(Welcome back to my fic guys. Hope you're excited to see what I got in store.)
As Negi, Dustin, Zyphon, and their familiars were checking out more of the festival, they suddenly heard a call out to them.
"Dustin!" the two looked back and saw approaching were Aria, Dean, Jade, Elroy, Jethro, Alice, and Alicia, along with McTwisp and Salem.
"Guys!" Dustin cheered, as his friends approached.
"It's good to see you again." Aria hugged him.
"It's great to see all of you as well." Dustin added.
"You all look like you're doing well." Negi noticed.
"We sure are." Elroy nodded.
"But based off the letters you've been sending us, you guys have been doing even better." Dean said.
"You know it." Dustin confirmed.
"You guys are so lucky, this whole festival is enormous!" Jethro said in excitement.
"I'll say. You could get lost here." Salem said.
"Then I suggest you don't wander off." McTwisp suggested.
'So where are you two headed for?" Jade asked.
"Well, we're going to head for the sign up for the martial arts tournament." Negi answered.
"Man, if only I could sign up." Elroy sighed.
"Get it together, Elroy." Alicia said dryly.
"Why don't you guys come and watch us fight in the preliminary rounds?" Dustin asked.
"Cool." Jethro said.
"I'd love to see you guys fight." Dean added.
"I just hope there won't be any casualties." Alice said in worry.
"Oh, don't worry we won't hurt them." Negi promised.
"Much," Dustin put in, as Negi looked at him, "What?"
"Let's just go." Negi said, as they all went to where sign ups were.
When they arrived they saw a lot of students were signing up, and they were of course older and taller than Dustin and Negi.
"This is gonna be a lot of competition." Jade noticed.
"Ah, they'll be cakewalk." Dustin brushed it off.
"Got that right." came Alistair's voice, as the disguised dark warrior came over with Rin, Fate, and Kotaro.
"Hey, Negi!" Kotaro greeted them.
"Kotaro, I hope we're not too late." Negi said.
"Of course not." Rin answered.
Fate noticed the others by Dustin, "And have we here?"
"Right. This is your first time meeting," Dustin recalled, "Guys this is Jade, Jethro, Elroy, Dean, Alice, Aria, and Alicia. Guys, I'd like you to meet Fate Averuncus; Rin's bodyguard and knight for the royal family Hikari, Kotaro Inugami, and the reformed Alistair Savage."
Alicia eyed Alistair, "You're the one who was with the Shadow Master back in New York."
"Sadly, I am. But I've reformed and am now an ally."
"It's true." Dustin confirmed.
The other warriors pondered, until Dean spoke, "Well, if you're all right by Dustin, then I guess you're all right by us."
"Thanks." Alistair smiled.
"Hey, you guys." Approaching was Kaede, Ku, Mana, Kasuga with Cocone, Setsuna, Eva, Chachamaru, and Chao.
"Hey, girls." Dustin greeted them.
"Don't tell me you all signed up for this?" Negi asked.
"I didn't." Cocone answered.
"Aren't you boys going to?" Mana asked the two professors.
"Just about to." Dustin said, as he and Negi went to the registration and filled out a form.
They came back, as Negi spoke, "Well, I hope you're all ready."
"Just as we hope you are too." Setsuna said.
"They better be, especially you, Negi." Eva warned him.
"Yes, mistress." he winced.
"Come on, the prelims will be starting soon." Mana said. The two nodded, as they all went to join the rest of the participants.
When all the participants were gathered into groups, Kazumi was holding a mic with Sayo at her side, "Welcome, Martial arts fans, to Mahora's Annual martial arts tournament! We got us a fine crop of candidates for this year, but only sixteen came move onto the tournament. The rules are simple anything goes, however the use of sharp objects and firearms are forbidden. All right then, let the preliminaries begin!" The audience cheered, as Dustin's friends, Cocone, and Zyphon watched the fights.
They saw many fighters were going after each other in a battle royal. In one of the groups, Negi and Dustin saw two big guys were towering over them.
"Why don't we make it easy on ya kids, and just drop you out of the ring?" one of them asked.
"Kids your age could get hurt in fights like these." another said.
Negi and Dustin frowned, as Dustin spoke, "Just for saying something like that, we're gonna show ya who's gonna get hurt."
"Like so!" Negi and Dustin concentrated their magic and spirit energy into their fists and with one punch both their opponents flew out of the ring and onto their backs looking knocked out.
The crowd gasped as they saw what happen. Kazumi spoke, "Whoa, what a blow. Mahora's very own kid professors Negi Springfield and Dustin Bowers have knocked out two opponents twice their sizes put together. How awesome is that?!"
In other groups, it was still a massive rumble between challengers. The competition was fierce, but not for trained fighters like Ku, Chao, Mana, Setsuna, Kaede, and Chachamaru. Even Eva was hardly breaking a sweat. Kotaro, Alistair, and Fate were also plowing through opponent after opponent as if they were just punching bags. Rin wasn't being taken seriously, as her opponents thought she was a weak little girl. But she started eliminating them as fast as lightning.
Soon half the competitors were eliminated, and Kazumi spoke, "And what a performance, folks. We have our finalists!"
Everyone watched as a large screen was brought down and listed off the finalists. Among names included Negi Springfield, Dustin Bowers, Rin Hikari, Kaede Nagase, Mana Tatsumiya, Chao Lingshen, Takane Goodman, Mei Sakura, Evangeline A.K McDowell, Chachamaru Karakuri, Ku Fei, Kotaro Inugami, Fate Averuncus, Alistair Savage, Kasuga Misora, and Setsuna Sakurazaki.
Everyone cheered at the finalists, while off to the side Nutmeg was cheering on for both Takane and Mei. Kazumi spoke into the mic, "And now that we have our finalists, the tournament match ups will be decided," everyone waited as the names were drawn up and rearranged into a tournament bracket.
Match 1: Kotaro Inugami vs Mei Sakura
Match 2: Dustin Bowers vs Chachamaru Karukuri
Match 3: Chao Lingshen vs Alistair Savage
Match 4: Ku Fei vs Mana Tatsumiya
Match 5: Kaede Nagase vs Fate Averuncus
Match 6: Negi Springfield vs Takane Goodman
Match 7: Setsuna Sakurazaki vs Kasuga Misora
Match 8: Evangeline A.K McDowell vs Rin Hikari
Needless to say all the finalists were surprised at the matchups, and the possibility of who they would be facing until the finals.
Kazumi announced, "The tournament shall take place tomorrow at eight a.m. Challengers don't be late!"
And with that the audience dispersed as the boys, and the students were being congratulated by Dustin's friends and Zyphon.
"You were all amazing!" Elroy cheered.
"Dustin, you were awesome." Alice smiled.
"A wonderful performance, masters." Zyphon agreed.
"Guys, we did it!" Kotaro cheered, as he and Alistair high fived.
"I was worried I wasn't going to make it." Rin admitted.
"But you did." Kaede patted her head.
"Well done, Rin." Fate congratulated her.
"Thanks. You did great, yourself." Rin said.
"We should tell everyone the news at tonight's get together." Ku said.
"Yeah. They'll be so happy." Chao added.
"Indeed they will." Kazumi said, as she came over with Sayo.
"Come on, let's go." Sayo said, as the group left the area.
That night, class 3A was having a get together talking about the first day of the festival, as many of the girls were congratulating Negi and Dustin on the prelims and about the festival.
"Thank you for coming to my gymnasitcs exhibition, guys." Makie thanked them.
"I'm glad you could join me as well," Yue thanked them, "Especially you, Alistair."
Alistair was a bit confused, "Uh, yeah."
"Negi-sensei, I'm so happy you were able to spend the day with me." Ayaka thanked Negi, who was confused.
"Wow, you made time to see your students and enter the prelims?" Kotaro asked in amaze.
"You and Dustin sure are something, Negi." Fate admitted.
"Right. Could you give me and Dustin a minute?" Negi asked.
The two boys, Zyphon, and their familiars went around a corner, as Dustin's friends, Kotaro, Alistair, and Fate joined them.
"What's going on?" Kotaro asked.
"Is something wrong?" Jade asked.
"Well, we do know why the girls are thanking us for coming to their attractions, even though we don't have any memory of them yet." Negi explained.
"No memory, how?" Alistair asked.
"Because we haven't done it yet." Dustin answered.
"You're not making any sense." Alicia said.
"Ya better tell them, guys." Chamo suggested.
"Tell us what?" Dean asked.
Negi pulled out the time watch given by Chao, "This is something that Chao designed for me and Dustin to use during the Mahora fest."
"She said with it we can travel back in time and have another chance to do the things we didn't have time for." Dustin added.
"Time travel?" Jethro gasped, "It's unreal."
"It's true." Domino cawed.
"I'll believe it when I see it." Alistair said.
"Me too." Fievel agreed.
Dustin looked to Negi, "How about it, Negi. Should we take them with us?"
"Hmm, I don't see why not. Besides they could use it as a chance to experience the Mahora fest since it started this morning."
"Yeah. But we'll have to be careful. We can't run into our past selves or anybody else who just saw us at that exact time." Chamo warned them.
The group nodded, still wondering if it was true Dustin spoke, "Ok, guys, gather around us." They gathered around Negi, who held up the watch.
"Hit it, aniki!" Chamo cheered.
"Here we go!" Negi channeled his magic into the watch and suddenly the whole group was surrounded by the magic and finding themselves going back in time.
(And there's the chapter. The martial arts tournament has been decided, and now Negi and Dustin are going to relive the first day of Mahora fest again to do what they hadn't done yet. See you next time.)