Disclaimer: Negima! is not owned by anyone on unless said person is Ken Akamatsu in disguise… which translates to mean ownership is not mine. But… all OCs created by my words, taken from my ideas, and put onto paper are mine and only mine.

Notes:

"Speech."

'Thoughts.'

"Spells."

Backstory:

About half a year after the Mahora Festival and Chao Lingshen's arc, Negi Springfield goes to Wales on a mission to capture three rogue mages. The experience and credentials he gained in dealing with Chao (who he convinced to stay in the present) advanced him to the next level of Magi, what some call the "Traveler". A Traveler takes on missions and lends a helping hand to the magic societies around the world. Usually, a Traveler also leaves his country and travels around the world on the way.

Negi, however, declines the offer of joining a group of other Traveler Magi and states that he wished to continue teaching at Mahora. However, in order to advance all the way to Minister Magi, he must first accomplish the tasks set out for him and take on missions to rise in rank. As a result, he leaves behind his students in Takahata's care.

In Wales, Negi is quickly briefed on his targets: three youthful mages older than Negi himself by only a few years. "Our intelligence agents do not believe the names written on these rogue mages' IDs but for lack of better information, they have been labeled as Ansien, Sagio, and Risc.

Out of the trio, only the delinquent Sagio had attended Merdiana Magic Academy. His crime was the theft of three books from the Black Magic section of Merdiana's library and the injuries of the two teachers who had confronted him on his behavior. Those two reasons resulted in him being labeled as the most dangerous of the trio. Also supporting the decision was the relatively un-harmful actions of Ansien and Risc: petty crimes like theft with magic. The three were linked by the magical glamours (appearance affecting illusions) they wore, all performed by the same mage.

Taking all the information in, Negi is given a hotel room to sleep in which he gratefully takes. In the middle of the night, he is attacked by Sagio. Negi is able to fend the mage off and even to inflict a wound, but Sagio manages to escape when reinforcements, in the form of Negi's childhood friend Anya, arrives.

With her enhanced skill in telepathy magic and divining from her experience as a fortune teller, Negi is able to find out where the three had gathered. With Anya contacting the authorities, Negi sets out to confront the three and either capture them or stall for time until reinforcements could come to finish up. When they realize that their cover is blown, the three rogue mages run for the woods with Negi close on their heels. He follows them all the way to an old mansion in the wilderness surrounding Wales. It is only when he is trapped inside, does Negi realize that he had been playing right into the hands of his enemies…

Termination of Spirit: Contract's Initiation

Chapter One: Meetings in Wales

Eleven year old Negi Springfield breathed heavily as he darted to and fro between the giant pillars as magical bolts tore chunks of the dusty marble floor behind him. A flash of movement in the corner of his eye was the only warning before he felt a stinging numbness where a mass of darkness had hit his left arm. He was knocked into the air and landed heavily a moment later. Using his momentum, Negi reduced the impact with a roll and flipped himself back upright with his right hand.

His vault into the air saved him, pushing him out of the way as two black bolts sizzled in front of him, the leading edge of the twin arrows of magic slicing easily through his robes. Out of the corner of his right eye, he saw the close encounter with death pass him exploding into nothingness as it collided with the ancient mansion's wall. Using the resulting dust, he catapulted himself backwards with both his magically enhanced strength and momentum to end up ducked behind a relatively un-collapsed pillar that was sporting a head-sized whole. Then, Negi did the unthinkable: he blessed his short stature for giving him this hiding place from certain destruction.

Silence filled the room as much as the dust did. With the silence came back the clarity of mind that Negi had lost in the panic and desperate rush of dodging his enemies' killing intent. 'Three rogue magicians scattered in this ancient hallway blocking me from the exit and reinforcements,' Negi thought to himself. 'What a great situation!'

"What are you doing, boy?" an arrogant voice taunted in English at the lapse of movement, "Hiding won't do you any good." The voice, who Negi identified as Sagio's, continued, "Don't you know there's nowhere to run?"

Negi ignored the words completely and focused instead on what he had learned the past year with his teachers in magic and martial arts: a certain female vampire mage known as Evangeline and his unearthly strong student, Ku Fei.

With Sagio's voice in the background, Negi's mind ran through his choices. As soon as the thought of close combat crossed his mind, he demolished the idea, attacking it with quick logic.

Though he considered himself a combat mage, he knew he had no hope of defeating three mages at once. Add that to his numb left arm and his less than perfect instant movement technique and it seemed as if that option was neatly crossed out.

'So,' he thought ticking off close combat to his enemy's incantation. 'I'll have to beat them with magic.'

Technically, he did have more magic than them. His capacity was large and virtually untouched. Also, all he had done was to dodge the countless spells thrown his way for the pass fifteen minutes. Even the chase earlier that day had not taken much of his magical reserves to survive while matching their speed and catch up to them.

On the contrary, physical exhaustion threatened his balance like a ton of weight on his shoulders. Lack of sleep did not help at all. That decided it for him.

'It's time to try that new spell Master taught me,' Negi grinned.

He stepped around the pillar just as the girl, Risc, finished her incantation sending seventeen deadly bolts of black destruction his way. He outran the homing bolts with a single burst of magic, pulling off an instant movement with his incantation already tumbling out of his mouth.

"Ras Tel Ma Scir Magica," Negi muttered as he cut out of his dash behind a sheltering pillar. The words brought the familiar rush of magic through his body with his spell to unlock his magic. "Song of Casting," he uttered, ducking behind the next in the sequence of pillars to dodge another flurry of arrows.

His next dash out of cover brought him into the view all three of his opponents. Their grins of anticipation unnerved him but he was not given the time to dwell on their foresight. The two male mages shouted together.

"Undecim spiritus obscuri… SAGITTA MAGICA, SERIES OBSCURI!"

Negi dashed forward, meeting the twenty-two magical bolts head on. Negi grinned as danger approached him with rapidity. The effects of Negi's earlier spell gave him the edge and became increasingly apparent when he shouted, "Reflexio!" three times in quick succession. The three defense spells appeared one after the other, speedily blocking the dark energy and deflecting them into the floor, ceiling, and surroundings.

With his spell reducing the time needed for incantations, Negi used the dust from his quick defense as a cover. Not waiting a second more, he cast his deciding spell with the small explosions still ringing in his ears.

"Undeduocenti spiritus lucis, coeuntes inimicum… SAGITTENT!"

The resulting explosion lit up the dark mansion as completely as a revolving floodlight. The anticipant expressions on the trios' fled as quickly as shadows from light, their concentration focused on their barriers which started to crack from the impact of a hundred and ninety-nine arrows of light. Negi felt himself wavering but let the spell take its toll on his magical reserves nonetheless.

Negi blinked furiously in concentration before he glanced at his opponents for a sign of weakness. To his amazement, their appearances changed before his eyes. Comparing their features to the photos he had been given during the mission briefing, there was no doubt they were the same people but very different indeed.

With the brightness of his spell, his eyes were nearly blinded though he could make out their faces. All he could make out were the outlines of their faces and indescribable colors that were not of the norm, even to his experience with the strange Class of 3-A. All further thoughts were banished from her mind his ears caught the end of an incantation

"SAGITTA MAGICA!" Risc exclaimed, thrusting her hand forward and launching another stream of dark magic. Negi braced himself for an impact, assuming that her stronger bolts would rip through his arrows of light which had the unfortunate limit of a punch's strength.

But the impact never came as the bolts never reached him. His remaining light energy ripped through her oppositely dark energy as if her spell had never been cast.

Negi watched in confusion as their shields broke and they drowned in a sea of bright light, their reactions giving very different responses to the incredulity Negi was expecting.

None of them had regret or fear on their faces. In stark contrast, their expressions included a wolfish grin, a petulant pout, and smile of farewell that told of a future meeting. Before he could decide what to think of their reactions, Negi collapsed from exhaustion.

When he awoke, Negi found his body in a soft bed with Anya asleep over the covers. He smiled at her sleeping face and closed his eyes again. With his sight blocked by his eyelids, he relaxed and focused other senses on his surroundings. The bed felt wonderful and the silence was welcoming. Not even his worry about the outcome of his battle with the rogue mages could ruin the peacefulness of the room.

'The rogues…' A groan escaped his lips unwillingly as Negi tried suddenly to get up. His whole body ached and he winced, squeezing shut his eyes in reply to his body's painful clamor. Before he knew it, Negi felt himself pushed back onto his back by a soft but firm hand. Knowing that the culprit was Anya, Negi let her reposition the covers over his shoulders and listened to her voice ordering him to rest.

Negi felt the bed shift as her weight settled onto the edge. He turned his head to face her but before he could even smile, she started heatedly scolding him, "Baka! You're such a fool. We could see your magic from a mile away; couldn't you be more inconspicuous? That way, you wouldn't be in such a weak condition right now. If you were really an English gentleman, then you wouldn't make others worry like this!"

"Thank you for the wake-up call, Anya, (Where did you learn Japanese?)," Negi replied weakly, his voice betraying his weakened state. Despite his fatigue, Negi licked his dry lips and continued in a stronger voice. "I remember when you used to storm into my room first thing in the morning and drag me to school, whether or not you had to dress me yourself. We haven't had much time to catch up, but you haven't changed much from that time you shouted 'Impossible!' into my face back at Merdiana. I have to say, that was a great source of encouragement."

Anya blinked, and stared at him as if he had sprouted another head. She smacked him upside the head before replying, "Where's the gratitude, Negi? Don't go commenting on whether or not someone else has changed when your own lack of change is what worries others. It's all because you couldn't get up yourself. If I hadn't waken you, who would have? No one, that's who, and you'd still be at Merdiana now if I hadn't pitied you."

"Yes, yes, the credit is all yours, now if you don't mind me changing the topic… What happened to the mission? All I remember is passing out from… well, you know what I mean."

Anya smiled mockingly, "And here I thought that those words would have been the first thing out of your mouth."

"Anya!" Negi cried in frustration.

Seeing worry eat away at her childhood friend, Anya took pity and replied, "Captured, all three of them; we got to their unconscious forms a few minutes after you cast that reckless spell." Here, she smacked him again before adding, "It would have been as great a surprise as your foolishness if they had managed to withstand that. Even if your nature hasn't changed much, your magical ability sure has. I wouldn't have thought going to Japan would improve your magic so much."

"Speaking of going to Japan," Negi started conversationally now that his worry concerning the rogue mages had been dispelled. "How's London? Have you passed yet?"

"Of course I've passed," Anya replied smugly, "In fact, I passed two weeks before you sent that stiff sounding letter to Nekane-san."

"Eh?" Negi exclaimed in shock, "Why didn't you tell me you had passed? I would've sent a letter to you!"

"And did you know where to address the letter?" Anya questioned imperiously.

Thinking furiously, Negi ended up with nothing. "No…" he replied but tried to quickly add some form of apology when Anya's hand came up. Believing he was about to get hit again, Negi shut his eyes and braced himself.

When the expected impact did not come, Negi cautiously opened his eyes. He caught the last of her sentence, "…didn't know your address either." With those words and Anya's shrug, Negi quickly put together her sentence.

"Actually, I didn't know your address either," she had said with arms up in a gesture implying, "Oh well, what can you do?"

"What's wrong, Negi?"

Anya's voice snapped Negi from his thoughts. Blinking with vigor, Negi replied, "Nothing."

"It better be nothing. If I thought you were daydreaming while I kept you company…" Anya muttered, trailing off with the implied threat hanging in the air. With her mood dangerous, Negi kept silent and watched as she smoothed out her clothing.

Her actions suddenly made Negi rather self-conscious about what he was wearing. He was inwardly aghast to be in Anya's presence with him wearing only the dirty battle outfit that had pretty much been reduced to rags albeit with a sense of modern style. Negi, in comparing his clothing to Anya's, quite suddenly noticed what she was wearing: a white blouse and a black skirt that was a slightly darker color than the dark blue magician's cloak she wore over everything else.

Though her clothing was slightly wrinkled from her earlier sleep, compared to his, her clothes looked so much more comfortable. He suddenly felt so uncomfortable that even his intense dislike of baths was overcome in one bound and he would like nothing better than to soak in some hot water. Negi shook his head to clear his thoughts. If he was yearning for a bath then that meant his battle with the rogue mages had done more damage than it had seemed.

A few moments later, Anya broke the settling silence in farewell, "Well, I have to go catch my plane back to London. Fortunetelling is a job that requires all of your time, so I need to get back as soon as I can. Are you really all right; nothing hurts too much?"

"My whole body aches, but other than that… nothing," Negi replied with a cheerful smile.

Anya sighed and prodded his left arm, seeing right through his facade. Negi cried out in pain and shock.

"Ahh… "Anya commented wisely, "You're still the same Negi: always crying, even over a little pain."

"I'm not crying!" Negi shouted in anger. 'Why does everyone always assume that I will cry at any little thing?' he thought in annoyance recalling all the events in his life where his small figure earned him stares that made him feel like a doll someone might just decide to dress up at any given time.

Anya stared at him unconvinced, "It might just be me, but shedding water from your eyes is, in general, called crying… right?"

Negi wiped his eyes in response and pouted.

"Still the same, little Negi."

"We're the same age, Anya!" Negi shouted in anger.

She proceeded to ignore him. "The doctor said you'll have big bruise and that you were not to move your arm until he could prepare a cast for you. Luckily, nothing was broken but your arm was badly sprained and you'll still have to be careful of infection from those scratches you got. The grouchy medical expert thinks you won't have a scar, but you certainly deserve one with that stunt you pulled."

"Thank you for the report," Negi replied a little stiffly.

"Angry so easily, dear Negi?" Anya taunted, laughing at his indignant pout. With a final bout of laughter, she stood up. "I have to get going. Goodbye, Negi."

The weight leaving his bed was enough to get Negi out of his anger, reminding him of the immediateness of Anya's departure.

"Good luck with whatever you're doing and have a safe trip," Negi said from his bed.

Turning around with a genuine smile, Anya replied, "You too Negi."

She walked backwards to the door, with a hand raised in farewell.

Anya would have turned around and left right then and there had the door not opened just then, admitting a certain middle-aged man into the room. With a cry of surprise, Anya bumped into him and landed on the floor.

"Sorry, Anya-kun," the man apologized as he closed the door behind him.

Recognizing the man instantly, Negi and Anya exclaimed together in surprise, "Takamichi!"

Recovering first, Negi demanded with his best indignant tone, "Takamichi! Why are you here? Weren't you supposed to be watching over the class for me?"

Takahata smiled in response, "Why, Negi-kun, I still am." To his confused glower, he added, "They're here in Wales with me."

"What?!"

Takahata chuckled at his response and said, "It's that time of the year, Negi-kun; it's time for the annual school field trip and the girls decided they wanted to visit you and take a look around your hometown. You know there's no way to stop both Asuna-kun and Ayaka-kun combined." Takahata gave him a wink that Negi interpreted as supposedly reassuring but certainly did not make him feel that much better.

However, reassured or not, Negi couldn't ignore the manners that had been drilled into him. He managed to respond with an awkward smile of agreement before one of his swirling thoughts clicked into place. "Asuna-san was that worried about me? Iinchou-san I understand," Negi stated, referring to Ayaka's… exuberant 'helpfulness' regarding anything to do with the child teacher (and that was playing it down for Ayaka's sake), "but usually Asuna-san would do anything but agree with Iinchou-san. Unless… her life depended on it?"

"Takamichi," Anya interrupted curtly before Negi could be questioned on his comment. She glowered moodily at Takahata. At the same time, to Negi's eyes, a dark aura seemed to materialize around her, fueled by a sudden irritation that had not been apparent until that moment. "If you don't mind, I want to arrive at the airport before my plane leaves without me," she stated sweetly though her tone gave no doubt that her hidden message was, "GET OUT OF MY WAY OR I'LL MAKE YOU MOVE: WITH MAGIC IF I HAVE TO!"

Takahata was fortunately saved a polite but hasty retreat by the sudden opening of the door with a force that resulted in it being blown clean off its hinges. The source of the implosion was soon made clear as two teenage girls stepped quickly through… what remained of the door, neck to neck in their race to get into the room. With their clothes a mess – one more expensively inclined towards extravagant fashion and the other oppositely inclined towards comfortable function – the two girls managed to trip right in front of Takahata's feet. Along with their bodies came the threat of the airborne door. Reacting instantly, Takahata stopped the door with one hand and left it leaning against the wall with one smooth motion.

"Asuna-kun, Ayaka-kun," Takahata greeted with a smile and a subtle hint of shock underneath his calm exterior.

Negi and Anya were not so adept at controlling their emotion. Negi stared incoherently with jaw dropped at the dramatic appearance of the Class President and Baka Red who had collapsed onto the floor in exhaustion, their breaths coming quick and laborious.

Anya's reaction was much more noticeable… and irritated. She frowned down at them and, deciding time was short, calmly stepped over the two and left with a wave for Negi. Waving back in farewell, Negi then watched the amusing scene before him unfold predictably.

Asuna blushed with the color of the setting sun when she found Takahata attempting to hold the unhinged door steady against the wall. She immediately popped back up onto her feet, stammering a series of unintelligible stutters. Ayaka followed suit and jumped up. After quickly apologizing to Takahata, her charismatic nature took over. With a nonchalantly familiar manner, she greeted Negi pleasantly, and sat on the bed, pinning his legs beneath her weight. Flippant manner accompanying, she, who held the self-decreed right to apologize on behalf of the manner-less gorilla lying on the floor, did so.

At the insult, Asuna miraculously recovered from her loss of vocabulary and stated, "I have a name and it is Asuna, not gorilla you shota-con woman!"

As always, Negi tried to calm the two down, and as always, failed miserably as the tension escalated. Ayaka's voice soon switched from calm and polite (sensitive to Negi's presence) to a more arrogantly commanding tone, to which Asuna fought quite valiantly against with her own overbearing manner. As their fight went on, Negi felt a familiar thought tickle his mind.

Sometimes he wondered if the class president had that infamous split personality disorder. But alas, her medical records checked clear in the monthly report given to the teachers of Mahora. Linking to that thought was Negi's worry about a patient's confidentiality, but the principle had reassured with a cheerfully deceptive smile that catering to the physical needs of his students was just as important as teaching. Negi felt slightly horrified at the implications that cascaded through his mind at the innocent (at first glance) comment, but put it aside for a different time. There was a crisis on hand and Negi hoped to be out of it as soon as possible... but was there really anything he could do but sit and wait?

As his mind wandered, the two fighting girls had been over every inch of the room and with the bad fortune always accompanied their bickering they ended up near the entrance to the room where Takahata had just finished setting back the door into its frame. With one loud cry, the two girls slipped and fell through onto the closed door, which also unfortunately opened inwards. A loud crack announced the splintering end of the wooden door's short existence.

Negi winced.

A few minutes later, after Asuna and Ayaka apologized abashedly for their… behavior, Takahata escorted the two teenagers out the door. As they stepped over the slivers of wood shaving, they continued to glower at each other, no doubt blaming each other for the disaster once they were out of earshot of Negi.

With his room in shambles, Negi sighed in relief as the peacefulness of the room back into place. It didn't matter to him that the wrecked doorway was like an open wound on his privacy. He closed his eyes and tried to relax, allowing his head to sink into the fluffy pillows and resting his arms on the soft covers of the bed.

His eyes snapped open as something sharp jabbed into the palm of his right hand. Tears threatened to well but Negi was determined not to shed any of the liquid, even with no one immediately in the vicinity. Instead, he studied the object. It was a small crystal pendant. A small pointed crystal of sapphire color hung from one strand of braided string. Negi held it up to the light and found that a wrist band shaped strap was attached to the other end of the braided string. With sudden clarity, he recognized it as one of Anya's tools for scrying.

That meant she would be back pretty soon… Footsteps from the corridor announced visitors (he was the only guest on this floor of the hotel) and he looked up expectantly for Anya to come rushing into the room. To his surprise, his second visit that morning – or third counting Anya – came in the form of three more of his students.

The three members of Mahora Gakuen's Strolling Club reported in with smart salutes, each wearing the style of clothes the citizens of Wales preferred: a combination of slacks, hooded sweaters, and the more unconventional robes.

"Negi-sensei!" the Narutaki twins exclaimed together in greeting as Kaede added after them, "Negi-bouzu."

"Minna-san!" he greeted in reply but went straight to the point afterwards, "What are you doing here in Wales?"

"Ah," Kaede replied with a grin and a wink, "We were all worried about your long absence so we came here to see what your 'job' was about, de gozaru."

"And we also wanted to look around your hometown, Negi-sensei!" Fumika continued.

"That's right, Negi-sensei! Now that we're here, why don't you treat us to breakfast and a grand tour?" Fuuka suggested with such rapidity that Negi almost agreed without thinking.

He saved his dignity with the promise of dinner and taking the whole class on a tour on another day. Soon, they settled into a comfortable conversation about how Mahora had been without him there to teach.

"And then Asuna leapt clear out of her chair when Takahata-sensei congratulated her on translating a whole paragraph with only a couple of flaws!" Fumika exclaimed.

Fuuka took a turn at relating the story, adding to the tale with Negi smiling encouragement, "Even though Asuna has gotten over her rejection, she still acts so… randomly and embarrassingly around sensei."

Kaede nodded in agreement, "Habits can be hard to correct, even when the motivation for the behavior has ceased to exist."

"Wise word, Kaede-san," Negi praised and thanked the twins for the humorous tale.

"Now if you don't mind, I'd better get up and get dressed," Negi hinted, stretching and yawning loudly though he inwardly winced at the pain in his left arm.

He waited for his "guests" to leave. When nothing happened, he sighed and stated again that he needed to get out of bed. After a count to ten, he looked at Kaede and asked, "Would you please escort Fumika-san and Fuuka-san out of my room. I need my privacy."

Kaede winked and sighed, "You owe me one, Negi-bouzu." To Negi's amusement, relief, and embarrassment, the twins continued to complain as Kaede dragged them away with her incredible strength. A few lewd comments made his ears burn but he pointedly ignored them and decided to follow up on his excuse and actually get dressed.

He had just finished taking off his shirt when Anya burst into the room. In the process of taking it off, his shirt had muffled Anya's footsteps so her sudden appearance caught Negi totally unprepared. A moment of silence ensued before Anya got over Negi's embarrassment for him and ignored her own blush. With a hand, she demanded, "My dousing pendant, do you have it?"

Negi wordlessly handed her the pendant. Quite suddenly, a phone rang shocking Negi out of his reverie. Anya made a wordless gesture of annoyance and picked up the room's phone for Negi.

Negi hid a second blush as he pulled on a fresh shirt (with a good deal of pain from his sprained arm) as Anya muttered, "Yes… yes… What? Cancelled? This can't be true… no, I'm alright. Thanks for letting me know. Yes, goodbye."

Negi smoothed his new, clean, short sleeved shirt as Anya slammed the phone down. "Cancelled!" she exclaimed in anger, "They cancelled the flight! Do you know what this means?"

Negi shook his head despite knowing it was a rhetorical question.

"The Traveler Magi will be leaving without me!"

Negi mouthed an exclamation of silence which seemed to irritate Anya. "What are you being so mute for? And why did you change your shirt with that arm of yours. Hasn't the doctor come up yet?"

Negi shook his head. "No, he hasn't."

Anya sighed, "Then I'll make you a cast. Wait a second."

Closing her eyes in concentration, Anya started the first words of a spell. Negi blinked as a wave of magical energy washed out from her aura and a rainbow light appeared over his sprained arm. With light shimmering, it overlapped itself over and over again until it created a shell-shaped covering over his left arm from forearm to the elbow.

"Why didn't you just heal it?" Negi complained as the spell completed and the new weight brought his arm down sharply to his side, bringing another onrush of pain. "It would have been much more inconspicuous. What would my students say if they saw the cast? A few of them have already come up to visit me."

"That's your problem, Negi, not mine," Anya replied dejectedly. "It's not my fault you didn't study Healing Magic as much as I did."

Negi pouted and would have said more when certain vampire mage strode into the room… and she looked angry.

Negi shivered in fear as Evangeline stalked into the room, followed by the reticent robot, Chachamaru. He didn't know whether to be reassured when Chachamaru gave him a sympathetic smile (which, in her case, translates as a slight tilting of the mouth) or whether to be more immensely afraid of Evangeline's intents and purpose for visiting Negi.

He tried his best to build up courage and was just about to give a subdued but still cheerful greeting when she glared at him balefully, scoffing at his cast. That shut him up simple and quick.

Without sparing him a further glance, Negi's master in the magical arts looked Anya once over and demanded, "Tell me who you are or get out. The brat and I have something important to discuss and we don't need another brat in the room interrupting our conversation."

"Right, boya?" Evangeline added with an unconcealed threat when Negi tried to come to Anya's defense.

"Like recognizes like," Anya retorted despite the icy stare sent her way. To her credit, she sent one back with equal coldness spawned by an ignorance of her opponent.

Negi could read Anya's emotions clearly as the two women stared each other down. The morning in Wales was getting on her nerves despite the place being her home town. Now that the flight back to London was cancelled ,she had nowhere to go but back to Merdiana to look for another group of Traveler Magi that would accept her. 'Maybe Nekane one-chan will let her stay over for tonight,' Negi pondered. His thoughts then decided to scatter as Anya took a threatening step forward.

"Anya…" Negi tried valiantly to warn his soon-to-be-deceased friend. He even dared to lay a hand on her, but none of the two formidable women would have it. Evangeline bared her fangs at Negi and Anya brushed off his hand coldly.

'It was nice knowing you,' Negi mourned as Anya replied:

"My name is Anya and I don't really care what yours is; I'm having a bad day so if you would just get out of my way, I would gladly leave. But please step to one side and apologize for your insult."

Negi gaped in shock. Asking Dark Evangel to apologize was surefire way for a quick death. Only his apprenticeship had saved him that one time she had drained some of his blood in the middle of the night… but that was a tale for another time. He quickly looked at her master for what he hoped would be a, at most subdued, sign of bloodlust. 'There's no way I could be that lucky…'

His innermost thoughts proved true as Evangeline grinned broadly and stated, "I take no orders and apologize to none, especially to a brat. In any case, your presence won't affect my plans for boya and he can't resist. He owes me more than enough as it is. Besides, all I have to do is snap and the sniveling coward will give me anything I want."

"I resent that," Negi interrupted. With his pride on the line, not even his great fear (though he knew she wouldn't hurt him, positive…! Right…) of his abusive master could let that comment slide.

"Silence, cur!" Evangeline snarled, "And that's master to you, apprentice!"

Over Negi's whimper, Anya inquired incredulously, "Master? A kid like you… Negi's master."

"It's not that far of a stretch if you remember that boya there is the teacher of a class of thirty. Besides, if you think I look my age then you really are a fool." Evangeline smiled confidently, her fangs gleaming in the slight sunlight.

"Master, it's thirty-one including yourself," Chachamaru interrupted quietly from her corner of the room earning her a threatening scowl. She looked to Negi in confusion for an explanation of Evangeline's reply to find him deep in thought.

'Oh!' Negi thought in realization as he glimpsed Evangeline's fangs, 'That's where this irrational fear comes from. Tonight will be a full moon so naturally, Evangeline-san, er... master, will be leaking those fear inducing toxins that, strangely, only I can feel. That's right… just fear inducing toxins, that's all.'

Anya took the hint, "A vampire… that would explain a lot. What it doesn't explain is your reason for being in school. I would've thought immortal life would have gotten you at least ten different majors by now, or even a rank as a Magister Magi. Living at an all girls' school, do you by any chance have problems with men?"

Evangeline accomplished a ten out of ten face-plant and walked away from it unscathed. "If you think I stayed in that hell of school your brains probably as small as your mouth is big. The title of 'one with male problems' goes to another in the class. What do you know about me anyways?"

"Nothing," Anya replied, "I just thought vampires were more inclined to actions than words."

"And I was just thinking the same thing," Evangeline grinned wickedly in reply, licking her lips. Negi watched in horror as Evangeline made the first move. She stepped to the side and folded her arms. "Well, are you going to leave or not? I've had just about enough of this useless trading of insults," she muttered crankily.

Before Anya could reply and Negi could die of shock, an interruption... interrupted. The interruption came in the form of a loud ringing. Anya glared at the room's phone but looked down at the machine in confusion when a dial tone greeted her ears. No one could place the ringing until an antenna sprouted from Chachamaru's head. She listened for a good three minutes before she answered in her strange monotone, "Yes, Hakase… I understand."

"Well?" Evangeline prompted unnecessarily in irritation annoyed at the sudden phone call from their resident 'mad' scientist.

"Hakase says…" Chachamaru started, pausing a moment before a click was heard and a voice came from within her metallic shell: "Hurry up Eva-san, the whole class is waiting downstairs. I don't care if Negi-sensei's still sleeping, just hurry up with the operation. We're waiting. It really can't be that hard to yank Negi-sensei out of bed is it? From the reports of the other two groups, he was wearing enough to be considered decent, so speed up your pace! You volunteered for the job, you finish it. Hakase out…" the recording ended with another pause for Chachamaru's machinery… "is what she said, master."

Uncomfortable silence followed after in the morning destined to be uncomfortable and awkward in Negi's memory for years after… or so he assumed.

Evangeline cleared her throat and clarified, "The… others that came up before me kept on forgetting to drag you down here so… they sent me."

"You mean you volunteered," Negi reworded.

"Shut up brat! Just because you're a teacher doesn't mean I won't kill you!"

Negi nodded enthusiastically, happy that Evangeline was showing more initiative and a greater tolerance for group activities than ever before. His vigorous nodding made him miss Evangeline's blush. "Then we shouldn't keep them waiting, should we?" In his cheerfulness, he missed the looks passed between Evangeline and Anya.

As Negi cautiously sat up with his slowly recovering strength, something that had been bothering him suddenly formed into a question. Pulling his feet out of the covers of his bed, Negi asked, "Evangeline-san, how did you get all the way here to Wales?"

"That's master, boya," Evangeline hissed in reply. She looked as if she was about to leave the room without him but seemed to think better of it. "If you must know, I got on the same plane that zoo of a class rode."

As an afterthought, she added, "The old man's taken care of everything else that needs taking care of."

"But the barrier… the seal… the…" Negi stammered confusing Anya to no ends. "This is a school trip…" Negi managed to start and then added, "Does that means the Principal is stamping papers every five seconds until you get back? How long have you been in Wales?"

"We've already been here for two days; today's the only day we couldn't find you," Evangeline replied, humoring him. "You mysteriously disappeared for the past few days while we lingered here, waiting. I pity the old man, today's probably the tenth essay already."

Negi blinked in consternation, "Essay; isn't he stamping papers to deceive the spirits?"

"No," she replied simply, "he's writing hundred pagers on why I should be allowed to be here in Wales. He got around the stamping deal with a bit of your blood mixed with mine from the samples kept in the Nurse's office. I'd say he's probably over the one-hundred and seventy-two thousandth word mark by now. A word per second, boya, that's how much he needs to write."

"Eh!"

"If you two are going to stand here chatting the whole morning you might as well just stay here," Anya sighed, taking initiative in walking towards the door.

Evangeline smirked, "That's alright. The brat and I have unfinished business to take care of anyway."

"Master?" Negi questioned as Evangeline took casual steps towards him. Her arm suddenly snaked out and latched onto Negi's good arm and, with a vicious tug, drew him near.

"Eh!" Negi panicked, struggling violently against Evangeline's iron grip to no avail.

"What are you doing?!" Anya exclaimed in shock with a tone tinged with a hint of worry.

Evangeline flashed a smile in Anya's direction and went for the prize.

In one motion, she pushed Negi onto the bed in a sitting position, jumped onto the bed next to him, and bit into his arm.

The silence after was filled only by the noisy slurping that followed. Anya fell forward, stumbling. Chachamaru covered her face in a very human gesture. Negi sighed as Evangeline continued to suck out his blood.

"Poor Negi," Anya muttered as Evangeline slurped in silence, eyes closed in contentment.

"What do you mean?" Negi asked, resigned to his master's spontaneous behavior.

"You've been subdued by a vampire and a 'Fear-Inducing' spell has been cast on you. You're nothing but a blood farm if you haven't noticed by now."

"'Fear Inducing' spell!" Negi exclaimed. "Master… you told me that it was toxins you produced that only affected me because you've fed on my blood…"

Evangeline sucked up more blood in reply.

"Master!" Negi sobbed as more of his blood was drained away moment by moment. He was starting to feel light-headed and felt, more than saw the darkness at the corner of his vision.

Evangeline reluctantly stopped.

"That was a good feed," she commented, stretching reluctantly.

In mid-stretch, she froze as a click sounded out from the door. Likewise, Anya suddenly found herself frozen as the cold bite of steel from a sword touched her neck.

"One move out of any of you and I'll have to cut your life short."

- To be Continued…

Author's Note: A long chapter that I'll probably be revising a bunch of times in the near future. Unfortunately, most of the chapters will probably be about two thousand words shorter than this first. I apologize if any characters are out of character: Anya (because close to nothing is known about her), Negi (or his innermost thoughts), and/or Evangeline (for her attitude/mood swing persona due to a crankiness derived from withdrawal. It's too bad for Negi that his master has gotten addicted on his blood…).

Reviews are welcome, suggestions considered, flames ignored, and unreasonable demands for anything above my rating... hated and scorned, tossed into the fire to burn, and that would still be too good for it.