Chapter 19: The End Of An Era

"Saniro, going out? It's early right now…" a rather puzzled Kyo looks at his friend in the walkways within the dormitory. Most of the inhabitants are still sleeping at this time, since the watch on Kyo's wrist points to about 6.15am. It was still the holidays in Japan, and everyone seems not to be doing anything useful. Shun has been busy with the work in the Science Department, and Saniro was busy with training as usual. As for Choo Tin…no one knows exactly what he does, since all he said is 'I'm going out to the jungle for something' throughout the holiday week. It was nearing the end of the week, and Shun's and Choo Tin's female friends returned from their trip.

"Oh yeah Kyo, seen the 4WD turbo god around?" a rather bedazzled Saniro asks Choo Tin. "That guy has been missing since 5-something," he continued, before he turns to Kyo. "And what the heck you're doing this early? I got training."

"Me? Oh er…cleaning up my car?" Kyo answers back the football captain in a seemingly strange tone.

"Don't tell me you have been…" Saniro looks at Kyo sharply, in case that his friend did anything strange.

"No, not that, it's something else."

"Sleepless nights?"

"Probably. Whoa…." Kyo yawns as he said that. "This is absolutely boring, like, mad," he continued, dragging himself back into his room. Saniro shrugs at the sight, and moves back to his own room.

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"Whoo…this is tiring," Yuuna exclaims at herself on the side of the road nearby the females' dormitory, wiping some sweat off her with a towel. "It seems that the rest have not been doing their exercises…" she sighs at the fact, and looks at the road before turning to direction to continue jogging. It was then a bright white-blue light shine on her face. Covering her eyes from the sudden appearance of the bright light, she hears a rather familiar tone coming from the direction of the lights. She slowly uncovers her eyes, only to see that it is a car belonging to her friend.

"And you just have to appear at this time…you are stalking me or something?" she said sarcastically at the boy appearing from the black sedan. It was the first time she saw the Proton Perdana sedan in darkness though. The tone of the car's colour seems to blend with the darkness surrounding the place, only to have the streetlights shine on the roads, reflected by the car's metallic paintwork.

"Actually, no Yuuna," the slightly longhaired boy replies to her. "Finding a quiet spot to do some work," he continued, turning from the girl to the car. "Some research of the area."

"What for? It's as if you can complete exploring this place, Choo Tin-kun," she goes nearer to the boy, and leans on the fender of the car. "Wow, you have not been washing your car for weeks," she said as she sees the amount of dust on the fender, so she choose to remain standing.

"No, been doing…something," he continued, looking sharply at the girl with a serious look behind his glasses. "It's better for you not to…"

"Let me guess, you went to the mountains, and you raced there?" she interrupts his sentence before he managed to finish it. "I don't see the point of you making your car like this if it's isn't for those kind of stuff."

"…You got me right there," he replied after pausing a little while, and looked at the Perdana rumbling in the darkness. "Although, it's more of 'getting things right' for now. I seldom race though, even if I got the budget for that."

"Yeah right, don't you know it's dangerous…well you probably know better than most of us," she said, looking in the same direction as Choo Tin, that is to the car. "I'm curious, as to, the way you drive this thing in the mountains?"

"Actually, it is a very dangerous activity in short, so if you're up to it, I'll show you," Choo Tin turned to her, and looked at her. "Guess you have been jogging in the morning?" he said, changing the conversation, seeing that she is wearing a windbreaker and a track bottom with sports shoes.

"Obviously senpai," she replied quickly. "Need to keep myself fit all the time…although Makie has been busy with Negi-kun these days."

"I see…how's your teacher doing?" he suddenly realizes about Negi, and asks.

"Let's see…have I told you about how he fought with a classmate just to become another classmate's apprentice or something? I remembered that was an apprenticeship test by one of our classmates, Evangeline-san, for Negi-kun," the girl turned to the bespectacled boy and said.

"I don't recall that…but what happened?"

"He somehow won…although earlier most of us thought he's going to lose…" Yuuna goes on to explain what happened to Choo Tin.

Hmmm…that is something new. Got to check if they know about it or not, since I guess they won't let off that vampire easily. More so if Negi-sensei is under her, then it would be trouble…and I got a race that day…damn. Otherwise I would have checked it out, and see all the action for myself, before submitting any reports to...

"Senpai, what are you thinking about?"

"Oh…nothing." Forgot that she does not know about it yet.

"Gosh I'm so tired right now…" she said in a rather tired tone, and turned to the car again. "Since you got a ride here, why don't you…"

"Send you home?" the boy sweat-dropped at the basketball-playing girl. This wasn't the first time that she have asked for favours from him, especially about getting her (and her friends) around. "I'm game for it, but be careful, because there is so much less traffic right now, I may not know what I'll do," he goes to make the offer, but warns her at the same time. "Since you wanted to see how I 'drive'."

"Senpai, I'm game for it," Yuuna proceeds to give her answer to Choo Tin, and smacks his back. "For sure I know you are a 'professional'."

"What the…OK, just step into this side," he goes to open the front door on the left. "You're sitting this side," he continued, pointing to the Recaro seat on the left side.

"Why the heck I can't sit in the rear?" agitated as to being forced to sit in the front, she asks him.

"You'll see," he looked sharply at her and said. "Weight balance."

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It was a completely new experience for Yuuna. Despite being the car a few times before, this is the first time she sees the car being driven.

Hard.

The empty roads turned into a large playground of sorts for Choo Tin. It was sure illegal, but traffic supervision is usually minimal at this time, so it was entirely another matter. The car's 350ps 4G63 turbo engine was pushed hard towards 7000rpm before gearshifts come, causing the BOV to whistle off the excess turbo boost into thin air. The whine of the turbocharger is loud, although not quite as loud as some of the other cars that have been popping out of nowhere in Mahora like mushrooms. He recalled seeing even a BNR32 Skyline GT-R permanently residing in the dormitory now, although no information have been heard about it, not even the tuning specifications.

As of usual, the car is braked hard through the pedal, before it was hurled into the corner, like it was sticking itself to the road with hard glue. Yuuna opened her eyes wide with amazement of how this 'Frankenstein car' can turn so well, that she holds on to the handle above her tightly. The noise from the angled rear exhaust can just serve to make its presence noticed.

"Alright, just STOP IT!"

Seeing his passenger panicking, he stopped right away. The car fishtailed for a moment, releasing fireballs from its exhaust before it was completely stopped.

"Mister, that was INSANE!" Yuuna berated at Choo Tin, after the car was stopped.

"Ah haha…sorry Yuuna about that…" he smiled apologetically at the girl. "OK, I promise I won't do that the next time in front of you, OK?"

"Yeah, you better do so…but it was one crazy experience actually," the girl looked back at him, and grinned. "If I asked you to do it, then do it."

"Alright…guess we'll be heading back to the dorms," Choo Tin looked to the front, and turned the car around quickly, before heading back…slowly.

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"Hmmm…wonder what are we in for at the start of school after the holidays? We got the midterms coming."

That was the question Makie posed to the girls during dinner in the cafeteria of the dormitory. She seems to be in a jovial mood, despite most of her friends expecting that she will get second last in the class…yet again.

"Hey Makie-chan!" Sakurako suddenly appeared out of nowhere, scaring the daylights out of Makie with her voice.

"Whoa…Sakurako-chan, you just scared me like that!" Makie quickly replied to the manner of which her classmate surprised her.

"Then who do you want to appear, Negi-kun?" Sakurako looked at Makie with a smiling face, knowing it was a very spot on question. Unfortunately…

"But I heard you have been going out with someone heh…" Makie answered back at Sakurako, in a very sly tone.

Sakurako was immediately at a loss at the way Makie said that. True, she has been hanging out with Shun, but as friends only. It was merely nothing else for both of them…at least at the moment.

"Heh…I was only joking…" Makie added right after. For Sakurako, it was such a relief to hear that.

"In a related manner, Yuuna-chan, how was that Malaysian guy doing," Sakurako playfully goes to Yuuna, who has been rather quiet for a while now.

"Ack!" the look of surprise registered on her face all of sudden.

"Don't lie to me Yuuna-chan, I can see that you have been hitting on him…you seemed close to him, out of anyone of us here," Sakurako continued talking about Choo Tin, but Yuuna maintained her cool in all that.

"Funny Sakurako-san that you said that," Yuuna closes her eyes and replied to the cheerleader. "We are like, buddies and all that."

"Oh…but…"

"No buts, and…" Yuuna tried to continue the conversation, but her phone ringed on the table. She takes it up, and listens to it. She is rather worried after putting the phone down on her table, and turns to Sakurako.

"Eh Yuuna-chan, what happened? You're rather worried or something…" Sakurako immediately notices the usually active girl's look on her face, which is different from now.

"Well…that dude crashed just now in the mountains."

"Is he OK?" Makie, and Sakurako asked in a concerned tone about the matter.

"He is, but his car not."

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Notes:

Uh huh...and this hot off the latest Negima fans poll in Japan, where Yuuna got a rahter surprising 8th place!

From 20 onwards, it will be a very interesting arc. Just to say...I'm bringing in something that has been mentioned in the past chapters, but underrated in this fic.