For most people, Summer break meant freedom. It meant going home to visit family, or travelling abroad to see the world, or even doing any range of activities to live in the moment. For the average student at Luna Nova, Summer was a time of infinite possibilities.
Sucy Manbavaran was not the average student at Luna Nova.
Yes, she routinely poisoned her teammates, yes, she was the only one to find Lukić's lectures palettable, and yes, her favourite pastime was brewing dangerous poisons, magical or otherwise, just for the sake of it.
But that's not what I'm referring to here.
You see, it was only one week into Summer vacation when Sucy had found herself falling into a bit of a slump.
No matter what recipes she found, they'd either already been made by her, required ingredients that were unobtainable, or…
45 minutes of stirring? Seriously? What kind of recipe is this?
That. Sucy sighed, packing up her bottles and apparatuses before flopping flat onto her bed, sighing again.
"Something wrong?"
"Probably, if you noticed it."
"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?"
Well, if nothing else, Akko was always worth a few laughs. At least, when she was around.
"Seriously though, is there something wrong? You've been all sighy all day and you're sounding even gloomier than usual. Did Lukić call one of your potions a failure?"
"If one of my potions was a failure, you'd be the first one to know."
"You still haven't told me what's wrong with you yet."
Curse this girl and her unrelenting goodness.
"It's nothing, really. Just mixing the same old poisons and can't find any new ones. At this point, I've even been making things that are actually meant to be drunk."
The mere thought sent shudders down Sucy's spine as she slapped her hands over her mouth as if to take back the words she'd just said.
"Oh? So does that mean I don't have to be your guinea pig anymore?"
Akko, clearly not understanding the severity of the situation, made yet another oblivious comment that elicited another sigh from Sucy.
"You know, I still have a bit of basilisk venom left that I've been wanting to observe the effects of-"
"I can't! I have a very special meeting with a very special someone in about 15 minutes, and I can't show up half dead on basilisk venom!"
And there it was. By a 'special meeting with a special someone', what Akko likely meant was a date with Diana. Out of options for potential pastimes after refusing the flight home, Sucy had taken to tracking the amount of time in each conversation for Akko to bring up Diana.
So far, her record was about 53 seconds.
This would have been amusing if not for the fact that it also resulted in the number of her 'special meetings' with 'special people' increasing which resulted in Sucy losing her main guinea pig. The fact that Lotte and Barbara were talking more about Nightfall, while admittedly wholesome, deprived Sucy of yet another person to keep her company.
And so, Sucy decided that she had nothing better to do than to simply walk around the courtyard. Maybe if she stayed outside for long enough, a recipe or rare material would fall out of the sky.
Laughing to herself, she allowed herself to relax a little. After all, it was a nice day. The sun was comfortably tucked behind a sheet of clouds, the birds and various insects that often hounded her eardrums were oddly quiet, and there was a dark, rapidly approaching figure coming from above-
Wait, what?
Chugging a stoneskin potion, Sucy didn't even give herself time to think before throwing up her forearms to defend her head and…
Nothing. Several seconds passed and when Sucy finally opened her eyes, she was greeted by the sight of a short witch standing in front of her accompanied by a vastly oversized broomstick.
"Oh. Hi there, Conz."
Wondering why she was there, Sucy wore a slightly confused expression as a Stanbot exited Constanze's backpack, giving her a blackboard and chalk. Scribbling furiously for a few moments, Constanze handed to Sucy read what she'd written.
"A fortification potion?"
Sucy had definitely heard of that before. Fortification potions were in high demand and minimal supply due to their ability to enhance anything from clothing, to wands, to energy sources, or even to poisons (That last one was more applicable to Sucy, but hey, what can you do?).
Unfortunately, one of the main ingredients in it was found underneath a glacier in antarctica, and while Sucy could survive in the frigid waters with relative ease, what would take slightly more effort would be dealing with the 100 metre long Forge Serpent that she needed to collect stomach acid from. It would be a suicide mission the likes of which not even Akko would attempt.
But if she had the help of Constanze…
"What are you even using this for?"
Constanze reached into her bag, pulling out a blueprint to Sucy and as she looked over the design, life began to shoot into Sucy's expression as her face split into an amazed look, saying:
"This is amazing."
Apparently, Constanze was working on a machine that could mix various raw materials into one mixture.
With a yield of 100%.
Seeing Sucy's incredulous expression, Constanze tapped her on the shoulder, the physical contact breaking Sucy out of her trance as she met Constanze's expectant gaze.
"Ah. Right. The potion. I don't have any with me at the moment…"
Constanze's expression fell, barely-concealed disappointment seeping in before Sucy continued:
"...But I think I know where to find some."
Immediately, Constanze shot back up, the intensity in her glare increasing as Sucy elaborated.
"So, I've been wanting to make this potion for a while, but one of the materials needs us to go to the underside of the Antarctic to find this thing called a 'Forge Serpent' that could probably swallow one of us whole."
Seeing Constanze expectantly waiting for Sucy to continue, she did.
"Luckily, I've got a little something that'll make it throw up all of its precious acid which we can then bottle. All I need is someone or something to swim up to it and administer the throw-up juice."
After staring pointedly at one of the Stanbot for a few moments, Sucy looked back to Constanze who was holding up a drawn hazard sign on her blackboard. Seeing that, Sucy, merely laughed before saying:
"'It's dangerous?' Is that a problem?"
After exchanging a small smile, the 2 of them shook hands, Sucy finding it within herself to say:
"Looking forward to doing business with you."
And with one nod of acknowledgement from Constanze, the 2 of them headed to their dorms to prepare.
###
It was early in the morning and Constanze was already busy at work in her shop. As always, the atmosphere was quite comforting. While she enjoyed the company of her friends, it was nice to be able to sit in silence-
"Heya, Conz! Whatcha doin'?"
-for a grand total of 2 minutes.
Oh. Great. They were here. Amanda wasn't too bad. Sure, she could be loud and rowdy, but Amanda knew the proper distance to keep from Constanze's work. By all accounts, Amanda was a lovely person to be with for someone like Constanze.
At least, she was compared to the walking headache next to her.
Yes, on one hand, Atsuko Kagari could be a source of inspiration and the mecha anime she'd introduced Constanze to was cool as heck, but on the other hand the amount of parts that Constanze had to replace and the headache-inducing noise levels when in her presence made Constanze question if it was even worth it.
"The Stanship looks way different!"
Maybe Akko was more observant than Constanze had given her credit for. Indeed, the Stanship had gone through numerous updates, but other than a new coat of paint, it hadn't changed at all from the outside.
"What's this?"
Amanda looked down at the half-finished water gun like thing Constanze was working on, giving it a curious look. Constanze pulled out her blackboard, writing:
"Getting ready for a mission"
"Ooh, you takin' the ship out for a spin? Can we join?"
Constanze thought it over for a moment before shaking her head. There wasn't enough room for all of them on top of Sucy and besides, having Akko on board would probably be more hazardous than any Forge Serpent.
"Y'know, if this is about Akko and I not being around as often, we're sorry about that."
Sensing the apologetic tone Amanda had taken on, Constanze merely shrugged. Honestly, she found Akko's newfound desire to spend every waking moment with Diana to be quite refreshing. More time with Diana meant less time screwing with Constanze's work and who knows? Maybe Diana would rub off on her a little. Not too much, though. She'd still never forgive Diana for dissing 'Witch from Mercury'.
Where were we? Ah, right, Amanda said something. Constanze shook her head, merely writing down:
"I work alone."
Well, that wasn't exactly true, was it?
"I mostly work alone."
"Eh? You bringing someone with you?"
Constanze merely shrugged, making her way to the boat along with a line of Stanbots marching behind her. As she was about to board, though, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Jasminka holding out a little baggy of mushrooms as she said:
"For the road."
Constanze gave her a brief nod of thanks before pocketing the baggy and climbing up the ladder to the deck of the stanship. Briefly wondering if Jasminka's choice in snack donations was a coincidence (she hadn't told anyone else that she was going with Sucy, had she?), Constanze put on her pirate hat and prepared for takeoff.
###
The second thing that Sucy noticed when she woke up was the warmth of the morning Summer light on her skin.
Of course, the first thing she noticed was a sound akin to a rocket taking off right outside her window.
Opening the panes, Sucy looked up to see a sight that was utterly magical.
The orange glow of the morning sun painted the backdrop with an almost romantic hue, the green of the ship's engines mingling with the warmth of the sky. A ladder dropped down as Constanze followed, hanging off at the bottom and extending a hand to Sucy with a stern yet confident look as she did.
"Huh. That was a pretty cool way to wake up."
Sucy could've sworn she saw a smile spring to Constanze's lips as she said that, but as soon as she'd spoken, that smile quickly disappeared as Constanze gestured for her to follow her.
"Yeah, yeah, I just need to get dressed- yes, I already finished packing, this'll only take a moment."
And after just a minute, the Stanship was already flying off and over the horizon.