"Murakami, we're back!" Chisame said as she and Negi walked back to Natsumi, with a mildly curious Kuroneko in tow. "Sorry we took so long."
"Ah, ah, no prob, Senpai was... keeping me company!" Natsumi gulped, twitching under Matoi's glare. But then, much to the actress' relief, the stalker's head snapped back, alerted by her DEEP LOVING senses, so the fixed stare fell directly on Kuroneko.
JIIIIIIIIIIII?!
Kuroneko recoiled, hiding her face behind a sleeve. "Ugh! What is this sensation of evil?!"
"3-F student," Chisame said. "You'd understand if you studied here. Murakami, Senpai, this is Gokou Ruri from CLAMP, and she's going to take part in the contest."
"You are to call me Kuroneko, the angel of-"
"Whatever," Chisame said. Before Negi could chastise her, she went on. "These are my classmate Murakami Natsumi, and Tsunetsuki Matoi, my, ah, admirer."
Matoi seemed to loom over the shorter newcomer, making her shudder and back away. "So you are a rival to Chisame-sama *and* Natsumi-sama, hmmmmm?!"
"When, when did I become 'Natsumi-sama'?!" Natsumi protested.
Soon enough, Negi had herded them towards a table by a nearby small cafe, apart enough from the other customers. This last part was accomplished by virtue of Matoi being from 3-F, and locals whispering warnings to outsiders who tried to sit close.
"My friends will be here shortly," Kuroneko said plainly as she put her phone down on the table, by her drink. "Well, my friends and the sister of one of my friends. They have been sightseeing, and that takes a while when you have someone as mule-headed as Kirino in your group."
"I understand," Chisame said. "We have a fair share of mule-heads of our own in our group, too."
"Not nice, Chisame," Negi sighed.
"Then you are the famous child teacher of Mahora," Kuroneko said in a bored tone, resting a cheek on her fist. "Yes, yes, I believe I remember now. Saori-san once mentioned something about you. You are some kind of campus celebrity?"
Negi laughed that off, blushing. "Far from it! It's just the novelty factor of having someone of my age teaching, but that's died down gradually. As you'll see, we aren't being surrounded by fans or anything."
Matoi took advantage of his distraction to stare venomous daggers at several girls hiding behind nearby bushes, spying on them. Akatsutsumi Momoko, Gotokuji Miyako, Matsubara Kaoru, Tomoe Mami and Miki Sayaka all gasped and ducked together, under the line of sight.
Kuroneko raised an eyebrow, having caught a glimpse as this happened behind Negi's back. Chisame groaned. "I see..." the black haired girl said.
Natsumi puffed under her breath while downing her second glass of ice cold lemonade. Now that she thought about it, choosing this kind of costume on such a hot day had been a mistake, perhaps...
Kuroneko chuckled, shaking her own glass in lazy circles. "Never mind, even if you and your lot are popular here, that isn't going to earn you points with the judges, much less with Shirogane-sama. I have previous credentials, unlike both of you, but since you were kind enough to extend this invitation for a drink to me, I shall cast a good luck spell on you, so you win the second and third places!"
"Oh, thank you very much," Chisame said dryly.
Negi looked quietly at Kuroneko. He couldn't feel any magical aptitude in her, so he guessed she had to be what Fujimura-sensei and Itoshiki-sensei called a 'chuuni', pretending to have powers out of a sense of delusion and self importance. Mages were instructed to leave chuunis alone with those pretenses since they made mundanes more eager to reject the reality of magic as a whole.
"Ah, those are my friends and the other person," Kuroneko said coolly, pointing down the street. Negi, Matoi, Chisame and Natsumi followed the finger she was used to point casually, and saw a tall black haired young man, a much shorter girl with long and very light brown hair, and a gangly girl who was easily as tall as Mana or Mana, wearing thick opaque glasses, denim pants, and a green, long sleeved shirt that couldn't be that comfortable in this dark and humid weather. "Over here! There are seats left for three, but Kirino can stand for long periods, so..."
"Don't you start!" warned the shorter of the two incoming girls, getting ahead of the others, and then frowning at Negi and the others. "Um, ah, good afternoon! How do you do, I'm Kosaka Kirino, and these are Saori-chan and my Aniki Kyosuke..."
Natsumi blinked. "Saori?"
The very tall girl seemed to blink as well, stopping by the table and looking down- way down- at Natsumi. For a moment, they just stared at each other, unable to recognize each other.
"Um... Saori-san?" the tall boy rasped after a fair bit of this. "Do you know-"
The mountain of a girl leaned down and pulled her swirly glasses up, blinking at Natsumi. "Is that really you, Natsumi-san?!"
"Makishima Ojou-sama?!" Natsumi gasped back. "Why, why are you dressed like that...?!"
The beautiful, just revealed grayish orbs of the other girl blinked again, this time with some apprehension. "Ah, well, you will see... This, this is my hobby!" she said, pulling up the bags full of otaku goods she'd been carrying, so they'd be squeezed against her generous bosom. The young man, who was carrying even more bags on him, sighed. The Kirino girl, who was carrying no bags at all, hummed to herself, intrigued. "No, not my hobby! My passion! My life! But please don't spread the word around! My parents don't approve of this!"
Matoi, who was sympathetic enough to the plights of strangers who weren't standing in her way yet, remarked this for the bushes with a subtle motion of a knife slicing her own neck. The bushes shook roughly.
Natsumi nodded absently, and then broke into a shaky, nervous smile. "Ahh... Sensei, Chisame-san, Senpai, this is Makis-"
"Pleassse!" Saori said, pressing a hand on Natsumi's mouth. "My name is Saori Bajeena!"
"Bajeena?" Chisame repeated.
"I... I have known Natsumi-chan for a while, since my family is close friends with those of Ayaka and Chizuru!" Saori Bajeena explained in a kind of rush. "And you must be Negi-sensei, Ayaka is always talking about you..."
"No way!" Kirino said, leaning down in a snap to get a closer, very intrusive look at Negi before he could say anything. Natsumi and Chisame winced in disgust, being instantly reminded of Suzumiya Haruhi. Matoi began grinding her teeth. "This is THE Negi Springfield from Mahora, the Maker of a Thousand Shotacons?!"
"Yes, indeed," Kuroneko nodded stoically.
Kirino grinned at her. "And Neko-chan already fell for him! Having cold tea with him and everything! See, Kyosuke, I always told you that- YEOWCH!" she finished as Kuroneko, still as coolly as ever, poked two fingers into her eyes. "Still the same crazy cat as ever, clawing for the eyes!"
Kyosuke and Negi shared a first mutual glance of quiet, subdued and resigned grief.
