Author's Notes: Pyro – Negima = A Manga (a good one, and quite long I might add) Ne-gi-ma, or Ne-gi, Negi Springfield, the main character. Negima, short for Negi Magi, or Mage, which is what Negi is. Ne-(readers begin to wale on author with lead pipe)

Yes, Mana is from Girlfriend of Steel, but in this story of course Fate has simply taken her appearance. Technically speaking, the real Mana might still be out there. That would be an odd meeting.

(skip this next part if you want)

GlAssbOy – eh, it's not really writer's block per-se, it's that I can't write on Love Hina at the moment. The inspiration just isn't there. I know where I want to go, but it would be a terrible struggle to write, and the story would suffer. Jeez, I sound like I'm whining. In any case, the humorous way to put it is this. Rei was my muse for Redux. Naru is my muse for the Love Hina stories. Misato (as I have written her) is my muse for this story. When I started the two Love Hina stories, Naru started beating on Rei, which is why the final chapter for Redux was such a terrible pain to write (even though it was my favorite chapter). Then, Naru was quite miffed that I toughed it out and ignored her to finish Redux (I hate leaving things hanging so close to the end). Then, Insane Misato came on the scene, and powerful as Naru is, you just don't mess with Misato. I haven't come near to expounding her full character, but even as I have written her so far, I'm sure you can see that she's basically an incarnation of one of the frikken Chaos Gods or something. Well, not really, but at her level, when you get down to it, there's not much difference.

(end skip)

Chapter 7 – The Longest Day

The Longest Day began innocuously enough with Misato.

"Dammit!" Gendo roared, his fist coming down upon the picture the Section Two agent had laid on his desk. Misato had used her Lambo's tires to painstakingly render a beautifully detailed picture of Gendo in the classic Doctor Evil pose, with little finger and everything. In the middle of the main parking lot. In fact, the little finger had been carefully placed directly over Gendo's preferred parking spot. "How did she do it??" he demanded.

"She's got some hot super-car now, sir," the sweating Senior Agent answered hastily. "If she were in her old Alpine, we would have caught her for sure if she'd tried something this detailed, even with those damned drifter tires," the man said placatingly. "Still, if I may say so, sir, she really captured your aura of command, especially with the subtle arch of your brow, and..."

"Out!!" roared Gendo, "All of you get out of my sight!" The agents fled like scared rabbits.

Class was not due to start for fifteen minutes yet, and Shinji's entire entourage had basically come to grips and agreed that the situation was desperate, and that special exemptions were in order. All this meant was that they all called a truce and agreed to try not to kill each other until the crisis was resolved. Hikari stood in a magic circle looking rather embarrassed, and Shinji was hovering over his flock trying to keep order. Mana was standing to one side, too engrossed in trying to sort out her own feelings to really argue, but Asuka and Rei were filling in for her quite well.

"Look, she's my best friend," Asuka tried to explain. The others found it quite odd that the jealous and possessive redhead was taking the girl's side. "I just don't want to see her hurt. She's the Class Rep, and we can't have her moping around. If she shirks her duties, it'll only make her feel worse..."

Rei fumed in silence, and the only outward sign that slipped passed her usual stoic 'Rei' expression was a slight eyebrow-twitch every now and then. "...my...kiss," she said softly, and Asuka colored slightly before forcing down her anger. "My artifact..." Rei mumbled, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Are you sure she... I mean..." Rei could not complete the question.

Asuka pushed Shinji over next to Hikari, who averted her head. "Hikari, look at him," Asuka said firmly, trying to hold her voice steady. The girl looked over, and her eyes found Shinji's. It was obvious she was trying to hold down her feelings, but a blush rose in her cheeks, and after several seconds of torture, her eyes began to water.

"Yeah, she's got it bad," Mana said quietly, grinning just a little.

Rei watched this spectacle in silence, and after perhaps half a minute a single tear slipped down her cheek, and she turned aside swiping it away quickly. "Fine." When she turned around again, her face was the usual blank mask they all knew.

Shinji stepped into the circle, and their eyes met again. Hikari looked away, her cheeks a deep pink. "Look, Hikari... I..." Shinji began, and Asuka found herself gagging in disgust and desperately wanting it at the same time. It was enough to send her anger sky high, and yet she was honor-bound to wait, atleast for a few more moments.

"All we have to do is kiss, right?" Hikari said, her voice quavering slightly as she again tried to look him in the eyes. Again she was forced to break her gaze, her cheeks having gone a much deeper shade of crimson.

"...y-yeah."

He started to lean forward, and she turned at the same time to face him. After several more false starts, she took the initiative and leaned forward suddenly putting her lips to his. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. In truth, more than one had expected an... incident. And that was when Hikari lost it. Shuddering ever so slightly the girl tilted her head, brought her arms up around Shinji's neck, molded her body to his, and let out a piteously muffled moan of intense desire. Her entire face and neck began to flush, and it was obvious the kiss had turned extremely adult. As for poor Shinji, well, there was simply not a good response to the situation (other than to enjoy it, I guess). He was a virile male, after all. If he responded, the other girls would take action. If he didn't, they would take insult. In the end, the action he chose was pure Shinji. He hesitated, meandered, obviously tried to hold himself back, and then his hands drifted to Hikari's waist. Their tongues... drifted. By this point Asuka now found her self gagging and wanting it, while at the same time harboring the desperate desire to kill Shinji and then herself.

Rei could do nothing but stare and point. "I-I-I-I know that... tongue. Tongue... is involved... I-I-"

In the end it turned out to be Mana that snapped. Shaking with barely controlled rage, she drove Hikari off of Shinji with her guitar, and then proceeded to wale on Asuka and Rei just to relieve her pent-up stress. Asuka went Rabid Squirrel on her ass, relieved her of her guitar, and proceeded to wale on the First Child. The First went Drunken Monkey, fell on the floor into an extremely violent twitching fit, and proceeded to wale on everyone's ass.

Meanwhile, Hikari (who had only been beaten in passing) bent down and retrieved her Tarot card. She recognized the picture on it immediately, and gestured for Shinji to come over and look at it. He stepped over, much relieved that she didn't immediately go into a blushing fit. The kiss had apparently relieved most of the issue for the moment. He looked at her card, and immediately covered his mouth to hide the grin.

"Should I do it?" she asked him.

"You don't need my permission, Class Representative," he answered, putting slight emphasis on the last two words.

She held the card to her chest and closed her eyes. One flash of light later, she was dressed up in a perfectly pressed female drill-sergeant's dress uniform. There was not a crease out of place, nor was there the tiniest spot on the pristine and perfect outfit. In her hands was the rod of punishment, necessary for keeping order in a busy classroom or a misbehaving harem, the stun baton. The two-foot-long rod was sleek, black, and reeked of lethality. At one end was a comfortable looking hand-grip, and at the other were two innocuous-looking round pieces of metal which encircled the baton. The three fighters did not even miss a beat or pause in their scuffle, and Hikari's Class Rep instincts kicked in. Her eyebrows drew down, and she shrilled out a command. "All right, that's enough!"

The fighters paused momentarily, long enough to recognize Hikari's voice, then resumed their battle. Hikari did not waste any time on further warnings, nor did she hesitate. Without unnecessary movements or force, she brought the baton down on Asuka's neck, and with a blue hum and lots of nasty popping the girl dropped like a stone to the floor. Rei twitched in Hikari's direction, and though the Class Rep had no martial arts experience, she knew a threat when she saw one. Rei managed to dodge the baton's first swing, but all Hikari had to do was get one touch. Rei was soon a twitching mass on the floor, and this time it wasn't because she was using her Drunken-Monkey-Fu. Mana (who by this time had retrieved her guitar) squared off against Hikari, and the Class Rep pulled no punches.

"You're new to the school, so I'll give you an extra warning," she said, her voice firm. "One wrong move and I'll break that toy of yours, and then I'll break you." Her voice oozed confidence and authority, and she thumbed the baton just for effect. Electricity crawled all over the business end of the Rod of Punishment, amidst a horrid welter of crackles and pops.

There were no more incidents.

After some discussion (when the effects of the Rod of Discipline wore off) the girls agreed that Shinji was a very dangerous person, and that eye contact between him and other girls had to be strictly forbidden, atleast as much as possible. It was near unanimous that eye contact was what did it. 'Those eyes,' Hikari had said dreamily, zoning out, until Asuka had snapped her fingers rapidly in front of the girl's face, and then come near to snapping her neck. And so Shinji found himself sitting in front of the Class Rep, Rei to his left, Asuka to his right, and Mana in front of him, all of them surreptitiously keeping watch on Shinji and those around him.

By the time class started, Hikari had registered what would become her main outfit. It was, quite simply, her school uniform. Now she by nature was a perfectionist, and always made sure she was immaculate before coming to class. But the artifact's outfit generator made sure every crease and seam was in perfect order, and that there was not a spot of dirt on her. In short, she became the Class Rep of Class Reps. Her stun baton was now retractable, and fit in her pocket. Always before she had carried with her an air of authority, but now it was obvious to anyone that she had the true aura of command. They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely, but there are exceptions to every rule. Hikari would probably be one of those exceptions. Still, though she did not have absolute power, in the classroom she now came very close.

The door slid aside to reveal the Ancient Professor.

"All rise!" Perfect unison slides and steps as everyone stood in respect. "Bow!" Again, near-military discipline. The Professor stood, momentarily stunned. Hikari turned to look at him, as if to say, 'the class is yours.' She wondered for a moment at his hesitance, then realized how the aura of the class had changed. There was a moment of recognition between their eyes, and her command aura was such that he almost fell under its sway. The old man found himself drawing on his inner discipline to keep hold of himself, and then Hikari realized what was happening. She retreated her aura, allowing him to naturally take over.

Interesting, the old man thought. Very interesting. Such a change, and so quickly. He invoked his ethereal vision, and immediately saw through her outfit. Of course, since her registered outfit was the same as her school uniform, there were only subtle differences. A slight crease out of place here, a hem just barely too low there. It was so close he almost cracked a smile. An artifact. And yet it's not truly the artifact's power that has done this. The artifact has merely strengthened her already powerful command aura, and given physical form to her boldness. Very interesting.

At lunch, Shinji and his flock passed through the halls. Touji and Kensuke were floored.

"He-he-he... took all the good ones," Touji stammered. "J-jeez, man, leave some for the rest of us..."

"...e-e-even the hot new transfer student!" Kensuke stuttered, referring to Mana. Shinji just smiled and shrugged.

Asuka continued to want to hug him and hurl at the same time. I swear I'm going to make him a better man than this. If I have to live with this... insane desire for him, he's going to have to change. She damned near jumped out of her skin when her phone emitted its cheerful German waltz. I've got a serious case of nerves here, she thought as she pulled the phone from her purse. She happened to glance at Shinji and felt her heart thump. Verdammt! She gritted her teeth as she fumbled to open the phone. Maybe I should just kiss him. She looked over at Hikari, who seemed calm. No! Not yet... she opened the phone. "J-Ja?" Yammering. Silence. More yammering. "...o-okay. Kiss you lat-" she shut her eyes. She had meant to say 'see you later.' She threw the phone against the wall with a barely restrained shriek of fury, then stood there, trembling for a moment. After several seconds, she regained control of herself. "Shinji."

"Yes?"

"Could you back us up a few seconds and restore my phone?"

"...i-if I do that, Misato might notice..." She was in the resets, after all.

The fact that he thought of the ramifications like that only made her want him more, and hate herself for not being able to think clearly enough to remember such things herself. Not looking up, she stepped forward until she was directly in front of the boy. She took Shinji's head in her hands, and the other girls did not intervene, sensing this was similar to Hikari's situation, and needed rectifying.

"Kamo's not here, there's no magic circle." For once Shinji did not stutter, and this did not help Asuka's mental state.

"I don't care about the artifact, I just want to be able to think clearly." She managed to keep control of her voice. Shinji looked as if he was about to speak again, and she stopped him with a glance. Her blue orbs locked onto his own deep grey eyes. "Speak one more word, and I'll kill you." Her voice somehow managed to be like ice and carry warmth at the same time. "Enjoy this too much, and I'll kill you. Don't enjoy it enough, and I'll kill you." A touch of fire had entered her eyes. "Hell, I'll probably kill you anyway, just because..." He made the first move toward her lips, but she made quite sure she met him more than halfway. It was obvious she was desperately fighting her feelings, but color crept onto her cheeks, then down her neck. Finally she lost it even more spectacularly than Hikari, molded herself to him, and damned near climbed up the boy, all the while making noises one usually hears during a raging bear attack. Shinji managed to keep from enjoying it too much, and Rei finally beat Asuka off of him with a convenient lead pipe. There were mutual agreements all around to never speak of it again.

"Oh, yeah, Asuka, what was that phone call about?" Shinji asked, when he got his breath (and his tongue) back.

Author's Notes: Cliffie? Okay, I think I maybe went overboard ;-) or not. You decide. And the Longest Day has yet to truly begin. (deep menacing laughter)