All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

At the same time, across the courtyard, the Chao Bao Zi descended towards the ground with Chizuru still dangling from Makie's ribbon. On the ground beneath it, Ayaka stood and gazed up. "Drop!" she called out, holding her arms out. "I'll catch you!"

Chizuru looked down, understandably skeptical about this notion.

"I have a pactio now, I can do stuff like this!" Ayaka insisted. Then, with a catch in her voice, she asked, "Or do you just not trust me at all, anymore?"

How manipulative can you get? Chizuru thought wearily ... but also, she had to admit, fondly. And with that thought, she let go of the ribbon and dropped down into Ayaka's waiting arms, promptly knocking her off her feet in the process. (The loss of the weight on the other end of the burden also had Makie, Asakura and Ku Fei falling back onto their backs as well.)

"See?" said Ayaka as Chizuru lay on top of her. "I can do that sort of thing easily."

"You should be more careful," Chizuru replied. "Asuna-san wouldn't like it if you got hurt."

"Forget about Asuna!" Ayaka demanded. "Are you all right?"

Chizuru stared down at the girl she knew perfectly well that she would always love, no matter what. And it was clear, now, that that love was, as she'd suspected, not limited by the fact that it was forbidden. Let's see. Nagi's mother was my half-sister, so I'm her ... half-great-aunt? Except that since the mother of Nagi's mother's was my half-aunt ... oh forget it.

"I am now," she answered, and kissed Ayaka deeply. And for a while, the problem of the gigantic colossus stamping around the boulevard went away.

At least, for them. Just about everyone else was focused on attempts to do some damage to the thing. The party's melee specialists had followed Asuna's lead in trying to assail it, but their attacks, even Setsuna's Sica Shishikuro, were like pinpricks to Alladia's new form. However, he was too slow to swat them. The effect was overall like a few dozen ants attacking a human being — not nearly enough to menace him, but too few and too quick for him to squash.

And then, its precious cargo delivered, the Chao Bao Zi flew up to start raining repulsor blasts towards his face. With a snarl, the colossus started to swing its fist up towards the cable car, having finally met an opponent big enough for it to hit.

---

At last, Evangeline reached the apex of her flight, and looked down at her target. One last, wholely unnecessary, deep breath ... and then she began to chant. "Lic Lac La Lac Lilac," she said first, as ever, and then began to speak in Greek.

The spell gathered up all the left-over magic that had been shed in battle so far that day. No matter how efficient the spell-caster, there was always some wasted. Indeed, given how sloppy most magicians these days were, so much was wasted, and so little used. Why in her day ...

But that was a distraction she couldn't really afford. The problem wasn't the magic she was gathering, it was what came with it. The magic she gathered up was utterly imbued with the emotions of those who had casted it. Their fear, their hope, their passion. Much of this would have been appetizing to the little vampire, but she had to cast away anything that wasn't utterly positive.

What was left was agonizing to her. So much love, so much desperate will to live. She gathered it all up in her hands, feeling them burning, almost, and shaped them into the ultimate weapon.

With lips that were almost paralyzed by pain, she spat out the last words of the spell. "αστροφεγγιά διακόπτης!" Here I am, probably sacrificing my life so that all of them can go on living, she thought, not angrily, just tired. Am I walking in the light now, you great big dope?

---

In a cavern deep beneath the earth, a shadowy form lifted its head from the bier on which it rested, and spoke a single word into the darkness.

"Yes."

And with the last of whatever energy animated it, the form lifted a gnarled staff and moved it through the air before collapsing once more.

---

Then she felt something shatter inside of her.

Oh.

Oh, Nagi, you magnificent bastard.

You weren't talking about the infernus scholasticum, were you?

Then there was only silence. And the vampire called Evangeline died gracefully after seven hundred years.

The first thing telling Itoshiki that he was in a dream was the fact he felt actually good, and everything around him felt good as well. That was, frankly speaking, utterly strange on itself, since even if it was a dream, all of his dreams were depressing and saddening, like the one where he, back when he was a child, befriended a cute lost redhaired girl, they adopted a puppy, and then the puppy was savagely killed by bullies. And the one where he showed up naked for classes... only to see Takamichi also was there, naked, and everyone laughed at him because Takamichi was that much better gifted. Or the one where he accidentally kickstarted World War III, and then the hordes of beast-men living in the ensuing ruins cursed his name for ages.

In this particular dream, on the other hand, he was wearing a very nice business suit, returning to his mansion after a day of satisfying work. The next door neighbor was watering his plants, greeting him with a friendly wave of an oddly shaped hand.

"Good afternoon, Nozomu!" the neighbor said, in a very Norio Wakamoto voice.

"Oh, good afternoon, Chiyo-Dad-san!" Itoshiki heard himself greeting back. "How's your daughter today?"

"As you can see, she's enjoying herself, like always!" the catlike creature pointed up, at a tiny girl who flew high above their heads using her pigtails as rotors.

"I see," Nozomu smiled. Then he walked into the huge house that belonged to him, the army of maids at his service bowing for him.

"Itoshiki-sama," the lead maid, Arai-san, said.

"Did you have a good day at your job?" Kitsu-san asked.

"Your dinner is ready, but first..." Kimura-san began.

"The Mistress said she wanted to take a bath with you before that," Hitou-san completed.

"Th-The Mistress?" the tall pale man stuttered, floored by the revelation. A wife? Now this dream was getting completely ridiculous. He never had been one to long for romantic links of any sort! His eternally gray, miserable existence shouldn't have to be shared by anyone else! Who could he deem worth of such a weight, as having him as her life companion?

And then she strode out, stepping slow and elegantly, with a soft, lingering smile on her perfect lips. Her long blond hair cascaded behind her curvaceous, firm body, and her mismatched eyes shone with the same unreachable energy he had fallen in love with when he was only a boy.

"Nozomu-kun," she said, and then he was, again, a confused, frazzled child before her majesty. "Welcome back home. Negi has been asking for you."

"Negi-sensei?" he gulped, just as he ran out as well, jumping into his arms.

"Dad! What took you so long?"

"Ah...?" the man's eyes widened impossibly, so much he didn't even notice Kafuka-san was there as well until he heard her signature easygoing laugh.

"Now, now, Negi-kun!" Kafuka said, wearing a simple but beautiful dark blue dress with shiny black shoes. "You know your father is a very busy man, tasked with extremely high and important responsibilities! But don't you worry, Itoshiki-sama! As long as I'm his nanny, you can trust me to take care of all of Negi-kun's needs!"

The way Kafuka wiped a corner of her mouth and discreetly fixed her skirt then was just disturbing enough in its implications to force Itoshiki to wake up.

He sat up in the darkness of the room, shuddering and rubbing his forehead. "Truly despairing," he mused to himself, looking around at the sleeping Negis. Chamo snored in a corner, uneasily, obviosuly showing symptoms of panty withdrawal. The man closed his eyes and forced himself back down. He shouldn't have said anything about those times of his youth. They always made his mind work in ways that were too strange for his liking.

Still, it would have been nice...

As Dream claimed him once more, he started having visions of WWIII. Well, at least, that was more of a familiar ground...

With a roar, a mass of pink light roughly the size of a small building slammed into the colossus' torso, essentially annhilating it. The arm that it had been swinging up towards the Chao Bao Zi started drop, narrowly sliding under the cable car instead of impacting it, before twisting like a helicopter rotor blade towards the ground. So too with its other arm, as well as the head formerly perched atop the torso. But there was enough time, barely, for those who had been attacking the monstrosity's legs to get out of the way of the falling body parts.

The head's eyes still glowed for a moment, and though its facial features were as immobile as rock, they nonetheless managed to convey confusion. Then the light went out forever.

"Incredible," Negi murmured from his position in the sky, turning to look up where his Master had cast down that awesome spell. He started to see that she was descending rapidly, and in an uncontrolled manner. His first impulse was to fly up and try to match her velocity so as to catch her.

"Negi," said Arika, behind him. "Negi, there's something —"

No, that wouldn't work; he had a passenger, and he couldn't very well ask his mother to get off. So there was only one real option, and he almost chuckled at the notion. The very spell he'd cast on his first day here, to slow Nodoka's fall. He began casting at once.

"Negi," Arika said forcefully. "There's something that you need to know before you —"

"Not now, Mother," he answered, just as forcefully.

He didn't see her face go white, as though she'd been slapped. He didn't see her eyes close, nor hear a sigh escape her lips. His focus was solely on the person he was trying to rescue.

And then it was done, and her fall was slowed. He had a few precious seconds to spend before going up to catch her, and chose to spend them by turning around to look at his mother contritely. "I apologize, mother, but the safety of my students, all of them, comes first. Now what's the matter?"

And then she told him.

---

On the ground, a great deal of dust had been thrown up by the collapse of the colossus, neatly allowing a pair of figures to slip out of the back of one of its still-standing legs. They promptly split up, as neither wanted anything to do with the other after this debacle.

Chamo was already thinking of how he could spin this to his advantage. Yes, I was in there, aniki, he'd tell him. But I was really just spying on the bad guys, not selling you out! Run away? I was just laying the foundation for my undercover work, see? I'm just sorry that you had to do all the hard work. No, don't worry, sure I was in terrible danger, but that's just how I —

And then, over the body of one of the fallen demons, he spotted a familiar face. "Chamo-kun!" Chachazero yelled out, her body stained with blood and ichor, with a huge cleaver in each hand.

"Oh, wow, Chacha, you would not believe the day that I've been having," Chamo started to say as he ran towards her.

"Probably not," she agreed, and promptly disembowelled him with a single slice of one of the cleavers. "Ah, I'm glad I got to do that before —"

And then all animation fled her as her doll contract expired with the passing of the other party, and the deadly doll collapsed across the body of her last victim.

---

The other figure fleeing from the ruins of the colossus quickly realized he was being pursued, and turned to look at his pursuer. Even the Royal Magic won't protect someone who does such things from putting a foot wrong, and so he tripped and fell to the ground, permitting his pursuer to catch up to him.

"I surrender," Alladia gasped.

"That's nice," said Asuna, lifting her blade up above her head. Her face was cold and without visible emotion.

"No, you, you can't do this, not to me, I'm your father, and besides, I'm helpless, all my magical energy is gone, I'm surrending and unarmed, and I'm your father, and, and you're Japanese, you were raised this way, to think that a man can't live under the same sky as the one who kills his father, it's a contradiction for you to, you can't —"

"Maybe you didn't notice," Asuna said quietly. "But I'm a girl."

And then she brought the sword down, cleaving his skull, and most of the head and neck beneath it, in twain.

With a bit of difficulty, she pulled the blade out of the wreck that had been a man, and waited for it to decompose quickly, like the homonculi were supposed to do. Nothing happened, and it occurred to her that it was possible that nothing would.

"I guess you were the real one," she said softly. She hadn't expected to feel triumphant, but she expected to feel something. But she didn't. She felt nothing at all.

She turned around to look up, and saw Chachamaru flying up into the air, and Negi speeding away on his broomstick. She wondered what the matter was, and got ready to run after him.

"Asuna."

She stopped, and turned to look at Takamichi, who'd come out of nowhere to stand behind her with a grim expression on his face.

"We need to talk," he said.

Chisame, Tsunetsuki and Hakase followed the Asakura puppet through the narrow, difficult and dark forest path, their feet splashing in the mud with each step. A soft, silent rain had started falling on them, making Satomi sneeze loudly. For once in this fanfic, no one had been talking about her.

"I have a question for you," the fake Kazumi said all of a sudden, her voice calm.

"Ask," Chisame requested.

"Where do you see yourselves in ten years?" the doll asked.

"Head of Technological Research in Lex Corp, with a Nobel Prize on my desk, with a Chachamaru unit placed in each household across the world," Hakase was the first one to answer, without any sort of hesitation.

"I dunno," Chisame groaned. "Aren't we still too young to think about that? I guess I'd like being a programmer. I'll think of it when it's time to hit college."

"I want to be a devoted wife, with two lovely children by my beloved!" Matoi smiled warmly.

Chisame started. "I can't give you any children!"

Matoi just cooed. "Ooooh, I got you to admit you are my beloved...!"

Hasegawa pushed her aside. "Idiot."

Somewhere in Kyoto, Ruri sneezed in the shower.

"In any case, True Love can pull any miracle off!" Matoi sounded highly convinced.

Kazumi snorted, now sounding very much like Eva. "Not even magic can pull that off, dolt. And what makes you so sure you feel any true love? Hah! The only reason why you fell in lust with Hasegawa in the first place was because of a love potion."

"That may be true," Matoi admitted, "But my love has grown beyond that. Day after day, through seeing what kind of person she is, and all she does for those close to her, I've gotten to know her better than anyone else I ever loved. Ask Arai-sensei if I've ever stuck with anyone else this long. Listen, I know I'm weird and annoying, and I fall in love just as soon as I change my interests. But this time, now more than ever before, I want to keep this love. I don't care how it started, or why. All I care about is knowing I'm on the right path. And never straying away from it."

Hakase's eyes were wide, as if a bolt had just hit her, for some reason. Chisame scowled and fretted, trying to pretend she hadn't even heard anything.

The doll made as much of a chuckling sound as it could. "At least, you mention a personal link in your future, misguided as it is, Tsunetsuki. The two of you, on the other hand, don't even think about your Magister when planning ahead... if you even do that to begin with," she glanced in Chisame's direction. "I don't think you really wish to be Ministra Magi."

"Of course we do!" Hakase protested. "But a woman's future shouldn't be framed only by her dedication to a man!"

"You are the last person you need to tell that!" Now it was quite blatant it was Evangeline roaring through the doll. "But you still don't get the true meaning behind a Pactio! The Pactio isn't intended for the Minister to become an appendix of the Magister! It isn't something to make the Minister to drag behind the Magister, but for both of them to grow together! Also, it's not like a man is always the Magister. Very often, a woman plays the Magistra position to a male Minister."

"Then why you never got yourself a Minister?" Chisame asked.

"Fu, fu. I did, remember? I have Chachamaru, and before that, Chachazero. True, we have a Doll Contract, which is unlike the Pactio system you know, but then again, it's not like I need anything beyond that. I am practically a goddess made flesh! I am far above the paltry needs of weak mortals!" the force guiding the puppet boasted.

"I'm sorry I asked," Chisame droned. "Who is 'Chachazero', by the way?"

"I'll tell you about that later..." Hakase promised.

"You cannot allow your roles as Ministra define your whole lives, but you cannot conceive your existences without them, either, if you truly are serious about it," the vampire instructed. "It must be an important part of who you are, in a way, even more important than a marriage. A marriage won't demand half as much from you as this!" she nearly cackled, despite the doll's shortcomings to display full emotion. "No marriage will ever bring you as much pressure and danger as the duties of a battle Ministra!"

"Not even if we married Charlie Sheen?" Matoi asked.

"..." the fake Kazumi paused. "Point. But still, remember my words, foolish children! Because I'm going to make damn sure I crush you under my merciless heel until you either quit or learn that! I'll drill the lesson into your thick, empty skulls and pour it in like a boiling, burning acid to corrode your rampant, vacant idiocy! I'll make you into real women, or broken egg shells! Personally, I'm 99,99% sure on the later, because I can see you have no guts! No ambitions that don't involve stroking your egos and looking for pleasures for yourselves!"

"Hey, now—!" Chisame angrily began.

Asakura stopped and turned around, laughing mechanically. "Ha-ha-ha! Of course I'm right! You were so distracted by the conversation you dropped your guards! I'll bet you haven't even realized I led you into a trap, have you? You didn't hear the rustling steps along the road? The brief, small sounds between the trees? You have failed this part of the test! To make up for it, you'll have to answer another question!"

From between the trees, more lifelike puppets stepped out, each one wearing a maid outfit as well. Chisame gasped, counting a Naba, a Murakami, an Iincho, a Konoka and a Zazie. All of them quickly formed a circle around them, never saying a single word.

Hakase pulled her Pactio card out. "Chisame. I'll take on Naba-san, Murakami-san and Rainyday-san. Can I trust the other two to you?"

Chisame gulped and nodded, breathing strongly to keep her wits on. "Sure. Tsunetsuki, behind me, no matter what."

Matoi nodded with concern.

"Adeat!" both Ministra chorused, as the dolls jumped in for them...

Negi, Chisame and Miki Sayaka

Looking back on it later, once the pain had waned down a bit, Chisame would realize Sayaka's death was, in the long scheme of things, a foregone conclusion. Negi, on the other hand, would never accept it.

It made things no less painful for either of them, in any case.

Decadent Habits 31 Add On

The Devil laughed as he showed Chamo his new accomodations. "So, this is your resting place for all eternity! The Hell for Evil Mascots!"

"Hey, Chamo," Kyubey waved from a pot of boiling liquid turning him out from the inside. "It has been a long while..."

"H-Hello, Kyubey-kun..." the ermine waved weakly. "Guess we'll be neighbors now, huh?"

Chachazero giggled madly, hugging him, her cleaver still running him through. "Didn't I get us the loveliest place for our eternal union, Chamo-kun?"

Kyubey pointed to an empty spot between two other damned ones. "Just get over there and wait for your torture to be assigned. You don't mind, do you, Scrappy-kun? Sonichu-kun?"

"I fucking hate everything in all of existence," the fallen Doo muttered from where he was perpetually crushed to death.

Sonichu shrugged, despite being reduced to a bloody pulp between the jaws of a Cerberus. "Still beats living in CWC-ville..."