Disclaimer:The following story is a fan made work of fiction. Fairy Tailand Mahou Sensei Negima!are owned and written by Hiro Mashima and Ken Akamatsu respectively. Please support their official releases.
Update on 9/21/15: As many of you have no doubt noticed this chapter and the one before it have been completely rewritten. I removed some plot holes, tightened the language, and edited out far too many grammatical errors for my taste. Going back over them was like pulling teeth at times, but man was the end result worth it. This is a far better chapter than what was originally posted and I hope that you enjoy reading it!
Chapter 2
The Trials of Natsu
Asuna cried out in pain as a demon's bladed weapon drew a thin line of blood across her left shoulder. The horrid being's pig-like snout curved in ecstasy, snarling in joy as it licked the newly blooded weapon.
There was only one way to respond to something like that.
"Get off of me, you sick monster!" She yelled out. She swung her magic canceling fan as she did, putting the full force of her anger and pain behind the strike. The blow caught the demon across its smiling mouth, dispelling the summoning magic which bound it, and sending it back to whatever demonic plane it called home.
The orange-haired teen gave a snort of satisfaction. She might not possess Setsuna's wondrous grace, but what Asuna lacked in skill she made up for with determination.
Still, determination aside, Asuna felt worn out. She and Setsuna had been fighting the demons for almost fifteen minutes straight, and the non-stop movement was starting to take its toll.
Breathing hard, Asuna stumbled backwards in the pool of shallow water that covered the ground. The shallow water covering this area was making it difficult to fight. What had initially been an annoyance was quickly turning into a mud-filled nightmare.
Steadying herself by thrusting her fan into the ground, Asuna caught a glimpse of Setsuna to her side. The black-haired teen's sword a blur as it slashed out to her left, decapitating a nearby demon. The creature's body disappeared as its summoning spell was broken by the swordswoman's magic.
Breathing heavily as well, Setsuna had a wide-eyed look of confusion on her face mirroring what Asuna figured must be on her own. Seeing it did not make Asuna feel any better. Asuna was the novice, and feeling confused was what she was supposed to do. But Setsuna was an expert in this sort of thing. If she were confused then they were probably in serious trouble.
"Hey, Setsuna-san, what gives?!" Asuna called out. "A minute ago these guys were perverts, chasing me around, trying to rip my skirt off! Now they're trying to rip my head off!"
"I do not know, Asuna-san. I have never encountered something like this in all my time as a Shinmei-Ryu swordsman," Setsuna replied. "I have encountered both perverted demons, and demons with an insatiable lust for blood, but never have I seen one turn into the other with such suddenness."
The other teen's confused gaze narrowed as she spoke, settling into an icy calm that Asuna had never before seen. Setsuna's breathing slowed as her gaze sharpened, and in moments it was like the girl had never even been fighting in the first place. Were it not for the fact that they were still surrounded, and that Setsuna's once pristine uniform was ripped and torn in places, Asuna might have sworn that that was exactly the case.
Maybe it was because the other girl was used to this sort of thing, because Asuna was still unable to catch her breath at all. Even with the pause they had just bought for themselves by killing those last two demons, Asuna was unable to calm herself down. Her hands shook with energy and she could feel her heart pounding inside her chest.
To make matters worse, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about Konoka and Negi. She and Setsuna were just buying time for their teacher to reach Konoka, and had no way of knowing how things were going. For all they knew, Negi could be close to reaching Konoka that very moment.
That, or Negi had run into that weird white-haired boy again. In which case, the kid was probably fighting for his tiny little life.
Damn! If that was actually happening then the boy had better be victorious. Because if Negi screwed up and got them all killed... then as sure as hell had fire, Asuna would haunt his ass for all eternity. She had allowed the kid to bring them all out here and had trusted that he would be able to save their friend.
And if the worst did happen, and that damn brat did get them all killed, haunting his miniscule ass for eternity would be only the beginning of her revenge.
"Ah. I think that I understand what happened."
The sound of Setsuna's voice brought Asuna's increasingly angry line of thought to a screeching halt. The other girl understood something? Huh? Had Setsuna been talking this entire time? Dammit, Asuna thought to herself, I really need to pay better attention when the smart people are speaking.
"Thinking back, Asuna-san," Setsuna continued. "I did feel something happen a short time ago, some sort of magical resonance, shortly before the change occurred, and it coincided with the enemy's change in demeanor. Although it is just conjecture at this point, my guess is that the resonance I described has caused this change to occur. Although I feel unchanged, as you appear to be as well. That is most curious, especially considering my own... situation."
Asuna blinked in confusion. Her brow furrowed as she tried her best to understand what the other girl had just said. Setsuna's speech had sounded smart and probably would have meant something to Negi, but Asuna was still just a newbie when it came to magic.
After a few second of thinking about it she was still confused. She decided to give Setsuna a confused shrug in response.
"I don't get it," Asuna said, and it was the heartfelt truth. First, magical kids; then bloodsucking, chibi vampires; and now schizophrenic demons? She hadn't experienced a lot of magic, but what she had experienced was utterly bizarre and had taught her to just go with the flow.
"But basically, uh, something happened and now they're different, right?"
Setsuna nodded. "Correct. Furthermore, unless I am completely off and there are other factors involved as well, it seems that whatever the resonance was intended to accomplish, it has also made the demons more powerful."
Asuna slapped her forehead with her free hand at that revelation.
"Great! Just what we need." she yelled angrily. "On top of some crazy sorceress kidnapping Konoka, a super-powerful little emo boy who can turn people to stone and Negi leaving us to go fight the emo boy, we now have a bunch of powered-up demons that want to kill us!" She threw her hands into the air. "Fantastic!"
"Indeed. I hope that sensei is not running into similar entanglements on his end. Otherwise, things might prove to be too much, even for him."
Her lips pursed tightly whenever she stopped speaking, Setsuna looked to be just as worried as Asuna felt. Yet the other girl's eyes never stopped roving the enemy's lines, and her battle stance never wavered in the slightest.
A sigh escaped Setsuna's lips. "But sensei will have to deal with the enemy on his own. I hate to say it, Asuna-san, but we may be in trouble. Our foes still have us surrounded despite the losses we inflicted in the earlier engagement, and, although I do not know why, they seem content to let us make the first move."
Aha! Screw the magical resonance crap. Asuna had understood that last part, and with it came a sense of exhilaration. Magical theory was beyond her, but dealing with a bunch of assholes who were too scared to start a fight? That she could handle.
Asuna gripped her fan with both hands tightly and gave Setsuna a fierce grin.
"Bah!" Asuna exclaimed. "If that's the case, then let's take the fight to them."
She looked around, searching the enemy's lines for someone to go after. When you wanted to start a fight, picking the first target to go after was the most important part. You had to pick someone who was weak, or someone who was quick to anger. Best of all was if you could find someone who was an idiot and was both weak and quick to anger.
After looking over the ranks of demons surrounding her and Setsuna, Asuna felt that she had found a target. She lowered her fan in the demon's direction and raised her voice to taunt him.
"Hey spit-face! I see you looking at me. Yeah, you, the ugly one who looks like a pile of rotting bacon. You want a piece of this? You want my blood and flesh? Well too bad! All you'll ever get is a peek, because a coward like you isn't tough enough to take me down."
Her little speech ended, Asuna used her free hand to pull down the lower half of her eyelid as she jeered at the enemy.
The demon in question grinned nastily at Asuna's remarks. Sharp yellow tusks jutted out from cracked lips as bloody rivulets joined the drool. The massive monster was wielding a spike club covered in dirt, and its mismatched armor could have come from the junkpile of a medieval European museum.
Oh, gross! Asuna thought to herself as the creature began to move towards her position. Picking a fight with it may not have been her best move after all. She knew that she and Setsuna could handle the beast, but the more she looked at it the more Asuna just wanted it to go away. That thing looks like Chamo's inner self! It is Chamo, it's Demon Chamo!
Unfortunately, it seemed that the rest of the demons had been waiting for something like this to happen. Moving as one the entire group of demons charged the two girls in absolute silence. A silence broken only by the jangle of weapons and armor, and the splash of water beneath their deformed feet.
The battle was on, and as the savage horde rushed towards them the girls met it with a charge of their own.
Asuna caught spit-face under his jaw with her fan. The magical tool nullified the demon's power and sent the creature back to the demonic plane in an instant. To Asuna's side, Setsuna slashed the pig man's snake faced partner and the next two behind it with a single cut. The special techniques of the Shinmei-ryu sword style cut a swath of destruction through the enemy's lines, annihilating the demons faster than Asuna thought possible. The other girl's strength was unreal!
But Asuna had no time to dwell on it as the next group of demons was quickly upon them. Asuna slammed her fan onto the outstretched arm of a tentacle demon with a powerful downward blow, drawing a silent roar of pain from its lips as the creature disappeared. Continuing the downward strike and gaining momentum as she did Asuna whipped her fan up and to the right, batting away another demon's club and crashing it into the thigh of a third just like a batter hitting a baseball.
She had no idea how her power worked, but so long as it allowed her to cut through the demonic ranks with ease and keep up with the skilled girl beside her, Asuna didn't really care.
The two girls fought against the larger demons with everything they had. At one point, cut off from Asuna by a short and bony demon that moved like lightning, Setsuna stabbed her sword through its throat and twisted. The creature died with a brief gurgle, its body hitting the ground with a thud and splashing Setsuna with water.
Yet in death the monster nearly had its revenge. The bony creature had managed to grip Setsuna's sword with one of its powerful claws right before the girl was able to twist and pull it out. Unable to withstand the pressure, the blade snapped off just above the sword's hilt. Setsuna lost her balance, stumbling to her left as it happened.
Asuna felt a dagger of fear plunge itself into her heart. Surrounded and cut off, there was no way she would be able to make it to the other girl in time. Asuna swatted at the demons around her; attempting to defy fate and keep their attention away from the off-balance swordswoman. But in the end it was useless, the enemy had also seen Setsuna's sword break. They surged in, redoubling the pressure on Asuna and buying time for their comrades to finish the black-haired swordswoman.
Unfortunately for them, just because her sword was broken did not mean that Setsuna was unarmed. Abandoning the broken blade without a moment's hesitation, the dark-haired girl thrust her free hand into her torn shirt, drawing from within its tattered confines her brand new pactio card.
It was the one Setsuna had made with Negi just before the boy had left, and even though its powers were still a mystery, its presence meant that the swordswoman could keep fighting.
A piercing yell cut across the battlefield, echoing with magic as Setsuna cried out for her pactio to gift her with its artifact, "Adeat"
The card disappeared in a flash of light, exchanging its form for that of Setsuna's new magic tool. A small wakizashi now lay gripped in both of her hands, while fourteen more hung in the air around the teen swordswoman. With a wordless cry of rage, Setsuna sent the encircling blades zipping into the crowd of demons as she made her way back to Asuna's side.
Together they fought in a mindless fury, dodging blows and cutting down their foes. The two girls never stopped moving, because even Asuna realised that the moment they were to get bogged down would be the moment they had lost.
Setsuna cut the ranks with devastating swipes of her sword, and at her side Asuna punished any demon that tried to get too close. Yet no matter how many demons they killed, more would always come into view.
As the fight wore on, Asuna knew that they couldn't keep this up forever. Either the demons would run out of bodies or the girls would run out of energy, and as Asuna heaved in air through tired lungs she knew which possibility was more likely.
"Setsuna-san, we need to make a break for the forest," Asuna yelled as she smashed another demon across the back of its legs. "We'll get creamed if we stay down here much longer."
Setsuna nodded her assent as she stabbed her dual blades into the armpits of a short, masked demon. Swiping a once white sleeve across her face to mop up the sweat and water dripping into her eyes, the dark-haired girl used the other arm to indicate a specific direction.
"Asuna-san, get behind me and follow close. We'll only have one shot at this."
"Got it. Let's go!"
Asuna matched action to words and placed herself behind Setsuna as the dark-haired girl darted in the direction she had indicated. On her tail, Asuna did her best to keep up with Setsuna's speed.
Between their artifacts and righteous anger the two teenaged girls pushed their way through the crowd of enemies. They made it to the forest's edge in under a minute, and as Setsuna dealt with the last one in their way Asuna could see a demon free forest's edge. The twin-tailed girl passed Setsuna as she finished off one of her two opponents. With no other demons even close to catching up to them, escape was theirs for the taking.
Asuna was out of the water and only a few short steps away from reaching the forest's raised embankment when a cry rang out from Setsuna.
Turning around, Asuna saw that Setsuna's last opponent had locked its massive sword with Setsuna's two wakizashi. The smaller blades had gotten hooked by the bigger blade's serrated edges. The wolf-man wielding the large sword used its leverage to pin Setsuna's hands against her body, and in one, brutally quick, move forced the black-haired girl to the ground.
Barely keeping her face above the ankle deep water, Setsuna was snarling and trying to push back the much bigger demon. Her right leg kicked out at the monster's shin as she kept the fiend's giant sword from digging into her.
"Setsuna-san," Asuna yelled as she dashed back to her friend. They had managed to come so far and do so well. There was no way Asuna was letting the damn demons get her friend when the two of them were so close to getting away.
She raised her fan and prepared to slam it into the demon's ugly face. "Get away from her, you great bloody -"
A bellowing roar cut her off, and in a moment Asuna's world was enshrouded by flame.
A massive blast of fire shot out of the forest, sweeping across the demon's upper body and setting it alight. For the first time since the resonance had taken place, one of the monsters released an anguished scream of pained fury. It flung itself into the water, rolling over and over as it screamed. A long moment passed before the creature stopped moving, its body lying still in the ankle deep water before finally disappearing.
Asuna stared in macabre fascination at the spot where the demon had just died. The monsters had remained silent when she and Setsuna had hit them, but those flames seemed to be different. The scream the demon had let out when the flames touched it had been horrifying, chilling the young girl to the bone and making goosebumps appear on her arms.
"Asuna-san, behind you!"
Setsuna's voice snapped Asuna back to reality. Looking over her shoulder, Asuna flung herself down as another gout of fire, even bigger than the first blast, lanced out from behind her.
This blast swept across the water's surface, moving across the demonic horde's front and lancing deep into its ranks. The monsters released a horrifying, howling chorus as the fire ravaged their bodies. More blasts of flame followed it, coming in rapid fire until every last demon was set alight.
Asuna kept her body buried in the warming water the entire time, hoping that Setsuna was doing the same. As she pressed herself into the muddy water, Asuna hoped that whoever or whatever was sending these blasts was on their side.
She did not know how long it took, but eventually the howls of the demons died down. The crackle of burning embers filled Asuna's ears as she slowly raised her gaze. Quickly locating a wide-eyed Setsuna, the two girls shared a look with one another as they raised their bodies out of the lukewarm water.
Nothing remained of the demons they had been fighting only a minute ago. Motes of fine ash drifted through the air as branches and trees hit by the fire continued to burn. Asuna touched one of the motes with a finger. It broke apart instantly.
Her throat clogged as she caught Setsuna's eye once again, the same unspoken question in both of their eyes. What sort of sorcerer was capable of such a thing, and more importantly, was that person on their side or were they an enemy?
Asuna opened her mouth to say it aloud when she saw Setsuna's face turn beet red. The other girl, usually so calm and stoic, raised a shaking hand as she pointed behind Asuna. Dreading what might be able to rattle the veteran swordswoman; Asuna turned her head and looked. She felt her heart stop for as she did, shortly followed by a creeping flush she could feel even through the heat of the burning trees.
Standing in front of her was a grinning, pink-haired young man. He was holding one arm out with a flaming thumb-up as a crown of smoke threaded its way through his short, wild hair. However, neither his flaming thumb, nor his wild hair were what had caused her heart to stop and her face to flush. The reason was because the man was completely naked. Other than a scaly scarf he wore tied around his neck, the man was naked as the day he was born.
As she stood still, her body frozen by the absurdity of the scene unfolding right in front of her, Asuna thought faintly to herself that she could it.
She could see everything.
Natsu grinned at the two girls in front of him. After awakening and hearing the sounds of their fight the dragon slayer had made his way to the battlefield as quickly as his legs could carry him. He had arrived in time to save the dark-haired girl from getting killed by some sort of beast, and man did he feel good. Being able to let loose and devastate the enemy after he had gotten smacked around by that Jackal guy was a good pick up for Natsu's mood.
Even better, the two girls seemed to be alright, although the dark-haired one did look a little bloody and the bell wearing chick looked a little faint. Oh well, Natsu was used to that sort of look. A lot of people were often struck silent by the awesomeness that was him.
"Pretty awesome, right?" Natsu said as he beamed proudly. If the two girls weren't going to talk then he might as well introduce himself. "My name is Natsu, Natsu Dragneel. And since I kicked the asses of those ugly demon guys, could the two of you help me out? Some of my friends are missing and I'm trying to find them. Have either of you seen them?"
When neither of them answered him, Natsu scratched his head and frowned. Had his blasts made them deaf? If so then that might make things difficult. It had happened to him before and generally resulted in hours of lost time due to miscommunication.
Natsu cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled louder. Yelling louder was his preferred method of communicating in this situation. "Oi! You two. Are you listening to me? No?"
Still they didn't respond. Huh. Yelling that loudly generally provoked a wide range of reactions, but stunned silence was a new one. Maybe they were in shock or something.
Stopping the flow of fire to his mouth and fists, Natsu hopped a little closer to their position to see if he could help them out. He didn't know much about medicine or fixing wounds – he left that sort of thing to Wendy – but he could at least tell if someone was suffering from a head injury. Head knocks were common results of Fairy Tail brawls and everyone in the guild knew how to look for the signs.
The orange-haired girl wearing bells in her hair blushed as red as a sun when he approached, her eyes dilating wide before she covered her face with both hands. She was probably fine if her eyes could do that, so Natsu turned to the dark-haired girl.
Judging from the ways she held her weapons she seemed to be a more experienced combatant. The short skirt and tattered shirt didn't seem to be bloody either, hinting that she was good enough to avoid most blows before they made contact with her skin. Examining her as he approached, Natsu thought she too was fine. Although for some reason she too blushed red as he moved closer.
Eh, it probably wasn't important. He might as well try talking to them for a third time.
"Let's try this again," the dragon slayer said in a boisterous tone. "My name is Natsu and I just kicked some serious ass. Nice to meet ya!"
He stuck out his hand to her and brought back his smile. "Come on, just shake my hand already. I promise not to bite ya."
After a silent moment the dark-haired girl dematerialized one of her swords and timidly shook his hand. Natsu made note of it. Thanks to Erza, any woman wielding a sword made him nervous. If she was even a tenth as good as Erza then Natsu needed to respect her ability.
"There," Natsu said as she shook his hand, "was that so hard?"
Still wide eyed and flushed, the girl said something in a soft voice. He didn't understand a word of it and cocked his head to the side. "Huh? What'd you just say?"
The girl repeated her words and he still didn't understand. Whatever she was saying seemed to be in a completely different language and hearing it repeated by the girl for a third time made him frown.
Before he could try to investigate any further, though, the girl used her free hand to point down. Out of curiosity, he followed her and looked down, where he saw his junk hanging freely in the night's soft breeze. His first and only thought was probably obvious to both of the flush-faced girls, whose reaction he now completely understood.
"Ehhhhhh!" Natsu screamed in shock.
Dropping the chick's hand and hiding his exposed lower half, Natsu took off running like a bat out of hell. Letting his friends see him naked was one thing. Running around naked in public was another.
"I'm not like Lucy, I'm not like Gray, I'm not like Lucy, I'm not like Gray," Natsu yelled as he streaked away from the two girls he had saved just moments ago, running along the edge of the strange forest. "Where did my pants go? Ah! I left them in the old geezer's house. Dammit you old bastard, why couldn't you let me dress first?" Natsu desperately looked around for something he could use to clothe himself and saw absolutely nothing. "Where's that gorilla spirit when you need her! Clothes, I want clothes!"
There was nothing on the forest's edge, and the clothes Natsu had seen those weird creatures wearing were either ash or dissolved particles of magic. Damn! That meant that the easy way was out. Moving on to backup measures, Natsu spotted some tightly bunched bushes with rather full looking leaves a short ways into the forest.
He took off in their direction. He'd seen Gray string leaves together to form makeshift clothes so often that Natsu knew how to do it as well. Still repeating his mantra at the top of his lungs, Natsu sped for the bush and jumped into it at full force.
As he slammed into the ground with crashing thud several things immediately occurred to Natsu. First, bushes in the wilderness didn't usually have wooden frames and wire in them. Second, the ground behind the bush wasn't nearly as hard as it should have been; it was actually quite soft and squishy. Third and most importantly, he could feel something hard and metallic jabbing into an area that was never meant to have something hard and metallic shoved into it. All of these things signified that Natsu had just made a horrible mistake, and if past experiences were anything to go by Natsu would soon be suffering the consequences of it.
He slowly raised his head from the pair of soft, fleshy mounds that had broken his fall and looked into a woman's furious, unblinking eyes. Set within a dark-skinned face framed by a mane of long black hair, the woman was giving off a vibe which reminded him eerily of Erza. Natsu forced himself to give her a small smile.
The impact of a close range explosion sent him rocketing out of the bushes, yelling at the top of his lungs once again – albeit for very different reasons.
With tears streaming from his eyes Natsu ran as hard and fast as his body could manage. He heard the crashing sound as the woman threw away her broken camouflage set and chased after him, probably still wielding one of those shooting things that Alzack and Bisca used in their magic.
Natsu needed distance. The pain radiating from his lower body told him that it was a bad idea to stay anywhere in the girl's vicinity, as it was far more powerful than anything either Alzack or Bisca had ever used. A blast that blew apart an entire trunk to his left made him turn on his fiery afterburners.
Natsu didn't know how long it took him, but eventually he had been able to shake off the angry girl. He was usually the first one to enjoy a fight, but this was a special case. Fighting naked after sexually harassing a group of girls was Gray's thing, and Natsu absolutely wanted to avoid copying that damn bastard in anything.
Besides, the girl had been scary. Shots from her magic tool had rang out for far too long, and Natsu's back ached from the sting of the bullets he had not been able to dodge. The places where they had hit were numb as well, leading him to believe that the dark-skinned girl had altered the magic within them.
Panting from the exertion, Natsu stopped for a moment and tried to gather his bearings. Looking around, he couldn't see anything useful or dangerous nearby, but even with that strange column of light it was too dark to tell. He tested the air, only to wrinkle his nose in confusion. Too many unfamiliar smells were present as well. He couldn't tell what most of them signified, and what few he could identify were useless in the current situation.
With both his eyes and nose rendered useless, that meant he would have to rely on his ears and gut to move about the forest. Hoping that it might provide him with some clue as to where Wendy and the others might be, Natsu closed his eyes and tried to focus on his sense of hearing.
Some sounds made sense immediately. "I can hear fighting to the North," Natsu muttered softly to himself. "Magic blasts and yelling voices, so whatever I stumbled into is going on in other places too. Nothing to the South, and both the East and West have some sort of weird, 'vrooming' noise."
Natsu contemplated the new information. Silence to the south meant wilderness and a high possibly of the girl who had nearly blown his junk to smithereens. The pain which still radiated from them made that choice out of the question. Natsu was anything but eager to repeat that particular experience.
Meanwhile, the weird noises to the east and west were completely unknown to him. They sounded a little like those magical vehicles that Erza liked to use. Just thinking about them made him nauseous, so those ways were also out of the picture.
That meant the only direction left to choose was the north. Raging battles were fun, and there was a more than even chance that some of the other members of Fairy Tail were involved in it. Fighting was sort of their thing, and if Natsu had run into trouble then maybe they had as well.
"Easy choice," Natsu said happily. Having a clear objective was always a good thing in his opinion. If it led to a fight or three along the way, well that just made it even better. Now all he needed to do was to avoid the girl with the magic blaster and everything would be okay.
Natsu wound his right shoulder as he moved past a particularly large tree, only to come to a complete halt.
"Or I could find yet another angry looking girl, this one wielding a sword. That could happen too," he grumbled as the new girl approached him. It was like the universe was trying to say that it wanted him to fight like Gray, and Natsu did not appreciate it.
Natsu covered his privates with one hand and waved at the new girl with his remaining hand. Her giant spectacles and long hair made her look a little like Laki from the guild. The way she held her sword, however, did not resemble Laki in the slightest. Nor had Natsu ever seen Laki with a look on her face that resembled an executioner looking at her next target.
Despite his better instincts, Natsu took a deep breath and tried to communicate with this strange new girl. He had avoided fighting like Gray just a little bit ago. Maybe he could do so again.
"Hey, before we get into this, let's talk for a second," he began. "I'm a little lost and was hoping that you could do me a favor. I can't find my friends and -"
The girl's slicing sword cut off the rest of what he had been about to say. Natsu barely stopped the sword a finger's width from his left eye while the girl screamed something at him in a language he didn't understand. A few strands of pink hair drifted in the breeze.
Ah well, at least I tried, Natsu thought to himself as he kicked her in the face. He could curse the universe for forcing him to fight like Gray after he had won. Establishing himself as the most badass fighter in these woods took precedence over anything else.
Asuna stared in shock at the strange young man as he ran up the slope and into the forest. Her mind had gone numb. How could such a powerful sorcerer be so completely stupid as to forget his clothes? The guy hadn't said anything she could understand, but his reaction to Setsuna's gesture was unmistakable. He had been completely naked and hadn't even realized it.
What an idiot!
As she watched him run haphazardly up the hill, his unmentionables swinging in the air, Asuna swore to herself that she would never let Negi grow into such a wizard. So long as she had anything to say, this picture would never repeat itself with Negi taking the place of the pink-haired man.
Then Asuna's numb mind did a double flip. Why was she thinking about a future with the brat? And why had it been triggered by a man who was naked! Asuna shook her head to clear her mind.
The naked fire mage stopped running along the forest's edge and disappeared into pile of bushes, still yelling at the top of his lungs. She couldn't make out most of what he was saying, but the words 'Gray' and 'Lucy' kept repeating. They sounded like western names she had heard from a couple of American and British television shows that aired on Mahora's television network, but from what she knew most westerners didn't have pink hair.
Beyond confused, Asuna looked over at Setsuna to see if the other girl had any idea what was going on with the crazy fire mage. Unfortunately, Setsuna seemed to be even worse off than Asuna. The dark-haired girl still had her hand stretched out and appeared to be muttering something to herself with a mortified look on her face. Meanwhile, the one hand still bearing the short sword had tightened. The girl's whitened knuckles clearly stood out upon her already pale skin.
It didn't seem that Setsuna would be of much help, so Asuna turned her head away and looked back at the man.
Just in time. Moments after she saw him jump into a large bush on the forest's edge, the man came flying out of it. Yelling in pain, the man then took off faster than Asuna had thought humanly possible.
Then two dark shapes burst out from the bushes, following him at the same breakneck speed. Asuna blinked. Those two shapes looked familiar.
She took a close look. It was Mana, and Ku Fei too! Why were they here in the forest? Could they also be mages like Negi and Setsuna?
Asuna called out to them, but her two classmates ignored her and kept chasing the strange man. Whatever had happened in that bush hadn't taken long, but it had sure lit a fire underneath all of them. The three figures soon disappeared into another section of the forest, leaving behind an utterly confused Asuna as Setsuna continued to mutter under her breath.
After staring into the forest for a full minute Asuna finally felt her mind pull itself back together. While seeing someone run around naked was nothing new for Mahora, seeing a mage capable of giant blasts of flames running around like a naked idiot while being chased by her classmates had broken something inside of her young maidenly heart. It was weird, it was wrong, and considering how weird Eva was, it did not bode well for Negi.
Asuna slapped her cheeks with both hands to try and drive the image and all of its associations out of her mind. It was time to get back to the reason why she and Setsuna had come here in the first place.
"Alright, Setsuna-san, snap out of it," she said, reaching out a hand to shake the other girl's shoulder. "This whole incident aside, we've still got to back-up Negi and save Konoka. As far as we know things aren't going well for him and the two of them need our help."
With a strangled yelp of 'Ojou-sama' Setsuna stopped her muttering and snapped out of whatever world she had been trapped within.
"Y-y-yes, Asuna-san. You are right. We should hurry as well," the other girl stuttered. "Even if my body and mind are no longer pure for Ojou-sama, I can still lay down my life to save her."
Catching the last part, Asuna raised an eyebrow at the other girl before shrugging. It wasn't any of her business to ask so long as it didn't stop them from rescuing Konoka and saving Negi.
Natsu was enjoying himself in this fight. Unlike that bastard he had been fighting before Warrod cast Fairy Sphere or the dark-skinned girl with the blaster, this opponent didn't use any tricks. It was swordsmanship and magical skill versus fists and fiery blasts.
A straight-up who could stand longer, hack, slash, and bash battle. In short, it was the sort of fight Natsu loved the most.
Blocking yet another slash of her sword with a blazing left fist, Natsu slammed his right elbow into her stomach and unleashed a magical blast of fire. "Fire Dragon's Elbow"
Not exactly a traditional piece of magic, Natsu had gifted the move a name full of awesome after creating it way back when he was a kid, playing around with the magic his father, the great fire dragon Igneel was teaching him.
The blast sent the glasses wearing chick rocketing through the forest with her clothes ablaze as Natsu held his arm gingerly. He still hadn't fully recovered from his first battle, and he kept forgetting that his body wasn't in perfect condition. Blocking her attack had caused the wounds healed by Wendy to throb in pain.
The girl recovered quickly, stabbing her sword into the ground and planting her feet onto the trunk of a nearby tree to stop her momentum, while her charred dress swirled around her legs. Raising her eyes, the girl jumped forward at him with her sword extended in a simple thrust.
While the girl's swordsmanship was undeniable, her sense of tactics was not the greatest. Natsu slammed his hands together just before she reached his position. "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"
A flash of fire roared out from the point where both his hands met, hitting the small figure in front of him and blocking her body from his vision. The fiery blast tore into the earth around them, tearing a huge furrow into the ground as the magic was released.
As the smoke hung in the air and several trees burned nearby, Natsu blinked, wiping one hand across his face to get the sweat out off of it. After all the fights he had been in and with his wounds not fully healed, his stamina seemed to be lower than usual as well. If he wasn't careful, he might end up exhausting himself before he even reached the place where he had heard a magical battle being waged.
"Phew." He muttered to himself. "Maybe that one got her?"
He peered about and didn't see any trace of the girl. While he hadn't meant to kill her, the power of his blast was strong enough to turn a human's body to ash.
A tingle on the back of his neck was his only warning. Natsu flung his body to the forest floor, rolling to his left before coming up with a spinning jump kick. He had dodged the girl's downward blow, but she in turn blocked his flaming kick with the flat of her sword. The two combatants jumped back after exchanging a lightning fast series of attacks and counterattacks, watching each other warily once they landed.
As they stood still, the girl said a few words to him in that strange language before gesturing to his midriff. Then she sneered.
Suddenly annoyed, Natsu let loose a growl from within his throat. Some things passed any language barrier and needed no translation.
"Oi, no need to go threatening some guy's junk, even if he's pulling a Gray," Natsu called out to his opponent. "It's not my fault that I'm like this. Besides, I didn't even do anything to you!"
The girl seemed to get the message. Taking one hand off of her sword's handle, she fished around in a pocket conveniently located somewhere in her dress.
Natsu blinked as she did. They had blended in so well that the dragon slayer had completely missed seeing them. It was a good thing that she hadn't stored any weapons in them, or used any weapons which might possibly be inside of them. She might have been able to land a solid hit on him if that had been the case.
After a few seconds of searching, the girl pulled out some sort of paper talisman and placed it on her forehead. The thing had some sort of weird writing on it that Natsu had never seen before, but he had seen enough of magic to know when he was looking at a talisman. The exact nature of it quickly became clear the moment she opened her mouth.
"Now we'll be able to understand one another. So say something before I gut you, you uncouth dog. Even perverts deserve their final words."
Natsu blinked again. He had understood the girl's words! Finally, he was beginning to make some progress in this messed up situation! But wait, did she still think he was a pervert? Damn Warrod and Zeref both! Damn them for making others see him in the same light as Gray!
"It wasn't my choice! I didn't even try to fight you before you attacked me." Natsu yelled. He flailed his arms as he spoke, punctuating his words with angry gestures. "Besides, it's these old guys' fault that I'm naked in the first place! Not mine!"
The woman just stared at him. Maybe he needed to explain things in more detail.
"See, I got attacked at a hot spring by this one old guy and a bunch of his dudes. Then another old guy cast a spell on my team, and between fighting off the guys who had attacked me and helping the other old guy cast his spell I only had time to grab my scarf."
The chick still just stared at him. Bah! He should have known better than to try and reason with someone. Reasoning with people never worked, not unless you beat them black and blue in the process.
"Anyway, why are you trying to neuter me?" Natsu yelled as he flung a hand in her direction. "Like I said, I didn't do anything to you – you found me!"
The girl just kept staring. Pissed at it, Natsu grabbed his hair and started pulling at it. "Stop looking at me like that, dammit! It's annoying!"
A dark, cutesy chuckle coming from deep within her throat finally ended her incessant staring.
"Ignorance of your crime does not absolve your misdeed, not before me, Tsukuyomi. You shot fire at my senpai. You tried to kill my senpai. And afterward," she spoke, her voice beginning to quiver with rage, "you had the temerity, the utter gall, to proposition her with your body. My pure, sweet and innocent senpai. How dare you! Senpai is mine and mine alone, and I will cut off your balls!"
The girl's eyes flashed as she screamed the last two sentences, her gaze promising pain. She then punctuated the statement with a slash from her sword which shot some sort of strange energy at him in a sweeping arc. Natsu punched his left fist forward and released a torrent of sustained fire, shattering her attack and causing smoke to billow into the air.
Natsu was no longer having fun. Fighting was one thing, but maiming him for something that wasn't his fault just ticked him off.
He called out, "Oi, you serious about this?"
A second slash came screaming in from the smoke left by their last clash. Natsu blocked this attack as well. Then, with a shrug of his shoulders as he growled to himself, the dragon slayer of fire waded into the smoke. The girl was beginning to tick him off, but at least she was consistent. It was good when enemies were consistent with their intentions and their actions.
The two of them resumed their fight right where they had left off. Surrounded by the smoke, both opponents had to rely on their other senses to attack and defend. Natsu launched devastating punches only to have them dodged or blocked with the flat of her blade. The dragon slayer found himself dodging strikes as well, feeling the girl's sword slice through the air next to his skin more than once.
As the smoke dissipated and he blocked several more slashes with bursts of fire from his hands, Natsu grimaced. He couldn't quite get a bead on her in this forest. The girl was skilled enough to make things difficult for him, always attacking from a blind spot, and his injured body was moving slower than usual. He needed to use close quarters combat or a powerful finishing move to clear some of the trees and give him the advantage. Since he had been unable to gain an advantage in the smoke, chances were that he would have to wait for an opportunity to hit her with one of his big spells. Then the girl darted in close and took the choice out of his hands.
She aimed a feint at his head before slashing at his midriff. Seeing through the move, Natsu let the two blows slide past him. He then clamped his hands down on the flat of the blade with both hands and lifted his right leg. His crushing kick slammed into the center of her stomach and caused the girl's eyes to bulge as the breath whooshed from her lungs.
Her grip on the blade slackened and she soon dropped to her knees, gasping for air.
Letting go of the blade with one hand, Natsu delivered a swift chop to the back of her neck with the other. As good as she was, it seemed she had never fought an unarmed combat specialist able to grab onto her sword in mid swing. Between that and her unnatural rage, the odd girl had clearly not been fighting at her peak ability. But that didn't bother Natsu.
A win was a win after all, especially when it was the other person who had picked the fight in the first place.
Finished with the fight, Natsu let her body fall to the forest's floor and tossed the girl's sword deep into the woods. He stared at her for a long moment, waiting to see if she could get up and resume the fight. All the girl did was lie on the ground and twitch her hands every few seconds, signaling both consciousness and temporary paralysis.
She would recover soon enough, but having to locate her sword would stop the girl from pursuing him for a good long while. With that accomplished, only one piece of business remained between them.
Natsu bent over and replaced the strip of magical paper on her head so the girl could clearly understand his words.
"Fight me again when you are stronger and I have some clothes on. We can settle things then in a fair fight. A member of Fairy Tail keeps his word."
With one last look at the girl as she twitched in rage, Natsu stood up and resumed his march northward.
Only to quickly come face to face with a very large, very angry, and very singed bear that immediately bit down on his previously injured arm.
The next day, Asuna hummed happily to herself as she wandered the halls of Konoka's family mansion. It was the morning after the battle to rescue Konoka and the events of last night were fading fast in her mind. Happily so, she thought to herself.
Shortly after that unnerving fight with the demons and meeting the naked pinkette, she and Setsuna were summoned by Negi to the great Altar upon which Konoka had been bound by the enemy. The two ministra, the title which Negi had said was given to those who served as a mage's partners, joined with him to engage the mysterious Fate and his partner in crime, the eastern sorceress Chigusa.
The struggle went well for a time, as Negi managed to trap Fate with a spell of binding while Asuna banished Chigusa's spirit summons. Taking advantage of the confusion, Setsuna had revealed her demonic heritage and used her wings to swoop in and grab her sworn lord. The black-haired girl had looked as beautiful as an angel to Asuna, and seeing the other girl successfully rescue their friend had made the entire night of pain and fighting worth it.
Unfortunately, it was then that things had taken a turn for the worse. As Setsuna flew off with Konoka, Asuna and Negi battled Fate while a giant demon awoke from its slumber beside them. It had taken Negi's father, the Thousand Master, and Konoka's father working together to seal it. With just Asuna and Negi around, and distracted by fighting Fate, things had started to look bad. The emo looking villain had had them on the ropes before an even greater evil had interfered: the Dark Evangel, Evangeline A.K. McDowell, temporarily freed from her prison by order of Mahora's headmaster.
With her servant robot Chachamaru's aid, Evangeline had proceeded to annihilate the awakening demon. Seeing that the tables had been turned, Fate tried one last attack before finally running away.
Without Evangeline's timely intervention, Asuna was certain that she and Negi would have been finished. Yet it had happened, everyone had survived, and on this morning after the night of battles Asuna was able to sing merrily while skipping through Konoka's mansion of a home.
As she skipped out of the hallway and into an open-air section of the mansion, Asuna couldn't help but laugh as she stared into the brightly lit forest. She had defied demons, escaped a pink-haired pervert, fought a sorceress bent on revenge, rescued a damsel in distress and defied a being of frightening power straight to his face.
All things taken, that had to be considered a rousing success. She raised her voice higher as she dashed out to do cartwheels on the well-kept grass. It was a glorious day and she was going to celebrate, decorum be damned!
The young girl whirled and twirled along the grass, basking in the simple joy of being alive. She continued to sing as she did, belting out the lyrics from some web series she had seen Chisame watching in class the other day.
"It's a brand new day, and the sun is high! All the birds are singing that I'm -" in mid song, a whiff of cooked lard caught her attention, instantly breaking off her singing. Asuna sniffed the pleasant aroma of cooking meat, an aroma which seemed to grow stronger the longer she stood still.
Eventually, a rumbling noise from her stomach reminded her why she had been skipping through the hallways in the first place. Konoka's father had said that breakfast would be available early in the morning and had asked that Asuna and the others be present so as to be celebrated. Never one to turn down free food, especially if it was anything like Konoka's cooking, Asuna had promised that she would attend.
With the delicious smell of breakfast on the air, Asuna's body was doing its best to remind her of its current state.
"I can sing and cartwheel another time," Asuna said to herself as she passed some neatly trimmed hedges on her way back to the mansion. "Now it's time for food! Mmm... food." Asuna giggled in delight, the twin bells in her hair jingling as she bounced up and down in excitement.
Before she could put on the jets and run off towards the dining area, though, a dark skinned hand appeared from behind a nearby hedge and waved at her. Wondering who it was and why they were trying to delay her from getting food, Asuna walked over to investigate.
Popping her head over the hedge's side, Asuna saw Ku Fei sitting cross-legged on a comfortable looking blanket. The blonde Chinese girl was digging into a plate of meaty stew, the smell of which made Asuna's mouth water. It was definitely the smell that was filling the air, and at that moment Asuna wanted nothing more than to eat it.
Ku-Fei pointed to a nearby pot and gestured for Asuna to join her. "It's not Chao-Bao-Zi-aru, but Mana's cooking is really good." the lean martial artist said in accented Japanese. "You should try some meat-aru. It's delicious and good for the body too!"
Asuna smiled as she twisted her head and looked around. She spotted a nearby pathway and followed it, eventually arriving at Ku's blanket where she sat down, smoothing her skirt as she did.
"Thanks Ku Fei! I was really starting to get hungry" Asuna said as she grabbed an empty bowl and filled it with stew. This could serve as an appetizer to her meal with Konoka's dad, and she had questions that she wanted to ask the other girl. Questions like why had she been present at the battle last night, why had she chased the pink-haired man, and what had happened to that naked pervert?
All of which could wait. As Asuna crossed her legs and set the bowl of stew on top of them, the first thing on her mind was food. With a cry of, "Itadakimasu," the orange-haired girl dug in to it.
As Asuna dug in, Ku took a drink out of a cup filled with water. Birds were chirping in nearby tree and Ku Fei made for surprisingly fun company as they ate. The two girls generally associated with one another only when both attended after school make up sessions. It was good to get to know her in a different setting.
As they ate, Asuna tried to ask what had brought the other girl into the woods, but could only blink in confusion at the response. The moment Asuna had finished asking her question Ku Fei began blabbering on about powerful enemies and destined meetings between foes. It had sounded like something one might encounter in a movie, but from the look on the other girl's face Asuna could tell that that Ku Fei was utterly serious. Asuna tried to rephrase her question, but when Ku Fei repeated the exact same thing she had said before Asuna gave up on it.
Supposedly Mana had made the stew, so Asuna waited for a little bit maybe the dark-skinned girl would return. Mana seemed to have a sensible head on her shoulders. Any explanation she gave would have to be better than anything Ku Fei had just said.
Asuna finished the plate of stew, mopping up a little bit of the remaining juices with a piece of bread. As she waited for Mana to return, Asuna tried to keep the conversation going between her and Ku Fei.
"Thanks for the meal, Ku Fei. That was delicious!" Asuna said. She clapped her hands together to underscore her words. "What was it made with? I don't think that I've ever tasted something like it."
Ku gave a slight shrug. "Nothing special went into it-aru, except for the meat. Mana and I gathered the ingredients last night as we hunted the foe that attacked her. We were really lucky-aru! This is a once in a lifetime meal here in Japan. You see, special meat make all the difference-aru."
The pink-haired naked guy had attacked Mana? Finally, something Ku Fei said was making sense! It was something that Asuna was actually curious to know the answer to as well.
Then a terrifying thought occurred to Asuna, as Ku Fei's words penetrated, prompting a quick gag.
"Ku Fei," Asuna squeaked out as she started to choke. "Are you telling me that this came from a hu-, I mean to say a hum-, a hu-human being? Did you and Mana skin him alive and cook his remains?"
Asuna looked at her hands as a wave of nausea rose within her belly. Asuna wailed in horror at the thought of what she had just done. "Oh God, I just became a cannibal didn't I? Didn't I? Noooo! I'm not ready for prison life! I'm too young, and even if he was pervert, he didn't deserve to be eaten. How could you do this to me Ku Fei? How could you!"
Across from the sobbing Asuna, Ku Fei cocked her head to the side and studied her classmate.
"Asuna, do you mean that guy over there?" Ku Fei finally said as she pointed to a hedge nearby. "He's fine-aru. Just beat up and unconscious."
Asuna stopped sobbing long enough to take a look in the direction Ku Fei was pointing. Hoping beyond hope that the other girl was telling the truth and that she had not just fed Asuna stew made from a human's body, Asuna poke her head over the hedge. She quickly gave a gasp of relief.
Unconscious and hanging from a rather thick pole was the pink-haired man from the night before. No longer naked, he was now wrapped in a bearskin robe, bandages, and that ridiculous white scarf. Asuna felt sweet relief sweep across her.
"The bear he killed was delicious wasn't it-aru." Ku Fei said as she moved around the hedge to stand beside the man. "Mana and I were happy to run across both of them at once-aru. We were able to kill two birds with one stone."
Asuna's tears turned to joy as she sobbed. "Yes! Praise be to Takahata! Our marriage is saved!"
She then flung herself onto her Chinese classmate, scattering bowls and cutlery everywhere in her haste. "Thank you Ku Fei, thank you! I'm sorry for ever doubting you. I promise to never do it again."
"Um, okay-aru. Ku Fei is... happy that you are happy-aru." Ku Fei said as she patted Asuna's back with a confused look on her face.
Later, after Asuna had calmed down and gone to eat breakfast with Konoka's father, she came back to study the pink-haired man more closely. No one else had been at the breakfast other than her, and while Asuna was in love with Takamichi she had no desire to pursue Konoka's dad or any of the other old men who had been present. Being celebrated was nice and all, but Asuna preferred to spend time with her classmates and people her own age.
"So, Ku Fei. Do you or Tatsumiya-san have any idea what this guy was doing out in the woods last night?"
Ku Fei shook her head. "He didn't speak Japanese-aru. Mana and I tried a bunch of other languages too, but he didn't seem to know any of them either-aru."
The Chinese martial artist took a drink from a cup of water which sat beside her before continuing. "Mana was hoping to speak with Negi-bouzu about a spell of translation, but left to take a business call before she could-aru. I think."
Asuna nodded. That made sense to her. She wasn't a mage or anything, but with Negi being a genius magician and all there was definite chance he might be able to do something about it. But wait, how did Mana know that Negi might be able to do something about this? Did they know that he was a mage? Asuna gave voice to her questions and pinned her classmate with a hard stare.
Ku Fei smiled in return. "Mana is a famous magical mercenary who has traveled the globe-aru. She's really strong, and I think that she has teamed up with Setsuna and the others in the past to do magic jobs too-aru." Ku Fei then shrugged. "If you want to know more-aru, you have to ask Mana yourself. Everyone has secrets-aru, and I am an honorable keeper of what I am told."
The two sat in silence for a short time as Asuna absorbed Ku Fei's words and looked at the hog-tied pinkette. She really was curious about him and why he had saved her, even if he had done it while completely naked.
Bah! That meant she would have to find that annoying teacher of hers before Evangeline kidnapped him for the day like the vampire had been saying she would ever since she had saved them. Asuna would probably have to try explaining Ku Fei and Mana's situation to both of them while she was at it. All of which would be very annoying.
Still, curiosity eventually beat out the possible annoyance. "I'll be back with Negi in a minute Ku Fei. Just keep that sleepy guy here until we get back."
Ku Fei acknowledged Asuna's words and waved as the other girl departed. "I'll be right here-aru. No prisoner has ever escaped from me."
Beside the Chinese girl, the man gave out a groan, possibly a sign that he was beginning to awaken. A quick stab of Ku Fei's fingers on some kind of pressure point quickly ended it. "See-aru? Everything is under control."
It took Asuna almost no time to locate Negi, but longer to explain the situation and pry him away from Eva's demented clutches. The small vampire was rather animated about being able to freely move about for the first time in a decade and, even upon hearing the story of his appearance during the fight, declared that naked pink-haired men had little interest for her. She refused to budge no matter what Asuna offered.
Thankfully, it seemed that Negi was impressed enough by both Asuna's description of the man's magical abilities and her threats of bodily harm if Negi didn't help her that he too wanted to see the man. Eva sulked and yelled and threw a tantrum no self-respecting vampire should ever throw but eventually gave in on the condition that Negi accompany her throughout the city immediately afterwards.
Along the way to Ku Fei's position the group also picked up Setsuna and Konoka, stopping the first from trying to run away from everyone over some silly reason. Asuna had yelled, Negi and Konoka had cried, Setsuna then cried with them, and Eva had hid her face behind her hands and muttered about stupidity. Then it had ended and they resumed their original mission.
In short order the five of them, Ku Fei, a returned Mana, and Chachamaru were standing in front of the still unconscious pink-haired man. Mana had returned while they were gone, and Chachamaru had appeared out of thin air the moment they had stepped out of the mansion. Asuna had been slightly alarmed by her appearance, but it seemed that the girl was still as docile as ever. Chachamaru hadn't been an opponent since the midnight fight with Eva, and it was high time for Asuna to stop getting an adrenaline surge every time the robotic girl appeared without her noticing.
The group stood for a short time as everyone waited for someone else to start the conversation. It was Negi who broke the ice. "I don't know how you learned of my secret, Tatsumiya-san, but as your teacher I have to ask: what did you and Ku Fei-san do to keep him unconscious for this long? I don't want my students to get in trouble for causing harm to someone who might be an innocent man."
Stepping up beside him, Mana drew one of her pistols and popped out a shell that she passed to the diminutive teacher. "Since we arrived here, Ku Fei and I have been using pressure points to keep him unconscious. But before that it was not quite so easy. Ku Fei and I came upon him after he had just killed a rather large forest bear. The bear had managed to wound him, and seeing an opening I took advantage of this distraction to shoot him with several high-powered sleeping bullets. Ku Fei also engaged him in hand to hand combat and may have gotten somewhat rough with him."
Mana gave a grim smile as she recounted her story. "The man was remarkably durable, so I had to hit him with four clips worth of ammunition. It is harder to take someone alive than it is to take their life, but this man possesses a magic resistance that is far higher than that of the average mage."
She then gave a shrug as her expression faded back to normal. "As for what will most likely be your next two questions, sensei, I had surmised your powers due to your last name and place of origin. Everyone in the magical world knows of your father, and I am no stranger to its dangers. But Ku Fei here is still a newcomer to our world. She knew nothing until last night, when we saw you dash through the forest to save our classmate."
Negi blushed crimson as he turned the shell over in his hands, probably feeling out the magic it contained. Asuna could only shake her head at the conversation. It seemed that his father's fame kept appearing in unexpected places. Sure, Negi had told her that his dad was famous, but by the way both Eva and Mana spoke it seemed like the guy was a legend.
The kid bowed his head as he replied. "Thank you for keeping my secret, Tatsumiya-san, Ku Fei-san. I promise to do the same with yours."
Afterward, no one said very much as Negi concentrated on the task at hand. Eva had scoffed when Asuna had asked the vampire to help Negi, and Mana had only shaken her head and said that her abilities lay in different areas.
Grumbling to herself, Asuna ruminated on the differences between mages as Negi puzzled over how to wake Natsu up. Some were perverts, others were stubborn psychopaths or walked around with magical guns, and the ones Asuna hadn't met were probably weirder than the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. The only sane one of the bunch seemed to be Takamichi. Thank all that was holy that he wasn't like the rest of them.
Once Negi had a good idea of how to wake the sleeping man without harming him, the young boy handed the shell back to Mana. He then summoned his magic and placed his hand on the sleeping man's head.
The spells within Mana's bullets were quite potent and she had hit the man with quite a few. Additionally, whatever Mana and Ku Fei had done to his pressure points was also doing a good job of keeping him asleep.
The young mage took a deep breath and reached into the depths of his magic. He shaped and molded it into a powerful spell of wakefulness, tuning it to the energy signature of Mana's bullets. Negi felt Evangeline's eyes on him as he worked, most likely evaluating his skill to deal with this challenge. He firmed his shoulders. With her eyes on him, Negi would demonstrate just how far he had come.
Negi spoke in a voice that rose as he began to cast his magic. "Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister: Excita!"
With an exclamation at the end, he released the pent up energy and let it flow into the sleeping man before him. As the man's eyes began to gently flutter open, Negi pumped a small fist in victory.
It was short lived, for no sooner had he caught Eva's eyes with his own than a screeching noise split apart through the afternoon air.
"Te reinga! He aha te tika tupu? Homai ki ahau toku kakahu kua!" The man on the stake had just woken up and was squawking like a blue jay with its tail-feathers on fire. "Hoki puku! Toku ringa. He aha I meatia e koe ki toku ringa? Te mamae te! Kia ahau ki raro, koutou whakatara. Kah!"
Negi covered his ears and fell onto his backside while the girls around him had similar reactions. The man had a pair of lungs on him like a dragon! How could anyone possibly scream that loud without using magic?
The man probably would have continued yelling if Asuna hadn't walked up to him and slapped him with her pactio generated fan. "Shaddup!"
That seemed to stun him down for a moment. An expression similar to one on a person feeling their skin brushed with nettles crossed his face and Negi winced in empathy. The sting caused by Asuna's fan was not just physical. It could also interfere with a user's magic for a short time, and the feeling it caused was anything but pleasant.
After a short moment of stunned silence the pink-haired man narrowed his eyes and bit out a single word which he directed at Asuna. Asuna returned the look with interest, waving her fan under the man's nose as she did.
As Negi tried to figure out what he should do, he could feel Eva's gaze burning into his back. More specifically, as he turned his head to look, the ancient vampire seemed to be staring at his neck. Which was probably not a very good sign at all.
Negi shifted nervously while he drew up the collar of his shirt. He would need to redeem himself, and do it quickly.
As Konoka clung to Setsuna's left arm and hummed happily, seemingly ignorant of everything that was going on; Negi stood up and cast his second spell. "Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister: Omnia Verba Loqui!"
Negi dry washed his hands nervously as he stepped back to his original position and began to unbind the man's hands
"Hello," he said as he worked. "My name is Negi Springfield, a Magister Magi in-training, and these are my students. The ones who found you last night were Tatsumiya Mana-san – she's the tall one with dark skin – and Ku Fei-san – who is the short one with blonde hair."
Negi zapped the bindings holding the man's wrists while continuing his introduction. The knots were proving too tough for his small hands to handle.
"Setsuna-san and Konoka-san are the two dark-haired girls behind me. Beside them are Chachamaru-san – the tall girl with green hair – and Evangeline-san."
Negi paused as he thought how he could describe the vampire without incurring her wrath. "She's a powerful mage, and much older than she looks. So please be very respectful and do your best not to anger her."
Negi's ever present smile faded somewhat as he felt the air around him grow chill from Eva's magic. Shoot. He really had somehow managed to annoy her after all.
Hoping that she would eventually stop being angry at him Negi continued to speak.
"The orange-haired girl next to me with bells in her hair is Asuna-san." Negi bowed his head towards the man who was slowly rubbing his joints with both hands. "I apologize if you were hurt when my students tied you up or when Asuna-san hit you with her fan. They are good students, they really are, but they can be very excitable at times and Asuna-san is often violent. Please forgive their enthusiasm."
Asuna squawked a denial and made as if to swing her fan at him, but a coughed grunt from the formerly tied up man quickly quieted her down. Negi's partner raised her fan as she refocused her attention on the pink-haired man, clearly preparing herself to spring into action if the situation called for it.
Negi pointed towards the man and, as he undid the final knot, asked what everyone present wanted to know. "Now, who are you?"
It didn't take long for him to speak. The man placed one of his hands on his fur clad hip and pointed the other one at his chest, digging his thumb into his chiseled chest as his loud voice rang out.
"My name's Natsu and I'm a wizard of Fairy Tail, Fiore's toughest guild," the man declared. "I was separated from my guildmates during a fight, and if you've seen any of them tell me pronto or get my fist to your face."
Then, without so much as a moment of hesitation, Natsu walked over to Mana placed his face close to hers.
"You!" He said, flushing red as he spoke. "You...! What did my balls do to deserve that kind of punishment huh?! That was an accident!"
His hand fell to his groin, rubbing it in phantom pain. His actions drew a flush out of most of the girls watching. "And did you really need to shoot me with those sleepy things so much?! My head feels like I went on a drinking binge with a pal of mine and tried to match her barrel for barrel."
Natsu then shoved his entire left hand at Ku Fei. "And you! My arm – my entire frickin arm – was bleeding from the damn animal whose fur is hanging on me! Next time, don't bash it like a damn volleyball. It feels like it's gonna fall off any second now. Gah!"
While Ku Fei merely pointed at herself in confusion Konoka gasped in shock. Her gasp drew Natsu's attention away from the blonde-haired girl and over to Konoka and Setsuna.
"Ah," he murmured softly. He scratched his left cheek with one finger as the red in his face deepened. "By the way, I'm sorry for being naked when I saved your asses from those demon guys. One of my friends likes doing that sorta thing, but I don't. So, well, sorry 'bout that. Again."
Negi studied his students' reactions. Mana's face could have belonged to that of a poker player while Ku Fei still wore a look of confusion on her face from when Natsu had yelled at her. Meanwhile, Setsuna was blushing again while Asuna seemed to be muttering and gripping her fan tightly. Beside them both, Konoka had one hand covering her mouth as she looked at Natsu with pitying eyes.
Other than Asuna's slowly building temper, which frightened Negi enough that he decided to move away from her, things seemed to be fairly good. Unfortunately they were not, and unfortunately his move away from Asuna had carried him closer to one person who was anything but okay.
"Wahahaha! You mean to say that you met most of these girls, and fought against two of them, all while completely buck-ass naked?"
Eva's voice boomed in Negi's ears, forcing the young boy to once again cover them with his hands. Meanwhile, the undead woman's cheerful smile grew wider at Natsu's shamed nod. The older boy seemed to sniff her, widening his eyes as he did.
"That is just too good to be true. Oh Merciful God in Heaven, strike me down now. For mine ears have been gifted with a perverse knowledge that has been" Everyone but Natsu looked up to the sky. Unfortunately, it was a clear day without a cloud in the sky.
Eva then collapsed to the ground where she proceeded to roll around in the dirt. "Chachamaru, please, please tell me that you recorded all of that, and that you got everyone's faces too. This is just too priceless to let go. This is stupidity on the level of the Thousand Master himself! Oh, God, yes!"
She got up and, in a move that no one saw coming, hugged a frightened Asuna as literal tear of joy streamed out of her eyes. "Oh, thank you for grabbing Negi and taking us here you poor, stupid girl. Thank you! This is wonderful, just wonderful."
Negi stared in consternation at his vampiric student for a little while longer. Sometimes she was cute and normal. Other times, she scared him to death. But right now she just confused him and he didn't know what to do with her. So he tried the only thing he could think of, which was to try to bring the attention of the conversation back to Natsu while he did his best to ignore the now breathless undead mage as she dragged Asuna to the ground and continued to roll in joy.
"So Natsu, where are Fairy Tail and Fiore located?" Negi asked. "I've never heard of either. Are they cities, or are they a fraternal group of some sort?"
Negi was completely unprepared for what happened next. After he finished speaking, the older boy's head had snapped around to look at the boy teacher so fast that the man gave out a cry of pain.
Negi blinked. "Did I say something wrong?"
With a fierce growl and a wild look in his eyes, Natsu grabbed Negi by both of his shoulders.
"What do you mean you've never heard of Fairy Tail or Fiore? Aren't we in Fiore right now?"
The little mage in Natsu's hands rubbed the bridge of his nose nervously before answering. "I'm sorry Natsu-san, but you're not. We are currently located in Kyoto, a city in Japan."
Natsu just stared at the little kid. It didn't seem like Negi's words had managed to reach him. "Um, you know, it's in Asia which is in the Old World."
Natsu blinked slowly as he tried to process what was going on. Thoughts swirled around his head as he desperately tried to assimilate information. Not Fiore, but the Old World. Some places called Kyoto and Japan. He had never heard of any of them, and as his thoughts began to race Natsu felt a familiar sinking feeling begin to grow in his chest.
"Yo, Negi kid, one more question," Natsu murmured. "What year is it right now?"
The kid's smile, which had faltered when Natsu had grabbed him by his shoulders, returned at Natsu's question. "Why, it's currently the year 2003 A.D."
2003 A.D. A completely different year, with a calendar marker he had never encountered. Oh, shit no.
It had happened again. It had seriously, fucking happened to him again. Again!
Natsu released the kid as soon as the words left the boy's mouth. He sat down with a horrified look on his face and felt the hollow, empty feeling within his stomach begin to grow. Natsu was no genius but even he could see what had happened.
He was no longer in Fiore. No, he was once again in a world that was not his own, only this time he was all alone with no way to get back. It took a lot to make him lose it, but as he contemplated the horror of his current situation, Natsu just couldn't hold in his feelings.
He let lose his frustrations in a glorious eruption of fire which poured out of every pore of his body.
"Ahhh! Dammit Warrod, Zeref! Damn both of your ancient assess straight to hell!"
As flames blasted from his body and into the sky above everyone around him dove for cover. The only exception was the tiny mage who smelled different from everyone else. That one continued to laugh, eventually passing out from lack of oxygen as the others around them hit Natsu with everything they had, forcing Natsu back into the now welcome embrace of unconsciousness.
END
Next Time in Fairies of Negima:Natsu rides a train and gets tortured by Haruna; Eva get's a bedtime surprise; and Chao receives a shock that she never saw coming.
A/N: The changes from the entrance of the Fairie's have begun but many have already happened (hint hint). All will explained in future chapters as the story progresses. Meanwhile, I've also updated the first chapter of these story along with this post and added to its A/N.
Many thanks to the awesome Raiyoukai for agreeing to Beta this and future chapters!
Until next time,
Elsil