//------------------------------// // Arc 4: Chapter 29 // Story: Student 32: Sunset Shimmer // by Show Stopper //------------------------------// “AH-HAHAHA!” Evangeline’s laughter was a mixture of malice and genuine amusement as she approached Sunset, Asuna, and Negi. “I don’t know if that was supposed to be some demon god or whatever, but it was no match for me!” She grinned at her teacher and fellow-students. “How was that, children? Do you realize now how awesome my power is?” “That was great, Eva-chan!” Asuna shouted. “You’re amazing! No wonder you keep saying you’re the strongest!” “I’ll admit, even I was impressed,” Sunset said. “Not that I doubted your ability, but I didn’t think you’d be able to handle it so… casually.” Evangeline threw her head back and laughed. “Ha! That just goes to show you the difference in power between us! Besides, I had plenty of time while things got set up to figure out exactly how I wanted to handle it.” “With overwhelming overkill?” “How else?” Sunset grunted in reluctant agreement. “B-but what about the Attendance Perdition Curse?” Negi asked. “You shouldn’t be able to leave the Academy!” “About that…” Negi looked up to see Chachamaru descending, a large rifle slung over her shoulder. “Even now, we’re using a high-level ritual in order to continue to deceive the spirits that perpetuate the spell. The principal has to sign and seal one ‘Evangeline is in Kyoto for school purposes’ document every five seconds. I apologize that it took so long to prepare.” “As a reward for today,” Evangeline continued smugly, “that old geezer agreed to endure signing perdition until we finish sightseeing in Kyoto tomorrow.” “O-once every five seconds?” Asuna paled. “Is he going to be okay?” “Not like he doesn’t have magic to support him,” Sunset muttered. “Still, ouch.” “Hmph. This is all his fault for not foreseeing this would happen anyway!” Evangeline dismissed. “He deserves to work a bit! Especially since I’ll be continuing to keep his precious granddaughter safe.” She briefly surged her magic, causing her body to glow. “Ah, this feels nice. All of my powers are back while I’m outside of the Academy’s barrier. It feels good to go all-out again.” “So that’s why you decided to help?” Sunset asked. “A brief parole and a chance to have some fun?” Evangeline shrugged. “Pretty much.” She turned to Negi. “Listen up, boy. If we were to say that today was one of those Japanese video games I play in my spare time, then this would be the part where you ask why the last boss helps you when you’re about to die in the first dungeon. If something like this happens again, don’t expect to be able to rely on my power. At times like these, you’ve got to show them your own guts.” “R-right,” Negi muttered, swaying slightly on his feet as he grabbed at his petrified arm. “Hmm.” Evangeline spared him a rare look of concern. “Guess that fight was hard on you after all. Are you-” “Blood Sucker!” “Eva-chan!” “Evangeline-san! Behind you!” Evangeline stared in shock as Sunset, Asuna, and Negi rushed towards her. Negi reached her first and grabbed her, pulling her close as he got behind her. “Wh-what are you-” Evangeline’s eyes went wide as she saw what the others had, a white-haired figure rising quickly from a puddle of water behind her. “Lance of Stone.” Evangeline’s grit her teeth and threw Negi aside. “Get out of the way, idio-” The pier shattered as spikes of stone erupted through it, impaling Evangeline through the stomach and lifting her nearly a foot off the ground. “Eva-chan!” Asuna started forward, only to stop as Sunset grabbed ahold of her arm. “N-Nichi-chan?! What are you doing?!” “Just watch,” Sunset hissed. “Evangeline A. K. Macdowell, ‘The Doll Master,’ huh?” The white-haired boy asked, his face schooled to neutrality once again. “I can’t say that I’m impressed.” “Heh, you seem to be underestimating me too.” The boy’s eyes went wide as Evangeline erupted, transforming into a swarm of bats that flew behind him and reformed in an instant. Evangeline’s hand glowed with power as she grinned maliciously at the boy. “I am, after all, The Undying Mage.” A massive blast of ice magic split the boy in two, tearing apart the back half off the pier in the process. Evangeline grit her teeth as she saw not blood, but water pouring from the boy’s torso. “I see,” the boy said as he slowly dissolved into water droplets. “I would be at a disadvantage if I were to fight a true-blood vampire. I’ll be retreating for today.” With a final splash, his remaining body turned to water and fell to the jagged edge of the pier. “An illusion?” Sunset asked. “Or a water clone of some sort?” “Either way, he’s long gone by now.” Evangeline scoffed. “Coward.” “E-E-Eva-chan!” Asuna stammered, staring from her face to the massive hole in her clothes, through which she could see the vampire’s undamaged stomach. “Y-you just-” “Oh relax,” Evangeline said. “That boy wasn’t human either. I doubt that would have killed him even if he had been here in person. The way he moved, I’d guess he’s some sort of construct.” She shook her head. “In any case, I’ll be accompanying you all for the rest of the trip; he won’t try anything again.” “I think she was referring to your ‘Vlad the Impaler’ impression,” Sunset snarked. “Psh, that?” Evangeline waved Asuna off. “You can’t hurt a vampire with a sword or a gun, especially not a true-blood like me. It’s just like you see in the movies. Regenerating is really tiring, though. So annoying.” “Th-thank goodness,” Negi stamered, collapsing to his knees. “Evangeline-san, you…” “O-oy! Boy!” Everyone rushed forward as Negi collapsed completely, his breathing ragged and heavy. “What’s going on?!” “Don’t tell me...” Sunset knelt by Negi’s side and tore the sleeve off of his shirt. His entire arm had turned to stone, up to the shoulder. Peeking under his shirt, Sunset saw that the petrification had begun to advance across his chest as well. “Damn it! You were holding magic in reserve to fight, weren’t you?! I told you to focus on keeping it back!” “Negi-kun!” “Negi-sensei!” “What’s wrong, de gozaru?” Sunset looked up to see Konoka and Setsuna running towards them, Kaede and Yue right on their heels. “He’s been petrified,” Sunset explained as they got closer. “But it only got his hand, and it’s been spreading slowly.” “Even without conscious effort, Negi-sensei’s magic resistance is incredibly high,” Chachamaru said, examining him herself. “Thus why the process has been so slow. But at this rate he will suffocate when it reaches his neck and cuts off his breathing.” “Can you do anything, Evangeline?” Sunset demanded. “I haven’t gotten to healing magic yet.” Evangeline actually blushed as she looked away. “I… I’m really bad at healing magic. I mean, I’m undead after all.” “Tch. Makes sense.” Sunset glared down at the creeping line of petrification, barely noticing as Ku Fei and Mana arrived as well. “We can’t get him to medics in time,” she muttered. “Anyone in the region who could have helped is already stoned up at HQ.” “Reinforcements should be arriving about midday,” Chachamaru said, “but they won’t make it in time.” “U-um, Nichi-chan?” Everyone turned to Konoka as she approached. “W-would it help if I kissed Negi-kun?” “W-w-what are you saying, Konoka?!” Asuna shouted. “At a time like this-” “No no, that’s not what I mean!” Konoka said. “You know, that ‘pactio’ thing!” “That might work,” Sunset muttered. “If your magic is related to healing, like what you used on Setsuna in Cinematown, then your artifact will probably be something that can take care of this.” She backed off, allowing Konoka to kneel down in her place. “Negi-kun,” Konoka said softly, cradling Negi’s upper body and bringing it up to her. “You’ve done so much tonight to try to help me. It’s my turn to repay the favor.” She leaned down, closing the distance and planting a chaste kiss on his lips. The glow of the pactio contract overtook them both, Konoka’s card forming at her side as Negi’s body softened from stone to flesh. As Konoka leaned back and the glow began to fade, Negi’s eyes fluttered open. “Konoka-san,” he muttered, consciousness slowly returning to him. “Thank goodness. You’re okay.” Cheers erupted from most of the surrounding girls. Evangeline and Chachamaru stood off to the side while Sunset just shook her head and smirked down at her teacher. “That’s our line, Springfield. You gave us all quite the scare.” “S-sorry,” Negi said sheepishly. “I didn’t-” He gasped and leapt to his feet. “That boy! The onmyou! What… woah.” “Careful, Negi!” Asuna steadied the child teacher before he could collapse again. “Mou. You just can’t take things easy, can you?” “It’s alright, Sensei,” Setsuna said. “The onmyou fled soon after the demon was taken down, and the white-haired boy is gone as well.” “The demons have retreated as well,” Mana added, patting the case slung over her shoulder. “Along with the shinmeiryuu.” “Th-then, that means…” “Yeah,” said Sunset, sighing in relief. “It’s over.” ***** The rest of the night passed with little incident. Kaede, Ku Fei, and Mana returned to the hotel before their absence could be noted. Between Negi, Sunset, and Evangeline, they managed to cure everyone’s petrification at the Kansai Magic Association HQ. Evangeline had noted with surprise that the spell used on them was fairly low-level, certainly below what the boy had been capable of. After being debriefed by Konoka’s father, the students and child teacher all but collapsed into bed, exhausted from the night’s activities. All of them except for one, that is. Sunset sat on the roof of the Kansai Magic Association Headquarters, staring out across the mountain forest that surrounded the compound. She would occasionally glance down at her right hand, curl it into a fist, relax it, and go back to staring out into the night. “You’re going to be exhausted come sunrise.” Sunset shook her head. “I’ve had plenty of sleepless nights before; I’ll manage. Couldn’t sleep even if my mind was calm. A certain dangerous vampire is lurking a little too close for my liking and I’m finding it hard to lower my guard.” “You shouldn’t worry about that,” Evangeline replied, sitting down beside her. “With how overwhelmingly powerful I am, it doesn’t matter if you keep your guard up or not; I could destroy you in an instant either way.’ “...” “...that was supposed to be funny.” “Hit a little too close to what I’ve been thinking about.” Sunset sighed and looked down at her hand again. “He played with us, MacDowell. Tossed us around like so much trash and casually kept us from offering even a token resistance. The one solid blow we got in was barely enough to make him flinch.” Evangeline raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t I do the same thing to you? You weren’t moping around after our fight.” “Not like this.” Sunset shook her head. “Your magic is far superior to mine. You have far more experience and raw power than I’ve ever had. Even so, it’s something I can comprehend. I can imagine ways to counter and trick you, strategies that would weaken you and tactics that would take you down. They might not have much of a chance of success, but they’re there. But that boy…” She sighed again, pulling her knees up to her chest. “You know, when I first got here, the concept of unarmed martial arts was strange to me. Unicorns and pegasi sometimes fought like that - well, more like ‘brawled’ than ‘fought’ - but it wasn’t the sort of thing that you trained in. Hoof-to-hoof combat almost always involved a weapon of some sort, because how could you enchant your hooves to make them better? Earth ponies were bare-hooved fighters, but they channel their magic through their whole body. Some of them don’t even bother with armor because their magic protects them. But here? Sure there are spells for strengthening your body, making it faster and stronger, but that’s not what I’m seeing from other people. The way that that boy moved, even the way that Setsuna moves, there’s something that I’m completely missing. And until I figure it out, I don’t stand a chance against him.” Evangeline was silent for a minute. “So, let me get this straight. You think that there’s some sort of source of power or ability or way to train that Sakurazaki and the white-haired boy have realized and you’re up here in secluded introspection to try and reach within yourself and discover what that is, right?” “Pretty much, yeah.” “...you’re an idiot.” Evangeline stood up and stretched. “You can teleport other people with you, right?” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Um, yeah. Why?” Evangeline scanned the forest before pointing. “There. That break in the trees. That looks like a big enough clearing. Teleport us both over there.” Sunset’s eyebrow arched further and she contemplated declining the extremely powerful and dangerous vampire’s request to go off into the woods with her alone. Eh, if she really wanted to kill me, she could do it literally anytime she wanted. Sunset stood and placed a hand on Evangeline’s shoulder before pulling out the spare wand she’d borrowed from Konoka’s father to replace the one she’d lost in the lake. “Ianuae Magicae.” In a flash of light, they vanished from the rooftop and reappeared in the clearing. Sunset took her hand off of Evangeline’s shoulder and turned to face her. “Okay, so what did we have to come all the wa-” Sunset didn’t get to finish her question before Evangeline stabbed her hand into Sunset’s chest. Pain coursed through Sunset’s body and she coughed up a mouthful of blood onto Evangeline’s face, which didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest. She could feel Evangeline’s hand digging deeper, rummaging around as if looking for something. “You’re a real idiot, you know that?” Evangeline lectured, as if she didn’t have her hand buried wrist-deep in Sunset’s chest. “You think you need to ‘dig deep and find the answers yourself’ on this? There are some things that that applies to, but what you’re looking for is a lot more straightforward. Ah, here we are.” Sunset’s breath seized. Evangeline was caressing her wellspring, the source of her Equestrian magic that had been sealed off from her arrival in this world. Was this what she was after? Was she going to devour it like the centaurs of Equestrian mythos? Crush it just to see the despair in Sunset’s face? “If you’d asked Sakurazaki, she would have been more than happy to explain how Ki works to you. It probably would have sounded really familiar too. She probably would have had a less painful way of doing this too, but you irritate me so I see no reason to be gentle.” She grabbed something and Sunset’s eyes went wide. “Hope you’re ready for this, Nichibotsu. Because if you aren’t, it’ll probably devour you.” With a single tug, she shredded through the barrier around Sunset’s wellspring. And Sunset’s world exploded.