Chapter 10: Flying high, crashing low.

Akko didn't like mornings. Cold, windy mornings were especially annoying. And on the sports field? Just plain torture. She usually wanted to die when presented with such a scenario, really! But… not that day. Why? Because the sports field was Luna Nova's sports field. Instead of balls there were brooms, and instead of sweaty shirts there were clean witches robes.

That's right! It was flying class! But most importantly, the first time she was being allowed to actually participate in that subject. She had already tried practicing with Amanda, of course, but in all her attempts she only got a sore throat and a scraped knee or two. And she hadn't managed to levitate even a centimeter off the ground.

But today it would be different! Because now she had actual, real magic! She was finally a witch! And with the blue tunic and pointy hat she certainly felt like one. She just wished her mom could see her right now. She was sure she would have been so proud of her!

Oh, well. She'd show her when she came back. After she rescued her. Yes.

"Atsuko!" Professor Nelson chastised her, when she noticed she wasn't paying attention. "Grip your broom tightly. We don't want you falling off on your first time."

"Y-Yes! Yeah. I will, professor." The girl stuttered, adjusting her trip on the broom like Amanda had taught her.

"Press your legs tightly together and make sure you don't slip down the shaft." She kept explaining the basics of flying while her classmates had fun high up in the air. Ugh. Less talking! More action! "Now, when you feel ready, just pronounce the spell; Tya fre-."

"Tya freire!" Akko was already yelling the spell before the professor had a chance to finish her explanation. Instantly, she felt some energy transferring from her hands to her broom, like a tickling, and for a moment it seemed like the broom would actually fly, but then… nothing. "Huh? Why is it not going up?"

"Concentrate, Atsuko." Professor Nelson answered. "Flying is certainly not a trivial task."

"Hmf." Akko just pouted before pronouncing the spell once more, this time trying to concentrate more on the magic flowing between her and her broom. But… suddenly, and without warning, her broom shot up to the sky at maximum speed with her having absolutely no control over it, and she had to hold on for dear life.

"Atsuko Callistis, what do you think you're doing?" The professor shouted at her, but she could just scream in terror as her broom started going up and down erratically and doing pirouettes and such, as if trying to shake her off. Well, not today. She would not fall. She would not…

"Stop!" She yelled at her broom, putting all her force of will in that single word. And… it worked? The broom stopped for a moment, letting her catch her breath, but then… it started freaking spinning.

"Ahhhhhh!" Akko screamed and tried to hold on, but ended up hanging from her hands, hoping the broom wouldn't do any more sudden movements, because she wasn't sure she could resist…

"Akko!" Amanda came flying towards her, stopping just a meter or so away. "Here, give me your hand." She extended her own hand for Akko to take, but as soon as the Japanese girl tried to reach for it, her own broom made a sudden jerky movement and she was unable to hold on with just one hand, so… she ended up falling to the ground despite Amanda's attempts to catch her. Thankfully, she wasn't so high up and the trees helped slow down her fall… even if she did end up with a couple of bruises and scratches from the branches. She still felt all air leave her lungs when she landed on the ground though, and there was also a sharp pain on her torso… maybe a broken rib? It certainly felt like it.

She groaned and tried to get up, thankfully with Amanda rushing towards her and helping her stand up. Her other friends weren't far behind either, and started asking her if she was okay and such, with Jasminka even offering her a candy to make her feel better, which she immediately accepted. But before she could really recover from what had happened, she heard her least favorite voice in the entire planet.

"Oh, look at that, Akko fell from her broom!" Hannah laughed.

"She's such a disgrace for this school." Barbara agreed. "She shouldn't even be allowed near brooms. Now even to clean the floor." The two then continued laughing at Akko's expense.

"Not that I'm surprised by the outcome. Blood witches can't fly." Hannah added maliciously, staring directly into Akko's eyes.

"Now listen, you two stupid, stuck up, aristocrats!" Akko started marching towards them, intending to give them a piece of her mind, but Lotte stopped her.

"Akko, come on. You need to go to the infirmary." She said.

"But Lotte!"

"She's right." Professor Nelson came flying just then. "Miss Yanson, would you mind accompanying her there? The rest of you, continue on with your exercises."

Amanda just gave Akko a reassuring smile before taking off on her broom once more, no doubt eager to continue flying. Jasminka offered her a whole bag of candy and Constanze gave her a thumbs up before they too flew off. Sucy, on the other hand just smiled maliciously and said:

"Do get better soon. I have an experiment planned for tomorrow." And then she flew off as well.

"Come on, Akko, let's go to the infirmary." Lotte said, helping her into her own broom before the two also flew up into the sky.

Akko said nothing. She was sore, yes, but… not just physically. She had always wanted to fly, and now she had the magic to do so! And still, it seemed like her broom didn't want to fly with her on top. It had been so weird! Like it was trying to shake her off. But why? Was it what Hannah said? Blood witches can't fly? Maybe she'd have to as Croix when she saw her. For now… it was time to go to the infirmary for the hundredth time.

After drinking the usual nasty potion for her broken bones and getting all banged up (because cuts and bruises apparently weren't important enough to get magic treatment) Akko was finally dismissed from the infirmary and sent to class once more. Unfortunately, it was the last class of the day, since bones took a ridiculous amount of time to heal, even with the help of magic. But that was okay. She'd just have to practice her metamorphosis magic and then she could rest for the day. Should be easy, right? She'd already casted the spell before.

Except… yeah, if wasn't easy at all. They were supposed to turn a mouse into a small dog, but… all Akko managed to do was to give herself ears and a tail (again), and even fully transform into a dog at one point. But the mouse remained a mouse.

No wonder she was getting weird looks from her classmates, and even her friends! She was a failure. But… hey! At least she was doing magic, right?

And so, she was ready to go to her room and sleep for the night when, after an unusually silent dinner, Amanda told her they needed to talk. She just assumed the school thief was planning something and would need the aid of the red team, as usual, but something told her that wasn't the case this time, so she got a little nervous.

Still, as soon as the six of them got into the red team's room, Akko simply sat on her bed and smiled at Amanda.

"So… what's up? You gonna sit?" Yeah, all her friends were still standing and staring at her, so it felt kinda like an interrogation. She even got the bad kind of butterflies in her stomach. Thankfully, Polaris immediately jumped to her lap and let her pet him, probably in an attempt to calm her down.

"Akko..." Surprisingly, Sucy was the one who started. "What are you hiding from us?"

"What? Me? Pft. Don't be ridiculous! I'm not hiding anything!" Yeah… she wasn't exactly a great liar, and so she almost cringed at how false her words sounded.

"Oh yeah?" Amanda finally interfered, staring at her with an almost angry look. "Then explain this." She took out her wand a d held it, the tip lighting up immediately. "What color is it?" She asked, pointing at the spot of magic energy.

"Uh… green?"

Amanda then gave her wand to Akko, and the magic energy immediately changed colors.

"What about now?"

"Pink-ish?" Akko answered, not understanding what was her point.

"All witches have green magic energy." Lotte gently explained. "Had you never noticed?"

Honestly… Akko had noticed, but she had been more preoccupied on the actual spells than the color of the magic energy, but… this was probably because her magic wasn't her own, right? But she couldn't just outright say that.

"What does this have to do with anything?" She asked defensively.

"Everything!" Amanda answered, now sounding actually angry, startling Akko and everyone else in the room. "A broom doesn't refuse orders for no reason! A broom doesn't try to shake off it's rider just because! And the fact that your magic is of such a different color… just where the fuck did you get it?"

"I…" Akko was about to try and lie her way out of this, but then she looked at her friends. Sucy seemed to be indifferent, but her tense shoulders indicated she probably cared about what was happening. Lotte just seemed to be worried for her, as well as Jasminka. Constanze was staring at her as if she was a mechanical puzzle she couldn't solve, and Amanda… yeah, Amanda was furious, but probably only because she was worried she'd done something stupid.

This were her friends. Had been for almost a year now. They cared about her, and had always tried to support her. She could trust them, right?

"Fine." She sighed. "I'll tell you the truth, but you have to promise me not to tell anyone else."

And so, she proceeded to tell them about Croix and her inventions, and how she'd used technology to give her magic. Still, she omitted the fact that Croix was a Blood Witch, and that now she technically was one too. She didn't want them to distrust her or call her crazy, since they didn't believe Blood Witches were even real.

By the end of her story, everyone was giving her weird looks, and she was getting a little nervous, to be honest, so she laughed awkwardly.

"So… yeah, that's how I got magic. Heh."

"Idiot." Sucy was the first one to say something. "I know I usually use you as my personal lab rat, but at least I'm your friend. You probably shouldn't let a stranger experiment on you just like that."

"She's not a stranger! She's my mom's ex-girlfriend!" She protested.

"But it's still dangerous." Lotte was the one who intervened this time. "You don't know her, or why she broke up with your mom."

"Plus, if it really is untested technology, it could have had secondary effects we don't yet know of." Sucy added.

"But I'm fine! Nothing bad happened! She was really nice and helpful, and she genuinely cares about me." Akko insisted, getting frustrated and mad at her friends. "Honestly, Sucy, my life is in more danger being with you than around her." She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"But Akko… what happened today at flying class could have killed you. And it was undoubtedly a result of your magic being artificial." Amanda was the one who spoke this time. "Didn't this woman warn you about it?"

"Okay, first of all, her name is Croix. And second… she has a car and a motorcycle! Why would she try to ride a broom? She probably didn't know what would happen if I did it."

"Still… there's something fishy about all of this." Amanda answered, scrunching her nose as if she could actually smell the fishy odor of the situation. Akko just rolled her eyes.

"Look, I know how to take care of myself. Just because I wasn't born a witch doesn't mean I'm stupid or something. And… I promise I'll be careful, alright? Let's just forget about all of this." Her friends, however, turned to look at each other with questioning looks. Akko huffed. "Pleaaaaaase?" She insisted giving them her best puppy dog eyes.

"Fine for me." Sucy said. "This clearly isn't going anywhere."

"Just… be cautious, alright Akko?" Lotte asked, and Constanze quickly nodded her head, seconding her request.

"Hey, you know me! My second name is Caution!" She joked, but was met with the unamused gazes of her friends.

"I just wish you know what you're doing." Amanda said before turning to her roommates. "Cons, Jas. I think we're done here."

Before leaving, Jas gave Akko a candy and a small smile… that actually seemed a bit concerned.

"You shouldn't drink something if you don't know the ingredients." She simply said before turning around and following the others out of the room.

Akko sighed and laid down on her bed, popping Jas' candy into her mouth. Oh! It was good! Still… she didn't understand why all the fuzz, although it was nice knowing there were so many people who worried about her, but… she didn't see the need! Croix was nice, and beautiful, considerate, helpful, loving… seriously, there was just one more person who was on her level, and that was her mom. She didn't feel the need to be cautious around her. She could just relax and enjoy herself. Why couldn't her friends understand that?

She sighed.

Hopefully, she'd be able to see Croix soon. And maybe ask her if there was a way she could fly. Because, what was the point of even being a witch if you can't use a broom, right?

A/N: Ooof. It's been a while since I last updated this fic, hasn't it? But here's the new chapter, and I hope the next one can be done soon as well XD. If you liked it please leave a review/favorite/follow, because it really helps a lot, and see you in the next one!

Thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.