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Decadent Habits	By : OverMaster Category: +M to R > Mahou Sensei Negima/Magister Negi Magi Views: 8829 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Negima. No profit at all is made out of this story.

Chapter List
- 25
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Standard issue disclaimer: Akamatsu Ken created and owns Negima. I am not him. This is a parody, protected speech. Thanks to my cowriters and the reviewers.

This chapter was written by OverMaster.

Decadent Habits

Chapter 26: Chachamaru

"You can take that hangman's noose off, Itoshiki-sensei," Konoemon Konoe said, with a dry, jaded edge to his voice, which was usually quite cheerful despite his age. At the moment, he sounded as if all those years had finally caught on him.

"My apologies," the much younger man with black hair replied, undoing the rope tied around his neck and sheepishly placing it down on his lap. "I was, well, in the middle of an attempt when I received your call."

"Itoshiki-sensei, believe me when I say, out of all the souls in this school, you are one of those with the least reasons to hate life," the old man mused briefly.

"I beg your pardon?" He blinked behind his glasses, his attention caught by the unusual, in more than one way, statement.

"Itoshiki Nozomu-sensei," the Headmaster spoke, his low, pondering voice a toned down counterpart to the one he had used in his earlier talk with Takamichi. "By now, you surely have heard about Takahata-sen- Takahata's recent removal from his office and post, haven't you?"

"Yes, sir," he replied truthfully.

"Have you been informed of the reasons for such a decision?" the old man asked, his voice barely above a whisper, and seemingly not by choice.

Now Itoshiki was concerned. "Are you feeling well, Konoemon-sensei?"

"Well enough for the tasks at hand. Just answer my question."

"N-No," he shook his head. "None of us has -"

"What is the overall consensus of your colleagues?"

"Ahhhhh ..."

"You can reply honestly, Itoshiki-sensei. To be frank, I'd strongly suggest it. I won't punish you over the truth. It's lies I have resolved to correct."

The younger man spoke faster now. "Kuroi-sensei, Nitta-sensei, Fujisawa-sensei, and Tanizaki-sensei have theorized it might be because of improper contact with students."

Konoemon sighed. The biggest truths were so often in the mouths of the greatest fools. "And what is your opinion, Itoshiki-sensei?"

"My opinion on the matter is irrelevant."

"I still wish to hear it."

He breathed much deeper. "It is no secret to anyone I hold no affection for him. However, I cannot believe he would engage in such activities."

"I see." Konoemon pondered.

There was an abnormally long pause.

"He did, didn't he?" Nozomu asked at last.

"Yes."

"Shit." The normally well-spoken and refined teacher permitted himself a slip of the tongue.

"Yes, that too. Itoshiki-sensei, you are to take charge of his Art lessons until a fitting replacement can be found."

"Sir, with all due respect, I would like to decline that generous offer. Our mutual dislike is well known, and I have no desires to have my reputation tarnished by suspicions that I am taking advantage of his downfall."

The old man sighed. "It was not a suggestion, Itoshiki-sensei."

"My apologies again."

"Itoshiki-sensei." The Dean stood up and walked to the window, turning his back on him. "Please forgive me. I shouldn't be taking my frustrations out on you. I know, despite the interest several of your students have in you, that you would never take advantage of them."

"Sir, I'd rather die!"

"I know." Konoemon didn't feel like pointing out that Itoshiki was well known to prefer death to everything. "That's why you have stayed at your position, after all. 3-F is not an easy or enviable post, and I'm grateful for your efforts."

"Your words honor this lowly servant of the overwhelming duties of education." Yhe perpetually depressed man bowed.

"I know I can trust you, can I not?"

"To the best of my pitiful capacities, yes, Sir."

"Yes, yes. You would carry any secret given you, under a promise of honor, to the grave, wouldn't you?"

A nod. "To a hopefully early one, yes."

The old man hunched over as if every fiber of his being ached. "In my own way, I have been as bad as Takamichi," he admitted.

"Sir?" Itoshiki's eyes were nearly bulging through the lenses of his glasses at that statement.

"Even after what happened that time, I kept on pressing her to go on those omiais." His wrinkled hands clutched the window's lower frame. "I believed a quick memory erasing spell would suffice. I thought it would wipe everything away. Like an accomplice who tries to hide a criminal's handwork, I brought shame upon myself and her by trusting her to that person ..."

"To Takamichi?" Itoshiki still didn't understand.

"No, not only to him. To the first one, the worst one."

And then the younger man's brow twitched in suspicion, and rising anger. "What happened to your granddaughter?"

The old man's voice was tiny, broken, now. "I ruined her life. Thrice. First by entrusting her to the first one. Then by acting as if nothing had happened. And then, by entrusting her to him."

Itoshiki stood up. "Sensei!"

"A memory wipe affects only the conscious mind, but the seeds of the damage remain under the surface, don't they?"

"A wound is never healed just by covering it up," the suicidal teacher confirmed.

"And those with particularly high levels of magic can remember everything after some time ..."

The man cursed with the inability to die almost wished he could pity his superior now. But somehow, all the sympathies in his tired, jaded soul now went only to the man's granddaughter.

"I'm in despair," Konoemon whispered. "My grievous mistakes have left me in despair."

"Hakase-sempai, you have a call!" a young man announced from the other end of the lab.

"Huh?" The black haired student made a short pause in her instrumental calibration, looking up with blinking absent eyes. "At this time? How strange. Give me just a few minutes to finish here, will you, Jim-kun?"

Several long minutes later, she finally made it to the phone, picking it up after meticulously wiping her hands clean with a cloth. Luckily, her caller had infinite patience.

"Good afternoon, Hakase-san," said the soft, familiar voice on the other end of the line.

"Chachamaru!" Satomi blinked, surprised about the caller's identity. She had supposed it was Haruna again; since learning about their blood ties, the mangaka had made a few clumsy attempts to get closer to her, albeit if not in the way Hakase had originally suggested. "Is there something wrong? Why haven't you called me through our private channel, or visited me here if you need something?"

"The private channel might not be safe to use anymore," Chachamaru cryptically offered, "And I don't wish to wander far from Home right now. I am currently ... needed. But I have been allowed some free time today. That's why I need to talk privately with you, Negi-sensei and Chisame-san today. I ... don't know when I will be able to do so again."

"Sensei, Chisame and me?" Hakase repeated dubiously. "Well, I had plans for the rest of the day, but I can cancel them for you. However, regarding Negi-sensei ... well, considering recent events that I've become aware of, I don't believe her mother will be very open to the possibility of social interaction with you."

"I will handle that ... inconvenience with Arika-sama," her creation reassured her. "In addition, I have already contacted Chisame-san, and obtained an agreement on a meeting from her. I promise the Master will not be involved."

"Uh. Sure." Hakase nodded to herself, her curiosity piqued. "Where will we meet, then?"

"Negi-sensei's living quarters."

"... you are very sure of being able to convince his mother, aren't you?"

"In two hours."

"Very, very, very sure, I see."

"I believe I have a high likelihood of success," the gynoid revealed without fake modesty. "Arika-sama is, after all, despite her emotional nature and uncommon views on familiar relationships, a logical and reasonable person. So I shall frame my arguments in a logical and rational fashion."

"I see," Hakase nodded with pride. Her baby daughter had advanced - or rather, grown so much.

The younger boy approached her with a fair level of apprehension. "Hakase-sempai? Why are you crying while clenching your fists?"

"You won't understand it until you become a mother!"

"B-But I'm a boy!"

"Precisely what I mean."

Hakase had barely finished ringing on the door to Asuna's dorm when Lady Arika herself opened for her. While she was normally oblivious to such things, the genius couldn't help being a bit intimidated by the woman's imposing, elegant presence and stature. They'd barely exchanged more than two full sentences before this meeting, but she still knew Negi-sensei's mother was a woman you should treat with the utmost respect at all times.

So she bowed, with her eternal formal clumsiness. "Arika-sama."

"Welcome, Hakase Satomi," she spoke evenly, stepping aside to allow her access. Hakase thanked her with a nod, soon finding Negi and an uncomfortable-looking Chisame sitting around the breakfast table. "Hello, Sensei, Hasegawa-san. I'm not late, am I?"

"Not for this once, " Chisame grumbled, offering her a chair. "Sit down."

As she obeyed, Negi gave her a typical kind smile. "How are you, Hakase-san?"

"As well as I can be under the current, average circumstances, " she said. "Which is to say, as well as ever."

Chisame sighed. "You lead a really easy life, you know?"

"I have realized that lately, yes, " Hakase admitted with uncharacteristic personal insight, even as Arika poured her a cup of tea. "Oh, thank you. But you shouldn't -"

"I am not a Queen anymore, " Arika reminded her calmly. "And even if I still were, my hospitality duties would remain. Please enjoy your drink."

"Oh, naturally!" She took the first sip and looked around, finally noticing something unusual. "Where are Asuna-san and Konoka-san?"

"This meeting did not involve them, so I sent my daughter away with Sakurazaki-san, " Arika sat down next to Hakase and poured herself another cup. "Obviously, Konoe-san followed them. If I know them well, and I do, they are currently enjoying each other's company."

"Ah. Of course, " Satomi blandly said. It was impossible to say for sure if she got the not-all-that subtle meaning of Arika's words or not. In any case, the door's bell rang again right then.

"It is her." Arika walked for the door without any hesitation, opening it to show she hadn't been wrong. Chachamaru stood at the doorstep looking down humbly, with her hands crossed over her lap, wearing a solid black dress.

"Welcome, Karakuri-san," the former Queen said, without any particular vitriol or fondness in her voice.

Negi and Hakase, on the other hand, smiled widely at her.

"Chachamaru-san!"

"Chachamaru! It relieves me to confirm you are still operating at full capacity!"

"Hello, everyone. Thanks for being here, and I beg for your pardon on summoning you all here, " the gynoid bowed with heartfelt politeness. "May I come in?" she asked. "I promise I won't take long."

"Please do. Otherwise, you truly would have wasted our time." The blond woman stepped back, giving her free access.

As Chachamaru entered, her eyes met Chisame's wary ones, and she looked away, seemingly in shame. "Thank you," she said, as she hesitantly accepted the chair Negi had just offered her, and then the five of them were all sitting around the table, waiting for Chachamaru to start.

So she did. "I have come to say goodbye," she said softly but clearly, her tone never faltering.

Even to her own surprise, Chisame broke the silence that fell after that remark. "Goodbye? Where the heck are you going, and why -"

"Chachamaru-san, why would you ever - " Negi began to speak before Hakase slammed her hands down on the table, interrupting him with unusual vehemency.

"Chachamaru! Now listen to me, will you! For the last few months, I have looked over your nonsensical displays of complete lacks of simple logic, but now you're taking it too far! I know you have been struggling to balance your newfound emotions, and I realize that yes, such a conflict is not something I can help you sort out through standard scientific procedure, so I have respected your wishes and allowed you to try and cope with them as you deem convenient! But this, this -"

Her face never betraying displeasure at the outburst, Chachamaru held a palm up, quietly begging for silence. Hakase seethed, but sat back down all the same.

"Thanks you." The gynoid bowed humbly. "Hakase-san. Mother," she added, using the word she'd never before dared to say, making her creator squirm and nearly blush. "I understand your disapproval of this decision. But I still have to do it. For all your sakes, most likely. You, Sensei and Hasegawa-san are three of the four people I value the most in the world. But you all have each other, while the Master only has me." She paused, reflected, then added, "And Sister. But Sister is not exactly the best of influences on her."

"Wait a second!" Chisame barked. "I knew this would be about freaking damn Evangeline, but why would you leave with her, or for her, now? What the hell is she planning, and why does she need you for it?"

"I don't know," Chachamaru said. "It's not my place to question. And if I did, I would get no answers that would be helpful for you. All I know is, the Master will need me closely around her at least until the next term's start. Most likely longer."

"You are holding back," Arika said with even coldness. "Speak further."

Chachamaru's fingers softly tapped on her own knees without even realizing it. "I have what I believe could be called a bad feeling. Although you, Hakase-san - mother," she repeated. "- would most likely simply call it a random result of several linked stressful events forcing a series of unwanted and pessimistic estimations on my future estimations and protocols for planning ahead."

"You lost me at 'a bad feeling'," Chisame admitted.

"You are talking as if you thought we'll never meet again." Negi smiled at the gynoid, or at least tried to. "Honestly, we've been through much worse before!"

"With all due respect, Sensei ... I have found that being physically ripped apart doesn't hurt as much as being torn apart between loyalties," Chachamaru quietly mused.

Chisame huffed. "I can't freaking believe it. Even after all of this, you haven't grown up where it matters the most! Look, if you're really becoming so human, then do what a true human would! Stand up to Eva and tell her you won't take her crap anymore! You'll never become a true human being as long as you fool yourself still believing you're nothing but a subservient machine for your so-called master"

"You are mistaken, Chisame-san," the green haired girl protested, as softly as someone can protest while still being firm without any place for doubt. "I do not make this decision as a machine, but as a companion, and, yes, as a friend as well. I am unaware of the Master's current full purposes, but I highly doubt they will bring you any harm - "

"Yes, of course!" Chisame stood up now, shouting at her. "Just like she didn't hurt us at all when she locked us up and used us bait! Yes, that was so much fun, I had waited through all my life for it!"

"Chisame-san," Negi pleaded.

"No, Negi!" the hacker said. "It needs to be said! With Eva, everything is Might Makes Right! We all know it, but we never dare to talk on it, and yes, I know it's uesless, but at least, I don't want to be told anymore how she deserves mercy and how deep-down kind she is when she uses us as she pleases at the slightest turn of her whims!"

"You feel betrayed," Chachamaru said with a nod.

Chisame looked at her, holding back tears while biting her lower lip. "No! Really? What gave you that impression, Chachamaru? Oh, I know! Maybe the fact I went to you when my heart was broken, pouring everything to you, trying my best to actually believe in Eva's good side, entrusting myself to her, to you ... only to be tossed up into a cell like unwanted crap as soon as she saw it fit! Betrayed? Yeah, I guess that might be a good word for it!"

Chachamaru lowered her head. "I apologize."

Chisame sat back, wiping tears off and looking aside as Negi tried to console her. "That won't do, and you know it."

"Yes," Chachamaru agreed. "It will never do. It never could. Still, in any event ... I'm very glad for those days we spent together. Before that happened. They were very, very sweet." There was an inhumanly long pause, and she added, "I love you."

Chisame sniffed angrily, refusing to acknowledge the bush on her cheek. "But you'll always love her more than all of us put together."

"Perhaps," Karakuri softly admitted.

"Chachamaru!" Satomi gasped.

Arika crossed her fingers before her face, in a way reminiscent of a very manipulative but very perceptive man she'd known. "Karakuri."

"Yes?"

"Should it happen that your Master's desires opposed the well-being of my children, and that of those close to them, which would you pick over the other?"

"Master would not -"

"Just answer my hypothetical query, Karakuri, " the Queen of Calamity instructed with chilling calm.

"The well-being of your children," she answered without hesitation.

"Yeah, just like that time. You have a very conveniently loose sense of what's our wellbeing, don't you?" Chisame accused.

Chachamaru didn't answer.

Finally, she just stood up. "I'll be going now. I apologize for everything."

"Wait, you can't just go like that!" Hakase grabbed her by a sleeve. "You aren't making any sense anymore! Let me talk with Evangeline-san! There must be something -"

But then she felt one of Negi's hands on her shoulder. "Please, let her go. This is something she needs to do by herself, " he said.

"What?" the genius gasped. "What in the world - "

Chachamaru looked at him. "You understand."

He nodded. "Yes, I do. Neither condoning, nor condemning. I won't try to stop you, Chachamaru-san. You need to make your own decisions. If those decisions happen to coincide with the Master's, so be it. As long as you know you do it because you, and not Evangeline, wants it so."

"I do," she promised.

"Then go," he told her. "And come back to us when you can. Just promise you will come back."

"I will try. That is the best I can promise," she replied.

He nodded again, not pressing it any further. "I see. When I decided to take our Master's path in Magia Erebea, I did it because I wanted to, not because she wanted it. In your own way, you are the same."

"I suppose so."

"Then make her ... and yourself ... proud and happy," he asked.

The robot smiled, and leaned down to kiss his lips. "Thanks for everything, Negi-sensei. Mother," She bowed for the stunned Hakase. "Chisame-san." She hugged the frazzled, confused girl and kissed her forehead gently.

Very briefly, Chisame returned the hug, muttering something neither Negi nor Satomi could make out, under her breath. Chachamaru quietly answered in the same way. Whatever she said left Chisame visibly shaken.

"Arika-sama. I thank you for your hospitality and understanding," Chachamaru said with an air of finality.

Arika said nothing, instead just guiding her for the door with an unreadable expression.

Negi stood stoically as Arika closed the door behind her, Hakase slumping down in a confused mess, and Chisame still looking away and trying to hide her face.

His mother walked back to the table, sighed, and sat down again.

"I think we need to make a few things clear," she began. "I will start by saying this: Evangeline is an unpredictable opponent like few I have ever met before. We even cannot be sure of exactly how, when or if she is actually going to act against us. However, it is my opinion that she has not gone this far only to stop her schemes, whatever they may exactly be, right now. Even assuming Karakuri came here out of her own volition, and not because she was told to do so, her master might very well have manipulated her into that conclusion, without Karakuri even realizing it. Evangeline knows her well enough for that, and she is crafty and well-versed in the arts of manipulation."

It takes one to know one, Chisame thought bitterly.

"Yes it does," Arika said calmly, eyeing her half-empty cup in an unreadable way.

Chisame jolted. "Are you reading my -"

"No. But that observation was plain to see on your face. And it's correct."

Negi lowered his head. "This isn't taking us anywhere. It's just a tug of war that is harming Chachamaru-san, and already hurted Chisame-san, Nodoka-san, Iin Ayaka and Chizuru-san. Confronting the Master openly is useless, but at the same time, just playing her game isn't really doing anything either. She has us in the defensive, but any move we do before she plays her hand only would worsen the situation. If only we could really reach to her somehow, to convince her to stop whatever she's trying to accomplish..."

"I'd feel better if you didn't continue calling her 'Master'," Chisame muttered.

"Sorry," Negi said with an awkward grin, hand behind his head.

"In a way, I can empathize with her," Arika mused. "Like her, I had to make several walls around myself after life's woes taught me their hardest lessons. But her walls have slowly crushed her soul between them. I can tell she is afraid of letting them down; at this point of her life, she cannot and does not know how to live without them."

Hakase scratched her head. "Do you mean her superiority complex?"

"In a way, it is well justified, " Arika shrugged. "Like young Hasegawa-san has said, Might Makes Right, far too often. We may dislike it, but that is the way the world tends to work."

"Mother!" Negi protested.

She raised a finger. "I have not said it is the way the world should work. Changing that is what your father set off to accomplish, and also your ultimate goal in life, even if you haven't realized it yet."

"That still doesn't tell us what to do next, " Chisame pointed out.

"My son just said it himself. We wait," the adult woman spoke flatly. "We prepare ourselves, but we will not raise our hands until she has raised hers, if she actually intends to. I have few doubts that she does, but that is only my personal opinion. If she acts, we will use her force against her. We will adapt to her initiatives, and we will counter them as best as we can."

"I will help, if it helps Chachamaru!" Hakase offered.

The tall woman gave the petite girl a brief dubious glare, but then her son looked at her with firm eyes and a nod, and she relented.

"So be it," the former Queen accepted. "You know Karakuri better than any of us, after all, and you once worked along Evangeline."

"Admittedly I didn't know she was an actual vampire at the time," Satomi pointed out.

"That is inconsequential now," Arika said. "So, what is your stance on this, Hasegawa-san? Will you stand at your brother's side again?"

Satomi blinked. When she'd interviewed Chizuru the other day, the girl had mentioned that Ayaka and Chisame were both Negi's half-sisters. She was startled, though, by Arika's casual reference to it.

Chisame sighed. "When you put it that way, I can't refuse without looking like a complete heel, can I?"

"This is not about what you will look like, child," Arika said sternly. "Public images are the last thing one should ever worry about."

Spoken like a woman who fucks her own son, Chisame thought.

"It is about doing the right thing," Arika continued.

Then again, maybe not.

"About doing the thing you want to do," the sovereign continued. "If you wish to try and return to a normal life, we will not hold that against you. But can you live with yourself if -"

"Oh, just shut up already," Chisame retorted wearily.

"Chisame-san!" Negi gasped. Arika said nothing, instead waiting for the younger woman to continue. Hakase only stared with very round eyes.

"I'll never return to a normal life, and you know it. I am the Thousand Master's daughter, and that alone marks me forever. And all of you have put me on a path of no return. So please don't offend my intelligence trying to tempt me with a choice we all know I lack.

"And yes, even so, even if I could, I wouldn't go back to those days. Satisfied? I've known that for sure ever since Zazie's sister told me ... never mind that now. I don't want to fool myself anymore. I'm tired of that crap. I'm as abnormal as they come, and you know what? I don't care anymore!

"I've had sex with a vampire and my half sister and freaking Jack Rakan, and kissed with that robot that just went off! I've been inside the Internet and to a Magic World on Mars! I'm weirder than that Suzumiya weirdo! And I'll never be normal again even if I tried and tried for the rest of my life!" She drew in a breath. "But that's okay, because I don't give a shit! I'm strange, and I like it!"

"Chisame-san!" Negi moved to gently, hesitantly rub her right shoulder. She grabbed his hand, keeping it in place with surprising tenderness.

"And I like you," she added, much more softly.

"Who's Jack Rakan again?" Hakase asked bewilderedly. "One of your friends from that other world?"

Arika silenced her with a finger over her own lips as she looked straight at Chisame. "Not many have ever dared to use such a tone with me," she said quietly, ominously.

"I told you. I'm weird." Chisame looked away again.

But the woman grabbed her chin and softly turned her head so as to meet her gaze with her mismatched eyes. And she smiled. "I've always liked 'weird' people."

Looking at this girl's eyes, Arika could feel her heart warming up again. They were so different from her father's, and yet so similar. "I want you to join our family, Chisame," she said, noticeably dropping the honorific. "You have seen what happens to a person who allows the walls around their heart to make them their captive. You are blood of my beloved's blood - both of them. And there is far more worth in you than you realize."

The brown haired girl's lips trembled as the adult caressed her cheeks gently. "I ... this is not, not only weird, I could live with that ... but ... wrong ..."

"So?" Arika questioned. "Is it what your heart desires?"

She turned to give the silent, expectant Negi a brief look, then closed her eyes and blushed. "Yes."

The woman spoke again. "And it is what your heart desires as well, my son?"

"Yes," Negi nodded immediately.

"And mine as well," the woman said, then leaned ahead. Chisame understood and pouted her mouth, surrendering herself to the wonderful insanity that was claiming her. It was her birthright, after all. Then those soft lips touched hers, and she somehow felt a huge weight being lifted off her.

Hakase's pupils had shrunk down to pinpoints. Even after all she had recently been through, this was still, in layman terms, bizarre as hell. "Oh, my. Well. I believe I should be going," Hakase coughed, standing up and bowing for Negi. "Have a, a good evening, Sensei. Perhaps we will continue our discussion tomorrow ..."

"Um, yes, of course," he nodded, smiling bashfully, trying to act as if his mother and his half-sister weren't frenching passionately right before them.

As Satomi passed near them on her way to the door, however, one of Arika's hands reached over, grabbing her by a sleeve. The woman pulled her head back from a moaning Chisame's lips, licking and swallowing the thin bridge of saliva linking their mouths before addressing the puzzled young scientist.

"Do you really wish to leave so quickly, Hakase Satomi?"

The black haired girl stared in mild confusion. "Well, naturally, it would be rude for me to stay, since you obviously will need your ... privacy ..."

"Privacy is something shared between comrades," the blonde lectured, keeping her other arm wrapped around Chisame's waist to hold her in place. The hacker looked on with noticeable confusion herself, and Negi didn't fare much better. "You have already expressed your desire to establish a stronger link of comraderie with us in this hour of need. And while shared intimacy is not a requirement for us to accept your offer, if you truly are a friend and ally of our family, you are welcome to share our company on all levels."

"Ah?" Hakase had to blink. Genius though she was, she still was sorely lacking in the field of the come-on.

"I think she wants you to join in," Chisame explained, not really that frazzled anymore. After all she had been through, having Hakase tossed into the mix seemed like small potatoes in comparison.

"Join. In." Satomi mouthed the two words as her face grew pale. Even when she had proposed sex to Haruna, she had been reasonably sure she'd be rejected, and when she had been with Chao, it was okay because they were so close, but other than that, she never had been concerned or interested in a steady sexual life with anyone else. And now there was this admittedly attractive and commanding older woman, suddenly inviting her to partake on sexual activity with her son and his half sister, both of whom were awfully good-looking, and ... ohhhhh.

"Uh, as she said, no one is forcing you to -" Negi began, picking up on her anxiety.

Hakase looked down. "I'm not afraid!" she sputtered an overly quick denial, before turning back into the room and sitting down again. "I, I believe I'll just stay here and watch for now. Assuming no one minds, of course. It may be, uh, illuminating. I believe it was Da Vinci who said 'Nothing that is human is alien to me,' and one who hopes to follow in his footsteps should not shy away from anything seen during their researches."

Chisame frowned. "Since when are you an expert on anything but robotics and mechanics?"

Hakase pushed her fogged glasses up her nose. "Since you started actually getting up from your computer!"

Hasegawa grimaced. "Oh, you're going to pay for that one later!" It was just like old times; she had roomed with the girl during her first year, and they'd ended up driving each other slightly bonkers.

Arika chuckled, ever as her hands unbuttoned the front of Chisame's shirt, pulling it off her body and neatly setting it aside. "It pleases me to see you are more relaxed now. Pay attention, Negi, and you as well, Hakase-san. This is how you do proper foreplay," she said as she softly nibbled on Chisame's collarbone,

"Ah," Chisame shuddered. It felt very different from Evangeline's sharp biting, yet no less delightfully torturous.

Arika's hands skillfully unclasped her simple white bra, freeing the small but perfectly shaped pale breasts. Negi softly breathed out in reverent expectation, and Hakase fought the urge to start taking notes. Then again, where to begin? That was a very different situation from her habitual range of expertise.

Then she remembered Chao's words. Only relax and forget the method, just enjoy it naturally, as it comes to you.

Chisame was fumbling with Arika's own sweater, pulling it up her head. It didn't shock anyone to see she had been topless under it.

Negi started to uneasily loosen his collar without even noticing it.

Arika and Chisame necked and shared kisses at a steadily increasing pace, their hands running over each other's bodies, gravitating around the hips and buttocks. In the race to pull their skirts down, Arika's experience won, letting her finish it first.

They carefully stepped out of the skirts, Arika guiding the young woman closer to her classmate and their teacher. Both of the latter recoiled a bit, instinctively suspecting an incoming twist. They were proved right when Arika shot them a saucy look and smile over Chisame's shoulder.

"Negi. Satomi." She skipped over the formalities now. "Come here. Theory without practice amounts to nothing. Be good children and help us with the last parts of our garments, if you please." To emphasize her point, Arika's hands squeezed Chisame's panty-covered rear, getting another moan and blush from her.

"Well, I -" Negi began to reply dubiously

"I, you see, the thing is -" Satomi also hesitated, uncontrollably twiddling her fingers together.

Then they looked at each other, shared a wordless question, and finished by shrugging with resignation at the same time.

Negi sighed and unbuttoned his shirt, leaving it aside as he walked. For the first time, Hakase got a good view of his well toned, mildly scarred torso, and found herself actually liking what she saw. He lowered his pants and boxers down, walking out of them as he reached the trembling and silent Chisame, his boyhood springing into sight, half-stiff already. He put his hands on Chisame's hips gently, whispering a question. "Are you really sure you want this?"

"Yes. Yes, I do. I want you, Negi." There was no hesitation in her voice, despite her nervousness.

He exhaled. "Very well." And pulled the panties down.

"Ahem," Arika rasped, pulling Hakase out of her fascinated stupor as she watched the small boy come together with the much taller girl.

"Oh, ah, I'm sorry!" the small girl babbled, waddling over to her side, undressing clumsily as she did so, because it seemed the thing to do at the time. Somehow, she already was fully nude by the time she reached the adult, her heart beating maddeningly as she tugged the lacy undergarments all the way down.

"Finally." Arika smiled triumphantly, and then tackled the pale frail female to the floor, pinning her with her shapely body and beginning to plant wet hungry kisses all over her face.

"Wait a minute, I, ahhh ..." Satomi's voice came out strangled as Arika's fingers pushed between her thighs, making their way to her entrance, "I, ohhhh, thought we had agreed, I'd only watch for now," she belatedly objected.

The blonde favored her with a sultry look. "I never said a word of agreement to that. I never even implied agreement."

"Oh. No, I guess you didn't," Hakase gasped as the fingers began to piston in and out, in and out. "Oh, oh, ah, eh. Just as good as Chao," she appraised, starting to run her fingers through Arika's golden mane.

"Naturally," the Queen smirked proudly. "It runs in our family."

And then she slid her tongue into Satomi's mouth.

Over on the other side of the room, Chisame had slowy turned around to face Negi. Well, not exactly face since he was shorter than her. With a barely audible groan that came out more like a sigh, she crouched down to land a brief, soft kiss on his lips. "Negi," she said.

"Yes, Chisame?" He too dropped the honorific. It wouldn't do anymore.

"If we're going to do, well, this, I want for it to count. Look, I'm not asking for you to love me like Asuna, but if it's going to be just a quickie, a one night thing then left behind ... I don't want it," she said. "I know it may sound selfish, but if I'm going to fall, I'm freaking falling all the way. Okay?"

He caressed her cheeks with his thumbs, faintly smiling at her. "Chisame, if you really aren't sure -"

"No, no! I told you, I'm sure I want it! It's just, it's just it'll hurt even more if you go away after we're done. Not after all we have learned we have in common. Everything we share, and now this. I want to be there for you, even if this gets you in disgrace, or gets you fired ... but in turn, I also want you to be there for me. Because really, I-I don't have anyone else in the - "

Then a few shrill yelps interrupted her. "Oh, yes! Yes! Oh, my! Arika-sama!-!"

Chisame angrily looked back at where Satomi clutched onto the carpet, her hips rocking back and forth while Negi's mother ate her out. "Hakase, can you keep it down? I'm trying to confess here!"

"Soooo-oh-oh-oh-oorry! Chi-sa-me-san!" the genius punctuated each syllabe with a tiny climax, and kicked around madly.

"Geez, what a noisy wench." Hasegawa shook her head, returning her attentions to Negi. "Okay, basically, if I'm going to be your sister-slash-lover, I want you to take the responsibility for corrupting me!" Okay, so it had been Eva who had started that, but go try making that kind of demands on her.

Negi swallowed and nodded stiffly. "Okay."

"Because you've turned all our lives onto a path of no return, and you can't just turn around and walk off into the horizon once our studies are over," Chisame began to lecture him, waving a finger. "You broke us, you pay for us. I'll never, I'll never love anyone as much as I love you." She blushed even more, "S-So I don't really want to be left with your memory and nothing else, okay? And - oh my God, just look at all the emotional blackmail crap I'm spouting. I'm the worst -"

Arika briefly paused in her licking of Hakase's core. "You cannot force my son to do anything. He can take his own decisions now. Just like he is free to walk into a battle to death, he is able to walk in or out of a relationship. So feel free to ask as you wish. In the end, the decision is his, and he must learn to cope with such questions. So, by all means, pose yours."

"More, more, I want more," Hakase whimpered. Arika returned to pleasing her.

Negi chuckled and caressed the hair of the confused tsundere. "I understand. Of course you would want a commitment. It would be shallow not to do so, if you are putting that much emotional involvement into it."

Chisame looked dubiously at him. "Wow. That's a new one. Since when do you have any clue what's going through a girl's mind?"

He sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Well, um, I have been in much closer contact with them recently," he admitted.

"How many?" the girl asked.

"Mother, Asuna, Setsuna, Ayaka, Mana and Kaede," the boy confessed.

Chisame pointed at her bare chest and said, "Eva, Rakan and Ayaka. Ayaka is really good at it, isn't she?"

"Very," he admitted.

"Fine. Let's see if I compare, then," Chisame laid on her back on the floor. The room was small enough so her head was almost touching Hakase's. "I'm ready. Whenever you want."

"O-Okay," he advanced towards her, placing his hands on either side of her, and then lowering himself towards her.

She stopped him putting a hand on his chest. "So, what about that commitment?" she reminded him.

"You know you'll always have a place with us," he promised. "With me."

And she smiled. "Just wanted to be sure. Go in." She kissed his mouth again, growing even bolder.

Arika smirked. That girl knew how to grab a man by the figurative balls. Maybe she could have used a bit of that in her own time. It might have kept Nagi at her side. Well, maybe she could learn something from her now.

Negi drew a very breath in and then began to worm his stiff member into Chisame's opening, feeling her grow rigid and gasp under him, her hands gripping his shoulders. Slowly, very slowly, he settled in, making small sounds of comforting nature as he held her close. He could see tears in her face. "Does it hurt?" he whispered.

She shook her head. "No. Not anymore," she said, kissing him on the cheek again. "Eva was rough, and Rakan was very big. It's just, it's just, now this, this feels so ..." She allowed the dreaded word to come out. "Right."

Yes, she was taking her 11 year old half-bother and teacher in her vagina without a condom. And everything felt right, for the first time in her life.

"Tell me I'm cute. And pretty." She twitched as he began to pound just a bit faster into her.

"You're very, very, very cute and pretty," he replied obediently, his breath growing somewhat faster as well.

"Tell me you love me, as much as I love you." She tightened her hug, greedily keeping him against herself, kissing his neck as they struggled to find a comfortable position despite their size difference.

"I love you," he said. Not as much as Asuna, but he loved her very dearly. He loved her blunt honesty, her even cold stares, the cute soft curves of her mouth when she smiled, the small acne marks on her cheeks, her unyielding loyalty. "I love you so much, Chisame."

"Oh, yes," she hissed, taking her head back. He wasn't as big as Rakan was, by any stretch, but he still was big enough to fill her narrow lower entrance. And unlike her previous lovers, he was so tender, so loving. Even with Ayaka, passion had prevailed over mushy comfort, but with Negi, it was ... different. Softer and kinder. She found out she liked it better that way.

She hadn't realized Hakase had reached her own screaming orgasm until she felt her breath on her face, and then Hakase was leaning her face against her, clumsily, sloppily kissing her mouth, and Negi's as well when it came close in unison with his pumps. Why was Hakase kissing her? Did it matter anymore? Probably not, she shrugged mentally before kissing back, enjoying the taste of her lips, both of them and Negi melding their mouths together at random intervals, and oh dear, it was so glorious!

Arika sat on watching with amusement as her son grew so close to two new lovers. He had learned so much, and grown so daring and bold in such a short while. She felt as proud of her own lessons as of his acceptance and adaptability to them.

"Chisame. I'm, I'm, ahh, maybe I should, should -" he sputtered.

"Inside. Inside!" She threw logic, reason and fear to the wind, wrapping her legs around his waist, pushing her feet against his buttcheeks, her finger nails scratching at his skin. "Inside! I want it!" she demanded, and she was rewarded as he screamed.

"Chisame!"

"Oh! Negi!" The mere feeling of the liquid splashing into her, and the ideas of everything that implied, was enough to push her into an orgasm of her own.

She heard a few tender loving words from his lips and muttered a few of her own in trade. But then, the next thing she fully realized, Arika was crawling over her, caressing her lower stomach to right above her vaginal conduit. The blonde had a faint smile on her mouth. It was an odd smile, Chisame thought, as though it hid more than it revealed.

"What's ... wrong ..." the teenager asked between gasps for breath

"Wrong? Absolutely nothing," the woman said in what sounded like a satisfied tone before kissing her. "I approve fully of your allegiance to my son as of now. Allow me, then, to seal our familiar union with a deeper, closer contact..."

She couldn't help but hum, her treacherous hormones taking over again. "Thank you, Mother," she sighed, beginning to kiss her back.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hakase eagerly crawling on all fours to a panting, half-recovering Negi. And she felt a pang of jealousy again, but she squashed it down. He had earned it, after all.

Negi swallowed as he sat back, with his hands' palms planted on the floor, and Hakase half-groggily crawled at him, with a dumb smile on her face.

"Hakase-san," he finally said.

"Yes, Sensei?" she asked. His mother had undone her braids previously, and now her jet black hair hung loose over her shoulders, framing her face almost perfectly. He had to admit she looked very cute that way.

"Are you really sure you want to do this?" he asked. "Maybe, maybe you should save ... this for someone who is actually much closer to you."

Her head hung down for a moment. "I don't have anyone like that. Not anymore."

"But you could find someone, maybe sooner than you think," Negi gently insisted.

Hakase shook her head. "No. I'm not the kind of person who makes close acquaintances easily, and you know it. It's okay. I doubt I'll ever get closer to any male than I've gotten with you, so ..."

Negi blinked a few times. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't find the right words to say what he wanted to. For once, however, Hakase correctly guessed his intentions.

"I know, I know," she said. "I haven't been especially close to you, or to anyone in your inner circle but Chachamaru. I know I never gave any signs of interest. I cannot honestly say I love you, not the way your partners do. But I do like you, yes. I doubt I'll ever meet another man like you, and that's okay, really. I'm not that interested, but I still would like to attempt it at least once. And there seems to be no better candidate than you."

"Hakase-san, this isn't a step that can be taken lightly."

She huffed, putting a hand on her chest. "I will let you know I take this decision fully aware of all its implications! Perhaps it will bring us closer, and I wouldn't reject the notion. Perhaps it will pull us further apart, and I will live with it. But regardless the outcome, I still desire to give it a chance. Before your partners fully take you away. I don't care about the ways society looks at me, never have. My mother was a single mother, and they say history tends to repeat itself. Technically, I suppose it already has," she mused aloud, thinking of how she'd felt when Chachamaru had called her that.

Negi gulped. There they were again, talking about parenthood while about to have intercourse with him. It scared far him more than the prospect of a fight against the Lifemaker, all the Averrunci, Graff Herrman and Dynamis all at once.

"Hakase-san, I - "

She shook her head and put a finger on his lips. "No. Call me 'Satomi' now, please," she requested, and then leaned ahead to kiss his lips.

His will to resist mostly melted away as he felt the warmth of her mouth on his, but still lasted enough to allow him asking, as soon as they broke the kiss, "Are you sure you won't regret it?"

She nodded and smiled. "After all, it's not like I'm commiting incest!"

Chisame groaned from where she laid with Arika on top of her, rubbing her vulva masterfully against hers. "Ngh. Funny, Prof. Oh! Very funny. Oh, mother!"

Negi breathed in very deeply and softly pushed Hakase on her back, being extremely careful and gentle. The girl was physically frail, more than any of his previous lovers; even Ayaka had fighting training of her own, and Chisame had received basic self defense training at the resort sessions. He couldn't cut loose on her the way he did with Mana or Kaede. But that was okay; often, holding back also held a fascinating allure of its own, retarding the climax and extending the pleasure.

"This might hurt," he warned. "If you feel you cannot take it, tell me and I'll stop."

Hakase nodded, biting her lower lip. Focusing his mind and holding her close against his heart, he entered her slowly, hearing her low hiss of pain.

Despite all the things she had done with Chao, she still had a hymen; the other girl had been careful enough to avoid breaking it in their games. Once, Hakase had asked why; Chao only smiled and said she'd better save it for someone else.

Ah, now she fully understood, struggling past the pain and hugging him back. "Don't stop, please. I'm okay," she promised bravely, holding sharp tears back.

He kissed her large forehead, so tenderly, she felt something alien and new in her heart. "You feel very good," he whispered, and the troubling feeling grew bigger.

He started to move in and out very slowly, and the sheer pleasure took over. She was a woman now, his woman. And it was a stupid, primitive thing to think, but somehow, it fit in the primal, raw context of copulation. She decided to stop overanalyzing the situation just this once and began to scream her pleasure once again.

"Oh, Negi! Ooohhh, Negiiiii! Negi! Negi! Negi!"

Chisame groaned as Arika grounded her into another orgasm, trembling in her arms. Hakase was being so loud again it was distracting. As Chisame looked at them, she noticed Satomi's small size was an actual advantage for Negi. They were closer in size than he had been with any of his previous lovers, and that made easier for him to play with and lick her small nipples as he pounced on her, making her screams to rise in a steady crescendo.

It was kinda hot, actually.

"Asuna likes to watch, as well." Arika lay flat on her stomach next to her, running a hand down her smooth sweaty back, until reaching the soft curves of Chisame's buttocks and teasing her anus with a finger.

The girl cringed just a bit. "Watch out, please! I'm still a little sore from when Rakan put it there!"

"It only gets resistant with enough practice," Arika shrugged, adding another finger in. Chisame yelped, but did not actively resist.

Now Negi was hammering into Hakase as fast as he could without hurting her, forgetting all pretenses of caution. Literally. Satomi herself wasn't too concerned either, since she was too busy reeling from an intense orgasm before he reached his.

"Ne... Negi!" she shouted, clutching him to herself and burying him even deeper.

The whole amount of sensations was enough to make Negi ejaculate, filling her up as much as he could. "S-Satomi," he trembled, shame and fear sinking back in for a moment before being washed back by post coital bliss.

They remained connected for a few moments, kissing tenderly, before rolling back with their fingers still intertwined, panting hoarsely.

"You are astounding," she confessed.

"Th-Thanks. You too." He nodded like a broken doll.

"A maiden's first private dance with a man should always be special," Arika mused, rolling closer, pulling Chisame along. For a brief moment, a hand of the tall woman brushed over Hakase's lower belly, making her way up to her bellybutton, her fingernails toying with it as Arika smirked. "Ah. Lightning strikes twice."

"Huh?" Hakase asked blankly.

"Never mind," the woman said. "For now, I believe we all have earned a good night of rest. Especially you, my son." Which didn't stop her from bending down to kiss him passionately.

Negi nodded, too tired to disagree or to say anything else, period.

Chisame mumbled, worming her way over a blinking Hakase. "Wimps. Me, I still have fuel for one more go. Don't you, Prof?"

"Ahhh?" Satomi said before Chisame started lapping at her small breasts like a hungry kitten. Then her brain lost all logical capacity again.

Arika smirked. Well, those two would surely fit for what she had planned.

Chachamaru walked down the cherry lane, never making a sound.

The site of their first skirmish with Negi-sensei. The root of both a long standing conflict and a few precious friendships.

She took a moment to gently un-hang Itoshiki-sensei from his usual self-destruction spot, calmly remind him life was worth living after all, and then send him on his way back home before continuing walking.

Yes, life was worth living, no matter how harsh it seemed at times. That was the real reason why she kept going on. That, and loyalty. Both sets of it.

It didn't matter if her own life never could be, despite everything, that of an actual human being. She knew she never could be Sensei's mate, bear his children and grow old with him. She'd still do her best for him and the Master. Of course, doing both things at once was proving so hard to do.

Two children ran past her. "Good evening, Chachamaru!"

"Good evening. Don't stay out late." She waved back. They had grown up a lot through the past year. The world was changing, everywhere, perhaps for better, perhaps for worse. Chachamaru knew it was pointless to complain about it.

She flew over campus for a while, drinking inn its sights for a (hopefully not) final time. The World Tree stood proudly over everything, just like always. From up there, she could see the lights on at the Chao Bao Zi, and considered going there to help for the night, but decided against it. Her remaining time was far too short, after all. A shame. She would have liked to see Yotsuba-san again.

Chachamaru felt a strange disturbance in her ratio of neural activity as she oversaw the campus. Was it nostalgia? She had not felt true nostalgia before, or at least that was what she could collect from her conversations and comparisons with her own life experiences. She had too little of a past to feel nostalgic for. Until now. She felt even sadder than she had felt when Chao left.

Chao ...

She landed near the labs, and silently made her way in through the front gate. Visiting hours were over, but she always had a passcard ready.

"Oh, good eving, Chachamaru-san!" The only sempai left working at the place, a black haired young man with glasses, waved at her from where he was working on a robotic squid commissioned by a toy company. "Looking for Hakase-san? She hasn't come by all day long."

"Good evening to you too, Kazuya-sempai, " she bowed. "Don't worry about me. I half expected Hakase-san's absence." In truth, she had no idea what could be keeping her creator away so long. In mid-flight, she had tried contacting her room, but she wasn't there. Chachamaru wondered if she still was with Negi-sensei, and what would they be doing at the time.

She visited the laboratory where she had been activated for the first time ever. Her birth place. She almost could see Chao and Hakase there again, standing next to the table, with Master Evangeline standing further away, in a corner, arms crossed, looking away. She remembered her two creators' faces of pride and happiness, the first things she ever saw.

She caressed the table's cold surface with a hand. "Goodbye," she whispered.

Chachamaru flew out again, reassuring herself she was making the right decision. It was the best for everyone. For Chisame. For Satomi. For Negi.

Her friend. Her mother. Her love.

Now she'd leave them living their lives as best as they could, without her interference, and go back to the being who was her friend, her lover and mother figure all at once. Her Master. She who, like herself, would never grow up or old. They had no choice but staying together. Humanity would always be denied them.

But first, she had one last thing to do.

She landed near the grocery store and bought a few cans of cat food, telling Saito-san to keep the change, and thanking him for all his kindness through the last couple of years. The boy asked her if she was going on a trip again. She nodded.

Then she walked over to the last place in the long list of warm sites she'd always treasure in her memories. The old abandoned lot. A sign had just been placed next to it. Mahora Lex-Mart coming here-Soon!

Everything was changing. Everything.

She fed the kittens one final time, smiling as she did so, hugging and petting them one by one. "Goodbye, Kuro-san. Goodbye, Yoruichi-san. Goodbye, Chompy-san. Goodbye, Blair-san. Goodbye, Mayo-san."

Then she picked the litter of the smallest, youngest ones, and carried them back to the Academy, their soft mewlings being the only sound as she walked. She finally arrived to her intended destination and rang on the door.

"Hello?" A small cute face peeked out the door. "Oh, good evening, Chachamaru-san. May I help you?"

She bowed. "Good evening, Mei-san. Forgive my intrusion, but I have a very important favor to ask from you."

"Karakuri-san?" Takane D. Goodman had emerged from the shower, wearing only a bath robe and a towel wrapped around her hair, as Mei led the gynoid inside. "What are you doing here?"

It was extremely unusual to have any of 3-A's students, much less Karakuri, there. To Takane's ever- suspicious mind, that only could mean an announcement of distressing consequences, especially on the wake of Takahata-sensei's mysterious dismissal.

"She says she wants to leave these kittens with us," Mei offered sheepishly, holding the small litter up for Takane to see.

The tall blonde wrinkled her small nose. "These kittens? Aren't they the ones you always look after, Karakuri-san? Why should we keep them now? Why can't you - " Then she narrowed her eyes. "What's going to keep you so busy?"

"I'm not fully sure myself." The robot bowed, apparently considering that enough of a good evening greeting in this case. "I only know I shouldn't be available for at least the span of the next week. The Master wants me to stay close to her and home at all times."

"And you're going to tell me you honestly don't know why?" the young woman nearly sneered.

"Yes. I don't know the details. Mine is not to question, but to obey, as long as - "

Takane waved a hand. "Please, don't even finish that sentence. Subservience sickens me."

For no particular reason, Mei coughed.

"I hope you understand, Karakuri-san, if McDowell-san is planning any action that goes against the order and structure of this institution, we are obliged to - "

"You don't need to worry about that," Chachamaru replied.

"Oh, seriously? And why is that, if you claim no knowledge of exactly what is she up to?" Takane pressed further, while Mei made an awkward face.

The gynoid lowered her head. "I trust her."

"That isn't exactly a popular opinion around here, you know," Takane said, evenly, but also very coldly.

"I know," Chachamaru said.

"And with good, valid reasons for its unpopularity," the blonde continued.

"Perhaps," Chachamaru conceded.

"Then, may I ask, why do you expect us to share your certainty of her good intentions?" Takane added, hands on her shapely hips.

"The same reason why I am entrusting the cats to you. Because you both have good hearts."

"Very often, a good heart must avoid being a trusting heart, Karakuri-san," Takane sternly said. "When trust continues for no good reasons, it stops being a virtue and becomes a vice."

"The Master has not given you any good reasons to doubt her, " Karakuri pointed out. Technically she was not lying; she had not harmed them at all, and she doubted Ala Alba had told them about Ayaka and the others' captivity, or about Nodoka's actions.

Still, Takane looked like she simply suspected. No; somehow, somewhere inside of her, she knew.

"I'll be blunt," she said. "Does this have anything to do with Takahata-sensei's firing?"

"We had no involvement in any events leading to Takahata-sensei's dismissal," the gynoid stated.

"That doesn't actually answer my query," Takane's stare grew fiercer.

Chachamaru just fell silent, as if her brain had crashed, like a cheap old computer. Or as if shame prevented her from talking.

But then Takane only sighed. "Forget it. Even I cannot wring water out of a rock. But be assured, we will be getting ready for any treachery your master might be cooking up."

"I wouldn't expect any less," Chachamaru almost sounded thankful. "But, the kittens?"

"If Mei has no problem with them being here, neither will I," the high school senior replied.

"I don't!" Mei rushed to say. "They're still very young, and they need care!"

"Yes. Their mother was ran over by a car while I was ... away, " Chachamaru said with obvious sorrow. "Thank you so very much for your cooperation."

"Think nothing of it," Mei smiled.

Chachamaru looked at Takane again. "Sempai."

"Yes?"

"Thanks for everything. I'll never forget that time when you helped me against Quartum-san. You hurt your own hands, not even thinking about it, while attempting to rescue me from certain doom. I'll never be able to repay that."

Takane waved a finger. "Don't say that. The oportunity might very well come someday. I just hope you're up for it when it comes."

"So do I," Chachamaru agreed. With a small, melancholic smile.

It was very late by the time she had made it back to the cabin. Evangeline stood at the door, arms crossed, confirming what she already well far too well. "It's quite a bit past the time we had agreed on," she observed.

"I apologize, Master, " Chachamaru bowed. "My time sensors and inner clock must have failed me."

Eva shrugged lazily. "Doesn't matter, any way. Come in. I have a few things to tell you." She turned around and walked into the darkened home.

Home.

For better or worse.

Even though no one was looking at her anymore, Chachamaru nodded quietly and followed in a highly dutiful way.

NEXT: Shizuna.
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