Magister Negi Magi is owned by Ken Akamatsu and Kodansha Ltd. Tokyo in Japan, and by Funimation and Ballantine - DelRey in the United States, NOT by me.
AU ALERT! Depending on how you want to look at it, this story occurs before chapter one of the 'Magister Negi Magi' manga, or one-Hundred YEARS after it ends.
CONTENT ALERT! I can't say, as to do so would be too much of a spoiler. Let's just say things happen, and leave it at that for now.
Many thanks again to Kafka'sdragon for the inspiration of his story; 'Markham Chronicles Negima,' and the use of the Markham family name.
Also thanks to Ambrant Arandel, for his Ku - Negi paring in 'Child of Mine,' which helped inspire 'Coming Home.'
(-)
"Negi explained everything to me when Konoka finally cured my petrification. He told me that even though many plans were already set in motion, the ultimate decision to go forward rested with me...
... the answer was obvious, and he knew it would be. After all, we both had promises to keep."
-Ku Springfield. As told to Michiko Aisaka, Author of: "Resolution: Aftermath of 'The Demon Wars.'"
(-)
Chao Lingshen. 'Coming Home.'
Part 04: "No Greater Love..."
(-)
During six necessary years spent in corporate prisons, Ku Springfield had been starved, deprived of sleep, tormented in various ways, even beaten unconscious twice, all in an attempt to produce a confession for a crime she and her husband did not commit.
Amateurs.
Failure in battle against Graf Wilhelm Josef von Herrmann and SEVENTY YEARS spent petrified with those of her husband's boyhood village, before everyone was finally cured by Konoka Konoe, had taught her many things about endurance and patience. If that had not broken her, nothing the people who had held the two of them for the last six years could do ever would.
Now, the end was near. Outside the cell, Ku could hear her keepers running around like beheaded chickens in response to some crisis. Sitting on the floor and assuming a meditative pose, she began to reach out with senses honed by over a century of practice. Physical senses told her of the rapid approach of something that seemingly caused a rhythmic vibration in the ground like the rapid beating of several paddles. Mental senses told her that something carried the aura of the Mahora Academy classmate, friend, and beloved granddaughter she'd waited one-hundred years to see again.
Focusing on the gathering of her ki, Ku waited until she heard and felt a heavy turbo-propped vehicle fly dangerously low across the building she was in, then stood. "Time to go."
(-)
Interior lighting coming from a single deep-sleep capsule provided the main illumination in a laboratory room full of monitoring and support equipment. A thin, gray-haired old man lay inside, connected to the capsule's support systems via numerous tubes and wires.
Stepping into the area of illumination, a short, gray-haired boy reached out to lay a hand on the capsule's glass. "Finally, my old friend... After one-hundred years of your interference, my revenge upon you will be complete. I'll be able to absorb all that energy you still possess, transfer it into this cursed construct body of mine, and extend my existence for another two-hundred years."
Negi Springfield had been so angry with him after finding out how his old rival had been involved in various things over the last hundred years. Weak-minded as always though, he had allowed himself to be placed where he was now for the simple 'promise' his wife would be spared. Such a fool. His trusting nature, and by extension, his belief in his friends, had always been a source of annoyance. Now it would be used against him. When he was dead, his wife would be placed in this capsule, and the energy she possessed transferred to him as well.
Filled with irritation, the gray-haired boy turned towards his desk as a loud 'ping' and a colored flashing light announced a call from his Security Chief. Interruption this close to the completion of a plan ALLWAYS meant trouble. Walking over to the desk, he reached out to press the intercom's activation button. "What is it? I'm busy finishing an experiment!"
On the other end of the intercom, the speaker hesitated momentarily before proceeding. "Director Moirae! An Osprey from the Yukihiro Group Corporate Oversight Division is approaching. They intend to land and request our cooperation in an investigation concerning the recent trouble at Century Corporation. What shall we do?"
Moirae slammed his fist down on the desk. ("Interfering harpy!") Yukihiro Group and ChiuCom were why it had taken so long to acquire Springfield after he'd been convicted of 'sacrificing' his granddaughter to demons. He'd managed to deal with Hasegawa, but he'd never been able to get near Yukihiro. ("If she's here, it means she found something connecting this company to Century Corporation significant enough to send in her investigatory goons!") Things were too close to completion to stop now. "Resist them."
Despite the intercom being audio-only, Moirae could easily picture the incredulous look on the man's face. "S...SIR?"
Upset by the need to start hurrying his preparations, Moirae felt himself growing increasingly angry. "I said if they try to land; Resist them!"
Now the man began to sound desperate. "President Moirae! Yukihiro Group has corporate oversight authority in this area! If we fire on them... they'll shut the company down!"
Moirae walked over to the sleep-capsules controls and began adjusting them to facilitate the transfer of energy procedure. "Do I have to repeat myself! I don't pay you to ask questions! Besides, If they're here, I'm sure they know you and your men were involved in the kidnappings by Century Corporation! That's life, or the death penalty! Your only chance is to destroy the Yukihiro Group personnel, then escape before another team shows up!"
After a considered pause, the man snapped out an insolent; "YES SIR! 'President' Moirae!" and the intercom line went dead.
Moirae began finishing his adjustment of the sleep-capsule's controls. There was no time for a complete transfer of energy, but still enough to kill Negi Springfield, and allow him to hide long enough to find someone else to drain. Just as he was about to activate the final control, a metallic hand closed painfully around his wrist.
"I cannot permit you to harm Papa Springfield."
Moirae stared incredulously at the gynoid secretary from the reception desk outside his lab. Normally just a function-bot, noisy whenever it moved, the thing had somehow managed to enter the sealed lab and get close enough to touch him. There was a small pulse of light from the gynoid's eyes, and a new voice came from it's voicebox.
"I recognize you now, "'Moirae' Averruncus! Remember me? The old woman you MURDERED when she was helpless? Well, you didn't quite kill me, and I think you know what 'payback' is..."
It's vice-like grip on his arm preventing an immediate escape, the gynoid secretary delivered a punch to his stomach that sent Moirae flying across the sleep-capsule to crash into a test equipment table. He barely managed to avoid the follow up attack, and the next before finally fighting back. Displaying tremendous flexibility, the gynoid dodged his counter-attack, and ended up standing in front of the sleep-capsules controls. Apparently willing to wait there forever, the gynoid entered a defensive crouch and focused her attention on him with single-minded intensity. Outside the lab, Moirae could hear the faint sound of fighting as his private security dueled with the Yukihiro Group personnel. Time was on the gynoid's side, and if he didn't get rid of her, he wouldn't be able to transfer ANY energy.
Tensing, Moirae executed a shundo towards his desk, knocked over a coffee cup sitting there, then executed another shundo right into the gynoid's fist.
"No Eva! He's using a water-shadow!"
Warned of the deception, Chachamaru's daughter tried to dodge, but it was too late. Upset by her beginning to move, Moirae's real attack missed her torso, smashing instead both legs, then one of her arms. What was left crashed down and was sent sliding ungracefully across the floor and into a wall with an angry kick.
Moirae turned back to the sleep-capsule to continue, but there was a bang, and something pulled him unexpectedly to the floor. Looking down at his leg, the gynoid's remaining hand and forearm, trailing a thin wire, was clamped around his ankle.
"I WON'T PERMIT YOU TO HARM PAPA SPRINGFIELD!"
Moirae couldn't believe what he was hearing. What was it about Negi Springfield that could make a mere gynoid willing to sacrifice itself for him? As anger made him lose control and rush the damaged gynoid, an answer came from the memory of his last meeting with the demon Wilhelm Josef von Herrmann.
His hand-claws still stained with the blood of Moirae's assassins, Herrmann had come to kill him as well after eviscerating those he'd sent to kill Kotaro and Chizuru Inugami. The fight had been brief, and as he prepared to finish off the wounded demon, Herrmann had begun taunting him.
"Go ahead! Finish me off! I'll go hoping being a demon won't prevent me from seeing that wonderful, intriguing Chizuru Inugami again, and knowing Negi Springfield WILL finally be your downfall!"
He had hesitated at Herrmann's words. "The Thousand Master's son? He can't possibly defeat me! He'll never have the power or experience to do so!"
Herrmann began laughing a laugh full of contempt. "He does! If only he'd realize it! He has loving family! He has the loyalty of friends! They're stronger together than you, or any pack of your 'associates' will EVER be!" After coughing several times, the demon had continued. "Look at me! a 'Count-Class' demon! Rotten to the core! As they say... Taking on a mage way out of my league just because you killed a friend of Springfield's! His strength and power are way beyond ANYTHING you'll ever understand!"
Herrmann had continued laughing until Moirae had finished him off.
Coming back to himself, Moirae found himself pounding his fists bloody, despite the gynoid's remaining arm already being severed, trying to crush her metalic skull. Just as he felt a crack, there was a bang and a flash of sparks, and the door to the lab slid open.
"GRANDFATHER!"
(-)
Ayaka turned to face her Security Chief as Tatsumiya came back from the Osprey's cockpit.
"Lady Ayaka. We have received permission to land...but..."
Ayaka grimaced, she'd learned over the last hundred years to trust the 'Tatsumiya instincts' implicitly. "They have to have guessed why we're here..."
Tatsumiya nodded. "If I were them, wait until we flare, then hit this Osprey with everything they've got..."
Ayaka took a deep breath, then straightened up to look out at her security troopers. "Everyone... this could be bad... Yukihiro Group is making a legitimate investigation, but ordering you in without proper backup can't be anything more than a selfish, personal request..."
Without hesitation, Raymond Tatsumiya stiffened to attention. "Lady Ayaka. Beyond my family's personal reasons for loyalty to Professor Springfield, I and everyone on this transport are part of your personal guard. All of us volunteered for this duty out of loyalty to you. If you choose to give your loyalty to Professor Springfield, even for personal reasons, then on that recommendation, he is worthy of our loyalty, and we shall serve him as well."
Ayaka nodded, unable to speak.
Tatsumiya saluted Ayaka then turned to face those awaiting his orders in the back of the Osprey. "All of you know the layout of the building from the briefing I gave on the way over..." Chao and fourteen other people nodded. "Well then... STORM ATTACK PROCEEDURES! Opposed landing against corporate security personnel! Assume reinforcement with MagiTech mage personnel! Make sure you defensive barriers are at full power! Izumi! You and your medics stay with Lady Ayaka for now! Markham, you back up Lady Lingshen!"
Once more, Tatsumiya received a round of nods in acknowledgment. Even considering the risks, his blood was up, so he gave all them a grin saying he had no intention of loosing. "Stand-by!"
In the Osprey's cockpit, Pilot Officer Farandole needed no further instructions. Dropping the nose of the Osprey, he flew so close to the dry terrain surrounding their target the big transport's prop-wash left two huge, dusty rooster-tails in it's wake. Heading for the front door of the facility they planned to land at, he maintained speed, and only pulled up and banked away at the last instant. Turning to come around for his actual landing, Farandole saw several persons on the ground, scattered and tumbling in the miniature tornadoes his aircraft had left behind. One, braver or more foolish than those running for cover, stood up and fired a Sagita rocket. "Incoming Sagita Magic! Evading!"
Tatsumiya braced Ayaka against the wild maneuvering as the Osprey evaded the Sagita shot, then opened it's tail ramp and began flaring out into landing mode while tearing away at unseen targets with it's nose mounted Sagita mini-gun. There was another long burst from the mini-gun, then a green light appeared on a panel next to the open ramp. "First three teams, GO!"
Leading eight other security troopers, Tatsumiya raced down the Osprey's ramp. One was hit by several Sagita and fell. As Chao and Ayaka watched, the medic named Izumi and another of her team rushed out to drag the downed security trooper back into the shelter of the Osprey. As they pulled off the trooper's smoking equipment to examine him for serious wounds, the sounds of weapon bursts, MagiTech shields working, and occasional shouts spoke of Tatsumiya and the other security troopers working to eliminate the remaining defenders.
"Lady Lingshen forward!"
Followed by Markham and his two men, Chao ran down the ramp, turned in the direction she'd seen Tatsumiya go, and quickly joined him a short distance away behind a parked hover car.
Nodding as Chao and Markham crouched down beside him, Tatsumiya pointed at the front door of what was, considering the strength of it's defenses, increasing less likely a deep-sleep research company. "This is straight-up breaking and entering against a magically locked and shielded door. Since that suit of yours is better than anything we've got, can you break it down?"
Sensing the closeness of her grandparents, Chao was trying desperately to remain in control of herself. "If it's no more heavily protected than those at Century Corporation, then yes. I can get through the defenses."
Tatsumiya reached out to hold Chao's wrist. "First one in always has trouble. Don't get too far ahead of Markham. Let him back you up. Understand?" Chao nodded, and Tatsumiya let her go. "Good. Markham Storm team! All others covering fire! Chao...GO!"
Chao leapt forward and crashed forearms first into the entryway's defenses. As expected, especially if the place had connections to her former 'employers,' the shielding was proof against what her battlesuit 'used' to be, but not against what it was after two years of work with Satomi Hakase. With a mental shout, she commanded the suit's A.I. to boost power output, then unsealed her magic glyphs and added that power as well. Flytrap spells and raw shields were all burned away, shock magic and attacks from still active defenders were ignored or shrugged off, and with one last audible shout, she smashed the doors from their hinges with a 'force' punch and rolled inside. A guard was there to take a shot before she could recover, but Markham was on her heels and fired first.
"Chao! Go! We've got your back! Tatsumiya's right behind us!"
Chao began moving forward, following the briefing instructions toward the laboratory she knew her grandfather was in. Wishing he hadn't destroyed her battlesuit's remote-controlled Sagita funnels during their Mahora Fest battle, she paused cautiously before one hallway that echoed with the sounds of fighting.
"Baku Retsu Sun Kei!"
Hearing a shout, followed by an explosion, Chao smiled with relief. Her grandmother had been petrified for nearly seventy years before being healed by Konoka Konoe and marrying her grandfather. If after six years of playing her part in the deception, Ku was still lively enough to have broken free and be fighting with such gusto, then she could concentrate on finding and rescuing her grandfather.
Stephan Markham heard shouting, followed by an explosion and a burst of dust from the hallway Chao was waiting by. Turning to face him, Chao had the most inexplicable look of pride on her face.
"THAT'S MY GRANDMOTHER! SHE'S OKAY!"
Markham listened to the further paniced shouting about a 'monster,' and the sounds of people scrambling desperately to run away from something terrible and had to shake his head. Chao smiled broadly, then jumped across the hallway and headed for the next junction. He quickly called Tatsumiya to inform him of the location of one of the targets they sought to 'rescue,' then signaled his men and followed Chao.
Arriving at the next hallway, Chao saw something move out of the corner of her eye and jumped back just as a powerful barrage of lightning Sagita arrived and fried everything near the intersection. "Whoa! Strong mage!" Reaching into her belt, she took out two of the 'Forced Displacement' bullets.
Having seen the explosion of lightning Sagita, Markham saw Chao tense up. Knowing instantly the intent, he rushed up and grabbed her elbow. "Hey now! I can't permit that!"
Chao rounded on Markham. "The longer we take to reach that lab, the greater the chance my grandfather dies! I can take that mage!"
Chao's previous look of pride was gone, replaced by one of growing desperation. Still, the look in her eyes also said she was not boasting. Holding her for a moment longer, Markham locked his eyes with Chao's. "Be careful."
Chao held her gaze on Markham as he let her go, she nodded in response, and was simply gone.
Markham stared in shock as a 'Whirrppp!' sound and a blast of wind came from the hallway, followed by the sound of Chao's voice, urging them to hurry up. Rounding the corner and expecting to find some mangled body, he saw nothing more than a few drifting papers and a odd, perfectly round hole in one wall.
Chao continued down the hall without further interference until she reached the reception area outside the Laboratory room her grandfather should be in. She started trying to open the lab's door, but the palm-scan lock had the thing sealed tight.
Markham recognized the type of lock, and motioned to his second. "MagiTech lock burner! Quick!"
Stepping forward, the man removed a small box from a cargo pocket in his uniform pants and set-to, placing the device over the sealed door's lock. Chao reluctantly backed away, and the man quickly finished his work.
Markham held Chao back against the wall as his second took out a detonator and also pressed himself up against the wall with everyone else. "FIRE!"
(Chao ran through the door before Markham could stop her. To his horror, she was impaled from behind multiple times by a stone Sagita and crashed lifelessly to the floor before the door slammed shut with him outside.)
Markham blinked at the unexpected, frighteningly clear vision as he heard the detonator in his second's hand 'click.' There was a flash of light and sparks like a cross between a chemical fire and a magical torch, and the door slid open. Before he could stop her, Chao had slipped around his arm, and was rushing for the door.
"GRANDFATHER!"
(-)
Moirae Averruncus jumped back from the wrecked gynoid and reached out for his coffee again. ("Grandfather?") Someone dressed in a strange battlesuit with an oddly familiar magical aura was first through the door. The person didn't even look to the side, seemingly focused only on the sleep-capsule containing Negi Springfield. Striking a door seal override, he sent an unincanted stone Sagita at the person's unguarded back.
"CHAO! LOOK OUT!"
Just as the door started to slide shut, a Yukihiro Group security trooper jumped through and slammed into the first person just as the Sagita hit.
Markham's second watched helplessly as his leader followed Lady Lingshen through the door, shoving her aside and taking part of a Sagita attack just as the laboratory's door closed once again. Reaching up to his radio, he switched it from his now jammed channel to Markham, to the one to Tatsumiya. "Sir! Lady Lingshen and Markham got into the lab, but the door's closed again! Markham's down, and I believe there's a powerful mage inside the lab! We need backup fast!"
Chao crashed to the floor with Markham on top of her legs. His grunt as he took the Sagita hit had been enough to clear her head, and taking him along, she used Cassiopeia 2's Pseudo-Time stop to let her pull out her Ministra artifact before she even hit the floor. Snapping open the artifact fan and activating it's shielding barrier, she just managed to stop an extremely strong petrification spell. Quickly growing in strength, the attack threatened to overwhelm her artifact's defenses, so she maxed out the battlesuit's power and added that in, then unhesitatingly started feeding it with the power she could generate with her Magical Glyphs. Resisting the spell with everything she had continued until beads of pain-sweat began to form on her forehead, and the Magical Glyphs began to glow with the intense flow of power. Jumping away on her own with Cassiopeia 2 would be easy, but she would be unable in this circumstance to take the wounded Markham with her. That would leave him instantly vulnerable to petrification, so stopping the spell had to come first, counter-attack after.
Moirae poured power into his petrification spell beyond what was prudent. Whomever this person was, their power level easily matched that of Negi Springfield. ("Springfield? She... She's got to be one of his granddaughters!") Throwing one last pulse of his rapidly draining power reserves into the petrification magic, he tried to overwhelm the shielding spell, just to have it increase once more to match his effort. With no other choice, he cut off the attack. The magical flare died away, and a young girl wearing a battlesuit, her body glowing with Magical Glyphs, sat holding a fan out towards him in the middle a power-blasted circle.
Stephan Markham grimaced and looked up from his place in Chao's lap as her Magical Glyphs began to fade. What scared him more than the idea she might not be wholly human was the crazed look he saw on her face. "Ch...Chao... Focus. You can beat him, but not if you're angry..."
Chao didn't take her eyes off the magically strong boy standing near what had to be the wrecked body of Chachamaru's daughter Eva, but the tension in her body eased at Markham's words. "Don't die Markham." After feeling a nod in her lap, she carefully set the wounded man on the floor, placed the fan back in her belt, and stood. "I don't know who you are... but you're mine..."
Moirae started to release a normal, unincanted attack spell, but yelled and reeled in shock as the girl vanished, only to appear behind him for a punch to the kidney...
"THAT'S FOR WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING TO GRANDFATHER!"
...Before Moirae could hit the floor, the girl was there to send a battlesuit-enhanced fist into his gut...
"THAT'S FOR HURTING MY GRANDDAUGHTER!"
...And once more, the girl hit with a roundhouse kick to the neck, as the amazingly lucid thought; ("Granddaughter? What is this person talking about?") ran through his head, then finally another battlesuit-enhanced punch that sent Moirae flying over his desk and against the wall.
"THAT'S FOR HURTING MARKHAM!"
Chao felt herself flush at what she'd just said as her target hit the wall and fell to the floor.
Markham gave a pained chuckle as Chao started stalking her way towards the gray-haired boy-mage she'd been pounding on.
(Chao leaned over behind the desk, and was hit by stone Sagita that took her in the head and chest...)
Despite the agony he felt from the rock in his shoulder, Markham listened to the strange vision once more. Pulling his good arm around, he fired a burst from his weapon at a shadow in the corner of the dimly-lit laboratory.
Chao started to reach down for the seemingly unconscious boy when a burst of fire from Markham's weapon hit the wall nearby. Jumping back, she barely avoided another stone Sagita attack as the Water-shadow she'd been reaching for was hit instead and dissolved. Hidden in the corner, the boy she'd been fighting did a shundo towards the sleep-capsule, slapped a control, then did another shundo and escaped through a wall panel that slammed shut before she could react.
Moirae slapped another control, magically sealing the panel he'd come through just as he heard something slam against it. "What are you going to do? 'Granddaughter' of Negi Springfield? Come after me? Or save Negi? You've got less than sixty seconds before that sleep-capsule gives him a lethal injection!" The pounding ceased, and Moirae ran off down the hidden passageway. Recalling the warning light flashing on the sleep-capsule's control panel, he shook his head. (It's already too late girl! The only reason I left is Negi's already dead!")
Running along the emergency exit passageway, Moirae finally exited near a camouflaged pit outside his company's fence-line. As he prepared to enter the vehicle hidden there, a tall shadow rose over the ramp-edge end of the pit. A smaller shadow separated itself from the first, and Moirae recognized the shape of a blade he'd unexpectedly seen someone take possession of almost one-hundred years ago.
"Fate Averruncus... Why am I not surprised?" The person took a step forward, and Fate could now easily recognize who it was. "You want to know something, you 'White-haired' brat? If my worthless, genetic-donor of a father hadn't stopped me all those years ago... We wouldn't be having this conversation right now..."
Moving like a blur, the shadow's owner rushed down to impale and pin him to the pit's wall with the blue and gold trimmed 'Caliburn of Enteofushia.'
Fate stared dumbly for a moment as his blood began to spill from the wound, then finally looked up at the blade's owner. "Princess Enteofu...shia..."
Bells chimed softly as his tormentor leaned in close. Even in her advanced age, time had been kind to Asuna Kagurazaka, and now she had come to be his appropriately named angel of death; 'The Imperial Princess of the Twilight.' He tried to surge his power for one last act of defiance, but everything drained away, almost faster than he could try to build it up.
"Aww... Did you wanna' do a 'Final-Strike?' Too bad... I guess you forgot I'm a magic canceler? Didn't you..."
Moirae twitched, trying not to cry out as Asuna pushed the blade further into his body.
"You want to know something else, you "White-haired brat?' I'm not going to kill you for all my fiends you've hurt, not specifically, but because you hurt Negi... He tried, he really did. Even after everything you'd done, he tried to reconcile with you, and you stabbed him in the back, AGAIN, for his efforts. That betrayal hurt him a lot, more than you could ever know."
Fate felt his lips starting to tremble from blood-loss and shock as Asuna leaned in further to whisper in his ear.
"Maybe they'll explain it to you in hell..."
Asuna withdrew Caliburn, Fate felt himself step out over an empty space, and he was once more on the edge of the Enteofushia Castle Gate-Jump platform, with a crazed Asuna Kagurazaka standing before him...
(-)
Caught off guard, Chao rushed the closing door and slammed into it just as it sealed.
"What are you going to do? 'Granddaughter' of Negi Springfield? Come after me? Or save Negi? You've got less than sixty seconds before that sleep-capsule gives him a lethal injection!"
Turning away, Chao ran back to the sleep-capsules control panel and started trying to make sense of how everything functioned.
Markham pulled himself up and over to Chao. Blood loss was making him light-headed, but he managed to prop himself up next to her.
Chao was on the verge of tears. "Please help me. I'm not familiar with what this system does..."
Markham ran his eyes over the touch-screen controls. Many were obvious, but without time to carefully experiment, randomly pressing controls might make things worse. "Power monitoring, life support equipment controls, regular intravenous controls, this is the timer for that button he pushed, but I can't seen how to stop it!"
Chao looked into the sleep-capsule at her still out of reach grandfather. "What if I smash the capsule open..."
Markham shook his head, then gritted his teeth from a spasm of pain. "Chao... How did you get rid of that mage?"
Chao's eyes suddenly grew wide with hope. Reaching into her belt, she pulled out the last two 'Forced-Displacement' bullets.
Without any idea how they worked, Markham knew he didn't have time to care. "Can those work on this console?"
Chao nodded. "I'll get caught in the effect, but, yes!"
Markham turned and staggered away. "Do it."
Looking down at the timer, Chao saw it pass twenty seconds. (...but not if you're angry...") Markham's earlier words came back to her. She took a calming breath, and the answer came to her. ("Cassiopeia 2. I can get back with Cassiopeia 2.")
Markham turned and watched as Chao took a deep breath, whispered something, then drew her fist back and punched the console. Instantly, a watch face similar to the one on her back flared into existence. She and the console were englobed in a black, swirling sphere. Chao turned to look at him through the rapidly darkening globe, then she, the console, and the now completely opaque sphere shrank to a dot and vanished. The illumination in the sleep-capsule went out, and it slowly began to drain through it's now severed supply connections.
Markham starred at the spreading puddle of fluid for a moment before his fogged mind finally realized what that meant. ("Tubes cut... Life support... The oxygen's cut off!") He took a step back towards the pod and collapsed in a partial faint, just as a soft 'Pop-Bang!' announced Chao's return. knowing he was in serious trouble from blood loss, he still stretched out his good arm to point at the sleep-capsule. "Chao... the oxygen... get him out..."
Looking at Markham, face down on a floor smeared with his own blood, Chao felt something painful pulling at her heart. She wasn't sure if she could make the choice, but Markham, lying there, pointing at the sleep-capsule, had made it for her. Turning back to her grandfather, she smashed the sleep-capsule's lock with a battlesuit enhanced punch, and raised the lid. Most of the remaining fluid poured out onto the floor, and she was quickly able to remove the life support equipment and pull her grandfather from the capsule.
He wasn't breathing.
Chao leaned down to place her ear against her grandfather's chest. Nothing. A crackle of paper made her look down to see that her fan had returned to it's card-form, and was now missing most of it's information, meaning it's initiator was dead. Looking back up at the frail man she'd always thought so strong, she brushed aside a few strands of his thin, gray hair as her tears started to flow. "Grandfather? Please... It's Chao... I'm back Grandfather... Please speak to me... say something!"
(-)
"FIRE!"
Every MagiTech lock cutter Tatsumiya's team had left was attached around the perimeter of the laboratory's door seal. The release of energy as all six went off simultaneously didn't just break the magical seals, they burned the door from it's frame. What was left fell out into the hallway with a crash. Tatsumiya leading the way, the Yukihiro Group Security Troopers poured into the room expecting a fight, but found only the unconscious Markham, and a sobbing Chao, cradling their main rescue target. The team quickly swept the room, then Tatsumiya returned to the destroyed door. "Izumi! Two down! get in here!"
Followed by her assistants, Izumi came through the destroyed door and knelt to take a quick look at the man Chao held. Without even shaking her head, she moved over to help the man whose faint groans indicated he still had a chance.
Chao watched Ako's descendant move away, then looked up as Ayaka and Ku walked into the lab. "Grandmother... Grandfather's not breathing... please help him..."
Ku knelt next to her husband and reached out to examine Negi as Ayaka turned away, fighting back her own sorrow. She soon shook her head, and started to shed her own tears.
Chao watched her grandmother stand up. Her tears started flowing like rain, and she began to howl with a level of grief not felt since she was eight years old. "PLEASE GRANDFATHER! I PROMISED I'D COME FIND YOU! PLEASE DON'T MAKE OUT TO BE A LIAR! YOU SAID WE HAD A CHANCE, AND I MADE IT! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!"
Accompanied by a soft chime, a shadow fell over Chao.
"Stupid Negi... Going off by yourself again..."
Everyone in the room started, surprised by the tall woman who had silently come through a panel in the wall to stand amongst them. A few started to raise their weapons, but at a signal from Tatsumiya, they relaxed again.
Chao looked up at the woman who was one of her great-grandmothers. "Please... Asuna..."
Asuna, glancing at her own dead Pactio card, could only shake her head as Chao's tears continued to fall on Negi's face.
Stephan Markham woke briefly after someone came over and removed the stone spear from his shoulder. Trauma-foam sealant was used to temporarily close the wound, and he was quickly loaded on a medical support stretcher. Face down and looking across the floor before being moved, he was the only one to see Professor Springfield's fingers twitch. Despite his pain, he started to shake slightly with mirth. (Oh my... They're going to be so mad at him! At least I can ask 'him' for permission to court Chao, her grandmother has a 'dangerous' aura about her!") He tried to laugh louder, but Izumi took it as him being in pain, and administered another mild sedative to keep him from moving.
Chao started rocking back and forth, cradling her grandfather's body and pouring out her grief as Markham was carried out of the laboratory. "("If he dies to... This will all have been for NOTHING!") "Grandfather..." Unexpectedly, she felt a thin hand caressing her face.
"As Samuel Clemens once said; 'Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated...'"
Chao looked down at her grandfather as the obviously not dead man continued to cradle her face. "Grandfather! How...?"
Negi Springfield gasped as his granddaughter suddenly squeezed him fiercely. "Chao... please... air..."
Raymond Tatsumiya looked over towards Negi Springfield from where he was directing the recovery of Eva Springfield. What he saw there set every alarm he'd inherited from his ancestors off. "Everyone out! NOW!" Without hesitation, Tatsumiya bodily lifted the damaged Eva into his arms and ran from the lab. Markham's second listened to the order and followed Tatsumiya without question. In ones and twos, the Yukihiro Group security troopers quickly realized the growing danger and did a good imitation of the Keystone Cops as they scrambled to follow their leader's order.
Chao felt a sudden sense of danger and looked up as her grandfather continued on, oblivious to the growing threat. "I knew that 'Petit Mal' spell would come in handy some day! By the way, what happened to Fate?"
"My reputation...My heart...Adeat..." A Rose vine whip appeared in Ayaka Yukihiro's hand.
"I came all the way from Megalo-Mesembria for this? Adeat..." A huge, wedge-shaped blade appeared in Asuna Kagurazaka's hand.
"You no say you know that spell...Come!" Chao's sword flew from it's sheath to land in Ku's hand.
Suddenly very afraid, Chao looked down at her Grandfather. "Grandfather...I love you more than I can say, and I really am happy you're alive, but you deserve what's about to happen for what you just put me through..." Without ceremony, Chao dropped her grandfather on the floor and fled for her life.
Negi Springfield sat up, rubbing the back of his head, then suddenly saw the three ominously glowing auras surrounding the women who still stood before him. "Uh...heh heh! Really everyone, I had no idea this would upset you so much!"
Three voices cried out in perfect unison.
"STUPID NEGI! DIE!"
Outside, several avians resting along the edge of the building's roof suddenly felt an unnatural shaking of the ground. Upset by this strange event, they took off and flew away, squawking in distress.
tsuzuku
(-)
Author's Notes:
'Moirae.' Greek word for the 'Moiraes.' (Or: 'The Fates.') I needed a 'cover' name for Fate Averruncus, so as to not give away who he was immediately. Considering the language he used in the manga for his spells, 'Moirae' seemed appropriate.
Just to avoid confusion:
Eva Springfield is Chachamaru's 'daughter,' via the 'assistance' of Negi Springfield...
Chachamaru is Chao Lingshen and Satomi Hakase's 'daughter.'
Thus, Eva is Chao Lingshen's 'granddaughter.'
I can only hope I have not upset anyone with my portrayal of this small-unit action. My experience with such things is minimal, and I can only write about such based on the limited extent of my knowledge.
"Baku Retsu Sun Kei!"
Ku Fei's rock-smashing technique from c207.
Corporate Oversight.
In a world ruled by corporations, there still needs to be some 'law.' Yukihiro Group, guided by Ayaka Yukihiro, worked itself through means fair and foul into the position of 'Corporate Rules Enforcer' for the specific purpose of being able to have the necessary authority to deal with various things related to Chao Lingshen, as described to Ayaka by Negi Springfield.
Beyond that hidden purpose, Yukihiro Group performs the same functions within the corporate world that normal police perform today. It is important to note, however, that this 'does not' include non-corporate crimes. Say, the murder/sacrifice of your granddaughter.
Negi Springfield is concerned about the survival of Chao Lingshen. He and others are willing to accept the risks involved in a false conviction, as long as their primary goal, Chao's survival, is assured.
Century Corporation grew from a certain organization in a certain manga involving a certain police girl.
Sagita weaponry.
Through the combination of magic and technology, small arms weaponry capable of firing 'Sagita-shots' instead of normal bullets is developed. While completely spell-based 'caseless' Sagita weapons may exist, they would be more expensive than simple catalyst-based 'cased' weapons.
Various heavier arms also exist, but after a certain point, it just becomes easier to use a real mage, or a real cannon, if you need a 'heavy' weapon.
MagiTech Shields.
Simply a magic and technology-based shield designed to resist magical attacks, and to a limited extent, physical attacks. Defense against physical attacks is still more efficiently provided by physical armor.
Yukihiro Group Security Troopers.
Think of armored, non-landmate-using ESWAT troopers from Appleseed, or regular SWAT police from any good-sized city in the US of today. Each trooper would have a set of personal armor, communications equipment including a helmet mounted display, a MagiTech shield system, personal weapon, and whatever extra equipment was required by their specialty or the mission at hand.
Osprey Tilt-rotor.
Because the Mahora Military Club had one, and they just plain look cool. My other choice would have been some kind of advanced UH-60 Blackhawk or MH-53 Pave Low.
Why such low-tech in a world of magic? Because it's cheaper and ultimately more reliable in most situations.
Not everyone can be Nagi Springfield after all.
Kafka'sdragon. It's not over yet, but I hope I've done right by you.
