Look! It's an update! Thank you everyone who reviewed last chapter, I worked hard to get this chapter up as soon as I could so please read! –Bows-
Disclaimer – still no mail from Ken Akamatsu to say I own Negima and his characters.
In regards to the time frame of when the story is set it is after the New World Arc however I've changed things around a bit to make the story work better so don't expect Nagi just yet or Negi to be working on the magical world relations just yet – Asuna has come back to graduate with her class.
Thoughts
Setsuna winces as her muscles creak, exhaustion hitting her after hours in the resort under Eva's "training". She shudders at the memory of the dark puppet master's smile, the agony that soon came after it the reason why she was still making her way out of the newly formed crater.
"I see you have recovered," the blonde vampire comments, wandering back into the room, her expression one of boredom, never changing as she stares at the half demon crawling out of the still smoking crater. Setsuna mumbles a half-hearted yes, eyes watering from exertion when she finally reaches the top of the crater. Her pale hand moves to grab the loose marble but small fingers, curling around the wrist, stop its progress.
"Good. I think its time we got a little more serious in your training." The grip turns painful as the fingers tighten, the devilish glint in her eyes meeting terrified orbs.
Training with the devil
When the dark haired girl limps into class she is met with sympathetic looks and soft smiles, trying to look reassuring but failing, seeing as how none of them aside from Negi and Asuna knew what Evangeline was capable of.
Speaking of the two, who seemingly could read minds without the use of Pactio cards now, they wandered towards her as if they heard their names. "So the desert or snowy mountains?" Asuna asks, shivering at her own recollection of the snowy mountains. "Both." Negi and Asuna wince in unison. "You shouldn't push yourself too much," the teenage teacher says, "remember we can help you if things become too unbearable."
The half demon just nods, smiling to show her appreciation at the gesture. Satisfied that his student wasn't going to pass out and was well enough Negi turned his attention to the rest of the class, who seemingly started another round of strip poker without him knowing. "Girls!" Allowing her head to fall down on her desk the dark haired girl turned to face the window, staring out at the World Tree through heavy eyes. "Puberty sucks…" Setsuna remarks quietly.
Two weeks earlier
"So you're telling me that I'm going through..." Hands go up into the air in a weak attempt to make sense of the situation, "demon puberty?" A heavy silence falls on the group as everyone stares at the other, not sure how to approach the situation with an obviously distraught Setsuna in the mix.
"It doesn't seem to be that bad Setsuna," the ever valiant Negi tries first, "your other half says that it will just be harder to control your more basic urges-" Setsuna holds her finger up to stop him, her other hand massaging her temples. "My other half?" She asks slowly, scanning the squirming forms of her friends, Asuna particularly who was flustered.
"She's a demon stud," Haruna quips helpfully, joined by Kazumi's hum of approval, clearly remembering her husky voice and dark lidded eyes. "My guess is that you're going to be controlling all of your basic urges," the reporter chimed in with a smirk. Setsuna rubbed her face, suddenly extremely exhausted. Ignoring the lecherous comments she asked, "How basic are we talking?'
"Primal blood lust." A collective gasp was taken in after Evangeline spoke, "That feeling you got while fighting Asuna? The urge to just stop Every. Beating. Heart in this Villa? That is what you will be fighting against." The half demon's face turned stoic, not betraying the war of emotions going on under the surface, going over the implications of what the vampire was saying.
"So I'm fighting to not become a monster," Setsuna replied dully, a bitter chuckle following. Pale fingers that were massaging her temples drift north as their owner shakily brushed through her hair. "I guess I couldn't choose both the sword and happiness huh?" Her laugh weak even to her own ears, eyes never leaving Evangeline's.
"Don't be stupid."
"Eva!" Asuna hissed, head twisting to face the smaller girl, face shocked and repulsed at the lack of sympathy – though really she didn't know why she was so surprised. "I didn't say you had no hope of reining in your urges," the blonde waving off Asuna's warning, "but I'm not shocked that you heard it like that with your melodramatic self. You just merely need to learn some self control, and I'm going to teach you how."
Setsuna knew she should feel relieved at the prospect of not having to leave her friends but the tone of Eva's reply…"What's in it for you?" Fangs shone in the light as they appeared casually within Evangeline's smirk, "all I request is that you give me your blood after each training session."
"Eva-" Negi started, stepping forward to intervene as he recalled his own experiences as a blood bank but was stopped by Setsuna's question, "why?" Dark eyes peered curiously at green, "I understand Negi because you thought drinking his blood would break your curse but my own is nothing but a mixture of a human and a crow demon," shame seeping into her voice as she goes on, "tainted blood seeing as how I was cursed with white wings."
"Yes, " Evangeline drawls out, "your white wings, they are rather unique aren't they?" With that Evangeline promptly twirled and walked towards the exit of the Villa, waving everyone away with a simple hand movement and a snarky, "Now you all can leave, I got what I wanted. Chachamaru, give Setsuna a training schedule."
Chachamaru bowed in apology for her mistress's rude dismissal, repeating the gesture but more politely, reminding everyone that there was school tomorrow and that they should be leaving anyway. Regaining their bearings the girls started to disperse, those aware of Eva's true powers stopping to pat Setsuna's shoulder as they left and the others commenting on how nothing was ever boring with their class.
Konoka and Asuna led Setsuna out of the Villa gently, the half demon still dazed on what exactly just happened. One minute she had Evangeline and the next thing she knew, the girl was gone. Coming out of her thoughts she became aware of the light chatting happening around her, observing her friends commenting about the day and their carefree smiles. She allowed a small smile of her own to form, nothing ever seems to faze them. I tell them I have wings, its cool. Add blood lust? We'll deal with it after we discuss what's for dinner tonight. Shaking her head slowly the girl lets loose a soft chuckle, speeding up her pace to join her friends, laughing louder when she's greeted with Asuna and Negi arguing over what Konoka should make.
The brunette looks over at her friend when she hears the familiar laugh and smiles, relieved that she was coming out her slump. "I'm making whatever Secchan wants for dinner tonight!" She declares, tucking her body into her close friend's side, taking her arm hostage. Asuna and Negi pout, knowing that they were beaten, the boy recovering from his dejection first to smile at his now taller friend who was blushing lightly under the attention.
"Fine but only this once since Setsuna had a rough day," Asuna said teasingly, hip checking the girl and messing Negi's hair much to both the two people's displeasure. In mid protest Setsuna stopped, her smile faltering as it suddenly hit her, the realization enough to cause her to stop walking altogether making Konoka nearly trip. "What's wrong Setsuna?" The boy asked, concerned at the amount of colour rapidly draining from his friend's face. "I just realized… I'm going to be training with Evangeline…"
The air around the group seemed to have suddenly chilled as they all shuddered at what the term 'training' meant when it involved the undying mage.
Back to the present
"Setsuna-san?"
At first everything was blurry, the form of whoever was calling her an undistinguishable mess but as she adjusted to being conscious the features became more defined. "Nodoka-san?" Setsuna murmured, her voice raspy from just waking and eyes half lidded as she peered at the girl next to her.
Nodoka blushed, lowering her head so her bangs fell over her face completely, "You fell asleep. The next teacher will be entering soon so I thought I should wake you." Feeling her own blush start to form Setsuna brushed her hair with her fingers trying to put any stray strands neatly away as she straightened up. "Thank you, I didn't mean to fall asleep but the training schedule takes some getting use to," the dark haired girl smiles to show her appreciation, aware of Konoka and Asuna's worried glances from the other rows.
Nodoka nods shyly, aware of what she meant, having seen Negi fall asleep while standing at the beginning of his own training. Once she felt Nodoka's gaze drift away Setsuna turned to look at the rest of her classmates, avoiding eye contact with the smirking Evangeline.
Things have gotten better since she started her training. She found herself waking up less in the middle of the night with her sheets torn and her new height and build that was a hindrance no longer effected her fighting style as much as she learned to use her new reach. Her fighting style the first thing she worked on after the abrupt change, her body shivering as she remembered Evangeline's delight in exploiting the new hole in her defence when she realized that the girl wasn't use to her taller form.
The newest development so far besides her blood lust and height was an increase in her senses. She put it down as crow demon ability as it was mostly her eyesight and smell that improved however not without its drawbacks. Her contacts couldn't hide her white eyes anymore as her eyes kept dilating without her command, making it necessary for their removal before she blinded herself with the constant shifting. The smells were also proving to be … distracting.
Everyone seemed to have their own unique scent; being in close quarters made mixing inevitable and it gave her a headache at the barrage of all the smells. She could identify Asuna, Konoka and Negi individually by now because they were always with her but the rest of her class was harder to distinguish at this point. Though she could identify Nodoka's slightly, the girl's scent unmistakable including a musky undertone of old, worn pages. Setsuna smiled at the thought; of course our bookworm would have books, so caught up in her thoughts she didn't see the purple haired girl turning to face her again or her name being called.
"Miss Sakurazaki?"
"Huh?" Setsuna oh so eloquently said, her gaze moving to the middle age man now standing in front of the class, his arms crossed above his bloated stomach. "If you are quite finished staring at your friend I think we should carry on with the lesson." The class erupted into laughter, catcalling and whistling following after, mortifying the girl as she slowly slid down her seat, giving a sheepish nod to gesture she was quite done.
Once everyone's attention was back on the teacher and Setsuna felt safe enough to crawl out from hiding nearly under her desk she silently pretended to take down notes, her mind screaming at why she always seems to find herself in these situations, especially of late. Unknowingly Setsuna scratched the back of her neck as she pondered this, a small red rash present on her normally unblemished skin, the hairs on her neck standing up.
"Come on Setsuna! Is that the best you got?" Evangeline taunted, her hand pulsing with magic as she stared down at the smoking form of her newest apprentice, her body covered in bruises and smudges of blood from the blow to her head. Setsuna growled, the white surrounding her eyes expanding until there was almost no brown, canines flashing as she snarls.
Evangeline sighs and flicks her wrist, capturing the struggling half demon in a web of invisible strings, tightening as Setsuna thrashes wildly trying to get to the vampire. "The whole point of this is to get you to start fighting without losing yourself. Rushing in gets people killed and right now I'm considering killing you myself," the undying mage says, mildly impressed when Setsuna ignores the blood seeping into her Hakama as the strings tighten further, cutting into her flesh and enraging the girl further. Seeing that there was no progress to be made today the vampire quickly chops the back of the dark haired girl's neck, causing her form to go limp.
"Chachamaru."
"Yes mistress?'
"Dump her into the hot springs again, it'll wake her up and clean her up in one go."
Bowing to show her acknowledgment first Chachamaru then silently moved to gather the half demon into her arms, carrying the girl without trouble towards the hot springs. The journey was done with an air of practice as the robot stripped the bleeding girl before throwing her unceremoniously into the water. When Setsuna broke to the surface gasping and obviously still alive she turned and walked away, ignoring the muttered curses and threats towards her mistress.
Well I hope this wasn't too much of a wait! I'm telling myself that I have to update at least every two weeks so you can expect a chapter around that time frame but you'll have to be patient since I'm in the middle of exams right now.
Thanks for reading and I hope you'll tell me what you think. Next chapter – a deeper insight on training with Evangeline.