Disclaimer: I do not own Negima in any form or any character or borrowed from an outside source. Any such idea will be marked by and accredited to its rightful holder(s) in the chapter introduced.

Chapter 3:

In the skies of the Magical World

As the sun shank below the horizon and bathed the sky in a soft fleeting amber glow a giant goldfish made its way though the sea of clouds, but this was not a living fish flying though the skies of the magical world, it was a ship. Though it was a small ship it had the resources to many thing: it had the necessities of living(bathroom, shower, kitchen, ect..), it had high grade cannons for defense, and the simple navigational system helped tremendously with search and rescue, such resource rendered endless plane hopping unnecessary, a great relief to the three White Wings members charged with finding their companions. Two of them, Kazumi Asakura and her favorite ghost Sayo Aisaka were enjoying one of the benefits of not having to rely on public transportation, comfortable seats, so comfortable in fact the former was sound asleep in them.

She was in the middle a rather enjoyable dream; She had just sold the biggest scoop in the history of journalism, an interview with Bigfoot an alien real-estate agent that was on his last mission before retiring to Saturn scouting prim intergalactic winter retreat real-estate on earth, and was being hailed as a national hero with her own parade as hordes gorgeous guys lining the streets chanting her name. "Asakura-san! Asakura-san!" Over and over they chanted it as she passed sounding almost like one voice as she went, in fact as began to listen the more it sounded like Negi. She quickly checked her clothes, as most of the time when this happened in a dream they were the first thing go on her road back to reality; once she confirmed they were still there she closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. However when she a opened them again she found something worse missing, all the hordes gorgeous guys lining the streets were now duplicates of the cute but un-datable professor still chant her name. "No!! " she screamed dropping to her knees in defeat as the world around her faded back to reality. She awoke with a start, the eyes of two of other crewmembers staring at her, and the voice of her sensei still sounding in her head only in a more frantic. It didn't take her long to figure what was going on, and she reached her card to answer.

Negi was now getting concerned. Why doesn't she answer? Did he get her and Chachamaru-san also? If so he got everyone with them also? What do I do? How could I get my students involved with something like this? He thought to himself getting angrier with every passing moment. However it was not long until his self-loathing was interrupted by the a familiar voice going off in his head.

"Yo Sensei, where's the fire?" It asked playfully.

A great wave of relief washed over the boy as he heard the unmistakable voice of Kazumi Asakura go off in his head. "Asakura-san! You're okay!" Negi shouted joyfully thought the card.

"Ah Sensei I didn't know I meant so much to, but what about Nodoka-san?" Kazumi asked while pretending to be flattered.

"This is serious!" He shouted firmly in response, almost completely ignoring her comment.

The fact that he didn't respond to her baited comment told the reporter something was very wrong. "What happen Sensei?" She ask seriously, as listened intently to his explanation. As she listened she could see why the boy so concerned; not anything about this completely surprised her, but that didn't stop her from rushing to find the fastest way to locate any near by members.

"Chachamaru-san!" Asakura shouted as she barged into the cockpit, causing the pilot and navigator of the ship to look at her as if she was mad.

"What is it Asakura-san?" The robot severing as navigator asked passively.

"Are any of the others in range of your sensors?" Asakura asked urgently

"No, none of the remaining members are near our current location." Chachamaru replied, before she turned back to her task.

"That's fine, but I need to know if any members are in the area." Asakura clarified calmly

Chachamaru was puzzled as to the girl's behavior, but gave her the information. "Yes, all other previously located members are converging on each other near Asuna's group's last location."

"Hey! What's with all these questions, Asakura-san?" The captain/owner of the ship, Haruna Saotome asked in her usual loud manner.

"Fill all of you in in a minute." She replied, making the gesture for hold as she pressed her card to her head. "Sensei!" She called the card telepathically.

Negi paced the floor of the same, as he waited the unending torment that was the three minutes since Asakura let him go to check the safety of their remaining comrades. He held Asakura's card fiercely, as if it might run away from him if given the slightest bit of slack. The amount of stress he was put himself though in just this small amount of time worried his comrades, but they were unsure of what to say to him. Suddenly his wait ended as he heard Asakura call to him, "Sensei!" He whipped the card to his forehead as fast as he could, unfortunately in his frantic state he put so much force applied when the card made contact with his head it knocked him clear off his feat. "Yes-Asakura-san?" He replied dazed, but thankfully still conscious.

"Negi-sensei, everyone is accounted for. Nodoka-san is heading towards Asuna-san and her group, and Ku-san, Paru-san, komo-kun are with us on Paru's ship. We should be in port by the afternoon." She reported.

Negi felt as though those few words had lifted a great weigh off his shoulders, no one else was captured by this dangerous character. Now all he had to do was beat this man into returning the girls he took. Wait this only mean they are move towards each, maybe I should contact Asakura-san and… He cut himself off mid-thought as it dawned on him. I used telepathy to contact her, that means the area we're in now has nothing to block it. If I had just checked once we got to this town I may have been able to contact my partners right away, regrouped with them, and refocused our collective efforts on finding the others. Negi's anger rose to new heights as he cursed his lack of thinking of such a possibility. The call of one of his comrades snapped him out of his self-loathing for a moment.

"Hey! Brat with the card stuck to his head, what did paparazzi-san say?" Chisame asked with hostile irritation. Looking as if she was about to remove his kneecaps.

"Asuna-san's group and Nodoka are about to meet-up on the cost near the rendezvous point, everyone else but Ayna and Yue-san are on Paru-san's ship, and should be there by tomorrow afternoon." He said almost void of emotion.

"Why so grim?" Racan asked freely from his seat. "You just found out your comrades are okay, why aren't you more excited?"

"I should have realized it sooner." He replied "If I did we could have saved so much time!"

Racan was completely lost as to what he meant, but Chisame quickly realized what was the cause of her sensei's newest anguish. She let out a mental sigh as she thought, "Good grief, how much can he blame himself for. Even if he noticed it when we got to this town, it wouldn't have made that much of a difference." She was about to speak when the voice of reason came from an unlikely source.

"It's not like it would have made much difference." Racan added in usual laid back tone, earning him a surprised look from the two, both for very different reasons.

Chisame really didn't want to but she had to agree with him."He's right." She interjected, drawing their attention, even Kotaro who up till that point had been caught up in his own miseries. "At best you could have found 7 out of 18 people, they would still have to come to you while still being hunted, and Asakura-san and Chachamaru-san still would've had to go on their trip. In truth, if you think about it, it worked out better this way."

Chisame was right, but Negi could not accept the idea that they were better off not finding his students faster, in his mind it was just another one of his many failures on this trip. "Well, at lest we can see if everyone is okay, now." He replied solemnly, while reaching into his cloak.

"When do we leave?" Kotaro asked darkly from same spot.

Both Chisame and Negi cringed upon hearing the question. In truth they had no clue how they were going to get there after everything that happened. When they first entered, they thought it would be up to themselves to make travel arrangements, but upon the trio's arrival earlier at the stadium gates a staff member informed them that the tournament would be providing a plane to transport both finalist from each location to Ostia. Kotaro's current frame of mind there was no way that they could let him any where near Sword, let alone put him on the same plane as him.

" How are we going to get there? There is no way that we can take the plane with Kotaro-kun ready to rip our opponents in two on sight." Negi thought in a panic working up a cold sweet as he felt his rival's eagerness.

"Dam! How are we going to get there? After this mess there's no way that we can take that plane now, and there is no way the others will make it here and back to Ostia at their pace. Chisame thought to herself trying to avoid saying somethingto set the boy off again. " Well at least no one is here is stupid enough to bring it up…Oh no!" At that moment she froze for she realized that even if no one was stupid enough in the room, there was someone idiotic enough to say something about it, and as if on queue Racan spoke not a second later.

"Wasn't the tournament sending over a plane for the finalist?" He asked carelessly. All his companions' eyes widened as they realized the implications of this simple statement, and he just sat and watched as each of them took action.

Kotaro's blood began to boil as he realized two things: that he had his chance to get Natsumi and the others back, and that his "friends" were trying to keep it from him. He shot to his feet and flung opened the door, but had to deal with his rival charging towards him in hops of stopping him. How ever Kotaro knew his rival well enough to predict the attack and counter it. He dropped down and pushed off with his hands before hitting the ground; throwing himself back to spear Negi with his feet, then used his "friend's" body to springboard himself into the hall, before using instant movement to put some distance between them.

Kotaro's kick sent Negi flying back a few feet, but he quickly recovered and landed just time to see his friend shot down the hall with instant movement, and immediately fallowed suit.

"Wow! That didn't go well at all, did it Missy ?" Racan asked Chisame teasingly with a goofy grin. However his face soon changed to one of intense pain as Chisame's reply came in the form of kick to the one sure fired weak point of all men. Unfortunately for Chisame this affected the man of a thousand blades far more then expected as the man came down like a felled tree right on her burying the pour girl beneath his massive chest. She struggled with all her strength and yelled as loud as she could it soon became clear that she would have to wait for the lummox to move on his own.

Meanwhile Negi continued his pursuit of Kotaro, which had now taken to rooftops of the city. He had Kotaro in sight, but was finding it impossible to narrow the distance between them any more then four building tops. "Kojiro-kun please stop! Do you want to get kicked out the tournament?" Negi shouted to his friend as they raced towards the local airport, Kotaro completely ignored his pleas. "I have to stop him, if he attacks them we will get kicked out of the tournament and louse our only chance to get the others back, but I can't hurt Kotaro-kun." He thought to himself, trying to figure out some way to stop his friend, but as he thought of all the spells he could use to stop Kotaro, they were quickly shot down as being ether too weak or too strong to really help the situation. Then he realized that he didn't have to stop Kotaro or slow him down first, he simply had to catch him. No sooner then the moment he made this realization did the airport come into sight. He had to do it now! He couldn't even imagine the scene his friend would cause. "Actus Noctis Erebeae" Negi chanted activating the first stage of the fruit of his training. His body turning white, his eye became more fiendish with any trace of white being replaced by black. Then with a heavy hart he began the incantation for the spell he was going to absorb.

Kotaro could feel the increases in his rival's magical power and looked back to see why it felt so different, and what he saw horrified him. " What the hell is that!" He thought to himself as his friend continued with his spell. However this feeling from simply seeing the young mage like this didn't compare to what would come over him once he realized the true nature of the technique. Listening to the spell he recognized it as "Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens" Negi's most powerful spell before he went to train under Racan. "He wouldn't! Negi you really have betrayed me." He thought as he looked on in disbelief with tear filled eyes, but as if to answer him in place of the name of the spell Kotaro heard "Stagnet!" Then he saw the massive spell that could easily destroy half their school compact it self into a ball small enough to fit into his friend's hand. Knowing only what would happen if that much condensed energy hit him, he leaped from another building top, and poured as much ki as he could into his instant movement technique in hopes that if he could make to the airport his friend wouldn't fire.

"Complexio, Supplementum pro Armationem! Agilitas Fulminis!" Negi said as he landed on another building top, completing the spell just as Kotaro shot himself towards the airport like a rocket. Instand of spring of to another building top Negi dove across the street and began leaping in a zigzag patteren, with the speed that "Agilitas Fulminis" granted him this methid allowed him to quickly close the gap. Form the peak of his jump Negi could see some of the planes on the individual runways. He held himself back a moment as he saw Kotaro about to land on the building across the street from the airport, knowing that his rival would have to correct his path, he waited until Kotaro was a few feet off the ground, and charge towards his friend.

However Kotaro didn't aim for the doors of the airport, but the runways. He had spoted something that made going inside the building pointless, there were many large planes landing and taking off, but only one small plane waiting with the bording ramp out, cabin lights on, and unmoving engines. He turned to the left and decided to use something he worked on while Negi was trainning, void instant movement.

Negi was about make his move when Kotaro shot up. "Void instant movement! When did he learn that?" Negi thought as he continued his chase, then another thought crossed his mind as considered Kotaro's direction, "Dam! Now where is he going?" He leapt into the air, caught up to his friend in what seemed like an instant, and latch on to his friend to drag him to the ground. As he grabbed his friend he realized two things. Looking over Kotaro's shoulder he could see the plane, and that if did not do something fast, he would have no hope of staying in the tournament or keeping their cover. The other thing was that he failed to consider that he absorbed lightning into his body, lightning that was now shocking his good friend, evident by the screams that filled the air. Negi decided to put a little distance between them and the plane before he'd let go of his friend. He used his own void instant movement shooting them off the runway and clear across the small field separating it from the next. Seeing the ground coming fast Negi positioned himself to take the brunt of the impact.

They hit the edge of the runway with great force and rolled several times to the center, Negi releasing his grip on Kotaro as they stopped, the two ending up side by side in the middle of the runway. Kotaro looked at Negi, he was back to his normal state and out cold. The boy's whole body was numb and found it almost impossible to move, "Why can't I move? All he did was grab, and the only lighting magic he used was the Jov…" He contemplated in frustration until such thoughts turned to horror as he realized what his friend had really done. "He absorbed it!" Kotaro unknowingly said out loud, to add to his surprise someone answered him.

"It's called Magia Erebea!" A tall figure told him as it slowly came into view. "He almost killed himself to learn it , so he could protect you guys." The figure finally came into view, it was Racan. He walked over to the to fighters, flung them over his shoulder, and the proceeded back towards the plane. "The funniest thing about all this is that Sword fellow said he'd find his own way to the tournament" Racan added in jokingly, laughing as soon as he finished the statement.

"HOW IS THAT FUNNY!" Kotaro yelled viscously, ready to tear the man's head off the minute he got the feeling back in his arms.

"Simple by disappointing you, he saved you from blowing your cover and chance to get that girl of yours back." He answered the boy in a much more serious tone.

This fact shook Kotaro to the core as he finally considered the true gravity of his actions. He realized how wrong he had been about Negi and how he handled the situation, and did the only thing fitting the situation, hang his head in shame.

"Cheer up! When they told the pilot he could count them out one the maids gave him a fan letter for ya." He teased him, only to find the boy not only missing from his shoulder, but already nearing the plane. "Wow must be some girl." He said to himself grinning, as he carried his student to the plane and tossing them into the seat, then taking his own. He sighted Kotaro sitting next to a still dazed Chisame reading the letter, looking as if he made a great discovery.

"I can't believe this! Thank you, Natsumi-nee-chan now we can beat them." Kotaro thought to himself as he stuffed the letter in his pocket, and watched the crew finished the preparations as he settled himself to go to sleep for the night.

Negi awoke the feel of warm sunshine on his face and a falling sensation. A quick look around yelled his location, he was inside the plane, and by the feel of it landing. Figuring out what happen a thought occurred to him. "How long was I out? What about the others!" Then something hit him literally, a small folded up piece of paper bounced off his head and into his lap, then he heard a voice commanding him to read it. He looked to the source of the voice and saw Kotaro.

"Would you just read it!" Kotaro yelled at him like his old self.

Negi unfolded the paper and began to reading, it was a letter from Natsumi. He was relieved to read to first few lines as it said that she and the others Gem took were fine, but the real surprise laid in the next few lines, weakness for "Shield" and "Sword". The info on Shield was clearly a weakness, she would be using the match to test an illusion technique that she was just learning during the time allowed for travel, but the info on Gem made him wonder how the girl could call this a weakness at all, or how come Kotaro seemed happy about it. The letter told him that Gem spaced out for about half a minute whenever he makes skin contact. "That would leave him open for one attack with Magia Erebea, but what could I use to finish it without hurting the crowd or killing him?" Negi contemplated as his companions tired of his silence.

"So what do you think?" Kotaro asked him impatiently. "With this information we can beat those two easy."

"I just wonder why he spaces out?" He replied worry already setting in. Apparently the idea caught Kotaro off guard as the smile and appearance of joy left his face, replaced by looks of concern. Then heard the voice of the only girl with them for now, Chisame, from the seat next to Kotaro.

"For now let's just meet the others, then we can see what they think of all this" She suggested grouchily, not even looking at him.

However grouchy she was, she was also right, so Negi did as she suggested and reached for Asakura's card to ask to ask if Asuna's group met up with Nodoka. He place the card to his and began his call, but he found out one other thing that he should of realized, Asakura does not like being woken up at 5:30am. After about three minutes of Asakura "lecturing" him on not waking women up so early, he got confirmation that the others did meet up. He put the card back in his pocket and was about reach for Asuna's card when he felt the plane come to a halt, he would have to wait till he got into the airport. After a full hour of trying to get though security he finally pulled the card out of his pocket and proceeded to contact his partner. "Asuna-san? Can you hear me? Where are you?" He asked telepathically franticly awaiting the girl's response, he did not have to wait long.

"Negi!" She cried though the card, her echoing throughout his head with such force he could have sworn he felt it shake.

"Asuna-san, where are you?" He asked hastily, cutting her off, much to the girl's agitation.

"On a plane almost at the festival. Why are you so desperate to know?" She replied puzzled, but quickly turning to anger as an idea of the "why" found her. "What did you do now!"

"I'll explain later! Please just tell me when you are going to get here!?" He whinnied furiously.

"No way brat! I'm not letting you off that easy! What have you gotten yourself into?"

"ASUNA!! Where are you?" He yelled at the girl with such force that she nearly dropped the card. That's when she knew something was seriously wrong.

"I'll ask the pilot." She responded with an urgency that told Negi that she understood the gravity of the situation. There was a short silence, then came her reply, "We should be landing in an hour."

"Okay I will meet you outside the entrance. Then I can explain." Negi instructed her.

"Alright!" Asuna replied uneasily, still not satisfied without an explanation, but deciding to accept that he did not want to give her one now. After all it was just till they landed, how long did she really have to wait. That was the longest, most nerve racking hour and a half ethier of them ever had to live through.

Later outside Ostia International Airport Negi impatiently paced as his group awaited the arrival of his companions, while the others enjoyed breakfast at a table area off to the side.

"Where could they be? They should have be here by now! I knew we should have met at the gate they were docking at!" He worried mentally, his panic and self-hatred deepening with each unfamiliar face that passed though those doors, until he finally shouted in frustration, "Where could they be!"

"Cool down kid." Racan advised him in his usual relaxed tone. "After all it took us a while to get though the security too."

Negi did not want to admit it, but the man was right. However he could not let himself relax while there was the chance something happened, this was after all his fault. Suddenly he spotted something that made all thoughts yield to an overwhelming surge of joy. Coming out of the sliding glass doors, flanked by three others whose faces lifted his heart, stood his pillar of support and ever reliable partner, Asuna. "Asuna-san!!" He yelled as he rushed to her as fast as he could, tears form with each step. He saw her turn toward his voice and drop down to accept his embrace.

After a few seconds of holding the boy that had become family to her over the short time they had known each other, knowing that he Asuna could now get what she wanted from him. "Oh Negi I was so worried!" She said earnestly with tears in her eyes before tightening her grip to that of a bear hug seemingly intent on crushing the child. "Now! What is going on!?"

"Ca-n't br-ea-th! Negi gasped flailing to get louse. He felt her grip loosen, but he still couldn't get free. However his relief didn't last long as a whole new force wrapped it's arms around him and Asuna from the side, and lifted them both off the ground while applying even more force then Asuna as it bellowed joyfully, "Negi-kun!!".

The voice belonged to Konoka Kone with her close friend Setsuna Sakurazaki

only a few feet away looking very glad herself.

"Asuna-dono, Konoka-dono, Negi-bozu, maybe we should continue this elsewhere we are causing quite the disruption, degozaru." The most mature looking of the group, Kaede Nagase, suggested discreetly as the number of eyes watching them increased. A quick look around was enough to see what Kaede meant the people were gathering with a great number of looks, most seemed touched by the scene, but others seemed ready to snap their necks for backing up the exit.

Asuna quickly got the point, becoming red with embarrassment under the weight of their stares, she shot to her feet, and declared authoritatively as she picked Negi up, "Ok, brat! Now let's go find the others, so you can explain what is going on here!" Surprisingly she got no protest from him in fact she realized that he made a sound since Kaede called their attention to the crowd. She gazed down at the boy to see a look of shear horror on his face. "Negi! Hey! What's the matter?" She shouted while shaking, trying to get him to respond.

"Asuna-san," He started grimly, causing the new arrivals to became greatly concerned. "where is Nodoka?" The news caused utter bewilderment amongst the girls, most realizing that Negi would not ask a useless question, now they knew something went very wrong. Hope for an answer came quick as the others came walking up to them

"Yo nee-sans! Glad to see you are alright." Kotaro greeted them warmly as he walked up.

Kotaro! Negi is freaking out, he asked where Bookstore is like he was a zombie!" Asuna asked urgently completely ignoring the boy. "What is going on?" However the answer she found no relief in his reply.

"You mean she isn't with you!" Kotaro shouted in surprise with traces of fear in his demeanor, anger quickly finding root and growing like wild fire. "How could he have fooled the radar?"

"Maybe it wasn't him." Chisame suggested matter o factly, completely ignoring Asuna's distress. "Chachamaru-san only detected the badge coming from the plane, someone could have just acquired it by any numbers of means."

"Hey! What's going on!" Asuna yelled in frustration, immediately regretting it, as the crowd's attention focused on her. "Ahhh..Sorry!"

"This guy bought Natsumi-nee-chan and two other anee-sans to mess with us, we thought that everyone else was okay, because we checked on the two groups they formed by chance, but Bookstore was suppose to be with you on that plane." Kotaro explained in a low tone after moving closer so he could avoid attracting any more attention to the group. "So now we don't know if it is only the badge they have."

"How did they find it, they would have to search her pretty good, because I don't know where Nodoka puts that thing!" Konoka blurted out mindlessly.

With these words horrible images of what could have brought about such a search filled his head, images that would have case him to resemble a boiled beet if he was not in danger of being the youngest person to have a actual panic attack.

"But why take just the badge, she'd worth more as bait, unless they already turned her in? Chisame thought aloud, then the other implications of the question hint her, and she quickly turned to her sensei to find it hit him too, but no where near as well. All color had faded from his face, his eyes looked like bottomless pit with tears streaming from them. The mere look on the boy's face reminded her of how much he had lost over his short life, how much he probably blamed himself for, made her realize that there was no way to keep him from blaming himself again. "Sensei we don't know anything for sure."

"Maybe she could have been on the ship without our noticing!" Setsuna suggested urgently, glancing at Konoka after. She knew the idea would bring trouble, especially with the boy that was now some how latched on to both her arms staring up at her with huge desperate eyes that begged her for this glimmer of hope. She could have been in one of the crates on the ship."

Negi never thought he'd be elated to hear that one of his friends were stuffed in a crate, but in light of the other possibilities it was the best thing to hope for.

"But Dolphin-san wouldn't do that!" Konoka whined.

"It is unlikely, degozaru. He could have had them waiting for us when we landed and collected on our higher bounties." Kaede agreed with a pondering look. "Those treasure hunters also loaded on a number of different sized crates." No sooner did she finish her statement did Kotaro's face become more tense.

"Did you just say treasure hunters!?" He asked as though he remembered a critical detail. "Nodoka-nee-san mentioned treasure hunters in everyone of her letters."

This was the final thing needed to snap Negi back his normal self, and begin to peace to gather a simple plan, not wanting to waste any more time. "Do you all remember what they look like?" He asked with such focus that it surprised his comrades. He waited till they gave him a nod in the affirmative, then continued. "Chisame-san, can you trace the signal of the badges?"

Chisame was stunned that the boy could think of something like that though after being in the state he was in just moments ago. She thought about the question a moment then answered, "I should be."

"Good you and Konoka go and check that ship everyone else pair off, and look for these treasure hunters. When you find them contact the rest of us thought telepathy" he instructed them turning to face Racan "Racan-san would you.." He started to ask the man, but was soon cut off by a unexpectedly helpful response.

"Fine kid, I'm feeling generous." Racan replied with a self-confident smile, as he saw a small smile creep onto the boy's face that only lasted till the man's next sentence. "I'll do it for a mere 100,000, and you can even pay me later." Everyone's face dropped in shock, their heads filled single collective thought "THAT"S GENEROUS!!", the next thing they knew both the money grubbing pervert of Nagi's team and Keade were gone, apparently already starting at task, and making it impossible to object. The whole situation left both Kotaro and Chisame with the feeling that they may end up in the same boat as Natsumi and the others before this was over. Shortly after they split up determined to find out what happened to they friend.

Ten minutes later in an alleyway three quarters of the way to the stadium the "evil" treasure hunters were having a little trouble finding a way to get to the where they could find their target.

"Man! How can it be so hard to get to something in plain sight!" Christian sighed in frustration.

"Well at least this will get us away from all those crowds!" Lynn added clenching her bag.

"Let's just get to the stadium, by to marrow it will be near impossible to get in without a ticket." Craig suggested coldly, completely focused on finding the other half of Sword's team, the woman who could the one he had sought all these years, the one that vanished after the biggest mistake of his life. The possibility of such a thing being true commandeered his every thought. He was so transfixed on this idea that he barely heard Aisha calling everyone's attention to the two figures that stood at the end of the alleyway. One a mammoth of a man and the other well proportioned young woman with squinty eyes both slowly walking towards them, giving off the sense that they were looking for a fight.

The group were glade that they took precautions to avoid customs, otherwise they would've had to forfeit their weapons, and by the looks of things they may be needed sooner then expected. Still wanting to avoid having to fight, the group made a break for another alleyway that intersected with this one midway though, when they passed it they saw it meet up with the crowed streets; there could loose these guys in the crowd then continue what they set-out to do. However once they turned around another pair could already see two more figures approaching from the way that they had came. Now it was clear what they were doing, and they increased their pace to the only remaining exit, but as they turned the corner that they hope would lead to an escape route, they saw another pair blocking the way.

Aisha ready herself to use Sagitta Magica to clear the way, all it would take to allow them to break through this blockade was a few well place thunder arrows, or so she thought since the boy looked to be in elementary school and the girl middle school. To everyone shock when fired off her ten arrows of thunder the pair didn't doge or put up a defensive barrier, instead the girl simply stepped in front of the boy and the arrows vanished once they were within a few feet of the pair. Worse yet her attack caused the enemy to charge them form all sides, the group readied themselves to resist, but were forced to the ground before they could even draw their remaining weapons. They were pushed up against the wall where the alleys meet, and encircled by the enemy units, then their captures looked to the supposed leader of the group, most surprisingly a boy who seemed less then the age of twelve baring a striking resemblance to the hero that this event was to honor.

Then he spoke slowly and clearly in a dark tone, his eyes brimming with hatred. "Where is Nodoka-san! Why do you have here badge!"

It was only then that the treasure hunters realize that Nodoka had described all, but one of their captors to the smallest detail, they were her friends. Only then did they also realize just how badly they had been played.

I am very sorry it has taken this long for me to update first work then school started and well hurricanes. Anyway, I wanted to introduce Kotaro to Negi's new toy and work in the temple since what was taken from it will be truly important in the future , if Asakura seems ooc sorry I just wanted to get the urgency across. This part may be four more chapters, but after that things will get hectic , yes, this is not the worst of it, and before this arc is over the agendas and identities of most of the parties in play will be made clear. Oh and the titles as well as some names are highly symbolic, Sword of the Nexus pretty much personifies Gem's job it does not mean what first comes to mind.