Conquests of an Accidental Stud-Monkey II:
A Complicated Bloodline
Chapter 4
What Negi had hoped, in delaying their departure until the next morning, was that his companions would take that time to say all of their farewells the night before. That way, they could go through the portal as soon as possible, without any additional well-wishing and/or the possibility of last minute insistence that certain people should join the expedition. Such declarations, however well-meant, would slow them down when they had to move quickly.
"C'mon, Negi-kun!" Yuna pleaded with him. "You've gotta take me with you guys! I'm going crazy with nothing to shoot, here! And Donet-san is creeping me out with how stalkery she's gotten!"
"Gooooooo, Negiiipa Hed! Go go!" cheered Sakurako, having recruited a number of her classmates to serve as temporary cheerleaders in Misa and Madoka's absence.
"I am going to get you for this, Shiina!" Chisame shouted angrily as she whirled the pompoms over her head. "Somehow and in some way, you are going to pay!"
"Let us come too, Negiii!" cried the Narutaki twins, gazing up at him with teary eyes. "We want to be your cute and lovable sex ninjas!"
He really should have known better.
"An entire classroom of girls?" asked Karin, glaring disgustedly into Negi's back. "You debauched an entire classroom of girls?"
"Not ... entirely," Negi answered, gesturing vaguely in Misora's direction, which prompted Misora to try and hide behind Mana again. For her part, Mana just kept right on smiling cheerfully through this entire situation.
"You sybarite!" the immortal sneered. "Am I supposed to take the fact that you did not succeed in corrupting a nun as being somehow virtuous on your part?"
"Acolyte," he corrected reflexively.
Angered beyond words (briefly) Karin turned away from him. "And then there's this!" she spoke again as her gaze settled on Tsukuyomi, standing - unsteadily - near the center of the small army currently surrounded by the much larger 3-A army. "Do I understand rightly? This child has been recruited from some manner of prison to accompany us?"
"Could you stop shouting, please, I didn't sleep well last night and am somewhat sensitive to loud noises," Tsukuyomi said wearily.
Nodoka, standing beside her, whistled innocently.
"Really, girls, we can't take any more of you with us," Negi tried saying to the group. "I'm sure that any and all of you would be helpful, but nevertheless -"
"Please!" cried the girls, whom he now saw included Makie.
"Go, Negipa Hed!" cried the cheerleaders, whom he was somewhat startled to realize included Satsuki, having a great time judging by the smile on her face.
"We've got to get going!" he told them, helplessly.
"Negi-sensei!" rang a new voice from not terribly far away. "I challenge you!"
"Oh, for god's sake," he groaned, facepalming. He'd recognized the voice immediately, of course, but he still felt a certain gloom as he looked up to see that, no, he wasn't mistaken, it was Takane D. Goodman, in gym shirt and bloomers, standing tall and proud, long blonde hair blowing in the non-existent wind, pointing at him like some graven image of Nemesis. And behind her was Sakura Mei, in her uniform, staring at her mentor's back like some graven image of an unnamed goddess embodying the ideal, "Is this really such a good idea?"
"I challenge you!" Takane said again.
"I-I-I heard you the first time, Takane-san," Negi said.
"Another one of your conquests?" Karin asked disgustedly.
"Not in the way you are think-"
"It was bad enough that you didn't enter the martial arts competition during the sports festival!" Takane begin to rant. "Bad enough that I suffered a terribly embarrassing defeat there thanks to my distraction!"
"And wearing shadow clothes again," Mei said, a touch of weariness in her voice.
Takane gave her pupil no notice, her attention entirely focused on Negi. "And then, when I sought you out after the competition, it was bad enough you were nowhere to be found during the entire festival! I even heard disturbing rumors that you'd suffered some manner of terrible wound or been kidnapped!"
Fei and Kaede started rubbing the backs of their heads and whistling innocently.
"But then!" Takane shrieked. "When I just recently attempted to put all that behind me and focus on my stern duties and paid a call upon the representative of your class of hellions, an even more terrible fate befell me!"
"You certainly weren't complaining at the time!" Ayaka snapped as she broke out of the cheerleader routine she'd been doing up until then. No, she was not wearing the Morrigan Aensland costume she'd been wearing the last time she'd done one, it was just a normal cheerleader outfit. To her credit, Mei acknowledged Ayaka's words with an embarrassed nod and neck rub, smiling particularly in Kotaro's general direction. He returned her smile with an uncomfortable wave from the arm Natsumi wasn't holding in an iron grip.
But Takane would not be distracted. "And somehow, somehow, I know that entire situation was your fault! And no, I can not just forget about it and pretend it never happened, since I'm the one who will have to be doing the mindwiping for anybody else who is having problems with the idea! You owe me a rematch, Negi-sensei! Take responsibility for the confusion which will wreck my last days as a high schooler! Take responsibility for my exams which I'm now sure to fail! Take responsibility for my no-longer-marriageable status! By marrying me yourself! I challenge you!"
And that was when Yuna shot her.
"Oneesama!" Mei shrieked, catching Takane's stunned form as it started to crumple.
"You're welcome, Akira!" Yuna called out. "So about that mission, I think I've demonstrated -"
"Yuna!" Negi nearly roared. "Bad form!"
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" she protested. "How can it be bad form to shoot someone who's macking on your best friend's guy? Seriously, I wanna know!"
"I thought I was your best friend!" cried Makie as Akira covered her face in embarrassment.
Placidly ignoring all this nonsense, Konoka quickly headed over to check on Takane. "She's fine, just napping," she announced, more to calm Mei's obvious panic than because she thought any of the other assembled students were all that concerned. "I'll wake her up when you and the others are gone, Negi."
"Or you could kill her in her sleep," Tsukuyomi suggested helpfully. "Then we'd be sure she won't try and follow us."
A horrified silence descended on the gathering, who more or less turned as one to stare at Tsukuyomi.
"My goodness, I could have sworn that I just heard Tsukuyomi's voice," said Konoka, who hadn't turned to look. "But that's impossible, since Tsukuyomi is being dragged back to Kyoto, and if I even suspected that she wasn't, I'd be obligated to inform the Kyoto Magic Association that something had gone horribly wrong!"
"Her method of threatening people is a lot more subtle than yours," Madoka observed off-handedly to Tsukuyomi. "More effective, too."
"Feh."
"And now, we must really be going!" Negi said, getting Konoka's message and demonstrating Madoka's point about it. "Our group is already dangerously large for the mission we undertake, so none of the rest of you can come along. I'm genuinely sorry about that!"
"Oh, I just bet you are," Karin said to him. "Why else would you be in your semi-adult form?"
"Just one more thing," Setsuna called out, carrying a cloth-wrapped bundle over to them. She paused in front of Tsukuyomi and handed it to her. "These are the swords you were using at Lake Biwa," she said.
Tsukuyomi blinked, genuinely startled, as she opened the bundle to reveal the truth of Setsuna's words. "How did you -"
"Do not disgrace them again," Setsuna interrupted firmly. She stepped back, gave Negi a final nod, and turned her back on the party. "All right, that's enough, give them some space," she called out to the crowd surrounding them.
It took a bit, but between Setsuna, Asuna and the cheerleaders, they were able to separate Negi's small army from the much larger army surrounding them, opening a clear path towards the cave entrance which supposedly led to the demon gate.
"Do they work like the ones that lead to the Magic World?" Negi asked Karin as they approached the cave.
"I couldn't tell you, as I've never used those. But this one is pretty straightforward, just walk in and out, no blood sacrifices required," Karin replied, for once not prefacing her comments with an insult.
"You've used it before?" Zazie asked quietly.
"I helped to build it."
On that note, they began their descent into Hell.
"I do not approve," Konoe Eishun said flatly.
"We knew you wouldn't, daddy," his only daughter told him sweetly. "That's why we waited until they were gone to tell you about it. Actually, Setchan didn't think we should tell you at all, but I knew that you'd eventually see reason!"
Eishun looked at Setsuna in a way that had the girl desperately fighting the urge to throw herself to the carpeted floor of the elder's hotel room and offer up her own life in expiation. (It was a difficult battle.) "Did she," he said, also flatly.
After it became apparent that somehow Setsuna was not giving in to her primal urge, Eishun turned back to Konoka. "Konoka, this girl is a menace to society. She has attacked you, attacked Setsuna-kun, threatened your mother's life -"
"Thank you for remembering me, dear," said Kouko from the hotel room's table, where she was going over medical records.
"You're welcome. - so I cannot understand why in the world you would just casually agree to let her out of custody on the promise that she'll assist Negi-kun on this mission of his!"
"Well, daddy, if I recall those stories that Rakan-san told me correctly, when you first met Negi-kun's daddy you were trying to kill him, weren't you?" Konoka asked politely.
Now Eishun gaped. "Are you ... do you mean to tell me that you think that Tsukuyomi is going to become a friend now that she's been thoroughly defeated?"
"Oh, no," Konoka quickly reassured him. "I wouldn't want her as a friend even if I did think that was possible! But I am pointing out that it's not like attempted murder is such a big deal in our family history."
Eishun continued to gape.
"She has a point," said Kouko without looking up from her reports.
After a long sigh, Eishun shook his head. "Very well, I suppose the matter is beyond my control, in any event. And I am glad that you chose to tell me rather than letting me find out on my own, somehow. Particularly since there's something that your mother and I need to ask you about."
"Let the record show that when he says that, he's actually only talking about himself; I don't feel the need to inquire too closely into the situation," Kouko interjected.
"Konoka," Eishun said, trying to talk over Kouko's interjection. "As you are aware, some very ... odd things happened when the World Tree returned to health, and so I would like to ask you, and to receive an honest answer - were you sexually intimate with Setsuna-kun when that happened?"
"Yes," said Konoka cheerfully.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, shrieked Setsuna inwardly. All that came out audibly with a strangled cough.
"I told you so," Kouko said, shaking her head.
"I see," Eishun said, shaking his head. "While I of course do not approve of young people such as yourselves engaging in such things, I understand that you were both overpowered by the aphrodisiac scent that the World Tree emitted, and I'm sure that if you were both in your right minds, nothing of that sort would have happened."
"Oh, heck, yes, it totally would!" Konoka disagreed, making Setsuna - impossibly - panic even more. "You see back a while ago when Negi was first aged up -"
The hotel maid was neither clumsy, nor cute, nor fluent in Japanese. She was, however, good at her job. When she heard the shrieked "WHAT?" coming from that particular hotel room, she didn't react at all.
"I'll kill him! I'll find him in Hell and I'll kill him there and he'll die in hell! He's not some immortal monster any more, so I can kill him! And I will!" Eishun shrieked as Kouko and Setsuna held him down.
"See? Threats and attempted murder are no big deal in our family!" Konoka asserted. "And you wouldn't really want to kill the father of your first grandchild, would you, daddy?"
"KILLLLL!"
"You seem to be taking this much better than he is," Konoka added to her mother.
"I BID NEGI DUHHHHH!" Eishun added as Kouko finally found his paralysis pressure point and applied the appropriate amount of, well, pressure to it.
Having done so, she let out a long sigh as she released her no-longer necessary hold on her husband. "It only seems that way, dear," Kouko said patiently. "I've gotten fairly good at hiding my outrage over the years. Admittedly, a good part of this particular instance is my complete lack of surprise."
"Ehgh?" asked Setsuna, who was still screaming inwardly and found it difficult to articulate her non-existent thought processes.
Kouko nodded as though that comment had been sensible. "I suspected that something of that nature was bound to happen when my father stepped in to insist that Negi-kun should continue living in the dorms even after he was aged into adolescence. I had every reason to suspect that he would be happy if the boy dragged you into sin. And Asuna-san as well, given the pity he felt for her plight. And perhaps even Setsuna-kun, since he is certainly old-fashioned enough to buy all that 'wife and mistress' macho nonsense."
"Negi did mention that you gave grandpa a certain look when he told us about the situation," Konoka agreed, deliberately avoiding a specific repetition of Negi's exact words on the subject. Her tone grew slightly chilly as she continued. "He neglected to mention whether you'd voiced any objections or opinions to the contrary, however."
"There was no omission, for there were no objections made. After all, I have no opinions. Because all that I am is the wife of the Elder and the daughter of another Elder, so what do I know?" Kouko asked bitterly. "Because I do nothing but stay back as the men make all the decisions, because that's what's expected of me, because I hold no power of my own, and even if I wanted to -"
"Mother!" Konoka interjected, genuinely startled. "You're being far too hard on yours-"
"Now you call me that?" Kouko interrupted right back at her. "Now? I've barely spent any time with you. I always left your care as someone else's problem. I'm a horrible mother, and this is the proof. When you needed me the most, I did nothing ... just as you expected me to do nothing, now!"
"That's not true!" Konoka cried. "I had a plan for what we were going to do if you did react like daddy!"
"Oh, really?" Kouko asked, wearily skeptical. "And what was that plan?"
"Well, I was going to tell Setchan to jump your bones, and while daddy was startled by that, I'd take advantage of the distraction to pull down his pants and start -" Konoka started to explain.
"Never mind," Kouko said quickly.
"It's just that, after I did it with Yuna-chan and her daddy, I've been curious about -"
"Yes, Konoka, I get the idea! A chair, please, I'm not feeling too well."
Konoka looked at the bleached out figures of Setsuna and her father, drawn as though by a somewhat disturbing artist, and decided that instruction was clearly intended for her.
"Ayaka," said Chizuru, very calmly.
"Yes, Chizuru-san?" Ayaka replied, just as calmly.
"Considering that Natsumi-chan is gone on a trip to Venus - and I wonder how my life became such that I can make statements like that - I was hoping that maybe you'd consider letting me out of these bonds." She moved to the extent that she was able to, causing the metal buckles on her bondage outfit to jingle a bit. Of course, her hands and feet were both shackled to the rather heavy chair in which she was presently seated.
"I couldn't possibly do that, Chizuru-san," Ayaka told her, pausing as she stirred her cup of tea. "After all, you submitted to Natsumi, not to me, and so it would be unspeakably rude for me to release you from your bonds any more than Natsumi said that I could. Why, the whole fabric of our happy dormitory life would be utterly overthrown if I were to do that. No, it just won't do. I'm terribly sorry. But isn't it nice that she agreed to remove the gag from your mouth?"
"Thrillsville '03," Chizuru muttered.
"What was that?"
"I said, yes, she's so very good to aaahhhh, can't keep it up. Ayaka, you're enjoying this far too much."
"Oh?" said Ayaka, bringing the teaspoon up to her chin as she looked at Chizuru with apparently unfeigned confusion. "I'm not sure what you could possibly mean by that. If anything, I would think that you would be the one enjoying having me waiting on you, hand and foot, to take care of your every need. Is this not so?"
"... it is ... so," Chizuru said, very reluctantly.
"Well, good then. As to whether I am enjoying this ..." Ayaka paused, and the smile on her face grew a little more genuine. "Seeing you like this, the side of you that isn't so prim and perfect, the side that isn't cheerful all the time, the side with actual feet of clay like the rest of us ... it makes me like you better," she confided shyly.
Chizuru felt herself blushing. And then she realized that she wasn't actually embarrassed or unsettled by Ayaka's statement. "Um ... I need to go to the bathroom."
"Yes, that's another good example - the side of you who needs to go to the bathroom just like anyb-"
"No, I mean, right now."
"Oh, well, let's get on with that," Ayaka said cheerfully.
Negi wasn't sure what he'd expected Hell to be like. Well, that was only half-true; he had a specific image when he thought of 'hell', but he hadn't expected to perceive a chilly early winter's evening with the faint scent of ashes in the air and the stomach-dropping certainty that everything was entirely his fault when he arrived there. From being told that it wasn't a cavern in the center of Earth, he'd somewhat dismissed the ideas of darkness lit only by distant flames and the screams of the tormented. A bright green jungle, complete with what he hoped were bird cries, had been nowhere in his expectations.
And yet here they were, gazing around at just that.
"This is going to be murder on my makeup, isn't it?" Misa asked quietly, the first of them to speak after emerging from the tunnel's Demon World side.
"Probably," Karin said absently, looking about carefully. "I was right, though. Everything looks much the same as the last time I was here."
"The borders of the various territories have likely shifted a little from the way that they were back then," Zazie warned her softly.
Karin was already shaking her head. "Shouldn't matter, we won't be going anywhere near any of the official crossings." She frowned. "That said ..." After trailing off, she spoke more loudly. "All right, Rainyday and I are going to go scout our immediate area. The rest of you should remain here. Don't touch anything." This last was directed in Misa's direction.
"Perhaps I should come as -" Chachamaru started to offer.
"There may come a day when I'd trust you with my back, android, but this is not that day," Karin interrupted without looking at her. "Besides, you're noi-"
"Gynoid," Chachamaru pronounced firmly.
"Excuse me?"
"The proper term for entities of my construction is 'gynoid'."
Now Karin did turn to look back at Chachamaru, regarding her with fairly obvious disbelief. When the gynoid showed no sign of backing down on her words, all that the immortal warrior did was make a noise somewhat reminiscent of one of Evangeline's suppressed laughs, before turning away once again and heading off into the jungle, with Zazie pausing only to bow politely in Chachamaru's direction before following her.
"I don't understand," said Akira after a moment. "If the last time she saw Evangeline was shortly after Evangeline started attending Mahora, then how does she know you, Chachamaru?"
"She visited the area again shortly after I went online," Chachamaru explained. "Master avoided her at that time, and she and I had a confrontation. Please do not trouble yourself about it, Akira-san, I am not greatly bothered by her gibes."
"Aren't you?" Akira asked quietly ... sounding not exactly skeptical, but not credulous, either.
Chachamaru resumed her scan of their surroundings. "Say rather that I understand that they come from a place of helpless envy, and refuse to allow them to bother me."
Uncomfortable with all of this, Misa retreated to a place of comfortable annoyance. "'Don't touch anything', she says. I guess I must not have realized that her feet don't touch the ground like the rest of us."
"Oh, relax, Misa, it's not that big a deal," Madoka said wearily, looking around. "For something so scary as to be called Hell, though, it is kind of pretty. Hey, is this a flower or some kind of fungiiiiiiiiii!" she concluded as the growth she was pointing a finger at grew teeth-like thorns and attempted to eat said finger.
Naturally, Madoka strove to avoid this, and jerked back. Unfortunately, that led her to bump the back of one foot into small clump of the grass that grew everywhere in the clearing, sending her sprawling backwards onto a larger clump ... with an odd, squishy noise ensuing.
Madoka's face went white. "Ahuh?" she said.
"Get her up, get her up!" Negi called out, sounding oddly panicked.
Misa and Akira quickly moved to follow his suggestion, which proved more difficult than it should be - the reasons for which became horrifically clear as Madoka was pulled back up into a standing position and it could be seen that they had pulled a stalk of the grass - with its roots twisting like a drowning octopus - up with her as it stuck into her exposed hip.
"Whawhawhawha?" asked Madoka, eyes dazed.
"Nodoka," Negi said.
"On it," the librarian turned treasure hunter said shortly as she pulled a tiny vial out of her utility belt, uncorking it and holding it up to Madoka's nose. "Deep breaths, don't hold it at all, just think of this as a pulled muscle during practice," Nodoka told the cheerleader as calmly as she could manage.
"I don't, I don't - uhhh, okay," Madoka replied as the potion's scent began to do its work.
"Sensei, I think I should handle the next step," Chachamaru said, eyes fixed on the grass stalk penetrating Madoka's flank.
Negi, who was pulling on a glove, paused at that statement, then nodded once. "Do it."
Without further encouragement, Chachamaru reached down and wrapped her head around the grass' root structure, which proceeded to wrap around her hand and making sucking noises. "I apologize, Madoka-san," she said, and pulled forcefully.
"UHHHHHHHHH!" Madoka gasped as the bloody grass frond, grown to several times its original size, came out of her. Almost as soon as it did, Negi was sliding a dressing onto the exposed wound and whispering spells of purification and cleansing.
"Don't touch anything," he repeated, once he was able to speak again.
"Got it," said Misa, eyes tiny black dots. "Best advice I ever received. Hey, on a different topic, would it be too late to rethink this whole expedition?"
"Very much so," Negi told her wearily. "This side of the gate, leading back to Earth, won't reopen for several days now that a party this size has passed through. That's the reason I didn't bring everybody - if I had, we might have had to spend a full month here instead several days."
"... this is hell," Misa said faintly.
"Yes, Misa. It is."
It abruptly occurred to Negi that Tsukuyomi had remained utterly silent throughout this affray, and he turned to check on her ... only to find her standing exactly where she had been when Zazie and Karin had disappeared into the forest. While initially relieved that she hadn't taken advantage of their distraction to make an escape attempt, he found himself puzzled by the odd expression on her face. She seemed neither amused nor aroused, the two expressions he'd grown used to seeing there, but the way she looked at this moment was also far from her usual, bored expression.
And she was looking at Madoka.
"Tsukuyomi-san?" he inquired.
She blinked, face quickly adjusting back to an expression of weary indifference. "Don't touch anything. Right. Object lesson received. Now what?"
"Are you -"
"For pity's sake," Karin said disgustedly as she strode out of the woods. "I left you alone for a few minutes, and what do I find when I get back?"
"I didden touch anything," Madoka said a bit confusedly as Misa helped her remain standing. "I jus' ... sat on something, I guess."
"Razor grass," Zazie explained as she followed Karin back into sight. "It's fairly common in this region."
Karin shook her head in exasperation. "There's a border crossing checkpoint a short distance from here. Miraculously, you didn't draw their attention with all that racket. We can go around it with some difficulty and get close to one of the castles where this one thinks her sister might be held, so we had best get going now."
"Alternatively, we could make camp here so that Madoka can recover from her injury," Negi replied quietly.
"Here?" asked Misa, unsettled. "With all this razor grass stuff around us?"
In reply, Zazie headed over to the grassy area where Madoka had landed, and ran her hand over the stalks of grass. They gave way easily and didn't cause her any injury.
"But -"
"Loud noises nearby cause them to become rigid and resilient," Zazie explained. "Avoid that, and they're perfectly safe."
"Loud noi-" Misa started to protest, then subsided. "Okay. Yeah. I see how it worked, now."
Karin and Negi had been locked in a staredown all this while, and just as Misa calmed down, so too did Karin turn aside and roll her eyes. "Camping. Right. Let's do that. Perhaps we should sing songs around a campfire."
"Open flame also has the same effect on razor grass."
"Apparently sarcasm does not."
So they camped.
They'd brought no tents, so it was more a case of pulling sleeping bags out of their baggage and using them to wrap up those, like Madoka, who needed a rest. The sun hadn't set yet - and, from what Zazie told them, technically wouldn't set at all for the equivalent of days on Earth, though a magical interference screen in the sky would reduce its light and heat output to that of a moon over the course of a "day" cycle - so nobody was going to sleep just yet, but taking a rest like this would be a good way to adapt to the changed environment.
And they established a perimeter around the camp and had partners go out to walk it and perform guard duty.
"Apparently, this is my life now," Tsukuyomi muttered disgustedly as she did so.
"Apparently so," Nodoka agreed as she followed along behind her.
Perhaps the younger girl hadn't meant for that plaint to be audible, for all that she said as a follow-up was an incomprehensible grumble.
"Look on the bright side ... we could get attacked by something, and you'd be right on the front lines," Nodoka said, genuinely trying to cheer her up.
"Attacked by monsters. I won't improve fighting monsters. They fight by instinct, not by training," the swordswoman sniped back at her without turning to look back at her.
"Well, I guess you'd know," Nodoka answered calmly. "Incidentally, about when you froze up during that episode -"
Now Tsukuyomi turned, quite rapidly in fact, and looked as though she was about to yell. But, perhaps remembering all the razor grass around, she visibly calmed herself, and spoke in a level tone. "I didn't freeze up. And how do you know about that, anyway?" There was a fair amount of edge in the latter sentence.
"Negi told me. He also asked me to find out what had happened."
"Of course he did," she grumbled. "I'm surprised you haven't just read my mind."
"I don't have any real compunctions about doing so," Nodoka said, just as sharply as Tsukuyomi had been speaking a moment before. "But I thought that I might try conversation first. You know, to give you the chance to demonstrate that I don't need to take the direct approach."
Tsukuyomi turned away.
"I don't think it's terribly likely that you can't stand the sight of blood, somehow," Nodoka continued.
"Why can you?" the other girl finally snapped.
"Excuse me?" Nodoka asked, startled.
"You're a bunch of cossetted students from one of the most civilized countries in the Old World," Tsukuyomi half-ranted - the half that was missing being volume, because she kept it low to avoid provoking any nearby razor grass. "Why didn't any of you panic when that happened? The closest to it was that purple-haired slut, or maybe the one who clings to the dog hanyou, and even they didn't really ..." Now she trailed off, concluding after a moment with a short cry of, "Why?"
The librarian stared at her for a few seconds before replying. "You're from that same country, the last time I checked."
"That's not the point! I'm -"
"Tsukuyomi-san," Nodoka interjected. "I've never felt quite so sorry for someone as I do for you right now."
Now the swordswoman stared at her. "Excuse me?" she asked hoarsely.
"You just don't seem to be able to learn from experiences, and that's a very sad thing for anybody, but especially for a martial artist, I'd imagine. I really don't know what it's going to take to get it through your head that we're not these innocents abroad that you think. I spent months traveling with a group of ruin explorers. Do you really think that nobody suffered any injuries in that time? I've had plenty of chances to get used to seeing people get hurt and helping out with first aid."
"Well, good for you, but what about -" Tsukuyomi started to demand.
"Akira-san is a trained athlete. Injuries are part of her life, too. For that matter, they're part of Misa-san's life as a cheerleader. And Natsumi-san ... okay, Natsumi-san is just a good actress, and she was probably more upset by the sight of that than she was letting on, so kudos to you for picking up on the truth, even partially. Now if you'll just start applying that perceptiveness to the rest of this situation, maybe we'll be able to get somewhere."
Tsukuyomi felt her teeth grinding together, and the urge to lash out, to draw forth her blades and demonstrate how she could perceive the vast openings in the other girl's defenses and investigate how the girl dealt with really serious injuries to herself, was almost overpowering. If she'd been on any world other than this one, she'd have probably submitted to it.
And yet ... the other girl just stood there, gazing at her patiently. She had to be aware of how much danger she was in, but there she was, seemingly defenseless ...
... just like her sempai's princess had seemed.
Tsukuyomi let out a long, disgusted breath. "I don't get it," she said again. "And now you're saying that I'm never going to get it."
"I didn't say that," Nodoka countered. "I said that you're showing that you just don't seem to learn. But maybe, if you stop underestimating us so much, you'll start realizing that there are lessons you can learn from us." The girl smiled then. "Trust me, if I didn't think you were ever going to get it, I wouldn't bother talking to you except to hint at the existence of very good coffee available on campus."
"... what?"
"Never mind. Come on, we've got the rest of the perimeter to check."
"How do you know, anyway?" Tsukuyomi asked as Nodoka turned to do just that.
"... how do I know what?" asked Nodoka after a moment of regret that they were not getting back on the job immediately.
"That I ..." The younger girl hesitated again, then lowered her gaze so that she didn't meet Nodoka's eyes before continuing. "... that I want to learn from you people. Did you already read my mind?"
"No, Setsuna told me about her conversation with you. Don't look so shocked, I'm friends with Konoka, remember? That's how bonds work. It's like the old story about what's harder to break, a set of sticks standing alone or those sticks bundled together."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, and if the sword is sharp enough, it should be able to go through either fairly easily," Tsukuyomi said blandly.
Nodoka stared at her for a moment, sighed and shook her head, then turned to start walking the perimeter without waiting for Tsukuyomi to catch up.
"So you're friends with the princess, and that makes you friends with my ... with her," Tsukuyomi said as she followed.
"Friends with benefits, yes," Nodoka agreed. There came a crashing noise behind her. "Are you all right?" she asked, holding back from turning around with some difficulty.
"Oh, just peachy," Tsukuyomi replied as she unsteadily rose to her feet again, having somehow avoided the razor grass which the sound of her fall would surely have sharpened. "Thanks so much for reminding me about the other side of this whole situation. Bleh."
"Well, if you're that uncomfortable with the subject, I'll try to avoid it in the future. But you might want to ask Negi to put up a sound barrier when we stop for the evening so you're not ... further disconcerted."
"... with him, too?" the swordswoman gasped.
"Yes. All of us. Except Kotaro, much to Haruna's dismay." She reflected a moment, hemming. "Maybe to Kotaro's dismay, too, a little," she added softly.
"And you're going to be doing that ... stuff ... here? In Hell?"
"I look at it as a way of signalling the triumph of life over ... whatever all this is," Nodoka replied, looking around.
"Nguh," Tsukuyomi said with a shudder.
Something occurred to Nodoka, then, and she paused to slowly turn around to look at Tsukuyomi. "Tsukuyomi-san ... are you really disgusted by that idea? Did someone ... do something to you, at some point, and that's left you with -"
The other girl had been staring at her in befuddlement as she spoke, but that confusion faded into obvious outrage. "Are you ... are you seriously suggesting that I -" And then, quite suddenly, Tsukuyomi laughed. "Oh," she said. "Oh. You'd like that, wouldn't you? Some sort of convenient explanation for why I am the way that I am, some villain in my past that you could blame for me. A way to tell yourself that I was always supposed to be something like you, but somehow things went wrong."
Just as suddenly, Tsukuyomi was up in Nodoka's face, eyes gone manic. "Dream on, little mind-reader. Dream on."
With that, she stepped to Nodoka's side and began walking the perimeter ahead of her 'partner'.
After a moment to settle her heart rate, Nodoka turned to follow her.
The sky was darkening and the sun had, as Zazie had predicted, dimmed to the brightness of the moon. "It's always dimmer than it actually would be if the illusionary sky didn't interpose," she said as she stood with Negi and watched the solar disc grow cold and dark enough to look directly at it. "We are much closer to the dayspring than Earth, after all."
Negi glanced at her when she used the word dayspring. The unfamiliar phrase reminded him once again just how much she had been keeping undercover for the first two and a half years of her time on Earth. No comment that he could make seemed appropriate, so he stood and watched in silent wonder at a magic deeper, mightier and yet more subtle than anything he could wield.
Then the silence was broken. "All right," said Karin, standing behind the pair of them. "The girl has rested long enough. Let's get moving so we can take advantage of the window of time before the night-beasts start to prowl."
"I think we should let Madoka decide whether she's rested enough," Negi answered. "I'll go ask her."
"'Ask her'," Karin repeated. "And that is the ultimate example of why bringing a bunch of schoolgirls on this expedition was a terrible idea."
Negi found himself taking a deep breath. "I am sure that if one of the trained warriors you suggested as a more sensible alternative had suffered a similar injury, I would be just as solicitous of their health as I am that of Madoka and the others. Nor do I think that simply ordering people to be ready to move is a particularly sound command decision, regardless of whom one is ordering. And -" He stopped himself before he could go any further, before the words which could not be taken back were said. "- and now I'm going to go ask her."
He turned and walked over to the sleeping bag where Madoka was lying down with Misa and Akira both at her side. "How are you feeling, Madoka?" he asked.
"Well, my hip still stings, but I'm not dizzy from the treatment any more," the cheerleader replied calmly, sitting up a bit with a wince on her face. "I guess I'm ready to get moving again."
"You guess?" Negi asked gently.
Madoka met his eyes, and then faltered a bit. "I know that I don't want to be the weakest link on this mission."
The anger that he'd controlled when talking to Karin came back in full force, and it took another moment to get it managed. "Please don't think of yourself that way. If you're really ready, then if you could help Misa get packed up again, we'll be leaving shortly. Akira, could I have a word, please?"
"Oh, yes, of course," she said, standing up quickly and walking with him as he led her to the far side of the camp from where Zazie and Karin were standing, and a little bit into the bush. Their path crossed that of Kotaro and Natsumi as they came in from their turn on perimeter guard.
"Dude, already?" Kotaro asked.
"NOT NOW, KOTARO-KUN."
"Negi, are you all right?" Akira asked, wide-eyed, as Negi finally came to a halt and turned back to look at her.
"Just a moment, please," he said, breathing heavily, his hands clenched in fists. "Just a -" And then, without the popping noise that Akira found herself half-expecting, he turned back into his pre-adolescent self. "Ahhhhhh," he sighed, as though a great burden had abruptly been lifted.
"Oh," she said, somewhat enlightened. "You were really that angry?"
"I'm still angry, but I'm not as inclined to express that anger physically, when I'm like this," he said, sounding more weary than outraged. "Also, I'm in a somewhat better position to realize that doing so would have gotten me nowhere."
"Fighting Yuuki-san doesn't seem like a very good idea to me either," Akira agreed.
"No, but ... I swear, Akira, if that's what being an undying immortal does to someone, leaving them with no sympathy for human weakness, then I count myself as having had a narrow escape. And the worst part is that Madoka was agreeing with her, that she was some sort of weak link, and -" He ran out of words, shook his head and just growled like Kotaro. Or maybe that was more like a groan.
She looked at him in silence for a few moments, before she finally spoke up again. "Negi ... are you sure that it was a narrow escape?"
He looked back, confused. "I'm sorry, what?"
Akira took a deep breath. "I'm trying to be fair to everybody, here. But I don't think Madoka isn't just being influenced by Yuuki-san's bad attitude, she's also genuinely embarrassed and upset at having been injured so easily and so early. You're overstating the amount of influence that Yuuki-san has ... and I'm afraid that I'm wondering whether you're doing that because you somehow envy Yuuki-san."
Negi's jaw dropped. "Envy - what?"
"If you were somehow still an undying immortal, and had to do this mission, you could do it with Zazie and maybe Yuuki-san's help, and none of the rest of us would be at risk. I think that must be a tempting scenario to you. Isn't it?" she asked, looking at him evenly, voice calm and steady.
He looked back ... and yet he was the one who looked away first. "I can't really envision that scenario, because I can't envision a scenario where I still had Magia Erebea and all this was happening. But ... any scenario where my dearest ones are in less danger is a tempting one, yes," he admitted.
"Thank you," Akira said softly.
"For what?"
"For not getting angry when I asked you that."
"You're my partner," Negi replied simply, finally meeting her gaze again. "I need you to tell me the truth as you see it. Even when the truth isn't happy or pleasant."
"It's not going to be easy, ever, is it?" she asked.
"Probably not."
Akira reached into her backpack and pulled out the jar of age-up pills that she was carrying, holding them out to him. As he reached for her, she bent down and kissed him soundly.
"I love you," she said, as she pulled back. "Even when the truth isn't happy and pleasant."
"I love you," he answered. Then frowned. "Did you hear something?"
Immediately, the two of them went very quiet, listening for any potential hint of danger, their only movement being Negi's very slow reach for the wand strapped across his back. His hand rested on it for a full minute while he listened.
"Nothing?" Akira asked quietly.
"No. I must have been hearing things," he answered quietly. "Am I getting paranoid, in addition to everything else?"
"We're in Hell. Paranoia is probably a good idea," she said.
Negi made a face. "Until it gets us in worse trouble." He let go of the staff, took the age up pill and sighed as he popped into near-adulthood once again. "All right, let's go before Kotaro convinces everybody that we really are heading off into the woods for some private time."
"I don't think he'd really do that, given that he and Natsumi were clearly coming back from just that sort of thing," she told him, smiling gently.
His eyes went wide. "They were? But -"
Akira actually giggled. He was still so innocent.
"All right," said Negi, a few moments later, once he'd assured himself that the rest of the group were ready to go. "Which way, Yuuki-san?"
Karin regarded him skeptically, and for a moment he thought she was going to make yet another sarcastic observation. But the moment passed, and she pointed off in a direction which was, he thought, slightly different from the bearing she and Zazie had taken earlier. "Rainyday, if you could bring up the rear?" she asked.
As Zazie nodded, Negi found himself pondering Karin's change in attitude ... and then a notion occurred to him. Had she followed him when he'd stormed away with Akira in tow, listened to what he'd said, and decided to make a change? That could explain the noise that he'd heard. If he was right, it was a hopeful sign, and they could use as many of those as possible, given the circumstances.
Relieved, he didn't notice the way that Tsukuyomi, further back in the line of marchers, was keeping a steady eye on his back.
'somehow still an undying immortal' she thought. 'still had Magia Erebea' she thought. Which means that he isn't and doesn't.
Verrrrry interesting.
To Be Continued Author's Note
As always, I look forward to your commentary and criticism, constant readers.