A/N: I don't own Negima. The closest thing I have to it is the manga series in paperback. Warning: Spoilers for those of you who have only read the English translations published by Del Rey. This story follows the manga up until the festival, after that it goes tangent. (I still haven't read past chapter 137 in the manga yet.)
Child of Mine
(A Mahou Sensei Negima Fanfiction)
Prologue.
Negi finished giving his report to the dean about the festival activities of Chao. She had returned home, and apparently he'd been able to disrupt her plans to change the future. He only hoped that whatever she had been trying to change wasn't so terrible that he was going to regret having stopped her.
The dean had listened curiously as Negi told him nearly everything that had gone on. He'd left out his pocket watch 'souvenir' and the adventures it had gotten him into, but he had told the dean everything else about Chao Lingshen.
"So, she was trying to expose the world of magic in order to change the future, which was her past or present." The dean said stroking his beard. "Furthermore, she is your descendant."
"That's correct sir." Negi said politely.
"This explains a great deal. There has been a disruption in the time/space continuum that may be linked to this, and it seems to be centered around your descendants. It may very well be that Chao was more successful than we were first led to believe." The dean said seriously.
"What do you mean?" Negi said in confusion.
"Come with me." The dean said getting up from his desk. "I have something to show you."
The dean led Negi to his own personal laboratory. There he pulled a cloth back from a mirror that dominated the center of the room. The mirror stood at least two and a half meters tall and inside Negi could see darkness and mist swirling around.
"What is it?" He said in awe.
"This is the Mirror of Ebyam. An old colleague of mine and I found it and its twin on an expedition into the ruins of Ys several years ago. I took this mirror for safe keeping while he took the Mirror of Erised. He said he had a use for the Mirror of Erised, but frankly, I believe this is the more useful of the two mirrors. This shows us what might possibly be." The dean said as if instructing a class on archeology.
"So how does it work? Does it show the future?" Negi asked.
"Well, in can be used to see someone's possible future. What it shows us is an illusion of what might be, and it may give us an idea of what Chao was trying to change. However, as you can see from the darkness and mist, you are nearly too young for it to work." The dean said looking into the mirror.
"I'm too young?" Negi asked looking into the darkness.
"Yes. As we grow older, our reactions become more ingrained. How we respond to a given situation becomes more automatic. It makes determining our possible futures more easy. I guess you could say that our destinies become more solid as we grow older. For someone as young as yourself, still in the formative stages of your life, the possibilities are nearly endless. It also appears as if your own future has been put into an even greater state of uncertainty due to Chao's influence upon you during the time that she was here." The dean said sagely.
"So how can this help us?" Negi asked.
"Well, there is one other function of the mirror. This is the reason I set up Konoka on so many O-miai. With this, I can see the possible outcome of how two people will turn out when they stand before the mirror together. If you were to find out who Chao's female descendant was, then we might be able to see what the possible future holds when the two of you stand before the mirror, since that future is tied to both of you." The dean said studying the mirror and then studying Negi. "I'm going to have this sent to your room. You must find Chao's female descendant if you are to find out what it was she was trying to change."
Negi nodded and looked back into the darkness. He had no idea where to begin, but if he was to understand Chao's motivations, he was going to have to try. The only problem was, if he was Chao's grandfather many generations removed, who was her grandmother?
"So, it's some sort of fortune telling mirror?" Konoka said looking into its shiny surface.
"Yeah, the dean said it could help in finding out more about what Chao Lingshen was up to. If I can look into the futures of each of the girls in class I hope to be able to see what her plans were and how it affects each of you. The dean placed an illusion over it so that it looks like a normal mirror. All I have to do is get the girls in front of it and I'll be able to see their futures without them knowing." Negi hated to lie to the girls, but this was the only way.
"Well let's try it out!" Konoka said happily. "I want to see my future!"
Negi realized that his little white lie was immediately in danger of being discovered, so he had to think quickly. "It needs time to charge first Konoka. I promise as soon as it is ready I'll see what your future looks like. And by that time I'll have a convincing story concocted to keep you from knowing what's going on.
Asuna however was obviously not convinced. The girl seemed to be able to see through nearly any lie Negi told her. She even saw through the ones he told himself sometimes. Asuna looked at the mirror with a raised eyebrow and Negi was sure she saw the black swirling mist beneath the illusion.
"Oh well, maybe later then." Konoka said trying to contain her excitement and her disappointment. "I have to go to the store, so you two try not to kill each other while I'm gone."
Negi looked into the mirror. In the reflective illusion he could see himself standing next to Asuna as the door closed behind Konoka. He quietly whispered the spell to activate the mirror and then looked past the illusion.
Nothing but more darkness greeted his gaze.
"I guess your magical dampening abilities must interfere with the mirror." Negi said to Asuna.
"Why did you lie to Konoka?" Asuna said with irritation plain in her voice.
"If I hadn't we would have spent the rest of the afternoon in front of the mirror looking at every detail of her future life, and anybody she new. You know how carried away she gets when it comes to fortune telling." Negi said truthfully.
Asuna nodded, but Negi was sure she wasn't fully convinced. He was going to have to step carefully to keep the girls from abusing the mirror. If they knew just exactly what he meant by their future he'd have even more girl troubles than he already had. He'd have to figure out some other way of seeing Asuna's future.
"I'll start scrying tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to determine if there was any damage done to the future of any of my students and fix it." Negi said confidently. It was going to take a while to get all the girls checked, but hopefully he could get this done with out anyone being the wiser.
A/N: A special thanks going out to my Beta readers, Hildebrant and Iceblade28.