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Loose Ends
By Nukoko
Rated: T
Rated: T
Years after their adventure in Mundus Magicus, Ala Alba has been taking steps to avert the future that have bought despair to so many. However many questions have yet to receive answers. During an innocent attempt to give some respite to their sensei, Chisame Hasegawa finds a lead to a question that they've yet to even ask. The fate of the former Queen of Vespertatia, Arika.
Chapter 2
====[Loose Ends]====
====[Chisame Hasegawa]====
Being perfectly honest, there was once upon a time, back in the past, when I probably wasn't quite as bitter with reality as I am now.
Back in middle school, when I was still part of that rambunctious class of girls, learning under the kid's ever present guidance, I had a significantly positive view of the world in comparison.
I've always been an otaku and I've read enough manga and light novels, watched enough anime, played enough games, to have be shown how a fantastical world that a grounded in reality is almost assuredly harsher and darker than what the surface always appears to be.
I never cared back then of course. I was a normal girl, the one that only ever knew of fantasy through the words and images depicted in media. It didn't matter even when I knew magic existed. I planned on leading a normal life regardless and wouldn't have to deal with all that crap.
That was the case. That should've been the case.
Then Negi Springfield happened.
I was taken for a roller-coaster ride in that fantasy world I only ever read about… now I really had to face the corrupt governments, the sympathetic villains, the monsters that haunt the night, and the heroes that fought for justice… I've had the misfortune of seeing the horrid reality.
The horrible reality that people are fully willing to exploit and deprive a ten year old kid, now a teenager, of any semblance of a happy normal life for the sake of whatever agenda they have in their evil little minds.
The stupid fact that the universe itself was so impossibly and sadistically cruel that it wouldn't even give the kid just one moment of peace in his life.
Seeing the girl, the spitting image of Queen Arika, I was once again reminded how fucking stupidly evil this universe really was.
The kid's gone through hell, has had his childhood stolen, his teenage years and most likely his adult years dedicated to righting the wrongs that every other person had given up on correcting.
Again, I'd like to ask the universe, to just once, just for one god be fucking moment, let the kid have some peace!
Why the hell is that so hard to give?!
"She's doing well, it doesn't seem like the rough ride had affected her. I couldn't find any injuries, though it seems she shows no signs of waking up."
I was broken out of my spiel against the world by the firm grip of Mana's hand on my shoulder.
I turned to look at her but didn't give a verbal response.
We've known each other for years at this point so I can just use my eyes to tell her my exact feelings on the current situation.
"I know. I know how you might be feeling right now. I know that you give a damn about that kid more than even Asuna... But Chisame... we need to tell sensei."
Never a woman to beat around the bush, Mana had immediately gone straight to the heart of the problem.
That the existence of this Loli Arika needed to be made known, to him.
I blanched at the idea. It wasn't like I was against the idea of the kid finally reuniting with his long lost mother….
It wasn't that. It was the fact that this could go wrong in so many ways that I hesitated.
If this truly was Queen Arika, as in the real article with no strings attached then I'd be the first to wake the kid up with a smile on my face to tell him that we've finally found his mother. Then I'd gently watch the touching reunion while calling everyone to inform them.
But what if it wasn't? What if this was just some kind of illusion? What if this Arika would just as well disappear at some point of time? What if she was some kind of imposter?
The kid's cosmo entelechia was having a family. That was his greatest wish, the one thing that would make him happier than anything else.
If he were to meet this Arika now but be separated in the future or find out that she was some kind of fake, how painful would that be for him? How cruel would that be to do to him?
"Chisame."
Mana grabbed me from behind and turned me to face her, she stared me straight in the eye.
"He needs to know. Fake or not, even if might get hurt again, we don't have the right to decide that for him."
I swatted away her arms and grabbed her collar tightly.
That set me off. We weren't just his friends and companions here, we were his family.
"I do...! We all do! He's been hurt enough! He's gone every manner of hell... we can't! Without even knowing if she's the real thing, we can't just...!"
"Hnnyaa...?"
With frame perfect timing, as if it was all planned, the little girl signaled her awakening right as my argument with Mana was about to set off.
Bravo loli Arika. That actually calmed me down.
"Haaaah…."
I took a few deep breathes to calm myself down before fixing wiping my eyes a bit and fixing my glasses.
For the record, I wasn't crying, so shut it. There was just sweat in that particular area.
I shook my head before looking back at Mana. There was a slightly exasperated but understanding look on her face.
"Mana, sorry... I got too emotional there. You're right, the kid does need to know. Besides, hiding this girl would be too difficult anyway."
"No, it's fine. You always have Sensei's best interest in mind. However, you are his voice of reason, so shape up Hasegawa."
"Yeah, yeah..."
The tension in the air disappeared from that little exchange. It wasn't like it was the first time we've had one. In fact, arguments were quite normal among the group but you know, all that love, family, and friendship thing pulling through.
Yes you punks, manga and anime were indeed very good basis for how this world works. Try them sometime.
"Go handle our little queen then. I'll go check a few things on the bridge."
After a light and comforting tap on my shoulder, Mana opened the door and set off for the bridge, probably because she didn't want to deal with our aforementioned little queen.
Now, it was already very well known among the group that she loved kids and were actually rather good with them, so it was probably her way of taking distance so as not to get attached to loli Arika.
Which means I have to be the one to deal with this one.
I let out another sigh before finally approaching Loli Arika. Which, yes, is now my personal pet name for her. Because that's the easiest way to describe her.
You know it is.
"My Name is Chisame Hasegawa, the current captain of the ship. What's your name?"
I crouched down to put me at the same eye level. She looked completely guarded but willing to communicate.
To clarify, I was indeed the proper captain of this ship, which was named 'Dark Evangel'.
Three guesses and an imaginary cookie to whomever can guess who named it.
Ala Alba was well supported financially. Considering we have the Chao Bao Zi, Hakase Inc., the Yukihiro Group, and Haruna's illegal Yaoi Empire, we were very well funded. That doesn't even include Evangeline's contribution to the group.
Enough that we currently own several air ships. Aside from the Haruna's [Great Paru-sama], there's the [White Lily], the personal not-love nest for Konoka and Setsuna, the [Negi-sensei Love] that Ayaka uses, go-figure, and the [Ala-Alba], the one we use for formal occasions.
Anyway, the aforementioned mistress of the night, Evangeline A.K. Mcdowell, had felt that as the most powerful member of the group and the master of the second most powerful person in the group, she had every right to own her own airship.
Hence, deals were done, threats were made, money was spent, Hakase got involved, and we ended up with a Jet-black, magically enchanted, steam-punk stealth type airship.
Then the great night terror in loli form got too lazy to bother with the thing and decided to just drop the thing on my lap to deal with and the rest was history.
To this day, I don't know whether getting this airship was fortunate or misfortunate.
Ah right… I got distracted. Back to loli Arika.
"Ah, my name is... name...?"
Shit. Please not the amnesia development. Please!
That's the most irritating development to deal with. It slows down the plot to a crawl, prevents us from getting any real relevant information, and prolongs everyone's suffering in order to simulate a longer story than what it should be.
I most definitely do not want to only learn the important pieces of info while we're dealing with a life threatening situation, thank you very much.
So please, please, please, tell me that you remember your name at least!
I looked at the confused face of loli Arika and pleaded with all my might to be given a better plot development.
"I-I... I don't know my name... I don't..."
God damn it. Universe, you're progressively getting lower on my shit list.
Ahhh… this is what I get from going off on a tangent.
Okay, okay girl, it's unfortunate that we got the amnesia development but no choice but to just nod and move on. Griping about it will just provoke the universe into making it even more annoying so best no to tempt fate.
However, before we get into anything else, it's best that I confirm something very important.
"Its fine... but do you happen to remember any large dark skinned man with a face that no child should ever approach?"
"D-Do you mean Rakan-san? Yes, he had saved me from the monsters..."
How unfortunate. So she does remember Rakan, which means that her memory loss wasn't caused by anything he did.
A pity. It's been a while since I've hacked into Al-Iskandariya to shoot it at something.
"H-he did mention that he was going to send me to someone named Chiu-chan… could you be that person?"
"… Before I answer that question, exactly how did he describe this Chiu-chan?"
"Well… he said that Chiu-chan was a red-headed girl and that I should worry if she seemed mean because she was just being too tsun for her own good… I don't understand what 'tsun' means however…"
Scratch what I said a few lines ago. It looks like I'm gonna be hacking into Al-Iskandariya very soon.
"Okay, first of all…"
"A-ah, yes...?"
I paused, realizing I was about to call her Arika-sama. The girl had no inkling of who she was or who she seemed to be.
"Hime. Right, that's the most appropriate name for now. Alright, so Hime, I am indeed Chiu-chan though I prefer to be called Chisame, understood? Also, don't bother trying to understand what the big oaf tries to say, are we clear?"
"Y-yes!"
Probably slightly intimidated by the intensity of my requests, she trembled and answered immediately.
Good. It was best that my net-idol name spread any further. I've managed to bury any and all associations of the still famed former internet queen and idol, Chiu with my real name. As far as the net was concerned, Chiu had stepped aside so that other net idols could get exposure and had happily retired after finding true love.
It was a matter of making sure that my public image as the advisor of one Negi Springfield was flawless so that none of our more villainous detractors could have any means of running a smear campaign or something and, more importantly, to make sure that the number of people who knew of my secret in Ala Alba won't increase.
I still remember the day Evangeline of all people found out about it.
That was hell.
"Chisame, come in."
"Hmmm... yeah, what is it?"
I could hear Mana's voice coming from the speaker in the room.
"Get in the bridge."
I grimaced from the serious tone of voice Mana had.
That never bode well.
"Hime. Stay here, understood?"
"A-ah, yes…"
I stared at her for a few more seconds to make sure that she would stay before leaving the room.
I got out of the room and entered the circular hallway. There were five other rooms aside from the one I just exited. The center of the area was an elevator that allowed access for the bridge and the technical rooms.
I quickly made my way to the bridge through the elevator, quickly passing through the magical and biometric checks that's needed to access the area.
The bridge entered my sights and I still wasn't used to seeing it.
After all, unlike every other airship, it looked like there was absolutely no equipment in it.
Aside from the two chairs for the pilot and co-pilot, there was no instrumentation in sight, not even anything that can be used to steer the ship.
This was by design however, since the controls of the ship were purely magical in nature. The ship itself employed unique systems that employed a lot of Hakase's advanced magic-science combo that did tended to push the boundary of logic even in a world of magic.
Essentially, that made it so that the ship could only be operated by select individuals, among other things. Any registered person was capable of accessing the control system, represented by holographic screens and instrumentation.
How difficult was it to operate you ask?
To put it simply, if you've ever played video games, you can definitely pilot this thing with only a month's worth of training.
You'd have to be a really good gamer though.
"What is it?"
I approached Mana, who currently had several screens in front of her. One of them being the map screen.
Ah right, the control scheme was RPG inspired.
"… huh?"
Mana handed me the map screen and enlarged it. She then scrolled it to show the anomaly.
The map was repeating. As in no matter how long Mana scrolled the map, the landmarks stayed the same like they were in an endless loop.
"Are the probes malfunctioning…?"
I immediately brought up a screen that controlled the Ship's scouting probes. They were designed based on Kazumi's artifact. The ship focused on scouting and stealth, so it utilized the probes to gather information and would mostly be used for mapping out unknown areas.
However, checking the screen monitoring their status, I couldn't see anything wrong with their condition.
"I can't blame you, I only noticed this when I came out to pick up our little queen. The area she crashed in was far too familiar for it to just be 'similar'."
I had a sinking feeling as Mana was stating her suspicions.
Right, this is probably gonna be one of those times again.
I immediately opened the console for to check the status of our communication lines. There had been no incoming messages nor were there any attempts to contact the ship from anyone.
Which was impossible. Asuna would usually check on sensei at least once a day regardless of how busy she was. Not to mention there's at least someone checking in or at least talking about something. So there was no way there were no attempts on contact for several hours.
"Don't bother trying to contact anyone. We're completely cut off, I can't even get direct contact from Chacharmaru."
Okay, now considering Chachamaru was directly linked to this ship, that was actually worrying.
"Right... checking the history, it looks like Rakan's video message was the last thing we were able to receive. There's even an hour's worth of silence before the video came in, so whatever happened was within that time frame…"
I quickly manipulated the controls and set a persistent distress signal. That should get us reinforcement even if we're somehow indisposed while the communication lines were restored.
"Haaah... great, it's gonna be one of those days. Okay, rats, check everything twice."
With a spark of electricity, 8 electronic spirits that took the appearance of cute mascot-like rats, were summoned.
They all did a mock salute with their tails before going charging into the floating holographic panel and downloaded themselves into the system.
"Looks like it. Standard procedure?"
"Yes. The rats will check out the Dark Evangel's status so we know our systems aren't just messing with us. Please check and confirm from the outside and see if we're really looping around."
Now that i think about it, there was another glaring thing I should've noticed.
"I'm going to check on the kid and see if he's okay."
It was the fact that Negi Springfield was still sleeping.
Even after a large explosion.
Even after I separated from him and laid him down on one of the bed-chambers.
Due to how his life is now, the kid's become a light sleeper. The slightest of sound could wake the kid up unless he was being firmly held by a trusted female body.
Unless there was another girl that somehow got inside the ship without our knowledge, currently cuddling with him, then he should, by all rights, be awake.
Now, for the first time in my life, I was honestly wishing that the latter was true.
====[Loose Ends]====
====[Chisame Hasegawa]====
I once again took the elevator to return to the quarters. Getting out of the elevator and facing the room directly in behind the elevator, I hovered my hand on the access panel to open the door.
"Chisame-san...?"
However, before the system even confirmed my access, the door opened to reveal the target of affection of many, many, many females.
I stared at the kid to check his current condition. His clothing was in disarray and his hair looked like it was hit by a storm… but what was telling was the fact that his posture was sloppy. His back was slightly arched and it seemed like his hands were hanging down like a lead weight trying to bring him down.
I was no martial artist, no matter how many times Asuna tried to convince me to learn a bit, but the kid carried himself with discipline at all times so seeing him slouch like this was pressing my panic button.
Seeing the look on my face, he gave me a sheepish smile.
I glared in response.
"I feel heavy and sluggish. Chisame-san. I don't particularly feel any pain but I needed to drag my body out of the bed."
An honest answer. Good. If he even came close to trying to pretend nothing was wrong, I would've gone nuclear on his ass.
Be amazed. This honesty was the result of seven years' worth of effort people.
Considering this is sensei though, it was likely that he was still downplaying the severity of his condition.
"Come here..."
I crouched and pulled him closer. I wasn't anywhere near the level of Konoka or Ako in terms of being a medic but I had a good idea on what kind may have been causing
"How's your magia erebia?"
There were quite a few things in the current world that could even touch the kid. Due to his now unqiue constitution, he didn't actually get sick by normal means anymore.
Ever since he had made Magia Erebia his own, any kind of sickness were something related to magic. Adverse environments tend to have small effects on him, particularly the magically rich areas.
I'll reiterate it, but I had no deep medical knowledge, but there was a reason the kid could go in these kinds of adventures even with just me and one other combatant accompanying him.
As collectively agreed upon in a meeting, Ala Alba had decided that the kid needed to be accompanied by at least one guard and one support member.
The support member was either capable of healing or fast transport, but I had neither of that.
What I had though… was the fact that my knowledge of Magia Erebia was extensive. My involvement with the kid's decision to take on the forbidden technique had made me feel rather obligated to learn about the thing to make sure I could help the kid out when needed.
Of course, that meant tutelage under Evangeline, which was another set of memories that I would prefer to keep deep, deep, in the back of my head.
"Ah... let me..."
Though he technically had Magia Erebia perpetually active now, he still actually needed to invoke it to use its other properties.
"Ah...?"
"... Haaah... this day just keeps getting better..."
When sensei invoked his magia erebia, tribal-tattoo like markings that looked like flames would appear.
Usually, said patterns were made of bright lights.
Right now though, they were pitch black.
What a wonderful god damn day this was.
====[Loose Ends]====
====[Chisame Hasegawa]====
Being perfectly honest, there was once upon a time, back in the past, when I probably wasn't quite as bitter with reality as I am now.
Back in middle school, when I was still part of that rambunctious class of girls, learning under the kid's ever present guidance, I had a significantly positive view of the world in comparison.
I've always been an otaku and I've read enough manga and light novels, watched enough anime, played enough games, to have be shown how a fantastical world that a grounded in reality is almost assuredly harsher and darker than what the surface always appears to be.
I never cared back then of course. I was a normal girl, the one that only ever knew of fantasy through the words and images depicted in media. It didn't matter even when I knew magic existed. I planned on leading a normal life regardless and wouldn't have to deal with all that crap.
That was the case. That should've been the case.
Then Negi Springfield happened.
I was taken for a roller-coaster ride in that fantasy world I only ever read about… now I really had to face the corrupt governments, the sympathetic villains, the monsters that haunt the night, and the heroes that fought for justice… I've had the misfortune of seeing the horrid reality.
The horrible reality that people are fully willing to exploit and deprive a ten year old kid, now a teenager, of any semblance of a happy normal life for the sake of whatever agenda they have in their evil little minds.
The stupid fact that the universe itself was so impossibly and sadistically cruel that it wouldn't even give the kid just one moment of peace in his life.
Seeing the girl, the spitting image of Queen Arika, I was once again reminded how fucking stupidly evil this universe really was.
The kid's gone through hell, has had his childhood stolen, his teenage years and most likely his adult years dedicated to righting the wrongs that every other person had given up on correcting.
Again, I'd like to ask the universe, to just once, just for one god be fucking moment, let the kid have some peace!
Why the hell is that so hard to give?!
"She's doing well, it doesn't seem like the rough ride had affected her. I couldn't find any injuries, though it seems she shows no signs of waking up."
I was broken out of my spiel against the world by the firm grip of Mana's hand on my shoulder.
I turned to look at her but didn't give a verbal response.
We've known each other for years at this point so I can just use my eyes to tell her my exact feelings on the current situation.
"I know. I know how you might be feeling right now. I know that you give a damn about that kid more than even Asuna... But Chisame... we need to tell sensei."
Never a woman to beat around the bush, Mana had immediately gone straight to the heart of the problem.
That the existence of this Loli Arika needed to be made known, to him.
I blanched at the idea. It wasn't like I was against the idea of the kid finally reuniting with his long lost mother….
It wasn't that. It was the fact that this could go wrong in so many ways that I hesitated.
If this truly was Queen Arika, as in the real article with no strings attached then I'd be the first to wake the kid up with a smile on my face to tell him that we've finally found his mother. Then I'd gently watch the touching reunion while calling everyone to inform them.
But what if it wasn't? What if this was just some kind of illusion? What if this Arika would just as well disappear at some point of time? What if she was some kind of imposter?
The kid's cosmo entelechia was having a family. That was his greatest wish, the one thing that would make him happier than anything else.
If he were to meet this Arika now but be separated in the future or find out that she was some kind of fake, how painful would that be for him? How cruel would that be to do to him?
"Chisame."
Mana grabbed me from behind and turned me to face her, she stared me straight in the eye.
"He needs to know. Fake or not, even if might get hurt again, we don't have the right to decide that for him."
I swatted away her arms and grabbed her collar tightly.
That set me off. We weren't just his friends and companions here, we were his family.
"I do...! We all do! He's been hurt enough! He's gone every manner of hell... we can't! Without even knowing if she's the real thing, we can't just...!"
"Hnnyaa...?"
With frame perfect timing, as if it was all planned, the little girl signaled her awakening right as my argument with Mana was about to set off.
Bravo loli Arika. That actually calmed me down.
"Haaaah…."
I took a few deep breathes to calm myself down before fixing wiping my eyes a bit and fixing my glasses.
For the record, I wasn't crying, so shut it. There was just sweat in that particular area.
I shook my head before looking back at Mana. There was a slightly exasperated but understanding look on her face.
"Mana, sorry... I got too emotional there. You're right, the kid does need to know. Besides, hiding this girl would be too difficult anyway."
"No, it's fine. You always have Sensei's best interest in mind. However, you are his voice of reason, so shape up Hasegawa."
"Yeah, yeah..."
The tension in the air disappeared from that little exchange. It wasn't like it was the first time we've had one. In fact, arguments were quite normal among the group but you know, all that love, family, and friendship thing pulling through.
Yes you punks, manga and anime were indeed very good basis for how this world works. Try them sometime.
"Go handle our little queen then. I'll go check a few things on the bridge."
After a light and comforting tap on my shoulder, Mana opened the door and set off for the bridge, probably because she didn't want to deal with our aforementioned little queen.
Now, it was already very well known among the group that she loved kids and were actually rather good with them, so it was probably her way of taking distance so as not to get attached to loli Arika.
Which means I have to be the one to deal with this one.
I let out another sigh before finally approaching Loli Arika. Which, yes, is now my personal pet name for her. Because that's the easiest way to describe her.
You know it is.
"My Name is Chisame Hasegawa, the current captain of the ship. What's your name?"
I crouched down to put me at the same eye level. She looked completely guarded but willing to communicate.
To clarify, I was indeed the proper captain of this ship, which was named 'Dark Evangel'.
Three guesses and an imaginary cookie to whomever can guess who named it.
Ala Alba was well supported financially. Considering we have the Chao Bao Zi, Hakase Inc., the Yukihiro Group, and Haruna's illegal Yaoi Empire, we were very well funded. That doesn't even include Evangeline's contribution to the group.
Enough that we currently own several air ships. Aside from the Haruna's [Great Paru-sama], there's the [White Lily], the personal not-love nest for Konoka and Setsuna, the [Negi-sensei Love] that Ayaka uses, go-figure, and the [Ala-Alba], the one we use for formal occasions.
Anyway, the aforementioned mistress of the night, Evangeline A.K. Mcdowell, had felt that as the most powerful member of the group and the master of the second most powerful person in the group, she had every right to own her own airship.
Hence, deals were done, threats were made, money was spent, Hakase got involved, and we ended up with a Jet-black, magically enchanted, steam-punk stealth type airship.
Then the great night terror in loli form got too lazy to bother with the thing and decided to just drop the thing on my lap to deal with and the rest was history.
To this day, I don't know whether getting this airship was fortunate or misfortunate.
Ah right… I got distracted. Back to loli Arika.
"Ah, my name is... name...?"
Shit. Please not the amnesia development. Please!
That's the most irritating development to deal with. It slows down the plot to a crawl, prevents us from getting any real relevant information, and prolongs everyone's suffering in order to simulate a longer story than what it should be.
I most definitely do not want to only learn the important pieces of info while we're dealing with a life threatening situation, thank you very much.
So please, please, please, tell me that you remember your name at least!
I looked at the confused face of loli Arika and pleaded with all my might to be given a better plot development.
"I-I... I don't know my name... I don't..."
God damn it. Universe, you're progressively getting lower on my shit list.
Ahhh… this is what I get from going off on a tangent.
Okay, okay girl, it's unfortunate that we got the amnesia development but no choice but to just nod and move on. Griping about it will just provoke the universe into making it even more annoying so best no to tempt fate.
However, before we get into anything else, it's best that I confirm something very important.
"Its fine... but do you happen to remember any large dark skinned man with a face that no child should ever approach?"
"D-Do you mean Rakan-san? Yes, he had saved me from the monsters..."
How unfortunate. So she does remember Rakan, which means that her memory loss wasn't caused by anything he did.
A pity. It's been a while since I've hacked into Al-Iskandariya to shoot it at something.
"H-he did mention that he was going to send me to someone named Chiu-chan… could you be that person?"
"… Before I answer that question, exactly how did he describe this Chiu-chan?"
"Well… he said that Chiu-chan was a red-headed girl and that I should worry if she seemed mean because she was just being too tsun for her own good… I don't understand what 'tsun' means however…"
Scratch what I said a few lines ago. It looks like I'm gonna be hacking into Al-Iskandariya very soon.
"Okay, first of all…"
"A-ah, yes...?"
I paused, realizing I was about to call her Arika-sama. The girl had no inkling of who she was or who she seemed to be.
"Hime. Right, that's the most appropriate name for now. Alright, so Hime, I am indeed Chiu-chan though I prefer to be called Chisame, understood? Also, don't bother trying to understand what the big oaf tries to say, are we clear?"
"Y-yes!"
Probably slightly intimidated by the intensity of my requests, she trembled and answered immediately.
Good. It was best that my net-idol name spread any further. I've managed to bury any and all associations of the still famed former internet queen and idol, Chiu with my real name. As far as the net was concerned, Chiu had stepped aside so that other net idols could get exposure and had happily retired after finding true love.
It was a matter of making sure that my public image as the advisor of one Negi Springfield was flawless so that none of our more villainous detractors could have any means of running a smear campaign or something and, more importantly, to make sure that the number of people who knew of my secret in Ala Alba won't increase.
I still remember the day Evangeline of all people found out about it.
That was hell.
"Chisame, come in."
"Hmmm... yeah, what is it?"
I could hear Mana's voice coming from the speaker in the room.
"Get in the bridge."
I grimaced from the serious tone of voice Mana had.
That never bode well.
"Hime. Stay here, understood?"
"A-ah, yes…"
I stared at her for a few more seconds to make sure that she would stay before leaving the room.
I got out of the room and entered the circular hallway. There were five other rooms aside from the one I just exited. The center of the area was an elevator that allowed access for the bridge and the technical rooms.
I quickly made my way to the bridge through the elevator, quickly passing through the magical and biometric checks that's needed to access the area.
The bridge entered my sights and I still wasn't used to seeing it.
After all, unlike every other airship, it looked like there was absolutely no equipment in it.
Aside from the two chairs for the pilot and co-pilot, there was no instrumentation in sight, not even anything that can be used to steer the ship.
This was by design however, since the controls of the ship were purely magical in nature. The ship itself employed unique systems that employed a lot of Hakase's advanced magic-science combo that did tended to push the boundary of logic even in a world of magic.
Essentially, that made it so that the ship could only be operated by select individuals, among other things. Any registered person was capable of accessing the control system, represented by holographic screens and instrumentation.
How difficult was it to operate you ask?
To put it simply, if you've ever played video games, you can definitely pilot this thing with only a month's worth of training.
You'd have to be a really good gamer though.
"What is it?"
I approached Mana, who currently had several screens in front of her. One of them being the map screen.
Ah right, the control scheme was RPG inspired.
"… huh?"
Mana handed me the map screen and enlarged it. She then scrolled it to show the anomaly.
The map was repeating. As in no matter how long Mana scrolled the map, the landmarks stayed the same like they were in an endless loop.
"Are the probes malfunctioning…?"
I immediately brought up a screen that controlled the Ship's scouting probes. They were designed based on Kazumi's artifact. The ship focused on scouting and stealth, so it utilized the probes to gather information and would mostly be used for mapping out unknown areas.
However, checking the screen monitoring their status, I couldn't see anything wrong with their condition.
"I can't blame you, I only noticed this when I came out to pick up our little queen. The area she crashed in was far too familiar for it to just be 'similar'."
I had a sinking feeling as Mana was stating her suspicions.
Right, this is probably gonna be one of those times again.
I immediately opened the console for to check the status of our communication lines. There had been no incoming messages nor were there any attempts to contact the ship from anyone.
Which was impossible. Asuna would usually check on sensei at least once a day regardless of how busy she was. Not to mention there's at least someone checking in or at least talking about something. So there was no way there were no attempts on contact for several hours.
"Don't bother trying to contact anyone. We're completely cut off, I can't even get direct contact from Chacharmaru."
Okay, now considering Chachamaru was directly linked to this ship, that was actually worrying.
"Right... checking the history, it looks like Rakan's video message was the last thing we were able to receive. There's even an hour's worth of silence before the video came in, so whatever happened was within that time frame…"
I quickly manipulated the controls and set a persistent distress signal. That should get us reinforcement even if we're somehow indisposed while the communication lines were restored.
"Haaah... great, it's gonna be one of those days. Okay, rats, check everything twice."
With a spark of electricity, 8 electronic spirits that took the appearance of cute mascot-like rats, were summoned.
They all did a mock salute with their tails before going charging into the floating holographic panel and downloaded themselves into the system.
"Looks like it. Standard procedure?"
"Yes. The rats will check out the Dark Evangel's status so we know our systems aren't just messing with us. Please check and confirm from the outside and see if we're really looping around."
Now that i think about it, there was another glaring thing I should've noticed.
"I'm going to check on the kid and see if he's okay."
It was the fact that Negi Springfield was still sleeping.
Even after a large explosion.
Even after I separated from him and laid him down on one of the bed-chambers.
Due to how his life is now, the kid's become a light sleeper. The slightest of sound could wake the kid up unless he was being firmly held by a trusted female body.
Unless there was another girl that somehow got inside the ship without our knowledge, currently cuddling with him, then he should, by all rights, be awake.
Now, for the first time in my life, I was honestly wishing that the latter was true.
====[Loose Ends]====
====[Chisame Hasegawa]====
I once again took the elevator to return to the quarters. Getting out of the elevator and facing the room directly in behind the elevator, I hovered my hand on the access panel to open the door.
"Chisame-san...?"
However, before the system even confirmed my access, the door opened to reveal the target of affection of many, many, many females.
I stared at the kid to check his current condition. His clothing was in disarray and his hair looked like it was hit by a storm… but what was telling was the fact that his posture was sloppy. His back was slightly arched and it seemed like his hands were hanging down like a lead weight trying to bring him down.
I was no martial artist, no matter how many times Asuna tried to convince me to learn a bit, but the kid carried himself with discipline at all times so seeing him slouch like this was pressing my panic button.
Seeing the look on my face, he gave me a sheepish smile.
I glared in response.
"I feel heavy and sluggish. Chisame-san. I don't particularly feel any pain but I needed to drag my body out of the bed."
An honest answer. Good. If he even came close to trying to pretend nothing was wrong, I would've gone nuclear on his ass.
Be amazed. This honesty was the result of seven years' worth of effort people.
Considering this is sensei though, it was likely that he was still downplaying the severity of his condition.
"Come here..."
I crouched and pulled him closer. I wasn't anywhere near the level of Konoka or Ako in terms of being a medic but I had a good idea on what kind may have been causing
"How's your magia erebia?"
There were quite a few things in the current world that could even touch the kid. Due to his now unqiue constitution, he didn't actually get sick by normal means anymore.
Ever since he had made Magia Erebia his own, any kind of sickness were something related to magic. Adverse environments tend to have small effects on him, particularly the magically rich areas.
I'll reiterate it, but I had no deep medical knowledge, but there was a reason the kid could go in these kinds of adventures even with just me and one other combatant accompanying him.
As collectively agreed upon in a meeting, Ala Alba had decided that the kid needed to be accompanied by at least one guard and one support member.
The support member was either capable of healing or fast transport, but I had neither of that.
What I had though… was the fact that my knowledge of Magia Erebia was extensive. My involvement with the kid's decision to take on the forbidden technique had made me feel rather obligated to learn about the thing to make sure I could help the kid out when needed.
Of course, that meant tutelage under Evangeline, which was another set of memories that I would prefer to keep deep, deep, in the back of my head.
"Ah... let me..."
Though he technically had Magia Erebia perpetually active now, he still actually needed to invoke it to use its other properties.
"Ah...?"
"... Haaah... this day just keeps getting better..."
When sensei invoked his magia erebia, tribal-tattoo like markings that looked like flames would appear.
Usually, said patterns were made of bright lights.
Right now though, they were pitch black.
What a wonderful god damn day this was.
====[Loose Ends]====
