She kind of missed it when this place looked like a deathtrap.

Under a somewhat cloudy night, the only real source of light her wand, Sucy Manbavaran lethargically trudged through one of the most dangerous places in the magical world, and slowly took in the sights. What were once menacing, twisting branches of trees that had faces that looked like humans in absolute agony, were now, even in the dead of night, beautiful trees that could’ve come from a painting, all their faces set in complete peace. Illuminated by the green glow of her wand, the trees gave off an otherworldly air that was just a touch disturbing because of how unnaturally serene everything was.

Personally, Sucy thought it was better when it was disturbing for being the creepiest forest in existence. The demonic-looking trees; the hiss of starving magical animals and plants looking for their next meal; the way the very magic in the air had just felt off; the atmosphere had been like something straight from a horror-movie.

Perfect, in other words.

But, with magic now back, Arcturus Forest had returned to its “former glory” of a storybook-esque forest. Visually, anyway.

There were still plenty of things here that could kill any ordinary witch.

A rustle in a nearby tree made her stop. Slowly, she looked up. In the branches, the leaves were shaking, and as they shook more and more, animalistic growls came from within the darkness of the leaves.

Sucy kept staring with a half-lidded eye, even as the growls grew worse and the branch and leaves kept shaking more violently. And in a second, a massive, dark shape jumped out of the tree.

And crashed into the dirt right next to her.

“Owwww…”

Not even blinking, Sucy slowly raised her wand, illuminating the shape.

Akko laid flat on the dirt, wincing in pain as she rubbed her head.

“So,” Sucy began, voice completely flat and not even the slightest bit surprised. “How goes the hunt, Guinea Pig?”

Akko let out another groan, slowly opening her eyes. She looked up, finally realized Sucy was standing right in front of her, and smiled widely. “Oh, hey Sucy! Did you get all the mushrooms from that really creepy tree?”

“Yep,” she replied, lazily gesturing with her head towards the pouch on her hip. “Did you get the imp?”

Akko quickly hopped to her feet. “You betcha!” she said, pointing at her right hand. “Told you I could catch it on my own! Now, feast your eyes on—“ She abruptly stopped talking, her smiling dying as she realized her hand was empty. “This?”

Sucy stared at the empty air. “Oh, wow. I didn’t know it could turn invisible.” There were deserts less dry than her voice.

“Wha—where did it—I caught it literally a second ago!” Akko patted herself down, but when she found nothing, she got onto her knees, face inches away from the dirt, and started to search the ground. “C’mon, c’mon, where’d you go…”

“If you didn’t actually catch it,” Sucy said, leisurely walking to Akko. “Then just say it, and don’t lie.”

“No, I did!”

Still holding up her wand to light the area, Sucy crouched down a few steps away from Akko. “Uh-huh.”

“Seriously!”

“Then where is it?”

“I don’t know!” She cried out, head shooting up, eyes clenched shut in frustration. “This isn’t fair! That thing was a nightmare to chase down, and when I finally catch the little monster, it gets away!? Come on!”

“Why did you expect anything different?” Sucy reached forward, and picked up a glass bottle off the ground. “Did you forget how hopeless you can be, Akko?”

“Sucy, do you have to be mean to me right now!?” Akko whirled around to face her, finally opening her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be helping me find—“

Akko stopped talking. In front of her, Sucy held out the glass bottle she just picked up. The bottle that had a small, very irritated forest imp inside it.

Akko blinked dumbly. “You found the imp.”

“Yep.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Akko shouted, nostrils visibly flaring.

“Then it wouldn’t be funny,” she replied, mouth wickedly curling up as she chuckled. The tiny “Kekekes” that left her made the air feel colder, and she saw a few creatures hidden in the shadows shivering.

Akko, meanwhile, kept glaring, before she let out a long sigh. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Sucy.” She pointed at the bottle. “But that’s the little fairy you wanted, right?”

“Imp,” Sucy corrected. “And yeah, it is.”

“Alright!” Akko smiled, but it quickly faded when she saw just how much the imp was kicking and scratching at the bottle. “Er, but, maybe you should get what you want from the imp now. It’s pretty angry, Sucy. ”

Sucy lifted the bottle, and the imp stopped kicking and scratching to angrily glare at her, shaking its fist at her. “Hey. Stop it,” she droned out.

It did not stop, and started making rude gestures at her in Impeese. Which were the same rude gestures in English.

Sucy stared at the imp with a flat, unimpressed glare. “Quit it before I snap you like a twig,” she stated, voice ice-cold.

That got the imp to stop real fast. Its green skin was suddenly a lot paler, and she could see it back itself up to the farthest corner of the bottle.

“That’s better.” Without a word, Sucy flicked out her wand, muttered a spell, and then the imp and the cork of the bottle were covered in a green light. The cork unplugged itself, and the moment it did, the imp went flying out with a high-pitch scream. It quickly found itself hanging in the air upside-down, and only a few inches away from her red, apathetic eye.

“Here’s what’s gonna happen,” Sucy said, pulling out a small, corrosive-proof vial from her sleeve. “You’re gonna fill this up with your drool, and then I’ll let you go. Don’t…“

Her mouth twisted, and a horribly wide, unnatural smile was on her face in an instant, one that made her teeth glint like blades from the dark green light of her wand. “I’ll crush your little body bit by bit until you're nothing but wood chips.”

There was nothing but pure fear on the imp’s face as it shook while under the grasp of her spell. A few of the creatures hiding in the dark slowly backed away, some letting out a few pitiful, scared noises.

Akko just pouted. “Do you have to be that mean to the little guy, Sucy?”

The smile vanished, and Sucy turned an impassive red eye to Akko. “Have to? No. Do I want to?” She slowly turned back to the imp, and she chuckled like the witch she was. “Yes.”

The little forest creature looked a moment away from passing out.

She put the vial right under its head—or over, from its perspective—and shook it. “So hurry up and spit already.”

The imp started spitting with gusto. Thick drops of murky queen liquid shot out of its mouth like bullets and into her vial, rapidly filling it up. Some of it’s spit missed the vial and landed on the ground, quickly forming a small puddle near the grass. Once the vial was filled to the brim, the spit suddenly started glowing a shining, emerald green, and Sucy smirked.

“That’s good enough,” she said, and with a dismissive toss, the imp was flung away with a high-pitched scream, and hit the ground in a tumble. As it got up, Sucy put the vial away, and added, “You can go now. Oh, but, if your friends in the dark are interested”—she grinned in the vague direction of all the various eyes in the dark, teeth glinting like knives—“they can stay.”

The imp was already running.

And so were the monsters in the dark.

“Wuss,” Sucy called out, purposefully cackling far more madly then before. Ah. There was no sound quite like the echoing footsteps of someone frantically running away with everything they had. It was a music second only to the wonderful bubbling of a cauldron brewing an ominous potion. Or, any potion, really. Ominous ones just had a more catchy “jingle” to them.

Sucy put the imp spit in her pouch, and turned back to Akko as she finished cackling. Akko was looking at her with somewhat fearful eyes, her big, dopey mouth hanging open slightly. Sucy’s grin grew before she even knew it. Of every witch in the school, Akko’s scared expressions were just the best.

“Sucy, it feels like your laugh gets scarier every time I hear it,” Akko said, and even with her fear, she almost sounded impressed.

“That sounds like it’s your problem.” Sucy shrugged.

Akko frowned, the fear gone like it was never there before, and looked at the direction the monster’s left. “I feel kind of bad for those guys.”

“Akko, ‘those guys’ probably would’ve tried to eat us if they thought they could get away with it.”

“Yeah, but I feel like dealing with you is a bit to mean of a punishment.”

Sucy stared, expression blank.

Akko stared back, innocent red-eyes unblinking.

Sucy grinned. “Well, you’re not wrong.”

Akko suddenly smiled, chuckling that impossibly warm laugh of hers. “You’re seriously scary, Sucy.”

Sucy couldn’t help but laugh a little as well. “You say that like there was any doubt.”

They both kept laughing under the light of her wand, and the mesmerizing shadows of trees that were hauntingly beautiful. Sucy’s grin grew; not just out amusement. It was funny. A year ago, she never could’ve seen herself laughing with anybody. Least of all with a girl that had enough energy to fuel the sun, and smiled so bright it was practically blinding.

But of the many things Sucy and every other witch at Luna Nova had learned about Akko Kagari, it was that this perpetually smiling moron had a habit of doing the impossible again and again. Her saving an ancient tree thanks to a trading card. Cheering up an ancient spirit cursed with misery with a magic show. Saving an entire country from a magical pandemic. And of course, stopping a magic nuke and bringing back magic to all new heights with just her believing heart.

Becoming Sucy’s friend was just one of those many, impossible things.

Even if it had been a while since they had a moment like this.

“So, what’s next?”

Akko’s question made Sucy snap out her staring with a blink. “What?”

“The stuff for your potion? What’s the next thing we need to get?” Akko asked, pointing at the small pouch on her hip.

Right, her potion. The whole reason she had wanted to come to Arcturus. All because Akko saving the world and bringing magic back had made things way more interesting.

When magic had declined, there were a plethora of species of magical animals, plants, and organisms that had either rapidly became more and more rare, or outright extinct. But magic was back now, and more than that, there was more magic than ever before in recorded history. Every species that was on the verge of extinction were suddenly thriving, in both population and sheer magic power, and a few actually extinct species had come back into existence.

And that was just some of the changes magic being brought back had caused. Entire lost cities suddenly reappearing from the ether; old spells no longer being obsolete; new subsets of magic being created seemingly every day. So many changes, and not enough time in the day to list them all, or know exactly what changes were happening.

Luna Nova was no different. There was the obvious changes, like how new leylines sprouting into existence near the school went to places all the way on the other side of the world. Or how the faeries had far more energy and spell stones they could consume now, and some had regained abilities their various species hadn’t had in years.

And then, there was Arcturus Forest. Everyone had noticed how the whole forest had gotten a vibrant makeover, but that wasn’t the only thing different about it now. Maybe it was because Arcturus was essentially ground zero for when Akko first used the Grand Triskellion with the Shiny Rod—and let her “harness the pure power of belief,” in Ursula’s words—but there were more changes than just that. Sucy didn’t doubt there were plenty of things happening in Arcturus that she or anyone at the school had yet to notice, even months after magic was brought back. But what she did notice were all the new “residents” in Arcturus that had seemingly come from nowhere, and were things she had only seen in her potion books and notes. Various animals and ghosts and spirits that hadn’t been seen in centuries were wandering around the forest in droves; magical plants and organisms that were so hard to find had become almost common here, and it seemed like more were popping up every other day. Essentially, some of the rarest potion ingredients in the world, even after magic came back, were suddenly within its grooves.

And Sucy was not about to let that chance slip by. There had been a potion she’d always wanted to try brewing, the mythical Essence of Enchantress, and after what she’d learned, she wanted to brew it now more than. She never did in the past because she couldn’t get all the ingredients for it no matter where she searched, with some being so rare she probably never would’ve found them in her lifetime. But thanks to Akko, that wasn’t a problem anymore, and after a lot of research to make sure she’d make the most powerful version of the potion she needed, she had a list to make what would be one of the most, if not the most, amazing potions she’d ever make.

It might’ve been more difficult sneak into Arcturus, but Luna Nova was about to go on break for the next few weeks. It was a celebration of one of the Nine Olde Witches birthdays—she couldn’t remember which one’s—and all her accomplishments. Something about dealing with monsters, but she never really paid attention to that specific witch’s “exploits” or her holiday. Point was, Luna Nova was about to go on holiday, and because of magics “glorious” return, they decided to extend the break to “allow their students to fully grasp this monumental occasion after working so hard.”

In reality, it was because the teachers were dealing with about a hundred different things since magic had returned, and decided that putting classes on hold for a while would help them deal with their work load. And also, give them a much needed break.

At least, that was how Ursula made it sound, despite her efforts to hide the truth from Akko.

But, what that all meant, was that the teachers would be busy handing out their last tests, packing their things to return home, the ones who weren’t staying on campus anyway, and, because they were so busy, the leyline that led to Arcturus had less teachers guarding it, and would make it way easier to sneak past.

She told Akko and Lotte her plans, and Akko almost instantly agreed to it. Even Lotte had been surprisingly enthusiastic to come too. She wanted to see if she could find the new spirits some of the other ones at Luna Nova told her they spotted wandering around Arcturus. “Just to observe them more than anything,” was what she said, and even brought a little notebook with her to take notes. So, with the help of some of Luna Nova’s faerie staff and the knowledge acquired form over a year of breaking every rule the school had, they snuck out in the dead of night, and managed to sneak into the leyline, and were transported right to the outskirts of Arcturus.

And the moment they had, Sucy had felt a sense of…rightness. This was how things were supposed to be: her and Akko, and Lotte, breaking the rules, and going on a little adventure to somewhere sort of dangerous. Her mocking Akko and Akko acting like her usual dopey, warm self. Just having fun; like it would never end. It had been a while since she felt like that.

Kind of like how it had been a while since Akko actually spent any time with her.

“Sucy?”

It took her a second to realize she hadn’t actually answered Akko’s question, having gotten a bit lost in her thoughts, and Akko was staring at her, both of her thin eyebrows raised.

“Yeah, we’re not done yet,” Sucy said, quickly running through a mental checklist of what she still needed for her potion. “I still haven’t found a forsakenwing yet.” Seeing Akko’s almost audible confusion, she sighed, and said, “The ‘magic bat.’”

Akko let out an “ahh,” and nodded a few time. “Right, the bat.” She laughed again, this time a bit awkwardly. “Sorry, forgot the name.”

“You’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached to you,” Sucy groused.

“Hey, I’m not that bad!”

“Your grades say otherwise.”

“Grades aren’t important! The education system is out to get me! And they’ve gotten better!” She crossed her arms and huffed. “You know, you’re being pretty rude to the Savior of Magic.”

“That title would be more impressive if you didn’t only recently learn to fly an inch off the ground.”

“Hey!” Akko shouted, stomping her foot like a kid as she glared. “It’s way more than an inch now! You know that! I can fly just as good as Amanda!”

Sucy’s stare was flat.

“…I, I mean, probably. Maybe. When she’s having an off-day,” Akko corrected, rubbing her arm as she looked away. “And…when her broom’s kind of broken.” She slumped a little. But she quickly regained her anger, and she dramatically pointed a finger at Sucy. “But I’m getting better! Way better! So don’t make fun of my progress, Sucy!”

Yeah, admittedly, Akko had been getting honestly pretty decent at flying. And it had only been, what, barely two months after the whole magic nuke thing? That was on top of the fact that a good chunk of Akko’s lack of progress for so long had actually been because of something completely outside her control; specifically, because of a certain megalomanic witch and a teacher that was way to forgiving. So, yeah, it was kind of impressive.

Of course, she wasn’t gonna tell that to Akko. Sucy’s only response was to roll her eye at Akko, and then dryly said, “Yeah, yeah. I’m so sorry, Ms. ‘Savior of Magic.’”

Akko pouted at her. “Can’t you ever be nice to me, Sucy?”

“No,” was Sucy’s immediate reply. “What kind of alchemist is nice to their guinea pig?”

Akko let out an overblown sigh, and Sucy grinned. Akko then muttered something under her breath, something like "call me that cool nickname once without mocking me?” She slowly opened her bright red eyes at her. “So, is the bat the last thing we need to get, or is there more?” she asked.

Sucy’s mouth had been opened to deliver another quip, but she stopped at Akko’s words. She considered them for a moment. “Yeah, pretty much,” she said. “Once we get the bat, we can head back to the entrance, meet up with Lotte, and go back to Luna Nova.” She paused, titling her head. “Assuming those spirits we met don’t turn out to be evil ones, and aren’t about to turn her into one.”

“Sucy, not funny!” Akko said, crossing her arms and glaring at her like she was trying to imitate a scolding teacher. To bad her face was way to soft to look anything close to ‘intimidating.’

“Eh.” Sucy shrugged, smirking and showing off a few sharp teeth. “Debatable.”

“No it isn’t! Besides, we left Will-o’-Chan with Lotte, so she’ll be fine.”

"Will-o’-Chan" was Akko’s little nickname for Lotte’s familiar—who’s actual name was Ilo. About an hour into their ingredient hunt, the spirits Lotte had wanted to meet had actually found them first. Even in Arcturus, they had learned about the witches responsible for restoring magic and brining it to all new heights, and as result had given them more freedom and “sense of self” than they had in a long time. Whatever that meant.

They had thanked Akko for bringing back magic, Akko had blushed and waved it off like it was no big deal, and even thanked Sucy too for the role she played. But the spirits had been the most interested in Lotte. They had seen the “powerful spirit caller” who helped bring back magic in action on that live broadcast, as well as her “impressive, fiery wisp,” and wanted to meet her ever since. They had told her they would be honored to talk with “ a witch whose skill in the arts to of communing with spirits eclipsed almost every modern witch they’d ever seen.”

Sucy rarely saw Lotte look so excited about anything outside of Nightfall, but her smile when they told her all of that been almost as bright as Akko’s. She practically begged Akko if she could stay and talk with them, and Akko of course agreed. She even told Lotte she could just stay with them while she and Sucy found the rest of the ingredients, and Lotte hugged Akko so hard she was sure she heard a bone crack.

So, they left Lotte by her lonesome. Well, except for Ilo, who Akko had overly sternly told to “protect her with all your power,” and Ilo saluted like a private at a drill sergeant. Some might think there wasn’t much a tiny fire wisp could do in case things went bad, either if the spirits turned out to be malicious, or some dangerous creature in Arcturus tried to hurt Lotte.

Those people had not been around for the one and only time Hannah and Barbara had corned Lotte and made fun of her when Sucy and Akko weren’t with her; but Ilo had been, had heard every insult and, more importantly, saw just how badly Lotte was taking those insults, and that was when people reported Lotte’s hoodie glowing an unearthly, violent green.

There was a reason Sucy had been sure Ilo’s flames were strong enough to boost their broom alongside her potion when they were chasing after the Noir Missile. And not only had she learned just how hot Ilo could make their flames on that day, she’d also learned it could pick and choose what got burned or not. So Hannah and Barbara had only gotten their hair completely singed off, and hadn’t been, say, burnt to a crisp, like more than half the walls and paintings that took up that hallway.

Ilo’s control kind of slipped when it was angry.

Point was, everyone learned an important lesson that day: don’t upset the sentient matchstick’s “Mom” when they were around.

Minion One and Minion Two were just lucky that Ilo had already punished them before Sucy got the chance. Or Akko. Because there were, in fact, times when she wasn’t smiling.

Sucy had seen that firsthand, after all.

Sucy shoved that thought away, focusing back on the conversation. That was all she should focus on; just that. “Yeah, I guess,” she said, voice as indifferent as ever. She smirked. “Honestly, she’s probably safer having a tiny will-o'-wisp as backup than you.”

“Hey.” Akko’s glare was flat. “You didn’t have to add that last part.”

“I really did.”

“No you—”Akko cut herself off with a groan. “No, you know what, I’m stopping before I give you more chances to keep roasting me like yakitori.” Ah, it always did Sucy proud to see her guinea pig learning, even if only a little bit, and her smirk widened. After a second of rubbing her hand across her face in exasperation, Akko looked up at Sucy. “So, where can we find the forsakenwing?”

Sucy glanced up at the stars, and brought up the little mental map she had in her head. “Somewhere a bit south here, around that mushroom patch we passed by earlier.”

“The ones with the scary faces like that make them look like horror movie monsters?”

“Yeah, those.”

Akko shivered. “Why do mushrooms like those even exist?” she grumbled.

“Because they’re cool,” Sucy said, with complete sincerity.

Akko paused, and then chuckled a bit. “Yeah, I guess they kinda are; in a really, really scary kinda way, but still neat!” Akko didn’t sound the slightest bit mocking when she said that. Sucy didn’t know if that was just her being her usual nice self, or if she genuinely thought that, but still, she could appreciate the support. No one ever gave mushrooms the credit they deserved. “So I guess you’re gonna snatch up some more of them on the way back?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Sucy shrugged. “I don’t really like getting too much of one mushroom, especially if they’re not that interesting. I’ve got like a dozen similar types with way scarier faces in our room.”

Akko stared at her. “W-where in our room?” she asked

“Don’t worry about it.”

Sucy grinned a little at the look of discomfort that flickered across Akko’s face, right before her eyes narrowed. “Sucy, when we get back, we’re gonna have a long talk about keeping scary things in our room without telling your roommates. Again.” The frown her lips were set in suddenly flipped into a beaming smile, and Akko pumped her fist into the air. “But that’s for later! For now, let’s go find that cool magic bat and—”

Akko suddenly winced a bit, pulling back her hand down and looking at the bite mark their. There was no blood, but her skin did have a noticeable bruise. “Ow, ow, ow; that little guy sure has sharp teeth. This really stings.”

“Ah, that might be because of the acid.”

“The what!?” Akko screamed, eyes wide as dinner plates.

“Those imps have acid in their spit.” Sucy pointed at some of the ground the imp’s spit had hit, and the blades of grass were slowly melting, bits of steam letting out an audible sizzling sound Akko only now seemed to notice. “It’s why I had to use a special potion vial to keep it in. That stuff could melt steel.” She tilted her head. “Did I not mention that before?”

“SUCY!” Akko shouted so loud the trees shook. She was visibly pale, her head whipping from the grass to her hand, face full of rising panic. “Why didn’t you say that sooner! This isn’t a funny!” She fell to her knees, cradling her hand with big, teary-eyes, like it was her child about to die at any second; or just one of her Chariot cards that got a stain. “Is my hand gonna melt off!? Oh, no, I can’t afford a fake hand! Do you think Constanze could make me a new one? Maybe a cool one that could shoot missiles—but, wait, I can’t just ask her to make me one for free, but I don’t have any money, and I really-don’t-want-to-lose-my-hand-help-me-Sucy—“

Sucy let out a loud, echoing laugh. The raspy, nail-on-chalkboard yet somehow still genuinely joyful sounds she only let out when she found something really funny, and only when she was around Akko. Her hands were wrapped around her stomach, doubling over in pure delight.

“Relax,” Sucy wheezed, her smirk wide. “The acid only really effects plants and inorganic stuff. For witches, it’s not nearly as strong, and is about as painful as a bee-sting.”

Akko blinked, looking down at her hand. “Oh,” was all she said, slowly standing up and wiping way some dirt off her legs. She sighed, and her shoulders visibly sagged with so much relief she looked like a deflating balloon. “Okay, good. I thought my hand was a goner there.”

“If it was, it would’ve melted way sooner,” Sucy said, lazily make a vague gesture at Akko’s body. “But honestly, it’d take more than some imp to actually hurt you. Your body’s as durable as you are dumb.”

“R-right.” Akko laughed awkwardly. Then, she smiled. “I knew you wouldn’t actually let my hand melt off!”

“Not right now, no,” Sucy replied, rolling her eye. But Akko’s smile never wavered, like she knew Sucy didn’t mean that. Sucy looked away, and said, “Let’s go already.”

“Sure!” Akko said, rushing over to her. But she stopped, wincing again, and she frowned petulantly as she brought up her hand. “Ow, ow, owie…”

Sucy looked at Akko's hand. Then, Sucy looked at her face, which was getting more pouty as she cradled her hand, and couldn’t help but look at some of the other small cuts and bruises on her face, and then the ones on her legs.

Sucy let out an explosive sigh. She stepped forward, lifting her wand up. “Guinea Pig, hold still,” she grumbled.

“Eh?” Akko looked up, and saw Sucy standing next to her, wand in front of her. Sucy gave the necessary swings and swishes of her wand, channeling the magic of the air and making the tip glow a brighter, yet strangely relaxing green light.

“Diosir Sorware,” she said, and a shower of gentle green sparks fell on Akko. Almost instantly, all the bite marks form the imp, the small cuts from her getting pricked by sharp thorns or hit by branches from when she probably scavenged for Sucy's ingredients, but was too focused to even really notice, began to heal. Her skin mended itself together with a green glow, and the bruises were erased by the sparks like they never existed in the first place, with the one exception being the imp's bite mark; it wasn't completely erased because of the nature of a forest imp's bite, but it was reduced to a minuscule blemish that it would heal on it's own in no time at all.

Sucy stood up, and Akko looked down at herself in wonder. “Whoa. I keep forgetting, but you’re really good at healing magic.”

“Course I am,” Sucy muttered. “Knowing healing spells makes it so I can keep experimenting on my test subjects. It’d be too troublesome to replace them if they, you know, croaked.”

Akko seemingly ignored her, and a sunny smile was once again on her face. “Thanks, Sucy!”

“I just didn’t want to hear you complaining the whole time,” she replied instantly. Akko’s smile was way too bright to look at, so Sucy looked away when Akko stepped closer.

“You know, you can say ‘you’re welcome, Akko, I love helping my friends!’” Her smile gained a mischievous glint. “I promise not to tell anyone you weren’t sarcastic or mean.”

Sucy’s glare was flat. “That’s not happening, Akko,” she said. Then, she held out her hand to Akko. "Give me your hand."

Akko extended it without hesitation. That always amazed her; that she never hesitated to do what Sucy asked, despite the very really chance she was about to poison her, or test out some new potion on her. Akko really was dumb.

A dumb, smiling moron who trusted her implicitly.

Without a word, Sucy reached into the pocket of her skirt—made with magic, as she wanted extra carrying space—and then pulled out a roll of gauze. Without even muttering a spell name, she flicked her wand to it, and a blue glow washed over the gauze for a second before vanishing.

Sucy put her wand on her hip, and then, ever-so-gently, she took Akko’s hand with her own.

“Um…Sucy, why are you putting bandages on my hand? You healed me already, right?”

“Forest imps can sometimes cause phantom pains with their bites, even after you're healed with magic,” Sucy said, not looking up and slowly wrapping the gauze around Akko’s palm. “It's why the spell didn't completely get rid of the bruise. The gauze is enchanted to prevent any pains you would've felt later.”

There were calluses on Akko’s hand; not a lot, but they were there, dotting on her fingers like little marks from a sharpie she forgot to wipe off. It didn’t surprise her; Sucy had seen Akko lift cannons and grip brooms going thousands of times faster than sound. Seeing them there was just proof of how stubborn her friend could be. And also, surprisingly strong, far more so than most witches really should be. Just grabbing her hand could tell her that much from how firm it was.

It was also warmer than she’d expected.

Which was nice, as her own were getting a bit cold. That was why she noticed.

Sucy had reached the end of the roll, and she secured the gauze into a knot; snug, but not to tight. She slowly let go of Akko’s hand, and her half-lidded eye met Akko’s own.

“Leave that on for an hour,” Sucy ordered flatly. “I’d also say don’t do anything stupid for that long, but we both know that’s impossible.”

Akko just smiled. She opened her mouth, but Sucy spoke before she could.

“I did this just so you wouldn’t give me a headache later about your hand cramping, not to be nice,” Sucy said, setting her mouth in a frown. “So don’t thank me again; it’s getting annoying.” She turned around without another word, grabbing her wand and lifted it up to illuminate her path. “C’mon. We got a bat to find.”

Sucy had walked a few steps before she heard the sound of Akko’s footsteps coming from behind her. And also, the slight sound of her giggling. Sucy rolled her eye, knowing what Akko was thinking. Well, she could believe whatever she wanted. Sucy didn’t care.

Akko was quickly by her side, and she easily matched her pace. She glanced around the many trees surrounding them, taking them all in with every step.

“It still feels kind of weird,” Akko said, seemingly more thinking out loud than talking to Sucy.

“What does?” Sucy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That this is really the same place where me, you and Lotte all had our first adventure, but it’s so different now!” A wide, excited smile broke across Akko’s face, and stars shined in her eyes. Sucy was sure they could light the path much better than her meager wand and the limitless magic in the air it used.

She chuckled at her own joke, and Akko continued. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy Arcturus looks so pretty now and doesn’t look like a deathtrap anymore—but you probably wish it did.”

“I do,” Sucy agreed, giving her a tiny nod.

“Yeah, I figured!” Akko laughed again, a pleasant noise in the mostly silent forest. “But, it still just feels weird that it looks nothing like it did back then. Like this is a completely different place.” She turned to fully face Sucy with her bright smile. “Don’t you think so?”

“Eh. Not really,” Sucy said, voice monotone.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Even if this place looks different, it’s still basically the same forest. So I don’t think it’s ‘weird,’” Sucy said, giving Akko a lazy shrug.

“I guess that’s true,” Akko said, looking back to the trees and their vibrant leaves and almost majestic bodies. “But you know, when I think back to that day, I get this big feeling of cog…cognito…cognitive dissonance!” Akko looked so proud she pronounced that word right and used it correctly, that Sucy couldn’t help the snort that left her. “Yeah, that! It’s like the image I have of Arcturus in my head is so different from what it actually is now, I just feel so…dissonant!”

“Oh wow, you’re using such big words,” Sucy’s said, sarcasm in every word as she grinned. “I guess you have been reading those books Lotte lent you for our tests.”

“Why do you say that like it’s a shocking thing?” Akko asked, glaring slightly.

“Do you want the short answer, or the ten page essay answer?”

Akko pouted, turned her head with a little ‘humph,’ and they walked almost side-by-side without saying another word. It was rare, but there were times Akko could be quiet, and just enjoy the silence with her. And, despite the obvious efforts she was making to look mad, the fact she stuck so close to her and didn’t try to shout some comeback about not being dumb told her this was one of those moments.

Sucy’s grin grew a little, and she stepped a little closer, her elbow almost touching Akko’s own. She couldn’t risk this idiot tripping on something she couldn’t see, after all, so she had to make sure her path was as illuminated as possible. She wanted ‘Quiet Akko’ to stick around for as long as possible before ‘Shouting-Louder-than-a-Banshee-Akko’ came back. That was why she got close.

They kept walking underneath the towering trees and deep shadows they cast. The leaves rustled from a silent wind, the sound mixing with hum of her wand, the soft buzzing of magical insects, and the pitter patter of a few unknown creatures scampering in the dark. Sucy made sure to keep an eye out for anything that might try to jump them; Arcturus was still kind of dangerous, and there was a reason not even the teachers were willing to explore it at the dead of night.

“Do you think about it?” Akko asked suddenly.

“Think about what?” Sucy asked, not turning to face her.

“The day we met.”

Sucy blinked, but otherwise didn’t respond. The sounds of the forest seemed to dim, and she could only hear Akko’s delicate footsteps.

“I do. Back then, it was the day my dream of becoming an amazing witch just like Chariot got a little bit closer. It was where I found the Shiny Rod, and the start of so many crazy and amazing adventures with so many amazing people.” Akko turned, and flashed her another impossibly warm smile that stretched from ear-to-ear. “And the day I met two people who’d become some of the most important friends in the world to me.”

Akko stared at her, and they both stopped walking. Sucy still hadn’t said anything, silently staring back into Akko’s sparkling red eyes.

“So, do you think about it, Sucy?” she asked quietly.

Of course she did.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

She thought about that day so much. It was when she finally met people her age who liked being with her. When her world changed forever, and in ways she never could’ve seen coming. That day had been where she found someone who wanted to be something she’d never thought she’d get: a friend.

It was when she had met Akko.

That was a moment she would never forget.

Akko was still staring at her, standing so close, eyes bright and earnest and eagerly awaiting her answer.

Sucy stared back, unblinking.

“I…" She didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t find her usual sarcastic quip or blunt, disinterested reply anywhere in her mind. It was suddenly so hard to look Akko in the eye. She settled her gaze on something over her shoulder, and, realizing she still had to answer her question, said, “Guess?”

Akko blinked, a bit of the eagerness fading. “You…guess?”

“Yeah.” Sucy shrugged, with more effort than usual. “I mean, I don’t think I think about it any more than, Lotte or something. Or you. It’s just…something that happened, you know?”

Akko kept staring.

Sucy glanced to the shadows of the trees, suddenly sure she heard something moving there, and that was what forced her to look away from her friend.

She knew that wasn’t the answer Akko wanted to hear, but it was the only answer she could give. The day they met meant more to her than Akko realized, but, well…admitting it out loud was…it was just…saying how much that day really meant to her to anyone, especially Akko…

It just wasn’t happening. She couldn’t say how much that day actually meant to her. So, she wouldn’t.

Even if that meant disappointing Akko.

But she’d get over it. Of course she would.

Sucy looked back at Akko, who was staring at her with a tilted head and a small, thoughtful frown. Then, the frown flipped around to a smile so fast it almost gave Sucy whiplash.

“But you do think about that day?” she asked.

Sucy blinked at Akko’s sudden cheer. “I…do. Yeah.”

Akko was silent. For all but a second.

“Okay!” she practically sang

Sucy blinked again. “Okay?”

“Yep!” Akko’s smile had grown wider, and her eyes shined a bit brighter. She looked oddly satisfied, like she just learned something so exciting that she couldn’t help but want to giggle. And then she did, just before saying, “I understand, Sucy. Really.”

Akko’s smile was as warm as it was kind; so much that it seemed unreal.

But Sucy very, very much doubted she did. Otherwise she…

Otherwise things would get even…

Sucy let out a long breath, making it sound like a tired sigh, and then turned around. “Just help me find the bat already, Akko.”

She walked off, and Akko was right next to her, still smiling. They walked in silence again, standing only a few inches apart, nothing but her wand and the somewhat starry sky above to light their path. It was a nice night.

And it was nice to spend it with her guinea pig. She could admit that much in her head, at least.

They were approaching the part of the groove where Sucy was sure they could find a forsakenwing. Like most bats, magic or otherwise, forsakenwings lived and thrived in the dark, and this part of the forest was quite literally the darkest, as even in the day time little light got in. Adding in the fact they also liked sleeping in tall trees and most of the ones here were some of the tallest around, there should be some bats around here.

“It’s so dark,” Akko muttered, glancing around at the pitch-black shadows that surrounded them. Even Sucy’s wand struggled to shine bright enough to fend them off and let them see what was around them.

“Yeah, these bats like things really dark,” Sucy said. “So try not to trip on your own two feet, Akko.”

Akko frowned harshly; or, she was sure Akko thought she looked harsh, and not just sulky. “Okay, Sucy, I’m not that clumsy—“

Akko tripped, and she immediately let out a loud squawk, arms flailing as she fell.

Sucy’s hand shot out without looking, and she caught Akko by the ponytail before she could fall on her face.

“You were saying?” Sucy asked, lifting Akko’s head up so she could meet her flat gaze.

Akko’s cheeks turned red. “I—that wasn’t my fault! My foot fell into a ditch or, something!”

“A ditch?” Sucy muttered, and looked down. Sure enough, there was some kind of surprisingly deep trench where Akko’s foot had stepped into. Actually, it looked less like a trench and more like…

Sucy frowned. With Akko still in her other hand, she stepped back, pulling Akko back as well as Akko calmly let herself be pulled by her hair. They both kept stepping back until Sucy stopped, poured a little more magic into her wand to make it a bit brighter, and then lifted it up to light the ground.

It wasn’t a trench, or a ditch. It was a giant footprint.

One that looked a lot like a rooster’s foot.

In fact, there were a bunch of giant rooster footprints nearby. Some of the trees were also missing some rather large branches, like something big and strong had moved through them and knocked the branches clean off. There were also what looked like bones from creatures of all different shapes and sizes scattered around the grove. It kind of looked like the remains of a crime scene, or, more likely, the feeding site for a certain giant monster she and Akko had met a while ago.

One that definitely wouldn’t be too happy to see them again.

“Sucy,” Akko said, eyes a bit wide. “Are those giant chicken footprints?”

“Rooster. But yeah, it is.”

“Like the same kind of footprint a cockatrice would leave?”

“Yeah.” Sucy slowly glanced around the grove.

Akko let out a big gulp. “The same cockatrice I called an idiot the first time we came here?”

“Probably.”

Akko’s face was pale, and her eyes darted around the darkness. “You…you don’t think it lives around here. Do you?”

Sucy opened her mouth.

But a sudden intense, warm gust of wind made her pause, and Akko went even paler. As one, they both turned around, Sucy lifting her wand up and illuminating the space of darkness in front of her.

And from the shadows, came an enormous beak. Followed by matted brown feathers, the red, fleshy rubber-band like wattles on its chin, the equally red comb on its head, and a single eye that looked almost as big as her whole body.

A cockatrice was right in front of them.

But thankfully, it was asleep.

Sucy stared at its big, closed eye. Snot formed a thick bubble that came out its beak as it let out several surprisingly soft snores. Its head twitched, rolling slightly to the side, and then it let out another harsh, warm breath that blew into her body as it snored

Slowly, Sucy turned to Akko. Her hand had shot to Akko’s mouth the moment she saw the cockatrice to stop her from screaming in shock, but Akko’s own hands were already doing that job. With three hands on her mouth, Akko turned to look at her, eyes wide with panic and frantically gesturing to the cockatrice.

Yes, Akko, she saw the giant chicken; it was kind of hard to miss. Sucy gestured with her head to move back to the trees behind them, mouthing the words “quietly” as slowly and obviously as she could. Akko nodded, and Sucy took her hand off her mouth. With both their eyes still firmly on the cockatrice, they started to back away, taking slow, careful steps.

And that was when they found the forsakenwing.

Actually, it was more like it found them as it flew through the darkness of the trees with an almighty screech, and they watched as it smacked into the cockatrice’s eye, and then fell back to the ground with a thud, knocked out cold.

The snot bubble popped, and the cockatrice’s eyes blearily began to open.

Sucy stared, impassive eye unblinking.

…Oh, that was just, great.

The cockatrice started to lift its head, and a low growl leaving its throat, angrily rousing out of its dreamy daze.

Sucy’s hand shot towards one of the more lethal potions in her robes, pulled it out, undid the cork as she pulled her arm back and then—

Froze as she saw Akko rushing towards the cockatrice, directly in the path where Sucy had been about to throw her potion.

“Akko, what are you—“

Akko arrived just a few inches away from the cockatrice’s face, the mythical creature still not fully awake yet and trying to clear the sleep out its eyes. Akko took in a deep breath, and then, she started to…

Sing?

“Dō-shi-te…kimi ga naku no…mada boku mo naite inai, noni.”

It was…it was a soft melody; one that carried on the breeze and gently whispered in her ears, making her think of honey-soaked smiles and sunny days. Akko was speaking in Japanese, so Sucy didn’t understand the lyrics. That did nothing to stop her from thinking that Akko…Akko had a nice singing voice.

And she found herself wanting to hear more.

“Jibun yori, kanashmu kara… Tsurainoga do-cchi ka wakaranku naru yo…“

Sucy rarely heard Akko speak in her own language, and she especially never heard her sing in it, but there was a noticeable difference in how she spoke in Japanese than in English. Her cadence was…surprisingly elegant. Not in a dainty, aristocratic way, but more that, since she switched back to the vowels and consonants she first learned to say, her words had a nice little chime to them. It added a light, soothing pitch to her voice, not just because she was singing, but because that was just how Akko naturally sounded. It was almost…ethereal, in the sense that Sucy wasn’t used to Akko sounding like…like this.

“Itsumo kimi ni…zu-tto kimi no…warratteite hoshikute…”

Akko had muttered something before that verse, and for some reason it felt like she was skipping a few lyrics. But that didn’t matter to Sucy in the slightest. Every word that left her mouth had an almost effortless depth to them, like she was singing from her heart and pouring every bit of emotion into her voice, and all while still making it sound so quiet and kind and gentle and…warm. Which was fitting, really, for Akko. And with how she was softly petting at the cockatrice feathery chin as its eyes struggled to stay open, it was almost like she was singing a lullaby—

Oh.

Oh, Akko was singing to try and put it to sleep. Right. That made sense. She was just to busy focusing on Akko’s voice to realize that.

Well…it wasn’t a bad plan, so…she might as well let her sing and listen to how…different her voice was. She had nothing better to do.

Sucy watched as Akko stepped closer to the cockatrice, fingers gently rubbing circles on its eye.

“Hi-mawari no you na, massugu na sono yassashisa wo…nukumori wo zen-bu…”

Akko got even closer, and wrapped one of her arms around the cockatrice face, like she was trying to hug its whole head. It looked warm, even from all the way over here.

“Kore kara wa, boku mo…todokete yuki-tai…”

The cockatrice seemed to lean into Akko’s touch, head slowly lowering back to the ground as its eye, guided by Akko’s fingers and singing, started to close.

“Hontou no shiawase no, imi wo…mitsuketa…kara.”

With that last, gentle whisper, the cockatrice eyes fully closed, and in a few seconds, it was snoring again.

…Huh.

That was…something.

Sucy could still hear Akko singing in her head as she stared. Akko was still standing close to the cockatrice, like she was afraid to move away from it. Then, somewhat stiffly, she moved to the side, picked up the forsakenwing from the ground, and slowly put it in the hood of her jacket. She moved backward, never taking her eyes off the cockatrice, and when she had finally arrived right next to Sucy, she abruptly turned, staring right into her eye, unblinking.

“Hold on,” Akko whispered.

“Wait, hold on to what—“

Without warning, Akko suddenly moved and grabbed her legs out from under her, picked her up in her strong arms, and, before Sucy had even the time to gasp or hurl an insult, Akko sprinted like she was being chased by an angry Finnelan. Tree after tree passed by Sucy like a blur, every stray animal or sentient plant along the way ducking out of Akko’s path, and the ones that didn’t have the time Akko jumped over with the grace that would make an olympic gymnast green with envy.

She wasn’t sure how long Akko ran, but eventually, she dug her shoes into the ground, digging up a small trench with her heels before she came to a stop.

“Okay,” Akko gasped out, eyes wide, sweat dripping down her face as she panted harshly. “That…that was close.”

It took Sucy a few seconds to process two things. The first, was that Akko was still holding her, one arm under her legs and the other secured around her neck, and more than that, was holding her exactly like someone would hold a princess in some old, sappy romance cartoon.

The second thing was that her own arms were wrapped around Akko’s neck tightly, and her face was very close to Akko’s. She could make out the sheen of sweat on Akko’s face, feel her heartbeat through her neck. It wasn’t as loud as she’d thought it be, but it still pumped a steady, rhythmic beat that Sucy couldn’t help but focus on almost as much as when Akko had sung, and Akko’s warm voice was suddenly echoing in her mind again and again without any signs of ending, and the sound was almost as pretty as Akko’s—

“Sucy?”

Sucy blinked. She realized Akko had been staring at her with confused, bright red eyes; for how long, she couldn’t say. But it had definitely been long enough for her to notice Sucy’s own staring, and the fact she was still staring.

Without any hesitation, Sucy’s hand smacked against Akko’s face somewhat harshly, and hopped out of her arms, landing in a crouch on the ground.

“OW!” Akko shouted, taking a few steps back as she rubbed at her face. “What was that for—w-wait. Did I…I thought it was okay to carry you, but did I make you—“

“No, you didn’t. You just smell,” Sucy grumbled out; her tone had been as blunt and dry as she could make it, and she slowly stood up.

“Wha—I do not—wait.” Akko frowned, expression becoming a bit pinched. “Do I?” Akko grabbed her jacket, brought it close to her face, and took a big sniff. “Oh good, I don’t,” she said in relief, and then turned to glare at Sucy. “I don’t smell!”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Sucy said, turning away. With her mouth forced into a tight line, she focused on her surroundings, ignoring Akko, and her indignant squawks. They had run into some kind of mini-clearing, the trees more spread out here, but it was hard to make out everything without any light. Her wand had fallen from fingers at some point, and the spell she used to illuminate the area had come to an end, making practically everything she could see inky black. But she was sure she heard it clatter on the ground somewhere around here.

As she searched, she was dimly aware of Akko letting out another “humpth!”, and the sounds of her stepping closer. Sucy paused for a moment, and then there was a bright flash of green light illuminating the ground. She turned, and saw Akko’s wand shining with green magic as she stood next to her, eyes darting around the ground, obviously searching for her wand as well.

Sucy stared at Akko, the green light casting her face in an otherworldly glow. And the more she stared, the more her curiosity got the better of her.

“Hey,” Sucy asked suddenly.

Akko paused in her searching, and looked back at Sucy. “Yeah?”

“When…did you learn how to sing?”

Akko blinked, and then smiled. “Oh, did you like it!?”

Sucy didn’t answer for a second, thinking about the best way to phrase her thoughts. “It was…something.”

“Heh, yeah.” Akko sheepishly chuckled, scratching her cheek. “Guess I’m kind of rusty,” she said, taking what Sucy said as something insulting. Which was fine with her. “It’s not really something I practice that much anymore. Singing was something I kind of did in my free time before I came to Luna Nova. I figured learning how to sing might come in handy if I ever wanted to do a big musical number in front of a crowd, ya know?”

Akko quickly stood up, and made a big, sweeping gesture with her wand, like the kind a dancer would give just as the music started kicking in at a musical. She even mimed herself tipping a hat at Sucy, her grin widening.

Sucy rolled her eye, but her lips did quirk up for just a second.

Akko giggled, and suddenly spun on her heels. “Yeah, so, it eventually turned into a kind of… hobby, I guess? But then I realized I had other things I needed to focus on then learning to be an awesome singer—like actually figuring out how to apply and get accepted into a magic school, which was stupidly hard to do.” She muttered that last part under her breath somewhat sullenly. “So, I basically stopped doing it as much. But it did come in handy when I was learning English! I got super bored with a lot of lessons, so to spice things up I started learning the lyrics to American songs and sang them in-between, and that made everything way more fun!”

Akko beamed as she finished, and Sucy let out a faint, amused snort. “Yeah, that sounds like you,” she said, standing up so she wouldn't have to keep talking from the ground, and stepped closer to Akko. “So, what exactly were you singing to the cockatrice?”

“A kind-of-sort-of lullaby my dad taught me!”

Sucy frowned. “A what?”

“It’s not technically a lullaby, but when I was a kid, my dad and I saw a movie, can’t remember the name, and I really liked the ending song to it. It was really pretty and nice, and even made me relax and get kind of sleepy. So he started singing it to me before I went to bed. He even changed the rhythm and pitch to make it more lullaby-ish.” She smiled fondly. “That song always makes me think about home.”

Sucy couldn’t help but stare at that smile. A warm, happy smile brought on from thinking about her home. Her parents.

Sucy frowned, and looked back at the ground, walking away from Akko. To look for her wand. Akko’s own wand provided enough light to look a short distance away from her.

“Well, good thing the cockatrice actually liked it,” Sucy muttered, her voice just a bit clipped, but no one would notice.

Akko didn’t respond right away, and Sucy could feel Akko’s eyes on her back. “Er…yeah.” Akko chuckled, and it sounded just the tiniest bit awkward to her. “Would’ve been really bad if it didn’t. I really didn’t want to it to try and eat me again.”

“Oh what, are you scared of a chicken?” Sucy turned to grin at her, a sharp glint in her eye as she chuckled.

Akko chuckled back, a bit nervous, but this time it sounded closer to her usual warm laughs. She crotched down near a tree some ten feet away from Sucy, and looked around it’s trunk. “Well, when the chicken is a giant monster and has a grudge against me, yeah.”

Sucy snorted, and went back to looking for her wand, Akko’s light illuminating the path. “What a shame. The so-called ‘Savior of Magic,’ defeater of magic nukes, scared of a chicken.” She shook her head sadly. “Disappointing.”

“Hey, don’t act like you didn’t run away the first time we met it!”

Sucy crouched down, and brushed aside a few tufts of grass. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Akko.”

“Yes you do!” Akko stomped her foot. “You were totally just as scared as I was when that cockatrice started shooting flames at you! I saw your face!”

“You’re clearly delusional,” she replied. Her wand wasn’t here. Drat. Sucy brushed off the dirt, slowly standing up—

“No I’m not! It was literally right after you trapped me in that big hamster ball to get a feather and called me a ‘sacrifice!’”

Sucy went absolutely still, heart missing a beat.

“The cockatrice was chasing me and Lotte, and you were all like ‘try not to get eaten or turned to stone,’ and when we were rolling and rolling in that hamster ball, I looked back, and you were plucking a feather out from that giant chicken’s butt, and the cockatrice noticed you, and you noticed it noticing you, and you had on the biggest ‘oh poop’ look on your face I’ve ever seen, so don’t you try and pretend that you…weren’t…“

Akko suddenly stopped talking.

Sucy still hadn’t moved.

“Sucy?” She could hear the frown in her voice, and the confusion. “Is…something wrong?”

Sucy didn’t say anything. Then, slowly, she stood up from her crouch, and turned.

“Found a mushroom,” she said, extending her hand and showing off a dark red mushroom that glowed slightly purple she had picked from the ground.

“O-oh.” Akko blinked, and then squinted at the mushroom. “Is that the, uh…glowberry something.”

“Glowberry crimsoncap,” Sucy corrected, tone more neutral than normal, at least to her ears. She stared at the mushroom, focusing on it entirely. Scientific name Purpurisolum Ruficrims. Could only grow in magically rich soil found near birch trees, and its spores stopped similar magical fungi from growing in the area by essentially “infecting” the ground. “Surprised you knew the name,” she muttered, voice barely above a whisper.

“Hey, when your friends with the biggest mushroom nerd on the planet, you pick up on a few things!” Akko said, and Sucy assumed she was smiling, but she didn’t look up. A few seconds passed, the air growing awkward, and Akko slowly spoke up. “Also…I thought you already picked one up before?”

“No, that was a luminous crimsonhood.” Sucy held it up a little closer to Akko’s face. “The color for those aren’t as dark as this one, and their glow is a different shade of purple.”

Akko was still squinting at it. “I really don’t see a difference.”

“And that’s why I’m the expert and you’re the guinea pig,” Sucy deadpanned, finally looking back up at Akko. “Also, have you found my wand yet?”

“Your wand—oh, right!” Akko quickly turned back, and all but dove into a bramble. “I’m positive I saw it around here. Hold on, give me a minute!”

Sucy stared at Akko. Then, she looked back at the crimsoncap, and slowly put it into her pouch. It was a boring mushroom, one she definitely didn’t need, but it’d be a waste to throw it away after she plucked it up. So, she’d find some way to use it later. Probably.

Akko let out an “ouch!” as she poked herself on of the brambles, but for once, Sucy didn’t laugh at her for being an over eager moron. All she could do was look at her with a deep frown and half-lidded eye, and think back to the day they had met.

And how she almost got her killed.

They…she, never really talked to Akko about how she had, essentially, used her and Lotte as monster bait. And had been willing to leave them for dead. While laughing about it.

Sucy wouldn’t say she was actually hoping they died. As much as she found Akko annoying back then, she never once actually thought about killing her. The same went for Lotte, the ‘meek-looking hanger on’ she had met ten seconds ago, and had no real reason to dislike, let alone want dead. She even made them a rope cage they could, in theory, use to actually run away from the Cockatrice, instead of just snaring their entire bodies with rope and leaving them actually helpless.

But…she wouldn’t exactly say she expected them to use the rope cage as pseduo-hamster ball to escape. And the cage she had trapped them in would’ve done nothing to stop the cockatrice from stepping on them like ants. Or stop it’s petrifying breath. Or especially it’s flame breath.

Just how quickly would they have died if the cockatrice had decided to try burning them alive instead of chasing after them? Not that death by fire was a quick-death.

Sucy kept staring, and her throat felt weird; it was harder to swallow all of a sudden.

“Okay, so!” Akko shouted, coming out of the brambles with a few scratches, but no wand; just a stick. “It turns out what I saw was not your wand, but just this dumb twig here.” She gestured at said twig, frowning at it like it had insulted her, and quickly threw it away without another glance. “But don’t worry, we’ll find it! I know we will.” She smiled brightly.

Sucy said nothing.

“Sucy?” Akko looked at her, smile fading and eyebrows slowly rising. Sucy kept blankly staring for a moment, her mind still thinking about the day they met, and everything she had done to her.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

Sucy opened her mouth, but she almost instantly closed it. She shook her head. “Forget it.”

“Eh? But you were just—“

“It’s nothing, Akko,” Sucy said, waving her hand dismissively. “Just keep looking for my wand.”

“O…kay?”

Somewhat hesitantly, Akko started looking in another bramble for her wand, and Sucy crouched down near a log, eye scanning the barely illuminated grass.

She was being stupid. Akko hadn’t meant anything by bringing up how Sucy…left them behind. She had just skipped past the actual moment like it was barely anything worth noting. And, it honestly kind of was. That happened so long ago, and so many things had changed since that it really wasn’t even worth talking about. Or even thinking about, which she had found herself doing more often.

And the only reason she had been thinking back to when she left Akko so much, was because…

Because of her.

“What is wrong with you?”

She could hear those words again; cold as they were judging. Spoken in that prim, way-to-haughty voice of everyone’s favorite witch, and with blue eyes sharp enough to cut a minotaur’s hide. All aimed at her, like she was some kind of criminal, like she didn’t deserve to be here, like she didn’t deserve to be with…

Sucy scowled, and her hand clenched a little harder on her wand.

Not now. She wouldn’t let Ms. Perfect distract her, or think back to that fight, or to words that were not true.

Sucy let out a long, sharp breath, and closed her eye. She thought back to the mushrooms she had collected, listing off all their names, their effects, the potions they could be used for when they were brewed and the effects those potions could have. This would’ve been more effective with incense to burn, but she’d have to make do.

In, and out.

When the slight throbbing in her head and heart faded, she looked at things from a distance; logically, and without a hint of emotion. Like an executioner looking at a victim they’ve never met.

In, and out.

This was Akko. If she really was upset at her, she would’ve said something. Akko never asked for an apology, so, obviously, everything was okay. It had to be; Akko didn’t hold a grudge against Ursula for lying to her and not telling her everything about Croix, and didn’t hate Croix despite the fact she tried to hurt her friends and even tried to kill her multiple times, and was the main reason she had so many problems with magic.

In, and out.

Sucy almost hurting her wasn’t nearly that bad. And no matter what a certain someone seemed to imply, the jokes she played on Akko were harmless. As much as Akko might complain, she never seriously tried to get her to stop. If she had, then Sucy would’ve. Of course she would’ve.

She’d never hurt Akko. Never.

And the same went for her.

In…and out.

Sucy wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but eventually, she opened her eye as she exhaled one last time.

But even after all the effort she put into calming down, there was still a tiny amount of tension left in her body.

She looked back to Akko, who was in yet another bush as her legs kicked in the air.

They were fine. She was fine. There was no reason to dwell on things that didn’t matter, or especially words from her. Akko was still here. She understood Sucy, and was her friend. Her best friend.

She wouldn’t…

There was no reason to finish that thought, because it wouldn’t happen again.

“Got it!” Akko shouted, coming out of the brambles with her wand, and big, triumphant grin. She ran back to Sucy, and handed her wand back. “Here ya go!”

Sucy stared at Akko’s face. At her wide, happy smile, aimed right at Sucy, and how she could see no other emotion there. Just joy. And almost instantly, she thought back to the first time she really saw it.

After they had arrived ‘on time’ for the opening ceremony, Sucy had honestly been surprised that she was still allowed to attend, not that she showed it. Mostly because she had expected Akko or Lotte to tell the teachers about how she almost got them all killed by a monster. And she doubted even the pretty awful ones here like Finnelan would be okay with a future student almost committing manslaughter just for a potion ingredient. She had been expecting them to kick her out any at any moment, or even call the magical police on her, and had been more than ready to leave, or escape from the law, at any moment. But no, that hadn’t happened.

Instead, some random professor who she’d never learned the name of had taken her to what would become her and her two best friends’ future room. As she began to wonder exactly she was still doing here, if they were really accepting her, Lotte arrived.

And the moment Lotte saw her, she went still. Just for a second, but Sucy still noticed, and then quickly greeted her with a polite smile that strained at the edges. She tired to talk with her, but despite her efforts to hide it, Lotte was practically screaming “uncomfortable.” Sucy hadn’t really cared though; she was just thinking if there was even any point of staying in the school, even after learning from some passing professors about the possible extinct species of mushrooms Luna Nova supposedly had. She had her feather, the whole reason she even applied here, and yeah, getting rare mushrooms would’ve been a plus, but would that really be worth going to some failing school?

But then Akko arrived, and when she saw Sucy, there wasn’t a hint of nervousness at seeing her. Or anger, or shock, or fear, or any other emotion Sucy had expected to see whenever someone saw her in the same room as them. Esepcially after she had used her plush toy as a puppet to attack her, had snakes wrap themselves around her arm and force her off a bridge, and used her as bait for a monster, and almost gotten her killed. And then, that very same girl did something even more impossible.

She smiled.

At her.

A bright, warm smile the likes of which Sucy had never seen before. It was like a sun made of just kindness rose on her face, and it had been aimed at her. The girl who, by all reason, Akko should’ve disliked. Hated, even. Who should’ve wanted nothing to do with her.

But instead, Akko smiled with all her heart, and wanted to be her friend.

At that moment, at seeing that smile from an impossibly warm girl, rare mushrooms became a reason she hadn’t left Luna Nova any time soon.

And that had also been when her mind slowly but surely took that moment on the bridge, where she met a girl she thought was just a moron, but was so, so much more, and made it into something…special, to her.

Sucy kept staring at her smile. Then, slowly, she took her wand from Akko, and muttered a tiny, “Thanks.”

“No problem!” Akko cheered automatically. Then, she blinked, and her eyes went almost as wide as a cockatrice. “Wait, did you just say ‘thanks?!’” She pointed dramatically at her. “You!?”

“I’ve thanked you before, you know,” Sucy grumbled out.

“Y-yeah, I guess, but, its almost always like, sarcastically! Or you don’t actually say the word, and just kind of let me think you maybe thanked me, but you also could’ve meant it in a mean, backhanded kind of compliment! I didn’t think you actually knew how to say it!”

Sucy’s gaze went completely flat; almost dangerously so.

Akko suddenly looked sheepish. “Er…not that I’m complaining. I’m just not used to you actually thanking me so“—she made a vague, wishy-washy kind of gesture between the two of them—“directly.”

No. She rarely did, did she?

“Yeah, well,” Sucy began, and the idea of what she should say came to her quickly. But the words…wouldn’t. Somewhere inside her, they got stuck, trying to decide what should come out of her mouth, piling up because she didn’t know which one to pick, which ones she actually could say, all without it sounding weird since it was her saying it, or worst of all, hinting at how much everything Akko had done for her really meant to her—

“Sucy?”

Sucy had been staring, not saying a word, and Akko was frowning at her in confusion.

“Is everything okay—“

A low, painful sounding squeal came from behind Akko. Akko blinked, then frowned, reaching into her hoodie with one hand, and pulled out the foresakenwing. It seemed to be lulling in and out of consciousness as it groaned in her hands.

“Oh, I forgot about you for a second, Mr. Bat,” Akko said. She gasped, eyes wide. “Wait, Sucy, come here! The little guy’s hurt!”

Sucy raised a single eyebrow and slowly walked towards Akko. When she was close enough, Akko gently held out the bat. It was bigger than an average bat, but most of its pale purple body fit in her palm. Under the glow of both their wands, Sucy could make out dozens of cuts all over its body, bits of purple blood leaking and staining its fur. But the more severe injuries were the deep abrasions all over its body, like ropes had been tied around it so hard they tried to squeeze the life out of it. Probably got caught in a mandrake’s vines and just barely escaped. She was pretty sure she heard some of its tiny bones crack as it let out another painful squeal.

Akko looked up to her, eyes wide and pleading. “Sucy, you gotta heal it!”

“Do I have to?”

“Sucy!” Akko glared at her slightly. “This isn’t the time for jokes!”

She thought it was.

Sucy rolled her eye, and then took out a small pipette. “Okay, fine. Gimme a second.” She put the pipette next to one of the cuts, squeezed the bulb, and pale blood slowly filled the tube.

“What are you doing?” Akko asked.

“Getting its blood,” She answered, not looking up at Akko. “That was the final potion ingredient I needed, remember?”

“Oh, so this bat’s the forsakenwing; that’s pretty lucky—wait, no, shouldn’t you be healing it first, not sucking up its blood!?”

“It’s not dying or anything, Akko,” Sucy said, her words clinically emotionless. “It can wait a few seconds.”

“But—“

“If I healed it now, that would mean I’d have to hurt it again to get the blood.” She looked up to her, raising an eyebrow. “Would you rather I do that?”

Akko sulked. “No.” She looked down at the bat, expression so full of concern Sucy almost drowned in it. “But I don’t want this little guy to be in so much pain.”

“Akko, it almost got us attacked by a cockatrice.”

“That doesn’t meant I want it to suffer, Sucy,” Akko said, firmly meeting Sucy’s gaze.

Sucy held it for a moment, and sighed. “Your heart’s way to big,” she muttered.

“I’ll take that as a compliment!” Akko said proudly. And…from her, it kind of was.

Sucy let out a grunt, and kept sucking up the blood. Once the pipette was full, she put it away, grabbed another, and filled that up. Then she did the same with another. And another.

“Do you really need all that blood for your potion?” Akko asked, squinting at her with suspicion.

“Yep.”

Sucy lied as easily as she breathed. About only half the pipettes she used so far were necessary for her potion, she just wanted some extra forsakenwing blood. It was a pretty rare potion ingredient after all.

But, even though her expression never once so much as twitched, Akko’s eyes narrowed even further, like she somehow knew she was lying. “Sucy,” she began, and there was something almost dangerous in her tone.

Sucy rolled her eye again, and then put away the last pipette before it could finish sucking up more blood. She held her wand over the bat, and muttered a small, “Diosir Sorware.”

Somewhat duller green sparks than her last spell fell over the bat, but like Akko before it, the wound on the bat’s body began to mend and repair with a gentle green glow. In a few seconds, all the abrasions and cuts on its body were completely healed, and it peacefully slept in Akko’s hands.

“There. It’s healed,” she said, voice blank.

Akko smiled in response. “Thanks, Sucy. I knew you—“ Akko paused, and then frowned.

“What is it?”

“You missed some.”

“What?” Sucy frowned slightly, eye narrowing. “Where?”

“Here, see?” Akko said, gesturing with her wand to the bat’s face. Sucy moved a bit closer to get a better look.

The bat had been laying on one side of its face before, so she hadn’t been able to make out the left side of it. But now, she could.

And now, she could make out the all the scars criss-crossing on its left eye. Old, faded scars that looked like they came from some kind of animal with big claws or fangs that tried to rip out its eye. They extended and curved under its face, reaching to bits of its torn out ear. It was the ones on the eye though that honestly looked the worse to her.

And going by how milky what was left of its red pupil was, it couldn’t actually see out of it.

“See? You missed all his scars.”

Very slowly, Sucy looked up, not even blinking. “Akko,” she said, voice carefully neutral. “Magic can’t heal scars.”

“Eh!? It can’t?!”

“No,” she stated. “It can’t.”

“How come?!”

“Healing basic wounds is easy, but the more severe an injury is, the harder and tricker it gets to heal. And that goes double for scars, because depending on how old they are, your body genuinely thinks thats how its supposed to be now, and so whatever healing spell you use also thinks its supposed to be like that, so the magic doesn’t fix it.”

She pointed at the very clearly old scars on the bat’s face. “You could try and ‘edit’ the spell manually to get it to work on the scar, but you better be sure you have the skills to not mess it up. There’s a reason most witches don’t try to recreate things like limbs, or mouths, or ears, or especially eyes. It comes with a whole bunch of risks that if they take, the spell might do more damage than it would help.” She paused. She looked back at the bat, and at its eye. “At best, you’d probably just give it worse scars if you tried. Or some kind of Frankenstein amalgamation of an eye and scars, if you were really that stupid to try.”

Akko looked down sadly at the bat. “Oh.” Her lips pressed together into a thin, displeased line. “That stinks.”

“Yeah,” Sucy said, after a moment passed. “It does.”

Akko looked to the sky. “You think if I still had the Shiny Rod, I could’ve used Lyonne to heal the little guy’s eye?”

“Maybe.” Sucy had to pause for a moment. Slowly, she said, “But it doesn’t matter now; you gave it back to the void of space.” Or something like that. So it was pointless to even think about.

Akko didn’t respond. She seemed to be lost in staring at the open night sky. There were times when Akko did this; look up into the night, like she was trying to find an old friend. Akko viewed the Shiny Rod less like a tool of great importance, and more like a stuffed animal that she held onto for so long and helped her get through so many bad days, but then, had to let it go.

And in those moments, when she remembered she didn’t have that comforting “plushie”, her soft face crumbled, leaving a heavy frown and eyes that had most of her warmth sucked out of them. That face always looked so wrong on Akko.

Was that the face she made, when she learned the truth about Ursula? When she sat alone in the snow, with no one around?

When there should’ve been someone there with her, throughout it all.

“You probably could, though.”

Akko blinked.

It took Sucy a second to realize she had spoken.

“Learn to heal scars, even without that staff,” Sucy continued, not sure where she was going with this. “Or, do any of the stuff you did with it and then some, honestly. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Akko was staring at her, the look on her face unreadable, even to Sucy.

Sucy really had no idea what she was doing. “Ursula said there’s a reason the staff chose you in the first place, right? That you had the power to bring magic back because you were you.” Impossible in every way imaginable. “So…” She wracked her brains for something to say. “Don’t look like that. Like you’re about to give up. It looks weird on you.”

More staring. And she still didn’t say a word. The only sound Sucy could hear was the faint humming from her wand, and her heartbeat.

Ugh, why did she say that? Comforting people was not something she was good at, least of all Akko. Half of what she said probably didn’t even make that much sense to her. She should’ve just kept her mouth shut, or say anything better than that—

“Thanks.”

Sucy blinked.

Akko smiled softy at her, most of the sorrow gone from her eyes. “That means a lot, Sucy,” she said, and she sounded truly grateful. “Really.”

Sucy stared. Then, she turned, and waved her hand dismissively. “Whatever.” She began to walk away, that soft, grateful smile still in her mind, and gestured for Akko to follow her. “We got everything we need for the potion, so let’s go.”

“Sounds good!”

“And hopefully that cockatrice hasn’t woken up from your lullaby.”

“Ye-yeah.”

Sucy chuckled, and looked down at the pouch with all her potion ingredients for the Essence of Enchantress. Among other things, one of the big draws about that potion was that if it was added to some of her already completed potions, it should boost their potency and also give them a plethora of additional, interesting effects.

And there were certain theories about that potion that Sucy wanted to see if they were true or not.

But, even if they weren’t, she’d still be left with an amazing potion. And, with their last day of school tomorrow before their holiday break, she’d have plenty of time to test out all the ways she could use it.

Just imagining all the new, dangerous possibilities suddenly available to her just so long as she finished just one potion made her chuckle again. And of course, she’d do it with her guinea pig. Just her and Akko, brewing potions.

A new grin formed on Sucy’s face. One that felt different from all the other ones that came before. More…content, she guessed would be the word. And something else.

But that wasn’t important.

“This break’s gonna be fun,” Sucy said, and even with her slouch, there was a a tiny, barely their joy that put a little bounce to her steps. Not a skip. Sucy Manbavaran did not skip.

“Yeah it is!” Akko agreed.

“And you better prepare yourself for a lot of experiments, Guinea Pig.” Sucy’s grin became downright evil, voice full of excitement that promised malevolent schemes and deadly poisons.

Akko laughed; more than a little fearfully. “Y-yeah. Don’t worry, Sucy. My body and mind are ready for any…’tests.’” She said ‘tests’ with the same finality someone would have when writing out their last will and testament.

Another laugh left her, and Sucy turned, already imagining all the wonderful concoctions they’d brew, the funny faces Akko would make when she drank whatever came out of her cauldron, Lotte warning her not to be “too mean” to Akko but trying not laugh, and Akko would rant and get angry at her for turning her skin blue or something before she eventually laughed at herself along with Sucy and just smile at her in a way that just made her so glad she decided to stick around, and that Akko had too when everyone else had—

“Just please don’t hit me with any really bad potions before I have to leave, okay?”

There was a loud, echoing crack in her head.

Sucy could barely focus on Akko’s footsteps as they got closer, or the moment Akko kept walking past her, or the words that left her mouth as she kept walking without her. “Also, do you think it’s okay to leave this little guy in a random tree, or should we try to find its home to? I don’t want Mr. Bat to get hurt again, so, is there a way to tell, or should we…just…”

Akko slowly stopped talking, coming to a stop as she realized Sucy wasn’t following. Then, she turned around, frowning in concern. “Sucy?”

The words Akko just said kept repeating in her head. One word in particular standing out, deafening all others and leaving her unable to focus on anything else.

Leaving.

Leaving?

“What do you mean you’re leaving?”

An emotion Sucy couldn’t name rose in her voice, just slightly. Akko’s eyes went wide, and she looked incredibly lost; even a bit worried.

“E-eh?” Akko stuttered out. “I…I mean I’m leaving school for like a week-ish to go to Ireland over break. You know. Like I told you before.”

Oh.

Only for the break. That was what she meant.

Sucy’s fingers slowly unclenched from her wand, not really sure when she started gripping it just a little harder. She just meant she was leaving for a short while, and then—

Wait.

Sucy’s eye narrowed. “You never told me you were leaving for break.”

Akko blinked. “Uh, yeah I did.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yeah I did!” Akko argued. “It was right after I—”

Her mouth hung open mid-word, expression going impossibly stiff.

“Akko?”

Akko said nothing. Then, slowly, she closed her mouth, lips thinning, and stared at her with a carefully blank, almost dumb look on her face.

“Okay, so,” Akko began. “I screwed up.”

Sucy’s glare was flat. “Something tells me you’re not just speaking in general.”

“Ye-yeah. So…remember when me and Amanda went flying around Blytonburry?”

“When she crashed into the goblin bakery and almost started a cake war?”

“Uh, no. When that swarm of magic geese attacked us, and we had to get back my new hair-tie from their leaders who were trying to take over all the pounds that belonged to a bunch of baby ducks. And then the geese turned into a giant four-headed robot, and that was when Constanze showed up to fight with the Grand Charion, King Quackington and all his baby ducks showed up in his own giant robot suit, and we all got into a giant robot battle. Remember?”

Sucy nodded. “I remember. So, two weeks ago, ish?”

“Ye-yeah, that wasn’t when we first came up with the idea, but it was when we, er, finished scheduling things and got the tickets. I meant to tell you about it before I actually left with Amanda for flying lessons, but, I met Jasminka on the way, and she wanted to give me a cute hair-tie she picked up from some fancy shop in Ukraine, and then I was gushing about how sweet she was and how I wanted to pay her back but she wouldn’t let me because ‘friends give each other gifts to make them happy, not to be paid,’ and I hugged her and that was why I was so mad at those geese and why I kept smacking them around with my broom—

“Akko.”

“Right! So, I got caught up with Jasminka, Amanda showed up ‘cuz it was almost time for our lessons-slash-cool-flight-hangout-day, then we left, the geese thing happened, and by the end I was kind of tired after hitting giant robots with just-as-giant-glowing-magic-fists and my broom, so, I, er, told myself I’d tell you tomorrow. But then I…forgot. For over two weeks, apparently.”

Akko smiled sheepishly.

The simmering glare Sucy gave her made Akko wilt like the world’s guiltiest flower. “I’m sorry,” Akko muttered, looking down at her shoes. “I honestly thought you knew. I mean, I’ve been packing my stuff for the trip, and I don’t remember you questioning it, so I thought I did tell you.”

Sucy frowned. She…had noticed Akko moving her stuff around a lot in their dorm. But Akko was constantly a blur of motion in their room, sometimes organizing her clothes or Chariot stuff every other day because it ‘feels better to put it here today,’ sometimes packing stuff to send to her parents, sometimes getting some gift from her new “fans” that had seen her save the world after being vetted by the faerie staff. And Sucy had been spending the last week researching every ingredients she needed for her potion, and had been spending more time in the library and archives lately.

Plus, it didn’t exactly help that Akko hadn’t been spending that much time in their dorms lately. Or just spend time around Sucy, or Lotte. All of them going to Arcturus together was honestly the first time in a while they all got together to have some fun. That things felt normal. And she wasn’t counting the “group hangout” things with all their other friends, not only because it had been a while since they’d done what, but because Akko almost always went off with—

One word Akko had said at the begining of her explanation hit her with the force of a truck.

We.

“Akko,” Sucy began, slowly, voice still neutral, even as that crack from before from expanded. “Why exactly are you going to Ireland?”

And who are you going with?

From within that slowly widening crack, there came a rising heat.

Sucy let out a breath, tongue tasting faintly like smoke, and waited.

Akko paused for a moment, but then she grinned; the same grin she always got when she was going to rant about something she was excited from head-to-toe about.

“Oh, well, a while back, like before Croix was a teacher, Ursula told me there’s some kind of ancient-magic-tree that a bunch of witches turned into this like huge kind-of-sort-of-museum-library-club-house-thing, and we’re gonna try and find it!” she said, and that…was not at all what Sucy was expecting her to say. “It apparently ‘disappeared’ or something ‘cuz it needed a lot of magic to stay in the ‘physical world’ and kind of became a ghost-tree-thingy no one could find or interact with while it traveled through a bunch of dimensions. But now with magic back, it should've come back too!”

Sucy blinked. A few times, actually, as she processed that. “And, you want to go to this tree…because?”

“Because apparently one of the witches their was doing a lot of research on Wagandea pollen, and there are a bunch of rumors she was really, really close to finding a cure for witches that got hit with it!” Akko was breaming, so much so Sucy could practically see excited, firework like sparks buzzing around her face. “There could be a cure to help Ursula fly again, Sucy!”

Oh. Oh, that was why. She had been wrong.

Sucy’s shoulders sagged a little, the heat dying like it was never their.

Akko continued, rambling to her ecstatic heart’s content. “When we learned about that research, we told Ursula about it and convinced her to come with us to see if there’s a cure, and even Croix is gonna show up too—as a hologram on her magic roomba because she’s still kind of in jail, and not for that long because again, jail—and I thought it be cool if while we’re looking for the tree the four of us see the sights too when we can!”

It was just a trip with Ursula. And Croix. Sucy frowned, but since that woman wouldn’t be there it person, there was only so much she could do if she tried to mess with Akko again. So, even though the only other person to watch her back was Ursula, she was sure Akko could handle herself if Croix did try anything. Though, from what she heard from Akko, Croix did seem to genuinely want to repent for basically everything she did to Akko. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to get Akko to take one of Sucy’s more nasty potions with her in case she ever felt the need to make someone else a guinea pig—

Wait a minute. Akko was still saying “we.”

And also, talking about the four of them.

The heat came back twice as strong, and the crack widened further.

"Sucy, I had no idea there was so much cool stuff over their! Catchy music, the castles—non-magic and magic—all the cool Celtic magical animals and spirits that hang around in nature that only got cooler when magic came back, and, surprisingly, a bunch of awesome food that don’t have an ounce of potatoes in ‘em! Because I am seriously sick of eating those things—”

“Hey.”

Akko blinked, half-way through pumping her fists into the air. “Yeah?”

Sucy stared, pale-red eye unblinking. “You said you’re going to this tree because you found out about some research those witches did on Wagenda, right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“So did you find out about that research?”

“Oh, no, I didn’t, that was—”

Akko suddenly closed her mouth, stopping herself from talking. She stared at Sucy, expression once again blank and dumb-looking, not saying a word. Either something on Sucy’s expression showed—which she’d never allow—or, more likely, some sixth sense Akko had concerning danger quickly told her to shut up.

But Sucy had a very, very good idea what she was about to say. A name, specifically.

“Akko,” she said, and her voice sounded….off, to her ears. There was a tightness there she rarely heard before. A perfectly constructed neutral, half-lidded eye looked right into Akko’s bright red. “Who else is going on this trip?”

Akko suddenly looked incredibly awkward. Then, with a very noticeable amount of hesitation, spoke.

“Di…Diana.”

Like shattered concrete, the crack inside her split wide open.

And in the very core of her being, the heat turned into something dark and big and ugly, and it growled.

-0-

In a forest of magic and home to creatures rarely seen in generations, the night was dark, but full of wonders. From the spirits of the land to the animals that defied so many laws, magic wasn’t just in the air, but suffused in every inch of the forest. Even the so-called monster that lurked in the forest couldn’t erase all the wonder that existed here; all the new life that came because of the return of one majestic tree born from hope.

But, deep inside its groves, there was something that didn’t quite belong their. That seemed to be their despite all the wonders around it.

It was a tree. A sick tree, one that looked dead to all. One that looked nothing like the other trees around it, or anywhere in the forest. It existed in the darkest parts of the forest, where no light reached it. It’s thin, sickly branches hung limply, and the roots in the ground seemed to be withering by the second. With its distorted black bark and fading shadows, it seemed to be a tree that was a breeze away from tipping over. There were no signs of life whatsoever.

Until there were.

In the dark of the night, a lone branch on the tree twitched. Not from a wind. Not from any forces in the forest. Even in a world of magic, that motion was unnatural.

And then, it moved again. The sound of bark shifting and the creaking of dying limbs echoed like a low, hateful moan. The tree’s gnarled branches began to twitch, all in one direction.

Towards one witch with a single red-eye and buried feelings she wanted no one to see. But they were. To all who knew how to look.

And by something not even remotely human.