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! AU story occurring after c189.

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"I'd never seen someone so ripped apart in all my years as a police investigator."
-Detective Takahiro Matsui, Second Division, Mahora Academy Police. Author of: "Unsolved Crimes of Mahora Academy."

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

Chapter Thirty-one: Yuurei Teisatsu, Part 2: Sayo. Day two.

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My name is Sayo Aisaka, and I'm a ghost.

Before my best friend Kazumi Asakura and classmate Evangeline McDowell created an enchanted doll for me to possess and move about in, I was restricted to an area of Mahora Academy bounded roughly by the junior-high class building, Tatsumiya Shrine, a building that has been several different kinds of market for the last sixty years, and... and the original academy clock-tower. (For some reason, I really can't stand to go near that place...)

Since I couldn't really move around that much, I always liked it when the girls in the place I normally haunt, Mahora Academy Girl's Junior High Class A, would read something other than their regular textbooks. Since I can't touch books myself, reading over their shoulders has been the only relief from boredom I've had during the seemingly endless years of my afterlife.

Classical literature from several countries, adventures, fantasy, lots of romances, even a few about the American old-west. I've read lots of wonderful books over the years! Though sometimes, since my memory can be so bad, I'll forget I've read a book before. That's okay though, because it means I get to read a book again and enjoy it just like the first time!

Seat two next to me in Class A has been occupied by many different, interesting girls over the years.

Three years ago, a girl who liked to read science fiction sat there. Reading books with her and thinking about a wide universe beyond my little bit of Mahora may have been why I started wishing for a friend who could see me. That way, they could go out, then come back and talk with me about the things they'd seen.

One of the books the girl who sat in seat two before Kazumi read was about a war in space. In the book, the main character talked in the beginning and the end of the book about how he always got the shakes before going into a fight.

I wonder. Since I'm already dead and can't really die, is it okay if I get the shakes?

Since coming to the Magic World with Professor Springfield and the Ala Alba, I have been chased by huge wolves, doll-napped by a new friend, gone on a world-cruise, met an old friend in a very unexpected place, (I had to promise not to talk about that,) witnessed a sea battle, and ridden on the back of a dragon. I have known fear, nervousness and excitement, but I have never had the shakes.

As Kaede Nagase carries my doll body closer towards the start of an important task given to us by our homeroom professor, I realize that before I was amongst friends. The nature of what I am about to do means I will be completely alone.

Nothing really complicated about what Professor Springfield wants us to do.

Based on information discovered by Nodoka Miyazaki using her Diarium Ejus, I just have to go inside a place potentially filled with enemies of the Ala Alba, and find out if Asuna Kagurazaka is still alive.

I should be safe though, since being a ghost means people can't see you...

...usually... (I try not to think about the time Setsuna Sakurazaki and Mana Tatsumiya came after me...)

So, ghost or not, I have the shakes.

"Ready to go Sayo?"

Reaching inside her cloak, Kaede pulled out my doll. Nodding, I waited for the walled group of buildings I was to examine to be pointed out, then leapt from my worldly form and was on the way.

Since there seemed to be some kind of social gathering going on, with important looking people arriving at the entry to the main building every few minutes, I circled around to the opposite end of the compound and passed through the privacy wall there. A quick search of all the compound's smaller buildings produced no results.

Exercising extreme caution, I entered the main building through what appeared from the outside to be some kind of small library. Despite the room's darkened windows, coming across some important looking guy talking quietly to two people in different military uniforms as soon as I passed through the wall gave me an unwelcome shock.

Quickly backing out of the room, I moved further along the wall, peeking inside as I went, until I finally found the building's residential area. Several guards stood watch in the hallway, and one was kind of cute, but I avoided them by ducking back outside once more. Searching through the darkened rooms one at a time, I finally found the person I was looking for.

Lying in a large bed, still and seemingly lifeless as a doll, was someone thought dead ever since Setsuna Sakurazaki's messenger delivered that unwelcome news to those of the Ala Alba present at the time in Granicus City.

Asuna Kagurazaka seemed unharmed, but as I moved closer for a better look, I realized there was, something... different... about her. Reaching out to touch her aura, I was unprepared to have a hand suddenly emerge from beneath the blankets and grasp me around the throat. Since I am a ghost, the sensation of being strangled paralyzed me, and I could only stare as Asuna sat up, pushing me back as she did so.

Even if the body holding me was Asuna, the emotionless, frightening person watching me slowly suffocate from behind heterochromatic eyes I most certainly didn't recognize. Finally seeming to decide I was no threat, the person released me.

"You've seen what you came for, Little Ghost, I suggest you leave."

Holding my throat and coughing, I hesitated for a moment, then fled. In a panic, I turned towards the room's door instead of going straight back outside. I went by a surprised blonde girl in glasses reading at a desk in an outer room, passed through another door leading into a brightly lit hallway, and nearly found myself landing in the arms of someone only marginally less scary than Asuna had been.

Shrieking at the top of my lungs, despite being a ghost, I turned and fled down the hallway with the... thing... that had hurt Kaede at the Megalo-Mesembrian Gate Port in pursuit. He, or It, or whatever, was reaching out to grab me, so I used my abilities as a ghost to fling a small table standing against the wall out behind me. There was a crash and the sound of splintering wood, and I was free to slip through another door.

Most distressingly, the room I entered was some kind of meeting room. Even though most of those present were standing around talking, a few began looking curiously towards the closed door and the muffled sounds of my decidedly upset pursuer. Trying to avoid eye contact, in case anyone else should be able to see ghosts, I passed the three men I'd seen earlier, a dignified looking Ma-Jin woman with a Valkyrie bodyguard talking to Chairman Dolnegus, several people I recognized as important from the arena, media people, some gladiators, and a few Kazumi had described as just 'Hangers-on.' Nearing the room's exit, I passed a really tall man with dark, spiky hair who was speaking quietly with another beautiful, dark-skinned Ma-Jin woman.

Leaving the building, I moved off towards Kaede's hiding place. When I realized the scary person had managed to leave the building and was after me again, I flew even faster.

Kaede Nagase was ready for my arrival, holding open her cloak, then joining me in the Hammerspace house concealed inside.

Once more in my doll form, Kaede and I eventually emerged from our hiding place into the morning light of the third day of the Ostian festival. Grim as her look was after hearing my report, she congratulated me on a job well done by ruffling my doll's hair, then took off so we could go deliver our news to Professor Springfield.

As Kaede ran, I felt a strangely personal satisfaction. Despite being the clumsy ghost of Class A, even with the worries seeing that 'Asuna who wasn't Asuna' caused me, I had done my job.

I was happy.

And I no longer had the shakes.

tsuzuku.

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Author's Notes:

Sayo finally gets a (short) chapter!

Sayo being strangled is side-effect of her spirit interacting with Asuna's. One is so much more powerful than the other, it is 'crushing' the weaker spirit.

Yuurei Teisatsu: Ghost Recon.

Chapter 32: Bodyguard for an Empress.