GearWolf Presents: Negima? The mage and the Gunslinger
Pairings: NegiX ku-Fei KeadeXOC
Chapter four: The night of the vampire, and a Pactio for the Gunslinger
I don't own Negima!
Negi looked down at the sleeping form of Makie the bite mark on her neck made it undeniable that this was Evangeline A.k McDowell's handy work. He knew he was going to have to face the vampire sooner or later but he had hoped that Jack could assist him but the cowboy was still trapped in his Chibi form, though he was able to speak some words today and draw a cute picture for Kaede. Hopefully this was a sign that the potion was wearing off.
Now what to do about Eva? He couldn't just let her run wild around campus, but he wasn't sure of himself enough to take on the Dark Queen herself even if most of her powers were sealed away. With Chachamaru as her partner he wasn't sure he could even hope to take her on alone.
He could maybe ask Ku-Fei. No! He shook himself he wouldn't let his students get in harm's way this time. He needed to do this on his own! One way or another he will make Eva change her ways… again…for the fifth time? Was it now? He asked himself thinking of all the trouble she causes in the future after he releases her from Mahora; not one of his better ideas.
Later that night Negi staked out the road that Evangeline would be hunting. Sure enough the wind started to pick up as Nodoka walked down the deserted road. Eva was just trying to frighten the poor girl; not that was too hard. Negi waited till Evangeline had Nodoka completely knocked out before revealing himself; no need for Nodoka to bloom her love for him like last time. He was pretty reckless back then, it was no wonder that almost all the girls knew of magic before he was done teaching, and Chamo certainly wasn't any help on keeping the matter secret either. Now that he thought about it where was the perverted familiar? Oh not important Eva was sucking Nodoka's blood!
"Stop right there Evangeline!" Negi yelled pulling Nodoka away from the vampires grasp; firing two arrows of wind to gain some breathing room.
"Amazing using a spell with no incantation, your quiet skilled Son of Thousand Master" Evangeline praised pulling out some vials of catalysts, throwing them into the air making shards of ice fly at Negi. Who was just barely blocked the ice with a wind arrow. The clashing of the spells caused some of Negi's and Nodoka's clothes to disintegrate. Evangeline jumped of into the night with Negi in hot pursuit.
Meanwhile Kaede and Fei-Ku sat in the dorms playing with the still chibified Jack who was currently drawing on some paper that the girls gave him well they talked about a very sensitive subject; the existence of magic! The subject didn't really bother the two as they both seen first hand the effects of ki, the energy martial artists use and the teenager turn chibi sitting just a few feet away from them. Now they were discussing the other possible impossible that were out in the world; though they really should be studying for their English exam.
"So Kaede what do you think of this magic business?" asked the martial arts for the most of the stuff Negi talked about went right over her head, but she still wanted to help her roommate; no ten year old should have to deal with this stuff alone, but he seemed determined to keep her at a distance; and that bothered her greatly seeing; how they got along so well this past mouth. She even maybe started to have a small crush of sorts on the little wizard.
"I know how you feel Ku-Dono" said the ninja seeing the blush appear on the martial artist cheeks. She too wished to help her roommate anyway she could, though she loved having these motherly moments with Little Jack she wanted her big Jack back so they could go out training again. It was a feeling that's been building up sense they met in the forest; felt like it was years ago rather than a few weeks.
Kaede looked into Ku-Fei's eyes, well she looked into hers, and there and then they promised to do whatever they could for the two magic users. They broke eye contact as little Jack climbed onto the table waving his drawing in the air.
"Alright let's have a look" Kaede taking the drawing from the chibi. On the paper was a picture of a green onion, a robot with a bat on its shoulder then a tombstone with a green onion buried in the ground. "Um that's very nice Jack, you drew that Negi real well." She said nervously this morning they thought he was regaining some of his intellect but maybe they were wrong, she thought as she laid the picture down on the table.
Ku-Fei studied the picture then picked it up turning it various angles, then exclaimed "Kaede! I think he's saying Negi-Bozou is in danger!"
"Really?"
"Yes this green onion is said Negi in Japanese and this robot must be Chachamaru!"
"Then what about the bat?"
"No clue, but I'm pretty sure that what means right Jack?" she asked the little chibi, who gave her a nod 'yes'
"Alright but where is he?" Asked Kaede, Mahora was a big place it would do no good to look randomly around the school. Little Jack scampered over to the door trying desperately to open it.
"You know where he is Aru?" Ku asked.
Receiving a nod yes the girls opened the door, and Jack running on four legs dashed off down the hall with the girls barely keeping up.
Negi panted has he landed on the school building, the same one that Eva captured him last time with the help of Chachamaru; only this time there would be no Asuna to help him. He tried to use his martial arts on the robot but Chachamaru was still too skilled to beat in his current form. So he waits for Eva to suck his blood when a… spit bubble? Floats in between him and his attacker both stare at it wondering what it was doing here, when a small fire ball fell on it causing it to explode! The explosion its self was harmless but the noise it made their ears to ring and Chachamaru's sensors to shut down causing her grip on the ten year old to loosen just enough for him to escape.
As Negi stumbled away from his pursuers he looked around for his savoir, there down on the ground was little Jack making another spit bubble bomb. Knowing that Kaede would never let the chibi out of her site, he knew that the ninja had to be around somewhere close.
"Uh, that brat! Seems even with him shrunk he's still a thorn in my side, Chachamaru eliminated him!" Order the vampire Chachamaru though hesitantly proceeded to advance on the weakened Jack.
"I'm sorry but I must obey my master." She said statically as she brought her waist blade down upon the child only to meet resistance in the form of one angry Kaede.
"Don't even think about it!" The ninja growled at the robot like a mother bear protecting its young. With a hard push Kaede was able to throw the robot off balance with quick precise movements from hours of training slashed tirelessly at the robots steel skin with her kunai; causing sparks to fly with every slash.
Back on the roof Evangeline pounced upon Negi like a cat to a mouse, far out classing him in hand to hand fighting as well as she did in magic.
"Your little friend may have brought help, but I'm still more than enough to take you on my own!" She boasted countering another of Negi's attacks with her own causing the ten year old to fly back into the wall. "Now it's over." She said as she advanced upon him fangs drawn. When she was about to claim her freedom a hard foot connected with her face. Negi had a sense of Déjà vu except this time it was Fei-Ku instead of Asuna. Nether the less the result was the same.
Evangeline held her cheek in pain; her thoughts centering on on how the hell that ditsy blonde's kick get through her barrier. Chachamaru appeared once again at her side with several dozen scratches adoring her steel skin along with some puncture wounds but none of them would hinder her.
"Blast it when did that boyo have time to call his friends, next time I swear I'll…"
"Um Master" Chachamaru interrupted the vampire's inner rant "There is a giant bubble in front of you." she point out as a car sized bubble float innocently in front of the vampire. Well a not so innocent Jack held a small gum drop sized fireball in his hand.
"Get US out of here NOW!" she commanded as the little chibi through the fireball at the bubble; resulting in an explosion that had about the same force of a land mine.
Negi watched Eva escape into the night knowing that it was fate that they would fight again. The four walked back to dorm clammy, till the wing to the building that the explosion was at started to collapse, then they ran with Jack giggling in excitement at destroying something.
The next day Negi and the girls decided to lay low for the day, well the Dean investigated the collapse of the science wing, so far they had no suspects as of yet. On darker note Negi still had no idea how to change Jack back, at the rate things were going; Evangeline would have his blood by the next full moon! So he converged with Kaede and Fei-Ku about the situation.
"We're completely doomed." He said bluntly taking a sip of the tea Kaede prepared for them.
"But we scared her off last night; can't we do it again Aru?" Questioned Fei-Ku confused on why they couldn't just do it again.
"Last night we caught her by surprise, next time she'll prepare for us." He sighed as he put his cup on the table. "We have three opinions that we can take, one is to take her on as we are now and hope we win. Number two is we change Jack back to his former state, but seeing how we still don't know how, that leaves us with option three, though I would rather not use it if I didn't have too."
"What's opinion three?" Kaede asked as she helped Little Jack drink his tea, he sometimes switched from being completely mindless to having some Conesus thoughts, but he mostly communicated through his doodles, like when he told them Negi was in danger.
"Pactio" Negi said solemnly really not wanting to involve his students again but it looks like fate had other ideas.
"What's a Pactio?" Fei-Ku asked curiously
"A contact between a wizard and his partner, where I would give you some of my magical power for you to fight with, you would also get an artifact to aid you in battle." Negi explained
"What's so bad about that Aru?" Ku asked.
"It's kind of like an impromptu marriage proposal." He said embarrassed and unaware of two certain twins hiding outside.
Professor Negi and his friend came to Japan to get married." Fuuka said to her twin Fumika as she took her listening cup away for the door. "Come on we got to tell everybody!" they yelled in sync running down the halls to where the rest of the girls were at leaving Negi to his fate.
"So you're saying that a Pactio is like a marriage proposal?" asked Kaede just a little embarrassed about the whole thing, Fei-Ku also had a healthy bush adorning her cheeks.
Negi seeing his mistake tried to salvage the situation "Well not always but most partnerships do end up getting married in the end but that doesn't mean you have too!" He exclaim waving his hands in the air.
Kaede sat there no longer holding Little Jack, who had crawled of to the other side of the room. She thought hard "Negi would this Pactio to change Jack back to normal?" She asked though she didn't know anything about magic for some reason she thought it would work.
"Um well I don't know maybe?" Negi thought to himself, there had been some cases were a Pactio broke a curse, and tactically Jack was under a curse, so it might work, but it would take more power than a probationary contact could offer.
Just then little Jack appeared on the table holding some doodles up in the air, this shocked everybody because one they didn't seem climb up there, and two he may have the answers to their questions; if only they could figure out what he drew!
They stared at the doodles as if they held the secrets of the universe, in this case they probably did. There was only one picture a poorly drawing kanji symbol. The three stared at it trying to figure out which one it was.
"Um is it strength?" said Fei-Ku growing tired of the silences, she really didn't understand Japanese really well but Chinese and Japanese kanji had similar characteristics.
Jack held up a negative sign.
"Guess not, it is honesty?" Kaede answered this time. She got the same answer as Fei-Ku.
Negi looked hard at the kanji symbol then thought about all he knew about pactio's and found the answer "True Pactio" he muttered softly that the other almost didn't hear him.
"What" the two females of the room asked curious.
"A True Pactio, instead of a partner being bond to a wizard, both is bond together sharing their powers together, the stronger the bond between the two the more powerful the pact." Negi explained then add "A True Pactio can only be done once in a wizard's life, if the bond between the two isn't strong enough a terrible fate awaits them."
"What kind of fate?" Fei-Ku asked
"I don't know?" Negi answered honesty, it was never record in any of the books he read on Pactio.
"So what do we need to do?" Asked Kaede
"What?"
"How do we do a make a True Pactio?" She asked again
"Well in a normal Pactio you would have to kiss with in a magic circle, but for true Pactio you need to make a special circle, but that's not the hard part. Its finding a source of power that can take the place of Jack's magical energy." Jack interrupted Negi waving a picture of the globe with a giant tree on it.
"The World Tree?" Negi answered figuring out what he cowboy was leading to.
Jack holds up a positive sign.
"So you want to use the power of the world tree to help you change back?" reasoned the child mage. He also saw that Jack was subconsciously helping him against Chao Lingshin with using the world trees power. "Alright I'll start drawing up the circle around the tree, though it may take a few days. With a solution in sight the group decided to go about their day.
Later that night Negi was enjoying himself a nice hot bath, now normally he would skip a bath but after working on the circle all day he was full of sweat and dirt. Who knew it would be that tough to draw a circle, he didn't even get a quarter of the way done because of the sear size of it. Plus he needs to make sure nobody saw him. No need to add to the already growing rumors. He closes his eyes letting the hot water sooth his aching muscles. He when he opened his eyes he was blessed (or cursed) with the site of most of his class in the pool wearing a bathing suit. A familiar feeling of dread filled him as they shout various things about marriage and making sure he pick them.