Atsuko Kagari sat in a large chair, dangling her legs arrhythmically. The chair looked soft and plush on the outside, but it was deceivingly hard and lumpy in all the wrong places, to say nothing of the funny smell. Akko's custom-made witch hat slumped down a half an inch, so she nudged it upwards to fix it. She took a moment to stare at the group that had congregated in the other corner of the room, just out of earshot.

These older girls were weird. They had helped lead her out of the steamy room (though not without the tall redhead girl tripping over something and teaching her a new word, which the glasses girl made her promise never to repeat), but they kept secretly staring at her. Tried to keep secretly staring at her. Kept staring at her. They weren't all that discrete about it.

The pretty blonde girl was the leader, obviously, since she was giving all the orders, and leaders always gave others orders. The big girl who was always eating gave off a squishy, huggable feeling that reminded Akko of her mommy. The girl with the sharp teeth looked scary, but Akko had a gut feeling she was one of those "actually super-nice deep down" types.

As the group whispered among each other, Akko wondered what they were talking about. Well, they were talking about her, probably, but like…was it good? Was it bad? Would it be okay to ask for a different chair?

Well…they can't be all bad. They gave her a yummy tart, and they were already friends with a girl who looked to be the same age as her.

And so, Akko decided she liked them, and happily took another bite of her tart.

"This is so weird," Lotte whined softly, "how did this happen?"

"I'm sure there's a logical—" Diana started.

"You keep saying that," Sucy hissed as she stole a discrete glance at the child, "but it's not helping any!"

"We have to keep a level head," Diana huffed, "we can't just up and panic; if we do we'll never think of a solution. Not to mention, we'd freak Akko out…"

"She doesn't seem to remember us at all…" Jasminka frowned. "Do you think she has amnesia? Or…"

"I swear, it better not be time travel again…" Sucy sighed.

"Again?" Hannah mumbled underneath her breath.

"We cannot rule out any possibility," Diana said, "we need to tell the professors immediately."

"Sure, the professors, but what about Akko?" Amanda asked, peeking at the little girl in question, whose cheeks were now stuffed with a tart. "Not like we can tell her all this, she'd freak out."

"We'll have to keep it a secret from Akko." Diana sighed. "If it is time travel—and I sincerely hope it isn't time travel again—"

"Seriously," Hannah huffed, "when did I miss time travel?!"

"—we can't risk exposing the future," Diana continued, "and even if it's not time travel…well…I don't want to upset Akko by forcing too much information on her at once. She's…she's too…"

She thought for a moment.

"Adorable and innocent?" Barbara offered.

The group nodded wholeheartedly.

"And how!" Stanbot chirped.

"Indeed, but that aside…" Diana cleared her throat. "Follow my lead…A-Atsuko!"

The little girl looked up and the group loosely surrounded her.

Diana coughed into her fist once more to clear her nerves.

"Hello, eh…Atsuko," she said, "I know you must be very confused—"

"You can call me Akko."

"Eh?" Diana's thought process stalled at the unexpected mid-speech interruption.

"That's what everyone calls me!" She smiled cheerfully. "Akko!"

"R-right, Akko…" Diana hesitated. "I-I know you must be quite confused right now, um…let's start with…introductions, yes. My name is Diana."

"Diana?" Akko tilted her head. "That's a really pretty name!"

Diana was forced to lean against a wall in order to breathe for a moment.

"M-my name is Lotte." Lotte raised her hand.

"I'm Sucy." Sucy gave a toothy smirk.

"Yo, I'm Amanda!" Amanda waved. "And this is Constanze and Jasminka!"

The girls in question gave a thumbs up and a wave, respectively.

"My name is Barbara." Barbara waved.

"And I'm Hannah." Hannah tossed her hair back.

Akko digested this information for a moment.

"It's nice to meet you all," she chirped, "but…um…how did I get here? And where is here, anyway?"

"Er…well…" Amanda hesitated. "Do you remember…anything before you showed up here?"

Akko thought for a moment, sucking on one of her fingertips in thought.

"Not much," she said, "it's Saturday so I wasn't really doing anything, just trying on my witch outfit for the Shiny Chariot event next week."

She twirled in a circle and waved an imaginary wand, making her cape flutter and her hat droop over one of her eyebrows.

"Do you like it?" She smiled cheerfully. "When I grow up, I want to be a witch just like Shiny Chariot! Then I can perform for people and make everyone happy!"

Barbara stuck one of her knuckles into her mouth in order to restrain an indignant, giddy squeal.

"I thought you hated Akko's obsession with Chariot." Sucy leaned over and hissed into Barbara's ear.

"Yeah, because she was our age," Barbara hissed back, "as a kid it's just plain adorable!"

Sucy slid about a foot away from her.

"Your outfit is…nice." Diana struggled with the words. "And your dream is…admirable."

Akko giggled adorably. Again.

"So, uh, heh…" Amanda butted in before someone had a heart attack. "A-anything weird after that? Like how you got from your room to here? Huh?"

"I-unno…" Akko shrugged. "One second I was in my room, the next everything was white and I couldn't see. I thought I heard someone calling my name, so I walked over and found you guys."

Akko frowned.

"Did something happen?" She asked. "My mommy and daddy are gonna be worried if I don't show up for dinner on time…"

"Hmm…" Diana thought for a moment. "Well, Akko, I can't actually say I know how you got here…"

Akko visible deflated.

"You don't know?" She asked sadly.

"No, um...w-what I mean is," Diana immediately jumped back in, "I…we don't know yet. Rest assured, we'll do everything we can to get you back home."

"We will?" Sucy asked.

Lotte jabbed Sucy sharply in the ribs, causing her to keel over in pain.

"You mean it?" Akko looked up and Diana swore she saw literal stars in her pupils. "You'll get me home?"

"Heck yeah we mean it!" Amanda pumped her fist and brought her leg up on the table. "What kind of witches would we be if we just left you high and dry?!"

There was a pause.

Diana realized it first and pinched the bridge of her nose, followed by Sucy who groaned as she slapped a hand over her face. Constanze scrunched up her face in annoyance when it dawned on her, whereas Jasminka just frowned. Barbara noticed fifth, just barely beating out Amanda who realized her own sentence with a frown. Poor Hannah, meanwhile, never caught on until it was too late.

Akko gaped, eyes blown wide. She took a long, drawn-out, deep breath.

It was later rumored that the resulting squeal broke two of Luna Nova's windows, several potion beakers, and a handful of slightly-fragile ceramic unicorn figures from Elfriede's collection.