Awww... nobody got the song. Runaway, was by 'Linkin Park' Remember, guess correctly and you'll get an exclusive preview of the next chapter.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Negima in any way whatsoever. Manga? Nope. Show? Nada.
Chapter 3: Runaway
"Fire... no not again!"
"Hikari?"
"NO! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!!!!!!"
"H-Hikari?! (Is she having a nightmare?)"
"STOP!!!"
"Hey, Hikari!! Wake up already!!!"
"Aaaaah!!!"
The brunette jumped from her sleeping position in cold fear, breaking out of the trance that was her never ending nightmare. Her left hand swung forward, the white coated ermine trying to wake the teen up before was sent flying off of the couch from her sudden course of action. He tumbled once or twice before regaining his balance.
"Ouch! Hikari, what are you doing?!" Chamo demanded.
Looking at her out stretched palm ready in smacking position, Hikari grew a nervous smile. Feeling the guilty effects of attacking the small creature.
"Eh heh, sorry about that Chamo..."
Pulling out a silver lighter and a decent sized cigar, the ermine helped himself to some good old fashioned smoking, earning a wave or two from the brunette in front of him, who of which was trying to bat away the foul odor. Giving a small sigh of relief from his nicotine craving, Chamo started on another one of his questions.
"Anyway Light,"
Hikari's shoulders tensed at the word 'Light' she cringed almost every time from hearing the annoying nickname.
"What were you dreaming about that made you jump like that? You were talking too, it sounded like somebody was attacking you or something..." He continued, inhaling another puff to leave the girl a chance to answer.
"Well... actually..." Hikari thought back, reflecting on the very nightmare.
The ermine listened intently, wanting to devour any bit of information his roommate threw at him. Waiting patiently for the response, Chamo nearly rose an eyebrow at the long pause, the brunette just trailed off right in the middle of her sentence. Although finally hearing the truth, he didn't even bother to stop himself from face faulting to the floor.
"I forgot." The brunette summed up all together.
"Well... so much for that..." The disappointed ermine frowned.
Silence built up between the two for a small moment, after all it wasn't like there was anything to talk about. The teen let a small sweat drop roll down the side of her face from seeing Chamo's depression, although knowing him he would probably have just changed the subject to something perverted anyway since the atmosphere was deprived of all excitement. Although that didn't last for very long. Picking up a small moan coming from across the room, the teen and the ermine heard a few disturbing mentions from the usually cheerful mind of a miss Konoka Konoe.
"Haha, Setsuna that tickles!" She giggled softly.
"What's this?" Chamo turned to look at the girl still deep in sleep on the bottom bunk, he grew a devious grin.
'Oh boy... here comes the blackmail... at least Kazumi will be happy...' Hikari could already picture the paparazzi smiling with a camcorder in hand. Even though she only met these girls just the other day, Hikari talked it up with a quite a few of them, and she was pretty damn good with faces.
"Awww... Setsuna you don't have to take your top off..." The healer dreamt.
Both Hikari and Chamo revolted back, surprised at what the girl was saying, and even frightened of imagining it, well except Chamo, he was blushing.
"That... was... too much... information..." The brunette gaped, her mind was tainted from visualizing it all at once. The ermine was quite the opposite, laughing a little to himself in glee from the perverted-ness. Coming close to a nosebleed.
"Actually not enough for me. Keep on going Konoka!!" He cheered, holding a pen and a piece of paper in both paws.
"Don't you two ever shut up...?"A voice came from above the sleep talking Konoe.
Looking up to see two different colored eyes glaring back, Hikari knew right away who it was.
"Asuna? You're awake?" The brunette asked.
"How could I fall asleep with this Setsuna lover?" The delivery girl pointed below to her best friend, who was having the time of her life with her swords master buddy.
"True." Hikari nodded in agreement. Konoka wasn't exactly being quiet, in fact the teen could have sworn she heard something next door. But her mind was still corrupt from the many disturbing images the darker haired brunette had muttered.
"Setsuna, you're soooo sexy!!!"
"Yue... what was... that?" A trembling Nodoka hid under the covers, too afraid to come out. Only a segment of her dark violet hair protruding from underneath.
Busied in reading a novel, the blue haired girl was still trying to concentrate, ignoring all of the shouts from their neighbor's dorm room. Closing her eyes, she set up a brick wall in order to separate herself from them, hoping to block away the distraction.
'Just focus Yue, they'll stop eventually...' The girl told herself, eyes still sealed shut.
"Wow! You have wings Setsuna!! That pactio really paid off, huh? It makes you look cute!" The voice across the way cooed, still giggling and laughing.
'Keep ignoring them... keep ignoring them... oh thank god Haruna's working an early shift this morning...' Yue remembered about their green haired friend who was fulfilling her duty to go through back breaking labor at her job in Library Island. Being the gossip she was, the girl would never let the other two unfortunate roommates hear the end of it.
"Hehe, Setsuna you know part of the deal was to take everything off!!" More news that made Nodoka scream a little in terror and Yue's stomach perform roller coaster loops. The second in command bookworm was close to throwing up.
'Keep it strong, you can do this.' Yue was tightening her grip on the leather embroidered book in her hands. Page after page slipping through her slender fingers.
"Are you serious?! Get married?!!! Of course I'll say yes!!!!!!"
'Damn.'
Not able to contain herself anymore, the blue haired teen closed her reading material in one loud slam. A few of the pages leaving a small trail of dust filtering through the air.
Hikari clamped two hands on each ear, gritting her teeth in disgust. This was not good, not good at all. Nobody could manage to silence the nonstop chatting roommate.
"I looooooooove you Setsuna!!!!!!!!!" Konoka sang in a cute, but high pitched tone that made your hearing ring.
'Lalalala, I'm in my happy place! Can't hear you!!'
Even the ermine didn't want to join in on the action, and five seconds ago he was loving it!
'Alright Hikari, keep singing! Happy, happy, joy, joy!!! Happy, happy, joy, joy!!! Happy, happy, joy, joy!!! Happy, happy- dammit, this isn't working!!!!!!!!!'
"Well... I don't know Setsuna, this is my first-" The healer began her statement, but it never finished. Much to everyone's delight, Asuna had thrown a pillow at the noisy girl's face, muffling her speech to a lower volume.
"Thank god..." Hikari sighed, removing her sound blocking hands once the trauma was over.
"Good riddance I say." Asuna flopped back over, turning her back towards the teen and the ermine, although they weren't certain of leaving her alone so soon.
"Asuna? Isn't that Negi?!" Hikari jumped back in case of another ear piercing screech, pointing to the boy wizard who was huddled close to her body, apparently still sleeping and unaware to everything going on in the real world.
Blushing a shade of red, the delivery girl could only admit the truth at this point, there was no use in hiding it any longer. Embarrassing as it was, she was actually starting to like sleeping next to the ten year old. Her mind always snapped at her that she was turning into her blonde haired enemy, Ayaka.
"I know..." She answered in a low whisper, hoping her roommates wouldn't hear.
"YOU KNOW?!!" Chamo nearly fell off Hikari's shoulder. If anything, the red head would be pummeling the kid to the ground and screaming out swears.
Turning an even darker rose, Asuna remained overall silent, too embarrassed to say anything. Her body was locked up, and she couldn't move to even protest against the perverted ermine. In high hopes, all she could count on now was for them to ignore her. But that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
Drawing forth conclusions and a few head nods, the ermine sat with his arms folded, and a smug smile spread across his features.
"I get it now... you're not screaming because you actually enjoy-"
That was all the red head needed to get moving again. Ripping out whatever she had at her disposal, Asuna was using all her might to terminate the small animal below, which forced Hikari to jump out of the way in desperation of saving her own skin. Although with the added force used to move away, the snowy white ermine fell off in a slump, laying on the floor in the worst section of the danger zone. Realizing his doom, he screamed, until he was tackled by everything imaginable. Leaving Hikari with a sweat drop after seeing her stranded comrade knocked out cold.
"What do you mean you can't find him?!!" A voice yelled on the other end.
A young man sporting a blue cellphone jerked his head back in pain from his leader's loud scream, not happy at all to be forced to pay the consequences of failure when he arrives back at headquarters. Shaking off the last piece of his eccentric lecture, the cloaked teenager flipped his blonde hair back, scrummaging through it's soft texture with one hand.
"Yes, I understand fully sir." He tried to cut to the chase of his next task, wanting to get this done and over with as quickly as possible.
"'Understand fully' what? That four of our comrades died yesterday because of your carelessness to keep watch?!!" The older man continued, making sure to run through each and every mistake through the blonde haired boy's head.
Remaining quiet, he awaited a response, hearing only the jagged breathing of his leader's breath, the blonde spoke up, trying to suggest a simpler solution to their dilemma. After all, nothing could enrage him more past the limit he was currently at. And the lower class subordinate felt no fear, for his superior was unable to strangle his neck being another world away.
"Well, what if I tried to track him down with that new program Haruko installed on my phone? After all, somebody long ago told me, 'If magic doesn't work then you can always depend on-"
"Yes! Yes! I know! Science!! Just do it already!!!" He ordered, interrupting the blonde a word away from completing his statement.
Wordlessly, he put the phone on speaker, and began to swap through another program. A great alignment of dots and trackers stretched along the screen, so much so that even the boy himself had to admit he had no idea what they all were. But using the set of instructions his coworker had given him, the blonde eventually found himself to another page after a few clicks, opening up a much simpler designed map, with only about three dots shimmering. One traveling at a well paced speed.
"How much longer is it going to take?" The leader's voice sprang out over the speaker in demand.
"Not much, you can't rush these things sir." The boy answered, entering through another screen, a small white ring spinning round and round with a 'Please wait a moment' caption underneath.
"Well after being an established leader for ten years the least you can do is..." The man grumbled on the other end, his words became too hard to decode when his voice died low through a series of curses.
Rolling his eyes at his leader's impatient complaints, the blonde ignored him for the time being, and proceeded to the next step after the load screen vanished. Dialing a code to pass through the last and final section, success gave a cheery ring tone when a map with exact locations and people marked correctly. Scrolling up and down, right to left, the blonde located the exact coordinates of his target. Now the rest would be an easy feat.
"I found him, section 12 E, in a small forest outside of... Mahora Academy?" His green eyes stared in disbelief at the flagged red dot.
"Mahora eh? So the hell hole where all our problems began." The blonde's boss thought it over in his head for a few moments. Taking his orders seriously this time around after seeing their first unsuccessful encounter, he didn't want to make the same mistake twice.
"Alright boy, I want you track down that mage and kill him. Scum that screw with one of our own shouldn't deserve to breathe. Don't worry about that little traitor, we'll get her another time. Just focus on the boy, and slit his throat." Nodding at the orders he was given, the boy absorbed every fact and little bit of knowledge that shown through. He did not want to pay the ultimate price the others had suffered through.
"Understood."
With a click, he hung up and stashed the device away in his pocket. Heading down into the unknown perils of the world, disappearing like a shadow into the early morning air. Cracks and streams of dawn peeked through, unveiling his hidden form to the rest of the world. Nestling close to his heavy black jacket and pulling a hood over his wavy hair, the boy set off. After his target. Although it frightened him as to how one of his subordinates was killed there, he would still go through with the mission, because he wanted to see what the big hype was all about, what all of the members in their organization were talking about. He wanted to see Hikari.
Having everyone awake, and a nervous Hikari, Asuna, and Chamo around Konoka after her 'Setsuna dream' they were finally able to spend their lazy Saturday off from school morning. Although, the day was going to be far from relaxing. Gathering the right approach on the boy wizard, Negi nearly jumped from Hikari's scare tactics, which left the girl in hysterics at his reaction.
"Ah! Hikari?" Negi's position wasn't one of poise, and the expression on his face was priceless, if only the brunette had a camera. But finally coming to a halt on her amusement, Hikari took in all seriousness of the situation.
"Hey, there's something I want to ask you." She told him, adjusting her tone to one far from laughter. This grabbed the wizard's attention.
"What is it?" He asked. Preparing himself for whatever the teen shot his way.
"I want you to teach me magic."
The next events that had happened were pretty confusing, Negi fell out of his chair from an unexpected face fault, and possibly suffered a concussion. Although, the only thing Hikari could understand from all of it, was that the next minute he was screaming, "WHAT?!!!" And by that point, the emerald eyed girl could only suppose her question was a little too sudden for him to take in, but she wouldn't give up trying.
"You use magic all the time, don't you? So, why not teach me a few tricks?" She pleaded, hoping that any of this would sink in far enough.
Adjusting his glasses from their crooked position, Negi couldn't accept, but only give an alternative. Even if he was a prodigy, he was nowhere near the expertise level of another, and knew if anything, it would be for the best if Hikari learned from her. But it wasn't going to pretty.
"Ugh, all this damn pollen in the air." The blonde haired vampire, Evangeline, complained. Waking up with her usual stuffy nose from her allergic reaction to the substance. All in all, it was quite annoying.
"Is there anything I can do to help, Master?" Chachamaru lived in servitude, and no matter how demanding, always filled the requests of the shorter girl.
Rubbing her itchy nose with a blood red painted fingernail, the vampire flailed her arms, trying to clear the room of her child hood hated phobia. It only caused the pollen to swarm in faster, choking the chibi vampire to death.
"Get this damned stuff out of the room!!" She yelled.
"As you wish." Bowing politely, Chachamaru continued through with her task. Walking over to a small bedside table dresser, the robot lifted it up, and began to carry it outside, far out of reach from the blonde's possession. Unfortunately, she took things far too literally than Eva had really mean. Lingshen and Saotomi were going to get an earful once the pint sized vampire caught up to them.
"No!! You idiot!!! I meant the pollen, not my things!!!!! Hey! Are you listening?!" She questioned, seeing the robot not even so much as flinch from her Master's cries. The girl just stared desperately as her robot servant began to file out of the room with a wooden oak table. Clasping her forehead with an ice cold palm, the vampire cursed at her rotten luck. 'Could this get any worse?' She winced, her temper slowly growing into a ticking time bomb. Once hearing a knock at her door, Chachamaru dropped the chairs she was carrying out, and proceeded towards the wooden frame dead ahead. Twisting open the knob, two figured stepped inside, worsening the situation for Eva even more, especially one being the first name on her new death list.
"Hello." Hikari greeted cheerfully.
And there goes Eva's whole day, now the vampire was going to suffer the after affects of one of Takahata's scoldings for another killing incident. Although, she would be sure not to tell him it was actually meant on purpose. Folding her arms and turning her head to look the other direction, the vampire wanted absolutely nothing to do with the brunette and the boy professor standing at her side. Especially after their little duel the other day. Which left quite an impressionable amount of scarring to say the least.
"Haven't you ruined my life enough?" She retorted to the brunette, who returned the frown.
"Still pissed off that I kicked your ass yesterday?" Hikari grinned, knowing just how to get underneath the blonde's skin. And just as she had assumed, it worked.
"You caught me off guard!! That's all!!! In any case, why are you here anyway?!" She screamed, lowering her voice only very slightly after a little while, not exactly in the happiest of moods seeing as how her robot servant was removing every piece of furniture from her home, and pollen was still attacking her nose. Smiling, Hikari said it flat out, not even hesitating for a second. The brunette wasn't one to mince words.
"I want you to teach me magic."
After a silent response with only the background noise of Chachamaru lifting the refrigerator, the blonde burst into laughter. Although being Evangeline, it was more mocking than actually sounding happy and cheerful.
"You?! Teach you magic?!!" She clenched her gut from the pain, hearing something like that was ridiculous. Negi was one thing, but Hikari? The vampire knew for a fact that there was no way in hell that Hikari would actually be capable of learning and understanding magic. Somebody must have told her a few petty tricks or took possession of the girl last night, because there was not a single trace of magic running through her veins.
"Hey, I'm being serious here!!" Hikari cut in. Ending the blonde's short reunion with laughing and turning the corners of her mouth up straight into some kind of smile.
"Evangeline, please." Negi added, grabbing the vampire's attention even further. He wasn't even wearing his usual attire of a suit, just jeans, a shirt, and a blue hooded jacket to go over it. In it's own way, it was attractive, even Eva had to admit, it caused her cheeks to bubble a small amount of pink. The wizard hadn't caught it, but Hikari had, which made her raise an eyebrow in suspicion.
"There's no way I could teach you." She answered, not even taking the slightest bit of consideration in thought about it.
"What?! Why not!" Hikari yelled, angry at the vampire's refusal.
"Sure you may have cast a spell or two last night, but those were probably just on accident. They mean nothing." She brushed it off carelessly. Facing denial at every turn, she used the same lie over and over again as an excuse, because she didn't want to teach the girl.
"Actually Master, Hikari cast magic about two nights ago." Negi addressed the vampire in his usual formality, which luckily gained a little respect.
"Oh really." Eva just eyed the two suspiciously. Her gaze made them both fall nervous.
"I don't think, it was an accident, Master." Negi continued. Lowering his head in respect upon finishing, showing as much kindness to the vampire as he could muster on Hikari's sake.
"That's it, you think it wasn't an accident? Don't be a fool. Magic takes years of hard work and training, it can't be obtained with simple means as an accident. Those spells meant nothing, they're just flukes." Evangeline finished, justifying her point to the fullest.
"But it wasn't an accident!! Why won't you believe that?!" Hikari fought back, not giving in. She wasn't leaving empty handed, and she wasn't leaving with a triumphant Eva. Meeting the blonde up in a glaring match, Hikari met her eye to eye, piecing green to emerald green, neither giving up, nor wanting to. Smirking slightly, Eva showed off her fangs, causing Hikari's eyes to widen seeing as how she broke up their little staring game.
"That may be. But there's no way I'll ever teach you, because I hate you, Hikari." The blonde told her, setting both girls on the same level.
"Good. Then there's something we agree on, because I hate your guts, Evangeline McDowell." The brunette replied, with the same amount of bitterness in her voice.
Negi glanced from girl to girl helplessly, trying to understand where the conversation was taking things. But the ten year old couldn't see any release of resistance between the two of them, at even some points, Negi was afraid things were about to get physical. But they both seemed to keep things just at the limit.
"Give me one good reason I should teach you magic." Eva told Hikari, seeing her emerald eyes spark with an idea, this changed the blonde's mind completely.
"Because I can help you break the Thousand Master's seal, without Negi's blood!"
"The air feels great!" Konoka stretched her arms out, enjoying the warmer climate change in weather today. It was unlike the past few days, where the sky was a gloomy grey, and the winds were a freezing ice cold. Saturday was definitely better.
Asuna and Setsuna lagged behind the high spirited girl, traveling around campus since Hikari and Negi were out. But really, there just wasn't anything to do back at the dorms, which gave them the perfect excuse to escape. Overall everything was going fine, the party was talking, laughing, and in a pretty good mood. Except at times where Setsuna either fiercely blushed or turned a dead pale when coming in close contact with Konoka. It turns out the entire floor could hear Konoka's shouts about wanting the swords master, that the fighter herself didn't have any idea of how to act. And Konoka was completely oblivious, because, well, she was asleep.
Asuna found a few of their moments rather amusing. They really did look like a couple, and in a way it was actually kind of cute.
"Hey! Let's go over there!" Konoka smiled, noticing a large crowd of people.
Although that would have been their hint to turn tail and run, when they were all faces the girls recognized. But the persistent Konoka wouldn't let them ditch out, so forcefully the delivery girl and the sword carrying teen followed reluctantly. Both of them having a good idea on what was in store for the party.
Walking up to the front of Mahora's most prized, and floor broken, middle school, Asuna got a bad feeling when she saw her blonde haired enemy in charge of the large group. Yelling out orders from left to right. Keeping in tune with the brunette girl's steps, all three of them managed to somehow push past the crowd, and find the resource they all needed to know to fully understand what was going on.
"Hey! Bookworm!" Asuna called out, using their same reference to Nodoka as usual.
Said girl looked over to see the small group approaching her, roommates Haruna and Yue catching the sight as well. If anything, they all knew the question the girls were bound to ask.
"What's going on?" Asuna asked, a little suspicious of the commotion herself.
Taking a sip from her juice box, which knowing Yue would have one of the most unusual flavors, the blue haired girl answered them, not at all liking the situation herself. After all, being dragged out here by the Class Rep wasn't exactly a luxury on its own.
"Class meeting."
Eyebrows arched, and questions were raised. Even for someone like Ayaka this was a little extreme. Oh, no wait, it wasn't.
"Why are we having a Class Meeting?" Setsuna questioned, jumping her words ahead of time to speak just before the red head muttered another word. Drinking the last few drops from her straw, Yue responded once more, although it was another short one like the first.
"It's about the school wreckage."
"School wreckage?" The swords master was still completely clueless, although it formed some awkwardness for Asuna. The redhead was there throughout the entire event, and another added money dosage wasn't helping any. Hikari would turn bright red once she heard about it, and possibly even vibrant when they included the first accident.
"Some idiot crashed into six floors, wrecking the roof and several classrooms. The money amount needed to repair it is huge." Yue nodded, her voice slightly monotone like Chachamrau's, which made you wonder where she really got it from.
Asuna let her face drop, trying to make herself disappear by any means possible. She couldn't believe how much trouble they had gotten the Dean into, which also led her to the question of, how were they going to explain it to the old man? He seemed pretty easy going most of the time, but how was he going to react when they told him the truth behind it all? All their problems were starting to sink them down faster.
The once hyperactive healer sweat dropped at her friend's reaction. Going by Asuna's face, Konoka got a good idea of what had happened last night before the girls had woken up from their 'collapsing incident'.
"All right!!! Everyone, let's go inside!!!!!" Ayaka commanded, leading the class to enter the large structure. Asuna rolled her eyes.
"Yeah!!!" Most of them shouted in agreement, the loudest being the energetic teens known as the Narutaki twins and the gymnast Makie Sasaki.
"Alright, we're going to begin with the basic melee fighter attacks. Get out your sword." Eva instructed unwillingly, still glaring at the emerald eyed girl from time to time. She was only going through with the teen and mage's request on the account of 'Helping her break the spell that has been holding her on school grounds for a course of several years.' Although if there really was another way, the vampire would have found it by now, leading her to believe the brunette was lying.
Looking up at the blonde dumbstruck, Hikari let out a, "Eh?"
"Don't 'Eh' me! Get out your weapon!! The one you used last night!!!" Evangeline ordered, her temper flaring out of control again. If anything, you definitely didn't want to piss the girl off, especially with all she had at her disposal.
Frowning, Hikari tried to think back, but it was no use. She couldn't remember a single cent on how she was able to summon the sword. It all happened so fast. The vampire's magic was about to kill her, and then there was this blue light. But that all left her to the question of, what happened?
'Hey Light. Just say my name out loud in Latin.' A voice popped into her mind.
"What?!" Hikari jumped, frantically searching around to find the voices owner.
Evangeline just frowned in turn to see Hikari's odd behavior. This was one of the reasons why she didn't want to teach the brunette. The girl was an idiot.
'Light, it's me.' The voice reached out again.
Stopping dead in her tracks, the teen finally recognized the voice. Taking the time to not embarrass herself further, Hikari spoke in her mind, so she wouldn't sound like some psychotic freak.
'Wait a minute, are you... that sword?!!'
'Took you long enough.' For some reason, he sounded much younger in her mind. Like around the age of a teenager. But who was she to say? After all, she was the maniac mage with a magic talking sword who was currently communicating to her through the power of telepathy. It's a wonder why she hasn't been deemed insane yet.
'And... you can... talk to me... in my mind...? And even, hear my thoughts?' Hikari checked.
'Only when I really feel like it or if you say something to me. Listening to your idiotic thoughts 24/7 would be a pain in the ass.'
'Hey!' Already the teen could hear her sword laughing, mocking her every word. Why in the world was she stuck with this thing?
'So wait, what do I say?' Hikari cut to the chase. Feeling Eva's eyes peering over her, the girl was beginning to feel nervous, and wanted to get her task completed as quickly as possible.
'Just say 'Tempestas Addo.' Got it? Don't just think you can summon me so easily either. I only show up for strong magic users. You got off lucky last night.' He told her. Which for some strange reason gave Hikari the impersonation he was smirking at her stupidity right now. Then again, why shouldn't he?
Gently pressing her emerald eyes closed, she focused, and blocked everything else out. Stretching out her right hand, the brunette wove together her strength, and pictured the exact image of the blade in her mind. Surprisingly it was working. And even more, Eva was impressed. Hikari was actually able to gather her magic, which would have taken any normal mage a lengthy amount of time to learn. Negi watched from afar, nearly to the point of gasping. For a first timer, this was incredible. Strong winds came forth, and built up around the brunette, creating a powerful presence known to any magic user's senses. Smiling in response to feeling the cool breeze hit her face, Hikari folded her fingers closer together, almost as if she was clasping the handle, and the weapon was right there in her hand.
"Tempestas Addo!!!(Storm Bringer)" She shouted.
That same majestic warm light entered her grip, and shimmering in all it's glory was the exact sword as last night. Just with the lightning crackles and aura died down to a low degree. Grinning in success, the teen felt like laughing at it a little to show it who's boss. That she really was a powerful fighter. But pointing and giggling like a fool at a piece of scrap metal was the definition of absurd itself.
"Alright, so you summoned me. Big deal." It was almost as if Hikari's sarcastic side was rubbing off on the blade. Which caused the teen's grin to widen. Standing up from her sitting position, Eva prepared herself, and sent out her robotic partner to the battlefield. Finally finishing carrying out every inch of space that the once furnished house contained, Chachamaru walked out to the grassy forest terrain that was the vampire's backyard. In fighting stance.
"Your next objective is to knock Chachamaru out. And warning you ahead of time, she's activated on kill mode, so if your unsuccessful I hope you have a miserable stay in the afterlife." Evangeline waved goodbye carelessly, walking off to see the boy professor to reschedule their next lesson in training. Panicked, Hikari called out to the blonde, who didn't even so much as turn her head. All the girl knew now was that she was alone, and she was screwed. Keeping a steady hold on Storm Bringer, Hikari gazed straight into the murdering eyes of Chachamaru, who had already been activated on her Berserker mode. The robot was already targeting a missile at the brunette, mind set on terminating her fellow classmate.
"Ready to disengage in," She was beginning the countdown, which would ensure absolute chaos would unfold on the teen.
"Shit." Starting on a sprinting raid to her immediate left, Hikari ran like a bat out of hell, trying to find any safe place available to hide from the shooting attack. Picking up her legs to hasten the pace, the brunette raced from spot to spot, nothing sufficient enough to block the blow could be found.
"3,"
'Dammit!'
"Light, just use me!! I'll block it!!!" The sword suggested, only to be turned down in response by it's wielder.
"You? Are you kidding?!! Sure, you may be magic resistant, but we're talking about a freakin missile here!!!!" Hikari argued, already settling on the fact that death was near. Nothing could save the brunette now, and she knew it. Her legs kept running and running, but it was getting her nowhere. Something was holding a blade to her throat, and no matter how far she ran, she couldn't escape. It would always return, haunting her again and again.
"2,"
"Just trust me on this!!" The weapon fought back, not waiting to see it's owners corpse so soon.
Hikari was stuck. Her sword free hand was clasped on a knee, trying to catch her breath for a moment and think things over. But there wasn't any time. She couldn't just work out a well thought up solution. In one more second she was going to get blown to pieces by the murderous android standing a couple meters away. So, what was there left to do? Take the chance and most likely get killed, or just stand around to face the same fate? The answer was quite obvious at this point.
"1." Chachamaru finished, firing her arsenal of killing blows. Her eyes weren't their usual kind atmosphere. They were plagued with anguish and a soulless expression.
"Do I really have a choice?!!" Two handedly, Hikari threw out a blocking guard, firmly grasping her right to the handle, and the left circling the middle section the blade. Her tightened grip dug the sharp piercing weapon into her palm. Slicing open the flesh and spilling out dark crimson that stained the sword's shiny blue exterior like whine. Gritting her teeth, Hikari didn't care, so long as she survived the impact of Chachamaru's fearsome strike. Missiles crashed all around, exploding like bombs and setting off a chained reaction of shaking earthquakes. They emitted a smoky after effect, making a hazy mist that surround the entire field.
Standing in silence for a few moments, only feeling the stinging pain from her bleeding sword engulfed hand, Hikari waited and waited. But nothing more happened. Opening an eye, she slowly opened the other in surprise. Amazed in the sight before her.
The weapon had covered the small ratio of her standing point with a round transparent shield. It protected the brunette, so not even so much as another scratch had scathed her skin.
"Take back what you said before?" The sword spoke in that childish sort of manner that would sound something along the lines of, 'I told you so!'
Still in a speechless shock of state, Hikari could only stare at the sword as the shield faded away into thin air. She was so sure that she was going to die, that the girl had overlooked the chance of a miracle occurring. So much so that breathing felt like a real treat itself. Feeling a throbbing jolt of pain burn her left palm, the teen uncovered her deep bloody hand wound, making her give a nervous laugh.
"I can't believe I forgot I was bleeding." She grinned, ignoring her pain. But a swear was working it's way up through her vocal chords.
"Good." The blade commented. Making Hikari question his reasons for feeling joyous in her time of suffering. Though, he was an arrogant jerk.
"Good? What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Yep. There's the swear.
Giving a small chuckle, the weapon continued to ignore Hikari, who of which frowned. Although that led her to the decision of, frowning at what? Her own sword mocking her, or that the smoke had cleared and Chachamru had full view of the teen now. Yeah, here comes another insane shooting launch.
"Light, not that you remember, but by spreading a streak of one's blood across this blade, you can do some serious damage." Hikari's Storm Bringer piped up, explaining in full detail.
"Damage?" She questioned. This was just making things even more complicated.
"There's a special spell you can use, but only cast it in desperate times."
"Yeah, well I'd say now's a pretty desperate time." Hikari hurried his little lecture along, seeing the robot ready to confront the brunette.
Chachamaru unveiled her secret weapon, a hidden blade installed in her left arm. It looked like a long cleaver with a jagged point and razor sharp edges, that gleamed when the sunlight hit. One thing was for sure, Hikari definitely didn't want to be hit by that. One stroke and she'd be lying on the ground a bloody mess.
"Alright, story short, just splash a little of your blood on me and shout out Nex Addo."
Laughing a little from the pronunciation of the foreign Latin spell, Hikari couldn't contain herself and was almost thrown into hysterics. Even though a robot bent on killing her was now only a few feet away, taking her sweet time on attacking.
"Yeah you laugh now, but do you even know what that means?" Storm Bringer asked the girl, bringing up yet another dumbstruck answered question.
"Uhhh..." She trailed off. Not capable of understanding Latin's native tongue.
"Thought as much."
Coming in close enough distance, Chachamaru took Hikari by surprise, and dashed towards the girl at a frightening speed. It dazed the teen, and made Hikari stand there holding a now limp grip on her weapon. Her body was slow to reacting back in time, and her jaw froze up from all forms of speaking. It felt like she was in the damsel knee lock, or something similar to that. Which was pretty stupid.
"Light! Snap out of it!!"
Coming back to earth, Hikari rushed through her combat statistics, and skipped ahead to chanting the spell. Rubbing a potion of her bleeding cut along the shiny sword, Hikari quickly recited the spell, holding the sword out in one swift motion.
"Nex Addo!!!" She screamed. Awaiting the fearsome blast that would send her foe crashing into Evangeline's house.
Nothing happened.
Realization pouring over in a sickening crunch to the brunette's cheek bone, Hikari was sent flying back several yards. Landing with an arm shattering crash to the floor, the girl laid there in pain, her sword only a few feet away. Giving out a moan from her sore body's bruises, she touched a finger to the throbbing sensation etched onto her right cheek. A cold wetness washed over her touch, and removing her hand, blood coated the very tips, transferring over like wet paint. Standing, she finally just noticed she had been kicked back a far range. Lost in the thick forest pines that snared and snaked their way all throughout the forest. Diminishing the much needed sunlight.
"Ow..." Was all she could sum up for her dilemma. The air was knocked out of her system and she couldn't say much else.
"Oh yeah, did I forget to tell you? In order to successfully cast the spell, you have to be directly in front of the person you're attacking. One of the downside's to this little trick." The blade finally spit out once Hikari lifted the Storm Bringer from it's grass covered landing point.
"Why don't you tell me these things ahead of time?" She complained. Not enjoying getting kicked around because of her sword's ignorance.
"Hmmm... I don't know, maybe a little cash will refresh my memory better." He spoke in a sly voice.
"What's a sword going to do with money anyway?" Hikari raised an eyebrow, bringing a good question into play. After her battle with Evangeline the blade had requested a hefty amount of the sum of green.
"Oh, I have my ways."
From the sound of his answer. Hikari didn't want to know.
Footsteps we're closing in on their position, getting louder every second. They fell heavy, and the grass pressing under their soles made a different sound than any ordinary human's. Eyes locking onto to the direction, Hikari readied her stance, giving a small air cutting 'whoosh' with a swing of her wrist. Tightly holding onto her only defense, the teen kept a lookout, alerting her senses to keep focused and to track any bizarre movements emerging. Meeting face to face with the robotic pale green eyes of Chachamaru, Hikari smiled, confirming that her suspicions were correct, and took a running charge forward, blade in hand.
Her body took a quick turn, and just like that, her legs kicked into full power, speeding herself forward at an incredible rate. Dodging from side to side, she swerved to make sure that she wouldn't be an easy target to attack. Hoping to stir up some confusion in the android's mind. Coming into decent enough space, Hikari whipped her blade out, ready to make a deep clean stroke into the robot's tough exterior.
"You're mine!!" She yelled, increasing her momentum and confidence. Keeping a fearless attitude in check.
Leaping off from the ground, she was about to perform a high jump attack, raising her power status to a great extent. Although her knees fell numb upon seeing the robot's newly acquired firearm. A gigantic machine gun rested on her left arm, a string of bullets hung loosely from the mid-section, revealing her large amount of ammo.
Skidding on the back of her sneakers to a stop, the girl froze 2 inches away from Chachamaru's face, scared to death at what the outcome might be. And taking the coward's way out, the brunette ran for her life, circling around the enclosed perimeter. Raising her weapon, the robot dowsed her shot's to the teen's back. Luckily being fast enough, the bullets just nipped at the back of her heels, leaving tiny empty holes where they all had missed.
"Not good, not good, not good!" Hikari kept sprinting, not making any progress in her tutoring lesson. But, we're talking about the evil villainous mind of Evangeline McDowell here!
"C'mon Light! Quit running!!" Storm Bringer scolded.
"What? And get shot?!!" She talked back, several sweat drop's raining down her face. Pressing onwards, the teen's legs were growing tired, adrenaline was the only thing keeping them going now. She had to act fast. Coming up to a large and thick pine tree, Hikari threw herself behind it, rolling out of the way just in time. The crack of gunfire impaled into the tree trunk, shredding pieces of bark and creating plenty of drills into it's base.
Once ceasing fire, Hikari slowly lowered her hands from her ears, and rose her head slightly once the nightmare had ended. But quickly turned from relief to terror upon seeing the entire tree collapse in front of her, missing the teen's body by a few centimeters. Crawling backwards, her back fell against the grass, another short gasp worked it's way out of her gaping mouth. Shaking a little in reaction, the brunette didn't even know where to begin. But feeling a shadow cast over her own, Hikari quickly jumped up, and met clash to clash against the replaced gun arm of Chachamaru's infamous clear shaped blade. Forcing her weight into the pressure of her sword, Hikari tried to win dominance over the struggle, but found her opponent not so much as even flinching. Breaking away from the sword, the teen retaliated from the other side, meeting up into another sword lock. Gritting her teeth, Hikari pushed forward, scraping the teeth of her blade against the knife like monstrosity.
Using fast reflexes, the brunette delved closer to Chachamaru's head, aiming sword point at her emotionless face, but blocked off yet again with a metallic ping. The intense after shock left both melee fighters in a short delay, shaking her head a little, Hikari waved the sensation away, and entered back into the fight. Joining back up at the same time, Chachamaru took a killing jab at the teen's side, but was dodged by a quick acting reaction. Still caught up in her downward spiral that was supposed to be Hikari's impending doom, the girl was shown an opening, one that could end the battle for good.
Ripping into Chachamaru's shoulder with a bang, Hikari forced her Storm Bringer downwards, cutting up a fatal amount of damage to the robot's internal system. Clasping the left hand into a strong upper handed blow, Hikari used her old smear of blood to do the trick, relying on the sword's advice for success.
"Nex Addo!!!!!! (Death Bringer)" She thrust forward, breaking through more wires and electronic devices that made up the robot's system.
Turning a cold dark black steel, the weapon engulfed the robot in a pulverizing black darkness, that left a cold windy air filling a radius of the surrounding forest. Bracing herself for the worst, Hikari could see the robot shot backwards towards Evangeline's home, the creepy black aura still trailing behind. A loud crash shook the entire area, probably even affecting the school campus! Staring in awe at her handy work, the gut clenching pain of worry settled in Hikari's stomach, fearing for the robot's safety.
"What's that look for? You just won!" Her blade asked, quite excited at their second chance in victory. The sweet richness of the accomplishment left a bitter after taste in Hikari's mouth. She felt bad, and almost angry at herself.
"But, what about Chachamaru? Do you think she's-" Hikari feared the worst.
"What? Her? Nah. She'll be just fine. After all the real effect of the move won't work on her, she's a robot. If anything it probably just banged up her body a little." The sword answered, hoping to tone down the girl's concerns.
"You say that, but I'm not sure." Hikari still doubted. Looking at the burnout aftermath that stretched on towards Eva's cabin, leading a path towards her next destination.
"So we'll carry out our session next Tuesday immediately after school." Evangeline concluded, running through the basic plan one more time. The blonde was currently assisting the younger mage on his training. Who of which nodded in agreement.
"Right. I understand. But, Master, what about-" Negi was abruptly cut off by an extremely loud crash, which in turn caught both the vampire and professor's attention.
"What on earth was that?" He questioned, eyes widened in surprise. Ready to pull out his father's prized staff that was strapped behind his jacket.
Only a moment later did another gigantic tremor shake the earth! This one even bigger than the first. And possibly closer.
"What's going on?" Eva spoke up, a hint of anger edged at the back of her voice.
The two stared off into the distance, not catching a single object mismatched out of place or an unusual sight. This just made the situation even weirder, and tensing the air up a degree.
"Pro- Professor Negi!!!" A voice screamed.
Looking over with frightened brown eyes, Negi saw two of his students halted before him, short out of breath and gasping for oxygen. Both girls looked like they had seen a ghost, (No not Sayo) their faces were mixed with anxiety and panic.
"Yuna?! Ako?!!" The young wizard gazed into the faces of the shocked girls.
"T-There's this guy who showed up at the school!! And he almost took out three high schoolers!!!" Ako exclaimed, freaked out over the new encounter.
Taking the matter into a serious course of action, the mage decided to go check out the new disturbance and put a stop to it before anyone was hurt. Turning to his vampire ally, he set the lives of the other girls into her care.
"Evangeline. Can you please watch the girls for me?" Negi requested. Careful as to not spill his formality to Eva around the other students.
Giving a nod, the blonde agreed. She was caught up in too many tasks at the moment that she hadn't the time to go chase after the new threat. So might as well leave her ten year old apprentice up to the job.
"Hey! Let me come with you!"
Hearing the voice, Negi could see a bruised Hikari walk up to them, her Storm Bringer un-summoned.
"But, what about your fight with Chachamaru?" The boy asked, not wanting to involve the exhausted girl in anymore hardships. She looked pretty beat as it was.
"Taken care of." She grinned.
"H-Hikari?! Are you alright?" Yuna asked, seeing a few nasty scrapes indented on the girl's skin. To the basket ball player and the nurse it looked overall very painful. But for Hikari she had already moved past it all, so practically she had forgotten all about it.
"What? This? It's fine, just a scratch or two." The teen shrugged off.
"But, how did you get so injured like that?" Ako looked concerned about her classmate.
Thinking it over in her head, the brunette thought about it for a while. Finally came to a reasonable answer. Or, reasonable in her mind anyway.
"I fell off a cliff."
That was that.
Never let Hikari lie again.
Breaching their destination, Negi and Hikari dashed towards the front gates. Making good time. Once in a while they saw a girl or two sprint past them along the way. And for running away from some kind of psycho maniac attacker, they were hearing some odd things.
"That guy was such a pervert!"
"I know, can you believe he's only fourteen?"
"That young and he already turned into a player?!"
A sweat drop rolled down on both the teens and the boy wizard's faces. Making their target seem more comical than serious. Rounding the corner, a few feminine screams sounded, indicating another batch of victims we're being attacked. Rushing to the shouts, Hikari hurried past the young mage, ignoring his calls to slow down. Whoever this guy was, Hikari wasn't going to let him get any farther with harming fellow students and classmates. Emerald eyes burning with determination, Hikari called out to her sword, who obeying, jumped to the call and answered the brunette's voice. Flickering with electric sparks running up and down it's spine in it's owner's grasp. Anger seemed to empower it.
'Alright, it's time to kick this guy's- wah!!!'
Mind speech cut short, Hikari rushed into a tangled mess of chestnut brown hair and alarmed sky blue eyes. Collapsing to the ground with a thud, Hikari found herself with closed lids, and a hand over her soft brunette head in pain, fingers intertwining through her long hair to find her throbbing skull. Peeking out from under closed eyes, Hikari saw a boy around her age, maybe a year or a few months older. His teeth were clenched from fiercely bumping into the teen, and his striking eyes poked out from under his messy hair, a large spear sheathed onto his back, and the long red sleeved shirt and black jacket looked well fit to his physique. Getting his headache under control, the boy looked over at Hikari, his frown adjusting into a warm smile.
"Hello beautiful, what's your name?" He caught her off guard by his question, and helped the brunette to her feet. The teen's boyish charm made Hikari light a fierce cherry red.
"Hey! Light don't fall for this guy's tricks! That's a magic weapon he's got!!!" Storm Bringer snapped, causing the spear backed boy to catch the weapon's unique ability. Although, being a magic user himself, it was nothing new.
"What's it to you?" He directed his question to the magic talking blade, not even caring if the magic council caught him waltzing into a public community and preaching the truths about sorcery to the world.
"That's the guy!!" Negi's voice shouted out from behind, finally catching up to the teenager's collision course.
"Are you sure?" Hikari questioned, not feeling as if this boy's presence was much of a threat. Yes, this kid's player abilities were so top notch that not even Hikari felt his weapon posed a danger to the school.
"Positive." The boy wizard answered, holding out his staff in attack position.
Hands stuffed in his jeans pockets, the boy merely shrugged.
"Okay, so you caught me red handed."
"Why are you here anyway?" Negi continued, not letting up on the blue eyed boy for a minute. He wouldn't leave the teen alone until he was a hundred miles away from Mahora Academy, so the girl's safety could be ensued.
Yanking out his orange and red lance with the assistance of only one hand, the boy twirled it around in the air once or twice before pinning it's blade into the earth. A firm clang of steel dug underneath the concrete's cement. The spearsman smirking all the while.
"Well if you really want to know..." He started. A storm of howling winds blew through the area, nearly throwing Hikari and Negi into the wall, the pressure was intense, even the boy wizard couldn't tell wether it was a spell or some kind of trick. The dust and dirt picked up, entering their lungs and causing them both to cough out the hazardous toxin. The smoke burned Hikari's eyes, making them water at the corners and redden. At the highest peak of the storm, it all disappeared, vanished, into the clear blue sky it once used to be. And the chestnut haired boy was gone with it as well. The wind being the only thing that picked up his challenge to the two magic users.
"Catch this runaway, and I'll tell you everything you."
So yeah... shorter chapter this time around. Was going to make it longer but it would take too long. I'll leave that up to you guys to decide, longer chapters and slower updates, or shorter chapters like this one and faster updates. Also, please, PLEASE, review!! They really make my day when you guys comment, so please leave one on your way out!!
Also, I have a pairing decided for Negi already, BUT if you want any other pairings for the girls, including Hikari, then just say so and I'll see what I can do, most likely I'll be able to. That's right KonoSetsu fans, if you want the pairing in the story, then I'll add it!!!
Still deciding on what pairings so I'll leave that up to you guys.
Next chapter! Guess the band right and you get a free look at chapter 4 (See rules at the end of ch. 2 if you're confused.)
Chapter 4: Thank you!
Hint! (Sorry, I forgot to include this in the last. But this song's an ending song to an anime.)