Pani Poni Dash! Fan Fiction / Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction ❯ Act II: Nightmare!? ❯ Episode 6: "The Werehog Revealed!" by Akira ( Chapter 6 )

Nightmare?!

Episode 6: “The Werehog Revealed!” by Akira

The blue... hedgehog/werehog/wolfhog thing had stopped trying to be intimidating, as his goofy yet powerful presence was somehow enough. It was this lumbering creature, a malformation of Sonic twisted by darkness (and some say bad design decisions by Sonic Team), that stood before the two girls—while violent, up until now he hadn't seriously been malignant. That was of course, until Asuna pissed him off and the boss door sealed the three of them in one fell swoop.

Now Asuna and Akira simply dropped into a crouch, ready to fight.

Sonic struck first. A wide, sweeping blow with his left claw nearly clipped Asuna, had she not stumbled backwards. Not even a second later, another wide claw swung in from the opposite direction. Asuna blocked this with her fan, though she visibly flinched. Unfortunately for her that wolfhog creature swung his left again, and Asuna sailed into the air. To her horror, Sonic didn't even stop—he jumped up, and with both outstretched claws, slammed her into the ground.

Akira had enough of this. She galloped straight in, flowing into a flip kick that knocked the malformed hedgehog out of his vicious combo. She landed for a second kick, but by then Sonic had deftly twirled out of harm's way. By now, Asuna recovered, ready to strike but not yet pressing an attack.

Sonic hopped back before moving forward with his claws, swiping at the two girls.

“Bastard outranges us!” Asuna complained. Akira merely gritted her teeth.

“Damn right I do!” Sonic bellowed, and as a nice retort he sent another present their way—OH SNAP WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!

Akira and Asuna rolled out of harm's way as the top of the tree crashed into the ground, followed by the rest of it a moment later.

Asuna found herself alone. Gripping her sword tightly, she nearly strained her ears to make out any sounds in the forest—footsteps, the chupacab—err I mean werehog/wolfhog, Akira, anything. A quiet step, another one, another one...

And then there was a TWIG SNAP!

Asuna fiercely aimed her fan, only seeing—nothing. Dammit, she was too tense right now! That freaking chupacabra was probably trying out his best rape face somewhere else!

Like right behind her, maybe? Asuna turned to see Sonic with an unearthly grin. “Ah, shi—”

-BAM- Sonic backhanded her into the air, easily sending her off into the sky with ease. Asuna forced herself to recover in midair as the beast followed through, leaping into the air to aim another slash. That wasn't happening today—Asuna flipped over the attack, pushed herself forward and -POW- RIGHT IN THE KISSER!

Finally appearing out of the shadows, Akira darted forward. She pumped her legs and shot up, flowing into a powerful kick that smashed right into Sonic's gut. The werebeast sailed helplessly into the air.

Suddenly, he slammed one hand into the ground just before the rest of him did. Using almost impossible momentum, Sonic swung around, stretching his other arm, and sent it crashing into Akira. “Gaugh!” The girl bounced once before landing painfully on the ground.

“Akira-san!” Asuna exclaimed, seeing the girl strain to recover.

“If you stayed down, I wouldn't have to hurt you!” Sonic snapped.

Asuna simply clenched her teeth. Was there any point? Were they really just getting in the way of something more dangerous? Or was the darkness clouding Sonic's judgment? “You sure have a funny way of expressing that!” Asuna decided to cast thought to the wind. “Rrrraaaauuuggghh!”

Sonic merely snarled and scampered towards his prey, aiming one powerful claw...

Suddenly, instead of attacking, Asuna stopped and ducked. Sonic's attack missed, landing him right into her strike zone! With the blue werebeast's massive range finally negated, Asuna was free to land a critical blow. And land it she did, with one final swing to the chest.

The former hedgehog's eyes bulged as Asuna scored a perfect homerun on his chest, causing him to nearly cave in from the hit. He crashed into the ground, as Asuna landed more smoothly. Nowhere near finished yet, the werebeast suddenly recovered, flipping onto his feet and giving a deafening roar. Hiding her fear so well as to appear completely undaunted, Asuna simply gripped her fan tightly and took a fighting stance.

Oh my. The orange orb of life spawned! And it lands on... Akira Ookouchi.

AND TEAM ASUNA CARRIES AWAY THE VICTORY! “Whoo hoo!” Asuna cheers, even adding completely unnecessary pelvic thrusts. “Better luck next 3-D game, chupacabra!”

“Man I still hate you so much right now,” Sonic buried his face in one of his giant hands.

By now, the doors opened. As if they were actually the reason that he hadn't shown up, Negi and Nodoka descended slowly towards the group. “That's not nice, Sonic-san. Why are you doing this?”

Sonic stood straight and grew quiet. The strange silence proved to be far more disturbing than the werebeast's sneak attacks. “You see this, right?” He pointed to himself. “This is something borne of the darkness.”

“The darkness?!” Asuna reeled back.

“Not the same darkness we're both fighting,” Sonic said. “Back home, Egg jerk got inspired by Swan Boy and screwed up the earth by using this ultimate darkness. That same darkness corrupted me, as you see here. Because I'm not at home anymore, if I lose it here, I'll no longer be myself. And I can easily lose it if someone uses the right influence...

“...to put it simply, I'm being blackmailed.”

xxx

Hey, hey guys! Remember back in episode three, where our favorite obscure character from a franchise that may never reach American shores got a task from everyone's favorite (read: most hated) Gary Stu in the universe? What exactly has she been up to?

After two episodes of her absence, she finally returns!

The demure owl girl touched base on the rooftop of the building, the hotel her adoptive big brother pointed out. Those people are here, right? She thought. I'll pass the message to them.

That message being something given to her after the boy had returned and poured some research into the goings-on around this place. The endless hours of gazing at all of those screens eventually revealed a find that declared immediate action—one that the demented swan could not take. Rather, he sent Windia to report to the “good guys”. She wasn't too sure about this, but apparently he assured her, “Obviously, things won't go so easily if they're like I think they are.” He had said. “The resulting problems that will emerge will be right up your alley.”

I'll hold you to that, big brother, Windia murmured silently, thinking back to all of his instructions. They seemed kinda complicated, but she wasn't stupid! Despite being a former-human-now-birdbrain surrounded by birdbrains, she was pretty confident that she could follow big brother's orders. “Keep your eyes peeled for an annoying blue hedgehog who's currently fighting off darkness in his heart. I made sure he wouldn't be an issue... for you, at least. And if you can... remember that girl you met during the whole dimensional catastrophe? If you can, kidnap her, and bring her here. You have that technique I taught you.”

And that was all she needed to know. Windia took a deep breath, flapping her small wings. “Come, my servants.” In moments, a fluttering of owls swarmed nearby, forming a circle of night birds around the girl. She smiled. “I take it all is going well outside. Anyway, while I wait for that child to get back, I guess I'll go kidnap that girl...” She forced her hands out. “Thank you, my servants. Now go.”

The owls flew away, all except for one. A single owl perched on her shoulder. “You're staying here? Very well, I'm going in~” And with that, she opened a hatch on the roof and daintily hopped in.

xxx

“Geez, whoever this was did a number on this thing,” Connor muttered, surveying the destroyed fuse box. And man, destroyed may have been an understatement. One massive claw had simply went through it like a knife through warm butter. No wonder there was no power. “This would take an entire replacement! Man, why didn't Deathsmiles teach me that undo spell?”

“I don't know, can you do such a spell?” He faintly registered a female voice.

“Of course I could! If I knew it, that is...” Connor answered.

“I've never seen you use magic, though,” The voice continued.

“Eh, that's because,” Connor finally wised up and turned to the source of the voice—one Konoka Konoe. Setsuna, of course, stood right by her. “Gah! Don't freak me out like that, Princess!” Connor considered himself lucky that it wasn't someone oblivious to magic sneaking up on him.

“Princess?” Konoka blinked.

“I tend to call people by nicknames. Much easier to remember,” Connor simply explained.

“You should address ojou-sama properly,” Setsuna said simply.

“Aw, Secchan, you're much too uptight,” Konoka waved off her guardian's concern.

Connor shrugged. “So, we've got an issue. Chances are we won't have power for the rest of the night.”

“I know that's bad,” Setsuna added. “But can you give us a more specific reason?”

“Security's dead. And before you guys got out here I tried the other staff, and they ain't answerin'. We're on our own, now.” Connor looked to the stars for a moment. “I'd hate to see the actual creature that pulled this crap.” With that, he sighed. “Yeah, let's get back to the others. We'll need to stick together and make sure nothing goes wrong...”

Something caught his ears. Did he hear... wings? “The hell was that?”

Setsuna's senses sharpened as her lips pursed into a frown. “I don't detect anything malignant, but I get the feeling that we may be watched. Let's get to the others quickly.”

“Okay!” Konoka let out a small titter. “Secchan, lead the way!”

xxx

“Totally spooky~” Kurumi murmured. She could discern a nod from Makie.

The night shadows definitely played with their eyes in this dark world. They had moved together to a kitchen area, under the belief that perhaps as long as they stuck together in groups, they wouldn't be cursed by horror movie clichés... but alas, things weren't that easy.

“Do you think we should just pull things from the cabinet instead?” Makie asked her partner. “Since we have no power and don't have a clue when it will come back, it might be a bad idea to open the fridge too often. The food might go bad!”

“Hmm... true,” Kurumi rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

There was the tiniest noise... Kurumi's eyes caught the fridge opening. She froze in response.

“Kurumi-chan?” Makie ventured. Eventually, she too caught the fridge opening.

At once, they knew it. Something dark, something evil was emerging from that fridge. One beady eye appeared in the darkness, gazing at them with no apparent emotion. “Eep!” They both cried upon seeing fear itself. They hugged each other, shivering.

The door swung further open.

“It's room temperature, mya.” The strange and seedy cat proclaimed, holding a single soda can.

While Kurumi was still shivering and scared out of her wits, Makie grew displeased. “That's cruel, Mother! How could you do such a trick?”

Kurumi just stopped, losing all color from her features. What was more frightening, the cat in the fridge or the fact that Makie claimed that it was her mother?!

“Gack!” The cat suddenly remembered Makie's insane claim from earlier. Or maybe it was something else, because it was still frozen in fear after a good minute.

Kurumi reverted from her 1920s color palette to pick up on this. “Huh? What are you afraid of?” Her voice, no longer fearful, was laced with concern.

The cat did not move or respond in any way.

Neither Kurumi nor Makie understood why until they heard the soft fluttering of wings. Both girls turned to a window, where they saw... an angel. A red-haired angel dressed in a white gothic lolita outfit, gazing at them with curiosity. A single owl was perched on her shoulder.

Neither party moved—this stalemate felt so surreal nobody dared interrupt and break the mood. Windia, however, finally stepped up and spoke, somehow keeping this surreal feel. “Hmm? Why are you guys so fond of the dark?” Is that a... British accent?

“Uhh...” Kurumi tried. She failed.

“Err...” Makie tried as well. She also failed.

“The power's out,” Kurumi finally stopped failing. “It's not that we like having the power out...”

“Well, the dark is as good a place as any!” Windia shrugged. “I'm looking for someone here.”

“Looking for someone?” Kurumi and Makie exchanged looks. “Who?”

“That's a secret,” Windia winked. “But of course, the fact that you know that I'm looking for someone means you know too much already.” She drew a blade. This shiny white thing with a gray hilt seemed to resemble a giant, serrated feather rather than a sword, albeit curved like one. “Well, three people can keep a secret, I guess...”

Kurumi and Makie let out sighs that they didn't even know they were holding.

“...if two of them are dead.”

Makie and Kurumi paled. Before they could scream or fight back, let alone react, they saw Windia slice through them with speed they had only seen on Setsuna. The pure shock of being attacked may have killed them faster than the attack itself. Well, if they were actually dead, that is.

“Well, I guess I used the wrong attack after all,” Windia observed their now thoroughly bound bodies hit the floor. The girl couldn't help but giggle at their panicked and muffled moans. “But at least that move works!” She looked at their bonds. “Geez, big brother sure has perverted ideas...”

“Mmmmph!” Kurumi shouted back, as if it were the most effective retort ever.

“You're really, cruel, you know that?” Windia sniffed as if her feelings were hurt. “I think I'll take my toys and play elsewhere!” She spun on the tip of one foot and floated away from them, her body fading from their sight as if she were a ghost.

xxx

In this world, the lights were still out.

Rei sighed and shook her head.

Currently, the Kashiwagi twins were busy fashioning clothes, using the lone flashlight between the three of them so they could see. “Ho ho... cooking up clothes for a slew of magical girls and boys is fun, isn't it?” Yuma asked to no one specifically.

Yuna, however, could tell the question was more to her. “I think so!” She beamed.

“God, I love how naïve and single-minded you two are,” Rei laughed off their fun.

“Well, excuse us for doing what we do best!” Yuma hotly retorted.

“Yeah!” Yuna added.

Rei merely yawned and dug out some annoying earwax while the sisters feverishly defended their hobby in the middle of a possible emergency situation. When she realized that they were finally finished, she simply smirked. “I'm not one to say throw away what you do best, but don't we have more pressing matters?”

The sisters stopped. “Like what?”

“Like...” Rei began, but alas, something caught her attention. A figure in white, hovering behind them, daintily stepped on the ground. This red-haired angel seemed to study the girls before her a bit. “...the person behind you, for instance.”

“Tachibana-san, that's the oldest trick in the book!” Yuma laughed it off.

Yuma, however, did not. Not only did she notice the girl coming from behind her, she also noticed the girl had now pulled a white sword out, and was creeping ever closer... “Y-y-y-y-Yuma-chan—!”

Yuma heard her sister, and finally whirled around. There was a second of silence as three girls looked in the eyes of one.

Then in one smooth stroke, the girl in white darted forward, drawing her sword into a wide sweep. Yuma and Yuna Kashiwagi were no longer standing.

xxx

Rokugou always felt that in scary movies, it wasn't the dark that was scary—it was the silence.

Maybe the darkness not being scary had something to do with the man she met last month—even so, the girl could not take it easy within this dark and unsettling hotel. What happened to the others? She had only gone to the bathroom, making sure the others were nearby, and now here she was, alone. Certainly she'd become the next victim, especially since she could hear nothing!

The girl shivered.

Finally, noise reached her ears. Rokugou listened carefully—they sounded reminiscent of mewling, something or somebody was heavily muffled. The girl discerned that the noises were coming from the back kitchen area. She hoped to all sanity that this was not a trap.

She walked through the kitchen, the darkness making it hard, but not impossible, for her to see. The mewling was only getting slightly louder, but it was still enough proof that it was here. She was so concerned over looking around, however, that she nearly tripped over something. Only flinching backwards kept her up straight. Rokugou looked down to see what had nearly tripped her over.

It was Kurumi's body.

The girl nearly screamed in horror, only to see the body flail like a worm. Kurumi finally showed her face somehow, apparently thoroughly gagged. “MMMFFF!” The girl cried.

“Wh-what's going on here?!” Rokugou cried.

Makie too, crawled over, apparently a victim of the same force that had struck Kurumi. Unlike the other girl, though, Makie wasn't gagged so horribly, and managed to work off the infernal thing. “A person in white came through here! She's dangerous! Find the others and get out of here!”

“But, but—!” Rokugou didn't like this. Not in the least.

“Don't worry about us!” Makie said. “Just go!”

The blue-haired lass stepped back once before running off back into the darkness. Makie whimpered, though she perked up a bit as she saw Connor, Setsuna, and Konoka walk back in. Konoka immediately spotted the girls. “What happened here?”

Connor took the time to note that the door had suspiciously closed on them and changed design, much like one of those boss doors from those video games. “Damn I hate these doors...” He muttered.

“There was this girl in white, and she's got a sword, and Rokugou... Rokugou...!” Makie tried to explain, but her fear and emotions were too high. Kurumi was ignored since nobody spoke in muffled grunts.

“Ojou-sama,” Setsuna said, pulling out her sword, Yuunagi. “Forgive me, but let me lead just a while longer.” She sprinted into the darkness as well. Konoka hesitated, not sure if she should help Connor free these two or if she should run after her guardian.

Considering that this was Setsuna she was chasing, the final answer should be obvious.

xxx

Rokugou found three more bodies in another room, tightly bound just like Makie and Kurumi.

She couldn't make out the muffled groans of the Kashiwagi twins, but Rei was ungagged. “Rokugou, run!”

The warning was a shade too late, however. The girl had barely stepped back before some white shape fell from above, smashing into the ground spectacularly. Only Rokugou diving to the side saved her, and even then this wound up blocking any avenue of escape.

The attacking shape rose. It was in fact, the girl in white Makie mentioned earlier.

However, Rokugou's eyes widened. “Wait! I know you!”

Windia stopped. She turned, seeing her prey at last. “Huh... ah! It's you, the girl I was looking for! You were with big brother the last time, yes?” While not exactly in a fighting stance, Windia kept her sword out. “So would you come with me? Big brother wants to see you.”

“He... he's back?” Rokugou blinked awash in some emotions she couldn't yet sort out.

“I KNEW IT!” Rei raged from her bound position on the floor. “This couldn't be the work of anyone other than Cygnus! Who else would have evil plans that consist entirely of 'kidnap Rokugou'?!” There was a quick pause. “And gloating!”

“Well, I can't say I blame him. Making friends or even girlfriends is pretty hard with that aura of his,” Windia shrugged off her accusation. “And the only reason I can be around him at all is because I'm used to an aura like that. I lived in it for years, you know.”

“So maybe he should take socializing lessons instead of being a massive creepy jerk,” Rei snarled. She rapidly switched to Rokugou. “Get out of here, Rokugou! Now's not the time to fall prey to Cygnus's tricks!”

“But...” The demure, blue-haired girl was at a mental impasse! See the man she loved or keep her friends away from a very unbalanced owl girl! Why oh why must life decisions be difficult?!

“Ignore the losing side, and come with me,” Windia simply smirked. “I don't know the next time I might draw blood instead of ropes.”

Rokugou frowned. She wanted to see him, but not like this...

However, someone decided that Rokugou's mental impasse was not worth suffering over, and sliced one path to ribbons. In a second, Windia felt a sword coming her way. She whirled to block, and her sword clashed against her assailant's.

She found herself staring at an angry Setsuna Sakurazaki.

“Cygnus's cowardice has reached a new low,” The girl spoke evenly despite her outward anger. “I will not stand for his—or your—trickery.”

“Ho ho,” Windia pressed back and slid to safety, ending any potential stalemate. She rushed Setsuna, twirling her blade with grace and speed. Setsuna, in turn, steeled herself, blocking both slices, though nearly wincing from the loud clangs that resulted.

Setsuna stepped to the side, pulling a feint to trip up the winged girl before pushing an attack on the other side. Alas, that wasn't to be—Windia, with her speed, saw that coming a mile away and simply floated backwards, evading the attack. “You're fast, but...” Windia grinned. One moment, she was hovering above Setsuna. The next, she was right behind her. “I'm faster.” Setsuna leapt back to dodge her incoming swipe, but that turned out to be exactly what she planned for. Instead of a missed swipe, Setsuna found herself dodging the business end of a nightmarish wind blast. Setsuna could only brace herself as the wind attack nicked her sleeves and arms.

Windia giggled and twirled again before slicing once more. Setsuna snarled and turned tail.

“Secchan?” Konoka appeared at the doorway of the room, only to see her guardian barrel towards her.

“Ojou-sama! RUN!” Setsuna commanded, though she defied this in the next second by scooping Konoka up and running as the blast of wind tore through the door and pieces of the stairs. Setsuna sailed into the air and landed down at the bottom. “Okay...” It seemed she remembered her useless command.

Windia flew down into the foyer, giving chase to the fleeing duo and leaving a thoroughly confused Rokugou behind. A lust for battle had already kicked in. “Don't bother running, you could actually put up a fight! I'll see this to the end,” The owl youkai gripped her sword.

“Cygnus-han has followers? Outside of Rokugou-han?” Konoka blinked. “This can't be good.”

“She reeks of war...” Setsuna hissed, affirming Konoka's worry.

Windia heard that one! In a petty retaliation, the girl sniffed the air. “And you reek of crow youkai. You're hiding it quite well, too. I wonder if your friends know?”

“So what if I do?” Setsuna took this rather well, though her face grew hot. “And what if my friends know? My goal is to protect ojou-sama, regardless of what shame I hide...” She cast aside that embarrassment, and shed her human form.

Even aware and unafraid of this great power, Konoka stared in awe. White wings, far larger than Windia's, shot out of Setsuna's back. The girl's hair faded to white, and her eyes became red. Setsuna drew her sword and merely whispered in Windia's direction. “Stand down or die.” And a second later, the crow had pressed hard against the owl's sword.

“Eep...!” Windia gasped. “Dammit!” She twirled and pushed back with her amazing speed, distancing herself from the other girl. Not even bothering with any banter, she slashed her sword, letting the wind tear towards her foe. Setsuna blocked this one, not even letting it near Konoka. The furniture in the foyer, on the other hand, was not so lucky. Tables and chairs flew, destroyed by the wreckage. Tornadoes would be hard pressed to replicate this damage! “I hate opening cans of worms! They're icky and ugly and the figurative ones always have power levels that exceed maximum!”

“Oh... oh GOD NO!” Connor's voice shot through the fight. “You didn't just kill my paycheck, did you!?” The man in question stormed in, having finally freed the other girls and somehow repairing the fuse box, though a majority of the hotel still hung in darkness. He looked once, saw the devastation Windia pulled with just one attack, and let his pupils shrink to devastated, microscopic size. Looking up as if a super villain had just killed his pet dog and opened the can of whoopass, he snarled and pointed at Windia. “My name is Connor Gavet. You destroyed my paycheck! Prepare to die!”

Connor extended both hands to his sides. Light and darkness gathered at both ends, twirling like a buzzsaw, until it solidified into chakrams, looking much like a spiked wheel or ninja shiruken. He focused magic below both his and Windia's feet, though Konoka and Setsuna were in range, too. All four disappeared from the room, reappearing at the roof.

Under the night sky, there was but a brief moment of silence as Windia tilted her head in confusion, and Setsuna still kept her sword ready, as if Connor wasn't being a jerk by interrupting her fight.

Connor was far too pissed for that. In a second he let one of his chakram fly right for Windia's neck, and she would have been decapitated had she not tilted out of harm's way. She didn't even have time to consider attacking him, as he had appeared behind her, catching the weapon and bringing it across to slash her. The girl brought her sword up and blocked the blow.

“Two against one? That's not even fair!” Windia yelled in mock-exasperation. Illuminated by the moon, she lifted one hand in the air. “Come my servants.” Runes flashed from the air, and at once, from the surrounding woods, a whole flock of owls swarmed in, surrounding her. Despite their fierce wing flapping, they kept relatively still, their eyes locked onto Connor and Setsuna like some sort of spooky painting. “Entertain the twilit hothead.”

All of the owls suddenly focused on Connor. “Aw, this is complete shi—” All owls began gathering magic energy, and began rapid-firing bursts of wind at the man. “Argh!” He put his arms up in a defensive position, and tendrils of light and darkness rose from the roof, negating the wind as if it were hitting unmovable stone. “You've already wrecked the front room! I ain't lettin' you destroy any more! Haaauuuggghh!” He took both chakrams and whirled like a dancing fool, slicing up the aggressive owls and wrecking their magic.

Seeing Connor's faulty attack thwarted, Setsuna decided to resume her fight. “Ojou-sama, please assist Connor-san.” Letting her wings flap once, the half-demon took to the air. Konoka simply sighed before running off to Connor, casting a reflect spell to guard him against a surprise owl attack.

Windia gave chase to Setsuna. She sliced hard, and a nigh powerful wave of wind tore towards Setsuna. However, the angel-like half-demon easily evaded, flying forward and curling into a midair attacking stance. “Zantetsuken!” One powerful slash knocked Windia backwards, and nearly out of the air. Only at the last second did she right herself.

“That... that hurt...!” Windia was quivering now. “I can't fool around anymore!” She sped up, her movements increasing to a dangerous white blur. She swerved and dove under Setsuna, turning halfway until she was aiming directly under the girl. “Heeeyah!” A near-white burst of energy crashed into Setsuna, knocking her out of her flight path.

It was enough to where Konoka nearly panicked at the sight. “Secchan!”

Konoka needn't worry—Setsuna righted herself in an instant, and in seconds, homed in on Windia, her powerful wings flapping.

The next moment, Windia saw, to her horror, that Setsuna had merely sped up to match her. The two girls clashed in a whirlwind of swords too fast to see. Try as she might, Windia could not break or parry any of Setsuna's attacks.

It was almost like... it was almost like... her first nightmare.

It got worse when Setsuna twirled and smashed her into the ground.

For the first time since that... incident, Windia felt true pain. And this foe before her, there was no desperation that matched hers at all. “You...” Windia muttered. “I c-can't...”

Death. It was all she could remember. Despite her... no, all of their valiant attacks against that tyrant... Lord Hades had a feast that night.

The crow murmured. “Now will you stand down?”

“No...” Windia hissed. “I won't. I can't fail big brother! Not like I failed my friends...!” This came out more of a whine, than anything.

“Friends...?” Konoka blinked.

“Bad guys have friends?” Connor blinked. “As in actual friends and no backstabbing?”

Windia shivered. Whether it was from rage, fear, or perhaps both, no one else on this roof could figure out. What they could figure out, however, was the fact she aimed one last attack. With a desperate cry to the heavens, Windia shouted, “HELP ME!”

The rooftop exploded.

Massive energy nearly engulfed Konoka, Setsuna, and Connor. Swarms of explosions rocked them, and Konoka's shields were barely holding up. “This is too strong! I can't hold this for much longer!”

Setsuna fortified herself. It would be unfortunate, but there was no choice. She focused herself, gripping her sword tightly. There was only one shot, and Konoka's barrier was getting weaker by the moment. “Hiken... Hyakkayouran!” With three clean swipes, she sliced right through Konoka's barrier and Windia's desperate blast attack.

The world stopped blowing up, the energy dissipating like an extinguished fire. Windia fell to her knees, thoroughly defeated. She said nothing, only shivering.

Wondering if she was up to anything else, the half-crow moved forward, ever so cautiously, to perhaps see what she might say now.

That stopped when she heard a familiar voice. “Setsuna-san!”

“Huh?” Setsuna turned to the sound of that voice. “Negi-sensei?” A sudden feeling of imminent trouble caused her to take a fighting stance again.

Windia too, tried to stand and fight, but that was a useless endeavor.

Some blue shape shot into the air from the ground below and landed right between them. The blue werebeast didn't waste any time and let out a mighty roar, startling and therefore stopping any bright ideas of warfare. “Enough!” Sonic bellowed.

Seconds later, Negi Springfield landed on the rooftop, Nodoka getting off of his staff with him.

“We know what's going on, there's no need for all this violence!” Negi said sternly. He looked towards Setsuna, Konoka, the near broken Windia, and a very angry Connor holding an ungodly amount of self control. “Konoka-san and Setsuna-san, please don't recklessly attack peopl—” For the first time, Negi noticed the girl's pale visage and white wings. And it sure didn't look like it was activated by any contract. “Setsuna-san?”

The girl finally regarded Negi. There was a bit of shock before her cold visage was replaced with shame. “I... I—”

“Setsuna-san... are you...” Negi began.

“Leave Secchan alone,” Konoka's eyes were like steel.

“Ummm...” Nodoka began.

“But... but my paycheck!” Connor lamented.

There was a quiet cacophony of voices, as everyone voiced their confusion or discontent, including Asuna and Akira, who were dragging a very unconscious Himeko and a very groggy and angry Miyako. It got to the point where even Sonic was threatening to roar again.

But there was no loud voice that brought this to an end. No, it was a simple request.

“I'd like some tea,” Windia said, bringing all eyes on her. While still somewhat broken and fully dazed from the crow-induced nightmare, she was coherent enough to know what would fix her up again, much like it did when she had first met Cygnus. After all, when Lord Hades had held his feast, so had Cygnus. But big brother's feast was better, because it had served tea... and Lord Hades.

So she insisted again, “I'd like some tea.”

xxx

With light restored to the little Crystal Teardrop Hotel, everyone was busy trying to clean up the horrible mess left by the misunderstood owl girl and everyone's valiant attempt to bring her down. Most effort was spent cleaning up the wrecked foyer. Although, there seemed to be quite a bit of idle conversation. For example:

“I thought chupacabras didn't have stretchy arms?”

“For the millionth time, I am not a chupacabra!”

“But the spines...”

“Hedgehog spines!”

“Aren't you a super elusive bloodsucker?”

“I had blood once. Tasted like crap. Cramps my style. Go bother Dracula or something.”

“Hey chupacabra, when are you gonna get a good 3-D game? Misora keeps angsting about it.”

“As soon as you grow a pair.”

As you can see, idle conversation.

“You know, this is like one of those Gensokyo tales Maid Girl talks about,” Connor observed at the small makeshift table. Connor, Windia, Konoka and Negi were all seated around the table, with each gender on opposite ends. Chamo was of course, just content on resting on Negi's head. Connor continued. “There's some incident caused by either someone well-intended but horribly misguided, or someone who misunderstands the situation. Then everybody gets into a violent fight and then they all break for tea. Isn't that similar to what's going on here?”

“I guess,” Negi shrugged.

Connor waved this off. “Guess it's beyond ya, Wonderboy.”

“I feel much better, now,” Windia smiled after putting down her tea. “But in any case I came here on behalf of big brother.”

“Big brother being Cygnus-han, I take it?” Konoka asked between sips of tea.

Somewhere in the room, Rokugou's ear twitched.

“Mm-hmm,” Windia hummed her affirmative. “I believe you're here because a certain Rebecca Miyamoto is missing, yes?” She turned her eye to Negi.

“How do you know?” Negi asked, his full attention on the girl.

“He's been keeping tabs on everyone, of course,” Windia answered. “But if you want a hint on where she's hiding, you should go back to school.”

“School? Peach Moon?” Negi asked. “She's been under our noses the whole time?”

“Not even big brother can say for sure,” Windia took to sipping her tea. “But he's eyed a signal that could only be produced by the child genius. Heavy amounts of alchemy were involved, I think.”

Negi let that sink in. From what he remembered, Becky's armor card had powers heavily influenced by alchemy. The fact that she was able to do this without him activating her pactio... Maybe she was looking for a way to defend herself. “So Becky may not have needed my help...” He sighed sadly, but almost as if Asuna had threatened him, he quickly shook this off. “Even so, I'd like to see that she's safe.”

“Alchemy, huh?” Connor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Deathsmiles mentioned that there was once a great alchemist that ran about twenty years ago...

“Sounds interesting,” Konoka nodded.

“Big brother's getting pretty impatient with you, you know,” She turned her eye to Negi. “You should hurry up and deal with this Star Crystal business. He can't freely wander around here as long as that other darkness keeps running away from him.”

“So that legendary swan boy is using you to dick around in his place? Why am I not surprised...” Connor muttered.

“Cygnus-han should fight his own battles,” Konoka nodded in agreement. “Even if there was no Star Crystal case to worry about, he should leave everyone alone.”

“I don't think everyone is of your concern, princess,” Windia sneered. “You're just clingy to your half-crow.”

“Leave Secchan out of this,” While Konoka still had a smile, her voice had a dangerous edge to it.

“Ooh, I hit a soft spot~” Windia taunted.

Konoka didn't take any more bait, but Negi cut to the chase before she could consider. “Why is Cygnus-san so interested in me solving that case?”

“Because his appearance will stall the case, and if that keeps happening, the Student Mage Council and every mage within a 200 mile radius will swoop in to make his life miserable,” Connor answered in one smooth stroke. “We'd rather not deal with the old guy's BS, but if it comes to that...” He noticed Negi and Konoka's surprised stares. “What?”

“You spilled the beans that fast? You're sad.” Someone said.

“Hey wait—!” Connor started, but as soon as he turned around, he saw that his compatriots had all gathered and surrounded the table. “Aw man, I knew my paycheck was ruined!”

Howell was the person who spoke earlier. He continued, “You should probably keep it down, Ts—err I mean Ichijou is still sleeping.”

“Augh, I'm tired.” Behoimi sighed.

Negi stared, incredulously, at the entire staff of the hotel... no. “So... you're the Student Mage Council.”

“Completely correct,” Albiero said. “We've been sent to lend a hand on the Star Crystal case, but since you're such a popular and important man, we decided to watch you instead,” He beamed, although Negi was certain he couldn't trust that smile one bit. “Don't mind us at all, we only want to see you solve the case.”

“Don't bother trying to run,” Serizawa, in the guise of that boxy robot, said. “We have eyes everywhere.... heeheeheeheehee...”

“Well, we have clean-up duty (which is getting docked out of Connor's pay despite him passing our hidden test and being awesome), so tell your class to relax!” Jack Rakan said (to which Connor let out a scream of anguish). “Maid guy mode TRANSFO—” Albeiro shut down Rakan's manservice with a gravity attack, preventing the universe from having its eyes bleed from the awesome.

“Traumatize everyone else when I'm not looking, 'kay thanks,” Al reminded the big oaf in a singsong voice.

Windia hovered out of her seat. “It was nice having tea and fighting everyone, but I have to go.” Her wings fluttered. “Blue hedgehog, let's go!”

“What?!” Sonic growled. “Since when was I your bodyguard?!”

“Since now, guv'na~” Windia giggled. “You forget who we both work for.”

“Geh,” Sonic leapt over the crowd, landing next to Windia.

The owl girl began to float off, before someone called her attention. “H-hold it.”

Windia turned a curious eye to the blue-haired girl in the room. Rokugou continued to speak. “So I know he's truly here. I want to go see him...” This drew some sharp gasps, none of which were from surprise so much as they were from tension. “...but if he wants to see me, tell him to kidnap me himself!” The girl was shaking by now. Everyone sighed with relief, though a few who picked up on another meaning of Rokugou's nervousness did a spit-take.

Windia giggled. “Don't overexcite yourself, girlie. I'll tell him~”

“Tell him this, too!” Konoka suddenly interjected, her face serious. “If he starts trouble, no matter what's happening, I'll kick his butt any day of the week!”

“We'll see if you live up to that,” Windia smoothly countered before slowly hovering out of an open window. Sonic gave a serious but apologetic stare at Negi before leaping off into the night after her.

The nightmare was over.

Without even speaking a word, everyone resumed whatever activities they were doing before the lights went out, albeit with hushed whispers of the trials to come. Negi of course, had his mind spinning on the things he learned—his new audience, Cygnus's return, Setsuna's half-demonhood, but most of all, a solid lead on Becky's location.

Tomorrow, the mystery would continue.

xxx

“There appears to be no omake again.” One of the aliens pointed out.

“What a joke,” The captain muttered. “And here I was looking forward to hearing more about Ichijou and that... one man.”

“Captain, has that development hit a sore spot with you?” Another alien piped up. “Remember that we were forbidden contact with humans, and yet you once went against that.”

“The rules have changed,” The Captain murmured. “She knew about us since the beginning. And she was so lovely, so lonely...” He hugged himself and spun in a strangely stupid yet angsty fashion.

“Try as you might, you can't deny that your captain is right,” Cygnus muttered, his teeth clenched on an unlit cigar. “That girl is mighty unusual, and the fact that your dear old Captain is still lovestruck tells me she's got a back-story worth seein'. So we'll have to tune in next time. Until then, we wait for the pieces to move into place so we can finally party!” Cygnus crowed. “Allllllllrighty then! Tune in next time for an episode by Yuzuko Kurusu, or as that clown Connor calls her, Gojikko. What's the title of her next episode?”

One of the aliens dug around in a database somewhere before finally pulling out—a piece of paper. “Got it! Says 'Who Finds Love in a Nation of Fools?' I heard some really creepy circus goes by that name.”

“Whatever,” Cygnus waved this off. “So got it? Good. Come back for episode seven. You don't want me to drown you in darkness, do you?” An anvil struck Cygnus, as a gentle reminder to not threaten the audience. “Goddammit!”

(Welcome to the first chapter of Nightmare!? in the new year! With a word count of OVER 7000 and a pacing issue that's finally being resolved, hopefully you can finally enjoy this one! Be sure to drop a review!)