Mahora University’s outdoor stage was as grand as the rest of the school. The sunken pit was backed by the massive “world tree” around which the school was built and was tiered with seating for a few thousand. The storm had proven to be as brief as it had been fierce, the clouds quickly moving on to allow the moon to illuminate the stage and a scene that was only slightly stranger than what would be found there at the school festival in a month’s time.
Three spheres of water hovered a few inches above the stage. Two of these held one girl each, subdued in a magically induced sleep. The other held five girls, four of them totally naked and the fifth wearing only her pyjamas. In the center of the stage, hanging by her arms which were chained to the rafters above, was another girl, irate at her situation as a helpless hostage. Finally, the stage contained a tall, looming man dressed in black, a wide-brimmed hat casting his eyes into shadow, his bone-white beard sharply trimmed and his shoulder-length hair waving behind him.
At the top of the seating, facing down towards the stage, were two children, boys with more might and power than most grown men. They faced down the mysterious man who was their opponent.
“What are you talking about, Negi! You’re just a mage! There’s no way you can win! Get out of my way!”
“What? And what are you talking about, Kotarou? You were just defeated by that guy down there!”
Rather, who should have been their opponent.
Sunset sighed, watching from up in the World Tree’s branches as Negi and Kotarou bickered about who should be fighting. “Males. No matter the species, they’re all alike.” She glared down at the figure in black, who watched the argument with an amusement that was slowly beginning to bleed away into impatience. “So, that’s the mastermind, huh? If there isn’t more to him than meets the eye, I’ll shave my head.”
“That would be a shame.” Sunset didn’t even flinch at the silent arrival of the class ninja. “Your hair is quite unique de gozaru.”
Sunset nodded a greeting. “Kaede. Shouldn’t you be going down there to help?”
Kaede shrugged. “I believe that Negi-bozou and Kotarou-bozu can handle this.” Nevertheless, she held her giant shuriken in her hand. “What about you? It is not like you to sit these things out.”
“Despite my past efforts,” Sunset muttered with a chuckle. “I’m just waiting for that guy to be distracted. Hit him while his guard is down.”
Kaede raised an eyebrow. “He does not seem the type to let down his guard de gozaru.”
“I’m starting to see that, yeah.” She stretched her arms above her head. “Guess I’ll go knock some sense into those two kids, then. I’m surprised to see dog-boy here, though.”
“As am I. But they seem to be getting along well, ne?”
“Since that battle, I’ve been training hard! And without your wolf spirits you can’t transform, so that makes me the stronger one!”
“What?! Oh you think so, do you?!”
“As well as two hot-headed males can.” Sunset summoned her gauntlets and prepared her spell. “Well, enjoy the show, I guess. Maybe whip up some amusing commentary alongside that vampire three branches up who thinks she’s being sneaky.”
Sunset teleported away just as Evangeline choked in surprise.
*****
“Allright, that’s enough.” Two gauntletted fists came down, striking Negi and Kotarou and sending them both to their knees, clutching their heads. “You can duke it out to see who’s stronger later,” Sunset admonished. “Right now we’ve got an old man to beat up.”
“Gah! Nichibotsu-san!” Negi looked up in shock. “Wh-what are you doing here?”
Kotarou cursed. “What’s the fire-anesan doing here?”
“Taking down this kidnapper, that’s what.” Sunset glared down at the black-cloaked figure. “He may be aiming for you, Negi-kun, but he kidnapped my friends too.” She smirked. “And one of his minions tried and failed to kidnap me.”
“Minions?” Kotarou leapt to his feet, his ears perked as his eyes darted around. “I thought we were just dealing with this guy.”
“He’s got backup,” Sunset explained as Negi got up as well. “Three slime girls. Well, two slime girls and a pile of ash.”
“WHAT?!”
The two puddles of slime that had been creeping forward, camouflaged against the wet ground, sprang towards Sunset, solidifying somewhat into two very angry slime girls. “What did you do to Slime-nee?!”
The two slimes impacted Sunset, sending her toppling backwards. She grunted as the slimes molded together, trying to reach her head to smother her. “This!” Her gauntlets flared to life, setting her whole body alight and sending the slimes shrieking as they leapt off of her.
“Nichibotsu-san!”
“Fire-anesan!”
“I’m fine!” Sunset leapt to her feet, putting up her fists as the two slimegirls recovered. “I’ll hold them here! You two take care of the old man!”
Negi hesitated. “But-”
Kotarou put a hand on his shoulder. “She’ll be fine! Come on, Negi!”
Negi bit his lip before nodding. “Be careful, Nichibotsu-san!” he shouted as he and Kotarou leapt down towards the stage.
Sunset grinned savagely from one slime girl to the other as they began to circle her. “So, her name was ‘Slime,’ was it? How original. What are your names, then; Ooze and Muck?”
The girl in the cap and glasses glared at Sunset, tears of slime forming in her eyes. The other one, whose hair almost reached the ground, stared coldly at her. “Pudding,” she said. “And that’s Amee.”
“What did you do to Slime-nee?” Amee demanded again.
Sunset slowly turned, keeping both slimes in her peripheral vision. “I told you, didn’t I?” She allowed the fire surrounding her to roll off her body, collecting into her fists. “She tried to imitate Sakurazaki Setsuna to capture me. It didn’t work, and she ended up at my mercy.” She snorted. “Of course, with her admitting to having helped kidnap my friends, my mercy ended up being in short supply. You’ll find her remains charred to a crisp in the girl’s dorms near the bath. If you hurry, you may even be able to retrieve them before someone sweeps her up and throws her in the trash where she belongs.”
Amee screamed in rage, throwing herself recklessly at Sunset as her body deformed into a giant wave, her head still glaring at her from on top. “I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL KILL YOU FOR KILLING SLIME-NEE!”
Sunset turned to face the wave, her ears perked to catch the wet footfalls of Pudding behind her. Smart girl, she thought, throwing a ball of fire at Amee to force her to reign in her attack and dodge. But predictable. She jumped, flipping backwards and relishing the shock on Pudding’s face as the slime’s fist struck where Sunset had previously been standing. Sunset landed behind the slime girl, throwing a fist that caught her just as she was turning. The punch didn’t do much to the viscous, malleable slime, but her fire scorched the girl nonetheless, causing her to cry out in pain.
“Pudding-nee!” Amee rushed to her sister’s defence, her arm molding itself into a spike with which she tried to skewer Sunset. Sunset simply stepped aside and brought up her fists again, dodging most of the stabs and deflecting what few she couldn’t sidestep. Amee’s face was twisted in a mixture of rage and sorrow. “Why?!” she screamed, stabbing at Sunset again and again. “We didn’t hurt any of them! Why did you have to kill her?!”
One particularly wild stab went wide. Sunset caught it and yanked hard, pulling the girl closer and catching her in the chest with her fist.
“Simple,” she replied, all humor and pity gone from her tone. “You took my friends hostage. That’s enough. Sagita Magica, Convergentia Ignis!”
The bolt of fire ripped the slime girl in half. She screamed and fell to the ground, her bottom half dissolving into unmoving slime. The bottom of her chest was a twisted mass of fused ooze, her face a mask of pure agony.
“Amee!” Pudding charged Sunset, striking out with fist and foot, forcing Sunset back a bit. Sunset put up her fists again, but held back. Pudding stood beside her sister, her warry eyes on Sunset even as she spoke to the other slime. “Amee. Are you okay?”
“Sh-she blew half of me away!” Amee screamed. “It hurts! It hurts so much!”
Pudding’s eyes narrowed at Sunset and she knelt down, placing a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “We’re done here, Amee. She’s more than we can handle. Herrmann was wrong about how strong she was.”
“You think I’m just going to let you go?” Sunset demanded. “Give me one good reason.”
“Because while we carried out the kidnappings,” Pudding said evenly, “the mastermind is over on that stage. And he’s much stronger than we are. I’m pretty sure he’s stronger than you, too. How much longer do you think those two children will last once he decides to stop playing around with them?”
Sunset glared at the slime, calculating how long it would take to take her and her sister out for good. A rapid series of explosions and crashes answered that question - too long - causing her to curse. “Get out of this academy if you know what’s good for you,” she spat. “Because if I find out you’re still here when I’m done with him, you’ll be joining Slime in the ash heap.” She turned and sprinted up the rise, quickly reaching the stands and staring down at the scene below.
It wasn’t an optimistic sight. Whole sections of the seating had been destroyed, others turned to stone. Kotarou lay in a crater of destroyed benches, slowly pulling himself to his feet. Negi stood strong, but was covered in small cuts and bruises. The man, Herrmann, stood just in front of the stage, unharmed and unharried. The fight seemed to have come to a lull, Hermann taunting Negi as he faced him down.
“What exactly do you fight for, Negi-kun?”
“What… do I fight for?”
Sunset hesitated. A quick glance behind her showed that the slime girls had fled. She let herself relax a touch, wanting to hear Negi’s answer as well.
“Yes. Look at Kotarou-kun. The fact is, he enjoys fighting a lot.” Herrmann looked up at Sunset, and a shiver ran down her spine. “In Nichibotsu-chan’s eyes, I see ambition for power.” He turned his attention back to Negi.
“And you? For your companions? Preposterous, absolutely preposterous. Negi-kun, you disappoint me. A person’s reason for fighting must always be for himself, no-one else. Anger, hatred, and vengeance are what cause most people to fight to the best of their abilities. Or even simpler, ‘I’m satisfied so long as I am strong’ like Kotarou-kun. If that’s not how you feel, then fighting will be meaningless.”
Negi grit his teeth. “I don’t fight for self-satisfaction.”
“Nor should he,” Sunset agreed, descending the tiers of seating to stand beside him. “To fight for oneself is a fine ambition in an arena, but it doesn’t work in the real world. In the real world, you have allies. Comrades. And people to protect.” Her eyes narrowed at unpleasant memories. “Gloryhounding for personal gratification just gets people killed.”
“And what happens when you step into that arena?” Herrmann demanded. “When all of that support and strength is gone? When you find yourself robbed of that motivation? Will you still be able to fight?” He smirked. “And what of anger, hatred, and vengeance? Do you disagree that such things make you stronger?”
“Those things make you blind,” Sunset snapped. “They make you tunnel-visioned. Narrow-minded. Impulsive.” She snorted and shook her head, putting up her fists. “Again, all good ways to get yourself or others killed. Add to that list humoring a manipulative piece of work like you. Ignore his words, Negi-kun. We have some friends to rescue.”
Negi’s eyes went wide and he spared a brief, surprised glance at Sunset. “Nichibotsu-san. You called me…”
Sunset returned his glance with a smirk. “What of it? We’re comrades now, right?” She raised her voice. “Oy! Dog-boy! That applies to you too! Get off your ass and help us take this guy down!”
“Tch, taking orders from a girl.” Kotarou finally pulled himself to his feet and began circling closer to Sunset and Negi. “And what’s with the ‘dog’ names? I’m a wolf, I’ll have you know!”
Sunset snorted. “Start acting like a wolf and I’ll start treating you like one. Right now all I see is a puppy with his tail between his legs.”
Kotarou chuckled, glaring down at Herrmann. “Well then, guess it’s time for me to prove that my bite is worse than my bark. What do you say, anesan? Rematch once we thrash this guy?”
“What happened to you not hitting girls.”
“...you and that ninja-anesan have made me think there might be exceptions to my philosophy.”
Sunset barked out a laugh as she lit her fists again. “I look forward to it then. Let’s take this guy down!”
“Wait!” Sunset cocked an eyebrow at Negi. “Spells won’t work on him! He’s set up a barrier that redirects them to Asuna-san who has a magic-cancel ability!”
Sunset stared from Negi to the chained-up Asuna and back. “Huh. That explains a few things.” She extinguished her gauntlets and faced Herrmann again. “Now, let’s take this guy down!”
“If you can.” Herrmann put up his fists as well, though his stance was much looser and more relaxed. “Though I doubt your little pep rally will make much of a difference.”
“Pep rallies make all the difference,” Sunset countered, smirking, “when you’ve got an Equestrian on your side.”
Herrmann’s eyes went wide, his jaw dropping. “You-”
In less than a second, they had moved, capitalizing on Herrmann’s shock. Kotarou’s high roundhouse. Negi’s palm-strike to the chest. Sunset’s straightforward gut-punch. All three connected in that moment of distraction, blowing Harrmann backwards into the raised front of the stage.
“Kotarou! Clones!” Sunset shouted, charging forward with Negi. “Cut off his escape!”
Kotarou nodded, keeping his pace behind theirs as he split off several shadow clones, coming in from all sides. Herrmann pushed himself off the front of the stage, blocking Sunset and Negi’s next blows, his counters sending them retreating. He met Kotarou’s strikes next, easily weathering a few of the clones’ weakened blows even as he countered others and threw the real Kotarou back. No sooner had he rid himself of them than Sunset was back in his face, striking out with a few quick jabs to keep him in place as she focused on dodging his strikes. She ducked one punch, only to be faced with his other fist flying straight for her head. Negi arrived at the last minute, striking Herrmann’s arm out of the way and countering with another blow to the chest, blowing him back into the stage again.
“Keep pressing him,” Sunset instructed as Kotarou returned, striking out with Negi while Sunset took a step back to watch for any escape attempt. “We have him pinned!”
“Do you now?”
The hairs on the backs of their necks stood on end. The three of them leapt away just as a cloud of green gas erupted from Herrmann’s clothes, obscuring the front half of the stage.
“Ach!” Asuna cried, as the gas reached the front of her skirt, turning it to stone even as it left her skin untouched. “No! Not again!”
“What are you complaining about?!” Kazumi demanded from one of the spheres of water. “Even if it breaks, at least you’ll still be wearing something!”
“Besides,” Sunset added with a smirk, “you aren’t a proper damsel in distress if you aren’t at least a little scantily-clad!”
“I had an outfit prepared,” Herrmann said from within the cloud, his outline barely visible, “but in all the confusion from Slime-chan’s failure to return, I never got around to changing her into it.”
“Pity.” Sunset’s smirk turned haughty. “So this is your plan? Hide in your little smokescreen when things get tough? Might be a good idea, actually. The three of us are fighting like a well-oiled machine.”
“We’ve got you on the ropes, ossan,” Kotarou added. “Even if you get out of your little corner, we’ll still be able to take you down.”
“Give up, Herrmann-san!” Negi demanded. “Release my students. You have no way to win against all of us!”
“Well, that is the annoying part,” Herrmann muttered, the cloud thinning enough for his eyes to glint through it. “You see, I was never interested in fighting Kotarou-kun or the Equestrian. The only one I’m interested in is you, Negi Springfield.”
“Well tough.” Sunset let herself relax a little and put a hand on Negi’s shoulder. “His fight is our fight, his foes our foes. You want to get to him, you’ve got to go through us.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Herrmann chuckled. “In fact, I think Negi-kun will agree that this fight is personal. After all… he wants revenge for that snowy night.”
Sunset felt Negi tense. “H-how… how do you know about that?”
Sunset’s eyes went wide Oh no. “Buck up, Negi,” she snapped. “Don’t let him get in your head.”
“Oh, but I’m already there,” Herrmann said, the cloud dispersing further, his head coming slowly into view. He reached up, placing his hand on his hat. “I’m in his head all the time, haunting his memory. Tell me, Negi Springfield…” He doffed his hat.
“Do you recognize me now?”
Sunset’s blood turned to ice. She’d thought the man a mage, perhaps a powerful warrior who had once fought against Negi’s father. Maybe even someone who’d wanted to fight the Thousand Master and, bereft of that option, had decided to go after his son instead.
Herrmann’s head was only vaguely human, his mouth far too large and more like a mask than an actual face. Two horns curled out away to either side of his head, and pale, sickly white lights glowed within his eyes and throat. He stared at Negi, and everyone could feel the gleeful malice behind that stare.
Herrmann was a demon.
A demon that they recognized from Negi’s memories.
“Hahaha!” Hermann’s voice had changed, his laughter grating and shrill. “Not bad, huh? I like that expression on your face right now, Negi-kun.”
“You…” Negi muttered, staring with wide eyes and trembling limbs. “You’re…”
“Yes,” hissed the demon. “Your vengeance, Negi-kun. On that day we were summoned, I was one of the few high-level demons who was called there. I am also the one who petrified nearly your entire village.
“So… feel like fighting for yourself yet?”
“Negi? You okay?” Kotarou asked.
“Negi-kun,” Sunset said, tightening her grip on his shoulder. “I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now, but you need to-”
Negi was gone. In a flash, he was crouched in front of Herrmann. The demon barely had time to look down before Negi’s blow sent him flying.
“Negi!” Sunset shouted, rushing forward. But she was too late; Negi had already leapt into the sky after the demon. “SPRINGFIELD!”
“What the heck!” Kotarou shouted as Negi dealt blow after blow to Herrmann in midair. “What kind of speed is that?”
“It’s a surge,” Sunset muttered, her eyes going wide. The crackling of fire echoed in her ears. The screams of a couple burning alive. The cries of a desperate filly. “He’s… surging. He’s lost control. He’s completely lost control.”
“Damn it, fire-anesan! Snap out of it!” Kotarou shouted as Negi summoned his staff to him to stay in the air. “Negi’s not getting a single blow past his defences! His head-on charge makes him a sitting duck! We have to snap him out of it!”
“Mwahahahaha!” Herrmann cackled gleefully even as he retreated out of Negi’s reach. “This is it! This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for! This is how the Thousand Master’s son should be!!!”
“He isn’t thinking about anything,” Sunset muttered, and slowly the fires of the past were replaced by the fire that started flooding her veins. “He isn’t thinking about Asuna. The captives! Us! Anything!!! He hasn’t just lost control; he’s outright thrown it away!!!”
Kotarou cried out in shock and backed away as Sunset’s ki flared, nearly overwhelming and stripping her of her artifact. “Woah! Fire-anesan! Don’t you go losing control too!”
“No fear of that,” Sunset seethed, doing some quick calculations before crouching down. “Brace yourself.”
“For wha-”
Sunset didn’t hear the rest of the question. She leapt with all the strength her ki afforded her, quickly flying higher than Negi and Herrmann. With both of them focused on each other and not even trying for anything more than straight-on fighting, it was trivial for Sunset to anticipate Negi’s path and aim her decent. You’d better have that Battle Hymn up all the way, you little brat! Sunset oriented herself downward as she began to fall and, reigning in the ki from her legs, allowed her boots to reform. She drew in all the magic she could into her legs.
Fire erupted behind her, and she streaked down towards the battle below. The demon grinned at Negi, opening his mouth, preparing a petrification beam that would end the battle and send Negi falling to shatter on the ground below. Before the beam could fire, however, Sunset’s fist met its target.
And with all her strength, she bore Negi down to the ground.
They crashed near the stage, the impact sending debris flying as the ground cratered. Negi’s eyes went wide and he spat out a mouthful of blood before falling unconscious.
“Negi!”
“Negi-kun!”
Sunset ignored her classmates as she stood from Negi’s body. A quick once-over showed that he was still breathing. Good. Nothing that Konoka can’t fix. Resisting the urge to add to his injuries, she leapt from the crater.
“I must say, I did not expect that.”
Sunset turned to glare at Herrmann as the demon drifted to the ground, donning his hat and his human disguise once again. “He should have,” Sunset spat, the fires of the past only now beginning to fade from her ears. “Is that what you think strength is? A blind berserker’s charge that leads straight into the jaws of Hell?”
“An apt description for your own actions,” Herrmann countered, “wouldn’t you say?”
“I am not blinded.” Sunset flared her ki, once again dismissing her artifact entirely. “My wrath is held in check, most of it channeled into that blow.” She cocked her fist back. “But rest assured, if it’s anger you want, I still have plenty for you.”
“What the hell, Nichibotsu!” Asuna shouted from her chains. “What did you do to Negi! When I get out of here, I’m-”
“Do whatever you feel you must, Kagurazaka Asuna,” Sunset said calmly, never taking her eyes from the demon before her. “But I will not apologize for teaching this idiot a lesson. Kotarou, change of plans. Use your clones, and keep this hell-spawn in front of me.”
Kotarou nodded, slightly shaken from Sunset’s unrestrained strike against Negi, but still focused on the fight. “Sure, got it. But, er, why just my clones?”
“Because if any of my attacks hit you, you might not survive.”
Herrmann cackled at this proclamation. “I will admit, you have more raw power than I suspected. But it’s just that: raw. You seem to lack any fine control over-”
Sunset threw her punch, the full weight of her ki behind it, regardless of the distance between herself and Herrmann and the cracking of the stone beneath her feet. The demon had just enough time to wonder what she was doing before the force of the blow bowled him over and sent him careening into the stands. He impacted with the shattering of wood and stone as first the benches and then the wall they sat upon gave beneath the force of the blow.
“Keep him in there, Kotarou,” Sunset said, stalking forward as she cocked back her arm again. “I don’t want any of these to miss.”
“Y-you got it, anesan.”
Herrmann pulled himself from the crater, leaping away to try to avoid Sunset’s aim. Two of Kotarou’s clones latched onto his legs, a third tackling his chest and bearing him to the ground. Herrmann growled as he flung two of the clones from himself. “Get off me, you fool. I will not be-”
Sunset’s next blow struck true, destroying Kotarou’s third clone and plowing Herrmann through the stands once again.
Kotarou winced. “Jeeze, anesan! They might not be my body, but that still hurts!”
“Sorry,” Sunset muttered, suppressing her ki and drawing on her magic again, summoning her artifact. “Since we’re down to two, I had to do some massive damage while I could. Hopefully that was enough to slow him down.”
Herrmann limped out of the crater, one of his legs twisted and an arm hanging limply at his side. He eyed Sunset warrily.
“Looks like it worked,” Kotarou snarked. “But you know, it would still be three-on-one if you hadn’t smacked Negi down that hard. I mean, he was being an idiot, but was that really nece-”
“Yes.” Sunset summoned two small fireballs to her palms as she channeled magic down to the soles of her boots. “This is your chance to shine, dog-boy. After those two blows, his focus will be entirely on me now. At least for a moment. Show him why that’s a mistake.”
Kotarou grinned savagely. “I’ll need a distraction to close the distance.”
Time to put Chachamaru’s lessons to use. “Consider him distracted.” Sunset poured fire into her boots, launching herself into the air. She pumped magic through her gauntlets as well, sending out short streams of fire to stabilize her flight. She was only hovering a meter off the ground, the highest she dared with how new this skill was, but it was still enough to surprise Herrmann for the third time that night.
And it was a surprise that Kotarou capitalized on. He sprinted forward, keeping low to the ground and counting on the darkness and the contrast of Sunset’s brilliance to hide him as he advanced on Herrmann. Sunset charged as well, keeping her pace deliberately slower and shaky. Herrmann saw her coming and, judging her shakiness for inability, rushed forward to intercept her.
Sunset stabilized at the last minute, turning her palms downward and flying over the demon’s head. Herrmann’s gaze followed her, allowing Kotarou and his clones to surround him. They struck from all sides, Herrmann caught unawares and unable to block a single blow. By the time he was able to put up any defence at all, Sunset had returned, swinging a fire-propelled dropkick down on his head. Herrmann crashed to the ground and lay there, unmoving.
“Ha!” Kotarou cheared. “That’s what you get for picking a fight with us!” He turned a triumphant grin to Sunset. “Those were some sweet moves! You’ve been working hard since we last fought! Though that amount of ki is seriously ridiculous.”
“I’ll keep it down to reasonable levels when we have our rematch,” Sunset said, glaring down at Herrmann as she rolled him over with her foot. He groaned and cracked an eye open, gazing blearily up at her. “Any last words?”
Herrmann tried to glare at her before giving it up with a sigh. “I suppose I failed, then. A pity. Whatever became of those slime sisters?”
Sunset hesitated, but allowed herself to answer; the fight was over. “Slime is dead, burnt to ash. Amee is crippled, her lower half charred off. Pudding escaped with her, unscathed.”
“Ah.” Herrmann closed his eyes. “Be quick about it, then. From what I know of Equestrians, it isn’t your way to make an enemy suffer needlessly.”
Kotarou bit his lip, looking from Sunset to Herrmann and back. “I… don’t like kicking a guy when he’s down. Do ya really need to-”
“Yes.” Sunset splayed her hand, palm down at Herrmann. “You should back away. My artifact makes me fireproof, but it won’t protect you.” Seeing that Kotarou had backed off, headed towards the stage, Sunset drew power into her hand. “Equis Equis Alicornus. Ex Somno Exsistat Exurens Salamandra Inimicum Involvat Igne. Captus Flammeus.”
A blast of fire shot from her hand, engulfing the demon and billowing out and up to surround her as well. She kept the power flowing for a full minute before she relented, lowering her arm and turning away from the pile of ash that was all that remained of the demon Graf Wilhelm Josef von Herrmann.
“Negi-kun!”
Sunset blinked in surprise. Konoka had rushed to Negi’s side and was pulling out her artifact. Ku Fei, Nodoka, Yue, and Kazumi were disappearing behind the stage, likely trying to find something to wear. Kotarou had freed Setsuna and Chizuru from their prisons and was talking to the latter. Asuna was rubbing her wrists and looking over Konoka’s shoulder with concern.
“I didn’t think dog-boy would have you out that fast,” Sunset said to Konoka, walking over.
Konoka shook her head as her artifact materialized around her. A shrine maiden’s outfit adorned her body and she held a large paper fan in either hand, waving them above Negi’s unconscious body. “I had a practice wand with me,” she said as her magic healed Negi’s injuries and brought him back to consciousness. “Nodoka-chan was able to get a spark going, and I fed it with my magic to break through.”
Sunset smiled proudly towards the stage. “Good for her.” She turned back towards Negi and her smile quickly fell. “But as for him-”
“Don’t take one more step!” Asuna leapt between Sunset and Negi, arms spread wide, glaring with malice at Sunset. “If you think I’m going to let you at him after what you did to him-”
“What I did to him?” Sunset interrupted, matching Asuna’s ire with her own. “How about what he did to me and Kotarou?! To all of you?! Did you see how he snapped?!”
“O-of course I saw it!” Asuna shouted back. “B-but so what?! Anyone would be angry in his situation! And you snapped too!”
“Don’t you dare,” Sunset seethed, reaching forward and grabbing Asuna by the shirt. She pulled her forward, shoving their faces together. “Don’t you DARE compare what I did to him! You think I snapped? I was in perfect control the whole time. I know exactly how much force I put into my punch. I knew exactly what was behind that demon with every punch I threw. I knew exactly what would happen if I missed with every. Single. Blow. Tell me, Kagurazaka Asuna, did it look like he was considering anything around him when he snapped.”
Asuna hesitated, and Sunset pressed the advantage. “He threw away every ounce of self-control. Do you understand that, Asuna? HE THREW AWAY HIS CONTROL! And in case you’ve got as small an attention span as he does, let me remind you that I’m intimately familiar with what happens when a powerful mage does that.”
Asuna paled, realization dawning. Sunset shoved her aside and walked to the edge of the crater, glaring down at Negi. The child teacher stared up at her in shock, having overheard her admonition. “N-Nichibotsu-san… I-”
“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” She grabbed Negi by his shirt, forcing him upright and turning him to face the craters she’d blown Herrmann into. “Take a good look, Negi Springfield. That’s what happens when I go all-out. Tell me, what do you think would have happened if these stands were backed by wood instead of a solid hillside? What would have become of someone passing by on the other side?”
Before he could answer, she turned him forcibly to the stage where Nodoka and the others were just emerging with blankets wrapped around themselves. “Or imagine if I’d thrown my punches in that direction. What would have become of your precious students. Tell me something, Negi Springfield. When you punched that demon into the air, was it because you were thinking about getting him away from the hostages? Or is it just pure dumb luck that you didn’t send him careening into Asuna? Or Nodoka? Or Chizuru?”
Negi’s fear turned to dread. “I… I didn’t-”
“That’s what I thought.” Sunset threw Negi to the ground and loomed over him, no longer holding back her temper. “Do you understand what you could have done?! What could have happened to your precious students?! What if dog-boy had gotten in the way, huh?! Would you have stopped before punching his brains out?! Let me tell you a little secret about people like us, Negi Springfield! We don’t! Get to lose! Control! Because when people as powerful as us lose control, INNOCENT PEOPLE DIE!!!”
Sunset reached into her pocket and pulled out her pactio card. She stared at the self-confident smirk her image bore.
Just as I was starting to get really good with it. Figured out the rocket boots and everything. She glared back at Negi, who was turning back to look at her, fear and sorrow mixing on his face. She took the card in both hands. “And I will not bind myself to someone who fails to see that.”
She tore the card in two.
A wave of malevolent magic washed over her and Negi, forcing Sunset to one knee and reopening a few of Negi’s injuries.
“Negi!”
“Nichi-chan!”
“Negi-kun!”
Konoka dropped to Negi’s side again immediately, waving the healing fans of her artifact over him. “N-Nichi-chan! I’ll get your injuries in just a minute!”
Sunset stood, shaking off the pain. “I’m fine. Just a bit of magic backlash from breaking the contract. I’ll live.” She shot one final glare at Negi. “Consider our paths diverged from here on out, Negi Springfield; I will have nothing more to do with you.”
Ignoring her classmates concerns and protests, she walked away into the night.