's a bunch of stuff to do here and you'll never get bored! I could stay here all day."

Feeling some of her gelato start running down the side of her mouth, Gin remembered the small bit that got stuck there earlier and paused, quickly licking it up before continuing. "How about you…? Been anywhere cool you've really liked? Fate-san said he traveled, so I bet you've seen all kinds of places too." Gin already had some stops in mind for this outing, but a good chance had presented itself to fish for any ideas of where Negi would like best. They could go anywhere with teleporting.

"I have. There's a lot of countries I've been to aside from Japan and Wales. All the business trips for negotiating funds and contracts means I'm never short on places to see. It's given me the chance to look at a lot of dinosaur museums. But for my favorite places, let's see..." Negi trailed off, pausing to think while lowering his gelato cone down to the table.

Dinosaurs, huh? The answer brought a low chuckle to Gin. It was such a typical answer to expect from a boy his age, but that was part of what was funny with how mature Negi came across the majority of the time. He could still act like he looked sometimes too, huh? Maybe she was thinking too hard about what would interest hi-

What was that first part again?

"Wait… Business trips, you mean like, work stuff?" Her parents were often quite busy due to work reasons, leaving Gin to watch after the house and her siblings now and again, but Negi had talked about a company and going to other countries. Okay, sure, he had been a teacher, but that was easier to swallow than whatever stuff it sounded like he was involved it. What did an 11-year-old even do when it came to that stuff?

"Hrm? Oh, yes. I have to do a lot of negotiating with various companies and organizations to secure everything needed for the technology needed in the space development I'm in charge of." The child stated the absurd fact as if it were a mundane hobby without blinking.

The hell kind of kid was Negi?

Gin's face went blank. The second she started thinking Negi might have had a normal side, he comes out with something like this. By this point, being involved in such a thing sounded fitting for him. "Man, I'm not even that surprised when you make something crazy sound normal..."

"I've heard that a few times before." Unphased as ever, Negi took another bite of the gelato.

"How'd you even get involved in that?"

"Well..." Negi paused for a second, trailing off with a contemplative look. "That's a bit of a long story, but to make it short, I guess you could say it's involved with where my father left off and I think it could really help my world. It's a long-term plan, could take anywhere from 30 to 100 years, depending on how things go, but it feels like my life's calling and it's what I want to do."

Gin tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. "What's with the crazy gap? 70 years is a long time!"

"Oh, that's easy. The scale of this project and estimated time means there's a lot of room for something to happen that helps or hurts it. Beyond just the speculation of it, there's an unexpected breakthrough or disaster to slow it down, there's also the possibility of politics..."

Gin felt a slowly creeping sense of deja vu like when Sumi went onto historical lectures coming over her.

"… and naturally depending on how much certain people or governments are willing to cooperate could have a significant impact as well-"

What had to be at least a minute later and he was still going. Negi hadn't taken a single breath or pause the whole time.

"Er, uh, that's..." Gin mumbled, barely following along with most of the words going right over her head. This felt like a conversation better suited to adults three times their age than kids!

"Huh?" Negi finally stopped his lecture from the interruption, freezing for a moment before his look turned sheepish and apologetic. "Ah, sorry. I have to explain parts of this a lot. I didn't mean to suddenly drop all that on you and get confusing."

"Uh, don't worry too much about it. I'm actually kinda used to it with Sumi and history." Gin responded with a cheery grin slowly replacing her perplexed expression of earlier. Some of the underlying nervousness from the start of this still clung to her, but in a weird way, some of the more insane aspects of Negi's life helped her ease up.

"But wow. Sounds like you've really thought this all though, even if I don't get it all. I'm not so good with all that kind of planning and future stuff. That's more Sumi and Sonoko's thing." Taking another bite of her gelato, nearly finished down to the cone, Gin admitted. It wasn't that she never thought about that stuff or couldn't do it, it just wasn't her specialty. She had her own dream for life someday but hadn't really given it all that much thought on what that dream would be like beyond vague ideas or seeing her own parents married life. Not like she could move toward it much when she was just 11 and it was still a little embarrassing to think about. But still, it was pretty cool Negi knew what he wanted to do and already had a detailed plan on how to get it. Gin couldn't help wondering if Sumi or Sonoko had any similar ideas on how they were going to become a historian and novelist respectively, given they already had such passions for the subjects. Sonoko was already writing and apparently popular on the internet, while Sumi never missed a chance to dive into any historical subjects. Maybe she could ask them some time and see if she was just the odd one out…

"Well, I can be extra thorough in my plans, but don't sell yourself too short. Nogi-san said you had a dream like she and Washio-san did. I'm sure you've given it some thought at least." Smiling innocently, Negi reassured.

And just like that, Gin felt the sense of ease that had built up since the beginning of their conversation once more leave her. Dammit, that was right, Sonoko had made that teasing comment and Negi had never found out what her dream was! But Negi had already shared a bunch of personal information, especially about his father's situation with that dream she saw… Maybe she could tell him this time…? That only felt fair…

Cheeks rapidly burning up, Gin opened her mouth to answer, only for it to snap back shut the moment she tried to force an answer out. Nope, no way! Sumi and Sonoko were both girls and her closest friends, but telling something like that to another boy was way too embarrassing!

"I-um, it's not that I don't think about or wanna do anything, it's j-just kinda far off!" Gin stammered, voice shaking nervously. Part of her felt bad at making an excuse, but just thinking about telling him especially made Gin's chest seize up!

Quickly, she needed something to veer the conversation away before he asked for any details of what her dream was. "So, how about the next place! I-I know a bunch of cool places we can still go!"

Mentally, Gin groaned to herself. Dammit, that wasn't convincing at all, she didn't even fool herself with how nervous she sounded, but maybe it was going to work? She had to stop acting like this today already!

"If you'd like to go somewhere else, then sure. Just lead the way or think of where you want to be and we can head there then." While momentarily given some pause, Negi seemed to roll with the suggestion and thankfully didn't prod Gin further.

Inwardly, Gin felt a small sense of relief come over here. At least she didn't have to deal with that humiliation for now… But who knew what would happen the rest of the day. Now, where was best to go next...