Fate: Intertwining stars

Fate Chapter Two: Where's Negi?

-Asuna-

"Asuna-san!... Asuna-san!..." each time I heard my name I could see Negi, his adorable face smiling at me, "Asuna-san!... Asuna... Asuna." the voice became softer and softer.

"Asuna, Asunaaaaa..." Slowly my eyes opened and I saw Konoka shaking me awake.

"eh..."

"wake up Asuna, your alarm has been going off for a while now. You'll be late for work..."

I grabbed my clock and checked the time, "EHHHHH! IM GOING TO BE LATE!" I snapped awake and jumped off of bed from my top bunk.

I quickly changed into a shirt, my running shorts and I quickly grabbed my Jacket since it has been getting colder these past few weeks. I got out the door and said bye to Konoka before heading for a dash for the stairs. I jumped each landing, ignoring the steps and started running for the newspaper store.

The cold breeze struck me and it gave a quick chill up my spine. I kept running and hoped that the physical act would heat up my body already. I kept running and with each step I admired the beauty of the school in the darkness and the sun slowly rising in the distance. The school was so peaceful and quiet so early in the morning.

I finally got to my job, "Good morning!"

"oh... Good morning Asuna... You seem extra cheerful today." The bosses were nice, they were always considerate of me and my situation.

"Yeah well, I had a great night sleep hehe..." I ended with a big smile.

"well then don't push yourself too hard." The boss placed two bags filled with newspaper in the table and I grabbed it slinging one over each shoulder.

"Don't worry, I can take it..." I dashed off to deliver at my usual route, but my smile has now faded to a deep frown.

I kept running and throwing newspaper, each shot right on the mailbox. At least my accuracy wasn't off anymore, the past few weeks I missed my target a lot because I kept thinking about Negi. I kept thinking about the things that I said about Negi, how I hurt him.

Then all of a sudden a thought crossed my mind that stopped me right on my feet, "Oh that's right... its been a week since he left," suddenly tears started falling from my eyes.

I stood there on the verge of tears and in pain, It was all my fault. It was because of me that Negi left. He left the academy without telling anybody, and what's worse is that I was the reason for it and I pushed him away.

I wiped my tears and stood up, I needed to work and get over it. I grabbed another newspaper and threw it at the closest mailbox. I heard a thud that caught me by surprise, I looked to my right where I threw the newspaper and I saw a figure wearing a dark school uniform.

"ahhh..." The figure fell and I began to recognize the face.

"ooh!... Kotarou-Kun!..." I ran towards him and helped him up

"Damn... I didnt expect that Asuna-san..." He gave me that half smile like he always does.

"I'm sorry!... I was... I was lost in thought... I should pay more attention hehehe..."

"Thinking about Negi I see," he started shaking himself off to get the dirt off of his clothes.

"... uhm... yeah..." My head fell and my face became a frown again.

"Well... That doesn't come as a surprise..."

"yeah..." I sighed before continuing my sentence, "anyway... have you found out anything?"

"Actually... we found something this time."

I snapped my face towards Kotarou to listen, "tell me..."

"Heh..." He snickered at me indicated my response was what he was looking for, "Looks like all of our hunches were correct, when he left he went back to Whales and to the Magic academy. He asked for his assignment to be changed, and as of four days ago his training at Mahora Academy was terminated and he doesn't have an official assignment."

I sighed before I responded, "That doesn't tell me anything."

"You didn't let me finish," He looked at me again but this time with a serious face, "Ms. Mcguiness found something for us and now Takamichi and Kurt are pursuing some leads already."

"Really?!"

"Yeah... It turns out, he went back to the Magic World," he gave a disappointing look and his face became serious, "It seems he's going to continue his training at mundus magnus, but something else has me very curious."

"What is it?" I can sense his body tense up.

"Even though he already has Magia Erebea, why would he go to the extent of going to Mundus Magnus?"

Too many questions, not enough answers. Either way I knew one thing right now, I had to finish my job before sunrise if I was going to make it to school. I thanked Kotarou for the information and said goodbye to him as I began running again. His last thought was on the dot, and now it was bothering me as well. He had Magia Erebea, so why would he need to go to Mundus Magnus for training. He defeated the corrupted Nagi, the Mage of Beginning; the preparations for the Mars Elevator has also been completed. There was no clear reason for him to return to the magic world. I found myself standing in the middle of the road, looking at the sky hoping that I'll get to see him again.

"Oh Negi, Why did you go back to Mundus Magnus... I really miss you..." Just as I said those last words tears fell from my eyes again. It seems every time I say or even think his name I cry.

I finally finished worked and started jogging back towards my dorm to get ready for school. On my way back I saw the headmaster talking with Takahata-sensei and Ms Mcguiness. It was very suspicious, I got closer and they noticed me. I changed direction and headed their way. They all looked at me with concerned eyes.

"Asuna, you're working hard as usual," Takahata-sensei gave me subtle grin as he said those words.

"You know it," I smiled and gave the a thumbs up.

"Asuna-san you should head home and get ready for school, its only a couple more hours until class starts," the Headmaster said to me with a smile. Ms Mcguiness also smiled at me, with her here I know their talking about Negi.

"You guys are talking about Negi aren't you? And you're hiding it from me," my face changed from cheerful to sad again.

Takahata-sensei and the other gave me a short surprised expression, "I guess that's no surprise that you would know that, you are his partner after all."

"yeah, but what kind of mage would leave their partner behind just like that without telling them anything?" tears fell from my eyes again and my head was down.

They all looked at me now with a more concerned look now, "I'm sorry Asuna, but it seems there was a reason for Negi leaving without telling you girls anything. For now, not knowing anything is for your own good."

"But why?..." I wiped my tears as I asked.

"Because you are his student, he hid what he was doing to protect you." Ms Mcguiness told me with a serious face.

"I see..." My face become a frown, "I'll be heading home to get ready now."

"Asuna," Takahata-sensei called me and I looked at him, "Negi trusts you, so you should trust him as well."

The words that Takahata-sensei said gave me a subtle sense of hope but not enpugh to cheer me up, I still miss Negi and he left, I cant chake it off but I still feel responsible for him leaving. I got home and was greeted by Konoka and the smell of her cooking, I took off my shoes, got in and slumped right into the small bed that Negi used when he was still here. His smell was gone, I remembered that he didnt usually sleep here anyway, he would always end up in my bed.

"You really miss him don't you?..." Konoka knelt close to me as she asked her question.

"...hmmmm..." I got up and sat there looking completely down.

"We all miss him Asuna, but I'm sure Negi-sensei has his reasons for leaving, I mean you have said worse things to him in the past... you couldn't have caused him to leave. Anyways you should go change, breakfast will be ready soon, okay?" Konaka gave me a smile. Konoka was always the type to stay positive no matter what, and she was right.

I started thinking, she was right. I have said a series of worse things in the past so why did it bother him now. After that day nothing really changed, Negi was still his usual cheerful self, he kept his distance from me and we barely interacted but he was still his usual self. So it shouldn't have cause him to leave. It got me really suspicious now, there was something else behind him leaving and it wasn't just what I said.

"Asuna... Asuna!" Then all of a sudden something really fast struck my forehead.

"Whaaaaaa!..." I fell and everyone started laughing at me, I was so deep in thought that I didn't even realize I was already in class, or maybe I forgot.

"Please do refrain from day dreaming in my class Asuna-san." Fate was strict as usual.

"I'm sorry..." I bowed as I apologized before he struck me with a book o the head softly.

"Apology accepted."

"ehh..." Fate accepted my apology, everyone gave him a shocked face because it was pretty rare for fate to forgive a student without punishing them.

"Asuna, He is my friend too, You're not the only one who misses him." Fate gave a subtle smile that only someone who was really looking would see.

"I understand, I'm sorry again." Fate was also hurting because even he didn't know where Negi has gone.

As I sat back down thoughts started running through my mind again, this time I was thinking about my encounter with Takahata-sensei and the others earlier this morning. Their words were subtle but it felt as if they were gearing towards another conflict, like they didn't want to let me know because they knew that I would worry. That there was something going on that if I was told they knew id get off my ass and follow Negi at that Magic World. I grabbed my pactio card from my bag, it still existed, I remembered Albireo Imma saying that as long as the pactio card existed that the original mage wielder was still alive. So Negi was still alive, but could he be in danger, or putting himself in danger. Maybe something about what I said made him leave without taking us with him. Then I remembered saying that he couldn't do anything by himself, how a failure of a teacher he was for dragging his students to Mundus Magnus and putting them in danger. So Negi really may be in danger and he left without his partners because he didn't want to put us all in danger because I said all those things.

"He trusts you, so you should trust him" Takahata-sensei's words pierced through my head again. Negi trusts me so much that he always takes into consideration my judgement and everything I say. He listened to me when I told him he wasn't alone, he listened to me when I told him he didn't have to fight alone anymore. Now he listened to me when I said he was a failure and he couldn't do anything by himself. He was doing this to show me that he's strong and he can take care of himself. I get that now, but now what bothers me is, what the hell is going on? I mean what happened that Negi had to go back to the magic world and resign his commission as our homeroom teacher.

after class I searched for Takahata-sensei to confront him. I found him hanging out at the world tree with the headmaster and to my surprise, Evangeline-san. Ms. Mcguniess was also hanging around them, they all noticed me and I saw the headmaster make a sighing gesture before waving his hands to usher me to get closer.

I slowly walked up the steps to get closer to them, I could see Eva-chan give me a serious look. It was like she was expecting something out of me. I finally reached them, Ms. Mcguiness grabbed something from the folder that she was holding. No body said anything, she just handed it to me. I grabbed what looked like a picture and looked at it, I didn't exactly know what I was looking it. It was a picture of a crowded market, I kept looking at it. As I kept scanning the picture something finally caught my eye. It looked like a tall figure with red-orange hair, sitting with two girls. Nagi?

"Why did you show me a picture of Nagi talking to two girls?" I asked suspiciously.

"Do we really look that much alike?" I turned around to see Nagi smiling, behind him was Albireo-sama and Jack Rakkan.

"That actually isn't Nagi." Ms. Mcginess replied

"It's Negi." Eva-chan followed

"EHH!..." I was shocked but not completely shocked, after all he does this sometime, eat those growth pills and look like Nagi for some time, "I see, but why is he acting grown up."

"Actually, it seems that it's not growth pills this time." Takahata-sensei confused me by his statement.

"Eh..." I looked at him with a really confused expression.

"That's the actually Negi... all grown up..." Eva-chan looked at me with a serious face...

It was all so confusing, what? That was Negi all grown up... But why? HOW? This was throwing me off, there was more question than answer again. I can't even begin to comprehend this, why would Negi rush his growth. I have a feeling I'm responsible, and shockingly this was the work of an even deeper magic that I didn't know of. And I was about to find out what the heck is going on here. Why did Negi left? Why did he leave without us? And why is he all grown up now?

-notes-

Sorry I took a while to update and add a chapter, between school and work I only have a few hours sometimes even just minutes to write. So please bear with me because I really like to write and this story has been in my head for a while now and I want to write it and have u guys read it. :)