Fairy Tail is the creation and intellectual property of Mashima Hiro and Kodansha.
Mahou Sensei Negima! is the creation and intellectual property of Akamatsu Ken and Kodansha.
Irremediably Collateral and Supplemental.
Chisame and the Sequential Art.
"Okay," Yue began. "To make a long story short, Negi-sensei landed on Louise's head as she was summoning her Familiar. That, it would seem, has made him her Familiar, and as such, she feels entitled to have control over his actions…"
"He's dragged me all over the world and now I'm wanted by the law, if anything it's him who controls my actions!" Louise argued.
Negi sighed. "I'm sorry…"
"I had landed close to Merdiana Academy, so when I was taken prisoner, I met Sensei again. He was suffering from partial amnesia, but we've been helping him to get over it. There we were attacked by one of the Averruncus units, but we were aided by Tsukuyomi, who had turned against Sextum-san. Regardless, we had to flee Merdiana…"
"We came along because really, who wouldn't? It's the adventure of a lifetime!" the little hyper white duck said excitedly, once again reminding Chisame of a feathered Makie. "And then we escaped to Traverse Town, and there we met Asuna, Skuld and Rito! Negi made a Pactio with Yue, and they fought a dragon, you should have seen it, it was so cool! But we couldn't stay idle so we decided going through the desert, to see Jack Rakan…"
"The guy who was supposed to meet us at the Gateport?" Chisame asked. "I thought Sextum had gotten the drop on him and killed him before he could reach us."
"No, actually, Sexy-han went prepared for him—as prepared as one can get for that guy anyway—but he never showed up," Tsukuyomi said. "Turns out, he was bumming up in his oasis house because he couldn't be bothered to go pick you up."
A vein bulged on Chisame's head. "I see…!"
"While there, Negi made a Pactio with Lena, so she could send her shadows anywhere in the world to look for you guys!" Webby continued while Lena looked aside and blushed. "It was awesome, it worked so well that she found Misa and Madoka in no time! That's when, after finishing training with Rakan, we came here to pick them up, and Kotaro was in the arena already, earning a life as a prize fighter!"
"You went to Rakan first and then came to the tournament, huh," Chisame idly scratched her chin. "That messes the canon sequence up, but whatever works… Anything else I should know?"
"We had this really strange little interlude where we thought we'd gone to a parallel world, but after a lot of deliberation we decided we'd better chalk it up to breathing mushroom spores in the woods," Tsukuyomi said.
"…" Chisame said. "So, anything else…?"
"Ah, yeah, Rakan also tried training Negi in the use of Magia Erebea, so he could become an immortal undead creature of infinite dark power like Evangeline Mc Dowell," Webby explained. "He almost managed it too, but he was about to lose himself in the pocket world he was sent into to achieve that powerup, and Louise wanted him to complete the test while Twilight wanted to pull him out ASAP… in the end, Asuna decided breaking him out, so he only can half-do the transformation for short periods of time. He was pretty mad at Asuna for a while, but afterwards they kissed and made out. I mean, made up."
Chisame stiffened like a plank of wood, and then only her eyes moved, very eerily, to nail themselves on Negi, starting to almost glow threateningly.
"I had good reasons to attempt that," Negi began, "as I feared that otherwise I couldn't—"
"YOU WERE GOING TO TURN YOURSELF INTO SOME INHUMAN DEMON THING JUST SO YOU COULD FIGHT THAT LITTLE SKANK ON EVEN TERMS?!"
"I, I, it's not so bad to be a demonic creature of darkness, I mean, Master Evangeline is a good—"
"EVANGELINE WOULD BE THE FIRST ONE TO TELL YOU HOW MUCH HER LIFE SUCKED FOR CENTURIES!"
"But, but, I didn't want to risk your lives again! You saw how she wiped you all out, so easily…!"
"ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT JUST FOR THAT WE'RE GOING TO BE A LOAD FOREVER?! THAT WE COULDN'T GET ANY STRONGER TOO?!"
"I, I never said anything like that, don't put words in my mouth…!"
"TYPICAL OF YOU! YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN GET BETTER BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS WANT TO HAVE THE WEIGHt of the world on y—" She took a hand to her throat and began making dry choked sounds. "Hhhhgh. Hhhghhh. Hghhhh."
"Too much for her vocal chords, huh…" Natsu said.
"Thank God!" Kotaro sighed, pulling two big balls of cotton out of his ears. "You have no idea how awful is that when you have canine hearing!"
Collet took both hands to her ears and whimpered. "I wish I'd thought of that! Now I'm deaf!"
Living Arrangements.
"What, you're going away?!" Hikaru gasped.
"Yes, my place is with Sensei and my classmates, so I'm going to move in with them," Chisame answered patiently, packing her luggage. "We'll keep in contact every day, of course."
"Same thing for us," Haruka said, moving towards the door with her suitcase in a hand and Yukino's hand in the other. "I'm Sensei's fiancee, after all. Something's got to protect him from that handful La Bastille goblin!"
"I think you mean awful, Haruka-chan," Yukino said, and then pulled a full body shudder as Juvia pressed herself against her from behind.
"Ahhhh! Wherever Yukino-sama goes, Gray-sama and Juvia will follow, naturally...!"
Gray spat the soda he'd been drinking. "What?! No! I like it here, why should I move in with a bunch of people I don't even know?!"
Juvia looked at him. "But it's a bunch of people you don't know, and Yukino-sama and Juvia...!"
Gray sweatdropped. "It's not that I have anything against Yukino, but..."
"You... You would rather stay here with Lucy...!" Juvia accused him tearfully.
"It's not that either...!"
Natsu walked into the room grinning, and threw a full suitcase on Gray's lap. "Here, Gray! I packed all the clothes you won't be wearing for you! Take all the time in the world for all I care!"
"ASSHOLE! You aren't telling me where to go...!"
"She could, though, huh?" Yuuki Rito asked blandly from his side of the bed he'd been forced to share with Gray.
"It's, it's not that I'm henpecked or anything, she's not even my girlfriend!" Gray sputtered. "I came only to be free of that idiotic pest, that's all!"
"Alright," Rito looked at him, and then frowned and threw a blanket on him. "But I'm warning you! If I didn't tolerate Lala sleeping naked on my bed, I'm not going to tolerate you doing it either!"
Gray ended up sleeping on the floor.
The Writer's Soul.
"Oh, so you are a writer, Miss Lucy?" Collet asked.
Lucy smiled. "Yep!" She handed her a booklet. "This is the draft manuscript of my next novel, why don't you give it a read and tell me what I should correct?"
Collet took it and began reading. After several minutes, she burst out laughing. "Oh! Oh, Miss Lucy, congratulations! It's an excellent comedy! I'd never read a funnier thing in my life!"
"... it's supposed to be a criminal drama and a psychological tragedy," Lucy said.
Collet stopped laughing. She looked at the pages again, and hewed uncomfortably. "W-Well, maybe you should excise the part where the singing butler kills the old lady with a live flamingo..."
Tsukuyomi's Goodness.
"I'm not so bad," she told Chisame as they bathed. "If I were, I'd just call the authorities on you, instead of waiting for a money Negi-han never delivers. I'd be rightfully commended since in this world I haven't commited any proved crimes, and I would walk away a rich woman."
"You know that then you'd lose your best chance to find Setsuna ever again," Chisame said.
"No, it's not that. If anything, the news would make her angry and she'd come out of wherever she is hiding to attack me. But I gave my word I'd protect Negi-han. And I won't betray my promise to him."
Chisame frowned and said nothing.
"I know what you are thinking," Tsukuyomi said. "I betrayed Sextum-han. Why wouldn't I do the same thing to you?"
Chisame, Yue and Asuna tensed up, as if expecting her to start attacking them any moment now.
Tsukuyomi only relaxed back in the pool and sighed. "I want to see Negi-han bloom into a man, I guess, which would hardly be possible if he's executed. I'm curious. He'll become either the best of heroes or the best of villains, but one way or the other, that is the kind of man, not boy, I want to fight."
She smiled pleasantly, and after a few moments looked at them again. "And of course, I wouldn't ever hurt Skuld-han! I'm evil, not insane, do you think I want a divine thunderbolt running me through the chest...?"
"Congratulations, you're already thiiiiis close to being as moral as our average teammate," Yue said, holding a thumb and pointer finger just about to touch each other.
This Will Cost You Extra.
"Open wide, Gray-sama!" Juvia cooed, holding a spoonful towards Gray's mouth during breakfast. "The whaleship of Love is here…!"
Knowing better than to resist in vain, Gray sighed and opened his mouth. "Ahhh…"
"Oh, here it goes! Zwoom…!" Juvia put the spoon lovingly in his mouth, and once he swallowed, she took another spoonful from the plate and aimed it at Yukino. "Now you, Yukino-sama! Juvia's Whaleship needs landing…!"
"Bu-But it's the same spoon , that'd be like an indirect-!" Yukino stammered, right before Louise discreetly stomped on her foot under the table. Yukino gasped and Juvia put the spoon in her mouth.
Yukino gagged, forced to swallow as Juvia giggled. "It's like living a dream…!"
Tsukuyomi blinked at the display. She looked at her own spoon, packed it full with mashed potatoes, and then grabbed Negi forcefully. She opened his mouth wide and began stabbing the back of his throat with the spoon. "The jet fighter of Tsukuyomi's love initiates a heavy fire strike! Leave no survivors! In the name of all consuming passion…!"
Negi's eyes popped up. "IT HURTTSSSS…!"
"Oh my God," Chisame sweatdropped. "She's actually starting to fall for him…"
Don't Forget Us!
Over dinner, they were mildly startled by tappings on their window.
Negi, still mildly limping from today's brutal fight, got up before anyone else could and opened the window, with Chisame and Tsukuyomi standing shortly behind him.
A large white pigeon wearing a small cap grunted at Negi. "Hey, are ya Nagi Springfield?"
Negi nodded, baffled. "Good," the pigeon said. "I'd asked fer ya at the Arena and nobody could give me an address, those bums. And ya wouldn't know how many Nagi Springfields are there in dis crummy dump! I hadta look thru the directory, but 'fore I give ya the letter, gotta ask ya, ya know any Illya and Nodoka?"
Kotaro bolted up from the table. "Nodoka-neechan?!" he asked, rushing over to Negi's side.
"I'm gonna take dat as a yeah," the surly bird said, pulling a small folded envelope from his chest feathers. "Your gonna have ta fill dis form here too, since—Hey, manners!" he said as Kotaro yanked the envelope from him.
The dog boy ripped open and pulled the letter out, with Yue and Asuna looking eagerly over his shoulders. Negi sighed and began filling the form the bird had given him.
"They're okay!" Kotaro beamed, and Yue's face lit up with a rare wide smile. "They say they're on their way as soon as they finish… settling some issues at the village they are ruling?"
"Yeah. Fancy palace they've got there, what do two rich babes like 'em gotta do with a buncha bums like ya?" the messenger asked. "Not dat I care, I was well paid 'forehand, but—"
"Ah, that's nice, then please have a good day and thanks for everything," Negi said, absently and quietly closing the window on his beak.
"Yer welcome…!" the pigeon's voice was heard, and then loud flapping of wings retreating among crude cursing.
Negi approached Yue, Kotaro and Asuna. "Thank God they aren't in the list of wanted individuals, so they should be able to make their way here with no incidents. They took over a town? That's… impressive…"
"Knowing Illya, it was her who took over by using Honya's Artifact," Asuna sighed and shook her head. "Did that thing call them 'babes'? Illya looks ten, for God's sake…!"
Yue bit on her lower lip and began quietly moving up and down excitedly.
"Seeing you of all people acting like that is kind of creepy, you know," Louise observed.
Yue kept doing it excitedly.
"You'd better go to the toilet already," Juvia advised her. "You look like you're about to pee yourself out of joy."
Without a word, Yue all but ran to the bathroom and locked herself in.
"If they're ruling a village, I hope they bring money," Collet said sadly as she looked into her purse. "Saving so much to bail Misa and Madoka out means we're running out of budget…"
Pointing the Way.
"Yours Truly, Illya and Nodoka," Illyasviel read aloud the last lines of her letter. "Are you happy now?"
Nodoka nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Illya-chan. That's much better!"
"You're welcome. But I was thinking, how are they going to know it's not a fake? We must include proof that the missive indeed comes from us."
Nodoka blinked. "You're right, they might think it's someone setting a trap for them. D-Do they have photo cameras in this world? I don't think I've seen one yet…"
"Never mind, we'll do what is always done in these cases. We'll put a fresh cut-off finger in the envelope!"
"Illya-chan! No!"
"Eh? Why not? It's what you are supposed to do when sending proof in a letter, isn't it?"
"No! Only kidnappers do that to prove they've got a hostage!"
"Are you sure?" Illya walked to a drawer and pulled a scarily huge knife out. "I don't want to leave anything to chance. I could have sworn that was the obligatory procedure!"
"I'm, I'm serious!" the librarian said. "You don't have to cut any of your fingers, Illya-chan!"
The albino began walking towards her. "Who ever said it was going to be one of mine?"
Nodoka threw a book on her face.
"—P.D.: And we include a picture of us as proof that this isn't a forged letter," Kotaro read aloud. "Illya-chan wanted to include a freshly cut finger, but I convinced her that wasn't to be done…"
Chisame nodded. "Okay, yeah, the photo wasn't necessary then. That line proves that's Illya!"
Unequally Redo of Healer! Say It Ain't So!
Tsukuyomi had sneaked out for pudding and caramel apples. After enjoying herself a feast in a stand, she was returning home chewing on a candy apple on a stick.
Around a corner, a beautiful blonde lady whistled at her, arms folded and supported against a wall.
"Hey, Little Sister," the woman called out. "Where are you going?"
Tsukuyomi spun back on her heels and smiled cutely at her. "I'm going home to have dinner with my dear siblings! Why would you ask, noble knight?" she asked back, eyeing the large sword sheathed by the lady's hip.
"I am Blade, Hero of the Sword," she said, reaching over and stroking Tsukuyomi's cheek. "I am going through the city on a mission for my King, and I couldn't help being awed by your charm amidst so much rabble..."
Ah, the infamous Hero from Jioral. That explained the masculine uniform. Tsukuyomi batted her eyes innocently. "Why, I'm flattered, ma'am! Maybe you'd honor me with a few minutes of conversation? You must have seen so much of the world, while I'm just a poor immigrant from the countryside...!"
Blade smirked to herself, sharply. She's mine now!
Bullet finally got fed up of waiting and simply slammed the door open. "Hey, Blade!" he called out, entering the hotel room. "We're moving out! We received clues on those two fugitives near the- What the hell happened to you?!"
Blade, completely nude and full of scratches all over, was almost catatonic on the bed, twitching with a huge, drooling grin. "I.. I, I am in loveeeeeeeeee!" she proclaimed deliriously.
Bullet bent down and picked an object covered by pixels off the floor. "Fuck, this is just plain sick and wicked even for me...!"
"It was about damn time you came back!" Chisame said as Tsukuyomi returned, humming happily and with a beaming face. "What were you doing this time? Threatening our secrecy again, no doubt!"
"Oh, I doubt the person I was with will tell anything!" Tsukuyomi said. "I doubt she'll be even coherent for a few months at least...!"
Someday You'll Get it Right.
Chisame was passing by when she saw Louise sitting on a couch, humming sweetly to herself and knitting.
Chisame approached her. "Do you like that? I hadn't thought you'd be the type."
For once, Louise wasn't offended and just nodded, smiling. "Oh, yes! I love knitting. I've been doing it since I was a child. I couldn't knit for Negi while we were on the run, but I've decided to make up for that lost time while we are here."
Negi walked in wearing some horrible amorphous monstrosity that scared Chisame.
"It fits me fine, Master!" he said from somewhere within the abomination. "Thank you very much, it's the most... unique sweater I've ever been given!"
Louise giggled in a slightly disturbing but honestly cheerful way. "At last, someone appreciates my craft...!"
"Hey! I've made good use of mine, too!" Skuld shouted from her workshop, where she was using hers to wipe the thick black stains of oil from her machines.
Be a Man, be a Dog.
Negi and Kotaro staggered into the house, still in their adult forms and badly bruised. Gray and Juvia were supporting them from each side, guiding them in.
Chisame and Yue ran to them, the former helping Negi onto a sofa and the latter starting to heal him. "We saw everything in the transmission!" Chisame said. "We were about to go out for you!"
"No..." Negi groaned as he popped back into his child self. "Too risky..."
"Why didn't you just change into your Magia Erebea form while fighting?" Rito asked. "You'd have ended the match quickly!"
"That's too risky as well..." Negi groaned. "I can't reveal my trump card on live TV... Sextum might be watching..."
Skuld and Louise approached Kotaro. "What about you?" Skuld asked. "You took even more punishment than Negi, shouldn't you lie down as well?"
Kotaro grinned. "Me? This is nothing! Feh! Training or not, Negi's still too soft, he-"
Louise frowned and poked him on the back with the tip of a finger.
Kotaro collapsed to the floor, doubling over in pain. "YIIIIIII!"
Louise scoffed. "Stupid dog."
Somewhere on Earth, Hiraga Saito sneezed.
Siesta blinked at him, across the dinner table. "Saito? Do you feel well?"
"Yeah," he said, rubbing his nose. "As a matter of fact, for some reason, I'm feeling much better with myself and about myself right now..."
"Awwww, you always say those things when you're with me! You're so sweet...!"
Child of Mine.
"I have found a solution for our problem," Chisame said from the next room, sounding a bit funny. "Now we can go out to watch the fights at the arena without having to wear stupid disguises."
"Uh-huhh?" Louise said from where she sat knitting, while Gray and Juvia struggled to pull a bizarre sweater thing off Gray. "What is it?"
Chisame stepped out, in an adorable loli form wearing a white dress and sporting false cat ears and a tail.
Everyone paused in what they were doing and stared.
Negi looked fascinated, mouth hanging slightly open.
Louise raised an eyebrow critically.
Webby's cheeks flared crimson, and huge pink hearts manifested in her eyes.
And Juvia began heating up, vapor puffing out of her before she ran over to pick Chisame up in her arms, cooing loudly. "AHHHHH! GRAY-SAMA, LET'S ADOPT HER, SHE'LL MAKE FOR THE BEST DAUGHTER EVER...!"
"I should have thought this better...!" Chisame cried, immediately starting to wiggle for freedom.
A miserable looking but also sickeningly cute Chibi Asuna walked out, followed by Chibi Yue, who was incredibly tiny and huge headed. "I don't remember childhood ever feeling so embarrassing," Asuna pouted. "How do Fuuka and Fumika cope with still being like this at fifteen?"
"Wow," Skuld said. "How many magical pills did YOU have to swallow to achieve that?"
"Let's just say that my stomach doesn't feel so well right now, either..."
Echoes from the Past.
"Oh, so this is your little sister? What a lovely child…!" the kind old lady in the market said, pinching a stoic Chibi Asuna's cheeks. "That healthy hair, those…" Then she paused, staring at Asuna's mismatched eyes, and she asked Negi, "Excuse me, but does anyone else in your family have this… heterochromia, I think they call it?"
Negi blinked. "Uh, no. Why do you ask?"
The granny sighed, letting go of Asuna's cheeks, much to Asuna's comfort. "It's nothing… A twist of fate, maybe, then… You're foreigners so you wouldn't know… But I'd advise you to put contacts on her. Around here, those eyes are a mark of calamity…"
As they left the market and headed back home, Asuna, riding on Negi's shoulders, said "Okay. Now that wasn't worrying at all."
Negi wished he could have a good refutation for that.
Queen & Country.
"Maybe that old lady is just senile," Louise said after Asuna and Negi finished relaying the anecdote. "We have better things to worry about."
"Master, that is not a nice thing to say about others behind their backs," Negi chided her.
"Maybe you're right," Asuna said, "but I'm concerned all the same. Perhaps I grew suggestionable after that, but I could swear I saw people giving me weird looks on our way back."
"It might have something to do with the Queen of Calamity, if she used that word," Webby said.
Negi looked at her. "What do you mean?"
Twilight took over the explanation. "Arika Anarchia Entheofushia was the last queen of Ostia, and the daughter of King Alladia. The King disappeared mysteriously during the battles between Ala Rubra and Cosmo Entelecheia, and it was rumored that his daughter had him killed to seize the throne. Her people called her the Queen of Calamity, and even accused her of destroying the Old Ostia before she vanished as well."
Chisame frowned. "Well, we didn't do anything wrong and the whole world is accusing us of terrorism, so I wouldn't be shocked if she was innocent."
"Is there any way I could see what she looked like?" Asuna asked.
Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. "I'm sure there must be portraits of her in the library of Princess Celestia. I must have seen some of them during my studies, but frankly, I can't remember any right now... Lena?"
"Sorry, but... no," Lena said. "I knew about her, too, but nothing but what you already said. Aunt Magica isn't fond of talking about people like that."
"Erza should know," Juvia said. "She has fought with or against pretty much everyone who is famous in the world, after all."
"Shouldn't that have been before her time?" Lena asked her.
"Not necessarily," Gray said. "We spent seven years in suspended animation... it's a long story... before meeting you guys, so we are technically kinda older than we look. It's how Erza knew Zero's mother when she was still young and single."
"Don't call me that!" Louise warned him, slapping her whip in her hand.
Chisame sweatdropped. "Right when I thought Fairy Tail couldn't be any stranger..."
Yue looked at Asuna's thoughtful, concentrated expression. "You suspect you might be related to that woman, aren't you? It wouldn't make much sense, if you'd been born in Mundus Magicus you couldn't even live on Earth without undergoing a procedure like Cocone-chan's."
"Right, and besides, being the relative of a queen?" Louise asked. "What are the odds?"
Tsukuyomi shrugged. "Reality is stranger than fiction and all of that. Are we just going to discard that possibility after everything we have seen?"
And then she pointed at Negi. "If she is royalty my fee for protecting her will go up, okay?"
Crossed veins bulged on Asuna's head. "You are supposed to be his bodyguard, not mine!"
Yue and Louise had to be right anyway. She, a lost princess? The simple idea of that was ridiculous.
And yet...
Working Through It.
"It's good to have you back, Chisame," Asuna smiled. "You'll have a much easier time helping Negi to remember everyone else..."
"Who are these 'everyone else' you are talking about?"
Asuna frowned. "You know! Iinchou, Misora, Akira, Fukawa-senpai back at home, Evangeline..."
"I have no idea what you are talking about."
"..." Asuna glared at her. "You have a very weird and unconvincing way to act jealously petty while pretending you're not."
"I have even less of an idea now, sorry...!"
Working Through It, II.
A sharp sound pierced through the air.
JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.
Chisame perked up excitedly, looking in all directions, and saw Juvia standing behind an uneasy Gray and staring at him with hearts in place of eyes.
JIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.
Chisame sat at a corner, sulking.
"Ah, so you can miss at least one of the others after all," Asuna said. "That's good, maybe there's still hope for you..."
"I still have no idea what you mean...!"
Working Through It, III.
"My memories? Oh, yes, Haruka's been helping me a lot with them lately," Negi said.
"How so?" Asuna said. No doubt she'd make him get all the names wrong.
"Well, for starters, she's been telling me about President Fujino. I'm sure that soon I'll remember by myself how negligent, incompetent, lazy, self absorbed, pompous, arrogant and malicious she is, and how much she needs to be replaced once we get back..."
"VP-SENPAIIIIIII!" Asuna called out angrily. "THIS IS LOW, EVEN FOR YOU...!"
Meanwhile, Back at Home...
Fukawa Touko couldn't write.
She sat miserably, looking at her notes from the Mahora Festival, and remembered.
She wished she could weep.
Enoshima walked in. "Oh, hello," she said. "I thought I'd bring you this to make you feel better!"
Touko's eyebrow twitched when Enoshima handed her a beautiful and large funerary wreath of flowers. "And this is for...?"
"Oh, just so you see that I care!" Junko smiled. "I spent a lot on this, so you know that I feel your pain and share your sympathies! Also, to further cheer you up, I'd like to remind you that you were very fortunate, not going on that overseas trip! Just because of that, your life was spared! Just imagine, dying in a freak accidental explosion with the boy you loved, how horrib-"
Mukuro was blandly polishing her favorite Desert Eagle when her sister returned home.
"Did it go as you expected, Oneesama?"
Junko gave a thumbs up, then supported herself on a wall and vomited even more flowers, just like she'd been doing through all the way back.
She managed to smile. "Boy, was she despairing!"
Meanwhile, Back at Home... Part II.
Touko drew a deep breath. Courage, courage... she told herself. How did it go? Audacia Paula... Our magic is not omnipotent... a little bit of courage is the real magic...
And so, she spoke. "I'm Fukawa Touko, I'm here for Negi-sensei..."
"I'm Kay Sanders, I'm here for Sensei too..."
"My name is Sawanaga Taisuke, I'm here for Kakizaki Misa-chan and Tsunetsuki Matoi-chan..."
"My name's Tohru! I only knew Ala Alba for a short while but they helped me meet the love of my life, so I came to pay my respects!"
"I'm Tomoe Mami, I really liked Negi-sensei a whole lot..."
"My name is Shirogane Tsumugi. I'm going through a really hard time after learning about Chisame-chan. I mean, Hasegawa-san."
"Chisame and Sora were my cousins. My name is Hasegawa Kodaka."
"What? Neither of them ever mentioned you!"
"How do you do, I'm Fuura Kafuka! I really, really, really like Itoshiki-sensei, and I'm looking forward to our happy reencounter when he returns from this extended pleasure vacation!"
Behind the wall, Junko listened through a radio circuit. Mukuro approached her. "Did I do a good job with the bugs, Oneesama?" she asked.
"Yeah, yeah," Junko nodded absently while Arai-sensei began talking. "But something must be done about this Kafuka girl! Ugh, she's so unlikable! What's the point of listening to the despair of a supporting group if she's going to bring them hope...?"
"Please don't tell me that you are still thinking of doing that Mutual Kill Despair thing. You know that President Kiryuuin and the Sailor Senshi would find us and beat us up..."
"I still believe I could make it work! I mean, all of them are ripe specimens but that annoying Kafuka...!"
"Okay, I'm going for your medication, and please make sure to take it this time..."
Someone to Remember You By!
Akira sulked.
Uruka came along and patted her on a shoulder. "C'mon, Akira-chan! I brought some people to cheer you up. Even if the worst came to happen, you still can see Negi-sensei, Maki-chan and Yuuna-chan again!"
"What do you mean?" Akira looked at her.
Kusuri cleared her throat. "Yep yep! Every time any of you fought during Mahorafest, we picked up blood samples left on the ground! Yep yep!"
"We are pretty certain we can eventually clone them and raise the clones through accelerated growth," Rika said. "We only need an authorization letter from the families first..."
"Of course, clones are not supposed to bear memories from conception, so you will have to educate them and teach them equivalences of the times you spent together," Sawako cautioned.
Akira looked at them with stupefied horror.
"I believe Akashi-sensei will be more receptive to the idea..." Fuwa Hyouka ended up saying.
Statuesque Stunners.
"Naba-san," Fujino Shizuru approached her. "I know you were very good friends with Yukihiro-san and Murakami-san, and as a student of Negi-sensei, we thought you would like to supply money for the statue..."
Chizuru blinked. "What statue?"
"Oh, you hadn't been told yet?" President Fujino asked. "Mahora, Honnouji and CLAMP have agreed to commission a memorial statue for Ala Al- sorry, the English Research Club. We have contacted prestigious American sculptresses Alicia Masters and Gilda Dent for the task, and we have almost completed the whole budget for it..."
"They, they aren't dead, however!" Chizuru gasped.
"..." Fujino said, and then placed a motherly hand on Chizuru's shoulder. "Naba-san, it has been over a month already..."
The unthinkable happened, and Shizuru saw something that she never thought she would see.
Naba Chizuru began weeping and wailing.
Fujino actually started to feel bad. Did she actually care so much...?
Without a word more, Shizuru hugged the younger girl and held her as she cried.
"Okay," Kuga Natsuki said, looking up at the huge statue. "It's a nicely done statue, but... isn't Haruka-san a bit... ugly in it?"
"Ara ara, do you think so?" Shizuru asked. "That's strange, they followed my specifications to the letter."
"Yes, well, I'm sure the Vice President never had huge demonic fangs."
"It's just an artistic license to best express her strong nature, Natsuki."
"And why is Yukihiro at the top of everyone else?"
"Naba-san paid a larger sum than anyone else, that is why."
"And seriously, Negi-sensei being in his underwear is just disturbing! Couldn't they have put at least some pants on him?"
"I told them that, but the girls outvoted me...!"
The Denied Development Club.
At the unveiling of the statue, Koizumi Mahiru ran into Asakura Kazumi.
"Asakura-san?" Mahiru blinked, confused. "I thought you were in Wales with the rest of them!"
"Ah, no, I never was a part of the Society," the redhead explained, with a tiny white haired doll sitting on her shoulder, for some reason. "So I wasn't invited along..."
"I thought you were, though," Saionji Hiyoko told Nagase Kaede, who was standing nearby with a bawling Fuuka and Fumika. "I saw you dining with them in the closing ceremony for the festival!"
"Ah, this one was a close ally of Ala Alba, and we certainly fought together during the Festival, but this one was never an official member either," the tall kunoichi said. "They were expecting a peaceful trip, so this one saw no need in inviting herself as a fighter de gozaru."
"Same thing here," a depressed Ku Fei said. "That was bad mistake! If we had been there, nothing would have happened to Negi-bouzou and others...!"
"I see. This must be hard on you, but please keep in mind that it couldn't be helped," Mahiru said. "There's no way the author could have handled that many characters in the Mundus Magicus arc, and something had to give. Besides, maybe you'd been wiped off too. The best you can do is to keep on living to honor them."
She looked at a distraught, rattled Ako, who stood between Akira and the bored Evangeline. "The same goes for you," she told the pale nurse. "Life goes on, and-"
"I promise I'll get the souffle right this time, Mistress...!" Ako said suddenly, her eyes fixed ahead.
"...?" Mahiru and Hiyoko said.
"She is working as my maid during Chachamaru's absence," Evangeline scoffed.
"I see..." Mahiru said, and then patted Ako's head. "See? Don't be so sad for them. There are fates worse than death!"
Alive.
A small, young female pegasus with light yellow fur and long, pink mane and tail was running out of Ponyville proper under a bright early afternoon sun, quickly passing by all other equines on her way. Invariably, their heads would turn around towards her in surprise, since this manner of behavior was so unlike her, but before they could ask her, she was gone, leaving only a trail of dust and ruffled grass behind.
She entered the woods, and then galloped the rest of the way towards the large domed house topped by foliage where she lived, surrounded by animals of all manners, all of whom also reacted in surprise at the speedy pace she took, directly towards her own front door, which she slammed open while calling out, "They've found them! They've found them! Princess Celestia just wrote, they've found two of your friends!"
There was a short, stunned silence from the inside of her house, and then a feminine voice softly asked, "Which ones of them, Fluttershy-san?"
The meek pony shuffled in place for some reason. "Ummm… from what you told me, and then what the letter said about some fighting show the Princess learned about, it was your professor and the boy who looks like a doggy who were found, I think…"
Sitting in the middle of Fluttershy's living room, with a hand still on the head of an Angel the Bunny who was now upset because her petting has stopped, Karakuri Chachamaru let her mouth hang lightly open. "Negi… sensei," she said.
To be Continued.
