All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

"No-one ever hold Chinese Amazon captive against Amazon's will-aru!" Ku grinned, flexing an arm, its toned biceps bulging up slightly.

"Oh gracious goodness, Sensei, no!" Chizuru said. "He's been, as a matter of fact, rather helpful and even saved the lives of Miyazaki-san and Ayase-san. They, along with Mana-san, Negi-sensei's sister, Izumi-san, the twins, Nagase-san, Natsumi, an unconscious librarian, and three Sailor Senshi cosplayers, are holed up at the Tatsumiya shrine, waiting for backup."

It bears explanining Chizuru had not, as a matter of fact, forgotten about Tate or Berserker, but frankly she tended to neglect mentioning men unless necessary.

"What about Yuuna?" Akashi asked eagerly. He'd barely registered the mention about Negi's sister. He supposed it just meant Nagi Springfield's niece had come to visit from Wales, probably for the Festival, but honestly he couldn't care any less right now.

"I'm sorry," Chizuru lowered her head, "but we haven't been able to find her or the rest of the English Research Society. Also, it would seem... um, I don't know how to say this, Sir..."

"Headmaster Konoe frozen alive by frigid witch commanding attack-aru," Ku Fei spoke for her. "Same one who led forces out to kidnap Konoka at Kyoto, too!"

Akashi gasped. "Sextum Averruncus?! Wait, that's classified information, how did you know—"

Baka Yellow grinned, waving a fist. "I there too, of course! Kicked a lot of butt!"

"I... I hadn't been told about this," a mildly taken aback Akashi confessed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Blast it! Without Konoe-sensei, commanding the forces falls on Takahata, then... In the meanwhile, you," he trained his wand on Mickey, "take that hood off and let us see your face. No tricks!"

"Why she not do same thing?" Ku asked, poking a thumb in Caster's direction. "I never seen strange woman dressed like that around before, what's her—"

"Okay, I'll do it," Mickey calmly interrupted Ku's distrustful tirade, grabbing his hood and pulling it back, large round ears popping back into full shape as his mouse head stood completely revealed. "Hi-ya!" he mildly waved. "I hope this isn't too much of a shock, but—"

"So," Mikado said, "Mundus Magicus is involved after all. See? I knew it! No other planet in this galaxy has giant sentient mice as its inhabitants. Apes, hedgehogs, walking sparagus, yes, but mice...?"

"I come from beyond this galaxy, Ma'am," Mickey respectfully said, gesturing towards Chizuru. "That's why I had to recruit the closest expert on this system's stars as to make sense of my current location and the status of this sector. If you would please allow me back into my ship..."

"How," Caster spoke at last, in a controlled and smooth tone, "do we know this is your star-vessel to even begin with?"

Mickey sighed, stretched a hand gloved in white ahead, and shouted, "Meeska! Mooska! Mickey Mouse!"

Instantly, the ship's invisibility shields were dispelled, revealing a Gummi Ship that was much in design like that Negi and company had secured for themselves, but even bigger, a bit less ridiculous looking in overall design, and decorated on its sides by several outlines of Mickey's own head, which detracted points from the whole 'not as ridiculous' percentage, but not enough as to drop the overall range, since any ship given to Donald would always be the silliest looking one in the kingdom.

Ku stared at the Mickey heads on the hull while everybody else but the Mouse himself gasped, then squinted and told the King, "You have terrible large ego, you that know?"

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "That... That was my beloved wife's idea, actually..."

"Ah," Ku Fei understood, "so she an Iinchou, then? My sympathies-aru!"

Chizuru stared angrily at her.

"What?" Ku defended herself. "You know that right! She would even go one step worse! She would paint, not only bouzou's silhouette, but face with all details on, all over ship surface! And add hearts, too!"

"That might be true," Chizuru said, "but still doesn't make it any more polite to say out loud..."

"How interesting," Mikado hummed to herself while looking at the ship's control panel, and the mouse stepped towards them under Akashi's watchful eye. "That is a mental interface-based system, isn't it? As I recall, Princess Lala once told me about showing interest on developing one someday. I'm sure she would love taking a good look at it."

"What do you mean, Sensei?" Caster asked, looking up and down at the metal lined walls, covered with even more mouse emblems. "Is this vessel supposed to move through mental power?"

"Yeah, you're right," Mickey answered, his left hand swiftly traveling over the panel, up and down and back, examining the configuration, "It runs based on the user's emotional spectrum. More specifically, the default pattern is to activate and control flight fueled by joy and happiness, as sending depressed and hopeless soldiers and scouts is normally, well, unwise. That forces us to keep a positive attitude at all times."

"That's... commendable, I suppose," Chizuru quietly praised, then gasped as Mickey deployed a holographic astrological map of the Milky Way, where she noticed several stars were missing, a few of them blinking off every now and then as she spoke. "Oh dear... that isn't happening at this moment, is it? I mean, everybody knows, the light of a stellar body takes at the very least four years to reach Earth, so they just cannot be... they cannot be destroying them right now!"

"The new rumor is, the Heartless have been running amok for a decade now, even if I only learned about it recently," Mickey said as he accessed another subprogram to show Chizuru even more sectors of the galaxy. "Even so, I should've known better, what with happened to Eraqus' students years ago... but I digress, Miss Naba, what are you getting from this?"

"It's... terrible," Chizuru faintly confessed. "If this is actually happening, then whatever force is causing it... I'm not sure there's any power on this world able to stop something like that..."

"No, there's always a way," Mickey shook his head stubbornly before taking a very deep breath in and calling out loud, "Oooooohhh, Toodles!'"

"Toodles?" Caster lifted a fine eyebrow within the hood as the large main screen of the control cabin flashed alive, a pleasant white light filling the room, and a similarly mouse-eared silhouette face appeared floating in the middle of the monitor.

"This is Toodles, my navigator," Mickey introduced the face, which seemed to show them a wide smile. "Tell me, Toodles, can you give me a link to Donald and Goofy's Gummi Ship? I'd like to see if they've found the Master, pal."

"Goofy?" Caster lifted her other eyebrow.

"Can do!" Toodles chirped in an even higher pitched voice, and then showed them a quick succession of images all across every minor screen in the room. "Accessing recent databanks of Donald's Gummi Ship! Trying to find its current location...!"

"Oh dear," Mickey swallowed as he saw what was just being shown to him right now.

"Are those... your friends?" Akashi guessed, as he saw a high speed sequence of a massive cat-man grabbing a much smaller, blonde mouse before laughing at her and rattling her around. Then his throat went as dry as Mickey's, as he also watched a stream of Heartless flowing in after the black humanoid beast, who was hanging the tiny mouse woman from the ceiling while taunting her.

"She... She is, and he used to, but..." Mickey ran a hand down his face, now blanketed on cold sweat. "Oh gosh, he's turned into my worst enemy. If he's got Donald, Goofy and Gadget, there's no way of knowing what— wait!"

The next sequence of events the ship's artificial intelligence was getting from its counterpart's camera records showed several girls working on repairing the damage brought on the ship and even updating on it. "That's Princess Lala," Mikado observed, her interest growing, "and those are Hakase-san, Skuld-san and... wait, who's that man walking in to help them right now? I don't know him from anywhere..."

"Me neither, but..." Akashi gasped. "If they're there, Yuuna can't be far away!"

"More classmates of your daughter?" Mickey asked, speeding up the video feedback as most of what he was getting at the time only showed the girls causing minor explosions while repairing the Gummi's mainframe.

"Yes. One of them's her current roommate, as well," Akashi nodded. "Where are they?! And why are they there in the first place?!"

"Toodles!" Mickey ordered, while the next batch of images showed Negi, Asuna, Skuld and Gadget piloting the ship towards some unknown destination, making Akashi gasp even harder. "Current location of Donald's Gummi Ship!"

"Working on it!" Toodles' synthetized voice squeaked before getting stuck twice, then stuttering with some static, "S-Signal identified, Your Majesty! C-Coming from a minor world in our universe of existence!"

"My baby is is another universe?!" Akashi screamed at the top of his lungs.

Mickey hissed to himself while the screens showed stock footage from the other Gummi's POV, of the travelers approaching the Wonderland planetoid. "Don't tell me they went there... Oboy." He turned back to the others. "Okay, everybody, listen! We might need sendin' someone there to retrieve 'em before it's too late! I'll hold the fort here in the meanwhile, but it's imperative we don't allow—"

Then the whole ship shook violently, making everybody lose footing for a moment, Akashi stumbling forward and managing to land on Mikado and Caster at once. Mickey was less fortunate, falling flat on his face on the set of controls, but he barely had any time to complain while peeling himself back up and rubbing his aching snout.

Ku Fei had just peeked in, looking far more concerned than usual. "Um, guys, everybody?" she asked. "You might wanna take look at this-aruyo? There's something very big heading for temple, past we..."

Not to mention the unbearable stench it emitted, drafting along the landscape, and the continued, loud growls that echoed through the night. Akashi was reminded of the smell from a long unattended animal cage at a zoo, but multipled tenfold, and Chizuru and Ryoko had, as a matter of fact, resorted to covering their noses with their hands.

Ku Fei rolled her eyes once. As a Baka Ranger, she felt somewhat obliged to say the stupidly obvious things around here, darn it, and having a teacher of all people trying to take over that ofended her pride. Still, it wasn't like there was any time to discuss that for now.

"We go help others, then," she decided. "Chizuru, you stay here with Nurse and—"

"No," Mickey said somberly, pulling the hood back on and absently twirling the Keyblade around. "I'll go. You should go help your other friends... and mine instead, please. The fate of everything that is might hinge on that."

Mikado blinked. "Do you mean...?"

"Professor," the King told Akashi, "you want to find your daughter more than anything else, right?"

"Well, of course I do, but I'm not sure she's there yet, and—" the man doubted.

"So far it seems that's your best bet, isn't it?" the Mouse tensely asked. "Please, I beg you. I've got nobody else to ask for help with this. Some of you are fighters, at least one of you seems to know about spaceships, and another one's an expert on astronomy. That's all you really need for this task as long as your hearts are strong. I... I can't go with you, not as long as this world's Keyhole is unlocked."

"What Keyhole?" Caster asked.

"It seems," Chizuru explained, "that is some sort of opening to another world from where these creatures are coming through. He claims being the only one who can seal it to stop the invasion."

"Yeah," Mickey nodded. "Don't worry about your friends, between Berserker and I, I'm sure we can protect them while—"

"Berserker, have you just said?" Caster interrupted, growing suddenly far uneasier than she had ever sounded so far.

"Does that name mean anything to you, Ma'am?" Chizuru politely asked, giving her an interested look.

"Please, there's no time!" Mickey slammed a foot down in growing frustration. "Find your friends, tell them of what's happening here, warn them they must protect the Princesses of the Heart before it's too late! Tell them to go to Yen Sid! He'll know what to do!"

"What you saying, that make no sense at all!" Ku Fei threw her hands up. "I no want! I want stay here and help friends, I—!"

"Ku-san," Chizuru said, "Negi-sensei, Asuna-san, and the others we saw are your friends as well, aren't they?"

"Eh? Of course they are, but they strong, and can take care of—"

"So are Nagase-san and Tatsumiya-san," Naba reminded her. She sighed. "You know, I always had two dreams, since my earliest childhood. One of them was seeing the stars up close and personal, to go into space and far above the blue face of this Earth. The other," she added, with a glare at the Heartles creatures that flew following the monster lion, like a macabre court of crawing, loyal subjects, "was never getting myself killed by an army of monsters from the darkness." Now she looked back at the ship, and then at Mickey. "Just keep in mind, please, if you allow anything bad to befall Natsumi, I will bring you down personally."

Mickey nodded.

Ku Fei grunted. "You just want see Iinchou again, do no you? And of course, where Negi-bouzou is, Iinchou is too."

Chizuru smiled, then patted the Chinese girl's scalp. "And you just want to stay for Chao-san, don't you? So why to judge me, Ku-san?"

Ku blushed briefly, rasped and looked aside. "Chao no need my help anyway. She almost as strong as I, and much smarter, it just happens, here so many good fights, I—"

"Who knows what kind of enemies can wait for you in the great unknown?" Mikado smiled, giving a longing stare back into the universe from where she hailed. "What the heck, let's do it. It's been a while, and not that I dislike this planet, but I was starting to get into a rut of sorts compared to the old days..."

"Cast—" Akashi doubted, looking at his mate, "I mean, Donet, what do you—"

She reached over gently with a hand to touch his lips and close them. "I should be fine as long as my absence is not too long. Even if it is," she lowered her tone, making it far more secretive, "there are alternate ways to stabilize my prana without this world's direct support. No matter what the risks, however, my place is at your side, and it seems your is by your daughter's. I can appreciate that. Loyalty is a rare trait to find in a man, and what I find the most precious about you."

Mikado chuckled mischievously, arms folded as she casually leaned on the ship's hull, looking the opposite way. "Oh, Touko owes me on that debt, big-time..."

Akashi gave her an irritated look before Caster added a darkly playful, "Besides, I'm not ready to face a Berserker yet. Wouldn't it be much better if we allowed that beast kill him or her in our absence?"

"Him, definitely a him," Chizuru quietly mused aloud while standing by Mikado.

Before the even more annoyed now Akashi could ask them exactly how much they knew on anything, Mickey spoke again. "Thank you very much, everyone. I know I'm asking for too much being basically a stranger, but... I hope you'll trust me as much as I'm trusting you. Toodles!" he called for the interior of the ship. "Change the default emotional trigger from happiness to... to..."

He hesitated as he looked at the man desperate to know of his daughter's whereabouts. The woman who wanted to see what new things waited among the stars for her. The young lady who wanted to know of other worlds and her crush's destination. The girl who wished to know where to find stronger opponents to fight.

"... curiosity," he ended up saying, as the ship's inner systems began glowing changing colors quickly, readjusting every function and control mechanism. He allowed himself a smile and nodded, seemingly satisfied at that.

"Aye, aye...!" Toodles' voice rang as Ku Fei pouted at the King. "On the double, sire...!"

"Is curiosity even an emotion?" the dark skinned student asked. "I think that more of a... a... I no know for sure, but no emotion, no! Everybody know only five emotions! Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, aru!"

Mickey blinked. "Whoever told you that, missy? And what kind of emotion is 'Aru'?"

"Aru is aru, aru!" Ku replied. "And I saw that in famous movie! ... I think. I no remember details that well, but that much I know! Only five!"

A perplexed Mickey looked back at Chizuru, Akashi, Caster and Mikado. All of them simply shrugged their shoulders and said nothing.

The King sighed. "M-Maybe we should have brought the taller girl with the huge metal star instead."

"Hey! That stung, aru! I as perfectly able and knowledging as Baka Blue!"

Later that afternoon..

"Eh?! What do you mean Chamo-kun?" Negi asked at the ermine's sudden request.

"I mean you need to make a contract with those girls now! There's no time to waste!" Chamo-replied, waving a small paper fan saying 'Contract! Contract!' on it. "That Eva chick is out for your blood! And you need a partner if you wanna survive her!"

"But Chamo-kun, Evangeline-san is one of my students. Why would she be after my blood?" Negi asked like it was an obvious question.

"Heck if I know Aniki, but look!" Chamo said as he punched in a few addresses into the computer on the table. "I did some searching on the Maho-net, and guess what I found! That blond haired girl had a $6,000,000 bounty on her head 15 years ago! And she's notorious in the magical world community, above and underground alike! She's dangerous! And with the last attack you suffered, all my empirical (and totally impartial) evidence points to the fact you need a partner A-S-A-P!"

"Bu-But I can't pull anyone into my own troubles! It'd be wrong." Negi argued.

"And how well did fighting that demon-thing alone turn out? Think with that big brain of yours aniki! You're not your Pop! You need help!" Chamomile shouted.

Negi was about to reply when he heard a knock at the door. The two stopped bickering and began to sweat.

"Oi, is someone in there Negi?" It was Konoka's voice. Chamo-kun shut the laptop screen and sat down on it to keep the secret.

"Uh, no, not at all Konoka-san! I was just, um, going over the materials for the upcoming test aloud! You know how that can help, haha!" He laughed with a nervous tic. A silence followed.

"Okay!" Konoka answered. "Well I'm off to the Fortune-Telling Club's meeting! Dinner should be in the fridge if I'm back late!" The sound of footsteps leaving was the duo's cue to let out a dual breath of relief.

"Whew, that was a close one aniki," Chamo said when he saw the forlorn expression on Negi's face. "Aniki?"

"If I don't try to do things only I can do, what can I hope to do like my father did? How many would have to get hurt when I wouldn't be strong enough to handle my own problems?" He said, sullen.

Aw shit, I pressed the Nagi button, Chamo-kun thought as he facepalmed himself. Shouldn't a done that one Albert.

"Look," Chamo-kun started, "Nobody's asking you to be like your dad aniki. But if you don't play this out like a smart man, you're gonna wind up in a grave before you even get the chance to reach your dad's level. And a Ministra doesn't help their partner out of some obligation (at least not to form the contract), but because they choose to do it. And a pactio is a two-way street. You have to be willing to give up some of your selfishness and let that someone be there for you in your life. That's what contracting means. That's what friendship (and potential love) means, okay? So please, let's go to Honya-chan and ask her what she thinks, eh?"

Negi began to protest, but he thought better than to go in this circular logic forever. It was at least worth a try, if only to know for sure.

"Puh-Partnership?" Nodoka squeaked. When Negi had asked to be let in, her heart had skipped a beat but this made it do a double backflip. With Yue and Haruna busy at their respective jobs, she and sensei were all alone, barring Chamo-kun. And it was every bit as awkward and arousing for Nodoka as you'd think. "I-I mean, I'm not against it, but this is so sudden," Nodoka murmured.

"Come on Honya-chan, it's just a kiss and we're done! Plus you get an awesome power-up as well!” Chamo exclaimed with another dramatic pose.

"B-But Chamo-kun, what about the part of fighting, or the contract itself?" Negi argued, to which Nodoka stiffened at the mention of fighting.

"Aw don't worry. It's just a provisional contract aniki, a temporary thing. And as for the fighting, she might not even need to fight. You'll never know if you don't get it on!" Chamo said as he tried his best getting the girl to kiss Negi before they lost their nerves while he drew a magic circle. Nodoka fiddled with her hands and kept dodging Negi's eyes. This was so out of left field and so fast she didn't know how to keep up with it or what to do next. Not to mention the thought of fighting giant monsters like that goat monster sent a chill up her spine. At last, she glanced a look at her sensei, and her heart paused. His face had so much strength, so much desperate determination and nervousness, it reminded Nodoka of something Stein-san said: "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to act in spite of it. You have courage, Miyazaki Nodoka. Do not waste it." With all she could muster, Nodoka stepped forward. The circle glowed. It felt almost pleasant, like a warm breeze on a summer day. She focused with a determination in her eyes.

"I'm ready, Negi-sensei," She said. Negi paused for a second, then nodded in agreement. They stepped together, their eyes lost within each other's, their hearts pumping as Nodoka put her hands on Negi's soft, baby-fat cheeks as she leaned forward.

"That's it, that's it!"

And pressed her lips to his.

"Pactio!"

As the two broke from their embrace, they looked like they'd left a blissful existence and reality had abruptly stepped in. After a moment of rushed apologies on both sides, the ermine in the room directed their attention to the thing of importance: a card in Negi's hand. The card showed Nodoka in her school uniform looking at an open book while two other books flanked her and seven more were behind her. Her name dotted the front in Latin with a pair of titles listing a virtue and direction sat beneath a subtitle. The labels said courage and west, respectively. At the bottom left was the astral symbol of Mercury, the messenger god of Roman myth. Negi read the subtitle beneath her name.

Pudica Bibliotecaria? he thought, I wonder what it means by that.

"Now, onto the next phase!" Chamo proclaimed. "Aniki, can you make a copy of Honya-chan's card? Then we can get to the gritty details of how you use these cards."

"O-Okay," Negi said, then muttered an incantation. In an instant, two cards were in his hand, each identical to the other.

"Awesome aniki! Now you can communicate with each other telepathically, and aniki can summon Honya-chan to his side in an instant. And that's not even getting to the artifact!"

"Artifact?" Nodoka asked as she accepted the original card from Negi. Chamo nodded with a knowing smile.

"Indeed. In addition to a magic power up from the Magister, the Ministra usually get an artifact tailored to their traits. It could be a giant spear, a pair of daggers, an awesome sword, or some cure-all medicine!" He finished showing a proud thumbs up. Nodoka looked at the card in awe.

"S-So, how do I know what my artifact is?" She asked, her mind awash with thoughts.

"First ya gotta say, 'Adeat!' while holding the card. That'll change the card into its physical form. Go ahead Honya, try it!"

"O-Okay. Adeat," she said holding the card up. In a flash of smoke a moderately sized book plopped into Nodoka's hands. It was bound with a thick spine and had decent embroidery along the cover and back. On the front the title 'Diarium Ejus' sat proudly at the top. Nodoka opened the book to see its contents. "Eh?"

"What is it?" Negi asked.

"It's—blank?" She answered.

"Huh? Let me see," Chamo requested. Nodoka handed him the book and, as she said, the pages were all blank. Chamo sighed. "Sorry Honya-chan, guess ya drew a dud or something," He said apologetically while handing the book back.

"It's alright," Nodoka said taking the offered book back. "Um, now what do I do?" she asked.

"Well, guess we should show you how to change it back for now," Chamo said. "To do that, just say 'Abeat'."

"A-Abeat." Another puff of smoke and the book was once again a card.

"Now hold on tight to that card Honya-chan," Chamo said as he climbed onto Negi's shoulder before they departed. "It might surprise us yet." he explained.

"R-Right." Nodoka said as Negi and Chamo returned to their dorm room, leaving Nodoka with the original card in her hand and with her thoughts. After Negi and Chamo-kun departed, Nodoka climbed back up to her bunk and sat on the edge with her feet swinging while she observed the card. Surely there had to be more to it, right?

"Adeat." She said. Transforming the card into a book once more, she began to flip through the pages, stopping in the middle. Once again, blank pages were the only things that greeted her. She sighed. Maybe it really is a dud, she thought. At that moment a small shimmer of light gleamed from the blank pages, bringing Nodoka's attention back to the book as she stared, shocked. Where once lay a pair of blank pages now sat the very words she'd thought in her head an instant prior. In addition, the page now had a cute little illustration of Nodoka holding her book with the expression 'dud?' on the book's cover.

"Wait a moment," Nodoka stammered as her mind's thoughts were dictated upon the tome's lines: Why is this book hearing my thoughts? Wait, is it reading my thoughts?! How is it doing this? Why is it doing this? Ple-Please stop book! Oh, how do I control this?

She shut the book closed in a panic. Her ears felt muffled by the thunderous beatings within her heart, her mind rolling down a mine shaft's tracks as thoughts tumbled in a spiral that only stopped as some unknowing creature collided against her glass window. After that start Nodoka turned her attention back to the closed book. She peeked at the pages as her fingers flipped to another point. A blank canvas became a text filled entry showing an image of Nodoka reading from the text. Her attention broke at a knock at the door.

"J-Just a second," she cried as she headed to the door carrying her book. She opened it and came face to face with, of all people, Setsuna Sakurazaki.

"Uh, h-hello Sakurazaki Setsuna," Nodoka managed to stutter out. Without her knowledge the book switched targets and began tracking Setsuna's thoughts.

Perhaps I can discuss things more easily with someone like Miyazaki-san?

"Greetings, Miyazaki-san," Sakurazaki answered back with a curt bow. For a moment the two just stayed silent for a moment until Setsuna cleared her throat and regained her courage.

"May I come in?" She asked.

Not the sort to deny hospitality, Nodoka offered her room to the wayward swordswoman, who sat down seiza style and accepted an offered cup of water. This lead to the two once again finding an awkward silence where neither could begin to ask for clarity as to why this meeting was happening.

"Um," Nodoka started, finding the courage to speak first, "was there something you wanted to tell me Sakurazaki-san?"

A frown formed its way across Setsuna's brow as she gazed into the untouched cup of water.

"Tell me Miyazaki-san," she mustered, "how is Konoka-san?"

"Huh?" Nodoka blinked. "Well, she's just fine I suppose. I mean we don't talk often except when on club expeditions, but she seems alright." She answered. Setsuna's features softened.

"Good. Does she seem...happy?" she asked as Nodoka finished her glass. For a time, Nodoka's face was pensive.

"I suppose. But, if I may be so bold," She added, "I think Konoka-san would be happier if she could talk to you. She mentions you. A lot."

Was that a blush? Nodoka thought as Setsuna quickly cast her gaze away from Nodoka's eyes.

"I cannot. She is better off without my direct presence."

Out of nowhere, Nodoka spoke out. "I don't think that's true," she said with surprising sincerity. Setsuna blinked. "I mean, I don't know about Konoka-san's relationship with you," she continued. "But from what I understand from Konoka-san, you two used to be close. Then you just turned cold to her. I can't act like I know why, but don't you think you could at least try to be her friend again?"

Setsuna looked at Nodoka with conflicted eyes and a deep furrowed frown. The sky outside was an overcast grey that seemed to mute the light and color from the world.

"I'm sorry. I should not have come here," she suddenly said as she picked up her blade and began to leave.

"W-Wait!" Nodoka pleaded, but Setsuna was already opening the door as Nodoka tried to stop her.

"Thank you for the drink Miyazaki-san," Setsuna finished as she closed the door in front of Nodoka. Nodoka opened the door but saw nobody within range. Had Sakurazaki just magically vanished? And why did she leave so suddenly? Nodoka mulled over it as she closed the door. It was so strange for Sakurazaki to act the way she did, let alone come to Nodoka to talk at all.

Why was she so apprehensive? Nodoka thought. She returned to the bunk and looked in her artifact only for a revelation to line the pages:

Could I be a better friend to my classmates? Perhaps even Konoka-san?

Too much for me to know how to start Miyazaki-san.

Have I been a good guardian to Konoka-san? Have I kept to her shadow as I intended?

I am sure she misses when I spoke to her like we used to.

Nothing would make me happier Miyazaki-san. But that is one wish I cannot fulfill to Konoka-san.

I should never have tried talking to Miyazaki-san. I must remain Konoka-san's shadow, lest I fail in protecting her again.

The name read Sakurazaki Setsuna and showed a simplified version of Sakurazaki sulking about with expressions like 'angst' and 'woe is me' floating around her head Nodoka shut the book with a thump as her mind, against her own wishes, started dissecting and analyzing the words like the pieces within a logic puzzle.

What did she mean 'remain Konoka-san's shadow' and what's this about not protecting her again? Was Sakurazaki some kind of bodyguard for Konoka nobody knew about? Or is she like one of those murderous stalkers from Haruna's doujinshis? Or was it something else? Something more...intimate?

"Nope." Nodoka said with defiance. "Not one, more, thought Nodoka." she said. "Just, breath in, and out," And she did. For the next five minutes, the only sound in the room was Nodoka's steadying breath. As she came to a calmer setting, she saw the book still in front of her, now blank. Frowning she dismissed the artifact and stuffed the card beneath her pillow. Dud or no dud that book had already caused her to invade someone's privacy (though unintentionally), and she'd be damned before she let it happen again without her say so. She had learned the book could target someone if she knew them it seemed, and could work from a distance. But she also knew if there was no target, she was the object of the book's powers. She groaned, feeling a headache coming on. One of many to come.