All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

"I-I understand!" Natsumi nervously stammered, lowering her eyes. "I don't know what came into me! It's just I felt... I felt I needed that so much, I—"

She stopped in mid sentence, noticing the hand he had used to keep her at arm's lenght still was on her chest, absently groping her small right breast. He noticed it as well, quickly pulling the hand back with a terrified yelp. "Ahhh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to...!"

Natsumi blushed even more, her freckles briefly disappearing into a sea of crimson color before she twiddled her fingers together and squeaked a whispered, "Do it again...?"

"What?"

"I'm weak!" she lamented. "I simply need someone to love me, to touch me! Kotarou barely pays me any attention, we hardly kiss anymore! I'm so alone, so miserable! Please, Sensei, at the very least, just give me a hug!"

The young man was suddenly torn between pitying Kotarou's situation and branding him an idiot for not acting on it. But thinking about it, he wasn't one to talk either...

Then, since too long had passed without anyone knocking at the door, it happened again.

Natsumi jumped up in alarm. "Oh, no! If someone sees me here, I'll get you into a problem!"

"Your Artifact!" he urged her.

"Of course!" she was fast to pull her Pactio card out, summoning the Adjutor Solitarius and using it to vanish from sight.

Negi hoped she would use the chance to get out of the room while opening the door with shaky hands, but those hopes were all but crashed down when he saw the slender but heavy frame of Chachamaru unknowingly blocking the way out.

"Negi-sensei," the robot politely bowed, her voice betraying just the slightest hint of uneasiness. "May I... talk with you for a... short while?"

"Uh, yes, of course you can, but... are you sure it can't wait until tomorrow?" he blurted out, now fully noticing Chachamaru was barefooted, and wearing only a semi translucid purple night shirt reaching down to her knees, her matching underwear clearly visible beneath it. He also could feel Natsumi's warm breath blowing on his neck from behind as the actress waited for an escape chance, and that only made him all much more agitated. "I am, aahhhh, tired, and kind of sleepy..."

Chachamaru's head hung down. "I was hoping for you to... receive me before the night is over. I was willing to... grant you a very special gift for your... reaching adulthood, and... and..." She cut herself before completing the sentence, her green eyes abruptly darting for the closet. Negi's heart skipped a few beats.

There was no way to fool Chachamaru's sensors.

The gynoid then looked at the balcony, then at the shower door, at the covered cake, and under the bed. Her expression remained the same, even and quiet, but she nodded in understanding. Negi gulped aloud, but when Chachamaru looked at him again, she showed no signs of anger at all.

"It's been a difficult night, hasn't it?" she asked.

"Very..." he whimpered.

"I'll see what can I do," Chachamaru began walking towards the closet.

"Wait, don't—!" Negi tried to stop her.

"Sensei, I'll be okay," Chachamaru promised, then whispered on his left ear, "The Master won't hurt me."

He was about to answer she wouldn't, but still, it wasn't a good idea at all, but Chachamaru already had half opened the closet's door, then ducked into it, closing behind herself. The young mage gasped, praying for her to know exactly what was she doing. After a brief seconds of no explosions or screams coming from the inside, he relaxed a bit and went to close the door. On his way there, however, he nearly bumped into Natsumi's invisible body, and he wondered why hadn't she left yet. Then he actually looked at the frame of the open door, and as he felt Natsumi hiding right behind him, he knew what had gone horribly wrong now.

Even after all that time, Natsumi still was scared of the Averrunci.

And one of them had just showed up at the door, feet in slips, a light blue robe loosely tied around her thin pale body.

Sextum-san.

Crack.

The thin body went swinging again. Screams and pleadings slipped from between the detained man's broken teeth. Deals. Threats. Promises of retribution.

Crack.

The Batman's expressionless face remained unchanged as he let another haymaker fly into the Chinese-American lowlife. The cable that suspended the man about three feet from the asphalt glinted in the dim streetlight.

"They-they'll kill me if I squeal!" the voice wailed.

"I've got all the time in the world, Lotus," the growl came out, a hundred times more potent than anything Jonathan Crane could have cooked up in his lab.

"Someone's gonna-"

"Who?" the shadowy figure challenged. "You're probably the only lowlife left in Chinatown."

A pause. The black-haired man silently cursed. Ever since that blond girl with the tan showed up... who the hell did she think she was, anyhow? Didn't look like any kind of Chinese he'd ever seen!

"Now, I'll say it politely one. More. Time."

Gloved fingers pressed themselves against the man's sweaty scalp.

"Two weeks ago, de Cheese, or "Bookworm", as he's calling himself now, escaped from Arkham. You've been shadowing him. Trying to join his mob for months. What. Is. He Up. To?"

"He- he made s-some kinda bargain w-with that Mage guy! And that new kid on the street! Anemone something? A couple other guys, too!"

The white slits in the Batman's mask narrowed a fraction of a degree.

"Th-Third! That third guy!"

"You're name-dropping, Lotus. I suppose Teeth is in on it, too?"

"H-heh. Read my mind, B-man!"

Silence.

"H-hello?"

More silence.

"I have to go to the little criminal's room...!"

"If Lotus was telling the truth, then it's bad. Very bad. Four of the area's top Crackfic Lords are working together on something."

"Is that even... possible?"

"They certainly have their egos, but they're nowhere near as bad as the Arkham inmates."

"Not even de Cheese?"

"Does the name "Warren White" ring a bell?"

"Point. Anyway, according to my intelligence reports, they're operating under some kind of honor system this time. Only people from the Negima area are allowed."

"It's dangerous to put too much faith into these things, but warn them first anyway."

"Right. Reminds me of the first time we dealt with Nygma. Banquet turned out to be bank- you're not there anymore, are you?"

Silence confirmed the commissioner's suspicions.

Half-destroyed giant mecha lying facedown in the street. Trees and streetlights uprooted. Dozens of women and men kissing one another. And a hundred more things that even the Joker would have been driven insane by.

He saw the boy standing in the town square, staff in his hands, a look of not dismay but simply weariness on his face. He did not know why it disturbed him so.

"Who did they take?"

"Asuna-san. Emily-san. Haruna-san. Chisame-san. Kotaro-kun. Satsuki-san. Makie-san. And Tsukuyomi-san."

"We'll find them before It happens," the dark knight said, his voice softening a fraction of a degree. "I promise."

The boy didn't look one bit fooled. And neither did the Batman.