Luna Nova cafeteria
The discussion with Ursula regarding Diana's "mommy issues" hit a dead end very quickly, so the Red Coven ended up leaving the professor's office without getting a conclusive answer to their questions (especially not after getting interrupted by Amanda and her broom, the Shooting Star).
Akko had decided to take her mind off the matter by going back to her dorm to fetch the package that she got from her parents yesterday - which turned out to be a jar of Umeboshi pickled plums - and then head off to the cafeteria to snack on them.
"Anger management snacking..." Sucy mused as she watched Akko pop a pickled plum into her mouth. "Minus the anger, of course..."
"Want one?" Akko asked Sucy as she passed her a pickled plum.
Sucy is legitimately curious about the snack, so she leaned in to give it a sniff.
Something about the pickled plum made Sucy widen her one exposed eye in surprise.
"No, thank you..." Sucy politely declined - a response unusual for her. "I don't like sour things..." She added.
"Oh, sorry about that." Akko retracted her hand. "How about you, Annabel?" She then turned towards Lotte.
"I'm not hungry..." Lotte responded. She is still sad about how she didn't get any useful answers about the Curse of Annabel Creme.
"Sorry..." Akko apologized, before popping the pickled plum into her mouth.
Sucy stared at Akko's jar of pickled plums. There is something in there other than plums and vinegar. But what is it...? She thought to herself.
"It appears that you have something on your mind." Shiny Rod said to Sucy.
"None of your business." The puce-haired girl responded indifferently like she would usually do, except this time she's just pretending.
After that, the Red Coven resumed doing their things. Akko continued snacking on her pickled plums; Lotte continued thinking about how she may have to live with being Annabel Creme for the rest of her life; Wispy the Will-O-Wisp sat on the rim of the skull-shaped lantern that Lotte uses to carry it around, seemingly pitying its master's plight; Sucy continued eyeing Akko's jar of pickled plums with suspicion of its contents; and Shiny Rod... did absolutely nothing as it allows itself to be hung on its owner's sash.
In the background, Elfriede is still excited about the "fact" that "Annabel Creme" has been her classmate all along, and has to be restrained by Sarah so she doesn't go and disturb the Red Coven with her fangirling. The Purple Coven is still shooting their video, with Blair tossing a bucket-load of confetti over Avery for the current scene being filmed. Bice Clarke from the Lemon Coven is bragging to her Coven mates about how she is going to rule the world with an army of dragons, though she is quick to be dismissed by her friends as a Game of Thrones nut (Akko even called her a chunnibyou behind her back). Daisy is telling her Coven mates in the Puce Coven about how she wants to be the cutest idol in the world, only to throw a minor fit when Coven mate Heather Lockhart points out her masculine first name of James...
Everything in the cafeteria suddenly grounded to a halt, becoming so silent that one could hear a pin drop. Akko stopped her snacking to see what is going on.
Diana Cavendish has entered the cafeteria, stopping right by the entrance.
Most of the students currently present in the cafeteria still remembers when Diana tried to forcefully take Shiny Rod from Akko, and got zapped by the Rod for her attempt. Some of them started murmuring to each other about it when Diana turned her attention on Akko.
Akko noticed Diana staring at her. She instinctively tightened her grip on the Shiny Rod.
The Japanese girl's fear seems to be proven when the ace student started to approach her, hostile intent written on her face. Akko reached for her academy-issued wand (a replacement after her previous one was snapped in half by Annabel Creme), fully prepared to defend herself if necessary.
Sucy also noticed, as she stood up from her seat and, producing a corked vial from seemingly out of nowhere, prepared herself to face Diana. Lotte didn't react to Diana's approach, but Wispy did, as it hopped off its lantern and positioned itself in front of Akko.
"That girl is so determined, I am afraid of her..." Shiny Rod uttered
The atmosphere became intense as Diana slowly made her way toward the Red Coven. She noticed the Red Coven taking a defensive stance, but didn't reach for her wand.
That is when Chloe Dubois of all people suddenly appeared, placing herself between the Red Coven and Diana. Akko became confused as to why Chloe did so.
Chloe's mere presence cause Lotte to shrink away as her PTSD kicked in.
"Diana Cavendish," Chloe snarled at the ace student. "still trying to steal the Shiny Rod from its new owner?"
Only with Chloe getting involved did Diana reach for her wand. "None of your business, Dubois. Please get out of the way." She snarled back as she flipped her hair with her other hand.
Chloe reached for her wand, and slowly removed it from its holster. "You have already took my place as the ace of Luna Nova away from me. And now you're going to take the so-called Shiny Rod from Kagari? With force?"
"The Claiomh Solais was never hers to begin with." Diana snarled again. "Now stand aside." She then pulled her wand out of its holster.
"Or what? Don't tell me that a prim and proper lady like you would resort to violence!" Chloe basically taunted Diana to her face.
One could easily tell from Diana's expression that she is getting angrier, with how much her eyebrows have narrowed, and how hard she is grinding her teeth.
"Why are you helping me?" Akko cuts in during the intense moment to ask Chloe.
"I'm not, Kagari." Chloe answered without removing her sights on Diana. "You are just an non-factor caught in the crossfire."
Despite the intense moment, Akko felt offended by that statement. "I'm not a non-factor!"
"You were never supposed to be factor in the purpose of the Claiomh Solais in the first place!" Diana briefly ignored Chloe to tell Akko. The ace student then raised her wand, and attempted to use a telekinesis spell to pull the Shiny Rod from Akko's sash belt.
Chloe, however, interpreted Diana raising her wand as her preparing to attack, and attacked preemptively. Swinging her wand like a knife, Chloe hurled a magic bolt at Diana without uttering an incantation.
Diana, surprised by the sudden attack, swung her wand in a similar way at the magic bolt to deflect it away from her. The deflected bolt wounded up flying toward the windows, shattering one of many glass panes on them.
The other students in the cafeteria froze. Some of them have started to panic slightly as they realized that the confrontation has started to turn hot. Sarah and Elfriede became worried about what their Coven mate is about to do. Even Akko had a bad feeling about it as she along with Sucy and Wispy backed off.
Chloe then aimed her wand at Diana's face. The former French bully's face has provocation written all over it.
"En garde..."
And with that, Chloe started flinging another magic bolt at Diana, followed by another, and another, and another...
Diana, now knowing what to expect, expertly deflected each magic bolt away from her, even making sure she doesn't accidentally deflect them toward a fellow student. Although just the fight starting is enough to make everyone else in the cafeteria either bolt out of it quickly or flip tables over to hide behind them as covers.
The Red Coven have similarly taken cover behind a table Akko flipped over. Wispy has made a hasty retreat back to its lantern which Lotte then hugged close to herself.
"This has escalated, hasn't it?!" Akko cried out as she hunkered down behind the flipped table. "But I bet Diana is going to win, with how she is so good at everything!"
Sucy isn't all that worried about getting hit in the crossfire, as she poked her head out from behind the cover to observe Chloe and Diana fighting.
"As much as it is hard for anyone to believe, Miss Perfect Cabbage won't win this one..." The puce-haired girl informed.
"Huh?" Akko did not understand why Sucy made that claim. She poked her head out of cover out of curiosity. "Why did you think Diana is going to...lose...this...one...?"
It quickly became apparent why Sucy said so. Just a minute into the fight, Diana is already showing signs of fatigue, with her left hand swinging her wand just barely fast enough to intercept and deflect Chloe's magic bolts, whereas Chloe looks like she could keep this up for much longer. In addition, Diana is also starting to get pushed back a step for every magic bolt that she deflects.
Another minute into the fight, and Diana has become even more fatigued, with some of the magic bolts becoming so poorly deflected that they barely clear her body. Her right hand is also clutching her chest as her breathing became labored. Diana's expression went from that of anger to that of panic.
"There is something other than her attitude that Miss Perfect Cabbage isn't so perfect at..." Sucy pointed out as she continued to observe the fight.
Diana is backed into a wall as Chloe kept up with the assault. Diana struggled to continue deflecting magic bolts, until she couldn't keep up anymore as she completely fails to deflect one, which blasted her wand out of her hand.
"I win, Cavendish..." Chloe gloated about her victory as she kept her wand aimed at Diana. "What do you have to say about this?"
Diana didn't respond to that. She soon collapsed onto her knees, as her breathing became more labored than before.
"What's the matter, Cabbage-dish?" Chloe, having no clue what is going on with Diana, taunted her. "Need to catch a breath?"
All of a sudden, another magic bolt came from another direction and blasted Chloe's wand out of her hand.
That magic bolt was fired by Professor Nelson, who held her wand as though it is a handgun.
"Miss Dubois, what the hell are you doing?!" Nelson yelled at Chloe as she lowered her wand and approached the former French bully. "And what is going on with Miss Cavendish?!"
"Diana tried to attack the Red Coven, but then Chloe stepped in to stop her..." Someone in the cafeteria filled the Broom Flight instructor in with what happened. "A fight ensued, and Chloe actually beat Diana. But then Diana suddenly collapsed and started gasping for air..."
Nelson turned to glance at Diana, seeing the ace student non-verbally pleading for help while still gasping.
"That is true, professor." Chloe admitted. Since she was caught red handed, she figured she might as well tell the truth.
Nelson turned toward Chloe and glared at her, sending her the message that she should shut up, which Chloe obeyed.
"Miss Dubois," Nelson said to Chloe as she then helped Diana up, putting the ace student's left hand over her shoulders. "head to the headmistress's office and await further instructions, while I take Miss Cavendish to the infirmary."
...
Faerie workers' bathroom
Later that night...
Once the matter was brought to the attention of Headmistress Holbrooke, Chloe ended up getting a detention which she will have to serve by cleaning the faerie workers' bathroom for the next seven days. Unfortunately, since Deputy Headmistress Finneran happened to be in the headmistress's office when Chloe was brought there, Sarah and Elfriede ended up getting the same detention just for being in the same Coven as Chloe, as per Finneran's policy of punishing an entire Coven for one member's transgression. Which meant that by the time their detention ends next Saturday, the Beige Coven will have only half a day to prepare for the banquet with Appleton Academy next Sunday night.
Nelson had also added that, according to witness reports, it is technically Diana who started the fight by attempting to forcefully take Shiny Rod from Akko, and Chloe is merely trying to stop her (unaware that Chloe did it out of her personal grudge against Diana), so Diana should be punished too. But Finneran vetoed giving Diana detention not because the fight had put the ace student in the infirmary for the rest of the day, but rather that she simply refused to believe Diana would do something so irrational ("Despite having almost the entire academy witnessing it?!" Nelson had pointed out).
And so, the Beige Coven found themselves in the faerie workers' bathroom, serving their detention by cleaning it alongside the Red and Green Covens (for just this night, as the Reds and Greens' detention ends tonight).
"All this while that damned Cabbage gets off Scot-free - pun not intended - and gets to chill out in the infirmary." Amanda, standing on top of the troll bathtub, brought it up as she pitied the Beige Coven girls, who had to serve the same detention as she, her Coven mates, and the Red Coven did, but for an entire week. "Bitchface Finneran sure is a bitch, right?"
Chloe then kicked a water bucket like a football into a wall, hard enough that both the bucket and wall deformed on impact. "That Irish Sac A Merde!" She then cursed.
"I just fixed that bucket, Chloe!" Sarah complained to her friend. "Now there is a wall to fix as well!"
Elfriede, on the other hand, just gave an awkward shrug to Teresa - who was assigned by her mother to fill in for Diana in overseeing the detention, a task she wasn't thrilled to be given. Teresa did heard clearly that Chloe just insulted her mother, and she responded by actually scoffing at it and saying that the insult "wasn't powerful enough". Apparently, she hates her mother just as much as most of Luna Nova's students do.
At the same time, the Red and Green Covens are busy scrubbing the troll bathtub - Red Coven handling the outside and Green Coven handling the inside.
"I never knew Diana was actually sick..." Akko muttered.
"Respiratory illness, to be exact." Sucy told her. "Miss Perfect Cabbage can't perform anything even remotely close to a workout. Her lungs just couldn't handle anything faster than normal rates of breathing."
Akko started pondering. "Could that be why she wanted to claim Shiny Rod so badly? So she can cure her illness?"
"No." Shiny Rod, which Akko decided to bring with her just in case, cut in. "Her obsession with me is for one reason only: her 'mommy issues'. Otherwise, she wouldn't have tried to take me by force yesterday."
"Then how bad was her 'mommy issue' that she would risk her life just to get you?"
"I don't know the details, but I can tell that it is very bad."
"As bad as the issue between Amanda's broom and you?"
"Don't ever talk to me about that broom."
Sucy glanced at Shiny Rod for a bit. "Not as bad as between those two sapient items, I guess..."
"Your problem, Shiny Rod." Amanda, still standing at the top of the troll bathtub, shrugged.
"And stop calling me that!"
I realized that I haven't been using Chloe much despite having billed her as one of the main characters of this story, so this chapter is written to give her more time in the spotlight.
Poor Diana. Turns out that she also has a respiratory illness on top of her mommy issues. Our favorite Scottish Cabbage sure gets the short end of the stick when handled by some LWA fanfic writers, huh? Makes you just want to give her a hug despite her unhealthy obsession with wanting to claim Shiny Rod...
"Just remember: a believing heart is your magic..."
Afterwords end here.