"Wow~!" Akko cooed. "We're really flying!"

"Yes we are," Jasminka hummed, "and at a safe height as well."

"I keep telling you," Amanda growled, "that wasn't my fault!"

"Doubt." Stanbot chirped.

Amanda growled again, quieter this time. She honestly had no idea why her broom suddenly decided to wig out on her—an action which necessitated Jasminka and Constanze undertake a rescue mission by flying up on their own and manually towing a near-catatonic Amanda and a hyperactive Akko back to the ground. But despite Amanda insisting she was innocent, her babysitting privileges had been thoroughly revoked by an irate Jasminka, who only didn't scold Amanda then and there simply because it would be rude to do so in front of Akko.

Suffice to say, Amanda would not be getting dessert for quite some time.

It wasn't all bad, though; Akko was not only unharmed but quite excitable from the little adventure, and with some weapons-grade puppy-dog eyes she narrowly managed to convince Jasminka that their aerial tour should continue—albeit lower and slower this time, with Akko riding on Jasminka's broom instead, Constanze puttering off to the side on her custom broom, and Amanda half-sulking in the rear.

"So, Akko," Jasminka asked, "what do you think of the school so far?"

"It's amazing!" Akko cheered, almost standing up before Jasminka was able to push her back down. "Everyone's so nice and now we're flying! This is the greatest day ever!"

Akko shifted somewhat in Jasminka's lap, squishing against the older girl's belly.

"I wish my mommy and daddy were here, though…" She sighed. "I hope they think I'm okay…"

As if sensing the conversation, a cloud passed over the sun, desaturating the area and cooling down the air.

Jasminka frowned. As did Amanda, who also floated up until she was alongside her friends.

"Hey," Amanda said softly, "it'll be okay. I mean, look at where you are! At an actual magic school for actual witches! You still wanna be a witch, right?"

Akko nodded furiously.

"More than anything!"

"Then this is the best thing ever!" Amanda declared. "If anything, your parents oughta be jealous!"

"Jealous?"

"Of how awesome your time here is gonna be!" Amanda pumped her fist. "We're gonna make it so you have the best day ever, and then some!"

Mirroring the girl's mood, the cloud finished passing over the sun, restoring the brightness along with the moderately-comfortable heat.

"Yeah!" Akko cheered. "What are we gonna do first?!"

Amanda froze, the fact that she had just been running her mouth without thinking again dawned on her. What were they going to do first?

"You can start by listening to me." A new voice sounded off from the group's left.

"Oh, Diana." Jasminka said as she steered her broom in front of the girl. "How are you?"

Diana stood in front of her entourage—including not just her usual posse of Hannah and Barbara, but also a bored-looking Sucy and an incredibly frazzled-looking Lotte. Diana leaned one hand against her hip as she spoke.

"I'm doing well," she said, "all things consider, that is."

She glanced up and down at the trio, and then pointed at them.

"The brooms…?"

Jasminka pointed at the child in her lap.

"Ah, yes." Diana said. "I understand completely."

"We're flying!" Akko declared. "Isn't it awesome?!"

"Yes, Akko, quite lovely." Diana smiled. "Would you mind playing with Lotte for a bit? I need to speak with the others privately."

"Can't I stay and listen too?" Akko sucked her finger.

Diana shook her head.

"Aww, okay…"

The girl concentrated as she wiggled on the broom for a bit, before throwing her foot over the handle and sliding off gracefully.

By which I mean, comically and face-first into the dirt.

"I'm okay!" Akko shouted into the ground before she got up, slapped the dirt and dust off her face and clothes, and ran off to play with Lotte, who had subtly wandered away from the group to give them more space.

"Alright," Amanda said, "what's the jist, Cavendish?"

"The professors are still working on figuring out what happened to Akko," Diana explained, "but—obviously—it will take some time before they reach a conclusion."

"I feel somewhat bad lying to her," Jasminka said, "I'd rather this didn't go on too long."

"Lying to a six-year-old kinda feels like bad karma or something," Hannah shrugged, "I don't think anyone really enjoys the idea."

"I'm fine with lying to her." Sucy said.

"You don't count." Barbara hissed.

"In any case," Diana said, "as her closest friends, the eight of us have been tasked with watching over—"

"Babysitting duty." Sucy interrupted. "We're on babysitting duty."

"…in a manner of speaking, yes…" Diana sighed. "We've also been granted free reign to investigate Akko's case ourselves, partially due to our history involving magical incidents, and partially because the professors have requested any help they can get. In fact, Sucy and I will be investigating a few possible leads today."

"Seriously?" Amanda snorted, glancing at Sucy. "Why are you helping her?"

"Because it sounded like it'd be interesting." Sucy half-chuckled, half-cackled. "I'm betting money on Cavendish messing up her potion somehow. I don't think the potion caused any of this, or anything, I just think it'd be hilarious if her potion wound up being faulty and I want to be there when we find out about it."

Sucy paused.

"To laugh at her," she clarified, "in case you didn't take my meaning."

"You gave her a potion too, you realize?" Diana raised an eyebrow.

"Please," Sucy huffed, "you really think my potion was bad?"

The pair glared at each other for a moment.

"…in any case," Diana said as she rolled her eyes, "if you come across anything—some magical artifact, some cursed object, anything suspicious—please let the professors know immediately."

"Can do." Amanda mock-saluted. "Anything else?"

"Yes, please refer to Professor Chariot as Professor Ursula for now."

"But why…" Amanda glanced at Akko. "…never mind, stupid question."

"Mmm." Diana hummed before turning to Sucy. "Well, I suppose we should start our investigation now."

"Hehe…" Sucy chortled. "Time to see exactly how badly you screwed up."

Diana rolled her eyes as the pair wandered off towards the school building, vanishing into one of the doors.

Amanda stared after them for a while.

"So…I'm just gonna put this out there…" Amanda crossed her arms. "But £5 says Diana screwed up her potion and caused this whole mess."

Barbara looked half-offended, but Hannah simply huffed.

"Oh please," she said, "£5 says it was Sucy's potion that got messed up."

Amanda smirked.

"You're on!"

"Can't you at least help a little?" Diana huffed as she gently thumbed a rack of potion ingredients too exotic to name.

"I just don't think someone 'tampered with the ingredients' or whatever." Sucy rolled her eyes from the other corner of the room. "Mixing up or replacing a single ingredient—I don't care how complex the potion is—wouldn't make anyone turn into a child."

Diana said nothing, so Sucy took it as a cue to continue her lecture.

"In fact," she said, "I don't think there's any combination of ingredients here that would turn Akko into a child…I don't know of any potion period that would turn Akko into a child, least of all one that would also turn the infirmary into a sauna. Even if you royally screwed up while making your potion and added every wrong ingredient possible, the worst thing it might do is blow up on you. Not turn the drinker into the child, not steam up an entire room, and definitely not both."

"Don't you think I know that?!" Diana snapped. "I'm well aware of what my potion can and cannot do, I just—! Ugh…"

Diana rubbed the bridge of her nose, staring intensely at the wall for a moment as she turned over the thoughts in her head.

"I just want to go through every possibility." Diana sighed. "I don't…want to lose my friend."

Diana leveled a glare at Sucy.

"Isn't Akko your friend, too?" Diana asked. "More so than me?"

Sucy mumbled something quippy regarding the second half of Diana's statement, and then huffed.

"Yes, Akko is my…friend." She sounded out the word as if sniffing a suspicious jug of milk to make sure it's safe to drink. "I don't want Akko to remain a child, if that's what you're implying. I just want to be practical here."

"Practicality dictates we examine every possibility," Diana said, "no matter how slim the chances are."

"Paranoia says we examine every possibility," Sucy corrected, "practicality says we look at how Akko could have been turned into a child. Like a spell, or some magical artifact…knowing Akko she probably got cursed by some mirror again."

"You're just being pedantic…" Diana shook her head in frustration. "Just…ugh…just humor me? For once? Please?"

"Yeah, whatever…" Sucy rolled her eyes as she opened a cabinet, half-heartedly picking up random jars and observing them.

The pair remained silent for quite some time, having run out of things to say as they continued their search.

In her heart, Diana knew Sucy was right; there wasn't a potion—that she knew of—which could transform the drinker into a child, at least not in the way Akko had done so. She'd also never heard of the drinker bursting into steam as a side-effect. Again, not in the way Akko had done so.

So…why was she even looking?

Guilt wasn't quite the right word, it was more like…if she had caused Akko's problems, she could fix them, because that's what Diana Cavendish did to her problems: fix them. And if Diana hadn't caused Akko's problem, then how could Diana Cavendish be expected fix the problem?

What do you call that? Validation? False atonement? Borderline narcissistic selfishness?

Whatever you wanted to call it, this is where she was now: looking through cabinets full of potion ingredients for absolutely no reason without so much of a clue as to—

…

"Sucy?" Diana asked, thumbing the label of a particular jar.

"What?"

"Aqua Mirabilis…" Diana swished the jar around. "It's typically…clear in color, correct?"

"Yeah?" Sucy looked away from her cabinet. "What about—"

Diana swished around a milky-white, foggy liquid in the jar.

Sucy stared at it, turning the image over in her mind. Then, she broke out into a sharp grin.

"Oh my god…" She poorly stifled a laugh. "That is the most hilarious thing I've ever seen!"

"Don't." Diana warned.

"It's contaminated," Sucy broke out into a choked fit of laughter, "I can't believe it…"

Sucy bit her lip, anticipating the juicy tidbit of information Diana was currently implying.

"You used the contaminated Aqua Mirabilis in your Nóstos Álgos," Sucy chortled, "didn't you?"

"B-be quiet!" Diana flushed, half from embarrassment and half from anger. "T-this ingredient is incredibly common! It's…it's practically standard! The entire class must have used some it!"

"AHAHA! Oh man! They did, didn't they?!" Sucy gave up on suppressing her laughter, instead embracing it. "That's-HA-perfect! The entire class made bad potions because of a sing-HA-gle bad ing-gre-hee-hee-dee-eehhhnnt!"

It took exactly five minutes for Sucy to calm down enough to catch her breath. Diana swore the girl was exaggerating on purpose.

"Are you quite done?" Diana said, still slightly red in the face.

"Y'huh…" Sucy coughed, sniffed, and cleared her throat. "I'm good now. It's just the funniest thing I've heard all year. Maybe ever. That's all."

Diana's eyes narrowed.

"I mean, the entire class." Sucy chuckled once more. "Aqua Mirabilis is in, like, every potion except a few super-simple ones. Even the Xanánioma Draught I made had…had…hmm…"

Sucy's grin didn't so much fade away as it did simply pop out of existence. Diana was confused about the sudden change in attitude for only a moment, before it dawned on her.

"You used the bad Aqua Mirabilis too," Diana said, "didn't you?"

"No! I-I mean, yes! I-I mean…!" Now was Sucy's turn to flush red in embarrassment. "S-shut up, will you?"

"I'm not making fun of you…" Diana said, leaving out the words 'unlike you', if only to be polite. "Like you said, the ingredient is incredibly common. Everyone in the class likely made an ineffective potion because of this single ingredient."

"Y-yeah," Sucy mumbled, "I guess…"

"I-in fact, the only potions that wouldn't use Aqua Mirabilis are very simple potions. Like explosive powders, or Coma Capil…" Diana trailed off.

It took a moment for the information to register, but as soon as it did Sucy paled, and the pair shared a horribly awkward silence.

"The entire class…" Sucy said, somewhat hollowly. "Everyone in the entire class made a bad potion…EXCEPT Akko?!"

Diana looked away, unable to say anything in her defense.

"You realize," Sucy said, "that no one must ever learn of this."

"Especially not O'Neill."

"Especially not O'Neill."