Disclaimer: The following story is a fan made work of fiction. Fairy Tail and Mahou Sensei Negima! are owned and written by Hiro Mashima and Ken Akamatsu respectively. Please support their official releases.
Chapter 7
Softly Humming
Eva arched an eyebrow in disgust at the young man's actions. Part of his bloody saliva had touched her foot, and kicking him so hard that he lost consciousness was not enough to wash the bitter taste from her mouth. The boy's words were a serious downer, ruining the past two days of constant torture she had inflicted upon the mystery mage who had dared to show up naked in her bed. A quick word of magic and chains of ice sprang from the courtyard's surface and bound the dark-haired boy's battered body.
She sighed to herself as she ran a hand through her golden locks. The final confrontation between them had been such a letdown. She had watched him battle ferociously against her dolls and had found his determination to be intriguing. Several times she had placed him into check, only for him to grasp the slimmest of chances to escape her minions.
Such grit had been impressive, so she had sent Chachazero out as a final test. He had managed to survive the doll's ambush, clearing the way for Eva herself to make an appearance. The vampire had gotten all dressed up for the battle too, readying herself for a thrilling confrontation. She had expected the two of them to match whits and trade barbs for a time. Then they would fight and she would destroy him, leaving his spirit broken and his body a ruined mess.
Alas, only one of her goals had come to pass. Now all that was left was to tear his mind to shreds and rip out any secrets he might possess. It was such a letdown that Eva could hardly summon any enthusiasm for it.
Which was a shame as she was usually such a fan of the activity. Few things could perk her up faster than hearing the screams of a defeated enemy as she clawed her way into their mind and looked around to her heart's content. But the young man's final words had thrown a bucket of ice cold water on that pleasant activity.
Instead of a thrilling opponent he had turned out to be a punk with an attitude who refused to know when he was beaten. To make matters worse it seemed that he had some kind of connection to the pink-haired moron Negi's girls had found in the forest. That pink-haired moron had also said something about this 'Fairy Tail' group to Negi, and had even claimed that he had been separated from his companions by a dimension traveling spell of some sort.
While disinclined to aid either Negi or the moron, Eva had been listening to their discussion. To the point that she was even further irked at herself for not noticing the connection prior to this final struggle. The clues had been there from the beginning.
The language should have given it away. She had never heard anyone but the two of them speak in such a tongue, and had only been able to understand the young ice mage after she had applied a spell of translation to herself.
Then there had been the man's nudity. A trait that he and the pink-haired moron seemed to share in common with one another. When combined, it was rather obvious that the two mages were connected to one another.
Her only excuse was that she had first been too enraged to think clearly. The overriding thought in her mind when she had first found him her bed had been to crush and torment the insect that had dared make his way into her inner sanctum without her permission. Afterwards she had found herself enjoying the man's torment as her minions attacked him. It had been so long since some fool had tried killing her that she had gotten carried away.
If only the fool had squawked like his moron of a friend then Eva might have connected the dots sooner. Yet up until the end the dark-haired man had proven far more competent than the pink-haired idiot, who seemed to favor the direct approach. The ice mage had quickly taken to hunting her dolls in silence rather than shouting his way to defeat.
Humming softly to herself, Eva considered her options.
She could kill the man here and move along. Doing so would satisfy her lingering feelings of anger, and it had been quite a long time since she had last taken a life. No one would ever need to know it had happened. If he really was a companion of that idiot Natsu, then this man was also from another world. Meaning that only one person on Earth even knew that he existed, much less cared about his living or dying.
Eva could not imagine a more perfect scenario in which to get away with murder. But doing so would be wasteful as well.
The young ice mage represented an opportunity to learn more about a completely separate world, one that had a vastly different way of using magic. The ice spells he had used to fight her dolls had been completely unknown to her. He appeared to use no kind of medium in his casting, nor did he ever say any sort of consistent magical phrase other than an initial cry of 'ice make.' If it was a magical chant of some sort then it was the shortest one Eva had ever encountered. Researching how his world had managed to create such a strange magic appealed to her.
Knowledge equaled power, and knowledge of a new magic equaled even greater power that she could use against her many enemies. Enemies like the mage who had created her, or perhaps the damn Thousand Master who had trapped her in the endless torment known as high school.
While it was possible to grasp its secrets from his corpse, it was usually far easier to have a willing assistant. Magic was such a finicky and temperamental power. Stealing knowledge of its use from someone's mind was difficult to say the least, even if the one who possessed it volunteered to have it taken. If the subject was unwilling, or dead, then the act became infinitely more difficult.
The vampire stared at the young man's barely breathing form and continued to hum to herself. Both options appealed to her and it was difficult to come to a decision.
"Such a troublesome choice," Eva mused to herself as she walked around his still body, taking care to avoid the areas soaked with his vomit and blood. "What to do, what to do."
She was stuck. Both options had equal value. Perhaps another point of view could help.
"Chachamaru," Eva called out to her servant. The robotic gynoid was never far and knew better than to wander into Eva's spotlight unless summoned. "What do you think I should do? Should I slaughter him now for his brazen trespassing? Or shall I spare his life and keep him alive as a testament to my bountiful mercy?"
Hurrying from behind a nearby broken pillar of stone, Chachamaru had her head tilted to the side. It was a posture Evangeline had come to interpret as the gynoid being deep in thought.
"Will my answer affect master's decision?"
Eva waved a hand airily. "Yes, yes. Of course it will Chachamaru. Otherwise I would not bother to ask you in the first place."
"Then I thank you my master. But as a point of clarification I thought that your mercy only applied to the Negi-kun and -"
The gynoid's words were like a hot poker touched to the vampire's skin. Eva's head whipped around to glare at the servant. That subject was off limits to everyone, with no exceptions. "Not another word Chachamaru. Or I will wind you up so hard you that you will be unable to move for days."
The robotic girl bowed her head. "My apologies, master. You have shown a whimsical response to my questions in the past, and I wished to ascertain your current mood before providing my answer."
Despite her annoyance over Chachamaru's earlier words, Eva felt her lips quirk upwards involuntarily. How cheeky of it.
"Yes, yes, I can be a spiteful bitch at times," Eva said as she killed her smile. She would not let Chachamaru know that the girl's continuing emotional development pleased the ancient vampire to such a degree. "This is known to me, and I acknowledge it as truth. Now answer my question, servant."
"I think that you should spare his life." An expected answer. The girl's reasoning would be required before Eva accepted her advice.
"Why?" Eva asked curtly. "This fool showed up naked in my bed, had the temerity to put his arm around my waist, and moments ago spit on my person. Any one of these would be a crime deserving of death."
"Yes, my master. I made my recommendation based upon two reasons. May I explain?"
Eva waved her permission.
"First, it is my belief that sparing him would go a long way towards convincing Negi-sensei that you could be trusted. Thereby increasing the likelihood that the young teacher will work hard to free you from his father's curse."
The vampire placed a considering hand to her chin. That was a good point. While she cared little for the child as human being, and only somewhat more for his ridiculous magical potential, the boy was of absolute importance to her as a potential method to free herself from his father's curse.
"A valid point, Chachamaru. What is your second?"
"That in addition to being the companion of Negi's new friend Natsu, this man's existence may offer you a new avenue of magical research. It has been my observation that master loves to find new avenues of research, and the powers that both this boy and Natsu have displayed do not match with any magical abilities loaded to my database. It could be possible that their methods are a completely new school for channeling magic. Yet they appear to be quite effective nonetheless."
"So I should spare him on the hope that I could glean some minor advantage from his pitiful abilities? That would seem to be a massive waste of my valuable time and abilities, servant."
"But that is only if one assumes that their magic is of little value in the first place. Something which is illogical to due without further evidence. Evidence which can only be gathered through observation and experimentation. Furthermore, if they do represent an entirely new school of thought for magic then it is highly probable that impressive gains can be reaped from their study, much like you have gained by my own creation."
Oho! This time Eva made no effort to hide her smile. Chachamaru truly was beginning to change if she was able to mix in an ego-stroking compliment for Eva while explaining a clinical observation. It seemed like Eva would need to start keeping a closer eye on her servant in the near future lest the vampire miss a key moment of the gynoid's development.
Still, the girl's words affirmed Eva's own thoughts. The stranger's life would be spared.
The ancient vampire waved one of her hands to undo the magic chaining the young man to the stone courtyard. She would have her dolls clean up the damage to the Resort, but healing his body would be more troublesome. She was no good with healing spells and none of her minions were good at them either. She would probably have to use some of her few potions to do the job.
Eh, it was just something that she could add to the Boya's tab. Having him further in her debt would not be a terrible thing.
She turned to face her robotic servant and gave the girl a curt nod. "Very well Chachamaru. You do raise two good points. I am happy when I have a new toy with which to entertain myself, even if the toy is somewhat broken and in need of repair, and using this opportunity to increase the boya's trust in me at the same time is a golden opportunity."
Eva looked down the young man's blood body as she spoke. She really had done a number on him. She would have to get the potions in him soon before he bled out on her. "Maybe I'll learn something by putting him back together again."
The decision made, Eva motioned for Chachamaru to take the boy's body and leave. An air spell cast upon his body made the man rise from the ground, enabling the robotic girl to handle the boy without causing accidental damage.
As she watched them depart Eva felt a twisting series of emotions rise up within her chest. One part annoyance at his continued existence, two parts wistfulness at not having ripped his memories out of his skull, and three parts curiosity for his strange magic.
Still, she knew how to control herself. There would be other opportunities in which to loose her vengeful nature upon him in the future. In the meantime, the positive benefit of allowing the strange man to live might outweigh her annoyance over his continued existence.
Eva turned to stare at the giant geyser of ice the man had created to defeat Chachazero. The form was quite raw and hurried, but it was surprisingly strong in spite of its rushed construction. Eva considered herself to be the foremost expert on ice magic in the world and even she was impressed with it. The young man had definite potential.
The vampire studied it for a moment longer before she snapped her fingers, casting a silent spell to undo the young man's pillar of ice magic. It was nice, but she needed to free Chachazero from its grasp.
Yet the spell resisted her efforts to dispel it, stubbornly remaining present. Eva frowned as she stared at it. How had that happened? She snapped her fingers once again and put more power into the dispel.
The pillar of ice disappeared with a flash of light and a pop of displaced air, leaving Chachazero to stumble around in a daze as the doll screamed a blood-thirsty war cry.
"Rend and tear your limbs, bleed your soul until you die." Eva dodged a swipe of the blade and a followup thrust as the doll proceeded to swing the cleaver around in wild motions. "Blood for the blood god, and the blood god's bile for Chachazero! Hahahahahaha!"
Eva studied her creation for a moment before tuning it out. The doll was lost in a beserker's haze and it would be too annoying to bring her out of it. There was something more important on the vampire's mind.
The young mage's spell composition had resisted her spell. The question was, how? Eva gazed around until she had located another another one of the many creations which littered her resort. Upon spotting it, she tried to dispel it once more with minimal effort.
The man's strange ice magic again resisted her attempt to dispel it.
Now that was interesting. Nearly as interesting as his ability to cast magic with such a short chant.
Sure the young man's spell-work may have been impressive for his age, but no spell cast by a person so far below her own sorcery level should have been able to resist even her slightest of efforts to dispel it. It would take something casually cast by the Thousand Master, or that thrice damned Albireo, to resist her efforts to the same degree of that pillar of ice.
Moving to another pillar elsewhere in the Resort that was still intact, Eva looked at the spell's construction. She delved past the outer structure and into the spell's inner matrix.
What she found inside of it made no sense.
There were no bound spirits or rune structures within its depths. Nor was there aid from any sort of outer dimensional being, something which always left behind a rather distinct aura. It was a construct the man had made purely from his own will, with no other outside force involved beyond supplying the initial power to create the spell. It was self-sustaining and appeared to be fully functional, capable of lasting an indeterminate time.
That wasn't how magic worked! Not in the slightest!
Magic may be finicky, but it did have its rules. In order to cast spells, you had to have some sort of framework involved. Whether that framework was done through elemental spirits, or the mathematical application of runic structures, or by beseeching some Eldritch being was a matter of choice. But no matter how one looked at it, one had to use something like that in order to so much as use magic.
Yet here she was, staring at a spell matrix which required none of them in full defiance of known magical knowledge.
Her curiosity fully piqued, Eva pursed her lips together and honed her senses to their limits as she continued to scan the boy's spell. What she found next made her eyes go wide.
The spell contained ki in its composition. Ki!
Her head suddenly awhirl with possibilities, Eva stepped back from the young man's icy creation. This young man had done something impossible, something no one had ever done before. Combining magic with ki was an extremely rare gift of which only Takamichi Takahata was a current master. But Takamichi's Kanka style was composed of pure energy and possessed no elemental affinity. It was unsuited for anything outside of combat or demolition by its very nature.
But the power used by this man from another world had an aspect. An ice aspect, once which could be formed freely by the man's own will.
Eva felt a chill run down her back as she considered the possibilities of this strange magic. If a user of it were to gain enough experience to rise to her level, then it was possible that their power might eclipse her own. The advantage of being completely unrestricted in how one formed magic was too great. Those who relied on the traditional forms of magic would be hobbled and restricted by their power, whereas a user of this new magic would be like an Eagle soaring in the sky.
Conversely, if someone of her level was able to incorporate ki into their own power, then their abilities would have an exponential increase.
The thought of it brought a joyful gleam to her eyes. If she could unlock the secret of this new magic, then she might finally reach a level of strength that she could rip the Thousand Master's spell apart on her own. It would crumble before her power like a wall of paper before a mountain flood.
No, that was would be selling it too short. With ki and magic unified with her spells and power, she might even be able to hunt down the one who had created her and end him.
Oh how that thought pleased her. Pleased her to the point where the vampire threw back her head and laughed at the top of her lungs.
"I will have your secrets, little Fairy," Eva said to herself as her mirth slowly started to subside. "One way or another, I will have them. And I will never be denied ever again."
With a surge of magic released from her body, Eva forcibly dispelled every one of the young man's icy creations throughout the Resort. Dolls fell from the sky and tumbled across the ground in a jumble of limbs as their frozen prisons disappeared.
The vampire mage played with one of the straps on her dress as she made her way through the rubble strewn field. These new revelations would require her to immediately locate the boya so she could learn if he knew Takamichi's current location. There was no way in hell that Eva would give the bespectacled man the information for free, but it would be interesting to learn if Nagi's former companion reached the same conclusions concerning this new form of magic.
Another sigh escaped her lips, this one in annoyance. If she was to speak with the boy, then she would need to change her clothes.
This modern world with all of its silly morals were terribly inconvenient at times. Being unable to move around in her natural form while wearing a sultry dress was utterly ridiculous.
"Fear the almighty god of dolls! I shall devour your toes and drink of your eyes. None shall be spared from my Jacuzzi boiled wrath. All your bases shall belong to us!"
Eva blasted the doll with a brief shock of lighting. Enough was enough. "Chachazero, shut up and get started fixing things. Also, assign some of your sisters to look over the intruder so that Chachamaru may return to the cabin ahead of my arrival. And fetch me a school uniform while you are at it. I have a trip to make after we get this place put back in order."
Several hours later saw Eva brushing some dust off of her uniform as she materialized outside of her resort. She immediately frowned to herself as a cascade of magical alarms washed over her. Someone had tripped her spells and was still located on the premises. She could sense three uninvited individuals around her home, and two of them were not negligible in terms of strength.
A sudden crash and bang from above caused her to hasten her steps. Someone whose magic she didn't recognize had just broken down her front door. Eva hissed in displeasure as she felt Chachamaru move to engage the intruder.
Knowing her recent run of terrible luck, this new annoyance would be the flamebrained moron she had met in Kyoto. The vampire had just finished dealing with one idiot from another world. Why not make it two in close succession? This would be just one more painful trial to lay at the Thousand Master's feet, as it had started the moment she met that idiotic man.
Climbing the stairs as quickly as her little legs would allow, the vampire burst into her living room with a spell ready to cast from her lips. What she saw ended up freezing her from shock.
Her precious sanctuary was in ruins!
The priceless table given to her by Vlad Tepes? Ruined. The two beautiful clay vases she had obtained while on a trip to Argentina? Smashed to pieces. The painting she had stolen on a whim from the Queen of England? Hanging from a chair, its ancient vellum torn to shreds.
A blurred object shot past the vampire's eyes as she stood frozen in horror, hitting the Boya directly on his forehead. The four hundred year old glass lamp blew apart in a hail of shattered fragments upon impact. Negi went down without a sound, his tiny body crumpled upon the floor like that of a small child who had fallen asleep.
Eva felt a low growl build deep within her small body. The only two places in Mahora she could call her own, where she could relax and get away from the endless torment forced upon her by the Thousand Master, had just been ruined.
It had been centuries since anyone had dared to destroy an item belonging to her. It would be millennia before anyone ever tried again. Because whoever had done this to her home would suffer a fate worse than death. She would make sure of it with her own two hands.
"Haha! Negi, you need to watch out for flying objects better" yelled the voice belonging to the pink-haired idiot whose name was Natsu. "Otherwise you'll be taken out right at the beginning of every good brawl you come across. 'Cause this is where the fun begins!"
As the idiotic moron yelled in glee, Eva watched as he and Chachamaru traded vicious body blows with one another in the middle of the adjoining room. The fiery moron had blazed a trail of destruction through her house within moments of entering, and he looked completely unfazed by the devastation he had wreaked upon her home.
Dodging a one-two punch combination Chachamaru fired at his midriff, Natsu used his left hand to shoot a small ball of flame into the robot's face to throw her off-balance. Her sensors blinded, Chachamaru immediately slammed her elbow into his face. The young man directed it to the side with one of his hands and quickly followed it up with a knife-like strike into Chachamaru's side.
Eva blinked as she watched. Going toe-to-toe with Chachamaru wasn't something your average mage could accomplish. The man might be an idiot, but as luck would have it he appeared to be cast in the same mold as the Thousand Master and Jack Rakan. A mere pretender compared to those great idiots of the world, but apparently one with aims to join their ranks at the peak of powerful morons. That thought was enough to freeze Eva in horror as her servant tried to protect Eva's home.
The gynoid sent a kick at his midriff only for the moron to grab hold of her leg and fling her to the floor. He then jumped onto Chachamaru's back and tried to place her into a full body lock. The man's style was impressively aggressive.
However, instead of trapping his opponent all Natsu got was a raised knee slammed into his groin. Chachamaru had managed to roll onto her side and hit him just when he was vulnerable. The robotic girl then proceeded to grab one of his arms with both hands and use it to slam him into the ground before he could rise to his feet.
"Negi-sensei, I've got his arm. Come quickly before he manages to –" Chachamaru's yell cut off midway. Natsu had wrenched his arm out of her grip and shoved his other elbow into her face as he did, shutting her mouth with a metallic click.
"Got you Chachamaru!" The pink-haired fire breather said as he smirked at his android opponent. "Ya still got more in the tank? 'Cause I'm all fired up right now and ready for round two."
Bam!
With no preamble or forewarning, Chachamaru activated the rockets placed inside of her left arm. The rocket fist closed the distance between the android and the idiot faster than he could react, smashing into his jaw with what sounded like bone crushing force. His head snapped backwards as his feet left the ground and he fell onto the remnants of Eva's antique table. Seeing yet another precious item break in front her eyes was enough to goad her to action.
"That is enough, you giant moron," Eva hissed as she finally recovered from her horrified paralysis.
Taking a spool of thin metallic wire from within her school uniform, Eva wrapped a portion of it around the fingers of her right hand. The ancient vampire then cast the other end of it around both of Natsu's legs and used it to jerk the pink-haired idiot's feet out from under his body. The man tumbled back to the floor with a crash.
Eva thanked her highly developed sense of paranoia for thinking to include the wires into her daily outfit. The things came in handy when her body was weak as a newborn kitten and unable to blast her opponents to shreds with mountains of ice.
For good measure, she wrapped six more loops of wires around her fingers before she began to approach Natsu's position. She cast two of them around his upper body, trapping the man's arms tight against his midriff. The others she kept on standby just in case the moron had any tricks up his sleeve.
"You've blown up half of my house and now owe me a Hell Ticket for all of the damage you've caused," the vampire said grimly as she moved closer. Her voice, so filled with icy rage, could have frozen the blood of an arctic fish. "Anymore damage to my residence and I will no be satisfied with just a piece of your hide. Oh no, I will make you watch as I skin you alive and mount your head on my wall as a warning to fools everywhere."
She kicked him with a slim foot to drive her point home. "Am I understood?"
From his place on the floor, Natsu muttered something into the wooden floorboards. It seemed to be a response of some sort but she could not hear it. How annoying. Had his parents or seniors not taught him to speak up when his life was in peril?
Cautious, she stepped closer in order to hear his words.
Not cautiously enough, however, as Natsu raised his head from the floor and fired a blast of fire at her unsuspecting face straight out of his mouth.
"Ah!" Eva yelled in surprise. The vampire stumbled backward, closing her eyes to protect them from the fireball coming towards her face. She on her backside with a thump. "Ow ow ow!"
"Just because you got my arms and legs, it doesn't mean that I'm out of the fight. Ha ha ha! That'll show you better than to underestimate a mage of Fairy Tail." Natsu crowed from his position on the floor. The man's cocky voice made Eva seethe in rage as she resisted the urge to rub her injured rear.
Eva's face flushed as she stood, holding her hands firmly to her sides and away from her sore bottom. She would show this upstart mage a thing or two about making fun of her. With a quick look at Chachamaru, Eva indicated her intentions.
More wires snaked out from the vampires fingertips and gathered around his unsuspecting body. To the side, Chachamaru prepared to launch an attack on her master's command.
For some reason, though, Natsu did not make a single move to protect himself. No, instead it seemed as if his laughter was only growing strong. Why? Had Chachamaru's rocket punch damaged something in the young fool's head?
"Wa ha ha ha ha!" Natsu cried out as tears began to stream down his face. "Look at your hair – it's all fizzy! Wa ha ha ha ha ha!"
For the second time in five minutes, Eva was frozen in horrified shock. Slim hands rose to her perfectly straight hair. The hair that she took great care in maintaining, that she treasured more than any other physical feature she possessed. Along with her eyes, it was the one thing which stayed the same no matter what form she took, no matter what how old or young the vampire appeared to be to those around her.
Her searching hands felt a mass of unruly curls. A mass of unruly and badly singed curs.
There were two things Eva now knew for sure about these mages from another world. That they possessed a strange magic which could forever alter the history of the world. And that they were both complete and utter morons.
A shriek of inarticulate rage tore from her throat as the ancient vampire flung herself at Natsu's laughing face.
END
A/N: This is not my best chapter but I'm at least happy with where I was able to get it. It came a long way from where it was in the old fic, and it was a necessary one to set things up for the future. Hopefully it entertained you and keeps you satisfied before the next update comes along on Monday. I attempted to set the tone for future interactions between Natsu and Eva as well.
And is anyone else having these 504 errors with the website? It works fine on my mobile devices, but when I go to upload my chapters from my PC (or try to update my profile) the website just freaks out. It's a royal pain.
Also, check out these numbers: 6 chapters, 1000+ views on the fic, 30 follows, 20 favorites, and 24 reviews at the time of posting this chapter. Not bad for a young fic not in HP, Naruto, or any C2's. More reviews (especially flames and critiques) definitely help, so if you are reading this and something pops into your head, then leave a comment or five.
Poll is still up as well. Go and vote!
On to my comments!
Chachazero: I loved the doll's characterization back in the original manga and was disappointed that we never got to see her unleashed. Hopefully I got her bizarre and blood-thirsty nature down pat.
Eva and the Fairies: remember what I said back in chapter 3 about establishing the hierarchy of power between the FT and Negima cast? This is it. Eva is the steel door that both Natsu and Gray, with their limited knowledge and infinite wisdom, have decided to kick to see if it really is all that tough. Although in his defense Gray did it more by accident whereas Natsu is going to do it knowing full well what might happen. Things didn't go too well for Gray and Natsu (who is far stronger than the ice mage at this point thanks to the lightning dragon slayer magic he got from Laxus) is eventually going piss her off enough for fireworks to fly.
Expect a kickass fight between the two because that will be a throw down between a dragon-slayer and a centuries old vampire. If I didn't try to make it badass then I'd be screwing up both of the characters. Each one of them will get a chance to show off their stuff, and there will be a clear winner.
I also have something fun planned for when the ladies of FT meet Eva. Muwahahahahaha!
And no. It will not be perverted or Ecchi.
Or possibly won't.
Or maybe it will will be for one of them but not the other two. Or maybe it will be the other way around.
Meh. You'll just have to see when we get there.
Recommended Reading: This time I would like to recommend Uninvited Guests by Moczo. Advance Warning: This is a pure crack fic. It is amazing, hilarious, and completely off the wall as it pokes fun at Bleach and anime tropes with every chapter. Go into it expecting to laugh yourself silly and you will enjoy yourself.
Until next time,
Elsil