Disclaimer: I own nothing, aside of my stories and OCs.
Chapter 15 is out, after a long time. Hope you still enjoy it like I do.
"Hey Yotsuba! If you want, I could hire you as our main chef in my place." Enjoying his breakfast, Kuro offered a job to the best cooker of class 3-A.
"Thank you, Sensei, but I would like to stay here with my friends." The girl politely declined.
The assistant noticed his offer was a bit wrong, so he corrected it: "Sorry, I meant in the future. When you graduate."
"Ah, then it will be my pleasure." Smiling to the man, the girl then noticed someone calling for orders. "Sorry Kuro-sensei, someone's calling."
"Continue your job." Seeing the girl walking back inside and making food, Kuro took a quick sip of his water glass, before saying: "Now that's a bit unfair. What to choose, what to choose..."
"Choose what, Kuro?" Negi asked curiously.
"About who's the better one? Compa, or Yotsuba?"
Asuna grinned while biting her food. "Hard decisions, Kuro-sensei?"
"You could say something like that." Then he saw Chachamaru serving food to another tables. When she's nearby, he called back: "Hey Chachamaru! How are you doing so far?"
Taking a small moment to walk to him, the robot girl answered: "It's good so far. But I have to clean up at least twice a day now..."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Kuro scratched his head apologetically. "I forgot about the air-clean system..."
"It's alright. In fact, I find it quite pleasant to take normal bath."
"Well lucky me. Alright, thanks for answering."
"So..." Once the girl's away, Setsuna asked: "What are you going to do after the class?"
"Hm... Not very sure... Maybe taking a walk around and try to see how the festival is preparing so far."
Konoka: "You like festivals that much?"
"More like I'm not bright enough to create one, so I have to learn."
The girl giggled. "So even you have to do that? But we should finish our breakfast soon before heading to class."
"How about a 'undergarment-less tea shop'?" Kuro face-palmed after hearing Chizuru's suggestion. To make it worse, 'some others' agreed to it.
"Thought you would agree with that." A smirky Asakura asked a certain teacher, and she earned a smack on the face by a paper fan. A large one.
"WE DON'T NEED ANY OF THAT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" Shouted the embarrassed twin-tail girl.
"I second with that." Kuro followed, remembering ALL kinds of embarrassing things he has witnessed in the past. "Also, none of the teachers would approve that."
"Come on now, sensei. You know we're joking..."
"Which most of you are having in your head and wanting to make it happen." Kuro deadpanned. He then grabbed Negi by the collar and started pulling him out of class. "You girls have a few minutes before the actual class starts. And I'm not letting the boy hearing what you're going to say."
"HEY! That defeats the purpose of asking for permission!" Nearly all the enthusiatic girls shouted in disbelief.
"The problem is that you're 'kind of' making impossible plans, so till you're being serious, we're outside." Turning 'deaf ears', both of the teachers walked out of the room, leaving the girls to 'joke around' some more.
"Jeez, something he's a spoilsport." The reporter pouted a bit, then was about to ask Clem, and stopped herself from doing so when facing the 'Not answering' sign. "Not you too..."
"You already knew the answer." The girl giggled to herself. "About what class 3-A can do, you actually have an advantage in making one kind of event very successfully."
"Which is?" Asakura leaned closer to the girl, so she could whisper the idea.
"Haunted house. You have a lot of materials here, right?"
"Materials?" The reporter looked around, and saw the ghost girl floating next to the group of girls discussing about ideas for the festival. "Right! We got Kuro-sensei and her, and the ones from..."
"Do you think they would even accept the invitation?" Asuna interrupted.
Clem: "One day would be enough, I think so."
'Relieving nightmares is not something they would do.' Kuro's deadpan voice echoed in their minds. 'But, I could ask the ones from Heavenly Host to assist for that. They don't really do much there anyway.'
The girls who heard that nodded at the answer. Then the teacher came in...
"Oh hey, Kuro! It's been a while!" Seiko raised her arm and waved at the person walking towards her.
"Nice to see you too. Hey, have you seen Satoshi?"
"Probably somewhere with Naomi." Having kitty smile on her face, Seiko pondered: "Ah, a dimension for two only, on the rooftop..."
"Snap out of your dream for a second, Seiko." Chuckling to that, Kuro said: "I might have a little job for you to do. Care to hear it?"
"Hm? What is it?" A question mark appeared on the girl's head.
Leaning against the broken window, Kuro explained: "Let's just say that Clem gave out the idea of making a haunted house for class 3-A to hear about, and they agreed to execute it. They could do it on their own, but I figure you could make the event turn up to another level."
Seiko grinned. "So we're able to return to 'our world' from now?"
"Maybe. I mean, this is your core world..."
"That's enough to hear. See you around soon!" Seiko then tip-topped into the darkness, leaving the walking dead in the empty hall.
And he chuckled. "Can't blame her for being excited." Then he pushed him off the window, and walked towards another hall. "Let's see how the basement is now."
...
"Ah, Kuro." Yoshikazu greeted the person walking towards him. "Checking him? He's still thrashing as usual."
Wearing an annoyed look, Kuro asked: "Still resisting? He should have known better."
Yoshikazu shook his head disapprovingly: "After you showed us his past, we could see that he's nowhere to be saved. Just end him so that..."
"It would just make us the same as him, and prove that he's right. I know it's hard to keep an eye on him, but we have to. If not, everyone will be in danger."
"I know. It's just extremely distracted with that chains sounds..." Then the teacher changed the subject: "I doubt you came here just for that. What's the occasion?"
"Ah, just inviting some people for helping a haunted house to work properly."
Yoshikazu laughed. "Oh yep, we're the perfect candidates for that, huh? So, my guess is that you picked the 'main character' ones?"
"You know me. Though..." Then he remembered the 'migraine sound'. "Damn Sayaka, blasting that microphone right through the phone..."
"Hm? Something happened?"
"Ah, just the girls pranking me for dying on them. Anyway, keep close eyes on him, please."
"Will do. Enjoy your day."
The next day
"The World Tree Legend?"
"I suppose you have heard about that before, Kuro. Or, you can already feel the power inside the tree."
"Kind of. And it seems to be rising up everyday..."
"It is. This power is quite strong, and if you already knew, it could grant one's wish..."
"Which are mostly confessions. But, it works like a Love Potion..."
"You must have a lot of troubles with that if you already deduced the matter into that."
"*Deadpan while blushing* Don't make me talk about it. But, you are talking about it because..."
"I'm planning to give every teacher who's aware of magic a notification later. But, I'm asking if you can somehow block its power, so that everyone can enjoy the festival."
"And me working non-stop?"
"That..."
"I'm just joking. Yeah, I will try, but I don't think outright blocking it would be a good idea. People would notice the abnormality in the air."
"So what's your suggestion?"
"Hm... I will think about it later. For now, I will return a bit... Ah right, about night curfews..."
'Here we go again.' Kuro sweat-dropped when he heard the commotions inside the classroom, and he managed to pick up words of Yuna reading the newspaper. 'Maybe staying out here and waiting is a better choice...'
"Aw, now that would make me to try to find someone to confess... hey, Kuro-sensei might be a good choice!"
'... For real?'
Luckily Fumika was there to save him: "He takes love a serious thing, Yuna. If not, he would just ask Blanc out for a date already."
'...THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE A SAVE, CREATOR!'
And Fuka added fuel to the fire: "I think you can ask him some advice! You know, for experiments!"
With that, the class's crawled with chatters involving around the guy standing out of the class. 'Jeez, these girls...'
"Kuro, why don't you head into the room?" Just in time for a random Shizuna to walk towards him and ask the question, loud enough for the girls to hear it.
"... That's your work, isn't it Creator?"
'Annoying brats...' Eva thought to herself, as the girls detected the person they were planning to ask, and tried to capture him just a moment before he ran away. She then noticed Chachamaru staring at her arm for at least five seconds straight. "What's wrong?"
Snapping out of the focus, the robot girl replied: "Nothing serious, Master. I'm just wondering how normal shampoo would affect my skin."
"... Isn't your skin like, normal?" Eva knew that her skin was made of chemical stuffs, but based on what Kuro told her, it would work normally like human's.
"Not entirely correct. The one I currently use is special made to maintain the skin. We're still having some testings to do."
"It's nothing special, really." Chao joined the conversation. "Hey, Eva. Care to join us as well? It will be fun."
Eva raised her eyebrow and asked: "Why the sudden interest? I don't remember you joining this kind of things."
"My plans are wasted, and Kuro kinda helped me with my past, so I could enjoy life now."
'Hm... that's the power of knowing the future, huh?' Eva thought to herself, as she reminded herself of what she has read. She knew the girl had plans to reveal the world about magic, and she did succeed once in a lock-down timeline, but hearing that plan being wasted... What happened if he went into the past and changed her own past?
That's just straight-up messing with timeline. We only went to the past IF the present time we first encountered has records of us interfering the past of some points, and the changes were not too drastic also.
'Even changing someone's fate?'
Like he said, depending on the records. And if the present time we encounter is different than the one we know. If you're human, then we have to check the past to see what's wrong, and if the timeline already designed like that, then we left it be.
'... I'm going to let you do that. Too complicated to hear.'
Like your love?
Seeing the vampire twitching her eyes, Chao asked: "What's wrong?"
"It's...nothing. Just remembered something annoying. I'll consider to join later."
'My God. How much stamina do these girls have?' Hiding on a tree branch, a black cat was watching the girls of class 3-A trying to find their teachers. After a while, they just gave up and returned back to finish their work. After there's no signs of them, the cat jumped down to the ground and turned back into Kuro. "Gosh. Creator, what was that?"
Just messing with you, that's all.
"Grr... Anyway, when could I return to the past?"
The best time would be... after you reveal yourself in Wales.
"That long, huh?" Kuro then looked at the World Tree. "But... About Negi's father..."
"So you already knew." Kuro turned his head to the left to see a person wearing a big white robe, covering his head with the hood. "I'm surprised about your future self saying that he already knew, but now hearing it from you... I guess you have more than your appearance would say."
Kuro crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned on the tree. "Yeah, along the lines. When did you know that QoA is not who she is?"
The man used his hand to hide the smile on his face. "Just before the point of that picture. We were playing Truth and Dare, and you picked Dare. Of course, only Eishun and Takamachi were the only ones who didn't know, so we all had a good laugh."
"... I want to do a Hara-kiri right now."
"You said that you said that. But you didn't do so."
"Yeah. Not a good idea to have a bloody corpse in a festival. Anyway, taking a walk around?"
"Your future self has told me about a tournament of sort in the festival. Care to explain?"
"Ah, that..."
Time skip to midnight
'Way too loud.' Looking at his watch, Kuro stood before the academy, where the 'stealth constructions' were operating. 'Just luckily Nepgear is not in that mess. Or there will be a lot of money being in fixing the school.'
Money is not the issue though.
'I know. But it's still a problem.' Then from the corner of his eyes, he saw a group of people walking towards him. 'Let the show begin.'
"BE QUIET EVERYONE! DON'T MAKE TOO MUCH NOISES LIKE THAT!" Haruna whispered/shouted as the sounds of working echoed in the room.
"Impossible!" Cried Sakurako. "How can we do that!"
"Ha ha, creeping at night around with the chance of being caught makes me tremble!" Makie embarrassingly said to herself.
'I just want to sleep!' Screamed in her mind, the 'secret idol' of 3-A was not very happy about this.
"Against the rule, but even I have to break the rules over these days..." The representative groaned at the situation she's in.
"If we don't do this, then it might be late for the festival." Yuna commented.
"OF COURSE I KNOW THAT!" She shouted, quietly, to the girl, then turned to the young teacher and his roommate. "Sorry Clem, sorry Negi-sensei for getting you into this mess..."
"Don't worry. I know you girls want to do this, so I decided to help." Negi assured the girl, which followed by a nod from the other girl.
"NITTA IS COMING!" One of class 3-B students warned class 3-A, causing everyone to stop all activities and go into hiding, with the other girl also returning to her hiding spot.
Footsteps echoed in the hall, and a few seconds later, the flashlight in the Director's hand shone into the classroom, and Nitta started looking for any abnormal points. Seeing none, he walked away, checking the other classes.
Once he disappeared into the corner, Haruna gave out a good sign: "Okay, he's gone. Everyone get back to work, now."
"It would be problematic if he spotted me..." Negi thought out loud, nervously thinking about what he might get into.
"Don't worry Sensei." Makie assured him. "If he spotted us, we could still warn you to go hide or something..."
"Then you all clearly have underestimated me." Everyone froze after hearing the voice, and all pointed their lights towards a corner in the room, revealing Nitta already sneaked into the room without anyone's noticing. The Director then pointed his light towards Negi. "I'm disappointed at you, Negi-sensei. As a good teacher, you should have told your students to return to rest. Not only this breaks the rules, but it also affects their health. You understand that, right?"
"I...Yes, I do. My apology." Negi bows in shame. Even though he wanted the girls to have good times, he couldn't just get over with it.
"And you all." Nitta moved his light around the room. "You know there will be punishments if you break the rules, right?" No responds. "I will say it right now: You all..."
...
...
"Have to rest immediately after the first sign of the sun appears."
"...Eh?" Everyone was O.O in confusion. Normally, they were expecting to be scowled at and then they were going to do some works in the morning...
"Dada managed to fool everyone." One little giggle from Clem snapped everyone's focus towards her. Then they registered her words and turned back to Nitta, to see him tapping on his phone (which is the source of the flashlight) with his left hand, which was having too familiar rings, and then the phone sent blue light towards the Director and covered him completely, and then when the light died down, Nitta was replaced by the new assistant with a smirk on his face.
"Then I must have done a good job." Spinning the phone between his right thumb and index, Kuro casually spoke. "So, how is your night, girls?"
"DON'T TRICK US LIKE THAT!" Everyone shouted at him, disbelieving that their teacher just pulled a scary prank like that.
Kuro just chuckled. "Well, it could be a great idea for your event, right? Anyway, I'm going to help you girl tonight, just like the teachers of the other classes."
And now the school started to gain noises of surprised students, as they saw their teachers already waiting in their respective classes. Then the whole school's lightened up with light, and Kuro announced: "Alright girls, heard that you only have a few nights left. Considering this a gift for us for working hard in this semester. Let's get this show on the road!"
A little flashback
"You want permission to use the school at night?"
"More like an excuse so the girls could finish their work."
"*Chuckle* Instead of letting the girls break the rules, you're just going to bend the rules for them."
"Learnt that from another Headmaster. So, you agree?"
"If you think it's the best."
...
...
"IT'S COMPLETED!" The students cheered in unison, as they marveled at the accomplishment they have achieved. "WE HAVE DONE IT!"
"It's just the outside though. We have done only half of work inside." Yue completely shattered the happy atmosphere by that truth.
"Please don't point that out!" Yuna fake-cried. "Anyway, I'm done here! See you all later!"
"HEY! YOU SAID YOU WOULD HELP!" Ayaka tried to call some of them back, to no avail.
"We stayed as long as we said we would! BYE!" And with that, about a half of the class was gone.
"How... are they... still so energetic?" Chisame asked herself, completely exhausted from the overnight work.
"Probably because they're not like you." She glared at the person who said that. "Hey, don't send that look to me. You know it's true."
"Hey, Kuro, Negi. Want to get some breakfast?" Asuna called out from outside the class, whose company were Setsuna and Konoka.
"I will go." Negi answered.
"Then we meet later, Negi." Kuro declined. "Before the World Tree. The Headmaster wanted us to go there. Also tell Setsuna as well."
Negi nodded, and the two departed in two directions...
Time skip. Roof of a building
"Hey, want some?"
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry."
"Suit yourself then." Throwing the candy into his mouth, Kuro asked the healing mage of Ala Rubra: "Any differences of this year compared to the past?"
"For now, nothing. Except 'normal stuffs' appearing around you, and yourself."
"*Chuckle* And your feeling about that?"
"*Smile* It's going to be interesting. Though, if QoA and Rakan broke a few fields just for spar, I wonder what kind of destruction you would make?"
"Come on, this is Earth, not Mars. I'm not going to do that much." Silence. "How much impact was I caused in your past?"
"You blew up Cerberus Canyon with the beasts' own power, making the place completely lose its uniqueness. Siding with one of Cosmo Entelecheia and his servants..."
"I wouldn't call those girls 'servants' though." Kuro interrupts. "Friends might be a better term. And yes, I might know the reason I do so..."
"I don't know why you didn't even stop Mage of The Beginning in the first place. Even if it changed this time..."
"... The problem is, Mage of The Beginning and one of my eternal foes have similar power level and immortality. Killing her won't be easy, and I can't travel too far into the past and interfere with her progress of being the person we know now... And I don't really like doing drastic changes."
"... That's the same answer as QoA." The two then looked at the clocktower and read the time. "Time for you to go."
"Yeah. See you around soon."
Before the World Tree
"Ladies and gentlemen." The Headmaster started explaining why he gathered everyone here. "We're having a serious problem coming up soon, and we must swiftly decide the best course to deal with it."
"Is that the same like the field trip?" Negi cautiously asked, remembering how much troubles he and his students have gone through.
"No, it's not that dangerous, but it's still something troublesome. It's about the World Tree Legend."
"Ah that?" Kotarou immediately discarded the matter. "The rumor about the tree granting your wish in the last day of the festival. Yeah, like that would happen."
"Oh?" After hearing that, Negi remembered some conversations between his students. "I heard they used it to get a lover or so. If that's the case, then we don't really have to be scared about it..."
"It's not about scaring it or so." The Headmaster interrupted their talk. "The problem is that: The rumor has based on the real truth. The tree WILL grant your wish during these days."
"...eh?" Negi, Kotarou, Setsuna and Chamo let out a dumbfounded expression.
"Let me give you the explanation." The Headmaster chuckled under his beard. "The tree's official name is Sacred Tree Bontou, and it contains a strong concentration of magic in it. Once every 22 years, that magic overflows its boundaries, with six points surrounding the tree gathering them. The place we're standing in is one of them." Waiting a few seconds for them to understand, he continued: "This magic won't accept just any of the wishes though, but about confessions... the rate of success will reach 120 percent! And that's something we must have taken it at hand with caution!"
Everyone would have taken his words immediately... if that picture over his head didn't confuse them. Then Negi asked: "But, I thought it's a good thing if a person finds the other half for..."
"Not if it's forced, Negi." Kuro appeared right behind Setsuna, nearly causing her to draw her sword out of surprise. "While it sounds normal in non-magic people, to people who's aware of it, it's related to the spirit of the people. The spell the World Tree casts on the person will manipulate their souls and minds, forcing them to accept the wish of another person." He then raised his left hand up, which contained a line of foreign words. "I think you have seen this already, but this is the mark of a summoning spell. Its original will bind the branded summoned to the summoner, making them completely obey to the person."
Everyone gasped in surprise, as the Headmaster expressed it by his words: "I thought that's just a contract between you and Death..."
"It is. But its original is what I said before. But, the people there didn't know about it, because most of the summoned beings were mindless animals. Very rarely a case which an intelligent being was summoned happened."
The Headmaster stroked his beard undestandably. "I see. Can't blame them then. Back to the World Tree, like Kuro said, it's forbidden to manipulate a spirit without permanence. What would you feel if the person loves you too much but you can't take responsibility for the rest of your life?"
"...Oh." Everyone nodded. Then Negi asked: "Wait, so things like Love Potions..."
"It's actually depended on which society we're talking about." All turned back to Kuro. "In Halkeginia before, it's true it's prohibited. However, we decided it to be under heavy watch instead of banning it, because people would just tried to sneak some and break the rules. Also, in Research Land, we also try to change its materials to make the potions not too dangerous."
The Headmaster lightly argued: "Well, we're in our world, so it's prohibited."
Kuro shrugged. "Just saying."
"Alright then. The rumors are spread around, and people are discussing about it seriously. By now the effect starts to appear, so we need to watch out for any malicious confessions at these places..."
Mei Sakura interrupted: "Someone's watching us." That caused everyone to start looking around...
And Kuro dismissed it. "Ah, that's just Chao with her invention. Just let her be."
Gandolfini scowled at him: "Are you saying that you're letting those students to find out who the magicians are?"
"Yes." Before everyone started raising their weapons against him, Kuro explained: "I already found out her plans to spread the words of magicians in this festival, and I have spoiled it. However, I side with her about exposing magic to the world in near future, because there are also matters that can't be covered with normal medias." The Headmaster noticed the hidden tone inside of Kuro's voice. And Kuro spoke to him through telepathy: 'It's about Mars and Cosmo Entelecheia, sir.'
'I see.' "Then I will trust you in this, sir Kuro." Everyone's eyes widened as the Headmaster's siding with the assistant. "However, any consequences come in, and you will have to deal with it. Also, about what we have said before..."
"Yeah. I still remember, don't worry." Kuro then pulled out his phone and looked at it. "... The effect's about 10 percent already."
"You meant the effect of World Tree?" Seruhiko asked.
"Yep. I will be the one blocking the effect, however, I won't guarantee the perfection. That's why you're still needed to watch out."
"I believe it's good for now." The Headmaster concluded. "All of us will take patrol shifts until the end of the festival. Dismissed!"
"So you got it?" Kuro teleported himself on the rooftop, where Chao and Hakase were waiting for him.
"Yes. But, what are you planning with this?" Hakase asked in confusion.
"It's about Chao's previous plans. Actually, there's one needed to be executed, but we need to arrange it so that people wouldn't think of it much as magic."
"Did Negi know about me?"
"Obviously not. You have to speak it to him by yourself, and I know you want it be done by you, right?"
"Gotcha! Oh, and about the tournament..."
"..." Kuro suddenly froze up.
Hakase pushed his shoulder lightly to get his attention. "What is it, Kuro-sensei?"
"It's..." He then messed his hair while throwing a tantrum. "I completely forgot that!"
"Forgot what?" Now that caught the girls' interesting.
"It's about Eva... I guess you can already guess what it's about."
Chao noticed how suddenly embarrassed he was, and then she laughed. "Just don't get yourself into those six places. Fate would troll you immediately."
"No. I know fate is going to troll me, so she MIGHT confess just the right place." That caused the girl to laugh harder. "Hey! Not cool!"
"If it's you, then it's cool. About the tournament... can we borrow one of those Colosseum of yours?"
"Hm... I don't know if I should do so. The shrine is not that big... Wait a second, are there floating structures being made in this Earth in this time?"
"...Kuro-sensei, you saw dinosaurs walking around. Do you think a floating house would be impossible?"
"Well then, I might have something else to help for that..."