All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

The Next Day

"So, she was brought here by Chachamaru-san with these injuries?" Ornstein asked. The faculty nurse nodded.

"She was identified with a twisted ankle and a long shallow cut down her shin. Aside from that the best we could come up with was a run through the forest and exhaustion."

Ornstein grunted. "Very well. I will watch over Sasaki-san for now. You may go." The nurse bowed and departed. Ornstein sighed. "Springfield is going to lose his mind over this." He muttered, pinching his nose.

Meanwhile...

"Finally we're starting the new term," Asuna said, "third-year lunches, here we come!"

"Don't you think that's a little shallow Asuna-san?" Konoka asked, "After all, aren't you ignoring the fact we get to be taught by Negi-sensei again?"

"Un." Negi grunted in agreement. The last year may have had some hiccups, but this year he'd prove himself as a teacher. "Don't worry, this year I'll be the best teacher you can—umf!" The train lurched to a stop, throwing Negi right into Konoka's breasts.

"Oh my Negi-kun! Still so forward!" Konoka said teasing. Asuna just gave Negi a dirty look. Konoka then paused. "Oh, that reminds me. Is it really okay for you to not be looking for a partner Negi-kun?"

"Eh, a partner?" Negi asked. "Of course Konoka-san. I'm far too young to be getting a partner yet! I'll just focus on being a teacher for na-aa-ah...ACHOO!"

A blast of wind rushed through the train flipping every skirt to reveal every girl's panties. While Konoka took it as just a random breeze, Asuna just gave Negi an even dirtier look.

"You'd better cut that crap from happening brat." She muttered through clenched teeth. Negi promised not to try anymore when the PA system announced they'd arrived on campus. "Oh, that's our cue!" Asuna said getting ready to make a breakthrough.

"Don't fall behind Negi-kun!" Konoka cried.

It was a struggle and a half to catch up with the duo, but Negi eventually managed to keep enough pace from getting trampled and reached the classroom.

"3rd Year Class A Negi-Sensei!" The class cheered as Springfield entered with a dignified blush.

"Ah, thank you all for having me! As you know I am Negi Springfield, and I'll be your homeroom teacher until March of next year. I'm sure it will be a pleasure teaching you all!" He said, to which the class answered with a cry of "Please look after us Negi-sensei!"

Negi looked around and saw the diversity within his class. As he pondered if he'd get to know them all, he felt an oppressive, almost malevolent gaze focused on him. He followed the feeling until he looked at a girl with bright blue eyes, large blonde hair,and the most petite body, almost as short as the Narutaki twins. Yet she didn't even look concerned with him. Was she thinking of something else? Negi looked over the class roster.

Evangeline A.K. McDowell? Takahata-san said to talk to her when she looks troubled? I wonder what he means. At that moment Miss Shizuna entered with an announcement.

"Negi-kun! I wanted to come remind you today is the regular physical checkups!" She said smiling.

"Oh that's right! Wait, it's here?" Negi asked flabbergasted. Shizuna just answered with a nod and that smile.

"Oh, okay everyone, don't panic, but we're having school health checkups! So uh, please be ready to streak—I mean strip—I mean—!" By this point the entire class was fighting so hard against the giggles their cheeks couldn't get redder than the ripest tomatoes.

“Negi-sensei is such a pervert!" One cried.

“Oh my Negi-kun, so shameless!" Another teased. Ayaka had different ideas.

"Of course Sensei! I, lady Ayaka shall gladly do as you—kkuffgha!"

"Not in front of him you shotacon!" Asuna interjected with a falcon kick to Ayaka's side, which provided the perfect cover for Negi to escape the class's teasing.

As the girls began to undress for the checkup, one absence was noticed.

"Hey, has anyone seen Makie-chan? She's not here."

Nodoka muttered something like, "I don't know," and Ku Fei reasoned she'd just slept in. That was when Misa Kakizaki saw a perfect opportunity to scare the little girls into hysterics.

"You know, maybe the Demon of Sakura Lane got her, you know?"

The whole atmosphere went from bright and cheerful to dark and oppressive like a light switch.

"Kakizaki-san you know better than to go spouting those rumors about the case to the younger girls." Ayaka said with a no-nonsense attitude.

"Yeah Kakizaki-san. Evan I have to side with lincho on that one." Asuna said. Kakizaki could feel the oppression from the class who looked at her with a cold collective stare. But the naive little ones persevered, even if they regretted their choices later.

"What demon?"

"What're you talking about?"

"What case?"

"Is it a mystery?"

"Tell us!"

Stuck between the rock of her peers' oppression and the hard place of her younger classmates' curiosity. So she did the only logical thing: tell just enough to leave the imagination to fill in the blanks.

"Well, a few years ago, there were a series of murders that happened all across Mahora campus. Three happened on Sakura Lane, out of five total. The police never found the killer, but all the survivors described the culprit with the same words: Taller than any man, with a goat's head, and huge cleavers."

The younger girls were sent into a shiver so intense you'd think they were in a blizzard, while Fumika, the younger Narutaki sister, was in tears.

"That's not scary Kakizaki-san! That's horrible! Sasaki-san!" Fumika cried.

Certainly sounds like they're having fun. Negi thought from outside. So why can't I shake this ominous feeling?

"Sensei! Sensei!"

Negi looked down the hallway to see Ako Izumi running towards him in her gym uniform and very much worse for wear, gulping down breaths as she came to a stop before Negi.

"Ma-Makie-cleaver-and-"

"Izumi-san! Breathe! You, you need to breathe or I won't understand!" Negi said a bit worried. Ako paused, took a deep breath, and let it all out:

"MakiewasattackedbytheSakuraLaneDemonbutescapedandisintheinfirmaryrightnowandOrnsteiniswatchingoverherandhetoldmetobringyouthere!"

There was a deep, pregnant pause. And then the entire class of 3-A slid open the door, clad only in their undies, and exclaimed the same thing:

"Eh?!"

The rainstorm that had been hitting Mahora had extended itself across the whole area of the Four Schools eventually, gigantic black clouds spreading southward until they reached Mahora. By the time Negi's Ala Alba left Evangeline's cabin after another subjectve day and objective hour of stay there, Chachamaru had to distribute spare umbrellas among them again.

And once again, Eva had complained, grunting about why they wouldn't start bringing their own umbrellas already, and harshly reminding them she wanted them back— the umbrellas, not necessarily the teammates— back tomorrow in as good a shape as she'd handed them over. If not better. But that was behind them now, as were Eva's cabin itself and its inhabitants, as they now were about to reach the female dormitories.

Rito and Lala still hung with them, since their house was further down the campus, and so, other than the members who were currently out of town, it was a full membership of Ala Alba who ran across of—

"Emiya-san?"

The boy was not one Negi was familiar with, but he'd made a point of learning the names and faces of as many students all across the schools as he could, and he'd remember this one well because of his last name, and what it meant for the whole magical community.

"Negi-sensei?" the taller, older redhead asked back, squinting at him and his companions through the heavy curtain of constantly falling icy water. Since he had no umbrella on him at the time, he'd resorted to shielding himself under a newspaper he was holding over his head, but that newspaper was by now reduced to a sopping, limp mess of paper slowly breaking apart between his fingers. "What are you doing out under this rain?"

He was not alone, Negi realized, for other than Tohsaka Rin-san, who hung close to him (her Servant currently invisible and herself well protected by an umbrella of her own, since she was far more of a preparations person than Shirou ever was) there was another female standing closely behind the young man. One mostly wrapped in a concealing, gray long overcoat, with a blue baseball hat obscuring most of her features. The rain did not seem to be bothering her at all, as she just stood there making no effort to protect herself from it.

Truth be told, so much of her was hidden from sight Negi himself, months ago, wouldn't have been able to tell at first if that person happened to be male or female. But close constant contact with large numbers of females had sharpened such perceptions of his more than he'd care to admit or even acknowledge.

Rito, who also was far more familiar with the secrets of female flesh of late through repeated close exposure, knew it immediately as well, and so took a cautious step back, wanting to lessen the chances of slipping on a puddle and landing on that stranger or that famous Sempai with the twintails as much as he could.

The woman with the delicate, beautiful half obscured features kept on looking sharply, emotionless, at them with her piercing green eyes while Emiya Shirou answered apologetically. She seemed to be analyzing each one of them in much the same way Setsuna would do to incoming large groups of strangers while walking down the street. "Oh, yeah, that, this must look kinda strange for you, right? Sorry, um, we were... at the church right now."

"The church, right," Misa chuckled secretively, leaning closer to Madoka and Sakurako. "Like that excuse ever works."

"The church?" Negi blinked. "You mean—"

Misora, meanwhile, frowned at the trio of older teens. She was vaguely familiar with Tohsaka, she'd often visit Father Kirei and they'd have lots of secret reunions just the two of them, but that only made her dislike that Sempai. If her suspicions were right, she was sleeping on the side with Father Kirei, who was supposed to be her tutor or something like that, and seriously, who could ever trust anybody with tastes that bad?

"The Mary Magdalene, yeah," Emiya admitted to the boy everyone in campus knew. He was supposed to be a genius, so in turn Shirou supposed it was no shock he not only would recognize him as well but would know he was no Catholic, judging from his confused tone. "It's a long story, but ... oh, oh, my manners!" He seemed all too happy to change the subject while gesturing toward the silent woman. "I think you already know Tohsaka," this was confirmed by a dry nod from both Rin and Negi, "and this is, well, a friend of mine, a new friend—"

Then he seemed to get stuck again, as if at a loss to announce his alleged friend's name.

"Saber," she said, flat and calculated, studying Negi's presence carefully. "You may call me Saber. Pleased to meet you, Professor. I have heard of you."

Tohsaka had been, after all, generous enough as to even give her a quick crash course on the local notables.

Then it struck Negi, and from the faint muted gasps behind him, he guessed Ayaka, Chisame and Haruna. at least, had made the connection as well. Saber. That name. Now he knew why she'd seemed vaguely familiar to him. The memories of Kuro-san's exposition during the trip to Kyoto came back to him, triggering all sorts of alarm signs. Kuro-san had hinted at Emiya-san being her sibling back at her own world. And then, nights after that, Illyasviel von Einzbern herself had introduced herself to Negi, and said—

"Negi-sensei, are you okay?" Emiya-san asked him, now sounding even more worried, and Negi cursed himself inwardly. Control, he urged himself, taking a hand to his lower face. Now more than ever, you need control. This must be what Kuro-san was preparing you for. Rise to the challenge, then. Don't let it show. Your fear. Your—

He nodded mechanically. "Y-Yes. Sorry, Emiya-san. I just happened to have... a slight spell of sorts. I mean, I, I had a lot of physical exercise today, and I was a bit dizzy, but that's alright, we'll just head back home and—"

Then there was a slight, soft giggle he knew all too well, despite hearing it only once before. But it had left a lasting mark on his memory, and so Negi clenched his teeth, while Saber-san grew alert, her hand as if gesturing for something at her side. Emiya-san also looked in the direction the tiny, cute giggle had come from, down the deserted street, into the growing shadows of the stormy day.

Then the ground beneath their feet seemed to shake ever so lightly, first once, then twice, as a gigantic shape lurching in the distance, slowly heading towards them, became visible, with a much smaller figure sitting atop it. Negi's blood froze in his veins. Misa frowned and then squinted as much as possible, since the smaller shape seemed oddly familiar to her for some reason.

"Shirou. Behind me," Saber-san curtly said, but Emiya was as paralyzed as Negi was at the time, although from perplexity rather than dread.

"I had been waiting for this moment, and it was about time!" the tiny, pale person sitting atop the muscular, shirtless giant with grayish skin and red eyes that almost seemed to glow said, loud and clear. Neither of them seemed upset in the slightest by the intense rain either. "For my two brothers to be together, so I could introduce myself properly! Good afternoon, Shirou-kun and Negi-kun!"

She tilted ahead just a bit, perfect, tiny white teeth glinting or at least giving the illusion of it, her diminutive hands wrangled into the thick, messy black locks of her ride's long hair. Violet eyes feasting on the sights before her. Anticipating what there was to come.

"Your big sister's here," she said. "Your Illya-chan!"

"Ah!" Misa cried, pointing and rushing back in shocked recognition. "White Kuro!!"

Rito blinked. "White Black?" he dubiously repeated. And Rin groaned to herself. Another lame Japanese wordplay gag that wouldn't work half as well in English anyway!

The man was truly gigantic, a mass of grotesque muscle wielding a mass that seemed to be easily twice as big as Illya herself. Chisame guessed that had to be her Servant, although he did not look at all like the Dark Knight Kuro had spoken about while mentioning her 'sister's' Servant. Still, he definitely gave a matching sense of threat and undiluted power, and even the often stupidly brave Negi could not blame Emiya-san for freezing in place where he stood, one of his hands tightly wrapped around one of Saber's wrists.

Misa still seemed far more afraid of the 'White Kuro' than of him, regardless.

While Tohsaka cursed under her breath and swiftly shook some gems out of her sleeves, expertly rolling them down between her fingers, the blond woman simply stood defiantly, in an expert stance and as if holding some manner of invisible or imaginary weapon between her hands. With a mere shrug, she had allowed the long coat drop off herself, revealing a long regal blue dress with armored plates all over it, plus heavy, thick gloves of matching armor.

It hardly looked like the most comfortable outfit to fight in, Negi dimly realized before his full attention returned to Illyasviel, who had shifted around so she sat cross legged on a shoulder of the giant.

"Illya-san," the younger boy said. "Why are you here? It can't be to hurt me, since otherwise you'd have done it the first time we met..."

"Do you know her?" Saber coolly asked him, her eyes still fixed on the titan who fumed at her like a mad bull waiting to be released.

Negi had to nod slowly. "Not too much, but yes... We have crossed paths once before. But—"

"That's not all, I also happened to meet your little girlfriend back at London," Illya mischievously said, eyes narrowing and smirk growing. "Spirited young lady, I actually liked her a lot! Better make sure she won't ever become your grieving widow!"

"Girlfriend?" Ayaka coldly asked, her hand briefly stopping in the task of pulling her Pactio card out. "Widow?!"

"Anya?" Negi gasped, his hand reaching for his staff without even fully realizing it. "You... You didn't do anything to Anya, did you?"

"Why is she the first girl to come to your mind when someone talks about your girlfriend?" Misora questioned.

"How many other people does he know who live at London, dumbass?" Chisame sizzled at her. "Seriously, do you think this really is the moment to be thinking of that crap?!"

"I said I liked her, didn't I?" the tiny albino asked back, smirk dissolving. "As for you, I won't make such promises just yet. First I have to see if you're indeed a worthy brother of mine. I can tell, however, someone else isn't."

"Wow," Makie blinked. "So that's your little sis, Negi-kun? I like her, she's cute! The added edge only makes her cuter!"

"She is n—" Negi began, then bit his tongue as it clearly was unwise to provoke the obvious prodigy Magus with a Servant at her beck and call. "Illya-san, please listen, let's be reasonable here, I'm not sure what have you heard about us, but—"

Illya's gaze drifted towards Shirou, who was coming back to himself enough as to now try and pull Saber back with himself, and completely fail at doing so. "Although," the small girl added, completely ignoring Negi now, "I wasn't expecting for this boy to be able to summon a Servant himself, and of the Saber class, no less. I see Father might have been able to teach him something after all. Well," she said, leaping down to land on her booted feet on the sidewalk, scaring Misa further, and then pulling the edges of the skirt up a bit, enough as to properly accompany her subtle bowing in a cutesy curtsy, "now we'll see exactly how much! Berserker! Kill that ugly Servant!"

Then there was a roar, not unlike that of a huge beast from long gone eras, something that might have haunted the nightmares of the first men and women in a young world, something that chilled Negi, Keiichi, Rito and Shirou to their very cores, and made Madoka, Misora, Sora and Ai shriek while covering their ears.

And then, in a blink, before any of them could truly react past the primal dread or awe that roar ellicted from them, the massive titan was charging at them with incredible speed, so fast as a matter of fact only one of them could react to it. That was Saber, who similarly charged ahead, leaving Emiya's hand suddenly holding nothing but air, and ducking under the first mace swing of the colossus, striking with her invisible or imaginary (Negi dearly hoped for the former) blade at the muscular midsection of the Berserker.

And Negi could literally feel the shockwaves of the clash making the ground rattle under his feet. He hadn't seen such display of power since Kyoto; even the mountain of a man known only as Walter who had fought Kotaro recently seemed to be nothing compared to the raw aura of power literally emanating from this behemoth, who didn't even flinch at the obviously also very powerful direct attack Saber had directed at his granitic body.

Instead of expressing any pain or being set back at all, the Berserker simply swatted Saber aside like a fly, sending her crashing against a wall.

"SABER!" Shirou cried, trying to rush for her, before Negi, still mostly reacting instinctively, held him from behind, pulling him back before the taller young man could advance.

"Oh crap!" Rin further backed away on agile legs, readying her magic and commanding Vigilante in a whisper to hold himself back just yet. She suspected his apparition at the middle of this particular situation could only cause more chaos and worsen things, rather than actually helping any. She could hear his faint growl of frustration, but he obviously didn't dare disobeying her yet, since one moment after the puff of purple smoke still failed to manifest itself.

Negi steeled himself, breathing as deeply as he could. He could feel the nervous gazes of his team, all on him, as they tensely waited for his rection, their cue of what to do. Well, all but Lala-san, who only stared in wide eyed fascination at Berserker's display of raw power, no doubt scheming to end up studying him under a microscope eventually. And maybe even literally to boot.

So. That was what leadership truly felt like. He wasn't all too sure to like that feeling just yet. It was very different, despite the surface similarities, to what he felt in his comfortable role as a teacher.

For all he knew, he would be very outmatched here, in this conflict between legendary heroes whose recognition dwarfed even that of his father. As for his team, they didn't have Setsuna, Asuna and Haruka, their strongest hitters, or Konoka, their healer, and they were too far to be summoned, not that he wanted to endanger them as well in the first place anyway.

Still, he couldn't just stand back and simply let that happen as he did nothing but watching.

"Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister..." he began to softly chant under his breath...

"Bure bure bure bure..." Itoshiki joined him, since after all he could recognize a golden chance to die whenever he saw it.

Negi's impressive ability for self delusion and denial should piss off Illya enough that she might actually spank him like a big sister should. Metaphorically speaking, obviously - a paddlin' works much better in most cases.

Mahora School Infirmary

"So you've finally come. I'd thought you'd be here sooner Springfield."

"My apologies Ornstein-san. But I wasn't aware of my student's condition until recently." Ornstein just nodded his head.

"Though I must ask—Why are you allowing those girls of yours in here as well?" He asked with a twitchy eyebrow as the girls collectively shrunk back from the doorway.

"Eh, well you see...they're my students! Yes! And they deserve to know the state of their classmate!" Negi answered hastily with a sweaty brow. Ornstein just stared at the boy and finally shrugged.

"Very well, it's your class." He said. He leaned in and whispered in Negi's ear. "If you want my counsel, I'd have those girls travel in pairs for the next week. Just for caution's sake." He finished, and stepped out of the room. Negi looked back at Makie. If Sasaki-san had been alone, perhaps it would be sensible to make his students pair up.

Ornstein stepped out of the infirmary and began mentally checking off the different reactions of the students as he made his way down the hall. The truth about the Demon of Sakura Lane was actually worse than the rumors had thought. The school only identified five victims as students, while another five were John Does. And the victims had only been ID'ed through their DNA: the bodies had been torn apart like paper mache, cut into slices like a cow's ribs and picked clean of everything but the bony marrow. Those who had escaped likely hadn't been the killer's target.

He passed Setsuna as he thought of the suspects. She glared at him with sharp black eyes. Ornstein just allowed the smallest smirk to show on his lips. She hadn't done the crime, her pride wouldn't allow such an atrocity. Not to mention how Konoe would've reacted if she had done it and was found out. When he came to Mana she was looking out the window with a cold stare in her eyes. He paused, opened his senses, and nearly jumped out of his skin. Mana's soul was roaring with cold fury, a caliber of anger only a war-torn soldier could focus so intensely.

What happened to this half-demon to focus such anger at her age? Ornstein thought as he withdrew his senses.

"Everything alright, Tatsumiya-san?" He said breaking Mana from her reverie.

"Hm? Oh, sorry Ornstein-san. I was just looking over the streets. They're quite beautiful, right?"

"Indeed. But shouldn't you be more concerned with Sasaki-san's condition? The culprit might attack later."

"Then I'll be ready to take care of them. If you're offering me payment for my services, of course."

So, a half-demon mercenary? Ornstein thought. Maybe he could come to trust one of these demons if their allegiances laid with the coin.

"No, but I'll keep it in mind. As you were," He said dismissively. Finally he came to Zazie. Her face alone told him she was disgusted by this event. Her eyes were focused and hard, trying to hide the clenched molars behind her closed lips and the stone cold atmosphere she seemed to exhume around her body, with white faced blobs flickering in and out of perception. Zazie wasn't guilty. Zazie was angry. Ornstein put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him.

"There will be retribution for this demon. I promise you that." Zazie closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh of relief.

["You really are a good person, Stein-san."]

Ornstein had no answer to her statement, but he kept that to himself as he walked off. The demon's kindness had caught him off guard. What was wrong with him? He headed back to the office and sat in his chair to think. Then it came to him: Evangeline's automaton had been the one to bring Sasaki to the hospital. Plus it seemed odd Eva was unphased by the news from what he'd heard from the other girls when he passed them. Could Tatsumiya act as a spy for him? Maybe, but he wasn't ready to trust her that much yet. He leaned back in his chair. It was pointless running around in circles of 'what if' and 'maybe.' If he wanted answers, Ornstein would go to the best source he could think of: Evangeline herself.

Consultant.

"What are you guys doing now?" Kotaro asked, since he had nothing better to do at the time, carelessly munching on a rice cookie while approaching the table. Sitting around it, Harumi-neesan and her group of new weirdo friends— the stuck up bitch with the Imouto complex, the tiny twerp with blong twintails, the hapless airhead with the skull shaped ornament on her head and her brother the probably gay obsessive player— were picking their collective sorry brains out, trying to figure something out.

"Nothing," Harumi-neesan grunted, with both hands on her head as they flipped through several pictures of an unassuming, shy looking girl with short hair. "This is a grownup matter, Kotaro-kun. Go away, I don't know, bother Negi-sensei or something."

Kotaro grunted, realizing the collection of weirdos were obviously gathering and studying data on that poor girl, whoever she was. "Are you guys in the business of stalking girls? You're the worst," coldly said the boy who hadn't blinked when offered a job helping kidnap a rich heiress. In all fairness, he probably wouldn't have agreed had he been asked now. Probably.

"It's not stalking, it's—" the very frustrated tiny blonde of the group had started to say before shaking her head. "Ahh, what do you care?"

"DEEP LOVE?" Kotaro smirked insolently.

Mio stared angrily at Harumi. "Fujiyoshi-san, if your brother won't stay quiet, then just kick him out already!"

"Not my brother, Abiru's," Harumi washed her hands off with a snort. "Wait 'til she gets back from the zoo."

"No, seriously," Kotaro insisted. "What's your business with this poor girlie? She looks like a good person, I think."

The girl with the skull thing on her hair, which at least was better than bells in Kotaro's opinion, smiled awkwardly at him. "She is, that's why we must help her, Otouto-kun. She's a librarian who is very shy, and we're, um, amateur therapists out to help troubled girls with their baggage."

"You," Kotaro said dismissively. "Helping others deal with their psychological issues. Right."

"What are you trying to say with that?" asked the pencil necked geek, still studying frantically their assembled annotations on their target, but obviously already upset enough as to bother addressing the younger boy. "Anyway, you'd never understand how important this is. Not only you're a brat, but also a jock, and thus delicate subjects like this are forever out of your mental reach. So, if you don't have anything useful to—"

"Wait," Harumi blinked, "That is it, maybe he can help us with it!" she smiled, causing her companions stare at her critically. "No, listen me out, he's got an experience with librarians' hearts!"

Kotaro flinched. "Say what?!"

"For real!" Harumi excitedly pitched to the rest of the teenagers. "Even being that young, he's already got a librarian barely any younger than Shiomiya-san head over heels for him! And she's even got the same kind of personality than her! With his help, we got this in the bag!"

"What, what... are you talking about Honya-san?!" Kotaro blushed. "That's bogus, she's only a good friend, don't start bringing her into your freaky pervy schemes!"

"I know what I'm talking about!" Harumi kept on pitching for the blinking Elsie and unconvinced Mio, Keima and Kirino. "I know her, she's a good friend of Paru's! Remember? She faced me at the end of that dodgeball game four months ago, and actually WON! So it's not like she—!"

Kotaro threw his hands up and stomped away. "Ahhhh, you're all insane! I'm out before I catch on your weirdness! I don't know, maybe Negi's doing something worth checkin' out!"

As the door's room slammed closed and Kotaro was heard stomping down the hallway, Harumi smiled pleasantly. "Well, that did it nicely. I wish our job was about manipulating boys instead of girls, that'd make it much easier..."

Kirino hummed, looked back and forth between her and the closed door, and ended up asking her curtly, "Are you sure he's not *your* brother?"