Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.
"But why would you want me to learn magic, Zazie?" This sudden question from Katarina came not long after the girl had agreed to being taught by Evangeline.
The vampire had to admit that it surprised her a bit. She hadn't expected Katarina to question Zazie's motives due to the flow of the earlier conversation.
The demon Pierrot herself also seemed somewhat taken off guard, although her expression quickly settled into a small smile.
"Won't you accept that it is pure altruism?" She said in a slightly joking manner. "Well, of course it isn't. I will profess to some curiosity towards you, what you can become… and what you truly are." She then added seriously.
"Despite all the unknowns about me?" Katarina said with a slightly crooked smile.
"I observed you, your interactions with the others in our class and the teachers. And I decided that I would help you, should it prove necessary. It did, and as I said, I believe that it would be quite beneficial for you to learn magic."
"Is that so? I guess I should be grateful. Thank you Zazie."
"There is no need to thank me."
Evangeline had been watching this interaction unfold with a neutral expression, but now she decided to bring up a matter she thought somewhat important.
"Katarina, do you know what Zazie actually is?"
Both the bespectacled girl and the demon turned to look at the vampire with surprise, although they both returned to a more neutral state after a mere few moments, with Katarina following up by entering a thoughtful state.
"She's… a Demon. And… a Princess?" There were certainly elements of uncertainty in the girl's voice, and she most certainly seemed like she was questioning own answer.
Evangeline narrowed her eyes slightly. If she knew this there was no way she was ordinary.
"Oh my, more than expected…" Zazie responded with that small smile.
"Then what about me? Do you have the faintest inkling who you have been annoying these past few… How long has it been?" The vampire started out ominous, but unfortunately ended on a slightly confused note.
"More than a month… Have we gone past two?" Katarina first responded to the last question, then simply shrugged. "As for your actual question, you are a powerful and notorious vampire and mage… Who is currently sealed into this Academy."
There had never been any doubt that Katarina knew who Evangeline was, especially not if she knew who Zazie was. What did surprise both of the other two was that she knew about the "Infernus Scholasticus", at least to some extent.
The vampire rubbed her temples with one hand and sighed loudly. "And where did you learn about all this?"
A complicated expression appeared on the bespectacled mystery girl's face.
Evangeline wasn't expecting much of an answer. She was however expecting the one she got.
"I… don't know." There was a slightly guilty expression on the girl's face now, and she was squirming a little as well. "I-"
"I believe you."
Katarina wasn't the only one surprised by Evangeline's response. Zazie was as well.
Certainly, they had both discussed the possibility, the vampire had maintained scepticism. But despite the girl's actions in conjunction with the claim, there had been no deception there, only concern.
Besides, whether or not Katarina told them the truth wasn't really Evangeline's concern. Actually, to her it might even be more interesting if the girl was deceiving them.
Not that she would say that out loud.
Instead she changed the subject, content with this confirmation of her hypothesis.
"One last thing. On that first day in school, did you see Sayo?" She said.
"The… ghost…? I'm… not really sure… I might have, briefly… But it could just have been my imagination…" Katarina replied.
"I see… Sayo is rather illusive, so it is quite possible you saw her for a few moments. Have you seen her any other time?" Evangeline responded, seemingly in thought.
"Well… A few times… I always thought it was just my imagination, but… Maybe I actually did see her?"
"Told you." Zazie suddenly said smugly.
-Break—
"Are you alright Katarina-san? Is it really fine for you to come to school already?" Ako queried, clearly somewhat worried.
The girl was an assistant to the School Nurse, so it was far from odd, even if she wasn't someone Katarina spoke to all too often, although she did like the girl and didn't mind talking to her.
Gentle and kind-hearted, someone you wouldn't want to see get into trouble-
Why did she suddenly get the feeling things were going to get complicated for Ako?
Doing her best to dismiss the feeling without letting it show, Katarina smiled.
"It's fine. I appreciate the concern, but it was merely a sudden, passing thing. I will on the other hand take it a bit easier today." She replied.
Ako didn't seem overly convinced, but still smiled back.
"That's good to hear. I know you recovered quite quickly yesterday but…" She said.
It was hardly surprising that Ako wasn't convinced. Whatever had happened yesterday probably wasn't something you'd expect someone to bounce back from almost immediately.
And had it been a natural attack that might have been true, but in this case, it didn't seem to be. The way it just disappeared like it was never there, like it was satisfied as long as it stopped her from remembering…
If she were to be recovering from anything it would be the later events, but for now only Zazie and Evangeline knew about that for certain. Maybe one of the might have told someone, most likely Takamichi or the headmaster… but Katarina had no way of knowing that yet.
Regardless, with this small interaction out of the way, the day could begin, although nothing overly interesting happened, just the usual regarding Negi…
Speaking of which… Not only was he extraordinary enough to be a teacher at his age (although he lacked some much-needed maturity and authority), he was also a mage… as well as the son of a hero and… a…
Why does she even know…?
Even Negi himself doesn't know about…
Okay, no, seriously. Why does she know so damn much? Including knowing things that are kept secret even from the person in question?
Suddenly she sincerely hoped she was just wrong, being silly and delusional but… What she knew about Eva and Zazie hadn't been particularly wrong… At least they hadn't denied what she had said…
Damn it.
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
She couldn't tell if she was delusional or in possession of information she had no business knowing!
If she knew her sources, then maybe… but no! That information was being kept from her.
Hopefully she hadn't made any indication she knew about that to anyone.
Actually… she felt like she might have accidentally made an indication about it to Chao…
Well… that was probably, unbelievable as it might sound, the most fine person possible…
Wait…
She called Evangeline Kitty…
But, as far she knows, only two people calls Evangeline that…
And they are…!
Who is she?
How can she know this?
No wonder the vampire would be interested in keeping an eye-
"You look like you are having something of an existential crisis at the moment."
Katarina was brought out of her rampant thoughts by this sudden statement from Evangeline, who mostly seemed amused as she looked at her.
The upside to them being so far back in the classroom was that the teachers had a harder time noticing when they weren't paying attention. Well, the teachers and their classmates really.
"I… suppose that is one way to put it."
"I figured you would have at least one if you truly couldn't remember who you are. It's probably for the best that you don't dwell on it too hard. It'll probably bring you more distress than anything else." There was an almost sombre quality to the loli's voice.
"Yeah, I can see the merits of that line of thinking… I guess I'll just deal with what I got for now." Katarina responded.
Evangeline almost seemed a bit surprised at this response, but soon smirked. "That isn't the kind of response one might expect from someone of your apparent age."
The bespectacled girl didn't respond, instead opting to look at what was going on with Negi at the moment…
Her apparent age…
She doubted Evangeline thought she was anywhere near… 12? Even that was just an arbitrary number assigned to her by the headmaster since it was a believable age compared to her appearance.
Only Eva and the twins looked younger than her…
Why didn't they just say she was the same age as everyone else?
No, that would make her and Evangeline twins… and that was stretching it just a bit too far. They only barely looked related, and they weren't even really from the same country…
Although, thinking about it… could Evangeline be from Normandy?
It doesn't seem like the craziest theory…
Also just a tad bit tangential…
She supressed a sigh.
While she had no clear grasp of how old she truly was, she certainly didn't feel like she was anywhere near 12 or so…
-Break—
"So… is it safe to talk about the wise men, women and youths as well as their arts now?"
"That's an interesting way of putting it Chao. Maybe even talk a bit about Inverse Mars while we're at it."
Chao and Katarina had made their way to one of the University facilities that Chao frequently made use of, and were currently alone, which to be fair wasn't all that rare.
What was unusual was the conversation that started up.
"And here I was trying to beat around the bush a bit…" Chao said with a gesture of faux disappointment. "I wonder… are you aware of the truth?"
"Depends on which one. If it's my own, then I haven't the foggiest clue." Katarina shook her head, then looked straight at Chao with a smile. "If it's about you being a time-traveller from the future and one of Negi's grandchildren… Then I happen to know that."
"Ooh, a bold statement. Do you have anything to back it up with?" The smile on the genius' face said volumes about the matter. She was making no effort to hide it.
"Not really, but it might actually be nice to be wrong about one of these insane things for once. Because at the moment I seem to know things I really have no business knowing."
"Oh ho. Like, say… Negi-sensei's mother's identity?"
"Arika Vesperina… complicated name, can't remember the entire thing, Entheofushia?"
"Well, you certainly seem to know, although her full name would be Arika Anarchia Entheofushia… I think I know where you got the Vesperina though…"
"Asuna…"
"I can see that you would be concerned about the troubling implications of knowing this. Especially if you know about the…"
Katarina sighed deeply. "What the… Where did I learn everything? How?"
"You know, I think I have a theory… I think you might be a time-traveller as well."
The bespectacled girl was rendered immobile from shock. Was she?
…
Possibly…?
Did it answer anything?
It could…
But it was far from an explanation for it all, and it really didn't help when she took other details in account, besides what she knew.
Heck, it still raised questions. Even if she was from the future there was no reason for her to know much of anything…
"Judging from your reaction I suppose you never really considered the possibility. Problem is, I don't know who you are, so it's very possible we aren't from the same timeline…"
"That really doesn't help us."
"Not really, no. Do you know what happened in my timeline?"
"Your timeline?" Katarina searched her memories, but… "Apart from the assumption that the collapse of Mundus Magicus must have happened, nothing."
"Well, at least that seems to confirm that there are things you don't know, as opposed to just not knowing that you know or not being allowed to know."
"Wait what?"
"I've noticed when it seems more like you just didn't know that you knew, and it becomes pretty obvious when you aren't allowed to know."
"Pain. Debilitating pain that goes away more or less as soon as I stop…"
"Hmm…" Chao suddenly had a somewhat complicated expression on her face. "I guess this didn't help as much as I had hoped… Do you know anything about your own timeline?"
"My timeline…" Once again she tried to sort through her memories to try and get something useful out of them.
But ultimately…
She couldn't get anything useful out of them. Whatever happened for her to come to Mahora, she couldn't remember those events. She could only find memories of normalcy…
Author's notes: Well, this is a bit of a confused mess. Although I guess it isn't entirely unintentional. Also, for the sake of my own sanity, I'm going to interpret the silence regarding certain things last chapter as approval.
Also, UQ Holder... stop making things confused. Also... Karin is WHO?! Or, well, more seriously, please just actually say who she is rather than try to make it unclear.
Oh, and... please give feedback. It's quite welcome.
I hope you enjoyed, and that you have a nice day.