Hi everyone. I had a very rough holiday and haven't been in a mental state that is conducive to writing. It's been wayyy too long with no updates and I'm very sorry. If anyone is still reading this, thank you for continuing. I'm sure as long as I'm still breathing, I'll always come back to this story until someday it's complete. I'm just not as sure that it will be anywhere near as fast as I thought it would be.
I'll start posting updates (such as my delays and expected releases) on my Tumblr and Twitter.
Our Magic!
Episode 06: Of Kami and Fey
Part II
Chariot stared at the hotel room door with red-rimmed eyes. A mug of tea gone cold in her hand. The room's darkness shrouded her face in shadows.
"Professor?"
The timid question shocked her into recoiling, dropping her mug in the process. With reflexes honed on the battlefield, the flame-haired witch's hand raced to intercept the falling porcelain. She deftly snagged it, and rolled her hand to catch the momentum of the fall, managing to avoid spilling the tea within.
"Wow," the bespectacled Lotte remarked, channeling her inner Sucy, "When I think about it, it's really hard to imagine that no one figured out your identity. You make even the most mundane things pretty incredible."
"L-lotte," Chariot replied with an attempt at her usual exasperated persona, "What can I do for you?"
Lotte's eyes slid towards the closed door before returning to her teacher. Chariot sighed in pain. "She needs sleep more than anything."
"It doesn't sound like she's sleeping. Everyone's worried. Well, Akko is somehow sleeping through it and Diana was ready to crucify anyone that would wake her up. Even Sucy backed off at that."
"Akko . . ."
"She's really not stupid, you know."
"W-what?"
"I know I agreed with Sucy back then and said she's an idiot, but she's our idiot, and I don't mean to say she's stupid when I say she's an idiot. It's just, well, she's Akko."
"I know that, Lotte," Chariot said tenderly, "She's our Akko."
"She's not stupid, but," Lotte's voice grew hoarse as she struggled to continue, "She's-she's not ready for this."
Chariot turned sympathetic eyes towards the young girl. "None of you are ready for this. I—"
Lotte cut her off sharply, "Don't!" she lowered her voice after seeing Chariot taken aback, "Don't blame yourself. That won't help anyone. It's done."
Chariot remained quiet, thinking.
"What is it?"
"You're not going to bring up something from Night Fall?" Chariot teased gently redirecting her student.
Lotte huffed and whispered furiously, "I don't always bring it up!"
A cry from within drew the attention of both. Lotte looked to Chariot. "I—I'll think of something."
Lotte turned to go, but thought better of it, "We all discussed something else too."
Chariot sought Lotte's eyes behind her glasses, "Yes, what is it?"
"She can't go back to jail. Not like this."
Chariot turned back to her vigil at Croix's door, nodding absentmindedly.
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"YOU GUYS ARE LEAVING?" Akko's shout threatened to tear down the building more than the recent earthquakes.
"Geez, that girl's got lungs," Croix commented. The other nine witches nodded in agreement without realizing.
"Don't change the topic! Talk to me," Akko stared at her two teachers before continuing in a smaller voice, "You're going to miss the festival."
Most of the witches had trouble looking at Akko at that moment, but Akko was solely focused on Croix and Chariot, so she didn't even notice Diana's look of anguish.
"You think we haven't been to a Japanese festival? How many times do you think we came to Japan touring?" Croix asked.
"Once!" Akko declared. "You came once and had a huge fight so you probably didn't even get to enjoy it!"
"Tch, forgot I was talking to Miss Superfan."
"Never forget! Mwa ha ha ha!" Akko boasted loudly with her hands on her hips in a Superman pose.
"Akko, we're leaving," Chariot said coaxingly.
"Stay."
Croix defended the decision. "Sorry kiddo, it's nothing personal."
"You should be with us."
The statement made Croix pause, but Chariot had enough. "Akko we're leaving. Croix can't stay in one place for too long or else she'll be arrested again."
"Wait, YOU are going on the run with Croix-sensei?"
"I'll figure something out."
Akko shook her head, then finally seemed to remember everyone else. "You're all fine with this? Don't you want them to stay with us?"
Her eyes sought out each of the eyes of her friends, resting lastly on Diana. Diana spoke up, unable to ignore the look of pain in her girlfriend's exhausted eyes, "It is for the best . . ."
"I'm against it," Akko said resolutely.
"Why are you so against this, Akko? We will be reunited once more at Luna Nova. They are merely cutting this trip a little short. With everything that has happened, it is more than understandable."
"With everything that has happened . . . Croix should be with us. We'll protect her!"
"I don't want it," Croix said harshly.
"What?"
"I don't want you to protect me, Akko. I've had enough of you cleaning up my messes. Just let me go. Come on, Chari. I'm done talking about this. Or stay—if that's more important to you."
Croix turned away and started towards the door. Chariot took one last look at Akko before following.
"Wait!" Akko shouted after them. "Wait! At least let me send you off!"
"Huh?" "Eh?" Croix and Chariot responded similarly, stopping in their tracks and turning back to the young witch.
"Back to Luna Nova! I can open up a leyline to get there, you know? Just like the first time I went there. If Woodward can do it, then I can do it!" She tried to snap her fingers as though to demonstrate the ease she could channel the magics of the Shiny Rod, but no sound came out. Akko looked aghast at her fingers that had betrayed her before trying two times more, finally managing to get an audible snap for everyone to hear.
Sucy did not bother to hide her laugh while everyone else seemed suitably exasperated. Diana for some reason was staring at Akko with love in her eyes. Croix looked to Chariot, and Chariot looked to Croix. "Well?" Croix asked.
Chariot shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, giving up on common sense for the day. "Are we really thinking of doing this?"
"What's the worst that could happen?"
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They moved to the park and for some reason, Akko insisted on wearing her white witch battle uniform. After trying the spell for a dozen times (one of which had left Diana short-circuited from the amount of skin on display) she finally got it close enough to be wearable and the group said their goodbyes.
It was more emotional than just a trip home, and a lot was left unsaid. Only the forever in her own pace Sucy managed to break the tension with her sardonic, "This is probably the last time we—or anyone else for that matter—will ever see you. You are going into a wormhole opened up by Akko after all."
"HEY!" Akko shouted. "You traveled through a wormhole I opened up too!"
"I was unconscious for that."
Akko opened her mouth to retort, but fumbled for what to say. "A-anyway! Let's get going! If you two are going to be dumb and leave, then let's go!"
Akko held her hand up and the Shiny Arc dropped effortlessly into her hand from thin air. Everyone took note at that development, but Akko forestalled any questions, launching quickly into "Noctu Ordei Aude Fraetor! SHIIIINY ARC!"
She launched the bolt of energy at the feet of Chariot and Croix. The two witches did not even have time to jump as the floor opened up beneath them and swallowed them whole.
Everyone else took a few steps back, but Akko leaned over the open portal and waved, smiling. "HAVE! A! NICE! TRIP!"
As soon as the portal closed, Akko slumped to the floor. Diana rushed to her side, "A~ko!"
Akko allowed the blonde witch to embrace her, but shook off her questions, "I'm fine Diana. I just don't think that was a good idea."
Diana adopted a stoic face as she steeled herself to keep the truth from Akko once more. "A~ko," she began.
"When-when something like that happens, even if you want to be alone, even if you need to be alone. You need more to be with people that care about you and love you and aren't going to be judging you. The last thing you should do is go on a manhunt from the law."
No one bothered to correct Akko on what a manhunt is, the realization that she knew Croix's secret just the same as the rest of them taking precedence. The reason why she seemed so tired dawned on those of them that had noticed but hadn't thought to question it. She had been pretending to sleep through Croix's cries the night before. Of course she had noticed, who cares about their loved ones more than Akko?
Diana began to cry and buried her face in Akko's shoulder as she hugged her tighter. The sudden tremor knocked everyone but Constanze and Jasminka to the ground. "Ouch!" "What the—" "Um, guys?"
Amanda's question directed everyone's gaze to her. She pointed, "Look at that."
All around them, trees were swaying even though the shaking had stopped. Next to Diana and Akko a sudden spurt of muddy water caught them by surprise and turned into a sudden reverse flooding.
Another tremor shook them even more and trees began to uproot. Water rose up from solid ground and flowed to the lowest elevations, saturating everything.
Akko wailed in dismay, "This is totally not because of me!"
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The nine young witches took refuge with the other park-goers on a small hill, Akko flying around on the Shiny Volley and collecting more and more people as the others tried to find out what was going on.
When Akko at last touched down, her eyes started to roll up in her head as she struggled to stay upright. Lotte and Sucy immediately supported her from both sides, faster than the slower-than-normal injured Diana. Diana allowed her cheeks to puff out in annoyance once Akko regained her balance and stepped free of them.
The largest tremor yet chose that time to strike. Everyone that wasn't already on the ground stumbled and the cries of children rose above the crowd. Akko pleaded, "It's really not because of me . . . right?"
A long siren cut through the noise of the crowd. Akko grew pale and began to shake.
"Akko, what is it?" Lotte asked in concern.
"Constanze! Do we know what's going on?" Akko brushed off the question, turning her attention to the technowitch. Constanze had finished connecting a couple borrowed smartphones to her stanbot and an image of a newswoman was projected above it.
The audio cut in and out, but the word "kaijuu" was clearly stated in the silence after the siren.
"Did that bitch just say kaijuu?" Amanda asked. "Was that a mother-flipping Godzilla alarm?"
Akko shook her head and said simply, "No."
"Then what was it for?"
"Tsunami."
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"Um."
"Yeah."
"That's."
"Yeah."
"This isn't reality."
"Yeah."
"How."
"Yeah."
"Really."
"Yeah."
"Something like this."
"Yeah."
". . ."
"Yeah."
Everyone stared at the magnified picture of the kaijuu displayed on the stanbot.
It was a catfish.
A really, really, really big catfish.
Flying through the air.
Above an ocean racing along with it.
"I mean, at least it's just water, right?" Amanda asked tentatively, "We know it's coming, we just need to get to higher ground."
"They're saying it's bigger than 2011," Akko said dispassionately.
"2011?" Hannah asked, unsure of the reference.
Diana supplied the information for her shell-shocked girlfriend, "It was a tsunami that hit Japan. It was a major disaster."
"18 thousand," Akko proffered.
"18 thousand what?"
"Dead."
"Th-that many!" Barbara gasped in horror.
"Don't worry. It won't hit here. These quakes are just the remnants. We moved here—" Akko cut herself off.
Diana's eyes widened, "Were you there?!"
Akko nodded without looking, her eyes focused on the television projection. "Yeah."
"A~ko . . ." Diana began.
"There's nothing we can do. Just watch as it happens again."
None of them had ever heard Akko sound like this before. Sucy cut through, "Which of you are the real Akko?"
"Huh?"
"The bumbling, cheerful idiot that literally made the world smile or this hopeless, shell of a witch?"
"Sucy," Akko said in disbelief.
"No. This isn't how Akko would react. React like Akko dammit!" Sucy stepped forward and physically shook Akko's shoulders. The two tumbled over. Sucy did not relinquish her grip, but squeezed her eyes shut as tears fell to the astonished witch beneath her.
Akko gasped softly, "I wasn't sure you could cry, Sucy."
"I'm still part human, you idiot!"
Akko looked around at her friends. Jasminka that had a white-knuckle grip on herself to keep from offering cookies; the silent Constanze whose sad eyes spoke volumes; Amanda herself moments away from exploding like Sucy had and now trying to pretend she wasn't going to; Lotte with her glasses in hand as she tried to wipe away the tears filling her large eyes; Hannah biting her thumb in worry and Barbara with her hands wrapped around herself.
To Diana, halfway between trying to stop Sucy and not being sure if she should let it go on, continuing to half step forward before shaking her head, looking about as confused as the blonde heiress has ever looked.
Akko laughed, "Wow, I'm an idiot."
Sucy pushed her against the ground roughly, "That's what I've been saying!"
That was the tipping point for Diana, and she forcibly removed the witch from her girlfriend.
Akko continued laying on the ground, wiping her eyes. "A~ko?"
"This isn't like the last time!" Akko sat up with a shout.
"Because you're inland this time?" Amanda asked.
"Because I have magic this time!"
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I feel like this is a little short, but I think this is probably the best place to cut it for this part. If you're interested, the catfish is based on the kami Nazamu; the water rushing out is something that sometimes happens during earthquakes called liquefaction; and the tsunami in 2011 is one of the largest and most expensive disasters ever. It's impossible that Akko hadn't at least lived through it while inhabiting the country it occurred in, so I thought it would make this storyline a little more personal for her to be confronted with the same thing as had devastated her homeland, but this time it being caused by her actions with Diana in Season 1.
Thank you so much for reading. Your comments/reviews and favorites/kudos while I've been gone have been a source of strength for me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
