All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

When Fate finally woke up, he found himself chained inside of a large lonely cell, surrounded by dozens and dozens of anti-magic wards, and handcuffed with the most powerful magic canceling bracelets he ever had seen. He could tell he had been subjected to some major spellwork before that, as well; he felt mostly numb and dulled down.

Still, never losing his temper or his calm, he started to silently plan. He had so much to do. To start all over again. He would need to correct some mistakes this time.

For starters, he would need earplugs.

As soon as they were alone with the unconscious Negi, Chisame sighed in resignation and looked down at the small critter.

"Well, I suppose there's no point on delaying this anymore. Just draw the damn circle already."

Nibbler just stared blankly at her.

"The circle. The Pactio circle. To make the Provisional Contract," she said.

Nibbler only blinked, then looked around for something.

Sighing, the girl grabbed a piece of chalk from a nearby table and tossed it at him. "Looking for this?"

With an eager sound, the little weirdo in diapers jumped up and ate the chalk whole.

"Hey, don't do that!" Chisame told him. "It's for drawing! You must draw the circle with that!"

He made a strange sound, tilting his head aside.

"Here," Chisame handed him a marker down. "Use this instead."

Nibbler craned his short neck up and chomped the black marker right off her fingers.

"No, you stupid thing! It's not for eating! It's for drawing! Geez, I guess I'll have to wake the brat up. He's the only one who can command you around..."

Nibbler had just turned his back on her to begin munching on the carpet.

Then Haruna stormed back into the room, looking alarmed and shocked, closely followed by Chachamaru and Kazumi. A very confused Ayaka and Makie trailed right behind.

"Chiu-chan!" Paru gasped. "Oh God, you're okay...!"

"What?!" Chisame had a bad feeling. "Why in the world are you here?! Especially you, Chachamaru?!"

"Chisame-san, it's... it's about Chao-san," the gynoid started. "She has— She has been—"

Then Nibbler burped, coughed, and loudly puked a white hair bun with some black strands still attached to it.

Horrified, Chisame backpedalled with the other girls.

"I dunno," Madoka looked at her wristwatch. "It's getting kinda late, and the blackout will start in a few hours. You sure we'll have enough time to do everything?"

"Yeah, I still want to hit the karaoke," Sakurako pouted.

"But I need to buy myself a new skirt now," Misa pointed down at the stain on her lap. "I'm not walking all the way back home with this!"

"It's just a simple stain..." Satomi said. "I get much worse ones on my clothes all the time, and yet I don't just throw them away..."

Misa gave her a brief condescending look. "No offense, Prof, but... some of us do have a social life to keep."

Hakase merely shrugged it off. "To each one with their priorities."

"Right," Misa said in the same tone.

Madoka rasped to break the sudden ice. "I have an idea...! Since we're so short in time, why don't we split in groups and have fun our own separate ways before going back home? We always can spend more time all together next week!"

"We can?" Chisame scowled.

"Ah, ha ha ha, of course we can..." Negi laughed stiffly to try and soften the blow of her bluntness. "Since we're on a short schedule, it's the best thing we can do..."

"Cool!" Misa grabbed him by an arm again. "Then you and me will go shopping for the rest of the afternoon!"

"N-Naturally, Kakizaki-san..." he agreed, still feeling guilty about Chamo's faux pas.

"Well, well!" Madoka said perhaps a bit too loud. "Then what if you come to the fair with me, Asuna-chan, Chisame-chan?"

"Us?" Chisame blinked.

"Why exactly us?" Asuna asked.

Kugimiya forced a wide grin as she wrapped an arm around each one's shoulders, nearly tugging them along with herself. "Because why not, dummies?" she chuckled. "C'mon, c'mon, don't tell me you're afraid of rollercoasters!"

Asuna brightened up. "I love rollercoasters! Have they added one to the local fair?"

"Last month," the black haired cheerleader nodded.

"Then let's go!" Kagurazaka enthused.

"I don't like fairs that much..." Chisame began to protest.

"All the more reason for us to change your mind," Madoka insisted, now giving her a discreet 'Just play along, you idiot!' glare. "Come on, you won't regret it!"

"But... But where does that leave us?" Hakase doubted.

"You can go with Sakurako to the karaoke if you want," Misa proposed.

"But I've never been at a karaoke bar," Satomi lamely offered.

"There always must be a first time for everything," Misa pressed on.

Sakurako had her eyes very open, and a small trickle of sweat ran down her forehead. "R-Really, if Prof-chan doesn't want to go—"

Satomi paused at that, looking at the normally bubbly girl and feeling a tingle of something strange and unusual inside of herself. To determine exactly what it was, she attempted to compare it to other feelings she had gone through in the past, finally settling with a comparison with what she felt the time she blew the laboratory's roof off with an experimental rocket launcher.

Ah. Guilt.

"It's... It's not like I don't want to go with you..." she fumbled to find the right words. "It's just I... don't feel comfortable singing and doing such things..."

"D-Don't be silly!" Sakurako tried to laugh. "You have a very cute voice! It sounds like Kadowaki Mai's!"

"Who is that?" Hakase asked.

Misa chuckled while pulling Negi and Chamo along. "Well, it's better if we don't waste more time! We'll meet back at the Academy! And don't worry, Chisame-chan, I'll deliver Negi-kun right back at your door!"

"You'd better," Chisame mumbled under her breath.

"See you later, girls!" Negi waved a hand at them. "Please, return home early, okay?"

"The earlier we go, the earlier we'll finish, right?" Madoka chuckled, nearly dragging Asuna and Chisame along with herself in the opposite direction before pausing to give Hakase a wink. "Take good care of our Sakurako-chan, Prof!"

Satomi pointed at herself with a finger, incredulously. "Me?"

Next to her, Sakurako had fallen into a rather unusual for her silence, crossing her arms behind her back. As Madoka pulled the other two teens down the street despite Chisame's protests, she warily tilted her eyes towards Hakase. "So, um... You really sure you want to do this?"

Satomi sighed and wiped her glasses with a tissue. "Apparently I don't have an option, do I?"

Sakurako lowered her head a bit. "We can do anything else you want..."

Hakase pondered the offer, but then she caught glimpse of Shiina's oddly subdued expression, and for some reason, she felt buying spare parts was not that monumentally important for the time being. "I... I want to go to the karaoke," she forced herself to say.

Apparently Sakurako bought it, judging from the return of her standard huge smile. "You do? Oh, that's just wonderful!"

Happily, she grabbed her by a hand and guided her down another boulevard. "The best karaoke bar I know is this way! I'm sure you'll love it!"

"Ah-hah," the teen genius said with resignation.

Vaguely, she wondered if the cheerleaders knew any way of leading people around that didn't involve dragging them off.