Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction ❯ Life In A Bottle ❯ A Night Designed By Fate Pt. 3 ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

-----Author’s note: I do not own Negima!, but any other characters (save for Masayoshi) and ideas are my own. Enjoy.....-----


The two people stood outside of the apartment for well over a minute, listening to the sound of the baby crying. Nodoka was staring at Serac as though she could find some sort of solution to this mess in his eyes, and he was staring at her, waiting patiently for her to do what he knew she would.

When the crying became too much for her to let slide by anymore, she entered the small home and went towards the sound of the infant. Serac followed after, but did not pursue her into the little bedroom the mother and child had shared.

The librarian slowly opened up the door to the room containing the crying child, and crept in as though she were walking on sacred ground. Her shoes had been abandoned at the door, as had her wet socks. The short carpet felt cold beneath her bare feet, probably because having Serac so close was killing the temperature.

The room, itself, was a wreck. The bed sheets and cover were scattered around the room, dirty clothes lay strewn about, and the smell of decaying food permeated the air with its pungent scent. Sure enough, in the center of the slovenly bed, a crying baby lay on its back, wailing like there was no tomorrow.

Nodoka cautiously crawled onto the bed, scooping the baby up to try and console it. As if there was no such thing as crying anymore, the baby ceased its crying as the librarian nestled it against her, scooting to the edge of the bed to go and speak with Serac.

She found him standing amongst the clutter of the apartment, watching a rather large bug crawl along the wall, “Is it not interesting how life played out for the child you’re carrying?”

“It’s.....It’s terrible.....” Nodoka replied meekly from the doorway to the bedroom.

“Perhaps. The young woman who bore this girl was too afraid to tell the father that she was pregnant and, as such, he has no idea he has a daughter. That is why he went to study abroad. He did not know that he had this kind of responsibility.”

“S-So it was her friend who was the dad?”

“It was. Had she told him she was pregnant with his child, he would never have left. How differently do you think things would have been had he chosen to stay here in Osaka, as opposed to how they actually happened?” Serac asked, his eyes still tracing the movements of the bug on the wall, “Quite differently, really.”

Nodoka’s mind was shot, and her emotions were starting to get confused, as well. What was she supposed to do with the baby? Surely it had relatives who would gladly take it in.
“Do not forget that Kaya was a runaway, which she became for a reason. Her family does not know of her whereabouts or of her child. The father does not know of the infant, either. As to what you are to do with the child.....You already know the answer to that question,” Serac stopped watching the bug as it crawled down to the floor and vanished into a box of old takeout.

Nodoka shook her head fiercely, though she was careful to keep the now silent baby as still as she knew how, “I can’t! I’m just a junior-high student! Th-There’s no w-way I can raise a b-b-baby!”

“You can, and you will. It is not as though you must do it alone. Actually, you are not meant to do it alone.”

The shy girl tried to open her mouth, but it was already hanging open, so that proved to be a useless motion. Her voice had seemed to fail her, as well, so Serac took charge of the conversation.

“Yes, I am referring to the boy, Negi. He will help you in watching over the child.....” The Wanderer skimmed over her thoughts, ready to pick apart every little problem she could have with the situation, “As far as legal issues go, rest assured that I will tend to them. A few close friends to the mother are all that know of the infant, and I will make it as though the child never existed, to them.”

“How to explain the baby to your friends will be taken care of by Connor, and he and Negi will be able to provide for the child through their teaching salaries. You will be able to continue your education, as well. You will find yourself spending a fair deal more time with the boy, as he will take a liking to the baby girl fairly quickly. Not having his father around has made him realize how much a father means, and he will do everything he can to help the child,” Serac knew he had just sold the baby, “As should you.”

Nodoka stepped back out into the main room of the apartment, knowing she had to do what was being suggested. He was right about Negi, he would do everything he could to help the little girl. If the girl really didn’t have anywhere to go, wouldn’t it be wrong of her to leave her alone in the apartment? She could leave an anonymous call to the authorities, sure, but.....

“I am pleased you understand the situation,” Serac raised his hand, fingers poised to snap, “By the way, make sure that you take him to the infirmary, as opposed to the hospital. The bleeding looks worse than it really is,” He snapped his fingers, the librarian and infant both vanishing. He turned his gaze back over to the bug, which was once again visible. It scurried over to a puddle of liquid splattered onto the kitchen floor, stopping at the edge to sip at it. The Wanderer recalled in his mind’s eye at how the mother had seen the bug while pouring the baby formula, and dropped it in her surprise.

“How unfortunate,” He whispered, snapping his fingers, causing the bug to vanish. His illusion now dispersed, Serac moved for the door, locking it behind him as he left to complete the other tasks he had set before him.
-

“Connor-sensei! Connor-sensei, you’ve got to get up!” Chizuru pleaded, down on her knees before her wounded teacher.

Connor forced a laugh, clutching the gaping hole in his chest, “You have to go on.....go on without me.....”

The girl shook her head, tears starting to mist her eyes.

“Don’t worry.....you’re strong. Maybe even stronger than me.....you can do it,” He turned a little to look at Natsumi, who was looking equally distressed, “You both can.....y-you just.....have to.....b-believe.....” And with those words, life faded from his eyes, and he went limp in Chizuru’s arms.

“No-o-o-o!” Chizuru cried, pulling him close and burying her face in his chest, “Don’t take him away from us!”

Masayoshi applauded the two a little bit, “Ooh, nice job.”

Chizuru laid Connor back down, flashing him a smile as she wiped away the little tear resting in the corner of her eye, “This is fun!” She exclaimed.

“But now that I’m dead, you guys are in a bad spot.....” Connor stated seriously, sitting back up and rejoining the group around the table, “If only I had rolled a better number.....” He shot a pissed off glance at the dice before him.

“You were doomed the second you accepted my challenge, weaklings!” The large teen stated, a solemn expression over his face, “As the game master, I have never once lost!”

“Shut up, Shinji, no one asked you,” Connor snapped.

Chizuru snatched up her leek out from beneath the table, “To avenge Connor-sensei’s death, I’ll get serious, now!”

“I-Is that.....it can’t be.....” Shinji exhaled sharply, flipping through the rule book, “It is! Th-the suppository leek!”

Natsumi grabbed the rule book away from the game master, gawking at the rule before her, which she read aloud, “Whomever possesses the fabled suppository leek weapon becomes indestructible, with a +407 to their attack roll. .....Who wrote this?”

Masayoshi coughed a little, pretending to be interested in a spaceship model across the dark basement they were currently playing in.

“Damn, you should have brought that out before I died!” Connor groaned, finding himself rather pleased with the look of shock on Shinji’s rotund face.

“I.....I must surrender.....” The teen admitted quietly, lowering his head.

“Alright! Awesome, we won!” Masayoshi exclaimed, jumping up and throwing his fists into the air, “Girls, go wait for us outside, he gave up! We’ll be right there!”

Once the two girls were gone, Shinji sent a downtrodden look to Masayoshi, “I never thought that things would end this way.....”

“But they did, so tough! Now, I believe you should be handing me a little something something, right about now.....”

Shinji rose from his chair, leaving the room and coming back a few moments later with a briefcase. He set it on top of their game, “There. They’re all in there.”

Masayoshi didn’t even need to open it to check. His book had been right, after all! Everything did end up alright for him. He set his hand on the briefcase, relieved to no end as it warped and vanished in a flash of blue light. “Ah, no more blackmailing. Life is good.....”

“What was in there?” Connor asked, disappointed that he didn’t get to see.

“.....Ok, I’ll tell you, but you’ve gotta swear you’ll never repeat it, alright?” After getting the nod to go ahead, Masayoshi explained, “One time, at a New Year’s Eve party, I got a little tipsy, and kissed a friend. A friend that I call ‘big sis’. .....Don’t look at me like that, it was really awkward! Some ass hole took pictures, and Shinji here wound up with them. He threatened to post them on the internet if I didn’t do what he wanted.....”

“That’s it? God, I was thinking it was something.....you know, important.”

“And now I’ll never have Natsumi-chan.....” Shinji whined, “It’s all your fault! Why couldn’t you just cooperate?”

Masayoshi shrugged off the finger aimed at him.

“.....I can’t believe this,” Connor muttered, “For a crush.....you went through all of the trouble of blackmailing Masayoshi.....so he could ask Natsumi out for you?”

“It was a perfect plan! He would earn her trust and faith, and then introduce us! Even set us up on a date for the festival! But now it’s all ruined.....”

“Yeah, it kind of is. You wound up getting introduced to her, but not until after she fell head over heels for Masayoshi. .....For some reason, I haven’t figured it out, yet.....” Connor started to trail off, but was brought back to attention when Masayoshi punched his shoulder, “Ow. Uh, right. You should have just introduced yourself. It would have saved me a lot of time.....”

“How can you say that?” Shinji asked, his finger now directed at Connor, “Have you seen her? She’s the most perfect example of beauty that there ever was! Every weeknight she walks by here on her way back home with her friend from the Astronomy Club, and every night I try! I just can’t approach such divine cuteness! I thought that if I could just get Masayoshi to get the ball rolling.....I’m just too shy.....”

“Maybe that’s because you’re down here in your parent’s basement, playing board games and building model ships while watching old Star Trek episodes,” Masayoshi suggested, “But it’s not all lost. She’s met you, now, and she seemed to have a pretty good time playing the game. Maybe if you joined the Drama Club, or something, you’d have a better shot.....”

Shinji seemed to mull this thought over. It didn’t seem too bad, when he thought about it.

“Hey, wait, you’re supposed to hook up with Freckles!” Connor stated, casting a disapproving gaze to Masayoshi for the advice he was giving.

“Supposed to? What are you talking about?”

“Ok, you know what?” Connor started up the stairs to leave the basement, “To hell with it. I don’t care anymore, screw it. I’m going home.”

Masayoshi muttered a goodbye to Shinji, hurrying after his friend, who was complaining to himself about how Fate was pissing him off. He caught up to him before they reached the door, and caught him by the shoulder, “Hey, hey, check it out!” Masayoshi flashed Connor a tape recorder, “Now we can help Shinji get with Natsumi-chan!”

“Everything that he said about Freckles is on that?” The teaching aid asked, pointing at the little device. Masayoshi nodded, a big grin plastered onto his face like he had just done something good. Connor snatched the object from the teen, snapping it in half with his bare hands.

The two watched the remains of the recorder fall to the ground, neither saying anything for a few seconds, before Masayoshi piped up, “Why did you do that?” He asked, now holding an exact replica of the tape recorder in his other hand.

“What the.....” Connor took and busted the second one in a similar fashion, “No magic, kid, no magic. I see two options available. 1. Let Freckles listen to this so she gets the biggest confidence boost of her life, because she’ll know that there’s some guy out there who worships the ground she walks on. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Shinji would take gum from the bottom of a bench if she left it there, because I’m assuming he’s genuinely crazy about her, which could very well cause him to act genuinely crazy. The downside of this option is that I can see Freckles settling for this guy, when I know she can do a lot better. Sure, Shinji may very well one day end up being incredibly rich, as is the case with many nerds of his caliber, but I don’t think she’d ever fall in love with him. This brings me to option number two.”
He sent Masayoshi a look that practically told him that HE, himself, was option number two. Masayoshi just couldn’t see it, however, so with a sigh, Connor continued, “2. Freckles is already IN love, and I want to see that happen! I think it’s actual love, too, not that fake schoolgirl crush thing that everyone has for me. Because the person that Freckles is in love with isn’t anything like me, so we can avoid the whole ‘likes him because he’s so awesome’ dead end. The entire reason I even did any of this was to help Freckles with her crush situation, which makes me more of a wuss than I ever thought I could be. I, at one point in time, thought that it was physically and psychologically impossible for me to be this much of an effeminate board game playing school teacher. I have definitely gone downhill.....” Now finding himself spiraling into self pity, another trait he disliked, Connor lowered his head and reached for the doorknob.

By grabbing the older guy’s wrist, Masayoshi successfully stopped this from happening, “Hey.....everything you just said.....and what you said back in the basement.....you weren’t serious, were you? That’s not all about me, right?”

Connor raised his hand to his mouth, acting like he was talking into a receiver, “This is the clue train, last stop: you,” He stopped talking into his hand, smacking the back of Masayoshi’s head, “Of course it’s been about you, you ponce! I.....oh my God, did I just call you a ponce? Negi’s British must be starting to affect me.....”

“S-So Natsumi-chan.....you think she’s in love with.....m-me?”

“God dammit, I think I’m starting to want tea more than booze, too! Son of a bitch, next thing you know I’m gonna be wanting crumpets, too! Whatever the hell those are. Then I’m gonna start saying ‘bloody’ all over the place, and before you know it; I won’t go to the bathroom anymore. Nope, I’ll be calling it ‘the loo’. For the love of me, just kill me right now.....” He was pacing back and forth, completely ignoring Masayoshi.

“Hey!” The teen slapped Connor in the chest, bringing him to a stop, “This has all been about me?”

“Didn’t we already do the clue train bit gone horribly wrong? Natsumi, the girl waiting for us outside, currently has a pretty good crush on you, Masayoshi. I did what I could to try and nudge things along in that direction, namely, getting her the lead in the play. Things kept getting Screwed Up, however, so I wound up being distracted with everything else. If Messed Up was enough of a means to describe this entire sequence of events, I would use it. But it’s not, so forget it, I’m going home,” Thoroughly pissed with everything, Connor flung open the door and marched past Natsumi and Chizuru, who turned confused looks to a now beet red Masayoshi.

-

A groan escaped the boy’s lips as he slowly opened his eyes. Negi looked around, confused. Where was he? His back was resting against a wall, opposite a door. The names beside the door told him that he was looking at his own dorm room. Chachamaru and Asuna were on either side of the boy, both slumped against him. What had happened? His mind was a blur.....but he was back home, and so were Asuna and Chachamaru, so everything must have gone alright. Maybe he just got tired from the date, and fell asleep outside of the room.....maybe. Yue and Haruna were sitting in front of their own door, not too far away.

Connor spotted the group of five as he came down the hall. God, it was almost midnight, what were they all doing sitting outside? Hopefully the date hadn’t gone THAT bad.

He helped the groggy boy to his feet, “What’s going on?”

“I-I don’t really know.....I hope the date went alright.....”

The two stirred everyone, save for Asuna, from their sleep, the noise drawing Ku Fei from her room as they did.

“Where you been? I waiting for you!” She exclaimed, sending Connor a worried look.

“Ha, ha, nowhere, don’t worry about it. Come on, let’s get this one into her room,” He replied, grabbing Asuna and pulling her up with Ku Fei’s help. Negi opened his door, but froze when he saw who was in there. Yue and Haruna took a good long stare, as well.

Sitting on Chachamaru’s bed was Nodoka, who was staring back at them with wide eyes and a red face. In her hands, she held what appeared to be a baby. Upon further staring, it was revealed to be, in fact, a baby.

“N-Nodoka-san! Whose baby is that?” Negi asked, recovering from his surprise impressively fast.

Nodoka’s eyes instantly shot to Connor, which caused everyone else to look at him. The man in black was still gawking at Nodoka, although now it was because it looked like everyone expected an answer from him. He didn’t know whose bloody baby it was! .....Yeah, there it was. He was starting to use ‘bloody’. He quickly put a lid on his thoughts when Nodoka mouthed a single word to him, one that he wouldn’t mistake for any other, simply because he knew what it meant. ‘Serac’.

“Uh.....yeah, uh.....” He started to mumble a little bit, “That’s uh.....” He knew what he was about to say was what he was supposed to say, but it really didn’t feel like the right thing to go with, “God dammit.....yeah, that kid would be mine. I asked Library Girl here to watch-”

Cut off by Ku Fei’s fist connecting with his face, Connor flew back and into the wall, immediately unconscious and bleeding profusely all over the floor. No one had to stop her, however, because she blacked out the second after he hit the floor. Haruna followed suit.

“U-Um.....j-just take him to the infirmary.....” Nodoka whispered softly as the baby started to cry.


-----Author’s other note: The Masayoshi arc now draws to a close, and his stardom in the story will now fade away. For those who didn’t catch it, Screwed Up is the original story that Masayoshi stars in (well, in Negima! Fanfiction), and Messed Up is the sequel to it (and an alternate sequel to The Dreamer). Anyway, thanks to Master Masa Random for allowing me use of his character, and I hope everyone enjoyed his rather lengthy cameo.

I will now take suggestions for the final two days before the festival begins, or I could just skip on to the festival and deal with Chao and her issues. I was kind of hoping I’d know what she actually wanted before writing this, but who knows how long that could take? Anyway, thanks for reading.....-----