Disclaimer: I don't own Negima or Ranma 1/2.
Rise of Prodigies
Chapter Sixty-Four: Battle of the Gravekeeper's Palace - The Dream Trap
"Now's our chance. The enemy are preoccupied with Ranma-san and the allied landing force. Chachamaru-san, take us down towards the dock Luna-san pointed out before we set off." Negi ordered Chachamaru who was remotely controlling the Great Paru-sama through some technological wizardry installed into her gynoid body that was beyond him.
"You sure about this, Negi-sensei?" His loyal student asked worriedly as she dutifully changed their airfish's course and it began vectoring away from where Ranma-san and the following allied landing ships were making their landing within the hole that Pudding-san had blasted into the side of the Gravekeeper's Palace.
"I'm with Chachamaru on this, Sensei." Chisame-san said as took a moment to look away from supervising the cyber battle her electronic spirit familiars were engaged in with Cosmo Entelecheia's own cyberspace warriors. "Is splitting off from the path cleared for us by Ranma-san a good idea?"
Negi turned to Luna-san, who frowned but nodded and began to explain. "I won't say it's safer, that would be a lie, but it is the smarter move. Cosmo Entelecheia's forces are limited and most of them should be pivoting to waylay Ranma-sama. She's the bigger threat. That means if we sneak in using an alternate route, it should give us a better chance of making it past their defenses and achieving our objectives."
"I know it's risky." Negi conceded. "Without Ranma-san to protect us, we'll have to rely on our strength alone. But that's alright. We're strong, we've trained to be so. We can do this."
The child teacher was pleased to see his statement was met with nods from all his students and friends. Some like Kotarō-kun, Setsuna-san and Konoka-san were confident. Others like Makie-san, Ako-san, Yue-san and her Ariadne friends were a little more hesitant. But no one denied his statement. Everyone was confident in their abilities and their battle plan.
"We can save Anya and Asuna-san. We can save Mundus Magicus." Negi continued with raw determination. "We can do this!"
This was met with a cheer from his students and friends that brought a smile to Negi's face. They could do this! He was sure of it.
"I hope you're right, Sensei." Chisame-san said with a frown with her usual contrariness just as the Great Paru-sama neared a large opening in the side of the Gravekeeper's Palace.
"We're almost at our entry point." Chachamaru announced as the airfish began orienting itself to enter the large tunnel that according to Luna-san ran through the length of the Gravekeeper's Palace and served as an airdock.
They had identified the airdock, thanks to intel gathered by Chamo-kun and confirmed by Luna-san, as their best possible entry point into Cosmo Entelecheia's base. Intel that the ermine fairy had spent almost all his time since regrouping with them on Mundus Magicus gathering. He had used his shady connections with his fellow fae to first locate Cosmo Entelecheia's base and then later using the portals his kind could create to sneak inside it to spy on them and map the Palace out. From what Negi heard from Ranma-san, this should have been impossible as the protections that the Mage of the Beginning cast over the Palace should have easily blocked Chamo-kun's portals, so there was a good chance it was a trap. But with Luna-san confirming that the airdock led all the way to the Palace's central chamber where the Mage usually held court, trap or no trap, it really was their best option.
The enemy seemed to realize it too as they moved to contest their approach towards it by sending up a flock of shadow harpies to engage them. But without any need for commands, Kitty-chan flew towards Cosmo Entelecheia's shadow constructs and engaged them in an aerial melee that left them too busy to worry about the Great Paru-sama. Not that they left Kazumi-san's skeletal dragon unsupported and as they flew past the skirmish, the airfish's mana cannons fired upon the harpies with abandon, destroying scores of them.
"Everyone get ready." Negi shouted to his students and friends. He felt a nervous flutter at the prospect of facing the biggest fight of his life - In all their lives. - but he forced it down. He had a job to do and he couldn't do it if he was overcome with nerves. "We're about to enter the enemy base. We can expect them to send something more substantial to try and stop us once we do."
His suggestion was met with a chorus of agreement and everyone tensed in preparation for the inevitable fight ahead. They were, however, not prepared for who their first opponent turned out to be.
The Great Paru-sama was just entering the Gravekeeper's Palace's airdock and was passing under a vaulted arch that held the roof of the massive tunnel up when suddenly a figure leapt from the curved span of the structural support to land gracefully on the deck of their airfish.
A very familiar figure.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Chisame-san complained, giving voice to the shocked surprise of every one of the gathered members of 3-A.
Negi agreed, he really should know more about his students' background. It was getting ridiculous who was just randomly turning up on Mundus Magicus unexpectedly and in the enemy's base no less.
"Rainyday-san?" Negi asked as he eyed the white haired, dark skinned girl with hazel brown eyes, facial tattoos that resembled those a clown might wear as makeup and dressed in the familiar Mahora Academy uniform.
As to everyone's shock, standing before them was undeniably Number 33 in the 3-A class register, Rainyday Zazie-san. Or was it?
She looks almost identical to Rainyday-san but not entirely so. Negi thought as he began to notice the differences. She was slightly taller than Rainyday-san for one and slightly more well developed as well, with a bigger bust and wider hips.
"You're not Rainyday-san! Who are-"
Negi never got a chance to finish his question before the Rainyday-san lookalike summoned a Pactio card and activated it in a blinding burst of light.
"Not moe enough." Chisame grunted as she looked at one of the images from the photoshoot she had done last night. With a series of mouse movements and clicks, she transferred a few pictures to a folder she'd set aside for photos that she would edit later and deleted the rest.
With her Chui page blowing up lately, she was going to milk it for all she could. And to do that, she needed new content, which meant she needed to upload more photos.
"I think they look nice, Chisame-san." Negi-sensei said, sitting next to her as she went through the scantily-clad pictures of herself.
The orange haired girl blushed at the compliment. Yes, it was a boy complimenting her racy pictures and as hormonal as all boys were, it was probably biased. Still, Chisame couldn't help but sit straighter and preen at the praise. The boy she liked had praised her after all!
"Thanks, s-so… do you wa-wan-" She stammered, but was cut off as one of her mice-like electronic spirit familiars burst out of her computer's monitor.
"Chui-chama! Malware detected within you!" The little runt chirped, little paws grabbing at the sleeve of her jersey and pulling on it. "You need to run anti-virus ware!"
The bespectacled girl deadpanned. "Last I checked, this is the real world. Not the Matrix. Now go away!"
Instead of working, her attempt to shoo her familiar away backfired and more of the mice appeared out of nowhere.
"What are all of you doing here!?" She shouted at her familiars irritably. "Can't you see I'm having private time with Negi-sensei! Leave us alone!"
Her familiars ignored her and started to eat the literal air. As they did, bits and pieces of her surroundings suddenly started turning into static and the world's color dulled. A sight that left Chisame looking on in horror as her world started to turn into a blank void and realization began to set in.
"...That bitch virused me?!" Chisame shouted indignantly as she realized the truth. Turning back to the simulation of Negi, who was now frozen mid-motion due to the failing program, her anger reached a new high. "There will be war…"
"You will pay for that, you mind hacking bitch!" Chisame roared angrily as she pushed herself to her feet as soon as she escaped the confines of the illusion the bloody Rainyday-san lookalike had trapped her in. No, by the looks of everyone else lying unconscious on the Great Paru-sama's deck, she wasn't the only one whose mind the bitch had messed with.
"Let them go!" Chisame demanded, her eyes lingering on the insensate forms of Chachamaru and Negi-sensei longer than she should have before she forcibly turned away to glare at their attacker.
"That would run contrary to why I intervened in the first place, so I must politely refuse." The enemy masquerading as her classmate said in a barely audible whisper.
"I wasn't asking. I was ordering!" Chisame corrected the bitch as she leveled her Sceptrum Virtuale at her. "Sagitta Magica, Series Fulguralis (Magic Arrow, Lightning Series)!"
Her opponent easily danced around her lightning arrows, all whilst looking at Chisame curiously.
"How did you escape my Magic Lantern Circus, I wonder? That should be impossible."
"Between my Sceptrum Virtuale and my familiars, I am the best hacker in the world! It doesn't matter if it's conventional electronics or some fancy magitech system, there's nothing I can't hack. Or that I don't have countermeasures to protect myself against. Did you really think your Artifact would be an exception?"
"Hmm…" The lookalike said, looking thoughtful as she continued to evade the unrelenting volleys of Sagitta Magica, Series Fulguralis that Chisame was shooting at her.
I really need more ranged spells. Chisame mused idly. Even if I have her right where I want her, I can't help but feel pathetic relying on a single spell to keep her there.
"So you're as good at dodging as you are messing with people, huh?" Chisame shouted, as in the background she saw Kitty-chan, having dealt with the harpies from earlier, fly towards the Great Paru-sama only to be intercepted by a group of shadow constructs that had taken the form of a colony of giant bats.
Tch! He would've been a big help if things don't go the way I have planned. Chisame thought with irritation. Nevermind! Plan A it is! Kincha, Hanpe, Konnya, Chikuwafu, Negi, Daiko, and Shirataki, are you ready?
We're ready, Mistress! Just give the signal! Chikuwafu reported back enthusiastically on behalf of her familiars.
"Let's see how you like it when people turn the tables on you instead!"
"What do you-"
Not giving the bitch the chance to finish talking, Chisame gave her the familiars the order they were waiting for.
Now!
Suddenly there was a burst of light from the bitch's skirt pocket and she toppled over. A sight that had Chisame smirking. The bitch was getting exactly what she deserved!
Sadly, her victory didn't last long as inches from crashing to the ground, the white haired girl muttered something under her breath.
"Audacia Paula." The other girl said as she snapped out of the effects of her own Artifact and caught herself, correcting her fall by hand springing back into a standing position.
Did you catch that?
Got it, Mistress! Daiko reported.
Good! Then use the bitch's own safe word and free the others from her illusion!
Yes, Mistress! Her familiars chorused as she felt them, through her connection to them, scatter into the connections to the minds of the unconscious members of Ala Alba that had been influenced by the bitch's Artifact.
"I win, bitch." Chisame informed the bitch smugly as she gestured to her allies around them, who, one by one, were slowly waking up.
The lookalike just frowned at this and narrowed her eyes.
"No, you have not." She said defiantly. "This just means I will have to resort to more forceful measures to detain you. How foolish of you."
As if to prove the point behind her words, a massive amount of magical energy began gathering around the white haired girl. A familiar type of magical energy at that, one she regularly felt whenever Negi-sensei used his Magia Erebea (Dark Magic): dark magic. Magic which coalesced behind the other girl's back into an avatar made of raw darkness and shaped like the upper body of a demonic humanoid. A girl who was now sporting a pair of horns growing out of her forehead and a pair of membranous wings that grew from her waist.
"S-She's a Demonfolk!" Inugami-san, apparently awake now, gasped at the sight of their transformed opponent and her avatar.
"Yeah, so what?" Chisame said, unimpressed.
She'd come to the conclusion herself already. She'd been reading a lot about Mundus Magicus and its various peoples since they ended up trapped here and she'd recognized the girl for what she was the moment she'd summoned her avatar. Yes, Demonfolk were in general said to be quite powerful and by this girl's aura, she definitely was, but so what? She wouldn't be the first powerful opponent Ala Alba had faced.
"I gotta ask, how do you want your ass kicked?" Chisame sneered. "Want to cough up your kidneys or have your spine broken? I'm not feeling merciful right now."
"I think I'll be doing that thank you very much, Hasegawa-san." A familiar voice said as another familiar figure jumped down from one of the many vaulted arches that held up the roof of the Gravekeeper's Palace's airdock.
"And now you arrive? Geez, don't you know that it's impolite to be late, Tatsumiya-san?" Chisame scolded her classmate as she landed on the Great Paru-sama's deck.
"Look who's feeling sassy today. I'm just on a job nearby supporting the allied assault, but it'd be a pain if something happened to you all." The cool gunbunny replied as she hefted her twin pistols and leveled them at the Demonfolk girl.
"I'll happily pay a bonus if you break her knees." Chisame suggested with a predatory smirk even as the Demonfolk girl frowned at Tatsumiya-san's arrival.
"You couldn't afford my bonus."
"But I can! And I'll pay you!" Konoka-san shouted as she pushed herself to her feet. "She trapped me in an illusion where I was happily married to some guy! We even had a kid together! I'm not marrying anyone but Set-chan! Much less having a kid with anyone else! And definitely not with a man!"
"Ojou-sama~!" A mortally embarrassed Sakurazaki-san whined piteously.
"Bonus accepted!" Tatsumaki-san said, greedy as ever, and she began gathering magical energy around herself. Energy that caused her hair to turn white and partially ethereal and otherworldly smoke to gather around her head. Smoke that almost but not quite coalesced into some kind of shape of its own.
Seriously, why is it only our class that has all the weirdos?! Chisame lamented as she facepalmed at the sight of the transformed Tatsumiya-san. Though she was comforted by the commiserating hand that Chachamaru put on her shoulder as she did so.
Tatsumiya-san's transformation seemed to shock the Demonfolk girl enough for her to break the wary silence she'd maintained since their mercenary classmate had arrived.
"You cannot be serious, Cousin! You would fight me for money?" The enemy said.
"We aren't related and besides? It's just business." Tatsumiya-san shrugged glibly.
"All Demonfolk are cousins. We are not a populous people. It seems like you might not know it but you and I share a grandmother, Tatsumiya-san. Why else do you think our father would send Zazie to attend school in Mahora if not because we had family there?"
Tatsumiya-san blinked at this. "That would explain why Rainyday always gives me presents on my birthday and the holidays."
"Zazie didn't tell you that we were family!?" The Demonfolk girl asked, sounding and looking scandalized.
"Uh, in her defense, I don't think I've heard her say more than ten words in the two years I've known her." Tatsumiya-san said, scratching her chin awkwardly. "She tried to talk to me a few times, but every time she did she couldn't get out more than my name before she just clammed up."
The other Demonfolk girl just frowned.
"She always looked out for me though! Made sure I ate even when I was busy! She brought me lunch a few times when I got too busy with work to get it myself!"
"Um, are we still fighting?" Makie-san asked, looking as confused as the rest of them no doubt felt. On her part, Chisame just felt resigned. This was just par for the course for Ala Alba! Really, she blamed Negi-sensei for this! She didn't know how but it definitely was his fault! Somehow!
Makie-san's question caused both Demonfolk girls to start and look at each other questioningly.
"Um, since we're family and all, mind letting my friends through?" Tatsumiya-san asked after a moment.
"I would like to," the other Demonfolk girl said with a frown. "But I made a promise to waylay them and am honorbound to do everything in my power to attempt to do so. I cannot just let them pass."
"Uh, might I make a suggestion?" Negi-sensei spoke up suddenly.
Both Demonfolk looked at him curiously and nodded.
"Well, you promised to try waylay us, right? Um, what's your name, miss?" Her sensei, the ever polite moron, asked. Chisame, on her part, just felt drained by the entire situation.
"Poyo. Poyo Rainyday. I'm Zazie's older sister. And yes, that was what I promised."
"Oh, um, nice to meet you Poyo-san," Negi-sensei said with a bow. "So like I was saying, that being the case, why don't you and Tatsumiya-san spar. I mean that counts as a fight and you'd have waylaid one of us by doing so. And maybe as you do, the two of you can get to know each other?"
Poyo-san perked up at the suggestion, turning to look at Tatsumiya-san excitedly. "That sounds fantastic. What do you say, Cousin?"
"Uh, sure, it works for me." Tatsumiya-san said, scratching her chin awkwardly again. "And, um, Konoe-san, sorry but I don't think I can accept that bonus after all."
"Oh, no worries. I understand. Family trumps money anyday." Konoka-san said with a shrug. "But Poyo-san, you better watch out! I will get you back for that nasty illusion one day."
Everyone in Ala Alba winced at the threat. Even Tatsumiya-san did. They all knew that not only was Konoe-san absolutely serious, she'd live up to that promise too. As they said, fear the nice ones.
"Noted, Konoe-san." Poyo-san said, gulping nervously. "Cousin, shall we begin?"
"Sure!" Tatsumiya-san said as she leapt up into the air, shooting a few shots from her pistols at Poyo-san as she did. "And if we're really family, call me Mana."
"I would love to, Mana-san." Poyo-san said as she blocked the bullets headed her way with one of the massive arms of her avatar whilst she conjured a massive ball of black flames in the palm of the other that she proceeded to toss at Tatsumiya-san.
"Can we get back to the seriousness of the situation?! Please?!" Chisame couldn't help but complain.
Chisame's cry for sanity seemed to work and Negi-sensei shook his head and turned away from the spar between the two Demonfolk to address Chachamaru.
"Chachamaru, divert the Great Paru-sama to the nearest pier."
"Yes, Sensei." Chisame's gynoid best friend/future partner/girlfriend(?) replied without hesitation even as the airfish began changing course and headed towards one of the numerous piers that lined the sides of the tunnel-like airdock of the Gravekeeper's Palace.
"Kotarō-kun, Murakami-san, Sasaki-san, are you ready?" Negi-sensei asked as they made their final approach.
The two aforementioned girls nodded nervously but Inugami-san just smirked cockily. "We've got this covered, Negi. Trust us."
Negi-sensei just nodded and Luna-san stepped forward to hand the Inu Hanyō a map of the Gravekeeper's Palace.
"This is the best map Negi's familiar, Chamo, and I drew up. It might not be a hundred percent accurate but it should be able to give you a general idea of how to get around. We've marked the likely places to find your objectives."
"Thank you," Inugami said as he accepted the map and their airfish docked with the pier. "Everyone, we're off."
A chorus of well wishes were voiced by everyone as the three disembarked and set off for their own mission. They all watched them go for a moment before Negi-sensei once more turned to Chachamaru.
"Pull away from the pier, Chachamaru-san, and once we're clear, begin taking us further into the Gravekeeper's Palace. It's time for our part of the mission."
"Yes, Sensei." The gynoid replied as she obeyed their teacher's orders.
Mission start. Chisame told herself as she got her game face on.
It was time to face the world's big bad. A god of gods.
No pressure. None at all.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
Really Chisame? Showing off pics to young impressionable Negi? For shame!
Nameless: To be fair to her, it was Poyo's idea of what Chisame would think of as her ideal world. Seriously, what kind of impression has Chisame made on Zazie that led her to feed information to her sister which would result in something like that!? Then again, as established later in the chapter, Zazie is pretty useless at understanding how to deal with people. She probably told her sister completely inaccurate information.
Yes, towards the end that happened. It felt so strange and out of place, yet ever so Negima we just had to go with it. The mood just worked too well I guess and we kept it going. We apologize for nothing!
Nameless: Like E4E said, it was just too Negima! Hope you guys like it or at least don't mind too much. By the way, the idea that Demonfolk aren't that populous and thus everyone is basically related to each other is entirely my/our headcanon. Canon doesn't speak on the matter afaik, and I found the idea interesting enough so I ran with it. Again, hope you guys like it or at least don't mind too much.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!