The World Tree is located in Mahora, which is located in the Negima Branch somewhere and somewhen in Yggdrasil... is that a tree-ception?
01 - Decision
Negi Sprinfield was growing restless.
He was now on his fifteenth iteration of time, without a damn clue on who or what was causing them. He was only sure of one thing, time-traveling again on his own accord just wasn't an option. No matter what point of time he was coming from or going to, any attempt at using a Cassiopeia resulted in an immediate reset. It wasn't even limited to his own use of the device, nobody could use the damn thing without triggering a repeat. Well, aside from the basic uses of course. All the times Chao or him had originally used it could still happen. He could still run around the Mahora Festival at several places at once, and his great granddaughter still used it in their fight.
Aside for that, the Cassiopeia was a big no-no.
The mage sighed as he exited the overground. He had to explain his situation to Chao again, but he couldn't do that until after his first class.
It would be a long day.
"So, you can't use it ne?"
At his descendant question, Negi shook his head slowly. He would have elaborated with a proper answer, but the monotony of this conversation was really starting to bore him.
"What happen if you don't?"
Huh? She'd never asked this question before… had something changed?
"If I just let things happen you mean?"
At her nod, he scratched his chin, deep in thoughts.
"I never though about it to be honest… but I suppose I could."
She had a point, it seemed like the only possible solution. He couldn't find anything at the moment, nor travel to the future to find something… that only left waiting. If he simply waited for the incoming three years to unravel like they did the first time around, he could probably catch his culprit.
"The only question is, do I change anything?"
Many things would happen in those three years, some that he could do without. It would be so easy. He was wiser, stronger, and knew what was coming.
But did he have the right to change the future like that? Could he really alter the timeline on a whim?
"You already did." reminded the girl, smiling like the Cheshire Cat.
"I suppose I did." acknowledged the mage. "But do I change anything else?"
Turning Chao away from her plan was one thing. Awakening Asuna's memories or going all out against Fate during their first encounter would be way more drastic.
"I don't know oji-san." replied the Chinese time traveler. "You'll have to find out for yourself, I guess. If a situation displease you, then fix it. If it fails, just try something else ne."
"So what? I just repeat the three years again and again until I manage a perfect run and catch whoever set this up?"
"Unless you see another solution, yes." she shrugged.
English gentleman or not, Negi cursed.
02 - Son of the Thunder God
- Somewhere, in Adminspace -
"Excuse me, Zeus?"
The Greek Patron god looked up from his terminal and directed his glance toward his office's door. Standing there was one of the least person he'd ever expected to see.
"Can I help you with something, Thor?" he asked to the Odinson.
Different pantheons usually didn't mingle all that much outside of the cafeteria, but it didn't meant that he couldn't be polite with his Nordic counterpart. The man was also a thunder god after all.
"I believe you can, yes." replied the god, entering the room. "I may have a loop that would need your expertise. You see, some of Coyote's interns came to me some aeons ago, with one of the loops he had activated. They seemed to think that the Anchor's affinity for lightning, and my understanding of magic thanks to my kinship with Loki, were sufficient reasons to have me Administrate the Branch."
"And you disagree?"
"No, their points were quite correct. Yet I believe that this loop should belong to you."
Zeus quirked an eyebrow.
"Why?"
"Well, you share the same affinity for one. Also, at two points in the timeline is the Anchor participating in fighting games."
The Greek god nodded, sportive events and games did fall under his authority.
"Still, you wouldn't make such a decision over such simple matters. What convinced you to seek me?"
The Asguardian smiled and acknowledged the fact, passing behind the desk to stand aside his interlocutor.
"You are right, my conviction comes from elsewhere. May I?" he asked, motioning for the computer. Receiving permission, he logged into the system through his personal account and brought up a video.
"This recording was made during a tournament in which partake the Anchor. This –" he designated a young man whose body seemed to glow. "– is Negi Sprinfield, the loop's Anchor. As you're seeing him, he's using a magic spell to turn into lightning itself. Also, and despite his appearance, he is only a ten years old boy."
This information forced a smile out of the Greek god.
"A mighty warrior."
"That he is. He's also a spell inventor." explained Thor, advancing the video. "And this is what convinced me to turn the loop over to you."
On the screen, a certain mage had just distanced himself from his opponent in a blitz of electricity. Using Latin-based incantations, the boy activated his Magia Erebea and released simultaneously two spells he'd previously absorbed. The show didn't end there though, as he merged the two spell into one, calling out his new creation's name.
"Trump card number 4, spear of the thunder god – Titanoktonon!"
The following trashing was flashy, bloody, and confirmed to Zeus the young Anchor's value.
As the video ended, he turned to his fellow worker.
"So… death to the titans huh?" he said, his voice holding no smile amount of pride. It even shown in the warm smile that had blossomed on his face. "I'll handle it. Thank you, Thor."
"You're most welcome."
The thunder gods then said their farewells and returned to their respective jobs, the Greek god happy for the small act of kindness from his colleague, and the Nordic one equally happy to have provided it.
03 - Polarity
Nothing.
It had all been for nothing.
Convinced by Chao's reasoning, Negi Springfield had tried to wait for the years to pass by. He'd thus discovered that even death couldn't help him, as it merely triggered an immediate return to the repeats' beginning. After many hardship, including physical and mental pain, as well as a fair number of deaths for overestimating his own abilities, he'd managed to survive long enough to reach Asuna's departing day for Mundus Magicus.
As soon as the portal had activated, taking his relative away from him, he'd appeared back in the overground. He hadn't detected anyone, nor any unusual spell going off. He'd just blinked, and he was three years into the past.
The string of curse he'd unleashed had caused the entire wagon to blush violently.
After that, he'd tried to alter the timeline. He changed the order of the pactios, avoided Kyoto entirely, prevented Fate's little gift upon their arrival in Mundus Magicus, and even tried to rally the Averuncus to his cause earlier on.
It had been useless, nothing had changed. No matter what he did, or what he didn't do, he would always find himself back in that damn tube in the blink of an eye.
And now, the young mage wanted nothing more than to take a nice long vacation. Except that he wouldn't get one, because a new mystery had just decided to assault him unannounced.
At first, he didn't notice anything. He just opened his eyes to the same old overground.
Kataklang.
Kataklang.
Then things degenerated.
"What's with that kid?" asked the rough voice of a definitively male student.
"Is she a foreigner?" asked back his friend.
Negi made a face as the guy's words registered in his brain. His eyes checked his body out and a disturbing thought began to bloom in his fogged mind. He blinked twice, and pinched himself to confirmed that he wasn't merely hallucinating.
And then… she screamed.
04 - Petty Revenge
Negi Sprinfield was taking a vacation.
After the death he'd experienced in his last repeat, he had decided to relax. He'd also decided to have a little fun at his Master's expense.
It was childish and unbecoming from an English gentleman, but she had clearly murdered him, as accidental as it may have been. He could understand losing control of a spell as powerful as her Endless White Nine Heavens, but was still holding a tiny little grudge.
"Excuse-me, Master?"
"What do you want, brat?" asked Evangeline, quirking an eyebrow from behind her cup of tea.
"I... I just wanted to thank you for your guidance and spell tutorage." replied the young teacher, using one of the legendary Springfield-smile.
The vampire briefly saw the face of the brat's father overlap with his own, and couldn't help but blush slightly. As a proud evil mastermind, she averted her eyes with a "Tsk!".
"Why are you suddenly telling me this anyway?" she continued, her building exasperation pointing in her voice.
"Well, I found another magical instructor, so I won't have to bother Master anymore."
Eva spat her tea on Chachamaru's maid outfit, and almost fell from her chair.
"Wha... what?"
The brat had annoyed her for days to train under her, and now he was giving up and running to another teacher?
Nope. No way. Impossible. No sharing the brat. He was her toy, and that was final.
Her killing intent began to rise, outlining her body in a malevolent aura of purple magical energy. To add to the atmosphere, her fingernails extended, turning into menacing claws, while her sclera turned entirely black.
"And, what exactly made you believe that you could run away, mmmh? What reason would I have to trust someone else with your training, boya?"
At that exact moment, her voice would have frozen a higher fire demon.
Yet, surprisingly, instead of turning pale as she'd intended, the brat smiled ever more warmly.
"I know that Master wants nothing more than to leave Mahora. That teacher can help me achieve that goal, and I'll do anything I can to help Master."
That efficiently stopped the Dark Evangel's intimidation attempt. The brat was doing it... for her?
She blushed again. Like father, like son. Damn Springfields!
Eva coughed awkwardly, and sipped her tea to calm herself. After Chachamaru's third refilling of her cup, she manage to speak without spluttering.
"And... who's that new teacher? I can't, in good conscience, let my disciple train with an incompetent."
"Don't worry about that, Master, he's really strong."
Oh, a male? So Zazie Rainyday was out then. No wonder, the kid was oblivious to most of his own students after all. Could it be... Takamichi? Nope, Negi would have already named him. Konoemon maybe? No, he wouldn't risk having a pupil as long as he would remain dean of Mahora. Then who could possibly...?
"Mister Albireo Imma even worked with my father in Ala Rubra."
WHAT?
"WHAT?"
No, seriously, what?
"He's a little strange, but his mastery of gravitation magic is outstanding and –"
Eva wasn't listening anymore. The shock of actually losing her student to that book bastard had been too much, and she'd properly fainted.
Strangely enough, an angry vein was throbbing on her forehead, despite her loss of consciousness.
05 - Getting Too Literal Here – by Leviticus Wilkes
Class 2-A was its usual chatty self.
Sayo was quietly haunting Asakura who was going for a new big scoop, Yuna was spinning her basketball on a finger, Yue was lost in a book, Ako was trying to stop Asakura from badgering her, Akira was watching them talk, Misa, Madoka and Sakurako were practicing their cheerleading routines, Asuna was talking to Konoka about their teacher, Misora was pulling her habit off, Chachamaru was getting screwed up by Evangeline, Ku Fei and Kaeda were arm-wrestling, Haruna was trying to off load her Yaoi stash onto Nodoka, Setsuna was not so discreetly ogling Konoka, Makie was spinning her ribbon around and flicking people, Mana was looking for potential sniper nests, Chao was banging her head into the table in dread of what would soon happen to her ancestor, Chizuru was offering Natsumi moon pies, the Narutaki's were watching Kaede and Ku Fei spar, Hakase was rewriting Chachamaru's OS, Chisame was wondering what Chiu would be doing later that day, Ayaka was discreetly reading Haruna's shotacon Yaoi, Yotsuba was plotting murder, and Zazie was... Zazie.
The door banged open at that moment and the class scrambled for their desks. Jaws dropped as a their teacher walked in. He hopped up onto his podium and spoke.
"Stand."
No one stood.
"Bow." he continued.
No one bowed.
"Be seated." he concluded, hopping down. "Please, pay no attention to the leek that is teaching the class. There is a valid explanation for this."
Anyone in the class that has any idea about the magical world, or was named Chisame, promptly head-desk-ed. The rest all asked themselves how a leek, commonly known in Japan as a negi, could possibly be teaching a class.
Said leek continued his lesson without a care in the world. This body was strange, but not worse than the female one.
06 - Perchance to Dream – by Levitikus Wilkes
Asuna Kagurazaka – formerly Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia – lay in the crypt that, for the next one hundred years, would be her resting place. Already she could feel the innate royal powers, abilities that had served her so well for the three years that she had lived and fought alongside Negi Springfield, slowly dissolve into the world around her. Asuna felt her consciousness slip, and she had to wonder how it had all come to this.
From her earliest days, days still fogged by the eons of time, Asuna had been used as a tool of war. In her body flowed the blood of the Ostian Royal Line, blood that conferred to her the Magic of Creation and Destruction also known as the Code of the Lifemaker, and an innate power to disable all magic around her. Having been born into a world of magic, one that fought its own wars and struggled as it had, to have her was to truly control the battlefield. She was a weapon of unimaginable power.
In ages long forgotten, she had been raised to her place as a living weapon, trawling the countless battlefields of wars unending. Her physical age locked to barely six years, her mind equally blank after having witnessed one too many horror, Asuna was at the command of any man, woman or monster that possessed her. She hadn't known how many countless years had passed. All she had known was war.
And then she had met Nagi Springfield.
Nagi Springfield and his warriors, the famous Ala Rubra, had been tasked to discover the powerful weapon that Cosmo Entelecheia was using to prolong the Bellum Schismaticum and eliminate it.
Instead, Nagi took one look at the six year old, grabbed her, and pulled a nice abscond with his team from Mundus Magnus to Istanbul, Turkey. Once the war had ended and Cosmo Entelecheia partisans had been either dead or scattered, one of Ala Rubra's members, Takamichi Takahata, had erased her memories and undid her age lock, allowing her to age properly for the first time in more than 150 years.
The girl thus lived in peace for ten years, no longer as Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia of the Ostian Empire, but as Asuna Kagurazaka of Japan. She was enrolled in Mahora Academy's Kindergarten, where she met the first friend of this new life, Ayaka Yukihiro. The blond and the redhead fought, argued, chased each other around, and throw insults by the dozen. Really, they were the best of friends, always ready to hang out.
Growing up, Asuna met a lot of people, living her perfectly normal life, far away from all her suffering she didn't even know existed. Her ditzy dorm mate Konoka, the ever shy Nodoka, and all the crazy characters in her class, allowed her to distance herself from her past, slowly turning her false personality into a proper existence. She reconnected with Takamichi (despite her amnesia) and joined the art club, learning to paint and create new things.
Yes, for ten years Asuna Kagurazaka became a normal teenaged girl, albeit one that was a massive Oji-con, to use Ayaka's words. Somehow, her old friendship for Takahata had morphed into a huge crush.
And then Negi Springfield, Nagi's nine year old son and her cousin of sort, arrived at Mahora, intent to become the teacher of her class. He was a young, gallant boy, honest and selfless and stubborn to a fault, tasteful at times and freewheeling and immature at others. He was a kid, she was mentally fourteen, and they were both magical. Things got weirder from there.
Vampires, time travelers, robots, samurai, ninja, mages, demons, monsters, and all the hell they came together to raise returned to Asuna's life. With Negi and their class, she returned to the magical world of Mundus Magnus, reclaimed her memories, and helped him once and for all destroy Cosmo Entelecheia, putting their plot to destroy the magical world to an end forever.
They had suffered though, and now, as Asuna felt her consciousness fray and slip into the cool embrace of sleep's oblivion, she held one last thought.
Who suffered more? Her, or her friends?
Asuna blinked her mismatched blue and green eyes, blowing a strand of her long red hair out of the way. She tried to answer her best friend who'd just asked her a question, but her words didn't come.
"I... I… Sorry but, what was that Konoka?"
Asuna instantly realized what she'd just said, and did a double take.
"KONOKA?!"
Konoka Konoe, heiress to the Konoe family and the Ostian princess' roommate, smiled warmly at her.
"Hi Asuna!"
The redhead very nearly had a freak out and hundreds of questions rapidly flooded her brain.
What was Konoka doing here? Had she woken up early? Had Konoka traveled forward in time? Did she not age? Hadn't a century passed?
She only had to look around her to see that her freak out was right on schedule.
Where was the crypt? What was she doing in Negi's classroom?
Konoka scooted back a little as her friend started screaming her head off.
"Uh, Asuna? Is something wrong?"
The princess stopped screaming, turned to Konoka, and asked the one thing that could potentially help her understand this unexpected situation.
"Are you and Setsuna a couple?"
"Uh... No..." replied Konoka, blushing a little at the thought of her somewhat distant friend, whom she secretly wanted as a girlfriend. "Why?"
Asuna didn't answer. She just resumed screaming, except that this time, it wasn't a cry of anguish, fear, frustration or disbelief that escaped her throat.
It was pure anger.
The class came to a general halt as the screams of rage picked up. They didn't even have the time to question her outburst, as she was suddenly on her feet, pointing furiously at Chao.
"YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
Chao glanced around nervously.
"Me ne?"
Hands descended on Chao's collar, dragging the young Chinese girl from her desk. Asuna then proceeded to shook her victim like a doll, shouting madly.
"WHY AM I IN THE PAST? WHERE IS EVERYONE? WHAT DID YOU DO!?"
"I really have no idea what you are talking about." Chao asserted, all the while desperately trying to activate her Cassiopeia and run. "Kagurazaka-san, could you please let go of me? This is beginning to hurt ne."
Two hands, one of them metallic, descended on Asuna's shoulders in an attempt to calm her. That maneuver was followed by a crash of hardware as Chachamaru collapsed, her magical batteries drained dry. On Asuna's other shoulder, Mana's grip tightened.
"Let her go Kagurazaka. Whatever has happened to you WOAH!"
Mana went flying out of the window. Asuna tightened her own grip on Chao.
"You're the time traveler, you know what happened to me." she hissed, her voice cold and more than slightly menacing. "So start talking."
"I'm ba~ack, and I have sco~ones." Negi Springfield sing-sang as he walked into the room, arms laden with pastries. His eyes instantly asserted the stand off currently occurring in the room, and an exclamation escaped his lips.
"Oh boy…"
"So, it's not Chao." summarized Asuna in a small voice. The faux-young princess awkwardly nibbled on her scone. "Sorry Chao."
"It's no issue ne." said politely the genius girl. "I would have been rather disoriented too if I had time traveled without control. That you ended up dangerously close to me is merely poor luck."
"And… you really don't know what's happening?" asked the redhead, turning to their teacher.
Negi was nibbling on his own scone, clearly at a loss to explain the situation to his sort of cousin.
"No, I don't. I've been trapped in those repeats – Chao once called them time loops – for a little over fifty iterations now. As long as I don't die or try to use the Cassiopeia for unusual travels, they always close and repeat when you're about to sleep, even when you don't need to. It's a fixed timeline… mostly."
"Mostly?"
"It's… confusing. There was one repeat where everybody's gender was switched."
"WHAT?"
"Yeah, I reacted like that too. And don't get me started on the leek, that one was weird."
The older Entheofushia was about to ask what he meant by that, but her cousin's expression dissuaded her instantly. Some things were better left unsaid.
"So… what can we do?"
The mage sighed.
"I have no idea. From what I saw, nobody's responsible and we can't do anything about it. I mostly just try to go along with it and smooth some things over."
"Right… let's do this then."
If she'd expected her relative to perk up, she was disappointed. Instead, his expression saddened.
"I don't know if I dragged you into this, but if so, I'm sorry."
He looked like a sad puppy and Asuna almost cooed. At the last moment, she managed to stop herself and bashed him on the head with as much ki as she could manage without damaging the classroom.
"IDIOT! What did I say about shouldering everything by yourself? So what if you dragged me in? I don't care, we're in this together." she admonished him, before her expression softened considerably.
"I'm supposed to look after you, cousin, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do. Otherwise, you'll probably just do something stupid."
A silent Chao nodded fiercely.
The young Sprinfield stopped rubbing his hurting head and smiled lightly at the one he'd come to consider as an elder sister.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Chao giggled at their interaction and couldn't help but comment.
"That's my great grandma."
"Why thank y- WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" yelled the second girl, eyes threatening to pop out of her head.
Negi was already waving his hands in a futile attempt to distract the out pouring of fury from his friend.
"Rest easy, rest easy Asuna. Chao... isn't actually joking… I think. But it's not an issue."
"NOT AN ISSUE?!" screamed his relative. "I'M YOUR FUCKING COUSIN!"
"I know that." replied the mage. "But, and this is a large but, the identity of Chao's great grandmother changes every iteration."
"NOW THAT'S NOT EVEN – wait, come again?"
Negi shrugged in exhaustion.
"It's probably the most inconsistent thing from timeline to timeline. Sometimes it's Ku Fei-san, sometimes it's Makie-san, sometimes it's Nodoka-san, or Ayaka-san, or Yue-san, or any other girl in the class. And before you asked, yes, once it was even Chao herself."
Asuna turned green, exited the room, and sounds of professed sickness quickly emanated from the hallway. Once she returned, wiping the caustic sludge from her lips, she pulled her young cousin into a hug.
"You've really been through a lot, haven't you?"
"It's... It's been okay." came the reply. "I'm able to... you know… stomach the fact that I still have no remote idea of who I end up romantically involved with. It's nice for me to know that I don't need to worry about my romantic partner at age nine."
"… How old are you anyway?"
"Well, my first fourteen repeats where interrupted, plus a few later on when I got overconfident, but I'd say that I probably went through… thirty complete ones or something. So I'm… probably close to a hundred, a hundred and ten. Maybe a little more."
"So you're an older man now. Can I call you gramps?"
"Asuna-san!"
"Kidding, I'm kidding you brat." she laughed, playfully cuffing Negi on the head. "I can make jokes can't I?"
Seeing that she wasn't needed anymore, Chao finished her scone and tea and set them both down, ready to leave.
"The treats have been wonderful Negi-oji-san. I'll make sure to be assaulted by Asuna-oba-san in the next iteration of time."
"Don't count on it." playfully scowled the princess.
Chao smiled back. Had Asuna possessed a mirror, she would have found the smile scarily familiar.
As it was, Chao happily left them both to their own devices.
Asuna collapsed back onto the couch in the faculty room that Negi had borrowed, and kicked up her feet.
"So, what are we doing anyway?"
"First we're going to raise your grades." proclaimed Negi cheerfully.
What he'd expected came true, Asuna gagged.
"Ugh."
"And start training." added the mage, smiling even wider at her reaction. That seemed to be more to her tastes, as she immediately recovered.
"Alright." she said, slamming her fist into her palm. "Let's do it."
07 - Beware The Hurricane
Those repeats were annoying.
Negi had just had the disagreeable surprise to discover that Asuna didn't remember anything. He'd went up to her, asked how she wanted to handle Fate this time, only to be asked back exactly what kind of nonsensical astrology mumbo-jumbo he was babbling about. He'd hurried to BS his way out of the discussion.
With a suppressed sigh, the not-so-young-anymore mage introduced himself to his students. He answered their questions, brushed aside the few that were irrelevant or really intrusive, and began his class.
He was something like twenty minutes into it when his nose began to tickle. If he hadn't been so focused, he would have scratched it and resumed his speech. But engrossed as he was in his lecture, he didn't even try to restrain the most glorious sneeze that escaped. With the Magia Erebea fused to his very soul, the sneeze triggered a magical response and the time traveler instantly entered the second stage of his Raiten Taisô.
The entire classroom could only gasp – Eva was gaping in silent stupor instead – when the new English teacher's hair suddenly grew tremendously, his body glowing slightly in a white light and even occasionally emitting small sparks of electricity.
Used as he was to the magical enhancement, Negi didn't even notice. Only when his ears registered the strange silence that had fallen on the room did he take his eyes away from his textbook.
Noting his current state, he turned to the girls extremely slowly. Then, he smiled awkwardly and tried to keep his voice as steady as possible.
"Huh… there's a… perfectly good explanation for this..."
Yeah, he wasn't buying it himself.
08 - I'm Out
Takamichi T. Takahata, art teacher at Mahora Academy – and incidentally high-class fighter for A.A.A, The Eternal Wind – was patiently waiting by the window. He had a few minutes to kill before classes started, and given how the train station and dean office were situated, his young friend and soon-to-be replacement Negi Springfield would most assuredly pass right past this building.
"Hey, Takamichi."
Speak of the devil.
"Hi Negi. How was the trip?"
The answer came in the form of a shrug, and a somehow sighed "Fine, I suppose."
"You suppose?"
"Well, I can't really remember it anymore, so…"
Takahata hadn't expected the young man to sound so tired. He looked pretty down too.
"What do you mean? Did something happen?" he asked urgently, tried to ascertain if he could offer any kind of support.
"I guess you could say that, yes." said Negi. "I'm stuck in a three years long time loop. So if you're asking about today's trip, my memories tell me that everything went perfectly fine. The thing is, I technically didn't really lived it, my repeats always start when the tube reaches Mahora. But if you're talking about the very first one, then I'm sorry to say that I honestly can't answer your question. I'm closing in on two hundred years old now, and it happened so long ago that I definitely can't remember anymore. I think it went well too, but I wouldn't bet on it."
This entire tirade had been said so casually that Takahata's brain froze for a second.
Had he really heard what he believed he'd heard? Was Negi really talking about time travel? And how old had he claimed to be again?
"Now, could you do me a favor? I need to check up something with Asuna and then I'll be off. Also, depending of the results, she might just come with me. Anyway, think you can fill in for me for a few days?"
Hearing this, the war veteran decided to push back the implications of his young colleague's words. A teacher skipping class on his very first day seemed suddenly much more important, for some unknown reason.
"But… you can't do that! You haven't even met your class yet!"
"Of course I met the girls. Time loops, remember?"
"But..."
"Takamichi, I owe you, I really do, but I don't want to trade useless arguments with you. I got killed by Fate not an hour ago and I really need some family time right now. Preferably with someone that can understand what I'm going through. Asuna remembered once, but that was six repeats ago. So I'll just check with this one and if she does remember, we'll be off on a vacation for a few days. If my dear cousin doesn't remember, I'll just go back to Wales and take Nekane-nee-chan instead."
The boy had spoken in a low and composed tone, but his icy face revealed an underlying warning.
"Now, I'll ask one last time. Can you handle my post for a few days, please?"
That question was growled with an intensity rivaling the Dark Evangel herself. With the amount of magical power emitted, Takahata had no problem acknowledging Negi's story as the undeniable truth and his answer became evident.
"Sure. Enjoy your holiday."
"Thank you." beamed the time traveler with a trademarked Springfield smile.
Without the malevolent aura, it would have almost looked genuine.
09 - Flash Exit – by Leviticus Wilkes
Asuna looked up at Negi (a rather novel experience for her) and smiled.
"So Negi –"
"Doesn't it bother you that you're about to flirt with your temporally displaced cousin?" he cut her.
"Would it bother you?" she shot back.
"...You know Asuna, I can't help but think that we've broken something."
As he resumed walking, the mage glanced around the hallway of Mahora that he and Asuna were passing through, marveling at how different everything familiar looked now that he was taller.
"I've never seen anything like this."
"Never been... How old are you right now?"
"Physically, I'm twenty two." Negi informed his student. "And no, not without Camo's pills or Master's spell. But I'm sure you share the sentiment."
At that, he looked down on Asuna. Way down.
"I'll guess... Nine!"
The little cutie that was currently Asuna insert-long-name-here Kagurazaka harrumphed and folded her arms.
"Lucky guess."
"I'm just shocked that our personal histories have changed so much again." said the currently older boy. "Are we really time traveling, or just body hopping through alternate dimensions, each and every one of time shifted three years in the past?"
"Hell if I know." heatedly replied the princess, before taking a more neutral tone "You think we'll ever figure out what's happening to us?"
Negi sighed and ran a hand through his two-toned hair.
"Asuna, whatever is happening, I'm sure that we can fix this together. So... so what if this world is some sort of alternate history where I'm the older one and you're the little girl? We can still use what we know about our histories to change things. Right?"
Asuna looked up at Negi, confident (if a bit scared) and didn't fight the smile that welled up from inside of her.
"Yeah yeah. I get first dibs on Fate though, alright? Oh, and Negi?"
Stopping at room 2-A, the teacher turned to his student.
"Hmm?"
She opened the door, and smirked as her companion in time was swept away on a tide of Lolita students (and one inexplicably adult Evangeline).
"You'll need to learn to fight kids!"
"ASUNAAAAAA!"
His desperate calls for help only managed to intensify her laughter.
10 - Attack Cats – by Leviticus Wilkes
Evangeline McDowell flipped midair and crash landed on a bridge outside of Mahora Academy, dangerously close to the borders of the magical seal that locked her inside of the school. At this range she could feel the sealing spell at her back, but it didn't matter to her. Her magic would remain intact, as long the school's power was down.
The vampiric woman-girl glared daggers as her opponent, one Negi Springfield, touched down gently on the bridge. Her sour expression deepened when his partner, Asuna Kagurazaka, arrived.
"Well, I guess you two feel pretty proud of having driven me to the city limits."
Raw magical energy built in her hands, just in time for her partner, Chachamaru, to touch down.
"You shouldn't have backed this bat into a corner! Lic Lac Lilac –"
Her incantation was interrupted when a water balloon smacked Chachamaru in the face.
For a moment neither the immortal vampire queen nor the custom magitek robot girl could articulate a response to that. Finally, Chachamaru vacuum-sucked a fragment of the out-gassing material from around her oral port (she licked her lips).
"Analyzing compound. Nepeta Catarina, Thunnus Thynnus, assorted chemicals and fragrances, magical scenting water."
"… You hit Chachamaru –"
"With a puree of catnip and tuna!" Negi declared boldly. "You've lost Eva-san: we've immobilized your partner, and the magical seal is due to return any minute!"
"… BAKA!" shrieked the vampire. "You didn't defeat chachamaru, you just got her covered in gunk! And it reeks! Chachamaru, attack!"
"Yes mistress." answered the robotic girl.
The ports on her shoulder blades opened, her back rockets spooling up as her clockwork body readied to fight. All of these processes ground to a halt when a low rumbling rose up from the city, an ethereal wailing accompanying it. Chachamaru felt no fear, as she was a robot. She merely determined that it required her to check for an order update.
"Mistress, what is –"
A mass of black, white, brown and orange emerged from the city, raving across the bridge with the fury and direction of the possessed spirits of hell. Chachamaru's retinal processors couldn't fully correlate the shapes to any known pattern before Evangeline answered the question of what they were seeing.
"CATS?"
Asuna laughed lightly.
"We knew that Chachamaru loved cats. So we figured that she wouldn't dare hurt them, even if they were right on top of her. That's what the potion was, tuna, catnip, and a little something Negi whipped up to tell every cat in the city where it was."
Chachamaru was unable to articulate a response, as at that moment, a living tsunami of kitties jumped her and cat-piled her. It took her a moment to confirm that nothing short of some level of lethal force would be able to disentangle the felines from her frame.
"Mistress, I have been incapacitated."
Evangeline snarled.
"You have got to be –"
Further comment was prevented by Asuna sucker-punching the vampire.
Negi walked up next to the immobilized Chachamaru as Asuna demonstrated to Evagenline why it was a really really bad idea to threaten their classmates.
"Hi Chachamaru. Sorry about the cats." apologize the young mage.
The cats were now purring incessantly on top of Chachamaru. Strangely, it was actually doing wonders to help circulate her oil. The robot girl smiled and made no effort to stand.
"I don't mind."
01 - No getting out of this mess via Cassiopeia. You can't cheat time, Negi.
02 - Congratulation Zeus, you got the Negima Branch. Please, don't screw up.
03 - Sorry Negi-chan, had to happen.
04 - Payback is a ...
05 - No Chizuru-san, you can't use your teacher for something like that.
06 - Welcome to the loops, Asuna. Try to stay sane enough, or you might just end up like Albireo and nobody wants that.
07 - Don't mind the lightning, it's just a dust allergy.
08 - Beware, the loops can seriously break you. Saving the world is good, but saving your mind is more important. Take the time to relax.
09 - Strange variant that one. Good luck Negi.
10 - Cats are effective dissuasion weapons