Crossover Together ~クロスオーバ 一緒に~

"Remember everyone, midterms start straight tomorrow morning, so get yourselves prepared."

That was the main sort of reminder everyone on Orora High school had been given from class to class, as each one gave them the last chance to learn up before the midterms. They may not be the biggest impacting exam for the school, but it still counted for a bigger part of their grade either way. For many students, that meant going straight home and study up for their exams, and for Nagisa and company, it wasn't much different. At his apartment, Nagisa had plenty of books to study from, curtesy of Twilight and the books provided for him from the school. In the same room, Aladdin was basically bored as ever. He'd gone through this sort of thing many times already, and by this point he'd grown used to it - waiting out some study time to actually do something with Nagisa. However, with the coming of the midterms, time had become less and less forgiving. Still, Aladdin was still there to read off questions for Nagisa to answer, which gave him some sort of practice anyway.

"Ok. What's the ninja clan that originated from the Nara period?"

"Iga clan."

"Right. K, and the first president of Japan is ...?"

"Sakuragi Kenichiro."

"OK good. how about the tallest mountain in ... wait in ... Ho-K-do?"

"Hokkaido. and that would be mount Asahi."

Aladdin, impressed with both the facts of Japan AND Nagisa's learning, placed the paper of Q-n-A down on the table.

"K, that's all of them. You sure they're all going to be on this, midterm thing?" Aladdin questioned, finding some of the questions a little bit random for a single human test to take. Nagisa though was a bit sure on it, nodding his head.

"I'm sure they will be. Our school is a bit crazy when it comes to tests like these: always trying to mix things up with tests, and putting students on their toes. This year I'll be ready for it," Nagisa concluded. Previous years had him on rather rough terms with these tests, which was what resulted in his slipping grades in the first place more over, but this year he was going to try a bit harder to handle it. Or at least take a better crack at it.

"You're doing pretty good at it so far," Aladdin said.

"Thanks. hope the others are doing good."

Nagisa continued to go through the book he had, but as he was placing a finished book aside, he accidentally nudged a rather familiar object: the Halo Blade. Looking at it was enough to remind him of what happened with the Houndour he and his friends had to contend with. They won, sure, but it was pure luck, and he knew it. As he looked, his smile disappeared behind a guilty frown. The Jizo statue was one thing, but these hellhounds had shifted Nagisa's look on things. The first time, yeah sure, it was simply a mistake on his part, but the Houndour ... they weren't a mistake. They KNEW where they were, and went straight into them ... It didn't take long until Aladdin noticed the changing mood.

"Nagisa? Everything ok?" Aladdin asked. Nagisa looked over to his Magi friend, but he didn't feel up to sharing at first.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm fine."

"I know that look, Nagisa. Come on, you can tell me," Aladdin assured, not wanting Nagisa to hide his feelings from him. Nagisa just sighed, picking up the Halo blade.

"Look. Tell me honestly, Aladdin ... are these demons coming around because of me?"

"What?! No, not at all!" Aladdin quickly denied.

"But that Jizo statue. And those hellhounds ... you sure?"

"That's silly. Demons show up time to time, sure, but they don't jump on one specific person that easily. You just happen to be there when they showed up, that's all," Aladdin assured. Nagisa couldn't be blamed for coincidence, right? Even so though, Nagisa felt that this was getting a little strange for just a coincidence ...

.......

While Nagisa was busy going through his own work, Karma was pretty much on the opposite of the spectrum - not worrying too much about the midterms. In fact, the kid had some fun with his parent's cash and got himself some pop and pizza. Karma wasn't too worried about the whole thing, and didn't take it much to heart, and he'd rather celebrate his victory over the hellhounds than study up for the midterms. As Karma began to enjoy his own little dinner, Blair wandered out, as her original cat form, nothing much to do on her own time.

"Karma. I'm borrred!" Blair meowed. Karma took another bite of his pizza, as he turned on the TV.

"You can wait until after dinner," Karma said. However, Blair was not up to just sitting around and wait for him to finish. One quick poof later, Blair was in her human form, but stripped to the point where she was one slip away from being completely naked! She jumped down on the couch, landing right next to Karma.

"Come on!~ I'm bored!~ Play with me!!~" Blair whined. Next thing Karma knew, Blair had him by the head, and his face was shoved in between her boobs! As soft and nice as they felt, Karma wasn't so easily toyed with. Before he could end up getting his own thoughts out ...

"Attention, may I have your attention please!"

Karma and Blair both stopped on the voice, Karma glancing over to the TV, seeing that the station he had on was that of a news broadcast. At the moment, or at least showing a previous event earlier, it appeared to be in the middle of a meeting during reports for the local news, with one girl standing professionally center frame. The girl was, to sum it up, extremely beautiful, and surprisingly young in appearance, looking about her mid-teens. Her face had thin, white eyebrows and thick, superlative white eyelashes surrounding rounds eyes that encompass light irises. Her white hair, which covered her forehead, leaving only several portions visible, is kept in messy standard; moving to the center of her face. True to her supposed high status, she appeared dressed in a fancy, white dress. The upper piece designed with several objects donning, swirling circles all over. On either side of her shoulders there were two ribbons, and a thick emblem in the middle to symbolize Tokyo. The bottom of the dress, covering her thighs, displays an opening revealing partial portions of her legs, which are covered by white tights. The end piece of the dress is intricately shaped to resemble cherry blossoms, and on her head wore a white hat, with blue rims and flower-like objects on the side.

"Seitenshi at another meeting I see," Karma commented, moving away from Blair.

"THAT'S Seitenshi?! Damn, no wonder you want her as a friend," Blair commented back. Seeing such a girl like HER as leader of Tokyo was a unique surprise. Usually someone at least over thirty or such would have a better shot, nevermind someone as young as her. Seitenshi stood professionally, and readied to speak to the reporter's constant question. All she had to do is simply point to one of the reporters for them to speak.

"Seitenshi, is the strange instance downtown have your involvement?" the reporter asked.

"I can guarantee everyone that the Tokyo government had no involvement with this instance over the last weeks," Seitenshi replied. She then gestured to another, this time a middle-aged female reporter, to ask her question.

"Some residents had been sighted of strange, demonic canines prowling the Tokyo districts. Any knowledge on that?" she asked. Seitenshi took a small moment before she answered.

"Well, I will admit that the presence of vicious strays had been happening over the last weeks, but as of recent events, the problem is currently eradicated," Seitenshi said. Karma knew EXACTLY what she meant by that. Seitenshi gestured over to a fifty-something reporter close by next.

"What is the current state of the case? Has there been any leads as of the cause?"

"Investigators say they have a form of a lead, but I'm afraid I'm not allowed to share more than that."

"That girl can lie around everything, and the world lets her do it. what would I give to be her boyfriend," Karma commented. He could only wonder how Nagisa would react to hearing this kind of news, especially that last part about the investigators getting a supposed lead. Still, it would be pretty sweet to be the boyfriend to Seitenshi.

"Bet she can't do any magic," Blair huffed.

The report on TV finished up rather soon after that, and Karma went on with the night from there. He supposed he should tell the others about this later on at school, though he could guess that this TV broadcast would've got to plenty more ears.

~~

The morning came. Orora high was ready as can ever be, and many a students were ready for theirs as well. The classes today were a bit different from normal, the biggest change being that all the students come to the main building, including those from the far off E building. Even E had the privilege of doing the exams at the main building. It honestly wasn't that much of a difference, aside from some extra bullying opportunity for the higher class. Students went straight to their own classes for the exams to begin, not wasting too much time in chattering with eachother. At the moment, the halls were fairly bare of many a student, apart from a very few. Amongst those very few, Nagisa was walking alongside Twilight and Pinkie, but Nagisa looked just a bit scuffled. His hair was messier than usual, and his expression looked just out of it. Let's just say he saw the news last night ...

"Uh, did you catch the news?" Twilight asked.

"I'm so dead, so very, very dead. What am I gonna do when they find out?" Nagisa shuttered.

"Why would that happen?" Pinkie asked.

"Because that Jizo statue and hellhound incidents are gonna hang over my head. Who knows what they'll do to me when they figure it out!" Nagisa got out, obviously troubled about the whole thing. It was rare to have Nagisa worry this much over many things, but this was a rather big deal, especially if the government was involved in all this demon stuff. Anymore demons, and it'll be found out for sure. Twilight hated to see her close friend troubled like this, and since she had her own experience with the Houndour, it was an understandable one.

"Hey, Nagisa," Twilight said, nudging him. Nagisa stopped for a short moment, and Twilight began to bring a closed hand up to her chest, inhaling as she did. Nagisa, starting to get the idea, mirrored her gesture. Once he did, Twilight then exhaled, her hand out in front of her with fingers extended, and Nagisa did the same. It was one method that kept around them for a while, and one Nagisa had forgotten for the longest time. Pinkie was especially happy to see Nagisa all better.

"AWW, that's so sweet," Pinkie said. Nagisa got a smile returning to his face, smiling to them both.

"I needed that, thanks Yugure."

"Anytime, Nagisa. Good luck on the midterms you guys," Twilight concluded.

With his nerves slightly settled down, Nagisa went straight over to his classroom to complete the exam. He had the same classroom to go into, but this morning the arrangement was a bit different. He was going to be stuck in one main class throughout the exam, and he was going to be joined by a number of different kids from different levels, depending on the subject matter. For this morning, Nagisa had his morning class with a mix of C, D, and E students, some of which Nagisa knew fairly well (enough to know by name anyway). Nagisa had his usual seat, and as the tests were passed out, he took sometime to see what students would be with him this time.

"Let's see now. Looks like there's a lot of E students in here this time," Nagisa noted, seeing plenty of E student signature faces within the classroom. As he got the test passed to him, he looked over what they got going for them. It seemed fine at first but as he continued to look, his nerves suddenly sky-rocketed again by what he saw.

"Wait, what kind of questions are these? We never gone over any of this beforehand. How are they expecting us to complete with a good score?" Nagisa thought. He took a look at the other students, and while some of the students seemed taken aback like he was, others seemed well content with this surprise. Nagisa had to get his head around the test, and get to the test itself. Perhaps it was a true test to see who had what knowledge packed in.

"Well, here it goes."

With pencil at the ready, Nagisa got right down to it, alongside everyone else in class. While he knew he had to keep himself down pact for this one, Nagisa took a few times to glance back and forth to the other kids in class. Higher grading students went through alright, getting stumped here and there, but as Nagisa looked, something else seemed a little off here. He manage to catch one of the E students, but the usual troubling looks they'd get in tests like these just didn't seem with them this time.

"Strange. Kirara doesn't look fazed at all with this test. In fact, she's flying through it like it's nothing! She never went through this well before ..."

Nagisa's mind continued working off on the other students from E as well.

"And them too? They're going through this like a walk in the park."

When it came to observation, Nagisa wasn't alone. He continued his exam, and when glancing at the teacher, he showed a more visual surprise when he was seeing the "E for end" students breeze through his efforts like this. This wasn't any demon sense talking to him, but Nagisa could tell this was still off from previous years.

"Maybe it's just a fluke. Just go through the other exams and you'll be fine," Nagisa thought. He had time to check them later, but for now he had his own test to work on.

As he probably expected, the last bunch of questions left him pretty confused. These questions not only were of things yet to be talked about, but rather exact and strict on answer. Outta the five, Nagisa was lucky to have one of the questions down, though that was just because he was convenient enough to go over it last night. Even so, he still tried his best with the others, and after some trial and error, wrote down the answers to the best he could do.

What else could he do here?

When that class had ended, Nagisa turned in his paper accordingly, seeing the slight troubled expression on his teacher's face as he did so. Nagisa would have to figure this out some other time (if at all).

For the next number of hours before lunch, this scenario was repeated time and again. During each class, Nagisa saw that those of E class were doing much better than in previous years. They weren't elite, by any means, but they were keeping up very well pace with the other students in class, even finishing theirs before some of the C students, including Nagisa himself. Nagisa saw a new confidence in these E students that just wasn't there before, and it showed when each one attacked these tests with straight minds and quick reflexes. Like he was one to judge someone based on their learning prowess though. At the same time, this all just seemed to come from nowhere, and surprisingly quick over just a month or two since the school year started. Usually confidence like that doesn't come until long after midterms.

"Ok, Nagisa. You got one more class before lunch, just go through that and then you can figure things out. The E students couldn't improved THAT fast ... right?"

Nagisa kept his thought packed away in his mind as he entered his next class. This one here he shared with Twilight as well, so he can get a second opinion on the matter at hand here. It didn't take long until he came across Twilight in class, with his seat right behind hers.

"Nagisa, there you are. Good luck today," Twilight said.

"Yeah, you too Twilight," Nagisa replied. It was probably good that he found her here, so he can talk to her about it before lunch. She was just as observant as he was, she must've notice something as well. However, Twilight also hadn't been around Orora high as long as he did, so maybe she might not have a straight answer. Since it was a few minutes before class officially, Nagisa decided to do a quick note pass: writing a message on a piece of paper and passing it up to her. You know, old school silent talk. Twilight was quick to get the message:

Did you see anything different about E class today?

After a quick write-back, Nagisa got his answer.

Maybe. They're diffidently improved.

"... Well I'm not the only one, at least," Nagisa thought. As expected, but at least he got a second input before lunch came around to get his hypothesis together.

~~

Time continued on, and so did the tests Nagisa and his friends went through. The amount of difficulty in the tests themselves had been rather amped up this year, and those involved were having some bit of trouble with figuring these questions out. B and A naturally went through fairly well, but those under that were on the ropes. Nagisa, Twilight, Pinkie, and Karma noticed at least one E student breeze by with not as much effort as those above them. Pinkie and Twilight personally had no issues with this, Pinkie being plenty supportive, but Nagisa and Karma both knew this was not normal. Since when did the E-for-end students gave the others a run for their money? As lunch came around, Nagisa and Karma were the ones who ended up together.

"So, you noticed the spike in E success?" asked Karma.

"In a way, yes. I found at least five E students finish up before me in history, and two in English."

"Now, normally I'd say you were always slow, but then again, I found three Es beat me to the punch in math today. Funky is it?" Karma brought up.

"Yeah. Where'd this even come from? They never been like this before."

"Neither did a Jizo come to life, a witch and Magi being our roommates, and a pack of Hellhounds try to tear up our asses."

Nagisa didn't answer. Karma knew he was right on that one, mainly that so many weird things were happening this year that didn't happen before. However, with that said, Nagisa suddenly got a particular theory in mind. Just before he could put it into words though, the intercom suddenly went off. Maybe what happened next was inevitable.

"Nagisa Shiota, come to the principal's office. Nagisa Shiota, please come to the office."

Nagisa had enough trouble, but this took the cake. He shivered up, and froze in place on hearing his own name being called up. Karma was a bit intrigued himself.

"Well, look at that."

"Wish me luck," sighed Nagisa. He knew he couldn't get out of this even if he tried.

.......

The walk to the principal's office was a slow, and anxious one. Nagisa had gone through enough surprises over the last month or so, and this call to the office was NOT helping him. He got demons facing him and his friends, worries over his school, and now something triggered a call to the office on his expense. As for what might've triggered it, Nagisa thought back to some of the incidents involving some magic, and the most recent one he could think of was when Blair popped up in his locker. If that was the case, then he's got some explaining to do. If that wasn't it though, then he didn't know what it would be. The principal's office needed a bit to get to, but Nagisa eventually found himself standing right at the front doors leading straight to it. For any kid in trouble at Orora High, it was like the gates of hell.

And Nagisa went right into it.

The principal's office was a pretty large room, wide open, with the main front desk right at the end of it. Windows lined up right behind the desk, which from Nagisa's view had some dramatic lighting to it. He had neatly combed, brown hair and eyes a surprisingly deep shade of violet, much like Twilight. He wore a formal business suit, unique from the other staff members in Orora High, as its of brown color instead of the usual grey or black. He also wore a saw tooth leaf pin on his tie. The look on his face was enough to show who was above whom in this situation, but the question still remained: what did he do to be called here?

"Shiota, there you are. Have a seat," the man offered. His voice was by no means an inviting one, if not one for a sly mob boss. Nagisa gathered his nerves, and quietly moved over to the only other chair in the room, which was right in front of him. He felt himself shiver slightly in his presence, and while he wasn't a demon, he got a similar vibe when he was sitting there in front of him. On the desk showen the principal's name.

Gakuho.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Nagisa asked, meekly.

"Yes. Shiota. This may be at a rather precarious time, but I believe you might know something about some ... unusual events. Is that right?" Gakuho asked.

Each word he spoke was crystal clear to the student's ears, and Nagisa could only try to keep his composure. Now he was for sure what he was talking about at this point.

"Unusual, sir?" Nagisa asked. The man casually moved a personal screen over so Nagisa could see, only to show himself finding and talking to Blair in his locker!

"May I might ask why you happen to have a wild animal in your locker, hmm?" He asked, making sure each word he said was not missed by Nagisa's ears. How is he supposed to explain this to him without giving too much away?! He already promised Aladdin to keep this stuff quiet, but he also knew that the principal will try to fish out the truth from him one way or another, so he had to think of something he'll buy ...

"I must've left it open, and it slipped in. I'll try to be more careful next time," Nagisa got out.

"Yes, yes. A good alibi," Nagisa thought right after. Gakuho though took it into far less consideration than Nagisa would like.

"Is that so? You seemed rather close to it for just an accident," Gakuho pointed out, referring to Nagisa actually talking to the cat before Blair slipped off camera. Nagisa gulped.

"I-I've been seeing the cat around the school for a while ..."

"I see ..."

silence hung in the air after that, as Gakuho began to bring out some papers, placing them onto the desk. Nagisa could only wonder what Gakuho would have in mind for him, cold sweat coming down from his face. One of these slips was pushed over towards Nagisa, like one would push upon a contract of sorts. Nagisa thought it would be a detention slip, or his personal record or something, but instead the teacher showed him a school class layout. In particular, judging by the amount of Es on it, for the E building. That worried him even more.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it. He's sending me straight to the end class for this!" Nagisa thought. Gakuho cleared his throat, and started speaking again.

"Now then. Be it as it may, that wasn't the only reason I called you in. Do you happen to know any of these students, Shiota?" Gakuho asked, pointing to one of the desks on the paper. A rather odd question, but Nagisa still figured he was setting him up for misery.

"W-Well, not too well. I've seen them a number of times today, actually," Nagisa admitted. suddenly, Gakuho got up, and moved over to Nagisa's side, looming over him as he too looked down at the paper. No, it didn't make him feel any better.

"I'm sure you've recognized them from the midterm exams earlier today. ... See, I've been given some reports that the E class had been rather troublesome this year, more than most. You might know what I'm talking about, now do you?"

Nagisa himself could only nod to the question.

"Thought so. You are a rather observant type. someone who'd rather stay in the crowd rather than be trapped in the middle of attention. Almost like you barely even exist in the middle of everything," Gakuho analyzed. Nagisa thought he had it all down, but this was a bit strange to hear from Gakuho. Now he wasn't sure what was coming.

"What are you getting at, sir? I don't think I follow," Nagisa got out, not looking at Gakuho face to face (like he could muster himself up to, anyway). Gakuho straightened up, and stood beside him, staring him down like he was his slave, with a sly and deceiving smile.

"Oh, I think you do. Especially during the exams themselves. You and I are aware of the ant system at Orora high, and how E represents what not to be ... however ..."

"But E is improving beyond what they should be," Nagisa finished, prompting a satisfied nod from Gakuho himself.

"Correct. I'd hate to see such a successful system break apart on me. And I'm sure you'd want to avoid any trouble with this little incident here." Gakuho brought up the cat moment again, and Nagisa was quick to agree. He tried to keep out of trouble in school, and getting knocked back thanks to Blair was not going to help that. Gakuho moved back to his own seat, sitting down, and gesturing to the Class E paper. Gakuho could sense that this student was getting more anxious, so he decided to cut to the chase.

"I'll agree to keep this little trouble off your record ... on one condition."

"I knew it," Nagisa thought weakly. It was then that Gakuho began to pull out something else for him: a reporter's notebook, military green binoculars, and a small portable radio. It didn't take a genius to figure out what came next.

"I want you to be my personal retriever for tomorrow. I'd like to know what exactly is going on at that building throughout the day. You shouldn't have any problems with that, would you?" Gakuho asked, though both sides knew that Nagisa couldn't exactly say otherwise.

"Um, well, maybe. Won't I be late for my classes?"

"You've been absent before. And I've seen you go towards that building time to time, so it isn't the first time you've done so ..."

then came that haunting grin on his face, and only then did Nagisa had the misfortune to lock eyes with him. Such violet eyes reminded Nagisa of a normally comforting face, now turned to disbelief.

"You wouldn't want some bad examples to be the inspiration of other students, do you? Or would you rather have be left at the bottom, having more E students to come in and crumble you under their feet. We both don't want that. Do we?"

"He knew about that?!" Nagisa thought in shock. He didn't say it allowed though, given who he was even talking to. That, and if what Blair said was true about Kirara and her scare on the other students at the building, that seemed more plausible than he'd expected it to. Then again, he was one of those students that many would push about anyway, so ...

"No, I don't," Nagisa finally said. Gakuho smiled in satisfaction, giving a single nod in Nagisa's direction.

"So, tomorrow morning, what are you going to do?"

"... Go to the E building."

"And ...?"

"Report to you what's going on over there."

"Very good. Now, classes should start in a few minutes," Gakuho stated. Nagisa glanced over at the clock, shocked to find that he was right. He got right up off his seat.

"Yes sir, I'll do that," Nagisa said, starting to walk away from Gakuho, and towards the door. Just before he could leave ...

"Oh, and, one more thing."

Nagisa paused.

"We'll keep this between us two."

"... Yes sir."

~~

When the day finally came to a close for the school, Nagisa was still left kinda shaken up thanks to Gakuho. He'd buy it if he got a after school detention, or something like that, but instead he was Gakuho's little spy for E tomorrow. Go figure. His materials For the moment, Nagisa was actually hoping that he would get a quiet walk home, but Karma, Twilight, and Pinkie ended up finding him anyway on the way out.

"Hey, Nagisa, there you are! Everything alright?" Twilight immediately asked.

"So, what did the big boss Gakuho do to ya? Looks like he gave you a free slip," added Karma.

Talk about going right for the throat. then again, Nagisa had to expect that sort of question to pop up considering EVERYONE could hear the call. However, Nagisa remembered damn well that Gakuho wanted this quiet, so he had to improvise a little bit. He just sighed, and turned to the others.

"Tell Blair she's not allowed to come to school anymore," Nagisa said dryly. That may only be half right, but it was still a truth nonetheless.

"Damn, so he saw that huh?"

"Was he scary to you?" Pinkie asked, worried. Nagisa still had that image of Gakuho's devilish face staring at him.

"Very," Nagisa said, shivering a little.

"Oh dear. Well, what did he do to you?"

"He gave me suspension for tomorrow," Nagisa told them. THAT part wasn't true, but one that any normal principal would give. However, it was also that point where Karma got a little bit suspicious, but he didn't say anything to him. Twilight though felt very guilty here.

"Sorry, Nagisa ... it's my fault: I told her to go into the school and tell you guys. I should've done it myself ..." Twilight admitted. They all knew that already, but Nagisa didn't had the heart to really blame her for it. He knew Twilight better than anyone, and these midterms had her studying far too much to give a message out to he others (far as he knew anyway). Still, they did buy the story, and Nagisa continued to walk again.

"It's okay, it's just for one day. I can use the time to calm down from these midterms anyway," Nagisa said, as he went off on his way. He was grateful that none of them were able to notice the notebook and binoculars he had hidden on him, or even if they did, they didn't suspect anything. He had enough pressure with these demons already, and now he had to please Gakuho tomorrow as a his spy on top it all. Nagisa sighed, and tried to calm himself down. Only one guarantee went through his thoughts that kept him from breaking down.

"Only for one day ..."