Disclaimers: I do not own Negima or High School DxD. For that matter, I technically do not own this story either.

This story was originally called "The Wildcard" and was written by kroz phantomville here on FFnet. Real Life however, decided to interfere with his storytelling, and thus he decided to put the story up for adoption. Since I enjoyed the story he had started, I decided to adopt it and asked permission to do so.

Please note that I have changed a few details from the original "The Wildcard," although I have tried to keep the spirit of the story intact.

As you might remember from my profile, I am a truck driver. When the company I worked for went bankrupt, I managed to get another job quickly. However, the new job has me traveling all over the country. Before I was relatively close to home. Part of this was written while the truck was broke down in Portland Oregon. Which means I was stuck in a hotel for the weekend. Not exactly my idea of fun, but at least I got some writing done, as well as reading some of the original light novel on Baka Tsuki.

I am going to try to maintain a balancing act between light novel, manga, and anime. You get to be the judge of how I am doing. Let me know if you think I am screwing up, otherwise I'll think I am doing a good job.

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Chapter 4

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Arrangements, Funeral and Otherwise

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Negi stared at the door to his office after Sona and Tsubaki departed. He stood there and collected his thoughts briefly before he started speaking to the source of his irritation.

"Zero?" he asked, not turning away from the door.

"Yes, Master Negi?"

"Why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You called Hyodo-san a 'perv' as he was getting up. He might not have heard you, but both Shitori-san and Shinra-san did."

"Oh! I wasn't calling him a perv. I was calling the Prez a perv."

"Huh?" asked Negi as he turned to face his familiar.

"Yep. She was giving me the stink-eye. Perv," replied Chachazero.

Negi sighed. His familiar was almost as much a curse as she was a help. He was about to scold her when she resumed speaking, "You know, you were supposed to be the only one who could even hear me. That boy certainly never heard me. He didn't react at all to me booing when you mentioned Albert Chamomile. He didn't react to me saying 'perv' either. Only those two devils did."

It was true Negi realized. He had given Chachazero just enough magic to be able to see her surroundings and speak quietly in a tone only he could hear. She couldn't so much as turn her head unless he fed more magic to her.

Wait.

Negi gazed at Chachazero and asked, "How did you know they were Devils?"

"Do you think they are Angels?"

Negi mentally sighed. He really should have expected that. He must be tired given all of the mistakes he had made within the span of an hour.

Drat.

"The new teacher has a magical doll," stated Sona. Tsubaki simply nodded in agreement with her king as she sat beside her.

Rias leaned back in her chair, deep in thought. She glanced over at Koneko and Yuuto to see if they needed to comment. Noting that they appeared to have nothing to say she quietly watched Akeno handing both guests a cup of tea. After a moment she asked, "A magical doll does not mean much. Unless you suspect there is more."

"Both of us spent too little time with him to gather much information on Springfield-sensei. He was, I believe, watching us to see how we would react," said Sona.

"On guard then," Konoko said.

"Precisely," agreed Tsubaki.

"So I suggest we watch and wait for now. We know next to nothing about him," said Sona.

"But you're worried he knows much about us," suggested Rias.

Sona nodded. "He was extremely careful to be active in conversation with us, but still say nothing about himself, even though we did ask him only two questions about him," she said.

"Do you want us to ask him any questions? Or should we just watch for now?" Akeno asked as she returned to Rias's side.

Sona appeared to be considering her options until Rias interrupted her thoughts, "I believe we should just watch for now. He has yet to do anything suspicious. As far as we know, he isn't a danger."

"I have class with him," said Koneko.

"I think several in my peerage have a class with him tomorrow as well. I will have them observe Springfield-sensei," Sona said.

Rias nodded her assent before speaking of lighter matters.

The day after Negi spoke to Sona and Tsubaki, he was having his lunch outside on a bench that he had never seen anyone sitting on in his time at the Academy. Not that he had been there very long to make a detailed mental map of the Academy, but this bench stood out to him as he was already needing to hide from prying eyes of the female sort. Things had been going so well too. Yes, he was being looked at by various girls, but it hadn't gotten out of hand. No one had tried to outright seduce him or even start a fight over him. If anything, several of the other teachers had commented that he received less female attention than Yuuto Kiba.

As he ate, he reviewed what he knew of both Sona and Tsuaki. Both were third-year students at the Academy. Both were devils, and devils usually had followers, or peerages as Great Red called them.

Unfortunately, both were now interested in him.

Negi guessed that it was his own fault. He had tried to hide his magical aura from both Sona and Tsubaki. It had been a mistake to leave Zero with enough power to listen in on his talk with Issei, but he had wanted another opinion about him, even if that opinion would be rude, crude, lewd, and likely socially unacceptable.

But Sona and Tsubaki had heard Zero, of that he was sure. As a result, they had likely shared what they found with their peerages. Both had decided to see what they, and their peerages, could discover about him.

He wasn't upset about it. He was more annoyed about the lack of subtlety their peerages showed. He half expected the lack of subtlety from Sona and Tsubaki's peerages, as they were young and still learning, but they were just far too obvious for his liking.

His first class had Reya Kusaka all but staring at him the entire period. Unusual for her as she usually spent her time taking notes. He'd already detected that she was among Sona's peerage, just from the aura radiating from her.

His next class had Koneko Toujou actively watching him while asking three questions related to the material. Ruruko Nimura also kept a sharp eye on him as well, as both were in the same class. Again unusual behavior for both, as neither had asked questions before then. The different aura he sensed from Koneko he attributed to Tsubaki.

After that it was more of the same until lunch. Even now Negi could see Saji searching the roof of one of the buildings. He hoped that Saji wasn't looking for him, but he knew better than that.

Negi sighed to himself as he considered his options. They were devils after all. From what Great Red had told him, they hid themselves from humanity as well. He could understand why they would. If they were indeed the Devils of the Bible, then Humanity would be more than a little freaked out by their presence. Proving that Devils existed would logically prove that Angels also existed, and Christianity would be thrown into chaos.

He couldn't remember the author from his universe, but he could remember the quote: "What good is Faith if you can get God's phone number?"

Even if there was no religious hysteria, Devils were different from Humanity. And Humanity had proven all too willing to do horrible things to anything that was different from them.

He'd grabbed a few books about History from the local library while his home was being built. Events such as the Salem Witch Trials, the Inquisition, and the War Between the States happened here in the same manner as they had in his home universe, although the dates were slightly off. The War to End All Wars had happened almost the same including all of the technological advancements. The Second World War had followed the exact same path as well. It annoyed him that Humanity was eager to kill itself over the silliest of reasons.

Negi shook his head to derail that train of thought and was about to resume eating when he spotted a young woman approaching the bench he was sitting on. She had obviously come in from outside the Academy, but what caught Negi's attention was that she was dressed in cosplay.

Magical Girl cosplay to be precise.

A quick scan of the young woman with magic revealed nothing, so whoever was coming to him was not in either peerage or even unusual. So she was either safe to speak to or else not.

Negi decided to take the risk and nodded to her before saying, "Good afternoon."

She smiled at him before responding, "Good afternoon to you as well. Are you new here?"

Negi chuckled, "I have been here less than a month now. I am still becoming used to this Academy."

She nodded sagely before saying, "I have visited here several times, but I keep getting lost every time I am here. Could you lead me to the Student Council office? I need to let them know I am here."

Negi hesitated a second before agreeing, "I think I can. You might need to help me though, as I do know only approximately where it is."

"Alright. We can help each other then."

"He's not in the Teacher's Lounge."

"He's not on the library roof. He's also not visible from anywhere on the library roof."

"He's not around the gymnasium."

Sona frowned before she glanced over to where Rias and Akeno were standing near the door to the Student Council room. Both her peerage and Rias's peerage were reporting their findings from searching for Springfield-sensei.

All because Koneko had casually asked if anyone knew where he ate his lunch.

While it might be a legitimate concern, Sona thought everyone was overreacting. Rias however appeared amused by the antics of their peerages, much to Sona's growing frustration. She shut her eyes and tried to breathe normally so she would remain calm. It required several seconds before she could ask Rias, "Are you sure that this is the wisest course of action? Won't it be obvious that we are far too interested in Springfield-sensei if all of us keep up this random searching?"

Rias nodded before replying, "But for Student Council to be interested in him is at least reasonable. He is a new teacher and you are just trying to protect the interests of the students. After all, both of us have heard all of the rumors. But we have been so busy that neither of us have been able to look into them. You are making up for lost time, while we are helping you at your request."

Sona sighed, "You've thought this out."

Rias giggled in embarrassment then, "Well, Koneko did help at least."

Hearing her name, Koneko turned to Rias then. Rias beckoned her over to her side. Sona assumed that Rias was going to give Koneko some instructions on where to search next and switched her attention over to Tsubaki directing the other members of her peerage on the next locations to search.

So when there was a knock at the door, her gaze immediately went to it. As did everyone else's.

"Come in," Sona said.

The door opened but no one immediately entered. As Sona was about to repeat her invitation to enter, she heard the one voice she dreaded to hear say, "Oh go on in. They don't bite. They are in fact very nice once you get to know them." This was followed by Springfield-sensei being nudged into the room, followed by her sister.

Negi knew that the cosplayer was going to get him in trouble. He'd known it on an instinctual level.

It still did not help him. The entire excursion had been marked with obvious peril as she asked him numerous questions about his opinion about Magical Girl shows, and how they affected Society and children. He'd tried three times to evade her by leading her to the wrong building, then to the wrong floor once they were inside, then even trying to somehow encourage her to go inside the Student Council room without him. Each time she corrected him or else encouraged him to "just go with me a little farther."

She had nudged him inside. Well surely things could not get any...

"So-tan!" the woman announced to the room, right before scampering to Sona and glomping her firmly.

Worse.

Drat.

Well, now was the time to escape. He turned to the door, only to find Koneko and a tall girl with black hair standing in front of the now closed door.

Bollocks.

The taller of the girls guarding the door to freedom smiled at him and said, "Now sensei, you're not in any hurry to leave us all by ourselves are you?" As she spoke, she leaned forward quickly so she could encourage him to step away from the door. Unfortunately, that resulted in a few strands of hair tickling his nose.

OH HELL!

Akeno had heard the rumors also, and had also seen this new teacher in the halls before and after classes. She'd decided that this young man needed to be teased, so tease she did. He was right in front of her after all, and it would be a shame if she did not take advantage of the situation while it was presented to her in such an inviting fashion.

So she was surprised at how big his eyes grew when she did so. Surprised turned to alarm as she realized that he was about to sneeze, and yet try to leave the room to do so.

Well, that was not going to happen. Not with Koneko and her guarding the door.

The new teacher tried to get around Koneko, but she stayed between him and the door. Meanwhile Rias had started to become concerned and started to move closer to Koneko to do something to help. Sona was still trying to escape her sister's embrace and also trying to do something about the situation unfolding in the Student Council room. Her peerage was confused, but none were standing still.

Then the new teacher sneezed. She was nearly knocked off her feet, as was Koneko. Rias wasn't so lucky though, and she saw several of the others get knocked backwards also. The room seemed to fill with sakura petals that obstructed her view for a moment.

Once the petals fell to the floor, she glanced around. Well, this was certainly a new view.

Negi sighed. He walked to the nearest corner of the room and glanced upwards before saying, "Oh look up at those ceiling tiles. Aren't they the nicest tiles you've ever seen?"

He did that as a way to spare the two boys in the room a beating. After the obligatory embarrassed screams before the sounds of Saji's pummeling and resulting screams of pain reached his ears, Negi sighed. "And here I thought I was doing quite well."

At least one boy wasn't getting brutally beaten. He saved one life. But now he was in danger of perhaps losing his.

Nothing unusual there.

Author Notes

The rust is slowly being worked off my writing skills, but I am still slow.

I have an MGE Isekai story bouncing around in my head. I need to try to get it out of there lest it become warped by Reality. This means that this story, while EXTREMELY popular, might not be updated for a little while.