“Uh, Akko, who’re they?” Lotte asked, as Sucy stared intently at Spooky. Cute and scary at the same time were probably giving her conflicting impulses.
Bendy placed a hand on his chest. “I’m Bendy, the Dancing Demon! I’m an old family friend.” he introduced himself.
“I’m Spooky. Akko came to my house and forced us to be friends.” Spooky explained, her shrug causing her to look a little odd as a floating person.
“I wouldn’t take no for an answer, because I could tell she was lonely.” Akko answered, lying only by omission.
While Spooky was, much like Flowey, more complicated than the first ten minutes of knowing her would suggest, she was indeed murderously psychotic, and preventing her from killing people was something she very much wanted to do. The alternatives to convincing her to stop were calling in Gramps to annihilate her SOUL, which was a definite no, asking Fury a favor, which would basically mean imprisoning Spooky, or killing a ghost, which wasn’t possible below 20 LV if you weren’t Gramps, and was a level of killing intent no one who wasn’t of the HATEFUL could maintain, even if they possessed the requisite EXP.
Not to mention destroying Spooky wouldn’t un-kill any of her victims, and it could be argued that concentrating all the horrible monsters in her mansion, like she had, had actually decreased how many people they’d killed total, which was probably still less than the number Six’s mother was responsible for. Besides, it wasn’t like Flowey hadn’t killed people or tried to kill her, and she’d befriended him, and they’d both lost major SOUL pieces from dying, so it wasn’t like they didn’t have more excuse than Akko had. Much like Flowey, Spooky had relapses from time to time, but was definitely much more pleasant now, so there was absolutely no reason to go after her now.
“kid’s got a habit of collecting strange people.” Sans commented.
Akko made a so-so motion with her hands. “Bendy moved in a couple years ago, so I’m not sure he counts, since I didn’t go out on an adventure and meet him.”
“So you admit I’m strange.” Spooky jabbed playfully.
“You say that like I’m not.” Akko replied. Nobody with Reset was your average person. Not Gramps, not Grandfather, not Flowey, and not her. Supposedly Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and a few other great leaders had had it. Hitler coming into possession of it was widely considered humanity’s darkest hour. Luckily, Grandfather had considered him a horrible monster, stolen Reset at the age of twelve, and been happy with the personal fiefdom he was awarded, at least until the Cuban Missile Crisis got out of hand.
“Anyway, want to play a couple rounds while you’re here?” she asked. Pulling her Shiny Chariot cards out of her Inventory.
“As long as it’s not Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip Poker. You always get super intense when you play that.” Bendy nodded.
“Paradox what now?” Lotte asked, blinking in confusion.
“He means Yu-Gi-Oh. Akko calls it that because she’s got a nasty case of hero worship towards this one guy that calls it that.” Spooky answered.
“You can’t be serious.” Sucy deadpanned. “Why would anyone take a children’s card game seriously enough to make up a name like that for it?”
“oh, she’s dead serious.” Sans nodded. “in the kid’s chuunibyou phase back when she was 12, she memorized and collected every card in every card game she could get her hands on. she crushed her opponents with vicious and extreme prejudice, except the guy who convinced her card games were cool, though I’m not convinced she wasn’t just letting him win. of course, that came right after her angsty poetry phase, though she wasn’t really acting any different from now and she kept trying to burn it before we could see it. the disconnect was exactly as weird as it sounds.”
“I’m not that bad.” Akko huffed as Lotte and Sucy stared at her like she’d grown a second head. At Bendy’s raised eyebrow, Sans’ raised eye socket, and Spooky’s attempt to do the same without eyebrows, she relented. “Okay, I was that bad, but I’m not any more, and I’m not particularly proud of that phase. Besides, we’re playing Shiny Chariot’s card game, which doesn't have nearly as intricate a ban list, or nearly as many cards to take into account.” she explained.
“You know, it’d help if we knew the rules.” Sucy pointed out as they made their way to a bench. This was mostly for the concrete it was anchored too, as Akko didn’t want grass stains on her cards. Bendy wiped the ink off his gloves to prevent the same thing from happening with his ink.
Akko knelt down and started dealing cards. “Okay, there are three types of cards: moon, star, and sun, determined by the symbol at the top of the card. The bottom left shows the cards cost in its respective mana type. The bottom right corner shows the cards offensive and defensive score, not unlike PBVRFDHCSP. The bad news is, they never made the mana and ability cards, so I had to track down the plans and draw pictures on some cards myself.” she gestured to a small plastic case with cards in it. She opened it to reveal hand-made cards. They weren’t professional by any means, but they were certainly legible.
“Okay, we can do pair off, or have a free-for all, an ever-shifting mass of alliances and betrayals as endless war is waged by our minions at our behest until only a single victor remains, having bought their victory with the oceans of blood harvested from their enemies.” Realizing what she was doing, she coughed into her fist. “Sorry, I thought I’d fixed that.” Where did that come from? She kept that Chuunibyou Akko in a box just like Rage and Nihilism!
Sucy, leaning away from Akko, muttered, “You weren’t kidding. She gets nuts about card games.”
Anyway, they paired off, as neither Sucy nor Lotte had played the game before. The ability cards could only be used by specific types of creatures, which made them powerful, but highly situational. Mana, on the other hand, was common, but tended to be spent quickly, making it a precious commodity. The Creatures themselves were about halfway between. Less common than the mana cards, but more widely useful than the ability cards, though less powerful under any but ideal circumstances.
As Bendy faced off against Lotte and Sucy played with Spooky, Akko was paired with Sans. They moved just far enough off to not be able to make out each other’s conversations distinctly.
*** Sucy and Spooky ***
“So, Akko know a lot of ghosts?” Sucy asked the ghost girl, not really paying much attention to the games going on nearby, or making any effort to pick up the cards in front of her.
“Only a few others, mostly Monster ghosts, which are more their own species than a phenomena arising from human SOULs managing to leave splinter of themselves behind.” Spooky shrugged. “Causes all kinds of issues, but Akko helped get my mind… working right. Apparently she just wandered around dealing with supernatural stuff for a little while before she fell into the Underground. She always changes the subject whenever I ask about it though.”
Sucy tilted her head slightly. “Wouldn’t her parents have a problem with that?” That seemed excessively dangerous. A 9-10-year-old wandering around, tripping over lost civilizations and the like? There was no way her parents would just let that happen.
Spooky’s face fell. “Uh, well, she never really talked to me about them either. She gets this… look on her face whenever someone asks. We’ve managed to get her to tell us they weren’t abusive, but, she’s basically been adopted by Toriel.” Seeing the question Sucy had all over her face, she added, “One of the Monsters’ leaders. One of the first ones she met down there. She seems happy on the outside, but, having been screwed up myself, I can tell there’s something really bothering her whenever those subjects come up, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t ask her. Unless something major happens, I don’t think she’s going to tell anyone about what happened.”
Sucy considered that for a moment, then nodded. It wasn’t her business anyway. Though, she noticed something. “Wait, what about Bendy? She said he was living with you guys.” she pointed out.
Spooky sighed. “He was taking care of Henry until a couple years ago. He was a Determined person, but he was in his 60’s in the 60’s. He actually didn’t marry until a few years after they met, which is why he’s only her grandfather. Anyway, he’s not around any more either, and Bendy’s sensitive about it, so don’t talk about that either.”
After that steady stream of heaviness, Sucy decided to go for something safe. “What kind of books do you like?” It was less boring than the weather, don’t judge her.
“Horror novels.” she grinned a little dementedly. “I love it when the character is this close to escaping, and then the monster gets them! Ooh! The times when the protagonists are getting picked off one by one are great too! Plus the times when they think they’ve beaten it, and then it’s hinted that they didn’t, or shown, or it shows up not long after, and the book ends there, letting you imagine it slaughtering them all.” her grin gradually grew, to the point of utter lunacy when she finished. She shook her head and returned to a her smaller default smile. “Uh, but they’re just stories, it’s funny because it’s not real.” she smiles a more strained smile, and Sucy decided to let it slide. She had weird habits too. As long as Spooky didn’t go full serial killer, it wasn’t her business.
“I’m a fan of Potion and poison books personally. I actually came here for rare extracts.” she admitted.
“Hm, Akko could probably hook you up with Professor Utonium. He is the world’s foremost biologist and geneticist. I’m sure he knows a thing or two about poisons.” Spooky responded.
Sucy paused. Akko had said she was the Monster ambassador, and Professor Membrane had said the ambassador was responsible for the brain-tank in the first place, as well as their 5000c subspace FTL engines and 500,000c subspace communicators, not to mention the replicators, though deflectors and terraforming were merely based on the understanding of subspace she’d provided and a natural consequence of casual interplanetary travel, respectively, but outside confirmation that she could pull some strings to get her to see one of the world’s most prominent minds in the modern age, when they had bodyguards nearby at all times to keep them protected in the event that aliens had X-J9 and the PPG preoccupied and then attacked them while their defenses were compromised, or a similar situation arose, really made it sink in. “Really? Wouldn’t he have better things to do?”
Spooky made a so-so motion with her finger-less stubs. “He could use a break from trying to get the minimum time for full terraforming under a decade. Mars and Venus only just started to become livable recently, even though they started 5 years ago, and he’s still trying to get it lower. Titan’s only supposed to take 8 years, but he feels like a lifetime just to get the Sol system as habitable as possible is way too slow. He can run himself ragged if his daughters don’t rein him in. Supposedly, there’s about a hundred billion planets in the galaxy, but we can barely travel to a tiny sliver of it, so we ‘Have to make the most of what we can actually reach in less than a generation.’ according to him.”
“Guess I’ll ask later then.” Sucy looked down at the cards Akko had given them, and the small pile between them. “You want to play?” she asked. She was planning to just ignore them until Akko’s old friends left, but she was running out of conversation topics, and Akko would get on her case if she just ignored Spooky. Plus, she’d prefer not to alienate something she could only hurt with her finite supply of magic, but had no such problems in return, and who seemed genuinely a bit psychotic, instead of the act she kept up because it she found it hilarious. Well, it was mostly an act.
*** Bendy and Lotte ***
“Okay, I’ll uh, use this Sun mana to summon this Unicorn?” Lotte half-asked.
“Good enough for me. You don’t have to force yourself to play you know. Akko won’t think any less of you. You have to do something really bad to actually make her mad at you.” Bendy reassured.
“Oh, sorry, I’ve... never had many friends.” she admitted. There weren’t a lot of people in her town her age who didn’t make fun of her for being a Witch.
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Bendy shrugged. “I didn’t use to have a big circle of friends either, but trying too hard can be just as bad as not trying at all.” he pointed out.
“So, what did Sans mean when he said Akko collects strange people?” she asked.
“Well, there’s the Monsters, who aren’t exactly like humans, then there’s the weirdos she hangs out with, like me, or Spooky, or Soldier. The point is, she doesn’t have a lot of normal friends.” He pre-empted the concern he saw on her face. “Don’t worry about standing out though, being normal is probably the least common trait anyone in the group has.”
“That doesn’t really make me feel better though.” Lotte sighed. Being the normal one wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, especially since she was too weird for regular people, but too normal to stand out among strange people.
“Well, I can’t really help you there. How you feel isn’t really something you can control. Still, your options are to get used to it, or work hard and get good at something. You’re from a pretty old Witch family, if not a powerful one, right?” At Lotte’s nod, he continued. “Then you probably have a talent you inherited from your family, right?”
“Well, yes. I can talk to spirits. Anything old enough to be a tsukigami qualifies, and the spirits of things like the air or water are pretty easy to call up. There’s actually a legend that one of my ancestors could call on Earth’s spirit itself, but she hasn’t come when she wasn’t warning people about something or correcting someone on something since the BCs.” Lotte admitted. It only made sense, while Earth-chan was decidedly against misunderstandings of the universe’s workings, she mostly just… existed. Like most planets. Supposedly, DT from fallen humans had seeped into the environment, as while 99% of it was in the SOUL, the body had traces quantities, which, when coupled with the 130 billion people who’d lived and died (minimum), was enough to give it a full physical form, though the awareness of its existence in the collective human psyche certainly helped. Belief was a known force these days, though spirits tended to be most heavily affected.
Bendy hesitantly began, “Uh, yeah, Akko has her on speed-dial, so if you really want to talk to her-” when Lote practically pounced on him.
“Really?! Witches who can talk to spirits would give their good arms to be able to talk to the planet’s spirit!” The last time Earth-chan had shown herself to world as a whole had been when that group of mad scientists had nearly put Earth back into the Ice Age. She showed up for more minor crises, but only to key players. She wielded awesome power in theory, but she was limited by the collateral damage using it would cause.
“Talk to her later, I’m sure Akko could get her to visit for a little while.” Bendy gently pushed Lotte off.
“Uh, thanks for the advice.” Lotte muttered, red-faced when she realized her reaction. She usually only gushed about Night Fall like that, but her talents with spirits were what got her interested in being a Witch in the first place, before she understood the realities of running a magic shop.
*** Akko And Sans ***
“any leads on finding Chariot kid?” Sans asked as he used an ability following Lotte’s outburst. Akko had encountered Chariot in the first timeline, but had found no sign of her since then, save her insane episode, and she didn’t really remember that well.
“No, 10 years, and nobody’s seen her since her last show.” she sighed. She’d seen it when she was roughly 6, and she’d researched the occult in hopes of it carrying over into proper magic training for the next couple years until the… incidents, at which point she’d been dealing with the occult for the next year, until she jumped into the Underground. In this version of the timeline at least.
The others had finished their games by this point, Spooky and Bendy eventually triumphing over the less experienced players, while Sans and Akko, with the former’s ability to read Akko and the latter’s deep knowledge of the game, were in a grinding stalemate, and so moved back over to watch them play. “These cards were hard to come by when I was a kid, since Shiny Chariot was so popular they only made a limited printing of them to price-gouge. I’d spend my allowance on card packs every time I got it. I never did get that premium card I wanted.” she explained for the benefit of her new friends.
Sucy picked up a mushroom card, which Akko had been expecting, while Lotte picked up another Unicorn. She’d gotten multiple of a lot of the more common cards in her efforts to find the rarer ones. Not exactly unexpected.
“A mushroom believed to rekindle romance.” Sucy muttered. Yeah, poisons weren’t the only thing non-edible mushrooms were good for, even if most people didn’t think of them as medicinal. The main difference between a poison and a remedy was the dose, after all.
“A Unicorn.” Lotte, no longer nervous about messing up the game, could appreciate the artwork properly now.
“‘An eternal holy creature. The protector of happiness.’” Akko quoted without being able to see the card.
“Wow, you’re really dedicated to these cards.” Sucy noted. Being able to read the card’s flavor text off the top of her head was impressive. It would be a little pathetic if she wasn’t so earnest about it.
“Well, I’m not sure on the pronunciation of a few of them, but yeah. It helps that I have an eidetic memory. I never forget anything, whether I want to or not. Of course, if I’m not paying attention, then it doesn’t help much.” The downside was that traumas wouldn’t fade with time. It would merely grant her perspective, not heal the scars.
“That sounds useful, studying must be a snap.” Sucy noted, a hint of jealousy in her voice. Having to actually put effort into studying was a huge time-sink, which she didn’t appreciate Akko being able to completely ignore.
“It’s too bad studying bores me out of my mind.” Akko noted. She was a learn-by-doing type, not a ‘I read a book about it.’ type. Unfortunately, reading research already done was her only recourse if she didn’t want to do everything from scratch.
Lotte noticed another card. “I know this one, a magic butterfly.” she didn’t know most of the things on the cards, but these she’d encountered in her studies. The butterfly was mostly a golden color, with a marking similar to its general form on it’s chest. It’s larval form apparently had it on it’s head.
“‘Pappiliodya. A butterfly that can fly long distances. It hatches once every century, and is said to give hope to anyone who gazes upon it.’” she recited from memory.
*** Meanwhile, Luna Nova Greenhouse ***
“Hm.” Principal Holbrooke hummed in mild concern. “It looks very sick.” she observed, looking up at the central tree of the garden. Specifically, the Memorial Tree.
“Any progress Professor Ursula?” Professor Finneran asked her younger blue-haired colleague.
“Well, this has happened before, but these books are so old I can’t quite make out what the root cause is, though it does say that the symptoms are temporary as long as the root cause is eliminated. With a little more time, I should be able to find out what that is.”
“Report back as soon as possible. The tree’s health was already beginning to decline from age, I doubt it’ll last much longer if this continues.” Professor Finneran ordered.
“Professor Holbrooke!” Diana called out from the entrance, escorted by Hannah and Barbara, causing the trio of teachers to turn towards her. “I can’t believe the Memorial Tree’s become this weak.” she said with genuine sympathy.
“It’s sad, but we can’t ignore that this is a very old tree, it may simply be too old to keep going, and is at the end of it’s time. It happens to everything eventually.” Principal Holbrooke responded morosely.
Crossing her arms, Diana scanned the tree. “The Jennifer Memorial Tree, said to have inherited the will of the Great Witch Jennifer, and sacred to Luna Nova.” she muttered, half to herself. Hannah and Barbara turned to her for guidance, determined expressions on their faces.
A few minutes later, they’d gathered a number of low-quality magic crystals, essentially very weak version of the Philosopher’s Stone the school’s magic ran on, and arranged them in a pair of concentric circles around the tree. One at the roots, one a foot outward to account for the parts they couldn’t see. “Finished on this side.” Barbara reported.
Diana stood up from her efforts to ensure the circle was even, and announced. “I’m going to attempt Revitalization magic. It will imbue the tree with potent nutrients and magical energy to restore it’s flagging health. It’s been passed down in the family for generations, so it should work.” Raising her wand above her head, a green glow like a miniature sun surrounded it.
“Louperial Ral!” she shouted, the magic, synergizing with her Kindness Trait, forming a ring and diving into the circles, which briefly formed into a wall of green light which traveled up the tree, before said tree, previously drooping, began to regain a healthy hue, the bark turning a healthy brown instead of a dull grey, and the leaves growing out again.
Smiling at a job well done, “All the nutrients seem to have soaked in.” she observed.
“You’re amazing Diana!” Hannah said smiling in awe like Barbara, before the two turned to each other.
“Let’s go tell the professors!” Barbara suggested. The pair ran off to do just that.
Diana paused as she heard the sound of moving earth, and looked down to see a small hole in the ground she was certain had not been there before. She narrowed her eyes. “Strange, did the spell work a bit too well?” she muttered. Overgrowth had happened before when used on plants that were only mildly under the weather or small, but the Memorial Tree had seemed on the brink of death.
*** Luna Nova Library ***
Professor Ursula was rechecking the book when something caught her eye. One of the pages seemed to be stuck to another. Carefully prying them apart, she found an illustration of a butterfly. “Oh, this explains it. This is actually a good omen.” she murmured.
*** The Game ***
“How long do these games usually last?” Sucy asked as Sans and Akko seemed in greater danger of wiping out her stockpile of cards than beating each other.
“Well, usually when they go this long something interrupts, usually food, sometimes trouble.” Bendy answered, and sure enough, a root, glowing green, erupted out of the ground.
“Game’s over!” Akko hurriedly collected her cards and shoved them back in their case, and then her Inventory.
“It’s coming from the greenhouse!” Lotte pointed. The root snaked out from the building she pointed at.
“let’s go.” Sans said. The quintet ducked and dodged their way past the violently fast-paced growing roots, until they made it inside the greenhouse. Akko had never actually stowed the Shiny Rod, and so had it Equipped.
“Stay back!” Diana called out, alerted by their footsteps. Spooky merely ducked the roots, as the magic they’d been imbued with made them ignore her intangibility.
“Diana?! Do you know what’s going on?” Akko asked. She hated being out of the loop when stuff like this happened.
“probably the chrysalises.” Sans pointed to glowing green spiky oval attached to a rising root. More appeared all around as more roots erupted from the ground.
“Yeah, strange growths are almost never good.” Spooky commented, even as the roots began to lose their glow and then wither.
Diana had an epiphany. “There were parasites in the roots, that’s why the tree got so sick!” she said, even as the roots turned white, clearly dead, as the chrysalises swelled twice as large. “All my spell did was feed these vermin instead of the tree itself!” she pulled out her wand. “They have to be stopped! Murowa!” she gestured at the nearest cocoon, and a bolt of green magic spiraled out, causing the cocoon’s spikes to droop and it’s color to darken to a very dark grey. She continued this process with four more cocoons, including one a few feet from Akko, who reflexively leaned back.
“Wait a minute.” Akko muttered as she noticed a familiar star-like pattern on the top of the chrysalis. She teleported in front of Diana’s next target, causing her to hesitate. “Hang on a second Diana!” red magic briefly washed from her hand, and knives rose to intercept the direct paths of Diana’s Extermination spells. “They might not be bad after all! I think these are Pappiliodya!” she claimed. She pulled the cards back out of her Inventory, and quickly flipped through them pulling out the relevant card, as the other pupae turned dark grey. “See? These cocoons have the same mark as the Pappiliodya, so they must be them!” Her logic was simple, but not exactly hard to follow. “They hatch once every hundred years, and are said to bring hope to all who gaze upon them!” she finished triumphantly.
In response to her conviction, the Shiny Rod began to glow green, as they watched in awe, the knives vanishing with little fanfare.
“ I have an idea!” Lotte grabbed the card and pointed at the spell inscribed on it. “Try casting this on them!”
“The Pappiliodya spell?” she asked for confirmation.
“worth a shot.” Sans agreed.
Grasping the rod tightly, with Lotte and Sucy supporting her, she started to intone. Pappiliodya Feel-uh…” she trailed off, unsure of the pronunciation.
“It’s Papillio Fillio Nymphodya.” Diana corrected.
“Oh, so that’s how you pronounce it. Thanks.” Akko nodded at Diana, and repeated the spell. “The magic butterfly, Pappiliodya, spread your wings and fly! Give us all hope!” The Rod glowed brighter, until small streams of magic flowed around it. “Papillio Fillio Nymphodya!” she yelled.
Bursts of green magic fired off, and were absorbed by the cocoons, which quickly revitalized, even the roots directly connected regaining their healthy color. The cocoons burst open, one by one, releasing beautiful golden butterflies as big as the girls. As they rose, golden sparkles trailed from their wings. “This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.” Bendy sniffled. Old-timey cartoons tended to focus more on the funny than the beautiful.
“Hey, let’s go outside to watch them go! They won’t be back for a hundred years after all!” Spooky proposed. With the exception of Diana, who was feeling guilty about almost killing innocent creatures, they all left to do so.
*** Luna Nova Library ***
“‘While it takes flight immediately upon leaving it’s cocoon, the Pappiliodya hibernates underground for 120 years before emerging.’” Ursula recited from the book.
A nearby student pointed out the window. “Hey! Look at that!” The students and professor turned to look, many scrambling to the windows, as a golden stream of butterflies made its way across the sky, golden sparkles raining down behind them.
“‘The flutter of its golden wings, give hope to all who witness them.’ Hm.” she smiled at the sight.
*** Greenhouse ***
Barbara and Hannah finally came back with Professor Finneran and Principal Holbrooke. “The Memorial Tree looks 50 years younger.” Professor Finneran noted happily.
“It’s because of Diana’s spell.” Hannah informed them proudly.
“Thank you miss Cavendish.” Principal Holbrook said earnestly.
“Ah, no, I can’t take the credit for this.” she began.
“Well, who else could have done it? You were the only one here.” Professor Finneran countered.
Diana opened her mouth and the shut it again. They’d never believe her. “Excuse me.” she gave the barest of nods, and walked out as swiftly as she could.
“What a humble girl, she’s the pride of this school.” Principal Holbrooke said, unaware of the irony of her statement.
Diana walked out with her head down. She supposed she’d simply have to do her best to repay Akko. Speaking of which, her Check had very clearly informed her that Rod was a fake, so why had it worked? On instinct, she looked up to see Akko flying with Lotte, as Sans and Bendy crowded Sucy, while Spooky floated behind them, as the quintet kept pace with the Pappiliodya. Akko waved happily at her, as the golden butterflies continued to fly away.