Wow! The response to the last chapter was amazing! Thank you so much!
It's now up on AO3 too, but no ecchi scenes yet!
Whenever the people around understand what's being said, I'm just having it written in English. I'm trying to do a little more of a literal translation for when Diana is speaking/listening in Japanese (since as Akko has teased her, her Japanese is not quite as good as some of the other languages she speaks). This means that when Japanese people are speaking about not being gay, it gets translated as "normal". It's a quirk of the language. Of course, I'm pretty rusty on my Japanese, so please forgive any inconsistencies!
This episode is starting to get bigger and bigger! Moving towards a mid-cour climax instead of an end-of-cour climax!
Our Magic!
Episode 04: Reason and Feeling
Part II
"So have you called your friends yet to tell them not to worry?" Atsumi cornered her daughter later that night.
"Ahaha, the time change would be in the middle of the night for them right now, it's not a good time."
"Akko! We are ahead of England. Call the school right this very instant!"
"I kind've left on awkward terms," Akko pleaded.
"Sounds like a good time to un-awkward those terms, dear daughter."
Akko sighed heavily, "Fiiiine."
Atsumi watched as she dialed long-distance to England, always finding the animated face of her daughter to be amusing to watch. When Akko's face fell and she hung up shortly after, she asked, "What's the matter?"
"None of them are there! Not even Ursula-sensei!"
"Well, it is summer. I'm sure some of them had other things to do and others went to their own homes. Only a handful of the girls actually live in England, right? Like that certain someone you have a crush on?"
"Moooooom! I thought you were going to stop nagging me about Diana!"
"Whatever gave you that idea?" Akko ran out of the room, followed by her mother asking, "And don't you mean Diana-chaaaan?"
ФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФ
"What?" the red-haired sensei asked with her usual disarray.
"You're the logical choice. None of us speak Japanese," Hannah coaxed her.
Constanze held up a sign saying, "I speak Japanese."
Hannah read it and turned back to Chariot, "Like I said, you're the logical choice."
Constanze fumed, balling her fists tightly, then nodded in acceptance. Sucy shook a potion at her in a silent question, but Constanze refused with her hands held up. Sucy looked away, thinking about who she should try her potion out on if not Hannah.
"Why don't we all go together?"
Lotte nodded, "I want to see Akko."
Barbara denied it, "Chariot is the logical choice. We don't want to overwhelm her with all of us. We will have time to see her now that we're all in Japan, it should just be Chariot that goes to her house first."
Sucy backed up Lotte, "Then why not let Lotte go with Chariot?"
"Why have we decided I'm going for sure?"
"You're the only one that speaks Japanese!" Amanda shouted, "Don't you want to see Akko?"
Chariot frowned and looked away, "I do. It's just—"
Jasminka offered her a cookie as she paused, but Chariot held her hand up in refusal, unknowingly mimicking Constanze from a moment before. "Akko's parents don't know what I did to her!"
Sucy came to it in an instant, "Ah. That explains it." Everyone else took a moment to recall Chariot stealing Akko's magic.
"We don't have time for this!" Lotte says in rare fury, "Professor Chariot and I will go to Akko's house and beg her to come back. The rest of you think of how we're going to convince her!"
"What about the language issue?" Barbara asked her gently.
"I'll ask a sprite for help!" Barbara nodded in acceptance.
Hannah looked askance at Barbara, "Ohhhh-kayyyy. So we'll brainstorm ways to bring Akko back."
"I still say we should just drug her and drag her back."
"Sucy! We already vetoed that!" Lotte said in exasperation.
"I was in favor of it," Amanda offered.
"We're not counting your vote until you recover," Jasminka spoke up, "I'm against any food and drink that has negative effects."
"You'll just never get me, Jasminka," Sucy lamented.
"Are you saying you don't want me making snacks for your movie nights with Constanze anymore?"
"I'm saying you definitely get me, Jasminka. 100%."
Jasminka smiled while Lotte looked on with growing fury. "Enough of this! We're going now. Chariot!"
"Very well," Chariot said in resignation. "I can't keep putting this off."
Lotte grabbed her hand and started pulling her in the direction of Akko's house. She turned to look back at Barbara, "And try to reach Diana. We still don't know where she is."
ФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФ
"Shitsurei shimasu," the gentle intrusion startled Diana from her brooding, "Kimi wa ano majou desu ka?"
She looked up to regard the group of Japanese schoolgirls in sailor uniforms and stared at them while she started to process their words. There was a brunette with twin tails down to her waist, a raven-haired girl with her hair in a short side-tail, a girl with a pixie-cut with chestnut colored hair that was wearing pants instead of the skirts the other girls were wearing, another brunette with her hair down to the middle of her back, and a very tanned girl with dyed blonde hair.
What did they say? I'm rude? Kimi? Isn't that only used by men to women? Witch? Are you that witch?
Diana opened her mouth to speak back in Japanese, "I am a witch, but which witch do you mean?"
"Akko's friend! We knew you must be!" excited, twin-tails and the blonde sat down next to her on the bench while the remaining three crowded around. "You are that witch! That witch that saved the sekai with Akko!"
Diana was slow to respond, taking time to parse the language. In their excitement, the girls had started to speak more rapidly and she was finding it hard to keep up. She completely ignored the asides they chirped to each other, having no hope of understanding, "I like Akko, but I am not sure we are friends anymore. We worked together to stop the missile. Sekai?"
"Sekai!" The cheerful twin-tails on her right answered, she made the shape of a ball with her hands.
What ball would I have saved with Akko? Why have I not been studying Japanese when Akko is Japanese! Did I not always want to come here with her?! She frowned in thought, Of course, I thought I would be coming here with her, not chasing her like some fool.
At her frown, the blonde turned to the girl with the pixie cut and motioned her to intervene. She rolled her eyes at their antics and asked, "Is your hair naturally that color? It really suits the color of your eyes."
Is she flirting with me?! Is she what you call an ojou-sama? Wait, they said "Akko". Does that mean they know Akko? "A~ko!"
The girls looked to each other, sure the crazy foreign witch had lost it not responding to the flirtations of pants-girl. The pants-girl in question hung her head and muttered, "Akko to onaji."
"Do you know where Akko is?" Diana asked them desperately.
Surprised, they looked to each other in confirmation, side-ponytail girl responded for them, "Luna Nova, in Igirisu."
"No! She's here in Japan! She left Luna Nova. I'm here to bring her back!" Diana exclaimed. Continuing sadly, "Or at least to apologize."
The blonde girl laid her hand on Diana's forearm, somehow intuiting the truth, "When you said you like Akko, how would you say it in English?"
Diana thought for a moment, playing the conversation back in her mind, flushing at the thought of her saying she liked Akko. She had not even realized she did that. In Japanese, she had used "suki" which could be misinterpreted in about as many ways as the word "like" could in English. This was why so many children would say things such as "do you like like her?"
"I am in love with Akko," Diana said in English.
The brunette's eyes widened the most out of the group, "Rabu? But she's a girl, you know!"
Pixie-cut shot the brunette a raised eyebrow, "Really?"
"You know what I mean! Akko's normal, isn't she?"
The tanned blonde answered, "Well, she did like that Shiny Chariot quite a lot."
"Oh yeah! How could I forget, but then why did she turn you down, Megumi?"
ФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФ
"How are you going to get a sprite to help you translate Japanese? I know of no sprite magic that would accomplish such a thing." Chariot was being pulled by Lotte as they marched ceaselessly towards Akko's residence.
"I'll incarnate a local sprite. So long as they live here, they should speak Japanese."
"Whaaaaat? Incarnate! You say that like it's easy!"
Lotte shook her head, "We don't have time for anything else. Sprites like me, I'm sure I can do it."
Chariot's eyes widen even further, "Seriously? That's the entirety of the explanation you're going to give? Will you have enough magic to even contact one?"
"We'll stop at a shrine along the way. The Japanese leylines are small, but well-defined and interlace throughout the country. Most of them pass through shrines."
"How do you know so much about Japanese leylines?"
"I do live with a Japanese witch," Lotte said seriously.
"And where is the shrine you'd like to stop by?"
Lotte stopped suddenly. "Oh."
Chariot smiled, "We know how to get to Akko's, but we don't know where anything else is. Let's ask for directions before we go any further. I know you want to get to Akko's as quickly as possible, but we need to do this correctly."
ФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФ
Croix knew the power of dark emotions, but that did not prepare her for finding Balto ripped apart. The heavy weight of dark magic lingered over everything in the room, gagging Croix on its pervasive stench.
A wizard she only spoke to for the brief moments it took to pass on her reports and listen to any requests; she had no feelings for him one way or another. It did not stop her stomach from turning at the site of his body.
Fear, confusion, anger, pain, and a gut-twisting sense of relief assailed her. Croix stared at her haggard face in the mirror, "Really, relief? Only you could be so sick."
She scrunched her eyes closed and retreated inward, finding an icy calm in her center. Opening her eyes, she surveyed the scene objectively.
The slowly thawing chunks of human flesh that were the wizard's limbs thankfully did not smell yet, but the viscera that had been pulled forth from the body formed a nauseating cat's cradle about what remained of his torso. The heart had exploded from the inside, acting like a grenade against his ribs.
Magic did this. There's no way they don't blame me for this. I could hide, I know how to hide. They'd never find me.
Stop it. I chose prison. I have sins to atone for.
I'm not going to prison for someone else's sins though, because fuck that.
If they're targeting me, it can only mean they're going after Akko.
I have to warn Chari. I don't have time to explain nor can I take the chance it wouldn't get to her. I can do this. "I can do this."
Croix gathered what tools and items of Balto's she thought might be useful and stormed from the room. She did not notice the three witches smiling at her departure.
"I told you she'd be a great recruit."
"It's a shame she's become so insane though."
"Let us feast on these remains sisters."
"Fool, we need the body . . . but I'll allow that the guts and limbs are not necessary."
ФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФ
"I have a bad feeling about this, Lotte."
"Please be quiet, it may not look like it, but this is actually very difficult."
Lotte knelt in seiza before the shrine. Her eyes were closed as she reached out with her magical senses to feel and call to the spirits all around. Chariot hovered behind her shoulder, looking on worryingly.
Slowly, spirits began to come out and sit, watching them curiously. Long minutes passed. Chariot wanted to say something, but she wasn't exactly in a hurry to get to Akko's anyway, so she sighed and returned the stares of the growing number of spirits. Finally, they were completely encircled and Lotte opened her eyes. Shocked, she almost fell over, but Chariot caught her. "Why are you shocked?"
"It's just, there's an awful lot of them, isn't there?"
"You tell me, you are apparently the sprite expert."
Some were more humanoid than others, but the majority of the sprites resembled nothing more than glowing balls. The largest came up to Lotte's waist, and this is the one that rolled forward. In the sprite language, the slime and Lotte spoke back and forth—melodious and beautiful, but impossible for Chariot to understand.
Finally, they seemed to come to some accord. The slime rolled back. "What's going on?"
"We reached an agreement. The elder will allow me to incarnate one of the sprites as long as I stay in Japan."
"Wow! That's amazing!"
"It was made more difficult by you thinking of them as slimes."
"Huh? Oh? They could tell? It's just we're in Japan and there's a video game here . . . "
"You don't have to explain. I am roommates with Sucy and Akko. Both of them have made the comparison before."
The spirits began to retreat back into the ether and the shrine until one yellow humanoid remained. It had the slime at the back of its head done up in large spikes and Chariot thought it looked ready to shout at any time. First Dragon Quest, now Dragon Ball? I feel like I am being extremely rude.
"You are being extremely rude!" The spirit spoke in Japanese.
Chariot's glasses fell down her face in shock, "I'm so sorry! It's just hard not to think of those things since we're in Japan!"
"Dragon Ball is an extremely awesome show full of manly men demonstrating their power!"
"It's on purpose?!" Chariot didn't think she could be more shocked.
"I can appear however I like, why not in this form of the strongest character my people have dreamt up of?"
"Are you serious?"
"Enough of this!" Lotte shouted, "I can't understand what you're saying until the ceremony is complete. We need to complete the ceremony and BRING. AKKO. BACK."
"Yes, young one. The Elder thought your passion might suit me. Your impatience and fury are a delight," the sprite said in Japanese.
"Um, Lotte. I'm having second thoughts about this . . . "
But Lotte had already held out her hands. The sprite leapt, doing a flip in midair before landing lightly upon her palms. Lotte murmured, "Thank you for your service," before bringing her hands to her chest, where the sprite stepped into Lotte.
Instantly, Lotte's visage morphed. Her hair spiked out and a fire was lit in her eyes. "Wow, he's a lot stronger than other spri—FOOLISH MAHOU. IT IS ME, TAKAMINAKATA! THE GREAT SHINING DIETY!"
ФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФ
"I have no idea what I'm doing." Left to her own devices, Amanda loitered about a convenience store in the general neighborhood of her friends. She held onto a guardrail as she leaned out into the street, bored and lonely.
Will Akko ever want to see me again, let alone right after seeing me kiss Diana? It was probably a mistake to come. Letting go with one hand, she allowed herself to fall forward and used her momentum to pivot and swing herself back over the guardrail onto the sidewalk. It would have been considerably more graceful if she hadn't been stupefied upon seeing Akko walking down the sidewalk with a bag of groceries clutched in her hands.
The brunette witch stared at Amanda with wide eyes as she dumped her groceries with an "Eep!"
Ducking her head quickly, Akko began gathering her groceries, pretending not to see the flame-haired witch.
"Seriously?" Amanda said dryly.
"Ee? Eigo desu ka?" Akko said without lifting her head, intent on picking up every last scrap in a 3 meter radius.
"That's how you're going to play this, Akko?"
Akko lifted her head, "A-Amanda? I-I didn't see you there! What a coincidence running into you here! Welp, I better be off—I'm sure you have lots of sightseeing to do!"
Akko began to run away, but Amanda grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, effectively halting her progress. "Come on. We need to talk."
ФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФЖФ
Sorry for the delay. Right after I got home I ended up on some makeshift scaffolding that broke and dumped me to the ground (and with no Akko or Diana to catch me in midair at that!). This is the first time I can sit at my desk to write since I've been home.
You can expect me to be back to semi-regular updates from here on out, even though school starts tomorrow XD
