Little Witch Academia: The Fantasia Melody

Chapter 10: Keiko Ichigo

"K-Keiko?"

"A-Akko?"

Akko's eyes opened wide as she recognized the person on the floor. Her stomach felt like it was swarming with butterflies and her heartfelt warm as if it was close to a campfire. Seeing this girl, named Keiko, brought back memories. Good and bad, but precious memories to Akko that even moved her to tears at that very moment.

"A-Akko!?" Keiko stands up and faces Akko who was crying right before her. "A-are you okay!? Is there something wrong!?"

Out of nowhere, Keiko felt a pair of arms grab her and pull her forward. She yelped in surprise but then closed her mouth shut as the tearful Akko embraced her in a warm hug.

"Akko…"

"I…" Akko choked on her words but then took a deep breath and spoke again. "I've missed you...I'm so glad to see you…"

Keiko's cheeks flush up and then she giggles to herself, surprised that her old friend was that happy to see her. She quickly returns Akko's hug with her own and says aloud, "I'm glad to see you too Akko…"

"Akko!"

An adult male in a uniform came out from the kitchen, it was Akko's boss and owner of the shop Mr. Kai.

"Did you finish wiping down the tables like I-hm?"

Mr. Kai stopped talking as he noticed his employee hugging a customer. Judging by the long embrace they seemed to be close.

"Who's this?" Mr. Kai asked as he walked up to the two girls.

"O-oh!" Akko finally let go of Keiko blushing in embarrassment from the long hug. "This is my friend!"

Keiko held up her hand and smiled. "H-hi! I'm Keiko Ichigo! I'm Akko's friend!"

"Oh well nice to meet you! We're closing up shop soon but would you like some food?"

"O-oh well…" Keiko stuttered and started fiddling with her fingers nervously. "I-if you guys are closing up shop right now I don't want to-"

"It's okay!" Akko shouted with a cheerful smile. "I don't mind cooking one more time! I'll give you a menu!"

"A-...okay…" Keiko sighed in defeat as Akko went off to get a menu.

Somewhere in the dark corners of Tokyo…

"Where the hell is the boss!?" an adult male wearing a blue mask with a white musical note slouched on the wall fiddling with his fingers. "How long are we supposed to wait here!? We have a meet up that started literally an hour ago!"

"Yeah!" yelled the five other men who looked agitated but pumped to cause some trouble. Each one of them was holding some kind of weapon that could destroy property or faces.

Standing before them with a cocky look on his face was a man who definitely didn't fit the other men's appearance. He was a handsome man who looked like he belonged on a romantic TV show, he had blond hair, teal eyes, and was wearing a dark teal suit, yellow waistcoat, a white collared shirt, and navy shoes.

"You can skip one meeting today," the man in the suit said, "My friends will take care of it for you. Now, this is an order from your superiors. Get this girl-"

The man held up a picture of Akko Kagari.

"You can rough her a bit but don't kill her. And be careful she's a witch."

"Without the Sorcerer's Stone being nearby her magic will be weak!" stated one of the six.

"But she still has some remaining magic," the man in the suit countered, "I won't be there to save you if she overpowers you. I have work downtown."

"What does the Master want with her anyway?"

The man in the suit smiled and his teeth showed sharp fangs.

"She's the key…"

After Keiko finished the food that Akko put all her heart and soul into making the two girls sat down and began catching up.

"So where have you been lately Keiko?" Akko asked.

Keiko answered, "I've just been transferring schools here and there but mostly nothing is different. I'm soon looking at this college in America that might be good for me since I want to be a software developer."

"I still find all that computer stuff boring and confusing," Akko chuckled while Keiko rolled her eyes but also laughed as well.

"What about you Akko?" Keiko said. "The last time I saw you was when you left Japan to go to that witch school called...Lu Lu Land or something-"

"Luna Nova," Akko replied but her tone of voice seemed dull and lacked energy. Keiko noticed this immediately and moved her body closer to the table.

"I-is something wrong?"

"Well…" Akko sighed. "I'm no longer in that school…"

"H-huh? What do you mean? I thought you were just on vacation-"

"I got expelled, Keiko."

Keiko gasped aloud at the reveal and looked at Akko worryingly seeing the visible sadness in her eyes. And she can tell that the sadness had been there for a while.

"O-oh my god Akko! What happened!?"

Akko glanced up. "It's a pretty weird story. It's the truth but it's very hard to explain...I don't know if you'll believe me...no one else has…"

"Try me!"

Keiko grasped Akko's hands into her own and stared into her scarlet eyes.

"Akko...I am your best friend. You don't need to hide anything from me."

Akko quivered a bit as if she was about to cry but she held in the urge and took a deep breath to regain her composure. Once she was sure she was calm she opened her mouth and explained the story of events that led to her expulsion from Luna Nova.

Some time had past and Akko was finally finished with her story. The brunette girl looked at her four-eyed friend who seemed to give a blank expression. Akko sighed.

"You don't believe me do you?"

"H-huh?" Keiko shook her head hysterically. "N-no! I do believe you! I mean-I don't fully understand this magic stuff but I know you're not lying! I-it's just...that girl Diana…"

"Yeah…" Akko looked down in shame. "I hurt her...b-but I don't why I did! That whole thing between when I met up with Mirage and then seeing Diana bleeding on the ground was a whole blur…"

Keiko stared up at Akko looking more concerned. "H-have you been crying tears of blood…?"

Akko squinted her eyes in confusion.

"Crying tears of blood? What are you talking about Keiko?"

Keiko opened her mouth to say something but then shook her head and looked away.

"I-it's nothing...it's getting late for me so I should probably go home before my parents chew me out."

"Yeah I have to leave too," Akko replied, "Let's go together!"

Keiko nodded with a smile. "Sure! It's been forever since we've walked together!"

After saying goodbye to Mr. Kai Akko and Keiko exited the restaurant and went out into the dark night of Tokyo. Even as they were walking the two girls just couldn't stop talking to one another.

"You know Akko," Keiko said, "I've been reading this novel series called Nightfall and it's really got my attention!"

"Nightfall?" Akko replied.

"Oh, you know it?"

"One of my roommates-Lotte was her name-is a huge fan of that weird series! I tried to read it but the first book is sooooo long!"

Keiko laughed aloud. "You're still stuck on the first book!? I'm already on Book 102!"

"How the heck did you get to Book 102!?" Akko yelled. "When did you start!?"

"Started with Book 1 a week ago," Keiko replied casually.

Akko was dumbfounded and just shook her head. "You have WAY too much time on your hands…"

"Quite the opposite," Keiko responded, "My studies are just getting more intense and-..."

Akko glanced over at Keiko who stopped in the middle of her sentence to see her looking behind herself. Akko copied her to see two strange men walking slowly behind them.

"What's up?" Akko asked Keiko.

Keiko whispered back. "Those guys have been following us for four minutes now…"

"WHAT!? SERIOUSLY!?" Akko basically screamed to the point that even the guys behind her can hear.

Keiko shushed her. "Don't yell! Come on let's cut this corner!"

Keiko takes Akko's hand and leads her to a dark alley but their shortcut is stopped as four more strange men appear from the shadows. Two of them held bats while the other two held strange-looking metal sticks that seemed to resemble rifles.

"T-this isn't good…" Keiko gulped as the men were closing in on them.

Akko held onto Keiko's hand tightly as she took her wand.

"Stay close to me okay?"

"O-okay…!"

Akko held out her wand to the guys coming from the back and screamed, "MUROWA!"

A green beam of light hit one of them in the stomach and sent them flying as the other men were rushing towards them. The men with the strange rifles loaded it with strange glitter blue powder and then they yelled:

"Spiritibus!"

"Wha-"

Then like a firework rocket, a powerful beam of blue magical energy was fired right at Akko and Keiko's direction. The brunette witch was quick on her feet and grabbed Keiko by the collar of her shirt throwing her to the ground. Akko quickly ducked herself, the beam only burning little bits of her brown hair.

"Magic!? These guys are-"

"AKKO!"

Akko regained focus as two of the guys with bats jumped on her. Akko used magic to push them back but they were surrounding her.

"Nowhere to run Kagari!"

Akko grasped her wand tightly. "H-how do you know my name!? Who are you!?"

"Get her!"

At the same time, the six men charged at Akko and Keiko. Keiko screamed while curling into a ball but Akko stood her ground but she knew there was no way she could beat them-

But then out of nowhere a stream of water like a wave engulfed the six men. The men scattered across the street wet and panting aloud from almost drowning.

"W-wha?" Keiko said as she lifted her head.

"S-shit! Let's go!" one of the guys yelled as he ran off. And his partners followed him.

"Yeah, that's right!" Akko balled her fists. "Don't mess with us!"

"Akko look!"

Akko turned around to see a new person, the individual who saved them.

"Such horrible people trying to harm such cute little children."

The person standing before them was a gorgeous woman with dark skin, purple eyes, dark purple hair that runs all the way down to her feet, and her hair is tied up into large balls that store water. She wore a light-blue dress on her lower body with golden trimmings and a large slit that exposes a large amount of her left thigh. Tied around her waist is a golden scarf. On her upper body, the dress is white-blue with golden trimmings. And her upper body also includes a mini-jacket that matches the dress on her lower body. She also wore light-blue slippers with golden trimmings. A golden choker on her neck, along with golden earrings, and light-blue nails along with dark-blue lip gloss.

The woman gave Akko and Keiko a tender smile.

"My name is Thorani. It is wonderful to meet you."

Author's Note:

It's been forever since I posted I apologize but I'm so glad I got this one out. The character Thorani is from a video game called Indivisible! You might be seeing at least one more important character from that game appearing in the future but I won't say who it is. And the man who appeared before those troublemakers is a villain from another Trigger anime. As I said before I'm going to bringing characters and elements from other Trigger anime as if they were one world (of course there will be my own OCs). I like you guys to guess who he was. Anyway, that was the introduction to Keiko Ichigo, Akko's friend and I will see you guys in the next chapter! Have a good day and thank you so much for the support!

Next Chapter: Hikarinokioku