All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

The door creaked, then slowly opened. Mao, Negi, and Satsuki stepped inside.

Now the memory driven landscape was at night. They were now standing atop a grassy hill, which overlooked a pier of a giant lake. Lying in the center of that lake was a gigantic rock, with numerous talismans on the front. Forest surrounded everything—from that Negi knew they were back in Kyoto, the night Konoka had been kidnapped.

“Oh, this looks pretty ominous~!” Mao hummed. “Almost like a boss fight waiting to happen. Is this when...?”

“It is,” Negi affirmed. “Konoka-san was kidnapped this night, and right now her powers are being forged to summon a high level demon.” He gave a small smile. “Though I imagine now that it would be far less a problem for me now than it was during this time. Though why this particular memory is so strong...”

“I heard all about this memory from Ku Fei and Chao,” Satsuki added. “It seems that it may have been pretty strong. Are you sure she was okay from this incident?”

Negi looked backward, back towards the other end of the forest where he had left Asuna and Setsuna to fight off the demons. “I believe so, she never seemed scared talking about it afterwards,” Negi answered loosely, at first seeing nothing. However, his own memory of seeing them fight, as well as his brief scuffle with Kotarou, echoed back in his mind, and they appeared. “I don't think Konoka-san saw any of this—this memory's reacting to me being here.”

“Huh,” Mao murmured. Most of the people he went venturing with in his own heart never shared any memories with him—with the exception of Beryl, and she was never around during the memories he had with her. “Definitely worth investigating later.” He saw the younger Negi leave his fight with Kotarou and dash away on his staff towards the pier. “C'mon, we're going after your chump form!” He bolted after him.

“Mao-san! Wait!” Negi called out, worried about the security, but his cry fell of deaf ears. He sighed before deciding to follow suit, with Satsuki struggling to keep up.

Down the hill they ran, up until they sat upon the bridge itself. The summoning spell was just about completed, judging by the strong aura radiating from the center of the bridge. The light was so intense, that Negi could barely make out Konoka's form, even if he could hear her gagged whimpering in perfect clarity.

Current Negi and Mao skidded to a stop, observing a then small Fate Averrunicus gazing at the summoner. Negi sighed. “Please be careful. Even in memories, the security might show up.”

“Whatever, they're jokes so far!” Mao callously dismissed Negi's warning. But he immediately shifted into a more neutral tone. “But I don't see any signs of tampering yet.”

Negi looked onward at the captive, worry over his features, but detecting something was off a moment later.

“Are we done yet?” Memory Fate asked, silencing the observers for a moment.

A turn of the head from Konoka's kidnapper. Current Negi frowned at Chigusa Amagasaki's face. “Just a bit longer!”

Mao started back—something about this woman was actually familiar. But the recognition faded just as fast as it had appeared, and Negi was none the wiser (nor Satsuki, who had finally caught up, trying to catch her breath).

“I see,” Fate answered, gazing right through them. As the current team wasn't part of the memory, they didn't interfere with it. “He's coming.”

“What?!” Chigusa gasped.

“Continue the ritual, I'll handle this,” Fate turned, and so did the others, seeing the Memory Negi sail over the lake and charge towards them.

Negi watched with just a hint of pride on his smaller self aiming his punch, and seeing how he had not only trashed Fate's familiar, but had pulled a surprise attack on him outright. Thick mist obscured most of their vision, though Negi knew what was going on, as he pointed out where Fate and the others were at the time. Satsuki looked awestruck—she knew of Negi's prowess, but seeing the beginnings of it up close had been something different entirely. Mao looked annoyed, but Negi then said, “At the time, I wasn't strong enough to take Fate head on. I had to have a strategy to get Konoka-san out of there. But then...”

Memory Negi pushed forward to claim Konoka, but alas the captive was not there. From beyond the white light, something large and dangerous emerged.

Even now, despite all of his power, Negi still gaped in horrified awe at the giant beast. The white demon had four arms, spikes on his shoulders, and huge muscles. His upper two arms were flexed in the sky. Though it wasn't apparent from where they stood, a second face was on the back of its head.

Mao gaped. “He's huge! Almost as big as my dad was!”

“I told you he was huge...” Negi blinked at that. “Wait. Your dad?”

“That's a story for later!” Mao snapped as he pointed to memory Negi. In a desperation ploy, the child twisted his body and gathered magical power. Memory Negi chanted a massive unlock spell.

“I don't regret a thing—everything turned out all right,” Current Negi simply stood right next to his memory form, drawing the same power. “But I wonder how it would have turned out if I were stronger?” He calmly aimed an index finger, in line with his memory form's hands.

Together with his memory form he shouted “Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!” A whirlwind of wind and lighting shot from his hands, tearing towards the giant god in a desperate attempt to smash him.

And then, much to his surprise, the great demon god Sukuna flinched.

“That... wasn't supposed to happen,” Negi said, blinking as if he had just pressed a self destruct button by accident.

There was laughter echoing from the sky, and the three looked up to see Chigusa laughing. “Hohoho is that all you've got, son of the Thousand Master?” And floating in front of her, of course, was Konoka. Only this time, magical binds had ensnared her, instead of the forgotten sheet. Said binds trapped her hands at her sides, her ankles together—far more elaborate than what Negi remembered. But it got worse—Negi paled as Chigusa then spoke something completely unexpected. “Surely you can do more! Begone from Konoka-ojou-sama's memories. And take Satsuki-chan and that sniveling nerd with you.”

And then Sukuna roared. Memory Negi and memory Fate disappeared, as Sukuna aimed one of its mighty fists and smashed Negi in the face. The helpless hero sailed out past Mao and Satsuki, the latter who gasped as Negi crashed on the edge of the pier.

The auditorium was filled to maximum capacity, and the teachers at charge weren't allowing anyone else in. But all of Class 2... excuse us, Class 3-A had made it in time, spurred by Ayaka to take most of the front rows.

The Narutakis yawned almost non stop, complaining about being waken up too early, with Fuuka taking occasional brief naps resting her chin on Fumika's shoulder. Evangeline had a completely terrifying flat expression, as if daring anyone to try and talk to her and regret it. Next to her, Chachamaru simply sat in perfect silence and stillness, as only a non-breathing robot could do.

Yuuna sat a bit apart from the others, next to her father, whispering a few things at him as he nodded and sighed patiently. Satsuki, Chao and Hakase all chatted amiably, with Chisame sitting next to the later, looking awkward and expectant. Asuna and Konoka chattered amongst themselves as well.

Other classes were more sparsely represented. The formerly High School 1-E, now 2-E's infamous S.O.S. Brigade was in full attendance, along with their more or less frequent partner in crime Tsuruya-san, the Academy's sixth wealthiest student. Class 2-F, now 3-F, was almost fully there as well, except, naturally, for poor Komori Kiri, although she certainly prefered it that way.

But the 16 years old boy with the spikey orange hair sitting at the back of the hall had no eyes for any of them. He only could look in thoughtful, distracted silence at a single person, drinking on her beauty, sunk into a depressed silence for far too long before exhaling softly, allowing his frustration to come out.

"Sigh..."

The short, 12 years old brown haired girl sitting at his left elbowed him. "Rito."

"Huh?" he blinked out of his dreamy stupor. "Hm? What's up, Mikan?"

"The Dean already started," his little sister whispered. "At least pretend you're listening to him."

The 15 years old redhead with short hair sitting at Rito's other side grunted while still keeping her eyes locked on her cellphone. "Why? As if he's saying anything of any interest."

"How could you know, Nao?" Mikan hissed, her voice still very low but tense. "I'll bet you haven't heard a single word out of it..."

"Yadda yadda yadda, kid genius this, kid genius that," Yuuki Nao waved a hand at her cousins without even looking at them. "Whatever!"

As a matter of fact, Konoemon was, indeed, talking about Negi-sensei as the young teacher blushed and kept his head low at the center of the stage.

"—And so, we wish to congratulate Negi Springfield-sensei, who, since this coming academic year, will be working as a full time English teacher, and also as the homeroom guide for Middle School Class 3-A..."

Negi fidgeted bashfully, showing his age clearly, as the attendants stood up and clapped. He saw the pride on his students' faces, from Ayaka's nearly tearful one to Chisame's reluctantly but evidently warm contentment; from Makie's unbound glee to Yue's restrained, stoic approval. Never before, not even at his own graduation, he had felt more accomplished. Even Itoshiki looked at him with some sort of almost paternal respect.

"I heard the Dean's so happy with the results he's gonna bring another kiddy teacher this year," Yukari whispered to Nyamo. "Some brat just graduated from the M.I.T., one Miyamoto Rebecca..."

"Where did you hear that nonsense?" Nyamo scowled.

The girl Rito had been looking at clapped louder than anyone else, always trying to be the most vocal about her almost unending bouts of energetic joy. Again, he stared at her, hypnotized by her beauty.

Saotome Haruna.

Always so gorgeous, every time I look at her.

Her sweet laughter...

Haruna's rampant rambunctious laughter echoed through the auditorium, despite her two closest friends' attempts to tone it down a bit.

Her long, silky black hair. Her gentle, feminine manners...

Haruna had taken Yue and Nodoka under an arm each, still laughing like a hyperactive hyena, now pressing them against herself until Ayaka finally managed to hush her down and make her sit down.

She's simply the best...

"Rito..." his sister was whispering at him again.

I've decided it. I won't wait any longer. Who knows if she could get herself someone else at her class trip? She seems to like her teacher. I... I can't just keep on looking at her...

"Rito, pay attention at the speech..." Mikan insisted.

I'll do it today! I'm going to confess my love to her!

"Ri-to!" Mikan pinched him in an arm. And then Nao as well for good measure. "And you too!"

They yelped in pain, to be promptly hushed by the nearby attendants. The little girl shook her head in shame. "Why does my own family does this to me?"

"Excuse me, who was the one who pinched who?" Nao asked angrily, rubbing her arm.

Rito had forgotten the ache already. He was too busy running the schematics of a love letter in his head.