Ah! Megami-Sama was created by Fujishima Kosuke, and while I might wish I owned the series, I don’t.

I wouldn’t mind owning Negima, either, but I don’t. It belongs to Akamitsu Ken.

Exchange Student

Lesson Two: Home Visit

"I think she’s waking up."

Yue’s eyes fluttered open weakly, to see Negi Springfield looking down at her.

"Negi-sensei...I had a very bizarre dream."

He smiled. "About Goddesses and temples?"

"It wasn’t a dream, was it?" She sighed, and sat up slowly.

"Afraid not," chuckled Negi. "I bet you wish it was."

"How long was I out?"

"Thirty minutes, maybe," said Morisato. "We were getting a bit worried, but then Negi-sensei--" He chuckled. "Hard to think of a kid like you being a teacher."

"I had a hard time adjusting to the idea, too." Negi grinned. "Luckily, my class accepted it more easily than me."

Yue looked around. "Where’s Skuld?"

Belldandy looked down. "She’s not very happy with me right now. Though you’ll be happy to know that she doesn’t blame you for this situation. She managed to talk herself out of that."

"So she’s run off to sulk?"

"Well...yes."

Yue sighed. "I was actually starting to like her...now she must be very angry with me."

"Not at all," said Belldandy. "As I said, I am afraid that it is me with whom she is angry."

- - - - -

"Stupid sister."

Anyone who knew Skuld at all well could be forgiven for assuming that such words were directed towards Urd. For once, they were not.

Skuld picked up a pebble and threw it as hard as she could across the yard. Unfortunately, the yard was quite large, and her throwing radius was not. It clanged off the bell, and she scowled.

"I don’t need stupid magic. I have Banpei-kun, and Sigel, and...and I can build more like them!"

"You shouldn’t need them."

Skuld scowled up at Urd. "That doesn’t stop you from cobbling up all sorts of potions, does it?"

"Potions are merely an extension of my magic," said Urd. "Your gadgets could be the same for you, but you have never learned to tap your potential."

"And this is supposed to help me?"

"I think it might." Urd floated a bit closer, then touched down. "You see, you’re still lacking the one thing you most need to tap into your magical power."

"And that would be?"

Urd tilted her head. "So how do you feel about your little friend Yue now that she’s gotten you into this mess?"

"Huh?" Skuld blinked at the non-sequitur. "What has that got to do with it?"

"Just answer the question."

Skuld frowned, then said, "It’s not her fault. She figured she could help me, and I agreed to at least consider that help. It’s just that I’m mad with how fast things are going."

"And Belldandy? What about her part in this?"

Skuld looked down, scuffed the toe of her sneaker on the ground. "She’s trying to help me, too."

"And Sentaro?"

Skuld looked back up, glaring at her half-sister. "Leave him out of this!"

"Oh, struck a nerve, did I?" chuckled Urd. "I seem to recall that when you finally cast a spell properly, you immediately ran off to show him."

"That’s--"

"And you couldn’t wait to introduce him to Noble Scarlet, either," continued Urd remorselessly.

"You--"

"In short," finished Urd, "you were doing everything you could to impress him."

"I didn’t want him to think I was useless!"

Urd leaned back, and cocked an eyebrow.

"Belldandy healed him. He saw Holy Bell, and was completely amazed. He listened to her singing, and he was enthralled." Skuld stared down at the ground, her fists balled. "The only magic I had was Banpei-kun and Sigil. He didn’t even question our powers. Didn’t care! But I could tell, when he looked at Belldandy..."

She trailed off. Urd waited, but when it was apparent that the girl was saying no more, she snorted.

"You were jealous of Belldandy."

"Yeah." It came out a whisper.

"Surely you don’t think that Belldandy intended to steal your boyfriend?"

"No, but...she’s always been everything I wanted to be." Skuld sniffed.

"And that’s why you’re no good at magic."

Skuld looked up, surprised. "What do you mean?"

Urd shook her head. "I’m not going to spell it out for you. Especially not when Belldandy has tried and failed in the past. You’re going to have to work it out on your own."

- - - - -

Skuld stepped into the tea room and softly closed the door behind her. She stared down at the ground, despite the fact that eight eyes were staring at her intently.

Ten eyes, counting Springfield.

She rebuked herself mentally for the mean thought, then forced herself to look up at Yue.

"Sorry."

Yue waved a hand. "Forgotten already."

"No, I mean it." Skuld shook her head. "You were just trying to help me out, and I reacted badly when I found out that Sis was going to take you seriously."

Yue stood, and stepped forward. She grasped Skuld’s hands.

"All is forgiven. I mean it."

"Thank you." She released Yue’s hands, and turned to Belldandy. "And sorry, Sis, that I yelled at you."

"I forgive you."

No surprise there. She turned to Negi. "Springfield-sensei. I hope you will accept me in your class."

"Try not to grit your teeth so hard," chuckled the teacher. "And call me Negi-sensei. The rest of the class does."

"All right, Negi-sensei."

Negi leaned back a bit, picked up his tea cup. "As for accepting you in my class...I’ve had a bit of a chat with your sister about the subject, and with her husband."

"He’s not her husband," snapped Skuld. "He’s just an incredibly lucky mortal who has four live-in Goddesses."

"Did I use the wrong word?" Negi frowned. "My Japanese is still not perfect."

"I think that the meaning is correct," said Belldandy. Keiichi, for his part, was suddenly gobsmacked, and blushing bright enough to illuminate the room. "We have chosen to live together, bound by Contract, but willingly were it not there," continued Belldandy. "There was no ceremony, but does that matter where Goddesses are involved?"

"I would assume not," said Negi. "But to get back to what I was about to bring up...I need to ask a few more questions, both of you, Belldandy, and of you, Skuld."

"I shall do my best to answer," said Belldandy. "But there are a few things I may not discuss. Certainly, you can understand this, Negi-sensei."

"I certainly can." He turned to Skuld. "First, I need to ask: Why do you wish to learn magic?"

"Hasn’t Sis already told you why I need to learn it?"

"She has," allowed Negi. "In a somewhat roundabout and vague way, but that’s not the point. I need to know why you wish to learn magic."

"I don’t," said Skuld. "But I need to."

"But without desire, there is no chance for you to improve," pointed out Negi. "It was my desire to become the equal of my father that drove me to become as good a mage as I now am. In Yue’s case, magic was something that she knew nothing about, and her natural curiosity drew her to learn all she could."

Yue raised her hand. "If I may, Sensei, I’d like to point out that I had other motivations as well. Motivations I’d rather keep private."

"Fair enough," allowed Negi. "I’ve gotten a few hints from Belldandy as to why you wish to learn magic, Skuld, but we need to go into a bit of depth." He paused, picked out Keiichi and Yue with his eyes. "I’ll understand if you want more privacy--"

"No," said Skuld quickly. "They can stay."

Negi blinked, then nodded. "All right."

"Because the simple fact is that I don’t have any reason to want to learn magic," admitted Skuld. "The best I have is, I don’t want to disappoint Sis, and I don’t want to be viewed as incompetent."

"You’ll need to find a better reason than that," said Negi. "If you do not, you will not progress in my class."

"I’ll try to find them," said Skuld.

Negi nodded, but his expression remained troubled.

- - - - -

"Are you going to be okay with this, Yue?"

Yue blinked. "Shouldn’t it be you who would have a problem? She obviously doesn’t want to be in your class."

"Neither does Evangeline." Negi shrugged. "I was more concerned with you having a friend in the class who was...well, divine."

"Sensei, our class includes the aforementioned vampire, a robot, five mage trainees, a time-travelling Martian, a mad scientist, a ghost, a half-demon, a ninja and her two trainees, an internet idol, a circus freak, a demon-hunting assassin/priest, and ten or eleven relatively normal girls who are blissfully ignorant of all the above." Yue paused to drive her straw into her juice box. "Not only would a Goddess fit right in, but we need her to complete the whole set."

Negi nodded. "Picked a colour for her yet?"

"Hm?" Yue blinked.

"If her study habits are as bad as her sister makes them out to be, you just know she’s going to be a Ranger."

Yue twitched, then stood up. "I’ll let you explain that to her."

"Oh, one more thing before I go." Negi looked up at her. "I understand that your mother banned Nodoka from visiting."

"Yes." Yue scowled.

"Well, since you’re going to be here for the next day or two - possibly more, if I’ve judged Belldandy correctly - I asked Belldandy if she could host one more person. And she agreed." Negi pulled a card from his jacket with a flourish. "Ministra Negi Miyazaki Nodoka!"

The summoning circle flared on the ground, and Nodoka appeared within it.

And alarms sounded all over the compound.

"Alert! Alert! Unauthorized teleportation within the grounds!" A small, black-haired girl came charging around the corner. "Banpei-kun, report to the courtyard!"

"Calm down, Sigel!" Skuld stepped through the door. "I told you that we would have someone teleporting in!"

"You did not deactivate the wards," stated Sigel. She raised a fist and pointed it at Nodoka, who squeaked and ducked behind Negi. "Confirm that the intruder is friendly?"

"She is."

"Noted and recorded." She lowered her fist.

"Good," said Skuld. "Now go and resume your patrol."

"By your command." The girl turned and walked off. Skuld stepped up, and bowed to Nodoka.

"You must be my new classmate."

"Mi...Miyazaki Nodoka. Pleased to meet you."

- - - - -

"They’re all three of them very different girls," said Negi. "I’d be worried about how well they’d get along, if I didn’t know better."

"Skuld has had difficulty getting along with mortals," said Belldandy. "Especially with Keiichi-san." She set a cup of tea down in front of the young teacher. "I do hope that she can adjust to being in a school composed mostly of mortals."

"We don’t have an empty room right now," mused Negi. "I’ll need to place her with one of the girls...what hobbies does she have?"

"Mechanics," said Belldandy. "It’s one of the few things that she and Keiichi both enjoy. Save that Keiichi-san has a different...style."

"How so?" Negi pulled out his class roster.

"Well, Keiichi-san prefers to fix things up. He takes machinery that is not functioning properly, and makes it work as it should. Skuld...she prefers to stretch the boundaries."

"So the robots are her work?"

"Yes."

Negi nodded. "Okay. We just had a girl--well, she transferred out of class."

"You mean she returned to her proper place in the time-stream."

"Yes, but I can’t get in the habit of saying that." He chuckled. "Her former roommate shares certain interests with her...and with Skuld. Plus, Satomi rarely actually sleeps in her dorm room; she usually falls asleep in the lab." He paused. "Do Goddesses sleep, or does she just need a place for her stuff?"

"We do sleep, especially when we are here on Midgard. Some of us more than others. For Skuld, it’s around an hour or two every night."

"Then I’ll have her placed with Satomi-chan. Should keep both of them out of trouble."

- - - - -

The furo wasn’t really big enough for three girls, even as small as these three were. Yue and Nodoka could fit, with no real room to spare. Skuld sat on a stool, combing her hair.

"Yue told me that it’s a dorm, with shared rooms, and that you have a boy living there."

Yue nodded. "Negi-sensei rooms with Asuna and Konoka."

Skuld paused. "Wait. You mean that kid teacher is the boy living in the dorm?"

"Don’t forget about Kotaro," said Nodoka. "I think he’s actually living in the dorm, too. But I haven’t found out for sure yet."

"Two boys?" Skuld shuddered. "Doesn’t it bug you?"

"Not really," said Nodoka. "I don’t mind if Negi-sensei is..." She blushed. "He can stay there. I don’t mind."

"But this other boy, Kotaro--"

"He’s harmless," said Yue. "Besides, I can’t see him living in the dorm. I know that he and Negi-sensei are sparring partners. He’s about the same age as Negi-sensei."

Skuld frowned, as a memory from the conversation earlier that day nibbled at her mind. "Yue, isn’t Negi the guy that you and--"

Yue raised a finger. "Yes. But I’d rather not discuss that just now."

Skuld nodded. "So...it’s a boarding school. Are there any free rooms in your dorm?"

"No," said Nodoka. "I’m afraid that it’s full up. Our class has the north wing of the sixth floor, fifteen rooms total. But some girls have a room all to themselves - usually the smaller rooms - while the bigger rooms have up to three girls living in them."

"Maybe I can room with you two?"

The hope in her voice was enough to cause Yue to chuckle. "I’m sorry, Skuld-chan, but I’m afraid we’ve got another roommate. Paru."

"Oh."

"Chao Rin Shen just transferred out, so Satomi has no roommate. You’ll probably end up rooming with her." Yue paused, then looked down at her hands. "I’m turning into a prune. I’d better get out soon. Skuld-chan, you can have my seat."

"Yue--" Nodoka squeaked.

"Don’t panic, Honya. I’ll be back in a bit." Yue pulled a robe on, and opened the door. "Besides, you’ve gotta get used to her sooner or later."

The door closed behind her, and Skuld glanced over at the other girl. Nodoka was staring at her, eyes wide, her hands covering her mouth.

"I’ve gotten to like Yue, and I know you two are best friends." Skuld stood up, and stepped into the bath. Nodoka pulled her legs up fast enough to splash water out of the furo. Skuld sighed, and sat down. "You’ve got this deer-caught-in-headlights thing going on. Can you tell me what’s freaking you out?"

"You’re a Goddess."

Skuld rolled her eyes. "Yes. And you’re a mage."

"I...I don’t meet many Goddesses. Aren’t I supposed to...to worship you or something?"

"Have I asked you to?"

"No, but...but you worship Goddesses, you don’t share baths with them. What about that story about a man who saw a Goddess naked, and she changed him into a stag and hunted him to death?"

"He was a man, and you’re not. Besides, Artemis has...issues."

"You mean it really happened?"

"Couple of times. You’d think she’d wise up, and stop skinny-dipping on Midgard." Skuld rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Yue’s told me a lot about you, and I think we could be pretty good friends. But you’re too scared of me right now."

"I don’t see how I couldn’t be."

"Right now, I’m more or less human. Our physical forms are projections on this plane, and besides, you’ve got more magical power than I do right now." Her eyes fell on Nodoka’s clothing. "That card you’ve got in your pocket. I saw Yue doing something with hers."

"My Pactio card," said Nodoka. "Yue has one, Asuna has one, Paru has one, Konoka and Setsuna have one, Chisame has one. I think I saw Mana with one, too, but it’s not with Negi-sensei."

Skuld shook her head. "Wait. I don’t know most of these people. You said ’with Negi-sensei’. Do you mean it’s a contract?"

Nodoka nodded. "Yes. We contract to act to support him."

"Contract..." Skuld glanced towards the closed door. "So you and Yue...and all these other people...you all have contracts with Negi?"

"Yes."

"Wow." She glanced back towards the card. "And you get one of these cards when you contract?"

"Yes." Nodoka leaned over and pulled her card from her pocket. "Adeat!"

The card blazed, and became a book.

Skuld raised an eyebrow. "Nice."

"The book is my Artifact. It comes as part of the Pactio." She idly opened it, flipped a page. "You said ’contract’, like it had some meaning. Right?"

"Yes. We Goddesses can make contracts too."

Nodoka glanced down at the book. "And your sister has one?"

"Yeah. How did you--"

"With Keiichi."

"How--"

"Whom you are very jealous of, because he takes up all your sister’s free time, but secretly, you really like him because he’s very sweet and--"

"No!" Skuld jumped up. "How are you--" There was a soft pop, and Skuld turned. "Bug!"

"What?"

"A Bug, in the Yggdrasil system." She pulled out her hammer and swung it down. The Bug exploded into smoke.

"You killed it!" Nodoka stared at her in shock.

"No, I debugged it." Skuld released the hammer, allowing it to fade. "A Bug is caused by something going wrong in reality. When I debug it, things go back to normal."

Nodoka glanced down at her book. "I think I know what might have caused the Bug."

"Your Artifact?"

"I think so. Should I test it again? Just to be certain?"

"Might be for the best." Skuld frowned. "But don’t ask me anything more about Keiichi. Trust me, I don’t like him."

Nodoka glanced down at the Diarus Ejus. "If you don’t like Keiichi, maybe there’s someone else you do like?"

"I don’t have time for such things," snapped Skuld.

"Not even someone named Sentaro?"

"Is that damned book reading my mind or--" Another soft pop occurred, followed by several more. Skuld pulled out the hammer, smacked three Bugs in succession, but nine more appeared in their wake. "Oh, no. A full outbreak!" She swung again, smacking another Bug into non-existence. "You just had to ask about--No! Not more!"

Another swarm of Bugs - too many to count - appeared, crawling along the walls and ceiling. Skuld leaped forward, hammering Bug after Bug. Unfortunately, one was on the bathroom door. A wild swing of the hammer opened the door, and a horde of Bugs stampeded out of the bathroom.

"They’re getting away!" She charged down the hall, hammer on high, and flattened another bug. Then turned, and realized that Keiichi was standing in the hallway.

And blushing.

"Uh...Skuld..."

She glanced down at herself, and realized that in her headlong attack, she’d forgotten that she’d just come from the bath. Her own face reddened.

"Keiichi no baka!"

She threw her hand forward, and Keiichi flew backwards, his face clearly labelled. Skuld ran screaming from the hall, ducked into her room, and slammed the door.

Nodoka gently closed the Diarus Ejus, and sank down until her nose touched the water.

"I am so dead."