Akko Kagari and the Contest of Champions

A/N: Show your support for Serenity Academy

Chapter Fourteen: The Black Arts

The next two days passed without great incident, unless you countered Akko melting her sixth cauldron in Magic Pharmaceutics. Professor Hex, who was always the most unlikable and most vindictive teacher in the school, gave Akko detention, and Akko returned from it in a state of great illness, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads.

"Lucky…," Sucy said enviously as they watched Diana teaching Akko a cleaning charm to remove the frog guts from under her fingernails.

"Professor Hex has been in a bad mood lately – not that he isn't always like this?" said Hannah.

"He's not the only one," said Lotte. "Professor Crème was looking pretty upset in Magic Linguistics this morning."

"You know why, don't you?" said Sucy.

"Yeah," said Akko. "Zeref."

It went without saying that having Zeref in the castle made a lot of people uncomfortable, especially the teachers. Though while some of the teachers were starting to admire him after taking his classes, others like Professor Finnelan and Pisces were notably avoiding any interaction with him, but were careful not to display overt animosity to Zeref. Indeed, whenever Akko saw Zeref with a teacher – at mealtimes, or when they passed in the hall – they often had an excuse to head somewhere else, even if it didn't make sense.

"They're obviously scared of him," said Diana. "Not that I can blame them. You heard of the things he's done."

"He didn't seem that bad when he was stopping Amanda from caving your face in," said Akko. "C'mon, give the guys a chance…."

The fourth years were looking forward to Zeref's first lesson so much that they arrived earlier on Thursday lunchtime and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. The only one who didn't seem eager was Diana.

"You do realize we're going to be locked in a room with a convicted mass murderer, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Akko offhandedly. "C'mon, quick, or we won't get decent seats."

Akko's party took all nine of the front row seats, took out their copies of The Dark Arts: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Soon they heard soft footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, halfway through a blueberry muffin when he suddenly paused at the doorway, blinking owlishly. He was probably put off by the number of eager looking students waiting for his lesson to start. He took a moment to collect himself, finished off his muffin, and walked over to his desk.

"You can put those away," he said, sitting down. "Those books. You won't need them."

They returned the books to their bags, Akko feeling very excited. She distinctly remembered her class with Amon started out similarly last year, and even though he was an evil, traitorous criminal, his lessons had always been fun. Zeref did a quick attendance and, like every new teacher that came to Luna Nova, he paused when he reached Diana, no doubt taken by the Cavendish name. Though surprisingly, he also paused when he reached Akko's name, giving her a knowing smile, but said nothing about it.

Right then, he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've read all of your files for this class. As it turns out, a surprising number of you haven't taken a defense class since your mandatory one in first year, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"That is bad – that is really bad," said Zeref, shaking his head disappointedly. "I know many of you are more interested in other classes like Magic Linguistics and Modern Magic because they are more geared towards the careers you want, but you need to learn how to defend yourself. If is a harsh and unforgiving world we live in and you need to be prepared for anything. That's where I come in. I've got one year to teach you how to protect – "

"What, you aren't staying?" Amanda blurted out.

Zeref spun turned around in his chair and stared at Amanda; Amanda looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Zeref smiled.

"You're Princess Amethyst's daughter, aren't you?" Zeref said. "Your mother was particularly ruthless in seeing me kept in Dol Guldur – I'm honestly very impressed…. But yes, I'm only staying for the one year. A special favor from an old friend of mine…. One year, and then it's back to my quiet cell in Dol Guldur."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his hands together.

"So – let's get straight to it. Black Magic. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. They are different from magic as they are born from different sources. Magic is used by channeling positive emotions such as love, happiness, and excitement, while curses use negative emotions like anger, sorrow, and spite. Now according to the Magic Council, I'm supposed to teach you countermeasures and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Black Arts look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it until then. But the headmistress has a higher opinion of your nerves, she thinks you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? Anyone who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Albrechtsberger, before I take it away."

Constanze froze at her desk, her hand hovering over Stan-Bot. She had apparently been trying to tinker with the little robot in the middle of the lecture. With her head down, show folded up Stan-Bot and stuffed him in her bag.

"So…do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by the Magic Council?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Amanda and Sucy's. Zeref pointed at Amanda.

"Er," said Amanda tentatively, "my mom told me about one…. It's called the Curse of Life, or something?"

"Ah, yes," said Zeref appreciatively. "Your mother would know that one. Little fun fact, I dabbled a lot in the Curse of Life when I was younger – it's the reason why the Goddess of Life, Ankhseram, saw fit to curse me for eternity."

Zeref got up, opened his desk drawer, and took out a lump of dirt which he plopped on his desk. Akko and many others leaned forward. Zeref waved his hand in an almost dramatic fashion, leaving it hovered over the ball of dirt and muttered something under his breath.

Something glowed underneath Zeref's palm, seemingly appearing out of thin air. As Akko leaned in closer, she could see that he had created some type of Magic Circle, but it was completely different than anything Akko had ever seen before – it was pitch black and giving off an ice-cold chill. The ball of mud suddenly started twitching. Then it started growing, becoming narrow in the middle as it suddenly started sprouting arms and legs. The head came last and a pair of milky-white eyes somehow formed on it. When Zeref pulled his hand away, a tiny little creature the size of a figma figure was looking curiously around the classroom.

Everyone was very impressed – except Zeref.

"Do you think this is something worth being amazed, do you?" he said coldly. "To bring about an abomination that was never meant to exist?"

The classroom turned somber almost immediately.

"The Curse of Life," said Zeref quietly as the little dirt man started walking around his desk. "An act of power that only the Gods are permitted to use. To use such a curse would be to defy the will of the Gods themselves. More than that, it's an act that disrupts the delicate balance of life and death. One wrong move could lead to disastrous consequences. I heard from one of your teachers that one of these consequences – a monstrosity that called itself Evie – attacked the school a couple of years ago. She was an abomination that was never meant to exist and as such became incapable of truly living in this world like you or I and lashed out irrationally. There is a fine line between life and death and not all creatures are capable of coping with it.

"Those who have perfected this curse have been known to use it to bring the dead back to life. I used it to revive my brother, who was taken from me when he was only a boy, and I know Presea Testarossa used it to revive her daughter – Yes, Miss Takamachi," he said, responding to Nanoha's surprised gasp, "I know Miss Testarossa's secret. It caused a lot of trouble for the Magic Council back in the day. The Magic Council doesn't approve of the use of resurrection as it is highly unethical to tamper with the delicate balance of life and death. If you want to discuss more on the subject, I recommend attending Professor Pisces's class on Magic Philosophy.

"Now then, anyone else know one? Another of the Black Arts."

To the surprise of no one, Diana's hand was among the few that went into the air again.

"Yes," said Zeref interestingly, his eyes fixated on Diana.

"There's one – the Curse of Souls," said Diana.

Zeref looked very intently at Diana with a small frown on his lips.

"It doesn't surprise me that you would know about that," he said in a small but distinct voice. "Your mother was Bernadette Cavendish, correct? To lose your mother in such a way…and at such a young age…."

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Diana stuttered, looking slightly frightened. "My mother died from an illness…she was born with a weak body and perished naturally…."

Zeref looked at her solemnly but made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached to grab the little dirt man that was getting ready to jump off the side of the desk and put in in the center where everyone could see. He raised his hand palm down over the dirt man and summoned another black Magic Circle.

At once, the dirt man started flailing erratically, throwing its head back at forth with its arms swinging wildly. It looked like it was in horrible pain. When the dirt man started slowing down, Akko could see that it was rapidly mutating. Half of its head with had grown bulbous with one eye turning a piercing gold and was developing a jaw full of pointy teeth while it's left arm had turned into a bulky mass that ended in a three-clawed hand -

"Stop it!" Hannah said shrilly.

Akko looked around at her. She was looking, not at the dirt man, but at Diana, and Akko, following her gaze, saw that Diana's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of her, her knuckles white, her eyes wide and terrified.

Zeref pulled his hand away, leaving the tiny dirt man in its hideously grotesque form. The little half-monster had to drag its bulking left arm around behind it and was snapping its new teeth at the class; if it had vocal cords, Akko would guess that it was snarling like a wild dog.

"The Curse of Souls," said Zeref softly. "The curse that allows one to meddle with a living creature's essence. Most people think that the body is just a pre-made shell that houses the soul, but it is the soul that creates the body, molding it into what suits it best. Those who use the Curse of Souls can rewrite a person's entire existence, mutating them into whatever shape they desire. It is an exceedingly difficult curse that not even I have mastered, as you can plainly see," He gestured at the misshapen dirt man. "As far as I know, only an item called the Star of Spirit has the power to absolutely manipulate the soul. Others who attempt it usually result in the victim of the curse being left…broken…unable to live….

"Now…anyone know any others?"

Akko looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, she guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the dirt man. Lotte's hand shook slightly as, for the first time, she raised it into the air.

"Yes?" said Zeref, looking at her.

"The Curse of Death," Lotte whispered.

Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Sucy.

"Ah," said Zeref rather mournfully. "Yes, the last and most unforgivable. The Curse of Death…."

Zeref didn't raise his hand this time, only looking down at the mutated dirt man that was flailing its misshapen arm wildly. As if sensing his stare, the dirt man spun around and snapped its teeth at Zeref. For a moment, the two of them seemed locked in a staring contest... Akko wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't looked up for a brief moment, but Zeref's eyes, which were usually pure black, had suddenly turned a murky shade of red. Akko felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, a thrill of foreboding running down her spine.

"Death Predation," Zeref muttered in a detached voice.

"There was a rushing sound as though something vast and invisible was soaring through the air – instantaneously the dirt man fell on its back, completely unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; Lotte had thrown herself backward and almost toppled off her seat as the deceased figure skidded toward her.

Zeref swept the dead figure off the desk into a trash bin.

"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no magic that can counteract it. The only things known to defend against it are the scales of a dragon. No one can survive – no one will survive, not even those cursed with immortality such as I. The Curse of Death is the most powerful and deadly of all curses, but it needs a powerful bit of feeling behind it. You could all pull wands out right now and point them at one another and say the words, but I doubt you would give each other little more than nosebleeds. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it.

"Now, if there's no way to counter the curse, why am I showing you? Because you need to know what you are facing. You need to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. One misstep, you will be just as dead as it was," he said, gesturing his gaze at the trash bin.

"Now…those three curses – the Curse of Life, the Curse of Souls, and the Curse of Death – and the highest form of the Black Arts and the most unforgivable of all. The use of any one of them is enough to earn you a life sentence in Dol Guldur – or in my case, an immortal life sentence. I don't expect you to come across anyone who knows these curses, but it doesn't hurt to know them. There are plenty of dangerous people in the world. As I have said numerous times already, you need to be prepared. You never know when you might find yourself face-to-face with…the dangerous sort of people" – he seemed to be looking at Akko when he said it – "All right, everyone get out your notebooks…copy this down…."

They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Black Arts curses. No one spoke until the bell rang – but when Zeref had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices – "Did you see it twitch?" " – and when he killed it – just like that!"

They were talking about the lesson, Akko thought, as though it had been some sort of spectacular show, but she hadn't found it very entertaining. The idea of mutilating souls and instant death – Shiny Chariot would have never done anything like that. Akko in particular felt really uncomfortable with the whole thing. The fact that she had unknowingly spent her entire second year with a viral monster that matched all three curses inside her body probably contributed to that.

"Hurry up," Hannah said tensely to Akko.

"What's the hurry? Dinner's not going anywhere," said Amanda.

"No," said Hannah curtly, pointing up a side passage. "Diana."

Diana was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite her with the same horrified, wide-eyed look she had worn when Zeref had demonstrated the Curse of Souls.

"Diana?" Hannah said gently.

Diana looked around.

"Oh hello," she said, her voice much higher than usual. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm – I'm starving, aren't you?"

"Hey, Princess, you okay?" said Amanda, looking genuinely concerned for her.

"Oh yes, I'm fine," Diana gabbled in the same unnaturally high voice. "Very interesting dinner – I mean lesson – what's for eating?"

Amanda gave Akko a startled look.

"Princess, what's – "

But a pair of rushed footsteps sounded behind them, and they turned to see Zeref running toward them. All nine of them fell silent, watching him apprehensively, but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler tone than they had yet heard.

"It's all right, miss," he said to Diana. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on…we can have a cup of tea…."

Diana looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Zeref. She neither moved nor spoke. Zeref turned his gaze on Akko next.

"You're all right, there, Miss Kagari?"

Yes," said Akko uncomfortably.

Zeref's dark eyes quivered slightly as they surveyed Akko. Then he said, "You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you deserve to know. No point in pretending…well...come on, Miss Cavendish, I've got some books that might interest you."

Diana looked pleadingly at Akko and the others, but they didn't say anything, so Diana had no choice but to allow herself to be steered away, one of Zeref's hands on her shoulder.

"What was that all about?" said Barbara, watching Diana and Zeref turn a corner.

"I don't know," said Hannah, looking pensive.

"Some lesson though, eh?" said Jasminka to Akko as they set off for the dining hall. "Maria and Sabrina were right, weren't they? He really knows his stuff, Zeref, doesn't he? When he did that Curse of Death, the way that little man just fell over and died – "

But Jasminka fell suddenly silent at the look on Akko's face and didn't speak again until they reached the dining hall, when she said she supposed they had better make a start on Ursula's predictions tonight, since they would take hours.

The Polaris girls walked back to the dormitories, and Akko, who had been thinking of nothing else through dinner, now raised the subject of the Black Arts herself.

"Wouldn't Zeref and Professor Holbrooke be in trouble with the Magic Council if they knew they were doing curses?" Akko asked as they reached the fifth floor.

"Yeah, probably," said Sucy. "But Holbrooke's always done things her way, and Zeref's getting in trouble no matter what he does, I guess. Being A centuries old mass murderer doesn't help with his reputation.

They walk down the corridor towards the entrance of the common room when they stumbled across Diana, sitting on a windowsill in the middle of the hall, reading. She looked a great deal calmer than at the end of Zeref's lesson, though still not entirely normal Her eyes were rather red.

"You all right, Diana?" Akko stopped and asked her.

"Huh, oh yes," said Diana, looking up suddenly. "I'm fine, thanks. Just reading something that Zeref gave me…."

Akko leaned down for a better look; it was a handwritten journal that looked like it had been recently unearthed after hundreds of years.

"It's an old medical journal written by Florence Nightingale-Cavendish, who was one of the first witches to be permitted to work in Human medicine," Diana said. There was a faint note of pride in her voice. "It's full of all kinds of medical magics that doesn't even exist in the Cavendish library. As it turns out, Zeref had met Florence once and received this journal from her. He thought I'd like to have this."

Giving Diana something that had belonged to her ancestor was a very tactful way of cheering Diana up, Akko thought. Though, now that she had a chance to reflect, Akko couldn't help wondering why Diana had freaked in the first place. But Diana was in a happy place right now; Akko didn't have the heart to bring her down with that question.

They continued on their way to the Polaris common room, which was crowded and Noisy, especially since Garie and Sabi were setting off colorful explosions in the corner to an applauding audience.

"Should we get started on our Foretelling?" said Akko.

"I guess," said Jasminka, frowning.

Akko and Jasminka took out their copies of Finding the Future, found a table near the fireplace, and set to work on their predictions for the coming month. An hour later, Akko was making significant progress, having already finished with her prediction for the second week, but Jasminka was having little success, even though their table was littered with bits of paper bearing sums and symbols.

"I don't have a clue what this is supposed to mean," she said, staring down at a long list of calculations.

"It's not that hard when you understand it," said Akko, leaning over the table and pointing out the parts on the paper. "Look, the moon is in conjunction with the solar angle of Mars, so that means that there is going to be something that causes you great emotional pain in the future. But at the same time, Venus's alignment correlates with the rotation of the Earth, which means that you will find yourself loved by many. So that basically means you are going to get hurt, but people will love you nonetheless."

"Okay," said Amanda, "is anyone else still weirded out that Akko is actually good at homework?" Lotte, Sucy, Constanze, and Jasminka all raised their hands together. "Oh, good, so it's not just me."

"Hey!" Akko snapped.

They continued to make their predictions (which Akko spent a decent amount helping Jasminka understand the content) for another hour, while the common room around them slowly emptied as people went up to bed. Haruka-san wandered over to them, leapt lightly up to the edge of the table, from which she was dangling her stubby little legs and her giant head keeping her from falling off. She stared at them with her wide mouth drool; Akko worried they might have to explain how a Puchi ate their homework.

Akko leaned back as she let Jasminka fill out the rest of her own chart, letting out a loud yawn. She was tired; they had been at this for a while now that she thought about it. Staring around the room, she saw Lotte engrossed in reading Annabelle Crème's latest novel while Sucy was brewing something obvious dangerous in the corner with her sisters (they were all cackling wickedly as one of the beakers started spraying a mucus-green foam), and Constanze was getting a head start on their Golem project. And then she spied Amanda sitting in the farthest corner from everyone, pen out, poring over a single piece of paper. It was most unusual to see Amanda hiding away in a corner and working silently; she usually liked to be in the thick of things and the noisy center of attention. There was something secretive about the way she was working on the piece of paper. Akko couldn't see her face, but there was the way that her shoulders were so tensed up that she knew Amanda was under a lot of strain. She wondered whether it had something to do with the upcoming Contest of Champions.

As Akko watched, Amanda shook her head, scratched out something with her pen, and said, in a very quiet voice that nevertheless carried across the almost deserted room, "No – that sounds like I'm accusing him. Got to be careful…"

Then Amanda looked over and saw Akko watching her. Akko grinned and quickly turned around to help Jasminka finish up – she didn't want Amanda to think she was eavesdropping. The Manbavaran twins went up to bed after being ordered by Sucy, who noticed how sleepy they were getting. Ten minutes later, after Jasminka finished with her predictions, Amanda folded her paper and went upstairs to bed. Constanze immediately wrapped up her work and followed obediently behind with Jasminka, who was just grateful she didn't have to look at charts any more.

Ten minutes had gone by since then. Akko was leaning back into the couch trying to unwind her nerves from the events earlier that day. Lotte closed her book, indicating that she was done for the day, and Sucy had just finished cleaning up her experiment (even she wouldn't risk those chemicals falling into the wrong hands; and by that, she meant her sisters.) Akko stretched her arms over her head with an exaggerated groan, hopping to her feet as her friends started to make their way up to the dorms. They only made it a few steps up, however, when the eerie silence of the common room was broken by a scratching noise on the window closest to the fire place. Akko walked back a few paces and saw, illuminated by the moonlight, a purple-furred, curly-tailed cat with a curly witch's hat.

"Blair!" she shouted and launched herself across the room to pull open the window.

Blair pounced off the sill the moment the window flew open and, still hovering in midair, exploded into a cloud of purple smoke. Where there had one been a purple cat was now replaced by a tall, slender, and buxom with long purple hair that curls like the cat's tail…and of course, Akko thought, she decided to pop in without any clothes other than her hat. So used to Blair's habit of flashing people was Akko that she didn't even fidget or flinch when Blair dived on top of her and buried Akko's head in the crevice between her breasts.

"Ah, Akko-Nyan!" Blair purred enthusiastically. "I missed you sooooo much! Did you miss me?"

"Not as much as I did before you nude glomped me," said Akko blandly, shoving the cat woman back. "Where were you? It's been weeks since I sent you to deliver that letter to Izetta?"

"It took a lot longer than I thought," said Blair, frowning as she walked over to the fireplace, taking a seat in loveseat; she still didn't put any clothes on. "The Magic Council is getting smarter. I had to take a bunch of elaborate routes to avoid being followed, and then I had to do the same thing getting out. They're starting to get a good idea where Izetta might be hiding out."

"Does that mean she's in trouble?" Lotte asked concerned.

"Izetta has always been smart – she can stay three steps ahead of those Magic Council idiots," said Blair. "And now that I'm back, you're probably gonna want this."

Blair reached behind her back and pulled out a grubby piece of rolled up paper. Akko tried not to imagine where she might have been hiding it as she unrolled the paper and read.

"What's it say?" asked Sucy.

The letter was very short, and looked as though it had been scrawled in a great hurry. Akko read it aloud:

Akko –

I'm flying north immediately. This news about your scars is
the latest in a series of strange rumors that have reached me
here. If it hurts again, go straight to Holbrooke – they're saying
Zeref is out of prison, too, which means that Chariot has been
reading the signs, even if no one else is.

I'll be in touch. My best to everyone. Keep your eyes open, Akko

Izetta

Akko looked up at Lotte and Sucy, who stared back at her.

"She's flying north?" Lotte whispered. "She's coming back?"

"Chariot's reading what signs?" said Sucy, looking perplexed. "She's been in contact with Chariot. What does that mean? Akko – now's not the time to lose your mind."

For Akko had just hit herself in the forehead with her first.

"I shouldn't have told her!" Akko said furiously.

"What're you going on about?" said Sucy with a raised brow.

"It's made her think she needs to come back!" said Akko, now slamming her fist on the table so that he prediction sheet was thrown on the floor. "She's coming back, because she thinks I'm in trouble! And there's nothing wrong with me!"

"There is a lot wrong with you, Akko-Nyan," Blair said in a severe tone of voice. "And I'm not talking about your random temper tantrum. There is a lot you don't understand about yourself – things that Chariot and Izetta knows best. There's still a whole lot about what happened at the Grand Triskelion that has me clueless, so I'm trusting their judgment on this. If they think you're in trouble, then I believe them."

"And did you honestly think we weren't going to say anything?" said Sucy. "Once you told us your scars started hurting, you knew we were going to tell Professor Ursula and Croix right away. We didn't until now because you had already written that letter to Izetta. And if it happens again, we'll go running straight to them."

"We're only doing this because we care about you," Lotte said in a pacifying sort of voice. "Akko?"

"I'm going to bed," said Akko shortly. "See you in the morning."

Upstairs in the dormitory she pulled on her sleeping shirt and shorts and got into her four-poster, but she didn't feel remotely tired.

If Izetta came back and got caught, it would be hers, Akko's, fault. Why hadn't she kept her mouth shut? A few seconds of pain and she had to blab…. If she had just had the sense to keep it too herself….

She heard Lotte and Sucy come up into the dormitory a short while later, but they did not speak to her. For a long time, Akko lay staring up at the dark canopy of her bed. The dormitory was completely silent, and, had she been less preoccupied, Akko would have that the absence of Amanda's usual sleep talk meant that she was not the only one laying awake.

Again, please show your support for Serenity Academy, because you know I'm just going to keep repeating this message over and over again.

Next Chapter: The Arrival