Random.
Kuromaru and Touta still were sparring by the time Yukihime returned to the camp from the town, holding several bags of supplies. "We're having a detour," she calmly announced. "I have been checking on a few old acquaitances, and I learned Naba Chizuru has died. Her body was stolen from the grave a week ago, two days after her burial."
Touta blinked. "Who was Naba Chizuru?"
Kuromaru looked at him. "Don't tell me you really don't know! She was one of Ala Alba's biggest political and financial supporters!"
"Oh, another friend of Grandpa!" the short haired boy slammed a fist on a palm, ith a whimsically naive air about him. "Did you ever meet her—"
"Yes, I did," Yukihime interrupted. "By now, it's only down to me, Yukihiro and Tatsumiya. And in a way, Kagurazaka and Lingshen too. Pick your things up and let's make haste. We're heading to Mahora right now."
"Mahora!" Touta whistled.
"Mahora?" a perplexed Kuromaru echoed. "But why? Since the incident of 2037, no one—"
"I know," Yukihime replied. "That's why we're going there."
—-
For decades now, Mahora had been a dead place. Very few plants grew there anymore, and animals in general tended to avoid the huge stretch of land. Only the gigantic tree in the middle of it all still stood healthy and majestic as ever. The rest of the academy was the creepiest place Touta had ever been at, and he could tell Kuromaru was highly uneasy there as well, despite his stoic facade.
Slipping in under the noses of the heavily armed guard posts around the academy's perimeter had been easy, and now the three headed deep into the deadly silent main building, led by a quiet and thoughtful Yukihime. She finally stopped before a door at the end of a hall, looking at it with a strange, fixed expression for a moment. Touta and Kuromaru paid closer attention, and they shuddered hearing a soft, polite voice coming from the inside. It was a small boy's voice, apparently giving a lecture in English.
Yukihime grunted and kicked the door open.
Touta followed her in quickly, and he gasped at what he saw inside. A short boy with dark red hair, wearing black shoes, a green suit and red tie, stood before a classroom of what at first seemed a collection of highly lifelike dolls. It was only moments later Touta and the swordsboy with him realized those figures in the seats were dead bodies, preserved through magic, as they had been in the moments of their deaths, or repaired in the cases of those who had suffered violent demises. Some of them looked very old. Others had obviously perished while still far too young. All of them, regardless of their age, had been clothed with school uniforms from more than fifty years ago. One of them was, from the photos in Touta's house, his own grandmother. Only five seats remained empty, with a small pale doll tking the only one not occupied by a dead body.
The small boy turned his neck around slowly, too slowly, to look at them with a vacant, wide smile. "Ah, welcome! Can we help y— Oh, Evangeline-san, it's you!" he realized after a few moments of staring stupidly at Yukihime's face. "But why are you breaking the dress cod—"
"Boya," she snarled. "Why do you keep doing this to yourself?"
"Ah? I don't know what are you talking about, Evangeline-san? Who are these two—"
"He's Touta. Remember Touta? Konoka's grandson!"
Touta gasped. "Uh, what?" Putting two and two together, he gasped again. "Wait, don't tell me he's—!"
His mentor growled. "Like myself, he's eternity trapped in a child's body. We believed he would age to some point. We were wrong."
The small boy looked puzzled. "Konoka's grandson? Oh, Mast— Evangeline-san, there must be a confusion here! Konoka's still only fifteen! But, if you two want to study at Mahora, you'll have to ask Headmaster..." his voice trailed off as Touta looked at his face, trying to find some similarities with that of the old man he knew, "... Konoe..."
Negi Springfield fell silent, turned around, and sat behind his desk, burying his face into his hands.
"Ayaka begged me to come, just like always. To talk you out of this, to make you react. I know it's folly," Evangeline said, "But I cannot deny an old woman what might be her last—"
"Don't call her Ayaka!" Negi shouted. "You never called her anything but Iinchou!"
"Boya, I didn't help you fake your death just so you buried yourself into this coffin!" the blonde shouted. "What happened to walking ahead? To follow the light? To march towards the future—"
"THIS IS THE FUTURE!" the boy yelled back, standing back up violently and gesturing towards the dead bodies. "They all walked with me, and look at them now! LOOK WHERE I LED THEM!"
"Everyone dies! Everyone would have died eventually, whether you—!"
"No! You, best of everyone, should know not everyone dies! We don't! And God knows I tried! I even used the Ninth spell on myself! Nothing worked! Nothing took me with them, and nothing brought them back to me! Why didn't we share our gift with them when we could? We didn't, and it became our curse and theirs! All because of our grotesque, stupid arrogance and egoism, our—"
"They didn't want to!"
"They didn't know any better! That's why I was their teacher! To guide them! To make sure they learned about the rights and wrongs! But I only, I only made them waste their lives! How many of them ever married? How many of them had children of their own? I can count them with a hand! All of them devoted themselves to MY dreams! And look... look how much it did for them..." he cried, shaking his head to himself.
After several moments of silence, Yukihime said, "Your project is working fine now..."
"I can't care anymore."
"That's what most of these devoted their lives to. It wasn't just your dream, but theirs. Respect that, Boya."
"Please," he begged, "If you aren't going to learn, just leave so we can continue our class. Go ahead, skip classes again, just like always. You always have been a problem child..."
"Don't act spoiled with me!" she slapped him, though he didn't react. "You never were this much a pathetic sod!"
"That would be," Negi calmly said, "Because they lived then."
"Others live right now. And others will live after them, too."
"And I'm glad for them. I really am. But I won't stand seeing them dying, one after another, like I did with the— Sorry, but I don't have your heart of stone, Master."
More silence ensued.
"I have made him immortal," Yukihime said.
Negi said nothing, slumped down on himself.
"I'll keep bringing him when it's Ayaka's turn. And Mana's. And maybe, assuming you ever want to pull your head out of this graveyard, we'll go together to greet Asuna."
Negi only nodded, with a terribly sad but also grateful expression.
Yukihime nodded back, turned around, and began leading her travel companions out with her.
For a moment after the door closed behind them, they remained there, waiting, until the sobs of the small boy ceased and his voice picked up cheerily. "Now please open your books in Page Thirty Nine..."
—-
"Boya was always too much of a perfectionist, that was his problem," Yukihime said as they left the building behind. "He could leave no loose ends, and he couldn't be satisfied if he didn't help everyone, solve every problem, save all those under his care. He always had been able to function properly in society, masking his pain, but... last year, he finally broke down. That's why I had to leave him here. Reliving the happiest days of his life, before his life became everyone else's instead. In a sense, it's my own fault. Much like all other adults in his life, I encouraged him to keep following his dreams no matter what. And having dreams is fine, but when you do nothing but pursuing dreams, you end up living in a dream yourself. And then you never can wake up."
Touta only could nod, looking far more somber than he had been before.
"We must," Kuromaru philosophized, "learn how to cope and leave things and people behind, don't we? Or else, we, too, will become just like that. But by doing so, won't we eventually stop caring altogether? Won't we become distant monsters?"
"It depends on your viewpoint, I suppose," Evangeline shrugged. Then she lifted a hand, whispered a spell, and snow began falling over Mahora.
She smiled softly.
"Let me tell you about those Christmas we all spent together here. Indulging into the past is fine, as long as it's only every once in a while..."
edited 19th Sep '13 11:12:21 AM by NapoleonDeCheese
Very much depressing. But then, I see the whole new manga that way. Not really following it as such, though it would be interesting to hear of anyone's final fate were resolved. Even if not expected. I'll stick with my little fic. And eventualy work on 2020. Which won't be depressing. I'm trying to get past current arc in the main fic, since it's the most depressing.
The Clock is Wound, The Future Must Commence! (tm)Makes you think, that it might of been kinder for AR to hide Negi's identity when he was born and removed his magic, so that he you live a normal life. Though the magic removal might be too much.
Especially considering his dream in CE, I think Negi would of been happier not being a Mage.
edited 19th Sep '13 1:49:06 PM by Archivist10
One wonders how well that would've went over regardless. The confederacy still managed to find him in the dead ass end of nowhere and launched a hoard of demons to a entirely different world just to off him. Even then, his hapiness is in suspect because his childhood flat out sucked. He spent most of it alone when Nekane was gone, and no magic meant he probably would've never met Anya to begin with. Magic or no, what he needed was a parental figure in his life.
edited 19th Sep '13 1:53:44 PM by SkormSnow-Strider
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Because they shipped him off to his uncle, which isn't exactly what I'd call inconspicuous. The fact is, we don't know the circumstances as to how he actually wound up there, and who ultimately made the call. Granted, I don't think anyone would of suspected that a foreign government from a entirely different world would coax a hoard of demons and actively attack a town.
edited 19th Sep '13 2:07:26 PM by SkormSnow-Strider
Sending him to be under the care of a member of AR would of been better, Eishun would of been a safer option, or sending him to Mahora in the first place might be better, though they'd have to to something to keep Eva from drinking his blood. Though there must be ways to ward off vampires, especially weakened ones like Eva.
Like hell they're going to let Jack look over him.
edited 19th Sep '13 3:21:42 PM by Archivist10
The handling of both Negi and Asuna was a huge case of Idiot Ball by Ala Rubra. But at least in Asuna's case, they put some effort on keeping her watched. With Negi, everyone seemed to wash their hands off (except Takamichi, the least qualified one to look after a son figure anyway, not because of his responsability, but because he lacked Eishun's resources and family or the level physical safety he'd have had with Rakan as his protector. Even then, Takamichi onbly showed occasionally, and only after the damage had been dealt IIRC).
The most unlikable thing is the next generation didn't seem to learn a lot from that and also left Touta to his own resources if not for Eva (and Negi until he 'died'). But even so, Ala Alba at least seems to have been more responsible with Touta than Ala Rubra was with Negi (at least most of AA seems to have the excuse of being dead by the time Touta was born).
Surprising that no one received a What the Hell, Hero? or Calling the Old Man Out. They just brushed it of like, 'they've done enough'
Negima has got the worst excuses to hide a child's legacy in any story that I've seen.
edited 19th Sep '13 3:38:41 PM by Archivist10
I can buy Professor Akashi wanting to keep his daughter in the dark, though, since not only her mother's involvement with magic got her killed, but they weren't important enough anyway for anyone to go after Yuuna as long as she kept a muggle life.
But otherwise, yeah, not even the crow demons got a slap on the wrist for treating Setsuna like shit undeservedly, and Godel's Easily Forgiven Karma Houdini act never ceased to make me uncomfortable. Adults in general just seemed to have free cards on how to run children's lives even if/when they ruined them. It might even go all the way back to Love Hina, if you suscribe to the theories on why Keitaro and Kanako ended up so messed up.
edited 19th Sep '13 3:46:23 PM by NapoleonDeCheese
Chisame: Why and how did you guys messed looking after your friend's child?!
Rakan: Isn't it obvious...because we're idiots.
Chisame; He would of been better off raised by wolves than in your hands. Even Kotaro seems more well adjusted.
Akamatsu has a tendency to let Jerkasses get away with stuff due to it being Played for Laughs a lot of the time.
edited 19th Sep '13 3:51:30 PM by Archivist10

Hm. Interesting. I guess I'm used to fics where that number doesn't even scratch the surface. :p
If that's the case, I finally started getting there and past it at Chapter 5. :p Sad, since the first 4 chapters were a pride and joy. Now I look and feel like they're pathetic. Oh well. They got their point across. ^_^ Just a setup for later anyway ^_^
Into the Night is at 4000 words and counting already. Now that I'm pushing myself harder to write it again. ^_^
The Clock is Wound, The Future Must Commence! (tm)