Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction ❯ The Dreamer ❯ A Teacher's Beginning ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

-----Author’s note: I do not own Negima!, though all other characters and ideas are my own. Any likeness to any real person, dead or alive, is purely coincidental. Hm.....I feel like I should forget English and shoot for a law major, now.-----


Negi’s eyes slowly opened, the rising sun outside let loose a blaring light through the window which forced him to wake up. He felt so warm and comfortable, wrapped up nice and safe in his own little world of pleasure. Man, sleeping was nice. What made this particular morning even nicer, though, was that he was safe and warm in Chachamaru’s arms. For once in his life since coming to Japan, someone came to his bed rather than him having to crawl into someone else’s. Yeah, life was-

Asuna grabbed the happy and groggy ten-year-old by the hair, jerking him from the comfort of his loft. He waved his arms around as Asuna held him up to her face, her eyes slanted into a frown only the young teacher could bring out.

“What the hell are you doing?” She asked, pointing a questioning finger the Chachamaru, who was sitting with her legs folded beneath her. She bowed as Asuna pointed.

“She just needed a place to stay, Asuna-san!” Negi yelled, trying to shake free from his roommates iron grip. “It’s ok, really! Ow, ow, ow!”

“I don’t remember you asking me if you could bring whoever you wanted into my room!”

Konoka grinned at the two as she went about making breakfast.

“Chachamaru-san isn’t just anyone! And I stay here too, you know! Asuna-san, you’re gonna pull out all my hair!”

Asuna dropped Negi to the floor, turning to look at the possible robotic pedophile, “And what’s your excuse for sleeping with a ten-year-old?”

Chachamaru, with Negi’s help, lied their way out of what had actually happened to Evangeline. They were going to have to stick with the story about her being off on a mission for the headmaster until he found out how to wake her up. Takamichi had already been gone for five days by this point, but since he was always moving abroad no one suspected anything.

“Breakfast’s ready,” Konoka announced. “Hurry up, if we miss our train we’re screwed!”

**********

“I look like a dou-“

“You’re with three women. At least pretend to have some class,” Mana cut Connor short, looking the new teacher up and down. He was decked out in a new brown suit, courtesy of the school. He looked sort of like a teacher, except his arms were folded and he refused to take his bandana off.

“It not that bad.....” Ku Fei mumbled. The suit didn’t compliment him all that well, hiding his muscles and killing his self-esteem. It showed, too. Every inch of Connor’s face described pure disdain for the dorky looking, uncomfortable clothes.

“I’m supposed to be a bad-ass. Or at least, on an off day, a tough guy. Who’s gonna take me serious wearing this crap?” Connor asked, looking each of his roommates square in the eye.

Ku Fei raised her hand, but Kaede and Mana simply made for the door. “We’re gonna be late,” They both called over their shoulders.

“I think you bad-ass,” Ku Fei offered as she walked through the open door.

“Thanks for trying, Sunshine,” Connor groaned as he followed after his three students.

**********

Negi met up with Connor in the hallway outside of his class. The boy couldn’t help but snicker at his new aid, who was pulling at the clothes with a grimace on his face.

“Brown not your color?” He asked with a smile and a bow.

“Looks better on your nose. I like you better when you’re kissing ass, kid,” Connor returned sharply, failing to bow.

Negi, who recalled Connor’s behavior from back in Wales, simply laughed, “When did I ever kiss up to you? The headmaster is having you help me, after all.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t forget that’s why I’m doing this. Those punks in there, and that damn rat don’t mean a thing to me,” Connor insisted.

“I heard that you were staying with Kaede-san, Mana-san, and Ku Fei-sensei,” Negi brushed away his aid’s mean attitude. “Did you get along with them?”

“Ku Fei-sensei? What is there for her to teach you?”

“She teaches me martial arts. Ever since the trip to Kyoto,” The boy assumed Connor knew when this was, “She’s been helping me out.”

“I don’t know. I think Mana wants to shoot me in the knees, and I don’t think Kaede cares as long as I keep in line. I get along with Ku Fei, though. She’s definitely the best of the bunch.”

“It’s good to hear you’re getting along with.....well, at least one. But you’ve still got 28 more girls to meet before everything’s said and done.” Negi reminded his friend. He could hear the girls doing something with the door which was only a couple of feet away from him.

“27,” Connor corrected the boy. “I already met camera-girl. Don’t think she liked me either.”

“You’re still batting .250, though. It could be worse. Come on, we’d better get in there,” Negi murmured as the bell began to ring. The boy teacher froze as his hand came within a few inches of the door. “Um, why don’t you go in first?”

“Don’t be such a wuss. It’s just an eraser, for God’s sake,” Connor threw open the door, a hand raised to catch the eraser as it dropped over him. He lobbed the eraser over to its spot with the blackboard, stepping deep into the room, and deep into trap central.

He felt a wire snap as his foot grazed it. The nimble teacher’s arms shot out as he bent over backwards, his head nearly touching the ground. A couple of the girls gasped as he caught a couple of the suction-cup arrows that whizzed towards him. The others missed completely, unable to even graze him he moved so fast.

Not believing all of the traps were gone, since Negi had yet to enter the classroom, Connor ventured further. After another couple of steps, he felt a second trip-wire snap. He heard something snap above his head, and stepped to the side. A bucket full of water splattered all over the ground where he had been standing.

‘He fell for it!’ Fuuka thought triumphantly, a big grin plastered onto her face. Dodging the bucket would be his biggest mistake.

Connor now noticed that he was standing in some kind of yellow powder. The water from the bucket splashed over the yellow mess, creating a thick, sticky goo. Connor now found that he was glued to the spot, with yet another trap on it’s way.

Asakura, ready with her pair of scissors, snipped the little wire beside her. A small section of the wall beside the teacher’s desk dropped, ten locked and loaded paint-ball guns were revealed. Haruna Saotome held in her hands the scissors which could cut the wire of the newbie’s dignity, releasing the flurry of ten shots with a single motion. Or, she could be benevolent and spare the new teacher from the embarrassment he had coming his way. This was something that needed to be carefully analyzed and thought over, she knew. That’s why it took her a whopping tenth of a second to cut the wire. Really had to play out the morals of that one.

‘Damn! The hell kind of pranksters are these kids?’ Connor thought.

Ku Fei grimaced as she heard the shots go off. She didn’t want to see what was about to happen, but she couldn’t look away. It was like a car wreck. You don’t want to see it, but you don’t look away, either.

The teacher’s hands shot out in front of him, moving so fast that only Kaede was able to keep up. Holding his breath to see if anything else was coming, Connor waited for a couple of seconds in silence. Once he was sure he was ‘safe’, he raised his hands to the students, showing them the eight paint-balls he had caught. Each one was placed perfectly in-between his fingers, one in each space.

“Where are the other two?!” Fuuka asked loudly, upset and amazed that her traps had failed.

Connor opened his mouth just a little, spitting the remaining two paint-balls out onto the floor, one at a time. “Don’t you guys think that was a little overkill?” He asked the stunned classroom. “I mean, yeah I’m new, but geez.”

Negi, pleasantly surprised that none of the traps worked, entered the now safe classroom. He took his place beside Connor, in front of his desk. With a grunt, Connor jerked his boots free of the yellow glue. He was glad he hadn’t worn those wussy dress shoes that the headmaster had provided.

“This is Connor Gavet, and he will be my aid from this point on. He will also be doubling as your new PE teacher while Haruka-sensei.....” Negi’s voice suddenly cracked as he said his deceased friend’s name. He cleared his throat before continuing, “While he is on vacation. Now that you’ve had your ritualistic trap-hazing,” The class laughed as they remembered how they had managed to completely nail the boy, “I expect you to treat him with as much respect as you have shown me.”

‘Not that that’s saying much,’ Connor thought, folding his arms.

“He doesn’t like the Japanese honorific system, so don’t be offended if he calls you by your name only. Also, you may call him by his first name. You may speak to him as you would me, and I encourage you to ask him questions. Well, now that all of that’s been settled, please open your textbooks to page 177 so we can get started.”

Though some of the girls were a little reluctant to begin, they listened nonetheless. The lesson went more smoothly than normal. Everyone sat in their seats, patiently waiting for the bell to start screaming, signaling their freedom. Well, until the next class, anyway. Some of them were working on questions for the new guy to see what he was made of, while some were working on crushes, getting lost in his deep blue eyes. Asakura had already told them the little bit she knew about him, namely his age, hair and eyes, approximate height and weight, and bad attitude. Right now, though, he was looking good. Attitude and all.

Once the bell began to ring, the girls all slammed their books shut and started to get up. “Hold on a second,” Connor raised a hand. “Sit back down, there’s one thing left.”

The girls, groaning and complaining, sat back down.

Connor slowly made his way to the back of the classroom, where Evangeline’s empty seat sat. “I understand that pranks are a common thing for you ladies, and that’s fine, I respect that,” He paused in front of a poster of an English poem, reaching out for it. “Lots of people think that pranks and stuff like that are just for kids. But, that’s just what old people who’ve lost the will to live think.”

A couple of the girls snickered, but some were offended.

“Actually, I’m only nineteen. Does that really qualify me as a full-blown adult?”

There were some scattered answers, but the ones that rang out the loudest were ‘no’s.

“Then since I’m not an adult, it’s perfectly alright for me to do this,” Connor pulled the wire he had placed behind the poster.

The ceiling squares above each student’s desk flipped down, large water balloons smashing on top of each girl but one. Ku Fei looked around at her soaked and screaming classmates, completely dry.

Negi’s mouthed dropped open, his eyes wide.

“Ok, now you can go,” Connor muttered through a grin.

**********

“You blow their freaking clothes off. I just soaked them down a little bit.”

“That was not a good way to start off! Besides, I don’t ever MEAN to blow their clothes off!” Negi exclaimed, taking a little bite out of his sandwich. He and his aid were eating up on the roof, watching the clouds.

“Uh-huh, sure. What can I say? Getting ladies wet just comes naturally,” Connor muttered, grinning to himself as he thought back to sneaking out of his room and setting up the trap. He wouldn’t have used it if they hadn’t used a trap on him, first.

“What are you grinning about? Was there some kind of innuendo in there that I didn’t get? Don’t talk nasty in front of the students, ok? You’re going to get us both in trouble if you can’t behave.”

“Not to worry, private polite,” Connor saluted the boy, “I’ll play nice.”

**********

Connor’s eyes wandered across the group of thirty girls in their gym shorts and tight shirts. Some of them looked a lot older than fourteen or fifteen. Some looked his age or better. They were all out at the tracks, waiting for their newbie teacher to get the class going.

“So.....how many of you were held back a couple.....I don’t know, four or five years?” Connor managed to ask. “I-I mean.....ok, this is what’s gonna happen. The headmaster thinks that some of you don’t take this class all that seriously. That it’s just an easy ‘A’. Well you know what? You’re right.”

A couple mouths dropped, but nobody was upset.

“You’d pretty much have to develop blindness paired with an allergy to sunlight to fail this class. And since none of you are blind or allergic to the sun, I think we’ll do fine. Now, I want you to jog ten laps around the track, and you’re done,” Connor stated, folding his arms.

“Does the headmaster know what you’re doing?” Yue Ayase asked, a little juice-box with a label Connor had never seen in her hands.

“I spoke with him about this particular drill, and he agreed. Thing is, if you don’t finish the ten laps before the period ends, you’ll have to help that drag of a human Nitsuta file out some paperwork that’s backed up.”

The entire class groaned, a couple people hurrying to the track to get going.

“This will be a piece of cake!” Makie yelled, her feet pounding the grass as she dashed for the orange track. Once her foot hit the track, however, a gargantuan explosion of flour sent her rocketing right back into the group.

“What the hell?!” Chisame Hasegawa shouted, backing away from the settling flour cloud.

“Oh, did I forget to mention? I’ve set out a couple thousand of Chao Lingshen’s practice chameleon mines. They skitter around, they blend in almost perfectly with the surrounding area, and are actually pretty fun to play with. I mean.....they’re good for training,” Connor snickered.

Makie’s eyes were still swirling when she managed to stand back up. “That’s not fair! You just set this up because if you can get us to file the paperwork you won’t have to! That’s a teacher’s job!” She exclaimed, pointing at Chizuru, thinking it was Connor.

“Oh? I hadn’t thought of that,” Connor muttered wryly. “In any case, you’re all wasting the period by arguing with me. The headmaster actually backed me up fully on this, so there’s no going against it. Nitsuta would appreciate the help, too, I’m sure.”

The group rushed off for the track, and the explosions ensued.

**********

“Where are Asuna-san and Konoka-san? They’ve never been this late, before,” Negi mumbled. It was already 10:30, and the only roommate of his to come back so far was Chachamaru.

“They are assisting Nitsuta-sensei in filing some paperwork that has backed up, Negi-sensei,” Chachamaru informed her worried teacher.

“Oh, that’s all it is?” Negi breathed a sigh of relief. Neither of them had the aura, but he still worried. The boy climbed under his covers beside Chachamaru, letting the warm hum of his bed-mate’s electronics help relax him. “Good night, Chachamaru-san.”

**********

“Nice job pulling through the laps today, Sunshine,” Connor congratulated his favorite student. The two were in their room, waiting for Kaede and Mana to get back from Nitsuta’s office. “I’m kinda surprised that the ninja girl didn’t make it, though.”

“Is weird. She usually much better,” Ku Fei admitted. She couldn’t help but think that the kunoichi had purposefully failed the task, though. Her tripping up Mana so many times couldn’t have possibly been an accident.

“Well, Sunshine, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” Connor said, getting down onto the floor. He got under his blanket, and laid his head down onto the nice smelling pillow.

“I.....” Ku Fei mumbled, her eyes wandering around the room.

“What’s wrong?”

“I have.....I have dream last night.”

“You.....but you’re ok,” Connor assured her. “You just gotta keep moving.”

“You sit with me?” The Chinese girl asked quietly, trying hard to make eye contact, but failing.

“Conduct unbecoming a faculty member,” Connor quoted Kaede.

“You only temporary faculty,” Ku Fei quoted Connor.

The teacher grinned at his student, though he was worried inside. Kaede and Mana would be coming back.....well, sometime tonight they would be coming back. If either one found the two sleeping together, even if innocently, there was a good chance of him getting kicked out of there faster than he could say ‘I’m not a pedophile’. But how could he say no to her? Something about Sunshine made him feel good, and he didn’t want to make her upset. In the end, that’s what won over.

“Alright, but as soon as I hear someone coming I’m back on the ground.”

Ku Fei scooted over to make room for Connor, who sat on the end of the bed near her feet.

“Why sit way down there? I move for you,” The girl pointed out, indicating the spot she wanted him to sit with a nod of her head.

Not wanting to do anything that would make either feel too awkward, Connor simply did as he was asked. He had to lay back to face her, though, which was what she wanted. The two lay side by side, one happy, one tired, and both a little embarrassed.

“Why you not hit me with water balloon?”

“No reason to hit the one person here I like. Besides, I still had twenty some other targets.”

“You have girlfriend back home?”

Connor thought for a minute. Ever since the girl of his dreams had died, he hadn’t even looked for another relationship. That was back before the portal, though, that pulled him out of his dreary reality. “No, I guess I don’t.”

“That sad, Connor.”

“Not really,” The teacher looked over to the girl beside him, “I play my best games solo, anyway.”

“You ever think of looking for girlfriend here?” Ku Fei fished for a little hope.

“I’ve only been here a day-and-a-half. I’ve got a lot to focus on with the dream and the aura, too, so my social life probably stands to wither a little. If I ever do want a girlfriend, though, I’ll let you know, Sunshine,” Connor grinned, jumping up as he heard footsteps approaching.

Mana opened the door, pleased to find Connor on the floor, and Ku Fei in her own bed. Kaede was right behind, but she was a little disappointed with what she found. Ku Fei had been lacking in the love-interest department for as long as she had known her. Now that she had a crush on this guy, a particularly strong and reclusive guy, she would do her part to help her friend out.

‘Man, I love this smell,’ Connor thought, rubbing his cheek against the pillow.


-----Author’s other note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Hm.....it’s 4:30 in the morning now that I’m finally finished. Yeah, that’s my dedication to you: the reader. Show me some love (or hate, if that’s how you roll) with a review. Ku Fei is probably my favorite, so get used to seeing her if you’re a reader. I like Yue, too, so I plan to work her in soon. Anyway, thanks for reading.-----