Luna Nova Witchcraft Academy
"Blue Coven: Diana Cavendish!"
The entire hall went dead silent as soon as that name is dropped.
Akko noticed that even Hannah and Barbara's smug faces got replaced by that of jaw-dropping surprise when the three of them heard "Diana Cavendish" being called out. Chloe on the other hand looked like she was worried about something upon hearing that name. Just who is this Diana, and why did her name garner such a response from everyone?
"Did she just say Cavendish?"
"Cavendish? That Cavendish?"
"Is she the daughter of Bernadette Cavendish?"
As Akko wondered what kind of a person Diana Cavendish is for everyone to start talking about her like she's some kind of celebrity, she saw the lettuce-haired girl leaving the "new students" bleacher as she made her way to the empty chair between Hannah and Barbara. Every step she took looked to be precisely measured and calculated.
"My name is Diana Cavendish," The lettuce-haired girl introduced herself to the Blue Coven girls. "it will be an honor to work with the two of you."
Hannah and Barbara did not respond. They were rendered speechless about having Diana as their Coven mate.
Akko narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized Diana's features. She just can't see why this girl with a lettuce-like hair could be a "Ojou-sama" type that got everyone gossiping about her.
In her moments of deep thought, Akko had almost missed her name being called out.
"Red Coven: Kagari Atsuko and Sucy Manbavaran!"
Akko snapped out of her thoughts just in time. She and the puce-haired girl next to her, being the only two left in the "new students" bleacher, got up from their seats and joined Lotte at the Red Coven's seats. Akko noticed that the puce-haired girl, Sucy, looked like she doesn't really want to be here in Luna Nova at all, and didn't even spare Akko a glance when Akko tried to say hello to her.
The stern professor who assigned the new students to their Covens then rolled up the scroll, having called out every name on the list. "That concludes the assigning of the Covens." She announced. "Does anyone have any questions they would like to ask?"
The hall fell silent again.
"Very well..." The stern professor acknowledged the (lack of) response from the students before stepping back.
"With that done," Headmistress Holbrooke resumed. "let us begin the Matriculation Ceremony."
After that, Akko spent much of the Matriculation Ceremony thinking about how she is going to learn magic in Luna Nova and become a witch for real. And she is going to show Avery, Chloe, Hannah, and Barbara that she can do it and prove them wrong!
If anyone were to pay attention to their surroundings, they would have noticed a white crow with a four-pointed star on its chest perched on one of the windows of the hall. The white crow spent the entire duration of the Matriculation Ceremony observing Akko - and in particular the Shiny Rod which she placed in her backpack - and then flew away...
...
After the Matriculation Ceremony has ended, all the students are then guided to their Covens' dormitories by the same stern professor from before.
"Each and every Coven will be given their own dormitories, assigned in accordance to their colors." The stern professor explained to the new students (and repeated god-knows-how-many-times-already for the returning students). "You are to return to your dormitories before curfew begins at seven o'clock in the evening. All magic experiments are strictly forbidden within the dormitories, and any violations will be dealt with accordingly..." She then went on with the rules, which is quite a lengthy list (so lengthy that Chloe looked like she got impatient and stopped paying attention). "And finally, the fire alarm buttons, one of which is right here," She pointed at a button that is labelled 'FIRE ALARM', "are for emergencies only."
Akko nodded. She remember that time when she set off the fire alarm out of curiosity in middle school. Nothing disastrous happened and she was let off with a warning, but her classmates at the time refused to let her live it down ever since. The Japanese girl reminded herself to remember what the stern professor said about only using the fire alarm buttons for actual emergencies.
"Any questions?" The professor ended with a question.
Surprisingly, nearly everyone raised their hands this time. And being teenagers, their questions are all very typical...
"Do we have Wi-Fi in the dorms?"
"Can I watch movies on my laptop?"
"Can I stream anything live for my Instagram?"
The stern professor gritted her teeth. Apparently, this isn't the first time she has to deal with this problem.
"As long as you adhere by the rules and don't do anything inappropriate," The professor answered, then glared at Teresa Finneran (who responded with an annoyed grunt as everyone else glanced at her). "you are free to use your gadgets as you please." She doesn't sound particularly pleased about giving the answer.
The new students cheered at what they just heard. Well, some did. A few, like that Diana Cavendish, doesn't seem to care about being allowed to use any gadgets.
"That being said," The stern professor added, getting everyone to quiet down. "I hope you focus on your studies instead of wasting your time on useless things."
That prompted an eyeroll from some of the new students.
...
Once the professor has finished listing the dormitory guidelines, all the students pooled into their respective dormitories.
"*Sigh* What a terrible day..." Akko mumbled as she planted herself on a bed in the Red Coven's dorm. "The Leyline Terminal, the turbulence in the Leyline, Avery and her friends, Chloe, Hannah, Barbara... Nothing could possibly be worse than all of these..."
"At least you got what you wanted: coming to the school that Shiny Chariot went to..." Lotte said to Akko. "Is there anything else you wanted?"
Akko almost immediately shot up from the bed. "Of course there is! I also wanted to make new friends!" She then approached Lotte and put her hands on the glasses girl's shoulders. "You're a second year student, right? What happened to your old Coven mates?"
Lotte spent some time retrieving the answers for that question from her memory. "Well, uh... one had to drop out due to complicated family issues, and the other got expelled for blowing up a classroom..."
Akko released her hands from Lotte. "Oh, that is probably impolite of me to make you bring up unpleasant memories." She then turned her attention to Sucy, who has just started unpacking her luggage. "Your name is Sushi, right?"
"Sucy." The puce-haired girl, with venom in her tone, corrected without looking away from her luggage.
"Sucy, yes." Akko tried pronouncing the name again, this time closer to the intended pronunciation. "You have any friends back from your home country?"
Sucy ignored the question in favor of focusing on unpacking her luggage, which is full of what looked like lab equipment.
The puce-haired girl's lack of response did not dissuade Akko. "So how about we become friends, and get to know each other better?" The Japanese girl said. "Let me start! My name is Akko, and I came to Luna Nova so I can become just like Shiny Chariot when I graduate!" She placed a hand on Sucy's shoulder. "What about you? Why did you come to Luna Nova?"
Sucy continued to ignore Akko, as she moved some beakers and test tubes from her luggage onto the table.
"You aren't the talkative type, huh?" Akko said. "Never mind! Do you have anything you like as much as I like Chariot? Or do you like Chariot too? Did you know that she was an actress as well as a performer? If so, which of the movies she appeared in do you think is the be-"
Akko's rapid-fire assault of questions finally got Sucy's attention. Sucy turned toward Akko with a one-eyed glare that is made intimidating by the fact that she has her other eye covered by her hair, which combined with her corpse-pale skin made her look like she just came out of a horror movie.
"Al...right. Maybe later..." Akko, intimidated by Sucy's glare, decided to back off.
As Sucy went back to unpacking her luggage, Akko diverted her attention to Lotte. "How about you, Lotte?" She asked. "Why did you come to Luna Nova? What is your favorite thing? Do you have-" Akko then started another rapid-fire assault of questions on Lotte as she got too close to the glasses girl for comfort.
"S-slow down. I-I can only answer one question at a time..." Lotte said as she raised her hand to make space between Akko and herself. She then cleared her throat before continuing. "W-well, firstly, I came to Luna Nova so I can apply for a certificate to run a shop after I graduate..."
Akko tilted her head in confusion, as though it was her first time hearing something like that. "You need to do that to run a shop? I thought..."
"Just like how Shiny Chariot needed to graduate and get a certificate before she can start performing..." Lotte explained. "She didn't make her way to fame with just the Shiny Rod, after all."
Hearing the name of the one-of-a-kind magic staff got Akko excited again. "Speaking of Shiny Rod!" She went and grabbed the Shiny Rod from her backpack. "I still can't believe I have gotten my hands on the Shiny Rod! Why it wasn't with Shiny Chariot, I don't know. But maybe I can meet her again if I hold on to it for long enough!" She deduced excitedly.
"That sounds... kind of far fetched..." Lotte said. "Just like season 12, episode 19 of the TV series..."
"What TV series?" Akko asked as she heard Lotte's mumble. "Does it have Chariot in it?"
"W-well, not quite..." Lotte added. "It ended 10 years ago. That's before Chariot started acting for the first time..."
"Anyway!" Akko redirected the focus back onto the Shiny Rod. "I should wait for Shiny Chariot to come back! And when she does, I'm going to return the Shiny Rod to her!"
There was the sound of someone groaning at Akko's statement. It didn't sound like it came from Lotte or Sucy.
"D-did you hear that?" Lotte pointed out.
"Hear what?" Akko asked, confused about what Lotte was talking about.
As Akko continued with her excited blabbering, neither she nor her Coven mates noticed the same white crow that observed her back at the Matriculation Ceremony, again observing her for a while before flying off.
The white crow flew away from the dormitories and headed for the designated broom landing zone, where someone stood by, waiting for it.
"Thank you, Alcor, for confirming that Shiny Rod is here..." The person said to the white crow. "Would you mind keeping an eye on her while I go meet the headmistress?"
The white crow cawed, before flying off again.
...
Meanwhile, in the headmistress's office...
"As you all know..." Headmistress Holbrooke said as she addressed the faculty of Luna Nova. "The 1357th semester will be starting in three days. As usual, it is our duties to ensure that all the students get the educations and support they needed on their path to becoming full-fledged witches, where they will then contribute their skills and knowledge to the world..."
"Or pass on what they learned from their teachers by becoming teachers themselves." Added the stern professor from before.
"Ya said that every year since the first..." Said the professor with the aviator goggles, who spoke with an American accent. "Ya ever thought of anything else to say, Anne?"
"It's none of your business, Nelson..." The stern professor glared at her fellow professor through the corner of her eyes.
"Now, now, Nelson is merely giving you a suggestion, Finneran..." Holbrooke ended the argument before it can begin. "Now, as I was going to say, we will be expecting a guest..." With that said, the headmistress tapped her cane against the wooden floor two times. "You may come in now, Miss Callistis..."
All of the faculty turned their attention toward the entrance of the office, as someone opened the door from outside.
Stepping into the headmistress's office is a woman with blue hair and a pair of spectacles, already wearing the uniform of a Luna Nova professor. From her appearance, she looked to be in her mid-thirties.
"Bonjour." The woman greeted everyone with a noticeable French accent.
"Ladies, allow me to introduce to you: Professor Ursula Callistis." Holbrooke introduced the new person to everyone. "She just got transferred from Harriet Jean Academy, and will be joining you all as a professor here at Luna Nova..."
The new professor, Ursula, shrugged. "Actually, I resigned from Harriet Jean because it was rather...unpleasant...to its students." She corrected the headmistress.
The faculty members all made the look that says they knew Ursula is sparing them the details. But as they knew the details are unpleasant, they decided to not press the new professor for it.
"Now, I'm sure you ladies will get along just fine..." Holbrooke said.
The headmistress then turned around to look at the nine display stands behind her. Each of those stands held a wooden carving of a hat or headdress that all appeared to be from entirely different cultures, except for the ninth stand which held an ornate sword instead.
"Just like the Nine Olde Witches back during the Golden Age of Magic..."
Watch out, Chloe, for you might lose your school celebrity status to Diana...
And on another note, YAY, Diana's here! Which means its time to ship her with Akko!
...Not.
I'll make this straight and simple. I actually don't like Diakko. That is because I saw the pairing as being yet another "Rivals Equal Romance" pairing that frankly speaking, has been done to the point of being an overused cliche. No offense to Diakko fans, but that's why there won't, and will never be, any Diakko in this story. And for you Suakko shippers who are rejoicing, no, I won't be shipping them either, though I'm completely fine with that pairing.
On another note, we're finally introduced to "best mom" Ursula Callistis. Well, we all know she's not who she claims to be... But what about her sending Alcor to spy on Akko and the Shiny Rod? That's a bit unlike what she'd ever do in canon, isn't it? Read on to find out~
One last thing to clarify: when Lotte mentioned "Season 12, episode 19 of the TV series", she is indeed referring to Night Fall. But the TV series is just a spin-off of the novels. You'll know more later into this fic...
"Harriet Jean Academy", eh? I wonder what that might be referencing? A certain anime series with living clothes, perhaps?
"And remember: a believing heart is your magic."
Afterwords end here.