Thank you all so much for all the responses! Here's a quick update! I'm sick right now so I have to stay in bed.
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."
—Harriet Tubman
Chapter Six:
Diana and Akko prepared to head back towards the dorms when a potion bottle broke, creating smoke. Diana and Akko coughed, but Akko was yanked quickly from the cloud of smoke. However, the person grabbing her didn't account for that Akko would latch onto Diana, pulling her too. Sucy blinked when she fished Akko out of the smoke to find she was dragging Diana with her. Her visible eye narrowed.
"Why did you steal her, Diana? So you could give her payback for freezing you?"
Lotte was checking Akko with her wand, making sure the smoke didn't damage anything in her body. Akko looked between Lotte and Sucy glaring at Diana and Diana glaring back and quickly rushed between them, shielding Diana.
"She's not an enemy! We're friends now!" Akko signed. Lotte blinked.
"Akko, you do remember how Diana acts right?" Lotte signed and spoke, Diana glared, crossing her arms.
"I may have been a terrible person to her, but you really think I would cast some sort of spell on her? Are you crazy?"
"I don't know—you did let your lackey call her a defect." Sucy hissed. Diana winced.
"I… I have no excuse. I was so focused on the Shiny Rod and finding answers, I didn't immediately chastise Barbara and Hannah for their remarks. I of all people should know that no one is defected despite their disabilities. For that, I deserve your scorn." Diana mourned. Akko stared at her, and Diana signed 'sorry' to Akko again, who took it in stride and placed an arm around her, gazing at Lotte and Sucy.
"Friends now." Akko spoke with conviction. She then signed "She said sorry. She knows what she did was wrong. Let's be her friends!"
Sucy and Lotte exchanged looks before turning to look at the brown-haired and blonde-haired witches.
"She better behave." Sucy finally said, relaxing her shoulders. Lotte gave them a smile.
"Are you going to tell the professors about what Akko did?" Lotte asked. Diana shook her head.
"As far as I am concerned, I don't even know what I would tell them even if I wanted to." She replied. Akko bounced excitedly.
"Let's tell her!" Akko signed.
"Lotte, is she saying what I hope she isn't saying?" Sucy groaned, reading Akko's eager expression. Lotte sighed, smiling tiredly.
"It would be beneficial to have a witch prodigy to help us with this." Lotte conceded to Akko, signing and speaking for everyone's benefit. Akko grinned, hugging Diana to her, who blushed at Akko's abrasiveness.
"One of us!" Akko told Diana cheerfully, who gave a polite smile, not wanting to reveal her urge to snuggle into Akko as well at being accepted.
"What exactly is it you're all talking about?" Diana questioned, the mystery of these three witches growing bigger with each sentence they spoke. Said witches glanced at each other before looking at her.
"Perhaps we could go somewhere private?" Lotte suggested. Diana, Akko, and Sucy agreed.
Birdy-san flew to Akko excitedly when they entered their dorm room. Akko giggled, placing Birdy-san on her head while Diana, Sucy, and Lotte took seats on the floor. They all sat in a circle, wondering who should start.
"I start!" Akko exclaimed, jumping up and retrieving Shiny Rod, presenting it to them. "Chariot's wand appeared to me in the forest of Arcturus!" she signed. Lotte translated for Diana and Sucy.
"If you don't mind, I would like it if you go slower, Akko, so I can learn Sign while Lotte translates for you." Diana requested the brown-haired witch. Akko felt her heart swell, grinning and making sure to go slower with her hand gestures so Diana can follow along with her signing.
"It all looks like gibberish to me." Sucy stated, but not in a malicious way. She just didn't understand how hand gestures meant words or had meanings. However, she knew it was Akko's main way of communicating, and therefore she respected it—even if she preferred Akko's voice because she liked the sound.
"Right! Anyway! So Chariot's wand appeared to me, but I heard a voice in my head and it told me the spell to cast a portal to the school!" Akko signed, Lotte repeating what she was saying while Akko was signing. Diana furrowed her brow.
"A voice, but you can't—"
"That's what we said too, but she heard it again with the Pappiliodya. It talks in her head." Sucy interrupted. Diana had a pensive expression.
"Interesting. Do you know who the voice is?"
"I don't" Akko signed, reading Diana's lips, with Lotte translating. "It just talks to me when Shiny Rod reacts in times of peril."
"We think the Shiny Rod may be reading when Akko is distressed or emotional." Lotte added.
"It could be possible the Shiny Rod is sentient. It's a very powerful magical item." Diana told them. Sucy, Akko, and Lotte thought about that, pondering if that was the case.
"Do we know who created the Shiny Rod?" Akko signed. Lotte shook her head.
"No one really knows the origin of the Shiny Rod. Its history was lost to time I'm afraid." Lotte said and signed. Akko's shoulders slumped.
"That doesn't explain how Akko has been able to do magic without incanting…" Diana reminded them.
"We're not sure of that ourselves. We don't know if it's because of Shiny Rod or her own abilities." Sucy responded.
"But the time she froze me, she didn't use Shiny Rod." Diana pointed out. Here, the other three looked really confused.
"We had thought that it was because of Shiny Rod, but you're right—Akko did non-verbal casting without its magic when confronting you before." Lotte remarked.
"But you guys said magic needs a medium to be cast. It can't have physical form otherwise." Akko signed, Lotte speaking as she gestured.
"I've heard of nonverbal magic, but it takes a lot of energy out of the caster—it can cause death if one's not careful." Diana explained. Akko, Sucy, and Lotte blanched.
"That would explain why she was passed out cold the first time and almost fainted the second time with Shiny Rod." Sucy recalled.
"But she didn't faint when freezing Diana! She was only exhausted a bit." Lotte reminded Sucy.
"There always has to be a medium. You can't just wave your wand and expect it to work without an incantation of some kind." Diana mused. Akko read Diana's lips, eyes widening in realization.
"Hands!" Akko exclaimed loudly. Diana, Sucy, Lotte, and Birdy-san winced at the volume before registering what she said. Their own eyes widened, as Akko continued signing frantically, Lotte speaking.
"'I was signing at the time when I stopped Diana! I was desperate for her to stop and all I could see in my mind was Diana standing still! My hands just signed out of reflex!' Is it really possible?!" Lotte translated and then yelled.
"It can't be that easy." Sucy said. Diana was thinking hard.
"I've never heard of such a case, but Sign is still a language, even if it's a language of hands. I would imagine a lot of feeling and visualization would need to go into signing a spell out instead of using oral incantation and a wand. It probably is a lot harder to accomplish." Diana eventually said.
"But it's not impossible." Akko signed with Lotte speaking. Diana glanced at her.
"In theory, yes." Diana conceded.
"Let's try it!" Lotte suggested. She turned to Akko. "Akko! What is the sign for 'light'?"
Akko demonstrated the sign in SSE, the others copying. Akko turned determinedly to them all.
"Diana said a lot of visualization and feeling needed to go into this. Everyone must be really intense with their visualizations!" Akko signed, Lotte speaking for her. They all nodded.
They sat in the circle, quiet, and they closed their eyes, concentrating on the image of a glow in their mind. They poured their eagerness and desperation for answers into the image. The image was clear in their mind, and their eyes snapped open as they signed.
"LIGHT!" they signed together. Suddenly, a large light blazed in the middle of the floor before dissolving into sparks. They gasped in disbelief.
"…Did that just happen?" Sucy finally spoke. Lotte, Diana, and Akko just stared at the now empty floor. Lotte adjusted her glasses, taking them off to clean them before placing them back on.
"It worked…" Lotte murmured dazed. A giant grin erupted on Akko's face as she screamed in joy, startling Birdy-san from her head. She embraced Sucy, Diana, and Lotte to her. The three soon began laughing, sharing in Akko's joy, hugging her as well.
No one noticed the window ajar, a mechanical bug placed there.
"No way…" Amanda murmured, before grinning in victory at Jasminka and Constanze who was broadcasting what the four witches were saying to them in their own dorm room. Amanda let out a whoop of delight and clapped Constanze on the shoulder. "Wow! Good thing I thought to bring you along, Constanze or else I wouldn't be able to spy on them!"
"Why are we spying on them exactly?" Jasminka asked, munching on some chips.
"Why not? I knew something was up when Princess Cavendish kidnapped Akko Kagari and flew off with her and those two chased after them! We've hit a gold mine here!"
We didn't really see anything though so for all you know it could be false. Constanze wrote on her board. Amanda scoffed, waving her off.
"Nonsense! They don't know you put a bug there so it's genuine! They know a new way to do magic, and Akko Kagari is teaching them it!" Amanda said, convinced of her own theory.
How does that help us exactly? Constanze wrote. Amanda smirked.
"She's going to help me steal the Shooting Star for the Broom Rally."
Sorry it is short! I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think!
Replies to Reviewers
Guest- Thank you so much! I'm glad you found Diana believable! I hoped people would like her apologizing to Akko using Sign.
Shigiya- Yes, Lotte and Sucy are ahead.
ThatFanFicGuy- I'm thinking probably not since she needs magic reserves more to do Signed magic. With Signed magic, they'll all be novices due to it takes different types of rules and Akko is more used to doing it since she uses Sign naturally.