Unequally Rational and Emotional | By : OverMaster Category: +M to R > Mahou Sensei Negima/Magister Negi Magi Views: 8848 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1 |
Disclaimer: Mahou Sensei Negima, all other works of fiction featured here, and related characters, don't belong to me. Neither do I make any money out of this. |
Mahou Sensei Negima and all related elements and characters are the property and creation of Ken Akamatsu, and the author of this humble piece has made no material profit from it, and never will do.
Black Lagoon and all its characters belong to Hiroe Rei .
Zero no Tsukaima and all its characters belong to Yamaguchi Noboru and Usatsuka Eiji .
The Slayers belong to Kanzaka Hajime and Arazumi Rui.
Batman and all related characters and elements belong to DC Comics.
All other characters mentioned also belong to their respective copyright holders.
Any similarity between the characters and events of this story and anyone or anything ever actually seen in real life is a pure coincidence. Don't sue. Please.
A huge, huge thank you to Shadow Crystal Mage, for helping to correct this chapter, as well as adding a few lines and jokes. You'll recognize them because they are the good ones.
UNEQUALLY RATIONAL AND EMOTIONAL-CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
Wild Cards, Act One:
Seven Years Ago… In America!
Funny. He was wet all over now.
His skin tingled all over now, too.
The most annoying part, however, was the feeling he was having now. It was almost like the feeling you have when you are being told a joke you have heard far too many times by now, and you just want to shut the guy who's telling it up, but for some reason you can't.
Wait, now that was stupid. He could shut anyone he wanted up! Except maybe for the flying rat. But he was working on it. No hurry, really. As long as he continued being any fun...
But he was digressing. Or at least his mind was, which was no novelty, really, only adding to the odd sensation of deja vu.
Lazily, he opened his eyes up. And he found himself staring through a thick red haze. It smelled funny, too, and his head felt kinda tight at the sides.
Almost... as if he was wearing some sort of...
Hood.
What. The. Hell.
And then the liquid all around himself had seen fit to bubble up and swerve like an angry, capricious mistress, and shake him around and spit him up to the surface. Vomited up into the river's shore as the waters sounded like they laughed at him in all their poluted, filthy proud glory.
I know I have been here before.
He laid there, motionless, for a moment, absently pondering what to do. Maybe just taking a nap. He felt tired after all. It wasn't like anyone would dare to mug him and rape him or something. But finally, he decided that was too boring and maybe he should humor the circumstances and play along for now. Having made up his mind at that, the man clawed his way across the wet coast until he was fully out of the river, then sat up and tugged the hood covering his head up, freeing his face.
It burned, in contact with the fresh air of the night. It itched too, especially around the mouth and the eyes.
He moaned while looking at his hands. Gloves, as it was to be expected. However, the skin of the wrists just above the gloves was quite concerning in its own way. It still was white, but it was almost as if it was gaining color. No, wait, it was the other way around. It was bleaching down to white, and rather quickly too! Why was it getting white? It already had been white. That made no freaking sense whatsoever, no sir.
And for once, that seemed wrong. How bothersome.
His eyes were leaking something out. Tears? He had never cried before. Why would he start now? Always the curious, he looked into the river's murky surface, and managed to see enough of his reflection to confirm they were, indeed, tears. Of blood. Oh well, that was better.
His eyes burned like hell, gone from their older pre-bath green to a sharp, inhuman greenish yellow, as stark as a knife through the heart. He had heard that joke once. It had been funny then. Helluva funny. But frankly, was there a need for a reprise now?
He stood up, feeling years younger in body, and yet years older in mind. Axis Chemical Factory was visible in the distance, towering up like a majestic, decadent castle smelling of sulphur and acid and a million different chemical ways to die.
He had not been there in years!
His mind roared through a collection of memories of all assorted kinds, like an egghead kid rummaging through his noggin right before the big test. He thoughtfully rubbed his still aching (and itchy) long pointy chin, green eyebrows going up and down in feverish thoughts, his mouth humming softly like an overgrown mosquito.
Gotham City, Commissioner Gordon, Laughing Fish, Mad Love, Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Poison Ivy and Bane, the Penguin, Metropolis, Iran and the United Nations, Sarajevo, Crowbar, Dead Robin (Dead Robin!), Red Hood. Harley Quinn, Utility Belt, a few shiny Jokermobiles. Someone named the Red Skull? And Carnage and Spider-Man too. Hyenas and arsenic, magical tricks, Zatanna and Superman and Lex Luthor. Dead Robin! Pudding and red roses, a No Man's Land. Why so Serious, Dancing with the Devil under the Pale Moonlight. Dead Robin! Pie-in-the-face, handbuzzers and Killer Croc and the Ventriloquist. Green Lantern? Hadn't Green Lantern arrested him once? Honestly, who hadn't.
The clown sat on the riverbank crossing his arms. That covered everything, didn't it? And then some.
Oh yes. There was also that Batman guy.
Satisfied he wasn't going insane, but he already was there, happy because he had been saved the work of getting there all the way down again, The Joker, Ace of Knaves, stood up with the grace of a man more than a decade younger. He looked back towards the dark city, so full of promising shadows and target practices, of conveniently abandoned circus themed hideouts and museums for every branch of human culture to rob.
Hnh. It looked different too. Maybe it was just the angle.
In any case, he felt like killing someone to blow some steam off. At a brisk pace, he started walking back towards the city.
He still felt like he was missing something.
Wild Cards, Act Two:
Now… In America!
The pale thin man finished putting the last card into place, then pulled back into his chair to give his just made castle a satisfied gaze. Seven whole floors of aces and jacks, of queens and hearts, of kings and spades. The pale man smiled at it like a normal man would smile to a son.
Then, without missing a beat, he batted a hand through it, sending cards flying all over the tiny room. He laughed.
Destroying always made the whole effort of building worth it. Still, he sighed as he slumped his shoulders down, a castle of cards was hardly a substitute for the real thing.
He was growing bored. It had been the fifth castle in the last two hours, ever since they brought him to the tiny room, chained both of his legs to a wall, and told him to wait before leaving. No one had come since then.
"I am hungry!" he lifted his head, looking at the ceiling camera.
He remained still looking at the camera, but nothing happened at all for the next five minutes. Until the camera turned itself off.
That made him to blink. The lights were still on, so no blackout. And, even after a full two minutes, the camera had not been turned back on, so clearly they had turned it off on purpose, or else a few orderlies would have walked in already.
"I was just stating I was hungry," he hummed, allowing his chin to rest on his hands. "I hadn't even asked for food, so you didn't have to take it that badly. You're all so mean to me. But I could forgive you if brought me a cheeseburger. Or if you let me go for a night at town. I promise I'll be back tomorrow early."
The door was opened from the outside right as he was about to shout for attention. A man walked in. He seemed young, tall and thin as well, but not as tall and not as thin as the pale one. His hair was dark, so black it had purplish tones all over, perhaps longer than average; and he smiled in a pleasant, slightly spaced out manner. He wore a formal black suit, with a priest's white collar, and he carried a long cane in a hand, with a large ruby red mesmerizing jewel embedded on the handle.
"Hello!" the visitor cheerfully greeted.
Suddenly taking a solemn attitude, the pale man put a hand over his chest. "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned…"
The priest laughed good naturedly. "Oh, no, no! Rest assured, I haven't come to enact any confessions!"
"Good thing, because I wasn't aware I was even in death row, much less with an execution scheduled for today," the pale man wiggled a finger into his right ear to scratch it thoroughly. "I can't perform properly when faced with such demanding deadlines. I would need at least ninety years more before being sure I can pull of a noteworthy death scene."
Then he cheered up visibly. "So, what can I do for you, Padre? "Can I do something for you? Milk? Cookies? Sleep with you? Kill you while you sleep?"
The unknown laughed softly as he sat down at the other side of the glass. "Sorry, but no on all accounts! Forgive me for the delay, please; it was difficult to... fill all the required demands... for this meeting"
"Hmmmmm," the pale man shuffled, gathering his cards back and shuffling them around. "Do you have any idea of how deadly boring is to be sitting there for hours without anything to entertain you but playcards? They won't even let me keep a pencil. Or string. Apparently, they are afraid I could try to strangle someone." A pause. "Again."
The other man sounded sympathetic, "I figure it must be tough on you"
"Oh, I'm used to tough. Tough things don't bother me. Boring things, however, do." He focused his suddenly angry, nearly demonic, shiny green eyes upon the visitor. "And, forgive my bluntness, you look very boring to me. No scaly green skin? No body made of mud? No empathy with all vegetal life?" He held a hand up. "You must be this high on the scale of weirdness to fit at this place, Mister!"
"My apologies," the other man said with a somewhat mocking bow.
The pale fellow sighed. "Then, what's your motive to be here? Greedy reporter hungry for an interview? Lawyer offering his expensive services? Disgruntled father looking for revenge? Last time I was allowed to be here, many, many months ago, a distressed mother managed to sneak a gun in and tried to add some unwanted lead to my diet. I had to disarm her and shoot her down instead. Poor thing. It was all over the news. At least she and her precious got to be together again."
"All is well when it ends well," the visitor nodded.
The prisoner chuckled. "True, true! Then, do you have a name? Or did you come for one? You look like an Eustace. Or a Dexter..."
"My real name doesn't matter much," the young looking man casually replied. "But you can call me Mister X!"
And you could call me Mistah J, but only one person can do that!" the pale man ran his fingers over the glass separating them, his greenish fingernails scratching it making a shrilling annoying sound. "Then, who sent you? Friend or Foe? No, scratch that off. Casual Foe or Deadly Foe?"
Almost sheepishly, the visitor scratched his chin with a single finger. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that's a secret!" he said in a feigned bashful intonation.
The pale man huffed indignantly. "So! No real name, no given employer, and worst of all, no entertainment to offer! Talk about wasting my time." He looked away. "GUARDS!" he called out. "I need to use the men's room! To flush this turd down the toilet!"
"Oh! I never said I couldn't offer you any entertainment," the visitor quietly said, then slipped a thin booklet under the glass and into the prisoner's hands. "This is... a long term project we need some help with. I'm sure you could find it to be interesting, to some degree or another..."
The extremely pale man snorted while flipping through the pages. "I don't do children's shows."
"These are not average children, though," his visitor said with a playful smile. "Why, one of them is even the responsible of all of this."
"All of what? The results of the last elections? The newest batch of reality shows? The cleaning lady not bothering with toilet duty at weekends anymore? What? What? Inquiring minds want to know! "
The visitor's smile became borderline devilish then, abruptly, his half closed violet eyes going fully open with a demonic spark in them. "ALL of THIS. All the times you have had to pass through ALL of THIS. Every loop, every repeat, every failure, every humiliation. Every past life going against your nemesis time and time again," he inhumanly hissed.
The pale man, for once, looked aghast, just staring at him with eyes as wide as plates.
"Yes, we know you know" the visitor whispered. "You remember. That's what makes you so special. That's why I'm here, and not anywhere else with anyone else who could pull this off. You know what I'm talking about. And you hate it. Given a chance to stop it... wouldn't you do ANYTHING for it?"
Slowly, creepily, the prisoner grinned in a wide conspirative way. "You truly are no ordinary priest, Lazy Eyes."
The other man laughed with a hand behind her head. "I can swear I'm nothing but a humble servant of my order! It's just I have been… a long, long time doing this, and well, I know all the secrets of my holy trade by now."
"I'll bet you do," the inmate nodded confidently. "But no, not anything, no," he shook a bony finger around. "You know, many of the events of these last few dozens of loops, assuming they weren't just delusions of my cracked mind, just like you, were actually a lot of fun! The idea of keeping myself bedeviling my dear opposite number for a few lives more is rather appealing! Sure, I'll have to take the good along with the bad, but that's life!"
"There won't be any more life if these loops keep happening" the other's tone grew serious. "She doesn't suspect it yet, but the time continuum has been gradually damaged by her trips and their after effects. Soon, maybe in the very next iteration, it all will crumble down. Otherwise, why do you think we'd be desperate enough to resort to you?"
"Ouch. That hurts!" He bit himself in a pinky finger.
"Well, you have to admit, you are... difficult to control."
"That'd be because I don't want to be controlled!"
"And you won't be," he offered. "All we ask from you is to go there in a few months and be yourself. Be a spanner in the works. Foil the plans of both sides of that bothersome equation, and we'll handle the rest."
The pale man hummed thoughtfully. "Ho-hum! Ho-hum! The way you phrase it, I'm not sure if you want me to be the savior of everything or its destroyer. Naturally, you'd have to be crazy to trust me as the savior of anything, but then again, you have just walked into an asylum."
"Both, actually" was the reply. "We'd do it ourselves, but we have been forbidden from direct intervention. However, rest assured, we are sworn to make sure no one but us destroy all of existence."
"Fellows gotta have their hobbies, I guess" the pale man indifferently looked at the booklet's pictures again. "Which one of these is the responsible?"
The visitor pointed at one of the photo. "This one."
"She's cute" the green eyed man smirked. "All of them are very cute. Even the boy. Like puppies, I mean! Yeah, that's it. Don't get me wrong, the only boys I like that other way are Batboys. Yeah. Honest. For real! And I'm not being suspiciously specific in my denial! At all! Unless I'm doing it to screw around with your mind. Not your body. Because I wouldn't throw ambiguous comments about your body unless I did it to screw around with your mi—" He interrupted himself, "I'm going in circles now, right?"
"Right!"
"Heee hee hee. Anyway, these are more cute like in the 'I'm such a cute puppy you just know you want to kick me' sense. And then you feel soooooo bad for kicking the puppy, but you also feel that won-der-ful guilty pleasure over it, just like that time when you indulged into eating a whole chocolate cake yourself. You still following me, son?"
"I think so, yes…"
"You should. Being able to follow conversations involving creepy underage innuendo and the end of the world is must in your line of job". He hammered with his fingers on the table for a few moments before nodding. "Okay, it sounds amusing enough. And I never had been a savior/destroyer before. I'll do it!"
"Thank you."
"But I'll need men. Many men," he warned.
"You'll have the best help we can supply you with. Much better than men."
"Trained chimps?" he hopefully asked.
A chuckle. "Well, I won't disappoint you; maybe not THAT good!"
"And money. Tons of money."
"Material resources are no problem for us," he was reassured.
"Nice" the pale man nodded. "Can I get at least one honest and straight answer on something?"
"On what exactly?"
He looked at his eyes. "Why do I remember?"
The purple haired man shrugged his shoulders slowly, with an apologetic smile. "Even we don't fully know for sure. You're an... anomaly. Even for a human being. That's what makes you so interesting for us."
"You have just insulted me," he scoffed. "Calling me a human being. But you also called me an anomaly, so that balances it out!"
He shuffled the cards around again.
"It's time to bring the real castle down now".
And then he ominously hummed, "Dum dum, dum..."
"What was that for?" the visitor asked.
"Mood setting. Foreshadowing," the prisoner dryly explained.
"Foreshadowing for what?"
The white skinned man gave a quick jaded glare aside, as if looking at someone else, shrugged his shoulders, then looked back at the other man in a condescending way. "Forget it. You just wouldn't understand".
Wild Cards, Act Three:
Cocone watched quietly, sitting at her bed's edge, her bare feet hanging down. After coming back from classes, Misora had started prettying herself, which was quite unlike her. It was noticeable in the way she clumsily powdered her face off, overdoing it.
Finally, the little girl walked off the bed and extended a hand towards her friend, without saying a word. She didn't need to. Understanding immediately, Kasuga sheepishly handed her the makeup kit and held her own face still before her roommate. "Thanks," she whispered.
Cocone said nothing, but started carefully applying the makeup on her friend's face, correcting her mistakes. Misora wondered where she had learned that; she was only a child, and she never had used makeup herself. But she still was as competent at it as she was at almost everything else. She was over soon; it had been a light job, proper for a sister in training's face. Not spectacular or particularly eye catching, but Misora herself preferred it that way, nodding as she looked at her image in the bedroom's mirror.
"Thanks again," she repeated, fondly petting the smaller girl's black hair.
Cocone spoke then. Almost impossible to hear, as always.
"Where are you going?"
A brief sigh. "I told you before, Cocone-chan. Out with some friends from 2-A."
The younger sister lowered her head, and then, even more unusually, she spoke anew, this time to ask for a favor. An uncanny rarity on itself.
"Can I go with you?"
Misora hesitated visibly, nearly biting her tongue before it betrayed her in any way.
Cocone just looked at her with those inexpressive, yet deep and alluring eyes of her, for a few tense moments before looking away, heading back towards the bed. "It's okay."
"W-Wait, Cocone-chan," Misora gasped. "It's not like I don't want to bring you. It's just, well, um, it's a thing between... older girls. You, ahhhh... would get bored."
Cocone simply nodded in a sparse fashion as she sat back on the bed.
Misora ran a hand over her own face. "Look, I know I have spent far too long apart from you lately. I'm sorry. I'll make up for it later, I promise. It's just... I've had other things to do lately."
The little girl nodded understandingly. "Since he arrived," she flatly whispered.
The sprinter's eyes sprang wider.
Then, slowly, defeated, she lowered her head back. "Drat, why can't I ever hide anything from you?" she lamented.
Cocone balled a tiny fist up and softly gave her a vacant knock on the head.
"Enjoy your date," she adviced.
"IT ISN'T A DATE!"
Wild Cards, Act Four:
Chisame sighed for the fifteenth time that afternoon as she finished adjusting Negi's tie.
The boy already was losing his confidence from the prior day as the fateful hour approached. Truth be told, she couldn't blame him that much. She also had those annoying butterflies wrecking havoc in her stomach; she only hoped they were the butterflies of fear over doing something stupid, immoral, illegal and completely wrong, and not butterflies of... anxiety about... the imminent act of close physical contact itself.
Even the normally unflappable Hakase seemed uncomfortable and tense while attempting to tie her pigtails back after her shower. Wearing a blue bathrobe and slippers, she sat before the bedroom's mirror with a distinctly troubled expression on her face.
A girl's first time must be important, Misora had said. A Pactio, even a probationary one, can't be done so lightly, Misora had said. Idiotic Misora, what could she know about kisses? Now she had forced it all to blow out of proportion. It could have been short and to the point, a brief bitter step solved in a matter of minutes, but no, now they had to stage it as if it were a gorramn romantic date. With a snot nosed brat.
The freaking ermine was the only one who looked happy, gleefully hopping around picking several chunks of chalk up. "Hurry up, Chiu-chi! The sooner this is done, the better, don't you agree?" he giggled evilly like a schoolgirl on helium. Or Haruna in an average day. It was pretty much the same thing.
"SHUT UP OR I SWEAR I WON'T DO IT!" Chisame threatened.
Negi seemed to jump on the chance. "W-We don't have to do it if you don't want so!"
Hasegawa shook her head. "You moron, didn't we talk about that long and hard yesterday?" She started combing his hair carefully. "It's not like we have an alternative, right? We have to do what we must to survive"
"Th-There must be another way..." his voice cracked. "There's always another way..."
"And I doubt Evangeline is going to stand still while you find it," Chisame reminded him. "We have no idea on when will she strike, remember?"
"Actually," Satomi piped in "the reports of all previous attacks show they happened on full moon nights. It would seem her metahuman abilities are somehow linked to the lunar cycles. We still are a full week away from the next full moon, so we should be safe until then... but then again, I find no comfort on fully relying on that theory," she admitted.
Chisame nodded as she finished taming Negi's hair. "It's better this way, I suppose."
Then she turned her attention towards Satomi. "Hakase, I'm done with Sensei here. Now let me help you with your makeup."
Satomi looked at her with hugely wide eyes. "Makeup?"
Hasegawa scowled, sitting down before her and grabbing a pink lipstick up. "We'll look like idiots before that nun if she shows up looking better than us, won't we? Good Lord, a nun..."
"I believed you never cared about others' opinion regarding your appearance in real life…" Satomi weakly protested, trying to worm herself out as Chisame grabbed her by a cheek, keeping her still in place, then starting to softly run the pink shade over her lips.
"Hush," her roommate silenced her "I'll be over soon. It won't take more than one minute. I have experience. And... there's nothing wrong about a girl prettying herself every once in a while..."
Chisame paused for a moment, silently musing to herself, before uncomfortably adding in an attempt to calm the scientist down, "And... you are very pretty, you know. If you only dressed better and took care of your looks..."
"Don't mock me, please," Satomi tried to avert her eyes. "I know I'm not esthetically appealing."
"At least you don't have zits," Chisame muttered, stopping her task, mildly satisfied with the results.
"At least you aren't flat," the black haired girl patted herself over the breasts.
Chisame made a pause. "... Point," she conceded.
"Not like I care at all about it, of course," Hakase went on, "Such things only get in the way of my personal interests."
"You two are very pretty," Chamo chuckled on.
"Shut up," Chisame told him.
"It's true!" He turned to Negi. "Come on, Bro, you tell 'em!"
"Eh? What? Me?" His hands instinctively moved into a shielding position before his body. "No! It, It would be improper!"
The animal made a small annoyed sound. "Bro, it's only an innocent way to show you care! The only improper thing in a situation like this is not complimenting the ladies on their looks. A gentleman is always ready to make them feel at ease about themselves! It's rude not to do otherwise!"
"Oh dear!" Negi gasped aloud. "Sorry! It's true!" He bowed before his students. "I didn't mean to offend! You two are very pretty!"
"And sexy," Chamo helpfully whispered to him.
"Yes, and se-" Negi stopped himself in the last second. "Chamo!"
Both girls looked at them in dumbstruck silence for a few moments, with a very pale shade of pink running over their features. Then Chisame slammed a foot down on the ermine, and pushed him and the boy out of the room. "You'd better wait outside while we finish here!"
After she slammed the door on their backs, Negi sighed slumping down into a couch. "Nothing good will come out of this..."
"You only need to learn how to treat women, that's all" Chamo was confident. "They like men who aren't afraid to grab the horse by the reins and tell them what they think."
The kid fidgeted around. "Well, I think maybe we shouldn't be doing this after all..."
"You think wrong!" the furry thing protested. "You told me even that Mana girl has told you to trust yourself and your partners more! Do you think your Dad got that far in life by brooding and doubting?"
Negi perked up at that. "But- But that's different!"
"Different, nothing!" Chamo puffed on a cigarette. "It's all about taking the chances life gives you, and not complaining when those chances involve kissing pretty girls!"
"Uguuuu..." Negi groaned. "It's just I think we aren't ready yet..."
"Was Washington ready to take on Spartacus when he crossed the Rubicon? No! And he still won the Battle of Lepanto!" Chamo vehemently pointed out. "If Bolivar had waited to be ready a few more years, he and his 300 Spartans would have never defeated Gengis Khan at Waterloo!"
Negi's mouth hung open. "You... You need to work a lot on your history of this world."
"Give me a break; most books are too heavy for me!" Chamo waved his paws around. "The key thing is you get the idea!"
"What's with all this racket?" an annoyed Chisame stepped out of the bedroom, wearing a simple but beautiful light green casual dress. Satomi slumped behind her, mortified at having to be in a white dress of her own.
"This doesn't suit me at all..." she mumbled. "Everyday clothings would have sufficed just fine..."
Chamo clapped eagerly. "Good, good, very good! Truly, you are two lovelies! The Bro's such a lucky man, aren't you, Bro?"
"Y-Yes, I... I am," Negi timidly nodded. "Thank you, girls..."
"Hmmm," Chisame briefly looked at him before discharging her frustrations upon the ermine. "You dirty vermin. The way you're talking, anyone would think it's you who's going to kiss us."
Chamo chuckled. "Well, I'm open to-," he quickly closed his mouth back when he noticed Hasegawa's newest killer glare.
"Chamo-san," Hakase calmly intervened, "Do you know what I usually do upon meeting strange and unknown creatures, especially taking ones, after analyzing them and checking their reactions to the existing environment?"
"Uh, no," he took his head back. "What?"
"I vivisect them. In your case, I have made an exception as a favor to Negi-sensei, but I could be—"
"I'll shut up," Chamo promised.
Satomi sighed, taking a look at her wristwatch. "Let's just head to the rendezvous location, okay? It's almost time."
Wild Cards, Act Five:
Misora was starting to leave at a rather brisk pace, breathing easier to some degree, when she heard Chisame's voice calling from behind her.
"Kasuga! Where do you think you're going?"
The sprinter bit her tongue while she froze in place and her eyes briefly changed to fully black circles. After a few seconds of being a statue, she slowly turned around to face the incoming Negi, Hasegawa and Hakase.
"Ah, ah, hello, guys," she chuckled nervously, rushing the words one after another. "Sorry, it's just it was getting kinda late, and I thought you wouldn't be coming..."
"Seriously?" Satomi checked her watch, "But we're actually four minutes fifty seconds early!"
"You weren't thinking of weaseling away from this, were you?" Chisame leveled an accusing glare at the sister, who was wearing an actually rather charming ensemble of short skirt and cotton top, with several colorful bands around her right wrist, and a crucifix hanging from her neck. "After you were insisting about doing this no matter what?"
Misora's face unconsciously wandered aside. "Of course not! Don't be silly"
Negi walked to her, formally bowing and attempting to remember Chamo's advices on lady-handling. "Good afternoon, Kasuga-san. You look, um, err, charming today."
Misora laughed unevenly. "Sensei, don't act as if we didn't see each other at classes this morning!"
"That's completely different, Miso-chi," Chamo, perched on the boy's right shoulder, wiggled his thin black eyebrows up and down. "Great look, by the way. It moves me so much, seeing you're putting so much of your hearts to help the Bro!" he swooned.
"... Yeah," Misora gave the ermine a dismissive glare before fishing a key out of her left pocket. They all were at the gates of the Track and Field Clubhouse, which Misora had said would be empty for that day, giving them the perfect place to try establishing their Pactios. Moreover, she had added, the vacant track fields would give them enough open space to test their 'Artifacts'.
Idly, Chisame wondered what her 'Artifact' would be like. Chamo had said they usually had a connection to the Ministra's personalities, but that wasn't exactly precise or even comforting. None of them were fighters, so what chance did they have to get anything useful in armed combat?
At her right, Negi was gulping, squeezing her hand for support, and at her left, Satomi tried to keep a neutral face, mostly succeeding at it.
"Get in quick, before anyone sees us," Misora whispered, guiding them inside, and then locking the door behind them. "Over here," she said, further leading them through a corridor and into a large room with lots of empty space, and no furniture but a large table and some folding chairs around it, at a corner.
"What is this?" Negi asked, looking all around after Misora turned the lights on.
"The team's meeting room," Kasuga told them. "We also use it for victory parties and the like. I figured... um... well... it was the best private place I could think of for... this..."
Chamo hummed thoughtfully. "It's not exactly the most romantic site, but it'll do."
"It-It-It doesn't have to be romantic at all!" Chisame protested.
"Oh, Chiu-chi," the perverted critter said while jumping down, grabbing his chalk and starting to carefully trace the magic circle on the floor, going by memory with uncanny precision. "Some day, you'll think back of this day and remember it as one of the most important days of your life, believe me. Of course it should be special for all of you!"
The four youngsters cringed a bit, their spirits further shaken by those words. However, Chamo didn't even notice their reactions, being too busy drawing the circle with the utmost care and devotion.
It was a beautiful, intricate drawing, Chisame had to admit it. And to her and Satomi's shock, it even started to glow in a faint bluish tone as soon as it was finished. Chamo stepped aside, and then chuckled evilly.
"Well, Bro, get over here and stand inside of it, at that side!" he pointed a paw down.
"Y-Yes!" a stunned Negi nodded, obeying quickly. As soon as he set foot on the circle, he looked as if a sudden jolt of electricity had hit him, although not to an excessive degree. He stood there with hugely open eyes, just waiting in silence as Chamo looked at the three schoolgirls.
"Well?" the ermine urged."You go first, don't you, Miso-chi? After all, you set the place up, and you have the most experience with magic"
"M-Me?" Misora gasped. "Hm... Uh... Well, yeah, I guess I could, but... I don't want to step on anyone's shoes, so if Chiu or the Prof wanna go first, fine with me! Really!"
"No, you can do it first," Satomi conceded, "Please show us how it's done."
"Ehhhh! It's not I have kissed anyone ever before!" Misora exclaimed. "Chiu, why don't you go first? You're his roommate!"
"She's his roommate too!" Chisame pointed at Hakase. "And don't call me 'Chiu'!"
"But you're their leader!" Misora argued. "That makes you the one to lead the way!"
The hacker backed a step away. "Since when am I the leader of anything?"
Misora shrugged. "Aren't you always bossing them around?"
"Ehhhh, girls," Chamo lifted a paw up, "The Bro's waiting, and the Magic Circle won't last forever..."
They paid him no attention.
"Let's decide it with a game of Janken!" Misora suggested.
"Allow Sensei to decide it," Hakase replied, sure he wouldn't pick her up. "It's a bigger step for him than for us, isn't it? So it's just fair he-"
"M-M-ME?-!-?" Negi squeaked out, breathing harder.
"You just want to avoid the responsibility of choosing!" Hasegawa told her. "If anything, we should decide it by popular voting! Democracy!"
Then, Misora and Satomi looked at her both at once. Chisame had a bad feeling which only grew up as both of them pointed their right hands at her and chorused in perfect synchrony, "OKAY! THEN WE CHOOSE YOU!"
"WHAT?" The hacker freaked out. "You can't be serious!"
Chamo smiled. "Democracy! You said it yourself!"
"I demand for a voting recap!" Chisame yelled.
"WE CHOOSE YOU!" the two other girls repeated, poking their fingers into her direction categorically. This time, however, the ermine pointed at her as well. And after a few seconds of nervous, trembling panic, and giving her a supplicant silent look, Negi also aimed a timid finger at her.
Chisame blushed bright red before tugging on her hair. "Arrrghhh! It's a conspiracy!"
However, she calmed down and stepped ahead, as Misora and the mad professor made way for her. Breathing in and out, she stepped into the circle as well, stopping right before the overwhelmed Welsh boy. She could feel the strange sensation of what she guessed... and hoped... was the magical power flowing from the circle and into her, giving her goosebumps and making her heat to beat faster.
What the Heck. If she was going to do it sooner or later, then it made no difference being the first one, right? Right. Yeah. Still, for some reason, that just wasn't enough to calm her down. At all.
"I'm sorry..." he whispered, focusing those huge Bambi eyes on her face. Making it even harder. Dammit, why had he to be so cute? Cute? Had she thought the word 'cute'?
Yes, looking closely at him, he was kinda cute. The Bambi comparison was a good one, with those eyes so similar to those of a baby deer caught at mid-road. She couldn't do it. Not with those eyes looking at her. Confusing her. Was she becoming an Iincho Mark II? That couldn't be. No. No, no, no no no no no no no no nononononono…!
And yet... He was... so unbearably cute...
"Hasegawa-san..." his voice managed to come out weakly.
"Shut up," she said, her voice coming out huskier than she expected. Then she quickly covered those obstructing, confusing eyes with a hand, blocking them and allowing her to finally lean in for the kiss, stamping her lips over his.
Wild Cards, Act Six:
She could hear nothing now. Hakase and Kasuga seemed to have fallen into the starkest of silences, and even the infernal ermine had closed his trap down.
'Oh... They are so soft...' Chisame silently marveled. They felt oddly good, tender and warm, too. His lips. Caressing and gentle against hers, rather unlike the coldness she had expected from the contact.
She had closed her eyes, unable to look at his face as she kissed him. She waited, perfectly still, while the boy stood paralyzed before her. For a few moments, nothing seemed to change, until the whole circle glowed up with a nearly blinding white light, startling Satomi and Misora up.
"PACTIO-OOOOOOOO!" Chamo jumped up, waving his paws around in ecstasy.
Then, to the further amazement of the other two teenagers, a card appeared out of nowhere floating over Negi and Chisame's heads, until it softly flew down to the expecting arms of the ermine. He looked down at it with shiny beady eyes, nearly drooling with giddiness.
Hasegawa still wasn't letting her teacher to go.
'How many seconds do I have to do this for?' she wondered, opening her eyes a bit. 'If I keep this up, something strange will-'.
"Ho, ho ho!" Chamo chuckled. "It's good now, Chiu-chi!".
"Ohh, is that so?" she quickly pulled her head back, her cheeks flaring red again. She breathed deeply, gasping for the air she so sorely needed now.
"M-My first kiss-" Just as embarrassed, Negi kept his hands near his mouth, too shocked to really notice he was savoring the warm flavor left on his lips.
"S-Sorry," Chisame stuttered, turning her head around to avoid looking at him. "Maybe I went too far with it."
"Eh..." Negi doubted. "No, that isn't- I mean-"
"Shut up! Be quiet!" she sputtered. "We did what we had to do, okay? Don't think there's anything else to it. This isn't a moment to be feeling unsure or-"
She interrupted herself when she noticed the other girls swarming over Chamo, checking on the card he was holding up and completely ignoring her.
"It's very, very pretty," Misora breathed in reverently.
"How can matter generate itself from a vacuum?" the scientist wondered. "Furthermore, who wrote and drew on that card, Chamo-san? Is there supposed to be any intelligent designer behind this fabrication?"
"Let me see! It's MY card!" Chisame unceremoniously pushed them aside and grabbed the magical object, checking it up closely. It featured a fully detailed, lifelike image of herself, wearing a beautiful summer dress with matching hat, striking a dynamic pose and smiling brightly; holding her glasses in a hand and a pink sceptre in the other. Under the image, she could read in Western letters what seemed to be a Latinization of her name and a title apparently assigned to her.
'Hasegawa Tisame'
'Idolum Virtuale'
"Virtual Idol" Hakase read aloud, peeking around her right arm. "Extremely easy to translate."
"And accurate, too." Misora stiffled a chuckle.
Chisame half-smirked, feeling a strange sensation of accomplishment about the thing she was holding now. At least it seemed to have worked; she had been dreading nothing would happen for a while. Briefly, she looked back at Negi, who shared an eager, awkward wider smile with her.
"Chiu-chi..." Chamo poked at one of her feet. "Hand the Bro your card. He needs to create a duplicate for you."
"A duplicate?" she asked while handing the card to the teacher.
The ermine nodded before addressing his friend. "Use the spell I taught you, Bro!"
"Okay!" Negi gulped before holding the card firmly between both hands and muttering a few short lines in Latin. Then, much to the awe of all three schoolgirls, a second, identical card appeared next to the first one. Negi handed Chisame the second card and told her, "This is your copy. We can use both cards to communicate with each other telepathically. All we need is to hold them to our foreheads like this," he touched his own forehead with the original card, "And then we'll be able to share thoughts just as clearly as if we were talking to each other."
A small bead of sweat appeared next to Hasegawa's head. "Don't we already have cellphones for that?"
"The card also has many other uses!" Negi informed. "You can use a special invocation upon it to invoke your Artifact, and besides, it allows us teleporting and major boosts of our physical stats."
"Now that you mention it, I do feel stronger now. Not that much, but yeah, it's like my body has more energy now." Chisame mused, flexing her left arm up and down.
Chamo hummed happily while drawing another circle on the floor. "Well, we can discuss all of that later! For now, it's time for the second lucky girl to step up!" he cackled. "So, who's next? Sato-chi or Miso-chi?"
"Me! Me!" Misora offered herself excitedly. The sight of the card had eased her fears back down. She wanted a card of her own, and she wanted it now.
"I have no problems with that," Hakase looked aside discretely.
"That's the spirit!" Chamo cooed, gesturing for Negi to take his spot at the new circle. "You already know what to do, Bro! Just pucker up and-"
"Please," Satomi stopped him. "Whatever you were about to say, don't say it. Or else. Vivisection," She held a rather large surgical knife pulled out of nowhere up.
"Um, as I was saying, Bro, just stand there and let Miso-chi to take care," the animal sweated profusely.
"All right..." Negi gulped down while Misora approached him, some of her recent wariness returning as the big moment of truth came closer.
"Okay," she said, "You ready, Negi-kun?"
"I... I think so..."
He briefly looked back at Chisame, who gave him a short encouraging nod after a moment of hesitation of her own. He exhaled, looked at Misora again, and confirmed his agreement with a movement of his head.
"Fine," She gently grabbed his cheeks and held his face still. "Here I go, then..."
She bit her lower lip down, then ran her tongue over her mouth. Carefully, she came closer to his face, looking straight at his wide and nervous eyes. Inch by inch, until she could feel his warm and softly agitated breathing blowing on her cheeks and nose.
"Forgive me, my Lord," she whispered, and then she quickly pushed her lips against his, engulfing his mouth into her own.
Wild Cards, Act Seven:
Chisame and Hakase watched expectantly how Misora kissed Negi, who somehow seemed (very) slightly less panicked and more numbed down as he received the full blunt of her lips on his. The sprinter's card appeared soon enough floating over in the same way Chisame's had; Chamo tried to catch it on its way down, but Hasegawa took advantage of her height and reach edge to grab it before he could.
It was only then that Misora broke the kiss, breathing quickly and looking at how the boy was gasping for air.
"So, ummm..." she wondered, nervously passing her tongue over her lower lip, "Was it... I dunno... good?"
He blinked, unsure of what to answer. His instincts told him to go for the least offensive possible reply.
"Hum, y-yes, it was... very good!" he managed to blurt out.
Although red cheeked, Misora managed to laugh out loud, slapping him on the back. "Oh, you little rogue! You have no shame, telling that to a sister!"
"Spoken by the 'sister' who initiated the kiss," Chisame snarked. "Then again, it's not like Catholic clergy kissing children is anything new..."
"To be fair, she isn't an officially declared sister yet..." Satomi pointed out.
"After this, I hope she never becomes one," Chisame further commented.
Misora scowled at her. "Oh, as if you hadn't kissed him first."
Hasegawa scowled back. "Excuse me, but who voted for me to do that?"
"Whatever, whatever!" Misora reached for her card. "Let me see my baby! Umm, what do we have here...?"
The new card showed Misora wearing a shortskirted variation of her religious habit, with running sneakers and posing before a huge cross, holding a smaller cross in each hand. Just like Chisame's, it had a Latinization on her name and a title.
'Casuga Misora'
'Joculatrix Monachans'
Misora showed the card to Hakase. "Prof-chan? What does this mean?"
Satomi reread the title, then bluntly said, "'Prankster Nun', I suppose."
Chisame almost guffawed. "Well, you were right after all, Kasuga! These titles are very accurate!"
Kasuga pouted. "Like I'm offended. I'm proud on both accounts." Then she smiled and handed her card to the stunned Negi. "Here, Negi-kun! Make a copy for me, too!"
"Yes..." he mechanically nodded before repeating the duplication spell and making Misora's copy. The short haired girl received it with a wide grin.
"I'll treasure it dearly!" she promised.
Satomi, meanwhile, stood in perfect stillness and an uncomfortable silence as Chamo whistled drawing the third Pactio circle.
"Oh, Miso-chiiiiiiii...!" he sign-sang. "Guess who's the only one left to take the plun-geeeeee!"
The teen scientist gulped. "Couldn't you put the situation in a somewhat less distasteful statement?"
"Sorry," the ermine apologized half-heartedly. "Anyway, you already know what to do. You too, Bro. Take your place, we're almost done here."
"Fine..." Negi sighed, stepping into the third circle. He had come to just accept having basically no vote on it. Kissing girls was not that bad, actually, once you put the hideously wrong fact they were supposed to be your students aside. He had expected for it to be more of a ground shaking, world ending deal, physically speaking, from what the older students at Merdiana used to say.
Hakase had walked into the circle as well, her skin covered by small goosebumps.
I'm doing this for the sake of learning, of discovery..., she repeated to herself in her mind, time and time again. I'm doing this for the sake of learning, of discovery... I'm doing this for the sake of learning, of discovery...
"I'm doing this for the sake of learning, of discovery" she droned her mantra to Negi while cupping his face between her now colder and sweaty hands.
"Uh, okay," he couldn't do anything but nodding quickly.
"I'm glad you understand," she sighed in relief before pushing her face ahead, closing her eyes as she clumsily pressed her mouth over Negi's.
Wild Cards, Act Eight:
By now, it was completely evident Hakase had no actual idea of how to kiss someone.
It was not like Chisame and Misora had any more previous experience, but they still had read enough manga and watched enough movies to basically follow a pre-conceived course of action while claiming the boy's lips. Satomi, on the other hand, was a total neophyte on the matter of close physical contact, and it showed.
It was more like she was mashing her mouth against Negi's, rubbing it at left and right and back again, than anything else. Apparently it was uncomfortable and rough for him, since the other girls could see him straining himself to his best to avoid pulling back and away.
But before Chisame could separate them, the magic seemed to decide THAT had counted as a kiss, producing yet another card that quickly floated down just like the others. This time, it was Misora who caught it in midflight, with Chisame peeking over her shoulders to look at it.
"PACTIO, PACTIO, PACTIO!" Chamo cackled. Then he noticed both of the kissers' faces starting to gain a distinctive purple shade. "Um, guys...? You can stop it now. The card's out and ready."
"Oh! Oh!" Satomi gasped, swallowing for air and separating her mouth from Negi's. The ermine chuckled, seeing a thin bridge of saliva still connecting their lips. "That is... good news... Chamo-san," she spoke stiffly, blinking several times.
"That was... intense," Negi wheezed, holding himself upon shaky knees.
Misora gave him a brief, somewhat concerned, look. "... More intense than mine?"
"It's always the quiet ones," Chamo smirked knowingly.
It surely was only a coincidence the fact Satomi absently walked over him the very next moment, approaching her classmates to ask for her card. "May I have it?" she asked, sounding strangely subdued.
"Oh, sure," Chisame nodded, handing it over to her. "But what does it say under your name? Something about machines, right?"
The black haired teen examined her Pactio card. It featured a perfect image of her, dressed in shorts and a white coat, using black gloves, smiling and with her arms crossed, carrying some sort of elaborate carapace-exoskeleton-backpack from which four metallic arms sprouted. The upper two arms were thin and almost tentacle-like, but the lower two were huge and bulky, armed with gigantic and thick fingers. Again, there was a Latinized name and an assigned title.
'Hacase Satomi'
'Macinatrix Insana'
Negi's eyes grew rounder as he also read the description. "Ah... Uh... That is..."
The scientist spoke in a fully flat and dry tone. "Mad Inventor."
Misora couldn't help but blowing into a guffaw immediately.
"Mad... MAD...? MAD? Hee, hee, so-sorry, Prof! Tee hee, sorry! But... But you gotta admit these cards sure know how to get it right!"
The ermine was chuckling, too. Even Chisame seemed to be holding back a few giggles. Freaking Hasegawa Chisame.
Hakase didn't say anything, but her face had grown seriously soured, moving Negi to step in. "Girls, girls, please! And you too, Chamo! Shame on you!"
Hakase placed a hand on his right shoulder. "It's okay. I'm used to it," she softly said, then handed him the card. "Copy, please."
"Oh, sure thing!" he grabbed the card and created a copy of it just as he had done with the others, gently giving it to his third Pactio partner. "Here, Hakase-san," he smiled. "I know you'll make a good use of it."
"Thanks for your trust, Sensei," she smiled back. It was so preciously rare seeing anything trusting her. Especially after the incident at the Science Fair. And the problem with Madoka at Chemistry classes. And the time when they ended up having to rescue Fumika from the Floor Polisher 8000. "By the way... For what it's worth... I'm glad my first time was with you."
He blushed for the umpteenth time that day. "Thanks... Thank you!"
The other girls stared long, hard and silently at them, but Chamo broke the strange tension by prancing around towards the door. "La-la-la! What are you waiting for, sleepyheads? Let's go outside to try those Artifacts! Show us the way, Miso-chin!"
"Oh, sure," Kasuga snapped back to reality, motioning for the others to follow her. "This way, please."
She brought them to an old practice field, wide and lonely, through which a cold breeze whistled.
"Why do we have to test our 'Artifacts' here, Chamo-san?" Hakase questioned.
"An Artifact can be as large as a car, or more, depending on the Ministra," the ermine informed. "It'd be a disaster if you summoned it for the first time inside of a closed room, only to learn the Artifact is just too big and crushes you against a wall. Of course, that's rare, and most often the Artifact is what we see the Ministra holding in the card, but that isn't always true. For the same reason, I'll ask you to stand away from the others the first time you invoke your Artifacts. You first, Chiu-chi. After all, you were the first one to kiss the Bro!"
"Don't remind me!" she snapped, stalking a few feet away before stopping. "Like this?"
"Yeah, that's good," Chamo approved.
"Great," she grumbled. "Now what?"
"Hold your card up and say ''Adeat''. It's that easy," Negi smiled supportingly at her.
Chisame nodded slowly, lifting the card up. Getting mentally ready for anything (or so she hoped), she held the card firmly, took a deep breath in, and shouted,
"ADEAT!"
Wild Cards, Act Nine:
Even much, much later, long after being used to the effects of using the Pactio, she would always remember that time as the most intense one. It blinded her for a moment, actually scaring her as she felt the nearly burning magical power bursting out of the card, transforming it into a long, cold, solid and hopefully not Freudian at all pink scepter right between her hands.
At the same time, for the briefest fraction of time, it was as if her clothes unknitted, vanishing into thin air, only to be immediately remade around herself, becoming a perfect copy of the long skirted dress seen in the Card itself, complete with matching shoes and hat.
It had been like something out of one of those stupid Mahou Shoujo shows, like Magical Milk or Sailor V or Biblion. At least she hadn't been forced to spin around in the air like freakin' Linda Carter caught in a hurricane.
Then she noticed the eyes of the other four fixed on her, and she froze solid, fearing they had just seen something they definitely shouldn't have seen.
"Don't tell me..." she babbled, her glasses fogging up so much they hid her eyes from sight.
"It... It was only a moment...!" Misora chuckled nervously.
"Yes. A, how do they say it coloquially, 'Blink and You'll Miss It' event," Satomi said with a nod.
"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE BLINKED, DAMMIT!" Chisame growled.
Negi was averting his gaze almost desperately. "I swear I didn't see anything, I swear it, I swear it..."
Chisame leveled a chilling glare on him. "What color were they?"
Without thinking, he replied quickly, "Huh? Ah, white. Pure white."
Then he slammed his hands over his mouth as she jumped on him, scepter held high. "YOU SAW! I'm gonna save Eva the work-!"
The other two girls had to hold her from behind.
"Chisame, please-!" Hakase whined while struggling against an elbow pushing for freedom against her face. "Get a hold of yourself!"
"He's still a child! He deserves a longer life span!" Misora argued before catching a scepter to the head.
Finally breaking free, Hasegawa huffed and puffed, redfaced but more calmed down. "Okay. Okay. I'm fine. Really. But I swear, when it's your turn to transform, I'm going to keep his eyes well open so I'm not the only disgraced one!"
Negi went pale as a white sheet. "I couldn't possibly-!"
Hakase made a face, but after a second of indignation (and rubbing the aching spot on her own head), Kasuga simply laughed and patted herself on the thin hips, prancing around mockfully. "He can see if he wants! Maybe I'm not an Internet supermodel, but at least I feel sure enough about my body to not needing any Photoshop!"
Negi's eyes sprouted up and his legs shook like jelly.
A vein bulged on Chisame's forehead. "Keep pushing me around and I'll give you a free ticket to meet Saint Peter himself!" she told Misora.
Chamo clapped his paws aloofly. "Girls, girls, save the killer instinct for the vampire, okay? Chiu-chi, activate your scepter!"
"And how do I do that?" she asked.
"Here, let me," Negi grabbed the scepter along with her, redirecting her hands to point the object into another direction. He kept it grabbed along with her, his small hands on hers, making her to feel somewhat uneasy again. "Listen to the voice of your own magic inside of yourself. To use your power, you have to feel it inside of your mind and soul, then to channel it through your Artifact. It takes some practice, but after a while, it becomes as natural as breathing. Look, while we're starting, I'll practice it along with you. Magister and Ministra can have an easier time using magic when they do it together. Trust me."
"Okay..." she conceded, breathing deeply while looking down at him. Her Magister. He was her Magister. As stupid as that sounded, it still changed everything between them now. More or less.
It felt nicer now, as if the power was warming her up comfortably, whispering something inside of her head. It almost sounded like... mousey chirpings.
She smiled at the silly idea before closing her eyes and relaxing against him, forgetting about Misora and Hakase. It was as if her soul was resonating against Negi's, and it actually felt good. Pleasant.
Then a squeaky tiny voice saluted her, "We are at your command, Chiu-sama!"
Chisame opened her eyes, expecting to see Misora right before her, playing a prank on her. Instead, she found herself staring straight into the shiny black eyes of a floating pink mouse. She never had been afraid of rodents, but there always was a fisrt time for everything.
"KYAAA!" she shrieked, frantically rushing back.
There were seven of those mice around her now, hanging in midair. Negi, Chamo, Kasuga and Satomi watched on with fascination, but Chisame was less than thrilled. "Wh-What the hell are these things?-!-?"
"We are the seven electronic spirits born from the communion of your power with Master Negi's!" the first mouse spoke up. "From now on, we'll obey your every command, Chiu-sama! But first, please enter a 4-letter name for each one of us!"
"Electronic spirits?" Chisame stared in disbelief. "Hey, wait a minute. If you are electronic, why, in this day and age, you need to restrict your names to only four letters?"
"It's because we believe our data needs to be as compact and streamlined as possible for maximum speed and efficiency," another mouse explained.
"Huh. Whatever. Anything's fine for me," she huffed. "You can name yourselves AAAA, BBBB and so on if you want."
"Don't be so cruel, Chiu-sama!" they whined. "We need names born from love and care to designate ourselves!"
"Yeah, don't be like that, 'Chiu-chan'," Misora snickered. "It's like picking on newborns."
"Then you can name them yourself," the hacker groaned.
"Okay!" Kasuga began to look at the sprite-thingies. "You are the darkest one, so you remind me of Cocone-chan. I'll name you Coco. You two are identical, so you must be twins. I'll name you Boku and Pico."
"Boku and Pico?" Negi asked.
"Names from an anime I once watched," Misora calmly explained.
"Wait, they once trolled me about that anime!" Chisame exclaimed. "What kind of nun watches things like THAT?"
Ignoring her, the runner just continued naming the remaining mice. "Let's see... You, with the bright smile, look like a real Latin lover, so I'll name you Paco. And you seem to be a girl, so I'll name you Chiu, just like your Mom. And you will be Negi, like your Dad."
Both 'parents' tensed up in crimson-skinned alarm near her. "WHAT?" they yelled.
Misora gave them a nonchalant look. "Think about it. They were born out of your union, weren't they? They obviously are your children!"
"Oh my God, it's true!" Negi gasped aloud, his hands grasping for air, his eyes going blank.
"NO, IT ISN'T!" Hasegawa protested.
"It makes biological sense when you think about it..." Satomi mused quietly. "If they were a result of the combined activity of your vital energies, assuming we can even use that term in this case, then they are, for all intents and purposes, your progeny..."
"I am... I am not prepared to be a father yet...!" Negi whimpered.
The mice all looked to each other, silently pondering what to do about such a stunning revelation. Finally, four of them flew to hug Chisame, and the other three flew to tackle Negi's chest up.
"MOTHER-!"
"FATHER-!"
"CUT IT OUT, YOU LITTLE FREAKS!" Chisame yelled.
Misora chuckled, patting her on a shoulder. "Don't worry. Our church provides all single underage mothers with an extensive program of orientation and reinsertion into society!"
"I HOPE YOU HAVE A HYENA WITH HIM! JUST LIKE ITS MOTHER!" the hacker angrily shouted at her.
Wild Cards, Act Ten:
"Tutorial Program for our dear Mother, Starting!" one of the mice started.
"Lesson One on the Use of Magical Electronic Idol Powers- Basical Guidelines!" another mouse chirped. "Data Loading Up, Please Wait!"
The seven sprites floated before the annoyed Chisame, who stood at the middle of the track while Negi, Misora, Satomi and Chamo had sat down behind her to watch. Hakase, as usual, took extensive notes, while Misora had pulled a bag of crackers out and was now munching happily.
"I told you to stop calling me Mother," Hasegawa spoke again. "You little creeps are making me to feel old."
A translucent floating holographic screen had just generated itself between the mice. Much to her own horror, Chisame found herself unable to feel that much awe about it anymore.
"Function One," Coco started. "The Scepter you hold is called the Sceptrum Virtuale. It allows you to control us, and also to interact with basically any electric system to a degree of reach and control depending on your current level of magic skill. Besides that, with a special incantation you can access to through Databank A, File Beta, you can download you awareness in a pseudo-physical form through the Internet, leaving your physical body behind until you decide to return to it."
"Why would I ever want to do such a stupid thing?" Chisame asked. "So I can die buried under porn pop-ups?"
Negi blinked. "What's a por–"
"Well, I suppose that electric mumbo-jumbo can be very useful against Chachamaru!" Misora said a bit too loud. "What's your take on it, Prof?"
"I believe it could neutralize some of her attack and defense functions, but be warned Chao and me installed major contingencies against any sort of hostile takeover or shut-down into her," Hakase rubbed her chin with her pen. "Give me some time to inspect on your 'Artifact', and maybe I could come up with some upgrades to make it more useful against Chachamaru's defenses... but only as long as you promise not to harm her. She's my masterpiece! My claim to glory! My biggest source of pride! Also, she helps me over at the restaurant."
Misora gave her an annoyed glare. "You still intend to keep going there after Chao sank that knife in your back?"
"I'm sure she'd have her reasons," Negi tried to intervene. "You should at least listen to what she has to say before taking any decisions, Hakase-san."
"Hmmmm," the scientist hugged her knees. "Perhaps..."
Paco cleared its throat before continuing. "As we were saying, we also offer wide scale of secondary functions. Through manipulation of our hard data programs made solid magi-matter, you, Mother, can create several different kinds of outfits for yourself. You can charge magical energy on the scepter to shoot electric blasts of varying degrees of intensity. To test that function of the Artifact, please set aim on a suitable target, put your mind onto drawing energy from the environment's electronic components, and then release it upon the chosen target."
"Alright," Chisame said, as she immediately pointed the scepter at Chamo.
"W-WATCH OUT WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SIS!" the ermine screamed. "OR I'LL CALL PETA!"
"Eh. Fair enough," Chisame droned before aiming at Misora instead.
"DAMMIT, DON'T JOKE WITH SOMETHING THAT COULD BLOW MY HEAD OFF, CHIU!" the sprinter panicked as well.
"Hasegawa-san, please!" Negi requested.
"Not much of a sense of humor now, huh, Kasuga?" Chisame deadpanned before shifting the scepter's aim to a discarded water bottle left at a side of the track. She drew a deep breath in, attempted to recreate the summoning of power feeling she had before bringing the mice out, and then relaxed it through the scepter.
Instantly, a small blast of sparking energy shot itself from the staff, shattering the bottle up and also leaving a large scorched hole on the ground all around it.
"Bravo!" Negi clapped happily. "Excellent first try, Hasegawa-san!"
"That's my Sis!" Chamo cheered.
After recoiling a bit, shaken by the kick of the shot, Chisame gasped, looking down at her Artifact. "Well, just look at that! I truly could have blown your head off with this, Kasuga!"
"I told you so!" Misora snapped, standing up. "That's why magic isn't something to play around with! Now let me test my powers before you destroy more of our property." She held her own card up, then said, "Sensei..."
"I-I'M NOT LOOKING!" Negi quickly turned around and covered his eyes with both hands.
"You too, Chamo-san," Misora commanded coldly.
"Me?" Chamo sheepishly pointed a paw at his own furry chest. "But I'm only an innocent animal!"
"More like a perverted beast," Chisame picked him up, firmly obstructing his sight with her hands. "Do it now, Kasuga. Before I change my mind back."
"Aww, you're such a sweetheart after all," Misora smirked sarcastically. Then she made a more serious face and waved the Pactio Card around, "ADEAT!"
Again, there was a brief explosion of light, and Misora's clothes vanished only to re-knit themselves a split second later as a variation of her usual habit, but with the very short and risky skirt seen in the Card itself.
"Oh nuts, it's even shorter in reality," Kasuga lamented, trying to tug it down a bit. "Can I even move around in this without giving pantyshots to everyone?"
"I call it 'Spreading a bit of Heaven to everyone'," Chamo philosophized.
"Chisame, step on him for me," Misora asked.
"With pleasure," Hasegawa obeyed.
"And what's my Artifact?" Misora looked at her own hands. "I'm not carrying anything. Not even those crosses seen in the card. What am I supposed to do? To pray until a bolt from above falls on Evangeline?"
"Calm down," Negi suggested. "Try to feel your magic, to pinpoint from where it is flowing into you. Become one with the power. Feel it like you feel your heartbeats, Kasuga-san."
"Hmmmm. Okay, Negi-kun," she nodded. His soothing voice began to quieten her nerves down. She closed her eyes briefly, searching deeply into herself, until she felt the source of her newfound sense of upgraded power.
She looked down.
"My feet."
"How so?" Satomi inquired.
Misora pointed down. "My sneakers."
"Of course," Chamo pulled himself back from under Chisame's right foot. "You are a runner, Miso-chi! That's where you heart lies! Draw your power from there! Show us your magic! Do you what you do best, girl!" he grandly laughed.
The girl smiled brightly. "Okay!"
And with that, she raced ahead, taking the track with fervor. As soon as she put her feet into motion, she lifted a huge cloud of smoke, making the others to cough up. She took away into the path like a speeding bullet, the air booming around herself just as if a rocket had blasted off.
"Wow. We can see her underwear…" Chamo said.
Wild Cards, Act Eleven:
Negi, Chisame and Chamo watched, their mouths hanging open, as Misora kept on racing lap after lap across the track, raising a huge amount of dust that floated all around them. The sprinter was nearly nothing but a blur by now, invisible as anything but a black and white clad streak passing by next to them so fast it was almost as if she never left their side at all.
"This is the greatest gift I've ever received!" She never stopped laughing, either. "I feel so alive! So free! So magnificent!"
Hakase had a timer in hand now, and she was attempting to measure Kasuga's reaction and motion times with it, but she eventually had to put it down with a sound of exasperation. "She moves faster than I can set this up," she lamented, "But from what I've been able to gather, I feel safe stating she's at least six times faster than the current Olympic record."
"That's amazing!" Negi was in awe.
"NO WAY!" Chisame gasped.
"I'm afraid so," the scientist nodded, her pigtails floating up in the continuous whirlwind around the track due to the exaggerated speeds displayed by Kasuga. "And beyond that, she seems to be growing faster and faster by each lap... Wait..." she paused, taking another look at the timer, "No. Her rhythm apparently is decreasing slightly now. Kasuga-saaaaaan!" she called out. "Are you feeling somewhat worn down now?"
"I'm fine! Just let me to run a few dozens more laps, Coach!" Misora's voice was heard again, now sounding more ragged and nearly panting. "I swear I'll make you and the girls proud!"
"I think," Chisame plainly stated, "She may be starting to hallucinate we're her club partners."
"Kasuga-san, please don't strain yourself!" Negi begged. "It's been more than enough for now! Until your body grows adapted to your new powers and the magical influence it's receiving, there's no point on pushing your limits so much! Can you hear me? Kasuga-san!"
For a few more moments, there was no reply. But then, Misora's shape started to become fully visible amidst the dust clouds. She still ran five or six more laps at a more sedate pace before stopping right before Negi, sweating profusely and panting madly. Yet, the smile on her face was huge, even as she had to support the weight of her body onto her hands perched on her knees.
"Are you okay, Kasuga-san?" the boy passed a hand over her forehead, concerned. "You shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard. Let's take this step by step..."
"Never felt better, Negi-kun!" she fondly patted his head while regaining her breath. "Man, this power is great! With it, I'll escape so fast Eva-chin will never be able to lay a hand on me again!"
"Eeehhhh, we didn't get in this just to keep escaping for the rest of our lives!" Chisame reminded her. "Running away is fine when you can't do anything else, but try and think of some way to use that speed for attacking, too!"
Satomi approached the sister in training. "Could you see your surroundings in full detail while you were running at such high speeds?"
"Perfectly!" she confirmed with a grin.
"Good," the scientist said, now with a scary gleam over her glasses. "That should mean your other parts and functions of your anatomy can adapt and adjust to the velocity your lower extremities were displaying, perhaps even matching it. Could you try to move another part of your body at super-speed instead of your legs?"
"For instance?"
"Why don't you try with your arms?" Chisame warily suggested.
"I don't know if it's such a good idea, right now. Let's leave her to rest..." Negi pleaded.
"No, it's all right! I'll do it!" Misora carelessly commented before starting to spin her arms around in circles as fast as she could. Immediately, even more strong bursts of wind began to blow all around her, lifting the dust back up and sending everything under a certain size flying across in all directions. Including Chamo, who collided face-first against a concrete wall.
"... Ouch."
"Ah! I'm sorry, Chamo-san!" Misora immediately stopped herself. "I swear I didn't mean it this time!"
"Actually, I think I'm getting used to this," the ermine commented, wiping the blood off his face. "Wait! I got another idea! Why don't you try to talk really, really fast?"
Chisame, who had just been busy fixing her skirt back into shape (thankfully for her, it was too long to show anything off when the wind lifted it around), snapped angrily at him. "What kind of stupid idea is that? How could that ever be useful to us?"
Misora cleared her throat before starting, "Actually, IthinkChiu-chan'srightthistimeChamo-san. Honestly,. . IbetIcouldbecomearealhit atparties. Wowmythroatisntevensoreyet!"
"... Showoff," Chisame dryly snorted.
"So you can apply your augmented speed to your upper extremities and your vocal chords and tongue, as well! Highly intriguing!" The gleam on Satomi's glasses became nearly blinding.
"A pretty girl with a high-velocity tongue and fingers certainly has a lot of interesting possibilities..." Chamo began to ponder, a lecherous look on his face, but fortunately for him, nobody paid him any attention.
"As a matter of fact," Hakase seriously stated, "I believe your new abilities might have allowed you to access a link to the postulated extradimensional 'Speed Force' field accidentally discovered by Doctor Barry Allen ten years ago. It has been theorized said field could even possibly empower all degrees of motion in our universe to some capacity, and-"
"That's the most ridiculous technobabble I've ever heard from you!" Misora groaned. "It's just magic, deal with it! You don't need to make fancy scientific excuses just to try and deny the supernatural when it's right before you!"
"Whatever the case is, if you can move your arms at superspeed too, you could punch Evangeline in the face like two hundred times before she can even react, couldn't you?" Chisame went straight to the point that interested her the most.
"I don't think it'd be so easy," Negi cautioned. "Even with the upgrade magic gave her, her arms shouldn't be strong enough to support such an effort in such a short time. Basically, Kasuga-san could break her arm down if she attempted to hit anything that much in the span of a few moments."
"Ugh," Misora grimaced. "Too much for that idea, thank you."
Chamo hummed. "Well, we'll look into that later. For now, it's your turn, Science Sis! Let's see what can you do with your Pactio!"
"Okay, everything for the sake of discovery..." Satomi clumsily stepped ahead. She snapped her fingers. "Sensei?"
"Immediately," the teacher chivalrously grabbed Chamo and forced him to turn around and away with himself.
"BETRAYAL!" the ermine wailed, flailing around helplessly. "ET TU, NEGIUS! MY MOST DEAREST BROTHER!"
"Thank you," the genius bowed her head before holding her Card up. "By the Power of...! ...Wait, what was the activation word again?"
"ADEAT!" Chisame and Misora yelled at her.
"Oh, yes. That," Satomi blinked before repeating in a loud voice, "ADEAT!"
Wild Cards, Act Twelve:
Satomi's clothes seemed to absorb themselves into nothingness for a moment, right before reappearing back with a vengeance, remaking themselves into a variation of her usual shorts and open lab coat ensemble. A form-fitting black T-shirt with a portrait of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out appeared over her chest, which Chisame actually thought had been the second weirdest thing in the whole day so far, after the mice.
Then the backpack-carapace built itself from nothingness into her back, firmly attaching itself to her, and displaying the same four arms seen in the Card.
"It's... far lighter than I thought," Satomi mused quietly, tentatively flexing her human hands in and out, finding out the metallic hands were vaguely following the same motions. "I must analyze and isolate this material! You wouldn't believe how long did it take me to find an alloy that wouldn't make Chachamaru to weigh more than a ton.."
Chisame covered her own face with a hand. "What have we just unleashed upon this world?"
In a more orderly universe, this would have been accompanied by an ominous clap of thunder. As it was, she got nothing.
"Then, what does that thing do?" Misora asked.
"Looks like some sort of grappling armor," Chamo studied it closely. "Which would complement you two nicely. A speedster, a long ranged blast-based attacker, and now a close combat combatant. I like it a lot!"
Chisame looked down at him. "Hakase? A grappler? Oh, please."
The ermine scoffed. "Well, she may not have the training, but those huge secondary arms sure look like they are designed to pummel and pounce, don't they? That style of fighting doesn't demand much in the way of training or skill, and it's not like Sato-chi needs more intelligence. It makes sense the Artifact would reinforce her weaker points instead, that is, her physical capabilities."
"Okay, Hakase-san, now let's try your Artifact's power," Negi kindly suggested. "Don't put too much effort into it. Just do what you feel your Artifact is the most suited to do."
"Understood," Hakase nodded, then tightened her right fist, the massive right fist of the Artifact doing the same thing. She threw a punching motion downwards, and the Artifact followed suit... making the whole track to shake and tremble, and the other youngsters to fall down on their butts.
"I can die happy with this...!" Chamo squealed in delight as Chisame fell sitting right on top of him. The girl shrieked at feeling his furry body poking at her buttocks, sprang back to her feet, and tossed him up into the air, making him to become a tiny spark in the sky.
When Negi's head finally stopped spinning, and his ears regained hearing after the deafening kaboom that followed the punch, he looked over to see a huge deep crater now occupied the exact same site where Hakase had punched, and then some.
"GAH!" Misora shouted. "How am I ever going to explain this to the Coach and the girls?"
"Why would you explain it? You were never here today, remember?" Satomi was unfazed. Then she grinned madly, tightening the large fist up. "I could grow well accustomed to this...! I never cared about having any physical power of my own, but this... this is a gate to a whole new world of possibilities! I could perform extensive studies on the application of brute force to different objects! I could write a whole thesis on this! Why, I even could get back at those girls who called me 'Brainy Egghead' at Elementary School!"
"Wow," Chisame said. "You're human after all…"
"Pactios aren't intended to be used for personal ends, only for the betterment of mankind," Negi had to remind her.
"Regardless, what are the two smaller arms for?" Hasegawa pointed at the tiny subset of arms above the large ones.
"Support tasks, no doubt," Satomi theorized, using one of them to scratch her own head thoughtfully. "For instance, I might hold weapons and use them while the primary limbs strike at the enemy."
"That's actually quite good!" Misora grinned widely. "I'm starting to think we have a chance here!"
"Yes!" Hakase nodded. "Combining our abilities with Negi-Sensei's, we should be able to overcome Evangeline-san and Chachamaru!"
Even Chisame was half-smiling by now. "Well, it's not like we have alternatives, so the only thing we can do is to forge ahead all the way, right? We might as well do it with enthusiasm."
"Hasegawa-san..." Negi was moved to the border of tears. "Hakase-san... Kasuga-san... You're so nice to me... I couldn't ask for better students...!"
"Negi-kun," Misora placed a hand on his right shoulder. "Don't call us like that anymore, will you? From now on, call us 'Misora', 'Chisame' and 'Satomi'. We are your Pactio partners, after all. Our relationship can't be the same it was before."
"Hey, hey, what are you implying there?" Chisame was somewhat taken aback.
But Negi only nodded and smiled firmly. "Okay, Misora-san!"
The sister-to-be just shrugged casually. "I figure we can keep the '-san' suffix for now..."
Then Chamo landed back with a thud between them.
"Chamo?" Negi blinked. "What were you doing up there, and why do you have blood on your face... again?"
The ermine twitched. "Would you... believe me... if I told you... I crashed against a plane moments ago?"
Meanwhile,at the Mahora City International Airport, a majestic caped figure clad in blue and red was carefully holding a large jet, helping it to land down to safety amidst the cheers of the crowd below.
He had seen many strange and unusual things all through his life, but somehow, that one had just struck him as particularly odd.
Had that been… a flying rat?
Wild Cards, Act Thirteen:
At the same time:
Cocone had finished making tea when the doorbell rang.
Her expression remained neutral as she walked for the dorm's door, opening her up, knowing well who would she find standing there.
Indeed, it was her. The busty and pretty fair skinned girl with short black hair in a maid outfit, carrying a bag full with groceries in a hand. She bowed her head politely to the little girl. "Good afternoon, Cocone-chan."
"Good afternoon, Supervising Officer," Cocone whispered, inviting her to walk in with a subtle movement of her head.
"I have told you, please, just call me 'Siesta'," the older girl uncomfortably laughed while taking her shoes off and sitting down at a couch. "I'll be brief. Where is your roommate, by the way?"
"She is... out with some friends," Cocone kept her gaze down, offering her a cup. "Tea?"
"Thank you very much," the maid smiled warmly while accepting the drink. "It's better if she doesn't hear this yet. It's something serious. About the latest report from Ariadne," she quietly confided.
Siesta, Commoner from the Tarbes slumps. (A last name was thus never given to her.) Imperial Immigration Initiative Experimental Subject #17.
Cocone said nothing.
Cocone Fatima Rosa. Further Data Currently Secret. Imperial Immigration Initiative Experimental Subject #18.
"The specialists, including Headmaster Osmond, have detected a sudden spike on the degradation of Mundus Magicus," Siesta spoke sadly. "They are afraid the final collapse could come up in two to three years. Needless to say, the other tests subjects have panicked. So much the Headmaster told me to keep this a secret from anyone but you."
"I see," Cocone nodded passively.
"Don't worry," the maid caressed her head comfortingly. "They'll find a solution. And even if they can't, your family must be one of the top priorities to move here with us. It's your right as an Experimental Subject."
It was a lie and they both knew it. When the boat started sinking, only the higher-ups would be allowed salvation. Every Test Subject knew that by then. But they still found some solace on clutching to the official declarations, to the statements issued to convince them to join the program. All of them did, but Cocone.
But Cocone still said nothing.
Siesta looked over through a window, at the placid Mahora landscape. "To be honest, I wish to stay here. Back at the Academy, I was nothing but a peasant, a foreigner's granddaughter, a servant to be used and abused of. But here, with Ojou-sama and Roberta, and Fabiola and Fubuki-san and Taeko... I'm actually happy. Don't you feel happy here too, Cocone-chan?"
The child's calm gaze briefly wandered to her portrait with Misora on the table. "Yes. Yes, I do."
"That's good to hear," Siesta sighed. She stood up. "I think I should be going. Your roommate could arrive soon, and I gave the excuse I was out buying ingredients for dinner. They'll start worrying about me soon."
She walked for the door, putting her shoes back on before looking at the child again. "Cocone-chan?"
"Yes?"
"After Mundus Magicus is saved, we'll ask for full-time stays here, won't we?"
She nodded sparsely. "Yes."
"It's a promise," Ayaka's young maid winked an eye to her before leaving. "Have a good evening!"
"You too," the little girl whispered.
Then she lowered her head again.
"You too," she repeated.
Wild Cards, Act Fourteen:
Siesta calmly walked down the boulevard and heading back towards the bus stop that would take her back to the Yukihiro Manor.
Yet her heart was filled with dread and despair.
She couldn't even tell Cocone half of it. She also felt it had no point, no chance of succeeding at all. She only could fear for her uncle and her cousin Jessica back at home, fully knowing the authorities would just ignore their promises and leave them at their own highly limited devises when the collapse would come.
Maybe she should just tell Ayaka-sama the truth.
But that only filled her with even more fear. Wouldn't she consider that a betrayal of her trust, an ongoing lie, a facade made to fool her? That was assuming she even believed her, and regardless, even the Yukihiro influences could do nothing for her family.
All she could do was to silently keep on praying for a solution.
Then she heard the raspy chuckles coming from behind her.
"Hey, Little Lady..."
She started walking faster.
"Don't ignore us, Lady..."
They stepped out from behind the trees to stand in her way, grinning mockingly at her sudden paleness and her fearful reaction. Forcing her to halt.
"Haven't you heard, Onee-chan?" one of the young punks asked, with his hands in his pockets. They both wore black school uniforms, being a few years older than her, and yet they also towered over her, menacingly. "They say there's a vampire on the loose around here. A cute thing like you shouldn't be walking around all alone..."
"Yeah..." the other boy nodded. "You should have one guy or two around to protect you. They say bad things happen to girls who walk all alone after dusk..."
"Sun hasn't set down yet," she said, struggling to seem firm, trying to take a page from Roberta's attitude and failing miserably. "And I can look after myself. Let me pass, please."
"Sun isn't out yet? Great, it's early enough then," one of them snorted. "Let's hit a karaoke bar, okay? Forget your patrons. Those fat cats won't need to eat for a while..."
"Let me go," she asked, attempting to stand her ground. "I am expected to be back at home shortly."
"Shit, Onee-chan, just stop shakin' around like a scared puppy," the larger boy laughed. "Let you go? We ain't even grabbed you yet..."
"Yeah, don't be so pushy," one of them reached over to grab her by a hand. "We just wanna be friendly, that's all. Relax. You'll have more fun and live longer that way..."
She was about to yell for help when another male voice called out strongly.
"You heard her! Let her go!"
Lazily, the delinquents looked around to look at a boy of 16 or 17 years of age, short and rather thin, wearing jeans and a blue and white sweater, standing near and looking angrily at them. He had short black messy hair and large black eyes, and his fists shook in place nervously.
One of the punks stalked towards him. "And why should we, ya little turd? Who says you can just show up and boss us around? Who the hell do you think you are?"
"Hey, I know him," the other delinquent spoke. "He's the little shitface who works at the grocery store. The only who raises a fuss whenever I try to swipe a magazine away."
"It's him? Huh," the other punk snorted. "He's so bland I had forgotten him. Well, White Knight-sama, there's something I always do to bland do-gooders who try tellin' me what to do..." He cracked his fists before punching the boy in the stomach.
"Oooofff!" the boy recoiled back.
"Wait! Don't-!" Siesta advanced, but the delinquent near her kept her firmly grabbed by a wrist.
"Where do you think your goin', Onee-chan? It's dangerous to get in a fight between two men!"
"I told you to let me go!" she struggled. "That isn't a fight! It's just cruel bullying!"
The short boy continued receiving the full blunt of his attacker's rage, as he was punched time and time again without getting a chance to defend himself. Siesta watched on with horror for a few moments, but when she was about to yell again, she saw another figure quietly approaching down the boulevard.
She was wearing the same maid outfit as her.
Her black hair made up into a bun.
"Fabiola-san!" Siesta gasped hopefully.
The punks both gave the newcomer an annoyed glare.
"Who's this other chick?"
"Look, she's another Maid Cafe Cosplayer. We're in luck! Now there's one for each one."
"Now you're talking. But I call dibs on the first one."
"Gotcha."
Unconcerned, the second maid stopping before her, looking at the coughing battered boy on his knees, then at Siesta. "Are you okay, Siesta-san?"
"Ah... ah, yes, I am. But he... He..."
"Ojou-sama was growing concerned about your lateness, so Fubuki-san sent me to look for you," the maid with the slight but strange foreign accent formally announced. "Sorry I took so long."
The bullies loomed over her.
"Hey, don't try to ignore us, Onee-chan!"
"Yeah, you're hurting our feelings! At least tell us your name!"
The foreigner bowed while grabbing her white apron up with both hands. "Allow me to introduce myself then. I am currently under employment of the Yukihiro Zaibatsu. My work is to handle miscellaneous chores around the local Yukihiro properties, and my name is Fabiola Iglesias. Pleased to meet you."
They chuckled. "Oh, I can say you're going to be pleased."
"You seem new at town, Honey. What if we give you a good tour of Mahora City at night?"
The pummeled boy tried to stand up to stop them, but Siesta crouched down next to him, gently holding him back. "No, please," she whispered. "Fabiola-san knows what she's doing. Trust her."
"Siesta-san and me have no time to waste with the likes of you. Please begone," Fabiola spoke matter-of-factly. "Otherwise, I will be forced to take you off the way myself."
They growled, rushing on her like hawks zeroing on a bunny. "You little bitch! Gaijins should show more respect while here!"
With a sigh of resignation, Miss Iglesias moved quickly, dodging the first boy, then quickly grabbing him by a forearm and lifting him up, slamming him down onto his friend.
"You damn wacko!" the larger one got up, pulling a switchblade out. "I'm gonna mark that pretty face and then some!"
"Don't make me laugh," Instead of pulling back, she simply jumped ahead, avoiding the blade, head-butting him in the stomach, and grabbing him by the wrist and twisting, until a loud snap of bones was heard along with a yowl, and the switchblade fell down from limp fingers.
The weapon was quickly picked up by the second young thug, but Fabiola just gave him an annoyed glare while slamming his larger friend against a tree's trunk. "Are you sure you want to do that?"
The smaller punk trembled in place for a moment before shaking his head and dropping the switchblade down.
"Wise decision," Fabiola droned before tossing his friend on him as if she had just tossed a doll. "Now listen well, please," she calmly asked while placing a foot on the first thug's crotch and pressing down painfully. "I refuse to be amicable with hooligans like you, but I still have held myself back because Ojou-sama dislikes messes. Please stop bothering my colleague and the boy with her, or I will be less considerate next time." To prove her point, she pressed her foot down more, causing a loud agonic yell from her victim. "And just in case you think of ganging up with any more friends of yours, please keep in mind my superiors would take that as a grave offense against our household, and they're much more skilled than me. Do we have an understanding on the matter?"
Both delinquents nodded desperately.
"Excellent," she released them. "Now please just disappear from our sight."
They ran away screaming the very next moment.
"Hmmm..." she shook her head.
"Fabiola-san!" Siesta raced to hug her. "Thank you so very much!"
"I only followed orders from Fubuki-san and Roberta-san..." she began to speak dryly, but then she smiled and caressed Siesta's hair, "But I would have come even if I hadn't received them. Honestly, what will we do with you and Taeko? Hopefully Ojou-sama will never have to rely on you for protection..."
Then she looked at the recovering boy.
"Are you sure he wasn't troubling you as well?"
"Oh, of course he wasn't!" Siesta made clear. "As a matter of fact, he was defending me before you arrived!"
Fabiola bowed to the boy. "Thank you for helping our worthless colleague, Mister..."
"Saito! Hiraga Saito!" the boy bowed back. "It was my pleasure! I'd do it again without a second thought!"
Fabiola nodded. "It's always good to meet a true gentleman. But I'm afraid we must leave. Can you find your way back to your home alone?"
He laughed it off. "Yeah, I'm not that banged up! And I always take this way after my part-time job. Don't you worry."
"You have my infinite thanks," Siesta blushed charmingly, bowing to him as well. "My name's Siesta. If you ever have businesses with the Yukihiro Zaibatsu, I'll attend you as best as I can."
The boy's face flushed red, steam nearly coming out of his ears. "O-Okay! Nice to meet you, too! G-Goodbye!" He quickly took off.
Fabiola smirked softly. "Ojou-sama will get angry if she learns you were wasting time on a date, without telling anyone..."
"It-It wasn't that! I just met him!" Siesta nervously gathered her groceries together, all the while taking a mental note of finding out where did he work and start buying there from now on.
"Okay, I'll believe that," Fabiola let it to slide. "And I won't tell them, either."
"Again, I must thank you. You are a real lifesaver."
"Don't mention it," Miss Iglesias began to walk away. "But what did take you so long, then?"
Siesta lowered her gaze ruefully. "I was... giving a friend news from home."
Wild Cards, Epilogue:
Evangeline's Cottage:
The night was starting to fall quietly all over the woods, faint moonlight filtering itself through the windows. Inside of a darkened room, Chachamaru sat before a computer. Evangeline waited lazily sitting on the lower frame of a large window; computer researching was a boring mystery for her. Videogame playing was okay, of course, but beyond that, she stuck to the strictly old fashioned. If she had to read on something by herself, she'd just pull a dusty old tome from the library.
"How is it going?" she finally asked, letting a kittenish yawn out.
"I believe we can proceed with it," Chachamaru quietly said. "It seems like my theory was correct after all. Besides the curse of the Thousand Master, there's actually another factor inhibiting your powers, Master. The electrically powered barrier circling the campus is playing a restraining role between your magic reserves and your biochemistry, dampening your magic output. However, that barrier demands for a huge amount of energy to work."
"To the point, Chachamaru," Eva said. "Can we do it, or not?"
"Yes. This weekend's programmed blackout, while brief, should allow you to regain use of your vampiric powers as long as you boost them up with your Western magic. And they shouldn't be expecting a counterattack from you before the next full moon. However, it still won't allow you to leave campus, and the effect will be as short lived as the blackout itself."
"More than enough time to crush the Boyo," Evangeline tightened a fist. "It's worth the effort."
Chachamaru lowered her eyes as if her spirits had sunk down.
"Why do you care so much about him?" the blonde disdainfully asked, having noticed it. She always noticed everything.
"He is... like a kitty," the gynoid mused.
"What?"
"So easy to pet. So soft. So warm," she looked at her own cold hands.
Eva arched an eyebrow.
"So... warm," Chachamaru whispered, almost longingly.
Evangeline took out her key. "Right. Obviously, you need to get laid…"
NEXT: Konoka's Omiai!
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