Still Waters Another Turn, Chapter 8
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Girls Rock Your Boys
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She was back in the valley with the trees and the lake again, playing around in the water and talking with the guardian spirit like she did in her dreams every night. It was so relaxing… until the spirit suddenly looked up at her with eyes widened in surprise, and the scene vanished.
And then Akira was standing in the world tree plaza, and Marshall, that sick, sick man, had her wrapped up with vines again.
"Hehehehe, she can die!" he said, and she saw again that scene that had haunted her in her dreams every night since it happened. She tried to scream as Yuuna was again impaled by thorns, but the vines were too tight and she couldn't breathe. And this time the madman kept the basketball girl wrapped up. Akira wept as her best friend died, and then Guy, the wind elemental, sauntered up, carrying one of Max-sensei's swords.
"Took care of him, boss. This one too," he added as he produced Jennifer's head. "For that matter, I got them all," the wind man said as he stepped aside to reveal a large sack that appeared to be full of lumpy, vaguely round objects. "Do you want to see?" he asked Akira. She shook her head frantically, but he opened the sack anyway and pushed it over so the contents fell out across the sidewalk in front of her and Akira opened her mouth to scream—
She woke up on her bed in the dorms, soaked in sweat and lying in a fetal position with the covers kicked off, biting her tongue to the bleeding point to keep that scream from getting out.
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She was playing with Dekopin Rocket again, only this time the stadium was huge, filled to the top with spectators. A hundred thousand at least, and all of them cheering.
She knew she had seen this before, but it continued on anyway. She became more distressed as the dream wore on, until finally the crowd turned on them and started throwing things like every time before. Ako was knocked down, and a huge chunk of concrete as big as a small car was flying straight at her. She ducked down to avoid it, and…
Nothing happened.
"Don't worry, Misa-chan. Everything will be all right."
She looked up and recognized Max-sensei's wife, the brown haired American woman that came to the school from time to time. "What…?" The woman was standing with her arms up, and the things the audience threw were bouncing off of a translucent dome that encompassed the two. She grunted lightly and the dome expanded out toward the audience, sweeping them all away until there was nothing but the two of them, the stage, and the stadium. Then that too crumbled, and she was standing in an empty void with Max-sensei's wife.
"Are you ok?" the brunette asked, extending a hand to rest on Misa's forehead.
"Yes," Misa answered. Why was she dreaming about Max-sensei's wife?
"Go to sleep, don't worry about anything. The dreams won't be back tonight," she said soothingly. Misa nodded and lay down on the bed that appeared beside her. She was in her pajamas now, and felt like a six year old kid getting tucked in by her mommy. 'This is nice,' she thought as she drifted off.
Jennifer watched her go back to sleep, and then left the girl's dream to chase the one that had brought her such a twisted dream in the first place.
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She was on the trapeze, flying through the air with the greatest of ease, until suddenly her partner wasn't there, and there was no one to grab her hands. And now she was falling, falling, falling, so she twisted in mid air and landed elegantly on her feet.
She looked directly at him, and the circus tent was gone without a trace, and they were standing in a void. The tattoos on her face stood out, and he could see them for what they were. They weren't tattoos any more than an orange was an apple. She just looked at him, and he felt powerless under her odd gaze. Her light colored hair fluttered as a gust of wind that was bizarrely both boiling hot and freezing cold passed by, and the void was gone, replaced by an image of a volcanic hell.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked quietly.
A bolt of fear went through him, and he backed up until he bumped into something…a demon. He looked back at the girl and saw an army of demons behind her. Hundreds, thousands. Too many to count, far too many.
"Get out of my mind," she calmly stated.
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Gaze hit the wall with his back hard enough to knock books from the shelves and was instantly back to himself. A quick look around indicated that he was back home in his estate, and he gave a strangled laugh as he climbed back to his feet. That had been dangerous, unbelievably dangerous.
It looked like he wouldn't get anything else done tonight; they were on guard this time. He should never have pushed his luck with so many, he should have stopped with that water girl. Well, no matter. He could always try again tomorrow night. No one could stay awake forever, after all.
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It was too early for any real results from the dream-guarding operation, but Negi was nonetheless disappointed when his students looked pretty much the same as they had the day before. If anything, some of them were worse. Akira-san was staring at her hands as she continuously formed them into fists and back, and Sakurako-san seemed even more sluggish. If this had been some anime, the cheerleader would have dripped right off her desk into a puddle on the floor. At least Natsumi-san and Chizuru-san were present today.
But he was a teacher now so he couldn't let them sleep, no matter how much he wanted to. So, chanting a quick spell designed to refresh and invigorate the students, he got on with class, pretending not to notice the glares Eva-san kept sending him.
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"Boy."
Negi froze in his tracks and turned around to face Eva-san and Chachamaru-san. "Y-yes Master?"
"Well, what are you going to do about it?" she asked, clearly expecting a good answer.
"The dreams? We have everyone who can use that sort of magic working on it. It's still too soon for reliable results, but—"
"Dreams? What dreams? Nevermind that. I'm talking about the darkness in the dorm. It's gotten so strong it's starting to leak out. If it weren't for Sakurako or Murakami, I think everyone would have died by now," she said disdainfully.
Negi's face was blank. "What…?"
"You…you really don't know?! You're a trained mage, right? How couldn't you know?!" Eva was truly, honestly shocked at Negi's ignorance.
"You're confusing me, Master! What are you talking about?" Negi pleaded.
Eva just looked at him. "You really don't…wow, you really are just a brat."
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Later, at a meeting before their usual training session, Negi explained the situation to Asuna, Setsuna, and Konoka. "So apparently, whatever is causing these dreams has been doing so for months, the effects just haven't become noticeable until now. And the bad dreams everyone is having are resulting in an abnormally high concentration of, well, 'bad feelings' floating around in the dorm, I guess, which is making the situation even worse."
"Wow, that's…" Asuna trailed off as she looked up to see a newcomer approaching. "Akira-san? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine!" the girl snapped, shocking everyone. Few had ever heard Akira raise her voice, much less in anger. "I'm fine," she repeated more softly a moment later.
"Max-sensei isn't here today—" Everyone knew the girl didn't like training with anyone else.
"I called him," Akira interrupted. She started pacing around with her head down and her arms clenched tight under her breasts after that while Negi hesitantly continued with his explanation.
"While the dream manipulation is magic-based and thus doesn't seem to affect Asuna-san, the rest isn't, not really, and it won't be easy to fix. For now, we just have to do the best we can to stop the bad dreams and protect everyone from the contamination."
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Soon enough, Max arrived along with Jennifer, who looked rather sleepy. Akira demanded a spar session, so Max shrugged his shoulders and drew his sword.
Within seconds, Max and Akira were in the middle of an intense spar, possibly the most intense they had ever had, and Akira was forcing Max back. Her water suddenly flared, and before he could stop it his fire returned the favor, and then Akira was upon him faster than he could react. He could barely move his blade in time to block or parry her attacks, and it took every trick he knew to keep her far enough away to give him room to maneuver away from the swift, fluid movements of her sword. She was using that old jian he had given her months ago, and seemed to have been practicing with it behind his back.
"Come on, Negi! Give me some help over here!" Max shouted as he tried to avoid another series of blows. "Gah!" One of her attacks hit home and sliced deep into his arm. His fire raged as strongly as it ever had, and he forced her away just in time for Negi to hurriedly cast some sort of binding spell on her.
Max backed up a few steps and fell to his knees, gasping for breath as Jennifer rushed over.
"nnnnnnnnnnnNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Akira shouted, her voice changing to a terrifyingly deep tone midway through the word as that terrifying blue glow appeared in her eyes again for the first time since the death of Marshall, months before. "HE'S MINE! YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM AWAY!" And she burst out of the binding spell by sheer brute strength; Jennifer was forced to scramble away to avoid getting run over as Akira leapt at Max…
"Akira, no!"
"Don't do it, Akira-san!"
"It's only a spar session!"
…and kissed him. And kissed him some more, flattening him down on the ground with brute strength and laying on top, forcing his arms out to the sides. Magic power began fluctuating through the clearing wildly and the wind whipped about. Suddenly a frightening tearing sound ripped through the clearing, and then Akira was up again, her long hair whipping around wildly as she approached Jennifer, wiping her mouth as the eerie blue glow in her eyes intensified.
"YOU'RE MINE TOO," she stated as she pounced on the American woman and kissed her thoroughly as well, while Asuna and Setsuna covered Negi's eyes and Konoka watched with rapt interest.
Another loud tearing sound blasted through the clearing along with the wind and debris, and then Akira was stumbling to her feet with the blue glow gone, looking around as though she didn't know what was happening. The wind died away almost instantly afterward, as the wide eyed group watched the water girl warily.
After a moment Eva arrived, surveying the scene before her. The two Americans lay sprawled out on the ground, while Negi's small group looked at Akira with suspicion and awe.
Other magic students and teachers quickly appeared, drawn by the wild fluctuations in magic and weather and asking questions no one knew the answers too, all while Akira looked around, dumbfounded. "W-what happened?" Akira asked.
Max was the first to move, raising his hand to his mouth with a distant expression on his face. He sat up and looked around. "…wow…"
Takahata knelt by his side. "Are you ok? We felt the fluctuations and came as fast as we could. What happened?"
Max looked around slowly, finally focusing on the graying man beside him. "…she kissed me…" Takahata raised an eyebrow.
Negi spotted something in the grass and picked it up. "Max-san…?"
"What happened!?" Akira asked again.
Jennifer was sitting up now too, with the same dazed look as Max. "Wow…" She spotted Akira, who was still confused, and blushed. "…wow…" It seemed to be the only thing she could say.
"So what happened here?" Eva said, finally getting Negi's attention.
"I think they made a pactio," Negi said, blushing faintly as he recalled the way Akira had kissed the other two. He held out a pactio card to Eva, who took it and looked it over.
"It's in Japanese," she said in surprise.
"That's not right," Touko said as she approached and examined the card. It didn't look anything like a proper pactio card. The words were all in Japanese, and it didn't include the sort of information one normally found on a pactio card. And the picture! "I have never seen anything like this," she said. The figure, she assumed it was Max, was quite disturbing. A man in odd, black and gray scaly armor stood facing forward, fiery, black feathered devil wings sprouting from his back and a dark helmet with a narrow T-shaped slit for vision, along with a huge, almost-but-not-quite German-style two-handed sword, with fire in the background to finish the effect.
Asuna spotted something stuck to a nearby bush and went to investigate, only to see Konoka doing the same a few feet away.
"Here's another one," someone else said nearby, holding another card high for everyone to see. That one was for Jennifer, and it matched the basic features of Max's new card in all regards, except the picture was of Jennifer, with white-feathered angel's wings sprouting from her back, some sort of armored blue and white dress, and a winged helmet and lance.
"A forced pactio," the headmaster's voice broke into the conversation as everyone quieted and made way for him. He took up the two cards and looked at them carefully. "A forced pactio indeed. I have never seen one so complete, however. The power she put into it must have been amazing." He looked at Max as the American approached to claim the card. "How was it?"
Max couldn't help but grin really wide. "It was great," he said, his face beet red to match Akira's. The effect was strange to see on a man like Max, but there it was. Jennifer nodded but remained silent, her face red as well.
"I am glad to see you are all enjoying yourselves," Headmaster Konoe said. "But please remember this is a school; please keep your amorous relationships between yourselves, ok?" Max, Akira, and Jennifer turned even redder as they apologized.
"Ok, that's enough, there is nothing else to see here," Konoemon said as the crowd began to break up and everyone left but Eva and Chachamaru and those who had been in the clearing in the first place.
While Max and Jennifer pondered over their cards, Eva stalked over to Akira and glared up at the taller girl. "I'm watching you," she said, then turned and walked away.
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Author's Note: Berserk Akira is always fun.
Forced Pactio: A pactio formed without going through the proper channels, usually without the benefit of a pactio circle. Only someone with tremendous power can force a pactio, and the results are usually incomplete, typically ending with only a faint connection between the two participants.