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Negi had been released from the hospital, and he was actually standing. Chamo had gone off somewhere, but he had been driven home from the medical wing to the home he made in the city.

However, he had found a letter addressed to him, and a brass key. As such, Negi flew over to the shop which was locked up tight. Atelier Elric. The store was brightly colored and there were tasteful decorations everywhere, as well as several circles and such inscribed into pasteboard.

Negi had spent hours there in between training, goofing off with Devlin and otherwise reading when he wasn’t being foisted off on Ren and Phillip, and there were really good memories. He picked up the jacket that was laying in the corner, and hung it up respectfully.

A book of notes stood at the side, and he opened it up, reciting the quote that lay there. “Humankind cannot gain without giving. To obtain, equal amount must be given. This is the law of Equivalent Exchange.”

A little sticky was attached to the bottom of it and Negi smiled, reading it. “Magic on the other hand, is totally wonky with its own set of rules. Turn the world inside out with it. – Ed.”

With great flourish, Negi threw the curtains open as he put up the sign. He would do his best, for now.

It was still Atelier Elric in spirit, as Negi added a sign in the shape of a white wing, proclaiming the site.

“Sleep well, Ed.” Said Negi as he began to do something he hadn’t done in ages – potion making and magic-based alchemy.

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"The magic does not seem 'Dark' by my understanding, and if I flatter myself, I have a fairly good understanding," Lupin said. "Besides, simply because you have a -- an unusual condition, is no reason you should view yourself as less than entirely human."

Though, truth be told, here Lupin was not exactly preaching what he practiced.

Negi nodded, feeling slightly like he was in an ironic sequence of events, but at the same time it was comforting to be thought of as just a mostly-normal kid at any rate. "Thanks professor, I mean it."

"Ah, well, I simply happen to be knowledgeable in such things," he said wryly. "If I may ask, though, how did you end up in that situation you were in?"

"It's a bit of a long story." said Negi as he sat down on the table.

"It began when I had to train and fight as a Gladiator to free my students from slavery in the magic world. I ran into an opponent named Kagetarou who was well above my level, and was rescued by an ally of my fathers, Jack Rakan."

He grinned just a little at the memory. "I got my arm cut off, right here," and he indicated his right arm above the elbow. "And got it attached. When I recovered, I decided to seek him out for training."

"Well before you came on the ship, I take it." He gathered that the ship had not always been a terribly pleasant place, but he suspected slavery and gladatorial combat were not in its past.

"That's right," said Negi. "Basically after a day of ineffective training, he gave me a scroll. In it was sealed my Master's technique, Magica Erebea. It's a technique to absorb any incoming energy, be it chi, magic, etc, and turn it against the opponent. But more importantly, the power to consume said energy, and turn it into your own."

"As you can probably guess, it's a dangerous technique, highly self destructive but sets you well ahead of the power curve. People have referred to it as a truly broken technique, practically a gamebreaker."

"I see," he said, and did. To destroy oneself to achieve a goal seemed foolish only until you realized that some goals were very much worth death, or worse.

Sirius had known that.

"It doesn't quite seem to have handed you an easy victory this time," he pointed out in good humor.

"No, not this time," admitted Negi. "Well before I arrived, I was having problems with it, and trouble flying into a Erebea fueled rage. Not only that, there had been a serious problem with a vast amount of corruption running in my body after so many strenuous uses. My Master and I fixed it, but I guess when KAIN struck me, it re-ignited the entire corruptive force once more."

"If I had been thinking clearly, I probably could have come up with a way to stop him for good, but as it stands I wasn't."

"He was a very difficult opponent," Lupin said. "He was vulnerable to many spells, but not for any long period of time. I was unable to even make him forget his purpose for longer than a few moments. So don't think as if you failed. I'm certain you did your best, and in the end the problem was solved."

He steepled his fingers, bending his head thoughtfully. "Corruption inside. That is tricky. If I were more of a dab hand at Potions, I'd suggest that, but I never took that past OWL level. And I guess it can't simply be removed, as it is part of the magic and it will reappear whenever that magic is used?"

Negi thought about it, and then slowly shook his head. "I don't know but... I get the feeling that somehow, I've managed to conquer it with everyone's help. It may not be perfect, but I do feel... lighter, is the word for it I'd say."

"If it does happen, it's on my terms this time," said Negi, rubbing his arms. "Call it instinct or whatever have you, but I just feel like something's happened to me. Something big and yet I feel in complete control for now. Before it seemed to feel like it seethed under my skin. Now, it's barely a rumble."

"Ah," he said, slightly unsettled. "Then you are lucky."

He couldn't explain that, for all that the ship had freed him from the effects of his curse, the curse itself still hung over him, every bit as unsettled as Negi had described his own power initially. He lived with it, but would never be comfortable with it.

"I'm beginning to regret not studying more healing spells," he said, rather awkwardly changing the topic. "I think they might have served me better than anything else I did."

"Actually on that subject, Professor, there are books I managed to find in the library on that." said Negi, tactfully steering from the subject as well. "Healing spells I mean. There's a wealth of powerful magicks and tomes, and I could show you some of them."

Negi hadn't been idle lately either, delving into the vast piles of magical texts and arcane rituals. True there were gaps here and there, but the high volume of spells that were easily adaptable for people was high.

"If you think there's something to be learned there, I'll take a look." He patted the wand at his side. "Though I'm not sure how much what you do and what I do have in common."

"To be fair, I'm theorycrafting here." explained Negi as he twiddled his fingers just a little. "I've been studying some of the concepts and building spells based on the ones in the library resources."

"Wizards from my Earth don't typically learn much about theory in school," Lupin said thoughtfully. "You may have me outdone there. Though I will add that I did quite a bit of, shall we call it independent study?"

To wit: creating the Marauder's Map.

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