Magister Negi Magi is owned by Ken Akamatsu and Kodansha Ltd. Tokyo in Japan, and by Funimation and Ballantine - DelRey in the United States, NOT by me.

SPOILER ALERT! Do not read this story if you are not familiar with chapters 189 and up from the raws or scanslated manga!

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"When we returned from the Magic World, the only person who understood the hurt I felt over what I did there was Mana Tatsumiya."
-Yuuna Akashi. "One Million Steps : A Journey to Megalo-Mesembria and the World Beyond." by Kazumi Asakura.

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Ala Alba in the World of Magic: Tales From the Fireside.

Chapter Five: A Basketball, Ribbon, and Fangs.

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Negi Springfield would call it going back on a promise.

Evangeline A.K. McDowell would call it protecting an investment.

Eva withdrew her fangs from Yuuna Akashi's neck and stood back to stare deeply into the brown-haired girl's dull, unfocused eyes. "You understand what I need you to do?"

Yuuna nodded woodenly. "Yes Master Eva. Make sure I follow Professor Springfield into the Magical World. Make sure your other girls, Ako, Akira, and Makie go along as well. If there is any serious problem with the Ala Alba, make sure Professor Springfield stays safe. If necessary, I am to 'recruit' your other girls, as required, to make sure Professor Springfield does stay safe."

Eva placed her hands on her hips and nodded. "Correct. Deal with minor problems as you see fit. If you have any serious trouble, I'll know about it trough the link I've just established."

Yuuna bowed. "Thank you Master Eva."

Eva held up a hand and made ready to snap her fingers. "I've had Hakase modify those guns you saved from Mahora Fest. With that, and your heritage, they should work against pretty much anything. You did pack them didn't you?"

Yuuna grinned hugely despite her dull eyes. "Yes Master Eva! Thank you Master Eva!"

"Good!" Eva snapped her fingers. "Yuuna!"

Yuuna blinked. "Huh? Oh! Sorry Evangeline! What did you want?"

Eva gave a grin that Yuuna could never describe as anything but conspiratorial creepy. "I just wanted to wish you well! I know what Ayaka and the rest of you plan to do..."

Yuuna recoiled a bit until Eva's smile softened.

"Good luck...and, please be careful..."

Encouraged by Eva's change of attitude, Yuuna ruffled her hair. "Thanks! Evangeline! We will!"

Eva watched as Class 3A's basketball star turned and ran off to meet Ayaka Yukihiro and the others. "I really mean it Yuuna. I've grown fond of everyone. Please do be careful."

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Yuuna looked around and started to panic while the other girls debated what to do. If she couldn't follow Negi, she wouldn't be able to do what she needed (needed?) to do. Fortunately Misa Kakizaki solved the problem for her.

"Sakurako! We're lost! Which way do we go!"

Sakurako Shiina, Mahora Academy's resident goddess of luck, and 'haven't paid a Yen yet' holder of lunch tickets won with bets, contemplated momentarily, then pointed off in a completely unjustifiable direction. "Hmmm... THAT WAY!"

Yuuna quickly lead the three other Sports Girls, the Cheerleaders, Natsumi Murakami and the Twins in the direction indicated by Sakurako. When they were close enough to some Stonehenge-type structure to see Negi and his party again, she signaled for everyone to stay low, and started slowly working her way closer. Before the group could even cross half of the distance, a strange flash occurred at the Stonehenge, and the ground beneath their feet started to glow. Yuuna hesitated momentarily while conflicting priorities raged in her mind. As the person closest to the Stonehenge, everyone else looked to her for direction. Despite some strange desire to keep getting closer, self-preservation finally won out. Realizing it was probably too late, she pointed back the way they'd just come. "EVERYBODY RUN!"

What followed was a chaos of events to Yuuna. A strange flash of light that left her in some form of arrival terminal and detention by weird guys in robes. Disappointment and worry on Negi's face, Negi being pierced by a stone spear, so much blood Ako fainted. Asuna and others in Negi's group fighting a young white-haired boy and other very scary-looking people, another flash of the strange light from the Stonehenge, and finally, finding herself and Makie Sasaki alone in a forest filled with trees larger than any she'd ever seen before.

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Still shocky and not really thinking about how dangerous the world they were in might be, Yuuna allowed herself to be caught away from the toys she might have used to scare off the trio of unsavory men now jeering and making rude grabs at her and Makie.

The bandit leader grew tired of Yuuna trying to protect Makie with broken branch. Not wanting to waste magic on such a simple opponent, he knocked the branch aside and just stabbed her viciously below the navel with a short, dagger-like blade.

Yuuna stared at the grinning bandit, then cried out and looked down at his blade as he shoved it further into her belly. Clutching herself in disbelief and shock as he withdrew the weapon, she fell to her knees, then forward onto her face.

With Makie Sasaki screaming her name as the bandit carried the red-haired rhythmic gymnast away, Yuuna fell over and rolled onto her back. Looking down at the blood covering her shaking hands and rapidly staining her clothes, she gave a gasping cough, then collapsed completely. "Ma...ki...e... I'...m... so...ry..."

Makie began screaming for Professor Springfield to save her, but the only person around who could was now bleeding out into the dirt. "Ma...ma..."

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Eva swore and knocked Konoemon's Go table aside.

"Evangeline! What are..."

Eva ignored Konoemon's question and began the ritualistic motions needed to create a Magic Circle. "Don't ask! They're in trouble! Help me please! The Barrier!"

Konoemon quickly summoned a protective barrier to shield Evangeline from the school barrier which crippled her powers.

Eva completed her circle, sat down in it, and instantly went into a trance.

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Yuuna could no longer see. She felt very cold, and wished she could find a blanket to cover herself with. Laying there, hot tears unnoticed on her face, she wondered if her mother would be there to greet her when she finally died.

("Yuuna!")

"Ma...ma...?"

("Yuuna! It's Eva! Let me in!")

Yuuna's near lifeless eyes suddenly focused. "Yes. Master Eva."

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He'd hated to waste that strange brown-haired girl, but her type always struggled, and that kind of thing bored him. The other girl now, she was the type who cried and begged. THAT was the type he liked the most.

As he started to pull her clothes open and made ready to do his business with the cowering redhead, the bandit leader failed to notice the sound of a cut-off, incipient scream outside his tent.

He could not help but notice moments later as his guard flew into the tent to land in a motionless heap on the floor.

The man's throat was torn out... With very little resulting blood...

The whimpering girl on his pallet took one look at the body and fainted dead away without a sound.

Looking alternately like the gut-stabbed brown-haired girl he'd just killed, and a buxom, mature woman with blonde hair, a blood splattered apparition with black eyes and yellow, cat-slitted pupils walked into the tent. It took one look at the girl on the pallet and gave a relieved smile. The look it gave as it faced him was completely paralyzing. An angry voice rang through his mind, and it's tone promised nothing but death.

"No one, NO ONE! Hurts one of my girls like this and gets away with it!"

The last thing the bandit leader saw was flashing fangs and arching claws.

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Yuuna Akashi awoke with a start. Nearly hyperventilating and covered in sweat, she pulled open her clothes in a panic and quickly examined her belly. "No...no wounds... That... that nightmare was TOO freakin' real..."

Suddenly remembering something important from the nightmare, Yuuna looked around frantically, relaxing only after she found both her pistols within easy reach. The two WEAPONS she originally considered just toys were currently her and Makie's only protection in this unknown, obviously dangerous world her now unmistakably idiotic, foolish flight of fancy had brought them to. She clutched the guns to her chest like lovers, swearing they'd never be out of her reach again.

"Professor Negi... you're so cute..."

Clinging to her waist, and as disheveled as she, was her friend and spoiler of serious moods Makie Sasaki. Stirring, the redhead woke up, rubbing her sleepy eyes as she did so. "Yuuna? Why are you taking your clothes off? You know I don't swing that way..."

Yuuna looked down at Makie and felt her face heat up in a flush. "Who... who are you to talk! You're practically naked too!"

Makie looked down at her own state of dress and jumped back, hitting her head against a root with a hollow 'thunk' as she did so. Wincing and crying softly, she followed Yuuna out from beneath their tree root shelter and out into the pre-dawn light so they could quickly get dressed.

Once things were settled out, Yuuna shared a granola bar she had with Makie. Finishing the snack and carefully placing the wrapper in a pocket, the two 3A classmates nodded silently and resumed their march towards what they hoped, from glowing lights glimpsed the previous night, was a town or city.

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Makie started and nervously pulled at Yuuna's raincoat as they crept into a small barn-like structure built just inside a grove of palm-type trees. After walking for hours they had finally arrived, long after sundown, at a peaceful looking, beach-side town. "Yuuna! There's a giant lizard in here!"

Yuuna glanced over to the enclosure where Makie was pointing. The lizard creature raised it's head to look at them, yawned disinterestedly, broke wind, and promptly went back to sleep. She wasn't sure if she should be insulted at being ignored, or disgusted, but she WAS too tired to argue with Makie. "Be quite! This is the first quiet place we've found to hide in and sleep! Every place else looked too busy! I don't want to try looking around until we've rested a bit."

Makie was now holding her nose! "What if it tries to eat us while we're sleeping?"

Yuuna refrained from giving Makie an exasperated look, and started climbing into a small loft. "Remember your biology classes a little, Baka Pink! Look at it's teeth! That lizard's an herbivore! Now are you going to shake in your pants all night? Or come up here and sleep?"

Makie took one more look at the now snoring lizard, then climbed the ladder three rungs at a time and burrowed into the loft next to Yuuna.

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Johnny Dnj'rsly ran out of his house at the sound of excited shouting to find his tokage shelter covered with flames. Normally, his tokage Tama would have fled the burning structure on his own, but now the silly creature seemed to be trying to climb into the shelter's loft. "Hey Y'fi! Give me a hand! That fool Tama's lost it!"

Running into the shelter, followed by his Nek-Jin partner, Johnny jumped onto the loft ladder to grab Tama's bridle while Y'fi started dragging the tokage's saddle outside. The tokage easily resisted all his cajoling and efforts. As he started coughing from the smoke, he noticed Tama had the hands of two unconscious girls clamped gently in his mouth, and was trying to pull them from the loft.

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Yuuna woke to the feeling of someone gently shaking her shoulder.

"Hey kid, are you okay?"

Having a little trouble breathing and unable to focus clearly on who was speaking, Yuuna sat up with the person belonging to the voice's help and shook her head. "What happened?"

Makie was suddenly at her side. "Yuuna! Thank goodness! Something set that barn on fire! If Johnny hadn't pulled us out we'd be dead!"

Yuuna wrapped her arms around Makie's shaking shoulders as her friend started crying. Behind the slim, dark-haired man who must be 'Johnny,' the barn she and Makie had taken shelter in was engulfed in flames. A plump Nek-Jin (What the heck was a Nek-Jin?) was holding the tether for the big tokage who'd been in the barn, and a whole bunch of other equally strange people were apparently fighting the fire by waving their arms at it. 'Johnny' seemed to be waiting for something, so she turned and held out her hand. "Thanks Mister. I'm really, really sorry if we caused that."

Johnny took Yuuna's hand and found her grip unashamedly strong. Such unafraid confidence told him all he needed to know about the two girls who's lives he'd saved. "Don't worry. Yuuna, is it? Someone tried to steal Tama and dropped their lantern when he chased them off." Standing up, her scratched his head and looked back down at the two girls. "I'm kinda' surprised he didn't chase you off! Anyway, your friend here told me a little about your situation after Y'fi used her language spell on the two of you. I'm gonna' need help at my shop on the beach. Why don't you two come work for me for now? With a pair of cute girls like you drawing in the customers, I should be able to rebuild my tokage shelter in no time!"

Reaching inside her raincoat as a precaution, Yuuna felt for and found the reassuring grips of her weapons. After coughing several times, she looked up at the warmly smiling, smoke-stained Johnny and sighed. She had no idea where she and Makie were right now, but her father and Professor Springfield would surely want them to survive before anything else. Johnny was offering a not unreasonable way to do so, so she nodded her head. "Thanks. I think we will."

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Konoemon Konoe knocked on the door to Eva's cottage. When Mahora Academy's little guardian vampire answered, defiant, but properly ashamed, he stepped inside without a word and sat down in her living room.

Eva sat down across from him while one of Chachamaru's sisters served an excellent tea. Konoemon took the requisite taste as dictated by proper decorum, commented positively, and set the cup down. "Evangeline Athanasia Katerina McDowell. I believe we need to talk."

Eva still radiated defiance, but was properly submissive. "I understand Dean Konoe. I will cooperate."

tsuzuku

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Author's notes:

First, let me apologize for chapter five not being the promised Akira - Ako story. I had a bad time of burnt-out writers block, (and three days with no power in my house,) and "A Swimmer, A Cat-Girl Nurse," suffered badly because of it. Since this Yuuna, Makie, Evangeline story was written earlier, and was nearly complete, I decided to finish it and post it, then go back to heal and re-work the Akira - Ako, and Natsumi stories. (S/B chapters 06 and 07.)

About Eva:

The first time, Yuuna was still conscious. (Barely.) The second time, she became incapacitated before Eva could intervene.

In Aquastar, there was a huge debate about the possible vamp-taint in the four gym girls. Yuuna, Akira, Ako and Makie. Many say Negi cured them, and it is stupid to think it matters anymore. Others think not, talk about KA's crazy fore-planning skills, and go "Hmmm..." at the fact that the four girls enslaved by Eva made it into the Magical World. (With Natsumi Murakami being a wild card.)

Another bit is they talk about Eva not being able to control a proxy. Maybe. But if a certain unnamed, sixty year old Paladin Knight can detect the deaths of millions, across billions of miles of space, I think a five hundred year old vampire with Doll Master abilities can monitor and control (with help) one to four proxies across a simple dimensional barrier. The two worlds exist together, as far as I can tell, occupying the same 'space.' It can't be that difficult.

Recent evidence suggests other 'Earth' - 'Magic World' spacial-locational relationship possibilities. I stick to what I've written. Eva as a Doll Master can control 300 within a few kilometers radius, or a few, possibly very far away.

Other ramblings related to my writing.

I wrote this, as I've written most of these stories, in a 150 page , three subject, spiral-bound notebook. After many notes and additions, I type things into the computer, modifying by notes as I go.

For some odd reason, I very rarely can go straight to a computer with a story. If I write it down though, ( I have killed several pens doing such in my life,) then I can usually get something onto a computer and make it happen.

One of my failings as an author is that I normally write for people who understand character looks and background. Because of that, character descriptives suffer from neglect in my writings.