All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

And she found her leg bound with a splint. No need, her ring of regeneration handled bad wounds in a jiffy, but whoever did that probably didn’t know about it. Unless…

She checked her left ear, that’s where she usually kept it. The earring was gone. Damnit, that meant that the broken leg was there to stay. And there was next to no anaesthetic so far from the githyanki legion.

The second thing she noticed was that her clothes had been swapped out for something simpler: A soft green nightgown, which gave her the hope that whoever dressed her for bed was either a woman, or a polite elderly man.

And the room she found herself was made of wood, not stone, with a hearth in the middle and a kitchen in the corner along with a table and enough chairs to hold six people altogether. And then she saw her things by the table.

Nodoka didn’t want to stay cooped up in bed all day, not with her goal in mind, and she still had some power left. She raised her hand and directed it to the table. “Mea virga,” she whispered, focusing on one of her two foci.

With fortune, her ring began to clutter in response and then it flew straight to her hand, planting itself firmly on her index finger. “Yes,” she cheered and with her main telekinetic powers restored, Nodoka called on the rest of her items to come to her. One by one, they came.

First of all, her Pactio card. This was the most important thing to her these days and she took a look to ensure her illusion still held firm.

Ministra Magi

MADIV

Pudica Bibliothecaria

With her true name concealed, she was satisfied and put the card next to her to receive the other items.

“Ah, I see you are awake.”

The voice cut her concentration off and the items fell in a clutter to the floor. It was a middle-aged wide woman in a dark green gown and a white apron, carrying a tray loaded with food and a cup. “Oh, don’t mind me, I just came to see if you were fine.”

“Uh…” was all Nodoka could say in response. “...thanks?”

“You gave the boys quite a shock out there, crashing from the sky,” the woman continued. “Little Bryce shouted his head off thinking you were some kind of sky demon here to tear us apart or something.”

“What.”

“That’s what his father said, too.” The woman put the tray aside for a moment to pick up Nodoka’s things for her. “Then we noticed you had a broken leg.”

Nodoka regained her more talkative ways with that topic. “Yeah, about that… if you’d just left me alone on that, my regeneration ring would have handled that.”

“Oh, you have one of those? Oh dear, didn’t know that.” She put the items down on the table, somewhat to Nodoka’s chagrin. “Come on, you must be hungry.”

“Oh no, I’m not really-”

GROWLL~

“Um… maybe, just one bite…” A very much embarrassed, hungry girl from Japan trapped on another planet in another dimension across the galaxy admitted, much to the older woman’s amusement.

"Don't you ever think of who your ideal woman would be?" Skuld asked him. "Don't you ever, even if faintly, even if fleetingly, dream of the perfect woman?"

Morisato Keiichi shrugged, looking up at the false stars over Evangeline's resort. "That's kind of a wrong thing to do, isn't it? I mean, I guess it's like thinking of that imaginary person as an object, some sort, watchacallit, abstraction? Like, something pulled together from pieces of what you like best from one person and another and so on. I'd have imagined you of all people would be against that, Sku-chan."

"Still," she insisted, "there's no harm on dreaming, on playing pretend, just every once in a while, right? Don't you ever think of that kind of sublime ideal of beauty, grace and kindness? Doesn't she ever show up in dreams that hopefully aren't gross or you'll die? Don't my words bring anything, any sort of memory of someone like that, to you?"

The young man fell into a long contemplative silence before shrugging again. "I'm not that good imagining things. It must be easy for someone like Sku-chan, but I'm just an average guy. No way I could ever imagine someone as perfect as that, the way you're describing her. Much less that I could ever have met someone like her, so I could remember her."

Skuld pouted and looked aside. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

"Huh?"

"Nothing," she muttered.

You were supposed to remember, at least something, at least the vaguest deja vu here and there. Yours was a romance supposed to trascend time, something bigger than ourselves. Belldandy always thought so. This isn't fair to her, either!

"Stupid Keiichi," she kept on mumbling, even more bitterly.

"Eh? What did I do? You're just setting me up, aren't you? If I had told you yes, then you'd have accused me of being a pervert, objetifying women and having torrid dreams about them. Then you'd ask me how big her breasts were, and you'd start sulking on your chest and—"

"Like I'd care what do you think about my chest!" she snapped at him. "At least Urd isn't here, to think I'm basically doing what I always gave her hell for doing. For once I got what I always wanted, and yet now I just can't enjoy it..."

He gave her a perplexed stare. "I swear I just don't understand you, Sku-chan."

"Of course you wouldn't," she sighed, averting her eyes from him once more. She sniffled and rubbed her nose, and then she heard him again.

"I wish I could have dreams as beautiful as yours, anyway. I really do."

So maybe there was some hope for him yet.

"Did you ever meet my mother?" Negi asked.

Headmaster Konoe shook his head. "No, I'm afraid we never crossed paths personally. Eishun was her acquaintance for a long time, however. Didn't you ever ask him about her while you were in Kyoto?"

Negi made a long, awkward pause, then said, "I'll make sure of asking him next time we meet."

"How about my father's wife?" Shirou asked.

"From what I understand, she was raised in seclusion, and I never got to meet her either. Again, Eishun got to know her, however, since he briefly got himself embroiled in the Fuyuki War. That boy's got a real nose for trouble, I tell you, ho ho!"

The old man rasped, then added, "I have crossed paths with her father, the elder of the Einzberns, a few times, however. A... difficult man to deal with. If he educated young Illyasviel, it's no wonder she would be... indisposed towards you."

"I see," Negi pondered. "But, my father would tell you about her while visiting you, wouldn't he?"

"Ah, Nagi was the kind of man who would boast a lot about attracting beautiful women, but would hardly ever admit he'd fallen for one in turn. I mean, it was easy enough to see it whenever he was in love, but he always was reluctant to admit his feelings that openly. He was old fashioned in that way, I honestly don't know if he saw that acceptance as a weakness of sorts or honestly just couldn't convey his feelings in words. Nagi was a harder to read man than it would seem at first sight."

As he let Negi absorb that quietly, Konoe looked at the other boy in his office. "Now, Kiritsugu, I'm sure he'd have been a lot more open on the subject if he hadn't been... hurting so much. I don't think he ever recovered from Irisviel's death at all, but then, I imagine you would know that better than I."

Shirou looked down somberly. "He wouldn't even mention her to me. I just wish I could know what kind of person she was."

"There aren't even graves we can visit," Negi said. "No pictures either, it's almost as if they never existed. It doesn't seem fair, when one thinks about it, and even we carried on with that, never really stopping to think—"

"Arika," Konoemon said softly.

"Eh?" Negi blinked.

"Her name was Arika," he distantly added, reaching over to gently pat his head. "I don't know if the others ever told you that, but I can tell you this much, whenever you see Nagi again, tell him you have carried her name in your heart just as much as his. That is the best gift you'll ever be able to give him."

He looked at Shirou next, and added, "And when you and your sister solve your differences, remember telling her of how you're sure Kiritsugu and Irisviel's spirits will truly be at peace then."

They nodded silently and bowed their heads slightly as thanks.

Still eavesdropping from the outside hall, right by the office's door, Konoka sniffled loudly, wiped their eyes with a handkerchief, and pulled her phone out.

"Hello? Mom? I'm sorry I haven't called for a while..."