At long last, it is ready for posting - took me long enough.
-- Book 1: Dark Watch --
- Chapter...
-- Book 1: Dark Watch --
- Chapter...
Magical Detective Yue (Negima)
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Homeless Draconis
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At long last, it is ready for posting - took me long enough.
-- Book 1: Dark Watch --
- Chapter 1: Here!
- Chapter 2: Here
- Chapter 3: Here
- Chapter 4: Here
- Chapter 5: Here
- Chapter 6: Here
- Chapter 7: Here
- Chapter 8: Here
- Chapter 9: Here
- Chapter 10: Here
-------------------------------
The people of the Mahora academy district, in their tucked away little corner of the Tokyo Metropolitan Region, were acclimated to a wide variety of sights. Ridiculously human robots attending classes, T-Rex's going out for a stroll, even light shows from the skyscraper sized tree that sat at the center of the district. Even the occasional full-scale Martian invasion was met with little more than some appreciative 'oohs' and 'ahs'. Ten year old teachers on flying staffs didn't even warrant a raised eyebrow.
So it is with all this in mind one must consider the fact that the young woman staring up at the small three-story building was actually managing to draw stares from the passing crowds. She was dressed in dark slacks with a white buttoned blouse, looking much like one of the countless teachers aides that roamed the land between classes. Strands of dark hair stuck out oddly in a few places, the rest of it cut to around shoulder-length and tied off with small ribbons so it hung just over each shoulder. Even the brown long coat was unremarkable – the weather today was fair, but it was April – showers were common. Perhaps, then, it was the tall, slightly drooping pointed hat was the source of the attention. Then again, such unique fashion sense wasn't uncommon in these parts.
That left the long wooden staff she held in one hand, its top adorned with a silver crescent moon. Between it and the hat, she looked the part of a modern witch out on the job. In any other town, people would have given her a wide berth or simply openly gawked. Here, it was just a slightly more unusual sight.
Truth be told, it was possible that they were more attracted to the untucked shirt and the fact that she was standing in the middle of the sidewalk more than anything. Citizens of Mahora were odd like that.
The dark haired maiden, however, paid none of them any mind. Instead, she continued to stare up toward the top floor of the small three-story building and the flat she had managed to acquire. It comprised the entirety of the third floor and was close to the train station. It's roof also leaked, the heater didn't work and – if rumors to be believed – managed to be haunted despite being no older than she was.
She sighed. Still better than Nodoka's couch.
At long last, Yue Ayase – former Mage Knight of Ariadne and current out-of-work mage - started toward the side of the building and the flight of stairs waiting there. She had actually told a few people what her profession was when she had first arrived back in Mahora a few months back. Few people had believed her. Fewer were willing to employ a woman whose entire work history and half their higher education were from a realm most of them considered fictitious at best. At least she had that degree in philosophy – easier to advertise then Aerial mage training around here.
Yue trudged up the stairs, fumbling through her pockets for the key before she unlocked the door. Inside she was met with a fairly open layout. The majority of the floor seemed to be one giant room, a sort of bar area sectioning off one corner as the kitchen and a pair of doors at the far end indicating where the bedroom and bathroom were located. One entire wall was taken up by the tall windows she had been staring up at from the street, their blinds currently pulled shut and only letting a few faint beams of sunlight into the room. Of course, none of her belongings had shown up yet. Moving between worlds had been complicated to say the least, but it seemed that mundane moving companies were just as slow as their fantastic counterparts.
She had just started poking around the fridge to make sure nothing had been left inside when a soft chiming started to play from her pocket. "This is Ayase."
"How's the new place Yue?"
"Nodoka." Yue shifted the phone as she greeted her friend. "Thanks for the lead – though I'm sure you're glad to get me off your couch."
"Not really," Nodoka replied over the line. "I rarely get the chance to use it – glad to see it be useful for somebody at least."
"Well I owe you one." Yue replied. "Two, actually – I still need to pay you back for that lecture gig."
Nodoka tried and failed to suppress a small laugh. "Yue, we've known each other long enough to both owe each other favors." It was a fair point. They had known each other since middle school – relationships that old tended to accumulate leverage.
"Speaking of work," Nodoka continued. "Any luck finding some?"
"None," Yue let out a sigh. "Tell me again why I left five years with the Ariadne Knights to come here?"
"Because its home?" Nodoka suggested. "Didn't you say you wanted to help people?"
"I was helping people over their just fine." Yue replied as she started to pace. "And I had a nice apartment. I can't help people here without breaking every rule the ISSDA has come up with."
"You can get waivers, can't you?" Nodoka suggested. "Negi..."
"Negi is saving the world." Yue replied. "I'm not. And it wasn't like I could have hung around Ariadne anyway..."
"If you want to talk about it..."
"I don't." Yue cut her friend off. "What about you? Anything interesting come into the lab?"
"Un." Nodoka's voice started to show some of the enthusiasm she had for her work. "The university just got this shipment from a dig site out in..."
Whatever Nodoka was about to say was cut short as a giant explosion drowned out everything. A few seconds later the same sound echoed through the phone. "Nodoka?"
"What on earth was that?!" Nodoka said, slightly panicked as Yue dashed over to the nearby window and pulled back a blind.
"Nodoka," Yue said as she stared out the window. What could only be described as a tornado of fire was just starting to dissipate in the air over the train station. "I've got to go."
Nodoka barely had time to respond before Yue hung up and flew out the door, coat flying out behind her as she poured just a little bit of magic into her steps. To most of the other pedestrians she was little more than a black and brown-ish blur as she darted through crowds and made a beeline for the train station. In her mind, she was going over possibilities as she pulled out her spare focus – a small wand was easier to carry then her staff, if not quite as effective. In crowds like this though her staff could end up as much a liability as an asset. Besides, she forgot to grab her staff when she rushed out the door.
It was late morning, so the station wasn't as crowded as it could have been when Yue turned the final corner and skidded to a top. The entire square was eerily silent, the vast majority of the people crowded around the outdoor tables of cafes and backs pressed against glass storefronts as they gave the lone figure in the square a wide berth.
He was a tall fellow by anyones standards, easily over six feet if Yue was to guess, and he was entirely shrouded in a dark cloak. A circle of paving stones in front of him around five or six meters across was still glowing a dull orange from the heat of the cyclone inferno. It was what was at the center of the circle that seemed to be drawing the most attention.
Yue was reminded vaguely of a documentary she had seen once about Pompeii – the people turned into little more than human shaped pieces of charcoal. Of course, those figures had been plaster casting of the voids their bodies had left. Her brain, however, seemed to care little about the differences when the similarities were so stark.
The figure crouched at the center of the circle was human only in rough terms. Any feature that could have been used to identify it – clothing, hair, skin tone – had been burnt away. She couldn't even tell if it had been male or female in life. Light wisps of smoke curled off the body, the subtle sound of something crackling the only noise in the space for the moment. Yue was beginning to wonder just how long a body like that could be able to support itself in that state when its finally crumpled under its own weight.
The sudden motion was enough to finally break the tension in the square and all hell broke loose. Packs of people began running for the nearest alley or street out of the square, while others simply ducked into the nearest store or down into the train station as quickly as they could make their way through each other. The only two figures that were not running her Yue and Mr. Cloak.
Yue pointed her wand at the figure, part of her noting that it likely looked extremely ridiculous to anybody who didn't know just how potent magic could be. "You in the cloak!" Yue yelled over the clamor of the fleeing crowds.
"Freeze!" Both Yue and the figured turned at the voice, and could see a dark haired young man in a police windbreaker leveling a compact black pistol at the cloaked figure. "Tokyo Police!"
The cloaked figure, naturally, turned and ran. Yue bit back a curse and started after him – if it was a him – as he darted for one of the alleys. The cop meanwhile took a left and disappeared around a corner of one of the cafe's. Yue turned her attention from the cop and back to her fleeing suspect. Yue leveled her wand and started to chant under her breath. "For so Kratika..." The gentle warmth of her magic flowing through her greeted the end of the initial chant as she segued straight into a high speed disabling shot. As soon as the last syllable left her lips a compressed bullet of whirling wind the size of a golf ball shot forward, whistling as it cut through the air.
As fast as it was, it didn't seem to be fast enough. An instant before it crashed into the figures back he dodged to the left, the air shot speeding straight over his shoulder and crashing into the stonework facade past him. Yue suppressed a twitch of her eyebrow and fired another shot, but once again the figure simply dodged again. "For the love of..." Yue snapped. "Hold still you bastard!" Yue increased her tempo, sending a barrage of shots at the running figure. He managed to dodge all of them without so much as looking over his shoulder. All this was accomplishing was a decent amount of property damage and getting turned into an ermine by the ISSDA over petty vandalism would be really embarrassing. She shoved more magic into her legs, and sped up further. If she couldn't shoot him down, she would have to run him down.
The figure seemed to slow slightly as he neared a corner, seemingly unsure of where to go next. He finally looked over his shoulder, and Yue could have sworn he managed to look surprised through the shadows of the cloak when he saw Yue was still behind him.
It was at that moment that the cop stepped back onto the scene with a baseball bat.
There was a sickening crunch that echoed oddly in the alley as the bat met the figures jaw. For a brief moment his entire body seemed to jerk backward from the impact before his forward momentum from his running kept trying to move forward. His legs flew out from under him as he rotated around the bat, a small spray of blood fanning out through the air as he cartwheeled before gravity reasserted itself and he crashed to the ground with a thud.
Yue let the magic gathered in her legs dissipate as she slowed down to a more reasonable pace, while the cop began to idly poke the cloaked figure. Said figure let out a pained groan as Yue finally came to a stop next to him. "Nice hit. Where'd you get the bat?"
The cop gave a shrug. "Borrowed it from a sporting good store on the way over. Didn't think they would mind a cop on a coffee break using it for a little. Where'd you get so fast, miss...?"
"Ayase, Yue Ayase." Yue introduced herself. "Thanks for the assist, Officer..."
"Sonoda." He replied, "And it's Inspector actually." A radio on his belt squawked. "Ah – give me a minute. Have to take this." He pulled the belt and began talking into it, only half trying to keep Yue from overhearing. "This is Sonoda. Yeah, I saw the fire tornado – I was in the square." There was a pause as the voice on the other end said something that Yue couldn't make out – A lot of somethings, actually. Yue knelt down to examine the still half-conscious figure as Sonoda started talking again. "I've already responded...No, I didn't call it in... I was busy chasing the guy!" Another pause. "Just get the forensics team out here! South Station Square." He switched off the radio and put it back on his belt with a sigh.
"Work issues, Inspector Sonoda?" Yue asked as she watched him.
"Masamichi, please. 'Inspector Sonoda' makes me feel like my dad." He gave her a dismissive wave. "And just work politics. I am completely unappreciated." The inspector gestured at the crumbled figure with his bat. "Anything interesting on the Ring-Wraith?"
"Just the fact that he's completely covered." Yue replied. His cloak was more than just a cloak – it seemed to encase him entirely, a series of black metal fasteners keeping is securely closed along the side and latching onto the long black gloves on his hands to keep the sleeves from slipping back too far. Even his face was covered, a thin back mesh material completely obscuring his face, rising and falling with every slow rasping breath. "Apparently, this guy didn't want to be identified."
"Or he just really doesn't like sunlight." Sonoda suggested before the figure started stirring. "Oh, he's awake." The inspector walked a little closer, pressing his bat against the figure's chest and keeping him pinned. "Wakey- wakey, tall dark and stupid. Mind telling me why your immolating people in my train station?"
The cloaked figure gave a raspy chuckle. "Be gone, you stupid mortal. Where is the girl?"
Yue stepped forward. "What do you want?"
"Ah," the figure rasped. "The Ministra Negi. I should have expected you to show yourself. Perhaps those rumors were true..."
"You know this guy?" Sonoda asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Probably from my last job." Yue replied idly as the figure chucked again.
"Must have been a hell of a last job if you've ran into this clown." Sonoda quipped before the figure started talking again.
"You think you can hold me, Ministra Negi?" He rasped. "You do not understand what you're dealing with."
"Hey," Sonoda piped in. "How about you give the lady a break and deal with me?"
"I don't deal with cockroaches, mortal." the figure rasped, never turn from Yue. "But you...you are amiss. The Pattern does not place you in this city."
"I got homesick," Yue shrugged. "Sorry to burst your bubble."
"Of course," The figure dragged out the last word into a low hiss. "Unless...ah, so it was you. Running away?"
Yue froze, but quickly schooled her expression. "As if you know me."
"I know about Ariadne," he hissed back. "I know about the Senate. I know what you run from – what is the expression? 'Red in your ledger' is it?"
"You've been watching too much television, buddy." Yue shot back. "I'm guessing we're done?"
"We are just beginning, Ministra Negi." the figure rasped back.
"Well then," Sonoda replied as he fished a pair of coughs from his pocket. "You can get started in a nice, comfortable jail cell at my place."
The figure let out another rasping laugh. "I think not, mortal. I look forward to killing you next we meet, little witch." And then the figure vanished into a burst of smoke that quickly dissipated, leaving Yue and the inspector staring at an empty spot of tarmac.
Sonoda stared for a moment before he managed to say anything. "How did he..." He looked around quickly, as if expecting to see a sign of the vanished figure. "Smoke bombs?"
"Yeah," Yue replied. "Sure." Most likely some sort of teleportation magic – not that she was going to tell him that. Not getting turned into an ermine and all of that. At least she didn't have to tell him its was CG.
Then again, this was Mahora. That would almost make sense.
"Well, this has probably been the most interesting coffee break I've had all week." Sonoda started as he stowed his handcuffs. "What was that he called you? Minister something?"
"Didn't catch it." Yue lied smoothly. "Where do you think he was running to anway?"
"Couldn't tell you." Sonoda said as he knelt down and poked around where the figure had been laying. "I managed to jump him from the last side-alley and he didn't look like he was turning." the inspector dusted himself off as he stood back up. "The only way in the direction he was heading was a dead end and a lot of garbage."
"Maybe he planned on jumping the wall." Yue suggested off-hand. "Wouldn't be the first time I've seen that."
"And again the vague reference to your past," Sonoda snarked. "As for jumping a wall – it would be more like rock climbing then wall vaulting. So unless he was a ninja as well as a ring wraith, I'd guess that he just didn't know where he was going after his little roast."
"Which means that whatever happened back at the station wasn't planned." Yue guessed out loud before she seemed to realize something. "Hey, should you really have left a body – let alone a crime scene – unsupervised like that?"
Sonoda shrugged. "It's not like anybody is going to touch it. Its a body." Still, the inspector started down the alley back toward the station at an unhurried pace. "Come on, you should probably head back as well."
"Since I'm a key witness now?" Yue asked as she began to follow him. It was more a request for confirmation then a real question.
"And my chief would chew me out even more then usual if I didn't make sure you gave a statement." Sonoda added. "So, how exactly did you manage to keep up with that guy?"
"Same as you – I ran." Yue raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Sonoda chuckled. "Even if you're a local, I'm guessing this isn't your part of town." He was right – Mahora had been almost clear on the other side of the District. "This alley is sort of an anti-short cut – my route was actually a lot shorter. The fact that Mr. Wraith was already there when I got to the corner was impressive. That you were keeping up with him more so."
"I try to keep in shape." Yue answered while trying to keep any panic from her voice. "You know, cardio and stuff."
"That must be one hell of a work out if it lets you run three blocks that fast." Sonoda replied, and Yue paled just a little. Three blocks? No wonder he was surprised. "You'll have to tell me about it some time."
"That might be..." Yue started to reply before she paused and looked straight at the Inspector. "Wait, are you hitting on me?"
Sonoda grinned. "Depends – is it working?"
Yue let out a groan as she brought one hand up to her forehead to try and forestall the coming headache. This was turning into a truly spectacular day. "We've known each other for, at most, fifteen minutes."
"I like the type of girl who chases down homicidal pyromaniacs." Sonoda said nonchalantly. "Something of a turn-on for me."
"Okay, I am not having this conversation with you!" Yue bit back as she pointed emphatically at Sonoda. "You're supposed to be a professional! At least act like it."
"Now you sound like the chief." Sonoda let out a sigh. "Well, there goes the mood."
"There was no mood!"
"Well, not anymore." Sonoda pointed back toward where the figure had vanished from. "So, any idea how he slipped past us back there if he didn't know this part of town?"
Yue hesitated a moment as she tried to formulate a reasonable sounding lie. Luckily the inspector seemed to think it was just her thinking. "Manhole cover?"
"Didn't see any back there." Sonoda countered. "There were a couple of storm drains, but none he could have squeezed through."
"Invisibility device?" Yue suggested. "Some of the University labs have stuff like that right?"
"Nothings been reported by any of the University labs," Sonoda explained as his phone started to ring. He left it in his pocket and pointedly ignored it as he kept talking. "But considering how big some of them are they might not have noticed somebody borrowed one of their toys."
"So no likely leads?" Yue asked as they neared the end of the alley.
"Well," Sonoda answered with an exaggerated shrug before pointing toward the now cordoned off square that was crawling with cops. "There is that dead body we could look at." The crowd had already recovered from their shock by the time the two of them reached the police perimeter, sliding underneath the yellow plastic ribbon as the civilians got as close as they could. Several were already recording the whole scene with their phones while others were simply murmuring between each other. A few looked like they were about to pass out. One guy near the front with some elaborate facial tattoos took one look at the scene and promptly turned and ran off as the blood drained from his face. Some people just couldn't handle seeing death like that.
Yue turned her attention from the crowd and looked at the remains of the body. As always there was a part of her brain that, when confronted with a dead person – especially one killed as horrifically as this – starts screaming at her to simply turn and go in the opposite direction as fast as inhumanly possible. That part of her was quietly tucked away in its own little corner and carefully ignored as she went to work.
The body was burned almost beyond recognition, nothing beyond its rough human shape was left. Only the faintest hint of clothing was left, the crumbling remnants being pulled back by studious forensic investigators as the inspector and Yue paced around the scene. While the inspector's gaze was hopping all over the place, jumping from the body to the alley the perpetrator had tried to escape down to the streaks of ash on the paving stones, Yue's eyes were fixed firmly on the ground as she slowly traced the grooves scorched into the square. The ring along the edge was still faintly glowing, the melted stone giving off a pale red light at the bottom of a narrow trough maybe forty millimeters wide and half that deep. The outer ring was quite the sight – so much that Yue almost didn't notice the smaller lines spidering off from it.
They were faint, almost lost among the cracks and joints of the paving stones, but the jagged and unnaturally regular patterns stood out from the surrounding once you noticed them. They flowed like a fractal pattern, converging from the edges toward where the body had been resting and was now being carefully loaded onto a gurney to be carted away for the coroner. Yue's gaze followed the procession of investigators as they carted off the body, the body bag left unzipped by necessity – the heat of the fire leaving the corpse permanently warped.
The gurney bounced and clattered as it rolled over the semi-uneven paving stones until it invariably managed to trip up on one of them. The whole cart jolted, the technicians pushing and pulling it along muttering curses as one of the charred arms fell free and they carefully tucked it back into the bag before continuing on. Neither of them noticed the small piece of metal that had fallen out of the corpses hand and was now rolling to a stop neither Yue's feet. She calmly took a quick look around and, once she was sure nobody was paying her any mind, knelt down and carefully picked up the piece and slipped it into her pocket as the inspector approached. "You find anything?"
"There's some sort of pattern etched into the paving stones." Yue gestured to the ground as she spoke. "Looks like it all converges on where the victim was. You?"
Sonoda held up a small plastic baggy with a even smaller square of black cloth inside. "This was all he was carrying. Well, all he was carrying that was still intact at least." He glanced down at the ground. "Think the pattern came from the fire?"
"As opposed to the other way around?" Yue asked, hoping she had injected enough incredulity into her voice to make it sound like a joke.
"This is Mahora," Sonoda replied. "Stranger things have happened – remember that mars invasion years back? At this point, nothing would surprise me. So, lets assume that the pattern you found actually does converge somewhere, what would that imply?"
"Well," Yue started as she began following the engraving on the ground. "It would imply that if we followed this all to where it meets we should find something like..." Yue stopped as she reached where the body had been minutes earlier, a small grin on her face as she stared at a small spot at her feet. "That."
it was a small circle, no wider than her palm, and it was sunk a fair ways into the ground. The stone around it was warped like melted wax, but it was the centerpiece that had Yue's attention. It was the remains of what might have once been some sort of gem, the blob of red having lost any sort of definition or indication of its prior cut. Yue knelt down to examine it more closely as Sonoda approached. "Looks like it might have been a ruby before."
"A ruby?" Sonoda echoed as he knelt down next to her. "But that would put the fire at – what? 2000 degrees?"
"At a minimum," Yue replied. Serious fire magic then – not the most powerful she'd seen, but she had seen quite a bit. Definitely far beyond the average though.
Sonoda stood and scratched his head as he scanned the square. "How on earth do you get a fire that hot without external equipment?"
"Thermite?" Yue suggested as she hoped she still remembered her chemistry properly. "That would have done it."
"Maybe if he did it up like some sort of fuel-air bomb," Sonoda replied as he started toward the edge of the cordon the other officers had started to set up. "But that should have fried him as well. This was too controlled."
Yue ducked under the police tape as she followed the inspector. Across the square on the other side of the crowd a handful of police cruisers were pulling up, the one at the lead coming to an abrupt stop before its driver hopped out and started scanning the crowd. The driver's scan stopped as he locked eyes on Sonoda. Sonoda, for his part, simply sighed.
"More work troubles?" Yue asked as she arched an eyebrow.
"Something like that." Sonoda replied as he started through the crowd to meet the new arrival. He was dressed quite similarly to Sonoda, dark pants and a jacket emblazoned with the local police logo. But while Sonoda was dark-haired and relaxed, the new arrival was blonde and looked about one bad surprise from either a heart attack or simply losing it – Yue wasn't sure which. Sonada greeted him with an easy smile. "Komatsu! How's it going?"
"Don't start with me!" Komatsu bit back. "The Chief has been ripping my head off for the last twenty minutes about how you decided to leave an unsecured crime scene to try and play hero – again! How many times do we have to..." He paused as he saw Yue walk up. "Who is she and what is she doing here?"
"Yue Ayase," Yue bowed slightly. "I witnessed the...event."
"She also helped me try to chase the perp down," Sonoda added. "Made good back-up."
Komatsu started to say something, but stopped and just brought a hand up to massage his temples as a small sigh escaped. "Tell me you at least got an initial statement from her."
"And take away all your fun?" Sonoda said jovially. "I wouldn't dream of it."
Yue could actually watch Komatsu's brow twitch as his already negative expression soured further. His self control was expectational though, since all he did was turn to Yue and hand her his card. "Satoshi Kamatsu, SDO. Thank you for your assistance Mrs. Ayase."
Yue accepted the card with a quirk of the eyebrow. "SDO?"
"Special District Office." Komatsu explained. "Mahora represents a unique situation for policing needs. The Special District Office fulfills that need. We end up being somewhat...separated from the rest of the Tokyo Police as a result." He pulled out a small pad and a pen before looking at Yue expectantly. "Now, if you don't mind, could you tell me exactly what you saw?"
Yue explained everything to him as best as she could without revealing too much. By the end of it, Komatsu was giving her a look that, while not quite as bad as the one he had been giving to Sonoda, came close. "So, your only suspect managed to create a tornado of fire in the middle of a square, ran down a dead-end alley, and disappeared in a puff of smoke?"
Sonoda shrugged. "More or less."
"How?" Komatsu asked, not bothering to keep how he was feeling out of his voice. "Magic?"
Yue chuckled nervously. "Well, its as valid a theory as any."
-- Book 1: Dark Watch --
- Chapter 1: Here!
- Chapter 2: Here
- Chapter 3: Here
- Chapter 4: Here
- Chapter 5: Here
- Chapter 6: Here
- Chapter 7: Here
- Chapter 8: Here
- Chapter 9: Here
- Chapter 10: Here
-------------------------------
The people of the Mahora academy district, in their tucked away little corner of the Tokyo Metropolitan Region, were acclimated to a wide variety of sights. Ridiculously human robots attending classes, T-Rex's going out for a stroll, even light shows from the skyscraper sized tree that sat at the center of the district. Even the occasional full-scale Martian invasion was met with little more than some appreciative 'oohs' and 'ahs'. Ten year old teachers on flying staffs didn't even warrant a raised eyebrow.
So it is with all this in mind one must consider the fact that the young woman staring up at the small three-story building was actually managing to draw stares from the passing crowds. She was dressed in dark slacks with a white buttoned blouse, looking much like one of the countless teachers aides that roamed the land between classes. Strands of dark hair stuck out oddly in a few places, the rest of it cut to around shoulder-length and tied off with small ribbons so it hung just over each shoulder. Even the brown long coat was unremarkable – the weather today was fair, but it was April – showers were common. Perhaps, then, it was the tall, slightly drooping pointed hat was the source of the attention. Then again, such unique fashion sense wasn't uncommon in these parts.
That left the long wooden staff she held in one hand, its top adorned with a silver crescent moon. Between it and the hat, she looked the part of a modern witch out on the job. In any other town, people would have given her a wide berth or simply openly gawked. Here, it was just a slightly more unusual sight.
Truth be told, it was possible that they were more attracted to the untucked shirt and the fact that she was standing in the middle of the sidewalk more than anything. Citizens of Mahora were odd like that.
The dark haired maiden, however, paid none of them any mind. Instead, she continued to stare up toward the top floor of the small three-story building and the flat she had managed to acquire. It comprised the entirety of the third floor and was close to the train station. It's roof also leaked, the heater didn't work and – if rumors to be believed – managed to be haunted despite being no older than she was.
She sighed. Still better than Nodoka's couch.
At long last, Yue Ayase – former Mage Knight of Ariadne and current out-of-work mage - started toward the side of the building and the flight of stairs waiting there. She had actually told a few people what her profession was when she had first arrived back in Mahora a few months back. Few people had believed her. Fewer were willing to employ a woman whose entire work history and half their higher education were from a realm most of them considered fictitious at best. At least she had that degree in philosophy – easier to advertise then Aerial mage training around here.
Yue trudged up the stairs, fumbling through her pockets for the key before she unlocked the door. Inside she was met with a fairly open layout. The majority of the floor seemed to be one giant room, a sort of bar area sectioning off one corner as the kitchen and a pair of doors at the far end indicating where the bedroom and bathroom were located. One entire wall was taken up by the tall windows she had been staring up at from the street, their blinds currently pulled shut and only letting a few faint beams of sunlight into the room. Of course, none of her belongings had shown up yet. Moving between worlds had been complicated to say the least, but it seemed that mundane moving companies were just as slow as their fantastic counterparts.
She had just started poking around the fridge to make sure nothing had been left inside when a soft chiming started to play from her pocket. "This is Ayase."
"How's the new place Yue?"
"Nodoka." Yue shifted the phone as she greeted her friend. "Thanks for the lead – though I'm sure you're glad to get me off your couch."
"Not really," Nodoka replied over the line. "I rarely get the chance to use it – glad to see it be useful for somebody at least."
"Well I owe you one." Yue replied. "Two, actually – I still need to pay you back for that lecture gig."
Nodoka tried and failed to suppress a small laugh. "Yue, we've known each other long enough to both owe each other favors." It was a fair point. They had known each other since middle school – relationships that old tended to accumulate leverage.
"Speaking of work," Nodoka continued. "Any luck finding some?"
"None," Yue let out a sigh. "Tell me again why I left five years with the Ariadne Knights to come here?"
"Because its home?" Nodoka suggested. "Didn't you say you wanted to help people?"
"I was helping people over their just fine." Yue replied as she started to pace. "And I had a nice apartment. I can't help people here without breaking every rule the ISSDA has come up with."
"You can get waivers, can't you?" Nodoka suggested. "Negi..."
"Negi is saving the world." Yue replied. "I'm not. And it wasn't like I could have hung around Ariadne anyway..."
"If you want to talk about it..."
"I don't." Yue cut her friend off. "What about you? Anything interesting come into the lab?"
"Un." Nodoka's voice started to show some of the enthusiasm she had for her work. "The university just got this shipment from a dig site out in..."
Whatever Nodoka was about to say was cut short as a giant explosion drowned out everything. A few seconds later the same sound echoed through the phone. "Nodoka?"
"What on earth was that?!" Nodoka said, slightly panicked as Yue dashed over to the nearby window and pulled back a blind.
"Nodoka," Yue said as she stared out the window. What could only be described as a tornado of fire was just starting to dissipate in the air over the train station. "I've got to go."
Nodoka barely had time to respond before Yue hung up and flew out the door, coat flying out behind her as she poured just a little bit of magic into her steps. To most of the other pedestrians she was little more than a black and brown-ish blur as she darted through crowds and made a beeline for the train station. In her mind, she was going over possibilities as she pulled out her spare focus – a small wand was easier to carry then her staff, if not quite as effective. In crowds like this though her staff could end up as much a liability as an asset. Besides, she forgot to grab her staff when she rushed out the door.
It was late morning, so the station wasn't as crowded as it could have been when Yue turned the final corner and skidded to a top. The entire square was eerily silent, the vast majority of the people crowded around the outdoor tables of cafes and backs pressed against glass storefronts as they gave the lone figure in the square a wide berth.
He was a tall fellow by anyones standards, easily over six feet if Yue was to guess, and he was entirely shrouded in a dark cloak. A circle of paving stones in front of him around five or six meters across was still glowing a dull orange from the heat of the cyclone inferno. It was what was at the center of the circle that seemed to be drawing the most attention.
Yue was reminded vaguely of a documentary she had seen once about Pompeii – the people turned into little more than human shaped pieces of charcoal. Of course, those figures had been plaster casting of the voids their bodies had left. Her brain, however, seemed to care little about the differences when the similarities were so stark.
The figure crouched at the center of the circle was human only in rough terms. Any feature that could have been used to identify it – clothing, hair, skin tone – had been burnt away. She couldn't even tell if it had been male or female in life. Light wisps of smoke curled off the body, the subtle sound of something crackling the only noise in the space for the moment. Yue was beginning to wonder just how long a body like that could be able to support itself in that state when its finally crumpled under its own weight.
The sudden motion was enough to finally break the tension in the square and all hell broke loose. Packs of people began running for the nearest alley or street out of the square, while others simply ducked into the nearest store or down into the train station as quickly as they could make their way through each other. The only two figures that were not running her Yue and Mr. Cloak.
Yue pointed her wand at the figure, part of her noting that it likely looked extremely ridiculous to anybody who didn't know just how potent magic could be. "You in the cloak!" Yue yelled over the clamor of the fleeing crowds.
"Freeze!" Both Yue and the figured turned at the voice, and could see a dark haired young man in a police windbreaker leveling a compact black pistol at the cloaked figure. "Tokyo Police!"
The cloaked figure, naturally, turned and ran. Yue bit back a curse and started after him – if it was a him – as he darted for one of the alleys. The cop meanwhile took a left and disappeared around a corner of one of the cafe's. Yue turned her attention from the cop and back to her fleeing suspect. Yue leveled her wand and started to chant under her breath. "For so Kratika..." The gentle warmth of her magic flowing through her greeted the end of the initial chant as she segued straight into a high speed disabling shot. As soon as the last syllable left her lips a compressed bullet of whirling wind the size of a golf ball shot forward, whistling as it cut through the air.
As fast as it was, it didn't seem to be fast enough. An instant before it crashed into the figures back he dodged to the left, the air shot speeding straight over his shoulder and crashing into the stonework facade past him. Yue suppressed a twitch of her eyebrow and fired another shot, but once again the figure simply dodged again. "For the love of..." Yue snapped. "Hold still you bastard!" Yue increased her tempo, sending a barrage of shots at the running figure. He managed to dodge all of them without so much as looking over his shoulder. All this was accomplishing was a decent amount of property damage and getting turned into an ermine by the ISSDA over petty vandalism would be really embarrassing. She shoved more magic into her legs, and sped up further. If she couldn't shoot him down, she would have to run him down.
The figure seemed to slow slightly as he neared a corner, seemingly unsure of where to go next. He finally looked over his shoulder, and Yue could have sworn he managed to look surprised through the shadows of the cloak when he saw Yue was still behind him.
It was at that moment that the cop stepped back onto the scene with a baseball bat.
There was a sickening crunch that echoed oddly in the alley as the bat met the figures jaw. For a brief moment his entire body seemed to jerk backward from the impact before his forward momentum from his running kept trying to move forward. His legs flew out from under him as he rotated around the bat, a small spray of blood fanning out through the air as he cartwheeled before gravity reasserted itself and he crashed to the ground with a thud.
Yue let the magic gathered in her legs dissipate as she slowed down to a more reasonable pace, while the cop began to idly poke the cloaked figure. Said figure let out a pained groan as Yue finally came to a stop next to him. "Nice hit. Where'd you get the bat?"
The cop gave a shrug. "Borrowed it from a sporting good store on the way over. Didn't think they would mind a cop on a coffee break using it for a little. Where'd you get so fast, miss...?"
"Ayase, Yue Ayase." Yue introduced herself. "Thanks for the assist, Officer..."
"Sonoda." He replied, "And it's Inspector actually." A radio on his belt squawked. "Ah – give me a minute. Have to take this." He pulled the belt and began talking into it, only half trying to keep Yue from overhearing. "This is Sonoda. Yeah, I saw the fire tornado – I was in the square." There was a pause as the voice on the other end said something that Yue couldn't make out – A lot of somethings, actually. Yue knelt down to examine the still half-conscious figure as Sonoda started talking again. "I've already responded...No, I didn't call it in... I was busy chasing the guy!" Another pause. "Just get the forensics team out here! South Station Square." He switched off the radio and put it back on his belt with a sigh.
"Work issues, Inspector Sonoda?" Yue asked as she watched him.
"Masamichi, please. 'Inspector Sonoda' makes me feel like my dad." He gave her a dismissive wave. "And just work politics. I am completely unappreciated." The inspector gestured at the crumbled figure with his bat. "Anything interesting on the Ring-Wraith?"
"Just the fact that he's completely covered." Yue replied. His cloak was more than just a cloak – it seemed to encase him entirely, a series of black metal fasteners keeping is securely closed along the side and latching onto the long black gloves on his hands to keep the sleeves from slipping back too far. Even his face was covered, a thin back mesh material completely obscuring his face, rising and falling with every slow rasping breath. "Apparently, this guy didn't want to be identified."
"Or he just really doesn't like sunlight." Sonoda suggested before the figure started stirring. "Oh, he's awake." The inspector walked a little closer, pressing his bat against the figure's chest and keeping him pinned. "Wakey- wakey, tall dark and stupid. Mind telling me why your immolating people in my train station?"
The cloaked figure gave a raspy chuckle. "Be gone, you stupid mortal. Where is the girl?"
Yue stepped forward. "What do you want?"
"Ah," the figure rasped. "The Ministra Negi. I should have expected you to show yourself. Perhaps those rumors were true..."
"You know this guy?" Sonoda asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Probably from my last job." Yue replied idly as the figure chucked again.
"Must have been a hell of a last job if you've ran into this clown." Sonoda quipped before the figure started talking again.
"You think you can hold me, Ministra Negi?" He rasped. "You do not understand what you're dealing with."
"Hey," Sonoda piped in. "How about you give the lady a break and deal with me?"
"I don't deal with cockroaches, mortal." the figure rasped, never turn from Yue. "But you...you are amiss. The Pattern does not place you in this city."
"I got homesick," Yue shrugged. "Sorry to burst your bubble."
"Of course," The figure dragged out the last word into a low hiss. "Unless...ah, so it was you. Running away?"
Yue froze, but quickly schooled her expression. "As if you know me."
"I know about Ariadne," he hissed back. "I know about the Senate. I know what you run from – what is the expression? 'Red in your ledger' is it?"
"You've been watching too much television, buddy." Yue shot back. "I'm guessing we're done?"
"We are just beginning, Ministra Negi." the figure rasped back.
"Well then," Sonoda replied as he fished a pair of coughs from his pocket. "You can get started in a nice, comfortable jail cell at my place."
The figure let out another rasping laugh. "I think not, mortal. I look forward to killing you next we meet, little witch." And then the figure vanished into a burst of smoke that quickly dissipated, leaving Yue and the inspector staring at an empty spot of tarmac.
Sonoda stared for a moment before he managed to say anything. "How did he..." He looked around quickly, as if expecting to see a sign of the vanished figure. "Smoke bombs?"
"Yeah," Yue replied. "Sure." Most likely some sort of teleportation magic – not that she was going to tell him that. Not getting turned into an ermine and all of that. At least she didn't have to tell him its was CG.
Then again, this was Mahora. That would almost make sense.
"Well, this has probably been the most interesting coffee break I've had all week." Sonoda started as he stowed his handcuffs. "What was that he called you? Minister something?"
"Didn't catch it." Yue lied smoothly. "Where do you think he was running to anway?"
"Couldn't tell you." Sonoda said as he knelt down and poked around where the figure had been laying. "I managed to jump him from the last side-alley and he didn't look like he was turning." the inspector dusted himself off as he stood back up. "The only way in the direction he was heading was a dead end and a lot of garbage."
"Maybe he planned on jumping the wall." Yue suggested off-hand. "Wouldn't be the first time I've seen that."
"And again the vague reference to your past," Sonoda snarked. "As for jumping a wall – it would be more like rock climbing then wall vaulting. So unless he was a ninja as well as a ring wraith, I'd guess that he just didn't know where he was going after his little roast."
"Which means that whatever happened back at the station wasn't planned." Yue guessed out loud before she seemed to realize something. "Hey, should you really have left a body – let alone a crime scene – unsupervised like that?"
Sonoda shrugged. "It's not like anybody is going to touch it. Its a body." Still, the inspector started down the alley back toward the station at an unhurried pace. "Come on, you should probably head back as well."
"Since I'm a key witness now?" Yue asked as she began to follow him. It was more a request for confirmation then a real question.
"And my chief would chew me out even more then usual if I didn't make sure you gave a statement." Sonoda added. "So, how exactly did you manage to keep up with that guy?"
"Same as you – I ran." Yue raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Sonoda chuckled. "Even if you're a local, I'm guessing this isn't your part of town." He was right – Mahora had been almost clear on the other side of the District. "This alley is sort of an anti-short cut – my route was actually a lot shorter. The fact that Mr. Wraith was already there when I got to the corner was impressive. That you were keeping up with him more so."
"I try to keep in shape." Yue answered while trying to keep any panic from her voice. "You know, cardio and stuff."
"That must be one hell of a work out if it lets you run three blocks that fast." Sonoda replied, and Yue paled just a little. Three blocks? No wonder he was surprised. "You'll have to tell me about it some time."
"That might be..." Yue started to reply before she paused and looked straight at the Inspector. "Wait, are you hitting on me?"
Sonoda grinned. "Depends – is it working?"
Yue let out a groan as she brought one hand up to her forehead to try and forestall the coming headache. This was turning into a truly spectacular day. "We've known each other for, at most, fifteen minutes."
"I like the type of girl who chases down homicidal pyromaniacs." Sonoda said nonchalantly. "Something of a turn-on for me."
"Okay, I am not having this conversation with you!" Yue bit back as she pointed emphatically at Sonoda. "You're supposed to be a professional! At least act like it."
"Now you sound like the chief." Sonoda let out a sigh. "Well, there goes the mood."
"There was no mood!"
"Well, not anymore." Sonoda pointed back toward where the figure had vanished from. "So, any idea how he slipped past us back there if he didn't know this part of town?"
Yue hesitated a moment as she tried to formulate a reasonable sounding lie. Luckily the inspector seemed to think it was just her thinking. "Manhole cover?"
"Didn't see any back there." Sonoda countered. "There were a couple of storm drains, but none he could have squeezed through."
"Invisibility device?" Yue suggested. "Some of the University labs have stuff like that right?"
"Nothings been reported by any of the University labs," Sonoda explained as his phone started to ring. He left it in his pocket and pointedly ignored it as he kept talking. "But considering how big some of them are they might not have noticed somebody borrowed one of their toys."
"So no likely leads?" Yue asked as they neared the end of the alley.
"Well," Sonoda answered with an exaggerated shrug before pointing toward the now cordoned off square that was crawling with cops. "There is that dead body we could look at." The crowd had already recovered from their shock by the time the two of them reached the police perimeter, sliding underneath the yellow plastic ribbon as the civilians got as close as they could. Several were already recording the whole scene with their phones while others were simply murmuring between each other. A few looked like they were about to pass out. One guy near the front with some elaborate facial tattoos took one look at the scene and promptly turned and ran off as the blood drained from his face. Some people just couldn't handle seeing death like that.
Yue turned her attention from the crowd and looked at the remains of the body. As always there was a part of her brain that, when confronted with a dead person – especially one killed as horrifically as this – starts screaming at her to simply turn and go in the opposite direction as fast as inhumanly possible. That part of her was quietly tucked away in its own little corner and carefully ignored as she went to work.
The body was burned almost beyond recognition, nothing beyond its rough human shape was left. Only the faintest hint of clothing was left, the crumbling remnants being pulled back by studious forensic investigators as the inspector and Yue paced around the scene. While the inspector's gaze was hopping all over the place, jumping from the body to the alley the perpetrator had tried to escape down to the streaks of ash on the paving stones, Yue's eyes were fixed firmly on the ground as she slowly traced the grooves scorched into the square. The ring along the edge was still faintly glowing, the melted stone giving off a pale red light at the bottom of a narrow trough maybe forty millimeters wide and half that deep. The outer ring was quite the sight – so much that Yue almost didn't notice the smaller lines spidering off from it.
They were faint, almost lost among the cracks and joints of the paving stones, but the jagged and unnaturally regular patterns stood out from the surrounding once you noticed them. They flowed like a fractal pattern, converging from the edges toward where the body had been resting and was now being carefully loaded onto a gurney to be carted away for the coroner. Yue's gaze followed the procession of investigators as they carted off the body, the body bag left unzipped by necessity – the heat of the fire leaving the corpse permanently warped.
The gurney bounced and clattered as it rolled over the semi-uneven paving stones until it invariably managed to trip up on one of them. The whole cart jolted, the technicians pushing and pulling it along muttering curses as one of the charred arms fell free and they carefully tucked it back into the bag before continuing on. Neither of them noticed the small piece of metal that had fallen out of the corpses hand and was now rolling to a stop neither Yue's feet. She calmly took a quick look around and, once she was sure nobody was paying her any mind, knelt down and carefully picked up the piece and slipped it into her pocket as the inspector approached. "You find anything?"
"There's some sort of pattern etched into the paving stones." Yue gestured to the ground as she spoke. "Looks like it all converges on where the victim was. You?"
Sonoda held up a small plastic baggy with a even smaller square of black cloth inside. "This was all he was carrying. Well, all he was carrying that was still intact at least." He glanced down at the ground. "Think the pattern came from the fire?"
"As opposed to the other way around?" Yue asked, hoping she had injected enough incredulity into her voice to make it sound like a joke.
"This is Mahora," Sonoda replied. "Stranger things have happened – remember that mars invasion years back? At this point, nothing would surprise me. So, lets assume that the pattern you found actually does converge somewhere, what would that imply?"
"Well," Yue started as she began following the engraving on the ground. "It would imply that if we followed this all to where it meets we should find something like..." Yue stopped as she reached where the body had been minutes earlier, a small grin on her face as she stared at a small spot at her feet. "That."
it was a small circle, no wider than her palm, and it was sunk a fair ways into the ground. The stone around it was warped like melted wax, but it was the centerpiece that had Yue's attention. It was the remains of what might have once been some sort of gem, the blob of red having lost any sort of definition or indication of its prior cut. Yue knelt down to examine it more closely as Sonoda approached. "Looks like it might have been a ruby before."
"A ruby?" Sonoda echoed as he knelt down next to her. "But that would put the fire at – what? 2000 degrees?"
"At a minimum," Yue replied. Serious fire magic then – not the most powerful she'd seen, but she had seen quite a bit. Definitely far beyond the average though.
Sonoda stood and scratched his head as he scanned the square. "How on earth do you get a fire that hot without external equipment?"
"Thermite?" Yue suggested as she hoped she still remembered her chemistry properly. "That would have done it."
"Maybe if he did it up like some sort of fuel-air bomb," Sonoda replied as he started toward the edge of the cordon the other officers had started to set up. "But that should have fried him as well. This was too controlled."
Yue ducked under the police tape as she followed the inspector. Across the square on the other side of the crowd a handful of police cruisers were pulling up, the one at the lead coming to an abrupt stop before its driver hopped out and started scanning the crowd. The driver's scan stopped as he locked eyes on Sonoda. Sonoda, for his part, simply sighed.
"More work troubles?" Yue asked as she arched an eyebrow.
"Something like that." Sonoda replied as he started through the crowd to meet the new arrival. He was dressed quite similarly to Sonoda, dark pants and a jacket emblazoned with the local police logo. But while Sonoda was dark-haired and relaxed, the new arrival was blonde and looked about one bad surprise from either a heart attack or simply losing it – Yue wasn't sure which. Sonada greeted him with an easy smile. "Komatsu! How's it going?"
"Don't start with me!" Komatsu bit back. "The Chief has been ripping my head off for the last twenty minutes about how you decided to leave an unsecured crime scene to try and play hero – again! How many times do we have to..." He paused as he saw Yue walk up. "Who is she and what is she doing here?"
"Yue Ayase," Yue bowed slightly. "I witnessed the...event."
"She also helped me try to chase the perp down," Sonoda added. "Made good back-up."
Komatsu started to say something, but stopped and just brought a hand up to massage his temples as a small sigh escaped. "Tell me you at least got an initial statement from her."
"And take away all your fun?" Sonoda said jovially. "I wouldn't dream of it."
Yue could actually watch Komatsu's brow twitch as his already negative expression soured further. His self control was expectational though, since all he did was turn to Yue and hand her his card. "Satoshi Kamatsu, SDO. Thank you for your assistance Mrs. Ayase."
Yue accepted the card with a quirk of the eyebrow. "SDO?"
"Special District Office." Komatsu explained. "Mahora represents a unique situation for policing needs. The Special District Office fulfills that need. We end up being somewhat...separated from the rest of the Tokyo Police as a result." He pulled out a small pad and a pen before looking at Yue expectantly. "Now, if you don't mind, could you tell me exactly what you saw?"
Yue explained everything to him as best as she could without revealing too much. By the end of it, Komatsu was giving her a look that, while not quite as bad as the one he had been giving to Sonoda, came close. "So, your only suspect managed to create a tornado of fire in the middle of a square, ran down a dead-end alley, and disappeared in a puff of smoke?"
Sonoda shrugged. "More or less."
"How?" Komatsu asked, not bothering to keep how he was feeling out of his voice. "Magic?"
Yue chuckled nervously. "Well, its as valid a theory as any."
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CV12Hornet
Riter.
- Location
- Tacoma, Washington
There are not enough Negima fics in the world. And there are almost none set post-canon like this. Watched with intense interest.
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Plus of all the plot threads.... he chooses this one.
Though the lack of space ships and being like Cowboy Bebop seems to show he is ignoring the VERY last chapters.
Which I'm fine with....
Spellsmith
First Nagato-type Armored Aircraft Carrier, Nagato
Despite the fact that I never ever read Dresden all my life, I sensed it in this fic. Especially with the whole "questionable magical detective in an oddly ignorant city, helping a 'special' police division in investigations" thing.
Watched.
Watched.
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think its less 'oddly ignorant' as they've slowly gotten use to weirdness..
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
That last chapter was set quite a few years into the future. Decades, quite possibly. Negi doesn't age, so his appearance isn't particularly relevant; chances are good he's in the same position as Eva.
This one, much to my joy, is set a very short time post-canon.
Actually, there's something odd going on here. I mean... how old is Yue? If she spent five years on Mars, that would translate to less than a year here, and Dragontrapper didn't point out a major difference in age between Yue and Nodoka. Maybe Nodoka did the same...
Can we get the details, or would that be a spoiler?
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Actually a Martian solar year is 1.88 Earth years.
I assume that this chapter occurs several years before the chapter which showed 'Magical Detective Yue'
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
I was referring to the time dilation. I don't recall how large it was, exactly, but it's at least 5:1; probably considerably more. So if Yue spent five years on Mars, she'd be at least four years older than the people who didn't.
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
.... I don't think the magical world has time dilation. Wasn't that just McDowell's training room?
Also, wasn't the reality of magic being revealed about this time?
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think we have a divergent timeline that changes sometime before the final two or three chapters. Since magic is still nice and hidden in this story.
Dragontrapper
Homeless Draconis
- Location
- A Tower in the middle of nowhere
This is set a couple of years before the second-to-final chapter of Negima; Yue is around 21 or so in this (which puts the year around 2010 or so). Something that will come up and be much more apparent later is that the reveal of magic is going much slower then it actually did - the ISSDA is having a much harder time of things. The Space Elevator hasn't even been started yet.
This becomes a plot point MUCH later.
and no - no time dilation on Mars, at least not here. (if there was in canon, I am quietly ignoring it...)
This becomes a plot point MUCH later.
and no - no time dilation on Mars, at least not here. (if there was in canon, I am quietly ignoring it...)
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
There was in canon. It's how they expected to get back in time for the next semester, after spending nearly a year faffing about on Mars.
It's fine to ignore it. That might actually be the divergence; if they went missing for that long, then Yue would in any case not have been able to easily resume her education at Mahora, and might have decided to go back to something she's actually good at.
It's fine to ignore it. That might actually be the divergence; if they went missing for that long, then Yue would in any case not have been able to easily resume her education at Mahora, and might have decided to go back to something she's actually good at.
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
have a chapter or anything?.... *flails around all the chapters*
CV12Hornet
Riter.
- Location
- Tacoma, Washington
The only reason there was that time dilation was because the gate ports - which presumably act as anchors - were all destroyed early in the arc. With the gate ports repaired there's no reason for the time dilation to still be a thing.
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
It would take them a while to fully repair though so maybe there is at least some time dilation.
I'd have to dig through my volumes for the details, but the time dilation was just an excuse for them to spend months running around on Mars trying to get a couple of the girls out of the debt-slavery they were in, yet still get back to Earth soon enough so no one noticed they were missing - I think Earth-time they spent less than a week or so on Mars.
I am fairly certain that CV12Hornet is right in that Akamatsu handwaved the dilation by claiming it was caused by the destruction of the gates.
I am fairly certain that CV12Hornet is right in that Akamatsu handwaved the dilation by claiming it was caused by the destruction of the gates.
I recall that the time dilation effect is only really possible so long as the magical world is disconnected from Earth. Else I thought they'd tend to get time locked to each other.
One would speculate that at the moment there is a lot of communication between Earth and the Magical world though.
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So... DT can quietly ignore it with any issues being handwaved as them bringing magical world/mars in line with normal reality for future stabilization?
Pretty much, as the whole thing was almost certainly just a plot device to begin with.
There hasn't been anything in UQ Holder to contradict that either.
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I doubt Dragontrapper will be using UQ Holder as a canon if he is only plunking details from the final two chapters of Negima.
What older!MkDowell looks like for example.
Not that I've read much of UQ Holder myself.
She looks the same as always of course... any older form is accomplished by body alteration magic/ageing magic. She's immortal though, so any such change is completely artificial and her base is the same as always.
While one can look at it like that, it's nicer if you can keep everything consistent. In this case one might perhaps for instance look at it as Magical Mars simply being a super large version of those special spatial areas that for instance Evangeline has. In fact I think it was compared in manga to those as well. So it's kind of similar in its properties to those, which explains why it might once have had a different time axis from Earth, because Evangeline's ones could have that as well.
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well yes... but if she actually decided to 'age' to go up the grade ladder with the rest of the class (Insert moral about finding friendship here)... unless the curse keeps her from using her magic normally? Unless of course Negi found a way to remove it (or at least lesson it).
Though the idea of the curse easing up after she finds friends or something I could buy.
... Sonoda needs to run into McDowell now
Sonoda: No no... let me guess... Vampire Loli!
McDowell: Got in one.
Sonoda: AH I see... I'M NOT SUPPOSE TO BE RIGHT!!!
Yue: .... can we focus here?
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I believe that Dragontrapper had started this story back in 2012 and got through the first chapter. He then restarted the story and the first chapter may of not suffered a lot of changes.