“Say, Akko, what was that weird black window thing?” Lotte asked as the girls got ready for bed. They’d already unpacked their things, though Akko was careful to keep the Shiny Rod hidden from a casual observer’s view, and it was getting late.
“Uh, that’s part of my particular brand of magic. Like those knives I had.” Akko attempted to dodge with a partial answer, as she wasn’t quite willing to divulge Reset to the world at large. The one time she had had been her bout of insanity during her 138th attempt (not counting LOADs from assassinations and kidnappings) to integrate Monsterkind.
While she didn’t really remember the part where someone had tried to erase her from the timeline very well, Professor Paradox, Bill, and Gramps had told her what happened and done their best to get her mental health back in functional shape, in a very rare show of solidarity with each other. Not doing that again any time soon. While she didn’t expect Lotte or Sucy to just tell anyone who asked, if only because they weren’t morons, you couldn’t accidentally blab something you didn’t know.
“Hey, what’s the story behind those knives anyway? Most people don’t default to something out of a butcher’s shop when they use their magic.” Sucy asked with some curiosity. Mages, human and Monster alike, could use their magic for pretty much whatever they wanted with sufficient preparation, but they would default to something significant to them in combat situations. A lot of witches specializing in potions had attacks in the form of beakers and vials that poured out hazardous ‘liquids’, for example.
“Uh, some… things happened when I was 8 and on my ninth birthday. Knives were involved.” Akko gave a vague answer again, though she had different reasons behind it this time. She really didn’t want to talk about it.
“To be honest, I’m not really good at a lot of non-combat magic. For some reason, my magic used to be really weak, so I did a lot of exercises to boost it up. I might have overdone it a little though, and now my control is shot. That’s not as much of a problem when you’re fighting, since just throwing more power at the problems works just fine most of the time, but for everything else… yeah.” The trials by fire certainly hadn’t helped, since they were combat and that was more firepower than control unless there was something she particularly cared about behind whatever she was fighting, which only encouraged her bad habits.
“Huh, well, a lot of non-Witches start out pretty weak compared to girls from established families, so it’s not that much of a surprise, but you make it sound like you could barely use magic at all.” Lotte murmured.
“Pretty much. I used to barely be able to manage a single normal-sized knife, and forget performing anything really complicated or power-hungry, but it’s been 4 years since then. I might have been using the old stories about witches as my basis for what to shoot for.” In retrospect, she should have expected that trying to reach the sort of casual onslaught Sans could unleash would have caused Ichigo-syndrome, but she very much preferred to not-die as much as possible. Extra HP helped with that and stronger magic was the only way besides gaining LV to get more HP.
“Hm, that is weird.” Sucy muttered, suppressing a yawn. It wasn’t that late by her standards, but today had been a bit busier than she was used to. Life at the orphanage had been pretty quiet, all things considered. Still, if today was any indication, she wouldn’t be bored here.
“Yeah, but I guess it doesn’t matter now.” Akko replied. They’d completely forgotten about her Save File, for the moment at least. She’d prefer not to tell them too much about it, to the point where she was starting to regret showing it at all. She was so used to being able to go back to an earlier Save if she messed up that she acted on impulse at the worst times. Of course, she didn’t use Reset unless someone died any more, so that she wouldn’t start abusing the power.
There was a good reason she told very few people about it too. She’d had to break it to everyone she’d told about it several times before it didn’t cause a major existential crisis, and those three weren’t exactly the average joe, who probably couldn’t deal with that knowledge. At very least, she’d need to get to know them better first. “So, what are your plans?” she asked, partly to make sure the distraction stuck, but mostly out of genuine curiosity.
“My family owns a magic shop, so I’m here to learn the basics of being a Witch so I can run the shop one day.” Lotte answered.
“I was planning to simply collect the Cockatrice’s poison and leave, but apparently there are samples of extinct mushrooms here, so I’ll be sticking around for the moment.” Sucy replied.
“Oh, well I want to learn magic to inspire people and make them happy like Shiny Chariot did!” Akko announced cheerfully. She could respect Lotte’s wishes to take over the family business (assuming that was what she wanted) and there was probably a good reason Sucy was so obsessed with poisons.
“You know she’s a laughing stock in the magical world, right?” Sucy asked with a particularly deadpan expression. She was kind of one in the mundane world too, but that was less relevant here. Ever since that giant star-shaped crater had mysteriously appeared on the moon, she hadn’t had any shows, and her popularity had been dropping before that. Everybody was rather freaked-out by said crater, especially since they didn’t know how it happened. The KND in particular had been very vocally unhappy about that, and their Rogues weren’t entirely happy about it either.
“Yeah, but I don’t care. She inspired me, and I want to be just like her.” She was DETERMINED to be like Chariot. She’d probably have wanted to be like her hero just from that show she’d seen. Then there was what she’d done for Akko in that first timeline...
Lotte and Sucy shared a look, but didn’t respond. The trio of girls went to sleep shortly afterward. The next morning, Akko woke up early for once, excited for her first day of Witch’s school. First, however, she checked to make sure the Shiny Rod hadn’t mysteriously vanished in the middle of the night. To her relief it hadn’t. “It’s still here! Which means it wasn’t a dream!” Or that she’d LOADed in her sleep like that one time. SAVE Po-er stars appeared in her eyes. “Now that I’m here at Luna Nova, I’m gonna become a great Witch!” she said cheerfully.
*Akko’s filled with DETERMINATION.* Sucy looked up at her from the potion she was brewing. She’d gotten up even earlier than usual since she’d gone to bed early last night, and she’d been planning to extract the Cockatrice’s poison, so she was.
“Did you expect it to disappear in a puff of smoke?” Sucy asked as Lotte stirred from the commotion.
“Well, MacGuffins always have a downside. They don’t work unless you really need them, or only show up when things are desperate, or they have very strict requirements for wielders, or using them is highly corruptive.” Akko responded, before muttering “Stupid Necronomicon.”
“Wait, what was that last-” Lotte asked as she put on her glasses.
“So I think I’ll stick to my wand until I know how this thing works. I mean, I feel like I can use it for all kinds of magic, but I’d rather not blow a hole in the… everywhere by accidentally saying a spell that blows things up while holding a stupidly powerful magical artifact that I don’t understand.” Akko stated.
“Uh, if you think it could be dangerous, then shouldn’t you give it to the teachers?” Lotte asked. It only seemed safe.
“Nope! Two reasons why I shouldn’t do that. First, I don’t trust them not to lock it in a vault somewhere where I’ll never see it again and not even try and analyze it. Second, this was Shiny Chariot’s, so I might find her if I hold on to it. At least, I should be able to find out why she vanished back in 2007.” Not even 6 months after the show Akko saw. Supposedly, her shows had really gone downhill after that one. Hopefully Akko’s bad luck hadn’t rubbed off.
Lotte knew ‘I’m not changing my mind.’ when she heard it, so she turned to Sucy. “What are you doing?” She was kind of curious.
“Extracting and then testing the Cockatrice’s poison. It’s why I came here after all.” Sucy said, before placing a gas mask on her face.
“Wait, do we need gas masks?” Akko paused in her stashing of the oversized wand at the sight of someone in a gas mask. That was almost never a good sign.
“Probably not.” Sucy said, not particularly reassuring either of the others, as she pulled over two eyedroppers, one with a purple liquid and one with a blue one. Her test subject, a beetle, skittered back and forth in the beaker it was trapped in, as if sensing it’s imminent demise. She poured the liquids inside, to a large gout of smoke that washed right into her face, which she was expecting, hence the gas mask.
The beetle, meanwhile, very much didn’t like what it was being exposed to. It skittered and jumped with increasing jerkiness until it abruptly froze and turned to jade. Sucy chuckled darkly. Success!
Lotte leaned away from her, despite being on the top-bunk while Sucy was on the ground. She started to climb down as Akko finally managed to hide the rod to her satisfaction. “I’ll test you out later.” she told the inanimate object.
“Hurry up and get dressed, or we’ll be late for class.” Lotte said.
“Alright! Let’s do this!” The stars briefly reappeared as Akko cheered. She put on her full uniform, which closely resembled the classical witch’s garb. “Transformation complete!” she said, mimicking a magical girl she’d watched on TV.
Lotte, however, was wearing a blue-grey sleeveless dress over a white shirt, with a red sash tied at the waist, as a mark of which dorm the girls were from. “That’s a ceremonial dress. We only wear it at festivals and when we’re doing practicals. This uniform is for everyday use.” she placed a hand on her chest for emphasis.
“-_-” Akko made a face as pulled her hat off and started on the rest. “That’s no fun at all. I mean, I guess I can understand that Witch’s outfits can get in the way, which is probably why the teachers have the skirts at the knees instead of the ankles, but it kind of feels like it defeats the purpose of calling ourselves Witches if we don’t bother dressing like Witches.”
As she switched out the ceremonial outfit for the regular one, Lotte started pulling out the books they’d need. “Let’s see, we’ll need the textbooks for Magic Linguistics, Magic Pharmaceutics, and then Magic Numerology.” Lotte muttered, half to herself, as she picked up the books. Sucy and Akko followed suit.
“First day, I’m gonna ace this!” Akko murmured to herself as she gazed at her copy of Magic Linguistics. Here’s hoping she got through today on her first try. Just in case, she made a Save File with Save File 4.
“Akko! Hurry up!” Lotte called.
“Coming!” Akko called.
*** About 10 Minutes Earlier ***
Principal Holbrooke’s office had three main features, the grand desk, the statues of the hats worn by the Nine Olde Witches, and the carpeting reminiscent of the Oval Office, combined to give the room a sense of age and grandeur, despite the fact that many of it’s furnishings, such as the principal’s chair, were less than 50 years old. She began to speak to the assembled teachers, as was custom every term. “As of today, we will begin Luna Nova’s 1598th term, however, we will first be paying our respects to the Nine Olde-” she cut off as a clatter, unusually loud when Holbrooke herself was the only major source of noise, interrupted her speech.
“Professor Ursula.” Holbrooke stated, a disappointed note in her voice as the youngest teacher in the room picked up her wand from the floor.
“I’m sorry Headmistress.” she bowed nearly horizontal to the floor before straightening up.
“Honestly, how can you expect to serve as a role model for the students when your manners are so poor?” Professor Finneran rebuked.
“Sorry.” Ursula repeated, more meekly.
Some time later, Professor Ursula was carrying a set of large tomes for Professor Finneran as they walked down the halls to their classrooms. The students were chatting comfortably as they did the same, and the fairies cleaned and otherwise maintained the school.
“While I have you on hand, you mentioned that you wanted to give our newest student, ‘Atsuko’ I believe, some extra guidance, correct?” Professor Finneran asked.
“Yes, she might have been adopted by Monsters, but she’s probably not really familiar with Witch magic, so I wanted to give her some extra help. Spend a little extra time with her to get her up to speed. I’d like to make her feel at home here.” Professor Ursula explained.
“After all these years, you still act like a child playing teacher. What you do with your free time is your choice, but you can’t stop to help along every student who has trouble. That’s what remedial classes are for.” Finneran responded.
Before Ursula could respond, a slightly off-tune humming preceded the object of their conversation appearing from a side corridor. “Oh, there she is now. If you’ll excuse me ProfESSOR!” she nearly fell over as she tripped over a fairy who was moving to clean some more of the windows, and she struggled not to drop the books on the floor, juggling them as best she could, until a blue aura, flickering a bit, stopped the books and piled them back up, if out of order.
“Uh, thank you miss Kagari.” Ursula said.
The intense look of concentration and the blue aura around her left hand disappeared as the student nodded with a smile. “You’re welcome professor.” Her attention had been drawn by the yelp issued by the blue-haired professor. Of course, destroying the books would have been worse than letting them fall, so she was careful to avoid putting too much into the Blue Magic she used to move the books.
“That was Gravity magic, wasn't it?” Ursula asked.
“Yeah, I can use all of the Color Magics, but not very well with some of them.” Akko admitted.
“Well, I’m not exactly an expert on Monster magic, but if you need any help with Witch magic, come to me after class.” Ursula offered.
“Yeah, I could use the help.” Akko accepted.
“Oh?” Finneran queried, most students would at least attempt to avoid extra lessons, especially on their first day.
“Yeah, most of my beginner’s kit stuff got ruined in the crossfire between Sector V and Grandma Stuffum. Numbuh 1 was sorry about it, but that didn’t really help me then. I did get to use some of it, but it usually didn’t work or blew up, so I’m kind of a total novice at Witch stuff.” Akko elaborated. The problem was, throwing the sort of power Reset required around in regular magic tended to be a lot more than the spell was designed in mind for. So, either it didn’t work at all, or whatever she was casting blew up.
“I’ll see you later then.” Ursula seemed oddly sad for a second, but Akko dismissed it. Probably just nostalgia from her own school days.
As Akko walked off, catching up to Lotte, she noticed the gaggle of other students passing by, specifically their uniforms. “These uniforms seem kind of plain, but I guess it’s not the end of the world. I can’t wait to see what magic class is going to be like! I bet it’s going to be GREAT!” she cheered.
*** 10 minutes later: Magic Linguistics With Professor Finneran ***
Professor Finneran waved her wand, and green runes formed of the various phases of the moon began to appear on the board. Akko stared. “Wow. and I thought Japanese was bad.” she muttered. Seriously, some of those looked almost exactly the same. She was probably going to be okay, since the complexity of her native Japanese and general talent in deciphering languages gave her a major advantage, but it was no wonder attendance was down. How many potential students balked at having to learn an entire new language, and a complicated one at that, in order to learn magic?
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
*Compared to Monster Runes, these are practically indecipherable.* Chara commented.
“These Luna Runes, miss Kagari,” Professor Finneran directed a pointed look at her. ‘Crap, she heard!’ “are the ancient character system invented and used by Witches from at least as far back as 5000 BC, making them one of the oldest scripts in history, if not the oldest. They are a type of segmental script, similar to Monster Runes and Dragon Runes. Can anyone in the class read the runes on the board?” she asked.
A hand was raised one row down from where Akko, Sucy and Lotte sat, attached to a girl with blue eyes, blonde hair and green highlights. ‘Oh, it’s Diana.’ she remembered the taller girl from a few previous timelines.
The professor nodded. “Proceed miss Cavendish.” Akko still thought her last name was weird though.
Diana stood and recited “‘Blessed be the one who lets the stone remain untouched. Woe betide the one who moves it.’”
Muttering and a few awed gasps followed this recitation, as the professor smiled and nodded. “Most excellent miss Cavendish. In all my years, you’re the first student to get that right.”
As Diana sat down, her black-haired roommate smiled and said “Way to go Diana!” Wait a minute, that was the girl from the terminal, and so was Diana’s other roommate.
“...Do you think she’d be willing to give me lessons?” Akko asked Lotte as the more bookish girl made notes. She could use the help if she didn’t want to have to repeat the week a couple times to buy herself enough study time to achieve basic competency, though she wasn’t sure about Diana agreeing or not. She hadn’t really gotten to know Diana in the few timelines where they’d met, as she was usually not encountered in an informal setting, and their meetings in that first timeline were most definitely unfriendly, save the last, which had been pretty short.
“Probably not. She seems pretty aloof, and she supposedly studies pretty hard.” Lotte responded, as Sucy yawned in equal parts disinterest and drowsiness. That was Akko’s assessment, yeah, but Lotte didn’t seem to know her very well either. She supposed she should just ask, though her choice in friends didn’t exactly raise Akko’s hopes.
*** Professor Lukic’s Magic Pharmaceuticals ***
“With every stir, the bubbling mixture’s color begins to change, now add a live frog.” Professor Lukic explained, stirring the pot as green smoke began to rise from it. The professor had long grey hair that reached past her waist. Combine that with her long nose, sharp-angled face, and pointed teeth, and she was the classic ‘old hag’ Witch.
“In order to achieve the proper effect, the water must still be cold when the frog is added to your concoction. Then you must add intestine of newt and ground claw of bat, but you must do it gradually, little, by little.” The Professor said, demonstrating as she talked. The green smoke was by now billowing about across the entire room. Sucy seemed to be enjoying it, but Diana’s roommates ducked to avoid it while Diana herself used a regular pulse of magic from her wand to push it away, and Akko was reduced to waving the smoke at Sucy, since she seemed to like it so much.
“Do you smell that pleasant aroma wafting from it?” the professor asked, chuckling with a Gihihi. Sucy took a huge whiff, smiling happily.
*** Magic Numerology With Professor Babcock ***
“As we’ve discussed before, Pythagoras is said to be the progenitor of the basic system of magic and fortune telling. Let us reference Line 102 on page 923.” Professor Babcock explained.
Akko had pinched herself several times to avoid get drowsy, Sucy was grinding something on her pestle, not even pretending to pay attention, and even Lotte was yawning intermittently.
“Using Numerology, it is possible to depict the universe on a scale of 1-5, and-” she cut off as she became aware of Diana’s raised hand in her peripheral vision. “Yes miss Cavendish?”
“Excuse me professor, but don’t you mean 1-4?” she asked.
“Yes, wait, what did I say?” Professor Babcock seemed decidedly nonplussed.
“1-5.” Diana responded primly.
“Oh, that’s a complete beginner’s mistake! Thank you miss Cavendish.” Professor Badcock seemed very upset at having made a mistake in her main field, to the point of ignoring that a student had corrected her.
Akko was jolted fully awake when her head suddenly felt odd. She reached up to find a sprout at the top of her head. “Sucy, did you dump your potion on my head?” she asked suspiciously.
“Yes.” Sucy admitted with a smile, utterly unapologetic. Well, at least she was honest.
Akko sighed. “As long as it wears off.”
“It will, eventually.” Sucy shrugged.
*** Lunch Hour ***
“You know, this isn’t what I was expecting at all. I thought it would be more… magical when I was studying magic.” Akko complained to the other girls as they sat down. She ignored the food in her mouth as she continued, “How did Shiny Chariot learn the magic she used in her shows in this place?” Maybe she wasn’t giving the school enough credit, but this place didn’t seem like it would produce Witches like Chariot. It encouraged neither creativity, nor heroism.
“Shiny Chariot is frowned upon here at Luna Nova.” Akko turned around to find herself being addressed by Diana. “She’s a disappointment. Miss Kagari, was it?” she asked.
“Gyou.” Akko swallowed, to avoid being unable to be understood through the food in her mouth. “You can call me Akko, Diana.” She’d ask about learning Runes some other time, since professor Ursula already had her after-class time booked for today.
“Well, you know who Diana is, so I guess you haven’t been living under a rock.” Hannah, the redhead from the terminal said snidely. Akko had made an effort to figure out what their names were since it was bothering her.
“I’ve heard of her.” Akko shrugged. More than heard in the first timeline.
“Well, she’s been called the best up-and-coming Witch in the history of Luna Nova.” Barbara, the long black-haired counterpart to Hannah’s short red ponytail, explained haughtily.
“Allow me to give you some friendly advice. No one at Luna Nova respects Chariot, so stop treating her as a role model.” Diana said with firm solemnity.
On a walkway above the lunchroom, Professor Ursula was passing by, and overheard Diana’s proclamation.
“That’s not true! Shiny Chariot has fans all over the world, because her shows were amazing!” Akko defended her idol.
“Admittedly, they were popular once, but Shiny Chariot’s been missing for 10 years since quitting her show of tricks, and it doesn’t seem like anyone particularly cares about what she’s doing now.” Diana countered. She and her cronies started to walk off.
“I care!” Akko stood up, quite literally, for Shiny Chariot. “I mean, sure, she’s not as popular as she used to be, but I don’t care about that. She showed me what I really wanted to be, and as long as she inspired even one person to believe in magic, then she’s not a failure, she’s a hero! That’s why I have to find her, so I can give her back the Shiny Rod!” D’Oh! She blurted that last part out without thinking again!
As Diana asked “The Shiny Rod?” Akko seriously considered going back to an earlier Save File, but dismissed it. Maybe this was the best way to handle this, The teachers wouldn’t confiscate a fake replica of the Shiny Rod, which a failure to cast with it would paint it as.
“That’s right!” she pretended to still be caught up in the moment, though she could have sworn Diana noticed something off. “I found it, so I’m going to return it to it’s rightful owner!” she puffed herself up in a futile attempt to match the taller girl. It was only fair, neither the rod nor the other Fallen Children’s things were really hers, though Chara was willing to let her use the Locket in emergencies.
*** Luna Nova Courtyard: 15 Minutes Later ***
A short time later (after Akko Overwrote Save File 2 with her a Save right after the lunchroom altercation, just in case), Akko, Sucy, Lotte, Diana, Hannah, Barbara, and a plethora of curious students were waiting to see the Shiny Rod. Akko had brought it here and placed it directly in front of Diana for her viewing pleasure. If Diana actually agreed with her (doubtful) then she’d LOAD. If not, then she’d use their disbelief to her advantage.
Diana examined the Shiny Rod with a critical eye, even placing a hand on it to allow the use of Check, which could only be used at a distance on beings with SOULs. Luckily, Chara knew Akko’s thoughts, and was able to manipulate Diana’s Check to say:
‘Imitation Rod. A surprisingly convincing replica of the Shiny Rod. An individual with little knowledge of magic might mistake it for the real thing. 2 ATK. 0 DEF.’
Chara could only do this with a few individuals at a time, but she only needed to do it with one most of the time. It was a skill they’d picked up while they were… manure. She hadn’t really had anything better to do, and 300 years could make even the most boring of tasks a break from doing absolutely nothing.
“I can see how you might have thought this was the Shiny Rod, but it’s nothing more than an imitation.” Diana said as her Check window displayed the results for all to see. Check, unless given information from a secondary source like Chara, was limited by what the person using it could get out of their senses and knowledge. Not to say it wouldn’t tell you something you didn’t know, but a person was unlikely to have their inner thoughts revealed by a Check, unless a very perceptive individual was behind it.
“Did you bring that for show and tell?” Barbara asked.
“How many weeks of allowance did you spend on it?” Hannah asked snidely. Pfft. Like she needed an allowance with her bank account.
Akko puffed up her cheeks. “I found it in the woods in apparent mint condition and there were no bloodstains to indicate a recent monster attack, so explain how it ended up in the woods!” Akko responded. She had to make this convincing, and she wasn’t a very good liar, so she’d have trouble hiding her irritation at not being believed, even if it was her own fault.
“They may have simply dropped the dead weight and ran off.” Diana countered, shaking of a split second’s consternation at Akko’s casual mention of death.
Sound logic, Akko admitted to herself. “Uh, well, it doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, because I’ll prove it to you!” she walked over to a nearby statue to attempt to cast with the rod but actually fail.
“Okay Shiny Rod, let’s show these guys what you’re really made of!” Akko crowed.
“Akko, I don’t think this is a good idea.” Lotte advised against what she was doing.
“It’ll be fine!” she waved off the concern. She wasn’t actually going to cast a spell anyway. She pointed the Shiny Rod directly at the statue. “Now, move! Stone statue!” she stabbed the air in the statue’s direction. Naturally, a lack of any actual effort to cast a spell caused absolutely nothing to happen.
The sprout, which had grown to nearly twice it’s original size, lost a leaf, as if to underscore her apparent mediocrity. Feigning surprise, she tried again. “Stone statue? Move? Please?” Nothing happened. “It was working yesterday.” she muttered, staring at the staff.
“Ansolew Airo.” Diana chanted with a wave of her wand. A bright green light began to emanate from the statue, as the Puppet Magic animated it. Considering the fact that the magic would have to account for the strain caused by something so inflexible moving, it was probably extremely energy-intensive, a part of her mind noted.
She was careful to stay very still as the statue moved towards her. She was sure Diana didn’t actually want to hurt her, so it was best to get whatever embarrassment she had in mind over with and finish this gambit up. Surprisingly, the statue gently plucked the sprout off her head, which restored her ponytail with a sound oddly similar to the Pokeball release noise from the cartoon, before setting itself back into its old position..
“Are you okay Akko?” Lotte asked with some concern. Sucy was also at her side, though she had almost the same expression as usual, if slightly downturned corners to her mouth.
“I hate to admit it, but that was really cool.” Akko said, a little numb. After all the times some giant creature had crushed or maimed her, she didn’t really like being vulnerable to repeats, so simply standing there and taking it, even if it wasn’t actually harmful, went against some very deeply ingrained instincts.
Barbara recovered first among the other Witches. “Wow! That was an advanced spell that brings statues to life!” she stated the obvious.
“You’re the greatest Diana!” Hannah concurred.
Diana cut off any further praise with a raised hand. “Real magic comes from tradition and intensive study. Someone who picked up a wand to follow a fad could never hope to learn it.” Diana lectured.
“The Cavendish family is well-known for a rich history in magic going back generations before your grandparents were born.” Barbara taunted.
“Diana’s way better than some stage magician who couldn’t hack it.” Hanah added.
Diana merely flicked her hair and walked off, prompting her cronies to scurry after her. The crowd promptly dispersed. As soon as they were out of earshot, Akko smiled. “It worked.”
The other two girls blinked. “I think I speak for both of us when I say ‘Huh?’” Sucy queried.
“Oh, I wasn’t actually planning to cast with the rod. Getting it confiscated would be a real pain, but if everybody thinks it’s a fake, then they don’t have any reason to take it, which means I can take it with me wherever I want as long as I don't get obnoxious about it.” Akko explained.
“... Just when I think I’ve got you figured out, you spring this on me.” Sucy sighed as Lotte gaped.
Meanwhile, Professor Ursula, who had followed after the group to see what was going on, and knew how to read lips, was quite surprised. That was a level of intrigue she hadn’t expected from the apparently straightforward girl. She’d have to be careful not to give Akko any hints about who she actually was.
“Professor Ursula.” Professor Finneran got the younger teacher’s attention. “Have you looked into what we discussed yet?” she asked.
“I-I was just about to do that.” Ursula stuttered nervously.
Professor Finneran gave her a sour look but left it at that.
Back with the girls, they were startled to hear Sans’ *Vwoorp* and see him with 2 figures unfamiliar to the non-brunettes of the group.
“Hey Akko, how’ve you been?” A figure resembling a cartoonish monochrome devil asked, a few drops of ink falling off his hand as he raised it.
“It feels like forever since we’ve met up.” A ghost of a blue-white coloration commented, with fingerless stubs at the end of her arms, and a somewhat ragged dress as the bottom of her body,
“Hey Bendy, hey Spooky.” Akko greeted nonchalantly. “How’ve you guys been?”