SBS Time!
SlasherMask: Don't people know that illegal sellers sell illegal products?
Game2002: Llarry is good at disguising himself, so the fact that some people don't recognize him as an illegal seller is quite normal.

Unknown: Eva's bounty is 6 million, not 600 million.
Game2002: Whatever…

Chapter 20
This is the place where prisoners are kept, but I don't know the reason for this.


It was early in the morning and Negi was already at the café having his breakfast. As he drank tea, Kotaro came over to his table and sat besides him, and his eyes were looking very droopy. "Good morning, Kotaro!" Negi greeted him cheerfully. "You look… tired… Did you have a good sleep yesterday?"

"I had nightmares about a frightening experience yesterday night…" he replied in a weak-sounding voice.

"What happened?"

"Chizuru sis and Natsume sis suddenly became lovesick all over me and I almost got smothered against Chizuru sis's massive bosoms… And then I was dragged into bath with them but luckily they snapped back to normal senses just before things got too hardcore…"

"Scary… Must be the work of the Ero-Potion…"

"What did you say?"

"Nothing… I hope that something good happens to you today. Every bad thing is followed by good things!"

-

The Smashers were sat together at the tables so

mewhere else in the cafe eating breakfast. "So our next destination is to visit the Ruined Island," Gyde said to the dining Smashers.

"Pass the maple syrup please," Yoshi said.

"It is an island off the northeastern coast of Lycia and ancient civilization once resided there," Gyde continued.

"Mind if I eat your sausage?" Kirby asked Red.

"Get your own…" he told him.

"However, that was several thousands years ago and all that left of the island are ruins left behind by people of those time," Gyde kept on saying.

"Can you get me more juice?" Wario asked Captain Falcon.

"Get it yourself," he replied.

"It is now a popular tourist attraction and archeologists still go there to excavate historical information," Gyde kept on saying.

"Get me the butter please," G&W said.

"Thanks for taking your time to listen!" Gyde concluded, trying to look as cheerful as possible despite the fact nobody was listening to him.

-

The bus containing the 3-A students arrived at a marketplace that was set up besides harbor. The students came down chatting to each other happily and Negi said to all of them, "Okay, everyone! Before we take the boat to Ruined Island, let us have a look around here first. You can buy whatever you want if you like!" He got out a map and looked at it saying, "We'll meet at Dock C after thirty minutes, so make sure to be there on time."

"Yes, sensei!" They all said, and then they all (most of them anyway) rushed off into the marketplace shouting like little kids.

"And be careful not to buy things from shady-looking people!" Negi called out to them one last time.

"Afraid that yesterday's problem would rise again?" Chamo said to him.

"Always be careful of what you're buying…"

Asuna approached him and said, "So what are you going to do in the meantime?"

"I have a feeling that they sell some neat antiques here, so I'm off to look around!" he replied.

-

Somewhere at the market place, a magician was showing everyone his magic tricks. It was very basic tricks such as making stuffs disappear and pulling a rabbit out of the hat, but the audience still clapped hands and cheered at the magician's act.

"Thank you!" he said, giving a bow. "I am the best magician around here and no one has ever surpassed me!"

As he was continuously bowing down to them, Zazie suddenly came over and started juggling random school materials in her hand and the people immediately shifted their eyes onto her, including the magician. "She's good!" they said.

After juggling for a while, she took out a jester hat (the one she wears whenever she's doing circus performance) and allowed the balls to all drop inside. After they all did, sparks suddenly came out in several different colors much to everyone's amazement and then fireworks shot up into the air. Then ribbons and confetti burst out from the hat like a volcano followed by several pigeons. She then swiped the hat across the air and a banner popped out with the message Thanks for watching written on it.

Everybody cheered and clapped hands like wild and the magician fell to his knees with a black cloud over his head. "I lost…" he cried. Zazie simply walked away silently while people continued to give her a round of applause.

-

Negi came to a booth that was selling all sorts of antiques. He bent down to look at the things that were sold with great interest. He saw a clay model of a dragon and picked it up asking the seller, "How much does this one sell for?"

The seller, who looked messy and mean and was smoking a cigarette, said a low and grumpy voice, "It's very expensive."

"I see… How much does it cost?"

"I tell ya, kid. It's really expensive. You can't afford it."

"Mind telling me the price…?"

"It's really, really expensive, I tell ya! I'm not telling the price to anyone who can't buy it. Go buy some lollipop or something, brat!"

Negi was somewhat offended, but he tried his best not to show it and continued smiling. Just as he was leaving though, Luigi came over with a stern expression and said, "What's this? Do I hear unreasonable business being made? Listen, mister, this kid over here is my son and I have every right to make you give him what he wants!"

"Um… Mr. Luigi…?" Negi said to him with a confused look, but Luigi patted him on his shoulder to tell him to go along with the act.

"So what is the price, may I ask?" Luigi asked the seller.

"If you really want to know, then I'll tell you!" the seller replied rudely. "Don't be scared when you hear it!"

"Bring it!"

Luigi and the seller stared in each others' eyes and there was an intense feeling in the atmosphere as they did. The seller opened his mouth and his words came out majestically, "2000 gold coins!"

They both stared at each other again and made the atmosphere even more intense. Luigi then opened his mouth to let loose a majestic voice, "500 coins instead!"

They both stared at each other again and made the atmosphere even more intense. The seller bellowed out loud in the voice that was comparable to thunder (okay, this is getting too exaggerating), "I'm not lowering it!"

"500 coins!"

"I told you I'm not lowering it!"

Luigi picked up the clay dragon and said, "These kinds of things, as old as they may be, do not necessary need to be that expensive. In fact, looking at the way it is handcrafted, this isn't even an ancient artifact! This looks more like something made just two days ago!"

"Oh yeah? Would you be surprised that this was made by a well known crafter several years ago? That person in fact happens to be my ancestor! He was without doubt the most well known crafter of that time and his legacy and skills had passed down to present day in my family!"

"If you are his ancestor, then you are ruining his image already! Look at the way you are dressed and your booth! Even the people at the flea market can set up something better looking than you!"

"What did you say?!"

"You have no knowledge and experience in selling things! From my year long of shopping experience, this sort of thing costs only about 200 coins, but I'm only lowering it to 500 coins in order to show pity on you!"

"The price is 2000 coins and that's final!"

"If that is the case…" Luigi patted Negi on his back and said, "Son, I can tell that all his products will be broken the moment you buy them. It is worthless buying from him. Come, I'll take you to a better store where they sell better things and not secondhand stuffs like these."

"Fine then!" the seller yelled in frustration. "1000 coins!"

Luigi looked at him with a stern face and said, "500 coins."

"I'm lowering it enough already! No more than that!"

"Then let us go, son."

"Fine! 500 coins!"

And thus Luigi won the price war and Negi got the clay dragon. "Thanks a lot, Mr. Luigi!" he thanked him happily.

"Glad that you got what you want, kid," Luigi said to him.

Negi playfully tapped the head of the dragon, but the moment he did, the dragon crumbled into pieces, much to his horror. Luigi's face turned stern again and he turned back to the seller. "Wait here," he said to Negi. "I'll go avenge for you!"

Negi then heard an announcement that came from a public speaker set up on top of a pole. "Smashers, please come to Dock B to get ready to leave for Ruined Island!" said the voice that sounded a lot like Gyde's.

-

After the Smashers had all boarded the boat that was going to take them to Ruined Island, the boat started to leave the dock, but after leaving a few yards into the water, woman onboard happened to be in labor, so the boat quickly anchored at where it was and a doctor was summoned from the dock via a small boat. Everybody had to wait for this business to be taken care of before the boat could continue on its voyage.

Lucas and Red were both resting their heads on the railings at the deck and Lucas said, "I wonder when we can get moving again."

"Are you hungry?" Red asked him. "I can see a taco stand over there at the harbor."

"Even if I'm hungry, there would be no way to go over and buy it. The boat may very well take off again soon and how can we get over there anyway?"

"That's no big deal," Red claimed. "I'll be back." He then climbed over the railing and leaped into the water and miraculously enough, stood on top of the water much to Lucas's surprise! Red hopped across the water surface like a pebble bouncing atop the water surface and made it the harbor without getting wet. He bought two tacos and then returned to the boat using the same way. "Here it is."

"How did you do that?!" Lucas asked in amazement.

"Everyone can do this," he replied while taking a big bite out of his taco.

"Really? Then let me try!" Lucas climbed over the railing and leaped into the water, only to fall into it with a splash.

SPLASH!

Lucas poked his head out and spit out some water before saying, "How come I can't?!"

"You should've jumped a little bit more to the right," Red said to him. "That's where the stones a few millimeters underneath the water surface are!"

-

Captain Falcon and Marth were standing on the other side of the boat looking out into the sea and waiting for the boat to set sail. CF tapped Marth on the shoulder and pointed to something in the distance. "Hey look, Marth. There's some guy drifting on a stylish-looking raft over there. Looks like a drifter on the sea."

"Are you sure? If so, then he would be sailing in this direction. I think he knows what he is doing."

"Something tells me he's a religious person. Notice the cross on his back?"

Then they heard a loud horn-like sound that signified the boat was going to set sale. "The boat is sailing again!" he said.

-

Due to lack of stuffs to talk about, we fast forward ahead of time and go over to Ruined Island where everyone currently was.

-

Ruined Island is a placed filled with leftovers of what once used to be buildings. All that left was torn down walls, pillars, and rocks of all shapes and sizes. There was also a massive temple built on the highest part of the island.

"That rock over there is shaped like a heart!" Konoka said, pointing to a heart-shaped rock.

"And that one over there is like a broccoli," Asuna pointed out.

"It sure does, and that one over there is shaped like an ice-cream!" Konoka said again, pointing to another rock.

Yoshi, G&W, and Kirby came passing by and G&W pointed to the heart-shaped rock saying, "That one is shaped like a butt!"

"That one is shaped like a poop that I released today at the toilet this morning," Kirby said, pointing to the ice-cream rock.

"And that one is shaped like the booger I dug out of my nose a few minutes ago!" Yoshi said, pointing to the broccoli rock.

Asuna looked at them with a disgusted face and said, "Can't they say anything nicer sounding…?"

-

The Narutaki twins were playing tag around the place when they suddenly came across a small window on a wall that used to be a part of a building. After looking at the window for a few seconds, an idea came to them. They turned to see the other girls wandering around nearby and thus called them. "Everyone! We made a great discovery!" Fuuka shouted.

The girls immediately gathered over to see what the big news was. Fuuka pointed to the small window and said, "You see this small window? Rumor has it that if you are able to go through it, you will live a happy life with the person you love!"

Hearing this made most of the girls excited immediately. "Then if I go through it, Negi-kun will fall in love with me?" Makie asked excitedly. "Wow! I want to try it!"

Kazumi, on the other hand, was skeptical and asked, "Are you sure? I've never heard of anything like this before. Where did you hear this from?"

Gyde happened to be standing at a place visible from where they are, so Fumika pointed to him and said, "He told us!"

"Yeah, that guy knows a lot about this place, so it has to be true!" Fuuka claimed.

"I want to try it now!" Makie said happily. "Negi-kun is going to fall in love with me afterwards for sure!" As she went to the small window, Ayake shoved her away. "Hey!"

"No, let me go through it!" she said. "Negi sensei is mines alone! You girls just watch! He's going to love me after this!"

"Not fair! I want to try it also!"

"Heheh!" Ayaka ignored her and poked her head through the small window first, followed by the rest of her body. Things went smoothly until she screamed out loud, "My butt is stuck!"

The other girls immediately tried to get her out by either pulling or pushing, but no method seemed to work. Meanwhile, the twins had crept away and were laughing their heads off that their plan worked.

-

Pit, Red, and Lucas came across a wall that had ancient writings on it. "These must be language used by the people who once lived here," Red said.

"I don't understand what they're saying," Lucas said.

"Me too, but these words resemble pictures, so I'm sure we can make out what it may mean by the picture that is represented." Red pointed to a symbol that resembled an eye and said, "An eye, for example, might mean a god since the gods watch the world and its people with their eyes from the heavens. This odd creature might represent an animal, and this diamond-shaped thing most likely represents jewelries."

"These words are strange," Pit said, looking at some pictures drawn on the wall using black lines. "I can tell that these mean flowers, butterflies, and kittens. It must mean that the people of those times lived a peaceful life!"

Not standing too far from him, Jigglypuff was seen drawing on the wall using a black marker. She was drawing stuffs like flowers, butterflies, kittens, and several other happy things. Now you know what Pit was looking at.

-

Meanwhile, Ayaka was stuck halfway through the small window. "Get me out already!" she cried.

"Sorry, class president," Kazumi said to her. "You're stuck really tight. You should've known that you're not small enough to go through it. In fact, I think the love come true thing is all made up and is nothing more than a prank from those three."

"Just get me out already!"

Kazumi grabbed her by the arms while the other girls pushed her from behind and they used all their strength to get her out, but the efforts were fruitless. After a few minutes of vain effort, Asuna came walking up to them and asked, "So what do we have here? Got yourself into a tight situation, Ms. Class President?"

"Yeah, laugh at me all you want at the moment!" Ayake snapped at her with frustration.

"You know, just because you have a good figure doesn't mean you can get your through everything," she said mockingly. "You'll end up doing something regretful and stupid, you know?"

"The Narutaki twins told her that if you go through this small window, you will be able to live a happy life with the person that you love," Akira told her. "And wanting Negi to fall in love with her, she did this."

"I'm glad I didn't go in first…" Makie said.

"Geez! How can anyone fall for such stupid beliefs, especially one coming from the greatest pranksters in our class?" Asuna said. "You're such a ditz, Ayaka. All right, stand back. I'll get her out myself." She got behind Ayaka and then stepped as far back as she could. Taking a careful look at Ayaka's wiggling butt, she took off at a high speed and then performed a flying kick. "Hiya!"

BOOT!

Her foot planted into Ayaka's back with full force and sent her shooting out of the other side, where she slid across the ground eating dirt. She got up and coughed out the dirt that got into her mouth and shouted, "Do it more softly next time, you violent woman!" She then turned to see Asuna's feet sticking out from the windows.

"Great! Now I'm stuck!" Asuna cried. She tried to pull herself out by pushing against the wall, but she was unfortunately jammed tightly in a sideways position. The other girls watched her with sweat drops on the back of their heads.

-

Now we head over to the inside of the temple that I mentioned a short while ago. The interior of the temple was very spacious and there were towering pillars that reached all the way to the ceiling that was very far up there. "Wow! This place sure is big!" Negi said. "You can basically hold a party here!"

"Sure does!" Kotaro agreed.

They walked up a staircase that was before them and at the top was a large throne made of marble. "Looks like a seat fit for the king," Kotaro said as he jumped onto it to take a seat, but Dedede suddenly showed up and shoved him off and took the seat for himself. "Hey!"

"This seat is fit for a king like me!" he said. "Meta-Knight, picture me perfectly!"

"As you wish, my lord," MK said, holding up a digital camera.

Dedede turned to the two kids and said, "The both of you pose besides me and act as my bodyguards!"

"Why should I?!" Kotaro complained.

"King's orders!"

"It won't hurt, Kotaro," Negi said to him. "It's just posing for a picture. There's nothing wrong with that."

"I'd rather be the person sitting on the throne…" he grumbled, but he stood next to Dedede anyway while Negi, who had a victory sign on his hand and a smile on his face, stood opposite of him.

"Say cheese!" MK said as he readied to snap the picture.

Suddenly, Negi felt his nose itching and when he could hold it no longer, he let loose a sneeze. "ACHOO!!!"

SNAP!

MK looked at the screen on the digital camera and saw that the picture consisted of Negi sneezing, Kotaro shielding his face with his arm and trying not to get blown away, and Dedede's feet was visible in the air off the side of the picture.

-

"And now we're heading down to the dungeon of the temple," Gyde said while walking down a dark staircase that was only lit up by lamps on the walls. "Be careful, as the stairs are rather steep. To fall down here would be pretty much a sure death considering the height… Oh, I can see the floor down…" Suddenly, he missed a step and fell onto his butt and slid down step by step. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Are you all right-a?" Mario asked him.

Gyde got up when he finally touched the floor and rubbed his butt saying, "I'm all right…"

The Smashers came to the dungeon of the area and looked around. It was rather dark, even if there were lamps on the walls giving off light. "What is this place?" Captain Falcon asked. He looked around and saw a skeleton lying against the wall.

"EEKS!!!" Luigi shrieked, and he jumped onto Mario's arms.

"This place is said to be a place where they kept prisoners, as you can see that the skeleton is chained," Gyde explained to them. "But who exactly these prisoners are the archeologists still are not sure. Since this is a temple, could it be possible that these were people locked up here to be put into sacrifice rituals? The answer still is unsure."

"If what you said is true, I dare say that the people here were pretty brutal," Marth said, looking at the place that was filled with skeletons and jail cells.

"But then it could simply be a cell for prisoners who did bad things. We don't have to think that much, do we?" Gyde said. "Let's go deeper and have a look."

They continued going through the dark place and there were also statues of fierce-looking animals placed at the sides too. Pichu was lying down within the jaws of one of the statues saying, "Help me! I'm getting eaten!"

"Yeah, enjoy your fantastic journey," CF said to him as he walked by.

"You're no fun…" Pichu grumbled, and then he jumped out and followed the others.

Shortly after the Smashers went deeper into the place, Negi and his students came walking down the stairs. "This place is creepy…" he said.

They looked around the place and saw those skeletons, and most of the girls scared by the sight of these. "I'm scare! Negi-kun, protect me!" Makie cried, tossing herself onto him and hugging him tightly.

"Whoa!"

"I'm scared too, Negi sensei!" Ayaka said, giving him a hug.

"You're very popular with girls, aren't you?" Kotaro teased him.

"Mind letting go of me so that I can explain more about this place…?" Negi said to the girls that were holding onto him tightly, and thus they let him go but remained close to him as the atmosphere of this place was haunting. "So this place is supposed to be a dungeon for keeping prisoners. As you can tell from the skeletons, the prisoners here were practically abandoned until they died and rot down to bones."

"That's horrible…" Konoka said.

"Prisons nowadays definitely aren't something like this," Setsuna said. "Really shows how much laws have changed with the time."

"So do you want to go deeper?" Negi asked them. "Or do you want to go back up already?"

"It's too dark…" Makie cried. "I wanna go back up…"

"Yeah, I think that would be a better idea…"

"You're actually scared yourself too, right?" Asuna asked because she noticed that his legs were wobbling too.

"Um, yeah… How did you guess…?"

"Heheh! Negi sensei is scared too!" some of the girls giggled softly

All of a sudden, the entire placed started shaking and everyone was freaked out by this. "What the?! Earthquake?!" Chamo gasped.

"Everyone! Get down quick!" Negi shouted, and everyone quickly ducked down onto the floor with their hands over their heads and screamed in fear.

The shaking eventually got so strong that cracks started to appear on the walls and the floor. A fissure was suddenly ripped apart on the floor and some of the girls were unfortunate to be in the way when this happened, so they plummeted into the darkness below. Chizuru, Natsume, Konoka, and Asuna were the ones to be precise. "YAAAAAAA!!!!!"

"Ojou-sama!!" Setsuna cried. She was going to reach forward to help Konoka but Makie quickly whipped out her ribbon and swung it into the hole and wrapped it around Asuna. The other three girls managed to grab onto her legs and they were all being suspended in air with the darkness below them.

"YAAAA!!! HELP ME!!!" Natsume cried.

The weight of the four girls were too much for Makie to hold up and she was starting to get pulled down along, but the rest of the girls quickly grabbed her from behind and tried to pull her back. "Don't let go!" Negi said. "Pull them up quick!"

SNAP!

The girls all fell back when the ribbon snapped in half, and the four that were holding onto it instantly plummeted down the hole. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

"Chizuru sis! Natsume sis!!" Kotaro gasped. Without thinking twice, he leaped into the hole and went after them. Setsuna quickly leaped down the hole too and Negi also jumped down there with his staff gripped tightly in his hand.

Sprouting her wings fast, Konoka flew over to Konoka and managed to catch her in her arms. "Ojou-sama! I'm sure to save you!"

Konoka held onto her tightly and said, "Thanks for saving me, Secchan… You're like my guardian angel…"

"It's my duty to protect you, Ojou-sama."

Meanwhile, Negi rode his staff right underneath Asuna and she managed to land onto it, though the shaking almost shook them both off. "Whoa! Asuna, are you all right?" Negi asked her.

"That was frightening… But I'm fine…" she said. "Where's Kotaro? Didn't he jump down too?"

Chizuru and Natsume both fell down farther, but Kotaro managed to make his way to them and quickly caught them with his arms. "Kotaro!" Chizuru cried.

"Hold onto me tightly!" he told them.

They curled up their legs and held onto him with their eyes closed and waited for the worst to happen. Kotaro eventually saw land down there and fell onto it with both his feet safely. Luckily, being a demon also gave him a stronger body than normal human beings, so landing from such a long drop wasn't that big of an issue. "Phew… A landing at last…" he said with a sigh of relief.

"I thought I was a goner…" Natsume said. She fell onto the ground and sighed with relief that she was still alive.

"Thanks for saving us, Kotaro," Chizuru said to him.

"That was nothing," he said. "It's good that the both of you are fine."

"Kotaro!" said Negi's voice, and he came down to the place with Asuna. "Are the three of you all right?"

"Yeah, we're fine," he replied. He looked up and could see a bit of light coming from the distance up there. "We did fall quite a bit of a height… How do we get up there?"

"I can use magic to get us all out of here immediately," Negi said.

"Um… Guys…" Asuna said in a voice that sounds terrified. "What… is… that…?"

"What's wrong, Asuna?" Negi asked, and he turned to look at where she was pointing and a shocked expression appeared on his face. "What is that?!"

Before them was a large spacious cavern area, but that was not what surprised them. Lying within the large cavernous place was a gigantic unidentifiable body that was beyond any form of description. In fact, it was big that they couldn't see the entire of it. The most striking feature about this thing was that it had a face, a terrifying and fierce-looking face with a huge mouth full of teeth as sharp as needles.

TO BE CONTINUED

GAME2002 EXTRA SHOW

Ness and Young Link went to a video game convention at Fourside. They joined the people in front of a stage as a video game developer took the stage and shared to the people about some upcoming games.

"And now we are going to present you our latest project, which is based off the popular TV show," the developer said. Then the screen behind him showed the picture of Master Bate and the title of the game: Master Bate – Hero in Time.

"WOW!!!"

"Awesome!!"

"Amazing!! I want this game already!!!"

"A game based on a stupid show? Bah, it's going to be horrible!"

"This is a beat'em up game where you can play as Master Bate or any of his supporting characters and go through stages fighting enemies coming at you," the developer explained. Then a trailer of the game was shown.

"Wow!"

"Splendid!"

"Such amazing graphics!"

"What ugly 3D models…"

"This game has been in development for a year already," the developer said. "We are trying to make this the greatest beat'em up video game ever made." Then in-game footage where shown on the screen.

"Amazing gameplay!"

"It looks hard, which is good!"

"Whoa! Look at that massive boss character! I can't wait to play this game already!"

"This game looks ruined already…"

"The release date will not be until next year, as we want to polish this game as good as possible," the developer continued. "I'm sure you all will not be disappointed by it once it is out!"

"I can't wait to play the game!"

"This will definitely be the game of the year!"

"I love what I'm seeing already!"

"This game is going to be a failure…"

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!

Everyone turned around to see a guy lying down on the floor and his nose was bleeding and a good number of his teeth were knocked out. Ness was standing next to him with his baseball bat placed against his shoulder. "You didn't have to do that…" YL told him.

"If this ungrateful swine wasn't standing next to me, I probably wouldn't do anything," he replied.

Then everybody cheered and clapped hands for Ness. "I wanted to beat him up earlier, but thanks for getting the job done for me!" a random guy said.