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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
- 29
- 30
- 31
Darkenning in this chapter:

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.

Decadent Habits

Chapter 30: Nekane

Nekane Springfield began the longest day of her life by closing the door to her cottage, locking it, then turning to hand the key to Anya. "If you pick up the mail every other day, and water the plants, that should be all that's required," she told her. "Of course, if someone does break in, call the constable before you check to see what's missing."

"I'll take good care of your hourse, Nekane-neechan. You can count on me," the much younger girl assured her. "How long will you be gone?"

Nekane shook her head, fighting the urge to wince. Anya had a genuine knack for striking at the root of someone's concerns. "I don't know. I'll be over there as long as Negi and his mother need me. Hopefully, we'll find Uncle Nagi shortly. That would be the happiest possible ending for all of us." It would, she told herself. It would.

Anya was frowning, and Nekane suspected that the girl was picking up on her moods. To forestall a question she wasn't ready to answer, Nekane struck first. "I'm a little surprised, though, that you're not eager to come with me to visit with Negi. You didn't get to spend a lot of time with him this summer, after all."

Promptly, Anya sniffed and turned her head to the side. "Who cares about that?" she snapped. "What time I did spend with him, he and that Asuna wench were mooning over each other like lovesick puppies. It was sickening! What does she see in him, I'd like to know!"

Nekane smiled faintly. "Oh, I imagine that one day, you'll be in the same position."

"Never going to happen!" Anya almost shouted. "I'll never be that loopy over some stupid boy!"

"No, you probably won't," said Nekane cheerfully. Of course, that doesn't at all invalidate what I said before. Her smile grew gentler as she reached down to turn Anya's chin to face her, and hugged the smaller girl to her. "Thank you again, Anya, for taking time from your training to look after my home. I'm very grateful."

Anya blushed brightly. "Well ... you're welcome," she said.

"Well, then. I'll be off," Nekane said, after she released her young friend from the embrace. "Be happy, Anya."

Anya was frowning again as she watched Nekane walk away with her suitcase in her hand. That had been an odd way of saying goodbye, hadn't it?

Nekane walked down into the village where she'd spent most of her life, reminiscing as she went. There were so many memories. She kept her mind off the more horrific ones, the night of pain and the long days of healing and rehabilitation that had followed, only remembering the good times now. But no one could hide from the past forever, and, in the fullness of time, her steps brought her to the building where the petrified villagers were stored.

She considered going down there to offer a farewell to her father's statuesque form, and to her grandfather as well, but before she could decide to do so, her contemplations were interrupted as someone came up the stairs and blinked in the light.

"Ah, Nekane," Donet said. "I hope you're well."

"Ms. McGuiness," Nekane replied with a nod. "I'm very well, thank you."

"No need for such formality, dear," Donet said. "I sometimes think we've all picked up a little too much Japanese, here. I've known you for, oh my, was it ten years ago that you started attending the academy?"

"It was only eight. I was ... delayed," Nekane said. "But of course, you're right. Donet, then. Is the Magus well?"

"Oh, the old fool will probably outlive us all," the other woman said dismissively.

Nekane wasn't fooled for a moment. The stroke that had nearly laid the master of the college low a few months ago, which he had barely recovered from when Negi made his brief return to the village, had had them all scared. His partner, the bodyguard he had chosen and who had worked with him for nearly twenty years, would never be so cavalier about his health. But rumors had to be squashed.

"Are you here to visit them?" Donet asked abruptly.

"I was considering it," Nekane admitted. "After all, I am leaving for Japan later today, and anything can happen once one gets on a plane -"

"It's the safest way to travel, dear," Donet interrupted.

Nekane didn't agree with those statistics; while there might indeed be more automobile accidents than airplane crashes, people were more likely to walk away from the former than the latter.

"Well, I'm just glad that someone visits them. I didn't know most of them, of course, and it's not as though they can hear anyone talking, or understand how sorry one is ..." Donet trailed off, looking back at the doorway.

Nekane just nodded. "But on the other hand, maybe you're right. It's silly to be worrying about the chance that I might never see them again, just because I'll be taking an airplane trip today," she said after a moment of thought.

"That's a much healthier attitude," Donet said approvingly.

"Mm. Shall I remember you to Akashi-sensei, should I see him?" Nekane asked.

Donet flinched. "No," she said at length. "No. I think that's a conversation that I'll have to have personally, one of these days. At least I've already apologized to one of her parents," she added in a murmur that just barely reached Nekane's ears.

"Eh?"

"Never mind. Good day to you, and enjoy your trip." The older woman sauntered off, looking a little more depressed than she had earlier.

Nekane looked again at the door. Her father and grandfather weren't down there, she knew. Wherever what had made them into themselves was absent from the stone forms their bodies had been transformed into. There was no point in visiting, or apologizing to them.

But then, she mused a little while later, as she went to the graveyard, there was no point in apologizing to the earth where a corpse had been interred, years ago, a corpse that would long since have returned to its basic elements. But she still paused at the marker where her mother had been laid to her rest when she was not that much older than Negi, offered her apologies and farewells.

And she still slowly walked to a much more primitive marker in a part of the graveyard no one ever visited, and, after a moment of contemplation, tried to express how sorry she was.

It wasn't enough. It could never be enough.

But it was all that she had.

Once she was done, she walked away from the town, up to the bus stop, and looked down over the town where she'd grown up for what she felt might be the last time. "Goodbye," she said, just a minute before the bus trundled up. And then she boarded it to begin the series of transfers that would eventually take her to Heathrow airport.

Roughly seven hours later on the far side of the world, Asuna woke up in bed beside Negi, with him curled up against her. She spent a few moments just lying there, glorying in this contact, willing the world to go away for a while. But she knew that this wish wouldn't come true. And even though she'd called in sick on her paper route last night - and despite the twinge of conscience that she always felt for lying - she couldn't stay in bed forever.

So she kissed still-sleeping Negi and smoothly rolled up and over him before dropping down to the floor. She paused to take in the sight of Arika curled up between Konoka and Setsuna. It was good to see them getting along again. she knew that her mother had had some sort of issue with Konoka, before, but their current situation suggested it had been overcome without Asuna ever learning much about it. That was good. It was actually good to see all, or at least a lot, of her friends and companions scattered around the room, sleeping off their exertions of the night before.

They almost looked innocent.

Okay, nobody could possibly mistake the silly grin on Hakase's face as she lay across Mana's stomach for innocent, but ... well, anyway. Asuna headed into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

She found then that she wasn't the only one up this early. Chisame paused as she brushed her teeth to favor her with a slightly less-hostile-than-usual glance from behind her glasses.

"Good morning," Asuna said, since it was the polite thing to do.

Chisame grunted as she brushed her teeth.

"I'm surprised that you're up this early," Asuna continued.

"I keep hacker hours," Chisame replied, taking the brush out of her mouth for a moment.

"Hm. I suppose that makes sense," agreed Asuna, who had no idea what hacker hours were or why someone would keep them. "Um ... I really hope you're not using Konoka's toothbrush -"

"Brought my own when I came over here," Chisame said, then picked up her glass of water, swished a mouthful around in her mouth, before spitting it out in the sink.

"That's very impressive," Asuna said, genuinely impressed. "I probably wouldn't have thought to do that."

Chisame looked like she was about to say something, but all that came out was the word, "Yeah."

Asuna reached over to pick up the toothbrush clearly marked with the katakana of her own name, ran water over it and put some toothpaste on it, all the while watching Chisame checking out her zits in the mirror. "Okay," she said at last. "There's something I've got to ask you."

Chisame braced herself against the counter. "So ask."

"What's the deal with your glasses?"

That wasn't the question that Chisame had been anticipating. "... what?"

"I know you can see perfectly well without them, probably as well as I can," Asuna continued. "So why do you wear glasses? You didn't need them last night when you were -"

"I -!" Chisame shouted, then moderated her tone with difficulty. "- remember. What I did last night. Thank you."

"So ... what's with the glasses?"

Chisame sighed. "My mother and ... well, the person I thought of as my father, they both had prescription lenses. So when I was about six, my mother told me that I had to get glasses. I didn't realize it, but I guess she was trying to keep up the illusion that I was his kid. Not that he would have cared one way or the other but .. keeping up appearances, you know."

"Mm," said Asuna, nodding sagely. "I see. That makes sense. It's sort of strange, isn't it. We've been in the same class for almost three years, and this is probably the longest conversation that we've ever had." She started to raise the toothbrush to her mouth.

"That's not strange at all," Chisame said, after glaring for a moment. "It makes perfect sense, actually, because I don't like you and you don't like me."

The toothbrush stopped outside of Asuna's open mouth. "What?" she asked. "What gives you the idea that I don't like you? I got news for you, girl, I don't do things like that with people I don't like!"

"You do them with Ayaka," Chisame noted.

"That's, that's a different thing. Look, Chisame-san, I admit that I don't know you all that well -"

"Which didn't stop you from smashing my glasses to keep me from reading Chao's family tree," Chisame muttered.

"Is that what this is all about?" Asuna asked, and then shook her head. "No, of course not. This is about Negi. You're jealous, that's all, and so you inject that onto me."

"The word is project, and, and so what if I am?"

"Well, fine, be jealous. He won't like it, by the way," she added warningly. "And, I'm sorry if it makes you feel bad, but I don't have any plans to become jealous of you. I'm not crazy about this harem idea our mom's pushing on him, but I really do like watching him with other girls. It's hot. That's what I think, anyway." Asuna finally got the toothbrush into her mouth and started brushing.

"Well, hurray for you," Chisame said, a vast amount of hurt in her tone. "I'm glad that your heart has a lot of room, Kagurazaka. I really am. Because it's going to need a lot of room, if he keeps going like he has been. And I even get why you feel that way. I bet it is immensely flattering to realize that no matter who he loves, or how he loves them, you're always going to have first place in his heart, after your mother, or even possibly before that. I bet it feels wonderful.

"But I will never know that feeling. What I have instead, the roaring certainty that one day he's going to realize that I'm not worth all the trouble that I cause him, really really sucks. If you want to call that jealousy, then I guess I'm guilty. And I don't have a big heart, either. Mine is small, and it's petty. But it's my heart, and it's the one that breaks every time I think of him leaving me behind."

Chisame breathed heavily for a moment, before continuing, in a somewhat icier tone. "There's just one good thing about the mess that we're in, Kagurazaka. I think it's kind of funny that you fell in love with the little boy you want to protect, and I fell in love with the man I saw peeking out from behind that smile of his. Because as time goes by, he's going to become less and less of what you fell in love with, and more and more what I did. But even that's a pettiness, because what's never going to change is the way he feels about you. And that means that one of these days, you're going to hurt him."

She tossed the remnants of her water in the sink and walked away.

Asuna kept brushing her teeth, and rinsed out her mouth. She avoided looking in the mirror as she did so. wasn't sure what she'd see there, when she looked at her face.

Nekane found it rather amusing to be watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as one of the in-flight movies on her trip. Most of her colleagues basically despised those books and the surrounding fandom. It had been explained to her that they portrayed magi (or wizards, to use the term the books used) as bumpkins unaware of the modern world in which they lived. Considering the number of mages every year who retreated to Mundus Magica in hopes of escaping that very modernity, Nekane frankly thought that portrayal might be a bit more accurate than anyone wanted to admit.

For her part, she rather liked the books. She'd tried to get Negi to read them, thinking he might view their protagonist as someone in much the same position as himself, but he'd apologetically claimed that he didn't really have time to be reading for pleasure. Too much studying to be done, if one wanted to be a Magister Magi.

Her smile faded as she watched the antics of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Negi hadn't had friends like that growing up. He'd had Anya, but she was more of a self-appointed caretaker. Well, not self-appointed, Nekane amended. She herself had asked the little girl to look after Negi, while she was recuperating from her injuries. Anya had just taken the request far more seriously than Nekane had expected from her. But that was a failure on Nekane's fault, for not realizing how badly damaged Anya had been by the night all sense left their lives.

No real friends, no entertainment, just endless work and study, all in the hope of expiating a sin that wasn't even his. What kind of childhood had she given him?

Well, now, at least, there would be an accounting. She would at last stand before Arika, and those calm, mismatched eyes would search her, and in an instant, the Queen of Calamity would know her for the one who had betrayed both her and Nagi.

It had been easy. They had told only their closest allies about their plans to travel to America, using separate planes for security purposes and having their son sent along later. They employed secure magical communications to that end. But they had neglected to even consider the possibility that someone might be listening in on their own end. Someone who could casually mention what they were planning on a phone line that was bound to be tapped.

It hadn't worked out the way that she'd expected. They'd captured Arika, but their attack on Nagi had failed - and they'd left clues behind that sent him to Istanbul, where he'd died or, at least, had been reported slain. That, in particular, had never been Nekane's intention. She had just wanted them captured for a little while, before their inevitable escape, so that she could have a little more time with Negi.

Well, she'd gotten that. She'd spent her whole life trying to be both a mother and father to the boy, suffered horrific injuries defending him, and ultimately let him walk his own path in the world, no matter how lonely it made her feel. Surely that counted for something. Surely it expiated her sin.

Unfortunately, whatever her efforts did in the eyes of the Almighty, she suspected that Arika wouldn't see it that way. And the Queen of Calamity, who'd overthrown her own father in a coup d'etat, was not known for her mercy or compassion. Nor would she understand her reasons.

The credits were rolling. Nekane removed her headset and closed her eyes in hopes of getting some sleep. She suspected that she'd need all the energy she could muster for today's confrontation. But sleep wouldn't come.

It just wouldn't come.

At this moment, Arika could only have been happier if Nagi was there. She hadn't been there for so many of her children's firsts - their first steps, their first words. But now that she was here, she would be present for many of their firsts. She had been some of their firsts, in fact. But not this one. She suppposed that she could have penetrated Asuna's ass while her own accepted Negi's cock, but as she'd said, a maid's first dance - of any sort - should be special.

So instead, she rested beneath her daughter's crouching form as her son gently slid into her rear entrance, kissing and whispering to the girl as her face tensed up from the unexpected pressures. She reached down to brush fingers against Asuna's clitoris, not trying to bring her to orgasm, just keeping her on the boil so that Negi's novice effforts could do so. Again, she could have allowed Asuna to mount a strap-on that Ayaka had so courteously provided, but again, a maid's first double penetration should come from two men.

Such a pity that Kotaro had refused the invitation.

"Doesn't it feel good, Asuna?" she murmured. "Now you see why I put so much effort into training your ass' resistance. I wanted you to feel this good, too. Tell me how good it feels."

"So ... good ..." Asuna gasped.

But while it was very good, this experience was firmly convincing her that doggy-style was not for her. Despite the deeper penetration she received, she wanted to be able to hold her part- Negi in her arms, to kiss his face as it lay above or below her own. She couldn't manage that with him behind her. She was going to have to find out if it was possible to do anal from another position, one that allowed her to face him, if she ever wanted to do this with another man.

With Negi, she meant. She didn't want any other man.

She didn't.

To distract herself from such thoughts, she lifted her face up from kissing Arika to look around at the rest of the room. Initially, they'd started out watching the demonstration of anal sex that Arika had given, but, like the bad little girls that they were, almost all of them had moved on to other things. Only Satomi was still watching, and it was anyone's guess whether or not she was still seeing anything as Yuna sat behind her, groping and squeezing at her breasts with one hand while the other moved freely in the pubic area, all the while whispering about things that she'd done into Hakase's attentive ear.

Having heard some of those stories herself, Asuna believed that the words accounted for at least half of the look of hapless ecstasy on Satomi's face.

Over by the kitchenette, Kaede was being eaten out by Konoka and Setsuna simultaneously. In accepting the horrific secrets of Konoka's past, Setsuna had finally moved past her insecurity and jealousy, accepting that she was the only one in Konoka's heart. Thus, Konoka's occasional dalliances with other people didn't really matter, as long as she knew about them. At least, that was how Setsuna had explained it to Asuna the other day, as she received the benefits of this new understanding, just as Kaede was receiving them now.

It was pretty much how she herself felt about Negi and his relationships with other people, just as Chisame had described it earlier. However, that made Asuna a bit nervous. What did it say about her notions, if Konoka - sweet, loveable, manipulative as all get out Konoka - was latching onto them to justify herself?

But she decided not to worry about that. Kaede certainly didn't seem worried about anything at the moment; her eyes, usually open just to slits, were fully closed at the moment as her back pressed against the wall, frequently slamming against it as the two tongues entwined gently caressed her. Clearly, Setsuna still had it, and Konoka had begun to cultivate it, as well.

Not far from them, Ayaka was pounding the strap-on that she'd offered to Arika into Mana's receptive - wait, no, Mana was pounding into ... no, it was the first way around after all ... or was it? Asuna honestly couldn't tell who was doing what to whom. Ah, now matters became clearer. The sex toy being employed wasn't a strap-on, it was the double-headed dildo that Satomi, of all people, had brought with her.

Regardless, the furious passion that the fair-haired and dark-skinned coupling demonstrated was awesome to behold as they grappled together. Of course, the effect was somewhat spoiled for Asuna by the fact that she knew that Mana was holding back quite a bit, when compared with what she'd done with Negi a few days ago. On the other hand, that just made Asuna wonder what it would be like to be with Mana when she wasn't holding back.

Nor was she the only one who thought so. "Mmm," Arika said, her gaze following Asuna's. "Yes, to be with her and her father at once, neither of them holding anything back ... what a wonderful thought."

Asuna was pretty sure you weren't supposed to sweatdrop while being sodomized, but she managed nonetheless. "I wasn't ... really thinking ... in that ... direction -" she gasped out.

"Why not? He's actually pretty good in bed," said a voice from behind Asuna.

Asuna sighed as she twisted her neck, just a little bit painfully, to look up behind her. Sure enough, there was Chisame, crouching beside the furiously humping Negi, holding him tightly, kissing and caressing him, just like Asuna wanted to be doing. And from the look on her face, she clearly guessed that was the case.

"I am definitely your partisan, dear," Arika murmured into her ear. "But I think that one is going to be a strong rival." For being 'her partisan', Asuna thought she sure sounded amused by it all.

Before Asuna could do anything about this, though, the phone began to ring, making everyone pause what they were doing. The phone continued to ring.

"Could someone please get that?" Negi and Asuna asked weakly, in more or less perfect stereo.

That left exactly one permanent resident of the dormitory to answer the phone. With a sigh, Konoka disengaged from her attentions to Kaede's person and strolled over to pick up the phone. "Moshi moshi," she said cheerfully, as though she hadn't just been pulled away from some really good sex. Then she blinked. "Nekane-san? I'm doing quite well, thank you. Yes, that was a disturbing few weeks, and I'm glad that they're over now. At the airport, you say? Which airport? Narita, you say."

Negi had frozen in place as soon as he'd heard his cousin's name. When the word airport was mentioned, he rapidly pulled out of Asuna with an audible pop and scampered across the room with a horrified expression on his face.

"Ah, here's Negi-kun. I think he wants to speak to you," Konoka continued to say airily into the phone as Negi gestured frantically for her to give it to him. "Would you like to talk to him? You would? Oh, all right then. It's always so nice to talk to you, too. Thank you. Over to Negi-kun." She finally handed over the phone, and then promptly dropped down to begin giving oral pleasure to Negi, having gotten him where she wanted him. (The flavor of Asuna's ass didn't bother her at all, thanks to the douche Arika had insisted that her daughter take before the sex had begun.)

"Nekane-neesan, I am so so sorry! Things have been so hectic here, I completely forgot that you were arriving today! Please, please forgive - oh. Well, all right. But I really am sorry. Um, yes, to get here, you need to take the -"

Before he could describe the train she needed to take, Ayaka quietly whipped out her own cell phone from the pile of clothes she'd discarded yesterday, phoned her family's limo company and told them where to go and who to pick up.

"Err," said Negi. "Um, actually, neesan, uh, Aya- Yukihiro-san is sending around a car to pick you up at the airport. Yes, it is very nice of her. It should be there in about -" Ayaka held up five fingers. "- five minutes or so, and - really? It's already there?" Ayaka smiled beatifically. "Oh. Well, um, I guess it'll bring you right to the dormitory. Uh, yes, we're on the sixth floor, room six four three, the one with my name on the door. Yes, I look forward to seeing you too. I really am sorry. See you then." He hung up and promptly ejaculated in Konoka's mouth.

"Mmmm," Konoka said, while Negi collapsed. "Does this mean we have to stop?" she asked after a moment.

"I shouldn't think so," Ayaka said. "Nekane-san is a passionate and gentle lover. I hope she doesn't mind the revelation that we're related."

"Oh, I think she won't mind too much," Arika noted with an enigmatic smile.

Negi quietly lay on the floor, watching the dream of being a proper English gentleman fly off on angel wings.

It was nice of Ayaka-san to send this car for her. Nekane hoped that she'd be able to thank the girl. What with this and that, however, she probably wouldn't. By this and that, of course, she meant her oncoming confrontation with Arika. Really, all that this car meant was that the confrontation would happen even sooner than it otherwise would have.

But there was no point in trying to avoid it. This was something that had been building for years, and she would no longer try to hide from what she'd done. From anything that she'd done.

The car delivered her to the dormitory's doors. She got out, the driver produced her small suitcase from its boot and handed it to her, then got back into the car and drove away before she could offer so much as a word of thanks. Well, it was probably just a job to that person, anyway. Nothing to get excited about.

So she walked into the building and climbed the stairs. It was a bit of a strain, particularly given her legs, but she supposed that it was a bit much to expect there to be an elevator in a country like Japan. Samurai ethic, and all that. Actually, by the time she got up to the sixth floor, Nekane found herself in a fair amount of pain. She rested for a moment, patting her forehead with a handkerchief, before once more hefting the bag and walking over to the door marked with Negi's name.

She held up a hand to knock. But the hand disobeyed its owner's will, holding in place for a moment. There is no point in putting this off, Nekane told herself sternly, and forced the hand to rap on the door.

A moment later, the door swung open, and Nekane was greeted by the sight of the Queen of Calamity in a housecoat and slippers. Her calm, mismatched eyes examined her searchingly.

Nekane took a deep breath. "Lady Arika, I'm pleased to find you well," she started to say. It was the truth. She'd never hated the woman or wanted her to come to any harm.

"Indeed," Arika said. "Please, come in."

Obviously, she wanted to annihilate her in private. Well, she'd a right to do so. Nekane picked up her bag and walked through the doorway into the dimly lit short hallway beyond it. Arika shut the doorway, and Nekane braced herself for the assault to come.

She hadn't been bracing herself to be shoved against the door and kissed forcefully. That had been nowhere among the expected outcomes of this encounter. Nekane tried to adjust to this strange turn of events as Arika's tongue pushed in past her teeth and caressed her own tongue. She also detected Arika pulling off the housecoat to reveal that she wore nothing at all beneath it, and grabbing both of Nekane's hands by the wrists to pull them up to rest their palms on her firm breasts.

"I've wanted this for almost eleven years," Arika said, as she pulled back from the kiss, leaving a trail of saliva glistening in the air between them. "If it hadn't been for your condition when we met, Nagi and I would certainly have invited you into our bed then. You were such a beautiful child, Nekane. But you've grown more beautiful since."

"What?" Nekane said, trying to put all of her bewilderment into that one word. Was this some sort of strange game? Was the Queen trying to pretend that she didn't know what Nekane had done?

"Don't play the coy innocent, dear, it doesn't suit either of us," Arika said warningly. "Nagi knew about your crush on him. You were childishly obvious. He found it amusing, though not as much as I did. Did you know that he might be your father then?"

Nekane stammered for a moment. "No," she finally said. "I didn't read mother's journal until after -" I betrayed you, she thought, but stoppped herself from saying the words aloud.

"But even when you knew, it did nothing to change the attraction, did it?" Arika pressed, both with her words, and up against Nekane with her hips.

"No," Nekane whispered. "He was still my superhero, before anything else. I am so, so sorry -"

"Tsh. The heart and the body want what they want, whatever the mind might decree," Arika said warmly, following it up with another, briefer kiss. "As I said, we would have welcomed you in our bed, beautiful child. Nagi is not here ... but I will try to make up for the lack." And with that she began kissing down the front of Nekane's dress, lifting its hem as she went down.

"Wait, no, wait, what about Negi?" Nekane gasped out.

"He's being attended to," Arika said absently as she got the hemline above the girl's hose. This exposed the horrific scars just above her knees, and she pressed kisses on them, in tribute to the wounds the girl had taken defending her son. "And enjoying the attention, I'm sure."

"No, what I mean - wait, do you mean he knows about all of this?" Nekane asked, mind once more achieving a certain clarity.

"Of course," Arika said as the other woman's panties were finally exposed to her view. A pair of fingers slid up each of her hips through the leg openings and pulled them taut, until the cotton tore asunder. "I claimed his innnocence a while ago, and he's been with many women since then."

A look of horror crossed Nekane's face at those words, unseen by the woman who was starting to kiss her abdomen. "You ... and Negi ..." she said faintly.

"Why would I not be attracted to the combination of myself and Nagi?" Arika asked. "I am attracted to all of his children. I am certainly attracted to you. Why would I not be attracted to Negi?" And with that, she dove in towards Nekane's core, licking and caressing intently.

Pleasure battled revulsion in Nekane's brain, and pleasure, as always, had the upper hand. Perhaps it would have been better to take Negi away from this woman permanently, but would she ever have known this if she had? Once again, Nekane felt herself losing to the sensation, just as she had after Ayaka had tricked her in the baths. Only moreso; Arika was the best lover she'd ever known in her limited experience.

Brought to a gasping orgasm in just a few minutes, all Nekane could do was sigh as Arika rose up and kissed her, somewhat more gently than before. "You taste divine," she said. "Come now, get undressed. You won't need those clothes where you're going."

Hesitantly, wanting to fight against the suggestion, but unable to resist, Nekane undid the hooks at the back of her dress, and let it fall to the floor around her feet. Her pantiest were already shredded, and her bra came off just as easily. "Leave the stockings," Arika advised her. "They add some mystery, I think."

Tightly but tenderly, Arika took Nekane by the hand and led her down the hall and into the dormitory room itself. The younger woman gasped as she witnessed what was going on there.

Her eyes first lit on Ayaka, who was crouching on the room's table with her arms wrapped around the arms of another girl, the red-haired girl whom Nekane thought was named Chisame, pinning them back so that the orange-haired girl whom Nekane definitely recognized as Negi's roommate Asuna, was able to rub up against her. They were all three of them naked as the day they were born. Ayaka seemed more amused than anything else, while Asuna looked determined and Chisame was clearly seething.

"Well, now that I have you where I want you," Asuna was saying, "I think we should pick up that conversation we were having earlier. The one where you spewed out a bunch of bullshit."

Chisame grunted. "Are you going to critique my arguments or fuck me?" she snapped.

"I can do both, because I am clever," Asuna said blandly as she reached down to finger the other girl's vagina. The comment drew a snort from Ayaka which Asuna answered with a glare, but for the most part she kept her eyes on Chisame. "I can't say much about most of what you said, but one thing really pissed me off. You were whining about how you're scared that Negi's eventually going to realize that you're not worth it, but just a few seconds later you told me that how he feels about me isn't gonna change. They can't both be true, y'know?"

"Yes, they -" Chisame started to say, then broke off as Asuna's fingers drove deep within her.

"Nuh-uh. I'm not that blessed, and you're not that much of a roaring bitch. God, no wonder Chachamaru likes you so much, you're just like Eva, you know that? You're both wrapped up in this rotten self-image of yourself as someone no one could ever or should ever care about or like. She's a nine hundred year old vampire, what's your excuse?"

"Thats -"

"People like you, Chisame. I like you. She likes you." Ayaka nodded, then kissed Chisame's cheek gently. "And lots of other people like you too. And Negi loves you, and if he's never going to stop loving me, then we've got no chance of getting him to stop loving you either. And regardless, you're not going to push me away by being a jerk. Tougher people than you have tried. Now let's have some fun, okay?" And with that, she dropped down to begin licking at the garden her fingers had just excavated.

"Just a warning, sister," Ayaka said as she started to play with Chisame's breasts. "She's not kidding about any of that."

Sister? Nekane thought bemusedly. She hadn't known that Ayaka had a sister, and didn't the other girl have a different family name? But before she could consider this more deeply, her attention was drawn to the bunkbed against one of the walls of the room. Negi was there, with a dark-haired girl she didn't recognize bouncing up and down on his hips, looking extremely happy, while Konoka rubbed up against her from behind.

"Ne, cousin Yuna-chan, I get to go next, right?" Konoka asked in a rather plaintive voice.

"Fine by me," Yuna replied. "Of course, Negi-kun might have other ideas, huh, Negi-kun?"

"I'm fine," Negi replied with a sigh. "Konoka deserves her turn."

"Ah, but I think someone with a better claim is here," Arika opined as she stood just behind Nekane, looking down at them.

Negi turned his head towards them, and his face froze as he saw his cousin standing there in nothing more than her hose and a look of shock. "Neesan," he gulped.

Yuna turned to look as well, taking in Nekane at a glance, and smiling broadly as she did so. "Nice," she said as her hip thrusts slowed.

Nekane wasn't sure what disturbed her more, the girl leering at her or the look of abject terror on Negi's face. She never ever wanted him to look at her like that, so she swallowed, and tried to speak in a calm, level tone. "Negi," she said. "Is this what was distracting you so that you forgot that I was com- about to arrive?" She corrected herself mid-sentence, to eliminate the double entendre.

"Y-yes," Negi stammered as he pulled away from Yuna and Konoka, who moved back to give the cousins a moment alone. (They promptly fell into an embrace, kissing and rubbing up against each other.) "For, for a while now, I've been ... yes."

"Lady Arika, your mother, tells me that you've been doing this with a number of women," Nekane continued. She paused, then added, in a rush, "Including her."

Negi nodded, still looking fearful. "Also Asuna, Ayaka and Chisame."

"Ayaka is very good, isn't she?" Nekane said, simply to say something while she puzzled out why he'd emphasized those three girls. Wait, if Chisame and Ayaka are sisters, then -

"Chisame and Ayaka are the daughters of Nagi," Arika breathed into Nekane's ear. "Just as you are, I think. While Asuna is my daughter."

It was far, far too late to object that she might not be Nagi's daughter, that it might just be a trick of heredity that she resembled Ayaka. She had noted the similarities between herself and the other girl even as they were ... but hadn't commented on them. But she couldn't reply to that now. She had to keep her focus. If she didn't, she'd ... she drew in a deep breath. "Negi, is this what you like to do? Are you doing this because you want to do it?"

"I ... yes," Negi admitted. "I like how it feels. And I like to make the people I l-love feel good, and this, this seems to do that."

"I see," Nekane said calmly. Inside she was weeping at her failure. She'd tried so hard to raise him to be different from his father, to be a proper English gentleman instead of a wild Welsh wizard. And this was how it had all come out. Still, considering the circumstances under which she'd come to have the opportunity to raise him, perhaps her failure was simply the workings of karma.

Well, if she'd failed, she might as well fail completely. "Do you, do you want to do this sort of thing with, with me, Negi?" she asked.

"I ..." He trailed off. "I love you, neesan. If, if you want to feel good, then ..." And again.

She drew in a deep breath through her nostrils. "All right," she said, slowly dropping to her knees in front of him as he sat, legs dangling over the edge of the bottom bunk, his small manhood stiff between them. She stared at it, at him, for what felt like an eternity, before leaning forward to take it in her mouth.

Arika watched the loving between Negi and Nekane begin with satisfaction. She considered briefly joining in at Nekane's other end, but a girl's first time with one she loved so deeply should be private. She also considered joining in on the coupling between the eager Yuna and the somewhat frustrated-looking Konoka not far away, but decided that it was already too familiar.

A glance towards the bathroom door revealed quite exciting things going on between Setsuna, Mana and Kaede. The last-mentioned girl interested her quite a bit. It had been years since she'd had a ninja for a lover, since that trip to that strange parallel world. (She wondered whatever had happpened to Kushina and her husband. She hoped they were well.) But on reflection, there was someone else that she wanted ever more, someone who wasn't at the party.

So, after checking to make sure that Satomi was all right - the girl had collapsed of exhaustion some time before, and was sleeping in the top bunk - she headed back to the hallway and pulled on her housecoat again before heading out into the hallway. As she went through the doorway, her magically enhanced ears heard the guttural cry which suggested that Negi and Nekane had moved on to cunnilingus or possibly intercourse, as well as Nekane's sobs of pleasure.

Well, her sobs, anyway.

Pleased with herself, Arika strolled down the hallway towards Haruna's room. Ever since their conversation yesterday, part of her had been utterly enthralled with the idea of taking the artist as a lover, and introducing her to Negi's harem. Not only was she sure to be a wonderful and imaginative partner, she would serve as a lever towards adding her friends Nodoka and Yue to it as well.

Haruna's resistance to the notion didn't even give her a moment's concern. There had never been anyone that she couldn't seduce, given the opportunity.

She arrived at the door to Haruna's room, but before she could knock, the door beside it opened up and Chizuru walked out, wearing a robe and slippers much like Arika's own. The girl blinked in surprise at the sight of Arika. "Oh. Good afternoon," she said, without much warmth in her tone.

"Good day," Arika replied, ignoring the tone. "How is your hand?"

Reflexively, Chizuru looked down at the cast before answering. "It still hurts, from time to time, but I imagine that means that the bones are knitting back together." She coughed, then looked up, but not at Arika directly. "Since Ayaka didn't come back to our room last night, I assume that she was with you and Negi. Is she well?"

"Very well," Arika confirmed. "You realize that you are also welcome to -"

"I decline to do so," Chizuru interrupted firmly. "What you are doing is wrong." Her voice was quiet, but incredibly firm.

Arika blinked. "I see. I won't thank you for that unsolicited opinion, but I suppose you've a right to it. Tell me, please, is it right for a fifteen year old woman to seduce a twelve year old girl?" There was just a bit of an edge in her tone.

To her surprise, Chizuru didn't visibly react to the salvo. "No, it is not," she admitted. "In retrospect, I should have waited until she was more mature. Nor is that the only contemptible thing that I've done. But whatever I've done does not change the fact that what you are doing is wrong."

Now Arika felt herself getting a bit angry. "Indeed. Who says so?"

"I do. I say so. I may not be able to stop you personally, and I might not be in any position to get other people to do it, but I can choose my own actions, and I choose not to be involved in your activities. Because what you are doing is wrong."

"You keep repeating that. It does not become more charming with repetition," Arika snapped. "Why is it wrong?"

"Why is it right?" Chizuru replied automatically.

Arika blinked. "How can something that brings happiness to so many be wrong?" she asked.

"Many things bring momentary happiness but subsequent misery," Chizuru answered smoothly. Her face had remained calm all this while, and her tone betrayed no stress whatsoever. "Should any of Negi's romantic partners find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy, that would be an example of a lasting misery."

"Children are always a delight," Arika objected.

"It's convenient for you, then, that someone else raised yours."

Arika actually found herself taking a step back in response to that salvo. "How dare you?" she hissed. "How dare you imply that the greatest regret of my life is somehow convenient?"

"I was an unwanted child," Chizuru snapped in response, her face showing mild anger for the first time in the conversation. "Rest assured, my mother didn't find the task of raising me, without any help from my bastard of a father, to be the delight you seem think she would. You act as though you can slide through life without any consequence -"

"That is not true!" Arika protested.

"- and the lesson you teach to those around you is that they should do whatever pleases them, because it will please them. I consider that to be a contemptible philosophy ... and I don't like the consequences it is causing for people I love and respect," she added, looking past Arika's shoulder.

Arika turned to see that Negi was standing just a little bit behind them, stark naked. "Negi!" she said. "Why in the world are you wandering the halls with no clothes on!"

"Clothes are hard," Negi replied cheerfully ... and then his features began to melt. Before either Arika or Chizuru could react, the slime that had taken Negi's form expanded to cover them both, wrapping them in its folds and bearing them away.

Not again, was Chizuru's first thought as she regained consciousness strapped to a wall, unable to move her legs or arms. She could, however, turn her head to see that Arika was in the same position to her left, and that there was a space to her right with straps just like those on her limbs.

Before her, there was a circular room with an elaborate coat of arms on the floor that she didn't recognize. Some distance away, there was a door leading into what looked like an elevator shaft, without an elevator car within it. On the opposite side of the room from them was a bank of monitors with a large chair facing them.

With predictability, the chair swivelled around to face them, revealing the face that Chizuru recognized as the retired master of the Yukihiro Financial Group - although until this moment, she had never seen him without his glasses, or realized that his eyes were two different colors. There was a small girl with odd green skin on his lap, whom he was petting like a cat, to her obvious enjoyment.

"Greetings," he said cloyingly.

"That would have been far more dramatic if I hadn't already guessed it was you," Arika said wearily.

The man paid her no heed, instead speaking to the small girl. "Well done, Purin. It was a good idea to release you and your sisters. You have given excellent service."

The girl smiled in response.

"I suppose that I should introduce you. It's the polite thing to do," Arika continued. "Chizuru-san, this is ... well, a person who believes himself to be my father, Alladia Autarkia -"

"I am him," the man said, anger clear in his tone as his gaze snapped up to take them both in. "You do not face any homonculous this time, my dear."

"So you say."

"So I do. And in any event, your companion already knows me, though I was wearing a different face when we met," the man sneered. He moved the slime to the armrest of the chair before standing - and his appearance shifted, becoming that of the current master of the Yukihiro Financial Group. "I preferred to wear this face while I was wandering the halls of my new home, some eighteen years ago. One night while doing so, I met a rather precious young woman who immediately attracted my -"

"You? It was you who raped my mother, and not the real Yukihiro-san?" Chizuru asked, feeling more shocked than she ever had before this.

"Oh, please. Rape is simply the word used by an inferior to describe their refusal to accept the attentions of a superior," he said dismissively, sembling into his true form. "In any event, yes, I am your father, too. I am surprised that the two of you have not realized your similiarities to one another. Admittedly, the most singular trait of the Entheofushia line didn't breed true in your case, second daughter, but still, your older sister is normally more perceptive."

Arika looked startled, but didn't rise to the bait.

"In any event, the third shall be joining us shortly. Then you will all be togther. Maiden, mother and crone, gathered to witness my union with one who is all of the above," Alladia said happily. "I will go now to make preparations for that blessed event. Keep a good eye on them, dear Purin!" And with that he strolled to the elevator doors, which swung open to admit him and swung closed behind him as he dropped down the shaft.

"Well. It's a small world, after all," said Chizuru after a moment.

"I am sorry, Chizuru-san," Arika said. "He has always been something of a monster, I'm afraid."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that he's a monster," she replied absently. "Just someone who acts as though he should do whatever pleases him, because it pleases him."

Arika looked at her for a moment, then looked away. "I'm not talking to you anymore."

"How very sisterly we are."

Back in Negi's seraglio, Setsuna had just experienced her first orgasm at the hands and tongue of Mana, and was collapsed on the toilet seat. "That was amazing," she rasped. "Why, why didn't we ever do this before?"

"You couldn't afford me," Mana said simply. It was a convenient lie. The truth was that she'd have cheerfully knocked boots with the sexy little swordswoman at any time during their acquaintance, but up until recently, she'd felt Setsuna might as well have had a sheathed sword up her ass. Nothing good would have come from hitting on her. She was pleased that this was no longer the case.

"Very well, then 'tis my turn," said Kaede as she cuddled up to Mana on the bathroom floor.

"You?" Mana sniffed. "Please. I think we settled the issue of which of us is more skillful when you had to be carried away from Negi and I walked."

"Ah, but this one did not employ all my capacities in my encounter with Negi-dono, for they would have surely been wasted," Kaede noted. "For example -" And with a faint pulse of her will, three duplicates of her, each as naked as she was, appeared around Mana.

Mana affected to yawn, though in truth this was not without interest. "I've been group-groped by professionals, you know," she said, as each of the duplicates reached out to caress some part of her epidermis, each of them just as gentle and yet firm as Kaede could be.

"Ah, but this one has just begun," the original Kaede said, with her shadow clones echoing just a bit behind her. They raised their hands before their breasts and made a series of kuji kiri before them before proclaiming, "Futanari no jutsu!"

Now Mana showed genuine surprise, but before she could say or do anything, she was grappled and firmly penetrated - vaginally, anally, and orally - by three of the Kaedes, who each began pumping into her, full, firm breasts shaking as they did so. All Mana could do was let out grunts of pleasure, mixed with perhaps just a bit of anger at being taken in this way.

"I've never seen anything like that," Setsuna proclaimed weakly to the remaining Kaede.

"Nor shall you long be seeing it now," the Kaede replied as she firmly grabbed hold of Setsuna's shoulders and brought her face down to her own stiff illusory phallus. "There are far more intriguing things to command your attention than a boring, frigid lover being warmed up."

Mana's next grunt sounded like a protest, but Setsuna was a bit distracted by what she was doing to pay attention. She felt a bit torn about it. Aside from Negi and her father, she really didn't have any interest in men, and yet here she was performing oral sex on what was clearly a penis. Did the fact that it was illusory and attached to a woman make this somehow lesbian? It was somewhat troubling to think about ...

Back in the main room, Negi was pounding back and forth between Nekane's legs as she lay on her back on the bottom bunk, while Ayaka and Nekane lay beside her suckling at her breasts. Nekane's face still looked ashen, which made Negi feel a bit uncomfortable about all this. He wanted to make her feel good, but despite what his big sister said, she seemed to be unhappy about all of this. Should he stop? surely she'd tell him if she wanted him to stop.

Over on the table, Asuna was lying on top of Konoka, kissing her furiously while Yuua fingered them both from behind.

"We should have been doing this much more than just that one time," Konoka said deliriously.

"No argument from me," Asuna agreed between gasps.

Yuna rolled her eyes at all this lovey-dovey talk. They were as bad as - she broke off in mid-thought, and started to consider the possibility of shoving more than just her fingers into their cunts. (Unlike most of Negi's comely comrades, she was developing a real liking for Arika's blunt terminology.)

But she was distracted by this when Negi suddenly gasped, "I think, I'm about, to -"

"Pull out, that way we all get a taste," Chisame suggested.

"Yes, pull out," Nekane said somewhat more forcefully.

"I -"

"And I return," said Alladia as he bounded up the shaft and through the doors that opened for him. He was smiling an extremely unpleasant smile.

"I'll alert the media," said Arika.

"Ah, daughter. This is all thanks to you, really. If not for your attack on my homonculous and his lair, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to study the geomancy of this area so closely as I have, once the local authorities called upon it during the clean-up of that affray. It has finally given me the key to the last thing that I needed for our ascension."

"What are you going to do?" Chizuru asked, frowning.

"Does the sheep ask the wolf what it's going to do, second daughter?" the mad king sneered. "But I am generous, and so shall demonstrate. There are a number of demiplanes scattered around this region, tiny realms sealed off from the rest of the universe. Often the laws of reality are slightly bent within them, so that time passes by much more swiftly within than without. A powerful magic, wouldn't you say? Difficult to set up, yet almost impossible to shatter ... at least not without one particular spell."

Arika's face had gone ashen. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"Because I can. And because it will greatly disrupt the geomancy of this region, and thus a certain barrier," he added with great satisfaction.

"No, wait, she will not thank you for this, this is her -"

"Prison," Alladia pronounced, interrupting Arika's outburst. "She will learn to thank me in time. And now my forces are prepared to capture my third daughter in the chaos that will ensue."

"Do not do this, I am begging you!" Arika cried.

Her father sighed rapturously. "It needed only this. And now, the spell." He lifted his voice and began to speak in Greek. "Bind your eyes mystic serpent," were the only words of the spell that Chizuru could understand in the torrent that followed, before she heeded Arika's shrieked cry to stop listening, as howling filled the air around them.

Evangeline, brooding in her resort, realized what was happening immediately, and had most of a subjective hour to prepare a response. Unfortunately, she wasted quite a bit of that hour shouting abuse at whoever was doing this. That still left most of the second for her to try to reinforce the resort's barriers to resist the spell. Given just a little more time, or some help, she probably would have succeeded.

But she was alone.

Three minutes after Alladia began to cast his spell, Evangeline's cottage ceased to exist. Her resort exploded forth from the container in its basement and burst through the building's walls as it expanded to its actual size, crushing much of the forest around the location of the cabin as well. The small sea at the base of resort also swept out to drown much of the area as well.

Last but not least, two minutes after the spell finished, the bridge between the two towers of the resort complex, architecturally unfeasible in a less magically rich environment, collapsed to the ground below. Then, and only then, did silence reign over the remnants of the forested area.

Nor was this the only demiplane whose contents spilled out on the region of Mahora. Most were simply places of storage. Library Island contained far more books than even its awesome shelving could hold, and so the magicians had placed less frequently used volumes in places reserved for such rarely-used books. Now they all exploded forth, spewing those books out into the library proper as they broke down the walls and floors where they were hidden away.

All across Mahora, the demiplanes expanded, wrecking the buildings that contained them. Mayhem ensued, the lines of power around the city were altered by the changes to its structure, and a certain barrier, limiting the powers of a certain shinso vampire even further than the Infernun Scholasticus curse did, ceased to do so.

But there was one demiplane not hidden by the Mahora mage order. A great dark tower that exploded forth from the grounds of the academy, rearing up to challenge the World Tree itself, announcing that a new power had come into the world.

"What the heck was that?" almost everone in Negi's room chorused.

Negi didn't say it, but he was clearly thinking it as he froze in place and spewed out his climax into Nekane's vulva. Nekane didn't say it either; whatever she might have thought was known only to her as she lay on her back, staring up at absolutely nothing.

"Guys, I think we might have a situation, here," Yuna said as she looked out the window.

A flurry of dressing followed, awakening Satomi who blearily asked what was going on before she was hustled into her own clothes and dragged out along with the others. Negi paused to look at Nekane, who still hadn't moved. "You just stay here, neesan, we'll take care of this, all right?"

"Okay," she said faintly.

Once he was gone, she slowly curled up in a ball and started to weep.

Negi and his companions encountered Haruna, Nodoka, Yue and the Ariadne girls before they were even out of the dormitory, and the two groups quickly merged on Negi's instructions. Kotaro and Natsumi weren't far behind them. By the time they arrived at the plaza from which the tower had emerged, they'd also linked up with Ako and Akira, who'd been out walking in the town.

"Where's Makie-san?" Negi asked Ako.

"I don't know!" she replied, on the verge of panic. "I haven't seen her since yesterday, she didn't come home, do you think -"

"I'm sure she's fine!" Negi quickly replied, despite being nothing of the sort. Nor was Makie the only absentee about whom he was worried. where were his non-magical students? Where were the cheerleaders, where were the twins? Where was Chizuru?

Where was his mother?

And on top of all this, he was all too aware that most of his party was already worn out from their debauchery of the last few hours. He wasn't all that steady on his own feet. All this made him wonder if the best thing to do might be to just scout the area and then get out so that the adults could handle this situation, whatever it was.

"What do we do, Negi-sensei?" he heard Yue ask just as they arrived at the plaza, and he opened his mouth to express those very thoughts.

Just then panels on the sides of the tower opened up, and dozens of armored vehicles, some looking highly advanced, launched from it.

Negi drew in a deep breath. "Same thing we always do," he said. "We fight."

On the bottom step of the staircase that went around the pillar on which her resort rested, Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell was pouting. She would not have appreciated being told that she was pouting, but that was the right word to describe the way that she was frowning and thinking dark thoughts about the injustice of the universe.

"Master?" said Chachamaru, standing a little to her side. "What will our response be to this situation?"

"I've got a great idea of what we should do!" Chachazero said enthusiastically.

"If you want to kill people," Evangeline said sourly, "go right ahead."

Privately, Chachazero thought this was rather unfair of the Master, since, despite the barrier's collapse, the deadly doll couldn't actually do anything. The curse sealing the Master's powers was still in effect. If it were night, and the moon was full, it would have been a different story. But it was still day, and the moon was weeks from fullness.

"Master - would it be permissible if I were to -"

"You want to go help the boya, don't you?" Evangeline asked, not turning to look at her companion. Her senses were keen enough to hear Chachamaru nodding. "Why do you love him?" she asked.

Chachamaru took a moment, and then answered. "Because he reminds me of the parts of you that I love, as well as respect."

Evangeline's eyes closed. At any other time, she'd have yelled at her servant for that implication, but it seemed like she just couldn't muster the indignation. "Fine. Go."

"Thank you, Master." Her rockets flared and she took off, flying in the direction of the tower that shared domination of the horizon with the world tree.

Evangeline's eyes stayed closed for a few more moments, before she heard a footstep nearby. She opened them and became wary once more. There was something familiar about the blonde woman in the disheveled dress who was approaching her, but she couldn't quite - and then she did place her. "Nekane Springfield," she said.

"You are Evangeline ... aren't you?" she asked, her voice as unsteady as her tread. "Negi told me about ... please, you have to help him."

"I've sent the best part of me to do just that," Evangeline replied. "I don't have to do anything more."

"I kind of object to that description," Chachazero noted, but no one was paying attention.

"No, no, I know, I heard stories about you, you're the Mage of the Evil Sound, you can do things -"

"Right now, I'm a moderately powerful vampire who doesn't have to hide in the darkness and isn't bothered by holy symbols, and that's about it," Evangeline snapped. "Even if I wanted to help him, which I don't, I couldn't do a blessed thing -"

"Please!" Nekane cried out. "You have to save my son!"

Evangeline snorted. "Am I supposed to care that you raised him because his mother got kidnapped and -"

"No! I bore him!" Nekane shrieked.

Few things in this world could truly surprise Evangeline. This managed it. All she could do for a second was stare at the English woman with an open mouth, before she finally hissed, "What?"

"I, I was young, a-and foolish, and I wanted to show my father how grown-up I was, and when Nagi came back to tell us he was going to be a father, I decided that this would be a good way to do it, and so I crept into his room, and, and I didn't know he'd slept with my mother, I didn't know he might be my, my, and I didn't know, and then I was pregnant, and he'd left, and I couldn't tell anyone who the father was, and they came back together, and she was so so much more perfect than I was, and I knew he'd never leave her for me ..."

She drew in a shuddering breath before continuing, slightly more calmly. "Our babies were born in the same week, hers just a few days before, and everyone thought it was funny how much they looked alike. And then they started to make plans, and they were going to leave Negi with me while they set things up to go to America, and I said I'd take care of him, and ... and I tried, I really did, but he wouldn't stop crying, and, and ..."

"What did you do?" Evangeline asked, appalled.

"It was an accident!" Nekane screamed.

Chachazero might have made a comment at this point, but the horrified look on the Master's face kept her in check.

"So, you see, I, I had to betray them, I had to have time to set things up so that they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the children, you see. I've paid!" She was sobbing, now. "I've paid for the crime, surely? I've never been able to tell him I'm his mother, I've only ever been the big sister, and surely that's payment, surely, and what I've done, what I've had to do -"

"I pity you," Evangeline interrupted. "I really do. I don't think I've ever met anyone as pathetic as you. But I can't do anything, I'm cursed -"

"I can break the curse," Nekane told her. "I have the Thousand Master's -"

"Stop it," Evangeline said as she started to get to her feet. "Don't, don't even - I'd have to drain all of your blood, you'd die, he'd never forgive me."

"I don't want to live like this! I'm all rotten inside, can't you see that? He, I, this can't go on!"

"Then tell him, or kill yourself, I don't care which! I don't kill women and children, I will not be a party to your suicide!"

What happened next should not have happened. Evangeline was, as she said, a moderately powerful vampire and a master of puppetry. There was no way that a normal human, even a slightly accomplished magician, should have been able to rush her in such a way as to force her to the stairs and then bite down on a certain part of the shinso's neck that, when bitten, will cause the shinso to bite down on the neck of the one biting her. It should not have happened.

And yet that was the position in which Evangeline found herself a moment later, drinking deep of the blood of Nekane Springfield, straight from the jugular vein.

No, she thought, and sent that thought directly into Nekane's mind, through the connection they now shared. No, stop this. I am your master, so stop this!

Nekane did not stop. She should not have been able to resist the compulsion behind that thought. She should have grown weaker as her blood and her magic were drained away, and released the death grip she held on Evangeline's neck. And yet she did not.

It was a day of wonders. Some wonders are dark indeed.

And then, as she commanded, and begged, and humiliatingly pleaded, Evangeline felt the curse shatter. With a last cry, she pushed Nekane away from her, and the woman collapsed to the ground before her.

"Fool," Evangeline said as she looked down on Nekane's still living form. "Fool! You have thrown away your life for nothing! I have no reason to help him! I am free! Free of all of this!" Oddly, she didn't sound happy for this development. There was more of an element of despair in her tone. "I have no reason to help him or anyone!"

"Can we at least kill some people?" Chachazero asked as, for the first time in fifteen years, she came to her feet outside the resort.

"Fool!" Evangeline repeated, summoning up her cloak of bats and striding away, with the doll following behind her.

Nekane was still alive, though her awareness was fading. All she could feel was awful coldness, and even that seemed very far away. And now she was alone, too.

And then she wasn't. There was a man in a hood, looking down at her with a grieving expression. He had a staff like Negi's, the one he claimed his father had given him. Actually, he looked a lot like Nagi. And he was speaking, just loud enough to hear. "It's all right, grandma. It's going to be all right, now. The tide is starting to turn, because of what you did. It's going to be all right."

Grandma? What a strange thing to call her. Negi was far too young to have any children of his own. Why, then this must all just be a dream, just a horrible, horrible dream. Any moment now she would

NEXT: Mahora
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Decadent Habits