Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction ❯ Miscalculation ❯ Chapter 19

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” worried the girl. “She's really cross about people trespassing, you know,” she warned her friends.

 

“It's fine,” insisted the leader, waving her hand. “They are having a club meeting in there, so they will be busy with other things, and that will give us the chance to check out the club and see what it is they do that is so secret,” the leader explained. Her three companions exchanged looks.

 

“I don't know,” said the tallest of the group, “I'm with Makie on this one. Something about this just feels…dangerous,” the girl said, suppressing a shiver.

 

“What's dangerous?” asked the leader, clearly not bothered by the nay-saying from her friends. “At most, they will just yell at us for interrupting their club,” she explained.

 

“Maybe the others, but Eva is…” the smallest of the group waved a hand, unsure of the right words of.

 

“Eva's smaller than you, Ako,” the leader sniffed dismissively. Ako looked at the other two, seeing that they shared her unease around the small blonde. None of them were sure where that feeling had come from, but it was there.

 

“Yuna, maybe we should just forget this idea,” Akira tried again. Yuna shook her head.

 

“No way!” insisted the girl. “If class rep is paying me to snoop around, then something is going on,” she explained, looking through the bushes to see if any lights were on in the cabin Eva lived in.

 

“Wait,” said Akira, frowning, “Ayaka is paying you?” Yuna froze, realizing her mistake.

 

“Um,” Yuna gulped.

 

“What is she paying you to snoop for?” wondered Ako.

 

“And how much is she paying you?” chimed in Makie.

 

“I…uh…just remembered I forgot to run an errand,” Yuna said, bolting. Makie flicked her wrist, her gymnastic ribbon flipping into her hand.

 

“Get back here and answer the question!” Makie demanded, lashing out with her ribbon, the material snagging Yuna's ankle and tripping her. Akira moved over to grab Yuna's arm.

 

Once Makie released her ribbon, Akira pulled the basketball girl back over to the other two members of their clique. “Now, what were talking about a minute ago?” Akira asked, not releasing the arm of her friend.

 

“Nothing, really!” promised Yuna falsely. “Ayaka was just curious about what the club was doing, and asked me snoop a little. I did, and she gave me some money for my trouble.”

 

“That sounds suspicious,” noted Ako.

 

“Wouldn't she have gone to Asakura for something like that?” Makie asked.

 

“She can't,” Yuna shrugged. “Asakura is in the club.”

 

“She is?” wondered Akira. “That's kind of surprising,” noted the swimmer, “considering that she never showed any interest in any club.

 

“Too much of her time is devoted to spying,” laughed Ako. All the girls shared a smile at that comment.

 

“What did class rep want you to find out?” Akira brought the conversation back on track.

 

“Just what kind of club it is, really,” Yuna shrugged. “She is curious about it because of the way the members act.”

 

“Hmm,” mused Ako, “they do act different than they did before, don't they?” she thought out loud.

 

“And the club is comprised of some really strange members,” Makie offered. “I could see Kaede or Chisame in that kind of club; or even Ku and Asuna. But Nodoka, Yue and Asakura are in it, as well as the others. What sort of club would draw such different people together?”

 

“We can find out,” suggested Yuna, tugging her shoulder free of Akira's forgotten grip and digging in her skirt's waistband for a moment before pulling free her `souvenir' from the Mahora Festival closing game. Brandishing the magical pistol, she grinned at her three friends. “Let's go find out what they are doing!” she proclaimed, hurrying toward the cabin. For a moment, the other three members of the sports club group watched her go.

 

“She is still waving that thing around,” sighed Akira.

 

“Can she even reload it now?” wondered Ako, since the recharging circles were gone.

 

“Do you think she would care?” asked Makie. Blinking, the three of them hurried after Yuna, trying to stop her before she could enter the cabin.

 

From the edge of the woods, a pair of pale blue eyes watched the four dispassionately.

 

-

 

“Here, Ayaka,” said Konoka, offering the absolutely exhausted blonde a cold, wet towel. “It doesn't hurt any more, right?” she asked. She had just healed the blonde for the tenth time in an hour just before leaving to get the cool, wet cloth for the blonde.

 

“No, it doesn't hurt any more,” Ayaka panted. Now if only I weren't so exhausted, she thought sourly, weakly managing to prop herself up enough to watch the girls in the Wings continue to spar. She had thought she had been prepared, given her experience with the family art, but it had been painfully - embarrassingly - obvious that she might as well have been a complete novice when it came to the front line girls in the White Wings.

 

Asuna had, just as she had before, wiped the floor with her without any sign of effort. Konoka had healed her, and she had found herself facing Ku. She had felt pretty good about her chances, since she was aware that Ku was not the smartest girl in the class. As Konoka had healed her again, she had spotted the flaw in her logic: she wasn't trying to score higher on a test against Ku, but rather trying to keep a dedicated fighter with strange abilities from shattering her bones - and brains didn't count as much there as she had thought they had.

 

After she caught her breath, she had decided to see if Setsuna might not be a better match for her; without her sword of course. Konoka had explained to Ayaka as she healed the blonde yet again that while her Set-chan was a master of the sword, she was also an accomplished unarmed combatant. Ayaka had not understood what Konoka had meant she said that Set-chan hadn't even used her special ability. To Ayaka's dismay, Asuna had told her to work with Kaede on her evasion skills.

 

While she had heard the rumors from the year before that Kaede was some sort of ninja, and she had seen for herself some unexplainable abilities in the Tournament, Ayaka was certain that there wasn't any real basis for her classmate to be a real ninja. When she came to, Konoka checking her over for any more wounds to heal, she made a mental note not to ever get the tall girl mad at her. Indeed, even when Kaede apologized for getting carried away when working with her because she was only a chunin ninja, the blonde had shuddered to consider just how powerful the tall girl might get as she advanced to whatever station or level was above her current level.

 

Hearing Kotaro making fun of her lack of results, Ayaka had decided that there was precious little reason she couldn't put the ruffian in his place. While she had found some initial success - success by the measure of not being maimed right away - she discovered that Kotaro was toying with her, only dodging, deflecting and countering her attacks instead of actively pressing his own attacks. The fact that he was grinning insolently at her the entire time worked her up into a royal fit. It wasn't until Konoka was healing her flesh wounds that she learned that Kotaro was the regular sparring partner for Kaede.

 

Sulking at her total defeat by the members of the club, she had spotted some of the second line members watching the sparring match. After hearing Haruna yell that she could do better herself, Ayaka challenged the mangaka to a match. To her surprise, Haruna agreed, activating her card. The problem, Yue explained to her once she calmed down and came out of hiding, was that Haruna's artifact manifested whatever she drew, and Haruna was, well, a freak and a pervert, which resulted in Ayaka having nearly been raped by a tentacle monster. Had it not been for Kaede and Ku stepping in, she would have lost her cherished virginity to some disgusting hentai manga B-grade villain instead of her princely Negi.

 

Desperate to salvage some sort of personal dignity, she had sought to spar with Yue, only to be told flat out that Yue was not a physical combatant. Neither were Chisame, Kazumi, Nodoka, Konoka or Sayo. Negi had offered to spar with her, and she had nearly swooned, leaping at the offer before Asuna could intervene. It had disturbed her some when she noticed that Asuna made no attempt to intervene, only telling Negi to fight like he was sparring with her. Ayaka had realized her mistake too late. Konoka had healed her yet again, nodding and sympathizing with the glum class rep as she mourned her oversight. She had seen Negi give - and take - a hell of a pounding at the Tournament, and there was absolutely no reason to think that he hadn't improved infinitely since then.

 

Natsumi was watching the sparring as well. With Ayaka not about to volunteer for another ass-kicking, she silently watched the fighters practice. Ku and Kaede were working together, going after Setsuna and Asuna, while Kotaro and Negi were demolishing the landscape in some sort of juvenile game of martial-arts horse. When Setsuna suddenly sprouted wings and leapt into the air, Ayaka had gasped.

 

“Are you beginning to understand, Ayaka?” came a cool, mocking voice from behind the blonde.

 

“Hi, Eva,” Konoka said casually. The mistress of the resort had come to see the group, Chachamaru behind her.

 

“I think I am,” Ayaka said.

 

“Wishing you had said `no'?” the small blonde asked, a trace of spite in her voice. Ayaka's lips tightened.

 

“I won't quit,” she said resolutely. “This is really no worse than the first time I tried riding a horse,” she added. Eva smiled a sharp-toothed smile.

 

“We will see about that,” the small blonde muttered sardonically. Ayaka frowned.

 

“So, are you a fighter or a support member?” asked the larger blonde. Eva's lips curved slightly.

 

“Ayaka, don't,” warned Chisame. Eva glared at her, and the girl shut up.

 

“Do you want to find out?” asked Eva. Ayaka opened her mouth, but before she spoke, her eyes narrowed slightly.

 

“No, I don't think so,” she said calmly, settling back down. Eva snorted.

 

“Coward,” she muttered, “but a smart coward,” she added. “Negi!” she yelled, the young man hurrying over.

 

“Yes, master?” he asked her. She crooked a finger at him.

 

“Come with me,” she said, spinning on her bare heel and moving off toward the stairs that led up to the main level of the Resort's hub. The group was sparring on the wide grassy area beneath the high waterfall that bordered the hub's building. “The rest of you, knock it off, get bathed and turn in; tomorrow you will be learning new skills,” she said. The group groaned as one.

 

Konoka swiftly healed up the injuries as the fighters moved past her, heading for the baths and the bedroom. “Where is Eva taking Negi?” asked Ayaka. Asuna shrugged.

 

“Don't know,” she said, “but she does this from time to time,” explained Asuna.

 

“She might be feeding off him again,” noted Kazumi. Asuna scowled, which only made Kazumi giggle.

 

“Feeding off him?” echoed Ayaka. “What do you mean?”

 

“Eva is a vampiress,” said Asuna, “figure it out.”

 

“Negi allows her to drink his blood?!” sputtered Ayaka a moment later. “Negi! I will…!” she began, only to have Asuna grab her.

 

“No, actually you won't,” said the girl. “If you try to interfere, Eva'll do something to you that you can't even image,” warned the girl.

 

“But…!”

 

“Besides, she won't hurt him,” chimed in Konoka. “Sure, she's a hard case, but I'm sure that she isn't as bad as she once was,” the girl insisted.

 

“And she hasn't hurt us when she feeds,” noted Yue, fighting a blush as she recalled what happened when Eva had drank her blood.

 

“Eva feeds off you as well?” gaped Ayaka. Asuna nodded.

 

“And if you are serious about being one of us, she will probably do the same to you,” Asuna replied. “Don't worry; it doesn't hurt,” she added.

 

Ayaka was mumbling to herself as Asuna helped her up the stairs, it being obvious to the group that Ayaka was having a small amount of trouble accepting all the new information they had been bombarding her with. It wasn't until they reached the bathing room that she snapped out of it.

 

“This is almost as big as the bath at the dorm,” breathed the blonde.

 

“And a lot more decadent, too,” grinned Haruna. “Oh! Hey, guys, check this out!” she eagerly called, opening her artifact and brushing a page.

 

“That better not be a tentacle monster or some of your bishie yaoi characters,” warned Asuna. Haruna shook her head as the book summoned the characters.

 

“They're not,” she calmed the group. “But I finished my bath attendants for us,” she gloated, a half dozen or so naked Negis filling the room, along with an equal number of Kotaro-based young men.

 

“How may we serve you, mistresses?” the summoned constructs asked, bowing to the girls. A strangled moan caused the others to look at Ayaka, who had fainted at the sight, her nose fountaining blood.

 

-

 

Eva transported Negi to one of her private living quarters that were scattered throughout the Resort. Even though she had given over the Resort to the Wings, she still maintained several private areas for her own uses. One of them was her library - housed in the core of the main column at the original Resort - another was her private bedroom and bath area in the hub of the Resort. The girls and Negi were pretty sure that she had an entire dome hidden somewhere, but they had yet to find out where such a `hidden' dome might be; or even if it existed in the first place.

 

Looking around, Negi found himself looking at a range of low, rolling hills, covered in grasses and stands of trees, completely surrounding a familiar open-sided building. A warm breeze full of the scent of flowers blew in from the valleys, while birds sang occasionally from somewhere out of sight. He had not seen a dome like this one, though it could be tucked into one of the bigger domes or hidden by a simple spell. Eva moved to the center of the building, where a large, faintly-steaming soaking pool abutted a smaller sunken tub.

 

His mistress casually slipped off her gauzy wrap, leaving her naked. Using a minor spell, Eva opened a valve on a pipe in the ceiling, and water poured into the small tub. “Let's get cleaned up while we talk,” Eva said, moving over to a small steel and stone rack. Pulling supplies from there, she moved back to the tub, which was rapidly filling. Glancing at Negi, she saw he was hesitating. “Now, boy!” she snapped.

 

“Y…yes!” he replied, quickly stripping as well. In mere moments, he was stepping into a warm tub with his master. Eva leisurely washed herself with some soft, scented soap, humming quietly to herself. Negi accepted a different - harder - bar of soap and began to wash himself.

 

“You have anything you want to ask me?” smiled Eva.

 

“Where were you the last couple of days?” he asked her directly. Eva snickered, lunging over so she was face to face with him, her nose briefly touching his.

 

“Did you miss me?” she purred.

 

“Well, um, a little,” Negi admitted. “We were worried about you, you know?” he tried to explain. Eva stared into his eyes for moment before sitting back.

 

“If anyone needs idiots like you bunch worrying about them, it's you!” she said. “I have been taking care of myself for centuries!” she added. Negi didn't say anything in response to that. Minutes passed.

 

“So, where were you?” he wondered. Eva studied him.

 

“I was working on something,” she said, looking away. Seeing that he was done washing, she all but tossed him into the warm pool, pulling the ornate carved stopper in the bottom of the tub as she climbed out. Stepping into the pool with Negi, she settled in next to him.

 

“What is your plan for the girls?” asked Eva of her pupil. Negi blinked.

 

“My plan?” he asked. Eva nodded.

 

“What do you plan to do? Or do you have no idea what to do?” she asked him.

 

“I'm going to become the greatest magi the world has ever seen!” Negi stated firmly. Eva looked at him, her expression bemused.

 

“Is that all?”

 

Negi frowned. “What do you mean, `is that all?' Isn't that enough?” he wondered. Eva snorted.

 

“You are such a child at times,” sighed the vampiress. “What about Fate? Or your father?” she pressed. At the mention of the white-haired youth who had damn near killed him and his partners in Kyoto, Negi's eyes narrowed, his lips tightening.

 

“If I run into him again, I'll beat him down,” he said. Eva didn't seem to take his proclamation seriously.

 

“You will need better skills for that, or all you will do is repeat you pathetic performance against him,” Eva stated. Negi didn't argue, though his expression showed that he didn't necessarily agree with her assessment. “You will also need people around you who have skills,” Eva continued after a momentary pause.

 

“I know,” he said quietly. “That's why we are practicing so hard,” he pointed out. Eva nodded.

 

“I know,” she said. “But you need to decide where you are going with your girls, because until you decide that, you are mostly wasting time here,” the blonde said. Negi blinked at her.

 

“What do you mean?” he wondered. Eva looked away.

 

“If you don't plan on keeping them, you need to start focusing on those you do plan to keep,” she said. “And if you plan to keep them, you will need to treat them like partners, instead of students,” said the blonde.

 

“I'm not sure…” began Negi. Eva waved it off.

 

“We'll talk about that later,” she said. “Do you have any thoughts about how you will go about learning what your father was doing when he disappeared?” wondered the blonde.

 

“Yes,” Negi said, “I learned a little bit of what he was doing when we went to Kyoto, and we have found some pieces here and there doing research,” said Negi. “Albireo told me a little as well…” Eva growled.

 

“Don't mention him in my Resort!” she spat. Negi had been around her enough to know that she was irritated rather than angry.

 

“Ok,” he agreed meekly. Eva frowned, but refrained from any other comments about that. “So, um, I think I might go to the magic country before long, to look into some things,” he suggested. “And I haven't seen Nekane or Anya for a long time, so…”

 

“I see,” said Eva, staring at the ceiling.

 

“Mistress?” he asked her, not sure what she was thinking.

 

“About Ayaka and Natsumi,” Eva said abruptly, changing the topic, “you should form Pactios with them before too long,” she said, climbing out of the warm pool, pulling Negi with her. Toweling off, she moved toward one of the piles of pillows she favored for a bed in the Resort. “Tomorrow, I will evaluate them myself. At the least, Ayaka could prove to be useful in other ways than combat, though I have some small hope for her as a combatant,” Eva said.

 

“And Natsumi?” wondered Negi, being pulled down to Eva's bed.

 

“She didn't come here for you,” leered Eva, “but you might as well use her since she is here.”

 

“What do you mean, she didn't come here for me?” wondered Negi, finding himself on his back, Eva lying on top of him.

 

“If you plan to grow in strength and hunt Fate, you really should give some thought to adding to the Wings,” Eva said, ignoring his attempts to question her about Natsumi. “Your current team isn't very balanced, you know,” she added.

 

“What do you…?” Negi was cut off as Eva kissed him.

 

“Enough,” she said when she broke the kiss. “You are with me tonight, my apprentice,” whispered the girl, kissing him again.