Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction ❯ Miscalculation ❯ Chapter 27

“Why do I have to play tour guide?” grumbled Kotaro as he and Ayaka teleported onto the pattern in the alpine dome. He had been told to show Ayaka and Natsumi around while Eva talked with some of the Wing girls, the rest breaking up into groups. Kaede and Ku had headed for the original dome to try out some new technique that Ku had developed, and he had been eager to see the technique. Ku was not the champion of the entire marital arts community at Mahora for now reason, after all.

 

Instead, he had been given the job he had now: showing the two newest members around the domes. Eva had informed him that he had to teach them the layout and how to work the teleportation system by the time she was done talking with the girls she had selected from the group. He bitched and grumbled, but a steady stare from Eva shut him up. He had detected a shift in the vampiress's scent of late, and his instincts warned him that she was not to be provoked lightly. So, he had played tour guide.

 

“I'm sorry you are having to babysit us,” Natsumi offered him. Kotaro blinked.

 

“It's nothing, Nat-chan,” he waved it off. “You do need to be able to find your way around and work the teleportation system, after all,” he explained.

 

“I don't see why Negi couldn't have shown me around,” Ayaka complained. “Instead of my Negi, I am stuck with this mongrel,” she sniped, sniffing disdainfully in Kotaro's general direction. Why did Eva have Negi go with Chachamaru and Sayo-chan? wondered Ayaka. Asuna hadn't said much more than to do what Eva said, but she did wonder what the three were going to be doing. It's something to do with this magic business, but what? wondered the blonde.

 

“Mongrel?” came back Kotaro's dry voice. Ayaka suddenly tumbled to the rich, deep, soft grass that surrounded the transport circle. “Better a mongrel than a prissy blonde,” he smirked, grinning insolently.

 

“Why you…!” hissed Ayaka, scrambling to her feet. “You tripped me!” she accused hotly.

 

“Yeah, I did,” he agreed. Ayaka slapped at him, but he dodged it with such ease that it infuriated her.

 

“Hold still,” hissed the blonde, swinging at him again. Kotaro blocked it negligently, still not even looking at her.

 

“Nah,” the wolf-boy declined the invitation. “Anyway, this is the alpine dome. It mimics the terrain in mountain ranges in Europe. It is a larger dome, so be careful not to get lost in here,” he lectured. “You saw the pattern for this circle, right?” he asked Natsumi. She nodded. “And you have learned the activation spell, right?” pressed Kotaro. Natsumi nodded, though she was unsure if it would work for her.

 

“Yes, we learned the words,” Ayaka snapped, having given up trying to smack Kotaro. The young man glanced at her.

 

“So if I left you here, you could get back alone?” he wondered innocently. Ayaka frowned.

 

“Sure I could,” she said, though her tone was not steady. Kotaro grinned.

 

“Good,” he purred. “See you back at the hub, then,” the young man said, vanishing as the words hung in the air. Ayaka and Natsumi frantically looked around for him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

 

“Kotaro, you get back here this instant!” screamed Ayaka. There was no reply, the wind in the pines the only sound. “Mutt,” she muttered. Looking at Natsumi, she smiled. “Nothing to worry about, Natsumi,” she soothed the nervous girl. “You know the spell, so we can just teleport back to the hub and then find Negi,” she explained her plan.

 

“But, will the spell work? Neither of us have those Pactio things, and I recall Yue saying that the spell has to be correctly cast, too. My pronunciation is a little off,” worried Natsumi. “But, you could cast it, right?” she asked hopefully. Ayaka gulped.

 

“I…might not recall the words correctly,” she said carefully. Natsumi blinked.

 

“You didn't memorize the spell?” Natsumi asked, unsure of how that made her feel.

 

“I memorized it,” replied Ayaka stiffly. “Mostly…” she muttered. If only Negi had been the one telling me, I would have committed each and every word to memory! thought the blonde. But when it is that rude, uncivilized Kotaro saying it… she sighed silently. “Why couldn't Negi give us this tour?” she asked aloud.

 

From behind a tree several dozen yards away, Kotaro watched and listened. He was sure that the two would figure something out, but he really enjoyed yanking Ayaka's chain. If you're going to play at this level, you have to pull your own weight, Ayaka, he thought. Can't quite figure out what Eva is thinking, letting her into the team, but Negi and the others seem to think it's a good idea, so maybe it is, he mused. The two women started back toward the teleportation circle. And really, Ayaka isn't hard on the eyes or anything, he mused, seeing the blonde, her hair tied back in a pony tail instead of her normal elegant curls, explain to Natsumi her plan. Dressed in a tee shirt and shorts, she wasn't hard to look at.

 

Natsumi was likewise wearing shorts and a tee shirt, which was something of the Wings' uniform in the Resort when not relaxing in the hub. Kotaro found himself smiling at the girl. It's probably a good thing that she joined us, he reflected. She's already showing a lot more determination and self-confidence. Abruptly, he thought about what had occurred between the two of them. Frowning, he wondered if he should talk to her about it or not. Women are complicated, he thought, following them without being seen. Better wait for her to give me some sign she wants to talk about it, he nodded to himself.

 

The pair of new recruits were at the teleportation circle, trying to get the spell working. Kotaro spotted the problem. The two were mispronouncing two key words, so the circle wasn't working right. He knew that Eva usually had the transportation system set for easy use, but he had discovered the very first jump that she had changed the frame of the spell so the users had to be more precise. Doubtlessly a test for these two, since the rest of us can still use it without much effort, he thought.

 

His musing was cut short by a flash from the circle. Focusing back on the teleportation ring, he saw that the two were gone. Blinking, he dashed to the circle and checked the transit log. Eva's inter-Resort teleportation circles had a small sub-spell that illuminated the target icon with a golden glow, as well as the originating icon with a purple glow. Seeing the icons illuminated, he sighed. “Missed the target, but I guess it's an improvement,” he shrugged, following the two. “This should be interesting,” he grinned.

 

The dome they had mistakenly jumped to was the water dome. The only land was the stone circle that you arrived in. Everything else was sea. Why Eva had made a dome like that he couldn't understand, but it was occasionally fun to spar there. Arriving at the dome, he landed on the narrow stones of the circle easily, spotting Ayaka and Natsumi holding on to the stones of the circle. Smiling at them, Kotaro moved around to where they were, pulling up first Natsumi, then Ayaka. “As you can see, not all the domes are land. There is this one and a couple others that are very dangerous to just blunder into,” lectured the young man.

 

“We could have drowned!” Ayaka huffed, squeezing water out of her long pony tail. Kotaro shrugged.

 

“Being in the Wings is dangerous sometimes,” was all he would say on that matter. “Be glad you didn't teleport to the air dome,” he added. That dome was entirely empty, the stone circle floating in the center of the vast area. Setsuna liked that dome for obvious reasons, but of late, some of the other girls had been practicing there, working on aerial moves and techniques.

 

“I'm beginning to understand that,” Ayaka observed. The steady, strong breeze off the seemingly-endless water blew over the three, not cold, but not warm, either; especially when totally soaked in water like the two girls. A mild chop broke over the stones of the circle. Kotaro knew that the sea here was usually fairly mild, but some heavy seas could also happen from time to time, part of the weather spell that each dome had.

 

“We should probably go,” Kotaro said, seeing Natsumi shiver a little, her white tee shirt nearly see-through. His eyes noticed that her nipples were hard. Probably from the cold, he thought. Glancing at Ayaka, he saw that her shirt was see-through as well, her nipples also hard, creating two hard peaks on her chest. Maybe somewhere warm, decided the young man. “Pay attention this time,” he said, activating the spell and sending the three of them to another dome.

 

Arriving, the two soaked girls were greeted with a hot, dry, gritty wind of a landscape of shifting sand. Kotaro shaded his eyes. “Desert dome, obviously,” he remarked. “Looks like a small sand storm is coming in,” he added. Hearing sputtering and spitting from beside him, he found that the airborne sand and dust was sticking to Ayaka and Natsumi's wet clothes and hair. “You should get out of those wet clothes and let them dry,” he noted.

 

“We didn't bring anything extra with us,” Natsumi replied. Kotaro shrugged.

 

“Don't need anything extra, really,” he replied. “Take them off, wring the water out, and let them dry for a bit, and you're good to go,” explained the young man. “The sand doesn't stick if you dry off.”

 

Grumbling, Ayaka swiftly stripped off her soaked clothes, wringing out her tee shirt before skinning off her shorts and wringing them out as well. Natsumi did the same beside her. “This sand is still sticking to me,” complained Ayaka. Kotaro nodded.

 

“Because you are still wearing wet clothes,” he replied. Ayaka growled in annoyance before unhooking her bra and removing it, wringing water from the garment. Natsumi did the same, blushing slightly as she undressed. “Um, here, Nat-chan,” Kotaro said, handing her his dry shirt. She blushed a little more, slipping into the shirt.

 

“Thanks,” she murmured. Ayaka pulled off her panties, wringing them out as well. As the bone-dry wind blew over her body, she could feel the moisture being sucked away, leaving her dry in moments. And as Kotaro had said, the sand didn't stick to her nearly as much; though it was caking up on her clothes pretty good.

 

Seeing Natsumi wearing Kotaro's shirt, she frowned. When she looked at the young man, she noticed that he had a pretty good physique. Not as good as her Negi, of course, but still not bad. Wonder why I didn't notice it before? she wondered. She lived in the same room as the guy, but had never really looked at him before. Seeing his black-with white-tip tail hanging out of the back of his shorts, she pursed her lips. I wonder what that feels like? she asked herself.

 

-

 

Chachamaru studied Sayo intently. “Almost full manifestation,” she observed. Negi frowned. He had been attempting a spell that Eva had told him about. It might give Sayo-chan a physical form here in the Resort, but so far, it was not working correctly. The ghost seemed eager to be able to have a physical presence again after so long a time without means of interacting with the `real' world.

 

“I don't know if this is going to work,” Negi admitted. “I'm casting it correctly, aren't I?” he asked the gynoid. Chachamaru nodded.

 

“The spell is being correctly cast,” confirmed the artificial girl. “I am not sure why it is not working. Perhaps it is something unforeseen about the subject,” postulated Chachamaru.

 

“Aw,” Sayo whined. “Isn't there anything you can do to fix it?” she begged Negi.

 

“I don't know, Sayo-chan,” he truthfully replied. “I'll see if I can read up on it; maybe ask Yue and Nodoka to chase down what they can about it, but I can't promise anything,” he explained.

 

“I…I want to be able to be with you all in the physical world,” sniffled Sayo. “Isn't there anything you can do, Negi?”

 

“Well,” Negi frowned, thinking. “Maybe you could possess something?” he suggested. Sayo blinked.

 

“Possess?” she wondered.

 

“That is not a bad idea,” Chachamaru chimed in. “I propose a test of this idea,” continued the partner of Eva. “I have a spare body at the hub. We should see if Sayo can possess the body. If she can possess it, I am sure that Mistress can arrange for a body matching Sayo's old one to be built by Hakase.”

 

“Really?!” squealed Sayo, clapping delightedly. “Can we try that right now?!” begged the ghost. Chachamaru nodded.

 

“Yes, we can,” she answered. The three of them moved to the circle, jumping to the hub. As they moved off the circle, they saw that the group that Eva had been talking to was just emerging from inside the hub's main building. The girls swiftly hurried over to Negi and the other two Wing members.

 

After a brief explanation of what they were going to try, the others wanted to tag along. With Eva not being around to rain on their parade, they all moved to a storage room. On a stone table they saw another Chachamaru. “My spare body,” Chachamaru said. Looking at the wall of the room, Asuna spotted Chachamaru's original body, carefully stored in a casing, along with what appeared to be spare bodies for Chachamaru's `sisters'.

 

“Eva keeps this many servants?” wondered Yue, looking at the spare bodies.

 

“No,” Chachamaru answered. “These are but spare bodies. They do not possess hearts,” explained the gynoid.

 

“Like Chachazero?” guessed Konoka. Chachamaru nodded.

 

“Chachazero is not like myself, in that she is not her own person; not completely, anyway. My sisters are closer to being alive than her, but I am the only one that is truly alive.”

 

“Because of the work of Chao, right?” Negi asked quietly. Chachazero nodded.

 

“Chao, Hakase and Eva finally found the way to make a doll live,” she said, a hand touching her chest. “I am not like you, but I have a heart and soul of my own,” the gynoid answered. At least, I think I do, she left unsaid.

 

“And our Sayo-chan is a soul without a body,” Kazumi smiled at her friend. “So, let's see if we can get her a body; at least one she can borrow,” amended the paparazzi.

 

“Ready to see if you can possess it?” asked Negi, smiling at Sayo.

 

“I…I will do my best!” promised the ghost. All the girls smiled at the shade, encouraging her.

 

“Ok, just let yourself flow into the body,” directed Negi. “I will try a spell to sensitize the body to possession; it might help you. Try to remember how a body felt, and project that onto the spare body.”

 

“Ok!” Sayo nodded, her form hovering over the spare body before sinking down, seemingly melting into the still form. Negi chanted softly, his staff levitating before him. After a few moments, he finished the spell.

 

“Well?” he asked Chachamaru, who was studying the body.

 

“I do not detect anything yet,” she replied quietly. The girls held their breath, watching the body intently.

 

“You can do it, Sayo-chan!” Kazumi murmured. A moment later, the group heard a soft clicking sound, which quickly died away. After a moment, the fingers on the body's hand twitched.

 

“The body has been activated,” Chachamaru reported. Slowly, the spare sat up, the eyes opening.

 

“Sayo-chan?” asked Kazumi.

 

“I…I can feel this!” squealed the body, the voice a little different from Sayo's voice. “I have a body again!” screamed the ghost, the body leaping off the table. The first thing she did was grab Negi in a bone-crushing hug, her lips sealing to his.

 

-

 

Kotaro blinked in surprise, finding himself looking at a familiar face; a face that shouldn't be in the Resort. “What are you doing here?” he asked suspiciously, eyeing the girl.

 

“Here? Where is here?” replied the girl, looking around.

 

“Yuna? What are you…?” began Ayaka, blinking at the sight of the sports club quad girls. From the desert dome, Kotaro had told them he would show them the `original resort', though neither Ayaka nor Natsumi had any idea what he meant by that remark. Using the teleportation circle, the three had found themselves looking at the four missing girls, who were being shepherded by Kaede and Ku.

 

“Class Rep?” Makie asked, her pink head poking around Yuna's side. “And Natsumi-chan? You're here, too?” she asked.

 

“Um, where is `here', anyway?” asked Ako.

 

“We're not in some foreign country, are we?” wondered Akira.

 

“You don't know where you are?” asked Kotaro.

 

“Kotaro, a word with you?” asked Kaede, tossing her head curtly toward the bridge that led back to the main column. “Stay here with Ayaka, girls,” Kaede said, tossing a hand toward the blonde. Kotaro stepped past the four, moving away from the group with Kaede and Ku. Stopping half-way between the two columns that formed the core structures of the original resort.

 

“What's up?” Kotaro got directly to the point. “What are they doing here?”

 

“We were just wondering that ourselves,” Kaede replied. “Negi was looking for them, but none of us thought to look here for them. Suppose they might have wandered in here like we did the first time we came here?”

 

“If they did that, they were in Eva's cabin,” Kotaro pointed out. “That isn't a good thing for them to have done.”

 

“Their memories seem a little messed up,” Ku observed. “They don't remember a thing about how they got here, or anything for the last few days in here.”

 

“Um, what do you think we should do?” Kotaro asked, looking back to see the four talking eagerly with Ayaka and Natsumi, who seemed to be uncertain about what to say.

 

“I'm not sure, really,” shrugged the ninja.

 

“We should talk to Negi before we take them anywhere,” Kotaro said firmly. “I don't want to piss off Eva if she's playing some game with them, and besides, we don't want to expose them to magic if they haven't put it together yet,” reasoned the young wolf boy.

 

“Speaking of that, how are Ayaka and Natsumi taking things?” grinned Kaede. Kotaro shrugged.

 

“Better than I thought,” he said negligently. “Don't know why we need the blonde idiot, though,” he added, his tone surly.

 

“Asuna and the others seem to be in favor of it,” shrugged Kaede. Flicking her fingers, she produced her Pactio card, touching the card to her forehead. “I'll ask Negi what he wants us to do about them,” she said, closing her eyes as she concentrated on telepathic communication with her partner.

 

“Ku, did you try your new technique yet?” asked Kotaro of the Chinese fighter. Ku Fei shook her head.

 

“No,” she said, “we got here and found our classmates here, so we haven't had a chance to test it yet,” explained the master martial artist.

 

“Good!” grinned Kotaro. “I wanted to see this new technique,” he explained. Ku hummed.

 

“It might be a bit advanced for your current level,” warned Ku. She might be Baka Ranger Yellow, but she had a gift for fighting that put her above Kotaro in terms of fighting ability.

 

“Won't know until I see it,” he huffed. “You planning on teaching it to Negi?” he guessed. Ku hummed.

 

“I might, if it works on Kaede,” she said.

 

“Hey, Negi wants us to…” began Kaede, her Pactio card tucked away again, but stopping as a flash came from the transport circle. The group of girls was gone, along with Ayaka and Natsumi.

 

“You don't think…” Ku wondered.

 

“Well, she and Natsumi do know the spell,” Kotaro added, feeling a shiver touch his spine.

 

“Didn't you tell them not to do anything?” asked Kaede. Kotaro blinked at the ninja who had been helping him level up.

 

“I thought that would be obvious,” he replied blandly.

 

“When it's Ayaka,” Ku shrugged. The three looked at each other.

 

“Damn,” they said in unison, running back to the circle and checking the destination glyph.

 

-

 

“Something wrong, Asuna?” asked Konoka, the healer leaning over to look up at Asuna's face as the girl frowned at the card in her hand. Blinking, Asuna focused on her roommate's face.

 

“Huh? Oh, I guess not,” Asuna said, her forefinger's nail tapping the card absently. Konoka studied Asuna's face, clearly not convinced. “Just kind of strange that a Pactio card popped into existence when Sayo-chan kissed Negi,” relented the bells-wearing primary partner of the warrior-mage. “Chamo wasn't there with his chalk for a Pactio circle, was he? So why did the card appear?” she asked.

 

“I don't know,” shrugged Konoka, not very concerned about it. “Maybe the magic density inside the Resort makes a circle unnecessary?” postulated the granddaughter of the dean of Mahora Academy. “We could ask Yue and Nodoka to find out,” she suggested.

 

“I guess it isn't a big deal,” sighed Asuna, looking at the card again. “She's kind of cute,” Asuna mused, smiling a little at the face of the card. Like all the Pactio cards, Sayo's bore a likeness of the Ministra. As with the others, it was customized to the partner, in this case, Sayo was almost a shadow within a darkened form of a body. It wasn't scary, but the facts of Sayo were clearly displayed. “I wonder if the Pactio is bound to the body she's possessed or if the card will transfer to her true form?” she asked aloud.

 

“I don't know,” Konoka replied, smiling easily. “Let's ask Yue and Nodoka,” she said firmly. Looking around, the two didn't see their head researchers anywhere. “Where did they go?” wondered Konoka.

 

“Eva took them aside as we were leaving the chamber, Ojou-sama,” Setsuna replied. The swordswoman had her wings out, her sheathed O Katana easily held in her off hand. Seeing the two girls smiling warmly at her, she fidgeted slightly. “What?” she asked.

 

“Your wings are so pretty, Set-chan!” squealed Konoka, her hands lovingly stroking Setsuna's snow-white feathers.

 

“The feel so good to pet,” Asuna added happily, mimicking Konoka's actions on Setsuna's other wing. “It's good that you're leaving them out more,” Asuna added.

 

Shivering at the sensations of the two stroking her wings, Setsuna tried to control her reactions to their touches. “It's…” she bit her lip to keep from moaning before continuing, “it's that I don't have to hide them here,” she offered weakly.

 

“You don't have to hide them at school, either,” Konoka said.

 

“Yeah,” agreed Asuna, “it's not like anyone at school would think anything of seeing your wings. At most, they would think it was really, really good cosplaying,” shrugged the girl, delicately stroking the edge of Setsuna's wing root, where the wing musculature and feathers blended into the soft, smooth white skin of the girl's back. The tip of Asuna's tongue slipped out from between her lips as she leaned closer to the half-bird-tribe demon girl.

 

“It's not…ah!...the other students,” panted Setsuna, Konoka's fingers combing through the long outer edge feathers of her wings as the brown-haired girl kissed Setsuna's neck. “There are...” she bit her lip for a moment, “other concerns that make such a…ugh!...thing unwise,” she nearly whined. “Ojou-sama! Please,” she begged. Konoka giggled softly, kissing her once more.

 

No sooner had Konoka stopped, however, than Asuna's lips touched the opposite side of her neck, teasingly kissing and nuzzling. “Asuna!” whimpered Setsuna. “Please stop,” begged the smaller girl. Laughing softly, Asuna playfully nipped Setsuna's earlobe before easing back, her hand giving Setsuna's wings a final caress.

 

“Oh, fine,” she pouted.

 

“We should catch up with the others,” Setsuna said, aware that she was blushing deeply. She also was certain that her hard nipples were clearly visible under her backless top and she hoped that her panties had managed to keep her arousal from leaking down her thighs. Sharing a smile, Asuna and Konoka took an arm each and nearly carried the girl toward the main plaza of the hub.

 

The group had celebrated Sayo's successfully possession of Chachamaru's spare body with the ghost girl. After her kiss with Negi, Kazumi had found herself being kissed as well. As the others congratulated her and Chachamaru warned her to turn off the combat functions of the body to keep from maiming or killing a friend, Sayo had giddily begun to test our her physical body. The others had discovered that even with the combat functions locked out, the body was very, very fast. When Sayo had decided she wanted to run, the others had been hard pressed to keep up with her. Chachamaru had little trouble, since her body and the spare had the same limitations, but for the others, even instant movement wasn't quite enough to keep up with the giddy ghost.

 

Ahead of the trio, they heard some commotion. Certainly nothing unusual with the group, to be sure, but this sounded a little different. Asuna frowned slightly. Something sounds off about that, she mused. Glancing at Setsuna, she saw the girl had shifted her sword so it was ready to draw, the girl's expression falling into her familiar combat-ready expression. “Ojou-sama, please stay behind Asuna and I,” Setsuna asked, twitching her arm free of Konoka's grip. Asuna advanced slightly so she and Setsuna were shoulder-to-shoulder in front of Konoka.

 

“What's wrong?” wondered Konoka.

 

“Not sure anything is wrong,” Asuna said, twitching her hand. Her own Pactio card slipped between her first two fingers.

 

“I'll go up, you block,” Setsuna murmured to Asuna, who nodded. At they neared the arched exit that led to the large, open-air plaza of the hub, they saw the artificial sunlight pouring through, and could hear the buzz of voices. “Now,” Setsuna said.

 

Immediately, the two rushed forward, using their learned, honed skills. Leaping upward, Setsuna's wings snapped out full-spread, beating strongly as the girl swiftly climbed above the plaza. Asuna, meanwhile, slid to a stop, her blade cocked back over her shoulder as she scanned the plaza. Her fast eyes found her Wing teammates, cataloging their location and status in an instant. Huh?! she thought, seeing something she shouldn't see. Or rather, some classmates she shouldn't see.

 

“Wow, Asuna! That's a big sword!” Yuna exclaimed, grinning. “Is that the same one you pulled at the Tournament?” wondered the basketball-playing brunette. “How did you do that, anyway? I thought it was a hologram trick, but it's real, isn't it?”

 

“Yuna? What are you doing here?” asked Asuna, blinking.

 

“Here? So you know where we are?” asked a voice from behind and to the side of Yuna. Ako was gawking at the huge stone edifice that was the hub's main area. “This is like a fairytale castle, isn't it?” she added softly, distracted.

 

“Makie! Get off Negi right now!” came Ayaka's irate voice. Behind the two sports girl, Asuna saw Negi was pinned under Makie's slim body. Her partner was on his back, Makie sitting astride his hips, leering at him as she tried to kiss him. Negi was holding her off as best as he could without hurting her. Ayaka had grabbed Makie's shoulders and was trying to pull the girl off their teacher.

 

“She's…flying,” came the soft, amazed voice of Akira. The tall ace of the swimming team was watching Setsuna circle, the fake sun gleaming off her wings. With deceptive ease and effortless grace, Setsuna swooped in, flared and landed next to Asuna. Flicking her wings, Setsuna folded them, taking in the sight before her.

 

“How did they get here?” she asked her teammate, sheathing her long sword as Asuna absently released her artifact and tucked her Pactio card away.

 

“Haven't a clue,” Asuna murmured back.

 

“Gah!” Setsuna flinched, a soft rustle of feathers accompanying a twitch of her wings. “Don't just touch them, Akira!” snapped the swordswoman.

 

“Real wings,” Akira breathed. While Setsuna and Asuna had been distracted, Akira had walked over to Setsuna and curiously touched her folded wings. “Your wings are real!” she blurted out, staring at Setsuna. Setsuna's face colored a little.

 

“They're…um…” she tried to think of some way to explain the wings, but couldn't come up with anything.

 

“How did you get here?” Asuna asked, grabbing Akira's shoulder and turning the girl to face her.

 

“I don't know,” shrugged Akira. “We woke up naked on a beach, and have been lounging around, waiting for something to happen until Kaede and Ku found us.”

 

“Nothing before that?” pressed Setsuna.

 

“Well, we remember getting out of class a few days ago and heading to town, but after that, it gets all fuzzy,” Ako spoke up. “Where are we, anyway? Europe?” she asked.

 

Asuna and Setsuna looked at each other, seeing the same question in each other's eyes.

 

“We're in a magical world!” Yuna yelled out triumphantly. All the Wing girls froze for a split second. “And you all are magicians, aren't you?!” she accused eagerly.

 

Asuna's eyes found Kaede's, the tall ninja approaching with Ku and Kotaro from the direction of the transportation circle. Kaede shrugged. Asuna's eyes met Kotaro's eyes. “Sorry,” he mouthed to her. Ku didn't seem to be bothered by the situation, but then, she wasn't known for her mental acuity outside of combat.

 

“Really?!” came Makie's voice. The girl had been successfully removed from Negi, Ayaka securing her with something that looked more than a little like a choke hold. “So, Negi really is a magical prince!” she gushed, smiling at Negi. “I want to be his Partner!” she exclaimed.

 

“Over my dead body,” muttered Ayaka. Makie was struggling to get loose, and being a flexible gymnast, Ayaka was having a hard time containing the pink-haired girl. Moments later, Makie managed to worm out of Ayaka's hold. But before she could jump Negi again, Kaede easily caught her, immobilizing Makie with embarrassing ease using a single hand.

 

“Calm down, Makie-chan,” the tall chounin said calmly.

 

“Negi?” asked Asuna, catching her partner's eye.

 

“Yes, what will you do now, my apprentice?” came Eva's evilly-amused voice. Looking up, the group saw Eva standing on thin air, watching from above them. She was wrapped haphazardly in a gauzy black gown that barely came to her upper thighs, and held a glass of wine in her hand. Looking at their `host', Asuna could tell that Eva was in full vampiress mode, her sharp teeth peeking out from her lips. She easily flew down to land next to Negi. “Erase their memories? Keep them here? Blackmail them? You have to decide what it is you plan to do about this,” she said.

 

“But, um…” Negi stammered.

 

“You can't just leave it be,” Eva said, smiling at him nastily. “If you do, you will be an ermine by the end of the week,” she tormented him.

 

“Eva, is this some kind of test or something?” asked Konoka, having emerged unnoticed as the group talked.

 

Eva shrugged. “You can look at it like that if you wish,” she said negligently. “So, what are you going to do?” she pressed Negi. Negi considered that for a moment.

 

“Well, we don't have to decide right now, do we? I mean, we can't get back out for another day and a half, so there's no point rushing a decision, is there?” he asked.

 

“Hmm,” hummed Eva, sipping her wine. “Unexpectedly insightful of you,” she murmured. “You are correct about that, I suppose, but you do need to choose your path before we return,” she warned him.

 

“And if he doesn't?” asked Asuna, moving closer to the two.

 

“Then I will decide,” Eva promised. “But enough standing around!” she raised her voice. “You are wasting time! Make with the practicing all ready!” she yelled.

 

Almost instantly, the group dispersed, the Wings well-practiced in their routines. Moments later, Eva found herself looking at the four new-comers, along with Ayaka and Natsumi, who had stayed behind because they hadn't been given a task. “Well, I guess you two should show our guests around a little,” Eva said, turning and moving toward the hub's main building.

 

“Ok,” Natsumi said.

 

“Where are you going?” wondered Ayaka. Eva glanced over her shoulder, her vertically-slitted red eyes stabbing into Ayaka like a physical blow.

 

“Where ever I want, Ayaka,” hissed the small blonde. “And you will be dining with me this evening, as well,” added the vampiress. Ayaka gulped. “Unless you are too scared?” needled Eva. Ayaka's jaw tightened.

 

“No problem,” Ayaka insisted.

 

“Good,” the evil undead magi shot back. “Now be a good tour guide,” added Eva, vanishing into the hub's inner rooms.

 

“What was that all about?” wondered Yuna. Ayaka tossed her blonde locks.

 

“Never mind,” she said, slipping into Class President mode instinctively. “So, let's show you were the necessities are,” pushed Ayaka, herding the four along with Natsumi's help. As she showed them where the rooms were, and gave them the same sort of tour she and Natsumi had gotten from Kotaro not long before, one question kept cropping up in her mind: how did they get in here to begin with? It was a question that was on the minds of a lot of the Wing girls as well.