Kenji sat without much content as he listened without much interest to the lesson that was currently transpiring. Much to his own chagrin, he'd ended up picking the Modern Magic class per Akko's request, and as much as he hated to admit it, he was utterly useless whenever she'd ask him with those pleading eyes of hers.

But something about this, just sent an eerie chill down his spine. Not the lesson itself, but instead it was Croix, the one teaching it. Ever since she'd arrived, Kenji couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was something off about her.

Practically every other witch in the room was giddy about getting to learn a new form of magic and even Kenji couldn't deny how impressed he was with how well it did all seem to work.

'Still though...what did she do to that weird looking goblin?'

It didn't really matter at the moment, right now he was supposed to be booting up the tablets that had been given to him by Croix. But all he could do was stare at it empathetically watching as Akko happily flicked her on alongside Lotte, 'Not surprised Sucy didn't pick this class, doesn't really suit her'

"Now if all of you will simmer down and turn on your tablets, we can finally begin our lesson."


A new day began as Kenji sat at the breakfast table he usually did with Akko, Lotte and Sucy boringly picking at the mash and eggs that had been presented to him, not really in the mood to eat.

"Miss Croix's amazing isn't she!? She's smart, strong and beautiful all at the same time!" Akko boasted aloud, as if she wanted the entire cafeteria to hear them. Kenji was fine with listening to her; he just wasn't able to get a lot of sleep that night.

Amanda had also decided to sit with them, due to Jasminka and Constanze both off with other activities, she attempted once again to perform the same algorithm they'd been shown in class, failing once more, "I dunno this all just seems so damn complicated!"

"Yeah, sure it's a little difficult! But even magic has to adapt to the times you know!"

"Isn't that what makes the magic of this world so good though? The fact that it still feels old and ancient, adding in a bunch of technology just sort of ruins the appeal.." Kenji murmured loud enough for the others to hear him.

"I didn't think you'd have such a strong opinion on its Kenji," Lotte said assuredly.

Kenji scraped the last remains crumbs of toast off of his plate, humming in some form of agreement to what she'd said, "I don't, well not really. There's just something about Professor Croix that gives me some weird feeling, like at any moment she'll appear from behind with some dark and tragic backstory.."

"You seriously watch way too much stuff on your phone," Amanda gave him a look of pity, patting his back slightly, "Isn't the all just in movies, people like that don't really exist."

"I'd beg to differ," Kenji spoke in a hushed tone once more getting up from his seat with a start, "Back home, a magic school like this is just something in books, movies and shows and this is real.."

Before he could leave however, Akko tugged on his sleeve silently pleading for him to stay, "Come on Kenji! You might not like her, but just stay and talk about her a bit for me, she really a talented witch back when she attended Luna Nova!"

In all honesty, Kenji had been paying close attention to what they'd been saying for the past 10 or so minutes so and had gotten somewhat invested, "Sure, but doesn't it say here that she was the moonlit witch back then, I swear Chariot was as well?" Kenji gestured to the old newspaper article Lotte was holding.

"Ohhh I bet they were rivals!" Akko grinned pumping her fist slightly.

'I got money on Chariot winning that kind of fight..'

"Rivals? They were nothing of the sort, the two of them couldn't be any different than each other," Appearing out of thin air was both Professor Finnelan and Nelson.

"Yeah, Croix was a very potent magic user as well as studious, Chariot usually like to hold all of her assignments till the last minutes," Nelson explained in further detail.

Miss Finnelan suddenly spoke up, "And also Chariot had explementary magical prowess, all she ended up doing with it was treating magical like some silly show it was waste of her own skill and time!"

Akko shriveled a bit at the sudden badmouthing of Chariot, Kenji did as well. He really didn't get why everyone hated Chariot so much, 'Just a witch who wanted to achieve her dream and did it, what do I know though. She could be a war criminal.'

"It's alright Akko, she'll still gave you the idea for wanting to become a witch, doesn't that prove that she did do something during her time as a performer?" Kenji whispered to the brunette earning back her usual bright smile.

She hugged him ever so slightly, not enough for anyone to notice but enough for him to get the message.

Both Professor Finnelan and Nelson continued to rant between one another, completely unaware that Akko had sprinted off, even if Lotte took notice, she wall still unaware of where she had gone.

Kenji knew however, she'd gone off to find Croix.


Meanwhile, Kenji made his way outside. Crystal and wand firmly in hand, he didn't have all that much to do that day due to few if any classes, exams were coming up after all, so they'd been given a Luna Nova form of study leave.

'I need to learn a certain number of spells, and now that I can do magic, I don't really have an excuse'

It was certain step of spells that had to be performed in unison with one another, both fire, wind, ice and finish it off with a somewhat grand lighting spell, 'I don't know if I'm under achieving or is this school just expecting too much from us..'

Flicking his wrist and wand simultaneously, a small ember of fire flurried from the green orb, "Kertina Feriare-" Before he could manifest the incantation completely, it grew at an alarmin rate blowing up at point-blank range of his face.

"*Cough* *Cough* That...wasn't supposed to happen. What the hell is this crystal? I mean what kind of magic did that guy put in this to make it last for so long and have the magic to do something like that.." Wiping the smoke and ash of his face, Kenji studied the spell book he'd been graciously gifted by Lotte and looked back over the stance he should've taken.

'So that's where I went wrong..'

"Are you alright Kenji? I could see the smoke from across the other side of the campus.." Kenji recognised that voice, it belonged to Akko's tutor. The mysterious blue-haired teacher now as Miss Ursula.

"Mm, oh yeah I'm good. I just greatly miscalculated on how I powerful this crystal is," He gestured to the green object hung around his neck, it was glowing a bright emerald hue hovering slightly above its usual dangling look.

Adjusting the glasses that were drooping over her nose, revealing a slight tint of red in her eyes, Ursula spoke up, "Right...it is a strange little thing, isn't it? I remember when you received it at the Fountain of Polaris, that reminds me, are you any closer to getting home?"

Although he was finding it a tad strange that Ursula was striking a conversation with, Kenji ignored it for now; they'd spoken before so it wouldn't be that out there, "Not close, per say anyways. Constanze has starting working on the foundation of it but other than that...we haven't had that much luck without a good source of magic."

Frowning at his answer, Ursula gently placed down the books she was reading and walked over to Kenji with her wand now brandished out, "But that's fine, right? After all you'll get to spend more time with Akko, right?"

Doing his best not to blush, Kenji focused his attention back to his wand and the stance that was being displayed in the book, "I guess...it's not that I don't. Leaving after only a week of me and Akko dating would be a little...anti-climactic considering everything, so right now I'm gonna be doing my best alongside her," He announced attempting the spell once more only for it to, yet again backfire into his face.

"You really should be trying to enhance and control the output of the fire, the way you're standing is important but doesn't really matter considering when this type of spell should be used," Ursula explained demonstrating a single shot of fire at a nearby column blasting it to bits.

"Are you allowed to do that?" Kenji queried turning to the teacher who now wore a panicked expression, "I mean...no one really saw you do it."

"Right, I just hope Professor Finnelan doesn't find out, I'm on thin ice as is..."

As the small lesson continued, Kenji remembered back to how Ursula had reacted to hearing of the new Modern Magic teacher. More importantly the shocked look she had upon hearing that it was Croix.

"So...Miss Ursula, do you a Croix know each other?" As soon as he finished his question the woman spluttered messing up the spell, she was halfway through completely.

'I'll take that as a yes..'

Recomposing herself, Ursula stood up as if nothing happened, "I m-mean we knew each other back in school, but I wouldn't go as far as to stay we were anything more than just classmates," She horribly failed to cover up the obvious lie she was telling.

"Ok...so I take you two where good friends then? Did something happen?"

Ursula simply sighed, quick to realize that she been found out. Not that she was surprised, her lie was practically written all over her face, "Yes, something managed to get in between the two of us, and over the years we were both such different people than we were back then. Why do you ask by the way? Did Akko put your up to this, because you don't seem like the type of person to ask something like this.."

Taking a second to think about it Kenji came to the realization that he definitely wouldn't ask someone this personal, 'Maybe Akko is rubbing off on me a bit'

"Well, for the past week. At least, since Croix started as a teacher here; I've been really curious about who she was. Because maybe if I can figure that out and reassure myself that she's not a bad person that I can stop being so paranoid about whether people are going to get hurt or not..." Kenji admitting, slightly pondering why he was spilling this to his own teacher.

"You mean Akko, right? I've noticed she's taken quite a shine to Croix; she's been talking about her lessons non-stop in our remedial ones," Ursula said somewhat disappointed.

"No, I mean yes. The fact that Akko hangs around her so much worries me, I don't think I've gotten such a weird vibe from someone...ever. But it's the fact that Lotte, Diana and Amanda take her lessons to, there my friends just as much as Akko is. I don't know, I got all worried about the Samhain festival, when Constanze didn't like me. I feel like I need a longgggg break from all of this, it can't be good for me," He dryly chucked, not getting much of a response from his teacher.

When he looked back, he saw her creating small creatures with her wand. All of them a bright green hue, dripping off the ball of energy at the tip of the wand, "You know Kenji, since you first came to this school, I saw you as an impulsive yet caring boy and not much else. You wanted to get home and didn't bother to socialize or disperse the countless rumours about you, but now you want to stay here, not only for Akko but all of your friends, I think that's quite noble.."

"W-Why...why are you saying something like that now, are you trying to embarrassed me!?" He exclaimed, disguising his flushed face.

"It's my job as a teacher, isn't it? I've felt the same way towards Akko, she's grown not only in magic but with her own actions. It's just nice to see you as more than some boy who fell out the Leyline," Ursula finished dispersing the small figures hopping about the sky.

"Well thanks, I don't think I'm that different than I was back home. Other than my fear of crowds, I can handle them a lot better thanks to everyone. They all went out with me once just because the park was crowded at one point," The brunette smiled at the memory, now attempting to push down the cowlick that had suddenly appeared.

"Also, about Croi-"

"Oh, Professor Ursula and Kenji, I've been looking for you!" Lotte called the two of them out, walking across from them with her own lunch in hand.

"How come? Did you want your textbook back, I've only done one of the spells so far so I might need it for a while.."

"No, no. Akko just wanted me to tell you to not wait up for her at the library anymore, she was asked by Miss Croix to bring her the Shiny Rod.."

In an instant, Ursula had jumped up from the floor and was heading over to the new moon tower on the other side of Luna Nova, moving as fast as the wind. Kenji had no idea why she was, but could guess it wasn't anything good.

"Lotte, lend me your broom I've got to go after her!"


Not even a second after they'd stepped inside, arrows were already raining down from every angle from the tower. Carved in harsh stone that sunk out every chunk of concrete they were racing up.

Luckily, they managed to evade the first few sets of shots fairly easily. They weren't too fast and there was a small enough interval of time for them to make it past the next layer of fire directed straight at them.

As they turned the corner, a stone creature loomed from around the bend of the column digging its stone fingers into the withered bricks reeling forward its own concrete cleaver, Ursula swerved with Kenji in hand, the two of the leaping over the creature.

Right when they were up close in the creature's face, Ursula swirled her own magic from her wind to her feet manifesting two balls of energy around them, "Vega Varulus!" They hit the rock like a truck spiraling its head into the ground.

It retaliated all to quickly though, swinging its arm forward preparing to barrel it into Ursula before she could even react.

Booking it off of the large moving lump of rock, Kenji intervened between the teacher and the fist with a shield of ice, "Meiya Kristiare!" He declared the icicles stopping the full brunt of the attack before it shattered in an instant.

He had managed to buy them enough time for Ursula to jump in a stop the fist from pushing forward any further.

From its fallen position over the stairs, blaring blue lasers streaked right towards the two. This time, Ursula shielded it much easily with her wand, the wall much stronger than anything Kenji had made.

'...Miss Ursula, really is amazing at using magic. I could only make that shield for like a second, but she's holding out against this..'

Now that he was looking up at her, he realized her hair had become undone from the usual tucked up position it was. But there was something strange about it though, it was now a dark crimson red, vastly different than its usual colour.

'Red eye and hair, is Miss Ursula-'

There no time to think about it, they were already moving once more and Kenji had to make, he was able to keep up on Lotte brooms whilst Ursula ran across the wall with little to no struggle.

"How does Croix have the funds to do something like this, let alone magic!" Kenji exclaimed exhausted by the amount of work they were having to do, 'I swear I might have to join the track team when I get back home, my exercise work has been insane!'

Ursula didn't respond, focusing most of her attention on the now ghostly lions vanishing from out of the walls, 'Ok what the fu-'

Instantly, Kenji did his best to divert and swerve around the lions' lunges. Some of them managed to scrape through, but it was only enough to leave a few cuts across his lower body and arms so it wasn't too much to worry about.

"Kenji get them over here!" Ursula instructed, holding onto one of the loose bricks on the pillar, levitating up the same giant cleaver from before. Kenji obliged building a whole storm of wind between his fingertips. It was the one spell he'd learnt fairly easily; it was only fire and earth that he had to practice on.

'This was his element!'

"Meigareg Kristiare!" He declared, swinging the wand forward much like you would a sword; a slash of wind flurrying through the air both slashing through and throwing back the rock-like lion.

Said lion flew straight back into Ursula's cleaver splitting it in two, "C'mon let's go! We're almost there!" She said confidently, wiping the dirt off of her cheek following close behind as Kenji hovered with Lotte broom.

Just as they were about to reach the door at the top, purple wires unraveled out looking as if a manifold of wires had grown some form of sentience ensnaring and pulling the two of them through the gated opening.

Once they were inside, Kenji weakly picked himself up standing to face Croix who was empathetically watching the two of them from the ground, "It's been a couple years hasn't it..." For some reason, she paused as she turned back to Kenji for a brief moment, "Ursula Callistis."

"Knew you were bad news, what the hell was all of that back there!" Kenji bellowed, incredibly angry due to the recent events.

Ursula stepped in to try and calm him down, "She was testing my powers, wanting to see if I'd gotten any different over the years," She explained.

"And it's true that you have, but still I'm surprised - you were able to deal with them all fairly quickly even if this boy had to help you out few times," Croix replied, not paying Kenji any mind as she flicked a bunch of screens on.

"After all, I'll need to not only scan through Akko's memory but estimate how much of a threat you'll be. All of that will help me take back the World Reconstruction magic.."

'World Reconstruction magic? Is that what the Shiny Rod can do!?'

"You really are just as selfish as you were back then, nothing about you has changed!"

"I could say the opposite for you, you're a shell of your former self. Ursula!"

Croix began to walk away, seemingly done talking with her, "You can tell Akko all you want Ursula, even the boy to, it won't matter either way. You're powerless to stop me."

Before she could walk away however, Kenji took one look at the unconscious Akko laying down on the table, "Where do you think you're going!? I deserve some kind of explanation on what the hell you think you're doing!"

Using the last few sparks of magic that he had left, Kenji tiredly whipped out a green string out of his wand, trapping Croix in place, "You're a stubborn little boy, aren't you? Fine, ask me just one thing and I'll answer.."

Standing in a silent for a few fleeting moments, Kenji mulled it over as quickly as possible, "..I thought about asking you what your plan is, but I know you won't tell me that. And asking you anything else will probably just get me a cryptic response.."

Resting her hands over her hips, Croix smirked a little, 'Smarter than he looks..'

"So, tell me...do you know anything about otherworld travel?"

The question was certainly not something Croix was expecting to come out of the brunette's mouth, "...Not sure I know much, due to the Leylines it could be very possible that they branch off to other worlds," The white-haired teacher replied.

"All I can say though, is that there was someone here at a time of when I was at this school, Ursula as well! He never really joined Luna Nova, but he would frequent the school for supplies. Whatever he used you might want to figure out."

Kenji took a second to take in the response, glancing at Ursula with a mixture of confusion and annoyance, "So you knew about him, even if it wasn't that much?"

"Yes, but it wouldn't have mattered if I told you. I don't think I even spoke to him," Ursula quickly and sternly replied.

Looking between the two of them, Kenji could see the two of them with a look of...it looked like guilt. Obviously, it wasn't as if he could emotions. Half the time he couldn't even read a room.

"Croix, I know your still there! Just, please...leave Akko alone!"

Even though she didn't reply, Croix had heard what he'd said and sighed to herself.

She disappeared into the shadows. Twirling her own red and black cubes into her drones, 'I guess I'll have to be keeping a much closer eye on you, Kenji Otsuka.'


Akko grumbled awake, making eye contact with Kenji who was sat on a chair beside the bed she was on, "Kenji? Why are you here, I thought I was on my way to Professor Croix.."

Both Ursula and Kenji exchanged a look, they decided it would be best to keep Croix's intentions under wraps for now, "Yeah, you were but you got sick and we brought you back here," He explained softly, briefly brushing some of her hair way from her face.

She smiled as he did, groggily sitting up from the bed, "It was weird, I swear I could hear someone talking about reconstruction magic.."

Casting her eyes downwards, Ursula took in a deep breath finally ready to speak, "Alright, I think it's about time I told the two of you about the Seven Words of Arcturus and the Grand Triskellion.."

And so, Ursula explained it all to them. About how the Nine Old Witches formed Leylines from the old magic that was thought to be lost and that they formed the Seven Words of Arcturus.

"Akko is the new holder of the Grand Triskellion and she must recite those seven words, they must be spoken with life however. Simply reciting them won't be enough, only those who breathe life into them can fully unlock the words and open the seal.."

"Wait, so Akko's already recited three of the words without even knowing it. That pretty impressive all things considered," Kenji noted aloud getting Akko to blink red in the process, earning himself a soft punch to the shoulder.

'Don't think that's deserved..'

"Just remember this Akko, I'll be there to help you as you try to recover the seven words, I ask that you don't give up, because I believe that you can do it," Ursula reassured her, handing Akko the Grand Triskellion, the brunette stared at the three glowing orbs, they were of the words she'd recited.

"I promise I will!" Akko spoke with stars in her eyes, "I'll recover the seven words!"