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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
- 8
- 9
- 10
Darkenning is the author of what follows:

Akamatsu Ken owns Negima, and didn't write this. I did, with help and suggestions from OverMaster.

One more chapter until you, the reader, get to decide the fate of this story.

Decadent Habits

Chapter 9: Nodoka

From earliest childhood, Miyazaki Nodoka had loved books. In complete honesty, she could say that if given a choice between dying and never reading again, she would have been unable to choose between two identical options. She had dreamed all her life of coming to a vast library, like this Library Island, and being entirely surrounded by books. And here she was, living the dream.

She was cold, and she was lonely.

Not alone, though, but Chamo-kun respected her wish for peace and quiet as she completed her latest self-assigned research assignment. He lay on the table, curled up in a circle, seemingly asleep. He wasn't fooling her for an instant, but she honored his sincere attempt by leaving him be. She had other matters to concern herself with.

She glanced down at one of the books she'd brought to read for pleasure - faint echoes of the pleasure that a good book had given her, not so long ago - and found the words of an ancient English poet to well-describe her mood.

He who is companionless

Seeks oftentimes the mercy

The grace

Of the creator, God.

Sad, sad the faithful man

Who outlives his lord.

He sees the world stand waste

As a wall blown on by the wind,

As an empty castle, where the snow

Sifts through the window-frames,

Drifts on the broken bed

And the black hearth-stone.[1]

Nodoka was companionless. Konoka was off being a lesbian with Setsuna. Haruna was engaged in manga activities. And Yue ...

Yue was gone.

It wasn't right, what had happened. They'd saved two worlds, countless people. Evil had been vanquished, or at least thwarted. The evil-doers had been shown the errors of their ways, or at least been persuaded that their opponents were not to be underestimated again in the future. Everything should have been sunshine and lollypops.

She had been sure that if Yue just came back to Mahora, all the problems her dearest friend and rival in love was having with her memory would fade away like a bad dream on awakening. And Yue had agreed to do so. Or at least, had not disagreed. Looking back, she could see something false about the smile on Yue's face that night before they went to bed.

Nodoka had awakened in the middle of the night to find Yue standing by her bedside, dressed in a nightgown, shining like a perfect doll in the moonlight that crept in through the doors of the hotel room. She had opened her mouth to ask Yue what was the matter, when the other girl had reached down with a single finger to press its tip against her lips, stilling them, as her other hand reached up to the collar of her gown.

It dropped to the ground around her feet, leaving nothing but Yue in the same way that she'd come into the world. And she had leaned down and followed her finger with her own lips, falling down onto Nodoka and gently pulling the other girl out of her own pyjamas. Yue had resisted, just a bit, thinking that this was like something in one of the more ero-ero mangas Haruna had pressed on them from time to time, and that any moment Yue would turn into some sort of tentacle monster.

But that had not happened, and the feeling of Yue's kisses on her lips, on her breasts, on her stomach and down there had robbed Nodoka of any will to resist. Three little fingers entered her, and a thumb rubbed her precious pearl even as a tongue delicately licked it. She had been sure that someone would think she was dying when she screamed her release to the heavens.

"Where did you learn to do that?" she asked Yue when she could speak again.

"I read a book," Yue answered, bluntly, sweetly, unmistakably the girl with whom she wanted to share Negi-sensei forever. And so Nodoka repaid the tribute that Yue had paid to her body in kind, though she was sure that nothing she could do to the other girl could possibly give her as much pleasure as she'd just been given. But Yue's cries had indicated that she at least found it somewhat fulfilling.

Face to face, stomach to stomach, vulva to vulva, they'd ground together, as though trying to become one person, caring nothing for anything beyond the walls of their room, only each other. If the world had ended that instant, Nodoka would have died content.

But it didn't. And the next morning, as the sun streamed in through the same window that had admitted the cool light of the moon, she awoke to find herself alone, with a note on the bedside table.

Nodoka, it read - not Dearest Nodoka, not My Darling Nodoka, just her name and nothing else - I cannot go with you and the others to Mahora. I have responsibilities in Mundus Magicus, at Ariadne. I swore an oath. I will not break it.

You cannot come with me, either. You have a life in Mundus Vetus. I do not, anymore. That life is lost to me. What we had last night must be our forever. I will think of you often. Hate me if you have to. I do love you.

Yue Farandole.

She had never imagined a simple name could cause her to weep so. The others, when they learned that Yue had gone back to Mundus Magicus with the others, had thought Nodoka was weeping for the loss of her friend. Only Haruna, perhaps, had suspected the truth, and if she had, then for once she showed compassion by not pressing for for the sordid details.

Two weeks had passed, and misery still gripped her. The rain today was a perfect echo to the pain in her heart. But she was determined to move past her misery.

"Nodoka-san?" Negi asked from where he had walked up beside her without her realizing it.

Unfortunately, one of the things on the other side of misery is farce. Nodoka yelped in surprise, and the papers on the desk went everywhere, most fluttering to the floor. Seeing hours of work go helplessly out of order, she let out a groan.

Chamo opened an eye, muttered, "And the circus begins again," then stretched and got up.

"Sorry, sorry!" Negi said, obviously embarassed as he got down on his knees and started to gather up the papers. "I should have realized you were deep in your work."

"No, no," Nodoka quickly denied as she slid off the chair and also started to pick up paper. "I shouldn't have let myself get so wrapped up in it that I lost awareness of my surroundings." Oh, please, sensei, don't look too closely at what I've been researching.

He was giving some of the pages an odd gaze while crawling around on the floor. Not looking where he was going, he almost bumped face first into Nodoka's rear end. Recent events had given him a greater appreciation for the female form, and he found said rear end very tempting. Aware of the fact that Chamo was watching, however, Negi managed to stop himself from doing anything odd to Nodoka in time, and so he just coughed, alerting her to the fact that he was behind her, and handed her the pile of papers that he'd gathered. The situation had managed to completely distract him from what he'd read.

"So, how are you, Nodoka-san?" he asked, returning her smile of thanks. "I know that you're probably missing Yue-san a lot."

Her smile didn't fade even as it became a lie. No, you don't know, you only think you know. "Thank you for worrying, sensei, but I'm determined to move past the sorrow. That's what you'd do, after all."

He blushed. "Well, I can't say much to that. I'm glad you're feeling better, though. Has Chamo-kun been good company while this has been happening? I'm sure that he appreciates having a way to get away from okaasama."

"Aniki! I am not afraid of your mother!" Chamo protested loudly.

Nodoka and Negi both gave him a dubious look.

"I have a healthy respect for her that I express through avoidance," Chamo insisted.

"He's fine, he's been very quiet while I've been working," Nodoka assured her teacher as she got up. "That's the best company you can ever give someone while they're deep in study."

"Oh, good," Negi said as he also got up. "Well, you probably want to get back to work, so I'll -"

"Sensei," Nodoka interrupted. "There's one thing I need to tell you, before you go."

She had his immediate and total attention. "Yes, Nodoka-san?"

Deep breath. Don't panic. "Sensei ... I loved you."

He blinked, almost stepped back as if struck. "Wait ... what? You ... past tense?"

"Yes. I still ... you're a wonderful person, Sensei ... but I understand now. It wouldn't be right for me to ask you for an reply to my confession, now. Because there's a person that you care about, isn't there? Someone who's more than just a follower, someone who'll keep up with you, even challenge you, be happy with you, pick you up when you're sad, let you pick them up when they are ... someone who matches you better than I could. You should be with that person, not me. And I'm happy that you have someone like that, even if it isn't me." She smiled, sweetly but sadly.

"Nodoka-san," Negi breathed in amazement. "That's ... that's ... thank you, Nodoka-san."

She kept on smiling, even though her heart ached. Chisame, you evil bitch, you had better be good to my Negi-sensei, she thought. Aloud, she said, "And when I say you ought to be with that person, I mean, you ought to be with them, right now." Impusively, she hugged the small teacher, but let go before the urge to hold on became too strong for her to resist.

Dazedly, he nodded. "You're a wonderful person, too, Nodoka-san," he said. He turned and walked away. She watched him go, loving each step that he took.

"Okay, jouchan," said Chamo once Negi was well out of earshot. "What's the deal here? I can tell you're still crazy in love with aniki, so why the dumpage?" He lit up a cigarette.

"No smoking in the library," Nodoka replied, taking the tube out of his hands and crushing it before he could even inhale. "And I made a promise to Yue, that we'd compete fairly for Negi-sensei. If she's not here, that's not a fair competition." She started to reorganize her papers.

"Are you crazy? Not a fair competition? Haven't you ever heard -"

"Chamo-kun," she interrupted him before he could say the obvious cliche. "You say that magical ermines can read people's hearts. Have you really taken a close look at mine?"

The ermine blinked, turned round and pulled a scroll out of Nodoka knew not where, rolling it slightly open to consult it. He promptly did a double-take. "Wha?" he said.

"That's right," she said, putting the papers in a red file marked, "Operation Yue" and then carefully sliding the file into a plastic bag to protect it from the rain.

"Oh," said Chamo. "Well. This changes things. Hm. We gots ta get her back."

"Eh?" said Nodoka, pausing as she pulled on her raincoat.

"Reference to a movie you've never seen," Chamo breezily answered. "Trust me, it pertains."

"Oh, well, then. Chamo-kun, what I'm about to do is really very dangerous, so you don't have to come with me for it. This is my personal business, after all, and Negi-sensei wouldn't be happy if I risked his friend's life."

"Ah, come on," the ermine said dismissively as he leaped onto her shoulder. "How dangerous could it possibly be?"

Negi quickly zipped back home, eager to follow Nodoka's advice. Dashing up the stairs, he was surprised to see Asuna coming out of their room, having not changed from the outfit she was wearing when he last saw her. Her expression was one of profound shock.

"Asuna-san!" he said, attracting her attention. Then, considering his words carefully, he asked her. "Has okaasama told you, yet?"

"Yes," she said, hesitantly. "She told me ... she told me quite a bit."

He came forward, close enough to speak to her softly enough so that he wouldn't be overheard. "You're my sister, Asuna-san," he said, willing her to feel the happiness he'd come to feel over the idea.

"Half-sister," Asuna replied uneasily. "And the other half ... is kind of disgusting, don't you think? Negi, doesn't all of this bother you, at all? All the -" She broke off, unable to think of a way to indicate it without actually saying the horrific word.

"Okaasama says, 'When love is mutual -'" Negi began to repeat.

"'- it brings joy, and nothing else matters,'" Asuna concluded. "Yes, she said that to me, too. I'm just not ... I don't ..."

"Asuna-sa- no. Asuna," he said, adressing her without an honorific for the first time. "I love you, Asuna. Do you love me?"

She gazed down at him, remembering everything from the first moment she'd laid eyes on him to the way she'd cried at the thought of losing him last night. "I think so," she said softly. "But ... I don't know about all of this, Negi. I don't know if I can do what she wants me to do." She shook her head, clearly uncertain, and turned to walk down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I don't know that either," she answered.

Negi wanted to call her name, wanted to beg her to come back with him. But okaasama had told him that young girls need their space, and so he bit back the words, and turned to go back into the dormitory room where, he knew, their mother would be waiting.

"I can't believe I actually said 'how dangerous could it possibly be'," Chamo groaned as Nodoka walked through the rain towards the cottage where lived the most dangerous person either of them had ever met.

"I told you that you didn't have to come," she reminded the ermine. "You still don't."

"No, I'll see this through to the bitter end," Chamo said gloomily. "And oh boy, I bet it's gonna be bitter."

Nodoka walked up the steps to the door and knocked firmly on it.

Moments later, it swung forcefully open, revealing an irate looking Evangeline in a white bathrobe. "This had better - oh, for fuck's sake, I told you idiots -"

"Hello, Evangeline Athanasia Entheofushia," Nodoka said in an icy voice. From the right pocket of her raincoat she produced a sharp silver dagger. "Blessings be upon this house," she added, in a tone much like another person might say, 'You feeling lucky, punk?'

"Wha?" said Eva, stumbling back a step. "How did you - oh, you little bitch, get out of my mind, right the hell now!"

"Not happening," Nodoka retorted, stepping through the doorway into the cabin proper. From previous visits, she knew the cottage's layout fairly well. The essential step here was to make sure that she always had a clear line of sight for the bathroom, since that was where Chachamaru would be right now. If she let Chachamaru get behind her, this whole thing was doomed.

"Listen to me carefully, lassie, this is not a game you want to be playing with me," Eva said, a bit of Scotland bleeding into her usually flawless accent, as it sometimes did when she was extremely mad. "You might be able to read my mind, but I don't have to think to fight you. I can rely on instinct."

"But you can't do that and be sure that you won't kill me," Nodoka replied evenly.

The pupils of Eva's eyes were tiny dots. "You are making an unwarranted assumption about my regard for your life and well-being, girl."

"No," she said calmly. "I am not." This part, at least, she was certain about. "Killing me will ruin whatever you have with Negi-sensei. He will find out, and when he does, you will have to choose between killing him or damaging him in ways that you don't want to do. If I'm smart enough to realize this, so are you."

Nodoka clutched the silver dagger tightly. "Solid silver, not silver plating," she informed the vampire. "And I had it blessed by Sister Shakti. It won't kill you, but healing its wounds won't be easy or pleasant. I told her it was for protection against a vampire I ran into in the wilds of Mundus Magicus, but I'm pretty sure she didn't believe me. You're not very popular with a lot of people here on campus."

"Imagine my surprise," said Eva coldly, and with a single burst of will that was too quick for Nodoka's artifact to warn her about, sent one of her invisible puppet strands towards her.

It recoiled from her skin.

Eva blinked. "What? How did - that technique has only one counteragent, and -"

"I read a book," Nodoka said, smiling grimly. She had no idea whether the counteragent would last, so she had to move quickly. "Do I have your attention, yet?"

Eva stared at her, fangs very much apparent. "Oh, yes. You do. You are wading in the shallows of my displeasure, little girl, and -"

"I will swim in the depths of your fury if it will get me what I want," Nodoka snapped, finally letting the anger she was feeling out. "I have decided a goal, and I am working towards it. You supposedly respect that."

"Hey, what the hell?" said Chisame as she stumbled, pulling on a robe much too small for her, out of the bathroom. Nodoka could see a fairly obvious hickey on her neck.

Tramp, thought Nodoka furiously. "I don't want to deal with you right now, Chisame-san, so stay out of this," she said aloud.

Abruptly, Eva held up a hand. "You have a goal. Now I'm curious. Put down the dagger, and we'll talk," she said calmly.

Nodoka looked at the hand, clearly held up in a gesture meaning stop. But why - and then she saw all, and cursed herself for her stupidity. "Chachamaru went out the back door and came in the front, didn't she?"

"Yes I did," said the soft voice of the gynoid behind her.

Nodoka knelt down, set the dagger on the ground, then stood up slowly and kicked it towards one of the walls.

"You have a goal," Eva said, affecting not to have noticed any of this. "May I ask -"

"No," Nodoka answered sharply. "I need three things from you. A powerful memory charm, a way to break any memory charm no matter how powerful, and a secret way of getting into and out of Mundus Magicus other than the main portals. Can you do this?"

Eva stared at her, clearly fascinated ... and then started to laugh. "Oh, wow. You kids are really making me feel my age. You'll destroy your friend's life to restore her to this one, even though she's perfectly happy where she is, simply because you miss her. That's one of the most selfish things I've ever even imagined."

"Wait a minute, what?" interjected Chisame.

"To get Yue back, I will become a demon," Nodoka said quietly. "Can you do this?"

"Would anyone mind if I dropped dead of fear right now?" Chamo murmured.

"Not at all," said Eva, smiling broadly. "And yes, yes, I can do this. And the joy of watching you - sweet, innocent you - descend into utter self-serving cruelty is all the reward I could possibly want, so I'll do it for free."

"Fine," said Nodoka, without even a moment's qualm. "Let's begin."

NEXT: Haruna

[1]Attributed to Merlin.
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Decadent Habits