"Shiny Arc!"
Shiny Chariot declared loudly before letting go of the bowstring of Shiny Rod's longbow form, sending a bolt of magical energy flying toward its target: an illusion in the form of a dragon.
The dragon widened its gaping maw, seemingly for the sole purpose of swallowing the magical bolt. After doing so and closing its maw, the dragon began to bloat like a balloon - even making a "this is going to suck" expression in the meantime - before exploding into a brilliant display of fireworks.
The entire audience watched the brilliant display in awe.
After that, Chariot twirled the Shiny Rod with one hand, transforming it back into its default wand form.
"Yet another successful performance~" The red-headed performer announced to the audience. "Now, anyone mind telling me what today's magic word is~?"
The audience answered with a cacophony of "Shiny Arc!"
"That is correct!" Chariot told the audience. She then pointed the Shiny Rod at the audience, or rather, at a specific member of the audience. "Before I leave, I would like to say something to my greatest fan..."
The 'greatest fan' in question squealed, jumping up and down on her seat.
"Remember these mystical words..." Chariot then said. "Noctu Orfei Aude Fraetor..."
...
Red Coven's dorm
"Noctu Orfei Aude Fraetor..."
Akko mumbled the words in her sleep right before shooting up from her bed as she jolted herself awake.
"That was a dream, was it...?" She groggily mumbled in Japanese as she rubbed her eyes.
It has been two days since Akko arrived at Luna Nova. Despite that, she still has trouble getting used to sharing a dormitory with Lotte and Sucy instead of having her own bedroom to herself back home in Osaka, Japan.
Akko scanned the dormitory, finding that just like yesterday, Sucy has already gotten up and started doing some kind of potions experiment (Lotte had reminded Sucy yesterday that it's against the rules, but she ignored it) with her lab equipment, while Lotte is still asleep in her bunk bed.
The Japanese girl then recalled what she had learned about her Coven mates in the last two days. Lotte's family runs a magic shop in Finland, and she is going to inherit it when she comes to age (that explains the certificate thing she mentioned two days ago). Sucy is from the Philippines (at least going by the presence of a Filipino passport stashed with her luggage), and she claims that she is only half-human (what her other half is, Sucy herself has no idea, though that explains her corpse-pale skin and total lack of body warmth). Sucy isn't quite the kind of person that's into socializing, though, and she only told Akko about herself just to get Akko to stop asking her about it.
Is that all? I think I'm missing something... Akko thought as she tried to recall what else she could have missed.
Akko looked around the dorm as she searched for her answer. There's the limited edition Shiny Chariot poster hung on the wall by her bed, the plush of Chariot's white crow familiar she hugs in her sleep, action figures of movie characters portrayed by Chariot arranged on the shelf across from the bunk bed, the binder holding the Shiny Chariot trading cards placed neatly in a corner of the table, and right in front of the binder...
The Shiny Rod, the one-of-a-kind magic staff once owned by Shiny Chariot herself. Akko realized that's what she is missing.
Akko climbed out of her bed, and grabbed the Shiny Rod, hugging it and bringing it to her face like it was a priceless treasure (which it technically is, being one-of-a-kind). "I still can't believe this is the Shiny Rod! Shiny Chariot's magic staff, and the only one of its kind in existence!" She told no one in particular. "I've always wanted to own one of those plastic replicas they sold in the toy shops, but to own the real Shiny Rod... It's unbelievable!" She said excitedly.
"You said that like the 200th time in the past two days already..." Sucy, without looking away from her experiment, broke her usual silence to remind Akko. "Besides, why are you so obsessed with Shiny Chariot, anyway?"
Akko responded to Sucy by getting really close to her, invading her personal space in the process. "Same reason Filipinos like you are obsessed with Voltes V! At least, that's what I heard from the internet..."
Sucy gets the message. "Well, I can't say that Voltes V is a bad series..." She said with a shrug, glancing away from Akko in the process.
The commotion has woken up Lotte, who got up from her bunk bed and yawned. "Good morning..." She greeted before putting her glasses on. "Did I miss something?"
"The usual..." Sucy answered.
Lotte blinked. "Still Shiny Chariot?" She asked as she climbed down from her bunk bed.
Akko made her way to the middle of the Red Coven's dorm. "Hey, girls, want to see something cool?" She announced to Lotte and Sucy.
"Haven't you done that in the last two days, to no avail?" Lotte reminded Akko.
"I guess that potato brain of yours never learned..." Sucy mused, followed with a snicker.
Akko frowned upon hearing what her Coven mates said. Though her frown went away as quickly as it came. "I swear, it will be different this time! And it will blow your head!" She claimed loudly.
"You mean 'blow your mind', don't you...?" Lotte awkwardly corrected.
"Whatever! Now watch!" Akko announced as she imitated Shiny Chariot's way of holding the Shiny Rod. "Alright, then... Nocte Orfey Aude Fraetor!"
Nothing happened...
"Huh?" Akko wondered what went wrong, before making a second attempt.
Still, nothing happened...
"Why isn't anything happening?!" Akko voiced her confusion out loud. "I'm sure this is the spell that activated Shiny Arc!"
"You were right, you did manage to blow my mind..." Sucy sarcastically commented.
"Maybe it was because the spell was mangled by your accent?" Lotte suggested. "I had the same problem in my first year..."
Akko lowered the Shiny Rod, and sighed. "Now that you mentioned it... Did Chariot have trouble with her French accent when she was still studying?"
"Maybe?" Lotte answered, herself wondering about the question. "Speaking of studying, we should get ready for class, for today is the first day classes begin..."
Akko went right back to being excited when she heard that. "That's right! Classes starts today! I can't wait to start learning magic for real!"
"Well, to begin with, we should get changed into our uniforms..." Sucy said as she stood up from the desk, having decided to temporarily halt her experiment.
...
When she enrolled into Luna Nova, Akko had believed that magic schools were supposed to teach their students about the exciting parts of magic and what makes them so exciting. Though admittedly, she got that idea from anime and manga...
But this... This is not what she expected...
"Can anyone tell me what is being said by these Lunar Alphabets?" Asked the same stern professor from the Matriculation Ceremony - who identified herself as Professor Anne Finneran at the start of the class (Finneran? Is she the mother of Teresa Finneran? Akko wondered at the time) - as she pointed at a series of mystic-looking alphabets that are written on the blackboard.
Akko has known that studying magic isn't going to be easy. But this? This so-called Magic Linguistics isn't what she expected at all! In fact, this is the first time the Japanese girl has even heard of these "Lunar Alphabets", and she finds herself utterly unable to comprehend just one alphabet, let alone an entire sentence of the language. And since this class is pretty much the first time where she's heard of the Lunar Alphabets, Akko wondered if Shiny Chariot, or any Luna Nova alumni in general, have ever found a use for it in their careers (Chariot certainly hasn't).
To Akko's side, Lotte appeared to be focused on the subject, taking notes as Professor Finneran lectured about the subject. But it is pretty obvious that Lotte is trying very hard just to keep up. Sucy, on the other hand, is merely pretending to be paying attention, if her extremely bored expression is anything to go by.
Akko looked around the classroom to see if anyone else are trying to get an answer for Professor Finenran's question.
All of the students are scratching their heads as they are still trying to figure out the question. All except one: Chloe, who has her left hand raised.
"Yes, Miss Dubois, care to answer?" Professor Finneran called for Chloe, who stood up from her seat with a smug expression on her face.
"'The primary purpose of magic is virtue'" Chloe answered the question.
Professor Finneran glanced at the sentence she pointed at earlier, then back at Chloe. "That isn't exactly what it says, but the intended meaning is close enough. Very well, Miss Dubois."
Smiling smugly, Chloe sat down afterwards.
"Does anyone here believe they can do better than Miss Dubois?" Professor Finneran asked all of the other students. Her tone of speech hinted at her doubting her own question.
Immediately after that question is asked, another student raised her hand, much to Professor Finneran's unexpressed surprise. That student is one Diana Cavendish.
"Yes, Miss Cavendish? Care to try?" The professor called to Diana.
Diana stood up, and unlike Chloe, isn't smug about the opportunity at all. In fact, the lettuce-haired girl kept her stoic expression. "Professor, I believe these Alphabets actually said 'The foremost purpose of magic is knowledge', a quote from the magic philosopher, T.S. Daniels."
Professor Finneran glanced at the written sentence on the blackboard again, and then back at Diana with astonishment. "That is exactly what it says, right down to each individual letter. Very well done, Miss Cavendish. I am impressed." She then praised Diana.
With that, Diana sat down afterwards, again keeping her stoic expression. To her immediate left and right, Hannah and Barbara lightly clapped their hands in amazement. The rest of the class stared at Diana with just as much amazement, simply due to the fact that Luna Nova's strictest professor had just genuinely praised her. Even Akko can't help but be amazed by how Diana just casually one-upped Chloe in class.
Of course, the only person in the classroom who isn't impressed at all is Chloe herself. The French bully glared at Diana with as much discontent as a human face can possibly express.
...
After Magic Linguistics class is Potions Brewing and Handling class.
Akko hoped that, as a class about magic potions, it'd be less boring and more enjoyable than Magic Linguistics (even if Shiny Chariot never dabbled in it in her career).
She was right. There is, however, one slight issue about it...
The fumes that all but replaced the air in the laboratory-turned-classroom. They say that science labs can be quite unpleasant to be in due to all the chemical fumes released by the experiments involved. But no matter how the movies portrayed them to be, they pale in comparison to the potion fumes this old crone of a professor called breath.
"One pinch of spider eyes, one lizard tail, and a bat's liver..." Said Professor Lukic as she stirred the cauldron of boiling concoction in front of the whole class, while cackling like a classical wicked witch. "All the ingredients necessary for wonderful aromas such as this..."
Despite what Professor Lukic said, practically everyone in the classroom disagreed with her without actually saying it. Some students including Akko had to cover their noses and mouths with the collar of their uniforms, while some, like Chloe's black-haired Coven mate, had to excuse themselves to the washroom in order to throw up. The only two students who don't have any issues with the fumes are Sucy (who seemed to enjoy breathing it) and Diana (who simply conjured a bubble around herself, Hannah and Barbara).
After sitting through the whole class gagging on the potion fumes, Akko has decided that she must pass this subject so she doesn't fail and have to sit through it again in the next semester. Now she knows why Shiny Chariot never dabbled in potions...
...
After Potions Brewing and Handling class is Magic Numerology...
Which turns out to just be mathematics with magic, much to Akko's chagrin, as math is probably the most boring, and her least favorite subject ever.
Akko found this ridiculous. She knew that Muggle life and science needed mathematics to run smoothly, but had never thought that magic needed mathematics at all. Well, sure, Shiny Chariot probably had to do some calculations in her mind during some of her more complex performances. But this...? Akko resisted the urge to doze off, but with how boring the class is, just staying awake is a chore for the Japanese girl.
Even Lotte and Sucy are barely holding it together. Lotte can't help but yawn loudly, getting herself a glare from the lecturer of the class, Professor Samantha Badcock. Sucy, on the other hand, isn't even pretending to pay attention or take down notes as she flipped through her handbook of exotic magical ingredients under the desk.
The only thing that prevented the class from being totally bland is when Diana corrected Professor Badcock on an equation the professor had one of the details incorrectly remembered, which the professor thanks her for. Unsurprisingly, Chloe glared at Diana when Professor Badcock praised her for the correction.
...
After Magic Numerology, there weren't any classes left for Red Coven to attend to for the rest of the day, so they went to the cafeteria to have lunch.
"I just don't get it!" Akko complained to Lotte and Sucy as she had lunch with them. "I thought magic was supposed to be all flashy and magnificent! But all I got was a bunch of boring lessons instead!"
"Well, they say every profession began with boring and tedious hard work..." Lotte said. "Chariot sat through the same lessons, after all..."
"Didn't you have to sit through lessons as 'boring' as these when you're in primary and secondary schools?" Sucy pointed out in her usual deadpan manner. "Or is it middle and high schools...?"
Akko suddenly slammed both her hands on the table, rattling all the cutlery on it and causing Lotte to reel back a bit in surprise. "Doesn't change the fact that they are still boring and in the case of Potions class, very unpleasant!" She loudly complained.
All the other students in the cafeteria, along with the cafeteria staff, stopped what they were doing and looked at the Red Coven.
"Akko, calm down!" Lotte said worriedly all of a sudden. "You're making a scene!"
Akko did indeed calm down, though she became confused by the glasses girl's sudden change of behavior. "Lotte, why are you so worried abou-"
"Looks like you have a loud problem there, Little Lotte~" A familiar, despicable voice suddenly spoke from behind Akko, causing Lotte to shrink back into her seat and look away.
Well, that explains Lotte's sudden change of behavior...
"What do you want, Chloe?" Akko turned around to face the French bully, who smugly stood there.
"Oh, nothing~" Chloe answered smugly, which is made even more grating by her French accent. "Just seeing how Little Lotte's Shiny Chariot fangirl friend is doing~"
"You have a problem with Chariot?" Akko fired back as she got increasingly angry.
"Of course I do! Chariot Du Nord is an utter disgrace to witches, especially French witches like me!" Chloe casually and loudly said.
Akko had almost reached her boiling point upon hearing that. "You're French too, correct? So why are you so casually badmouthing your senpai... I mean, senior?"
"Senior? Oh please!" Chloe rolled her eyes in response to that. "Why would I, the star of Luna Nova, consider her to be my senior?" She added in a taunting way. "It was a good thing she disappeared to who-knows-where, so I don't have to live under her failure of a shadow! Speaking of Chariot, where did you put the so-called Shiny Rod~?"
Akko finally can't take that anymore. She grabbed hold of her lunch, and threw all of it - food, plate, and tray - at Chloe.
The French bully took all of it to her face. The tray was thrown with enough force that it deformed on impact with Chloe, though she didn't flinch from it. Chloe's pompadour hair isn't ruined, considering how much hair gel she had to use to even maintain it in the first place, but getting drenched in someone else's lunch isn't going to be pleasant for whoever is on the receiving end, and Chloe's expression spells it directly.
"You take back what you just said about Shiny Chariot!" Akko yelled at Chloe, as she gets ready to move in and slug her in the face.
Sucy decided that she has seen enough, and moved in to restrain Akko so she doesn't do anything stupid. The puce-haired girl may have had a penchant for being sadistic with her experiments, but she draws the line at actually being violent.
Meanwhile, all the other students in the cafeteria took out their mobile phones and started recording the whole fiasco.
Chloe wiped some of the food off her face, before shooting Akko a glare. "Merde..." She cursed in her native French.
That was it. Akko went totally berserk, as she tried to break free of Sucy's restrain to go hit Chloe.
"Stop it!"
The scene is promptly prevented from becoming violent by the mere arrival of a certain lettuce-haired girl.
"Can anyone tell me what in the Nines' names is going on here?" Asked Diana Cavendish as she approached Akko and Chloe, putting herself between the two.
Diana to the rescue!
If you ever have any doubts that this version of Chloe is a total asshole, then this chapter should eliminate any that you have for it. She's lucky that Akko was restrained, and Diana came to stop the fight before it can begin.
And yeah, Akko's Japanese accent is going to become an issue when she cast spells in the future, since the accent actually made the incantations sound like something else...
"Just remember: a believing heart is your magic..."
Afterwords end here.