Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.

Another day in class, another day of chaos.

And today's main difference was that Negi had finally realised that the exams were coming up…

And… apparently his final test was to make sure 2-A didn't get last on the rankings again?

At this point Katarina had stopped questioning why she knew things she shouldn't.

Although she had only realised she knew when Negi had mentioned something bad would happen…

And here comes a stupid idea from Sakurako… a stripping game…

And Negi innocently agrees, much to Asuna's protests and dismay…

And now he's… looking at a chart… while the class descends into madness.

Katarina was of course in no danger of losing any articles of clothing to this game, partially because no one bothered to actually test her, seeing as they were quizzing each other on English.

And Katarina was a foreigner who had yet to display any weakness when it came to English. Most of them probably thought she was a native speaker…

Therefore, the girl decided to approach her teacher while the Baka Rangers, a silly nickname for the 5-girl band with the worst academic prowess in the class, consisting of Asuna, Kaede, Ku Fei, Makie and, somewhat surprisingly, Yue, were stripped of all their clothes.

To be fair, Yuecchi had a strange aversion to actually studying…

"Wait… where's Katarina-san on this…?" She heard Negi say.

"I'm not on there Sensei. I have only ever taken mock exams before this." Katarina informed him from behind his back, causing the boy to jump slightly in surprise.

"Katarina-san?! Ah, that's right…" The boy fell into thought for a couple of moments. "You did quite well though… So I probably don't need to worry…"

"Probably not. Especially seeing as Chao and Hakase have been quite persistent in their efforts to ensure my excellence."

Katarina took a look at the chart, only to find it familiar. She had only really come over to see what Negi had been doing, especially seeing as he had obviously used magic on it…

"That's good to hear. They are good friends."

"They sure are…" Katarina couldn't help the slight melancholy that entered her voice against her will, and she quickly turned away from her teacher. "By the way, you should probably pay attention to the class."

Her redirection of his attention towards the class was just as much because it was genuinely needed, as it was to prevent any inquiries about her melancholy.

It wasn't like she herself understood why…

-Break—

An unusual collection of people gathered outside a secret entrance to Library Island.

The Baka Rangers, Nodoka, Haruna, Konoka and Negi.

The purpose of this gathering was to lead an expedition into the library seeking a book rumoured to make people more intelligent.

"Huh? Come to think of it, why didn't we bring Katarina-chan? Isn't she part of the Library Exploration Club?" Makie suddenly asked.

"Actually… she isn't." Yue replied.

"Eh? Why not? You're friends, right?"

"It's kinda weird, but it seems she becomes sick when she goes into the lower levels of the library." Haruna explained. "So while she would have joined up, she couldn't."

"I see… I hath heard from Katarina-dono, but didst not receive the reason…" Kaede added.

"Is that so…" Makie said.

"Besides… she lives with Evangeline… it would be difficult to fetch her as well." Yue interjected.

"Oh! Right! No wonder I don't see her around the dorm." Asuna said.

And with that out of the way, the girls returned their sights upon the oddly dangerous library…

-Break—

And here comes the big panic. The class being informed that Negi will be fired if class 2-A doesn't move out of the lowest ranking.

It… wasn't untrue, Katarina supposed. It was Negi's final test, which might determine if he was allowed to continue teaching at Mahora?

"I expect everyone, even those of us who usually doesn't bother trying, to study properly!" Ayaka declared. "Katarina-san, I hope you will perform."

"I don't expect to do poorly. Besides, those two won't let me." Katarina responded with a wry smile.

Of course, there was a problem…

"Everyone! We've got a big problem!" Haruna exclaimed as she and Nodoka barged into the classroom. "Negi-sensei and the Baka Rangers have gone missing!"

Yeah, that.

If that many members of the class ends up getting a 0…

It would take a miracle to not get last place…

Still, Katarina didn't feel all that concerned.

Not only because she wasn't quite all that invested in Negi remaining, but also for some reason she couldn't explain.

That, and the fact she knew what they were up to.

Studying in the depths of Library Island.

As long as they made it to the exam, they might actually perform better than ever before.

Especially Yue, whose main drawback was that she didn't study.

Assuming they didn't overdo it and exhaust themselves…

Still, even with that consideration, Katarina wasn't worried.

'Two days left… what to do…? Chao and Hakase seems like they'll be busy, and I don't feel like I need to study any more… Try to help the others…? Might be worthwhile.' She ruminated.

Of course, Ayaka wasn't about to let Katarina escape helping, and the class representative forced her to, if not study, then help the others study.

Helping with maths by pointing them towards the correct method (never solving it for them, she found that she didn't like that idea at all), and if necessary, trying to explain what the method was, how it worked and how you used it.

She also had to help with English quite a bit, unsurprisingly. It was, without a doubt, her strongest subject, although trying to help a bunch of Japanese schoolgirls with English always did provide some interesting challenges.

The two languages weren't exactly… particularly compatible… especially in sounds.

But also in many other aspects.

There was a reason Swedes seemed really good at learning English, and it had to do with compatibility.

Most sounds found in English could be found in Swedish.

The same couldn't be said for English and Japanese.

Multiple consonants in a row was more or less non-existent, except for the same twice, with the slight catch that it needed a pause between them. Three though? Nope.

Well… they could occasionally manage by silencing the う… or, on occasion, the お, but this was hardly guaranteed.

Suwordo came to mind…

"Katarina-chan! Stop zoning out and help me!"

'Oops.'

-Break—

The days passed quickly, although Katarina managed to escape during the last day, citing (to no one) the need to rest before the exam.

And so the day came.

The Baka Rangers, who had managed to return from Library Island, still arrived late, as did, for some reason or another the Library Expedition Club trio…

Katarina observed it with mild amusement.

She'd be lying if she said she felt no concern for the exam, but she was calm. Almost a bit expectant perhaps…

She maintained this throughout said exam, although she did a couple of times thank Nodoka for all the help making sure the Japanese wouldn't trip her up, as well as the help with the more uniquely Japanese subjects.

That had probably been the greatest sources of potential concern, but it seemed to go pretty smoothly all things considered.

In the end, she found herself sitting there, with all questions answered, as well as time left, lazily trying to see any glaring mistakes she had made, but it didn't take long before she sighed and gave up.

She didn't feel like she'd find them even if she tried, and she didn't really care all that much anyway.

She did on the other hand feel some satisfaction for finishing early.

"So… how do you think you did?" Chao queried as they left the room.

"It felt pretty fine, but for all I know I could have messed up every single answer." She responded with a small shrug.

"Then it probably went great."

"Must be nice… having no worries about doing poorly…" A visibly exhausted Natsumi expressed, probably having overheard them. "And to top it off… Katarina-san was mumbling what was probably her thought process occasionally… in three different languages!"

Chao looked at Katarina questioningly.

"Yeah… I tried not to, but I have a bit of a habit of thinking out loud." Katarina said.

"Hmm… Yeah, you do, don't you." The genius mused, then turned towards Natsumi. "So… did you get any answers from her?"

"No… I didn't understand what she was talking about more often than not…" The self-proclaimed plain girl said dejectedly.

Chao hummed a little, thought a bit, then returned to Katarina. "Still… three languages?"

"Three languages. I'm impressed she noticed." She responded.

"Well… I'm kind of confident I can understand English… and sometimes I just couldn't understand anything she was saying…" Natsumi interjected.

Chao then took another few moments to ponder, before she seemed to remember something. "Right. Now I remember. I'm surprised you don't speak that third language more often."

"Honestly? Me too."

Natsumi was left entirely confused, which was, of course, the point.

-Break—

Finally, the time to announce the rankings came.

The members of 2-A gathered in various places to find out.

Sakurako had, at some point, bet that they would get first place.

And… that girl's bets and guesses were some of the most ludicrously accurate in existence.

It was… weird.

So, when 2-A didn't get first place, Katarina was genuinely surprised…

Until her mind supplied that 8 people hadn't been properly accounted for in that score, the 8 who had been late, and that the headmaster had personally taken upon himself to mark.

But with the knowledge Katarina had, she wasn't at all surprised when 2-A got last place again.

"I'm sorry Iincho. I couldn't pull the score up enough." She said, trying to make it sound a bit joking, to make the impression that she was trying to lighten the mood.

Of course, she was equally unsurprised when it was announced that they had to redo the whole thing due to a mistake by the headmaster.

It was still really amusing to see everyone's reactions when it turned out that, as a matter of fact, 2-A was first, rather than last.

Katarina chuckled a bit.

Chao sidled up to her. "You know, I think you were a bit too unconcerned, especially when we got last place."

"Yeah… I know. Funny thing is, it's not like I knew that was what would happen. I just figured that was what would happen…"

"Interesting." Chao seemed to be contemplating for a bit. "Let's go find out how you did."

"Not interested in how you did?"

"Nope."

"It wouldn't happen to be that you know the tests already or something, right?"

Chao merely laughed.

She was neither going to confirm, nor deny it.

Finally, Katarina laid eyes upon her score.

99.

"Figures. Made a mistake somewhere. Maybe a couple." She then turned to her companion with a small smile. "Sorry, couldn't get a perfect score."

It went without saying that Katarina wasn't in the slightest bit apologetic.

And Chao wasn't in the slightest bit upset. "Damn it Katarina, you were supposed to get a perfect score so we could all sit at the top together!" The Chinese girl said with copious amounts of falsified annoyance.

Although she pretended to be.

They shared a bit of an amused laugh.

Although… Katarina did feel the stares, or perhaps even glares, of the people around them, probably not nearly as amused.

And Katarina could understand.

Here they were, having struggled to get a decent, or good or maybe even excellent score, while these two, with either perfect, or near perfect, scores, were making light of said scores.

She also didn't care all that much.

She didn't know any of them.

Author's notes: Here we go again. I kind of know what I'm doing (I don't know what I'm doing). I hope I didn't make any major mistakes anywhere, but I tried not to. Maybe... some feedback? It would be nice. It's funny, really. I don't like getting empty praise, but at the same time, silence kind of hurts. A dilemma to be sure.

I considered quite a bit wheter or not 2-A would be last in this timeline, but with 8 people counting as 0 (presumably), it was (presumably), a lost cause. They'd have to be pretty darn close behind the other class, and it seemed kind of unlikely... So... yeah... I made my choice.

I hope you enjoyed, and that you have a nice day.