All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

"It just ain't right," Ranma finally commented.

"Shut up. Just shut up," Lelouch was still walking in circles around the room, slender arms crossed behind his back, his brow curved in a terrifying expression. "Let me think. There must be a way out. Perhaps I could find a way to Geass us all at the same time so we can forget him..."

"Might I suggest mass suicide? Again?" Itoshiki hopefully proposed.

"I dunno. Not until we have ran out of all other options," Otaru sighed slumping down into his chair. "I... I wonder if this is how Hanagata feels..."

Ataru had began to sob quietly. "I... I refuse to believe this is happening to me...!!"

"Maybe..." Keiichi shyly mused in a barely audible voice, "Maybe it isn't such a bad thing after all..."

The other men all gave him a horrified stare.

"I mean," he blushed, "Bell, Urd, Skuld and me have been talking about it, and maybe it could work if we—"

"STOP!" Touma held a hand up. "Not a single word more! Or I swear I'll punch you into the next postal code!"

Then Rito waltzed in in Riko form. "Everyone! I have taken a decision! I can't take it anymore! I'm going to stop resisting!"

Everyone but Van facefaulted. The stoic and tall man in black, however, merely sneered. "Idiots..."

"It's easy for you to say!" Ranma grabbed him and began to shake him around. "You're freakin' immune! Tell us how to do it! Tell us!!"

"... I still mourn over my long dead wife."

"That's it!" Itoshiki had a flash of inspiration. "To save our futures, we must pathetically cling to our pasts! Of course! The answer was always before us!"

Then, however, everyone paused when Negi walked in shuffling a deck of cards around, with a good natured smile. "Good evening, guys! Ready for tonight's game?"

"... Yes," Itoshiki quickly nodded.

"Naturally," Lelouch cleared his throat and took his own seat.

"Here, you can sit next to me," Keiichi offered the Welsh boy a chair.

Van only grunted. Being the Only Sane Man around was so hard.

Especially now Rito had started to apparently take a page from Lala's book, even if clumsily, and awkwardly started to hug Negi against his... her... chest in a way that wildly veered between the manly brothership and the embarrassed seduction.

And just like always, the idiotic boy just didn't get it.

Ranma, however, had angrily stalked to the kitchen for cold water. Two could play that same game.

"Can I see if it works?"

Offended (though not really) he said, "Of course it works! Help me stand it in this vice, and aim it at that chair."

Makie lifted it into the vice; the Brain inserted the battery pack, set the switch on the body to 'Suck' and hit the power.

Capacitors whined, then a yellow beam shot out of the nozzle and struck the chair; with a pop of inrushing air, it shrunk down to doll-house size.

"YES! Now witness the firepower of this fully-armed and operational battlestation!", cried the Brain.

"What?"

Embarrassed, he looked down at his feet. "Er... *cough*... I, er, always wanted... to say that."

Makie giggled. It was kind of cute to see him act all abashed.

Recovering his poise, he directed Makie to remove the GELRDT ("Okay, I have the Gerrdut... Gelurdoot... can't we call it a shrink ray, Brain-sama?" "...Fine.") from the vice and try to restore the shrunken chair.

Makie flipped it to 'Blow', aimed and fired. With a crack/whoosh, it grew to its original proportions. "Hooray! Hail Il Palazzo!"

The Brain looked confused.

"Hehehe - I felt like joining in."

"Er, well... thank you. Now come, child! We must get back to the room and prepare for stage two before the ogre of the dormitory awakens!"

Makie put the shrink ray into her pack while Brain climbed to her shoulder. "Hinata-san isn't an ogre, she's nice! Just a little... protective, that's all."

"If you say so."

They hurried out and back to the dorm.

"Tsk, you have no guts!" Asuna, fresh like a rose, shook her head disapprovingly.

"No, I think I lost them at that highest turn up there," the girl with glasses sat down to rest on a bench. The annoying music blaring all around them bothered her, not knowing where would Misa drag Sensei bothered her, but above it all, her revolting stomach bothered her. All that junk food she had devoured at the theater was taking its revanche.

Madoka sat down next to her, fanning her with a magazine she had bought before entering the fair. "Geez, Chisame, it wasn't that bad. Since when hadn't you rode a rollercoaster?"

The bespectacled girl sighed. Not since that time with Sora, when they were children...

"It's been a while," she simply said.

"I can say," Asuna sat down at her other side, extending her legs ahead in a careless way. She looked up at the sky, her hair bells softly tingling in the breeze. After a brief silence, she said, "How long before the blackout?"

Madoka looked at her wristwatch. "Lemme see. It starts at eight, right? Three hours from now on."

"Then maybe we should get back already," Asuna mused.

"I agree," Chisame nodded, feeling somewhat better now, at least physically. "I've had enough 'fun' for a day; I only want to tuck myself in bed and sleep for hours."

"Ditto here," Asuna added. "I have newspaper duty early tomorrow."

"Newspaper duty?" her brown haired classmate asked.

"Hadn't I ever told you? I have a job as a papergirl. It helps me to pay my studies," the redhead answered.

Chisame now remembered Asuna was an orphan, or at least she thought she was. Where had she heard it? Well, that didn't matter; what mattered was, should she say something now? Asuna was smiling in a distant, nearly nostalgic and resignated way, looking past the park's crowd and into the distance.

"Someday, I'll repay the Dean all he's done for me," she said. "I don't even know why has he bothered to help me, but he has given me pretty much everything. From paying my tuitions to letting me live with Konoka. So I'm saving as much as I can to make up for it."

The other two girls just watched her without finding the right words, until Asuna finally sighed.

"Sorry. I didn't want to bother you with my life story!"

"It's no bother, Asuna-chan!" Madoka tried to laugh, patting her on a shoulder. She tood up right afterwards. "Then let's get back home! Everyone else will find their own way back!"

"I wouldn't be so sure in Sensei and Hakase's cases," Chisame exhaled while following the two more outgoing teenagers. "She gets lost anywhere but at a lab, and he's as scatterbrained as they come."

"C'mon, c'mon!" Kugimiya chided her. "Don'tcha trust Misa and Sakurako?"

Chisame gave her a glare. "You live with them. Honestly, do you?"

Madoka blinked before laughing again. "You got me there! But really, inane as they are, they still are good and reliable people."

"Hmmmm," Chisame looked aside.

They kept on walking, now in silence, since Madoka's mood seemed to have sunk down a little after that. Until she finally said quietly, "I guess you deserve to know."

"To know what?" Asuna asked.

"No, not you, her," the cheerleader pointed to Hasegawa. "Look, Chisame, you do care about Hakase, right?"

Chisame grimaced. "What do you mean with that?"

"I mean, you live together, you are always helping her with her clothes. No doubt you must cook for her too, seeing how bad she's at Home Economics. It's like taking care of a child, right?" Madoka questioned.

"Now that you mention it, yes, my life's like a daycare center lately," Hasegawa had to admit. "Your point?"

"Well, not anyone would put up with that. Hell, I wouldn't do it, and I have no shortage of headaches looking after Sakurako and Misa, either," she conceded. "So I know you really must care about her. Other people may say you're stuck-up and arrogant, but I can respect you for what you are..."

Chisame narrowed her eyes. "WHO does say that?"

Madoka chuckled nervously. "W-Well, that's not to be discussed either now or here...!" she said, while behind Chisame, Asuna rolled her mismatched eyes around. The cheerleader grew serious. "What matters is, from one long suffering babysitter to another, I can understand your feelings. And I don't think you deserve being left in the dark about this."

"About what?" Hasegawa pressed on.

Madoka sighed. "Isn't it obvious? You must have seen how Sakurako was about going to the karaoke with Hakase. And you must have seen how she has been looking at her at classes, too! Chisame, Sakurako is a simple person, but she can be very hard to understand at times. I have no idea why does she feels that way, but—"

"Wait a moment," Chisame interrupted her.

Even Asuna was catching on. "You don't mean—!"

Madoka nodded reluctantly. "Yeah. That's why Misa and me set her up to go with her. We are pretty sure she likes Hakase."