Fusion Cuisine – Part I: Stirring the Pot
Disclaimer: In case you haven't figured it out yet, I don't own Little Witch Academia. All LWA-related characters, settings, etc. are the intellectual property of Studio Trigger and Yoh Yoshinari.
[-]
"Order up for table sixteen!"
A petite girl, her chestnut-brown hair tied in a tight knot, wound her way through the hustle and bustle of the crowded restaurant. Rather than waste precious time standing aside whenever she met resistance, she contorted her body around, over, and under customers and other waitstaff alike, not breaking her stride for even an instant until she stood before the expediter.
"Ready for table sixteen, papa!" she said with a sunny grin. "Two orders of yakisoba, one gluten-free, and a pitcher of draft beer!"
The bearded man sighed even as he began passing the food and drink into the girl's eager hands.
"How many times have I told you, Akko-chan…" he groaned. "When bussing tables…walk. Don't run."
"You worry too much. I've been doing this since I was six, you know!" Akko declared pointedly, though the dangerous wobbling of the pitcher in her scrawny arms didn't especially help her case. "Besides, this is gonna be my last shift for a while. Gotta make it a magical one!"
"Please, just not literally," called an older female voice from the kitchen. "We don't need a repeat of what happened at the New Year's party."
"Okay, first off, that was one time!" said Akko. "And second, mama, how was I supposed to know 'flammable' and 'inflammable' mean the same thing? I swear, English is such a weird language!"
Seeing the stern stare on her father's face however, and knowing her mother was surely matching it from behind the cloud of steam that obscured her, Akko ultimately relented with a deadpan, "Fine, I will not use any more magic until closing."
Then, before her father could mutter more than, "Wait…more…?" the teenaged girl was off like a shot, humming a merry J-pop tune as she handed table sixteen their dinner.
Naturally, she ran all the way there.
[-]
The rest of the shift went by fairly routinely. Friday nights were always pretty packed, as salarymen and women shuffled out from the nearby business district in droves, eager to drink away the troubles of the long workweek.
Kagari's was primarily an eatery rather than a bar, but they would've been insane to set up business in the heart of Tokyo and not offer a variety of beers, wine, and sake.
Combined with the warm atmosphere and comfortable seating, and it wasn't uncommon for it to be almost midnight when the last red-faced diner shuffled home.
All of which Akko was well-used to. As she told her parents, she'd been working in the family restaurant almost as long as she'd been able to walk and talk. Taking orders, bussing tables, and cleaning up vomit stains in the bathroom were (unfortunately, in the latter case) as natural to her as breathing.
Tonight, she was sweeping. A lot of sweeping. She was pretty sure table ten must've been construction workers, because there was no other earthly way they could've tracked in this much dirt.
"Alright, register's taken care of, and I've locked everything up," said her father, wiping his brow of sweat and letting out a weary sigh. "Akko-chan, are you still cleaning up after table ten?"
"It's not my fault! I don't even know how they got stuff stuck in the little grooves in the floorboards, but…" Akko's voice trailed off, as her eyes went wide with a sudden idea. "But maaaaaaybe if I use a little levitation spell…"
"Atsuko," her father cut her off, causing the girl to gulp audibly. He only used her full name when he really needed to make a point. "We've been over this. I know you're really excited about going to Luna Nova, but the whole point is for you to practice your magic in a controlled environment. Your results to this point have been…well, let's go with sporadic."
Akko puffed out her cheeks and pouted, even though she knew he was right. Still, the reminder of her new school picked up her spirits immediately.
"Can you believe it, papa?" she asked, quite literally bouncing on the soles of her feet. "After all these years, I'm going to Luna Nova tomorrow! The same school Shiny Chariot went to!"
"Yes, a fact that we've only heard about five thousand times now," said her mother as she exited the kitchen, though she was smiling indulgently. "But we're happy you're so excited, sweetheart. We know this has been your dream since you were little."
"Yeah, and I won't miss the six-hour after school shifts, either!" exclaimed Akko, without thinking. But she didn't miss the slight twinge in her parents' expressions as she did.
Biting her lip, she added in a smaller voice, "Umm…I hope you're not disappointed. That I'm not gonna continue in the family business, I mean."
Her father's face tightened even more, and his feet shuffled in place.
"It's true that this restaurant has been in the Kagari family for four generations. And that I always expected to pass it along to my child, the way my father did for me," he admitted. "But you aren't us, Akko-chan. You have your own hopes and dreams to explore."
"And if that means going off to magic school…" his wife finished, placing an arm around their daughter's shoulder. "Well, we're going to miss you terribly. But you have our full support."
"You guys…" said Akko, sniffing audibly as her father joined in, turning it into a somewhat lopsided group hug.
"But we wanted to make sure you weren't leaving here empty-handed," her mother continued without missing a beat. "One last gift from Kagari's…to its brightest shining star."
"Umeboshiiiiii!" squealed a delighted Akko, accepting the offered jar and pressing it tightly against her chest. "Oh, picked plums, I love you so~! Pickled plums, if-anyone-ever-tries-to-take-you-away-from-me-I-will-say heck nooooooooo~!"
Her parents cast a quick glance between them as they watched Akko deliver this impromptu musical number.
"At least she's…been practicing her English?" her father stated hopefully. "I know I shouldn't be so worried, but I can't help it."
"I'm sure she'll be fine," replied his wife, clasping her hands over her chest. "Any girl who survived my kitchen can do anything."
[-]
Halfway around the world and five years later, Akko awoke with a start.
As was typical for the brunette, even as an ostensible "adult," it took her several moments to figure out where she was and what she'd done the previous night. A glance at her phone solved at least one of those mysteries.
"Oh right, Munich," she said groggily, blinking her bleary eyes as she slowly took in the sights of the low-grade hotel room surrounding her. Turned out saving magic and becoming an internationally recognized superstar didn't necessarily translate to fancy accommodations when you were touring. "I've got that show today in…"
Akko stopped midsentence, and did a double take at her phone screen.
"Twenty minutes…!" she wailed in distress, already leaping from her bed and out of her pajamas. She'd specifically scheduled this show for noon, because she knew she had a tendency to oversleep on her first day in a new city.
Or…most days, to be honest.
As Akko scrambled around her hotel room, pulling on clothes and brushing her teeth and doing her best to manage her bedhead without the shower she in no way had time for, she found her mind wandering to the dream she'd just had. Why would she be remembering her days before Luna Nova now, of all times?
Could it be that she was just homesick? But she had seen her parents just last Christmas. And they video-chatted, like, all the time. Possibly more than was really healthy.
So if it wasn't that, then…
Maybe it was the restaurant she was missing?
Akko froze, her leg partway through a pair of heavily weathered jeans.
It'd been such a huge part of her life for so long. She'd grown up in that cozy little eatery – worked there, played there, developed her maybe-slightly-less-than-healthy food stealing habits from its pantry. Her first words, she'd been told many times, had been a lisping "Order up!"
And then suddenly, it just…wasn't.
Not in the face of finally being accepted to the school of her dreams. Of meeting the best friends she'd ever had. Of seeking the Seven Words, unlocking the Grand Triskelion, and restoring magic to the world.
Of learning the dark secret held by the woman she idolized above any other…and choosing to forgive her in spite of it.
After graduation, she'd launched straight into touring as "Akko the Shining Star" (just enough of a twist that the company which technically still held the "Shiny Chariot" merchandising rights couldn't sue her for trademark infringement, heyooooo~!) and pretty much never looked back.
Why would she? This was her dream, and she was living it.
Okay, so maybe it wasn't all sunshine and smiles. Her tour schedule could get…well, exhausting was one word for it. Having lived nearly all her life in either the same tiny Tokyo apartment, or the Luna Nova dormitories, it took her quite a bit of time to get used to sleeping in a new hotel every night, her fatigued brain constantly readjusting between time zones.
And while there was nothing she loved more than interacting one-on-one with fans, especially the kids, some of them were…umm, not quite that. She still shuddered when she remembered an older man who'd lined up for her autograph in Florida, and who – before getting carted off by security – had loudly and passionately insisted that she sell him the socks she was currently wearing "for research purposes."
Combined with the glitz and glam and constant shutter-flashes of the paparazzi, and tabloid articles claiming decidedly untrue things about her love life (i.e. that it existed), and that she couldn't Tweet her excitement about the Spy X Family premiere without a million trolls barraging her that she wasn't a "real fan" unless she read the manga beforehand…
Well, it didn't change how much she loved performing. How much she enjoyed seeing the faces of the young and young-at-heart alike light up with the wonders of magic, the way Chariot once had for her.
But the "being famous" part of it? Yeah…maybe not all it was cracked up to be.
Enough, it seemed, to make a small part of her long for the days when she was an anonymous waitress serving overlarge bowls of ramen.
Before Akko could carry that train of thought any further, it was derailed quite thoroughly by the first few dulcet notes of "Moonlight Densetsu." That ringtone could mean only one thing.
The brunette fumbled for her phone again, realizing belatedly that in her haste to check the time, she'd ignored the fact that she had…
Huh. Forty-seven missed calls from her manager.
With great trepidation, Akko gingerly touched her finger to the "answer" icon.
"Ooooooh, now she picks up! Where in the everloving blue blazes are you right now?!" the older woman practically screamed her ear off.
"Umm…if I said I was still at the hotel, how mad would y…" Akko started to say, before being cut off by what could only be described as a banshee's wail of frustration.
She stood there frozen for several moments, still half-dressed and with a hairbrush dangling from her other hand, as she listened to her manager's very loud, heavily controlled breathing.
"The venue…is forty-five minutes from your hotel. You're due to go on in fifteen," she spoke very slowly, like Finnelan when she was convinced (admittedly, often correctly) that Akko wasn't taking in a word of what she was saying. "Please tell me you can do the math there."
"I'm so, so, so sorry, Erica-san!" Akko exclaimed, feeling the urge to bow in apology even if it wouldn't do much good over the phone. "Could you, erm…possibly stall them…?"
A very long, very drawn-out sigh could be heard on the other end of the line.
"Fifty-thousand screaming kids and parents, some of whom traveled halfway across Europe to see the biggest name in the magical world?" said Erica, very dryly. "I…will see what I can do."
"Thank you! I'll be there as soon as I can!" Akko shouted back, dropping her phone back on the bed and returning to scrambling for clothes.
Of course, that conversation only made the Japanese girl feel even more guilty. Nine times out of ten, Erica was a joy to be around, sharing her passions for anime, Pokémon, and fresh-baked fruit tarts. Combine that with her miraculous ability to somehow keep Akko's easily distractable ass on task, and her manager probably deserved a Shiny Rod of her own. Or ten!
So for her to be this pissed off…woof. Akko had really screwed it up this time.
At last, she finished throwing her Shining Star costume into a duffle bag, figuring she'd change once she got to the venue. Or maybe come out dressed like this, jeans and ratty HeroAca t-shirt, and change into it using magic – that usually got a big cheer as an opener.
Akko slapped at her cheeks with both palms. Focus, girl! There'd be time to decide that on the cab ride over.
As she practically flew out of her hotel room and into the elevator, however, there was a nagging part of her brain that couldn't quite dislodge a stray thought…
That she really wasn't cut out for a career where schedules mattered this much.
[-]
Several hours later, Akko the Shining Star was descending from the stadium's main stage to thunderous applause.
Trying not to dwell on how hollow it made her feel.
It'd been a great show, to be sure. Maybe one of her best! Each of her transformations went off without a hitch, and the part of the program where she jumped on her broom and did daredevil stunts had never gone off better. Anyone watching would've been hard-pressed to guess that five years ago, she hadn't been able to rise a single centimeter off the ground.
Maybe it was because, after its rather unorthodox beginning, everything that followed could only feel like a bit of a letdown.
It turned out that Erica's idea of "stalling" involved pulling none other than Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger from the audience, and having her entertain the audience with her latest and greatest mecha. Which…okay, sure, getting to see Conz was one of the main reasons she'd asked to schedule a show in Germany. She did the same with Russia, America, Finland, and the Philippines.
(And just those countries. Just those countries.)
But what kind of person brings a scale model of the Gurren Lagann – and by "scale model," she literally meant life-sized – to an event like this, and has it ready to pull it out at a moment's notice? Complete with a genuine, functioning Drill that Will Pierce the Heavens?
Conz, apparently.
And Akko's improvised entrance when she finally arrived? Surrounding herself in a magically generated illusion of EVA-01, and having the two titans of GAINAX square off in an explosion of stars? It'd felt…electric.
The way her first few shows had. Back when it was all fresh and new.
By comparison, once Constanze silently bowed her way off the stage with a smile and a thumbs-up, the rest of the show was…well, it was fine. Just fine. Like a million others she'd done in London, and Cairo, and Bangkok, and Rio de Janeiro.
The cities and the faces changed. But she didn't.
[Ya look uncharacteristically glum. Find somewhere else ta mope, wontcha?]
Akko turned suddenly to see Constanze perched on top of one of her Stan-bots, the automaton's tinny mechanical voice echoing through the backstage hallway.
Since graduation, the pint-sized engineer had made quite a number of improvements to her signature creations, but their attitude wasn't one of them.
"Thanks for the save out there, Conz. Seriously! That had to be one of the top ten coolest things I've ever seen, and I turned into a fish once!" she said. "You gotta show me sometime how you get the magitronics to work without a Sorcerer's Stone. I mean, I'm sure I wouldn't get it, but I still wanna know!"
Constanze made a waving motion with her hand. Akko felt a little ashamed that she'd never learned much sign language, even though the German girl "spoke" about a dozen different kinds, but she was pretty sure that one meant something like "think nothing of it."
Regardless, Akko's attempts to change the subject failed miserably in the face of the irritatingly perceptive Stan-bots.
[Seriously, if yer face was any longer, it'd be Sucy's rap sheet. What's got the cheeriest broad in the world so down?]
"'Broad'? What even is their accent?" asked the Japanese girl, eliciting a tiny shrug from her friend. "Well, anyway…look, it's nothing. Just getting into my head too much. By the way, so glad Amanda isn't here to say 'first time for everything, right?' Aaaaand I just zinged myself…"
Constanze let out a small, silent chuckle.
"I guess it's just…" Akko found herself continuing, without really meaning to. "I mean, I dreamed of this my whole life. Learning magic, going to Luna Nova, it was all so I could…so I could be like Chariot. And even after I found out the truth from Ursula-sensei, that didn't change."
[But it don't really feel like ya thought it would, right?]
"You sure you didn't program those things to read minds?" she said. "Don't answer that by the way, if I find out mind-reading tech exists I will literally never sleep next to my phone again, thank you very much."
Constanze cocked her head to the side and raised a bushy eyebrow.
"I mean, don't get me wrong. I love what I do. I love getting to put smiles on people's faces, and fill their believing hearts with magic," Akko added quickly. "But these days, it just feels like there's something…missing. Maybe…"
But before she could complete that thought, an Hispanic woman with her hair in a tight bun rushed toward them, a panicked expression on her face.
That morning aside, "panic" wasn't a mode her manager typically fell into, so that grabbed Akko's attention immediately. "What's going on, Erica?" she asked.
The older woman huffed and puffed for a few seconds, clearly having run all the way here.
"A call came for you…during the show…on the secure line…" she said breathlessly. "Atsuko, it's…"
Erica inhaled deeply, then thrust a phone into the Japanese girl's hands.
"It's about your parents."
[-]
"You were in a car accident?!" Akko screamed into the receiver.
"Honestly, honey, I think you're making far too big a deal out of this," said her father. "We're both going to be fine."
"Really now, we'd much rather hear how you are doing, dear! It's been almost two weeks since our last chat," her mother declared, in that simultaneously loving-and-guilt-tripping way that only moms could pull off. "How did today's show go?"
But Akko would not be put off by the change in subject. Not when this was a video call, and she could see with her own two eyes that…
"You both are in full body casts!" she exclaimed in exasperation. "That's 'fine' like I was 'fine' when I jumped off the roof trying to fly when I was ten! Because I figured a vacuum cleaner was close enough to a broom to count!"
"That certainly made for a memorable Christmas…" her mother mused idly, still sounding like she was taking this with altogether much too little seriousness.
"We just don't want you worrying on our behalf, Akko-chan," her husband said placatingly, before Akko could start again. "Yes, we'll be in this hospital for a while. But it could've been a lot worse. The doctor said we'll both recover without long-term complications, and insurance is covering the damage to the car so the financial hit shouldn't be too bad…"
"What about the restaurant?" asked Akko.
Instantly, the smiles faded from both of her parents' bandaged faces. Even though they were currently separated by two continents, Akko could almost feel the chill in the air surrounding them.
"There's…a lot we haven't told you about the restaurant lately, sweetheart," her mother replied carefully. "Honestly, this is probably going to be the end for Kagari's."
Akko's eyebrows shot all the way up her forehead, practically disappearing into her messy bangs.
"Wh…Wh…Whaaaaaaaaat…?!" she yelped. "That can't be! It's like…one of the pillars of the community! Open since the Taishō Era!"
"The community's changed a lot since you left for Luna Nova," said her father. "So much redevelopment in the past few years. Most of the local businesses have either closed down, or been bought out by Takeuchi Holdings. They're the real estate company that owns most of our block now. They want to turn the whole thing into high-end apartments."
His wife let out a heavy sigh, before adding, "They've been…pressuring us to sell for a while now. We refused. So they started pushing harder. Poaching our employees, doing noisy construction to drive away customers – that sort of thing."
"That's awful!" Akko growled, feeling a swell of indignance she hadn't tapped into since the Luna Nova fairy strike. "It's gotta be illegal!"
"Unfortunately, they've been very careful. Coming right up to the line of what's actionable without actually crossing it," her father explained, his tones low and solemn. "The only way we've been able to stay afloat was by working overtime to keep profits up. And with more and more of our employees leaving, that's pretty much just meant your mother and me."
"So…with you guys out of commission for a while…" Akko slowly realized aloud.
"We won't be able to make rent. The bank will foreclose," her mother said bluntly. "And more than likely, Takeuchi will pick up the property for a song."
Akko felt her throat go dry. Even if she didn't love every single thing about it, Kagari's was…was a part of her. More than a place. Like a member of their family.
She couldn't accept this. She couldn't.
"Someone has to be able to take over, just for a few weeks!" Akko exclaimed. "Otsuka, or…or Tsutsumi!"
But her father just shook his head.
"Both left years ago. Along with all the other old-timers," he told her. "And our last chef quit last Friday. Only people I got left are a couple newbie waitstaff. Neither has any clue how to run a restaurant."
Akko sat there for several moments, the phone shaking in her hand as she fought back tears.
Then, without thinking, the words tumbled from her mouth.
"I'll do it."
It was almost funny that, despite the obstructions over her parents' mouths, Akko could tell they'd both gone completely agape.
"Did…I just hear what I thought I did…?" her mother asked slowly. "Akko, sweetie, you don't know anything about running a restaurant either."
"I know!" said the Japanese girl, hands nonetheless balled into determined fists. "But I can't let this happen! I know how much the restaurant means to you. To ojii-san. To all your customers!"
"Even so, Akko-chan. I've seen your tour schedule," her father responded back. "You've got shows in four countries in the next two weeks alone."
Akko blinked and bit her lip. Now really wasn't the time to share any of the…second thoughts she'd been having lately. There'd be time for that later.
Instead, all she said was, "Erica-san will understand. And so will my fans. We'll just say I'm taking some time off for family reasons."
She watched as her parents turned to each other and shared a long, meaningful glance. She'd often felt, growing up, that her mama and papa had a way of communicating that went beyond mere words – a magic far greater than any taught at Luna Nova.
Finally, they looked Akko squarely in the eye through their webcam.
"This…means a lot, my shining star. For you to offer something so generous. I know Kagari's was never where your dreams lay," spoke the bearded man. "But your mother has a point. I know you can be a waitress, and cook a bit. But there's a lot more to managing a restaurant than just that. Payroll, taxes, inventory management…"
Akko cut him off by bowing her head forward. She knew from experience that if she didn't, he would keep the list running for an hour.
"I know, papa. I know I can't do this alone," she said. "One way or another…I'm gonna need some help."
And if she was in Tokyo, there was one person she knew would be able to offer that help. One person whose organizational skills would be up to this, or any other task.
Just one problem…
How incredibly awkward it was gonna be to ask.
[-]
At that same moment, a girl of the same age sat in the quad of Tokyo University's Graduate School of Medicine, staring intently at her phone.
Usually she wasn't particularly fond of these confounded contraptions. But she hadn't been able to catch the livestream due to a conflicting lecture, which meant WitchTube was her only chance of seeing today's show.
She never missed a single one, naturally. Not even that time when a series of performances in Hong Kong ran up against finals week. She'd barely been able to keep her eyes open but she'd still tuned in all the same.
Oftentimes, it was her only respite from the continual grind of medical school. A chance to transport herself back to a time when things were so much…simpler.
It probably said something about her that her definition of "simpler" included chasing down a dark magic-fueled ballistic missile and flying into space.
Still, a soft little grin spread over her face as she watched "Akko the Shining Star" do loop-de-loops through the air, throwing up magical fireworks in the shapes of dragons and unicorns. An expression those who only knew her no-nonsense classroom self would surely find bizarre.
Maybe it wasn't healthy for her to focus so much on this. To dwell on…
Her finger hovered over the progress bar, then slid it back a few seconds. Freezing it on a frame of Akko's smiling, laughing face.
…On what might have been.
But she was no more able to quit this habit than cease breathing the air. Even two years later.
Two long, long years later.
Then, as her thumb idly prepared to rewind the clip back to the beginning and start it again, her phone did something it virtually never did.
It buzzed.
The cause baffled her, at first. The device wasn't low on battery or in need of an update. Barely anyone had her number – only a few professors who generally preferred email or in-person chats. And the technophobic girl had never been able to figure out how to call up her email on this thing in the first place.
But the mystery was solved as the blonde medical student opened up an alert from her barely used texting app.
And read words she'd never expected to see again.
diana…
can we talk?
i need ur help
-akko