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.

11. Chapter 8

Once upon a time, a young girl asked the queen of monsters a question. "You're always staring sadly out at the world. How long are you going to keep doing that?"

"If you grant my wish, I will stop being sad," the queen replied. "But, if you fail to grant it, I will eat you. So, dear girl, will you still make your promise?"

"This doesn't seem like a very equitable arrangement," said the young girl.

"It's the only offer on the table, child, and you should have remembered that I am a monster before you asked certain questions. So how 'bout it?"

"All right," she said, shrugging.

"Very well, then. My wish is -"

Then Akira Okochi Regendorf woke up. It was, although she naturally didn't think of it in those terms, about a month before Negi Springfield would come into her life. The dream she'd just been having faded from her mind fairly quickly, leaving her with a vague impression of something not being equitable. She let out a sigh as she rose from her bed. What in the world was equitable, these days?

Breakfast with Yuna, who was unaware of the Regendorf part of her name and heritage, was fine as it always was. Akira rather liked Yuna, actually. She sometimes entertained fantasies about telling her roommate everything about her situation, as she had the impression that Yuna could pretty much roll with everything, somehow. But inviting her into the much larger universe where Akira had to live would not be a kindness, so she refrained from doing so.

Just as they were about to leave for class, the phone rang. Akira was closer, so she picked it up. "Hello?" she said.

"Today," said a familiar voice, then hung up.

Akira hung up too.

"So what was that about?" asked Yuna.

"Wrong number."

Class was fine as it always was. Club was fine as it always was. Then Saegusa Yukiteru, one of the students of the boy's side, hesitantly approached her with a confession of his feelings, and Akira had to break his heart as gently as possible. Which was apparently not gently enough for one of her senpai in the club.

The slap mark was still red on her face as she walked home to the dorm, which was also when a car rolled up on the street where she was walking and came to a stop behind her. The window of the back door opened, and the voice from that morning spoke through it. "Get in," the voice said.

After a moment of regret that she hadn't told Yuna that she'd be late for dinner - as she probably could have done - Akira did exactly what the voice told her, and found herself seated beside a tall woman who looked to be in her early forties, with coal black hair, icy blue eyes, and an outfit that resembled a military dress uniform, complete with medals on her breast.

"Akira," the woman said.

"Mother," Akira replied.

The car sped up, and, for a while, nothing was said in the rear seats. (Nor anything by the driver, or the person in the front seat who was probably more heavily armed than someone in Japan should be.)

"How did you come by that mark on your face?" asked Ulrike Regendorf.

"Honorable battle," Akira answered, since 'I was slapped for breaking a young boy's heart' would probably not have gone over all that well.

"I see," said her mother, and chose not to press the issue.

Akira did not exactly hate her mother. In truth, she'd come to an understanding that her own character - the stoicism and stern determination that her swim team coach had praised so often - was largely a reflection of the older woman's, and that she could no more honestly despise her than she could hate herself. (And did not do so, being a healthy person.) But it was fair to say that she resented the fact that Ulrike had been largely absent from the life of the man who considered himself her husband, and that of their daughter.

She wondered if her mother was going to ask after her father.

"The Princess is here," Ulrike announced.

Apparently not, was Akira's first thought, followed quickly by Whaaaaat? "Here, as in, in Japan?" she asked.

"Here, as in, in the castle which is our current destination," the older woman elaborated. "She wishes to see you. This is a tremendous honor. Be worthy of it."

"All right," Akira replied.

A few more minutes passed.

"I have already paid a visit to your father, incidentally, and so have no need to ask after him."

"Oh. Good."

---

Mahou Sensei Negima Alter:
Anything That Burns

Inspired by OverMaster's Anything That Moves

Chapter Eight: Akira

---

"Kneel," declaimed one of the people standing beside the woman in Elvira cosplay on the throne before Akira. "You are in the presence of her royal highness!"

"I know," Akira replied calmly. "I have been for the last few minutes." She turned to offer a polite bow to the pink-haired girl who'd offered her a flower, presently pinned to her uniform's blouse, before they were all escorted into the throne room. "Greetings, your highness."

Mina grinned broadly as she looked at the woman on the throne. "Told you she'd remember me, Vera!" she said smugly. "You owe me a Coke!"

"Was I really supposed to forget after only seven years?" Akira wondered aloud. Then she blinked. "You drink Coke?"

"You'd be amazed how well it goes with Stigma," said the ruler of all vampires.

---

Several hours later, Akira found herself clinging to the side of a tower with one furry arm while the other, equally furry, was wrapped around a naked Mina, as they both watched the sun rise. It had been a rather long night, full of explosions, violence, and the sorts of things that sell manga. After a moment of consideration, Akira decided to say something. "I think I preferred it when you made bets involving Coke, instead of your life."

"That's the appropriate attitude for my bodyguard to take," Mina agreed.

"Also, I think you should know that I prefer Pepsi."

Mina's face froze. "Well," she eventually said. "If you were perfect, you wouldn't still be single."

Akira sighed. "And you really remind me of Makie, sometimes."

"... who's Makie?" she asked with just a tiny bit of danger in her voice.

---

"Of course," said Mina to Makie, interrupting Akira's narrative, "now that I've met you, I understand how silly I was. You're a wonderful, charming young lady, Makie-san, and I'm so glad that we're classmates!" She took her started classmate in a hug, which allowed her to get her mouth close enough to Makie's ear that she could whisper, "Akira is mine, mine, all mine, and if you ever even try to seduce her, I will make your suffering last for decades."

"Uhhh?" said Makie, bewildered by this mixed message.

"Well, after that, Mina had me going to all sorts of places and doing all sorts of things in preparation for the establishment of the bund," Akira continued to explain. "That's pretty much what I've been doing whenever I've gotten called away for 'emergency swim team practices' for the last month."

"Haaa," said Yuna, nodding politely, eyes very wide.

"I'm sorry for lying to you about that," Akira added.

"Oh, I'm still coming to terms with the werewolf thing," Yuna managed to declare. "Way too early for me to get upset about the lying about practice thing."

"While I'm happy to learn that your minor injuries that I've been noting are not the result of abusive coaching practices, as I feared," Negi said, sounding very serious, "I'm less happy to learn that they are actually the result of you going about risking your life, Akira-san."

"Um," she said, looking at him a bit askance. "I'm sorry, sensei, but, well, I've never suffered any serious injuries, and I heal very quickly, so I don't think it's such a big deal."

"Nonetheless, I wouldn't be doing my duty as your teacher if I encouraged you by word or deed to keep doing such dangerous things!"

Akira stared at him for a moment, then turned to look at the other students, most notably Fei and Kaede, with a vaguely quizzical look on her face.

"Yes, he gets like this from time to time," Kaede answered the implied question. "We've learned to just move past it."

"This really is going to be a fun classroom," said Mina, snickering a bit. "I especially look forward to seeing what happens when he tries that line on Tatsumiya."

"Eh?" chorused Nodoka, Yue, and Haruna.

"Um," said Akira, when it became clear that Mina wasn't going to elaborate. "While her story isn't really mine to tell, I should mention that I've frequently run into Mana-san on these errands of mine, and we've worked together a few times." She nodded, paused, seemed to struggle, then added, "And been at cross purposes a few times, too."

"You fight Mana?" asked Fei. She had learned about her classmate's mercenary activities by accident, and was rather impressed with her abilities. This, however, was a shocker.

"I prefer to avoid fighting, when I can," said Akira, clearly uncomfortable. "But, well, things do happen, and -"

"You fight Mana!" said Fei. "... who win?"

"We're both still alive, so I suppose both of us could be said to be winners," the tall girl explained, getting a bit past uncomfortable at this point. "Could we drop the subject?"

Fei looked to be about to press the matter further, but Haruka clapped her hands sharply. "Yes, that's just what I was about to say, too," the high schooler said. "Enough of these disturbing personal revelations. I want to get back to the business of Evangeline-san. So, on the one hand, she is a vampire, but she's not the one who's doing these vampire crimes?"

"Wasn't this more or less established already?" asked Mina.

"I want it furvert established," snapped Haruka. "Has she been attacking other people for their blood?"

"Other than me, two years ago, and like I said we worked it out, no," replied Asuna ... slightly shading the truth a little. The girls in her art club had all recovered completely, so it didn't really matter, after all.

Haruka looked frustrated. "Well, then, how did she get blood before the blood substitute went on the market?"

"Oh," Asuna said, understanding suddenly. "Eva-chan doesn't need to drink blood. She benefits from doing so, but she can subsist on the same food as anybody else. That's one of the reasons she -" Another sudden fit of understanding struck her, and she hesitated with a glance at Mina.

"- looks down on 'an inbred aristocrat raised up by other inbred aristocrats as some sort of figurehead royalty for them to scheme over'?" Mina asked sunnily, as Negi went into a sudden coughing fit.

"I definitely was not going to use those words or anything like them," Asuna said quickly.

"Then you are much more diplomatic than your master."

"Well, that goes without saying," Asuna muttered.

"Wait," said Makie, looking shocked. "That's what Eva-chan thinks of you, Mina-chan?"

"Yes," the vampire princess admitted. "I have very good ears, and that is how she referred to me in her conversation with Negi-sensei earlier today."

"Wait, what?" Akira demanded, rising out of her seat and glaring angrily towards Asuna.

"That's so mean!" Makie almost cried. "Why would you want someone like that advising you?"

"Because she has genuinely valuable, first-hand knowledge of communities that I only know about in rumor, and because I believe it's important to have insight from people who don't look up to me as a living god, Maki-chan," Mina answered, sounding surprisingly gentle considering how she'd addressed the other girl earlier.

"I really don't get anything you just said," Makie admitted. "This is as hard to follow as what Negi keeps saying about the end of the world and all that."

Mina blinked. Then she looked again at the trembling Negi. "I don't mean to offend, and she seems kind and good hearted enough, and it would certainly be in my interests, but are you sure you really want her to bear your children?"

At those words, all hell broke loose throughout the room. The last thing Negi saw before the world went dark for what seemed like a long time, and the last thing he heard as well, was the sight of Suzushiro Haruka swinging a gigantic mace in his direction, screaming, at the top of her lungs, "You filthy little DEGENEROUS!"

---

She wasn't even sure how long she'd been attending or working at this school. Since middle school? Yes, that had to be right. So it had been twenty-three years, at least. (Could it have been even longer? For some reason, memories of her time as an elementary schooler were not coming to her mind at all.) And yet somehow, Juri had never noticed that one of the dormitories had a planetarium on the top floor. Or rather she had always been aware of it, and just never considered it.

Either possibility was less terrifying than the idea that someone had somehow planted that knowledge inside her mind.

Juri had seriously considered not showing up, right up until she arrived at the building's entrance. Or at least delaying so that she was, ahem, 'fashionably late' for her midnight appointment. But in the end, she found herself there, at the correct time, and walking into the elevator that would take her to the top floor. A remarkably slow elevator, she thought, as it slowly climbed.

Ding, went the bell at last, and the door opened up into darkness. She took a deep breath and stepped out of the car's light, but not too far. Not that how far she'd gone mattered a moment later, when the doors quietly slid shut behind her, cutting off the last bit of light. Well, what a terrifying development. She should really scream girlishly.

Or she could reach into her coat pocket and produce the flashlight she'd brought in case something like this happened, then turn it on. Which is what she actually did.

Standing in the circle of light she'd just created was a tall, dark-skinned man with light purple hair that almost seemed to shade into white. He was wearing a red shirt and black pants, and smiling warmly. "Ah, there you are, you beautiful leopard," he said.

"Excuse me?" Juri said.

"Oh. Yes, I'm sorry. That was actually someone else. Really, my sincere apologies, Arisugawa-san." But he didn't stop smiling. And then she saw he cast no shadow.

"What -" she started to ask.

"This way, please," he said gesturing to his left, and then walking out of the light in that direction.

With the horrifying certainty that even if she turned around, there would be no button to summon the elevator unless her host wished there to be, Juri proceeded to follow him to the left. A few steps, and she could see that he had sat down in an old, overstuffed chair, and was gesturing for her to do the same on a decayed looking couch. She did so.

"You were asking something?" he prompted her after a moment.

"Yes," she said. "But it was unnecessarily rude, and I apologize. Let me ask, instead, who are you?" She half expected to have the answer suddenly appear in her mind.

"Otori Akio, chairman -" He sighed then, and shook his head. "Emiritus chairman of Otori Academy."

"You seem a little young to be an emiritus anything," she said, conscious as the words were shaped that they were as rude as a demand to know what someone was, and yet unable to stop them from coming forth. As though they were demanded by the situation.

"Why thank you," he said, still with that smile of his.

"And you're in charge here?"

"In as much as anyone could be said to be."

"All right," Juri said. "You know why I'm here. I think I can safely say that you've gone to a fair amount of trouble to bring me here. Why are these things happening to me, and to my friend? What -"

"Could I just point out that someone you see on an average of once a year can't really be claimed as a friend? An acquaintance, certainly. But for friendship, perhaps, a little more is needed."

Juri counted to ten in silence. "What do you want?" she asked then.

"That was exactly the right question," he replied, nodding. "Twenty years ago, you were also acquainted with my sister, before she dropped out of school here. I have reason to believe that she will contact you, at some point in the near future, and ask for your help."

Well. At least things were being consistent in not making any sense at all. "What's your sister's name?" she asked.

"Anthy," he said.

"I don't remember ever meeting anyone by that name," she told him.

"When she contacts you, you will remember having met her."

"Like I remembered the planetarium," Juri said.

"Exactly."

"All right," she said, even though it defintely was not. "And I presume you want me to ... refuse to help her."

"Oh, no," said Akio, if that was indeed his real name. "I want you to help her as much as you can. Although the help that she wants and the help that she needs and that I'd like you to give her are very different. I would like it if you would help her to realize that her best option is to give up what she's doing and come back here, to this school."

"... she got out of the trap, didn't she?" Juri asked.

And now he was not smiling.

Juri took a deep breath. "You won't let me leave unless I agree, will you?"

"Oh, no. You can leave as soon as you want. The button will in fact be there on the wall when you go to find it. But I'm being rude, asking you to make such decisions without some refreshment."

"I'm not particularly thirsty at the moment," she told him as she heard the sound of a squeaky wheel drawing near. "And I don't think -"

"Cofee, ma'am?"

Juri closed her eyes.

"Tea, ma'am?"

She opened them again, and turned to see what she knew she would see, in the light of the flashlight. And indeed, there she was, dressed in a ridiculous uniform, standing behind a cart, looking at her with an expression which seemed right on the verge of panic.

"Milk -"

"Shiori," Juri interrupted. "How are you here?"

"That is my name, yes," she said. "I'm not sure what you mean, ma'am."

"You're supposed to be in America," Juri said.

"Isn't this America?" she asked, terror clearly growing. And then, before Juri could react in any way, she said the worst thing of all. "Who are you, ma'am?"

"Perhaps you'd prefer my other attendant?" Akio asked from behind her.

"All right," Juri said, though she suspected that nothing would ever be all right again. "I'll do what you want me to do."

---

Eventually, Negi found himself regaining consciousness. He opened his eyes to find himself lying on his back on one of the living room's sofas, staring up at the ceilling, which happened to be interrupted by the somewhat concerned-looking face of Fujino Shizuru. "Are you awake?" she asked.

He briefly considered saying no. Then his habitual politeness reasserted itself. "Yes, I am, thank you." He turned his head to look past her, then blinked. A few more checks confirmed his initial assessment - he and Fujino were the only people in the living room. "Where is everyone? How long was I out?"

"Well, it's been about two hours, I think," she answered carefully. "Suzushiro departed wtih the vampire princess and her bodyguard, saying that she was going to work with them to stop Kiryuuin. After Mikado-sensei assured everyone that you were all right and in some sort of healing trance, most of your ... friends ... returned to their respective homes. I believe that Akashi and Saotome are introducing your sister, Sasaki and the, ah, the ermine to some other guests of the doctor, who just stepped out for a while."

"I see," said Negi, as he sat up on the couch. The world had moved on without him. Of course it had. On the other hand ... "Not that I don't welcome your company, Madame Vice President, but why did you stay?"

Fujino stared at him. "That's an interesting way to put it," she said, then sat down beside him. "Ahem. I have some questions I need answered. Between them, Akashi and the princess were able to convince Suzushiro that she'd overreacted to that question, but I couldn't help noticing that everyone else went to some lengths to keep Sasaki from talking while they were doing so. So I suppose my first question should be ... sensei, are you having sex with your students?"

He was too tired, and hurting just a bit too much, to come up with a plausible sounding lie. "Yes, I am, with all of those who were here tonight, except Asuna and Akira-san, as well as Sakura and Ryoko, plus a couple of others."

"Hmm," she said, nodding. "I appreciate your forthrightness, Negi-kun. You'll forgive me, I hope, if I don't call you sensei anymore. And you're doing all this, as the princess implied, with the deliberate intention of impregnating these young women?"

"My goal is to create a new generation of heroes and leaders who'll face the challenges of the years to come after my generation saves the world from the oncoming disasters," he related, not even particularly caring that he sounded like someone reading a script.

"Well," said Fujino, nodding. "Um. How is that even remotely possible? I was under the impression that you were ten years old. I'm not a doctor, of course, but I thought boys couldn't, um ..."

"Produce semen before they go through puberty?" he asked to clarify. When she nodded some more, he continued. "I've been subjected to a course of pharmaceutical and alchemical treatments to stimulate that production."

"Oh," she said. "That's monstrous." This was delivered with the solemnity of someone discussing the weather.

"It was necessary for the mission," Negi answered the charge.

"Heavens above," said the Vice President, with a sad shake of her head. "You are really starting to remind me of someone."

He looked at her curiously, but she only shook her head again.

"Well, then, I suppose I should ask what you are planning to do with this information?" Negi asked.

"Mmm, yes, I guess you would be concerned about that. Truth to tell, I wasn't planning on doing anything. You did come to my rescue this evening, and I assume that you're going to keep the secrets you've found out about me and this 'Valkyrie' business. It would be beneath me to repay that trust with treachery," she said.

Negi nodded, and decided to avoid pointing out that he had no idea who would be interested in learning those secrets, rendering such a betrayal impossible. However, he could make certain admissions that would help him to learn more. "I'd never even heard of Valkyries, outside of their mythological context, before this evening."

"And I hadn't heard that was another name for us before now," Fujino admitted. "The person who explained the situation to me used the term 'HiME' - a word formed from the English words 'high-energy materializing equipment", the which I presume applies to our weapons. Essentially, we're supposed to fight a number of monsters that have been appearing in the area, but we're left to our own devices to figure out how to do so. And since I'm not a fighter by nature," she lied, "I chose to just let the others handle it."

He frowned at that, but didn't address the discrepancy of someone who wasn't a fighter by nature being the one to charge into battle first. "Have you done any research into the nature of these powers?" he asked instead.

"Not I, but I'm ... distantly acquainted with one who has. She would probably be better able to answer any questions you might have."

"Oh, I actually don't have any," Negi clarified. "But I was going to offer the assistance of the Library Research Club in doing some more."

She blinked. "Well, my goodness. That's very generous, Negi-kun."

"Um, not really. I don't like unknowns," he admitted, "and there are quite a lot of them."

"Oh my, yes," agreed Fujino, then eyed him. "I do hope that you're not trying to get in good with me by making that offer, however."

"Well, I won't deny that's -" he started to say.

"All right," she interrupted loudly. "Let's just nip this right in the bud, shall we? I am not attracted to you, Negi-kun, nor to your entire sex. Yes, the rumors are true."

"I hadn't heard the rumors," he admitted sheepishly.

"Oh," she said flatly. "Well, I would hope that you would not force your attentions on someone incapable of appreciating them, Negi-kun."

"Definitely not," he said, just a bit sharply. "I'd never do such a thing."

"Well, g-" she started to say. The rest of the word turned into a vague grunt as her eyes went wide.

"Madame Vice President?" Negi asked, growing alarmed.

"No," she gasped. "No! It's happening, but she's not here! This -" She looked around frantically, then finally turned to Negi. "Help," she nearly sobbed.

"Talk to me, please," he said. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Ngh, we, Suzushiro and I, w-w-we get these things sometimes where we just have to, have to -" She was almost in tears. "- d-do it to each other, until one of us - ahhhhhh!"

"Oh feathers," Negi said, aghast. "You're in estrus?"

"The fuck is estrus?" she asked, accent in full force.

"Madame - Shizuru-san," he said, using her name for the first time. "I think I can help you, but you might not like what I'll do very much."

"Do whatever!" she shrieked. "I'm losing my mind, here!"

---

"Well, that was confusing and a little scary," said Makie as Yuna and Haruna led her down the corridors of Mikado's dimensionally untethered house. "But I understand why Setsuna-san tried to talk me out of a duel to the death, now, so I guess that's good, too. I wonder if Negi-kun is awake yet?"

"Probably," Yuna told her.

"And he's probably gotten up Fujino's skirt, I'll bet," said Haruna with, of course, a grin.

"Oh, come on, everybody knows that she belongs on Astraea Hill, not at Mahora," said Yuna disgustedly. "He's a seductive little jerk, but he's not -"

"Ahhhhhhhh!" cried a woman's voice in the distance.

"Sorry, did you say something?" asked Haruna.

When they got to the living room, Negi was pounding into Shizuru from behind, her habitual pallor now changed for a bright red blush as she leaned on one of the end cushions of the couch and gasped at the sensations she was feeling. His hips were pumping up into her, her breasts, pulled free of their confinement, were shaking with each motion, and from the sounds of things, she'd already achieved a few climaxes. Then Negi gave one last thrust, and his body went all stiff.

"Lahk ohmagawd," said Fujino, head dangling.

"Oh, glad you could join us," said Mikado to the three girls in the doorway, as she sat in a couch overlooking this coupling and masturbated. "Well, wait are you waiting for?"

"Yeah, baby!" cried Makie, and started to get undressed.

---

Not terribly far from Casa Mikado, Mina drew back, primly drying the corners of her mouth with a white hankerchief that quickly grew scarlet in the full moon's light. "That should calm you down, I think."

"Gah gah gah gahhh!" Haruka stuttered, holding her neck with a hand. "What, what have you done to me!"

"Well, if your confused statements about the sexual frenzy into which you had fallen were true, then any orgasmic experience - such as being fed upon by a vampire - would suffice to pull you out of it. And without any need to sate your vicious lusts on either myself or Akira! You are welcome," she added sunnily.

"But now I'm a vampire!" Haruka cried to the heavens. "I'm a hideous monster who shies from the sun! A beast in human form! A child-eh of Cain-eh! A creature of dorkness!"

"That's dark-" Akira started to correct.

"No, she got the word right," said Mina firmly. "As to the rest, well, the beast is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? I should note, though, that there is a cure, as long it's taken during the first forty-eight hours after the bite. And it just so happens that I have a sample." Mina casually pulled a small vial from her clothes. "And I will be glad to provide -"

Haruka's hands quickly snatched the vial, and she drank its whole contents avidly, almost choking on them, to the last drop.

"It wasn't necessary to drink the whole sample," said Mina, very calmly. "Now whatever shall we do if you fall into that fit of yours again, or if some fool demands proof that I am in fact a vampire?"

"It, the fit doesn't happen more than once in twenty-four hours, and I can go days between episodes," Haruka said, her words slightly distorted as she checked her teeth with her fingers, giving a sigh of relief when it became clear that they hadn't become any more pointed.

"Ah, well then," said Mina. "Let us proceed with the rest of the plan." And she started marching once more, fully expecting to be followed. Akira did in fact hurry to catch up with her, and so, after a moment, did Haruka.

"Wait," said the Vice President. "If just the bite will do it, doesn't that mean that Shinonome-san will also -"

"Oh, yes," replied the princess, carelessly. "As soon as the sun set. I have one of my other operatives following her, in hopes that she'll lead us to the one who attacked her, and is now her master."

"I could have done that, you know," Akira pointed out.

"I needed you where you were and are, dear girl," said the seeming ten year old to the one who towered over her. "The time had come to show ... most of my hand to Negi Springfield, and observe his reactions. They ... surprise." She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Yes, that's the word. And - hmmmm. I see that the individual with whom we wished to negotiate is currently distracted."

Evangeline's cabin could be seen in the distance, and standing on the embankment over the river that ran past it were Kiryuuin Satsuki and her Elite Four - and before them, Matoi Ryuko. Both young women, dressed in the battle modes of their respective costumes, were up in each other's face, while Satsuki's supporters held back from charging their mistress' nemesis with difficulty.

"Wretched girl, can it be that you do not understand simple spoken Japanese?" Satsuki was demanding. "This is not a matter of our school, but of this city. I have no time with which to entertain your delusions of significance this evening. Leave!"

"Yeah, yeah, that is really gonna happen," sneered Ryuko. "I might not know what you're up to right now, you hoighty wench, Kiryuuin Satsuki! But whatever it is, I'm not just gonna stand by and let you do it! Tell me what I want to know!"

And where Ryuko was, so was Mako, who stood off to the side with a dozing P-chan on her head. Hearing the sound of people approaching, she naturally turned to see who it was, and her face lit up. "Ah!" she called out, waving. "Akira-chan! Have you come to watch Ryuko fight?"

"You know her?" Haruka asked, bewildered.

"Um, a while ago I got cut up by a man with a silver dagger, and her father helped sew me up again," Akira admitted, waving back at Mako. "Fortunately, I don't get infected."

"Wow, Akira-chan!" said Mako, once they were a little bit closer and she got a better look at Mina. "I didn't know you knew people from TV! Can I get an autograph?" she asked.

"Did you know that you're the first person to ask me that?" Mina inquired.

"Really?"

"No." Mina looked past her, to where Ryuko and Satsuki were still talking at each other. "How long is this likely to continue?"

"I really don't know, this is the longest that they've gone without trying to kill each other," Mako admitted. She too looked at where the two were standing. "I don't like it very much for some reason," she further admitted.

"Fight me, then!" demanded Ryuko of her enemy. "If you don't want me here, then make me leave."

"And I have told you, we will not fight this night, Matoi Ryuko! And I say again, leave!"

Ryuko's hand clenched into a fist, which suddenly shot up towards Satsuki's face - and stopped within perhaps a centimeter's breadth from it. Satsuki neither moved, nor blinked.

"Why didn't you dodge?" Ryuko asked, strangely quiet.

"Why didn't your punch connect?" Satsuki replied, also sotto voce.

"Oh, I really really don't like where this is going," Mako droned.

Neither did Haruka. "President!" she called out.

"Yes, Suzushiro?" replied Satsuki, without turning her cold gaze from Ryuko's furious eyes.

"I have conducted some investimations, and discovered a witness whose testirony offers an alibi to McDou-Dowell-san," she said. "Further, someone has come forthard with information you should probably hear."

"I see. Very well. You are fired."

---

"I've betrayed Natsuki," Shizuru murmured. "I mean, I betrayed her the first time that Suzushiro and I used each other to relieve the impulse, but back then I thought there was no way that she could possibly ever love me. Now I know that she might, if I just do some stuff, and yet I've already betrayed her ... with a ten year old boy!" She covered her eyes and let out a sobbing groan.

"Aw, don't be like that," Haruna said, hugging her new sister in perverse sexual lust to comfort her ... and copping a feel in the process, of course. "It's a collective, right, so you're free to be with her if you really want. Actually -" She paused to concentrate momentarily, trying to overcome the distraction of Makie's hooting and hollering on the other side of the room. "Is Natsuki that motorcyle chick people think you're dating?"

Shizuru lifted her hands so that she could gaze in an appalled manner at the middle schooler who was groping her. "People think Natsuki and I are dating?" she asked.

"I'll take that as a yes. And ... yeah, well, it's actually more like people think she's one of a bunch of girls whom you're, well, five-timing." Haruna nodded.

"That's my public image? I'm some sort of female Casanova?" she asked, growing increasingly horrified. "Then why hasn't someone tried to have me impeached on morals charges?"

"Ummm ... well, maybe sixty per cent because nobody wants Kiryuuin to appoint a new Veep from Honnoji, and forty per cent because people think you're doing a good job regardless and the morals charges are complete bullshit." Haruna coughed, waving a hand as she did. "Anyway, what I was saying is, that Natsuki is kind of cute, so why not bring her in on this?"

Shizuru was now gaping at her.

"It's the simple solution to all your problems!" Haruna told her. "Girlfriend can't get mad at you for 'betraying' her if she's getting in on the fun herself. It's how I'm planning on solving my sibling's problems with their fiancee," she confided.

"... you are depraved," Shizuru told her.

"Probably."

"Ah, yes!" shrieked Makie, being fucked up against one of the living room walls, and clearly fucked rather well. "So much better than the first time, the second time, the third time - no, wait, that was actually better than this - but the fourth time wasn't nearly as good! Ah, Negi-kun, I love the way you love me!"

"Makie!" Negi almost hissed as he held her, marveling at how light and yet how very strong she was, to be able to support herself like this. He had no favorites. He must not have favorites. And yet there was something genuinely amazing about this girl, in particular, out of all the girls. Maybe it was just the way she just always gave it her all, whatever it was, whatever her all might be.

Ilya was going to hate her, he was fairly certain. And yet he kissed her once again, as though trying to draw just a bit of that joie de vivre into himself.

"Mmm, someone's had some practice," mused Ryoko as she lay on the couch and let Yuna eat her out, running her fingers through the girl's short hair.

"Um, well, yeah, a little," Yuna admitted as she licked at the alien woman's folds and what she certainly hoped was a clitoris. The possibility that it was some weird 'never touch me there' button disturbed her, but it was in pretty much the right place, wasn't it?

"But you're nervous," Ryoko said, abruptly reaching down to pull Yuna up so that they were face to face and moderate breast to great big knockers. "Why so nervous?" she asked.

"Well, I mean, part of it is - you're you," Yuna said.

"And I've had so many lovers, and how can you possibly compete." Ryoko shook her head. "Yuna, don't try to compete. This isn't the sex olympics. I'm not looking for someone who can blow my mind. My mind was blown a lonnng time ago. All I want from our encounter is you, just as you are."

Yuna flushed. "How you can you make something so corny sound so -" And then she broke off, as she noticed subtle movement in the pile of underwear that they'd left on the floor. "And that's the other reason," she growled, jumping up from the couch and lunging over to the pile, reaching in to pull out -

"Um, did I take a wrong turn somewhere?" Chamo asked in an attempt at innocence.

"I knew it! I knew you were gonna sneak back here and watch us!" Yuna snapped. "Nothing that looks so much like a dildo as you do could possibly be innocent!"

"I wasn't watching you," Chamo protested.

"Oh tell me another one, with kittens and puppies, maybe," she snarled, tightening her grip on the ermine.

"Ah, ah, actually, Yuna, he's telling the truth," said Negi, while still wallbanging Makie. "Chamo doesn't have any interest in human sex acts, he just likes underwear."

"Bro gets me, Sis," said Chamo.

"Well ... all right, I guess I made a mistake. I'm sorry, Chamo." She stared at him. "Why am I Sis?" she asked after a moment.

"You're Bro's main girl, aren't you, Sis?" the ermine asked, and someone might have noted a certain gleam in his beady little eyes.

All around the room, everyone paused to observe Yuna's reaction to this notion.

"Uh. Well. Um," she said, having turned bright red. "I, erm - shouldn't you call Asuna that?" she finally blurted.

"Oh no," Chamo quickly retorted. "I call Asuna by her name. Just that. No nicknames. Ain't that right, Asuna?" he asked.

"Yes, that's right, Albert," said an irritated voice from the living room door.

"Glk," said Negi,

Asuna was studiously not looking in Negi's direction. She was actually looking about a thousand meters away in a direction that did not involve looking at any naked flesh. "Negi," she said. "I was going to invite you to come visit Eva-chan with me so we could work out what we're going to do about all this. But clearly there are other things you'd rather be doing. Good night, then."

"I, I can -" he started so say.

"Good night, I said." She took a deep breath, then looked at Chamo, which necessarily meant looking at Yuna. "Albert, if you'll come by sometime tomorrow morning, I'll have some stuff ready for you to take to your sister when you have the chance. See you all later." And with those words, she was gone.

---

"Thank y-" said Haruka, followed swiftly by, "I'm what?"

"You are fired," repeated Satsuki, still with eyes only for Ryuko, and she only for her. "The fact that you are reporting this as something you personally investigated, rather than the results of investigations by your subordinates, suggests that you are too personally involved with this matter to maintain the objectivity required of your position. This is the latest in a series of missteps that have concerned me for some time. Thus, you are relieved of your duties as head of the Student Council Executive, effective immediately. Turn in your uniform and depart."

"You can't fire me," Haruka replied.

Now Satsuki turned that icy glare away from her adversary for the first time, focusing it on Haruka instead. (Meanwhile, Ryuko blinked, and looked around, seeming a bit confused as to what had just happened.) "You serve at the discretion of the Student Council President. For the remaining two months of this year, and possibly longer, as events may turn, that is Kiryuuin Satsuki, who may indeed fire you, and has done so. I have told you turn in your uniform. I will not repeat myself."

"Again," supplied Mina.

Satsuki's glare slowly tracked from the devastated expression on Haruka's face as she began to undress to Mina's rather bored expression. "What."

"You already repeated yourself when you told her she was fired," the vampire princess reminded the master of Honnoji of facts which had clearly slipped her somewhat distracted mind. "So you just won't repeat yourself again. Except if you do, of course."

"The treaty you signed with the failing apparatus that is this nation's legislature indicated that you would return to your 'bund' after the end of each school day," Satsuki said after a moment.

"You're well-informed," Mina complimented her. "I made sure to give myself a certain amount of wiggle room by failing to specify exactly how long 'after the end of each school day' had to be. My people have always gotten the best negotiators of your people, in the fullness of time."

"... very amusing," said Satsuki, in a tone which sounded somewhat less than amused. "Return to your island, feeble potentate of a dying race. This is not your affair, nor has it ever been."

Akira took a step forward at that description, frowning deeply (which on her manifested as a slight turn down of the corners of her mouth.) The Elite Four responded by taking a step forward themselves. Akira glared at them, and took a breath ... then sembled. In much less time than it takes to tell it, she added almost half a meter of height and a comparable amount of bulk, grew thick black fur and a wolf's muzzle and fangs, and clawed fingers at the end of her hands. With still strangely human eyes, she glared pure death at the four Honnoji students.

And Gamagoori Ira took another step forward, smiling broadly as he uncrouched to stand at his full height ... which was a full head and shoulders taller than Akira's wolfwoman form. "Permission to engage, Satsuki-sama?" he asked.

"Quiet, child, the grown-ups are talking," Mina said rather loudly. "'Not my affair'?" she repeated, directing her words to Satsuki. "I beg to differ."

"Oh? Are you claiming that McDowell is one of your subordinates? I am sure that she would loudly deny that point."

"You speak as though you know her," said Mina.

"I have known Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell since I was a student at Mahora Kindergarten," Satsuki replied. "Others may have been encouraged to forget the length of time that she has been a student here, but such trickery shall not avail against Kiryuuin Satsuki. I remember everything."

Standing just a pace behind Gamagoori, Nonon risked a glance back at Satsuki. "She was there when we were in kindergarten?" she asked quietly.

Satsuki simply nodded in response, but Inumuta took it on himself to reply, the zipper of his jacket sliding down to expose his mouth as he did. "There are hidden records which explicitly state that she has been a student at Mahora for fifteen years, in her current state."

"Hoo-ee," whistled Nonon. "I'd start sucking blood, too, if I was stuck there that long."

"I don't like repeating myself either, so I'll just say that, even if she denies it, she remains a member of my people, and I am sworn to do whatever I must to protect all of my people. Will Kiryuuin Satsuki not, this once, relent without having to be forced to do so?" Mina asked.

"No, and you do not have the power with which to force me," Satsuki answered.

Mina let out a genuine sigh. "I tried. There are those who sometimes accuse me of being too quick to try dirty methods to get my way." Before her, the immense wolfwoman coughed a bit. "But I really did try to do this the nice way for once. Oh well." She reached into her pocket and produced a phone, dialling a certain number before bringing it to her ear. "Hello, this is Mina Tepes, Princess of Vampires. I'd speak with Kiryuuin Ragyo. Yes, I'll hold." She studied the fingernails of the hand that wasn't holding the phone for a moment.

"You cannot seriously -" Satsuki started to say.

"Kiryuuin," Mina said cheerfully into her phone. "Why, thank you, I'm glad to hear it. Unfortunately, this is not a social call. Yes, owing to certain circumstances, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to order my people to stop using Revocs-brand clothing. Yes, all of them. And the stores you were planning to open in the bund will unfortunately not be allowed to operate, after all. It's very sad. Your daughter has, alas, offended me in such a way as to make me otherwise inconsolable -"

Perhaps she would have said more, but quite suddenly the phone was shattered by a tiny thrown stone. Akira snarled in the direction of the Elite Four, yet they seemed every bit as startled as she was. Even Satsuki was moved to raise an eyebrow slightly.

For the stone, picked from the bank of the river, had been thrown by Ryuko.

"Excuse me, that was an important conversation," said Mina, eyes changing color slightly.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ryuko replied in a non sequitur. "You don't drag someone's family into a fight you're having with them! That's just not right!"

Mina stared at her, then laughed in her usual bell-like way. "Oh, you dear idiot. You do not know what you are dealing with, do you." It wasn't really a question, and she didn't wait for Ryuko's sputtering response, turning instead to look at Satsuki. "Am I going to have to get another telephone?"

Satsuki made a disgusted noise. "I have already stated that Evangeline McDowell is no longer welcome in my Academy City. I will not ..." She paused then. "... without better cause than I have been shown, withdraw those words. However, I am willing to postpone the confrontation between myself and her." Her hauteur was undiminished. "She is, after all, going nowhere."

With that remark, Satsuki began to march away from where she was standing, and the Elite Four followed her, pausing only to offer Ryuko baffled glances as they went, with Gamagoori grabbing the uniform out of Haruka's hands as he passed her. For her part, Ryuko seemed a bit bewildered herself as Mako ran up to her and started to escort her in a different direction all together.

"Well, that buys you some time, at least," Mina said, with a glance toward the cabin at the center of this controversy. "What will you do with it, I wonder? And what we he do?"

"Do I go to class tomorrow?" asked Akira as she sembled backwards into the form of a tall girl.

"Yes, I think we both do. Call the helicopter."

"... I don't have a phone, Mina."

"... well, neither do I, now." She turned to look at Haruka, who was standing nearby in nothing but her underwear and a huge blush, and kindly chose to forebear asking whether the high schooler would lend her a phone. "Perhaps the inhabitants of yonder cottage might kindly lend us theirs," Mina said at last.

---

"Get up," Yuna commanded.

"Don't wanna," replied the blanket covered lump she had just addressed.

"Okay, this was funny the first time, and maybe even the second, but it's already eight in the morning, Akira and I have already had breakfast -" A meal without any of their usual morning conversation or any conversation at all, but breakfast nonetheless. "- and she's already headed off to meet you know who at the helipad - and I can't believe no one ever told me that Mahora has a helipad - so it's way past time for you to get up, get dressed and get on your way to school, too."

"I'm sick. Cough cough cough." No, he didn't cough three times, he said the word cough three times.

"Oh, seriously?" she asked. "Faking sick? You picked now to start acting your age?"

"I'm not faking anything," said the voice from under the blanket, sounding just the slightest bit irate. "I don't feel well. Maybe I've come down with something."

"Maybe I should call Mikado-sensei?" Yuna inquired sarcastically.

"That would not be a productive use of her time. I'm just sick. Achoo."

"I'm not gonna dignify that incredibly lame-sounding sneeze with a gesundheit," she told him. "You've gotta get up, teachers do not have the right to call in sick."

"That is a blatant lie," said the lump. "Refusing to permit sick teachers to take a day off would likely result in the students themselves becoming sick, and the school system would collapse."

"Yeah, well, it's a little late for you to be worrying about spreading stuff to your students," she pointed out, then regretted the remark when she saw him retreat even further into a fetal position. "Okay, okay. Do you want me to call in -"

"No." Negi poked his head out from the blankets to glare owlishly at her, as his bifocals were presently not on his face. "I do not want that guy finding out any more about all of this than he already has! He'd probably take the opportunity to come over here and give me a nauseating motivational lecture, and I think I'd rather die, if it's all the same to you." Having delivered this small rant, Negi pulled the comforter back over his head and resumed sulking.

Yuna reached the end of her patience. "Fine, then. I'll call Shanna instead, and tell her that we're going to need a substitute. I bet she'll be really impressed with you." She stepped back from the nook, and climbed down the ladder to the floor, where she turned to find Chamo regarding all of this from his perch on the table, cigarette in paw. She opened her mouth to say something.

"Relax, Sis," Chamo reassured her. "I'll watch over Bro, make sure he doesn't do anything even dumber than this."

"That's not what I was about to say, you little nuisance!" she snapped, grabbing the cigarette away from him. "No smoking in the dorms!"

"It's a candy cigarette!" he protested.

"I know what tobacco smells like, Chamo," she told him. "No means no!" Yuna grabbed her bag, gave one last glare towards Negi's bed, and then stomped out towards the doorway.

Chamo waited a few moments after the door slammed shut to produce another cigarette and stick it in his mouth. (In his defense, he didn't light it.) "Bro," he said in a serious tone, "you got a problem."

"I know," Negi wearily agreed.

"The plan was to make pactios with the girls you hooked up with, not just play hide the wand and make baby Springfields. So what exactly has been the holdup here?"

The boy let out a long sigh as he finally untangled himself from his blankets and moved to the ladder so he could climb down from the nook. "Well ... I suppose it starts on the first day here, when I rescued Nodoka and Yuna found out about my magic. They were both so vulnerable, in different sorts of ways, and I just couldn't bring them into battle with me! I'm sure that father didn't bring mother into battle with him when she was pregnant with me - and come to that, I didn't give Ilya a pactio either! If I didn't start there -"

"Bro, you didn't start there because Little Big Sis makes you look like a Squi-"

"Chamo," Negi interrupted. "I'm sure that I've asked you before not to use terminology from those awful novels."

"Irregardless, you know and I know and both of your moms know that if you make a pactio with Little Big Sis, you're gonna end up the ministra. But that's not gonna happen over here. And anyway, okay, let's take Sis and Glasses and Nodochi and Yuetchi off the board. That still leaves China Sis and the tall drink of water, experienced combatants it would seem to my discerning eye, plus Busty Sis and Nun Sis, who already have a pactio so they know how it works!"

"And you've really got to put some practice in on memorizing people's names! Those are horrible nick-"

Chamo bopped him on the cheek with one paw. After a moment, Negi obligingly turned his head to the side as though he'd been struck with actual force.

"Don't change the subject," Chamo said warningly, once the demands of drama had been met. "What's the matter, Negi?"

"I don't know, it just seems like it would be asking too much of people that I'm asking a lot already," Negi said. "And, really? I'm not even sure the plan is such a good idea anymore, or if they really want any of this anymore. You want to know the real reason I don't want to go to class today? It's not just the thought of walking into a classroom with Asuna, and Evangeline-san, and Karin-san, and Mina-san, all with their plans that don't include me at all. It's the way almost everybody else just ... left, last night, after I was knocked out. And those who stuck around were only curious about ... stuff."

"Okay," said Chamo, a bit more gently. "I get where you're coming from now, Bro. You're just having some blues, right now. That's all it is. Give it some time, and things are gonna get better."

---

It was interesting coming into class that morning. The girls had more or less gotten used to the idea that she and Akira would show up together, escorting Negi. Not only had Akira shown up somewhat earlier, and escorting someone else - the bodyguard thing was apparently not going to be a secret, and Yuna wondered if the werewolf thing was also going to go public - but now Yuna was arriving alone.

Fortunately, before she could be thoroughly grilled about the reasons why not, with Iincho and Makie leading the way, Rei walked in through the front door and a different drama began. The dark haired girl nodded politely to the greetings she was offered in the few moments before she noticed that someone else was sitting in her seat. And, of course, who that someone was.

Mina waved politely across the classroom at Rei, and, for some reason, a sudden hush fell on the room, stilling all conversations.

"Um ... have you met Mina-chan already?" asked Makie, who predictably couldn't read the situation.

"No," said Rei, very precisely. "We've never met."

Slowly, she walked down the center aisle, each footstep seeming to sound like a little earthquake. Akira started to get out of her seat, but Rei was standing at the back of the room, staring down at Mina, before the taller girl was standing.

"Hello," said Rei. "My name is Hino Rei, and I think you are in my seat."

"Greetings to you as well. My name is Mina Tepes, and I thought seats were unassigned," said the vampire, sounding utterly guileless.

"That's true," Rei admitted, nodding sharply. "However, I do usually sit there."

"Yes, and I can see why," Mina said, also nodding, though more in an easy-going way. "This spot has some very good feng shui."

"I don't believe in feng shui, and that's not the reason that I like to sit there," Rei replied. "Please move."

"I think I must decline," Mina said, 'apologetically'. "Try looking at this as an opportunity to see the world through a different perspective."

"I like the perspective I have."

"The priveliged often do."

"A hereditary aristocrat is lecturing me about privelige. This would be diverting if it happened to someone else."

Before matters could go any further, and Yuna had the distinct impression that it going further wouldn't involve a slap-fight but something rather more terrifying, the front door slid open and, of all people, Takahata Takamichi entered with a weary smile on his face. "Is it not amazing the places in which old friends meet?" he quoted a famous novel.

"Takahata-sensei!" cried Asuna ... well, really more cooed Asuna.

"... I being punished?" muttered Fei, head against her desk.

"I'm afraid that Negi-sensei is sick with a cold today, so I'll be subbing in for him - just for today, though," he added with a glance at Fei. It seemed to cheer her up a bit. "If everyone could take a seat, please?" he asked, looking right at Rei.

After what felt like longer than it was, Rei quietly walked over to the empty bench on the other side of the room from where Zazie and Mina were sitting, and sat down there.

"Okay, and I see that Negi-sensei isn't the only victim of cold season," said Takamichi, looking at that particular bench. "And that we have a new friend! Your Highness," he added, with a formal bow.

"Just Mina-san will do, Takahata-sensei," she reiterated her advice from the previous day. "Or I suppose after our conversation last summer, you could call me Mina-chan."

"Excuse me, what?" said Asuna, turning in her seat to stare cold death in Mina's direction.

And the adventure continues, thought Yuna.

---

"So he's not really sick?" asked Haruna at lunch. The collective, or at least its members in 3-A, had gathered together outside on the lawn, away from any of the other groups. For example, Ako was eating with the cheerleaders and throwing confused glances at Makie.

"No, he's just ... upset, I guess," Yuna admitted.

"Maybe we should all go visit him after class, instead of going to clubs?" Nodoka quietly suggested.

"Um ... you know what's likely to happen if we do that, right?" asked Misora.

"Well, yes," said Nodoka, looking a bit confused. "That would be sort of the point. Do you not want that to happen?"

"Hemm," Misora hemmed.

"I think that might actually be part of the problem," said Yuna. "Maybe this thing of ours has grown a little too big, a little too quickly. It can't be easy looking after all of us, that way, and then there are the other girls, too. Maybe all that is more than he can handle. Even with you-know-what."

"... you do realize that this sort of talk probably wouldn't convince anyone overhearing that we're not involved in some sort of conspiracy?" asked Yue."

"I'm not trying to hide that, I'm trying to hide -" Yuna broke off before she could completely give lose to her thoughts, and just glared a little at Yue. This wasn't working. They were just all so different.

"This one might have a notion for how our mentor's wounds might be healed," declared Kaede. "'tis a method which has soothed mine own many a time."

"At this point, I'd even try fung sooey or whatever the vampire was talking about this morning."

"風水," said Fei, just a bit sharply. "And that not how it works."

---

Ahead of him, the Narutaki twins were marching cheerfully along the mountain path, singing a nonsense song that he couldn't understand. (Were they perhaps using the sort of private language that he'd heard twins sometimes developed?) Behind him, Kaede was bringing up the rear of their pilgrimage, making sure he didn't slacken his pace. And the middle, there was just him.

Negi was honestly a little bewildered at what had happened. There he had been, counting the the bumps on the ceiling in perfect contentment - all right, he had been very bored - when all of a sudden Kaede, Fuka and Fumika had burst into the room, seized him, stripped him of his pyjamas and shoved him into some clothes, then dragged him out of the room while Yuna stood in the doorway and cheerfully waved bye bye. And now he was on a guided tour of the mountains to the north east of Mahora.

Actually, not so much a guided tour as a forced march. The girls' profiles had indicated that they belonged to something called a 'strolling club', but this was considerably more athletic than anything he'd imagined as strolling. Nor was anyone pointing out views of interest to him; he was entirely on his own when it came to noticing them. Still, he had to admit that he was seeing a great bit of natural beauty.

"I thought all the forests in this region had been chopped down," he said with surprise as they approached one such grove of evergreens.

"Not all, only most." Kaede sighed. "Perhaps most is too weak after all. Say 'almost all' is closer to the truth. But this is a nature preserve owned by Iinchou-dono's family, which is generously open to the public," she explained. "We are almost to our campsite."

"Yay!" chorused the twins.

"Yay," echoed Negi, with perhaps a bit less enthusiasm.

"Fear not, my master," Kaede half-whispered to him. "All will become clear in due time."

The camp was situated on a rocky cliffside, not far from a small waterfall. Negi gazed in wonder at the cascade, glimpsing a rainbow below him for once. "This is a beautiful place," he said aloud as Fuka and Fumika put up the small tent.

"Indeed," Kaede agreed. "One comes here quite often, either with these two or alone ... the latter especially in order to soothe wounded nerves and find some inner peace. One told Yuna-dono that you too would be able to recuperate your forces better here."

He flinched a bit. "Was she really worried about me?" he asked.

"Somewhat, though there was also a touch of exasperation and more than a small amount of misunderstanding, as well. However, one should clarify that these statements to Yuna-dono were largely a lie," Kaede added, beginning to undo her the belt that held up her pants.

"What?" Negi said, turning to look right at her ... and then seeing that Fuka and Fumika were also getting undressed. "Oh, no."

"Alas, yes," Kaede agreed. "When one returned from the expedition to library island, the two were so quizzical and so persistent in their questions that, before terribly long, all was known to them! They are terrible and merciless in their suspicion! All one could do was succumb!"

"Kaede-ne!" protested Fuka. "All we did was ask about Chizuru's house and you told us everything without any prompting! Don't tell Negi-kun lies about us!"

"I liked my version better, didn't you?" Kaede asked Negi, a bit softly. "Still, it was necessary for me to trust them with my secrets, just as I trust them with my life." Her eyes opened just a bit as she gazed into Negi's eyes. "Perhaps others might do to follow my example."

"Um," said Negi, glancing at the now nearly naked Narutakis.

"It's okay, Negi-kun," Fumika spoke up. "We still like you even if you're a dirty little pervert who knocked up Kaede-ne." There was a tiny bit of ice in her tone when she said that last bit.

"That is not yet known," observed Kaede, by now stripped down to total nudity. "We should still take every effort to ensure that it is true."

"Before that, though, I should probably say a few things to Fuka-san and Fumika-san," Negi hedged.

She gestured for him to proceed.

"Ah, all right, Fuka, Fumika, I hope you don't mind me getting a bit ahead of myself by calling you that. I should start by saying that I was actually considering abandoning the plan that Kaede told you about, because I was becoming concerned about it being all give on the parts of the girls involved, and all take on mine. I wondered if it was right to ask any of you to follow me into danger, as well as subjecting you to the risks of pregnancy and childbirth. But Kaede has pointed out to me that you're walking into this with eyes wide open, and I'm realizing that it would be even more wrong to deny you the right to choose your own fates."

"Right on, Kaede-ne!" enthused Fuka. "That's right, we like danger!"

"Some of us more than others," Fumika said, looking aside.

"And I actually think that's a problem in and of itself," said Negi, clearly answering Fuka rather than Fumika. "But ... well, the world is dangerous, with or without this decision, and I believe - or at least I have hope - that taking this course will make it a safer place not only for ourselves, but for those who come after us. So I would be honored if you would join us."

"But there is one more thing to do before we join together in blissful disport," said Kaede.

"What's that?" asked Negi, surprised.

"We must deal with a spy," she replied, and tossed a kunai she'd produced from literally nowhere in the direction of one of the nearby rocks, where it sliced through a painted image that was being held up and slammed into the rock through the shadow of that person.

"Oh, dammit," said a hoarse voice, as the painting was dropped.

"Ah!" cried Fumika and Fuka, covering each other up. "Akira is a perv!"

"Eh?" Negi gasped. No, it wasn't his other roommate, but another person in a ninja jumpsuit and a mask that covered the lower part of their face, looking quite embarrassed behind that mask.

"'tis a most common name," Kaede quickly informed him, then spoke up. "Have we not spoken of this in the past, Okuzaki Akira? You are welcome to join us without such subterfuge."

"Uhhhh," said the newly revealed person.

---

Okuzaki Akira was not having a nice day. To be honest, she hadn't been having a very good month.

Matters had started to go awry when, towards the start of the current school year, she had been assigned a roommate. This complicated her life considerably, since she was posing as a boy and living in a boy's dormitory and was therefore now expected to live under the same roof as a boy to whom she was not related. Plus there was the whole business of being a ninja and attempting to secretly monitor the doings of the other individuals with her birthmark and talents, which might be discovered by someone living in close contact with her ... at which point she'd have to kill that someone, and go through the trouble of disposing of their corpse.

However, Tokiha Takumi had actually proven to be a rather welcome surprise on that front. He was a kind and earnest young man who respected Akira's privacy, and with whom Akira shared a number of common interests. Somewhat against her will, Akira found herself becoming quite fond of her new companion, and so the thought of having to kill him and dispose of his corpse had become quite distressing. It was a mixture of good and bad, in other words, but it seemed like a not uncomfortable situation.

And then one night Takumi had come home rather late with a shocked look on his face, towed along by his older sister, whom Akira already knew to be one of the other women she had to monitor. Before Akira could offer any guarded greetings, Tokiha Mai had declared, "Look, I'll show you that I'm right," walked over and yanked Akira's pyjama top up to reveal her breast bindings. "See? Girl, like I said."

"Neechan, I said I believed you!" Takumi had said, covering his eyes with his hands.

At this point, Akira had decided that the wisest course of action was to flip out and kill people. Before she could do so, however, Tokiha Mai had knocked her senseless with a rather forceful punch. On regaining her self-awareness, Akira had found herself bound hand and foot, in her underwear, all the weapons she'd been carrying spread out in front of her, and Tokiha Mai sitting on the bed and facing her. "What say you and I have a little chat, okay?" she'd said. (Takumi had been standing nearby with his hands over his eyes and definitely not peeking through the cracks of his fingers, which Akira felt somewhat conflicted about.)

Tokiha Mai had explained that she had complete knowledge of all those who were called HiME, owing to circumstances which she had described and which Akira did not believe for one second. (On the other hand, she had no alternative explanations either.) This included the secret of Akira's true sex and her ninja training, as well as the fact that she could summon a mechanical toad named Gennai. As all three of these things were true, Akira had no real choice but to acknowledge that Mai clearly had some genuine source of information.

And then she had given Akira a real surprise by stating that Akira's most important person, the key to her powers as a HiME, was none other than Takumi. That seemed a bit odd, given that she had had these powers for quite some time before she even met Takumi, but Tokiha Mai appeared to have a great belief in the idea of red strings of fate binding people together.

"So here's the thing. I don't want to hurt you, Akira-kun, because if I do, I'd pretty much annihilate you easily, and then that would destroy Takumi. But I don't want you hurting me either. So, I think we should try to get along, as your future sister-in-law."

"I think you are probably insane," Akira had told her.

"Oh, there's no probably about it," Tokiha Mai had agreed. "But look on the bright side, the crazy person is all in favor of your forbidden love for her little brother! Which proves I'm not a brocon, and you should never accuse me of being a brocon, got it?" The taller girl had glared firey death at Akira for a moment, then went back to smiling. "And the good news is, there's a treatment in America for Takumi's condition, which he should take real soon now, which will get you both out of this place and prevent all the bad stuff from happening!" She'd clapped her hands together. "Win win situation!"

"Does that mean she's dressed, yet?" Takumi had asked faintly.

And so, ever since then, Akira had been a reluctant ally of Tokiha Mai, meeting her other allies, the equally insane Sugiura Midori, the much more restrained Kuga Natsuki, and the very quiet Minagi Mikoto, who was apparently Tokiha Mai's roommate. Taking the chance to get away from them all and spy on the other ninjas based in Academy City had seemed like a good way to relax.

And this was how it had turned out, as she was now confronting a trio of naked ninjas and a boy teacher who apparently had carnal knowledge of one of them and was going to gain it of the other two. Anyone would hem and haw a little when they were exposed to such things, surely.

"Well?" said Nagase, arms wrapped under her annoyingly impressive breasts, reminding her entirely too much of Tokiha Mai.

"I offer my humblest apologies," said Akira. "I believed that this was to be a training expedition for your pupils in ... non-sexual ... ninja techniques. As it is clearly not, and as I have no wish to steal such techniques from you, I will with your kind permission leave at once."

"'Tis not this one's decision whether you shall be granted that permission, but that of one's master," Nagase answered as if she weren't making rather startling declarations. She looked to the boy, lips curled up slightly. "Well, my master? What shall we do with him?"

"'him'?" the boy repeated. "Um ... you do realize that's a girl, right?"

Akira's heart stopped. "No," she gasped. "Are you also from the future?"

"... what an interesting thing to ask," said Nagase as she slowly turned to look at Akira once again.

---

Supper in Akira and Yuna's room that night began as an affair every bit as silent and uncomfortable as breakfast had been. Oddly, it was Akira's nerve that broke first, for she broke the silence. "So, where is Negi-sensei?" she asked, looking at the empty side of the table.

Yuna's answer came out before she had quite thought it all the way through. "Where's Mina-san?"

Akira nodded after a moment. "Yes, I suppose that is a question I probably shouldn't ask under the circumstances," she said softly, and went back to eating.

Dammit, no, no, that's not what I wanted, Yuna cursed herself. Aloud, she coughed. "So. Um. What's it like, being a werewolf?"

Akira stared across the table at her. "What's it like, having sex?" she asked in return.

"Good point," Yuna said, nodding. "Good p- wait a minute, no it isn't! You can have sex, but I'll never be a -"

"Then why would you bother asking?"

"I'm trying to communicate, here," the basketball player said, a bit forcefully. "Okay? I'm trying to clear the air, 'cause I'm not actually that angry at you, no matter how it seems. The situation is a little messed up, but I know that you're not the one who made the mess. All right?"

And there it was, after what felt like entirely too long - the tiny little upturn of the cheeks that meant Akira was smiling. "Thank you, Yuna," she said.

Yuna took a deep breath. "So are you having sex?"

Akira, who'd taken a bite of her rice a moment before, proceeded to choke a bit. "Ahem. Ahem. I presume you're asking about me and Mina?"

"No, you and Asuna. Of course you and Mina-san! Do you think that I missed that bit where she was warning off Makie?"

"No, we are not having sex," Akira said firmly. "I more or less think of her as a somewhat insane little sister. She flirts with me a lot, but I'm pretty sure flirting is just how she shows friendliness. She does it with her maids, too, and ... okay, we're getting close to details I probably shouldn't talk about."

"Okay," said Yuna. She briefly considered telling Akira that she was pretty sure Mina wasn't just being friendly, but it might end the conversation with more of the stony silence. Problem was, she struggled to find something else to talk about. "So ... how long did you know we were having sex?"

"About a week now," Akira replied with a subtle shrug. "I had suspicions, before that, but, well, let's say that a conversation I had with a certain person left me fairly sure about what was going on."

"I guess the nose knows?" Yuna half-joked.

"Like I said, the nose suspected," Akira admitted. "I can identify smells fairly well, but there were other explanations than the obvious one."

"Um." That raised some interesting questions. "Do you need any special foods, like more meat, or something?"

"If I did, I should probably point out that I do most of the grocery shopping aready," her roommate reminded her. "But no. The wolf form wants meat, obviously, and the occasional berry, but I prefer to eat in human form."

"But you have eaten in -"

"I think this is another area we should proably not discuss," interrupted Akira.

"Right, got it," Yuna said rapidly, and reached for the remote. "Let's watch some TV."

"Yes, let's."

There was a middle-aged man addressing the camera when the set turned on, halfway through a speech. "- aren't the first times that the government has engaged in negotiations with a non-human nation, just the first time we've done so openly. Which I think should be a welcome change for those who've accused our administration of secretiveness."

The picture changed to a pair of newsanchors, one of each sex, regarding their camera with earnest, solemn expressions, which was unusual given that their sort usually strove for earnest, enthusiastic attitudes. "That was Minister of Communications Hinata, addressing the day's events," said the male. "To recap today's top story, the government has announced that they have signed the Interspecies Exchange Bill, publicly opening up relationships between Japan and a number of hidden, non-human nations found here on Earth."

"Wait, what?" the two girls chorused.

Heedless of their confusion, the female newsanchor began to speak over images of a woman with cat ears and a pair of tails shaking hands with the Prime Minister, who looked (to Yuna at least) like he'd just eaten something that really disagreed with him. Standing behind the cat-woman were a dog woman, an individual who looked remarkably like Orlando Bloom, an actual centaur, and a bald man in robes who was hovering above the floor. "The Bill, signed today by Prime Minister Yagami and one Kali Belladonna, a representative of the Extraspecies Alliance, will open up Japan to trade with these nations, and cultural exchanges as well. Following quickly on the heels of the establishment of the Vampire Bund, these are the first times that any human nation has publicly admitted to dealing with non-human intelligences, at least in historical times."

"Uh ... I take it you didn't know this was going to happen?" Yuna asked Akira.

"No. No we didn't," Akira answered calmly. "Oh, she's not going to be happy about this."

---

In a different dorm all together, yellow beauty Yang Xiao Long slowly turned to look at her partner and roommate. "So, that's your mom, right?"

"Yes," said the girl beside her, undoing her ribbon to reveal that the cat ears atop her head were quite natural. With a grunt, a pair of cat tails extended from behind her rear, as well. "That's my mom," said Blake Belladonna.

"Where exactly were you hiding those?" asked Yang.

"I think that's a subject we should probably not talk about," replied Blake.

"... can we talk about how sensitive they are?" Yang inquired, starting to smile broadly.

"It would probably be better to just show you later tonight."

---

"So you decided that she must be from the future," Negi concluded, nodding in understanding. "It will be very ironic if that's the case. I'll have to talk with Mai-san on the subject the next time I see her."

"I'm sure the two of you will get along very well," said Akira. "You have the same proclivity for interrogating me while I'm bound and in my underwear."

Negi coughed uncomfortably. "I'm sorry about that, actually."

"Don't be," Kaede told him as she crouched behind him, rubbing his shoulders. "'twas necessary to ensure that she had no weapons."

"Oh, please," Akira sneered. "I can summon a weapon from nowhere, just like you can. This is simply humiliation - which isn't working, by the way." The red tint on the kunoichi's cheeks suggested that this might not be the whole truth of the matter.

"Well, humiliation and satisfying the curiosity of one's pupils," Kaede agreed, glancing at Fuka and Fumika, who were off to the side, studying Okuzaki's body from a distance.

"Why were you posing as a boy, Akira?" Fumika finally asked. "It must have made your mission a lot more challenging than it had to be." She sounded a little sympathetic, to Negi's ears.

"Well, I can't really argue with that," the bound girl replied reluctantly. "But the point was to make it that much harder for the other HiME to figure out that I was one of them, so I could spy on them more effectively. And until Tokiha Mai showed up, it was working - I'd had confrontations with Kuga and with Suzushiro, and neither of them ever connected the ninja they saw with the boy Okuzaki."

"One wonders how much of that was due to your stealth, rather than your disguise, though," Kaede observed.

"We'll never know, I suppose," Akira replied with an attempt at a shrug, hindered by the ropework. She looked straight at Negi. "How did you see through my guise?"

"I guess that it was just down to my having a lot of familiarity with the female form," said Negi, since he felt like he owed the girl some explanation and wasn't ready to admit that it had been nothing but pure instinct.

"Indeed," she said with a glance at Kaede's nudity. The latter smiled, completely unashamed.

"There's still something I'm a little confused about," Negi admitted. "How did your superiors know to send you here?"

"Unlike some recent immigants or those who've forgotten their history, my people have records dating back quite a ways," Akira said, just a bit boastfully. "Including information about the last time this battle was fought, here in Japan, four hundred years ago. The mark on my body appeared two years ago, and they knew what it meant, so we had plenty of time to prepare."

"'Recent immigrants'?" Negi repeated, confused.

"She's talking about me," Kaede said. "My grandparents came to this world from another, two generations hence. I will tell you about it another time."

"She's also talking about us," Fuka said, just a bit angrily. "It's not like our mom's forgotten our history, it's just that she thinks that's all over." The petite girl snorted. "She pretty much thinks everything is over, certainly everything fun. Why else would she get so het up about sis and I having some happies together?"

"N-neechan!" Fumika stammered, looking at Akira in a frightened way.

Fuka did not heed her sister as she began to speak more loudly. "She's such a fucking hypocrite, too! Acting like we don't know how she still fools around with Hayate-jisan, and Kasumi-basan, and probably Honoka-basan, as well! Poor papa, he had to marry a slutty ex-ninja bitch!"

"Neechan!" Fumika cried pleadingly.

Both Negi and Akira were staring at the two of them with wide eyes. While Akira kept silent, Negi managed to say, "Ohhhhhkay, then."

"My my," cooed Kaede, still crouched behind Negi, but now reaching down in front of him to grasp a certain area of his anatomy. "Someone is excited by these sultry tales of debauchery. An interesting thing to know for the future. For now, though, one imagines 'tis time to resume that which was so cruelly interrupted." And with that, she began to unbutton Negi's shorts.

"Yay!" Fuka chorused, anger forgotten.

"... neechan, I really think you might have some serious problems sometimes," Fumika said weakly.

Ignoring the disturbed twins, Akira focused her own attention on Kaede and Negi. "Are you truly going to do this in front of me?" she asked, voice higher than normal.

"A true ninja, of a clan of long history, would surely be able to escape from the bonds of a recent immigrant," said Kaede without even a glance in Akira's direction as she sauntered around to Negi's front. "So you may leave, if you truly wish to do so. One is sure to be quite distracted in a few moments. Mnnnnnnnnnnnn," she added as she took his erect member in her mouth.

So, too, were Fuka and Fumika soon distracted, as they rushed over to offer their kisses - but from the sounds of things, not by any means their first kisses - to Negi, which he accepted with good grace while Kaede bobbed and sucked below. Far sooner than he would have expected, Negi clenched and cried in release, shooting into Kaede's tight mouth. She pulled back and looked up at him, opening her mouth to show him the emission before swallowing it down.

"The second and subsequent times," she said seductively, "will take longer."

"Lemme!" cried Fuka. "I wanna show Negi-kun how surprisingly skilled I am!"

"No, me!" cried Fumika.

"'tis better to share," said Kaede warningly.

"Yes, Kaede-ne," they chorused after a moment, and Kaede drew them down so that they could each work one side of Negi's cock, which, indeed, they did with startling proficiency.

"How -" Negi asked, faintly.

"Practice upon a dildo, how else?" Kaede whispered into his ear. "And the lesson that 'tis better to share is one which others could learn as well."

"Ahhhh," Negi gasped at the feelings brought out in him by the twins' fellatio, and the sensation of Kaede's breasts against his back.

He had been somewhat surprised by how easy it was to tell the difference between the two Narutaki girls, even now that their hairstyles lacked the decorations that were the easiest way to distinguish them. Fuuka was the active, even aggressive one, and she was also the first to stop licking along the sides and slide her mouth down the length of his member, taking it all in and licking at his testicles with her tongue, and then too the one to pull back, share the taste with her sister, then push the head into Fumika's mouth. Fumika, in her turn, was the more passive, shyer sister, and she sucked slowly, even agonizingly, down his cock, and also the one who leaned into the touch of her sister and Kaede, as their classmate reached across Negi's sides to carress the two of them.

Yes, Fuka was surprisingly skilled, and Fumika was very adult-like. And Negi found that he could stand it no more. Perhaps it might be the wiser course of action to spend his first release into one of their throats, or across both their faces, so that he might be more leisurely when he fucked the twins, but he chose otherwise. Wrenching back from their grip, he half-asked, half-gasped, "Who's first?"

"Meeee!" cried Fuka.

"Heeer!" cried Fumika.

As expected. He fretted for a brief moment about the possibility that they might find the rocky surface uncomfortable, then remembered that their hands and knees had pressed against it for several minutes now, without complaint. With that, he gently pushed Fuka to the ground and spread her legs so that her heels rested against his shoulders - taking advantage of their height similarity - then slid up and in.

"Squeeeeee!" Fuka ... well, you get the idea. "Thicker than fin-gerrrs!"

"Maybe I should use the whole fist, next time?" Fumika said just a bit sourly.

"Mmmm, yes!"

Her twin drooped a little further. "You're not even listening to me. Again."

"Fuck me, fuck me, papaaaaa!" Fuka cried out as Negi's only slightly delayed release at last burst forth into her, the surge of warmth triggering her own climax. And then another climax on top of that as Negi continued to slide back and forth even after his ejaculation, during her moment of great sensitivity.

Papa? thought Negi, then dismissed it. Haruna had spoken of girls in the class with daddy complexes, after all, though if Fuka had one, it clearly didn't limit her as much as Haruna had seemed to think.

"Oh, so pretty," groaned Fumika, bending down to take a closer look at Fuka's orgasmic face - then seized and brought in close for a particularly savage kiss.

"Ride my face," Fuka gasped once she let go. "Get your sweet little cunny on my tongue while Negi-kun fucks me stupid!"

"Neechan," Fumika said with a gentle smile. "You're already stupid." Yet, moved by the compliment to it, she nonetheless brought her cunny to her sister's mouth, kissing Negi's own mouth as she did.

Deeming her job here to be done, for the moment, Kaede proceeded to half-strut, half-walk over to where Akira had been bound a few moments earlier ... and was still bound, watching the tripling with something between horror and fascination. "Still here, then?" Kaede faintly taunted.

"I reluctantly concede that your ropework has indeed gotten the better of my own family's escape techniques," Akira said, mouth dry as she reluctantly looked up to the naked woman before her.

"Is that in truth the only reason you remain?" the taller ninja asked, tone thawing a little.

"No," admitted Akira, with another glance at Negi and the twins. "I have never seen the Miroku clan's techniques practiced before, and -"

Kaede laughed quietly. "Oh," she said, smiling broadly. "You think these are the techniques my family learned from the Miroku clan? Oh, no. No indeed. One knows that you are telling the truth, for there is no way that you could mistake them for this."

"Oh," said Akira, nonplussed.

"Perhaps I should show you."

"I think I would not ask for that," replied the ninja - uncomfortably aware that as the older ninja, and the one who had asserted the superiority of her lineage just a few minutes before, she should not be in this situation. "There is another in my heart ... and I hope that one will be the first to enjoy my body, as well."

"I see," said Kaede with a sigh. "One shall not force you. It is ironic, though, for one must admit to having had a mild infatuation for the boy Okuzaki. Your disguise was in truth good enough to fool even me. Can you take some pride in that?"

"I can and do," said Akira. "Can you take some pride in knowing that I never suspected that infatuation, even once?"

"I suppose I can, at that," replied Kaede. "Then our respective pride is salved." Yet another kunai appeared in Kaede's hands, and she bent to cut the single knot that undid all the others. "Go quickly, lest my master's boundless appetites include you, as well. And be sure not to speak of any of this to that Mai person, ere he contacts her himself."

"I should tell you that she is probably crazy, even beyond her claims of otherworldly origin," Akira said, rubbing her wrists as she stood up uneasily, glancing at Negi, who'd finished with Fuka and was now pounding away at Fumika from behind as she crouched over her satiated sister.

"All the best people I know are crazy," said Kaede with a smile that was kind of crazy in itself.

"Um. Just let me get my clothes -"

"Ah ah, no no. Walk of shame," Nagase added with a 'shoo shoo' gesture.

Once the blushing Okuzaki had gotten on her way, Kaede went over to join her master and the two newest members of his collective, this time to truly demonstrate the basics of the Miroku style for them.

---

His own name was Maruo and his family name doesn't matter, not to him and not to the narrative in which he was entwined. What did matter was that he was rising up in the organization, and he was certain that someday, and someday soon, he was going to be at the very top of it. Until then, he wasn't going to do anything to risk his situation, so he never touched his own product, and worked by very specific rules about how he sold it.

That night, just after sunset, the girl walked off the street and into his alley, eyes filled with desperate need. Maruo decided that just this once he was going to ignore his own rules about always getting the money, even from a first timer, and offer her a hit of Refrain in exchange for services rendered. He had her up against one of the walls in an instant, pulling open her blouse to mouth at her tits and commanding her to spread her legs. All of which she did. Man, it really was the quiet ones, who would have thought that the secretary of the student council was -

And then she tore his jugular open with her fangs, and the story quickly ended for Maruo.

A few moments later, the mouth and much of the neck of Shinonome Nanami were drenched in blood, and she sat against the wall staring at the corpse of her first lover with a dull and unhappy expression. Footsteps sounded nearby, and she looked up. What she wanted to feel was fear, anger, anything but what she did feel on looking up at the tall blonde woman in a jet black dress and elbow-length gloves who was gazing down at her with a smile.

"So you finally did it," said the vampire Hysterica.

Nanami said nothing. Nothing the other vampire said demanded a response.

"Really, I'm sort of impressed," Hysterica continued. "You went a full twenty-four hours without blooding yourself. I've never heard of a fledgling with that level of self-control. Of course I thought you were going to do it when -"

"Don't," Nanami whispered, a tiny bit of something that wasn't desperate need to please the woman talking to her somehow breaking through everything that was.

Hysterica actually fell silent. "A gentle reminder, little piggy. I tell you what you do and don't, not the other way around." Still, the subject she'd been talking about was not all that interesting, so she moved on to other matters. "Now, who was your meal? Oh, I see it's one of that Torchwick fellow's people. Well, that could make things a little interesting later on, but he has others. Leave the body for the other side to deal with, dear, and come with me."

"... yes, master," said Nanami, getting up and allowing the being who owned her soul to lick her face clean before they departed.

---

"What are you going to do about -" Akira started to ask as she followed her master down the curfew-forbidden street.

"I don't want to talk about it," said Mina as she stayed ahead her bodyguard, wearing a rather cute sundress and hat combination.

"All right then, have you managed to find -"

"I don't want to talk about that, either."

Akira sighed. "What do you want to talk about, Mina?" she asked, in the tone of one who already knew the answer.

Mina stopped short, whirled around and pointed just behind Akira. "Gosh, whatever could I possibly want to talk about? What's she doing here?"

"Hi, Mina-chan!" said Makie, waving happily at the girl pointing a finger at her. "It's so gloomy tonight, I thought you maybe you didn't notice me when I showed up."

"Oh, I noticed you all right," growled Mina. "Well?" she added with a glare at Akira.

"She'd come over to talk with Yuna and I when I got your phone call, and she insisted on coming with me," Akira explained.

"And you, the big strong werewolf, were unable to stop a middle school gymnast from doing that because why now?"

"I let her come with me because I knew that, once she'd decided to tag along, nothing short of the end of days was going to stop her from doing so," the big strong werewolf admitted.

"Oh, don't talk me up like that, you'll give Mina-chan the wrong idea about me," Makie protested.

"Maki-chan, why are you here? No, wait ... you'll tell me that philosophy is Ayase's thing, won't you?" Ignoring the mystified look that Makie was giving her, Mina pressed on. "Why did you decide to follow Akira to her meeting with me?"

Makie decided to give her the same answer she'd been about to give, since the questions meant the same thing as far as she could tell. "Well, you're trying to help Eva-chan, like you said, and Eva-chan is a classmate, and so are you, and Negi would want me to help my classmates, and I'd want to do that even if I'd never met Negi, so I basically just want to help." She nodded in conclusion.

Mina stared. "Just like that."

Makie nodded.

The princess of vampires closed her eyes. "So shines a good deed in a naughty world," she murmured. When she spoke again it was considerably more loudly. "All right. Fine. But you need to understand, this could get really dangerous and noboody is going to save you if it does."

"Akira will save me," Makie answered with certainty.

"Akira will be busy saving me," Mina answered that with equal certainty.

"Akira will save us both," Makie trumped that.

"What if she can't save us both?" demanded Mina.

"Then she will still save us both, because she is just that awesome, and you know it or you wouldn't like her so much," Makie said very quickly.

Mina glared at Makie, turned that glare briefly in the direction of Akira, who was blushing in a most un-werewolf-like manner, and snapped, "Do not derive any meaning from the fact that I agree with her about your awesomeness." With that declaration, she turned and stomped off in the direction she'd been heading before she came to a halt.

---

Following that direction brought Mina - and Akira and Makie, following closely on her hills - to the residential district just outside of Academy City's east gate. (Unbeknownst to any of them, they were rather close to the home where the Yuuki family and that family's new houseguest resided.) Standing on the sidewalk and regarding one house on the other side of the street with a frustrated expression was a tall brunette woman in a butler's suit, who fit the stereotype of the sexy female vampire far more than Mina did. She turned at the sound of their approach and offered Mina a formal bow. "Your Highness," she said. On straightening, she added, "Akira. Annnnnd ..." She stared at Makie, then turned to regard Mina questioningly.

Mina made a disgusted noise. "Vera, meet Maki-chan, who's volunteered to help out of the goodness of her heart. Maki-chan, meet Vera, my chief adviser."

"Hello there," said Makie, waving.

"All right, then," said Vera, clearly still mystified. "Ah ... Ernestin has reported finding Shinonome-san's sleeping grounds, and she's following her trail. I returned to this position in expectation that she'd come back here, but it hasn't happened yet."

"Why did she come here?" Akira asked. "Wait, is this her family's home?"

"It used to be," Vera confirmed, pointing to the house to the left of the one she'd been observing. "She grew up in that house, and her parents still lived there until three years ago, when they were fired from their positions at the school that became Honnoji and moved elsewhere. The focus of her attention, though, was on the neighbors' house." Vera glanced at Makie, but kept on talking as she did. "Towards morning, Shinonome-san approached one of the windows of that house, and ... well, lured the young boy who lived there to come out and ... play with her," she concluded delicately.

"I'mmmmm going to make a wild guess here that you're not talking about hopscotch and jump rope and hide and seek and that sort of thing," said Makie.

"No," Vera replied, much less delicately.

"How badly was the boy hurt?" Mina asked, face tightly pinched.

"That's the strange part about all of this," her adviser answered. "There was a moment when she went completely berserk on him, and I was about to intervene ... but then she stopped herself and ran off. He was just left confused and a little afraid, and went back inside almost immediately. It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen. She's a fledgling, and she hadn't fed at all during her first night as a vampire. How did she manage to stop herself -"

"She would have to have a strong will, to be a member of the Joint Student Council with Kiryuuin-san," Akira pointed out.

"Student Council?" Vera asked, clearly skeptical. "That's your explan-"

"Vera, we're new here," Mina reminded her. "And I've actually met Kiryuuin Satsuki, and find Akira's argument somewhat plausible. But, yes, this is very strange."

"Ummmmmm," said Makie, looking at the sidewalk as though it had become incredibly interesting. "I kinda think there might be another factor."

"And what might that be?" asked Mina.

Makie started to sort of rub the pavement with the tip of one of her shoes. "Well, um, I mean, I've never really met the secretary, but I've seen her, and I've heard a few stories about her, and, well, she supposedly doesn't really like boys her own age. So how old was this boy?"

"He was ten, what does that have to ... do ... with ... ohhhhhh," concluded Vera after a moment or so.

Makie nodded, still clearly fascinated by the concrete. Mina and Vera also found other things to look at than her, while Akira quietly rested her palm over her eyes and shook her head slightly.

The disturbing moment came to an abrupt end, as Vera brought a hand to her left ear and spoke. "Report. Right. Dammit. Clean up the scene, and have Mavra continue the pursuit alone. Out." Now addressing those physically present, she continued. "Ernestin followed her trail and discovered that Shinonome has fed and is now in the company of another vampire."

"Well, that makes the situation that much worse." Before Makie could speak up, Mina addressed her. "We have a cure for a vampire bite, but it has to be administered within forty-eight hours - which are almost up - and its efficacy depends on how much human blood the subject has consumed." She glanced at Vera, who shook her head almost imperceptibly. "So the chances of us resolving this situation the easy way are pretty much zero at this point."

"Excuse me," said a small voice not too far away. "Are you people looking for oneechan?"

The four of them turned to see that, unnoticed until right now, a ten year old boy in a jacket over pyjamas and slippers had crept up to where they were standing.

"Ah, maybe," Makie said, taking point before Mina or Vera could. "Is your oneechan Shinonome Nanami, boy?" she asked gently.

He nodded rapidly. "I saw her last night. Mom told me that it was just a dream, but I know that it really happened."

"I believe you," Makie said. "What's your name?"

"Yuzuru," he told her.

"What a cute name!" she said, smiling widely.

"Ma-kie," Akira said, clearly horrified.

"Well, it is!"

---

"They'll probably come for us around midnight," said Evangeline, dressed in a black teddy and matching panties, barefoot and seated in a rocking chair in the cabin's living room, eyes fixed on more or less nothing.

"We shall be ready," said Karin, standing behind the chair in her maid's outfit.

"Quick question, though," Asuna said dubiously. "Why midnight?" For her part, she was sitting on the living room's couch, and wearing the elaborate dress that appeared on her whenever she invoked her pactio. (Normally, she would change out of it into something a little more battle-appropriate, but she couldn't exactly do that in front of the one who insisted it was the appropriate garb for a mid-level boss of evil.)

"Do you doubt Evangeline-sama's word?" the maid asked, glaring death in Asuna's direction.

"Nnnno, not this time," Asuna specified. "But I don't see what midnight has to do with anything. Actually, wouldn't attacking at dawn be the smarter move?"

"Oh my, baby's first tactical analysis, I should really take some pictures," Evangeline half-sneered. (The other half, which wouldn't have been apparent to anyone who didn't know her very well, was a genuine smile.) "Nothing about this is the smart move, Kagurazaka Asuna."

"But that's crazy. I mean, okay, she's kind of a jerk, she's mean, she's cruel, and last year I voted for that Kuno guy - don't look at me like that," she told the other two people in the room with her.

"Then don't make disturbing personal revelations that inspire such looks," drawled Karin.

"Need I remind you people that my vote, as a second-year middle school student, counted as one-quarter of an actual vote? It's not like it mattered, is what I'm trying to say. Anyway! The point I was trying to make is that nobody, no matter how much they might dislike Kiryuuin, has ever said that she's an idiot. So why is she going to attack the veritable queen of darkness -"

"My blushes," said Eva with a smirk.

"- at midnight, instead of dawn when you'll be weaker?"

"Because as I already said, it's not about the smart move. It's not even about vengeance for Shinonome, not really. This is about settling a very old score." The vampire leaned back in her chair, tilting all the way back until her eyes could stare up at the ceiling. "If anything, I'm surprised that she decided to wait until close to the end of her last term as president to settle things with me," she added, almost softly.

When it became clear that no further additions to that were forthcoming, Asuna let out a cough. "Okay, you know you can't leave it like that."

"Oh can't I?" Evangeline asked sourly.

"You rant about what Nagi-san did to you on an average of once a day," the girl with bells reminded her. "Usually while kicking my ass. You love to talk about stuff that happened to you. So what happened to you and Kiryuuin? Maybe it can serve as a lesson to me as a mid-level boss of evil!"

"How'bout you let the ultimate boss of evil decide what will be a good lesson for a mid-level boss of evil?"

Asuna ignored this, of course. (What kind of mid-level boss of evil is obedient?) "Do you know anything about this?" she asked Karin. She and the maid did not get on, to put it mildly, but Asuna had actually been paying attention to the way that Eva's servant was listening to all of this. She thought there might just be a chance that that pressing this particular button could work.

"I do not know what passed between them," Karin stoutly replied. "And it is surely none of my concern. For after all, there are no memorabilia about her anywhere to be found in this house, so whatever happened cannot have been of any great significance. It is not as though there is any possibility that, before I arrived here to take up my rightful position, this person could possibly have been Evangeline-sama's leman, and their parting so troubled and angry as to make her destroy all the keepsakes of their doomed romance, or at least hide them so well that a concerned individual would never be able to find them no matter how diligent -"

"Oh, for Nocticula's sake, she was in kindergarten!" Evangeline protested.

"Also a possibility," added Karin after a moment.

"Well, you started it," said Asuna. "You might as well finish it. I mean, unless you want to be seen as someone who leaves stuff undone."

Evangeline rolled her eyes. "Where did you learn such transparent manipulation?"

"From you."

"... fiiiiiiine. It was about two years, maybe a little more, after Nagi immured me in this place. Kiryuuin sought me out and basically commanded me to teach her just like I've been teaching you. This worked out -"

"Hold it," Asuna interrupted.

"Oh, you just love to live dangerously, don't you?"

She ignored that as obvious. "How did she even know about you? The Kiryuuins aren't part of the magical community, at least not that you've mentioned until now. And even if they are, she was five if I'm doing the math right."

"No, they are not," Evangeline confirmed wearily. "However, the very rich and the very powerful, which her family have been for the last two centuries, have always been more aware of the Moonlit World than the man on the street. Sometimes, those families get that way because they know about the Moonlit World, one way or another. Not in this case. As I was saying before a half-wit interrupted me ... at that time, I was genuinely trying to live in the light, and was not interested in having any students. So I told her no. And then I did it again the next day, and the next, and eventually she'd been coming around for a month, and I got a little annoyed ... and, well ... Ispnkdhr." This last was delivered as quietly and as quickly as she could manage.

"You spanked her?" Asuna repeated for clarification.

"Lucky wench," muttered Karin.

Evangeline half-growled, half-sighed. "Yes, Kagurazaka Asuna, the forthcoming battle royale is all because I gave a girl a spanking thirteen years ago. And that is why she's going to attack at midnight, rather than dawn - because even though she probably knows that midnight doesn't mean anything to me, other people might think that the witching hour has some significance, and she wants everyone to know that she beat me at what they'll think of as my full power. Any other questions?"

"... what do you think would happen if you apologized like Negi wanted?" Asuna asked.

"Before or after she ran me through with that sword of hers?"

---

"All right, Yuzuru-kun," said Mina after some further discussion and elaboration of what had already been said. "There's something I need to make very clear to you, and you're not going to like it. I want to save your oneechan. She is one of my people, whatever she might think about herself. But. That is not my primary goal here. I'm trying to get the person responsible for these attacks, and if the only way that I can get her is to go through Shinonome-san, that's what I'll do."

"But that's not right!" the boy protested. "That person is the one who did this to oneechan! Why do you care more about the perpetrator than the victim?"

"Where did you learn those complicated words?" the vampire asked. "No, never mind that now. I have to look at things this way, because I don't want there to be more victims. And you should also know that, even if we do manage to rescue Shinonome, she is going to have to go live in the Bund and you will probably never see her again."

Yuzuru was practically in tears. "Couldn't I at least visit her sometimes?" he managed to bite out.

Mina's face honestly creased in pain. "We might be able to arrange something," she half-mumbled. "But -"

"How very kind of you," came a voice from further on down the street. "Not at all what I'd have expected of the queen of the night."

The small party of vampires and mortals all turned to see who was approaching. Just a few houses away, Shinonome Nanami was standing - well, standing in a hunched over posture, her eyes fixed on Yuzuru and her face clearly tortured - and behind her was a blonde woman who looked even more like a stereotypical vampire - a different sort of stereotypical vampire, admittedly - than Vera did.

"And who might I have the displeasure of addressing?" asked Mina, cutting off the other vampire before she could go off on a rant about her plans, as Akira and Vera both stepped forward to stand before her.

"My name is Hysterica. Such a pleasure -"

"Your name is Francesca," interrupted Vera.

"Ohhhh, I have a feeling that I know where this is going, Yuzuru-kun," Makie confided in her fellow mortal.

"Why, Veritas, I didn't see you there in your master's shadow," said Hysterica. "How long has it been? I last saw you in Warsaw, around 1900, wasn't it?"

"Paris, 1918," Vera replied. "And don't call me Vertitas, Francesca."

"My name is Hysterica."

"Yep, ex-girlfriends," said Makie, nodding soberly.

"Oh," said Yuzuru, blushing brightly.

Hysterica's teeth seemed to grind together for a moment. "Enough of this. I'm going to give you one last chance, Veritas. Renounce the little brat, take out her pet dog, and we can both bring her before my employer. Then you can have anything you want."

Vera's eyes, as grey as gunmetal, seemed to soften for a moment. "Oh, Francesca. Haven't you learned yet that all those things that you want and take and toss away will never ever fill the void in your heart? Only one thing will do that, and it's what I already have. I genuinely pity you."

The other vampire stared, wide-eyed, at Vera ... and then her jaw seemed to detach from her skull as she opened her mouth t let out the most ferocious roar from a mouth filled with fangs. From behind her, further away in the dark, there appeared dozens of dazed, pale people, some still bleeding from the wounds on their necks or elsewhere, eyes uniformly black as the night.

"Oh, someone's been busy," said Mina.

"Mina - run," Akira quietly comamanded. "We'll hold them off as long as we can, but you need to get Makie and Yuzuru-kun out of here -"

Abruptly, the odds became a bit more even. They seemed to move like ghosts as they came to stand before Akira and Vera, a group of young women with hair colors varying like the colors of a rainbow, all equipped with weapons that seemed to gleam in the moonlight. "The Elite Eight are here!" one of them proclaimed.

"... Elite Eight?" Akira repeated, turning to give Mina such a look.

"I had mine first," Mina said, looking away. "If anything, she stole it from me. Ahem. Ladies of the Earth Clan! I charge you, let no one harm either Hysterica or Shinonome-san. The rest ... disable if you can, but slay if you must. Clear a path for us to the heart of our adversaries."

"Yes, your highness," proclaimed the group's spokesman, who turned to offer Akira the shaft of a certain pole arm.

"Oh, mother," Akira muttered as she took it. "I told her, I prefer punching people, but does she listen?" Still, she was clearly versed in the use of the naginata as she brought it up into a ready position.

"Akira - after Nanami! She's the key to all of this!" Mina cried. "Vera - guard!"

With a roar that was more than an echo of Hysterica's earlier bellow, the Elite Eight lept forward to meet the vampire army, driving their flanks back so that Akira, with Mina following closely on her bodyguard's heels, could dash towards Nanami ... who promptly panicked and ran headlong away from them.

"And so it comes down to you and I once more," growled Hysterica, for they had also cleared the way for her, and her eyes were locked on Vera. "Let us at last see whether this void of mine is stronger than your so-called love!" And with that, fingers become talons, she launched herself at Vera, who stood ready to receive her charge like a bulwark.

From a direction Hysterica had not even noticed, a ribbon shot out and wrapped around one of her legs, pulling her out of her leap and down to the ground in a heap. "What -" she nearly shrieked.

"You always were kind of a sucker," said Vera sadly, as she dropped onto her fallen former friend, pulled a syringe out of her vest pocket, jammed its barrel into Hysterica's chest, then shoved the plunger down with a thumb.

"No - no!" Hysterica screamed.

"Oh, yes," Vera confirmed. "Shinonome's not the key to all this. You are. Welcome to being bound to her highness."

"I'm sorry, I really didn't understand any of this when you explained it," said Makie, whose ribbon was still wrapped around Hysterica's legs. "Run it by me one more time?"

"When a vampire takes in another vampire's blood, the one who drank becomes bound to the one who was drunk," Vera said. "Or this case, the one who was injected becomes bound to the one whose blood was injected. Some vampires call it being overwritten, but that terminology has never made much sense to me."

"So ... now she's a good vampire who'll do what Mina-chan tells her?" Makie asked.

"Something like that," Vera replied, watching Hysterica curl up in a ball and start sobbing.

---

A few intersections away from the ongoing fight between the Elite Eight and the vampire army, Mina and Akira found Nanami collapsed against one of the street signs, breathing heavily. "How come?" she asked, without looking up at them. "How come vampires still get tired out?"

"If we are magic, then it is not the sort of magic that defies the law of conservation of energy," Mina answered. "If you do work, you expend energy, and in time you run out of it. Are you sane again?"

"What do you think?" the fledgling vampire shrieked, turning a distorted face and pure black eyes back at them.

"What I hope," Mina said carefully, "is that by now Vera has overwritten Hysterica's loyalty, transferring it to me ... and making me your master, as well, and that of those other poor souls, so that we can save as many of them as we can."

"You ... you have no fucking idea what you are talking about. I'm past saving."

"In the sense that it is by now probably impossible for you to become human once again, yes, that is true. But there is another life, a different sort of life than you can imagine now, waiting for you in the Bund. Shinonome-san, the door to your past is closed, but you do not have to turn away from the door to your -"

"I'm not even talking about that!" she cried. "I'm sick! I'm a sick, twisted, deviant thing! What I did to Yuzuru-chan -"

"But I'm okay, oneechan," came a voice from behind Akira and Mina.

Mina turned sharply to glare at the boy. "I told you to stay back when the fighting started," she hissed.

"Well, yeah, but I thought that was kinda dumb," Yuzuru told the princess of vampires as he finished jogging up to the two of them, and then continued past them. "I'm right here, oneechan. You didn't hurt me."

"I was going to! Stay back!" Nanami almost shrieked. "I was about to do something terrible and twisted and monstrous to you -"

"And then you didn't," Yuzuru reminded her as he continued to close the distance between them. "So you're still you, oneechan. And no matter what happens, I wanna be with you ... Nanami."

The girl jolted at the use of her name. "Yuzuru-chan ... no, no, you don't mean that. I have to go away from you, I have to go to the island and never see you again, that's, that's the right thing to do."

"Then I don't wanna do the right thing," the boy said, frustration becoming more apparent in his voice. By now he was standing right in front of her. "I want to go with you, wherever you're going. I want to be with you, whatever you become."

"Yuzuru-chan," Nanami almost sobbed, looking into his face. And then she bent forward and pressed her lips to his.

"Well, make that at least two new vampires going to the Bund," Mina mused as the two in front of her began to move together. "I guess this is sort of okay, I mean, if four hundred year old me can do it with a fourteen year old whom I first met as a two-week old baby, then this isn't really any worse."

"I'm just going to pretend you didn't say that," said Akira, blushing brightly enough to light up the area, as Nanami began tearing at Yuzuru's clothes. "And - oh, my," she added, and promptly covered Mina's eyes.

"Really?" asked Mina. "You are really doing this. For me. The four hundred year old."

"Yes, and I wish someone would do it for me," Akira replied, watching Nanami's long black hair sway as she moved her head back and forth against Yuzuru's midsection, to his evident stunned arousal.

"Well, I can see why you might think like this, since we are in public. Well, anyway, once they get done - whatever that might entail in these circumstances - let me know so that I can gather the interested parties for the detective's summation."

---

Around midnight, just outside the McDowell Cabin.

"I see," said Kiryuuin Satsuki, calmly regarding Shinonome, and then Hysterica, who both stood before her. "Then this person, and not Evangeline McDowell, is the individual who attacked you, and then compelled you to commit several crimes through occult means."

"Yes," said Nanami, not quite able to meet the President's eyes as she answered.

Satsuki nodded, then looked at Hysterica. "Is this true?" she asked, sounding utterly disinterested.

"Yes," Hysterica replied, almost as quietly as Nanami had spoken.

"And do you regret your actions?" the President asked again.

Standing behind her, Mina opened her mouth to give her new subject an order.

"No," snapped Hysterica. "I regret nothing! I would do it a thousand thousand times more and it would never be enough! You should all -"

With that last word, Satsuki casually lifted her sword, and swung it on an arc that sliced Hysterica's head off in a single powerful blow. The head, and the body to which it had been attached, decomposed in seconds, leaving nothing but dust in the wind.

"I was only asking as a courtesy, incidentally," Satsuki stated after a moment. Then, ignoring the looks she was getting from Mina and her company, she turned to regard Evangeline, who was standing on the porch overlooking all this, with Asuna and Karin on either side of her. "It seems," said Satsuki, "that you are not responsible for any of this. Nevertheless, my statement that you are no longer welcome in my Academy City has not changed."

"Wha-" Mina started to shout.

"Of course not," Eva sighed.

"However," Satsuki barrelled on. "There is no longer a pressing demand for your removal. Therefore, you have until the end of your current school year to find a way to remove the so-called 'curse' which keeps you here, so that you can continue your education elsewhere ... or not, as it turns out. Fail to do so, and I will see to your removal one way or another."

Eva stared. "What?"

"I do not wish to repeat myself."

"What are you doing? What about -" Evangeline broke off, as a horrible thought struck her. "You're setting me up for something even worse than this, aren't you?"

"Believe what you like. My involvement in this matter is -" Satsuki started to say.

"Are you seriously trying to act like you don't still hold a grudge?" demanded the eldest vampire present.

"Over what? Your petty refusal to offer me assistance, thirteen years ago? I found other teachers - frankly, better ones - and if anything, you are the one who lost out by passing up the opportunity to ally yourself with Kiryuuin Satsuki when you had the opportunity to do so. Such opportunities do not come often, and will never come for you again. As I was saying before I was interrupted by a narcissist, my involvement in this matter is at an end. You are all in violation of curfew, and, in some cases, of international treaties. I will not wish any of you good night." And with that, she stalked away into the shadows, seeming to gleam as she did so.

"Well," said Mina after a moment. "That didn't go quite the way I thought it would."

"Oh, I bet it didn't," said Evangeline, focusing her angry glare on Mina. "I suppose that, technically, I owe you something for your involvement in all this. Very well ... I will repay the debt I owe you by forgiving you your utter impertinence in meddling in my affairs, for which I would normally kill you."

"You, you utter ingrate!" Mina sputtered.

Evangeline ignored her, and turned her gaze towards Makie. "Sasaki Makie. Is it true what was said tonight, that you aided these people solely out of altruism?"

"... I'm not sure what that means, but I don't think you need a reason to help someone," Makie answered.

"Ooh, ouch," muttered Asuna, flinching.

"But, I did think Negi would like it if I helped you," the gymnast admitted.

Eva stared at her. Eventually, she reached up and covered her eyes with her palm. "I really feel old, tonight," she murmured. Dropping her hand, she looked down at Makie. "Tell the boy, when next you see him, that I owe him a debt that I will repay at a time, and in a coin, of my choosing."

"You would rather owe him a debt than me," Mina nearly snarled.

"Seems that way, doesn't it. Good night, gentles all," she said, waving a hand as she turned to walk back into the cabin, followed by a silent Karin.

"... I don't fucking believe this," announced Mina.

"I do," said Akira, looking elsewhere.

"I do, too," added Asuna, coming down the stairs from the cabin's porch. "You mind if I tag along with you on the way back to the dorms?"

---

The sounds of the door opening, and then closing again, drew Yuna out of her doze, and after that she couldn't help but notice the soft pad of feet on the dorm room floor. She opened her eyes and peeked out of her bed, down to see Negi tip-toeing over to the ladder leading up to his nook.

"Negi?" she asked.

He didn't jump, which was sort of cool, but he did quickly look up to meet her gaze. "Did I wake you?" he asked.

"No, I was lying in my bed, staring blankly at the dark and pondering the imponderable," she told him.

He looked at her.

After a moment, she nodded. "Yeah, you woke me."

"I'm very sorry. Try to get some more sleep, it's still a few hours before sunrise," he urged.

"I got a better idea. Get up here," she said, then beckoned him with a hand.

"Really, really, I think you should sleep instead of -"

"We need to talk, dumbass."

"Ohhh," he said, understanding. With that, he came over to the ladder leading up to her bunk, climbed up, and - in response to her silent invitation - slid under the blanket with her.

"So ... I was actually only sort of sleeping," Yuna said, after a moment. "I just got back to sleep after Makie called me and let me know that she took care of Evangeline-san's problem."

"Eh?" said Negi, startled. "How did she -"

"I didn't really follow it, there was something about her using her ribbon on somebody and a cute little boy, and I was sort of only half-listening. Hopefully she didn't use the ribbon on the cute little boy, but we'll probably get the full story in more detail than either of us really want later today. The point is, it's over, and we came out ahead, I think."

"I ... guess that's a good thing," he said uncertainly.

"And Akira told Makie to tell me that she'd be over at the Bund for the rest of the night and probably the rest of the day," she added.

"Okay."

"Your turn."

"Are we taking turns?"

"We are now."

Negi took a deep breath. "Well, the Narutaki twins have joined the collective."

Yuna made a face, but nodded. "Yeah, I figured that was gonna happen when they showed up with Kaede. So is it true what people say about the two of them?"

"I don't know what people say about them, but if people speculate that the two of them are intimate with each other, then, well, yes."

"I probably shouldn't talk, should I?" she said.

"I also met another 'HiME', and it turns out that I know two more, so I'm going to be trying to talk with them about what's happening on campus."

"Talk like this or talk like you talked with Fujino?"

"... probably like Fujino."

"Uh huh," she said with a shake of her head. "You wanna pass the turn to me?"

"There's one more thing," Negi admitted. "I did a fair amount of thinking - well, most involving paying attention to what Kaede was trying to tell me - and I realized that in trying to protect all of you, I was being -" He broke off, gave an uncomfortable laugh. "- paternalistic. You've all made a choice to follow me and work with me, and I shouldn't be as overprotective as I have been. So I'm going to give you and everyone else who wants one a pactio, as soon as we can arrange it. Um. Would you like to get yours ahead of the rest of the group? Because I saw Chamo sleeping in one of the drawers, and we could wake him up -"

"No," said Yuna. "It's better that I get it the same time as everyone else."

"O-okay," he said, confused by her somber tone. "Then ... it's your turn."

"Right," she said. "Negi, what do you know about basketball?"

"The most important thing - that I know nothing," he answered cheerfully.

"Okay, then. Probably the most important member of a basketball team is the point guard. This is a player who's usually not as tall as the other members of the line, but who knows the game inside and out, knows the players, knows how they all work together. In football, they'd be like the quarterback, the one who comes up with plans of attack and defense."

"And this is the position you play on your team," Negi guessed.

"No," she said firmly. "I'm a different player. I'm what's called a swingman, sometimes acting as the small forward and sometimes as the shooting guard."

"Then why did you tell me about the point guard?" he asked, confused.

"Because the point guard is the leader of the team ... and I've tried to be a point guard, and it didn't work. And I can't be the leader of your team, either. I gave up on you this, em, yesterday morning, Negi. A leader isn't allowed to give up on a member of the team, especially someone as important to that team as you are to ours."

"Oh," he said.

"So, I guess what happened with Fujino was a good thing, because ... well, your team needs a leader, and she's a pretty good one."Yuna nodded. "Iincho might be better, actually, so that's another vote besides Chizuru's for getting her in on this. Or even As- well, this is all up to you, really, and I shouldn't tell you what to do. That defeats the whole purpose of this little rant."

"This is not really much of a rant," he told her.

"The point is, I'm not, and can't be, your main girl," she said at last.

"Yuna, no matter what I do from now on, or whoever takes charge of the coll- the team, as you put it, you will always be a very important person in my life," he told her.

The room grew a bit more illuminated, then. "Goddamn casanova," she said, and pulled him close.

---

Adam Wingard. Charley Parlapanides. Vlas Parlapamides. Jeremy Slater.

"What are you doing, Raito?" asked the lazy voice from somewhere behind him.

The Prime Minister of Japan paused momentarily in his writing. "Ryuk," he said without a backward glance. "I believe that our relationship has progressed beyond the point where you need to pretend not to understand what I'm doing. I'm well aware that you're not nearly as dumb as you've sometimes pretended to be. So please don't act like it." And then resumed.

"Okay," the voice said agreeably. "Who are you killing, Raito?"

Jonathan Eirich. "Not who I'd like to be." Brendan Ferguson. "That would be those obnoxious Sailor Guardians who manipulated me into signing that disgusting Extaspecies treaty. Pauline Fischer. "But I don't know their real names, do I? John Powers Middleton. "So instead, I think I'll deal with the people who made that ridiculous 'documentary' about L last year." Sarah Perlman Bremner. "I don't like how they portrayed him as incompetent."

"Well, it's not like I care who you kill with that thing, as long as you understand that -"

"- someday you will write my name in it, yes, yes, you remind me of that at least once a year." Miri Yoon. He moved on to the producers, next. There certainly were a lot of them.

"I actually watched that movie, you know," Ryuk said. "They didn't do so bad. I just hope that you're not mad because they had him played by a Black guy."

Lakeith - He finally realized what Ryuk had just said, and stopped halfway through the name. "I am not racist," he told the shinigami.

"Didn't say you were."

"I'm not."

"Okay then."

He let out a sigh of annoyance as he watched the half-written name vanish, and moved on to the next name on his list.

A god's work was never done.

---

On the other side of the world, in what remained of the borough of Queens, a mother and daughter were lying on their garret's bed, watching a TV news report on recent developments in Japan. "While the majority of these so-called liminal entities are familiar figures from folklore, others are considerably more disturbing. There are reports of zombies, mummies, and spider-human hybrids among the newcomers to Japan, and doubtless this will be the cause for a great deal of confusion in the months to come," said the newscaster over artistic renderings of the extraspecies.

"Mom," said the daughter, whose name was May. "I think I need to go to Japan."

Mary Jane Watson-Parker let out a long sigh, and reached out to rub one of her daughter's eight legs. "Yeah. I think that might be a good idea. There's just one bad thing about it, sweetheart."

"What?" May asked, blinking all of her six eyes at once.

"It means I'm going to have ask for help from someone I really don't like."

Next: Diana