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 had grown accustomed to 'Katarina' being with one of her classmates or another after school, be it the Library Trio, Chao and/or Hakase or on the rare occasion Konoka, Kaede or sometimes very rarely with some of the other girls.
As such, she was at a bit of a loss as she sat across from said girl in the living room, not at all long after school.
At first, they had just sat there in silence sipping tea, but after a while it seemed as if Katarina's right hand had caught her attention for some reason or another, and the bespectacled girl had started scrutinizing it with the same look she had whenever she was trying to remember something.
Finally, the smaller girl ran out of patience with this inexplicable behaviour. "What are you doing?"
Katarina looked at Eva through the fingers of her outstretched hand. "I'm not sure. I feel as if there's something missing but… I can't remember what." The girl traced a line near the knuckle of her index finger and furrowed her brows.
The Vampire could only really think of two things that could be missing in this situation.
A tattoo or a scar.
Either were easy enough to remove with the right type of magic.
Still, if the line traced were an indication of what was missing then it seemed too small to be a tattoo, but quite right for a scar from some accident or other.
But for the girl to think it missing…
She got used to things very quickly, so if it had been removed before she lost her memory and she just never got used to it then that would have been close to the incident. The other option here being that it had been removed while the girl was unconscious from whatever had caused her memory loss.
Either way the two would have to be related.
"Eva?" Katarina said with some hesitation.
Evangeline realised she had been staring quite hard at the girl, which must have caused her to become quite unnerved considering she didn't use 'Onee-chan', which she was otherwise quite consistent in doing, much to the loli's chagrin.
"Nothing really." She said and waved nonchalantly. "So, you feel like something's missing, but can't figure out what?"
"Yes."
"Does this happen frequently?"
"Well… Not really, no. Only sometimes do I feel like somethings not like it should be." The younger girl slumped back into the sofa, looked up into the roof, and muttered lowly enough that no one should have been able to hear: "Then there's also all those nonsense answers…"
Fortunately for Evangeline, she was able to hear this comment, but she chose not to remark upon it. Instead, she diverted the conversation.
"So, how do you think you'll do on the tests?"
"Huh?" The unexpected question caught Katarina off guard, and a quite nice expression appeared on her face. "I… don't think they'll be any problem what so ever. Nodoka has been a great help with the Japanese classical literature."
"Good for you. And here I thought you wanted to get rid of the 'genius' label they put on you."
The bespectacled girl shrugged. "It's probably too late at this point, and I've gotten over it. Chao would probably never live it down either, so it's a bit of a lose-lose."
Evangeline narrowed her eyes suspiciously with a grin. "And here I thought it was all idle, baseless rumours. My oh my."
"Wha-?" For a few moments Katarina was quite confused, but it didn't take long for an unamused look to settle over her features. "Oh, for the love of- Of course you would latch onto my double slip of the tongue." A mischievous smile crept onto the girl's lips. If Evangeline hadn't been taking a sip of tea in that moment or had been closer to her true self she probably would have been able evade the younger girl's next move, but this time she was slightly caught of guard by the sudden hug. "But maybe it's really my Onee-chan I like the most!"
"Kuh-! Damn it, I'm drinking tea here!" The loli exclaimed with clear discomfort as Katarina rubbed her cheek against hers. -Break--
"What about Negi-Sensei? Shouldn't he be present for this discussion as well?" A black-haired teacher asked.
Gathered in a meeting in the headmaster's office were Konoemon, Takamichi, Evangeline and a black-haired teacher who also happened to be the father of Akashi Yuna, one of Katarina's classmates.
"He's currently overseeing a small test for some of his students who are lagging behind." Takamichi answered. "Don't worry, I asked him about the subject, but he doesn't have anything new. I think he's too busy with his class, so we probably shouldn't involve him too much."
"Ah, the one you usually did. That's nice." Konoemon said, nodding sagely. "And I must agree. It might be better to not bother him with this too much. Is that alright by you Akashi-Sensei?"
"I suppose. It doesn't sit well since he's her homeroom teacher, but I understand the reasoning." Akashi-Sensei agreed, albeit slightly begrudgingly.
"So. How does it look?" The headmaster then asked.
"Nothing." The black-haired teacher said, scratching his hair. "We haven't been able to find a thing."
"Yeah, we've been using all our connections, but we haven't been able to find anything." Takamichi added.
"If she's from this side then she doesn't seem to be missing." Akashi-Sensei continued.
"Do you think she might be from the other side?" Konoemon asked.
"I can't say she isn't, but she doesn't seem like she would be. She has little to no magical ability as far as I can tell, although I suppose she seems to be sensitive to ghosts and similar." Evangeline responded. "But if nothing else I'm convinced she was born where she claims to be from, I just can't say for sure that she didn't move to the other side at some point."
"Born unlucky from a good family maybe?" Takamichi said. "But I find it hard to imagine she would have forgotten about having lived on the other side for any time."
"But at the same time, it is clear her memory loss was hardly natural, no?" Akashi-Sensei added. "Not to mention, if my memory serves on Evangeline-san's description of her arrival in Mahora, she appeared through transportation-magic. Like that which is used in the gates."
"True, but there is a damn lot about it that didn't make sense. Starting with appearing anywhere near Mahora in the first place." The Vampire returned.
"Well, there is an abandoned gate underneath the World Tree…" Takamichi said.
"Yes, but is there any gate on the other side that still connects to it?" Eva said.
No answer was forthcoming.
"And even if she was transported with that gate as a target, the amount of deviation was simply absurd. Or did you forget when I mentioned she appeared a few hundred metres above Mahora?"
"Indeed, so you said. And if that is the case then there is no doubt that it wasn't intentional, alternatively that it was disrupted, and its arrival coordinates thrown off." Konoemon interjected, stroking his beard.
"Besides, I think she does know about magic." Eva then said. "It's just being supressed, either by whatever caused her memory loss or herself. Chao Lingshen admitted to having queried if the girl knew what 'Κιλιαπή Άστραπή' meant… And the girl responded 'thousand thunderbolts'. Then, when she tried to figure out where she had heard it she apparently got a headache."
The eyes of the others present widened at this information.
"While the first part could be entirely coincidental…" Akashi-Sensei said.
"The last part is highly suspicious…" Takamichi continued.
"Hmm…" The headmaster stroked his beard. "Do you have anything based on your own observations, rather than information from someone like Chao Lingshen?"
"Are you familiar with how… poor, Negi-Sensei's control over his magic is?" Eva said.
"I've heard about the incident with the accidental Exarmatio, yes."
"She saw it, clearly. And while I didn't see her expression during that exact moment, I did see that she most certainly wasn't shocked in the moments following."
"And you interpret that as her on some level being familiar with magic?"
"The likelihood is high."
"There is also the part where she called you 'Kitty' the first time she saw you." Takamichi added.
Evangeline made a sour face. "I'd repressed that that ever happened."
"That's… rather serious, you know." The headmaster said.
"Well, her thoughts weren't in proper order, and we have no way of telling exactly why she said that." Takamichi explained.
"And she doesn't exactly act like she knows who or what I really am." Eva added. "But I admit that it is highly unlikely that it was a coincidence. The problem is that she is a human with almost no magical potential as far as I can tell."
"Well… Certainly, the probability of her being dangerous doesn't seem to be the highest…" Konoemon said.
"Well, regardless of all else, I don't think we have any other option than to assume she is at least somewhat involved with the magical society." Eva said with a shrug.
The others nodded.
"Unfortunately, that means we can probably forget finding her. If she went missing from a group we are in contact with they probably would have come looking for her by now." Akashi-Sensei said, rubbing his chin. "It's probably some group that doesn't want to be known…"
"Could be. Probably not one of Cosmo Entelecheia's…" Takamichi said.
"Cosmo Entelecheia?" Eva questioned.
"Old enemies of Ala Rubra, they should be destroyed by now, but considering how elusive they've been I can't exclude it. But I doubt someone like her would be part of that group that was filled with only powerful beings." The dandy man explained.
"I agree that we can exclude that possibility." Konoemon said.
"So… What do we do? Wait for her memory to come back to such an extent that it'll all clear up on its own or… Take the gamble of revealing magic to her, see if it jogs her memory?" Eva asked.
"Hmm…" The headmaster pondered for a few moments. "I think I'll leave that to you Evangeline-kun."
The blonde loli sighed loudly. "Of course you'd say that, damn geezer." -Break--
"It's rare to see you eavesdropping Zazie." Evangeline said as she exited the office.
At first it seemed as if there was no one there, but after a short while Zazie emerged from the shadows.
"You noticed?" She said.
"And you're even talking, this is most unusual. I think the only person who didn't notice you was Akashi-Sensei." The blonde replied.
"As expected I suppose."
"Why are you curious about Katarina?"
"I believe you might be mistaken about that girl. And now more than ever I believe I must confirm whatever my suspicion is correct or false."
"I assume you want my help, since you are telling me this?"
"I believe that might be prudent, yes."
An ill-foreboding grin crept onto Evangeline's features. "Interesting… I'm intrigued about this. Alright, I'll help." -Break--
"Aw… To think she would go and tell the others about that." Chao Lingshen said to herself. "Oh well. It's not an issue. But to think she called Evangeline 'Kitty'… Where did she hear that? Is she one of…? No, I don't think so, she doesn't give that impression…"
The unpredictable genius spun around in her chair and held up what appeared to be a type of pocket watch.
"But she most certainly seems to know far too much… Is she going to disrupt the natural flow of events? Assuming of course that she knows about them at all… Hmm…" Then she suddenly sprung up from her seat, putting the item in her hand into a drawer with a carefree smile. "Oh well! I might let them make a move first, judge what happens. This might actually get interesting."