Disclaimer:
Love Hina and Mahou Sensei Negima is the creative property of Ken Akamatsu, who created this wonderful anime/manga series. Shingetsugan Tsukihime and Fate/stay night is the creative property of TYPE-MOON. Anything not attributed to Akamatsu-san or TYPE-MOON belongs to their respective owners, such as references to Cowboy Bebop (the Swordfish II) that is a creation of Sunrise and Shinichiro Watanabe, BLEACH is a creation of Kubo Tite, and vice-versa. This story is written purely just for fun, guys; please for God's sake, don't sue me! I'm just a high school student with too much free time on his hands! On the other hand, any specific author created characters I created for this fic (despite how unoriginal they may be at times) are mine. So without further adieu, let's get on with the show!
The Surgeon General's Warning:
Read at your own risk. Multiple pairings inside folks, with KanaxKei and KanaxNegi, just to name a few! You never know what you're going to get so read on (I might even do some alternative stuff, if you know what I mean).
Blue Blue Glass Moon, Under the Crimson Air
I Wanna Go To A Place...
Chapter 05:
Of England, Family, and Friends
A Love Magister Hina Negima! fanfic by James "Ray" Edwards
"Heavens! The nerve of these Japanese girls!" Nekane Springfield ranted angrily in Japanese for all to hear, tossing her long blonde hair with a peeved wave of her hand. This was not the start to a good morning for her by any definition of normalcy. Why she was already starting to have doubts concerning the famed hospitality of the Japanese! "Have they honestly never seen somebody get their clothes completely blown off by a sneeze? Good gracious, with all the..."
A certain tawny-haired girl simply grinned at the ensuing tirade, courtesy of the Springfield family's legendary surrogate matron and eldest daughter, as they strolled through the bustling hallways of Mahora Academy. Honestly, she felt sorry for that woman, Shizuna Minamoto, who had the unfortunate task of escorting the three of them to the Headmaster's office. Sparing a glance to her right, she noticed her other companion, the male heir to the Springfield legacy, visibly sulking in mortification, a black cloud hovering over his head.
"Aw, what's the matter, Space Cadet? Not having second thoughts about coming to Japan now, are you?" she asked him in a ghostly whisper, speaking in Japanese of course.
Snapped out from his brooding of gloom and doom, Negi Springfield stumbled a step with a muffled yelp but managed to keep his balance. He shot his best mate from the esteemed magical school of Meldiana Magistra an annoyed look, before hissing back in reply Japanese as well, "Anya Mireille Blanchett, will you cut it out, please?"
"Oh, you're not still raw about me calling you a shrimp and a space cadet in front of your grandfather at --- school?"
"Anya --- don't make me take one of your ribbons."
"Mate, you wouldn't dare, hehehehe. You're way too big of a softie to do something so absolutely mean like that. Besides, Nekane would kill you."
He sighed, adjusting his glasses out of habit. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Ha-ha! I don't think you'd let me get close enough to do it anyway."
"We're pretty close now, by the way. You could give it a shot."
"Annnn-ya."
"Oh, you're so cute when you look ready to flip your lid, Negi!"
Negi began to mumble something incomprehensible under his breath, a clear sign of his growing frustration with some matter. Nothing had honestly gone right for him since they had arrived at Narita Airport. First, he had blown off the clothes of a flight attendant, then he had accidentally shorted out an X-Ray machine at a security checkpoint, and the list of catastrophes had just gone on and on. It was a small miracle they had all made it together to Mahora Academy intact, considering a certain --- kind bespectacled gentleman driving a white minivan was cutting through downtown traffic at breakneck speeds of 140 kilometers per hour. Tokyo University professors' were undoubtedly superhuman (or quite mad), although it was kind of embarrassing they had to pry Nekane out of the passenger's seat with a crowbar.
The train ride to Mahora Station was a lot more comfortable, sort of...
"Alright, spill your guts."
"Huh? About what?"
"Say it already, Space Cadet Boy. I am your best mate, remember?"
"Well..."
"Is it Nekane? You know she's always on the rampage or off the rampage, one way or the other, so you really can't help it. She's taken the big sister business to a whole new level, I'd say."
"It's not that."
"Oh? Well, is it us, Negi? I can sort of gather that you were looking forward to-"
"No, absolutely not that, Anya!" he defended, shooting her an earnest look in his dark chocolate brown eyes. "I couldn't be happier that we're all together, here in Japan. I didn't think that your --- diploma would --- change like that, and it even surprised gramps. Who'd expect you'd be teaching at Mahora Academy instead, and doing an additional part-time job at Yomogi Nursery School in Mahora City?"
"It's no big deal really. I always did get along fine with younger children."
"Still, you always said you wanted to be a fortune teller in London."
"Oh, you flatter me too much, mate. The professors in --- Statistics and Probability --- always did say I had a gift for it, but I'd honestly rather be helping people here in the present where they need me."
He smiled warmly at her. "Yeah, you're right, Anya. Thanks!"
It really was times like these that she was such a lifesaver, although he was equally surprised just how immature she could be at times. As the saying went, "Never judge a book by its cover."
"A pleasure to be of service, Negi."
"Well, after that, I think Nekane-"
Anya grinned smartly at the boy as she cut Negi off. "Oh, you know she was just using me as an excuse to move over here, so she could watch over you. She loves you way too much to let you go off on your own like that, without any means of support."
"Hehehe, I guess I'm lucky, but --- what about you though? Don't you miss your family?"
"Don't worry about it, old chap. As long as I can be around you, I'm as happy as I can be; you always did know how to liven things up at --- school."
The bespectacled boy blushed, scratching the back of his head in mild embarrassment. He had been something of an unintentional troublemaker back at Meldiana. The incident with the dragon during Defense Against the Dark Arts was probably his fault. However, he could vouch that he had nothing to do with a different disaster concerning a herd of rampaging hippogriffs during Professor Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class. It was a splendid spectacle and he had to go out personally to clean it all up.
"To tell you the truth, I always believed you'd graduate at the top of our class."
"Really?"
"Yup, even if you were a klutz, had your --- tennis racquet explode during --- orientation, you caught your hair on fire in --- astrology, and melted your glasses during --- chemistry..."
"Anya..."
"Though, I have to wonder how things would have been if you had been a S-You-Know-What instead."
"Hey, no way! Not me! We Springfields have been-"
"But --- Professor Hat did say you would have done well."
"Those kids are a rotten lot, Anya, and you know it. I still feel bad that Tristan ended up with them; he was an all-right chap too, really."
"Well, there was no changing Tristy. I'd say he was born as stubborn as a mule, and more ambitious than a politician, but I think he turned out a much stronger lad for what he went through."
"Yeah, I think so to-uoof!" Negi spluttered as he rammed into something stiffly, thought it was quite soft and familiar, like a hand belonging to... "Nueghkyane?"
Sure enough, it was his elder sister palming his face like it was basketball, and she looked quite cross. He could only wonder what had happened now. Nekane was really a kind person under normal circumstances, but when she got mad, it was best not to be in the path of her rampage. "Miss Anya Mireille Blanchett! Are you two quite finished? You'd better not to be trying to --- influence Negi to something unsavory like these hussy little Japanese girls."
"Cross my poor heart and hope to die, Nekane-oneesan!" the beaming tawny-haired girl replied without missing a beat.
"Is that so?"
"Uh-huh, and besides, I was just telling my best mate Negi here that he's got absolutely, fantastically nothing to fret about with his teaching position here at Mahora Academy! He's a capable young man, even though he's only ten-years-old."
"He's the same age as you, Anya dear."
"That's true, but I believe he'll earn the respect of his pupils in no time."
Nekane weathered a sweatdrop. "Heavens, I fear these girls are going to be the death of him."
"Don't fret yourself silly, Onee-san! I think he'd die from grief between the two of us first! Besides, if the going ever gets tough, Negi doesn't have to worry because his onee-san and his best mate are right here with him. We'll help him all we can, and God willing, a little more."
Nekane's baby blue eyes stared in wonder of the girl she had come to know in the five years her little brother had attended Meldiana Magistra. The Blanchetts' certainly had their quirks, and they had been certified --- unofficially by the magic community at large --- to be quite mad. She had been leery of Anya from the start, a quiet precocious child who exuded an air of --- well --- bizarreness. Negi had befriended from the moment he met her. Personally, she still had her doubts about the Blanchett girl, but five years later, her little brother probably could not have picked a better friend for all his persistent bumbling.
"Well-spoken, Anya; I don't think I could've put it better myself." The blonde promptly released her younger brother, who was more so confused than moved by the poignant exchange.
"Any time-any time, right?"
"Well, come along now. While you two were talking we already arrived at the Headmaster's Office," Anya informed the duo. She nodded towards the huge set of double doors behind her, which bared a golden plate above the doorframe that announced in big black letters of their current destination. "That Shizuka woman's already inside waiting for us."
Anya beamed once more, clapping her hands together. "Good timing, Onee-san! Say, could you go in ahead of us? I hear the Headmaster is something of a-"
"What! HIM? A PERVERT?"
"Yup, your ojii-san was-"
"Why that dirty old weasel! I'm going to teach him... Oh no! Miss, err, Minamoto-san's right in there with him! I won't let this come to-"
The two children did not get a chance to hear the rest of what the elder Springfield had to say as she punctually dashed into the office, slamming the doors shut in her wake. Sounds of screaming, shouting, and furniture being broken here and there crashed through the great mahogany doors like child's play. Nekane Springfield was truly terrifying on the rampage.
Negi blinked, turned his head about, and stared at his best mate, unsure of her motives. He whispered to her in English, "Mate, what was that for?"
"For kicks, Negi, and so I could say one last thing in private," Anya told him calmly in English too, as she fixed him with her own dark brown eyes, which matched his perfectly.
"What's that? I don't think there's anything we couldn't say in front of my big sister."
It was exactly then that Anya pulled a Blanchett. She pirouetted about him, twirling like a ballerina, slapped him not once but twice in the back of the head, came about face, and then head butted him in the forehead. Negi would have certainly yelped in bewildered pain from such bizarre abuse, but could do little more than manage a squeak, as he was promptly pulled into a monstrous affectionate bear hug from his best friend.
"There you go, mate. Now you know that whatever happens, I'll always stand by your side, Negi Springfield." she told him with a beaming smile. The girl was completely missing the fact that her best mate was starting to turn blue-faced visibly as he suffocated underneath her affections. "A promise between best mates!"
"An-ya?"
"Aye, mate?"
"Ah --- cahn't --- breathe!"
"Oh, whoopsies! Sorry, Negi!"
Ah, the wonderful taste of air upon one's lips!
To Be Continued...
Pop Culture Note:
Have fun with the references and allusions. And yes, you guessed it. That was him at the airport.