Hey hey hey everyone welcome back and welcome to Book 2! I hope everyone is doing well and having a great holiday season! If you're a long time reader, thank you for coming back, I hope this holds up to your expectations! If you're a newcomer, welcome! Please make sure you read Souls, Forever Linked and Akko and Dianas Bogus Adventure before you hop into this one. Souls is the first book in the story and Bogus is a short story that takes place between. Unfortunately, without them, this story won't make much sense.

I've worked hard to improve my writing, and I hope this reads better than Souls did. My promise to you guys is to deliver quality writing with every update, which will be coming at the usual week to two-week mark. If I get tied down with stuff and will be taking longer to post, I'll let you know! I do have a Tumblr (Thehardestfall67) and will be posting updates, links to new stories (at least one is in the pipes!), fan art, and answering questions or comments that are submitted! I know the site is about to become a ghost town in about 4 days, but I'll still be there.

Lastly, ImaginaryEngineer has withdrawn as my beta due to time constraints on her end. So a last thank you to her for running an initial beta job on chapters one through 6 to her. And now a big thank you to kellygonzalezk001 for stepping into the role and really working over chapter one!

Alright that's all from me. I know this chapter is a bit short, but theres plenty more to come. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Akko duck!"

The young meister dove behind a barricade, the projectile missing her head by half an inch, and clutched her gun to her chest. More projectiles flew over her head and burst against the wall in front of her.

"Akko come on get moving!" Professor Ursula's voice sounded from several feet away. She was laying down cover fire for Akko so she could make her move. The brunette groaned before she shifted into a crouch. She took a deep breath as she turned and vaulted over the barricade and charged in for the kill.

Unfortunately, her opponent knew what was going on. There was a short series of pops and then the next thing she knew, there was a horrible stinging pain in her chest, stomach, and legs. She dropped like a rock.

"That's game!" The lights came up as Amanda O'Neill announced her victory to the room.

Ursula took her face shield off and walked over to Akko, who was laying on the ground looking up at the ceiling. She smiled and leaned into her students line of sight "Are you ok Akko?"

Akko blinked and then threw her paintball gun across the room. "No! I don't like guns! I want Diana back! This completely sucks! Professor, I keep telling you and Shinigami-Sama I don't want a gun-type weapon; I want a sword! I want Diana!" She was flailing her arms and legs by the time she finished yelling.

"Ha! Kagari you look like a turtle stuck on its back!" Amanda's face entered Akkos line of sight as well "You going to make it?"

Akko crossed her arms and made a face, making sure to look away and grumbled. "No. I want my partner back."

Ursula sighed. "Akko we talked about this. Diana still isn't clear to fight, her wrist and hand still haven't healed and you can't start the school year without a partner. Someone is transferring in, but we don't know what type of weapon she is so Lord Death wanted you to brush up on everything."

Amanda held out her hand. "When is Princess coming back anyway?"

Akko rolled her eyes but took Amanda's hand and let her help her up "I wish you would stop calling her that. She said she would be back tomorrow."

Her fellow meister nodded "Why did she leave anyway? You never mentioned."

"She said she had to get a few things from home. She wasn't very specific. She promised it was only for a few days though."

"Good. We still have one more night to raise hell before the fun-police comes back."

"Amanda!"

"What? It's the truth!"

While it wasn't a complete lie, Akko still didn't appreciate the joke. She looked down at her paint stained clothes, wishing her friend was back already.

(~*~*~*~*~*~)

Thousands of miles away, Diana Cavendish found herself standing in the damp, dust-caked catacombs beneath Cavendish Manor with her cousin, who was rummaging through some boxes. "Merrill what were you even doing down here in the first place?"

The older blonde dove deeper into a large box. "Well, I was looking for Great Aunt Meredith's journals. Apparently, she was a very skilled healer and I decided that if I'm going to have this power, I might as well put it to use. Anyhow, I was looking for them and stumbled onto a box that had Aunt Bernadette's name on it and I thought, well, they should be with you rather than down here collecting dust and mildew. I just wish I could remember where I saw them…"

Diana watched as her older cousin struggled for a second to pull herself out of the box before she finally managed to pull it off "Merrill, I never realized how much of a klutz you are."

The older blonde chuckled "Can't really say it runs in the fam-OH!" she walked across the wet stone floor to a pile of boxes stacked against the wall and pulled a newer looking box out, struggling under the weight a bit, before she brought it over and set it down in front of Diana.

Diana knelt and took a second, not sure what she was about to find. It could have been anything, and who knew what other secrets this family had. For all she knew, there could have been a dragon in there with them.

You're being ridiculous. Just open the box already…

Steeling herself, she blew the dust off before she used her good hand to pull the flaps apart and opened the old cardboard container.

Books. It was full of books. She picked one up and brushed some dust off it and that was when she realized they weren't books. Her mother's name was stamped into the leather cover. They were journals. Tons of them.

Diana looked up at Merrill, surprise written all over her face. The older girl smiled "Surprise! I'll have Carter bring them up so you can take them home."

The weapon broke out into a smile that, for once, reached her eyes "Thank you, Merrill."

"You're welcome. Hey, do you by chance happen to have any idea were Great Aunt Meredith's journals went?"

Diana shook her head "No, but I can help you look."

(~*~*~*~*~*~)

The flight home was long, and Diana was exhausted, but rather than sleep she decided to crack open the first journal.

May 29th

DWMA

Dear journal,

So I've made the decision to begin keeping a journal. According to Daryl, it sometimes helps people with higher anxiety levels. She's worried I'm under too much pressure and while I believe I'm fine, I did promise her I would try. So here we are.

Diana blinked, surprised that her Aunt actually cared about her mother. Daryl had always spoken about her with such a disgusting amount of contempt that Diana had always just assumed that there had never been much of a relationship between the two sisters.

In other news, I'm one month away from graduation and one witch away from becoming a Death Scythe. There are reports of activity in Spain and Adele, my meister, and I are fairly certain we are the ones that will be sent to deal with it. Adele's very anxious but I'm confident we can handle it. Not only are we able to perform advanced attacks from Martin's Sword Technique, Volume 4 but we are close to perfecting our second stage resonance attack. It's hard to believe I started out unable to resonate at all, and yet here I am. I am very much looking forward to being able to protect people better and continue to restore House Cavendish to its former glory.

That's all for now, Adele and I are going out to celebrate a friend's birthday and I need to get ready. I suppose I will make entries once a day, maybe for a week to see if this actually does make a difference.

Until tomorrow,

Bernadette

The signature at the bottom wasn't her mother's scrolly, cursive signature Diana had grown up knowing. It was just printed, with a curved line underscoring it. She leaned back in her seat and tried to process what she had just read. Her mother actually had a hard time resonating just like her! Somehow, that gave her comfort. If her mother could overcome it, then she could too.

She leaned back into her seat and flipped the page to the next entry.

May 31st

DWMA

Dear Journal,

So much for writing every day. Unfortunately, Adele got herself into a fight at the party. By herself, I mean us. The meister's name is James Nux and he is quite the hothead. Neither his partner, Trinity, or I wanted to get involved but we decided that if they were going to try and beat each other to pieces, we might as well be there to protect them.

The fight itself was short and ended in a draw; namely due to Trinity and I refusing to resonate or work with them. Without our help, they were basically swinging around a regular sword and scythe, where's the fun in that?

As to why I didn't write yesterday, I was in detention and then had training. They decided to try a new policy where if a student misbehaves, they punish the student's partner as well. I guess the hope is that the delinquent will think twice and not want to drag their partner down with them. I can tell you first hand this is not effective. At least it gives me more time to study. I swear Adele is going to be the death of me.

Well, that's all for now.

Until tomorrow,

Bernadette.