Anything That Burns

by Darkenning

In a very damaged world, a very different Negi Springfield comes to a very different Mahora Girls Middle School ... where girls start throwing themselves at him. Sometimes, the greatest difference is no difference at all. AU, Multiple Crossovers, Lemon, Massive Harem. Inspired by "Anything That Moves" by OverMaster.

9. Chapter 7

A week passed, and many things happened.

The Mahora Academies held their closing ceremonies, and it was revealed that Negi Springfield would officially be joining the faculty in the coming school year. This caused considerable frustration for one Hasegawa Chisame, who'd entertained the somewhat delusional hope that things would go back to normal in that coming school year. To be kind, she didn't expect the world to completely revert to the blue-skied paradise she'd only ever seen in the movies, but it would have been nice if she'd been free of one of the stranger elements in her life.

To cope with her frustrations, Chisame immersed herself in her secret life as the online idol Chiu-chan. But disaster struck, for Negi discovered this secret life! Fortunately for Chisame, however, he was still recovering from the previous day's marathon sex session with Shanna, and so was not moved to physically express his attraction to her e-girl persona. She was publicly humiliated when he attempted to get her more involved with her fellow classmates, though, and swore to take a bloody vengeance one day on her young teacher.

Elsewhere in Academy City, Kuno Tatewaki presented himself to offer his sincere apologies to Tendo Akane for having been unable to overcome her horrid fiance, who now stood revealed as an evil sorcerer who seized control of the minds of innocent young girls and forced them to commit acts of violence on his betters. Kuno also reported that he had discovered that he was of that type of man who could, indeed, love more than one woman at once, and resolved to pursue Kiryuuin Satsuki, a nameless pig-tailed girl, and Akane herself equally in the days to come. Akane beat him senseless as he was pursuing this theme, but the violence gave her no comfort.

Meanwhile, Ranma and Shanpu paid a visit to Library Island, only to be told that they would have to return in about a week, after the library staff was ready to assist them in their search. Unsatisfied with that, the two martial artists snuck in, and were introduced to the startling variety of traps that protected the shelves of Library Island from just what they were trying to do. They left, somewhat humbled in Ranma's case. (Shanpu would accept death before she would admit humiliation, and vowed to have a rematch.)

Back at Mahora, Negi learned that Nodoka had shared her version of his secrets with Yue, who had in turn shared her version of his secrets with Nodoka, leaving them both more or less completely informed about what was going on. There was clearly only one thing he could do about this.

So he fucked them.

"Ah, Negi-sensei!" cried Nodoka as he pounded into her no-longer-maiden cleft, spread across Yuna's bunk as they were. "Sennnnnnseiiiiiii!" she shrieked as she reached orgasm and he unleashed into her.

"This isn't happening," Yue said, quite calmly, as she watched Nodoka having sex while Yuna, sitting behind the scholarly baka, played with the smaller girl's tiny teats on the floor below. Yue was certain that this all had to be a strange dream brought on by her delayed adolescence. She kept thinking that even when Negi creamed inside of her, a few minutes later, while Nodoka rode her face.

Yuna found herself obscurely grateful that Akira had been called off to yet another emergency swim team meeting. Negi, for his part, had noted the way that Akira was often nursing small injuries when she came home after these meetings, and found himself somewhat concerned about the situation. He resolved to investigate further when he had the opportunity to do so.

He was not able to so the next day, however, as he spent that day with Yuna, Akira, Asuna and Konoka at Ayaka's palatial dreamhouse, located in the sector of Academy City normally reserved for the homes of Three Star students at Honnoji. Somewhat weary from his exploits of the previous day, Negi missed Ayaka's not-really-all-that-subtle attempts to seduce him, with her holding back a little out of something like respect for the fact that he was the younger brother of a classmate. Asuna quietly did her part to distract Negi from such matters; she had no real hope that Negi and the class representative wouldn't end up going at it like rabbits, but she wanted to delay it as long as possible for reasons she didn't choose to examine too closely.

Over this period of time, Mai was busily working with many of the HiME, scattered all across Academy City. The only one she'd been unable to contact with Sister Yukariko, having been warned by this world's Sugiura Midori about the presence of the magic academy beneath the city's cathedral. She chose not to contact Fujino Shizuru, preferring to let Natsuki do it instead. For her part, Natsuki was hesitating to do just that. Midori and Mai were also trying to determine whether this world's Munakata Shiho, a student at a middle school in Nagano after her family's shrine had been abandoned, was still a HiME.

Ryuko, following her confrontation with a Junketsu-equipped Satsuki, found herself targetted by numerous clubs at Honnoji, as well as a sniper associated with the secret organization who was moving against the Elite Four, whose name, she was horrified to learn, was Nudist Beach. Resisting the impulse to pack it in then and there, Ryuko continued her struggle, aided always by Mako and P-chan - who wanted to move on, both to regain his honor and to confront Ranma Saotome, his nemesis, but found it impossible to sneak out of the Mankanshoku house due to his poor sense of direction.

When Mahora High School's new term at last began, Yuuki Riko endured the introduction to her class of Lala Satalin Deviluke, her self-proclaimed fiancee. Fortunately, after her introduction to Sairenji, she'd been able to get it through Lala's pink head that girls did not normally marry each other in Japan, and that it would not be a good idea to advertise their (in Riko's mind) imaginary relationship. She needn't have worried. Roughly half the class was terrified of this alien in their midst, while the other half believed that Suzumiya Haruhi was probably right in claiming that Lala was just a phony looking for attention. Sairenji, for her part, wasn't sure what she believed, as she was presently re-examining her own memories of her friendship with Riko in light of current events. And Risa and Mio were grinning as they decided that they had three classmates who had to be added to their collective.

A week passed.

And then everything changed.

---

Mahou Sensei Negima Alter:
Anything That Burns

Inspired by OverMaster's Anything That Moves

Chapter Seven: Evangeline

---

Sir." Shanna, who had been about to leave minutes ago, walked back into the Headmaster's office, looking a bit angry. "Turn on your TV. Something has happened."

The fact that she'd just used the term 'sir' was all the reason Konoemon needed to do exactly as she said.

---

Shinonome Nanami, dark haired, bespectacled Secretary of Academy City's Joint Student Council, left her meeting with Satsuki-sama and her inner circle fairly late that evening, taking her usual shortcut through the old, cold Cherry Lane. The skies were cloudly, but for once this week, it was not raining. Even so, she hurried down the wide pathway flanked by sakura trees, more out of fear of another rainstorm breaking out quickly again, rather than out of any concern for her personal safety. She knew no one, not here even in Mahora, was crazy enough to attack one of the members of the Student Council.

Her long smooth hair trailed behind her with her moderate sprint, and she kept her bag firmly pressed against herself, a custom acquired early in life.

At midway, she stopped, believing she had just heard something strange. It had sounded like huge wings flapping in the wind that grew stronger by the moment.

---

The lovely looking face framed by carefully combed pink locks smiled, its green eyes sparkling with refined contentment, all across the TV screens of the whole of Japan.

"I, Mina Tepes, am here to inform you, as is my right and duty as ruler of the vampire race, that I now claim ownership over this island off the coast of Honshu, as the capital of my species from this night until the ending of the world."

---

The strange noise subsided momentarily, but when Nanami started rushing down the path again, her pace was not only faster, but spurred by an added element.

Fear.

---

"But fear not," the tiny pink-haired girl in elegant black promised, with a hand on her flat chest. "Our species has learned well from past mistakes, which nearly led to our extinction. We mean you no harm. We come into the light, not to threaten you, but to extend offerings of peace. We are not here to conquer, but to coexist, in harmony and mutual respect."

---

The shadow passed right above Nanami's face, bearing the vague shape of a monstrous black bat. By that point, the girl's heart was beating madly, and her face was covered in sweat despite the chill of the night. She reached for her cellphone, but then the shadow landed right before her, and out of it, a long arm shot out. A strong hand with long fingernails painted black grabbed her wrist and twisted, making her scream and drop the phone.

---

"It has to be some sort of elaborate scam," Hakase Satomi said, for Chisame's benefit, as both sat before the TV of their shared room, sitting closer than ever before. "There's no way creatures such as vampires can possibly exist."

"Y-Yeah, it's surely just some kind of sick joke," Chisame agreed, taking mental notes on that magnificent black dress for her next cosplay session. One way or another, it was due to be all the rage immediately. "What kind of weird supernatural group would place a kid as their leader, anyway?"

---

The tall woman in skimpy black leather and a cape as long and dark as the night itself trapped Nanami between her arms.

"N-NO! HELP! PLEASE! STOP, I BEG OF YOU! HELP!"

"Heh heh heh. No one is coming to help you, not here, and certainly not now," the stranger said perversely, closing her mouth on Nanami's pale neck.

---

Akira, Yuna and Negi also watched in the temporary safety of their own room, flabbergasted.

"Um ... so there really is a pink-haired girl claiming to be a vampire on TV, right?" Yuna asked.

"Yes, that would seem to be the case," Akira agreed, nodding, as serene as ever.

Yuna gulped. Was this another one of the signs of the end of the times Negi had talked about?

Finally, she has made her move. Sooner than we expected, too, Negi grimly considered. And so, now I will have to act quickly... also, gosh, she's so cute!

---

Sharp fangs pierced through Nanami's skin, and then the painful sensation of being drained began, as the thick red elixir of life was strongly pulled out through twin holes that were too small. The girl shrieked powerlessly, and tears flooded her eyes, her whole body and mind assaulted by panic and despair.

At least, until she began feeling woozy and silent, which happened fairly soon, and yet it felt like it had taken an eternity.

The numbness and the darkness slowly pushed her down into a blissful, serene relief without dreams. So she couldn't hear the triumphant laugh of her attacker.

---

"To my dear children of the night, I command and compel you to join me here, on this island set aside for us as a bund, a land within a land, just for us," the tiny girl said. "Join me here ... and let us begin our pavane."

"What's a pavane?" Yuna asked dazedly.

"It's a kind of dance," Negi replied.

"A dance in the vampire bund," Akira softly said.

There was a vigorous knock on the door. "I'll get it," said Negi, half-expecting it to be one of the other girls looking for answers, half-expecting it to be Shanna come to summon him to a meeting with the Headmaster.

He blinked in surprise when he opened the door and found himself closer than he'd ever been before to the fiery aura surrounding Hino Rei. At this range, he could almost feel the heat. "Y-yes, Hino-san?" he asked.

"Sensei, there'll be an official notice on your desk in the morning," she said brusquely. "But I thought I should tell you in person. I won't be in class tomorrow."

"Oh," he said. "Ah ... it's physical measurement day."

Rei nodded sharply. "Please tell them to just use my numbers from last year, they will not have changed. I have to get going now, sensei."

"Very well then," Negi said. "... I won't say good hunting, but may I say, good luck?"

She hadn't really been looking at him, he realized then. She'd been sort of looking through him. Now he had her full and undivided attention, and he, who had conversed with mazoku and spirits and his mother, knew genuine fear for the first time in a very long while. "That's a very interesting thing to say, Negi-sensei," the Guardian told him. "We are going to have words about this, later. Good night."

And then she stopped looking at him, and he nearly sagged in relief as she turned and walked down the hallway, out of sight.

---

Early the next morning, a young woman who could never possibly be taken for a fourteen year-old girl (a seventeen year-old, on the other hand) stepped off a bullet train that had just arrived in Tokyo-3 and walked purposefully towards a hotel just outside the station. An elevator quickly took her to the correct floor, and she knocked on the correct door ... which opened to reveal a blonde in a bathrobe.

"First one here, too," said Aino Minako, genuinely surprised. "Considering the other two work out of here, that's sort of incredible, Rei-chan."

Hino Rei, for it was indeed she, opened her mouth to either reply or make some other comment.

"Not until the others are here, please," Minako interjected, as she pulled Rei into the room and shut the door behind them. "You only want to do one set of shouting, right?"

Rei closed her mouth, and stared with barely hidden fury at one of her best friends in the world. "Is she here?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"In the bathroom," Minako replied with a gesture towards the closed door.

"Good," Rei bit out, then marched over to look out through the room's picture window. "I hate this city," she added, almost conversationally.

Minako felt like pointing out that, in the last fifteen years of meetings, Rei had yet to make a positive comment about any place where they met, rendering her low opinion of Tokyo-3 somewhat redundant. But that would have led to discussions that she'd indicated were going to wait until the others arrived, so instead she shrugged off her bathrobe and began to pull on jeans and a sweater.

Moments later, another knock on the door. Mizuno Ami entered briskly once it was opened. "Okay, I've got two hours before my shift starts, so we need to make this quick," she said. "Rei-chan. Minako-chan. She's in the bathroom, right?"

Minako nodded. Rei didn't bother turning away from the window. Ami looked at Minako with a raised eyebrow, and Minako slowly shook her head.

"I can see you in the reflection, you know," said Rei.

Another knock. As Kino Makoto entered, she was part way through a yawn as big as she was tall.

"Just coming off shift, right?" Ami guessed.

Makoto nodded as she walked over to pick Ami up in a hug that took the much smaller woman off her feet. "I'd tell you about it, but it can wait for the report," she said, nuzzling a bit in Ami's hair.

"Put me down," said Ami.

"You're out of fashion."

Ami shook her head and hugged Makoto back.

There was a click from the bathroom door, and, radiant in white, the Moon Princess walked out to observe her Guardians, pink hair tied up in two cat's ear buns on either side of her head, their tails reaching to her ankles. She smiled at the sight of Ami and Makoto hugging each other, then turned to look at Rei looking out the window. "All right," said Usagi Small Lady Serenity. "Let's start with Ami's report, and go around that way."

Ami's feet were on the floor once more as she spoke. "I was able to get Academy City's superhero involved in the first Herald's arrival, by contacting Kirigiri Fuhito, whose granddaughter apparently has a line to them. I'm sure that it altered the outcome of the situation. Howver, I'm still stymied in penetrating Nerv's security to find out exactly why the Herald supposedly targeted them. The operation remains open. Rei-chan?"

Now Rei turned from the window, and looked calmly at her Princess. "Morimoto is clearly building to something, but I haven't been able to get any leads as to what. I think it's probably going to be aimed at Negi Springfield ... whom I should note somehow knows more than he should about me."

"In what way?" pressed the Princess.

"In that he offered me wishes of 'good hunting' when I talked to him right after -" She broke off, as her voice had been rising. "Ahem. When I talked to him. I don't know how he could know about us. The Kiryuuin girl has started wearing a power suit, for the first time, mostly to fight the other girl in the power suit. I'd ask whether I should approach Girl B, but we have other problems, right? Over to you, Makoto."

"Okay. First thing - I spent the night going over the site of a rally for a new cult that calls themselves the Light of the Divine. We're - Tokken is not exactly clear on their doctrine, but there was definitely some occult nastiness involved in the organization of this thing. It may be more your department than mine, though," she added to Ami.

"Haven't heard of them, yet. I'll keep an ear open," Ami said, frowning.

"Right. Onto the bigger problem. The 'Kitami' entity has been a lot more active recently. It doesn't seem to be pressing against the limits of the Geas I put on Imari, so there hasn't been any serious problems, but that thing makes me seriously nervous. I'm gonna suggest exorcism, again."

"And again, I'm going to hold off on that," said the Princess. "We're not yet at the point where I'm comfortable just purifying people who haven't actually done anything dangerous in their current incarnation." She glanced at Rei. "Well, since Rei is going to explode if we don't get to it soon -"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Rei promptly shouted at Minako. "I thought you might mess up from time to time, but I never dreamed you'd overlook vampires cutting a deal with the government you're supposed to be watching. It's bad enough we have to tolerate a bloody-handed mass murderer who's in league with the shinigami in the Prime Minister's chair, but vampires?"

"There were various circumstances -" Minako began to calmly explain.

"Circumstances where allowing a nation of life-destroying monsters inside Japan was the lesser of some other evil?" Rei interrupted, aghast. "What was the worse one? Is Rl'yeh rising? Are we facing another alien invasion this month? Has Sailor Galaxia gone all evil again?"

"That's not funny, Rei-chan," said the Princess, reprovingly.

"I'm not the funny one, that's her!" Rei snapped, pointing at Minako. "What were you thinking?"

"Mostly I was thinking that I do what our Princess tells me to do," Minako said, just as calmly as she'd spoken about various circumstances.

Rei stared. "What? What does that even -" And then she broke off, and stared at the Princess.

"I met with Princess Mina four months ago, and we reached ... an understanding," said said Princess.

"No," said Rei.

"We discussed a number of conditions which would make this situation workable for both sides," she continued, without appearing to notice Rei's objection.

"You reached an understanding with a bunch of monsters." Rei's voice was right on the edge of a shout, and her hands were clenched at her sides.

"Rei-chan, once the artificial blood product was developed, the vampire community as a whole moved from the category of supernatural predators to the category of people with an odd medical problem," the Princess said with great patience. "Were you aware that there's an entire subculture of vampires who pull out their own fangs to prevent themselves from preying on humans?"

"Really?" asked Ami, quite startled. "I would have assumed that their regenerative properties would just restore the tooth if it was removed."

"Either it doesn't, or there's more to the treatment than simple dentistry," said the Princess. "In any event, the idea is that the vampires will stay on their island. No humans will visit it without the express invitation of Princess Mina, making them her guests and thus sacrosanct. No vampires will leave it without becoming outcasts ... who can be dealt with by Japan's supernatural protectors."

"I.e. us," said Makoto, with a somewhat savage grin.

"Among others," Minako reminded her.

"Does this relieve your concerns, Rei-chan?" the Princess asked.

"No, of course not," the Guardian of Flame snapped. "I can't believe you're asking me to just accept this!"

And the Princess of the Moon stared at her for a moment, before quietly saying, "Where did you get the idea that I was asking you?"

Rei's knees became unsteady, and she pushed back against the window pane to hold herself upright. "Hah," she eventually said, very quietly. "You've spent the last fifteen years waiting for an excuse to say that to me, haven't you?"

"No," said Usagi Small Lady Serenity, just as quietly. "I've spent the last fifteen years praying that you would never give me cause. But you did, Rei-chan." Then more loudly. "I didn't ask for any of this. You, all of you, installed me as your new Princess because you couldn't imagine living without one. Well, then, your chosen ruler is going to act in what she considers the best interests of her dominion, whether you like it or not."

"Usagi-chan -" Minako started to say.

"No," interrupted the small girl in the perfect white dress. "Never call me that. That was my mother. I'm not her."

She took a deep breath, then spoke quickly yet firmly. "Ami-chan, please arrange it so that you give Kurumi a check-up in your 'Doctor Mizuko' identity, and inspect Mako-chan's working. If you confirm her suspicions, I'll reconsider purifying her. Minako, ready Operation Other Shoe." She blinked, and a starry field appeared on the ground beneath her feet. "I'm withdrawing to the Palace. Until next time ... my friends." And with that, she dropped into the field, vanishing from sight.

Makoto glanced at Rei, who was still barely standing, and then deliberately turned to look at Ami instead. "Breakfast?" she asked.

"I'm starving," Ami admitted, and the two quickly headed out of the hotel room.

"She could have said no, you know," Minako observed a moment later from the bed where she was sitting. "Whether you were asking or not, she could have just said no."

"And done what, gone forward in time to a world that no longer exists?" Rei asked, bitterly. "No. We gave her no options, and now we're paying for it." She shook her head. "The whole world may be - what's Operation Other Shoe?" she asked abruptly."

"The other shoe that's going to drop after Princess Mina's announcement, in about thirty-six hours from now," Minako answered. "I think you'll find it somewhat diverting."

"Oh, wonderful."

---

Later that same morning, towards the start of the school day, the girls of the newly promoted Class 3-A were reduced to their underwear. Much to his chagrin, Negi was not with them at the time. He instead stood outside of the nurse's office where they were being examined in their health checkups for the start of the new school term. And he knew better than to try and peek.

"So, what do you think about last night's announcement? The one with the vampire girl?" asked Asuna as the blond, blue-eyed nurse's assistant Shiraki Rika carefully took her measurements, with cold and silent efficiency.

"What's there to think about it?" asked Misa, standing slightly behind as the next in line. "It's obviously some sort of publicity stunt."

"Yeah, maybe they're going to set some sort of amusement park at that Bund island," agreed her partner in cheerleading Kugimiya Madoka. "I think I'll be going as soon as they open it for the public. Sounds like a wicked cool place."

"Eeeehhh!? Aren't you afraid in the slightest that it might be true?" whined Makie. Given how she'd gained awareness of the world of magic under rather dangerous circumstances, she'd grown just the tiniest bit timid when it came to the non-Negi supernatural.

"Nah, what kind of dangerous vampire queen would be a cute lolita who shows up on TV giving press conferences? I mean, seriously." Misa shook her head, stepping ahead and lifting her arms now that it was her turn. "Besides, it that crap was real, don't you think someone would have figured it out and publicized it a long time ago?"

"Perhaps someone tried to do that exact thing, and it was suppressed," the adult commented, calmly taking measures of Misa's decent bustline. "The truth can die frighteningly easily, while lies are much harder to kill."

"Sensei?" Shiina Sakurako gasped. "Don't tell us you believe in the supernatural!"

"Yes, actually. I've seen enough to convince that there's more to the world than meets the eye," Shiraki nodded, now listening to Misa's heart rate. "I've seen ... terrible things."

"Such as?" asked Haruna in a suspicious tone, with her arms folded. If mages and sex-changing lagoons and golems all existed, the existence of vampires was not such a huge logical leap. But Shiraki's name hadn't been on the list of people who were in on the secret of magic that Sakura, after some convincing, had provided to the rest of the collective, so Haruna found her supposed knowledge to be a bit concerning.

"Maybe I'll tell you about them, someday." The blonde smiled, in a rather chilly sort of way. "Patience is a virtue even the mightiest have to possess, if they would be wise."

"In that case, Haruna is clearly doomed," commented Yue.

"Who can say?" asked Shiraki with a shrug as she moved on to Madoka's measurements.

Okay, Haruna was sure of it now; there were some seriously, seriously bad vibes coming from this nurse. She'd have to tell Negi about it as soon as possible.

Standing right outside, in the otherwise empty hall, Negi rubbed his nose. The images from last night just wouldn't leave his mind no matter what. These developments could be a boon or a bane for his own plans – and even more so for his students' safety. Exactly how much did Mina Tepes know? Was she gathering her forces at a single place to better survive the coming challenges? If so, should he oppose her, or throw in with her? Was he even ready to take either option?

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a hand descend on his shoulder. Startled, he turned to see who it was, and looked up into the face of a red-haired, green-eyed woman in a blue jacket over a low-cut red blouse. Her face was clearly more suited to smiles than the frown she was currently wearing. "You're Negi-sensei, right?" she asked quickly. "I need your help?"

"Well, I'm always happy to help a student, but who -" he started to ask.

Her frown sublimed into the biggest grin and she crushed him against her chest. "He called me a student!" she announced blissfully. "I mean I'm just seventeen, of course, but yay!"

Now, normally Negi would have just taken advantage of this, but he was somewhat perplexed at the moment, so he only enjoyed being pressed to the girl's impressive breasts rather than copping a feel. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Sugiura Midori, recently installed homeroom teacher at Mahora Integrated, very, very pleased to make your acquaintance," she explained.

"You're a teacher?" Negi asked. "Really?"

"Okay, thinking I'm a student was initially cute, but doubting my word is much less," she informed him. "And, like I said, I need your help. Well, Yohko-chan needs someone's help, and you're the person I found to give it to her."

Negi decided to ignore that probably unintentional double-entendre. "What's the matter, what does Sagisawa-sensei need?"

"Well, short version is that there's been an attack on one of the students -" Midori started to explain.

The doors of the office were tossed open, and out stepped Asuna, Yuna, Haruna, Asakura and Ayaka, all still in their undergarments, with the rest of the disrobed class 3-A shortly behind them. "What was that?" they chorused.

"Yeeeee," said Negi, grinning broadly despite his best efforts.

Standing at the very back of the group with Yuuki Karin at her side, Evangeline McDowell watched all this with cold, unblinking eyes.

---

"The somewhat longer version," said Midori as she walked briskly with Negi down the hallway, "is that the student who was attacked is the Secretary of the Joint Student Council, and the President's goons are stopping Yohko-chan from getting in to examine her. She sent me to go find someone who could make them back down, and you were the only one who was here." Midori bit down on her lower lip. "Maybe I should have ranged further -"

"I don't blame you for thinking that, but I have certain advantages when it comes to dealing with students from Honnoji," he told her.

"Yeah? Like what?"

He smiled coldly. "I was raised to view people like them as pikers."

Midori almost missed a step when he said that, but a moment later they were in the medical bay, quietly greeting Chief Nurse Sagisawa Yohko, and turning to regard a room that was being guarded by a young man Negi had seen at a fairly close distance not too long ago, though Sanagaeyama was now wearing a green bandanna with eye marks over his actual eyes. After a moment of consideration, Negi started walking towards the blocked doorway, beckoning for Sagisawa to follow him. She and Midori exchanged a look, and then did so.

"Like I told the nurse," Sanagaeyama announced as Negi approached within a certain radius, "nobody gets in -"

"Let me just stop you right there," Negi interrupted.

Sanagaeyama frowned. "Where do I know that voice from?" he muttered to himself.

The Helmet disguises my voice, he can't possibly recognize it, Negi told himself. "The President of the Student Council employs you, and, owing to Academy City's regulations, you have a great deal of authority here, almost as much as you have in Honnoji," he continued. "But you are still a student ... and I am still a teacher. The teachers at Honnoji might be inclined to let you people do whatever you like, but my job, unlike theirs, is not dependent on the goodwill of Kiryuuin Satsuki. So. I'm going to ask you to step aside so that I, and these two members of the faculty, can enter this room. Now."

Sanagaeyama leaned down so that his masked face was right in front of Negi's eyes. "And what are you going to do if I say 'no', little man?" he asked.

"I really hope it won't come to that," Negi answered. He thought that sounded much more impressive than 'go and get the Headmaster, a few more magic teachers, and possibly Shanna.'

Abruptly, a savage looking smile crossed Sanagaeyama's face. "Go right in," he said, standing up and stepping to the side.

Negi blinked in confusion at the way things had worked out, but pressed on to slide the door open and walk into the dimly lit room with Midori and Yohko on his heels. And just as abruptly, all confusion was banished when he saw, sitting in a chair, facing away from him, a tall figure with long, straight black hair, who was resting a hand on the hand of the similar looking young woman in the bed before her.

She must've said to let us in, and Sanaegayama heard her and - Negi broke off this line of thought, and spoke up. "President Kiryuuin. I would appreciate it if you would allow Nurse Sagisawa to do her job. And let me assure you, as a member of the faculty, that we will do everything in our power to identify and deal with those responsible for the attack on the Secretary."

The hand on Shinonome's hand was withdrawn. And a quiet voice that somehow filled the room replied, "No."

"Uhhh ..." said Negi, who had much less of a plan for dealing with this particular no.

She had still not turned around to look at them, nor moved from where she sat. "That is to say that no, I will not stop your nurse from doing her job. However, no, I will not be assured by your words. And that, no, you will not do everything in your power. It is much, much more likely that you will hem, and haw, and conduct auguries to gods who, if they existed as anything other than the stories told by long-dead grifters, are surely dead themselves, and that nothing will be done." Now she stood up, but still did not turn. "And that once more, it falls to Kiryuuin Satsuki to do what must be done to defend and avenge one of the handful of the idiot pigs of these schools who has demonstrated some small signs of ability during her term under my watch. You may rest assured of that."

"Ghk," said Negi, Midori, and even Yohko, more or less in chorus.

No. I can't let her have the last word, Negi thought. "I am sorry that you have such a poor opinion of my colleagues, but I can offer you my personal assurance that I won't allow 'nothing' to be done," he managed to say.

And now she turned around, and he was genuinely surprised. He'd thought that someone as intimidating as this young woman would have to have some facial feature that made her stand out as unattractive. But no, there was nothing. She was rather lovely, actually. And, ultimately, much less terrifying than having the direct attention of a wizard.

Or perhaps she was holding back, for she regarded him in silence for a moment, before speaking. "Perhaps you can do something of worth."

"I will certainly -"

"Inform Evangeline McDowell that she is no longer welcome in my Academy City." And with that, the President turned and walked out of the room without another glance at any of them.

Midori shuddered. "Well ... that's not terrifying."

"That's a good word for it," Yohko agreed, as she assumed a cold efficiency as she took the chair beside the girl's bed, checking on her pulse and other life signs. After humming analytically to herself, she pulled off the bandages around the victim's neck and exposed the twin small marks on her skin. "Well," she said. "This doesn't look good, now does it?"

Negi sighed. "Just as I feared. At the worst possible moment, too. If this isn't an isolated incident, and the truth about this gets out, the students might even riot -"

"Yeah," Midori agreed, nodding grimly. "Especially with the new student joining the Girl's Middle School."

Negi looked at her. "What was that, Sugiura-sensei?"

"Midori-chan, please. And the Old Man didn't tell you?

Negi's brain began blaring signals of alarm. "No. No, he hasn't told me anything. What's going on?"

---

The tiny pink-haired girl in the long black dress quietly wrote her name in both delicate Roman cursive and blocky kanji on the black board. Mina Tepes, it read one way, Mina Tepeshi, in another. And then she turned, and smiled, so that her tiny fangs showed. "Good morning, everyone."

Classroom 3-A regarded her in utter silence. Even Zazie, while not exactly open-mouthed, was expressing some emotion, in the form of a stop to her usual ball juggling and a quiet, long, fixed stare. Zazie. Evangeline's mouth twitched slightly at one of its corners. Chisame's expression displayed a confusing mixture of dread, annoyance and disgust. Yue's eyes had become two tiny black dots. The always empty first seat at the front of the class seemed to shift slightly, as if trembling, but everyone was too distracted to notice or care.

Kakizaki of all people was the first one to react, lifting a quaking finger and slowly pointing it at the newcomer. "Y-y-you are really that one ... the Mina Tepes on TV last night?"

"Yes, and I do hope that you were watching television in a well-lit room and from a comfortable distance," said the vampire princess.

"Here in our class?" Misa asked again.

"Of course not; in your respective dormitories." She laughed lightly then, sounding a bit like a bell. "My apologies, I often find it hard to resist the urge to make jokes. Yes, I will be in your classroom for the duration of this term at the very least! I look forward to a very enriching learning experience with each and every one of you!"

There was once again a blunt, general silence.

"I have a question, if you don't mind." The silence had been broken by, of all people, Yotsuba Satsuki, who'd been regarding the transfer student with at best mild curiosity all this while.

"Of course I don't. Ask away," Mina-sama allowed, with a smile.

"I never would have expected someone in your position to spend any of your time pursuing a position as a student amongst us," Satsuki stated. "As a matter of fact, I never would expect for a powerful vampire to spend any time at this academy unless they were forced against their will to do so." There came a snapping noise from the back row of the class, and Evangeline dropped the pieces of a pencil on her desk. Satsuki continued without looking back. "So, may I ask if you have been placed here against your will? Because that is a terrible thing to do to someone." Negi coughed uncomfortably.

"Tell that to my father," Chisame muttered.

Mina-sama smiled again. "No, I have entered here freely and of my own will. As a matter of fact, some of my advisors spoke against it, but I sincerely believe that it was necessary. For various reasons, I have never been able to engage in any formal education. As well, this is an opportunity to better show the human race that my people are willing to coexist peacefully. So please, try to forget all this nonsense about my royalty, and just think of me as another student. Call me Mina-san. Or Mina-chan if you feel particularly warm towards me?"

More extremely awkward, and even terrified, silence, ensued, broken only by Fuuka and Fumika's panicked sobs as they clinged to each other.

"It's so moving to see people made so happy by my presence," Mina said, bashfully.

Makie raised a hand. "I have another question!"

"I'll be pleased to answer the question of such a charming and lovely young lady," said Mina-san.

"Awww! She thinks I'm cute! Ahem! Serious face, serious face. Are you related to Eva-chan?" she asked, pointing at said classmate, whose exasperated expression only grew even more tense. "Because you look so alike!"

Mina-san looked over at Eva, changed from a smile to a little smug smirk, and then laughed softly. "Oh, do you think so? I don't see any resemblance at all, cute as she is!"

"I'm not cute," Evangeline mumbled dangerously under her breath.

"Regardless, no, regrettably, the whole of my family died long ago," Mina-san informed them, growing more serious.

"Uh ... qu-qu-question?" asked Misora, raising a hand. "Are you going to be living here on campus? With us? And so many other people? Whose immortal souls are in danger?"

"Regrettably, no," said the princess, clearly ignoring that last bit. "My treaty with your government requires me to be housed on our island, so I will be returning there at the end of each school day." She paused, and seemed to think. "But now that I say that, I suppose that it might actually be a good idea to have somewhere I can reside if weather or other circumstances prevent me from doing so. I wonder if there are any cabins to be purchased."

"No. There are not," Evangeline growled.

"Aw, well, you'll forgive me if I check the real estate section of the Mahora Sport rather than taking your word for it," said Mina-chan, very gently.

"Um." A certain pineapple-haired redhead swallowed hard, extending a microphone ahead. "Asakura Kazumi, ma'am, of the school newspaper. Pleased to meet you, I hope you won't mind granting us an exclusive interview, quite probably the most important one we'll ever publish."

"I'd love to," Mina-san said.

Kazumi squealed in ecstatic glee inside. Whether this whole thing was a fraud or not, they had just been handed a gigantic scoop. Thanks a million, Lady Fortune! "Oh, um, thanks a lot! Ohhhh ... forgive me if you think I'm starting with the wrong foot, but I think it's necessary question ... are you an actual, ah, vampire?"

She nodded. "I am indeed of that ancient and noble race."

"Um." Kazumi looked out the window to reveal that, yes, the sun was shining in the red sky. "But it's day."

"So it is!" Mina said, gasping in fright. "I should really hurry to my coffin!"

"Uhhhh."

And Mina laughed. "A joke, of course! I do not sleep in a coffin. And the sun, and measures to protect myself from the sun, do limit certain of my abilities, but I am in no danger." She looked at Evangeline. "Nooooo danger at all," she repeated.

Kazumi gulped. "Okay. Ahhh, I don't mean to offend with this either, but our readers would surely want to read about your age."

There was another delicate laugh from her. "Oh, I'm so very sorry, but a lady never talks about that, Asakura-san! I sincerely hope you understand."

So far so good, a nervous Negi thought. No one has killed anyone yet, maybe we can make it through this, maybe we actually can.

"I will say that I'm much younger than certain people who have accomplished much less with their lives," Mina-chan added.

We're all dead.

And then Kazumi asked that question.

"Of course, we are, ah, all honored to have you here, but exactly why have you chosen this particular class in this particular school? I assume one as important and powerful as you wouldn't have left it to chance."

"Very perceptive," Mina said, nodding and becoming very serious. "Indeed, that was a calculated decision. Mahora, as the oldest of Academy City's schools, gifted with so much prestige and tradition, was always my most logical and treasured choice, of course. As for my selection of this class specifically... it has everything to do with one of you. One who is fated for great things from birth. One who is destined to be my loyal servant!"

Twenty-seven bodies and one spectral form, for one reason or another, backed away on their seats with varying degrees of alarm, from the nearly inexistent to the overwhelming. As for Negi, he just repressed the ice-cold chill running up his spine lest it make him squirm and yelp in an extremely awkward manner. It was not an easy task at all.

Then Mina-san smiled angelically and chirped, "That, of course, was another joke!"

"Ah-ha, ha ha, haaaa," Negi feigned a laugh. "Well, what with one thing and another, I don't think we're going to get much English practice done today, so, for the remainder of the period, it's free study. Ahem. But if I could please speak to McDowell-san in the hallway, right now."

The tiny blonde regarded him with obvious annoyance, but nonetheless stood up and turned towards the room's back door. Karin started to stand up so as to accompany her. A gesture from Evangeline had the taller girl sitting back down with an unhappy look on her face, which grew even more unhappy when Mina-san slid into the desk that Hino Rei usually occupied, right across the aisle from Karin.

There wasn't time to worry about that, though, and Negi headed out into the hallway through the room's front door. Standing in the hallway, he stared at Evangeline, who met his stare evenly. They began walking towards each other, meeting in the middle of the classroom's wall.

"Yes, dear teacher?" the Queen of Puppets said, the first words she'd ever spoken to him. The sarcasm of her tone dripped from her words.

Negi chanted his verses and then quietly cast a spell that created a cone of silence around the two of them.

"What is this?" she asked, feigning bewilderment. "Can it be that you are a worker of magic, and that magic is indeed real?" Feigning bewilderment poorly.

"Don't," Negi said sharply.

Now she was glaring at him. It seemed to be his day to get glared at by powerful women. "Don't do what?" Evangeline replied just as sharply.

"First and foremost, don't provoke an international incident by taking whatever revenge you plan on taking against Princess Mina," he told her. "The consequences of that action could be beyond anything we can imagine, and -"

Now she laughed, and her laughter was not like a bell at all. It was like a comb of razor blades being run down someone's back. "Oh," she said when her laughter was spent. "Oh, you must have a very low opinion of me, dear teacher, if you think that I'd take some sort of hideous vengeance for the petty words of an inbred aristocrat raised up by other inbred aristocrats as some sort of figurehead royalty for them to scheme over. She can say whatever she likes; I give not a single whoopy-doo."

"All right, then," Negi said, choosing to focus on the positive aspects of that declaration. "Then just treat her with the same polite indifference you exhibit towards the rest of your classmates, and everything will be fine on that score. Unfortunately, there are other scores to be considered. I've been asked to give you a message by Kiryuuin Satsuki."

"Then you should do so," she said in a rather haughty manner, covering her mouth with a hand as she yawned.

"She said that you were no longer welcome in Academy City. Well, she said her Academy City, but I didn't see any reason to indulge her megalomania more than I absolutely must."

She said nothing for a moment, and, for that moment, Negi thought he might have actually impressed her. Then she laughed again, for an even longer interval. "And she asked you to tell me this. Oh, the bitter, bitter irony. I wonder if she realizes how ironic that is. She might, actually. She's come a long way since she was a kindergarten student here at Mahora." Amazingly, Evangeline sounded almost fond when she spoke just then.

Controlling his shock at that, Negi pressed on. "I think you should consider -"

"Consider what?" Evangeline sneered. "Lying low, somewhere out of town? Do you know what will happen to me, dear teacher, if I try to leave Academy City. If I am even pushed or carried across the city's limits?"

He opened his mouth to answer.

"Trick question!" she snapped. "Nothing will happen to me. But it is physically impossible for me to leave the region, no matter how much I'd have liked to do so, or how much someone else would want me to do so. It's like an invisible wall of Jericho. So much for that clever plan. Have you any other suggestions?"

"For the record, I was aware of that aspect of your curse," said Negi. "So, no, I was not going to suggest that you try to leave for a time until the President calms down and forgets about you. I was going to suggest that you apologize."

She stared at him for what felt like a very long time. "Indeed," she said at last, very quietly. "That is a thought I had not thought. Let me consider the notion. Hm. No." The sheer volume of her refusal made Negi very glad that he'd cast the silencing spell at the start of all this. "And I'm done calling you 'dear teacher', by the way. I think a more appropriate title is in order. Perhaps 'boy'. Yesss, I think I shall call you 'boy' from now on, boy. Congratulations, I was wondering how long it would take you to make me stop pretending to be a student like any other student."

"This is serious!" Negi yelled at her. "Do you not understand the implications of her saying that? It's fairly obvious that she's going to order you killed!"

"Better men and women have tried, and so have many worse," Evangeline replied, with sublime indifference. "I am still here. Now if you'll excuse me, boy, I should probably go prepare my home to receive visitors. I'll be taking Karin with me, if that's all right with you. Or if it's not all right with you." She turned to walk away from him.

"Why?" he asked suddenly. "Why did you do it? Why drag an innocent like Shinonome-san into your fight with me?"

"My fight," she said, without looking back at him, "with you."

"Yes! That's the only way that I can make sense of all this. You must have attacked her as a warm up from when you go after me, to drain my blood and end the curse. But why -"

"You know," Evangeline said, "your father, whom I hate, at least never operated under the delusion that it was all about him." And with those words, she walked out of the cone of silence, opened the door to the classroom, declared, "Karin, we're leaving," and then walked away down the hallway, followed by Karin in complete silence.

---

There had to be some way to stop this, or at least slow it down. So Negi believed when his steps took him to the Headmaster's office that morning, and from there to the Headmaster's residence, accompanied by Shanna, who recognized that now was not the time for amorous hijinx. After arriving and exchanging greetings, he gave Konoemon a complete report of everything that had happened, from his encounter with Kiryuuin all the way to the 'conversation' with Evangeline.

(Conspicuous by its absence was any complaint about the way the Headmaster had assigned him to the class that they both knew contained his family nemesis. The recriminations wouldn't have done either of them any good, and the situation would not really have changed that much if Evangeline had been a student elsewhere at Mahora Girls. So Negi saved any such complaint for the letter he was going to send to his mother when all of this was over. It would be a rather lengthy one.)

And when he'd finished briefing the leader of Mahora Academy and the Mahora Mage Order, he awaited his commander's orders.

"Thank you, Negi-kun," Konoemon said. "I will take it from here."

No hints of what strategies were going to be pursued. No acknowledgment that the situation was extremely dire. Not even a specific congratulation for standing up to a bully from Honnoji. Just a generic thanks, and a not all that subtle reminder that Negi was still at the bottom of Mahora's faculty hierarchy.

He accepted it all, with a polite bow, and exited the residence alone, as Shanna was remaining to listen to the Headmaster's instructions. (Any unhappiness with his dismissal was saved for that letter. It was going to be an extremely lengthy one.)

The Old Man, Midori had called him. There was respect in her tone when she said it, but not reverence. Perhaps he should adopt an attitude more in line with Midori's viewpoint than the one he'd always taken towards his teachers. After all, Konoemon wasn't technically his teacher, but his employer. Negi had never had an employer before this, and he was still learning how to deal with someone in that position.

Of course that meant that Konoemon actually was one of his teachers. He almost missed a step as he considered this, and found himself very uncomfortable all the way over to Mahora Integrated. Well, at least whatever else might transpire, he could count on Haruhi to disbelieve it.

---

"You seriously thought that was a vampire?" the dictator of the SOS Brigade declared once Kyonko brought up the subject early in the meeting. "This is why you are just Kyonko, Kyonko."

"I'm Kyonko because you refuse to let anyone use my real name," said Kyonko.

They were seated around the table, with Haruhi seated at the head, behind a newly-acquired computer. (Negi wondered where that had come from, and suspected that he wouldn't really like the answer.) On one side, Kyonko, Mitsuru, and Mai; on the other, Itsuhime and Yuki. Negi himself was seated in the corner of the room, ostensibly so that he could observe everything without actually being a part of it. He'd begun to suspect that this was a tactic to get him to leave the Brigade to its own devices almost immediately.

"I'm not saying that there are no such things as vampires," Haruhi continued, paying Kyonko no more mind than she ever did. She spread her hands and smiled, looking oddly like Giorgios A. Tsukalos as she did. "But if they do exist, they sure wouldn't look like that. They'd have evolved to drink blood, and everything about them would be directed towards that end, instead of looking like a bunch of really pale European people. No, more specifically, they look just like vampires do in the movies. What's next? Werewolves? Lamia, perhaps? Harpies? Sexy centaurs? Cute li'l slimes? Mermaids who really wear shell bikinis? It's all ridiculous."

"What if they had some sort of power, though?" asked Mai. "A power to make themselves look like a bunch of pale European people, instead of what they actually look like."

Negi sat up a little straighter. The last meeting he'd attended, Tokiha Mai had stayed seated quietly, not volunteering anything and, since Haruhi did her best to pretend that Mai wasn't there, not answering any questions anyone else asked.

"Well that would be very convenient, wouldn't it?" Haruhi asked, dripping sarcasm from every word.

"It doesn't matter if it would be convenient or not," Mai said, not backing down. "You just said that they'd evolve to drink blood, and it's easier to drink someone's blood if you look like an ordinary person instead of ... whatever weird thing you're imagining," she concluded.

"But they don't like an ordinary person, they look like a bunch of pale Europeans!" Haruhi replied, clearly intending this to be checkmate.

Mai stared at her club's leader, and slowly turned to look at Negi in a way that suggested that she blamed him for this. He flinched a bit under her regard, for some reason. Did she actually have some strange powers that weren't apparent, since she was glaring at him like powerful women were doing all day today?

Regardless, Mai shook her head and turned back to Haruhi. "Anyway, Brigadier, I have had an idea of somewhere that we could go to search for strange phenomena that seems likely to be hiding some, and wish to propose it as the destination for an expedition."

"Very cheeky for the most recently installed member of the Brigade," said Haruhi in a disapproving tone. Then, abruptly, she became magnamious. "However, let's hear your idea all the same."

"It's pretty basic. I think we should investigate that big church."

Now Negi really sat up and took interest.

Haruhi hummed. "Look for hints of enlightenment among the dying embers of a religion, eh?" she speculated. "An interesting notion. What do you think about it, sensei?" she asked, abruptly turning to look at Negi.

"I can't say that I think it's a good idea, Haruhi-san," he said, choosing his words very carefully. "It's important to remember that even if the cathedral doesn't get a lot of visitors, it's a place where people do actually work, every bit as much as they do in a hospital, or a firehouse, or - well - a school. I suppose that they'd be willing to give you a guided tour, but from what I understand, your expeditions are a bit more free-roaming than that."

Now the dictator nodded. "Yes, that's how we do things. I should really remember to invite you on one of them, Negi-sensei," she added, in a way that subtly suggested that hell would freeze over before she did so. Before he could respond, though, she turned to look back at Mai. "Rejected," she said shortly. "I've already come up with a location for our next expedition, and I was going to announce it before Mai-chan interrupted."

Negi noted that Mai didn't look terribly surprised or disappointed by this response. If anything, she looked ... satisfied, in a way.

It was Itsuhime who spoke up. "How very mysterious, Suzumiya-san. Whither are we bound this weekend?"

Haruhi grinned broadly. "Why, the Tatsumiya Shine and environs, of course! Where better to find distinctively Japanese strangeness!"

---

Are you sure that you are up to this?" Juri asked Miki, regarding him with concern and uncertainty.

"I already told you that I was," the blue-haired man replied. "The doctor said that I was fine, didn't he?"

It was late afternoon, and the two of them were waiting just outside Otori's main gate, watching the students passing by on their way too and from their clubs. It occurred to Juri, gazing at the student uniforms, that although she and Miki no longer wore the outfits of their own school days, twenty years ago, they both still favored the colors they'd come in - her slacks were the same shade of orange, and he wore a jacket and shoes of a blue that almost matched his hair. It was more evidence to support a suspicion that she'd been growing over the last week.

"Well, didn't he?" Miki pressed, sounding just the tiniest bit desperate.

"Yes, that's what Mitsuru-san told me that the doctor said," she admitted. "But this could be a very tense conversation, and if you have to bow out -"

"That will not happen."

Juri wanted to say something more, even if it was only the sort of vague warning she'd used to give so frequently, but there was no time for that. Approaching the gates was a long beige limousine that slowed to a stop near them. The driver exited the car, walked around it, and opened the passenger door on their side.

Out stepped a blonde woman in a very elaborate yellow dress, carrying a parasol, of all things. Her purple eyes found them, and she approached them at a calm pace. "Arisugawa-san. Kaoru-san," said Nanami. "You both look well."

"Nanami," said Juri by way of greeting. (She'd noted the color of the other woman's dress and added it to her list of suspicions.)

"Tenjoin-san," added Miki.

"Now, he's polite," Nanami said, gesturing in Miki's general direction. "I don't often look back on those days, but from when I do, I'm fairly sure that you usually managed to be more polite than this, Juri. What happened to you?" she asked rhetorically.

"I saw something impossible," replied Juri. "It's somewhat thrown me off my step. Have you seen your brother recently?"

"Ah," Nanami said. She nodded in understanding - or perhaps something else, given what she said next. "Yes, practically every time that I dream. It's very annoying, the way he keeps insisting that he's not dead, when I know perfectly well that he is very definitely dead. We were one of the few who were able to recover a body from the unfortunate events of fifteen years past." Her tone stayed calm throughout.

"Oh," said Juri. "I ... didn't know."

"Of course, that's not quite the same thing as what you recently experienced, is it?" the other girl asked. "Either of you."

"Not unless we've been having dreams while still very much awake," Miki answered tightly.

"You can't help us, can you," Juri said, lowering her eyes. "I thought you would still ... after I saw your dress, I thought ... but no, you've gotten away, haven't you?"

Nanami regarded her in silence for a moment, before speaking. "Again, I don't engage in much reminiscence ... but I'm completely certain you used to be much smarter than that. No one gets away, Juri. Even if we leave for a while, we always coming back. Why else am I on the board of directors, here, and why else do I send my daughter here? This place is exactly what you think it is."

Miki's momentary anger was gone, and he looked between the two women with complete confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Where do you and Mitsuru live, Miki?" Juri asked without looking at him.

"Oh, heavens, they're still together?" asked Nanami.

"At the teacher's residence, why?" he asked.

"So in elementary school, middle school, high school, university and your professional life, you've always lived here in Otori," Juri summarized. "And you don't even see anything wrong with that. Do you?"

"It's just worked out that way," Miki insisted. "I ... I mean, I've left here, plenty of times, for concerts, and -"

"- you always came back," she finished.

"What?" he asked dazedly.

There was no time to comfort or console him, either. Juri turned back to Nanami. "Who rules this place? Who makes it like this? Your brother knew, didn't he? And it's passed to you, hasn't it?"

Nanami gave a golf clap.

Ignoring how infuriating that was, Juri pressed on. "I want -"

"Twenty years ago, you gave me some good advice, Juri," Nanami interrupted. "I didn't appreciate it until I was a little older and wiser. So I'm going to repay you with some good advice that you, who are already older and wiser than I am, should appreciate immediately.

"Drop this," she said flatly. "Forget about all of it. Dismiss it as a waking dream. Say, 'things like this just happen'. Whatever you have to do, just do it. You will be much happier if you follow this course of action than the one you're about to take. I speak as one who knows."

"No," said Juri. "I want to talk to the man in charge."

Nanami let out a sigh. "Of course you do," she muttered. "I've already set up the meeting. Midnight tonight. Just you, though. Not Miki-kun, here."

"Why not me?" Miki demanded, angry once more.

Nanami shrugged. "Ask your friend here, if and when she comes out again." She turned to leave, then.

"Wait, where am I supposed to go for this meeting?" Juri asked.

"You already know," Nanami said without looking back.

"No I -" And abruptly she realized that she did. "How -"

"Things like this just happen," said Nanami. Then she stepped into the car door, held open by the driver. Just a moment later, the car made a three point turn and headed back the way it came.

---

Deep breaths, don't panic.

Natsuki had lost track of the number of times she'd come here, to the Joint Student Council's office in Mahora Integrated (as opposed to their offices at some of the other schools, which she'd never visited.) So this ought, by rights, to be as simple as all of those other trips had been. All she was going to do was ask Shizuru something, which is exactly what she'd always done before.

So why did she feel like she ought to ride her bike to this meeting? She kept having dizzying visions of riding through through the halls and up the staircases and right into the classroom - no, focus, focus!

Deep breaths, don't panic.

She reached the door and slid it open, just as Shizuru was doing the same thing on the other side. "Oh!" the tall, pale girl said.

"Shizuru," Natsuki said, then took a deep breath and did not panic. "Do you have a moment?"

"Ah, well, no, not really," Shizuru answered. "There's a special meeting of the Council starting at Honnoji in just a bit, and I have to be there for this one, since I'm standing in for the secretary while she's in the hospital. So, unless it's really important -"

"It is," Natsuki said, then took a deep breath and did not panic. "It's just a quick question and you don't even have to give me an answer right away."

Shizuru's eyes went up at this, doubtless wondering how a question could be important and not need an immediate answer. But what she said was, "All right, then. Let's hear it."

"Well. You see what happened is ... um, basically, I met someone who gave me an interesting piece of news," Natsuki began. "And I've run into them a few times, since then, and nothing I've seen leads me to think that person is lying, so, well ..."

"You're usually not nearly this hesitant, you know," Shizuru observed.

"Right." Deep breath. Panic. "Shizuru, are you in love with me?" she asked in a rush.

"... yes," said Shizuru after a moment.

"Of course you're not, I don't even know what I thinnnnnn," Natsuki said as the actual answer she'd been given got through to her.

"Out of simple curiosity and with no intention whatsoever to do violence to this person, who told you that I was?" she asked mildly.

"I'll, I'll maybe introduce you, later," stammered Natsuki. "Shizuru - you're seriously -"

"I believe that I found you attractive when we first met, and that I have not grown any less attracted to you in the ensuing years. Rather the contrary, in fact. Your undeniable beauty, the strength of your spirit, the vulnerability you let almost no one see ... all these things are quite irresistible to me." Shizuru took a deep breath, and Natsuki found herself wondering if the other girl was telling herself not to panic. "I suppose you find me quite disgusting."

"Uhhhh?" Natsuki replied suavely.

"Considering your very conservative tendencies, it's understandable," Shizuru continued.

"I have conservative tendencies?" Natsuki whimpered.

"You're on a quest of vengeance, Natsuki, I don't think that's consistent with more liberal attitudes."

"I don't find you disgusting!" Natsuki managed to burst out.

Now Shizuru froze. "Eh?" was all that she managed to say.

"I don't ... I couldn't ever find Shizuru disgusting. But, but there's only ever been the, the quest," she stammered some more. "I never thought, never dreamed ... that there could be anything else."

Shizuru had slightly defrosted over the last moment or so. "Natsuki, are you saying that there's a possibility that you might love me back?"

Natsuki opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out for a while. "I wish that I could," she finally said. "In a better world than this, where I didn't have an enemy that I know nothing about, where there weren't any monsters ... I think that I would love you more than anything."

"I see," said Shizuru, nodding. "I ... I have to go. Meeting. Meeting at Honnoji. Have to go." She kept right on nodding as she walked swiftly past Natsuki out into the hallway, before the other girl could say or do anything. If anything, she sped up once she exited the room, for by the time Natsuki reached the doorway, Shizuru was already heading down the stairs.

"Holy shit," Natsuki said to herself. "I think I already do."

Sadly, Shizuru didn't hear that part as she made her escape. Perhaps it would have influenced what emerged from the chaos of her mind as she made her way towards Honnoji. Better world than this. Enemy she knows nothing about. Monsters. Remove these obstacles, and Natsuki is mine. Mine.

---

Her mood was not quite as gleeful or as maniacal a few hours later, when Shizuru found herself walking through the early evening chill towards Sakura Lane beside her second-least favorite person in the world. (Well, perhaps that was unfair to Suzushiro; depending on what she eventually found out about Natsuki's informaant, the other girl might actually drop to the position of third-least favorite person.) "Please just explain your logic to me again, so that I'm clear about what we're doing here," Shizuru grumbled.

"All right, one more time. Kiryuuin is in a fit about Shionome-san, for some reason. And she has, for some other reason, fixated on that foreign student from Mahora Girls, MacDougal-san, as the culprit. With me so far?"

"Except for it being Shinonome-san and McDowell-san, yes."

Haruka relented in her relentless forward march just long enough to turn and glare hatefully at Shizuru. "You knew who I was talking about, so why complain, complainer?" With that, she started forward again. "However, that fixation betrays her clear psysoccopathy, as there is no way that a third year middle schooler could possibly have done that to Shi- the secretary. So we are going to go back to the scene of the crime and investigate further, discover the real identity of the attacker, and demonstrate that Kiryuuin is an unfit leader and should be deposed. Ideally before she and her hoodlums hurt that little girl."

"That's ... almost noble of you," said Shizuru.

"Then, once that's done, you'll replace her as President, appoint me as new Vice President, then step down yourself due to, oh, let's say health reasons, and then I'll be President like providence always intended."

"Muuuch more in character."

Haruka ignored that. They'd arrived at the boundaries of Sakura Lane, which remained sealed with yellow and black police tape. "All right, here we are." She lifted up the tape and beckoned for Shizuru to proceed her in ducking under it. The which, with an exasperated sigh, her reluctant partner did. Haruka joined her on the other side, and they proceeded further towards the actual crime scene.

"All right, accepting all that ... why are we doing this in person, instead of sending some of your Executives to do it?" Shizuru asked, lowering her voice a bit,

"Because if you want it done right, do it yourself. And I don't believe in taking the credit for something my followers did!"

They halted as the sound of something flapping in the wind came from above them, reflexively moving into a back to back position. Together, each of them could scan half of a full circle, and as it was, Shizuru saw her first. "2 o'clock, up high!" she snapped.

Haruka wheeled to see what Shizuru was pointing out, and gazed in mild stupefaction at the figure of a cloaked figure in a witch's hat and black heels, with golden blonde hair streaming from beneath the hat, perched on top of a streetlamp with smashed-out lights.

When the figure spoke, it was in a sing-song that turned into a harsh growl towards the end. "Lit-tle girls with more dollars than sense should. Not. Be. Here." And with that, she lunged at them.

A year ago, Shizuru would have started running around this point. But she'd been through a number of changes in the last year, and the fact that she also knew that Suzushiro would die before backing down might just possibly have influenced her choices as well. She reached to the side, as well as to a direction she couldn't put words to, and grasped the long shaft of her weapon, preparing to pull it into reality. Had she spared even a moment to glance at Haruka, she would have noticed that the other was doing the exact same thing on the other side.

Before either weapon could materialize, though, the still of the night was broken by a fourth voice. "Undecim spiritus aeriales, vincula facti inimicum captent. Sagitta Magica, Aer Capturae!" In the distance, the two high schoolers could see almost a dozen tiny tendrils streaking towards the girl who had just begun to attack them.

"Heh. Reflexio," the figure said, and moments before the tendrils struck home, they rammed into an invisible shield before her, sending them back towards their source - whom Haruka's keen eyes could now see was a small boy. He managed to somehow dodge them, and they seemed to dissipate.

"This isn't -" Haruka hissed to Shizuru.

"No, whatever they are, they aren't like you or I," Shizuru confirmed.

"Not very good at taking the hint, are you?" the figure said, facing the boy and holding up a hand in his direction. That said, it wasn't actually clear who she was addressing.

"Neither are you," the boy said, taking it for granted that she meant him. "Now!" he called.

"Cherry cheri sherry slurry!" cried a voice from the bush to one side of the lane. "Undecim spiritus aeriales, vincula facti inimicum captent. Sagitta Magica, Aer Capturae!"

The figure jolted at the sound, and reflexively turned so that her shield was facing the new threat. But apparently she didn't have the ability to put up a second shield, and even as the second set of tendrils was ricocheting away from her, the boy was flying forward, grabbing hold of her other arm and bending it behind her back in what looked like a rather painful way.

"Urk!" the figure said as the boy's hand came up to cover her mouth.

"Got you!" he snapped triumphantly.

Then, faster than Shizuru's eye could follow, he had been flipped over the figure's back and was lying flat on his back in front of her, with one of her heels resting on his throat. "Who's got me?" she sneered, her hat having gone flying in the interim.

"Let him go!" cried the source of the fifth voice, coming into view as she bounded over the short wall separating the lane from the cherry trees. It was a girl that Shizuru vaguely recognized, but that didn't matter right then. She had no idea who the good guys or the bad guys were here, but the girl in black had started to attack her and Haruka, and the boy had stopped that from happening.

At the moment, there was no real question whose side she was on. She pulled her Element out of whatever nonplace it resided in, and charged at the girl in black, foregoing any warcries. Her naginata's blade swept down towards the girl's back.

And was blocked by an enormous silvery sword that swung down out of nowhere, held by yet another girl with red hair done up in twin tails, decorated by bells.

On the ground, the boy's eyes went wide. "Asuna?" he gasped.

The first girl let out an incredibly frustrated sigh that was at least half snarl. "Handle this!" she snapped back at the bell-haired girl, then leapt up into the sky and ... yes ... took flight, looking very much like a bat in the process.

"Yes, master," said the girl with bells. "Anything you say, master. Get stuffed, master." That last was said very quietly. "Look," she said to Shizuru, across their crossed blades. "Are you willing to consider the possibility that this is all just a huge misunderstanding?"

Something inside of Shizuru urged her to press harder against the blade holding her in check, to continue this fight ... but there were other voices, calmer ones, that urged her against that. "All right," she said. "Step back, and I will too."

The girl did just that, and so Shizuru kept her word.

"What the jumping fishticks?" asked Haruka, who'd seen all this happen in the space of about two minutes.

"Some explanations are clearly in order," agreed the girl with bells, as she looked down at the boy who was starting to come to his feet, helped by the other girl. "You've really, really messed this one up, little brother."

---

"You said you'd help me," he said.

"Yes, I said that if you needed my help, it was yours for the asking. All you had to do was ask, and I would have helpfully steered you away from a confrontation with my boss!" she said back.

"I can't believe you," said Negi as Ryoko applied disinfectant to the cuts and scrapes on his back. He was glaring furiously at Asuna, seated across the room from him. "We give you a home, a name, and what do you do? You join forces with our family's worst enemy!"

"And I keep telling you, it's not that simple," Asuna insisted, then glanced to the side. "Do you really want to discuss this in front of all these people?"

"I kind of want to hear this," said Yuna, to the general nods of Haruna, Sakura, Misora, Nodoka, Yue, Makie, Kaede and Fei, all of whom (except for Nodoka) were regarding Asuna with profound suspicion. (Nodoka just looked like she wanted to cry.)

"Well, okay, I get why he'd want you lot here, but what about those two?" asked Asuna.

"Believe me, we're as sorry to be involved in this as you are," Shizuru apologized. Her tone made it a bit unclear whether that should be taken as an apology or an accusation.

"I'll tell you my opinions and the punishment you'll be dealt as soon as I figurize what's been going on," Haruka said, in a strangely spaced out tone, born from sheer confusion rather than any hypnosis.

"All right,.then, tell me how complicated this situation is," Negi said as Ryoko finished her work and stepped away, receiving a polite nod by way of thanks. "Explain to me why you're working for the person going around and attacking people for no good reason."

Asuna opened her mouth, closed it, then started talking again. "Okay, so this all started about two years ago, just after I started middle school, and entered a class where having the name 'Asuna Springfield' put a giant target on my face. Eva went after me thinking I had to be related to Nagi-san and that it would be just swell if she drank my blood and freed herself from her curse. It worked out about how you'd expect."

"Magic Cancel?" Negi asked.

"Magic Cancel?" Asuna confirmed.

"What the heck is Magic Cancel?" asked Haruna, eyes wide.

"It's this thing I can do, where magic doesn't work too well on me and I can pretty much ignore other people's magic protections and beat them up. So I beat up Eva-chan, and then she called in Karin and she beat me up a little. Before she could do the blood sucking thing -"

"Okay!" interjected Yue. "Let's step back a bit and discuss why Evangeline-san is under a curse like that, and possibly why a dangerous magical creature was put in our classroom." She paused to consider. "The first time, I mean," Yue added.

"Evangeline A.K. McDowell was a very powerful and capricious mage. Fifteen years ago, my father defeated her. To protect the world from the danger she represented - is there something you wanted to say?" Negi asked Asuna, who'd descended into a coughing fit at that last remark.

She shook her head no, keeping her mouth shut.

Negi glared some more, but continued after a moment. "My father placed her under the Infernus Scholasticum curse, which deprives her of her magical powers and keeps her bound to Academy City. At least, the curse should deprive her of her magic," he added.

"Full moon disrupts it a little, and she really is very seriously powerful to begin with," Asuna explained. "But you're not telling the whole thing."

Negi looked affronted. "I believe that I've recounted all the pertinent details."

"When was this curse supposed to be removed, Negi?" Asuna asked.

"When she'd demonstrated that she could be trusted to no longer do evil," he answered. "I'm not sure -"

"The Infernus Scholasticum cruse is supposed to be lifted when the subject graduates," she corrected. "And Eva-chan went through middle school and high school, and graduated with honors ... but Nagi-san never showed up. So she was sent back to middle school, and she's been there ever since."

Makie appeared to be doing some counting on her fingers. She looked up with a horrified expression on her face. "Eva-chan's been in middle school for the last nine years?! Oh, Negi-kun, this isn't right!"

"That make anybody do bad things," agreed Fei.

"I'm sure that my father has every intention of undoing the curse as soon as he's sure that Evangeline isn't going to go do evil things and why are you shaking your head like that?" he asked Asuna.

"Once I reached an accord with Eva-chan, I promised her I'd talk to Nagi-san about the curse. And I did when I went home for summer vacation that year." She fixed Negi with a glare of her own. "Guess what he said. Go on, guess."

"I'm sure that my father gave you a well-thought out reason -"

"'Oh yeah, I forgot about that,'" Asuna quoted.

There was a massive facefault from the 3-A students present, and Sakura's face took on a rather pained expression.

"What an irresponsible-sounding person," said Shizuru with a sad shake of her head.

Haruka turned to stare at her. "Can you really say that with a straight face? Can you?"

"He was probably just making a joke," said Negi in a rather unconvincing tone.

"Well, whatever, I've been telling him that he needs to come talk with Eva-chan for two years now, and he keeps putting it off. Now he's out of contact searching for that Amulet of Whoozis, and I don't know what's going to happen."

Negi let out a sigh. "I understand she must be very frustrated, but that doesn't excuse her attack on Shinonome-san -"

"Except that she didn't do it," Asuna interrupted, angrily. "She was with me, all last night, training in the basement of her cabin. I'm not just her partner, Negi, I'm her alibi."

He rocked on his heels. "Then why was she at the scene of the crime tonight?" he asked, confused.

"To try and figure out who actually did do it!" she said. "Same as these two doofs!" she added with a thumb over the shoulder at the high schoolers.

"I feel I should object to that mischieffation," Haruka said rather stuffily.

"Sorry, Asuna-chan is just that kind of a girl," Makie said quickly. "But could you please keep Negi's secret? If anyone finds out that people know about his magic, he'll get turned into an ermine!"

"Bro, what the heck are you telling these babes?" asked a tiny voice from the floor.

By this point, all the girls were staring down at the source of the voice, perplexed.

"Chamo, this is not the time!" Negi huffed. "It would be unfortunate if - wait, Chamo?" The other shoe finally fell as he, too, looked at the floor and the small white furry animal standing there. "Chamo! It's you!"

"Well, I sure ain't no domestic elf!" the tiny animal replied.

Makie, who had been making strange faces for the last few moments, finally reacted by slamming a foot down on it. "EEEEEEKKKK! A TALKING RAT!"

Let it be said that the ermine did not cry out, "Animal Abuse". This version of Chamo is too cool for that dumb gag.

---

"- and then I swore I'd be stand by my Bro's side forever!" the ermine passionately stated at the end of his emotional story of Boy Meets Ermine Fairy, a tiny paw made into a fist ... somehow. "Albert Chamomille always repays his debts, even if it takes him his whole life!"

"The weasel is talking," Haruka blandly said.

"In better Japanese than yours," Shizuru blandly agreed.

A heavy-looking mace flickered into being in Haruka's hand, before flickering out again almost as quickly. A number of the girls noticed this, most notably Kaede, who slowly nodded in sudden understanding.

For his part Negi was much too busy hugging the diminutive white vermin. "Oh, Chamo, I'm so glad to see you again!"

"Heh heh, well, yeah, I couldn't leave you to your own devices in a strange land for long, Bro," Chamo chuckled, patting Negi's arm. "Though I see I had no reasons to worry! Whoo-whooo! You're already surrounded by beautiful partners! I'm so proud of you, and no doubt your old man will be, too!" He paused to look in Asuna's direction, and offered her a polite nod. "Asuna."

"Albert," she replied in much the same, distant tone.

"B-beautiful?" Haruka, Misora and Yue all stammered at the same time.

"Ah, Chamo, I hate to disillusion you, but while these are all my friends ... and, well, two people I only met this evening ... none of them are actually my partners in the way you mean."

The ermine, somehow, visibly paled under his fur. "H-How come? You mean you haven't even made a single Pactio yet?"

Negi's head slumped down. "I ... well ..."

"Pactio? What's that?" asked Makie.

When Negi seemed to be hesitating, Sakura took it on herself to explain. "A Pactio or Alliance is a link between a Mage, who comes to be called Magister or Magistra, and a helper or assistant in combat, whom we'll call the Minister, or Ministra. As tonight's events demonstrate, often a mage needs help fighting overwhelming enemies, and the Pactio system aims to provide that help. Misora is my Ministra, and had I brought her with me into tonight's battle, things might have gone very differently."

"Nope," said Asuna, shaking her head.

"You can't know that," Sakura replied, just a bit tensely.

Asuna turned to look at Misora. "What do you think?"

"... that I kinda wish I wasn't here right now," answered the acolyte.

"The Ministra," said Sakura, trying to pretend that the last minute or so hadn't happened, "gains enhanced strength and toughness from the magical energy leant them by the Magister, and in some rare cases, also manifests a magical item, or Artifact."

"That sounds like a very useful thing to have," said Nodoka, speaking up for the first time that evening. "I think it would be a good idea if all of your ... friends ... were to make this alliance with you, Negi-sensei."

Negi gestured for her to slow down. "Nodoka, please, remember what has just happened! I'd never forgive myself if any of you, augmented or not, were to fall on a battlefield just to protect me!"

"And the whole rest of the Academy," Kaede added.

Negi looked somewhat upset. "That wouldn't make it any-"

"Oh please!" Chamo interrupted. "That isn't like you, Bro! Have you lost your nerve this soon? Let's hear what has you, your class' best graduate, that scared. I'm sure it can't be that bad."

"It's Evangeline McDowell, the Maga Nosferata," Negi said. "She is living here, at Mahora, now, and it seems that someone is trying to frame her for various crimes. Whoever it is must be a powerful vampire themselves."

Chamo's face became a void for a moment, then he sharply turned around, produced a hat and suitcase, and stomped his way towards the doorway, setting the hat on his head as he went. "I just remembered I'm needed by my wife and children in Wales. Good luck with that, Bro." And then he was out of sight.

"Is he really -" Yuna started to ask.

In the distance, there was the sound of a door opening, and then slamming shut.

"I guess he is," she said. "... how did he reach the doorknob?"

Negi sat with an askew jaw, and everyone else traded confused glances and shrugs of shoulders.

A moment later, the door opened noisily, then closed again. Moments later, Chamo returned at the same pace, streams of tears trailing behind him. "Damn the softness of my heart!" he cried. "I-I'll help you, naturally, Bro! You know you always can count on me!"

"Oh, Chamo, I never doubted you even for the shortest moment!" Negi lied, hugging him again.

"Sssssomebody's right outside, aren't they," Asuna deadpanned.

"I-I-I have no idea what you could possibly mean by that that strange, baseless accusation," Chamo stiffly said. "I swear I never saw that vampire right at your doorstep."

There came the sound of soft knocks on said doorstep's, well, door.

"Why don't I go answer that?" Ryoko said smoothly, and headed out to the front door, leaving behind the others while Chamo trembled violently against Negi's chest. She took a deep breath as she opened the door slowly, and was rather shocked to see a gently smiling Mina Tepes standing there.

"Good evening, Mikado-sensei, may I come in?" the petite pinkette requested. "I'd like to discuss a few things with some people I'm fairly sure are here. Mostly about a fellow classmate of ours."

"Ah," Ryoko said. "Vampires, as the myth says, can't walk into one's home unless one invites them in, right?"

"In fact, that is true," she said with a nod. "I suspect that Negi-sensei would probably be able to explain the theoretical underpinnings of the phenomenon better than I could, but for some reason, land ownership creates a powerful bond between the land and the legitimate owner, which they can use to prevent supernatural beings, such as myself, from entering without their permission." She paused, and smiled sweetly. "Such a shame that you used a false name on the purchase papers." With that, she lifted one delicate toe and reached across the threshold to tap on the other side beside Ryoko's feet. Smiling all the while.

"Please come in," Ryoko said, musing that science was so much simpler than all this nonsense.

"Well, well," Mina said cheerfully as she was escorted into the living room area where Negi, his collective, Asuna and the high schoolers were waiting. "This is quite an assembly! A ninja, a Joketsuzoku, and a pair of Valkyries? You must almost be to twenty at this point," she said to Negi, as he cradled Chamo's terrified form against himself.

"Ah, they're not - wait, how do you know about that?" he abruptly demanded.

"How does she know about what?" asked Asuna, concerned at this reaction.

"Valkyries?" Shizuru asked, looking skeptically at the middle school girls. None of them looked like they could step out of Wagner.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Mina apologized to Shizuru. "Do your kind not call yourselves that anymore?"

Shizuru and Haruka exchanged a very startled look.

"Evidently not. Ahem. In answer to your question, Sensei, I have eyes and ears pretty much everywhere ... and one set of them are attached to the person who made you that offer, some time ago."

Negi rocked back. Zazie was working for the vampires? But the mazoku and the vampires had been at odds for centuries! And how did that work with their supposed alliance with his family? No, no, focus on the here and now, he reminded himself. "That's interesting," he said, trying very hard to conceal the welter of emotions he was feeling right then. "But shouldn't you be on your way back to your island, right now."

"I did say that weather or other circumstances might keep me here," she reminded him. "As it happens, concern for the possibility that one of my people is about to come under attack by a group of student vigilantes is just such a circumstance."

"Wait," said Haruka. "Wait wait wait. I have just now caught up with this conservation."

"Are congratulations in order?" asked the pink-haired vampire.

"You're talking about McDowell-san, aren't you?" Haruka demanded. "She's the one of your people you mentioned, isn't she?"

"Yes, they are in order," said Shizuru.

"Muzzle it, Fujino."

"Yes," said Mina. "She may not agree with that, but all vampires, across the world, are my people, and I will do whatever it takes to protect as many of them as I can from the coming crisis as I possibly can."

"Then is the one who actually did the crimes Eva-chan has been accused of also one of your people?" Asuna asked, staring levelly at the vampire princess.

For the first time, Mina's smile slipped. "Yes," she said, sounding unhappy. "I do not know the identity of that individual, but please believe me when I tell you that I have also been investigating these events. Well, not me personally, I have people for that," she admitted.

Shizuru gave Haruka such a look.

"So what exactly are you planning, here?" Negi asked, trying to get the conversation back to the important matters.

"My intentions are to assist Evangeline in defending herself from those who would attack her, thus placing her in my debt," Mina admitted candidly. "Then, once the curse on her is broken, she will be able to leave this place and join my people in our bund, where she will advise me. I would prefer to also clarify the identity of the attacker of Shinonome-san in the process, to demonstrate the idea that we can police our own. And of course, there's the matter of my servant."

"So that wasn't a joke?" asked Makie.

"No, that was not a joke."

"... then do you sleep in a coffin?" she pressed.

Mina stared at Makie for a long moment, then slowly turned to look at Negi. "I question your priorities," she said.

"As do I yours," said Negi. "I have yet to agree that I'll become your servant."

Now Mina stared at Negi in much the same way that she'd just been staring at Makie.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"What gave you the impression that I meant you, child?" she asked, sounding perplexed.

Negi blinked. "Wait ... what?"

Shaking her head, Mina raised her voice. "You should probably come in, now, some introductions are in order," she called out.

"Ah, the front door is locked," said Ryoko, starting to head towards the living room door once again.

"I will compensate you for the damages," Mina assured her.

There was a sudden crunching noise, like of wood and metal being torn. Then footsteps in the corridor outside that came to a halt just before whoever was out there came into view.

"Come in here, my dear one," said Mina, shaking her head. "It's time they knew."

And then the person came into the living room, and Negi and Yuna's jaws both dropped.

"Well," said Akira, "did you two really think you were the only ones with secrets?"

NEXT: Akira.