When Natalie and Edward got to the pavilion where the tournament was, there were people everywhere and the line to get in was massive. Thankfully Konoka spotted them and waved them over.
“Kind of handy to have around aren’t I?” she laughed.
“Thanks again Konoka,” Natalie said. “I keep imposing on you.”
“Don’t think anything of it really. What brings you guys out here?”
“We were looking for Negi and Chamo-kun actually.”
“Ahh, they should be down in the locker room, Negi just finished his fight with Takahata so he’s probably getting patched up. The fight was pretty intense but Negi managed to win. Set-chan and Asuna are getting ready for their match now so Negi should be back up here in a minute.”
“Oh that should be fun to watch,” Natalie said. She already knew it would be though since she had seen it in the manga. She was actually a little disappointed to have missed Takamichi and Negi’s fight. That one would have been one to see.
Edward nudged Natalie. “What are those?” he asked as he pointed up to the giant screens replaying the highlights from Negi and Takamichi’s fight.
Natalie chuckled. “They’re video monitors.” That’s right; Edward had never seen anything like that before since they didn’t exactly have that sort of technology in Amestris. “They play back things that are recorded. Remember how I told you about the shows I watched? It was on something like that monitor that I watched them.”
Edward thought about it for a minute. “That’s just amazing. It’s not surprising that other worlds would have different technology though. I’m kind of curious what else this world has.”
He actually took that pretty well. She’d expected him to freak out more seeing the images displayed like that. It was actually reassuring to know he could keep a cool head about these things.
“Oh, there’s Negi,” said Konoka as she pointed to a nearby door.
Negi walked up and smiled. He then saw Edward and got noticeably nervous. “Um, Edward, I… about last night at the…”
Edward put his hand up to stop him and shook his head. “Don’t sweat it Negi, it’s alright. You were just being a gentleman.”
Negi chuckled. “Yes, thank you for understanding.”
Natalie and Konoka both just giggled at them. Guys were such strange things no matter how old they were.
“Negi, is Chamo-kun with you?” Natalie asked.
“Did someone ask for me?” the ermine said popping out of a pocket in Negi’s cloak. “Ah, the philly from the other night. Change your mind about that pactio?”
Natalie blushed when Edward gave her a look. “Well actually, yes. Ed and I need your help. You mentioned the other night that you could do them and given our unique situation we thought it would be better to have one.”
Chamo grinned, taking out a chocolate cigarette and holding it in his mouth. “So you want me to make the magic circle so you and lover boy here can make a contract huh?”
Edward looked at Chamo a bit angrily. “Cocky little bastard,” he muttered just loud enough for Natalie to hear. She couldn’t exactly argue with him since it was true. Did Chamo really have to make the lover boy part of the comment though?
Natalie put her hand on Edward’s shoulder and gave him a look that said cool it. “That’s right Chamo, a probationary one.”
Chamo made like he was taking a drag from the cigarette. “Not going for the permanent one? I’m surprised but yeah I can do that for you. I’m guessing you’re the Magister and he’s the Ministra?”
“Magister? Ministra? What does that mean?” Edward asked.
Negi chimed in to answer this one. “A Magister is a witch or wizard like me and Ministra is the term used for their partner.”
Edward thought about it for a moment. “I wonder why they didn’t refer to it that way in the books. They just referred to it as a magic user and a partner.”
“It really depends on the text you read how it’s referred to. The terms are usually used mostly in classrooms in magic academies as those are the official terms but most regular magic users don’t use the terms when actually speaking of them.”
“I’m just old school,” Chamo said.
“Either way, can you do it Chamo?” Natalie asked.
“Like I said Toots, I can. We can go take care of it now if you want.”
The Toots comment really steamed Edward and it was a lot clearer this time. He made to grab Chamo but Natalie grabbed his hand. “Chill out Ed! It’s fine. Chamo’s just a crass, perverted little rodent, it’s just his nature. Just ignore it!”
Edward made what sounded like a growling noise in his anger but pulled his hand back. “Fine. Let’s just get this over with before he really pisses me off.”
Natalie gave Negi and Chamo an ‘I’m sorry’ look.
“So you guys want to do this now?” Chamo asked. Natalie nodded.
“We can go down into the locker room area. There’s plenty of un-used rooms done there were no one should see,” Negi offered.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Chamo said.
“We’ll be back in time for Asuna and Setsuna’s match Konoka, would you wait here?”
“No problem Negi, hurry back,” she replied with a smile.
With that Negi, Chamo, Natalie, and Edward made their way down into the lower parts of the pavilion where the locker rooms were. Finding a secluded one, Chamo hopped off of Negi’s shoulder and started to draw the circle.
“So you guys know what you have to do right?” the ermine asked as he finished up.
Natalie nodded. “Yeah, we stand in the circle, you activate it and then he has to kiss me to make the probationary contract.”
“Bingo,” he said as he finished. “Ready when you are.”
Natalie looked at Edward. “You ready?”
Edward nodded and they stepped into the circle. Chamo then put his paw on the circle activating it. A brilliant light washed over them.
“Holy cow, this feels… interesting,” Natalie said.
“Feels a lot like standing in an alchemy circle,” Edward said.
“Come on you two, get a move on,” Chamo said.
Edward just shot him a look. He knew what he had to do it just wasn’t easy with an audience. Taking a deep breath, he drew Natalie to him and kissed her. When he did the circle shown blindingly bright and then vanished. Letting Natalie go, Edward bent down to pick up the created cards, a primary one for Edward and a secondary for Natalie.
“What the…?” he said as he handed Natalie the other card. She took one look at it and recognized the image immediately.
“Ed, say ‘adeat’ for me.”
“Huh?”
“Just do it, it’ll activate the card.”
“Um, OK, if you say so. Adeat.”
The card flashed and disappeared transforming Edward. When it was done he was standing there wearing an outfit he hadn’t since he’d gotten Alphonse back. Heavy boots, black pants, light brown leather belt, black sleeveless shirt with a long sleeve shirt that only clasped at the neck over that, white gloves and his long red jacket. It even had the pocket watch.
“What the hell?”
Natalie walked over to him and took his gloves off. His right arm was made of automail again. “Just as I thought, the power you got from the contract was your automail arm. It’s stronger than your normal arm and you can easily transmute it so it works with your natural ability. Give it a try.”
He clapped his hands together and ran his left hand over his right creating his old familiar blade. “You’ve got to be kidding me…” he said.
“Well seems now you get all the benefits of having the automail arm without having to wear it all the time. Though I’d be careful, unlike before, your real arm is still in there so if you bust this up like you used to you’ll be busting up your real arm too. At least that’s my theory.”
Negi nodded. “I’m inclined to think you’re right Natalie. The card power is just intended to be a booster not a complete replacement for anything.”
Edward clapped his hands together again and made the blade vanish back into the metal of the arm. “I just can’t believe it that’s all. I never thought I’d have this arm again. I have to admit, there are times I’ve missed it,” he said as he stretched it out and flexed the metallic fingers. “It feels a little different than it used to though, but I guess since it’s not actually automail that makes sense.”
“We should get going before someone realizes we’re here,” Negi said.
Natalie nodded. “Ed, say ‘abeat’ and you’ll go back to normal. We can try out the powers from the card later on.”
“You’re right. Abeat,” he said and in a quick flash of light he’d changed back and the card was in his hand.
Heading out of the locker rooms, they all went back out to watch the rest of the tournament.
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