Content warning: Insects and descriptions of phobias.

THUD!

Lotte opened a thick book about talking to spirits living within man-made objects and began studying. She had an exam in a few days, and before anyone knew it, she was scribbling notes and answering practice questions at lightning speed.

Akko and Sucy knew not to disturb her when she was this intensely focused - not that they would, anyway. Akko was busy preparing a meal, since it was her turn to cook, and Sucy was meditating deeply. Lotte had plenty of time to do what she needed, and nothing could stop her.

Nothing except a red insect with white spots crawling her way.

"GAHH!"

THUD!

Akko poked her head out from the kitchenette, and Sucy opened her eyes with an annoyed grunt.

"What's wrong?" Akko asked, but Lotte didn't reply, holding one of her textbooks in the air with shaky hands. She walked over and saw Lotte staring at the insect's splattered corpse on the table.

"Eww, I just killed one of those, as well."

With a loud huff, Sucy leapt off of the couch and rushed to the kitchenette.

"Watch the food, moron!" She took the wooden spoon Akko had been using and continued stirring the mixture, which had started to bubble over. Akko grabbed a few tissues and carried the insect to the bin.

"These bugs kinda look like mushrooms, don't they?" Akko wondered aloud, hoping to snap Lotte out of it.

"Y-Yeah, I guess so…" Lotte put down the textbook and attempted to keep studying. Akko's comment caught Sucy's attention, though, and her eye widened.

"Mushrooms? Uh-oh…"

Akko and Lotte looked at her with confusion, but she rushed over to their bedroom and flung open her personal cabinet door. Sure enough, among her mushroom collection, several of these peculiar insects were scurrying around, frightened by the sudden light. Akko soon followed her in and recoiled at the sight.

"What the heck?!"

"Amanita beetles. If you don't keep your mushrooms clean, these guys'll get attracted and become a problem." Sucy cracked her neck and stood up, closing the cabinet. "Damn it, I knew I'd forgotten to do something."

"Well, no big deal! We'll just get some bug bombs and set 'em off!" Akko suggested, but Lotte approached the door.

"Not possible. The fumes are really bad for some of the animals witches keep as familiars." None of them had a familiar, but some students in the dorms around them did.

"It wouldn't work, anyway," Sucy remarked. "These guys are a pain to exterminate. No chemical solution will do the trick."

"What, so we're stuck with these things now?"

"Akko, shouldn't someone be watching the food-?" Lotte started, but Akko cut her off, her temper rising.

"They're everywhere! How are we supposed to relax now? We might have to move dorms! All because of your stupid mushrooms-?!"

"Will you listen to me for a moment?!" Sucy hissed. "I'm not finished."

Akko backed off, her body still tense, as Lotte left to go look after the cooking herself.

"There is a way. Amanita beetles are hardy, but the fumes of a particular potion will rid us of all of them."

Akko's body relaxed a bit, but she folded her arms. "What about the familiars?"

"Completely harmless to them," Sucy said, pulling a book off of her shelf and flicking through it, her eye scanning every page. Akko just watched, stomping on a beetle that crawled past her. Sucy tossed the book aside and pulled another one out, proceeding to do the same, before sighing.

"I don't think it's in any of these."

"Well, don't you know it? You're a potion master!"

"I'm not omnipotent, Akko," Sucy said coolly. Akko was silent for a moment.

"Sucy, I'm sorry for the outburst. I'm just stressed about these bugs."

"Mm-hm." Sucy nodded in what Akko hoped was acceptance.

"Hey, I know!" Akko exclaimed. "I'm teaching with Chariot later, maybe I can talk to Lukić while I'm there!"

Sucy's mood subtly but noticeably lifted at the mention of Professor Lukić. She had met a few potion specialist witches, she still didn't think any of them quite compared to Lukić.

"Can I come?"

Akko smiled. "Of course, Sucy!"

They left the bedroom, and Lotte called to them.

"Hey! All done here."

Akko thanked her sheepishly, and they quickly ate, though Lotte didn't have much of an appetite. Wanting to leave the dorm for a while, she also decided to come with Akko.

"Hi, Professor Chariot!"

Akko bounded joyfully into Chariot's classroom, with Lotte and Sucy following after her. Class hadn't started yet, and the room was still empty.

"Hi there, Professor Akko! Are you ready for-"

Noticing Lotte and Sucy, Chariot stopped.

"Oh, my, Miss Jansson! Miss Manbavaran! What a pleasant surprise!"

"Hello, Professor!" Lotte exclaimed, waving enthusiastically. Sucy gave Chariot a nod and a little smile.

"Hehe, no need to be so formal. I'm not your teacher anymore."

"But I still need to call you 'Professor'?!" Akko pulled an exaggerated pouting face before pulling out her things and getting set up.

"What brings you two here?"

"We're looking for Lukić, actually," Sucy explained. "We need her help with a potion."

"Oh, Lukić… you guys got lucky, I think she has a free period right now. You remember where her office is, right?"

Sucy nodded and grabbed Lotte's arm with a sharp-toothed grin, pulling her out of the classroom as Akko waved goodbye.

"See you guys later! Good luck!"

Out in the hallway, Sucy strode with purpose through the crowd of Luna Nova students all heading to their next classes.

"Sucy, y-you're hurting me…" Lotte uttered, trying to keep up.

"I'll heal you later," Sucy replied, her focus firmly set on finding her favourite professor. Taking a few corners and heading down a few flights of stairs, they finally came upon their destination. Sucy lifted her arm enthusiastically to knock on the door, but noticing Lotte watching her with interest, she instead tapped the door in a controlled fashion.

"You may enter."

The door opened without either of them touching it, and shut behind them after they stepped in. Lukić was hunched over a cauldron, which was billowing a thick purple smoke that filled the dingy room.

"Well?" Lukić grumbled, waving an arm at them without even turning around.

"Yes, hello, Professor!" Sucy began excitedly. "We were wondering if you knew how to brew the repellant potion for Amanita beetles."

"Of course I do. A chunk of a Mind's Eye, two jars of Arcturus dirt, and one of the beetles themselves." Lukić continued to stare into her mixture, throwing an unidentifiable magic substance in that caused it to explode.

"Thank you, Professor!" Lotte said, turning to leave with Sucy. Lukić grunted in response.

Walking down the hallways, Lotte noted down the ingredient list in her notebook. Sucy looked bored, but the spring in her step was undeniable.

"A Mind's Eye…?" Lotte wondered aloud. "It sounds familiar… any idea what it is?"

Sucy shrugged. "Maybe we should ask Diana. Sounds like some nerd thing she'd know." Lotte stopped in her tracks, and it took Sucy a minute to realise, also stopping and turning around.

"I'm so scared, Sucy…" Lotte said, her voice quivering. Sucy approached her slowly, a little surprised. "When we get home, those bugs will be everywhere. In our beds, in our books, eating our food."

Sucy sighed. "I know, and it's my fault. Let's go find Diana, we can fix this." She slouched onward, and Lotte followed closely behind her.

"Good afternoon Miss Jansson, Miss Manbavaran. Come in."

Diana stepped aside to let the two witches into her dorm before shutting the door behind them. "What can I help you with?"

"We need to know about Mind's Eye," Lotte said, ignoring Hannah and Barbara's judging eyes on her and Sucy. "It's for a potion."

"Ah yes, your little problem. Akko informed me. Tea?"

Diana gestured to a teapot sitting on the table. Lotte declined at first, but changed her mind after Sucy accepted the offer. After they were all seated and wielding cups of tea, Diana explained.

"The Mind's Eye is a name given to a smaller Sorcerer's Stone. They can be found in establishments where magic is required, but on a small scale. Blytonbury has a few of these."

"Blytonbury… wait, of course!" Lotte's eyes widened. "The Last Wednesday Society got one recently! I knew it sounded familiar!"

"So what, are we just gonna steal it? I don't think a piece of a magic-giving artefact is up for grabs, here." Sucy took a sip of her tea. Too sweet.

"I wouldn't necessarily… suggest that," Diana said, looking to the side. "Maybe there's something else you could arrange, though."

Lotte glanced at Sucy nervously, and her gaze was returned by Sucy's blank stare.

"I guess we can try! Thanks, Diana!"

Lotte finished her tea and stood up to leave. Sucy followed suit, giving Diana an appreciative nod on the way out.

"Hannah… Barbara… put the disinfectant away."

"But they're gross, Diana…!"

"You guys can't get enough of this place, huh?"

The Last Wednesday Society's proprietor smirked at the girls as they entered. Akko had rejoined them, having finished her lesson.

"Mr. Wednesday, sir!" Akko exclaimed, and the proprietor raised an eyebrow at her, his name not being Mr. Wednesday. "Would you happen to have a 'Mind's Eye' right about now?"

"Oh, this thing!" The proprietor took out a round pinkish stone and held it out. "What about it?"

"Can we borrow it?" Sucy asked, but he shook his head.

"No can do. It's not often that I get to show something like this off."

"What?!" Akko cried. "We just need a piece of it! You can't take it out of Lotte's pay or something?!" Lotte glared angrily at her.

"What's this for, anyway?" The proprietor set the Mind's Eye down on his desk as the three explained their dilemma. He stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Hmm… that sounds rough. As much as I'd love to help out, this thing is kind of in one piece." He mimed trying to pull it apart, obviously to no avail. As Akko and Lotte tried to bargain with him, Sucy very subtly flicked her wand behind her back, causing the stone to roll off of the desk and land on the ground with a loud crash, breaking it into pieces. All four of them stared at the resulting mess.

"Well, isn't that convenient?" he said, folding his arms and eyeing them suspiciously before sighing. "Fine, go ahead and take a piece. But you're cleaning the storeroom tomorrow, Lotte."

"Okay…" Lotte muttered, looking at the floor. Sucy used a spell to repair the stone, save for a piece of it that Akko picked up and observed in the dim cafe light.

"Thank you, Mr. Wednesday! Lotte will do a great job, I promise!" Akko waved enthusiastically to the proprietor and headed out, with Lotte and Sucy following behind.

Back in their dorm, Akko and Lotte watched, the latter looking very tense, as Sucy prepared the potion. She dumped the jars of Arcturus soil in some water in her cauldron, which was set up in the middle of the room. When the Mind's Eye piece was dropped in, the mixture began to bubble and fizz.

"Just one more ingredient…"

"What is it?" Akko asked. In response, Sucy looked under the table and plucked an Amanita beetle out from hiding, tossing it into the mixture.

Immediately, a vile smell filled the air. Akko covered her nose and mouth with the front of her shirt, while Lotte clapped her hands over her face. Sucy coughed and applied a face covering.

"Okay. We need to stir this for a bit longer."

"Do we need to be in the room for this?!" Akko's voice was muffled. She and Lotte looked to Sucy for an answer, but she didn't respond, transfixed on the mixture.

"And now we leave it."

The three of them stood up.

"So that's it? Just leave the mixture here and let the fumes do the work?" Akko asked. Sucy nodded and looked around the room.

"It's working already," she observed, seeing some of the beetles start to slow down and move more erratically.

"L-Let's get out of here…" Lotte got up and left the dorm, with the other two following her. Once they were in the hallway, Akko took in the fresh air while Lotte shuddered.

"I hate this… I hate this so much! I really hope this does it." She turned to Sucy, who was slouched over and staring at their front door. "Please be more careful in the future, I don't want to do this ever again!"

"Yeah, Sucy!" Akko chimed in. "If this happens again, I'm throwing all your mushrooms away!" Sucy just cracked her neck in response.

The three of them hung out in the hallway, passing the time. Akko tried to make conversation, but Lotte was still shaken up about everything, and Sucy just wasn't in the mood to talk. After about fifteen minutes, Sucy stood up.

"I'm going inside. Clean-up is going to suck."

"Hey, we'll help you out!" Akko suggested, approaching the door. Without turning around, Sucy held her arm out to stop her.

"No. I caused this, so I'll fix it."

She went into the dorm and shut the door. Akko turned and looked down at Lotte.

"C'mon! No way we're letting her do that alone!"

Hesitantly, Lotte also got up, her knees trembling.

"I d-don't want to go in there, Akko…"

"Why not? The bugs are dead. It's finished."

Lotte let out a squeal and stood upright before brushing a stray hair off of her neck, sighing.

"You're being a little rude, y'know. They won't kill you, so let's go help Sucy!" Akko reached out a hand, but Lotte pushed it aside.

"Can you stop?!" Her blue eyes hadn't glimmered all day. "Don't invalidate the way I feel!"

"I'm not trying to invalidate anything! I'm just talking logically, here-"

Lotte abruptly turned around and walked down the hallway. Akko called out to her, but instead, Sucy opened the door and slowly stuck her head out. The noxious odour of the potion floated out from the opening, but Akko didn't react this time.

"You screwed up, didn't you?"

Staring at the floor, Akko nodded. "I didn't mean to… I thought maybe she'd shake it off."

Sucy sighed, rubbing her eyes. "You don't just shake a phobia off. Where do you get off talking like that, anyway, after you blew up at me earlier?"

"Well, they're dead now! I'm not scared of bugs if they're dead. Why would anyone be?"

Sucy just gave Akko a blank stare before shutting the door again.

"Sucy! Can't I help you clean?"

When Sucy didn't respond, Akko growled in frustration and pounded on the door.

"YOU GUYS ARE AWFUL!"

Fuming, she stomped down the hallway. A few witches from other dorms opened their doors to see what was going on, but quickly shut their doors again once they caught a lingering whiff of the repellant potion.

Hearing a knock at her door, Diana put her quill down and opened it to reveal Akko.

"Goodness, you're a mess! What's wrong?" She adjusted Akko's collar and pushed some stray hair from her eyes to reveal that they looked extinguished of any passion.

"Diana…" was all Akko could get out before silently throwing her arms around her and collapsing, much to Diana's bewilderment. Still, she returned the hug and stroked Akko's back, pulling her into her dorm and closing the door.

"Leave that thing outside, Diana…" Hannah commented from her bedroom, but a stare from Diana made her focus back on her studies. Once Akko was seated on the couch, Diana sat next to her and poured her some tea.

"What's going on, Akko?"

Akko just stared at the teacup. "Don't you think it's stupid to be scared of something if it's dead?" Diana looked taken aback by this seemingly random question, but tried to respond, anyway.

"Well, I mean, I suppose it depends. The brain is complex that way…"

"But like, if we killed all the stupid bugs in our dorm, Lotte shouldn't be so scared! Logically, right? It's rude! She didn't want to help Sucy clean because of it!"

"Akko…" Diana paused. "You didn't… tell her this, did you?"

Akko's silence gave Diana her answer, and she sighed, placing a hand on Akko's shoulder.

"Listen to me. You need to exercise a little more consideration for the way others feel. Everyone is different, and everyone reacts differently to things."

Akko played with her fingers, trying to think of a response, but drawing a blank. Diana continued.

"What if Miss Jansson had asked you to board a broom and fly over the campus tower?"

This made Akko stop. She didn't think about it that often, but years of failing to ride a broom had given her a paralysing fear of heights, so much so that it further impaired her ability to fly for a while.

"I'd… um…"

"And then proceeded to belittle you and call you selfish for, say, not rescuing someone from the top of the tower?"

Akko turned to look into Diana's eyes. They looked gentle, but her voice was quite firm.

"S-She wouldn't do that…" Akko mumbled. "Lotte's too nice."

"She probably thought the same about you, Akko."

Realisation hit her like the pointed end of the Shooting Star. She leaned on Diana's shoulder wordlessly, and Diana rubbed her shoulder for comfort.

"Please don't misconstrue this as an attack. I'm simply trying to get you to see things Lotte's way."

After a moment, Akko sat back upright and turned to face Diana.

"I need to go find Lotte. Thank you so much!"

Diana smiled as Akko left the dorm and closed the door. She then glared at Barbara, who had emerged holding a bottle of disinfectant.

It didn't take Akko very long to find Lotte, seated on the edge of the fountain outside the campus building, tracing the brick pattern on the floor with her eyes.

"Lotte! Hi!" Akko approached her, waving. Lotte looked up slowly at her, completely devoid of any enthusiasm. "I'm really, truly sorry for ignoring how you feel about this. It's wrong of me to make you feel dumb for your fears."

"I appreciate that," Lotte said, "but I don't forgive you."

Akko looked taken aback. "Huh? Y-You don't?"

Lotte was silent for a moment, collecting her thoughts and working up the courage to confront Akko.

"D-Don't leave me hanging here!"

"Alright." Lotte adjusted her glasses, focusing on controlling her voice. "I'm getting really, truly sick of your insensitivity."

"Huh? T-This seems like a bit much for some dumb things I said! You know me, I'm a moron! Sucy says that all the time!"

"It isn't just today, you know. I can't remember the last time you asked me what I thought about some plan of yours or something you wanted me to do."

Akko played with the hem of her shirt, listening silently.

"It's great that you're so passionate about your objectives, but we don't always want to follow you. Sucy and I got in trouble so many times for things you forced us to do. If we declined, you'd throw a tantrum and storm off until you heard some forced apology from either of us."

Realisation once again hit Akko. Things weren't going to be so easy this time.

"Sucy called, and she told me she's finished cleaning. Tell her I'm going to stay with Amanda and her friends tonight."

"What?! Amanda's dorm is gross!" Akko began to sweat with a mixture of nervousness and frustration. "T-This whole thing is stupid, y'know! Are you trying to avoid what isn't there-?"

"ATSUKO."

Akko stopped talking. Lotte was breathing heavily.

"This is what I mean. You say a lot of things, but you never actually learn from your mistakes. Please leave me alone."

With big, unfriendly eyes, Lotte stared at Akko until she complied, turning around and slowly heading off. Her footsteps resonated loudly around the campus grounds, which were otherwise silent. On the way back to her dorm, she couldn't help but keep thinking about what Sucy had asked her earlier.

"You screwed up, didn't you?"

To be continued...