Akko Kagari and the Contest of Champions

Chapter Two: The Seven Stars

Akko lay flat on the floor, breathing hard as though she had been running. She had awoken from a vivid dream with a burning sensation in the center of her spine. One of the old scars on her back, which were shaped like seven four-pointed stars lined up in a pattern, was burning as though someone had pressed a white-hot wire to her skin.

She sat up and immediately threw off her sleeping shirt, letting the cold night air sooth the ache. A faint, misty orange light was filtering through the curtain from the street lamp outside the window, barely providing some illumination for her room. But she didn't have trouble seeing anyway, because the Shiny Rod was glowing with a powerful neon-green light that it almost hurt Akko to look at it. The Seven Stars of Arcturus were reacting in the same way her scars were.

Akko reached behind and caressed her scars; the burning sensation seemed to be coming from the fourth star in the middle of the formation. She took the Shiny Rod off her bedside table, using its light to guide her across her messy room, opened her wardrobe, and peered into the full body mirror on the inside of the door. A skinny girl of fourteen looked back at her, her burgundy-red eyes puzzled under her mop of consistently untidy brunette hair. She turned around and looked over her shoulder into the mirror for a better look at her back, using the Shiny Rod as a light source. It looked normal, but it was still stinging.

Akko tried to recall what she had been dreaming about before she had fallen out of bed. It had seemed so real…. There had been two people she knew and three she didn't…. She concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember….

The dim picture of a darkened room came to her…. There had been three people sitting around a fire…a woman lying face down on the floor…and a scared girl watched from the corner. She remembered the man with the wild mane…Acnologia, whom she had seen him two years ago during the Dragon King Festival…and the man in the mask…Amon. Akko felt as though an ice cube had slipped down into her stomach at the reminder of him…. The man in the coat…Ruvik, if she remembered correctly…she had heard his name mentioned many times in the past…he was one of Amon's allies….

But who had those girls been? For there had definitely been a couple of young women; one of them was unconscious and Akko had watched Acnologia tear the other's arm off. It was all becoming confusing. Akko put her face into her hand, blocking out her bedroom, trying to hold on to the picture of that dimly lit room, but it was like trying to keep water in her cupped hands; the details were now trickling away as fast as she tried to hold to them…. Amon, Ruvik, and Acnologia had been talking about someone they had killed, though Akko could not remember the name…and they had been plotting to kill someone else…her!

Akko took her face out of her hand, opened her eyes, and stared around her room as thought expecting to see something unusual there. As it happened, there were an extraordinary number of unusual things in this room. A large trunk stood open at the foot of her bed, revealing a cauldron, purple tunic, and assorted spellbooks. Sheets of paper littered that part of her desk that was not currently being used as a sleeping spot for her purple-furred, curly-tailed, witch hat-wearing cat, Blair, who was actually a human transformed into a cat. On the floor beside her bed a book lay open; Akko had been reading it before she fell asleep last night. It was a picture book she had since she was a child, about a red-haired woman with incredible magic.

Akko walked over to the book, picked it up, and stared down at the picture of the brightly-haired showman conjuring a cloud of colorful butterflies. Then she snapped the book shut. Even Shiny Chariot – the source of her drive and her desire to become a great witch – couldn't distract her at the moment. She placed the book on her bedside table, crossed over to the window, and draw back the curtains to survey the street below.

Everything was as one would expect from a respectable suburban street to look in the early hours of a Saturday morning. All the curtains were closed. As far as Akko could see through the darkness, there wasn't a living creature in sight, not even a bird.

And yet…and yet…Akko went restlessly back to the bed and sat down on it, running her fingers across the Shiny Rod again. It had stopped giving off light at the same moment when the pain in her scars finally dulled. But Akko was no stranger to pain and injury. She had her arm broke by a midget ninja once and had it painfully healed in one night. Later that same year, she had vomited up a living plague and was nearly trampled by a mutated monster. Only last year Akko had fallen several feet off an airborne broomstick and nearly had her heart ripped out of her chest by a raging shadow beast. She was used to bizarre accidents and injuries; they were unavoidable if you attended Luna Nova Magical Academy and had a knack for attracting a lot of trouble.

No, the thing that was bothering Akko most was her scars. It's been years since she last thought about them, having been preoccupied with searching for the remaining Stars of Arcturus. Last time her scars had hurt her, she thought it was a reaction to Croix back when she thought the Modern Magic teacher was a villain. But now that she thought back on it, perhaps the reason why it had hurt back then was because the Shiny Rod had been in danger of falling into Barbara's hands. Was that what was happening now? Were the Stars in danger of falling into the wrong hands? Akko was having difficulty remembering her dream now, she had a feeling it had something to do with them. Were the Stars aware of their own peril? Were they trying to call out to her? Somehow, that didn't seem out of the realm of possibility with her….

Akko peered out the window listening closely to the silence around her. Was she half expecting to hear the creak of a stair or the swish of a cloak? And then she jumped slightly as she heard her father give a tremendous grunting snore from down the hall.

Akko shook herself mentally; she was being stupid. Nothing was happening around here. The only people in the house with her was Blair, her mother, and father, and they were plainly asleep, their dreams untroubled and painless.

Shuichi and Kaori Kagari were Akko's parents, even if they weren't related by blood. One night fourteen years ago, shortly after she was born, Akko was dropped off on their doorstep and they raised her as a happy, healthy human girl. But that all changed on her eleventh birthday when their house cat, which had been with Akko her whole life, suddenly turned into a seductive witch and told Akko the truth. She was a witch, but not just any witch. She was the Star-Born Child – a sort of legend that had revived the world of magic. Of course, after last year, Akko knew that the truth was more complicated than that; it involved many variables such as a secret society of world changers and a magic tree from space called Yggdrasil. Akko didn't even pretend to understand most of it. But whether or not she was human or some child of prophecy, Akko knew her parents would want to help her through any troubles she might have. But even if she wanted to go to them when they woke up, she doubted that they would have any answers for her. It's one of these times that Akko wished her birth mother was around –

Akko found out who her birth mother was shortly after making the Shiny Rod hers. It was still hard to believe that the Shiny Chariot was her mother. Sometimes Akko wonders if maybe she's still dreaming. Though she never had a chance to meet her….

Shiny Chariot hadn't just been a magical entertainer, but she had also been the leader of a secretive group of her most trusted friends and followers that were attempting to bring back the world of magic, following the instructions of a prophecy made hundreds of years ago. Chariot had become pregnant with Akko and determined that she would be the one to revive Yggdrasil, but on the night that she was born, their group had been betrayed. Amon led a secret coup and turned allies against one another. Many had lost their lives trying to protect Akko. But somehow, she had touched Yggdrasil's power and the battle had ended. Akko survived that night with only the scars on her back; marks of her connecting to Yggdrasil and the Shiny Rod. But Amon and many others had escaped and disappeared into the shadows. As long as Amon and his followers were allowed to roam free, Akko would always be in danger…that's why Chariot left Akko with her parents and never saw each other again.

It had been enough of a shock for Akko to discover that she was a witch; it had been more disconcerting to find out that everyone in the magical world worshiped her existence. No one knew that Akko was the Star-Born Child, and if she was honest with herself, she preferred to keep it that way. She wanted to be respected as a great witch by her own rights, not because of some incident she couldn't even remember. Only a select few people knew the truth, including her best friends at Luna Nova, which she would be returning to soon and was counting down the days until she would be back at the castle again.

But there was still two weeks to go before she went back to school. She looked hopelessly around her room again, and her eye paused on the clutter of birthday cards her friends had sent her at the end of June. What would they say if Akko wrote to them and told them about her scar hurting?

She doubted Amanda would take it seriously; she'd probably say Akko was being a baby and suck it up. Jasminka and Constanze would also be of little help; unless food or robots were involved, it was impossible to keep them interested. She wasn't close enough to Hannah or Barbara to go looking to them for advice. And Sucy would probably make a bunch of suggestions that were actually instructions to test some new type of poison she concocted.

At least Diana would believe her, she already knew. But almost at once, she could hear the Cavendish heir's voice in her head, shrill and panicky.

"Your scars hurt? Akko, this is serious…. Write to Professor Ursula! And I'll go check Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions…. Maybe there's something in there about magic scars…."

Yeah, that would be Diana's advice: Go straight to the Head of her House, and in the meantime, consult a book. Akko stared out of the window at the inky blue-black sky. She doubted very much whether a book could help her now. She highly doubted there was a reference to people being connected to a magical-god-tree; it was highly unlikely, therefore, that she would find her symptoms listed in a medical book. As for informing Ursula, Akko had no idea where she was nor did she think it was the right time to worry her. Last time she had seen Ursula, she was fighting a deadly disease that had stricken her for many years. She had left to see a special doctor at the end of last year that would hopefully be able to extend her life a little while long, but Ursula had given up any prospects of actually being cured. Ursula had always supports Akko from the beginning, and felt just as much of a mother to her as Mrs. Kagari. She didn't want to ruin the professor's health just because she had a bad dream.

And so she tried to imagine her best friend, Lotte Jansson's, reaction, and in a moment, Lotte's wide-eyed, bespectacled, freckled face seemed to swim before Akko, wearing a bemused expression.

"Your scar hurt? You think it has something to do with the Shiny Rod? I mean…we don't really understand what it means. Maybe old scar just start hurting at random times. Maybe I could ask granny…."

Lotte's grandmother was Miranda Holbrooke, the current Headmistress at Luna Nova. Regarded as one of the greatest witches in the world, a stalwart symbol of good in the world. She was definitely clever enough to at least have some idea of what was happening to her. But what would she write?

Dear Professor Holbrooke, Sorry to bother you, but my scars hurt this morning. Yours sincerely, Akko Kagari.

Even inside her head the words sounded stupid.

Akko reached behind and kneaded the marks with her knuckles. What she really wanted (and it felt almost shameful to admit to herself) was someone like – someone like her mother: an adult witch whose advice she could ask without feeling stupid, someone who cared about her, someone who knew just as much about the Stars as Shiny Chariot….

And then the solution came to her. It was so simple, and so obvious, that she couldn't believe it had taken so long – Izetta.

Akko leapt up from the bed, hurried across the room, and sat down at her desk; she pulled a piece of paper toward her, pen in hand, and wrote Dear Izetta, then paused, wondering how best to phrase her problem, still marveling at the fact that she hadn't thought of Izetta straight away. But then, perhaps, it wasn't so surprising – after all, she had only found out that Izetta was her aunt last year.

There was a simple reason for Izetta's complete absence from Akko's life until then – Izetta had been in Dol Guldur, the terrifying Demi-Human prison guarded by creatures called Heartless, monsters born from the darkness in people's hearts who had come to search for Izetta at Luna when she had escaped. Yet Izetta had been innocent – the murdered for which she had been convicted of, including the deaths of Lotte's parents, had been committed by Amon, a master bloodbender, who had spent years convincing the world he was a saintly man named Master Noah. Akko and her friends knew otherwise, however; they had come face-to-face with Amon only a few short months ago, though their explanation was largely ignored by the Magic Council.

For one glorious hour, Akko had believed she was going to be reunited with her blood family, as Izetta expressed an interest in being a part of Akko's life once more. But the chance had been snatched away from her – Amon had escaped before they could take him in, and Izetta had been forced to flee for her life. Akko had helped her escape on the back of a Qilin named Qing, and since then, Izetta had been on the run.

Akko had received two letters from Izetta since she had been back in Japan. Rather than coming through the mail like a normal person would, Izetta had sent them both by large, brightly colored tropical birds. Mrs. Kagari had not approved of these flashy intruders. She and Mr. Kagari may have accepted Akko's story about Izetta's innocent and more than pleased for Akko to have an aunt that wasn't a magic-hating bigot like her sister, but she did not like the way they left their feathers and…presents all over her nice clean floor. Akko, on the other hand, had liked them; they put her in mind of palm trees and white sand, and she hoped that, wherever Izetta was (Izetta never said, in case the letters were intercepted), she was enjoying herself. Somehow, Akko found it hard to imagine Heartless surviving for long in bright sunlight; though they said the same thing about vampires, and her childhood friend Hikari loved beach days. In both letters, she had reminded Akko to call her if ever Akko needed to. Well, she needed to now, all right….

The cold gray light that precedes sunrise was slowly creeping into her room. Finally, when the sun had risen, when her bedroom walls had turned gold, and when sounds of movement could be heard from her parent's room, Akko cleared her desk of crumpled pieces of paper and reread her finished letter.

Dear Izetta-Obasan,

Thanks for the last letter. The bird was enormous; it tried to go through Blair's cat door before dad let it in.

Things are the same as usual here. Okaa-san went on another war path with the family diet. She found Blair smuggling donuts into the cupboard under the stairs yesterday. She told her that she would be sleeping outside if she keeps doing it, so she went down to the arcade and tried to win some sweets from the crane machine. Unfortunately for her, UMR had already cleared the whole thing out earlier that day. I don't know why, but she kind of reminds me of my friend Umaru Doma, but it's hard to imagine Umaru as the avid gamer type.

I'm okay, but I've been doing twice as many chores since I came home to make up for running away last year. Okaa-san can hold a grudge for a really long time.

A weird thing happened this morning, though. My scars started hurting and the Shiny Rod was reacting to it. It's just a theory, but I think it's trying to tell me something about the other Stars of Arcturus. You and Chariot knew the most about the Shiny Rod. Do you know if there might be a connection?

I'll send this with Blair after breakfast. She's the only one that knows how to find you since you can't use a computer or phone without being tracked by the Magic Council. Say hello to Qing for me.

Akko

Yes, thought Akko, that looked all right. There was no point putting in the dream; she didn't want it to look as though she was too worried. She folded up the paper and laid it aside on the desk. Then she got to her feet, stretched, and opened her closet once more. Without glancing at her reflection, she got dressed, nudged Blair awake, and they went down to breakfast.

Honestly, this is just another recap episode – most of it is skippable.

Next chapter: The Invitation