I'm launching a crackfic idea, and could use a little help.
A preliminary chapter's done already, but I'm wondering what other comedy situations could result from this setup.
Introducing: Sonic Colors, starring the cast of 3-A:
Spoiler for Titled 'Space Trip Steps', 'Tropical Resort' excerpt 1:
“We here at Eggman Industries are proud to welcome you to Dr. Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park. Here, you'll be able to enjoy visiting five planets for the price of one!” The loudspeaker blared as the huge space elevator came to a stop.
The massive elevator's doors slowly opened, and with that, the latest batch of tourists emerged into the mechanical floating wonderland. Except well, the good majority of this group belonged to none other than class 3-A. Yeah, that's right. The legendary class of troublemakers, taught by one underaged harem male lead Negi Springfield. It seemed that one field trip was not enough to satisfy the crazy classes urges, there needed to be more. More shenanigans, more adventures, more dangers, more classmates being kidnapped for nefarious purposes.
“This wonderful park has been constructed entirely out of a sense of remorse for my past transgressions, and is in no way associated with any sort of evil plot or premeditated misdeeds.” Continued the bold voice over the speakers.
Safe to say, the words were so specific, it seemed to annoy at least one person. “Oh... really?” Chisame Hasegawa raised an eyebrow, completely not impressed by all the technology still not available regularly on earth. Hey, magic world makes things boring, you know. “Because that sort of talking fills me with so much confidence.” She adjusted her glasses with a push from her middle finger.
“What does he even mean by 'past misdeeds'?” The brown-haired Konoka Konoe asked, scratching her head in confusion. Her arm was wrapped around her bodyguard (and probably girlfriend) Setsuna.
“Relax, Chisame-chan~” Came Haruna Saotome. “We're having a real vacation! In SPACE!”
“That also fills me with confidence. To the brim, even...”
“Class pres funded the whole thing,” The short Yue Ayase pointed out.
“Oh really? I told her up front that if she's plotting something on Negi, I'd kick her ass to the next galaxy.” White Wing de facto leader Asuna Kagurazaka crowed.
“Of course, only you would do something so brazen and awful,” hissed her former archrival and rich lady Ayaka Yukihiro. “For all intents and purposes, this was a vacation handpicked and recommended by my best advisors! Letting Negi-sensei come along was simply an additional gift!” Before Asuna could launch an objection to that, Ayaka sharply added, “AND everyone else! Who wouldn't be here if I wanted Negi-sensei to myself!” Well, that was still possible...
“Right...” Asuna rolled her eyes. “I'll believe that as soon as my shotacon detector comes back and stops breaking in your presence.”
Ayaka had the good graces to ignore her at this point.
Asuna huffed as she left that train of thought, then turned to someone who didn't catch her interest that often. “What's up with you, Misora-chan?” Well, apparently that changed.
The short-haired Misora Kasuga had an odd mix of amusement and worry etched on her face. This, despite the dark-skinned girl riding atop of her shoulders, didn't keep her from standing tall. “Ehh...” She shrugged. “It's finally a vacation! A real one! And by the looks of it,” she and the girl atop her looked about at the tropical themed buildings, the flashing neon lights. “...it looks like loads of fun. But... knowing my luck, it ain't gonna stay that way.” She shot a glance at the child genius now attempting to herd the class over in the direction of the hotels. When Asuna gave her a dark look, she tried to justify herself. “He's a trouble magnet, I swear!”
“Are you blaming Negi-bouya for your troubles?” Misora flinched as she felt the icy gaze of one Evangeline A.K. Macdowell. Slowly, as if she were facing death itself, she turned around. No need for stating 'as if', staring down Eva was probably worse than death. “You might as well start running now, coward. Though I doubt that will save you.”
Knowing that she was chancing fate (not Averrunicus), luck, and probably her existence, she still got pissed and snapped back, “Damn right I'm running! I'm not getting involved in any of those shenanigans again!”
Evangeline laughed cruelly. “I'd watch your mouth if I were you. Not everyone around these corners knows of magic. And it's best that it's kept that way. Don't want you ruining things for everyone, after all.”
Misora had nothing to say to that. She wasn't interested in dying today.
She did, however, have a question. “Say, how the hell are you up here, anyway? Don't you have a curse?”
“My answer is this: technology is wonderful, worth sacrificing a few rainforests for, at least!” She laughed. She then leaned in and added, “The dean agreed, don't ask him about it. Let's go, Chachamaru.”
“Understood, Master,” came the smooth, monotone voice of her robotic guard.
“Right,” Misora decided that she had enough talking to her today, and she should get a freaking medal for not being killed in her presence.
As the rambunctious class and their hapless supervisors made their way to the hotel area, the loudspeakers flared to life. “Our hotel area has numerous styles for all kinds of tourists, including rooms for lone travelers, large rooms for entire groups, and lovely quarters for couples, ideal for the two people who just won't admit it already.”
And everybody in 3-A (plus Kotarou and Cocone) immediately looked at Konoka and Setsuna.
Konoka, paused at everyone's stares, merely blinked apprehensively. “What's everyone staring at us for?”
Setsuna was sweating buckets.
“Ummm, let's keep moving please!” Came the voice of one Negi Springfield.
----
“Man, these rooms have everything!” Asuna crowed, launching herself into a huge, egg-shaped beanbag. It was incredibly comfortable, enough that she laid back, and almost would have been dozing off instantly had Negi not accidentally smacked her with his staff as he carried their things in the room. “Oww! Watch what you're doing, Negi!”
“Sorry, Asuna-san,” Negi muttered, finally setting down the stuff. “All this stuff at once is hard to navigate with, and I can't look too strong in front of everybody.”
“Uwaah~, this place really is nice,” The soft voice of Nodoka Miyazaki marveled at the spacious room their group was in. Yue, tailing right behind her, was in agreement.
“Wish I could say the same for this insignia that's all over the place,” Haruna rankled her nose as she came in, easily claiming a table for herself and setting a sketchpad on it. She whirled and pointed to the obviously sinister marking that was all over... everything. “It's fugly to the worst degree! Who designed this place?!”
“Now now, Haruna-san, let's not leap to conclusions on the designer's talent, or lack thereof,” Negi gently chided.
“I'll go with the latter, 'kay thanks,” Asuna quipped.
“I'd be a bit more careful about this vacation if I were you,” Evangeline crowed, making her grand entrance into the room. Much like the Kyoto trip, most of the groups gathered here were with the same people they had gathered with months prior. “You see bad fashion statement, I see a villain with enough money and power to say, 'Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly'. But still, don't let that stop you from having fun. Maybe you pitiful fools can use this as a chance to train AND enjoy yourselves at the same time.”
What of Ala Alba had gathered here sagely nodded.
“But what are the chances of that? Nobody would be stupid enough to hide an evil lair in an amusement park!” Evangeline pointed and laughed. “You should have seen the looks on your faces!”
“Eva-san!” Negi complained.
“You damned vampire brat!” Asuna bellowed, immediately stomping over to wage war via a face stretching contest. “You actually had us going for a minute!”
“Let go, you magic canceling neanderthal!” Evangeline complained right back.
As the usual Ala Alba antics kicked in, Negi noticed two of their close number weren't here. “Hey, where's Konoka-san and Setsuna-san?”
Haruna looked around, and seeing no sign of the yuri duo, sneered in success. “When a woman and a woman love each other very much...”
“Please spare me those details!”
----
Setsuna opened her room. “Um, everyone! Please don't mind that—huh?” The room she stepped in was empty. It was also notably smaller than the pamphlet said. “Um, where did everyone go? Asuna-san? Negi-sensei?” She was certain that they were supposed to be with group five, but everyone said it was this room. “Ojou-sama?”
“Secchan?” Came the fair voice of her charge. “Ah, there you are! Our stuff is in here okay!”
“Ojou-sama, where's everyone else?”
“They originally got this room, but moved up to another one. They said we could keep this room, though,” Konoka began to unpack. “So guess what that means?”
Setsuna had to think about that one. Well, with everyone else gone to another room, she'd be alone with Konoka. That also meant she'd have a bit more freedom, and—WAITASECOND. “A... We're alone?!”
“Yeah, we're all alone Secchan!” Konoka chirped, as if she had just given Setsuna a small present.
'All alone' began to echo in Setsuna's mind, quickly flooding her brain with the sheer implications of it all. She was alone. With Konoka. And she smelled nice. But Shinmeiryuu protectors were supposed to stay chaste! What lunacy was this?!
Setsuna cursed as she developed a severe nose bleed.
----
Right next door, someone had planted a cup to the wall.
“Are they kissing yet?” Came the overexcited voice of one Yuna.
“I don't hear anything,” Makie responded, her ear pressed to the cup.
“Are you sure you guys should be doing this?” Akira Ookouchi asked. “I mean, you should give those two a break and let their relationship bloom on its own time.”
“We are!” The brown-haired, spunky Yuna shot back defensively. “We just like spying on them! Watching those two is like watching an awesome lesbian edition of a romantic comedy!” Akira's response? A face fault.
“Ehhh, I'm not sure about that analogy,” Ako Izumi murmured,
“I'd keep your priorities straight if you ask me,” It wasn't often that the dark-skinned Mana spoke, but when she did, it caught the other four's attention instantly. Calmly cleaning her gun, she continued. “I get a bad feeling about this place.”
“What was your first clue?” Yuna's tone grew serious, though she kept a jovial face. “I mean, this insignia all over the place looks to be seriously evil.”
“Right. I doubt whoever built this place has any sort of interest for a love struck couple.”
“Awww! Don't be a spoil sport!” Makie complained. "Negi-kun and the Ala Alba have our backs if we find trouble!”
“Then don't rush out to meet it,” Came Mana's terse response. The sports girls mellowed out after that.
However. problems kicked in again when Ako pressed the cup back onto the wall and listened again. Her eyes grew wide. When the others looked for an explanation, Ako hissed in wonder, “I think they're watching Kannazuki no Miko...”
Well really, it's more like hijinks at a theme park. C'mon, 3-A wrecking a space park has to be hilarious at some level!
__________________
Disgaea: Gehenna's Holy Queen
Who needs things like 'sanity' or 'experience' to be a badass frickin' Overlord? Negima/Disgaea
^Thanks. Perhaps you'll like this second part, too.
Spoiler for Space Trip Steps, 'Tropical Resort' excerpt 2:
She had enough of this.
While everyone else was unpacking and winding down, she was feeling antsy, especially after Evangeline's comments earlier that day. With her artifact, she could run like the wind, much like an unfettered blue hedgehog. She took a fierce leap and sailed down towards a rail, smoothly crashing her feet on it and grinding down the rest of the way. Being such a coordinated runner allowed her to pull off such amazing stunts, and that was why she liked both this power and her partner. She looked up at her passenger. "Yo Cocone! Holding out okay?"
"Yeah," came the soft voice. Cocone held on tightly, unperturbed by Misora's blinding speed. There was a brief pause as she added, "You know you're going to get in serious trouble for this. Divine punishment, even."
"Aww hush, I'm turning around right now. Doubt they'll even notice that I'm gone," she responded quietly, screeching to a stop and turning on a heel to begin the sprint back. She began to build up speed again as she began to leap back over the buildings...
An explosion struck, and Misora tripped on thin air. Cocone dismounted just as Misora crashed into the ground, rolled like a failed armadillo and crashed into a rooftop door.
"Ow," Misora groaned out the obvious as Cocone stared blankly at her idiotic ministra. "What the hell was that?"
Cocone sighed and walked over to the edge of the building where they crashed. She looked down at the atrium below and gasped. As Misora recovered and dashed over, she also looked down. And she was quite horrified—and weirded out—by the sight before her.
"YEEEEEEHAW!" Crowed Yosemite Sa—err, a yellow, cubic robot. The metallic wonder was waving about a huge net, swiping at small creatures roughly a third his size. "Git aloooong little aliens!"
"Your voice chip is stuck on cowboy again..." Came the prim and proper sigh of a red, spherical robot. Lazily aiming his blaster, he shot at the tiny creatures, missing readily, but trying to steer them so they'd be easier for his yellow partner to swipe. "Stop talking and net those aliens!"
"Gotcha, pardner! C'mere!" Came the response, and he sailed forward, trying to swipe the poor, defenseless aliens. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) he had all the proper coordination of an ADD riddled child on an out of control lawnmower, and though his swipes came close, the aliens were too fast for him to catch. His partner was a great deal smarter, but alas he was too lazy, and eventually quit shooting, preferring to shrug and then simply prop his head on his hands.
Cocone's first words at seeing the scene? "Robot poachers!"
Misora, normally a coward, contorted into an angry snarl. "I hate robots, and I hate poachers. To see them both combined right in front of me...?!" She took a flying leap into action immediately. Her first leap allowed her to sail right on the head of the lazy red robot, smashing him down on the ground. The second hop landed her right in range to grab the two small aliens and land a sweep kick to the yellow cube bot, causing him to crash. She ran back to the edge and wall jumped her way back to the upper area, where Cocone was waiting. "What's going on, anyway?"
To her surprise, the red robot recovered handily. "Oww~! Nothing that concerns you," He aimed his blaster at Misora and fired. The cowardly nun squeaked and fled out of harm's way.
"We got interlopers? Let's stop 'em!" Cried the Yosemite Sam reject.
Misora snarled. With the two aliens in her arms, she wasn't fast enough to counterattack—only run. Well, it was what she did best, so arching her feet, she mentally made a plan for swiping Cocone and running off—
One of the small aliens slipped out of her grasp. Both of them had a basic form of looking like small octopi with three limbs. This one that had been freed swirled around her with two fierce eyes, its dark green body easy for her to follow in her confusion. It then slid right into her.
Misora suddenly found herself letting go of the other alien, flaring to life as if someone had force fed her several energy drinks. She flared with a green energy, and literally became a powerful, bouncy laser beam that shot straight through the robotic duo, blasting them into the skyline. The laser beam of doom returned to Cocone's side, and Misora reappeared. So did the alien, lazily drifting out of her, its energy spent.
"Whoa... that. Was. INSANE," Misora shook with excitement.
"True... and nobody's gonna believe us." Cocone stated bluntly.
"Maaaan! I knew my vacation was gonna be ruined!" Misora sulked. The other alien that remained, a pale blue one-eyed creature, began jabbering in a small, high-pitched voice. It seemed to be trying to tell the two of them something. Neither could make heads or tails of it—for all they knew, it told them that their mother was a hamster and their father smelt of elderberries. "I wish I knew what you were saying, little guy—or girl... or whatever you are..."
Well, the alien upped its attempts, this time adding wild gestures. It was no translation, but both girls could at least figure out it was grateful for the rescue. "Well, we've got to get back, before I get us into any more trouble," Misora sighed. She turned to the alien hovering by them, as Cocone quickly hopped on Misora's shoulders. "I dunno if we can keep you, but I think we can at least make a case."
She imagined it would go so well with Nitta-sensei, or even better yet, Shakti.
----
With a soft sigh, Nodoka gazed longingly at the flashing lights. If there was one thing about this place, it was the fact that the view certainly did not disappoint. The view of planet earth, hanging above them like a giant blue moon, was certainly spectacular. And the land itself—the Tropical Resort had everything a resort would have, including lavish spas, arcades, and even shopping malls.
However, the others had already left to go to the pool, and she was supposed to catch up! With a start, she remembered these wonderful facts and was about to go gather her things, but a green dot in the distance caught her eye. She stopped her scrambling and looked out the window at the unusual sight, wondering if her eyes were tricking her, or if it was part of the park.
A little green creature? Floating towards the ferris wheel? Something seemed quite odd about this, and for once, her curiosity curbstomped the logic that screamed, "curiosity killed the cat". Seemingly entranced, Nodoka left her stuff and swiped her pactio card and Comptina Daemonia instead. She also left a little note.
She may be flirting with possible idiocy, but no way was she going unprepared.
----
It was not too far of a trek. Nodoka stepped carefully, eyes wary of the strangely shaped robots milling about the park. All of them were red, with large upper bodies and oddly smiling faces. They seemed to pay her no attention so far, so she decided not to bother them either. She wasn't a fighter, so no need in engaging mooks when fighting them wasn't mandatory.
Having thought she spotted the green shape head down there, Nodoka entered a dark alleyway, though her alertness shot up five points, and she made her naturally quiet movements even more so. A little further walking, and she heard somebody taking count. "Hmm... twenty-three... twenty-four... twenty-five..." A grunt of frustration. "Bah! Not nearly enough aliens!"
"Would you like us to grab more aliens?" Came another voice.
"No, I'd like you to grab me a burger and a shake!" Came the snide remark.
Even more nervous now, Nodoka leaned over, looking beyond into the foyer. She spied the same two robots Misora dealt with earlier, taking directions from a man in a red coat, seemingly in a floating gray, egg-shaped hover car. Though from her point of view, the only other detail she could pick out from her spot was the fact that this man had a rather epic handlebar mustache. She took a moment to imagine said mustache on Negi, but it didn't quite fit. Nodoka shook off such silly thoughts and continued her spying. She could make out twenty-five glass pods, each containing bright energy of some sort—and faint shapes that resemble the green streak she saw outside.
"That would actually be easier!" Came the cowboy voice of the yellow Cubot. "Especially since cheeseburgers aren't as nearly as fast as those lil' alien varmints."
"You idiot! Get me more aliens!"Came the impatient voice. And at once, the two nincompoop robots hovered away.
Though... it appeared Cubot had some issues. The most pressing and important one: "Y'all want fries with that?" The answer he was rewarded with turned out to be a wrench to the head. "Oww! Okay, I'm going." And he floated off.
Nodoka drew back into her hiding spot, to let the red robot float on by, not noticing her. Curious as to what "aliens" referred to, as well as the red-coated man, she leaned back out. He was now letting his car float lower to the pods. "Hehehe, precious little aliens..." He sneered. "I'll harness your Hyper-go-on powers, and then nobody will be able to stop me! I know I say that every time, but for serious this time—nobody will stop me! I even made sure that infernal blue hedgehog wasn't around here before I began!"
Okay, that sounded seriously bad. Nodoka had to inform Negi-sensei and the Ala Alba of this madman immediately, before it was—
Just her luck. She bumped into a stray trash can, making a clanging noise that gave her away. She panicked, and then realized that finding out dangerous information like this and then being found out was liable to get herself killed. Or at least tied up and stored away for some other nefarious scheme.
At least the latter had hope of rescue and backup plans.
"What was that?" Came the voice of the red-coated man, and she felt the hover car lift up and zoom towards her location. "Well, well, what do we have here? Somebody snooping?" Eyes protected by sharp, black goggles glared down at the humble librarian. "No sneak previews! All rides and attractions not yet finished at Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park are strictly forbidden from tourist access. Though I suppose I can make an exception..." He gave a smile, though Nodoka was reminded more of the demonic grins Evangeline gave.
"YEEEEEHAW!" Oh look, the village idiot came back. "We have an intruder? What are we gonna do? Can we tie her by the train tracks and watch the train run her over?"
Nodoka paled, warily stepping back.
The rotund red man simply let his face rest in his palm, shaking his head.
The much smarter Orbot returned, holding a Instant Hostage kit. "Well, well, I suppose we can't have her running off to the others..." He clucked as he opened the tiny box and pulled out the prerequisite rope and tape. "You need to look the part so we can lure any do-gooders and defeat them as well."
"Ummm, your secret's safe with me, so I'd rather just get back to the hotel and rest, okay?" Nodoka tried inching away, and when she was far enough, broke into a sprint.
Cubot snatched the rope and instantly fashioned it into a lasso. "Oh no ya don't!" And of course, he chucked it, snatching her and forcing her to land on the ground. Both robots got to work, winding the rest of the rope over her torso and locking her hands behind her back.
"Oh no!" Nodoka cried, squirming against her bonds. "Help!"
----
Misora had alllllmost managed to make it back to her room, having taken a clever route past a rather obnoxious Egg Banner, with Cocone and the little alien in tow. But alas, as soon as she reached what she thought was the familiar front foyer, she saw emptiness.
She took a wrong turn.
"We're lost, aren't we?" Cocone asked bluntly.
"FFFFFF—maaaaaan!" Misora groaned, stopping her curse at the last second. "We are so busted!"
The little alien cared not for Misora's understatement; it squeaked and pointed downwards towards a lower deck.
And not just a moment later, she heard a familiar cry of "Help!"
Misora paled. "That sounds way too familiar..." She thought about it. "Wait a second... Miyazaki?" She sprinted down to get a closer look. Sure enough, there was a tied up Miyazaki, struggling in the grasp of... yep, those two robots again. "Geez, first they poach aliens, and now they poach classmates? Not cool!"
She set Cocone down. "Be back in a flash!" And of course she sprinted down towards the area, intending on snatching back Nodoka and getting the hell out of dodge.
Except that failed—all she got was a face full of Cubot.
Misora crashed into the ground, though she quickly recovered and whirled to face them again—and THAT was when she was aware of the fat man in the hover car. "Oh crap."
"That entrance... that was far too blue hedgehog-like for my tastes!" The irritable man snapped. "Not to mention you're not the first snooper running around here! Why even bother?!"
The real reason was to save Nodoka, but Misora wasn't telling him that, no sir. "Because you're too slow, and you need to come on, and step it up." She attempted a brave sneer, though considering her normal cowardly nature, it didn't quite hold up.
"By the sounds of it, you're just as annoying, too!" The red man idly scratched his mustache, then smoothed it out. He pointed a commanding finger in Orbot's direction. "All right, Orbot! Release the Big Boy!" He whirled to Misora. "If you're anything like that annoying blue hedgehog, let's see if you're anything as good as he is with robots."
The red robot sighed and tapped some buttons down on his lower half.
The man on the other hand, pressed some buttons on his car, activating the windshield, and began to hover up. "Hasta la bye bye, suckers! Enjoy the free preview ride, courtesy of Eggman Industries!" And his gray hovercar blasted away.
The earth shook, and the half visible ferris wheel she had been ignoring up to this point had flared to life. It rose from the end of the foyer, apparently propelled by thrusters on its edge. A giant, monolithic sun-like creature with heavyset arms whirled to life in its center, gripping the outer rungs with its cold, steel hands. The huge whirring noises signified its movements as the sun-shaped spikes seemed to narrow its single eye before flaring to life wide open again. Robots as huge as that would crush puny school children with the effort it would take to pick one's nose.
Safe to say, Misora just blanched horribly, and began to quietly consider her will.
Nodoka, however, had no say. Cubot had sealed her mouth shut with tape, even going so far as to wrap it around her head a few times, and the fair librarian was struggling and mewling as he chucked her in one of the cars. "Mmmm!" She wailed, but the door was shut, and even kicking her tied legs in with all of her force couldn't open it.
"Enjoy the free ride, pardner!" He crowed, before hovering away. "YEEEEEHAWWWWW..."
Misora took a step back, eyes large and blank like a horrified cat's, not wanting to be involved in a boss fight today. "Maybe I should find someone else to fight this thing... I'm fast enough, right?"
The Big Boy, as it was called, adjusted its arms and let its spikes whirl menacingly, and they were awful close to Nodoka's prison car. With that threat, even she couldn't get another out here, and she'll be damned if she put Cocone at risk.
Steeling herself despite her shot nerves, she leapt towards the creature, rather than running away like her logic and personality screamed at her to do. "I'm scared as hell, and I can't take this anymore!" She cried as she took a flying leap onto the rungs of the menacing boss.
__________________
Disgaea: Gehenna's Holy Queen
Who needs things like 'sanity' or 'experience' to be a badass frickin' Overlord? Negima/Disgaea
oooh a Negima fanfic thread!
can some1 provide links to some nice Konosetsu fanfics? ^w^
i only read complete stories and oneshots.
though incomplete stories are ok...as long there is some decent number of chapters
You might wanna look up the first page of this thread. There's a link to Egg Belly there, just about the best KonoSetsu Story (M-rated, of course) you would find. It's incomplete, though but the contents would make your eyes spin like fruit machines.
I just love how you're portraying Misa's involvement in this chapter. Pretty much what any curious girl would do when a guy they're interested in are in trouble but her reasoning why Eva was doing it made me fall over in laughter.
Quote:
"Innuendo! Innuendo!"
That was hilarious at the end. Have you been taking hints of NegixMisa somewhere or are you just making this up on your own?
I just love how you're portraying Misa's involvement in this chapter. Pretty much what any curious girl would do when a guy they're interested in are in trouble but her reasoning why Eva was doing it made me fall over in laughter.
That was hilarious at the end. Have you been taking hints of NegixMisa somewhere or are you just making this up on your own?
The 'Innuendo' lines were Shadow Crystal Mage's idea, actually. He's my prooofreader and will occasionally toss some gags in.
But the NegixMisa teasing was something I made up from scratch, since, well, it's not something anyone ever does, actually. Same thing with Negi-Misora.
Quote:
Is that who I think it is?
...oh well, at least Chisame won't feel so lonely anymore...
The funny thing is it's only an Easter egg mention by now. So far, I have no idea how could I fit the Haruhi mythos in beyond some random offhand mentions.
Mahora being Mahora, if I ever bring them in, I might replace Kyon with Kyonko and Itsuki with Itsuko...
Working on a Negima Kingdom Hearts X-over. Need ideas for battle music. Have chosen KH boss songs. Here's what I have so far.
Spoiler for Boss Battles:
Konoka and a KH heroine vs. Koyomi & Tamaki in Tamaki's artifact: Birth By Sleep - Unversed Boss Ver. 1 Negi & co. vs. Fate, Tsukuyomi, & Shirabe at the plaza: Birth by Sleep - Unversed Boss Ver. 2 (any two heroes/heroines, not yet decided) vs. Koyomi & Tamaki during the Battle at the Ball (not in original Negima canon): Rowdy Rumble (KH2 or BBS version, whichever the reader prefers) Negi & co. vs. Dynamis, Tsukuyomi, Homura, Koyomi, & Tamaki in that big room (Chapter 300s): BBS - A Battle of Great Valor
SPOT TO BE FILLED IN BY CANON PROGRESSION Final fight against Fate Averruncus: KH2 - A Fight To The Death First fight against revived Lifemaker (c'mon, you know it's gonna happen): KH1 - Forze del Male Fight against Master of the Grave, who turns out to be the Madara-esque true leader of CE: KH BBS - Mysterious Figure's Theme Eventual final battle against the Lifemaker, for the fate of two worlds and ~9 billion people: KH BBS - Vanitas Sentiment Theme
Story starts shortly after Kotaro joins the good guys and helps fight off Graf Wilhelm. Need music ideas for other battles (Tournament, Chao, other Magic World arc battles). Also, any suggestions for better KH battle themes than the ones already chosen? Lastly, debating whether or not to have the Lifemaker be an extremely powerful Heartless, and Fate Averruncus a Nobody.
Well, about time I posted something up. From the main story, at that.
Spoiler for Nodoka's training:
The bookworm sighed loudly as she collapsed on her bed in her own dormroom. “Ten hours straight of studying cantrips...” She lamented to herself. “And that's just the first day.”
Nodoka had been enrolled in the school known as Greenwood's Academy, a quite prestigious college for coming wizards. Apparently Fashtar had attended this school as well when he was studying magic and he had from time to time (on suspicions based that he had a healthy talk with the school's principal) returned to teach here as well. Our little bookworm felt herself a bit prideful on that such a good former student of the same academy who taught practicable magic had recommended her. No doubt I'll be harassed about it by the other students. Still, the teachers had no sense of favoritism among themselves as everyone was taught hard about magic and its uses at Greenwood's. She had been worked to the bone about the theory and practice of the basic cantrips or as she had come to know them through Haruna's constant video-gaming; 0-level spells. Everyone who attended this place knew those.
It's certainly hard here. I should be able to follow the rules here easily enough. I do that and study hard, things should be good for me. She thought to herself before her mind came to think of her friends out there. Hina, Boris-san... Rev'keth-san, Raydan-san, Bax-san... I don't know where you are but I do hope you're safe at least. It's good to know you're all alive but you gotta be together if we gotta have a chance of winning this civil war... Eurgh what am I gonna do-
“Hi, what's your name?” The voice cut itself into her head, making the bookworm wide awake and rising up from her bed. On the other bed sat a most peculiar girl. She seemed about the same age as Nodoka but she did sport elf ears like Ie-san outside the resort so she couldn't really tell her proper age. She had blue eyes and snow white hair. Neither was any spectacular about this girl but her pigment was. Rather than the normal pale or tanned pigmentation of people, this one was... charcoal black. “So you gonna answer me or what?”
“Er... sorry. My name is Nodoka.” She replied to the black skinned girl who merely smiled first.
“I'm Elacia Arcurio Melati Belmere-Wysiwyg. But you can say Ela for short.” Her seemingly new roommate told the bookworm. “And I'm your dormmate in our time here.”
“Er... likewise.” Nodoka replied not knowing what to say. “That's an awkwardly long name.”
“My mom was Drow, okay? She insisted that I have it.” Ela told her. “For the record, my dad's a human. Quite an odd coupling, wouldn't you agree?”
“Kinda.” Nodoka said. “But how come you're here?”
“I'd rather not say that on the first day.” Ela told her. “For now, let's go with that I was first apprentice to an archmage who showed me a few things first before he shipped me to Greenwood's. Said I'd get an even better education here. From what I've seen so far, I'm better off with him and his group. So what about you?”
“Um, well.... are you familiar with the Githyanki wizard Fashtar?” Nodoka asked her first. When Ela shook her head, the bookworm continued. “Well, there was a bit of an incident with me and some.... I think they were called Illithids, but at any rate Fashtar had a talk with my father and older sister and had me sent here. Wrote me a recommendation letter, according to what I've been told so far.”
“He wrote you a recommendation letter to this place?” Ela asked. “Huh. I think I'll be seeing him in Evocation or Necromancy to get a look at him. So what school are you gonna specialize in?”
“Huh?”
“It's quite normal for a wizard to specialize in a certain school of magic.” Ela informed her. “From what my old master told me, there are eight of them: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Evocation, Illusion, Enchantment, Necromancy and Transmutation. Figured out which one you're gonna take?”
“Er... is there any advantage to specializing?” The bookworm asked before someone knocked on the door. Ela told them to come in and a familiar face to Honya at least walked in.
“Sorry about intruding like this but I couldn't help but overhear.” Fashtar said as he grasped a chair.
“Fashtar-san.” Nodoka said.
“Wait, that's Fashtar?” Ela inquired. “Huh. Figured you without the eye-patch.”
“Yes, that's what most people say on first meeting.” The eye-patched Gith said. “Anyhow, I overheard about specializing in a school.”
“Oh yeah, we were talking about that. Mind telling my new roommate what that's about, Master Fashtar?”
Fashtar took a look at the half-drow before he gave off a minor smirk. “Very well, since you ask so nicely. Specializing in one specific school of magic has many advantages to it, as well as disadvantages. In choosing a school of magic, a wizard becomes much more efficient at that school. He gains control of more spells from it as well as he gets more skilled at them. Let's say for instance that a wizard has chosen Transmutation as his chosen school. In that scenario, he is more capable of changing the physical capacities of himself or his companions.”
“Okay... what are the disadvantages to it?” Ela asked whilst actually raising her hand.
“Well... the downside is that you have to discard the access to two other schools.” Fashtar told them. “You'd be unable to use spells from those schools, not to mention any scrolls or wands that fit in with them too.”
“That's it?”
“Pretty much.” Fashtar told them. “At any rate, I only came to check in on Honya.”
“Well, I seem to be doing fine for now, but it's just the first day and all.”
“Hmm, true. I should be going.” Fashtar rose up from his chair and walked over to the door. “Oh, I recalled.” He turned his to stare at them. “Don't pick Evocation. That school is not one I recommend if you wanna be a good wizard.” With that, the elder wizard left the two students alone.
“Huh. I think it's good advice. But I think I'll go universal. What about you?” Ela said whilst turning to Nodoka who looked a bit puzzled over the choice.
“I think...I'm gonna wait for a few days before I choose.” She replied to the half-drow. “It's a big choice to specialize and I want to make sure I get it right.”
“Sure. Do as you wish. But make sure you tell me when you decide.”
“I will.” Nodoka replied. “C'mon, it's been a long day and we're both tired. Good night.”
Spoiler for Notes:
-I couldn't focus on the honeymoon so I decided to write down ch 42, which will come up soon. Hope you don't mind.
-If you don't know who Greenwood really is, your loss.
-The poll is still up in case you want to know. I'm not going to let people find out what it is just yet.
-Ela is made originally by vastler75, in case you've seen him on the Negima section of Fanfiction. I decided to flesh her out and explore the girl in here. Will not get major focus.
I very rarely have dreams related to fictional characters. However, two nights ago I had an extremely weird one where Two-Face... the Batman Forever version, mind... was a rather nasty host of a videogame-reviewing TV (or was it an Internet one? Don't remember it too well) show of all things.
Anyway, the weirdest thing is I woke up from that dream with a completely unrelated idea for a Negima fanfic. Why, who knows.
It's kinda an exaggeration on my worst fears for 312 and beyond... well, not 'kinda'. It IS a major exaggeration, although I hope I'm not Tempting Fate (pun!) in any way by saying this... In any case, maybe it's a way to exorcise my fears, for lack of a better word, for the series' future, taking it to the extremes so it all looks better in perspective.
I call it...
Spoiler for Worst Case Scenario:
Worst Case Scenario.
Ayaka had truly thought everything would be okay after the Headmaster told them his plan had succeeded.
The World Tree was stable now, and things seemed to have been turned back to normal. The Red Alert was over.
Although still confused about everything that had just transpired, not to mention all the new and bizarre information about Negi and their classmates, the other girls (minus Eva) had decided to throw a 'victory party'. Despite her own initial reservations, Ayaka, moved by the others' enthusiasm, agreed to organize the celebration. And she had to admit she enjoyed it greatly.
Even Zazie seemed to enjoy it in her own peculiar way. Only Evangeline seemed to be unwilling to have fun, but that was par for the course. And yet, if they had bothered to pay close attention to her, they might have noticed concern lurking under her usual aloofness this time.
After that, the only thing they could do was waiting for Negi-sensei and everyone else to return. It finally happened two weeks later, and as Ayaka hurried from her Manor to the Academy after getting the news, she once again went through her mental list of things to insult Asuna with over being left out of the loop for so long. She barely could wait.
But nothing could have prepared them for what they found.
Only Negi-sensei and Takahata-sensei had returned, along with Nekane-san, a girl named Collette, and a young man named Johnny.
"Huh? Where's everyone else?" Fumika asked.
"Why are you so pale, Negi-kun?" Fuuka added. "And why do you have so many marks over you—"
But Negi had said nothing, only staring into nothingness with haunted dead eyes. And then Ayaka knew things had gone horribly wrong.
Zazie knew, too. She walked up to Takahata and asked him a single word. "Sister...?"
Takamichi shook his head sadly. "Sorry."
The briefest pang of pain flashed across Zazie's features. "I understand. She chose her path in life."
"Where's Asuna-san?" Ayaka asked with a cracked voice.
"Where's Chachamaru?-!" Evangeline and Hakase demanded at once.
The ensuing story, narrated between Takahata, Collette-san and Johnny-san, each one supplying the parts they either had witnessed or been able to gather from the wreckage of the battle, was enough to even disturb Eva, and outright horrify everyone else. It all seemed to be more or less salvageable until the Averruncus series was deployed. Yuuna's petrified body had been crushed to dust by falling battle debris. Setsuna and the cute innocent swordsgirl Ayaka had seen during the Kyoto trip had killed each other in a bloody duel. Ku Fei, Chisame, Konoka and Akira, turned into ice and shattered. Ako, impaled with an icicle. Kotaro, pierced through the stomach. Nodoka, shocked to death. Haruna, smashed between the remains of her own ship. Takane and Cocone, plummeted down an abyss. The hideous list went on and on. Johnny-san and Collette-san barely escaped with their lives because their attacker hardly paid them any attention, and their Shadow Armor saved them from their only critical hit.
That had made Negi's demon side to return far stronger than ever, unbound with a fury matching that of all of Hell itself. A demon side, Ayaka thought, her face as white as a sheet of paper, forcing herself to stay conscious even after Chizuru, Madoka and the twins had fainted, and Misa had gone to uncontrollably puke and cry at the bathroom. Her sweet Negi-sensei, with a demonic side that had blinded her dear teacher to all reason, making him to rip through all remaining members of Cosmo Entelecheia with his own hands. Not even those in not a condition to be a threat anymore had been spared. When Takahata and Kurt Godel finally could reach him, they found him alone and covered in blood, paralyzed and panting in exhaustion, knelt over a mangled pile of pale white haired corpses.
Negi hadn't spoken a single word since then, neither did he give an impression to listen or understand to others' words. Somehow, Takahata said, his demonic side had either been sucked dry by someone or burned itself out in the battle, but his humanity had died with it as well. He was only an empty shell that had to be guided around by hand like a walking ragdoll, unable to do anything but wandering aimlessly with a vacant stare when left to his own devices.
He had not improved at all by the time of the memorial services. Ayaka thought it was cruel to lie to everyone's parents, telling them it had been a plane accident only to keep that despicable masquerade that had caused Negi so much pain to help keeping, but out of respect for the Dean's own suffering, she agreed to go along with it. Her father had been so happy she had travelled in her own private jet, it made her to feel both nauseous about his callouness concerning her friends and more personally beloved by him than ever before.
The most painful part was they were the only ones left to mourn over Asuna's resting place. Everyone else had a family left to remember them, at the very least. But Asuna... No, Ayaka promised herself. Asuna would always have her, even now. It was the least she could do for her. The grave would never be without a token of her friendship over it.
Then Chao had shown up after the services, when only her old classmates were left behind to share the things they only could share between themselves.
"Hello, " Chao quietly said. "I have come to—"
Ayaka greeted her with a punch to the face.
"Iincho!" Misa gasped aloud.
"You... You bitch!" Ayaka hissed as Chao wiped the blood off her mouth with the back of a hand, keeping her head low. "You knew that would happen, didn't you?"
"Yes, " Chao said with a very small voice.
Zazie had to hold the heiress back or she'd have jumped for Chao's throat right there. "How could you, you miserable! You at least could have warned them! It's your fault they're all dead! How do you dare show up here?-!"
"Iincho, I've learned history can't be actually changed, " the genius struggled with the words, not with its meaning, but with the courage to actually utter them. "I found that out the hard way after the Festival. When you alter the timeline, there's no way to—"
"Ku Fei was supposed to be your best friend!!" Ayaka growled. "And yet you let her die like an animal, butchered without ever seeing her home and family again! Was your precious timeline more important than her life? Than everyone's lives?-! You have no heart or soul!"
Then she paused. Because Chao had started sobbing. Chao Lingshen was sobbing for the first time in her life, on her hands and knees before them, head hanging down in humiliation.
"I'm sorry... so sorry... always will be..."
The sobs became full bawls and streams of tears, going on and on. They all had cried a lot in the past few days, even Eva when no one was looking, but seeing the unfazable Chao Lingshen reduced to tears still had seemed unthinkable. Until now.
Finally, Satsuki softly ran her hands over her friend's shoulders. "Will you be staying?"
Chao eventually could manage a nod. "A few days, at least... If you can accept me..."
Ayaka said nothing about it at first, then turned around and walked away. "Do whatever you want!"
The girls, including Nekane, reached an agreement on making Negi stay at Yukihiro Manor until his trauma started to heal. Chizuru and Nekane moved there as well, and the other students all remained close as well, never moving too far even after the simple and gray graduation. Madoka and Satomi even got jobs at the Yukihiro Zaibatsu, as well as Johnny and Collette, whose stories of their days with Ala Alba gave the former 3-A students glimpses of a side of their friends they never quite knew.
Professor Akashi vanished without a trace, and Eishun became a pale shadow of the man he once was. Dean Konoemon never quit, but he never was the same ever again. Shizuna-sensei pretty much took over his duties, as the old man became almost as catatonic as Negi, simply staying at his office all day long, looking out the window longingly. Shizuna didn't need magic to know he was looking at two little girls playing ball with the eye of his mind.
Chao's days of stay became weeks, months and then years. She never left, running her restaurant with Satsuki, but neither the place nor her were ever the same without Ku and Chachamaru. Hakase had at first attempted to duplicate or rebuild Chachamaru, using the broken, burnt personality core Takahata had recovered from the battlefield, but eventually she followed Chao's advice and left it alone. It took her ten copies of her original creation to painfully learn none of them, despite being perfectly physically identical and developing personalities of their own, was quite the same Chachamaru. If anything, their presence became an unbearable reminder of her loss, but at the same time, she just couldn't bring herself to destroying them.
Evangeline, much better used to cope with personal losses, had to end up taking the ten sisters under her wing. She started spending more time locked in her resort with them, running strange, secret arcane experiments of an undisclosed nature. Only Albireo seemed to be informed about them, and he wasn't talking.
Four years later, Negi had aged up physically, growing up into a tall young man, but emotionally, he was the same. At first, he had occasionally broken out of his stupor to make clumsy, silent, attempts of suicide, until Ayaka made sure all the sharp instruments and anything that could be used as a rope were left out of his reach. Thankfully, that phase ended relatively soon, but it was replaced with another, much longer one of him escaping the mansion when no one was looking, with a velocity that seemed unfitting someone in such a sedate, clueless state. Ayaka, Chizuru and Nekane would always have to look through the Mahora campus for him, often with the help of the twins or the cheerleaders. He usually was found alone, sitting next to the pool where Akira used to swim, or at Kaede's old camping site, or even right outside the room he used to share with Asuna and Konoka. Luckily, both girls living there now were very understanding, calling his guardians whenever they found him sitting at their doorstep, looking at them as if expecting for them to become someone else.
All the love Ayaka, Chizuru and the others put on him seemed to make no changes. Alone at her bed every night, Ayaka would cry about that, too.
Until that night when Evangeline called all of them for a gathering around the World Tree.
To be Continued. And yes, this horrible thing does have a happy ending. Sorta.
On a lighter note, here's a comedy fic I'm starting now...
Spoiler for Birthday Gifts:
Birthday Gifts, Part One:
It had been a wonderful birthday party, although after seven years of royal birthday parties at his Mother's regained castle with everyone in attendance, Negi just didn't feel the same childlike thrill about it anymore. Still, he greatly valued all the care and effort his friends, even those who once were foes, and family put into it. He only wished some of them hadn't drank that much.
As the young man reached his bedroom's door, he absently checked on the hour. 3:25 A.M. Wow, later than he expected. He almost felt like being able to celebrate a bit more, but all in all, it probably was for the better just calling it a night.
He closed the door behind himself only to gasp in shock. Evangeline was smiling sultrily, lying on her side, and on his bed, wearing nothing but a black yet fully transparent negligee that didn't hide a single inch of the bare body underneath, and a large black gift bow on the top of her head.
"M-Master!"
"Happy Birthday again, Boyo..." she purred. "Hm, hm, hm, now you're 18, no one will be able to protest about this, not even you. It's time for you to learn the most important lesson of them all..."
By now, Negi Springfield already was an ace at identifying innuendo when he heard it, but also an ace of avoiding acting on it. "N-No, we can't! It's... It's wrong!"
"Why? You already are the right age."
"But you're my student!"
"I graduated years ago, you idiot!"
"And I'm your student!"
"I already graduated you, too!"
She rose up to hug the paralyzed boy, rubbing her right cheek against his strong chest. "Oh God, I've been waiting so long for this moment..."
At that moment, someone knocked at the door.
"Curses!" Eva hissed. "We'll continue this later, " With that, without even waiting for his approval, she locked herself inside of Negi's closet.
"Master, are you really hiding?" Negi blinked.
"HAH!" her voice came from the inside. "Evangeline AK Mc Dowell hides from no one! This is only a strategic temporary repositioning to avoid answering to annoying lesser beings! Now go open that door and dispatch that interloper away quickly!"
The boy stood there in dumbed down silence for a few moments before the knocks on his door brought him back to reality.
"G-Going!" he said, shakily walking ahead and opening. He found himself face to face (more or less, since he had grown much taller than them) with Nodoka and Yue, both wearing matching thick night shirts that reached down to their knees. "Ah-ah, it's you, girls. How can I help you?"
"C-Can we get in, Sensei?" the taller librarian asked, sounding much more unsure than usual, almost as much as she did back in her early mid school years.
His first impulse was to find an excuse to say no, before something bad happened, but before he could utter the words, Yue took the horse by the reins and nearly dragged her friend in with herself. "Thank you, " the still tiny girl said, closing the door behind themselves
It's kinda an exaggeration on my worst fears for 312 and beyond... well, not 'kinda'. It IS a major exaggeration, although I hope I'm not Tempting Fate (pun!) in any way by saying this... In any case, maybe it's a way to exorcise my fears, for lack of a better word, for the series' future, taking it to the extremes so it all looks better in perspective.
I call it...
Spoiler for Worst Case Scenario:
Worst Case Scenario.
Ayaka had truly thought everything would be okay after the Headmaster told them his plan had succeeded.
The World Tree was stable now, and things seemed to have been turned back to normal. The Red Alert was over.
Although still confused about everything that had just transpired, not to mention all the new and bizarre information about Negi and their classmates, the other girls (minus Eva) had decided to throw a 'victory party'. Despite her own initial reservations, Ayaka, moved by the others' enthusiasm, agreed to organize the celebration. And she had to admit she enjoyed it greatly.
Even Zazie seemed to enjoy it in her own peculiar way. Only Evangeline seemed to be unwilling to have fun, but that was par for the course. And yet, if they had bothered to pay close attention to her, they might have noticed concern lurking under her usual aloofness this time.
After that, the only thing they could do was waiting for Negi-sensei and everyone else to return. It finally happened two weeks later, and as Ayaka hurried from her Manor to the Academy after getting the news, she once again went through her mental list of things to insult Asuna with over being left out of the loop for so long. She barely could wait.
But nothing could have prepared them for what they found.
Only Negi-sensei and Takahata-sensei had returned, along with Nekane-san, a girl named Collette, and a young man named Johnny.
"Huh? Where's everyone else?" Fumika asked.
"Why are you so pale, Negi-kun?" Fuuka added. "And why do you have so many marks over you—"
But Negi had said nothing, only staring into nothingness with haunted dead eyes. And then Ayaka knew things had gone horribly wrong.
Zazie knew, too. She walked up to Takahata and asked him a single word. "Sister...?"
Takamichi shook his head sadly. "Sorry."
The briefest pang of pain flashed across Zazie's features. "I understand. She chose her path in life."
"Where's Asuna-san?" Ayaka asked with a cracked voice.
"Where's Chachamaru?-!" Evangeline and Hakase demanded at once.
The ensuing story, narrated between Takahata, Collette-san and Johnny-san, each one supplying the parts they either had witnessed or been able to gather from the wreckage of the battle, was enough to even disturb Eva, and outright horrify everyone else. It all seemed to be more or less salvageable until the Averruncus series was deployed. Yuuna's petrified body had been crushed to dust by falling battle debris. Setsuna and the cute innocent swordsgirl Ayaka had seen during the Kyoto trip had killed each other in a bloody duel. Ku Fei, Chisame, Konoka and Akira, turned into ice and shattered. Ako, impaled with an icicle. Kotaro, pierced through the stomach. Nodoka, shocked to death. Haruna, smashed between the remains of her own ship. Takane and Cocone, plummeted down an abyss. The hideous list went on and on. Johnny-san and Collette-san barely escaped with their lives because their attacker hardly paid them any attention, and their Shadow Armor saved them from their only critical hit.
That had made Negi's demon side to return far stronger than ever, unbound with a fury matching that of all of Hell itself. A demon side, Ayaka thought, her face as white as a sheet of paper, forcing herself to stay conscious even after Chizuru, Madoka and the twins had fainted, and Misa had gone to uncontrollably puke and cry at the bathroom. Her sweet Negi-sensei, with a demonic side that had blinded her dear teacher to all reason, making him to rip through all remaining members of Cosmo Entelecheia with his own hands. Not even those in not a condition to be a threat anymore had been spared. When Takahata and Kurt Godel finally could reach him, they found him alone and covered in blood, paralyzed and panting in exhaustion, knelt over a mangled pile of pale white haired corpses.
Negi hadn't spoken a single word since then, neither did he give an impression to listen or understand to others' words. Somehow, Takahata said, his demonic side had either been sucked dry by someone or burned itself out in the battle, but his humanity had died with it as well. He was only an empty shell that had to be guided around by hand like a walking ragdoll, unable to do anything but wandering aimlessly with a vacant stare when left to his own devices.
He had not improved at all by the time of the memorial services. Ayaka thought it was cruel to lie to everyone's parents, telling them it had been a plane accident only to keep that despicable masquerade that had caused Negi so much pain to help keeping, but out of respect for the Dean's own suffering, she agreed to go along with it. Her father had been so happy she had travelled in her own private jet, it made her to feel both nauseous about his callouness concerning her friends and more personally beloved by him than ever before.
The most painful part was they were the only ones left to mourn over Asuna's resting place. Everyone else had a family left to remember them, at the very least. But Asuna... No, Ayaka promised herself. Asuna would always have her, even now. It was the least she could do for her. The grave would never be without a token of her friendship over it.
Then Chao had shown up after the services, when only her old classmates were left behind to share the things they only could share between themselves.
"Hello, " Chao quietly said. "I have come to—"
Ayaka greeted her with a punch to the face.
"Iincho!" Misa gasped aloud.
"You... You bitch!" Ayaka hissed as Chao wiped the blood off her mouth with the back of a hand, keeping her head low. "You knew that would happen, didn't you?"
"Yes, " Chao said with a very small voice.
Zazie had to hold the heiress back or she'd have jumped for Chao's throat right there. "How could you, you miserable! You at least could have warned them! It's your fault they're all dead! How do you dare show up here?-!"
"Iincho, I've learned history can't be actually changed, " the genius struggled with the words, not with its meaning, but with the courage to actually utter them. "I found that out the hard way after the Festival. When you alter the timeline, there's no way to—"
"Ku Fei was supposed to be your best friend!!" Ayaka growled. "And yet you let her die like an animal, butchered without ever seeing her home and family again! Was your precious timeline more important than her life? Than everyone's lives?-! You have no heart or soul!"
Then she paused. Because Chao had started sobbing. Chao Lingshen was sobbing for the first time in her life, on her hands and knees before them, head hanging down in humiliation.
"I'm sorry... so sorry... always will be..."
The sobs became full bawls and streams of tears, going on and on. They all had cried a lot in the past few days, even Eva when no one was looking, but seeing the unfazable Chao Lingshen reduced to tears still had seemed unthinkable. Until now.
Finally, Satsuki softly ran her hands over her friend's shoulders. "Will you be staying?"
Chao eventually could manage a nod. "A few days, at least... If you can accept me..."
Ayaka said nothing about it at first, then turned around and walked away. "Do whatever you want!"
The girls, including Nekane, reached an agreement on making Negi stay at Yukihiro Manor until his trauma started to heal. Chizuru and Nekane moved there as well, and the other students all remained close as well, never moving too far even after the simple and gray graduation. Madoka and Satomi even got jobs at the Yukihiro Zaibatsu, as well as Johnny and Collette, whose stories of their days with Ala Alba gave the former 3-A students glimpses of a side of their friends they never quite knew.
Professor Akashi vanished without a trace, and Eishun became a pale shadow of the man he once was. Dean Konoemon never quit, but he never was the same ever again. Shizuna-sensei pretty much took over his duties, as the old man became almost as catatonic as Negi, simply staying at his office all day long, looking out the window longingly. Shizuna didn't need magic to know he was looking at two little girls playing ball with the eye of his mind.
Chao's days of stay became weeks, months and then years. She never left, running her restaurant with Satsuki, but neither the place nor her were ever the same without Ku and Chachamaru. Hakase had at first attempted to duplicate or rebuild Chachamaru, using the broken, burnt personality core Takahata had recovered from the battlefield, but eventually she followed Chao's advice and left it alone. It took her ten copies of her original creation to painfully learn none of them, despite being perfectly physically identical and developing personalities of their own, was quite the same Chachamaru. If anything, their presence became an unbearable reminder of her loss, but at the same time, she just couldn't bring herself to destroying them.
Evangeline, much better used to cope with personal losses, had to end up taking the ten sisters under her wing. She started spending more time locked in her resort with them, running strange, secret arcane experiments of an undisclosed nature. Only Albireo seemed to be informed about them, and he wasn't talking.
Four years later, Negi had aged up physically, growing up into a tall young man, but emotionally, he was the same. At first, he had occasionally broken out of his stupor to make clumsy, silent, attempts of suicide, until Ayaka made sure all the sharp instruments and anything that could be used as a rope were left out of his reach. Thankfully, that phase ended relatively soon, but it was replaced with another, much longer one of him escaping the mansion when no one was looking, with a velocity that seemed unfitting someone in such a sedate, clueless state. Ayaka, Chizuru and Nekane would always have to look through the Mahora campus for him, often with the help of the twins or the cheerleaders. He usually was found alone, sitting next to the pool where Akira used to swim, or at Kaede's old camping site, or even right outside the room he used to share with Asuna and Konoka. Luckily, both girls living there now were very understanding, calling his guardians whenever they found him sitting at their doorstep, looking at them as if expecting for them to become someone else.
All the love Ayaka, Chizuru and the others put on him seemed to make no changes. Alone at her bed every night, Ayaka would cry about that, too.
Until that night when Evangeline called all of them for a gathering around the World Tree.
To be Continued. And yes, this horrible thing does have a happy ending. Sorta.
Huh. After reading that my heart suddenly feels so...light? An odd way to prepare for the worst, I guess, but now I suddenly feel optimistic!
Spoiler for About Eva, I'm guessing for...:
Necromancy?
Quote:
On a lighter note, here's a comedy fic I'm starting now...
Spoiler for Birthday Gifts:
Birthday Gifts, Part One:
It had been a wonderful birthday party, although after seven years of royal birthday parties at his Mother's regained castle with everyone in attendance, Negi just didn't feel the same childlike thrill about it anymore. Still, he greatly valued all the care and effort his friends, even those who once were foes, and family put into it. He only wished some of them hadn't drank that much.
As the young man reached his bedroom's door, he absently checked on the hour. 3:25 A.M. Wow, later than he expected. He almost felt like being able to celebrate a bit more, but all in all, it probably was for the better just calling it a night.
He closed the door behind himself only to gasp in shock. Evangeline was smiling sultrily, lying on her side, and on his bed, wearing nothing but a black yet fully transparent negligee that didn't hide a single inch of the bare body underneath, and a large black gift bow on the top of her head.
"M-Master!"
"Happy Birthday again, Boyo..." she purred. "Hm, hm, hm, now you're 18, no one will be able to protest about this, not even you. It's time for you to learn the most important lesson of them all..."
By now, Negi Springfield already was an ace at identifying innuendo when he heard it, but also an ace of avoiding acting on it. "N-No, we can't! It's... It's wrong!"
"Why? You already are the right age."
"But you're my student!"
"I graduated years ago, you idiot!"
"And I'm your student!"
"I already graduated you, too!"
She rose up to hug the paralyzed boy, rubbing her right cheek against his strong chest. "Oh God, I've been waiting so long for this moment..."
At that moment, someone knocked at the door.
"Curses!" Eva hissed. "We'll continue this later, " With that, without even waiting for his approval, she locked herself inside of Negi's closet.
"Master, are you really hiding?" Negi blinked.
"HAH!" her voice came from the inside. "Evangeline AK Mc Dowell hides from no one! This is only a strategic temporary repositioning to avoid answering to annoying lesser beings! Now go open that door and dispatch that interloper away quickly!"
The boy stood there in dumbed down silence for a few moments before the knocks on his door brought him back to reality.
"G-Going!" he said, shakily walking ahead and opening. He found himself face to face (more or less, since he had grown much taller than them) with Nodoka and Yue, both wearing matching thick night shirts that reached down to their knees. "Ah-ah, it's you, girls. How can I help you?"
"C-Can we get in, Sensei?" the taller librarian asked, sounding much more unsure than usual, almost as much as she did back in her early mid school years.
His first impulse was to find an excuse to say no, before something bad happened, but before he could utter the words, Yue took the horse by the reins and nearly dragged her friend in with herself. "Thank you, " the still tiny girl said, closing the door behind themselves
To be Continued, too.
Oookay, just how many gifts is he going to get? I'm eagerly waiting for more
Possible, but unlikely. This is the part that I hate being such a bookworm about magic. Necromancy does possess the spells and powers to bring people back from the dead. Not surprising that you would turn to one in case you need to do that. However, the downside is that you need the bodies of the deceased in order for the stuff to work. And here we have most of them with the bodies gone.
What's more, even if it was possible to bring them all back using Necromancy, do you honestly believe they would be the same? You never truly know if that would work, that they'd be back to normal. The timespan that they've spent dead would be also horrifying.
I hate this part. I hate having so much trivia of magic in my head.
Yikes. That was brutal, OM! Reading that filled me with some serious dread. Luckily, it won't end so horribly for our heroes in the canon, right? I hope so. Especially since this crackfic takes place after that visit.
Kurush is right. If you're back from the dead, your humanity sure isn't. And what about the gap in time?
Well, I posted everything so far on my ff.net account, so let's continue on with another part of Space Trip Step's Tropical Resort arc.
“I'm scared as hell, and I can't take this anymore!” she cried as she took a flying leap onto the rungs of the menacing boss.
Big Boy's opening attack was to show Misora just how pointy its spines were. It slammed its spiky body on the rungs, trying to test out Misora's worth as a pincushion. Misora shrieked and scampered backwards, adjusting herself into a full on sprint as the hulking creature gave chase. Eventually her speed failed and gravity caught up. She whirled and landed on her feet, just in time to see the mechanical nightmare adjust itself and glare at her with its single eye.
Feeling bolder now, Misora decided she had enough of this thing chasing her around. She jumped off the platform she was on and dropped on it—hard.
The creature reeled, mechanical whirring and stamping almost like a tsundere temper tantrum. It slammed its hand down by Misora again, shifting its titanic weight to aim at her again.
Clenching her teeth, Misora noted that she needed to hit harder. But how the hell could she hit hard enough to shut it down? She need more speed, she needed...
Oddly enough, she spotted a red-topped clear capsule. Curious, Misora jumped up to it, dodging the awful spikes once again, and landed beside it. Despite its sturdy shape, she managed to break it with a simple kick. Two small, white aliens freed themselves from their prison, and gave a quiet nod to each other before plunging into Misora. The fierce energy threatened to take her over again, but now it was notably easier to keep under control.
Just as well, because there is now a crazy spike monster throwing spike discs at her.
“Why does it always have to be spikes with you?!” She bellowed, running as fast as her artifact—and her willpower—could carry her.
In the meantime, the car carrying Nodoka shook from the battle, and the tied up maiden found herself tumbling against the wall. She grunted under her gag, using her legs to prop herself as upright as she could. However, her attempts to flex out of the ropes weren’t working yet. She could feel a bit of give on her wrists, but at this rate, she’d take too long.
Hang in there... Misora-san...! She mentally cheered on the challenged girl outside.
After dodging the 9001st spike of doom, Misora found herself above the creature. She was starting to feel tired—that damn thing hadn’t given her a good opportunity to beat it yet, and the creatures inside her were getting restless. But it was now or nothing—she couldn’t afford to waste any more time. “I’m fed up of the likes of you!” she bellowed, dropping down, and the aliens inside her flared to life.
She found herself surging downwards, a torrent of powerful white energy. She felt her foot collide with the Big Boy’s eye, sending it into what sounded like a pained screech. As she landed, the aliens floated away, and the creature began to short circuit, threatening to explode.
Looking up, Misora felt mighty impressed with herself. “You must be one pathetic killer robot to lose to me!” She made a show of dusting off her hands before jumping off...
...and jumping back on, scrambling about the cars. “Miyazaki!” she cried out, looking desperately for the captive Nodoka.
Inside her car, Nodoka could practically feel the ropes giving way, but not quite enough. She could hear the machine creaking and failing, and knew she needed to get out of here fast. However, Misora's voice snapped her to attention. “MMMM!” She cried out.
“Miyazaki!” Came Misora's desperate call again. It was getting closer.
“MMMMM!”
“Miyaza—oh crap!”
Desperation giving her power, Nodoka kicked the door once more, only for it to swing wide open from the force. Surprised, she took a moment to lean out, only for Misora to sweep by and dive tackle her right back in. “Get down—” She hissed. Nodoka was confused for just two seconds before she found out why.
The Big Boy's container opened, and dangerous debris and mechanical parts were spraying out like bullets—just one last retaliation against the obnoxious nun that had defeated it. Judging by the force and a flicker of light piercing the car, it didn't look like their protection solution was working out all that well. Both girls braced themselves, hoping that should anything hit, it wouldn't strike anything vital.
“Dark Barrier.” Came a soft voice.
The deadly bullet never came, as whatever was dropping on them stopped. They still heard some deadly projectiles outside, but it seemed to perfectly miss them outside.
When silence finally returned from its five minute vacation, Misora wearily got to her knees, examining Nodoka. “You okay?” It seemed that Nodoka was already halfway out of the ropes, but she helped anyway. The gag was very annoying to remove, considering the nature of duct tape.
“Ouch!” came a cry. “Yeah, more or less,” Nodoka then said softly. “I thought this was supposed to be a vacation, and here I got kidnapped...”
“Tell me about it,” Misora grumbled.
Their car shook.
“...when we get out of here!” she cried, taking Nodoka's hand and getting the hell out of dodge like she originally planned. The entire ferris wheel failed just as they had escaped, crashing down onto the valley of buildings below, exploding magnificently.
It was when she hopped out and landed safely on the bridge that she finally saw who protected her from the falling debris—and the alien was with her. “Cocone!”
“I hate using that technique,” Cocone said quietly. A quiet glance at Nodoka. “You didn't hear me use it, okay?”
“Fine,” Nodoka said, a bit cowed at her attitude but still grateful. “Thank you for helping us.”
The little alien popped up, nodding its head.
“Wah!” She gasped upon seeing it. It veered closer to her. “It's cute...”
“Who knew one-eyed octopi could be adorable?” Misora added, lowering herself by instinct as Cocone immediately mounted her. “And it looks like the robots here are being jerks and trying to hunt them down.”
The alien nodded enthusiastically and began to gibber in its language. The girls tilted in confusion.
But of course, Nodoka immediately figured out something useful. Pointing her ornate Comptina Daemonia at the creature, she asked, “Give me your true name, please!”
The alien stopped and tilted its small head in confusion.
“Adeat!” Nodoka cried, and her book was open in a flash, of course the power of it also gave the alien a wonderful panty shot of all three girls. For no reason. She looked down and saw the alien's name, but no words yet appeared. “Please ask him a question.”
“Awright!” Misora said with a grin. With a loud and simplistic voice, as if she were attempting to speak Japanese to a foreigner (and what do you know, she was.), she enunciated, “WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOUR PEOPLE?”
Cocone just narrowed her eyes and shook her head in annoyance.
Nodoka peered down at her book while the words for him appeared. “He says his name is Yacker. He's froma race of beings called 'Wisps', which hail from a far away planet...” The one known as Yacker nodded fervently, happy that he could be understood. He floated around Nodoka in delight.
“Lisps?” Misora tilted her head.
“No. Wisps... with a 'W'.”
Misora looked up at Cocone. “Yeah, I'll stick with aliens, if that's okay with everybody.” Cocone actually cracked a light smile.
“And ummm... somebody with a lot of robots is kidnapping them for their powers...” Nodoka added.
“Whoa, we seriously walked into a huge conspiracy!” Misora gasped. Cocone nodded in agreement.
She looked down, her features widening in concern. “All I see now is 'Save them, save them, save them'.”
Yacker's expression grew sad, and two of his three tentacles formed a prayer, as if begging them.
Misora frowned. “We can't do that alone...” She sighed. “And well, while everyone else would be eager to help, that would ruin this vacation for everyone hardcore. Right after that Mundus Magicus mess...”
Yacker sunk, even more depressed. Nodoka also frowned.
Seeing that, Misora gave a reassuring smile. “I'm not gonna stand on the sidelines, though. Robot poachers suck.” Her smile became a sneer as Yacker looked relieved. “3-A's pretty rowdy, and with just about everybody knowing of magic, I'm sure it won't be difficult to put a little mischief in everybody's hearts.”
“What are you planning?” Nodoka asked.
“This is an amusement park, right?” Misora asked. “It'd be no fun if we just told Negi-sensei everything might be wrong. We should lay it up, cause a little mischief, and save the aliens while everyone's distracted! That way, everyone gets to have fun, and we get to do the good guy thing.”
Nodoka sighed, but couldn't see what was wrong with that logic at the time. “Okay. But we are going to tell Negi-sensei that this place might be more dangerous than it looks.” She said. No way was she going to be a kidnap victim again—
—or especially top Konoka's record.
“Fine fine, let's blow this popsicle stand.”
---
“Kasuga!” Ku Fei asked as the prankster nun arrived back at the hotel with Kasuga. “Where you been?” Others around, including Hakase, Satsuki, and Kaede, walked up, interested at why she had disappeared on them.
Misora wanted to lie. Just make up some excuse, and they'd probably believe it. But... “Eh... I went out for a jog, checked out the shopping malls, and trashed a giant killer robot. Nothing big.” She shrugged. She mentally smacked herself for all of her idiocy.
This being 3-A though, it wasn't guaranteed that they'd notice. “How dare you!” Ku Fei dramatically complained, pointing a raging finger. “How dare you go shopping and not tell us if any awesome arcades are around here!”
Well, it looked like they failed to notice the important part. “Well, it kinda slipped my mind, I wasn't really looking...” She laughed weakly.
“Relax and chill, everyone,” The plump cook Satsuki said. “We've got a whole week up here, so we have every night to find out all the stuff that this place offers us.”
“We'll see,” Ku Fei said, flashing Misora a smirk before walking off.
----
“So in short, Eva-san was right the first time?” Negi asked Nodoka.
“Yes, she was,” Nodoka bowed her head.
“Figures...” Negi sighed and shook his head. “I'm not even sure if a boring vacation is even possible with this class...”
“Look on the bright side,” Asuna said. “Eva-chan has to eat crow.”
“More like I'm going to make you eat crow,” sneered the vampire, pointing at Asuna. “You can bet I'm going to send you out to the most dangerous parts of the theme park. Too many stupid innocents running around means you'll have to pick your battles wisely.”
“Really?” Asuna snarled, her temper growing as usual. A plea from Negi to make them stop was dutifully ignored. “We'll see how wise that is.”
“You're bold to try and start crap while people are looking, Asuna!” Evangeline countered, her power flaring.
Being nearby a reflecting pool, Asuna was struck with a wonderful, awful idea. With no preamble whatsoever, she went and scooped up the diminutive vampire, and decided to simply chuck her in. With Chachamaru too far away to get to her master in time, the resulting beating she'd get from it would be so worth it.
Alas, the moment Evangeline's complaining set in, the loudspeakers flared to life once more. “Please refrain from throwing coins, trash, or small children into the reflecting pools.”
Asuna cursed and set Eva down without any fight.
“Ha! Remembering your place, aren't you?” Eva crowed triumphantly as Asuna stomped away. When the bell-wearing girl didn't respond, she was simply happy to gloat... until she saw Negi, holding his mouth in an attempt not to laugh. It didn't take long for her to put two and two together. “...wait a damn minute!”
Just out of Eva's eyesight, Asuna finally lost it and broke out laughing.
----
Time passed. 3-A managed to get some sleep, or at least something like it. With them out in space, there was no marker for sunrise, but rather slightly brighter lights and their own alarms. Negi was one of the first people to wake up, preparing his clothes, travel pack, and his map. Nodoka and Yue soon joined him, almost wordlessly getting their things prepared for the first real day on their field trip. While only Nodoka had been in any danger the past half a day, they knew better than to think it would be an isolated incident.
After much poking and prodding from the three of them, Asuna woke up. “...mmgh, five more minutes...” She groaned intelligently. Of course, Eva, who had been awake for some time, gave her a much ruder awakening with an ice burst—while it had no actual effect on the girl, it would certainly hit with enough force to knock her bed and send her sprawling in the floor. That got Asuna up immediately, although that meant they would be at each other's throats for the next thirty years—or minutes, sort of difficult to remember with those two.
----
The first people to the docking bays in which the first part of their real adventure, wasn't Negi or his close team, or any of the teachers.
“Heh, we've got our work cut out for us, don't we, Cocone-chan?” Misora said, gazing out at the vast expanse of space. It truly was a beautiful sight—the many stars in the galaxy looked even more amazing out here than they did on earth. It was when they spotted earth, in all of her blue glory, did they marvel wordlessly.
It was quite the timing when the PA system flared to life again. “Notice the floating blue planet in the sky in front of you! Soon to be property of Eggman Enterprises.”
“Why did we have to take this field trip to this place owned by a mega-conglomerate lunatic...!” Misora moaned.
When she didn't get a snarky quip or a warning about divine punishment, she passed a quiet glance at her magister, the smaller girl seemingly lost in thought. “Worried about yesterday?” She asked.
Her mouth hung open slightly, perhaps giving away a note of surprise that she was that easily read.
“Don't worry,” Misora said, her voice softer than normal. “I'll protect you, so you don't have to use those powers. And well, if push comes to shove, Negi-sensei's hero team is pretty nice with the freaking Maga Nosferatu of all people, so I doubt someone just having a Dark affinity will scare them.”
And from the recesses of the shorter girl's hair, Yacker popped out, giving a nod as he agreed with Misora's statement, never mind the fact that the alien had no idea what the girls were talking about.
“In any case, our adventure begins here,” Misora said. “I'd really just rather rescue the aliens and let Negi-sensei handle the robot making lunatic, but knowing my luck these days...” Hey, some people don't like being the main character. She turned a bit further, noticing that the rest of 3-A was arriving. “Sup guys! Cocone got antsy, so I—whoa, why's everyone looking all badass right now?”
“Badass” being the epic, determined stares from just about everyone in 3-A, Negi and his rival Kotarou included, staring into space, as if they were all posing for a movie poster. It was scary how influential Ala Alba could get. Maybe their pose was more in anticipation for the excitement? But a closer look at some of their faces looked like they were preparing for battle. And soon enough, Misora would be sucked into another hero thing.
She wasn't liking this one bit.
She could, however, make out the excited murmurs amongst her class, each anxious for the day to begin. Supposedly, their itinerary would first consist of the touring of one of the first planets. A place called... Sweet Mountain?
“Whoooo ho ho hooo!” Came a laugh much like a demented Santa Claus, and seconds later, 3-A's ride swept onto the scene. An impressive red ship, shaped much like a blimp, sailed right down in front of the class. Its front had a massive bust of what appeared to be this park's founder—the same face plastered just about everywhere in the park and hotels.
And lo and behold, the door to the blimp slid open, and the man in question came out—the very same man in red that Nodoka and Misora encountered. As a matter of fact, this caused both of them to suddenly cower behind their classmates. “Welcome to Dr. Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park. I am the park's founder and gracious host, Dr. Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik.”
“Ah, not good, not good...!” Misora hissed behind Kaede, who (along with Cocone) just stared blankly at her.
Speaking of blank stares, Yue gave one to the busy doctor. “I didn't know Theodore Roosevelt had a reincarnation.”
A surprised and horrified Yuna pointed dramatically in his direction. “No way! That has to be Jaime Hyneman!”
“So you're the arc villain?” Evangeline bellowed suddenly, causing her classmates (and Negi) to stare at her as if she had mutated into a follower of Cthulhu. “I'm not impressed.”
The one known as Eggman stood off to the side of the door, not even batting an eye at Evangeline's accusation. “Don't hesitate, step right on in! The quicker the tour begins, the more time I have to brainw—err give you opportunity to enjoy more of the park!”
Eva was of course, quick with her sharp tongue. “Way to give yourself away, but then again I bet you were never good at hiding. That lard on your stomach must give you away pretty often, I take it?”
A furious finger was pointed right back at her. “SILENCE!”
“Umm, Eva-san, that's enough (for now),” Negi said, gesturing peace between two parties. Ever the diplomat, the underaged harem hero—err young teacher walked up to Dr. Robotnik. “Well, we'll be under your care, Dr. Robotnik.” The students sighed in relief, though half of them were sighing only because they managed to avoid picking the final fight this early in the game.
However, Negi's charity had an undertone of a threat to it. “However, should you harm my students, I can't vouch for your safety.” And he let just a touch of his power flare up.
As if taking a cue, the fighters of Ala Alba also took this time to show off brief power flares, undetectable by the magic clueless, but certainly felt in the stares they gave the demented genius.
Not scared in the least, Eggman gave class 3-A a sneer. “Wouldn't dream of it.” He responded to Negi. Of course, that straight answer was only hiding his newfound fascination—a bunch of silly school children, not even taking him seriously? He'd love to see why.
With that, Class 3-A boarded the Egg Shuttle, and the blimp like apparatus whisked them away to adventure.
But at least one person was still shaking, nervous from what this field trip would bring.
Misora Kasuga moaned. “Maaaan. I'm gonna hate this field trip...”
Yeah, I'm aware that Cocone's only confirmed power is telepathy, but well, she's Misora's opposite, and quite frankly Misora needs backup.
__________________
Disgaea: Gehenna's Holy Queen
Who needs things like 'sanity' or 'experience' to be a badass frickin' Overlord? Negima/Disgaea
You're welcome..." the young man tried to laugh. "So, um, is there anything wrong?"
"Negi, " Yue began, fighting the faint blush on her cheeks. "Since we graduated, we've been living together, haven't we?"
"Well, of course..." he said with a vague nod, half not getting what she was trying to say, and half not wanting to get it. "You've done an excellent job handling the Royal Library..."
"Thanks. It's been a pleasure, " Ayase briefly smiled. "Still, to be with you, we left our families, our home world, even our chances for a college education, behind. I know you never asked that from us, and we'll never regret doing it. But... by now... we think it's time for a... a... a deeper payoff... to our relationship, " she fumbled with the words.
"Ah?" Negi blinked.
"Sensei, we—" Nodoka drew in a deep breath, "We want to make you happy in all the ways we can! We want to give you everything we have!" she rushed the sentences out before she lost the will to utter them.
"You mean..." the boy gulped.
"Negi, we're 22 now, " Yue replied. "I'd say we have... waited enough. We hate feeling we're pressuring you, but we also are starting to feel we are doing nothing but running in circles."
"But, the thing is—!" he started, without the slightest idea of how to finish the sentence. He felt half-terrified, half-thankful upon being interrupted by another knock at the door.
"Oh, no!" Nodoka gasped. "If anyone sees us here, they might think we're—"
"Aren't we?" Yue silenced her with a finger over her own lips before telling her former teacher, "Negi, please cover us, okay? Nodoka, to the balcony, quick." She pulled her almost sister out with herself, closing the curtains behind themselves.
"I, uh, ah, eh...!" Negi couldn't reply before they stepped out of sight. Then the knocks insisted, so he had to go see who it was at the door.
"Negi..." It was Kotarou, slightly hunched up with an empty glass in a hand, smirking goofily at him. "I was lookin' for you, man!" His voice was erratic and gurgling, clearly inebriated. "The night's still young! Let's drink some more, okay?"
"Kotarou-kun, you know I'm a horrible drinker!" Negi frowned. "And so are you! Where's Natsumi-san? I didn't think she'd let you—"
His friend stumbled inside with a grunt. "Nat-chan? I dunno. Mebbe she went ta sleep. God, she can be overbearin' at thimes... Mind if I crash in for a while? My head's killin' me..."
Negi sighed while closing the door again. The last thing he needed was Natsumi barging in while Eva was in his closet and the librarians chilling at the balcony. He'd try to talk some sense into Kotarou and send him back to his room as fast as he could. "You two fought again?"
"Man, I dunno what's gotten into her lately." Kotaro slumped down onto Negi's bed. "She's just so... demanding, you know? Like she wants to go way further ahead way too fast..."
"Y-Yeah, I guess I can understand that..." Negi nervously chuckled.
"It's not I don't like her, but sometimes I just wonder if we're really meant to be together. We hardly see eye to eye on anythin'... I'm startin' ta think maybe we'd be better with people we have more in common with..."
"D-Don't say that!" Negi said. "Natsumi-san is a wonderful person!"
"Yeah, but maybe I should be with another kind of wonderful person..." His nose sniffed Negi's bedsheets fondly, and his hands absently wandered up to his pillow, vaguely playing with it in a nearly puppylike fashion. "Someone who really knows how I feel... Someone I can talk heart ta heart with..."
For some reason, Negi was starting to feel an ill omen about that latest turn of events.
Kotarou was wagging his tail. "Someone I can see as my equal, not as my superior, like that bossy girl. Someone who shares my interests..."
Dear God, please let him be talking about Kaede. Please let him be talking about Kaede, Negi repeated in his mind.
You're welcome..." the young man tried to laugh. "So, um, is there anything wrong?"
"Negi, " Yue began, fighting the faint blush on her cheeks. "Since we graduated, we've been living together, haven't we?"
"Well, of course..." he said with a vague nod, half not getting what she was trying to say, and half not wanting to get it. "You've done an excellent job handling the Royal Library..."
"Thanks. It's been a pleasure, " Ayase briefly smiled. "Still, to be with you, we left our families, our home world, even our chances for a college education, behind. I know you never asked that from us, and we'll never regret doing it. But... by now... we think it's time for a... a... a deeper payoff... to our relationship, " she fumbled with the words.
"Ah?" Negi blinked.
"Sensei, we—" Nodoka drew in a deep breath, "We want to make you happy in all the ways we can! We want to give you everything we have!" she rushed the sentences out before she lost the will to utter them.
"You mean..." the boy gulped.
"Negi, we're 22 now, " Yue replied. "I'd say we have... waited enough. We hate feeling we're pressuring you, but we also are starting to feel we are doing nothing but running in circles."
"But, the thing is—!" he started, without the slightest idea of how to finish the sentence. He felt half-terrified, half-thankful upon being interrupted by another knock at the door.
"Oh, no!" Nodoka gasped. "If anyone sees us here, they might think we're—"
"Aren't we?" Yue silenced her with a finger over her own lips before telling her former teacher, "Negi, please cover us, okay? Nodoka, to the balcony, quick." She pulled her almost sister out with herself, closing the curtains behind themselves.
"I, uh, ah, eh...!" Negi couldn't reply before they stepped out of sight. Then the knocks insisted, so he had to go see who it was at the door.
"Negi..." It was Kotarou, slightly hunched up with an empty glass in a hand, smirking goofily at him. "I was lookin' for you, man!" His voice was erratic and gurgling, clearly inebriated. "The night's still young! Let's drink some more, okay?"
"Kotarou-kun, you know I'm a horrible drinker!" Negi frowned. "And so are you! Where's Natsumi-san? I didn't think she'd let you—"
His friend stumbled inside with a grunt. "Nat-chan? I dunno. Mebbe she went ta sleep. God, she can be overbearin' at thimes... Mind if I crash in for a while? My head's killin' me..."
Negi sighed while closing the door again. The last thing he needed was Natsumi barging in while Eva was in his closet and the librarians chilling at the balcony. He'd try to talk some sense into Kotarou and send him back to his room as fast as he could. "You two fought again?"
"Man, I dunno what's gotten into her lately." Kotaro slumped down onto Negi's bed. "She's just so... demanding, you know? Like she wants to go way further ahead way too fast..."
"Y-Yeah, I guess I can understand that..." Negi nervously chuckled.
"It's not I don't like her, but sometimes I just wonder if we're really meant to be together. We hardly see eye to eye on anythin'... I'm startin' ta think maybe we'd be better with people we have more in common with..."
"D-Don't say that!" Negi said. "Natsumi-san is a wonderful person!"
"Yeah, but maybe I should be with another kind of wonderful person..." His nose sniffed Negi's bedsheets fondly, and his hands absently wandered up to his pillow, vaguely playing with it in a nearly puppylike fashion. "Someone who really knows how I feel... Someone I can talk heart ta heart with..."
For some reason, Negi was starting to feel an ill omen about that latest turn of events.
Kotarou was wagging his tail. "Someone I can see as my equal, not as my superior, like that bossy girl. Someone who shares my interests..."
Dear God, please let him be talking about Kaede. Please let him be talking about Kaede, Negi repeated in his mind.
Ooookay, now this is getting really scary . I might gonna need some brain bleach...
2010-11-14, 22:24
An odd way to prepare for the worst, I guess, but now I suddenly feel optimistic!
I'm eagerly waiting for more 
