Rated: T Description:A mystery amnesiac girl suddenly arrives in Mahora, just in time to encounter Negi Springfield, a boy with a ridiculous destiny. Can she evade getting caught up in the coming events? Who is she even? Questions, but no clear answers in sight. Wonderful.
Evangeline sighed softly. She was already disgustingly familiar with the subject matter being taught today, what with having attended this school for… how long?
Too long, she decided, not even bothering with considering the exact number.
Bored as she was, she took a quick glance towards her 'sister'. The enigmatic girl looked just as bored as the vampire felt, the maths textbook lying closed with the backside up, and the notebook in front of her filled with the equations that proved she had already comprehended the last chapter in it, much less what was being covered today.
Currently she was fiddling with the pencil in her left hand as her gaze wandered around the classroom. There was an odd curiosity in that gaze though, as if there was something interesting about the sight of her classmates sitting in class.
Eva idly noted that Katarina held her pencil in her left hand, as it reinforced her earlier observations that she was most likely left-handed. Not the most useful observation, but a detail that might be useful in the future.
Of course, the only times Katarina paid any real attention to classes was when it was about Japanese classical literature or other Japanese cultural studies. Because, as Evangeline had seen quite clearly, the girl didn't already know these subjects, so she actually needed to pay attention.
Yes, it was not lack of interest that caused her lack of attention, but rather that she knew the subject already, and simply didn't care for repetition much.
Combining those observations with the tests the younger girl had taken, and it became clear that, despite clearly being the physically youngest person in the classroom (discounting herself), she was probably one of the most well educated.
That wasn't to say she wasn't intelligent, most of her minor problems with Japanese were quickly disappearing, leaving her with incredible fluency, and she had demonstrated the ability to keep up with Chao and Hakase as long as the two didn't go full impossible genii and started talking about things beyond modern understanding, although even then the girl was merely pushed out of the conversation. -Break--
Katarina stretched lazily. Now she had free time to do whatever, as long as she came back to Eva's cabin before the day was over.
But really though, who attaches 'before the day is over'? Shouldn't it be before dinner or something more along those lines?
As she passed by a row of seats she noticed a purple-haired girl reading a book, her hair covering her eyes. She recognised her, Miyazaki Nodoka.
"Miyazaki-san, what are you reading?" She asked, approaching the girl.
The unexpected question caused the shy girl to become startled, her sudden motion causing her eyes to become visible from behind her hair for just a moment.
'Adorable.' A stray thought passed through Katarina's mind, although she dismissed it quickly.
"Ah! I- I'm sorry?" Nodoka stammered out, the confusion in her demeanour revealing the meaning behind her words.
"I was asking what book you were reading, sorry if I startled you Miyazaki-san."
The book-loving girl forcibly calmed herself. "Don't worry, I just wasn't expecting you to ask." She glanced down at the book in her hands, a slight hint of embarrassment visible. "This is… well… the 源氏物語 (Genji Monogatari/Tale of Genji) …"
Katarina's eyes widened slightly, as she was surprised which book it was. "Ah, a classic. Some might say the classic." She chuckled slightly. "I'm surprised Miyazaki-san, I suppose you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover."
The implication in those words caused a strong blush to appear on Nodoka's face, and she started sputtering.
After a few minutes of this, the younger girl sighed softly. "Oh my, forgive me Miyazaki-san. I don't particularly mind that you are reading that book, I don't even know why you're reading it." She said, trying to calm the shy book-lover down.
The other girl took a deep breath and finally calmed down. "I- thank you McDowell-san?"
Katarina laughed softly. "Honestly, I haven't even read it myself. I'm familiar with what it is though, and its synopsis. Think I read a manga based on it once…?" A slight headache interrupted her train of thought.
"You read? Books and manga?" Nodoka asked, tilting her head curiously.
"Yeah, I do. And some other things too. Haven't actually read much Japanese literature at all now that I think about it. Apart from manga of course, if you count it." The bespectacled blonde replied, inadvertently falling into informal speech as she mused.
If the purple-haired girl noted or cared, she didn't get an opportunity to express this as a new, highly excited female voice interrupted them.
"What's this I hear? Talk about manga? From the transfer student?!"
Katarina turned towards the source, and found that it came from a taller, more developed girl with dark-brown hair and glasses, who was accompanied by a shorter girl with long purple hair and two braids. Saotome Haruna and Ayase Yue, Nodoka's friends and the remainder of the library trio.
"Saotome-san, Ayase-san. That would indeed be the case." She responded.
Haruna's face lit up, and with intense energy the girl dashed forward, getting far too close for a Japanese girl.
"Oooh! What kinds do you read?!" A mischievous smile crept onto her features as she wrapped an arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "Anything… steamy?"
Even as Haruna energetically questioned the transfer student, Yue sidled over to Nodoka, and seemed to ask something, but Katarina couldn't tell anything about it due to the mangaka currently interrogating her.
A nervous chuckled escaped the blonde's lips. "Well… not too much… It does happen, I'll give you that, but… mostly other kinds… I'm really not that picky… most of anything beyond BL or sports manga really…" She had to really dig through her still fragmentary memories to bring out this information.
"Hmm…" Haruna seemed a tiny bit disappointed with the answer. "Still, so you're a reader then? I wasn't quite sure whatever you were actually one of us or not, but it seems you are!"
A wide grin found its way onto the taller girl's face, and she looked towards her two friends.
They returned the gaze, then Yue shrugged noncommittally, while Nodoka made a small nod.
"Alright! We're going to the library, do you want to come with us?" Haruna then asked.
Katarina pondered the offer, then smiled. "That sounds great. I'll be in your care, Saotome-san, Ayase-san, Miyazaki-san."
"Bah! You can lighten up Katarina-chan! Call me Haruna!" The energetic mangaka said.
"In that case, call me Yue." The shortest of the trio added.
"I-I'm fine with you calling me Nodoka!" The shyest member added.
"In that case, you can all call me Katarina, it's a bit awkward to be referred to by the surname I share with my sister." Katarina responded.
"I can imagine." Yue said, a small smile gracing her lips.
"Well, then what are we waiting for?! Let's go!" Haruna exclaimed before dragging Katarina off. -Break--
The first thing Katarina noted, was that they weren't headed for the library in their section of the campus.
The second thing she noted was that it was situated on an island.
The third was that it was quite sizable.
As they entered, she revised that. It wasn't sizeable, it was monumental.
And finally, she noted that it was downright fantastical in terms of architectural design, with some shelves being seemingly completely out of reach.
"Welcome to Library Island! The largest library building in the world!" Haruna exclaimed.
Katarina chuckled nervously. "Considering the size of this place, who knows what secrets it might hold…"
Absentmindedly she noticed a minimal increase in the tingling feeling, but it wasn't enough to bother her, and was promptly forgotten about.
"Who knows, there is no one left who actually knows everything about this place." Yue said sipping on some drink of questionable flavour.
"No one?" The blonde replied. For some reason she wasn't entirely certain that was actually true, and that there might be someone around who knows quite a bit about the place, closer that one might think.
Not that she could dredge anyone out of her memory.
Both Nodoka and Yue shook their heads. "No one." They said simultaneously.
"Come on, we'll show you around a bit." Nodoka then continued.
"We're part of the Library exploration club, whose sole purpose is to explore this place. So we know a bit about it." Haruna added.
The rest of the day was spent going through various places in the massive library, talking about various forms of literature, looking through the books they had there…
Honestly, Katarina had a lot of fun. -Break--
The next few weeks were spent interacting with her classmates.
Quite often she would hang out with either Nodoka, Yue, Haruna or a combination, time often spent discussing or reading various forms of literature.
Other times she would be abducted by the martians a.k.a. Chao, who would drag her into various intellectual discussions, often wandering into the territory of University level, especially whenever Hakase was dragged into them.
Oftentimes Katarina would lament not pretending not to understand anything the two of them had said that day, as it had clearly drawn the attention of the unpredictable genius that was Chao Lingshen. Of course, the fact that she found she enjoyed these discussions did console her.
Of course, due to this, her performance in class and the fact that she was regularly dragged to one of the clubs those two attended meant that the people around her had started lumping her in the same category. Genius, even though she sincerely doubted that she was.
Maybe she could attempt to do averagely on the tests once they came?
Unfortunately, the moment the thought crossed her mind she found it unpleasant.
Sometimes she would interact with the sportier people in class, but often found herself without any reason to do so. She still got along with them just fine, whenever she did interact with them.
Furthermore, thanks to her frequent strolls, she had become rather well acquainted with the Narutaki twins, who contrary to their childish appearances and personalities, where indeed the same age as the rest of the class (apart from possibly herself).
Alongside them she had also found herself interacting with Kaede every now and then, after having met while the ludicrously well-developed girl had been accompanying the twins. They weren't overly well acquainted, as they didn't have much in common, but they had some interesting conversations about Ninjas of all things.
Sometimes she would talk to Konoka and Asuna, who were rarely far from one another. Well, she talked more with Konoka on the topic of fortune telling, although it was one field where she found her knowledge lacking. Interestingly, whenever she got close to the slightly ditzy girl that tingling feeling would intensify.
Kazumi did try to interview her a few times, but she was rather evasive, although she did try to get the rather paparazzi-like girl to help remove the genius label. It didn't work, Kazumi was far too happy to leave it as is.
Interestingly enough she did have a few interactions with Satsuki, where they would discuss cooking, although the chubby girl far outmatched Katarina in that field.
She did repeatedly attempt to interact with Chisame, but had little luck. Chisame was unwilling to engage in interaction, and would leave quickly when class ended. Honestly, it was odd that she continued to attempt to interact with her.
It baffled everyone else, and especially Chisame herself.
She also had discussions with Takahata-sensei every now and then, often regarding how she was holding up, but sometimes also about academic matters.
Sometimes she even talked with the headmaster himself, although the old man was fond of discussing highly mystical topics, something which really should have baffled Katarina. It didn't.
Then, came that fine beautiful morning that for some reason was far too familiar. Eva was for some reason sitting on a desk by the windows reading, the twins and Misora were setting up a duster trap, followed by some more traps of different kinds over by the door.
And the day that their new English teacher would be arriving, replacing Takahata-sensei as their homeroom teacher.