Mahou Sensei Negima was created by Akamatsu Ken. This is parody, protected speech.

Conquests of an Accidental Stud Monkey
Chapter One

Later - much later, when she had a far clearer picture of what had actually happened than anyone could possibly have when they were going through the situation - Natsumi came to the simple conclusion that the whole thing was Makie's fault. She never shared this opinion with anyone, least of all Yue, who had similarly worked things out but come to a completely different conclusion - specifically, that it was all Iinchou's fault. (It was probably for the best that she never shared that notion with Natsumi, either; for various reasons, Natsumi was much more inclined towards sympathy for Ayaka than Yue would ever be.)

Had anyone thought to ask Makie whom she was inclined to blame, she'd have just blinked in abject and ridiculously cute confusion. The notion of blame implied anger, and she had no reason to be angry at anyone. What had happened was a good thing all around. If she'd been asked, then, whom she was inclined to praise for what had happened, she would cheerfully assigned all responsibility to Negi himself.

He would have been embarassed by that. It's probably best that nobody ever asked.

Be that as it may, Natsumi would also develop an opinion on just when it had begun, and here she was more or less in tune with Yue. (Not so much Makie, who took the position that things had started much later.) In their view, the whole thing had begun when the three of them were seated on the hillside along with a stack of books that was not quite as tall as Yue, pleasantly jawing about how nice it was to be back in Japan and on Earth, but how things weren't quite as happy as they might have been otherwise.

It was very soothing, for all the strangeness. Natsumi had never really spent a lot of time with either of these girls, and apparently they'd never spent a lot of time with each other. That had really surprised her when she'd learned about it; she'd had the impression that the various members of the Baka Rangers were all really close friends, but apparently that was not the case. Nonetheless, what they'd been through had all bonded them. Which was nice.

And then Makie, somewhat out of nowhere, had declared, "The next time we see Negi-kun, we'll have Yue-chan confess her love to him!"

Yue's immediate reaction to this declaration had been to nearly cough herself to death as the frankly unspeakable beverage she was drinking went down the wrong tube. Natsumi had just flushed brightly.

"What, what, what - no, what?" Yue said after a moment. "Where did this come from?"

"I did it!" Makie proclaimed.

"How does that even remotely follow from what I asked?"

"When?" Natsumi asked, for this seemed to her mind the far more important question.

"Why are you encouraging her?" Yue gasped.

"Eh?" Makie said, giggling coquettishly. "You wanna know? Really? Welll ... you see, there was this one time, when Negi-kun told me I was amazing, you see, and -"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Yue-chan, it was wrong of me," Natsumi apologized, looking away.

"So now it's your turn, Yue-chan!" Makie assured her, making Natsumi wonder why her neck didn't break doing that mood shift.

"Why is it my turn?" Yue asked. "There are numerous girls who could confess their loves first!"

At that moment, Natsumi noticed two things. First, there was a rustling noise coming from the bushes not far from where they were sitting. Secondly, there were bushes not far from where they were sitting. Wait, she thought, wasn't this a grassy slope when we sat down a few minutes ago?

Before she could vocalize that thought, holding a pair of branches in either hand, Nodoka burst up from her camouflage and proclaimed, "I agree with Maki-chan!"

"Gyaaaah!" went all three of the girls she'd just startled with her uncharacteristically aggressive entrance.

"Pst!" Nodoka said to Natsumi and Makie, gesturing for them to get closer and then speaking sotto voce. "Yue was so worried about everybody else, you see, that she never wanted to tell Negi-sensei how she feels ... but I think if she does that, she'll get all her memories back, and then not do anything crazy like running off to Ariadne after graduation!"

"Nodoka, what are you telling these two?" Yue, who could hear what was being said quite clearly, asked in an increasingly panic-stricken tone.

"We'll help you, Yue-chan!" Makie assured her. "Do it! Confess your love!"

"This is the most illogical thing I've ever heard!"

"I quite agree," said a cool, quiet voice from just behind them, which sent chills running up all four of their spines. "And I hope that realization of its illogic will help convince you to refrain from suh actions."

They whirled. Standing there, not ten feet away from them, was the terrifying figure of their substitute teacher and former nemesis - well, perhaps not so former, at that - Fate Averruncus, regarding them with the same grim and unsmiling expression he nearly always had. Instantly, Makie, Nodoka and Yue went into defensive postures. Natsumi would have done so too, if she hadn't been terrified beyond rational thought.

After a moment to let his first words sink in, though, Fate simply continued speaking. "Negi-kun is currently hard at work on his plan to save the world. He does not have time for simple things like eating and sleeping, let alone your silly girlish games. He bears the weight of the world on his shoulders, and no one who cannot share that burden should have anything to do with him." A brief pause. "In other words, girls, he's mine, all mine, and you should give up on him."

Sheerest shock at the blunt statement was the only expression to be seen on any of the girls' faces. (As it happened, there was a certain measured amount of relief that Haruna wasn't here to hear that statement in Nodoka and Yue's minds, but it was drowned out by shock.)

"I will permit you to go on living your silly little lives," Fate said, looking up in the sky. "But stay the heck out of his way ... oh, look, speak of the devil."

And then, like an angel descending from the sky, Negi rode his wand down to where they were standing, looking genuinely happy to see everyone present. "Girls!" he said. "What a pleasant surprise. I managed to get done with the other job early today. Still, I'm sorry that I haven't been able to see any of you at school recently. To make up for it, would you like to join me for some tea?"

"Uh," they chorused, glancing from him to Fate and back again.

Coughing slightly for no apparent reason, Fate interposed. "Just a moment, Negi-kun?"

"Hm? Something wrong?"

"As it happens, yes. The process of acquiring the materials for the elevator have been dogged by difficulties, and -"

"That's terrible! What's the problem now?"

"Well, you see ..." Fate continued to explain as he gently led Negi away from the girls.

"... that guy is going down," Makie proclaimed quietly, yet firmly.

A little ways away, Negi finally frowned. "Fate," he said. "I'm pretty sure that we resolved these problems earlier this week."

"Would you believe that they've recurred?"

"why are you expressing it as a question?"

"Would you believe -"

"Fate," Negi groaned, annoyed. "Did you really just invent a problem just to drag me away from the girls in my class?"

"My class," Fate said smoothly.

"Our class," Negi offered as a compromise.

Fate looked annoyed at the compromise, but nodded acceptance, both of the statement and its implications.

"Why did you do that?"

"I have no hobbies, and very few interests. Messing with those entitled young women is one of them. Would you deny me that tiny bit of fun?"

All that Negi could do was shake his head and resolve not to be so readily swayed by Fate's schemes in the future. That resolution was what Makie would have stated was the true turning point. Which was absurd, of course, and no one would ever have believed that.

Certainly not Negi. After all, if his resolution was so important, how then to explain the way that, just a few days later, he was where he was, in an age-shifted disguise, accompanying Kotaro and Fate (both similarly age-shifted, with the latter pretending to be someone named Fidius Averruncus) on an expedition to a karaoke box with the cheerleader trio? He'd gotten pulled into yet another scheme, almost immediately, and all that he could do was hope that he'd be able to interfere with it when it reached fruition.

Well, that and discover that he had absolutely no talent for karaoke. Not that he cared about his score, after all. Still, it all made him sigh a litte.

"Is something the matter, Nagi-san?" asked Misa, as she bent over to hand him a drink and - posssibly accidentally, but mmmmmaybe not - give him a good look at her cleavage.

"Um, no, no, it's just ... um, thank you, this will definitely, um, yes," Nagi stammered as he felt his skin turn bright red while accepting the drink.

It was one thing to accept, as he'd basically had no choice but to accept, that several of the girls in his class viewed him not as a teacher and friend, but as a prospective romantic partner. (He thought of the way Akira-san had patiently broken the news to him, and almost sighed again.) It was quite another to have someone clearly trying to attract his interest, particularly now, when he was in a state where he was much more conscious of that interest than he might have been. It was a little disturbing, particularly since he had no idea whether this was a serious attempt on Misa's part or not. He really wasn't sure what she was thinking.

Misa was thinking, more or less, He's so pure for such a hottie! It's adorable! I don't know whether I want to protect him, or whether I want to throw him to the ground and perform incredibly lewd acts on his person! It's just like with Negi-kun, if he were bigger! I wonder if he's bigger everywhere?

Abruptly, an unaccustomed sense of shame filled the soul of Kakizaki Misa. Wait, no. This is wrong! He was dating Ako, wasn't he? I was rooting for them! I couldn't just, after they've broken up ... but they have broken up, right, so there isn't really any problem ... but no, no, I should talk to Ako first, find out if she's okay with it -

"Nagi" let out a small chuckle. "Well, I think I've had the wrong idea about you, Kakizaki-san. I was a little uncomfortable before, but watching you go through all those facial expressions has been very endearing. You're actually a lot of fun to be with!"

After a brief, timeless interval of purest void in her thoughts, Misa's consciousness returned with a simple decision. Screw you Ako, I'm going for it! "Nagi-san, this might sound a little abrupt, but -

On the other side of the room, Sakurako had been cheerfully airing her many, many grievances with Fate to his 'older brother, Fidius', while he listened with a patient, gentle smile. "Well, I'll be sure and give him some feedback on the subject," he assured her.

"You're so cool!" Sakurako squeed. "Um, Fidius-san -"

At that moment, the door to the booth was flung open, and Madoka, who'd gone to the rest room a few moments ago, entered almost at a run, saying, "Oy, Kojirou-kun -"

"- would you go out with me?" the three cheerleaders chorused.

"Eh?" said 'Nagi'.

"Ehhh?" said 'Kojirou'.

"Timed this rather well, I think," said 'Fidius', checking his watch.

The room was filled with a cloud of smoke and a strange popping noise. When the smoke cleared, a number of the people inside it now looked rather different from the way they had a moment earlier.

"Ahem," said Fate, now wearing a suit far too large for his petite frame. "Your commentary on my teaching style is not appreciated, Shiina-san. Furthermore, it is strictly forbidden for students in my class to enter recreational facilities after six o'clock in the evening. The three of you will be attending remedial lessons, starting tomorrow, unless your regular teacher should -" Saying so, he turned to look at Negi, and broke off.

After a moment, he resumed speaking. "Negi-kun, how are you doing that?"

"Doing what?" 'Nagi' asked, then looked down at his still adult form, and murmured a confused, "Oh."

His murmur was somewhat drowned out by the notes of protest and dissatisfaction with which two of the three cheerleaders greeted these developments.

"Wah!" declared Sakurako, tears streaming from her eyes. "Fate-kun is so mean!"

"You can't do that Fate-kun!" Misa added, genuine outrage in her voice.

"Yes, I am, and yes, I can," Fate alternatively agreed and contradicted, smiling faintly, before turning his attention back to Negi. "Do you mean to tell me that you didn't do this deliberately?"

"I don't think so," Negi said, still studying his hands with a confused expression. "I don't even know ... I don't know how I'd do this, I've never studied the age changing pills and how they work in any detail, so ..." He trailed off, beginning to look just a bit concerned.

"A-age-changing pills?" Madoka stammered out from where she was still standing in the doorway. "Then - then, what, Fidius-san is Fate-kun, and, and Nagi-san is ... Negi-kun?" she asked, head moving from the boy to the "man".

"Yes, that's what I was trying to tell you, about why I got dumped," said a quiet voice from behind her, and Negi was momentarily distracted from his contemplation of his circumstances, looking up to see that Ako was poking her head in the room.

"Oh," he said, flushing with deep embarassment. "H-hello, Ako-san." And after I promised not to become Nagi around her again, too! It seems I can't do anything right this evening.

"Hello, Negi-kun," the petite, blue-haired student said, trying to avoid giving the impression that she was reluctant to look at him while at the same time trying to avoid the impulse to stare at those oh-so-handsome features. "Um ... shouldn't you be turning back into a kid, like the others have?"

"Yes," said Fate, getting up and moving, with surprising grace considering the baggy suit which was encumbering him, over to where Negi was still seated. "Yes, he should be."

Ignoring this byplay, Madoka continued with the thought she'd been having earlier. "And, then, that means that ... that ... K-Kojiro-kun is ... is ..."

"I haven't moved from where I was sitting," Kotaro said, glancing at her momentarily. "It shouldn't be that hard to figure it out."

"- that little jerk who hangs around with Natsumi-san?" she asked, sounding horrified.

KOtaro slumped. "Badass martial artist, gainfully employed, supernatural powers, but what do they remember?" he asked no one in particular.

Ignoring this, and the way that Madoka had collapsed, quietly screaming to herself as she held her head, Misa pressed on. "No, seriously, nobody told us about this so-called rule of yours before we came in here, so -"

"Kakizaki-san," Fate said, turning to look at her. "You will find, as you grow up - if that happens - that ignorance of the law is not generally held to be an excuse for violating it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have other, much more important matters to deal with. Negi-kun, we should get you to a doctor."

Negi looked up, startled. "It's not that serious, is it?" he asked. "Surely, surely we can go forward with tonight's meeting with -" He broke off, deciding that going into those details in the presence of those uninvolved with the plan was perhaps not the smartest thing that he could do.

"The meeting can be postponed or delayed, but, as I believe that I told you already, if something happens to cause the project's failure - and you developing serious health issues could conceivably cause that - you know what I'll do."

Negi flinched. "All right, all right ..."

"What will he do?" Sakurako quietly asked Kotaro.

"Restart Cosmo Entelechia, and absorb the souls of pretty much everyone in the Magical World into a never-ending dream," he answered her quietly.

"... I don't know what that means, but it sounds really bad," Sakurako said. "I really really hate that guy."

"Join the club."

"... there's a club?"

"Get used to it," Yukihiro Ayaka advised her disconcerted dinner companion, as she finished stirring the cream into her tea. "This is what your life is going to be like from this point onward. And anyway, I was under the impression that you wore far more elaborate dresses over there."

"Over there was over there, this is ... not," Asuna replied, shifting uncomfortably in her seat across the table from the class representative. "This ... thing you've got me wearing is embarassing. I know that it's a typical party dress but -"

"It's very becoming, your highness," Ayaka said. She probably didn't intend for the compliment to sound quite as flirtatious as it did.

Asuna flushed. "I told you to cut that out!" The thrill of being referred to as a princess and treated with veneration that bordered on - and sometimes crossed into - outright worship had faded quickly.

"It is simply an expression of amazement that someone so unrefined is actually royalty," Ayaka said, lifting her tea up to sip it with a faint smile.

On the other hand, it was better than some other ways that she got treated. "You are seriously starting to -"

Before she could continue in that line, however, she felt the signal inside her head that foreboded a telepathic contact from her partner. Early on, she'd been unable to recognize the signal, and the first that she knew of a call coming in would be 'hearing' Negi's 'voice' in her head. She'd developed since then, and now, with a practiced gesture, she fished her card out of its hiding place and held it to her head a moment before the 'voice' 'sounded'.

Asuna-san?

Right here, Negi. With Iinchou, waiting for you and the boys to show up. What's the holdup?

Ah, well ... you see ... um ... I want to stress that I'm not in any trouble -

Asuna rolled her eyes. What did you do?

Negi's mental voice was almost a whine. Why do you automatically assume that it was me?

... I'm not going to dignify that with a response. What happened?

Um ... I appear to be stuck in an aged-up form, for some reason. It's probably nothing serious, but Fate insists on getting me to a magical doctor for an examination. I'm going to be contacting Iinchou-san right after this to tell her -

And then, not exactly for the first time, Asuna 'heard' Ayaka's 'voice' in her head as well. I'll contact the Prime Minister's office and reschedule the meeting for later, Negi-sensei.

Asuna's eyes, slightly closed to help her focus on the telepathy, snapped open to the sight of Ayaka holding a card of her own to her forehead. Heedless of Asuna's surprise, the class representative continued to send. You just take care of your health, it is your most precious asset, and Fate-san is perfectly right to insist on having you see a doctor.

Thank you for being so understanding, Iinchou-san, Negi's 'voice' betrayed no surprise at Ayaka's presence in the conversation. I'm so sorry about all of this. I'm sure that I'll see you both soon. With that, the telepathic link ceased.

"... since when can you do that?" Asuna asked, lowering her card a bit.

"What, involving myself in a telepathic conversation with our mutual Magister?" Ayaka asked, lowering her own. "It's a simple enough use of the system."

Asuna wasn't sure she liked the notion that it was simple for someone else using the pactio's telepathy to eavesdrop on someone else's private conversation, but that wasn't exactly what she'd meant. "No, I mean ... when did you, uh, make a pactio with Negi, anyway?"

Now Ayaka brought the card to her lips, smiling in a rather sinister way. "Oh? Would you like to hear it, Asuna-san? The tale of the miraculous love between Negi-sensei and myself? I must say, I don't think you should be prying into other people's private lives, but -"

"Uh, well, in that case -"

"- if you insist, then I suppose I must!" Ayaka continued, very quickly. "Yes, I shall tell you of the memorial of the forbidden love of Yukihiro Ayaka and Negi-sensei!"

"No, that's okay," Ayaka said dully.

"Let it begin!"

"No, really, I don't -"

"Are you uncomfortable, Negi-kun?" the doctor asked.

Since this seemed to be a deceptively important question, Negi gave it the careful consideration such an inquiry deserved. "No, not really," he answered. "I don't feel particularly cold, even with my shirt off like this." He looked down at the examination table where he was sitting, and added, "And the table isn't too hard, either."

"That's not really what I meant," she said, then, with a shake of her head, laughed a little. "But I suppose I should have expected an answer like that. You're very like your father, even if I got a factually correct answer rather than a snarky one, this time."

"Eh?" he said, now alert and interested. "You knew - oh. I'm sorry. That was a silly question, wasn't it? Of course you knew him."

"Not as well as my husband," said Konoe Kouko, agreeably. "But, yes, I knew him a long, long time ago. I'll tell you about that some other time. Now, before I tell you what I've been able to figure out about your situation, I have another question to ask you, not as a doctor, but as the mother of one of your students, partners, and roommates. I refer of course to Konoka, in case you weren't certain."

Negi, a polite boy - young man, presently - resisted the impulse to flinch.

"These age-shifting pills that you used," she said, her pleasant, cheerful smile not altering one bit as she spoke, yet somehow conveying menace with it that would have been the envy of certain students. "Has Konoka been using them?"

"Um ... only once, as far as I know ... well, technically, it was more than once, but ... only one specific time, even if she used them a couple of different ways, that one time, and ... uh, well, what I mean is, I think what I mean is, she only used them to find out what they did, not to, er, do anything bad. I think."

She waited to see if his statement was truly over, before nodding. "I see," she said. "Youthful experimentation. Nothing to worry about, really. I did far stranger things at that age."

"Really?"

"Some other time," she repeated. "Well, now that that's settled, I have good news for you and bad news for you. Which do you want first?"

"The bad news, please," Negi said, bracing himself.

"Good news it is," Kouko said pleasantly, making him sway back a bit. "The good news is, you're a perfectly normal, healthy fifteen year old boy."

"Ahem," said Negi, starting to feel just a bit impatient. "Yes, that would be good news, if I weren't actually not quite eleven."

"I was getting to that," the doctor said mildly. "The bad news is that what's happened to you can only be described in theoretical terms, since, as far as I know, you're the only person who has ever suffered from this combination of conditions. Let me ask you something - how exactly do you normally use Magia Erebea? In a fight, I mean, in case you weren't certain."

"Well, I -" And then he broke off as he started to guess where she was going with all this. "Oh, no," he groaned.

"Let me summarize, then. You cast a spell, then absorb it into your body, extending its duration from a second or so to several minutes, incorporating its effects into your person so that you can use them for other purposes," Kouko narrated. "And this is just what has happened, now, as well. Only instead of the spell you cast normally lasting for a few seconds, like most battle magics, the effect was supposed to last for a couple of hours. So instead of lasting for a few minutes, the effects you've absorbed into yourself will probably last for ... months."

"Months?" Negi repeated incredulously.

"At a minimum. In case you weren't certain."

"But, but - wait, I have to deliberately absorb a spell in order to use it as a Pro Armatione," Negi protested, flailing about for some way that this could be a mistake. "How can it -"

"Mm-hm, and you normally have to incant it. You didn't have to incant anything to use the pill, did you?" Kouko asked, as Negi slapped his own forehead. "There probably was a moment where you chose this, but it might have been something almost unconscious. Some moment where you wished things were different than they were."

"Nyergh," Negi said cleverly as he remembered thinking just that while watching Fate toying with the cheerleaders.

"Well, it's not so bad. But before you get any clever ideas about taking another one and trying to get yourself back to normal that way, let me state clearly - that would be a bad idea. We don't know what might happen, and there's a real danger that you might suffer a more serious problem."

"... okay," Negi said, weary, defeated. "I guess ... well, could you let my friends in so that I can tell them?"

"Of course," Kouko, heading over to the door to the small examination room. She opened it and let Kotaro enter quickly, followed more patiently by Fate. She regarded the white-haired boy with no small amount of suspicion, but allowed him entry nonetheless.

"Well, the good news is that I'm perfectly fine," Negi said. "The bad news is, I'm stuck this way and we don't know how long."

"That is good news," Fate said. "There should be no problems completing the tasks for the project in this form. Actually, for those which would require you to appear as a more mature person, it's more convenient, since you won't run the chance of shifting back in the middle."

"It's also really bad news," Kotaro said, glaring at Fate. "Where the heck are you gonna stay here on campus?"

Negi blinked. "Oh, feathers!" he cursed.

"... that's a curse?" Kotaro asked.

"I never even considered that!" Negi said, hopping off the table. "I can't stay in the girls dorm room like this, the Headmaster -"

"What about me, Negi-kun?" said a cheerful voice from the doorway.

As Konoemon walked slowly into the room, Negi swallowed. "Um, I was just saying that the Headmaster would never permit me to stay in the girls dormitory now that I've become like this. I assure you that I'll quickly find a new place to live and -"

"Oh, no, Negi-kun, we can't have that. House-hunting is a very involved process, after all, especially in today's terrible housing market. It could take weeks for you to find somewhere to live, and that's without taking into consideration the change of address paperwork you'd have to fill out!" Konoemon shook his head soberly, and yet Negi had the strangest feeling that, beneath his beard and heavy moustache, the old man was smiling broadly. "It's really a full-time job in itself, and you already have too many of those."

"Yes, you do," said Fate.

"But, then -" Negi started to say.

"Under those circumstances, it simply can't be helped - you'll have to keep on living where you've been living. I have complete confidence that nothing untoward will happen. I'm sure that you'll take complete responsibility for your actions." He nodded forcefully.

Negi had grown up quite a bit in the last little while. (Even without considering his current, artificial physical maturity.) So he was not completely oblivious to the fact that the last two statements, while they sounded very similar, did not exactly mean the same thing. Under the circumstances, though, all that he could do in response was say, "Um, well ..."

"I am totally secure in the notion of having my granddaughter in your care, Negi-kun," the headmaster assured him. "And so is her mother! Aren't you, my dear?"

Kouko was staring at the headmaster with an expression that could perhaps most charitably be described as skeptical. When addressed by him, she let out a sigh, rolled her eyes, and nodded shortly. All without saying a word.

"Then we're agreed," Konoemon said cheerfully.

"Well, I suppose ... but, still -" Negi said, still quite uncomfortable with this situation.

"'Scuse me a second," interjected Kotaro, smiling politely. "Would it be possible for this humble person to have a word or two in private with Negi-kun?"

"Certainly, certainly," Konoemon said. "Let's step outside, dear," he added to Kouko.

Kouko gave him another rather skeptical look, but stepped out into the hallway and closed the door.

"I don't think I've ever heard you using keigo before," Negi said wonderingly.

"Stick it," suggested Kotaro. "Dude, what is your problem?"

"It's just not right," he replied. "Boys and girls shouldn't live together after a certain -"

"That's what I thought it was," Kotaro interrupted again. "Okay. Reality check - you're not living with girls, you're living with Asuna and Konoka-san. And Asuna will punch you through a wall if you try anything! And as for Konoka-san ..." He trailed off, shaking his head.

"... I don't think she could do that," Negi said.

"She wouldn't have to! Setsuna-san would cut you right open!" Kotaro ran his hands through his hair. "And all that stuff the old man said about finding a new place to live was completely on the level, and you know it! You don't have time for that! If you spend too much time on it, the project will be set back, and Fate's going to start Cosmo Entelechia up again!"

"Yes I will," Fate confirmed absently as he examined the medical supplies with detached yet fascinated interest. Having never been sick, he'd never been inside a doctor's office, and the novelty of this experience was somewhat intriguing to him.

"So just cope with the humiliation for a while, all right?" Kotaro concluded.

"... I guess it really can't be helped," Negi agreed after a moment.

"What exactly do they use these for?" Fate asked, holding up a tongue depresser.

"Making ice-cream," Negi said, who'd always wondered why doctors had those.

"... well, now you're just being silly."

"Tadaima," Asuna announced as she walked in the door of her room, after Ayaka had finally agreed that they should both go back to the dorm if Negi and the boys weren't going to show up. Of course, that had been after she'd gone into detail about how she'd made her pactio, including an attempt at expressing her feelings about it through interpretative dance. It had been horrifying. Asuna was truly glad to be back.

Not nearly as glad, though, as Konoka seemed to be that she was just back, judging by the way that she squealed and threw herself at Asuna in a tackle hug that almost pushed the other girl off her feet. "Welcome back, Asuna!" Konoka crowed as she clenched their bodies close together.

"Ah!" Asuna exclaimed. "Konoka, come on, what's up with this!"

"Well, you hardly ever come home anymore, so it's an occasion for celebration when you do!" Konoka said, as piously as one can say anything while grinning widely and hugging someone.

Asuna shook her head in only partially mock dismay. "Geez," she said. She turned to look at Setsuna, hoping to get a less crazy response to her return.

Setsuna was genuflecting towards her. "Welcome home, your royal highness, Asuna-himesama!"

So much for that, Asuna thought dazedly. "Setsuna-san, what are you doing?"

"An exalted individual, such as yourself, destined to inherit a kingdom that traces its lineage to the time of the gods themselves, should not condescend to waste your breath speaking to such as this unworthy person!" Setsuna replied. Well, she engaged in non sequitur, which counts for some people as a reply.

"Wha -" Asuna tried to say.

"This one earnestly and humbly begs your forgiveness for any and all past rudeness! Ignorance of your exalted nature is no excuse for them!"

"What rudenesses, I mean, rudeness?" Asuna finally managed to ask. "... okay, there were those times when you suggested I might be in love with Negi, but -"

"- and yet you have still, with godlike mercy, permitted me to be your friend!" Setsuna interjected, still without even slightly looking up from the floor. "Therefore, this Sakurazaki Setsuna shall spare no effort to ensure that not a trace of shame ever comes to your exalted person!"

"... Konoka, what the ever-loving heck?" Asuna asked after a moment.

"I have no idea what's going on," replied Konoka, who'd been watching all this with wide eyes. "I mean, she seemed a little upset all the time she didn't see you, but ... I've never seen her acting like this." She glanced from the still-genuflecting form on the floor to Asuna and then back again. "I'm kind of starting to feel a little jealous, actually."

Before Asuna could respond to that, the door to their dorm room opened and Negi - in aged-up form - entered. "Well," he said, without preamble, "I have some good news and bad news. Which do you want first?"

"Good news," Asuna and Konoka chorused. Setsuna continued to genuflect.

"So that's the situation," Negi concluded sometime later. "I'm stuck like this for the next few months, but the Headmaster has generously agreed to let me continue living here in your dorm room."

"'Generously'," Konoka said, a rather skeptical look on her face.

Negi glanced at her with obvious amazement. "You really looked like your mother just now."

Now she adopted a rather cross expression as she looked at him. "Gee, thanks, Negi-kun. Every teenaged girl on Earth dreams of the day that they're told they look like their mother!"

"They - oh. Sarcasm." He nodded his head while rubbing the back of it with one hand. "I apologize."

"Well, it's probably not a problem," Asuna said. If nothing else, listening to the explanation had gotten Setsuna out of her posture of genuflection and seated comfortably with the other two girls. "I mean, despite everything, you're still a kid where it counts, right?"

"... I'm not honestly sure what you mean by that," Negi replied.

"Which kinda proves my point," Asuna replied, rolling her eyes.

"Well, as long as he doesn't crawl into bed with Asuna -" Konoka started to say.

"I haven't done that in months!" Negi protested. "And not just because we were separated for most of that time!"

Again with the skeptical expression from Konoka.

"Okay, there was that one time where I crawled into Chisame-san's futon by mistake, but that was because we were at an inn and I was confused about my whereabouts -" Negi started to explain.

Setsuna coughed politely, her hand over her mouth. "There will be no problems," she said, with calm certainty. "I will stand guard over both Ojousama and Asuna-himesama, to prevent Negi-sensei from disgracing either of them or himself."

The statement hung in the air for a few moments, before Konoka found it in her to, quetly, gently, and giving no impression that images of a disemboweled, decapitated or otherwise horribly maimed Negi were floating in her mind's eye, ask the question, "Um ... Setchan. What exactly do you mean by that?"

Setsuna blinked in bewilderment. "Obviously, I mean that if Negi-sensei should, in a daze, happen to try to climb into either your bed, or into Asuna-himsesama's bed, I will alert him to what he is doing so that he won't do so, being the polite and respectful person that I know him to be."

Konoka started let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"And if that doesn't work, I'll kill him."

The sigh of relief died a death of strangled coughing.

"That was a joke, of course," Setsuna announced a moment later. "I'm trying some techniques that Mana recommended for lightening the mood."

Asuna and Negi watched this byplay with mixed feelings, since they were uncomfortably well aware that neither of their friends had yet to learn the full truth about Negi's condition, and they weren't exactly happy to be deceiving either of them about it. On the other hand ... it was sort of refreshing to see Konoka on the receiving end of some trolling for once.

"Well," Asuna said. "Anyway, I think it's probably time for us to go have a bath -"

"Oh, no," said Negi, abruptly sounding very sure of himself as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I had a bath this morning at the hotel, and another one right before I got all dressed up to go meet up with Fate. I am not having another one, even if I wasn't like this. Not!"

"Um - I was really just talking about the three of us, Negi," Asuna said after a moment, gesturing towards herself, Konoka and Setsuna.

"Oh."

"He actually is a little more aggressive when he's like that, isn't he?" Asuna mused to Konoka as they walked out of the room, distracted enough that she didn't notice Setsuna bending down to set a pair of shoes down in front of her that the bodyguard had swept out from ... somewhere concealed on her person.

"Little bit," Konoka said, who did notice.

"Well, I guess that's how boys are," Asuna said with a shrug, distracted enough not to notice the way that Setsuna moved to put a handkerchief down to cover a speck of dirt on the floor in front of them. "But it's going to be an awfully long few months if he's like that all the time."

"Tell me about it," Konoka agreed ... feeling a headache coming on as she did.

Meanwhile, after doing some paperwork that he'd brought home with him, Negi decided that he should probably take advantage of the opportunity to get an early night's sleep, and headed for the drawer where he kept his pyjamas.

Then stopped half-way there.

"Oh, fudge," he muttered.

A relatively short interval later, Asuna, Setsuna and Konoka were walking down the hallway back to the dorm room in their pyjamas, the foremost of them patiently lecturing Setsuna as they went. "Okay, I'm going to let the genuflecting and the scraping go this time," Asuna was saying rather sternly. "Because I paid you back by messing with you, and that was actually a surprisingly fun thing to do."

"Wasn't it though," said Konoka rather dryly, who for some reason hadn't been able to find nearly as much fun in it as Asuna had.

Asuna proved oblivious to that statement and its tone as she warmed to her theme. "But some of the tears that I was shedding back there were real ones, and so you have got to start treating me like a regular person, got it?"

"Yes, yes, I apologize," Setsuna agreed, nodding rapidly. "I am clearly a failure as a friend."

Asuna stopped and whirled around to face Setsuna directly, slamming her hands down on the other girl's shoulders. "That is exactly what I don't mean!" she snapped. "We are friends for life, okay? Okay? You would have an easier time getting Chachamaru away from Eva-chan than you will getting yourself away from me!"

"... I believe that I should register a demurral of that statement," Chachamaru said politely. "And yet I find it difficult to do so."

"Gyah!" Asuna and Setsuna chorused, having been too distracted by their drama to notice their classmate approaching.

"Hey, Chachamaru," Konoka said, managing to summon up a smile. "What brings you here this evening."

The gynoid held up a small package of what appeared to be fabric. "Negi-sensei contacted me, and asked me, in my capacity as his personal assistant, to purchase a pair of pyjamas that would fit his currently enlarged frame."

"Doi," Asuna said, rubbing her head. "Yeah, we should probably have thought of - wait, since when are you Negi's personal asisstant?" she asked, changing lanes abruptly.

Chachamaru blinked. "Since I asked whether I could become his personal assistant, and since he acquiesced," she replied. "Had he not mentioned the fact?"

"No," Asuna replied, rubbing her head some more. "He kind of hasn't." With a sigh, she resumed her progress down the hall, leading the other three along with her. "C'mon, I'll let you in the room."

"That's very nice of you, Asuna-san," Chachamaru said, since it was, and since she didn't really want to advertise the fact that one of her fingers contained equipment that could act as a skeleton key for any lock on campus.

"So, I guess Eva-chan already knows about Negi-kun's situation?" Konoka asked.

"Yes, I informed her as soon as his communication reached me," Chachamaru explained. "Her exact words on the subject were, 'Hah hah hah, that, that dumbass, hah, hah hah ha ha ha, I can't, can't believe he could, oh yes I can, hah hah ha ha ha ha ha ha, oh wow, heh heh heh heh."

"Sounds like her all right," Asuna sighed.

They reached the door, opened, trooped in. But Negi was nowhere to be seen.

He was heard a moment later, though, voice coming from the bathroom. "Chachamaru?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"Thank goodness," he said, walking out wearing nothing but his boxers and a smile, and carrying a wrapped up bundle "I was hoping you could also ... take ... some ... laundry ..." His words slowed and trailed off as he realized that Chachamaru was not alone, and that he was under the observation of three of his other Ministra as well. "Um," he concluded somewhat awkwardly.

They stood there a while in silence, gazing at his firm, well-defined pectoral muscles, before, almost involuntarily, their gazes slowly dropped down his torso to what was hidden beneath his boxers.

"Hot damn," said Konoka after a second or two.

"This is very embarassing," Negi commented.

Chachamaru said nothing. She was busily trying to prevent her internal systems from overheating while at the same time saving her current logs under boring names that wouldn't attract attention from anyone who happened to view them.

After a somewhat shorter interval, involving Negi ducking back into the bathroom and Chachamaru somehow managing to pass him the pyjamas through the doorway without actually looking at him, then accepting the laundry bundle once Negi was acceptably dressed, everyone was finally a bit tired and settled down to sleep.

Except, of course, that Asuna couldn't sleep. Well, couldn't might be the wrong expression. 'Didn't really want to' and 'felt presently comfortable without' would probably have been closer to accurate. 'Was dreading the thought of the very long nap she would far too soon be taking, and so chose to go without' was an even better expansion of her feelings.

Besides which, she felt like she needed to talk to Negi about something, now that Konoka was asleep and so - she checked - was Setsuna. Her friend was seated on the floor beside Konoka's lower bunk, having covered the entire area around her with rice paper so that nobody who couldn't fly would probably make noise enough to wake the dead - or at least to wake Setsuna. Asuna expected that Setsuna had probably set up other, less obvious traps to deal with intruders who wouldn't be bothered by the more visible ones.

All of them, whether visible or invisible, would be designed to deal with people trying to get into the girls' beds, as opposed to people trying to get out of them. So Asuna felt perfectly secure stepping - where she'd once had to hop - over to Negi's nook.

"Isn't this a little backwards?" Negi asked quietly once his eyes slid open to see that she was there.

"Yeah, yeah, hilarious," she said. "We need to tell Konoka and Setsuna the truth about what happened." She paused. "And what's going to happen," she added, a bit reluctantly.

Negi's face twisted in an unfamiliar expression that she took a while to recognize as a frown. "I don't mind telling them about me, but when it comes to you -"

"I don't like lying to them, even by omission," Asuna interjected. "And -"

"When it comes to you," Negi continued, as though nothing had been said, "I refuse to give up hope that I'm going to find some way around it. If that happens, then telling them would be cruel, as we'd be worrying them for nothing."

"You have no reason for thinking you can do that," Asuna said, feeling like she'd had this discussion before. Mostly because she had.

"And I apologize for usurping your role in our normal byplay," he replied dryly.

She glared at him. "You are definitely way more aggressive when you're like this," she said, gesturing at his adult form. "You'd never say something like that to me normally."

"I am not!" Negi said defensively.

"Are too," Asuna said, then preemptively sang-song at him, "Are too, are too, are too-oo."

There was a sudden flash, and the almost inaudible sound of Setsuna rising to her feet on the floor below them as one of her alarms was set off by Asuna speaking too loudly. Asuna quickly ducked down beside Negi to avoid being seen by Setsuna and provoking ... well, she suspected that Setsuna would probably start crying if she saw Asuna sneaking around like this, and that wasn't a pleasant thing to contemplate.

It was also difficult, because she was busily contemplating something else ... specifically, the fact that she'd never been this close to Negi's adult form when they were both in their pyjamas, and the way that his eyes were staring into hers.

They lay there for a while, even long after Setsuna had finally realized that there was no intruder and settled down again.

Years later, they still weren't sure which one of them made the first move.

"This -" said Asuna, managing to get the word out in the brief interval where her lips and tongue weren't otherwise occupied with Negi's lips and tongue.

"- is - a - bad - idea?" Negi bit out a moment or so later, punctuating the words with kisses that ran down her chin, and then across her neck to the spot where he could feel, beneath his lips, the rapid pulsing of her heart.

"Yes!" Asuna agreed, breathing heavily as her hands went around his buttocks and pulled him even closer to her, almost crushing her body against his slightly larger one. "You're my little brother!"

Negi managed to pull back enough to look into her eyes, and sounded a bit annoyed when he spoke. "A, I'm not little at the moment."

"Yeah, I can feel that," Asuna groaned as their crotches ground together and the part of him that was clearly not little at all bulged against her, making her shudder from the sensation.

"And B, you started it!"

"No I -"

Anticipating that response, Negi kissed her soundly and wrapped his hands around her buttocks, just as she was doing to him. Peace! I will stop your mouth, he thought, a bit dazedly.

Asuna growled in her throat a bit at being cut off like that, but what was happening was sufficient distraction to take her mind away from that, particularly when his hands moved off the outside of her pyjama bottoms and inside, onto her actual skin. In response, her hands moved as well, but differently, around to the sides of his bottoms, so that they could be pushed down. Normally, she knew, he wore boxers beneath them, but she'd seen the only pair of boxers he had that still fit taken away in the laundry, and so beneath -

Beneath was something startlingly large, not that she had much basis for comparison. But it was large enough that when her hand shakily came around to wrap around it, rubbing it as some instinct commanded, she almost wanted to bring her other hand up to help out. But it was busy, pulling her own bottoms down.

She thought it would be enough to get them down to her hips, but then he pushed forward and his hips pushed against them, stopping his motion and making them both groan. Furiously, she shoved the bottoms down to her ankles and then kicked them off completely, rocking back so that Negi could roll on top of her.

And into her.

For a few seconds after that initial penetration, they simply lay there, breathing heavily, staring into each other's eyes. She hadn't paid enough attention in health class to know that there was supposed to be a certain amount of pain in a first sexual experience, and so didn't know that she was being spared that for whatever reason. The feeling of fullness - or, on the other side, of being surrounded - was sufficiently bewildering to both of them that it had them stunned.

And then, Negi, a quick learner if ever there was one, began to move forward, then back. Out, then in. Faster and faster, their hips grinding together as their lips met then broke away and hands reached out to clench each other and pounding and pounding and pounding and gasps loud enough to wake the dead and then, at last, the sensation of explosive release.

"Ahhh," said a voice.

Negi blinked. So did Asuna.

It hadn't been either of them.

Slowly, they turned to look to the side, where Setsuna and Konoka were gazing at them with respectively horrified and excited looks.

"Ah," both Negi and Asuna managed to say before Setsuna finally regained control of her jaw and began to make a keening noise.

Beneath it, Konoka murmured, "Pal owes me five thousand yen. Woot." With a rather smug smile on her face.

"No!" Setsuna cried out at last. "Asuna-himesama! How could you do this! I tried so hard to protect you from such things, and yet here you are, throwing away your purity as though it didn't matter at all!"

"It kinda doesn't?" Asuna offered up weakly.

Her words were more or less drowned out by Setsuna's ongoing passive-aggressive temper tantrum. "The traps! The effort I put into the traps! And yet you didn't even bother trying to prevent them from going off as you could have with Magic Cancel!"

"- that would have been kind of a good move," Negi agreed.

"I have to be able to see what I'm doing in order to do that, and they were all on the floor!" Asuna protested.

"Why, ohimesama?" Setsuna nearly wept. "Why did you do it? I know that I'm not worthy of any explanations, much less -"

"Okay, that is it!" Konoka snapped. The smug had melted right off her face as she'd listened to Setsuna's complaint, replaced by the annoyance and, frankly, jealousy that she'd been feeling while watching Setsuna act like she'd been acting towards Asuna. There'd been a few funny moments, like when she'd seen Asuna try to manipulate the other girl into calling her by a very informal version of her name, like she herself did all the time. But even that had paled once she'd watched Asuna actually succeed without there needing to be a major combat event before it happened.

Konoka was Not Happy.

"O-ojousama?" Setsuna trembled.

That did not improve her Not Happiness.

"Se. Tchan," she bit out. "Remember what we talked about that one time? About being more honest about our feelings?"

"... you're going to need to be more specific," Setsuna admitted weakly. There'd been a lot of conversations like that, after all.

Konoka drew in a deep breath. "You're only a little bit upset about Asuna sneaking past your traps, riiight?" she asked. "Really, you're upset because it turned you on to watch them doing it, riiight?" She drew out the terminal expressions, to leave no question in anyone's mind that she expected any answer other than an immediate affirmation.

"B-but -" Setsuna stammered.

"I'll prove it," Konoka said. And with a surprisingly forceful shove - surprising to anyone who didn't realize that Setsuna weighed much less than she appeared - she pushed Setsuna upwards, so that her bodyguard was bent forward over the wall's edge, face much closer to where Negi and Asuna were still lying entwined. With a second smooth gesture, Setsuna's pyjama bottoms were dangling around her ankles, as were her panties.

"See?" Konoka said calmly, as she moved around to Setsuna's exposed rear end. "You're not upset, you're turned on. Which makes me a little upset, but I'll cope." She drew in another deep breath, and without further preamble, pushed her face into Setsuna's genitalia.

"Ojousama!" Setsuna shrieked. "No, you can't! It's dirty and - ahhhhhh!" Her cries lost coherency as Konoka pinched her for being such a cliche. "Ah! No, not in front of ohimesama and -"

"Dammit, what do I have to do to get you to stop with that -" Asuna started to yell, then stopped, breathed, and then said, much more quietly, "Yeah, that's a dumb question, even for me."

"Eh?" said Negi, genuinely bewildered by all of this.

Asuna pulled away from him and reached down to grab ahold of Setsuna's shoulders and lever her upper torso upwards so that they were facing each other. "It's a really dumb question," she repeated.

"Ohime-" Setsuna started to say.

She was interrupted when Asuna slammed their lips together and started to rub at Setsuna's breasts with her hands.

Konoka found herself feeling conflicted as she licked at the flower of Setsuna's joy. The conflict wasn't about having sex with Setsuna. She'd been wanting to do that ever since she'd happened to walk in on Sakura and Takane 'celebrating' together on their last night in Megalo-Mesembria, and just hadn't ever had the opportunity until right now.

Rather, she was conflicted about being happy that what Asuna was doing was preventing Setsuna from making cliched comments like 'it's dirty' or 'stop, don't, you shouldn't', while on the other hand being more than a little unhappy that what Asuna was doing was apparently making Setsuna more aroused - if the increase in juiciness was any indication - than anything Konoka herself had done. Maybe 'skipping to the chorus' wasn't such a good idea after all, she thought.

She didn't stop of course. Setsuna's juiciness was yummy. Rather, she brought her fingers into play as well, enjoying the pleasant gasp that burst from Setsuna's throat and into Asuna's mouth, making the other girl's eyes go wide. Still, the fact that two of the people she loved most in the world were enjoying themselves while she did most of the work to bring that about was ... a bit vexing.

She tongued Setsuna's clitoris and made her jerk in release, hard enough to pull away from Asuna's mouth and make harsh, almost birdlike shrieks of orgasm. For a second, as she watched her bodyguard's shoulder blades quivering, she almost thought that the wings were about to come out. She almost wished that they would.

But Setsuna collapsed after a moment, instead. Ah well.

Time to move on. "Naughty, naughty Asuna!" Konoka said as she pulled herself up to their level. "Doing that to my Setchan! I think that is unforgivable!"

Asuna, who'd looked startled at Konoka's initial comment, slowly shifted her expression into a rather ironic and knowing smile. "Uh-huh," she said. "And however might I earn your forgiveness."

"Welllll," Konoka said, glancing at Negi, who'd just watched all this wide-eyed, and at the giant between his legs that she'd only partially glimpsed as it pounded into Asuna's cleft. "I'm not sure, really," she admitted, licking her lips.

Asuna rolled her eyes. "Think hard, I'm sure it'll come to you."

That would be fun, but maybe later. She'd had a better idea. "No, I think the best way for you to understand the pain I've had to endure would be for Negi-kun to do it with Setchan," she said, nodding firmly.

"What?"

"What?" echoed Negi.

"... do I get a vote in this?" Setsuna whimpered.

"Of course not. Come on, Negi-kun," Konoka said as she hefted Setsuna's still limp body up so that she was on full display to Negi. "Don't you think Setchan is pretty? You do, riiight?"

"Well, um, of-of-of course I think Setsuna-san is very pretty, but -"

"And you want to show her that she's worthy of being loved, riiight?"

"Well, yes, certainly, but -"

"Oh, just do it, Negi," Asuna groused.

"... riiight," he muttered, feeling a bit ill-used, but nonetheless crawled over to where Setsuna was lying and staring up at him apprehensively all the same. He paused when he saw that stare. "Setsuna-san, do you not want -"

"... ojousama has decided," Setsuna interjected, lower lip trembling a bit. "Please make use of my body, Negi-kun."

Pity stabbed Negi's heart. Here was a wonderful young woman, so brave, so strong, and so fair to gaze upon. He felt himself blush a bit, remembering what he had mistaken for a confession during Mahora-fest, and how he'd actually felt a tiny sliver of disappointment when she'd tried to clarify matters, covering it up with teasing because it was easier. Setsuna was perhaps the mightiest of his companions, and yet here she was, submitting so easily.

Love was so strange.

And yet, despite everything, Konoka was right. If he turned away now, she would find a way to blame herself for his refusal. The only thing to do was to give it his all, to strive to make Setsuna feel as wonderful as, he was sure, he would feel doing this. He set his jaw firmly, and bent down to kiss her lips. They were as sweet as they had been when they'd formed their contract, so long ago, it seemed.

Her eyes flinched closed as he pushed up and into her, and so he murmured gently into her ear. "You are wonderful, Setsuna-san, wonderful." And she was. The strength that he so admired in Asuna and others was here, as well. He had to answer it with his own strength, show her that the gentleness that she feared in herself was itself a strength.

It was a heroic task, when he thought of it that way.

Meanwhile, Setsuna was busily thinking, I'm having sex with Negi-sensei. Over and over and over. There was more than a little panic in the thought. And yet, also a certain amount of relief. After all, Negi never made demands of her that disconcerted and discomforted her. Except for this, right now, and that wasn't really his idea. And it wasn't like he was making her feel bad, as his ... thing ... slid up inside of her, like her lady's fingers had just a little while ago. Just ... very confused, more than anything else. And panicked. And relieved. Which of course added to the confusion.

Yet she couldn't let any of that show, for it would make him unhappy, and then he would stop doing what he was doing, and then her lady would be upset. She didn't want her lady to be upset ... or, she realized, for Negi to be unhappy. So she began to deliberately respond to it, as she had somewhat involuntarily responded to Asuna's lips and hands on herself. The memory of that drove her onward, as she strove to make everyone present as happy as could be.

It was a heroic task, when she thought of it that way.

As the two of them struggled with their heroic tasks, of course, they were being watched by Asuna and Konoka. One of the two was humming in pleasure, only partially resulting from digital manipulation of her own clitoris. The other was frowning. Once the one realized that, she pressed up against the back of the other.

"Hmmm?" said Asuna, suggestively. "Wasn't this supposed to make me feel some sort of pain?"

Konoka flushed. Events ... were, perhaps, not working out as she'd wanted them to work. "I didn't think this all the way through," she admitted reluctantly, blushing.

"And yet you are never so cute as when you're so flustered like this," Asuna murmured, then, oh so delicately, kissed the ear into which she'd just softly spoken.

"It doesn't make you feel that way?" Konoka asked, starting to fall back into Asuna's embrace. "Watching Negi-kun with -"

"A little bit," Asuna interjected. "But ..." And then she fell silent, thinking of how much there is that Konoka didn't know. Of how she feared for what will happen to Negi once Asuna was gone, of how she wanted him to find happiness without her.

"But?" Konoka prompted.

And there was something else, too - the two conflicting urges that she felt in her heart. On the one hand, the urge to make a clean break with those she would be leaving behind, so that as few as possible will mourn her passing. And on the other, the wish to leave as much of herself behind as possible, to answer the call of those thirty-two voices who drew her from her slumber as best as she can.

Konoka's had been the first voice she'd heard.

Well. One of them.

(Chisame was such a noisy person.)

"But right now," she said at last, "I'm looking at you." And she pulled Konoka down to lie on the futon with her, their lips at last colliding, hands coming up to undo the pyjama tops that had, implausibly, remained their only garments. Almost at once, Asuna's mouth descended to bite the aching-hard nipple that adorned Konoka's small breasts, as their hips moved together.

And so, on Negi's futon, Asuna and Konoka's lips came together almost as tightly and with almost as much sheer ferocity as they ground themselves together below. Konoka, with that tiny corner of her mind not given over to ecstasy, managed to wonder how Asuna knew how to do anything that she was doing. She herself was only imitating what was done to her ... with a bit drawn from vague memories of the yuri manga that Paru had slipped her from time to time after Kyoto. That had been what she'd relied on when she was finger-banging Setsuna.

Even if Konoka had been able to find the voice or the breath to ask that question, Asuna might not have been able to answer, had she had the voice or the breath to do so. She only vaguely understood how parts of her mind still contained the memories, the thoughts, of all those who had been taken into Cosmo Entelechia and then restored. There were countless memories of things she had never imagined that she might experience. Unlike a certain scientist and artist, she could say truly that nothing that was human - or demihuman - was alien to her, not anymore.

On the other side of Negi's nook, beside his desk, Negi continued to pound down into Setsuna. For this, his second sexual experience, he'd found himself trying to experiment, trying to draw her into different positions than the single one he'd used with Asuna. But Setsuna resisted, passively, being moved from the way that she lay flat on her back beneath him. It didn't take him long to realize that was what she was doing, and he promptly gave up on those ideas, for now. If this was what was making her happy, then this was what they'd do.

And from the harsh cries that abruptly burst from her throat, moments before he felt himself shuddering with release and shooting into her, it seemed that it had made her happy - or at least, satisfied something in her. He kissed her forehead once, then both of her slightly teary eyes, before delivering one last kiss to her lips.

"Negi-sensei," she murmured, making it sound a little like a prayer.

He smiled, and pulled back, glancing over his shoulder at their companions. They'd moved into a sexually charged sixty nine - as opposed, he supposed, to some other form of mutual oral sex which would be, well, less sexually charged, somehow. But Konoka, whose position afforded her a better view of the nook, looked up when she realized that the other two inhabitants had reached a climax of their activities.

"Awww," she said, affecting childishness some more. "Negi-kun, your thing looks so droopy and sad, now. Didn't you - nnnnn - didn't you like doing it with Setchan?" she asked, shaking a bit as Asuna nibbled a bit of her thigh.

"It was, it was -" he stammered in response.

She pulled away from Asuna's mouth, then, and began crawling over to him. Almost before he realized what she was doing, she had taken his softening member into her mouth and was bobbing up and down on it. (Her memories of the many more yaoi mangas Paru had shared were very helpful here.) "Mmm, tastes like you did," she said, during a brief pause to evaluate the results of her actions. "Tastes like you both did."

"How can you tell from the -" Negi started to ask.

"Oh, Negi-kun," Konoka sighed, shaking her head with the sorrow of the greatly put-upon, as she began to crawl up his body. "Just shut up and fuck me, will you?"

Well. What could someone possibly say to that, or do, except to follow the suggested course of action? Setsuna's momentary protest was interrupted as Asuna resumed and enlarged her familiarity with her best friend's person, this time, close enough that the two of them could touch, had they not been otherwise occupied.

The first time, Asuna had been trying to be quiet - unsuccessfully, but still restraining herself. Setsuna had done the same, only more so. Konoka did not even remotely bother to restrain herself, shouting and panting her joy at what she was doing, what was being done to her, how great his cock felt inside of her cunt - had she perhaps read some hetero-based smut, as well? - as she rocked up and down above his hips, grabbing his hands and pulling them up to her breasts to squeeze them while she cried out in pleasure.

She made enough joyful noise that Negi found himself worrying that it might attract attention, and rolled her over onto her back in hopes that it would silence her. No such luck - that only came when Asuna, gently directing Setsuna's hesitant movements, set her down so that her vulva was over Konoka's mouth, and what had been left there began to drip down into it. She embraced that, embraced Setsuna, as Asuna leaned over the swordswoman's shoulder to bring her lips to Negi's once more.

For a few glorious moments, all four of them were united.

And then, of course, explosion.

A few minutes later, after all four of them had caught their breath as they lay on the carpet, Konoka rolled over onto her side so that she could look lovingly at Negi. "That was wonderful, Negi-kun. I can hardly wait for our wedding."

It was honestly a bit astounding, how having regained his breath, Negi lost it again so quickly. "Wait," he gasped. "What? Wedding?"

"Well, my goodness, Negi-kun," she said, looking a little shocked. "You just took my innocence. You ended my childhood. You couldn't possibly be enough of a cad, a brute, a bounder, an enemy to all women, to do that and then not make an honest woman of me. Besides, I could be pregnant now. So we have to get married!"

"What?" Negi asked again, sounding even more strangled.

"What?" Setsuna asked, sounding even worse.

However, that gasp was actually very helpful to Negi. "Wait," he said, regaining a bit of poise. "I mean, what about Asuna-san and Setsuna-san, I mean, I -" He abruptly paused as he realized just how much of a hole he was digging for himself. "- I, I mean -"

"Well, you can't marry all three of us," Konoka replied, in the most reasonable of tones. "And Asuna, as a princess, is no doubt promised to some prince back in the magical world, with no real personality or charm. Poor you!" she added, to Asuna, who was listening to all this with wide eyes. "And Setchan, well, is Setchan, and has promised to spend her life protecting me, so you can't marry her either, because I won't let you. So all in all, I think your only real choice would be to marry me, and then I'll take Setchan as a lover-slash-bodyguard and share her with you, and we can pay occasional visits on Asuna in her new kingdom and help her cheat on her boring husband. Doesn't that sound nice?" she asked, smiling warmly.

All three of them were staring at her now.

She returned their stares with a patient, gentle gaze ... then stuck out her tongue. "Gotcha."

Collapses all around.

"Oh yeah," Konoka said, nodding as she smiled rather smugly. "Who's got two thumbs and is the queen of messing with people? This gal," she answered the rhetorical question with the predictable gesture.

Somewhat later, after they had all settled down to sleep, all together in the nook - though having resisted the temptation for further frolics - Asuna found that she still didn't want to sleep, even though now she honestly was a little tired. So she lay there, surrounded by many of the people she loved best in this world, and was happy.

"Why are you crying?" a soft voice asked into her ear.

Asuna turned slightly to see that Konoka was looking right at her though half-open eyes.

"Why?" Konoka repeated.

"Because -" I'm happy, is what she wanted to say. But that wasn't it. That would be a lie.

And so, she gave her friend-turned-lover the truth, instead. Slowly, softly, bit by bit. And Konoka's eyes slid the rest of the way open. Moments later, it was she who was crying in silence, and Asuna who tried, in vain, to still the tears.

From sweetest laughter to saddest tears, in under an hour. That's a teenage girl for you, Asuna thought, as she held Konoka close and knew that she'd have to let her go.

The next day, being a Sunday, allowed them the chance to sleep in. For once, they actually took that chance. Well, Negi, Asuna and Setsuna did; Konoka was up earlier than they were, making breakfast for the three of them. When she finally did awaken, Setsuna thought that she detected a certain tension and unhappiness in her lady's face, but it vanished as soon as Konoka saw that they were awake, and she didn't have the chance to ask about it.

Immediately after they finished breakfast - she supposed that it was technically the brunch which Negi-sensei had told her about, once - Konoka had delicately suggested that they should all have a shower, to deal with certain smells which she could detect emanating from their persons. "Yes," Konoka mused aloud. "A shower. Together."

Despite a certain naivete which perpetually embarrassed her whenever it became apparent, Setsuna was not exactly oblivious to subtext. In this case, it was not all that difficult to figure out that whatever her lady had planned, it was probably not a simple bathing experience. Setsuna found herself feeling genuinely torn, between a wish to make sure that her lady didn't do such things without her, and an equally compelling wish to make sure that her lady didn't do such things period, the latter complicated by the fact that she knew full well that Konoka had her quite thoroughly whipped. (Well, she didn't think of it in quite those terms, but it amounted to the same thing.)

"Um, um, um," Setsuna responded, quickly coming to her feet. "I can't! Not yet! I, I, I need to finish my exercise routine first! Yes, that's the ticket!"

"'Ticket'?" Asuna repeated, eyebrow raised.

"Oh, well, I suppose that you should wait until your exercises are done to shower," Konoka said, nodding. "So, have fun with that," she added, waving politely at Setsuna as she started to ever so gently pull Asuna and Negi towards the en suite door.

"Ah," Setsuna said cleverly. "Right. Okay then." Slowly, she exited, wondering why that hadn't worked out like she'd expected. But then, she supposed that she should have expected things to not work out as she expected them to, since very little lately had ... but wasn't that a paradox?

Her head hurt.

What had happened to her life? How had her dreams of glorious and honest service led her to this point? Why was she the only one who seemed at all disconcerted by what had happened last night? Clearly, the fault had to be hers, but what exactly was it?

Her head really hurt.

"Hey, morning," Kotaro said as he jogged past her in the hallway, heading back to the room he shared with Ayaka, Chizuru and Natsumi.

"Good morning, Kotaro-kun," Setsuna said politely, determined not to let her inner turmoil show.

Abruptly, Kotaro froze in place, then slowly swiveled to look right at her, eyes wide.

"What?" she asked, a bit startled.

Slowly, he walked towards her, eyes narrowing, sniffing as he approached. Abruptly, it occurred to her that Kotaro's sensitive nose might detect -

"Oh. Holy. Shit," Kotaro said, eyes wide open once more.

"... why am I being punished for not taking a shower when I wouldn't actually be showering?" Setsuna asked of no one in particular.

A few minutes later, following some quickly- and quietly-voiced warnings to tell no one of what he'd just learned, backed up by a few hints of dire consequences if he did (which didn't really intimidate him anywhere as much as Setsuna probably wanted) Kotaro was on his way, shaking his head in amazement at what a mess Negi had gotten himself into this time. He was honest enough to admit - to himself, never to anyone else - that he was a tiny bit envious of said mess. But just a tiny bit. The overwhelming majority of girls were icky.

"Welcome back, Kotaro-kun," Chizuru asked as he came in the door to their room. "How was your work out this morning?"

With a tiny minority who were absolutely terrifying. "It was okay," he said, resolving to put what had happened a few moments ago firmly out of his mind.

"Hmmm?" Chizuru asked, pausing in her tea-making activities. "Is something the matter?"

It was unwise to lie to one's alpha, but one could sometimes manage to be evasive. "Oh, just thinking about Negi's situation, you know, how he's turned into a grown-up," he said, which was true, just not quite the whole truth. "I wonder if that's gonna make it not so cool for his Ministra. Did you know that Ayaka-nechan made a pactio with him?"

"Yes, of course," Chizuru said, bringing the tea kettle over to the table. "She got hers just a few hours after I got mine."

"Oh, I guess you would know about no wait wait wait what?"

Chizuru held up a card which depicted her grinning broadly and holding an onion stalk in one hand, which she'd produced from - actually, Kotaro found himself trying very hard not to think about from whence it had been produced. "Well, of course," she said. "I'll be working with him a lot, and Chamo-san thought it might come in handy if we made a pactio. So, we did."

"Oh," Kotaro said, blinking in amazement at how casual she was about it all. "Well, yeah, I guess that makes sense, I mean, he'll be trying to get help from Naba Industries, and ... and ... yeah." He decided to cover his discomfort by sipping the tea he was even now being served.

"Dear me," Chizuru said, regarding him speculatively. "I guess you really are worried now."

"Worried?" he asked, protesting. "What've I got to be worried about? Nothing! So naturally not, then!"

"Hmmm," she said. "Didn't you do it with Natsumi-chan?"

His face went bright red. "What? NO!"

Her eyebrow went up. "Excuse me? She told me about your pactio, though not a lot about the details."

"Oh," Kotaro said, who'd been fairly sure it was impossible for someone to be this embarrassed and still go on living, so really, he should be proud of himself for his fortitude.

"What did you think I meant?"

"Ah, ah, ah -"

In a weirdly surreal moment, characters for the word, Intrigued, seemed to float over Chizuru's head. "Well, never mind that, for now. Now, about those details ... what was it like, kissing Natsumi-chan?"

"Gwhah?" Kotaro responded calmly. Okay, that description was a blatant lie.

"Were you gentle with her? You were, right?"

In the dorm room's antechamber, Natsumi, who'd just this moment come back from the store with groceries, was musing to herself that she'd probably rather die than go in to the room proper, where she could clearly hear the conversation between two of her roommates.

"Come on now, tell me all about it!" Chizuru's voice said. "Don't be shy now, Ko-"

And then ... silence fell, and lasted for several moments.

It was broken by her voice once more, only this time sounding utterly unlike her normally confident and cheerful self - rather disturbed, instead. "Ko-Kotaro-kun?" she asked.

"No!" he said, almost yelling. "No, this is not ... it's not what it - I've gotta go!"

"Wait, don't -"

He rushed past Natsumi, who'd just barely managed to make herself invisible with her artifact. For a dizzying second, though, she had the impression that he wouldn't have noticed her even if she was in plain sight, for he seemed intent on running with his hands oddly placed over his crotch, as though covering something.

Whawhawhawha? Natsumi thought.

In the dining room, Chizuru, still standing in a position that left her leaning over the table, in a way that gave onlookers a very good glimpse at her cleavage, had an utterly startled look on her face.

"... but you're only twelve," she murmured. "So ... why ..."

To Be Continued