Optimizing 3
RogueDruid
"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"
- Location
- Salt lake city
Another fairly short chapter, but it had a natural endpoint for a moment.
I stood back, letting the actual teachers take care of the students while fiddling with my phone. I turn out that since Negima timeline is some fifteen years or so ahead of my timeline, my Samsung Galaxy 7 actually has a full Paranoid Android OS and numerous system hacks built for it. After saving all my data to a dropbox equivalent., and revamping my phone's system, I started experimenting with what I could load on the phone, the first things being a hack to essentially get free wifi signal and data. I also had a free FM radio app, a few games to keep my hands busy, and a bunch of new little hacker tools.
Fun stuff.
I Downloaded a few guidebooks and a couple maps of Kyoto. As I finished downloading the annotated maps, I noticed the students finally falling in line and heading on the train, and joined the back of the crowd, keeping an eye out for stragglers.
As the crowd got on the train I walked to Negi;s side, the last of his students filing on.
"That's all. Yeah?"
"Oh, Corvus-san! Yes, this is all the students coming," he said, a slight slump to his shoulders.
"Any absentees?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at my young superiors mood shift.
"A few… Both Evangeline-san and Chachamaru-san are staying here," he said, slumping forwards slightly.
"Hmm. Sad to see they can't come. That's the... young blonde girl, and the taller green haired one, yeah?"
Negi blinks and nods.
"Alright, just wanted to double check I knew who you were talking about."
A few minutes pass as we make our way on the train, me falling back to let Negi, and Shizuka (who was sorting seating out) stand to address the class. I take up a position next to the door to our compartment duffel bag to my side and back to the wall.
"Alright, everyone! The 15th Annual School trip is about to begin! Please make the most of these five days and four nights!"
I started tuning the standard safety speech out, only to blink and reflexively snap a hand out and pull Negi aside when the door opened and a waitress with a food cart came barreling past him.
"Pay attention numbskull," I muttered as Negi regained his balance.
It was a little over half an hour into our train ride. most of which had been spent relaxing and reading off my hone. Shizuka finally interrupted my reading and I was quickly conscripted to perform a walk down the aisle when I saw something that brought a smile to my face.
"Magic the gathering?" I mused, looking at the familiar colored cards.
"Oh, do you play, sensei?" A student (… gonna say Haruna?) asked, smiling from behind her glasses.
"Yeah, I do, but my decks a bit out of style. Not sure if it's even tournament legal anymore, it's been awhile since I played." I rubbed the back of my head and reached into my jacket pocket, pulling out (of my inventory) a small black and blue metal deck case. "Anyone up for a challenge?"
Haruna's eyes seemed to flash and she looked across the table at Yue. "Yue, you're our best player, wanna give sensei a run for his money?"
Yue blinked and looked at her recently won game. "Sure."
Fun stuff.
I Downloaded a few guidebooks and a couple maps of Kyoto. As I finished downloading the annotated maps, I noticed the students finally falling in line and heading on the train, and joined the back of the crowd, keeping an eye out for stragglers.
As the crowd got on the train I walked to Negi;s side, the last of his students filing on.
"That's all. Yeah?"
"Oh, Corvus-san! Yes, this is all the students coming," he said, a slight slump to his shoulders.
"Any absentees?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at my young superiors mood shift.
"A few… Both Evangeline-san and Chachamaru-san are staying here," he said, slumping forwards slightly.
"Hmm. Sad to see they can't come. That's the... young blonde girl, and the taller green haired one, yeah?"
Negi blinks and nods.
"Alright, just wanted to double check I knew who you were talking about."
A few minutes pass as we make our way on the train, me falling back to let Negi, and Shizuka (who was sorting seating out) stand to address the class. I take up a position next to the door to our compartment duffel bag to my side and back to the wall.
"Alright, everyone! The 15th Annual School trip is about to begin! Please make the most of these five days and four nights!"
I started tuning the standard safety speech out, only to blink and reflexively snap a hand out and pull Negi aside when the door opened and a waitress with a food cart came barreling past him.
"Pay attention numbskull," I muttered as Negi regained his balance.
It was a little over half an hour into our train ride. most of which had been spent relaxing and reading off my hone. Shizuka finally interrupted my reading and I was quickly conscripted to perform a walk down the aisle when I saw something that brought a smile to my face.
"Magic the gathering?" I mused, looking at the familiar colored cards.
"Oh, do you play, sensei?" A student (… gonna say Haruna?) asked, smiling from behind her glasses.
"Yeah, I do, but my decks a bit out of style. Not sure if it's even tournament legal anymore, it's been awhile since I played." I rubbed the back of my head and reached into my jacket pocket, pulling out (of my inventory) a small black and blue metal deck case. "Anyone up for a challenge?"
Haruna's eyes seemed to flash and she looked across the table at Yue. "Yue, you're our best player, wanna give sensei a run for his money?"
Yue blinked and looked at her recently won game. "Sure."
Soon all the other games have stopped, all eyes were drawn to the deathmatch between me and Yue. I have to admit, she was good. A red/green ramp deck, well balanced and vicious in execution.
But I play blue/black Infect. (which apparently has gone out of style? That sucks, I wanted to update with new cards.). She tapped five to swing with an unfamiliar burn spell, and I counterspelled, before taking advantage. It was down to the wire, I had 4 health left, and she had 18 health, and 8 poison counters. Her monsters, once massive threats were both sickly now, a 2/1 and a 2/2 instead of the 9/8 and 10/10 she had originally played. I drew a card and grinned.
"I'll start by playing a Steady Progress, which proliferates and destroys your 2/1 and adds one more poison counter to you, and then I'll draw a card." I drew, and the two girls looking over my shoulders, the twins Fuuka and Fumika, both groaned, and I grinned. "And here we go. I play Spread the Sickness, killing your last monster, and taking the win with the tenth poison counter."
"Good game."
After disentangling myself from offers of a rematch, I continued on my walk, and looked around, making sure everyone was fine with a few uses of Observe.
It was only a minute or two later when I heard a scream from where I had just left, and looked back. suddenly there were frogs everywhere, Negi in the middle of it. I stepped out the car and started down towards the back of the train, knife drawn and held concealed by my hand and sleeve, my focus flickered, letting Eyes of the Occult activate.
I was two compartments down the train when I slowed and took a pause. I figured it would be a moment for the frog situation to resolve, so if I'm right… There! A small white and black bird shikigami came speeding past me, a letter in its grasp. I leaned back to let it go past, Acceleration and Eyes of the Occult flaring as I took in the magical signature that wrapped around the shikigami, which also flowed to… the waitress with the food cart? Oh.
OH.
Well then, I thought, narrowing my gaze and stepping back as Negi ran past, I stared down the mage from Kyoto.
This is something I didn't expect.
Fun.
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