All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

And the smoke burst in all directions, dissipating enough as to show a small figure mysteriously wrapped in a long purple cape and shadowed by a wide brimmed purple hat and mask, under which jutted... an orange duck beak.

There was a silent beat from all those present.

It was Misa who finally broke the silence, talking to Rin. "Okay, Sempai, I take that back. You were right."

Rin nodded at her, even as Vigilante huffed grandly, folding his arms. Itoshiki began gasping slightly, pointing at Vigilante and weakly starting to blabber, "You! You, you, you are..."

Vigilante shot him a piercing 'complete that sentence and I'll do something far worse than killing you', so Nozomu simply gulped and lamely added, "... a duck."

Makie clasped her hands together. "IT'S SO CUTE!"

"Servants aren't supposed to be 'cute'!" Rin protested, since she had no way of knowing about the current Temptress, or Nursery Rhyme, or the Prisma Caster. "Listen, Vigilantes, much like Assassins, are supposed to act better in secrecy, moving in the shadows, and Berserker was the worst possible kind of adversary for him. What was I supposed to do? Have my Servant killed in the first actual battle of the War? I'd have brought eternal shame to the name of my family, and I only fight here to honor Father's legacy!"

"I once took an actual kaiju down, you know," Vigilante said. "Don't misjudge me because of my size, right, boy?" he added, reaching over to pat Negi's head.

Negi blinked. "Um, yes, you're right, no one should judge others based on their physical appearance, but... I'm not that strong either, so I don't know if I'd be the best comparison point..."

"Nonsense, I saw the way you fought back there," Vigilante compliemented him in a vaguely aloof 'think nothing of it' sort of way, "and you held your own remarkably well, in that you weren't bashed down instantly despite getting closer than anyone but Saber. You'd have done well against a weaker enemy."

Negi chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. "Ah, well, thanks, that's high praise indeed, coming from a Legendary Spirit..."

"Well, I've gotta hand it to you, you got yourself a Spirit whose identity nobody could ever learn, Sempai," Chisame told Rin. "I'm trying to think of famous heroes from myth who were ducks, and only drawing blanks."

Kero shrugged from his vantage point on Nodoka's shoulder. "Must be a legendary figure from Mundus Magicus. The humans of this world know next to nothing about the beastmen from that world, although some lore from it will filter through every now and then. Did you guys know Robin Hood was actually a fox?"

"One of them," Rin cautioned, wagging a finger. "It was a collective identity, a legacy passed from one outlaw to another, and not all of them were decent people."

"I'm impressed, I never suspected there'd be so many talking animals," Emiya hummed. "I knew mages turned their criminals into ermines, which I guess is a step up from what magi do to them, but I never imagined there'd be talking ducks, or cats, or plush lions..."

"This is naught but a temporary form," Kero haughtily replied. "Once Nodoka catches all five Element Cards of the Clow, I'll return to my majestic, incredible and powerful true form!"

"Ooooohh, I didn't know that!" Makie said. Then she asked Vigilante, "And how many cards do you need?"

"This is my true form!" the duck protested.

"My court's jester was a rabbit," Saber casually supplied. "Resourceful sneaky creature, as well. Defeated the Black Knight and his dragon to retrieve the Singing Sword for us, all on his own, when all of our knights had failed..."

The rest of them stared at her in silence, trying to make sense of what she'd just said. Since none of them could ever imagine the Knights of the Round failing where a rabbit would succeed, her secret was still safe, just as she had expected, and they mostly assumed she was another historical figure from the World of Magic.

"Anyway, Vigilante-san, could you please get off the table already?" Shirou requested of the duck. "Ladies eat there all the time, you know."

Keiichi and Rito shot him an unamused glare over that remark.

Shirou recoiled at the sudden perceived hostilty. "Wh-What? I only mean Saber, and Fujimura-sensei, and Sakura, who sometimes comes along to help! What kind of weird ideas are you getting now?!"

"To 'help' with what?" Misa evilly smiled. "Hey, Tohsaka-sempai, that Sakura is your little sister, isn't she? Don't you have anything to say about her spending that long at the house of a young man who lives all alone?"

"... Sakura is old enough already to make her own decisions..." Rin coldly said, seeing the bait and refusing to bite any more than strictly necessary. Sailor Venus, in the meanwhile, chewed on her lower lip tensely, her hand reaching over to grasp Mercury's tightly, making Akira slightly roll her eyes around.

"Okay," Negi said, cutting the teasing before it could get any more distracting, "now that's out of the way and we know of Tohsaka-san and Vigilante-san's nature as Master and Servant, we can fully focus on what's truly important here..."

"Your sister?" Satomi asked him.

"... she couldn't possibly be my sister, although yes, she'll need help to get over that..." Negi patiently answered. "But what I mean is what we are going to do about this corrupted Holy Grail matter. I trust, Emiya-san, Tohsaka-san, Saber-san, Vigilante-san, you all are willing to reach a truce at least until we can learn what is truly going on here?"

Shirou nodded. "If I could reach a truce with each Master and Servant, that'd be great with me, actually."

"That'll never happen," Rin sighed, "but yes, I agree it's stupid to fight each other for the sake of a Grail that would only harm us if we get our hands on it. Let's try and get to the bottom of this before deciding on anything else."

"That is a fair, smart course of action," Saber nodded. "I agree."

"Okay," Vigilante said, "and how do we get to learn that in the first place? The Grail is unattainable until the Heaven's Feel ritual is completed. Until that point, there's literally no way we can analyze or study it, to see if it's tainted or not. So what can we do?"

"Actually," Negi said, "we could try and find evidence from the Grail's prior manifestation site."

Emiya turned his face towards him, startled. Chisame grimaced. "With that place, you mean... Oh, what the hell!" she complained. "You can't be seriously suggesting we get past the barriers and into Fuyuki City!"

"I'd never dream of dragging you guys along," Negi said, "i'm just saying I could head there on my own and easily locate at least—"

"BY THIS POINT, YOU'RE JUST USING REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY ON US, AREN'T YOU?!" Chisame accused.