All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

Negi received weird looks all around the palace. Every noble that they crossed as they were led to the throne room stopped to stare at him, some wary, some outright afraid and several cutting off whatever they were doing and excusing themselves. To Louise, it was odd. To Negi, not so much. After all, if Mott had described what had transpired well enough, there was a real reason to give him a wide berth.

Fortunately, Henrietta didn't seem affected by the hysteria, although Louise had, of course, was having trouble looking at her. Negi had no such problems, however. Both were bowing in her presence, yet even so Negi was still taller than them both.

“Congratulations, Louise Françoise.”

“It is enough that the court has conceded me the title of Chevalier.”

Negi found odd that she considered it such a huge honor. Wasn't it the lowest rank of knighthood? Maybe the rank ladder worked differently here, or maybe it was just an insanely big deal to be a knight to begin with.

“Your accomplishments certainly deserved it.” Henrietta replied, smiling at the one person who hadn't discarded the proper level of formality yet. “You captured the thief that not even the royal guard could capture.”

“Thank you, Mr. Familiar, as well.” It hurt to know she'd reset back to overly formal mode... but it was the throne room. Either way, it was common courtesy.

Negi shook his head in response, smiling cheerfully. “I should have been there earlier.” He commented.

Louise looked at him from the corner of her eyes, willing him to leave that for later, so she could properly explain it was her fault for not telling him in the first place.

“Please, continue protecting my friend.” she asked, offering him her hand.

It took half a second for him to recognize the gesture. It was, however, enough for Louise to get in the middle and prevent him from replying by glaring at him. For all of two seconds, anyway. “You shouldn't offer your hand to a familiar, Your Highness!” Louise commented.

Negi pouted at her. He thought she'd gotten over those issues... Well, at least now she saw him as male at the very least. It was an improvement and it meant he no longer had to dress her in the mornings.

“Asking him to protect you is the same as asking him to swear loyalty.” She justified. “His loyalty should also be rewarded.”

Louise stepped aside.

“Oh, I misinterpreted, then.” Negi spoke, relaxing a little. Swearing loyalty to a foreign crown could be the start of a political upheaval if he did go through with what he was planning to. “I promise to protect Louise with my life.” he intoned, before kneeling and kissing the back of Henrietta's hand.

It was an easy oath to keep. After all, that was basically what both contracts he had established with Louise demanded. As a Minister, he'd give his life for her in battle and as a familiar he'd always be with her. It made a taller order of his current pet project, but something as moronic as impossibilities didn't exist to him.

“Now, I wish to speak with both of you privately.” Okay. That was odd. “Follow me to my room.”

Louise took two seconds to realize the implications of what the Princess had just said. You see, continued proximity to Kirche has one prominent side effect. You start to recognize innuendos and accidental double entendres that much more easily than most other people do. So, at first she began blushing, thinking of being invited to the princess' room. Just like back when she was her playmate.

Then the blush increased when she noticed she would be alone. With the princess. In her room.

Then she was a walking tomato, when she noticed that she would be with the princess. In her room. With her familiar accompanying them. Totally Kirche's fault that she had to push the dirty thoughts off her mind.

Negi, meanwhile, frowned. If they had to talk, then evidently it was something that had to be said away from prying ears of possible spies. The Princess' room was a 'safe' place, in a sense. It was one of the most guarded rooms in the entire palace and it had the thickest walls. Enough that they could talk without fear of being heard by non-enhanced hearing.

Louise managed to calm down by the time they got there, while even the guards cleared out of the way. This was starting to get ridiculous. What the hell kind of stories were being spread about him in the palace?

“To be sincere, I have to ask a favor of you.”

Something important.

“Ask us anything!” Louise immediately replied.

Negi was left wondering how someone could reply so fast. Apparently, Louise was very eager to please the princess. If Haruna were here, she'd know what to do at this point...

“I want you two to live in the city for a while.” That was an odd request, if there had ever been one. Still, it intrigued Negi.

Mostly because he wondered how the city people lived. Every one of his visits had been directly to the marketplace. He hadn't seen the rest of the city, so it would be a welcome sight. Maybe he could find a library or a magic shop... then he'd have to convince Louise to buy him the books he'd require to continue his research on a way to get back to his world.

Shouldn't be too difficult...

Henrietta produced a scroll sealed with red string from god knows where. “This is a public certification of status provided by the Royal Court.” She explained.

“You are asking us to watch the city?”

“I have heard rumors about nobles who oppress the commoners.” The princess explained, completely missing the fact that she was talking to one who was ambivalent to the situation discussed. “When I asked my peers, I was told that the nobles are an example for the commoners, that something like this is impossible.”

“And we both know that that is not true.” Negi replied, frowning noticeably. “I am a personal witness to the abuse Lord Mott inflicted upon his servants.”

Louise wondered if she should glare at the disrespect, but ended up deciding not to because he had a good point.

Henrietta smiled at him. “Thanks to you, that should no longer be a concern.” she commented, a sickeningly sweet smile. It was the kind of smile you put on when you know that you're talking about a disgusting subject yet don't want to make a disgusted face. “That is why I wish for you to live in the city and investigate in secret. It will be a hard task, but...”

“I accept, Princess! Even if I have to dedicate my whole life to it, I will accomplish this task!”

Well, there were worse causes to throw your life away for... Negi sweatdropped, anyway. Such enthusiasm for a task neither of them actually knew how to do. He was certain it would have been much easier if he had ever bothered to learn how to make the glasses that disguise someone's identity...

––

Louise was already regretting it when she noticed that she could no longer wear the comfortable, soft and more than anything stylish school uniform anymore and was forced into a brown, coarse dress.

Negi, meanwhile, was comfortable enough in the outfit he had so long ago worn to a gladiatorial tournament. The Pactio card was already coming in handy.

The second let down Louise had was the fact that the paltry sum of money she'd been given was absolutely useless to the cause of satisfying her rather refined palate and accommodation requirements. It was kinda funny to see her flailing around shop to shop.

He drew the line when she tried to go to a casino to win the money. Regardless of the anachronism, the casino was not a place to visit when you're short on money. She'd kicked and screamed for him to let her go.

A quick reminder of the fact that, for the duration of the assignment at the very least, she was no longer a noble and thus had no authority whatsoever, served to further incense her nerves. She'd argued that these were necessities.

“No, what is necessary right now is finding a job. Because what we have, if the marketplace is anything to go by, will last us a week, tops, depending on how cheap the inn we stay at is.” It was ironic to consider he had one of the highest paying jobs in the planet back on earth (being the director of one of the most important organizations in the planet has its perks), now he would have to scrape for enough income to eat.

It just happened to be that absolutely no one was hiring in the entire town... Well, on the more respectable businesses, that was. Negi wouldn't be caught dead in the red light district, after all. Partially because he had no real reason to other than that one time when Rakan took him and Kotaro on a trip around the Adult World...

Best not to remember it. Many things happened that night involving too many women to count.

Louise wasn't making it any easier, not making a single attempt at hiding her distaste for the stores they visited while looking for work, and scoffing at any attempts to bring her in. Clearly, they were in trouble.

So by sunset they were tired, bored and hungry. Well, Louise was. Negi was mostly annoyed. “Partner, why don't you look for a place to stay, leave the girl there and go looking for work on your own? It should double your chances of actually getting hired.” Derflinger commented.

Negi looked at his sword with an expression that clearly said “You had to say it while she was right there, didn't you?”

Thankfully, Louise appeared too distraught to notice. She was trying her best to come up with an idea to turn those four hundred new gold into a fortune, all of which ended up in her having to somehow learn how to transmute gold on the spot.

“Tres Bien!” Such an effeminate voice... Negi snapped his head to its origin. “What a beautiful face!” And with that kind of man one has to wonder who he is talking about. Negi made his best effort to keep himself from exploding at that point. “It seems you are in trouble.”

The man was wearing a pair of honest to goodness bloomers and what looked like a tank top that was a few many sizes too low. The fact that he was fuzzy was the cherry on top.

And then he began wiggling in place. And then stretching himself. At the very least, he had muscles.

Louise was left stupified.

“As you can see, I am no one suspicious!” That just makes you more suspicious. AND YOU'RE A DRAG QUEEN! “My name is Scarron, and I have an inn just that way!” The man commented, puckering his lips whenever he could. That moustache seemed ALIVE.

Okay, now Negi knew who he'd been talking to with the comment of the face. On the other hand, BAD TOUCH!

“An inn?” Presumably in the red light district. But considering the amount of money they had available...

“Yes, an inn!” Okay, enough repetition dammit. “Allow me to offer you a room there!”

“... A cheap one, I hope...” Negi commented.

“Of course! But on one condition...” his pointer finger pointed directly at Louise, and she was still too out of it to notice.

The redheaded familiar, meanwhile, was busy trying to keep Louise from improvising a wand on the spot and blowing up Louise.

It made a taller order of his current pet project, but something as moronic as impossibilities didn't exist to him.

Negi wouldn't be caught dead in the red light district, after all. Partially because he had no real reason to other than that one time when Rakan took him and Kotaro on a trip around the Adult World...

Best not to remember it. Many things happened that night involving too many women to count.

A General Study on Demons and Devils in Universe 6228161

Generally, it is accepted the primal Goddess of Chaos and first of all deities, L-Sama the Lord of Nightmares, is the direct or indirect source of all gods and demons, but there is no consensus on who was the first devil or demon to ever be spawned. For the purposes of this text, we'll use the term 'devil' to refer to a particularly high level demon overlord. These roles are generally hereditary, since it's nearly unheard to have a demon of humble origins climb high into the infernal hierarchy.

The demon myths mention a particularly heinous and evil being named the First of all Fallen as the original devil/demon, but there are no solid data on his existence. The demons themselves cannot agree on if he's supposed to be still alive or not. The first devil with doccumented existence is Lucifer Morningstar, second son of the Almighty (who is Himself the first son of L-Sama), and older brother to the Norns Urd (the Past), Belldandy (the Present) and Skuld (the Future). Morningstar, originally the most powerful of all angels, rebeled against his Father and was casted out of grace, bringing several angels down with him in a way fairly well adapted into the Judeochristian doctrines. For a long while he reigned supreme as the Lord of all Demons, until recently, he abandoned his post to wander the human world and open his own nightclub at Las Vegas. That left Hell open for a major conflict of interests between the Overlords, who have established a tenuous at best agreement of co-ruling until a single major ruler is decided.

The current leader of the demonic alliance is Hildegarde Rainyday, better known as 'Hild', a devil queen with moderate tendencies. She sired her first daughter, Urd herself, with the Almighty, and then two younger daughters with a Mazoku lord or high level soldier. No one has been able to learn the actual identity of this Mazoku. Some suspect of Xellos Metallium, right hand man and prized creation of Mazoku leader Zelas Metallium, but when asked about him, he'd only say 'That's a secret'.

Mazoku are, according to most doctrines, part-genie demons whose four main Overlords, Chaotic Blue, Dark Star, Ruby Eye Shabranigudu, and Death Fog, were all born from the Lord of Nightmares herself. Under them there are five other secondary Overlords, Deep-Sea Dolphin, Dynast Grauscherra, Greater Beast Zelas Metallium, Chaos Dragon Gaav, and Hellmaster Fibrizo. Fibrizo and Gaav have been recently reported as destroyed during the Claire Bible crisis in Mundus Magicus, Mars. Deep-Sea Dolphin, self named that way due to her love for all sea creatures, is believed to have spawned the mermaid race along Greek God Poseidon.

The demon race in all its variants has spreaded through the whole universe. Hell, in this sense, is not a single place, but a collection of several sub-Hells dispersed through the galaxies, often with little communication between them. Most of those in Earth's solar system have taken residence in Venus. Other demons in the Milky Way abandoned the standard practices of soul stealing and war against Heavens after severe breeding with aliens, and established an empire of their own in a planet they named Deviluke. The current Devilukians are far more carbon based aliens than spiritual beings, although they retain demonic traits like their tails and their inhuman strenght and stamina.

Fifth Dimension Imps, who come from out of L-Sama's creation, often take the appearance of small mischievous demons, but they don't belong to any actual demon branch.

During the Dark Ages of Earth, the demon Belial sired Merlin, the most famous of all sorcerers, with a human woman. Merlin eventually captured his half brother, the infamous demon Etrigan, with a spell and binded him to treacherous Round Table knight Jason Blood, to punish them both forever for their misdeeds.

Most demons in this universe are low category brutes. Mages not afraid of dabbling in the dark arts can summon them as slaves or temporary workers, but they have been known to turn on their employers at the first chance. They generally act as Punch Clock villainous forces doing their jobs and nothing else, but they still won't hesitate to take human lives when that is part of their assignments.

For long, the wars between Heaven and hell took the lives of countless scores of demons and their counterparts, angels. However, with the arrival of Hild to power, she and the Almighty signed a treaty establishing the Duplet System, a force binding each denizen of Hell to a denizen of Heaven, and viceversa. The current terms state that, for each denizen of a realm to die, their counterpart will die as well, forcing both parts to a standstill until a better solution is found or the treaty is otherwise broken. It bears mentioning, to destroy a demon, devil, angel or god, their true astral selves must be erased; merely destroying their mortal world shells will only send them back to the spiritual planes.

Famous demon lords of note include King Krichevskoy, reportedly killed during the power struggles to fill the void left by Lucifer, leaving his son Laharl in a coma state that lasts to this day. There is also Mephisto, Lord of Lies, father of Black Heart. Mephisto's main clame to fame in the human world is serving as the real world inspiration for Goethe's Mephistopheles, but he's also responsible for the creation of the Ghost Riders, demonically powered agents who destroy competing Lords' forces in the mortal realm when Mephisto can't interfere personally. The current Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, a stuntman who lost his soul to save his cancer-stricken father, is the first Rider to use a motor vehicle (motorcycle) instead of a horse. He was instrumental to the defeat of Gah Lak Tus in Earth five years ago.

Malebolgia, an old and bitter rival of Hild and Mephisto, employs Hellspawns for similar purposes, suiting them with living costumes granting them incredible powers. But while Hellspawns are far more powerful than Ghost Riders, they also are less stable and more prone to failure. The current Spawn is Al Simmons, an American ex-CIA agent betrayed and killed during a Black Ops mission with the Suicide Squad.

The mysterious entity known only as 'Him' is a flamboyant demon lord whose real name is rumored to scare even other devils. Not much is known about him otherwise, but he seems to be related to a demon lord named Aku who was apparently destroyed by a human warrior during the Dark Ages after long and bloody years of mismatched and uphill struggles.

Besides Krichevskoy, the Demon Wars claimed (or so it has been said) the life of Demon Overlord Zenon, leaving only his single daughter Rozalin behind. Something shortly after that caused her to lose her memory, possibly related to a seal the rival Hell Lords placed upon her powers. The Lords handed the responsibility of Rozalin's fate, which was an awkward political issue, to Hades, Greek God of the Underworld (contrary to most views of humans, demons have no claim over souls unless they are sold to them. The souls of the wicked go to Hades' domains. The souls of the truly virtuous reach Heaven. Most souls end up at Soul Society. Hades himself is no demon, although he has treated with them in the past). Wanting no part on it himself, Hades 'lent' Rozalin to a neutral ground in the mortal realm, most specifically at Tosaka's Arena in Mundus Magicus, until the Council of Overlords decides what to do about her in the long run...