《Of Monsters, Malice, And Magic》


 Familiar But Off

    A girl with long brown hair (though a portion of it was tied into a ponytail that stuck almost straight up) and maroon eyes, while wearing a red jacket, blue scarf, a pair of shorts to go along with her boots, and a pink backpack along with a white and blue-striped rolling suitcase and a tan carry-all, stepped off the bus that passed through Blytonbury before heading to their current location, Blytonbury¡¯s smaller sibling, Glastonbury, then consulted her map. ¡°Okay, just gotta find that gate-looking thing, then getting to Luna Nova should be a cinch. Probably.¡±


    The skeleton accompanying her made an expression that would be a raised eyebrow on a human, though with how his skull shifted, due to being mostly magic as opposed to calcium, it was fairly easy to tell once you¡¯d seen it a couple times. ¡°why the probably kid?¡± he asked, hands in his hoodie¡¯s pockets.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s a magical school for teaching witches-in-training. If this were an anime, it¡¯d have some kind of test or else they wouldn¡¯t let you in at all.¡± she responded, looking around for anything that might hint at where the gate was.


    ¡°that seems like the sort of thing they¡¯d tell you upfront.¡± The skeleton replied. ¡°also, I think you¡¯ve been watching too much magical girl anime lately Akko.¡± he added.


    ¡°But Sans, I¡¯m about to go to a school where they teach kids how to use magic! I can¡¯t do a whole lot of studying past the basics or I might get super bored and sleep through the lesson, like that programming course I took. I don¡¯t want to miss anything.¡± Akko complained.


    Sans gave her a deadpan look. ¡°then keep yourself awake.¡±


    ¡°Do you want a repeat of the caffeine patch incident?¡± Akko huffed.


    ¡°you do know that you can keep yourself awake without chemical cocktails, right?¡± Sans queried.


    ¡°That almost never works for long. We both know that.¡± They¡¯d pulled all-nighters before. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s ask around, or maybe go to the edge of town so we can look for landmarks, ¡®cause ¡®Leyline Terminal¡¯ doesn¡¯t seem like it would be easy to miss.¡± She suggested.


    30 minutes (and a few slightly-freaked-out people) later, no dice on finding the terminal. They¡¯d taken a break on a nearby wooden bench. Everybody said that there wasn¡¯t a bus terminal or a subway within 10 miles. ¡°weird, you¡¯d think that this place would be easier to find. then again, the only route to their school is in the middle of nowhere in Britain, so maybe there¡¯s some kind of pamphlet or something you can only get here... or it might just be some kind of teleporter or something.¡± he pointed out what looked like a huge tower of wood, which at first glance looked more like a huge tree. Or perhaps it began as a tree? Nah, KND treehouses started as trees, the tower was probably just disguised as one.


    Akko brought her map back out and compared the tower to the picture on the map. While usually maps just used symbols, the tree-like picture on the map was almost identical to the building itself, if in miniature. ¡°Oh, that makes sense. It must be to test our dedication. If we can¡¯t even find the terminal we don¡¯t have what it takes to become witches.¡± she hit a fist into her palm.


    ¡°I still think you might be overthinking this, but let¡¯s go. gotta get that Map data before I can take any shortcuts.¡± Sans said with a shrug.


    A moderate walk later, they came across a pale girl with long lilac hair, even darker red eyes than Akko herself, a brown poncho over a green dress and a number of bags with ingredients of some kind sticking out of them, presumably for potions. That was a classic witch activity. Akko hadn¡¯t gotten very far with the basic course, mostly because she ran out of ingredients before she got past the most basic recipes due to some mishaps with one of the KND¡¯s villains (Toriel certainly didn¡¯t appreciate it when she found out what exactly was going on with them shortly after reaching the surface, though when Akko told her that most of the KND¡¯s Rogues were mostly just jerks or well-meaning but relatively harmless nutjobs rather than actually dangerous she calmed down a bit), and she tried not to abuse Reset for such trivial things¡­ any more.


    ¡°Oh, hey! You¡¯re going to Luna Nova too, right? My name¡¯s Atsuko Kagari, but you can call me Akko.¡± she said. Sans seemed to have wandered off, presumably to scout ahead and make sure that the terminal was actually up ahead. When she didn¡¯t get a response from lilac-hair, she decided to fall back on Papyrus¡¯ usual tactics. Keep bringing up different topics until something piqued her counterpart¡¯s interest.


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna guess you like potions right? I tried to learn, but I lost some ingredients to a random lunatic before I could get past the early recipes from the starter kits.¡± Stuff like that happened to everybody at some point, though it seemed to happen to her more often than usual. This was presumably the reason lilac-hair barely glanced at her.


    Attempting a different tactic, Akko pulled out her Shiny Chariot card. If this girl was a fan, she¡¯d finally find another. If, as was more likely, she was yet another detractor, well, she¡¯d probably be able to take advantage of the opening to get this girl talking. Of course, if it didn¡¯t work, she was starting to run out of ideas that didn¡¯t involve regaling her with one of her weirder stories.


    ¡°This is one of my most prized possessions! These Shiny Chariot cards are super-rare limited editions! It took months to get them all. Though I¡¯m missing the one, so I guess ¡®all¡¯ isn¡¯t the right word.¡± she admitted. ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure she can forgive one of her fans for not managing to ¡®catch ¡®em all.¡¯ Especially since she inspired me to become a witch in the first place. A lot of people don¡¯t seem to like her anymore since she¡¯s been missing for 10 years, but I say to heck with those fair-weather fans! If you like her, don¡¯t tell people you don¡¯t!¡± She finally got some kind of response. The girl turned around and offered her hand.


    ¡°Ah! Nice to meet you!¡± she reciprocated with her own hand. Finally. While she didn¡¯t seem overly friendly, this was a good start for less than 5 minutes of work. Undyne had certainly been more of a challenge. This girl hadn¡¯t even tried to ki-


    Suddenly there were snakes on her arms, hissing and clearly aggressive. Oops, spoke too soon. In a practiced manner (because things like this had happened to her before) she threw the snakes off the stone bridge before they could bite her. The other girl blinked at her, before attempting the continue on.


    ¡°Hey now, that wasn¡¯t very nice!¡± she huffed as she kept pace. Sure, Determination, especially in the quantities she possessed, provided a great deal of resistance to most forms of harm, which was credited as why humanity had triumphed over the other races that inhabited the Earth, but that didn¡¯t mean getting bitten and injected with venom wouldn¡¯t have hurt!


    ¡°Persistent aren¡¯t you?¡± lilac-hair muttered.


    ¡°Ah ha! She speaks!¡± Akko pointed at the other girl, the shift in weight caused the loose stone under her right foot to slide out of place, making her to lose her balance. She caught herself without getting hurt, but her suitcase scattered its contents across the path. The other girl picked up her Alcor stuffy, as Akko struggled to fit her things back inside the suitcases. Luckily, nothing seemed to be broken.


    ¡°Uh, can I have that back?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Sure.¡± The other girl said, before pouring a vial of some purple liquid on the stuffy, animating it, presumably not permanently. The toy started to hop around a few moments later.


    ¡°Wow! I didn¡¯t know you could use potions to bring things to life instead of enchanting them with a wand.¡± If the other girl¡¯s plan was to distract her by bringing inanimate objects to life, then she had to admit, it could work. She knelt down to get a better look at the toy. ¡°This is so co-OW!¡± she was cut off by the reflexive cry of pain from getting jabbed in the eye by the same toy.


    1


    HP: 998/999.


    It was more shock than anything else, and the Temmie Armor she was wearing under her coat healed the already almost unnoticeable damage in moments, but still. She grabbed the toy and waved it around, hoping she wouldn¡¯t have to dunk it in the river.


    When her stuffy kept struggling, she reluctantly made her way to the river bank and dunked it. This dispelled the magic, presumably by diluting the potion to the point of uselessness, though she¡¯d have to be careful with it since the toy was already more than half a decade old and she¡¯d been hard on it when she was younger. Seeing as it couldn¡¯t dry properly in her pack, and she didn¡¯t have the time to shift things around to fit the toy back in if she wanted to keep up with her somewhat jerkish companion, she simply placed it on top of her head.


    Hurrying a bit to catch up. She complained again, a note of genuine irritation in her voice. ¡°What was that for? I¡¯m just trying to be friendly.¡±


    ¡°Well I¡¯m not in-¡± she turned around when she heard the telltale *Vwoorp* of Sans¡¯ teleportation, a note of confusion in her expression as the background music changed.


    For some reason, Sans was holding a stick. ¡°hey kid I wood-n¡¯t worry about the terminal. A bunch of witches were hanging around in front of it, and they seem like regulars.¡± he explained.


    Akko tried to suppress a smirk. ¡°Did you *Snrk* grab that stick just for the pun?¡± she asked. The other girl merely raised an eyebrow at Akko¡¯s apparent familiarity with a Monster. Seeing as there was less than a single million, and they had at least small enclaves all over the world, it was rare to see them away from where they lived.


    ¡°you know-t me, not one for leaf-ing a pun opportunity be.¡± Sans answered, causing Akko to barely contain her laughter. She knew the jokes were terrible, but she couldn¡¯t help herself.


    ¡°I bet Papyrus regrets talking about quotas in front of us every day.¡± Akko commented as she calmed down.


    ¡°probably.¡± Sans agreed.


    ¡°Never seen a skeleton up close.¡± Lilac-hair commented.


    ¡°the name¡¯s Sans. Sans the skeleton.¡± Sans said, offering his hand. The girl stared at him for a moment. ¡°aw, come on, don¡¯t you know how to greet a new pal?¡±


    ¡°Just watch out for the snakes Sans.¡± Akko mentioned as the girl started to reach out. Presumably unwilling to try the trick on him when he¡¯d already been informed of it, or just out of snakes, she simply clasped hands. Sans left eye flickered blue a split second beforehand, and a loud, wet farting sound rang out. Lilac-hair took on a deadpan expression as Sans pulled back his hand to reveal a whoopie cushion that hadn¡¯t been there beforehand.


    Akko and Sans chuckled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he got me with that too.¡± Akko commiserated.


    ¡°I am very conflicted about someone who looks like a human corpse but makes bad jokes.¡± Lilac hair commented, though Akko got the impression her feelings toward each were the reverse of the norm.


    ¡°Are you going to tell us your name or what?¡± Akko asked.


    *She¡¯s just going to keep asking.* Lilac-hair was informed by a Check. A moment¡¯s consideration, a sigh, and she answered ¡°Sucy Manbavaran.¡±


    ¡°Great! First try and everything!¡± Akko cheered. Sucy raised an eyebrow. How many times was she willing to have tried if she¡¯d refused Akko this time? It was probably less hassle to avoid finding out.


    ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up. The school¡¯s going to kick us out if we aren¡¯t there in time for the opening ceremony.¡± Sucy pointed out.


    ¡°Wait, really? Let¡¯s go!¡± Akko grabbed Sucy¡¯s hand and dragged her along at a pace a bit faster than expected for a person her age. Surprisingly, while Sucy struggled a little in keeping up, the skeleton had no problems. She¡¯d gotten an impression of laziness and a lack of motivation, even in the brief span she¡¯d interacted with him, so why was he so untroubled by the burst of speed he was using now?


    As they neared the tall tower, they came across a girl with glasses over green eyes, short orange hair, a Luna Nova uniform and far more items than either Sucy or Akko. She was clearly struggling to carry them all. Sure enough, she tripped and nearly fell. Akko and Sans worked together to keep her from falling on her face, and to keep the more fragile-looking items that had been spilling out of her bags as she fell from hitting the ground.


    Akko couldn¡¯t maintain Blue Magic for very long, so she quickly set the girl upright, while Sans gently lowered the items down. The gravity-altering magic required both power and finesse. While Akko had plenty of the former, she was lacking the latter, so extended use often made gravity start acting weird (as in random changes in direction or crushing/ripping apart of the object in question if it didn¡¯t possess a SOUL). Sans and Papyrus had no such problems.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Uh, thanks, mister s-skeleton.¡± Orange-hair said, a trifle nervously. Most Monsters were accepted by society as a whole, but skeletons reminded people too much of necromancers, and, well, that was a very poor reputation to be associated with.


    Zombie outbreaks and necromancers were some of the few things the various heroes and villains of Earth would put aside their differences on, as they were smart enough to know that they were almost always the bigger threat. An omnicidal maniac wasn¡¯t usually interested in there being much of anything left to rule after all. Not that there weren¡¯t any good necromancers, but 99% of the time they were evil and/or insane.


    ¡°no problem kid. that¡¯s an awful lot of stuff for one person. your mom overpack?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Well, mom and Janne.¡± She answered, with a little more confidence since he hadn¡¯t bitten her head off. ¡°I¡¯m Lotte Jannson. With a J, not a Y.¡± Akko got the impression she needed to correct people on that a lot.


    ¡°Well I¡¯m Atsuko Kagari, but you can call me Akko, and this is Sucy and Sans.¡± Akko pointed to the relevant person as she spoke. ¡°Now, let me take some of your stuff so we can hurry to the terminal.¡± Akko grabbed one of the bags Lotte had dropped.


    Normally, Lotte would have objected, but they were already pushing it in terms of being on time. ¡°Uh, okay!¡± She didn¡¯t so much agree as decide to let Akko go ahead and do it.


    The four of them ran for the terminal at the punishing pace Akko set. She had far more energy than she really ought to, and Sans was still keeping up without any problems, while the two humans struggled to keep up with their compatriot.


    *You should slow down. Your new friends are having trouble keeping up.* Chara informed Akko.


    Akko slowed momentarily, and, sure enough, Akko and Sucy were breathing hard, sweat starting to show on their faces. Sucy appeared to have taken her inability to keep up with Akko as something of a challenge, while Lotte probably just wanted to make sure they got to the opening ceremony on time.


    Seeing as they were at the bottom of the hill from the terminal, Akko didn¡¯t see any reason to push them further. ¡°Uh, you guys okay?¡± she asked. She kept forgetting that most people didn¡¯t have the sort of adventures she did, though that one time she ran into the Murphy family on vacation was kind of extreme even for her. She¡¯d gotten used to their ridiculous misfortune (at times impressive even by Banshee standards) when she occasionally visited them though.


    ¡°huh, you guys don¡¯t run much do ya?¡± Sans asked.


    ¡°I help my dad chop down trees, but that uses completely different muscles, so¡­¡± Lotte shrugged as she caught her breath.


    ¡°I¡¯m more interested in reading books and experimenting with my potions than running around.¡± Sucy said, quickly recovering her somewhat bland expression. To her credit, in a few moments, it was almost as if she hadn¡¯t just run a 100 meter dash.


    They made their way to the crest of the hill, where the Leyline Terminal sat. A tower that was wooden on the outside, but stone on the inside. As in, actual rocks were stacked up and mortared together. At a guess, the wood was added later to preserve the tower, as while the wood was more easily worn away, it was also more easily repaired.


    As they neared the terminal itself, they overheard a trio of witches in their Luna Nova uniforms and holding brooms talking.


    ¡°How was your vacation?¡± The brown-haired one asked.


    ¡°It was mediocre at best, and that was before the Kaiju attack. Honestly, what¡¯s the point of tourist locations if the only time there aren¡¯t too many people to enjoy it is right after a giant monster trashes a couple city blocks?¡± The Orange-haired asked.


    ¡°Yeah, that was basically my vacation too, but with the KND and one of their weirdo villains. I¡¯m actually kind of glad both sides are so incompetent most of the time. They get scary when they get serious.¡± The purple-haired one asked.


    ¡°You¡¯re kidding? The KNdorks and the Villainous League of Incompetent Cartoon Rejects?¡± Black-hair asked.


    ¡°Not when they get serious.¡± Purple hair answered solemnly. Black-hair and orange-hair shared a look and let it slide.


    ¡°Anyway, I hear they¡¯ve let a commoner in this year. She¡¯s not from a Witch''s family, not even distantly!¡± Orange-hair gossiped.


    ¡°Apparently, the school¡¯s in the red, so they need the extra tuition to stay open. You¡¯d think people would care more about training witches when there¡¯s villains and monsters and other things running around!¡± Black-hair said.


    ¡°Well, with all the new magi-tech and regular advanced technology popping up, people are starting to think they don¡¯t need witches any more, so they don¡¯t bother with funding magical education any better than they do regular education. Since magical education is more expensive if you aren¡¯t born able to use at least some magic like Ebott Monsters, well¡­¡± Purple-hair commented.


    ¡°Ugh, fine, I guess if it¡¯s to keep the school open we¡¯ll just have to deal with it, but I still don¡¯t like them letting in so many commoners lately.¡± Orange-hair commented.


    ¡°Huh? Who¡¯s that?¡± Purple-hair asked, inclining her head in Akko¡¯s direction.


    ¡°Uh, hi there. I¡¯m Atsuko Kagari, but you can call me Akko. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m the ¡®commoner girl¡¯ so do you know when the¡­ elevator is coming? This doesn¡¯t look like a bus or train stop, so I¡¯m not sure-¡± she was cut off by the trio laughing.


    ¡°Wow, you really don¡¯t know anything about Luna Nova, do you?¡± Orange-hair asked derisively.


    Black-hair puffed herself up and then took on a faux-stuck-up-teacher tone. ¡°Miss Kagari, the Leyline Terminal is an ancient magical highway connecting a series of magical pocket dimensions, including Luna Nova itself. This is the only way to get to Luna Nova without ripping your way through the fabric of reality a dozen times over like an irresponsible moron.¡±


    ¡°Making fun of the teachers while they¡¯re still out of earshot?¡± Purple-hair asked.


    ¡°Hey, gotta salvage my vacation somehow, and it¡¯s not over until I¡¯m actually back to school. Speaking of which, we should be going.¡± Black-hair responded.


    ¡°Tia Freyre!¡± the three witches chanted, holding up their brooms, before mounting the now hovering brooms. ¡°If you can¡¯t ride a broom, then you won¡¯t be able to get to Luna Nova, especially with a deadline.¡± Orange-hair rubbed in, before they ascended and briefly stretched out before turning green and disappearing.


    ¡°And if you don¡¯t make it in time for the opening ceremony, you get expelled.¡± Sucy repeated.


    ¡°ah, don¡¯t sweat it kid. we should be able to figure something out before the ceremony.¡± Sans comforted.


    ¡°Well, I guess I could give Akko a ride.¡± Lotte muttered softly.


    Lotte immediately found herself tackle-hugged. ¡°Would you? That would be great! Thanks so much Lotte!¡± Akko gushed.


    ¡°So, why¡¯s the skeleton here, anyway?¡± Sucy asked.


    ¡°Well, Sans and I can teleport, mostly because he taught me how. I can¡¯t go very far though, and if I want to visit my friends and family on the weekends instead of only during breaks and vacation, I¡¯ll need a quick way of getting there and back. Since I can¡¯t do it myself, Sans agreed. The problem is that he can¡¯t teleport somewhere he hasn¡¯t been. So, the plan was for him to visit for a day, at least until I was put in one of the dorm rooms, so he could teleport to me, and then take me home. On that note, I need to ask you a favor.¡± Akko put on a puppy-dog eyed expression. ¡°Please let him ride with you so all four of us can go? I¡¯d rather not risk being late, and while I have a backup plan, I really, REALLY, don¡¯t want to use it if I don¡¯t have to.¡± Akko pleaded earnestly.


    Sucy stared at Akko with a raised eyebrow as the brown-haired girl did her best to look like a kicked puppy. After nearly a full minute of resistance, she gave in. ¡°Fine, just stop looking at me like I killed your dog for no reason.¡± she agreed.


    ¡°Yay! Thank you Sucy!¡± Akko cheered.


    ¡°don¡¯t worry kid. most people fall for that at least the first couple times. it¡¯s the social equivalent of a WMD to her. so you can be sure this is pretty important to her.¡± Sans explained to Sucy as Akko happily babbled about nothing in particular, while placing herself on Lotte¡¯s broom behind the other girl.


    ¡°Let¡¯s just get this over with.¡± Sucy rolled her eyes as he clambered on. Surprisingly, he weighed virtually nothing. Sucy had heard that Monsters were ridiculously light for their size, but she¡¯d expected the skeleton to weigh more than a couple textbooks.


    ¡°Tia Freyre!¡± Lotte chanted, shortly followed by Sucy.


    ¡°Wow!¡± Akko gasped as they started to fly upwards. ¡°This is so COOL!¡± She shouted, half ecstatically, and half in surprise as she experienced the curious sensation of passing through the leyline¡¯s entrance, briefly stretching out to match the fabric of the space-time continuum, before snapping back


    ¡°This isn¡¯t anything like Sans¡¯ shortcuts!¡± Akko shouted, gazing at the purple tunnel with blue vein-like strands, which quickly gave way to a green tunnel.


    ¡°eh, some of the early experiments into this sort of thing kinda felt like that.¡± Sans commented, before they were hit by a blast of turbulence.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s not supposed to do that?¡± Akko queried.


    ¡°No. Someone must have brought salt in here. The leyline hates salinity.¡± Lotte answered.


    ¡°Salt?! But how does the school deal with bad fairies and human-eating youkai if they can¡¯t bring salt in?¡± Akko asked, scandalized. Hey, if Monsters were real...


    ¡°I take it that you¡¯re the one who brought salt in here then.¡± Sucy deadpanned, as another, stronger wave of turbulence hit.


    Akko dug around in her bags, before pulling out a jar. ¡°Do I really have to get rid of them?¡± she asked, hoping for a no.


    ¡°Yes!¡± Lotte cried out as a stronger still wave of turbulence hit.


    ¡°Aw, and mom made these plums for me special.¡± she said, glumly tossing the jar overboard.


    ¡°Plums?¡± Sucy asked, honestly curious.


    ¡°Mom¡¯s pie probably wouldn¡¯t have lasted, and they¡¯re better waRM!¡± Akko answered, just as the largest wave yet hit, throwing them and their luggage off the brooms, into a whirlpool of green light, before ending up 3 stories in the air, above a half-dead forest.


    Akko grabbed Lotte, who was screaming in terror, and a somewhat nervous-looking Sucy, and dragged them directly behind her, while Sans brought out their Souls and, with seconds to spare, halted their fall, before letting them fall the last foot. Akko quickly Checked everyone.


    Sans: 10.9873/1 HP.


    Lote: 29.8892/30 HP.


    Sucy: 34.9813/35 HP.


    You: 998/999 HP.


    Luckily, Sans had slept in today, and as everyone knew, extra sleep raised you HP above it¡¯s maximum, so he had a little bit of a buffer. Also, the ground was entirely neutral to Sans¡¯ life or death, so it was unlikely he¡¯d have taken nearly as much damage from hitting the ground as if something alive had hit him.


    ***Meanwhile: Professor Ursula¡¯s Study. Luna Nova Academy.***


    As ¡®Ursula¡¯ one of the teachers at Luna Nova, prepared for the Opening Ceremony, her familiar let out a ¡°Wark!¡± to alert his master to a problem.


    ¡°Hm?¡± the woman paused in her work. She had long blue hair, and eyes the same shade of red as Akko¡¯s. ¡°What¡¯s wrong Alcor?¡± she asked. Another caw, and Ursula waved her wand, displaying the Leylines and their connected dimensions, including one to the Magic Council¡¯s base of operations, and Father Time¡¯s domain, though those were heavily and extremely restricted, respectively.


    What drew her attention, however, was the 4 stars in Arcturus, one green, one white, one purple, and one the rare red color, that shouldn¡¯t have been there.


    ¡°Oh no, what are they doing in the Forbidden Forest of Arcturus?!¡± Ursula muttered with disquiet.


    AN: Decided to split the first episode of LWA into 2 parts to avoid a 10000+ word chapter. I''m drawing heavy influence from this guy''s threads.


    This is, if it wasn¡¯t immediately clear, a megaverse crossover, featuring Little Witch Academia, Undertale, KND, Milo Murphy¡¯s Law (and Phineas and Ferb by virtue of being intertwined universes), Ruby Gloom, Spongebob, and a bunch of others I won¡¯t reveal now to avoid spoilers. Pretty much all of the weird stuff that happens in this verse can be attributed to magic, Determination/Reality-warping (usually tied to Determination) or a third circumstance tied to one of the crossovers. The incidents where people can apparently breathe in space in KND, for example, are because of Waagh-esqueweirdness courtesy of Determination.


    Basically, humans in this verse can breathe in space, as long as they don¡¯t think about how they shouldn¡¯t be able to. Naturally, this tends to require that the humans in question either be really stupid (like the average Ork) or be experiencing an emotional extreme. Determination also provides a major boost to magic and stamina/durability, along with lesser boosts to strength and speed, with a minor boost to healing. So the average human in our universe would be made of plastic compared to the average human of this verse. Mages/Witches are even tougher.


    This provided a huge advantage to the humans in their wars against the other races that ruled the Earth. That¡¯s right, races. See, Undertale¡¯s Monsters were native to America here, but Europe and Asia had their own natives. Humans originally either lived in peace or avoided interaction with these other races, but a number of incidents, and a few cases of malicious and purposeful slander by outside parties, led to the humans of about 12000 BC to declare war on their counterparts, which resulted in ? fleeing from humanity, while the Monsters were sealed away. Spongebob¡¯s specimens weren¡¯t really encountered by most of the human race until thousands of years later, with that and their general inability to spend extended periods out of the water took them out of the running for dominance of Earth at that point.


    The Monsters have been freed, but the third and fourth native races aren¡¯t quite ready to come out of hiding. The local governments have been tentatively contacted, but nothing definite so far. One of them has the benefit of a human sympathizer who¡¯s in a position to help ease the impact being revealed to society as a whole would cause, helped in part by miss ambassador¡¯s own efforts. Interestingly, Akko¡¯s focus was less on public speaking, or on appealing to compassion, and more on mitigating complaints against Monsterkind (and all but bribing the relevant governments).


    The other 6 human SOULs were preserved following the Barrier¡¯s destruction, and given android bodies constructed by Alphys, in part to knee-cap potential issues with the Monsters having killed 6 children. If nothing else, she successfully muddied the issue to the point of it not being a rallying cry¡­ this time. In addition, this version of humanity has begun colonizing the solar system, due to the very recent advent of FTL making intra-system travel a breeze, though Monsters are currently restricted from colonizing off-world, in part due to practical concerns over basically being an endangered species.


    Speaking of which, Ruby Gloom¡¯s monster-people are also a thing here, though they are distinct from Monsters in that they don¡¯t generally possess any inherent magical talent, and are usually incapable of interbreeding. They were already minor races, in much the same way that the Philippines are a minor nation compared to say, the US. As such, they avoided the majority of humanity¡¯s ire, though the Inquisition drove them from Europe into a few small scattered enclaves in America. Ruby¡¯s ancestors were actually disillusioned minor nobility who set up a safe-house for people who were discriminated against a few miles north of the border between the US and Canada, though it¡¯s mostly used by monster-people these days.


    An intergalactic Federation has recently engaged in talks with the UN, since they have something similar to the Prime Directive¡¯s ¡®Leave pre-FTL civs alone¡¯ policy, though America¡¯s near monopoly on super-scientists, whom were responsible both for basically making the early Star Trek tech tree a thing and a number of other advances meant to keep superheroes and giant mechas from being the only viable responses to the various kaijuu running around has drastically shifted the balance of power in it¡¯s favor. Luckily the scientists are more interested in making the world a better place than playing politics, so while America keeps the absolute bleeding-edge stuff for itself and its agencies, everybody else can get their hands on second-gen tech pretty easily, which means that worries over America deciding to go all Germany on the world are unlikely to amount to anything, especially with all the time-travelers running around to prevent exactly that sort of thing. Interestingly, said Federation is rather nervous about the KND, and less than surprised by the ability of humans to make things work that they really shouldn¡¯t be able to.


    There¡¯s also a couple alternate Earths, with the one used in this chapter being Earth Alpha, a recognized dimensional nexus. In part because the barriers that usually wall off other universe have the consistency of Swiss cheese on Earth and its immediate dimensional surroundings.

 Arcturus Forest: Cockatrices And You

    Akko helped the other girls up, and then pulled out some Monster Candy from her coat pockets. She always kept some on her person, just in case. "We''re really lucky Sans and I know Blue Magic, we could have broken something if we''d hit the ground that hard, Witches or not." Akko commented as she handed out 2 pieces of Monster Candy each to the other girls. Sans kept some in his right pocket, with the ketchup packets on the left.


    "Uh, what''s with the candy?" Lotte asked. Oh yeah, regular human food didn''t heal more than a tenth of a point of HP most of the time, and candy didn''t usually fall into the ''actually heals you'' category.


    "It''s Monster Candy. I''m not sure where we are, but since this forest was part of the Leyline Terminal''s network, I''m going to assume it, and the plants and animals inside it, are magical, which tends to mean ''potentially dangerous'' if they get upset... or hungry, depending on how smart and aggressive they are. So, having healing food on hand if you get hurt could be a literal life-saver." Akko explained.


    "Wait, how much of this stuff do you have?" Sucy asked, staring at the piece of candy like it was solid gold. Magical healing was difficult if you''d actually lost more than a finger, but Monster food didn''t have that problem. Therefore, people who''d lost limbs had a high demand for Monster food. Potions made by Witches could have similar effects, but they were very difficult to make and very expensive because of it.


    "6 more pieces. Don''t get too excited, they only heal 1 HP each." Of course, speaking from experience, even 4 pieces were usually enough to re-limb most people.


    "Most people don''t even see Monster food outside a hospital though." Lotte pointed out.


    "the kid''s not most people." Sans commented, seeming relaxed, but Akko recognized the way he was scanning the world around them.


    "Who exactly are you?" Sucy asked, a hint of genuine curiosity in her expression. Not just anyone could get their hands on Monster food without actuallybeinga Monster.


    "It''s probably just because I know so many Monsters. I mean, just being the ambassador would probably get me some since I''d be in contact with them more, but Monsters aren''t really the type to try and bribe people, so-"


    "You''re the ambassador?" Lotte squeaked out in surprise.


    Akko huffed. "Why is everybody so surprised when they find out?" she responded. Certainly, it helped in keeping people from finding out and mobbing her, but it got on her nerves that most people dismissed the idea out of hand.


    "Well, besides the fact that you''re, what, 13?" Sucy commented.


    "16." Akko deadpanned. Not exactly a fan of that either. They were nearly the same height! How did Sucy even come to that conclusion?


    "That still means you were 10 when the Monsters were freed, and therefore that''s how old you were as the ambassador for anentire species." Sucy pointed out. They hadn''t switched out ambassadors. At least, they hadn''t told anyone if the original had been replaced. Considering Akko''s age, it was more believable that she was the original. The Monster ambassador hadn''t been a public figure, but they''d seemed to have a hand everywhere for a while, including the invention of FTL and replicators. Professor Membrane had gone on record stating that the formation of the braintank of super-scientists, as well as about 90% of the theoretical knowledge of subspace, was because of the ambassador.


    "Yeah. You guys are my new friends, so I''m willing to tell you upfront, but I''d appreciate it if you didn''t tell anyone. I hate the paparazzi." Akko explained. Actually, she was just sick of assassination attempts from previous iterations of the timeline, but they didn''t need to know that. The last time she''d explained, her friends had nightmares, so she''d Loaded a Save before the explanation, and decided not to explain that any more. "Anyway, do you guys know how to get us out of here? My alternative method is in my bags, which landed somewhere else. Also, I don''t like using it when I don''t know where I''m starting from relative to the rest of the multiverse." Hekapoo told her not to use the Dimensional Scissors unless absolutely necessary because messy incidents kept happening around her, so she didn''t want to use them if these guys knew another way out. Plus, they were sitting at the bottom of her suitcase, and it would take like ten minutes to unpack and repack it even if it was on her person.


    "This is the Forbidden Forest of Arcturus." Sucy explained.


    "This is a holy place guarded by magic trees." Lotte added. That was an oddly specific fact to know without being able to recognize the place. Did she have a thing with trees? She had mentioned helping her father chop them down at home.


    "This is also a very dangerous place. Even full-fledged Witches can get in trouble here. We might not survive if we''re not careful." Sucy finished.


    "Oh, that is bad." Akko nodded. "We won''t make it to the ceremony in time at this rate!" Her priorities weren''t actually that skewed, but while she would very much prefer not to die again, she had Reset, so it wouldn''t be the end of the world if she had to rewind time to earlier today. Getting everyone to the ceremony alive was the self-imposed requirement to ''advance the story'' as Flowey liked to call continuing with the timeline.


    They started by searching for their things, which Sucy noted they would need if they wanted to get out of here. "Oh, it''s our brooms!" Lotte pointed at a spot where their luggage and brooms had ended up. Akko and Sans had been more focused on the actually important things, namely the people, so their luggage was scattered. The fact that everything was mostly intact was what impressed Akko most. Maybe the other two Witches knew some kind of reinforcement magic? As for herself, she simply tended to be lucky where that was concerned, if in little else. Her walking stick upon first Falling proved that.


    Akko was more concerned with the giant purple flower that resembled a classical closed flower to the point it was almost as if someone had copied a children''s drawing, except with a little more detail. Also you know, the flower being as big as she was without taking the stem into account. "So, is that flower just cool-looking, or...?"


    "That''s a Mandrake. It''s a human-eating plant that responds to movement, so getting our things from in front of it is going to be a challenge." Sucy explained, eyeing the plant with some wariness.


    "about how good are these things reflexes?" Sans asked. His left eye flickering blue for a second as he scanned the plant.


    "If I had to guess, it tried to eat our luggage, then spat it out when it didn''t find any meat. We''re lucky our brooms aren''t broken." Sucy hypothesized. "So, at very least, it can catch things falling pretty fast out of the air." she hazarded.


    "that helps. it doesn''t have any weird abilities I should know about?" Sans asked.


    "It''s supposed to be able to send vines a pretty long distance, and use them like whips. Other than that, it''s pretty resistant to flames, considering." Sucy responded.


    "Okay, I''ve got an idea. I''ll distract it, you pull the luggage to safety." Akko proposed.


    Sans shrugged. "it''s worked before."


    "Wait, that''s really dangerous!" Lotte warned desperately. She''d seen the expression Akko had on other kids, right before they did something reckless.


    "Don''t worry, I''m not going to rush it or anything." Akko reassured, before waving her hand, which was cloaked in red magic for a moment. AWALLof red blades erupted from the ground directly behind the Mandrake. As one might expect, it immediately turned around to deal with this new circumstance, which gave Sans the opening he needed to drag everyone''s things back to their owners, save for the bag of Lotte''s Akko had been carrying, and was now carrying again.


    "it worked." Sans noted cheerfully.


    "Great! Now we RUN!" she pivoted on her feet and dashed off. The others followed, because when someone ran from something, you didn''t stop to ask them questions until there was some distance between whatever they were running from, and you. This decision was vindicated when the Mandrake turned it''s attention to them (the fact that Akko''s blades faded immediately after Sans got their luggage probably didn''t help keep it distracted), vines erupting from the ground and pursuing them.


    After a panicked dash, they started to slow down when the vines stopped chasing them. Akko turned her head and started to say "I think we''re far enough t-" she was cut off by smashing into a tree.


    1.


    HP: 998/999.


    She rubbed her face as the damage healed. She loved her Temmie Armor, and the pain was nothing compared to getting ripped apart by Omega Flowey, but the hits were annoying. She was used to sensing intent to dodge attacks. Even Flowey, for all his lack of emotion, was an open book when he was about to attack. For environmental hazards, lacking any intentions at all, she was forced to rely on her eyes and ears. Even a split second of warning was enough with how finely honed her reflexes had become, but if she wasn''t looking where she was going, like just now, she could get blindsided by inanimate objects, since lack of movement meant little to no sound.


    *** Lotte POV ***


    Lotte stared at Akko''s HP bar, briefly made visible by the tiny amount of damage. She''d never seen anything short of a Kaijuu with HP that high before. Akko must have been ridiculously powerful for what she just saw to be the case. Her curiosity only rose when her new friend''s HP ticked back up to full after a few seconds. Now that was unusual. Humans simply didn''t heal that fast on their own. Maybe it was more Monster magic?


    While they were less powerful than human mages, as a general rule, they made up for it with more esoteric abilities and effects. The human researchers working with them were still working out the applications of everything Monsters could do, in part because of how much of it was everyday stuff that they considered normal, much like how a lot of kids were surprised when something they would have merely been bruised by badly hurt another race. Their enchantment abilities were far in excess of humanity''s for example. They could casually make items that provided benefits similar to the items that had been affected by their previous owner''s SOUL (a book they''d gotten from a lost family member, a heart locket from a loved one, etc.), usually because of a close personal connection to the item, for example.


    *** Sucy POV ***


    Sucy, meanwhile, examined a giant footprint shaped like a chicken''s foot. A slight grin made itself visible for a few seconds. She had the perfect bait for this trap. Normally, she might have felt slightly guilty about all but condemning even a pair of total strangers to their deaths should the protections fail, but after that display, she was sure Akko could fend off the Cockatrice if she was pushed into a corner. Of course, with how single-mindedly she was pursuing entrance to Luna Nova, she doubted Akko would be willing to take the time to fight the Cockatrice, so she simply wouldn''t ask.


    "Hey, you three, I have what I need to make the preparations now." Sucy announced. "I''m going to need you to stand inside this circle." she added, pointing to the crude circle of ropes she''d made.


    "Oh, some kind of ritual to pierce the dimensional barrier that you have to be outside for? Are you going to hop in after us?" Akko hypothesized.


    Instead of answering, Sucy took advantage of the brief window before Akko had finished and a response would be expected to chant "Jasur Hasa Hasa." as she tapped her wand against a potion, before pouring it on the ropes, which immediately sprang up and into a sphere containing the trio. The sphere would block magic from entering or leaving, but it would quickly burn itself out. In the mean time, it would provide petrification resistance and prevent Sans and/or Akko from simply teleporting away.


    "Uh, what''s with the rope-cage?" Akko asked, Sans'' smile shrinking a bit and Lotte starting to look concerned. Akko still seemed cheerfully oblivious though. Was she actually this dense? Well, she wasn''t going to complain.


    "Part of the plan. Now repeat after me: Ketchur Ketar Flala." Sucy intoned. Loud enough for Akko to hear, but not so loud anything more than ten feet away would.


    "Ketchur Ketar Flala." Akko repeated, though at a normal volume.


    "Say it louder. Use your diaphragm!" Sucy egged on.


    "Hey, kid-" Sans, apparently getting suspicious, attempted to halt Akko.


    Unfortunately for him, Akko had already gotten halfway through the first word, and couldn''t hear him over herself yelling "KETCHUR KETAR FLALA!!" loud enough that flocks of birds flew out of nearby trees.


    *** Akko POV ***


    A giant chicken head poked out of some nearby trees. Akko briefly wondered how it hadn''t been visible before. She didn''t think this thing could hide by bending over, considering it''s Kaijuu-like size. The bird-creature leaned over their makeshift cage, staring directly at them. "Uh, hi." Akko waved relatively calmly as Sans eyelights went out and Lotte whimpered in terror. "Hey, what did that last spell do?" she asked.


    Sucy seated herself on her broom and began to rise. "This is a Cockatrice. It has the ability to petrify things it breathes on, and there''s a poison in it''s feather that''s highly sought after by poison collectors. You just called it ''A stupid overgrown chicken. Come eat me if you don''t like it.'' really loudly, so I suggest you start running." she explained, while Sans stared at her with his eyelights out.


    "...Son of a bitch." Akko briefly borrowed from Max''s vocabulary, before starting to run for her life. "I can''t believe you''re using us as decoys without our permission!" Akko hollered as she ran with little thought beyond avoiding collisions and outpacing the Cockatrice.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Bait actually. Make sure to say the spell again." Sucy shouted downwards as she tried to maneuver her way to obtaining a feather.


    "What kind of idiot would do that?!" she responded, swerving to avoid a tree. With minor reluctance, since feeling insulted and having a language to be insulted in suggested intelligence on the Cockatrice''s part, Akko began making large knives appear out of the ground, while Sans helped out with bones. These did little damage on their own. Indeed, the Cockatrice was sitting at 245/250, but they did slow it down.


    Clearly getting frustrated with them, it very loudly and obviously inhaled, before exhaling grey smoke. Everything the smoke touched turned to stone. "Wow, I haven''t fought a petrifier in a while." Akko noted as the Cockatrice readied another blast. Certainly not one that had something other than that going for it.


    "How much weirdness have you been through?!" Lotte asked, starting to reach the end of her patience with this insanity. One monster attacking her today was plenty!


    "A lot." Akko answered honestly, with a shrug, moments before they found themselves tumbling down a steep slope, picking up speed all the while. Near the edge of a steep chasm, the rope-sphere finally gave out, sending them careening into moderately thick tree branches and over the side of the chasm, though Sans rolled with the impacts and avoided the worst of it. Sans grabbed her leg, while she grabbed Lotte''s, the latter being pulled to safety by the former. Upon noticing the bruise on Lotte''s leg, Akko Checked the other two. She herself would heal pretty quickly.


    Lotte: 18/30.


    Sans: 10.8/1.


    Sans was still okay, but Lotte would need to burn through her stock of Monster candy before actually fighting at this rate. Even when she did, 20/30 HP wasn''t enough to restore her leg.


    "Akko, I-I can''t put any weight on my leg." Lotte squeaked out in obvious pain, trying and failing to walk, and only managing to limp along as she could only use her injured leg for a split second at a time without falling.


    "Here, use my candy." Akko offered her other 6 pieces. That should be more than enough to restore Lotte''s leg.


    "But if you get hurt-"


    "Then a couple points of HP won''t make much difference if I get hit with something that chews through my HP fast enough to take me down." Akko cut Lotte off, willingly displaying her 999/999. Her DEF was a lot higher than most people''s too, which made blows that would rip off a normal person''s limbs only bruise her, even with only 1 LV. After a moment''s hesitation, Lotte accepted the candies, quickly chowed down on them, and walked with only the slightest limp as they started to ascend the hill.


    "Akko, how are we going to beat this thing?" Lotte asked. She was scared of that thing, truth be told.


    "Well, we''re not gonna kill it. That''s probably an endangered species, and there aren''t a lot of magical creatures left. I''m going to find a solution where nobody has to die." Akko said with utter confidence.


    "How can you be so calm when something''s trying to kill you?" Lotte was almost afraid to ask how a girl her age was that brave in the face of near-certain death, though experience would be her guess.


    "don''t sweat it. the kid''s almost as awesome as my bro. she''ll figure something out." Sans told her, without so much as looking away from the Cockatrice, his eyelights out. He''d have liked to blast it, but Akko would disapprove of the excessive force his blasters would bring to bear against someone without Reset. Which reminded him, he glanced a bit above the Cockatrice, spotting the Witch that had gotten them into this mess hastily dodging blasts of petrification, the Cockatrice''s ire having moved to the only target it could see after she managed to take one of it''s feathers and stuff it in her bags. With a sigh, he used Blue Magic to help her avoid them. He''d be having words later, but he wasn''t going to let even someone like this get killed on his watch.


    "Yeah! I''m DETERMINED to get everyone out alive! Even Sucy probably has some redeeming qualities under the jerkiness! We''ll all get to Luna Nova together, and I''m planning to become a great Witch! So, don''t give up just yet!" Akko was a bit unsure about one thing though. She didn''t show her Save File to just anyone. In fact, Sans and Flowey were the only ones besides herself who saw it even semi-regularly, though Professor Membrane and Alphys knew about it.


    The former (once he got over the fact that a child held absolute power over time within a set range of years) was actually rather relieved that if something went wrong with one of his more esoteric or explosive experiments, he could expect the world to not be destroyed, while the latter had suspected for a while, with hints of Akko''s foreknowledge shining through over the scientists cameras and in their interactions. She''d asked her a bunch of questions, but once she found out Akko''s ownership of Reset didn''t predate the Amalgamates, she kind of lost interest beyond making sure Akko''s mental health didn''t degrade.


    Nick Fury had also been informed, when Akko explained how she knew about all the threats she forewarned them about. He''d seemed uncomfortable with the kind of power she possessed, but was willing to use her as an asset. He''d been rewarded with more than a dozen separate zombie outbreaks being contained early, among other things.


    "Besides, with this, it doesn''t matter how many times I need to try." she added. She doubted Lotte was going to leak it to people likely to assassinate her, so she might as well reassure her.. Besides, she''d need some context to really understand the true significance of what Akko had done. Her Save File faded into view, a black rectangle similar to a game window, with white text. Ever since she''d Refused, she''d been able to Save and Load whenever she wanted, in addition to gaining some more Save Files as she practiced with her magic.


    Atsuko Kagari


    LV. 1.


    File 6 Saved.


    She always kept her first Save from after reaching the surface in File 7, just in case, and she kept the daily, weekly, and monthly Saves in Files 4, 5, and 6. The others, she tended to use in a manner similar to Omega Flowey, if less violent. "Okay, let''s do this!" Just as she was about to rush at the Cockatrice, she skidded to a halt at the staff she almost ran into. It was a beige medium-length staff, with a golden ornament at the end and seven crystals known as the Seven Stars, which as any true fan would know, corresponded to the Big Dipper''s stars. Shiny Chariot''s staff, the Shiny Rod. It was weird that she hadn''t noticed it coming the other way.


    "What''re you doing here?" she asked it, picking it up. The Stars were a dull blue right now, meaning they were inactive, since they were always green in Chariot''s show. She picked it up, and the stars lit up green. A Check revealed:


    ''The Shiny Rod. The former staff of Shiny Chariot. Perhaps it''s odd placement has to do with Chariot''s disappearance? Provides 1 ATK and 9 DEF while equipped. As well as ??? and ???''


    Well, that was lower than she was expecting. Maybe being left alone in this forest for so long damaged the staff? Something to ask Chariot about when she gave this back. Anyway, now she had an idea how to get out of here without jumping dimensions at random, but first, Sucy looked like she needed help. A red knife of monstrous size appeared in Akko''s right hand, as she gripped the Shiny Rod in her left. While she could use more equipment at once now, having gained additional slots as she practiced her magic, she didn''t really carry all that much extra equipment around, since she''d given the other Fallen their stuff back. Besides, she liked the staff better than the Dull Knife.


    "Hey! KETCHUR KETAR FLALA!! Over here!" she waved the staff around as she worked to draw the Cockatrice''s attention away from a bedraggled-looking Sucy. Said Witch looked very surprised by Akko''s intervention.


    Akko gestured with the knife at the charging monster, and a set of 10 smaller knives appeared in the air, before launching themselves at the Cockatrice. Each did 8 damage, since she wasn''t bothering to restrain herself too much, though not all of them hit since their target. 195/250. Well, now it was really pissed off. It was charging her like an enraged bull.


    "Akko, get on!" Lotte cried out as she careened towards Akko on her broom. Huh, didn''t Sucy have all their stuff? She teleported on despite her questions, since she wasn''t curious enough to delay. Lotte continued to zoom away as the Cockatrice smashed through the spot they''d just occupied.


    She got her answers in a moment as Sucy and Sans pulled up beside them. Based on how Sans'' eyelights were back, though dimmer, he''d been satisfied with how their conversation had gone. Enough not to Judge Sucy, at least. "Why''d you do that?" Sucy asked her.


    "Well, some friends of mine believe that anyone can be a good person if they try, and you''re part of anyone. Besides, you didn''t go out of your way to kill anyone, so as far as I''m concerned, I can let it slide." Spooky had done worse, and if she could getherto stop acting like a maniac, Sucy shouldn''t be too bad by comparison.


    Sucy was silent for a moment. Well, now she felt like a jerk. Even she hadn''t intended to put them in actual danger.


    *** Sucy POV Several Minutes Earlier ***


    The Cockatrice was going to hit her with it''s breath sooner or later at this rate. The tip of her broom''s bristles had been petrified in a near-miss already. Suddenly, her SOUL appeared, briefly it''s usual purple, before turning the same dark blue from earlier. For a moment, she half-expected to be directed straight into the next wave of breath, they probably assumed she''d been willing to letting them get killed to serve as a distraction, after all. So she was a bit surprised when she received help in dodging. After about 30 seconds, both she and the Cockatrice were distracted by Akko''s shouting, before the Cockatrice switched it''s attention to the apparently suicidally-brave little Witch.


    "i see the kid''s gotten the overgrown chicken away from you." Sans said, having appeared on her broom, without making the sound his teleportation had made before. Based on the way he was looking at her, and how the lights that had represented his eyes were out, he was really pissed off. "i''d like to know what you thought you were doing, and uh, I better like the answer, otherwise..." his left eye briefly flickered blue and yellow.


    "I wasn''t planning for you guys to be in actual danger. That sphere blocked magic, so as long as you were inside, that thing''s breath wouldn''t have worked. I just like scaring people and acting creepy, like a haunted house." Sucy explained.


    Sans stared at her for a few seconds, then his eyelights came back, if dimmer. "well, as long as you didn''t do it on purpose." he shrugged. "now let''s give Lotte her broom back so we can get outta here." he decided for her.


    Sucy nodded. That was more or less what she''d been planning. Though, since Akko couldn''t have known that, why did she try and help?


    *** Akko POV ***


    Just when the Cockatrice started to shrink in the distance, it spread it''s wings and started to fly. "You know, we probably should have figured a magical bird could fly even though it was so huge, but I''m still going to call that really stupid!" Akko yelled in disbelief.


    "I don''t think we can outrun this thing guys!" Lotte said as the mighty flaps of the Cockatrice''s wings started to buffet them with wind.


    "It''s only supposed to do this when it''sreallymad." Sucy noted.


    Then the bird, starting to catch up since brooms weren''t designed with multiple people and their luggage in mind (Sans was lighter than a human, but Sucy''s luggage was heavier, so it roughly evened out), inhaled sharply, instead of the slow build-up from before, and this time it exhaled a stream of flame.


    "Oh that''s just cheating! Since when can Cockatrices breath fire!?" Akko asked Sucy.


    "Maybe we''ve just pissed it off that much." she commented. "Also, your broom''s on fire Lotte." she pointed out blandly.


    "Huh!?" the other two girls turned, and, sure enough, the tip of the bristles was burning. It hadn''t quite burst into a bonfire, but the fire was slowly advancing. She must not have noticed because the air was still stifling from the near-miss of fire-breath, considering how much closer she was to it. "Uh, well, this is as good a time as any I guess." she said as she pulled the staff into the same position she''d seen Shiny Chariot use every time one of her shows ended, followed by the spell."Noctu Orfei Aude Fraetor!"she intoned. It felt different from other spells, and she didn''t miss how one of the green stars turned gold. She was more concerned with how the staff turned into a bow, with a green arrow, which she launched ahead of them, creating a portal into the Leyline they''d left. Yeah! Just like Chariot!


    Nearby, Professor Ursula sighed in relief, though she felt a twinge of disappointment that she hadn''t helped somehow, which she viciously suppressed. She shouldn''t wish for trouble to befall someone she''d already hurt. Well, at least the Shiny Rod had found a worthy bearer after all this time. She did, however, launch a blast of magic at the Cockatrice, knocking it off course and negating any chance it had of catching them before they reached the portal. It never hurt to be careful. It was still over 100 HP anyway, so it would be fine in a week or so.


    The four of them poured through the portal, losing hold of their brooms at the sudden shift in gravity''s direction to forward. Though neither Sans nor Akko missed the blast of magic, only Sans could spare the attention to make note of the source, so Akko was left trying to stuff the Shiny Rod in her suitcases, sure that the teachers at Luna Nova would confiscate it if she appeared with it in her hands. She found herself awash in images as they fell. She looked on in awe, but even her impressive memory wasn''t enough when they were passing by so fast.


    *** Luna Nova: Auditorium ***


    Ursula quietly took her place with the other teachers moments before the ceremony was due to begin.


    The headmistress, Miranda Holbrooke, stepped up to the podium and cleared her throat. At more than 2 centuries old, she sometimes had trouble speaking loudly for long periods, so she''d keep this short. "If everyone''s here, we will now-" she was cut off as a portal to the Leyline network opened, depositing a girl, followed by 2 more girls and a Monster, of the skeleton subspecies.


    "Why did you all land on me?" Akko asked, having received 6 damage from falling people. It was more the constriction of her chest from the weight that bothered her. Asphyxiation was a very unpleasant way to die. Then she noticed where she was. "Yes! First try! We made it here alive! Without losing anyone or anything!" she was kind of unused to things going this well. She''d barely had any near-misses with someone dying today. She laughed happily at the sense of accomplishment.


    45 minutes later, Akko was being led to her dorm. The teachers had interrogated her about what had happened. She''d left out the part about Arcturus Forest, simply telling them that they''d encountered some turbulence because no one bothered to mention that the Leyline hated salt to her (true) and they''d been thrown off course for a while before finding their way back (also true). They''d seemed briefly embarrassed about this, one of them muttering something suspiciously like ''It''s just something everyone knows.'' Akko neglected to mention the fact that no one had bothered to mention the need for a broom either, since that was probably left out for a similar reason, instead stating that she''d lost hers on their journey and needed a new one. Professor Nelson said she was lucky there were still some spares since it was the beginning of the year.


    Sans had corroborated her story, mostly with vague non-answers, and they''d left it at that. Now Professor Anne Finneran was lecturing her as they walked, Akko dragging her luggage behind her. She suspected it was meant to be a relatively subtle punishment since the other students hadn''t had to do it, but it worked in her favor, since now they couldn''t go through her things. "Despite how... unusual your entry was, you will be allowed to attend Luna Nova under probation, and your ''uncle'' may bring visitors to school grounds, since the students don''t often get the chance to see magical beings besides the fairies that already occupy the school grounds until they become full-fledged Witches. Neither is something that is done often, so you should be grateful to the headmistress.


    "I am." Akko said. She wasn''t really unhappy with how things had turned out, but she felt that expressing it was a bad idea right now, so she defaulted to a morose tone, since that was probably what the professor expected. She couldn''t help but notice that she''d only really gotten to know Professor Utonium and Membrane before now, though Jimmy and Dexter were working to remedy that, blitzing through college so that their relative ages would no longer be any barrier to their inventions. At 15 and 13, respectively, they weren''t usually taken seriously without backing from Membrane, Utonium, or Dr. Wakeman, even now. Personally, Akko thought the other scientists were accidentally absorbing some of the credit for the inventions, rather than them being regarded as wholly their own thing.


    "This is your dorm. Memorize it''s location, because it''s going to be yours for the next 3 years." Professor Finneran ordered, opening the door to a fairly cozy room with a desk, a regular bed, and a bunkbed. The occupants were what really drew her attention though. "You guys!" she exclaimed.


    Sucy and Lotte looked up from their books as she entered. "You three will be given especially strict guidance over the next three years, so step lightly from now on." the professor added, before leaving, quietly closing the door behind her.


    "Looks like they decided to lump the troublemakers together so they could keep an eye on us." Sucy theorized.


    "Makes sense." Akko shrugged. "Anyway, it looks we''ll be roommates, so let''s have a great year!" Akko smiled cheerfully. Sans had already gone, since he''d collected the Map data he needed. She could probably expect Toriel to have gotten what actually happened out of him and come to check on her within the week, but Papyrus and/or Undyne would probably be here by tomorrow or the day after. Anyway, she had a good feeling about this year. What could- Nope! Not even going to think it. Knowing her luck, and how Murphy hung around and made people''s lives hell, nothing good would come of it if she tempted fate.

 A Visit

    ¡°Say, Akko, what was that weird black window thing?¡± Lotte asked as the girls got ready for bed. They¡¯d already unpacked their things, though Akko was careful to keep the Shiny Rod hidden from a casual observer¡¯s view, and it was getting late.


    ¡°Uh, that¡¯s part of my particular brand of magic. Like those knives I had.¡± Akko attempted to dodge with a partial answer, as she wasn¡¯t quite willing to divulge Reset to the world at large. The one time she had had been her bout of insanity during her 138th attempt (not counting LOADs from assassinations and kidnappings) to integrate Monsterkind.


    While she didn¡¯t really remember the part where someone had tried to erase her from the timeline very well, Professor Paradox, Bill, and Gramps had told her what happened and done their best to get her mental health back in functional shape, in a very rare show of solidarity with each other. Not doing that again any time soon. While she didn¡¯t expect Lotte or Sucy to just tell anyone who asked, if only because they weren¡¯t morons, you couldn¡¯t accidentally blab something you didn¡¯t know.


    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s the story behind those knives anyway? Most people don¡¯t default to something out of a butcher¡¯s shop when they use their magic.¡± Sucy asked with some curiosity. Mages, human and Monster alike, could use their magic for pretty much whatever they wanted with sufficient preparation, but they would default to something significant to them in combat situations. A lot of witches specializing in potions had attacks in the form of beakers and vials that poured out hazardous ¡®liquids¡¯, for example.


    ¡°Uh, some¡­ things happened when I was 8 and on my ninth birthday. Knives were involved.¡± Akko gave a vague answer again, though she had different reasons behind it this time. She really didn¡¯t want to talk about it.


    ¡°To be honest, I¡¯m not really good at a lot of non-combat magic. For some reason, my magic used to be really weak, so I did a lot of exercises to boost it up. I might have overdone it a little though, and now my control is shot. That¡¯s not as much of a problem when you¡¯re fighting, since just throwing more power at the problems works just fine most of the time, but for everything else¡­ yeah.¡± The trials by fire certainly hadn¡¯t helped, since they were combat and that was more firepower than control unless there was something she particularly cared about behind whatever she was fighting, which only encouraged her bad habits.


    ¡°Huh, well, a lot of non-Witches start out pretty weak compared to girls from established families, so it¡¯s not that much of a surprise, but you make it sound like you could barely use magic at all.¡± Lotte murmured.


    ¡°Pretty much. I used to barely be able to manage a single normal-sized knife, and forget performing anything really complicated or power-hungry, but it¡¯s been 4 years since then. I might have been using the old stories about witches as my basis for what to shoot for.¡± In retrospect, she should have expected that trying to reach the sort of casual onslaught Sans could unleash would have caused Ichigo-syndrome, but she very much preferred to not-die as much as possible. Extra HP helped with that and stronger magic was the only way besides gaining LV to get more HP.


    ¡°Hm, that is weird.¡± Sucy muttered, suppressing a yawn. It wasn¡¯t that late by her standards, but today had been a bit busier than she was used to. Life at the orphanage had been pretty quiet, all things considered. Still, if today was any indication, she wouldn¡¯t be bored here.


    ¡°Yeah, but I guess it doesn¡¯t matter now.¡± Akko replied. They¡¯d completely forgotten about her Save File, for the moment at least. She¡¯d prefer not to tell them too much about it, to the point where she was starting to regret showing it at all. She was so used to being able to go back to an earlier Save if she messed up that she acted on impulse at the worst times. Of course, she didn¡¯t use Reset unless someone died any more, so that she wouldn¡¯t start abusing the power.


    There was a good reason she told very few people about it too. She¡¯d had to break it to everyone she¡¯d told about it several times before it didn¡¯t cause a major existential crisis, and those three weren¡¯t exactly the average joe, who probably couldn¡¯t deal with that knowledge. At very least, she¡¯d need to get to know them better first. ¡°So, what are your plans?¡± she asked, partly to make sure the distraction stuck, but mostly out of genuine curiosity.


    ¡°My family owns a magic shop, so I¡¯m here to learn the basics of being a Witch so I can run the shop one day.¡± Lotte answered.


    ¡°I was planning to simply collect the Cockatrice¡¯s poison and leave, but apparently there are samples of extinct mushrooms here, so I¡¯ll be sticking around for the moment.¡± Sucy replied.


    ¡°Oh, well I want to learn magic to inspire people and make them happy like Shiny Chariot did!¡± Akko announced cheerfully. She could respect Lotte¡¯s wishes to take over the family business (assuming that was what she wanted) and there was probably a good reason Sucy was so obsessed with poisons.


    ¡°You know she¡¯s a laughing stock in the magical world, right?¡± Sucy asked with a particularly deadpan expression. She was kind of one in the mundane world too, but that was less relevant here. Ever since that giant star-shaped crater had mysteriously appeared on the moon, she hadn¡¯t had any shows, and her popularity had been dropping before that. Everybody was rather freaked-out by said crater, especially since they didn¡¯t know how it happened. The KND in particular had been very vocally unhappy about that, and their Rogues weren¡¯t entirely happy about it either.


    ¡°Yeah, but I don¡¯t care. She inspired me, and I want to be just like her.¡± She was DETERMINED to be like Chariot. She¡¯d probably have wanted to be like her hero just from that show she¡¯d seen. Then there was what she¡¯d done for Akko in that first timeline...


    Lotte and Sucy shared a look, but didn¡¯t respond. The trio of girls went to sleep shortly afterward. The next morning, Akko woke up early for once, excited for her first day of Witch¡¯s school. First, however, she checked to make sure the Shiny Rod hadn¡¯t mysteriously vanished in the middle of the night. To her relief it hadn¡¯t. ¡°It¡¯s still here! Which means it wasn¡¯t a dream!¡± Or that she¡¯d LOADed in her sleep like that one time. SAVE Po-er stars appeared in her eyes. ¡°Now that I¡¯m here at Luna Nova, I¡¯m gonna become a great Witch!¡± she said cheerfully.


    *Akko¡¯s filled with DETERMINATION.* Sucy looked up at her from the potion she was brewing. She¡¯d gotten up even earlier than usual since she¡¯d gone to bed early last night, and she¡¯d been planning to extract the Cockatrice¡¯s poison, so she was.


    ¡°Did you expect it to disappear in a puff of smoke?¡± Sucy asked as Lotte stirred from the commotion.


    ¡°Well, MacGuffins always have a downside. They don¡¯t work unless you really need them, or only show up when things are desperate, or they have very strict requirements for wielders, or using them is highly corruptive.¡± Akko responded, before muttering ¡°Stupid Necronomicon.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what was that last-¡± Lotte asked as she put on her glasses.


    ¡°So I think I¡¯ll stick to my wand until I know how this thing works. I mean, I feel like I can use it for all kinds of magic, but I¡¯d rather not blow a hole in the¡­ everywhere by accidentally saying a spell that blows things up while holding a stupidly powerful magical artifact that I don¡¯t understand.¡± Akko stated.


    ¡°Uh, if you think it could be dangerous, then shouldn¡¯t you give it to the teachers?¡± Lotte asked. It only seemed safe.


    ¡°Nope! Two reasons why I shouldn¡¯t do that. First, I don¡¯t trust them not to lock it in a vault somewhere where I¡¯ll never see it again and not even try and analyze it. Second, this was Shiny Chariot¡¯s, so I might find her if I hold on to it. At least, I should be able to find out why she vanished back in 2007.¡± Not even 6 months after the show Akko saw. Supposedly, her shows had really gone downhill after that one. Hopefully Akko¡¯s bad luck hadn¡¯t rubbed off.


    Lotte knew ¡®I¡¯m not changing my mind.¡¯ when she heard it, so she turned to Sucy. ¡°What are you doing?¡± She was kind of curious.


    ¡°Extracting and then testing the Cockatrice¡¯s poison. It¡¯s why I came here after all.¡± Sucy said, before placing a gas mask on her face.


    ¡°Wait, do we need gas masks?¡± Akko paused in her stashing of the oversized wand at the sight of someone in a gas mask. That was almost never a good sign.


    ¡°Probably not.¡± Sucy said, not particularly reassuring either of the others, as she pulled over two eyedroppers, one with a purple liquid and one with a blue one. Her test subject, a beetle, skittered back and forth in the beaker it was trapped in, as if sensing it¡¯s imminent demise. She poured the liquids inside, to a large gout of smoke that washed right into her face, which she was expecting, hence the gas mask.


    The beetle, meanwhile, very much didn¡¯t like what it was being exposed to. It skittered and jumped with increasing jerkiness until it abruptly froze and turned to jade. Sucy chuckled darkly. Success!


    Lotte leaned away from her, despite being on the top-bunk while Sucy was on the ground. She started to climb down as Akko finally managed to hide the rod to her satisfaction. ¡°I¡¯ll test you out later.¡± she told the inanimate object.


    ¡°Hurry up and get dressed, or we¡¯ll be late for class.¡± Lotte said.


    ¡°Alright! Let¡¯s do this!¡± The stars briefly reappeared as Akko cheered. She put on her full uniform, which closely resembled the classical witch¡¯s garb. ¡°Transformation complete!¡± she said, mimicking a magical girl she¡¯d watched on TV.


    Lotte, however, was wearing a blue-grey sleeveless dress over a white shirt, with a red sash tied at the waist, as a mark of which dorm the girls were from. ¡°That¡¯s a ceremonial dress. We only wear it at festivals and when we¡¯re doing practicals. This uniform is for everyday use.¡± she placed a hand on her chest for emphasis.


    ¡°-_-¡± Akko made a face as pulled her hat off and started on the rest. ¡°That¡¯s no fun at all. I mean, I guess I can understand that Witch¡¯s outfits can get in the way, which is probably why the teachers have the skirts at the knees instead of the ankles, but it kind of feels like it defeats the purpose of calling ourselves Witches if we don¡¯t bother dressing like Witches.¡±


    As she switched out the ceremonial outfit for the regular one, Lotte started pulling out the books they¡¯d need. ¡°Let¡¯s see, we¡¯ll need the textbooks for Magic Linguistics, Magic Pharmaceutics, and then Magic Numerology.¡± Lotte muttered, half to herself, as she picked up the books. Sucy and Akko followed suit.


    ¡°First day, I¡¯m gonna ace this!¡± Akko murmured to herself as she gazed at her copy of Magic Linguistics. Here¡¯s hoping she got through today on her first try. Just in case, she made a Save File with Save File 4.


    ¡°Akko! Hurry up!¡± Lotte called.


    ¡°Coming!¡± Akko called.


    *** About 10 Minutes Earlier ***


    Principal Holbrooke¡¯s office had three main features, the grand desk, the statues of the hats worn by the Nine Olde Witches, and the carpeting reminiscent of the Oval Office, combined to give the room a sense of age and grandeur, despite the fact that many of it¡¯s furnishings, such as the principal¡¯s chair, were less than 50 years old. She began to speak to the assembled teachers, as was custom every term. ¡°As of today, we will begin Luna Nova¡¯s 1598th term, however, we will first be paying our respects to the Nine Olde-¡± she cut off as a clatter, unusually loud when Holbrooke herself was the only major source of noise, interrupted her speech.


    ¡°Professor Ursula.¡± Holbrooke stated, a disappointed note in her voice as the youngest teacher in the room picked up her wand from the floor.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Headmistress.¡± she bowed nearly horizontal to the floor before straightening up.


    ¡°Honestly, how can you expect to serve as a role model for the students when your manners are so poor?¡± Professor Finneran rebuked.


    ¡°Sorry.¡± Ursula repeated, more meekly.


    Some time later, Professor Ursula was carrying a set of large tomes for Professor Finneran as they walked down the halls to their classrooms. The students were chatting comfortably as they did the same, and the fairies cleaned and otherwise maintained the school.


    ¡°While I have you on hand, you mentioned that you wanted to give our newest student, ¡®Atsuko¡¯ I believe, some extra guidance, correct?¡± Professor Finneran asked.


    ¡°Yes, she might have been adopted by Monsters, but she¡¯s probably not really familiar with Witch magic, so I wanted to give her some extra help. Spend a little extra time with her to get her up to speed. I¡¯d like to make her feel at home here.¡± Professor Ursula explained.


    ¡°After all these years, you still act like a child playing teacher. What you do with your free time is your choice, but you can¡¯t stop to help along every student who has trouble. That¡¯s what remedial classes are for.¡± Finneran responded.


    Before Ursula could respond, a slightly off-tune humming preceded the object of their conversation appearing from a side corridor. ¡°Oh, there she is now. If you¡¯ll excuse me ProfESSOR!¡± she nearly fell over as she tripped over a fairy who was moving to clean some more of the windows, and she struggled not to drop the books on the floor, juggling them as best she could, until a blue aura, flickering a bit, stopped the books and piled them back up, if out of order.


    ¡°Uh, thank you miss Kagari.¡± Ursula said.


    The intense look of concentration and the blue aura around her left hand disappeared as the student nodded with a smile. ¡°You¡¯re welcome professor.¡± Her attention had been drawn by the yelp issued by the blue-haired professor. Of course, destroying the books would have been worse than letting them fall, so she was careful to avoid putting too much into the Blue Magic she used to move the books.


    ¡°That was Gravity magic, wasn''t it?¡± Ursula asked.


    ¡°Yeah, I can use all of the Color Magics, but not very well with some of them.¡± Akko admitted.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not exactly an expert on Monster magic, but if you need any help with Witch magic, come to me after class.¡± Ursula offered.


    ¡°Yeah, I could use the help.¡± Akko accepted.


    ¡°Oh?¡± Finneran queried, most students would at least attempt to avoid extra lessons, especially on their first day.


    ¡°Yeah, most of my beginner¡¯s kit stuff got ruined in the crossfire between Sector V and Grandma Stuffum. Numbuh 1 was sorry about it, but that didn¡¯t really help me then. I did get to use some of it, but it usually didn¡¯t work or blew up, so I¡¯m kind of a total novice at Witch stuff.¡± Akko elaborated. The problem was, throwing the sort of power Reset required around in regular magic tended to be a lot more than the spell was designed in mind for. So, either it didn¡¯t work at all, or whatever she was casting blew up.


    ¡°I¡¯ll see you later then.¡± Ursula seemed oddly sad for a second, but Akko dismissed it. Probably just nostalgia from her own school days.


    As Akko walked off, catching up to Lotte, she noticed the gaggle of other students passing by, specifically their uniforms. ¡°These uniforms seem kind of plain, but I guess it¡¯s not the end of the world. I can¡¯t wait to see what magic class is going to be like! I bet it¡¯s going to be GREAT!¡± she cheered.


    *** 10 minutes later: Magic Linguistics With Professor Finneran ***


    Professor Finneran waved her wand, and green runes formed of the various phases of the moon began to appear on the board. Akko stared. ¡°Wow. and I thought Japanese was bad.¡± she muttered. Seriously, some of those looked almost exactly the same. She was probably going to be okay, since the complexity of her native Japanese and general talent in deciphering languages gave her a major advantage, but it was no wonder attendance was down. How many potential students balked at having to learn an entire new language, and a complicated one at that, in order to learn magic?


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    *Compared to Monster Runes, these are practically indecipherable.* Chara commented.


    ¡°These Luna Runes, miss Kagari,¡± Professor Finneran directed a pointed look at her. ¡®Crap, she heard!¡¯ ¡°are the ancient character system invented and used by Witches from at least as far back as 5000 BC, making them one of the oldest scripts in history, if not the oldest. They are a type of segmental script, similar to Monster Runes and Dragon Runes. Can anyone in the class read the runes on the board?¡± she asked.


    A hand was raised one row down from where Akko, Sucy and Lotte sat, attached to a girl with blue eyes, blonde hair and green highlights. ¡®Oh, it¡¯s Diana.¡¯ she remembered the taller girl from a few previous timelines.


    The professor nodded. ¡°Proceed miss Cavendish.¡± Akko still thought her last name was weird though.


    Diana stood and recited ¡°¡®Blessed be the one who lets the stone remain untouched. Woe betide the one who moves it.¡¯¡±


    Muttering and a few awed gasps followed this recitation, as the professor smiled and nodded. ¡°Most excellent miss Cavendish. In all my years, you¡¯re the first student to get that right.¡±


    As Diana sat down, her black-haired roommate smiled and said ¡°Way to go Diana!¡± Wait a minute, that was the girl from the terminal, and so was Diana¡¯s other roommate.


    ¡°...Do you think she¡¯d be willing to give me lessons?¡± Akko asked Lotte as the more bookish girl made notes. She could use the help if she didn¡¯t want to have to repeat the week a couple times to buy herself enough study time to achieve basic competency, though she wasn¡¯t sure about Diana agreeing or not. She hadn¡¯t really gotten to know Diana in the few timelines where they¡¯d met, as she was usually not encountered in an informal setting, and their meetings in that first timeline were most definitely unfriendly, save the last, which had been pretty short.


    ¡°Probably not. She seems pretty aloof, and she supposedly studies pretty hard.¡± Lotte responded, as Sucy yawned in equal parts disinterest and drowsiness. That was Akko¡¯s assessment, yeah, but Lotte didn¡¯t seem to know her very well either. She supposed she should just ask, though her choice in friends didn¡¯t exactly raise Akko¡¯s hopes.


    *** Professor Lukic¡¯s Magic Pharmaceuticals ***


    ¡°With every stir, the bubbling mixture¡¯s color begins to change, now add a live frog.¡± Professor Lukic explained, stirring the pot as green smoke began to rise from it. The professor had long grey hair that reached past her waist. Combine that with her long nose, sharp-angled face, and pointed teeth, and she was the classic ¡®old hag¡¯ Witch.


    ¡°In order to achieve the proper effect, the water must still be cold when the frog is added to your concoction. Then you must add intestine of newt and ground claw of bat, but you must do it gradually, little, by little.¡± The Professor said, demonstrating as she talked. The green smoke was by now billowing about across the entire room. Sucy seemed to be enjoying it, but Diana¡¯s roommates ducked to avoid it while Diana herself used a regular pulse of magic from her wand to push it away, and Akko was reduced to waving the smoke at Sucy, since she seemed to like it so much.


    ¡°Do you smell that pleasant aroma wafting from it?¡± the professor asked, chuckling with a Gihihi. Sucy took a huge whiff, smiling happily.


    *** Magic Numerology With Professor Babcock ***


    ¡°As we¡¯ve discussed before, Pythagoras is said to be the progenitor of the basic system of magic and fortune telling. Let us reference Line 102 on page 923.¡± Professor Babcock explained.


    Akko had pinched herself several times to avoid get drowsy, Sucy was grinding something on her pestle, not even pretending to pay attention, and even Lotte was yawning intermittently.


    ¡°Using Numerology, it is possible to depict the universe on a scale of 1-5, and-¡± she cut off as she became aware of Diana¡¯s raised hand in her peripheral vision. ¡°Yes miss Cavendish?¡±


    ¡°Excuse me professor, but don¡¯t you mean 1-4?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Yes, wait, what did I say?¡± Professor Babcock seemed decidedly nonplussed.


    ¡°1-5.¡± Diana responded primly.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a complete beginner¡¯s mistake! Thank you miss Cavendish.¡± Professor Badcock seemed very upset at having made a mistake in her main field, to the point of ignoring that a student had corrected her.


    Akko was jolted fully awake when her head suddenly felt odd. She reached up to find a sprout at the top of her head. ¡°Sucy, did you dump your potion on my head?¡± she asked suspiciously.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Sucy admitted with a smile, utterly unapologetic. Well, at least she was honest.


    Akko sighed. ¡°As long as it wears off.¡±


    ¡°It will, eventually.¡± Sucy shrugged.


    *** Lunch Hour ***


    ¡°You know, this isn¡¯t what I was expecting at all. I thought it would be more¡­ magical when I was studying magic.¡± Akko complained to the other girls as they sat down. She ignored the food in her mouth as she continued, ¡°How did Shiny Chariot learn the magic she used in her shows in this place?¡± Maybe she wasn¡¯t giving the school enough credit, but this place didn¡¯t seem like it would produce Witches like Chariot. It encouraged neither creativity, nor heroism.


    ¡°Shiny Chariot is frowned upon here at Luna Nova.¡± Akko turned around to find herself being addressed by Diana. ¡°She¡¯s a disappointment. Miss Kagari, was it?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Gyou.¡± Akko swallowed, to avoid being unable to be understood through the food in her mouth. ¡°You can call me Akko, Diana.¡± She¡¯d ask about learning Runes some other time, since professor Ursula already had her after-class time booked for today.


    ¡°Well, you know who Diana is, so I guess you haven¡¯t been living under a rock.¡± Hannah, the redhead from the terminal said snidely. Akko had made an effort to figure out what their names were since it was bothering her.


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard of her.¡± Akko shrugged. More than heard in the first timeline.


    ¡°Well, she¡¯s been called the best up-and-coming Witch in the history of Luna Nova.¡± Barbara, the long black-haired counterpart to Hannah¡¯s short red ponytail, explained haughtily.


    ¡°Allow me to give you some friendly advice. No one at Luna Nova respects Chariot, so stop treating her as a role model.¡± Diana said with firm solemnity.


    On a walkway above the lunchroom, Professor Ursula was passing by, and overheard Diana¡¯s proclamation.


    ¡°That¡¯s not true! Shiny Chariot has fans all over the world, because her shows were amazing!¡± Akko defended her idol.


    ¡°Admittedly, they were popular once, but Shiny Chariot¡¯s been missing for 10 years since quitting her show of tricks, and it doesn¡¯t seem like anyone particularly cares about what she¡¯s doing now.¡± Diana countered. She and her cronies started to walk off.


    ¡°I care!¡± Akko stood up, quite literally, for Shiny Chariot. ¡°I mean, sure, she¡¯s not as popular as she used to be, but I don¡¯t care about that. She showed me what I really wanted to be, and as long as she inspired even one person to believe in magic, then she¡¯s not a failure, she¡¯s a hero! That¡¯s why I have to find her, so I can give her back the Shiny Rod!¡± D¡¯Oh! She blurted that last part out without thinking again!


    As Diana asked ¡°The Shiny Rod?¡± Akko seriously considered going back to an earlier Save File, but dismissed it. Maybe this was the best way to handle this, The teachers wouldn¡¯t confiscate a fake replica of the Shiny Rod, which a failure to cast with it would paint it as.


    ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± she pretended to still be caught up in the moment, though she could have sworn Diana noticed something off. ¡°I found it, so I¡¯m going to return it to it¡¯s rightful owner!¡± she puffed herself up in a futile attempt to match the taller girl. It was only fair, neither the rod nor the other Fallen Children¡¯s things were really hers, though Chara was willing to let her use the Locket in emergencies.


    *** Luna Nova Courtyard: 15 Minutes Later ***


    A short time later (after Akko Overwrote Save File 2 with her a Save right after the lunchroom altercation, just in case), Akko, Sucy, Lotte, Diana, Hannah, Barbara, and a plethora of curious students were waiting to see the Shiny Rod. Akko had brought it here and placed it directly in front of Diana for her viewing pleasure. If Diana actually agreed with her (doubtful) then she¡¯d LOAD. If not, then she¡¯d use their disbelief to her advantage.


    Diana examined the Shiny Rod with a critical eye, even placing a hand on it to allow the use of Check, which could only be used at a distance on beings with SOULs. Luckily, Chara knew Akko¡¯s thoughts, and was able to manipulate Diana¡¯s Check to say:


    ¡®Imitation Rod. A surprisingly convincing replica of the Shiny Rod. An individual with little knowledge of magic might mistake it for the real thing. 2 ATK. 0 DEF.¡¯


    Chara could only do this with a few individuals at a time, but she only needed to do it with one most of the time. It was a skill they¡¯d picked up while they were¡­ manure. She hadn¡¯t really had anything better to do, and 300 years could make even the most boring of tasks a break from doing absolutely nothing.


    ¡°I can see how you might have thought this was the Shiny Rod, but it¡¯s nothing more than an imitation.¡± Diana said as her Check window displayed the results for all to see. Check, unless given information from a secondary source like Chara, was limited by what the person using it could get out of their senses and knowledge. Not to say it wouldn¡¯t tell you something you didn¡¯t know, but a person was unlikely to have their inner thoughts revealed by a Check, unless a very perceptive individual was behind it.


    ¡°Did you bring that for show and tell?¡± Barbara asked.


    ¡°How many weeks of allowance did you spend on it?¡± Hannah asked snidely. Pfft. Like she needed an allowance with her bank account.


    Akko puffed up her cheeks. ¡°I found it in the woods in apparent mint condition and there were no bloodstains to indicate a recent monster attack, so explain how it ended up in the woods!¡± Akko responded. She had to make this convincing, and she wasn¡¯t a very good liar, so she¡¯d have trouble hiding her irritation at not being believed, even if it was her own fault.


    ¡°They may have simply dropped the dead weight and ran off.¡± Diana countered, shaking of a split second¡¯s consternation at Akko¡¯s casual mention of death.


    Sound logic, Akko admitted to herself. ¡°Uh, well, it doesn¡¯t matter if you believe me or not, because I¡¯ll prove it to you!¡± she walked over to a nearby statue to attempt to cast with the rod but actually fail.


    ¡°Okay Shiny Rod, let¡¯s show these guys what you¡¯re really made of!¡± Akko crowed.


    ¡°Akko, I don¡¯t think this is a good idea.¡± Lotte advised against what she was doing.


    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine!¡± she waved off the concern. She wasn¡¯t actually going to cast a spell anyway. She pointed the Shiny Rod directly at the statue. ¡°Now, move! Stone statue!¡± she stabbed the air in the statue¡¯s direction. Naturally, a lack of any actual effort to cast a spell caused absolutely nothing to happen.


    The sprout, which had grown to nearly twice it¡¯s original size, lost a leaf, as if to underscore her apparent mediocrity. Feigning surprise, she tried again. ¡°Stone statue? Move? Please?¡± Nothing happened. ¡°It was working yesterday.¡± she muttered, staring at the staff.


    ¡°Ansolew Airo.¡± Diana chanted with a wave of her wand. A bright green light began to emanate from the statue, as the Puppet Magic animated it. Considering the fact that the magic would have to account for the strain caused by something so inflexible moving, it was probably extremely energy-intensive, a part of her mind noted.


    She was careful to stay very still as the statue moved towards her. She was sure Diana didn¡¯t actually want to hurt her, so it was best to get whatever embarrassment she had in mind over with and finish this gambit up. Surprisingly, the statue gently plucked the sprout off her head, which restored her ponytail with a sound oddly similar to the Pokeball release noise from the cartoon, before setting itself back into its old position..


    ¡°Are you okay Akko?¡± Lotte asked with some concern. Sucy was also at her side, though she had almost the same expression as usual, if slightly downturned corners to her mouth.


    ¡°I hate to admit it, but that was really cool.¡± Akko said, a little numb. After all the times some giant creature had crushed or maimed her, she didn¡¯t really like being vulnerable to repeats, so simply standing there and taking it, even if it wasn¡¯t actually harmful, went against some very deeply ingrained instincts.


    Barbara recovered first among the other Witches. ¡°Wow! That was an advanced spell that brings statues to life!¡± she stated the obvious.


    ¡°You¡¯re the greatest Diana!¡± Hannah concurred.


    Diana cut off any further praise with a raised hand. ¡°Real magic comes from tradition and intensive study. Someone who picked up a wand to follow a fad could never hope to learn it.¡± Diana lectured.


    ¡°The Cavendish family is well-known for a rich history in magic going back generations before your grandparents were born.¡± Barbara taunted.


    ¡°Diana¡¯s way better than some stage magician who couldn¡¯t hack it.¡± Hanah added.


    Diana merely flicked her hair and walked off, prompting her cronies to scurry after her. The crowd promptly dispersed. As soon as they were out of earshot, Akko smiled. ¡°It worked.¡±


    The other two girls blinked. ¡°I think I speak for both of us when I say ¡®Huh?¡¯¡± Sucy queried.


    ¡°Oh, I wasn¡¯t actually planning to cast with the rod. Getting it confiscated would be a real pain, but if everybody thinks it¡¯s a fake, then they don¡¯t have any reason to take it, which means I can take it with me wherever I want as long as I don''t get obnoxious about it.¡± Akko explained.


    ¡°... Just when I think I¡¯ve got you figured out, you spring this on me.¡± Sucy sighed as Lotte gaped.


    Meanwhile, Professor Ursula, who had followed after the group to see what was going on, and knew how to read lips, was quite surprised. That was a level of intrigue she hadn¡¯t expected from the apparently straightforward girl. She¡¯d have to be careful not to give Akko any hints about who she actually was.


    ¡°Professor Ursula.¡± Professor Finneran got the younger teacher¡¯s attention. ¡°Have you looked into what we discussed yet?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I-I was just about to do that.¡± Ursula stuttered nervously.


    Professor Finneran gave her a sour look but left it at that.


    Back with the girls, they were startled to hear Sans¡¯ *Vwoorp* and see him with 2 figures unfamiliar to the non-brunettes of the group.


    ¡°Hey Akko, how¡¯ve you been?¡± A figure resembling a cartoonish monochrome devil asked, a few drops of ink falling off his hand as he raised it.


    ¡°It feels like forever since we¡¯ve met up.¡± A ghost of a blue-white coloration commented, with fingerless stubs at the end of her arms, and a somewhat ragged dress as the bottom of her body,


    ¡°Hey Bendy, hey Spooky.¡± Akko greeted nonchalantly. ¡°How¡¯ve you guys been?¡±

 Some Unusual Friends

    ¡°Uh, Akko, who¡¯re they?¡± Lotte asked, as Sucy stared intently at Spooky. Cute and scary at the same time were probably giving her conflicting impulses.


    Bendy placed a hand on his chest. ¡°I¡¯m Bendy, the Dancing Demon! I¡¯m an old family friend.¡± he introduced himself.


    ¡°I¡¯m Spooky. Akko came to my house and forced us to be friends.¡± Spooky explained, her shrug causing her to look a little odd as a floating person.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t take no for an answer, because I could tell she was lonely.¡± Akko answered, lying only by omission.


    While Spooky was, much like Flowey, more complicated than the first ten minutes of knowing her would suggest, she was indeed murderously psychotic, and preventing her from killing people was something she very much wanted to do. The alternatives to convincing her to stop were calling in Gramps to annihilate her SOUL, which was a definite no, asking Fury a favor, which would basically mean imprisoning Spooky, or killing a ghost, which wasn¡¯t possible below 20 LV if you weren¡¯t Gramps, and was a level of killing intent no one who wasn¡¯t of the HATEFUL could maintain, even if they possessed the requisite EXP.


    Not to mention destroying Spooky wouldn¡¯t un-kill any of her victims, and it could be argued that concentrating all the horrible monsters in her mansion, like she had, had actually decreased how many people they¡¯d killed total, which was probably still less than the number Six¡¯s mother was responsible for. Besides, it wasn¡¯t like Flowey hadn¡¯t killed people or tried to kill her, and she¡¯d befriended him, and they¡¯d both lost major SOUL pieces from dying, so it wasn¡¯t like they didn¡¯t have more excuse than Akko had. Much like Flowey, Spooky had relapses from time to time, but was definitely much more pleasant now, so there was absolutely no reason to go after her now.


    ¡°kid¡¯s got a habit of collecting strange people.¡± Sans commented.


    Akko made a so-so motion with her hands. ¡°Bendy moved in a couple years ago, so I¡¯m not sure he counts, since I didn¡¯t go out on an adventure and meet him.¡±


    ¡°So you admit I¡¯m strange.¡± Spooky jabbed playfully.


    ¡°You say that like I¡¯m not.¡± Akko replied. Nobody with Reset was your average person. Not Gramps, not Grandfather, not Flowey, and not her. Supposedly Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and a few other great leaders had had it. Hitler coming into possession of it was widely considered humanity¡¯s darkest hour. Luckily, Grandfather had considered him a horrible monster, stolen Reset at the age of twelve, and been happy with the personal fiefdom he was awarded, at least until the Cuban Missile Crisis got out of hand.


    ¡°Anyway, want to play a couple rounds while you¡¯re here?¡± she asked. Pulling her Shiny Chariot cards out of her Inventory.


    ¡°As long as it¡¯s not Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip Poker. You always get super intense when you play that.¡± Bendy nodded.


    ¡°Paradox what now?¡± Lotte asked, blinking in confusion.


    ¡°He means Yu-Gi-Oh. Akko calls it that because she¡¯s got a nasty case of hero worship towards this one guy that calls it that.¡± Spooky answered.


    ¡°You can¡¯t be serious.¡± Sucy deadpanned. ¡°Why would anyone take a children¡¯s card game seriously enough to make up a name like that for it?¡±


    ¡°oh, she¡¯s dead serious.¡± Sans nodded. ¡°in the kid¡¯s chuunibyou phase back when she was 12, she memorized and collected every card in every card game she could get her hands on. she crushed her opponents with vicious and extreme prejudice, except the guy who convinced her card games were cool, though I¡¯m not convinced she wasn¡¯t just letting him win. of course, that came right after her angsty poetry phase, though she wasn¡¯t really acting any different from now and she kept trying to burn it before we could see it. the disconnect was exactly as weird as it sounds.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not that bad.¡± Akko huffed as Lotte and Sucy stared at her like she¡¯d grown a second head. At Bendy¡¯s raised eyebrow, Sans¡¯ raised eye socket, and Spooky¡¯s attempt to do the same without eyebrows, she relented. ¡°Okay, I was that bad, but I¡¯m not any more, and I¡¯m not particularly proud of that phase. Besides, we¡¯re playing Shiny Chariot¡¯s card game, which doesn''t have nearly as intricate a ban list, or nearly as many cards to take into account.¡± she explained.


    ¡°You know, it¡¯d help if we knew the rules.¡± Sucy pointed out as they made their way to a bench. This was mostly for the concrete it was anchored too, as Akko didn¡¯t want grass stains on her cards. Bendy wiped the ink off his gloves to prevent the same thing from happening with his ink.


    Akko knelt down and started dealing cards. ¡°Okay, there are three types of cards: moon, star, and sun, determined by the symbol at the top of the card. The bottom left shows the cards cost in its respective mana type. The bottom right corner shows the cards offensive and defensive score, not unlike PBVRFDHCSP. The bad news is, they never made the mana and ability cards, so I had to track down the plans and draw pictures on some cards myself.¡± she gestured to a small plastic case with cards in it. She opened it to reveal hand-made cards. They weren¡¯t professional by any means, but they were certainly legible.


    ¡°Okay, we can do pair off, or have a free-for all, an ever-shifting mass of alliances and betrayals as endless war is waged by our minions at our behest until only a single victor remains, having bought their victory with the oceans of blood harvested from their enemies.¡± Realizing what she was doing, she coughed into her fist. ¡°Sorry, I thought I¡¯d fixed that.¡± Where did that come from? She kept that Chuunibyou Akko in a box just like Rage and Nihilism!


    Sucy, leaning away from Akko, muttered, ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding. She gets nuts about card games.¡±


    Anyway, they paired off, as neither Sucy nor Lotte had played the game before. The ability cards could only be used by specific types of creatures, which made them powerful, but highly situational. Mana, on the other hand, was common, but tended to be spent quickly, making it a precious commodity. The Creatures themselves were about halfway between. Less common than the mana cards, but more widely useful than the ability cards, though less powerful under any but ideal circumstances.


    As Bendy faced off against Lotte and Sucy played with Spooky, Akko was paired with Sans. They moved just far enough off to not be able to make out each other¡¯s conversations distinctly.


    *** Sucy and Spooky ***


    ¡°So, Akko know a lot of ghosts?¡± Sucy asked the ghost girl, not really paying much attention to the games going on nearby, or making any effort to pick up the cards in front of her.


    ¡°Only a few others, mostly Monster ghosts, which are more their own species than a phenomena arising from human SOULs managing to leave splinter of themselves behind.¡± Spooky shrugged. ¡°Causes all kinds of issues, but Akko helped get my mind¡­ working right. Apparently she just wandered around dealing with supernatural stuff for a little while before she fell into the Underground. She always changes the subject whenever I ask about it though.¡±


    Sucy tilted her head slightly. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t her parents have a problem with that?¡± That seemed excessively dangerous. A 9-10-year-old wandering around, tripping over lost civilizations and the like? There was no way her parents would just let that happen.


    Spooky¡¯s face fell. ¡°Uh, well, she never really talked to me about them either. She gets this¡­ look on her face whenever someone asks. We¡¯ve managed to get her to tell us they weren¡¯t abusive, but, she¡¯s basically been adopted by Toriel.¡± Seeing the question Sucy had all over her face, she added, ¡°One of the Monsters¡¯ leaders. One of the first ones she met down there. She seems happy on the outside, but, having been screwed up myself, I can tell there¡¯s something really bothering her whenever those subjects come up, so I¡¯d appreciate it if you didn¡¯t ask her. Unless something major happens, I don¡¯t think she¡¯s going to tell anyone about what happened.¡±


    Sucy considered that for a moment, then nodded. It wasn¡¯t her business anyway. Though, she noticed something. ¡°Wait, what about Bendy? She said he was living with you guys.¡± she pointed out.


    Spooky sighed. ¡°He was taking care of Henry until a couple years ago. He was a Determined person, but he was in his 60¡¯s in the 60¡¯s. He actually didn¡¯t marry until a few years after they met, which is why he¡¯s only her grandfather. Anyway, he¡¯s not around any more either, and Bendy¡¯s sensitive about it, so don¡¯t talk about that either.¡±


    After that steady stream of heaviness, Sucy decided to go for something safe. ¡°What kind of books do you like?¡± It was less boring than the weather, don¡¯t judge her.


    ¡°Horror novels.¡± she grinned a little dementedly. ¡°I love it when the character is this close to escaping, and then the monster gets them! Ooh! The times when the protagonists are getting picked off one by one are great too! Plus the times when they think they¡¯ve beaten it, and then it¡¯s hinted that they didn¡¯t, or shown, or it shows up not long after, and the book ends there, letting you imagine it slaughtering them all.¡± her grin gradually grew, to the point of utter lunacy when she finished. She shook her head and returned to a her smaller default smile. ¡°Uh, but they¡¯re just stories, it¡¯s funny because it¡¯s not real.¡± she smiles a more strained smile, and Sucy decided to let it slide. She had weird habits too. As long as Spooky didn¡¯t go full serial killer, it wasn¡¯t her business.


    ¡°I¡¯m a fan of Potion and poison books personally. I actually came here for rare extracts.¡± she admitted.


    ¡°Hm, Akko could probably hook you up with Professor Utonium. He is the world¡¯s foremost biologist and geneticist. I¡¯m sure he knows a thing or two about poisons.¡± Spooky responded.


    Sucy paused. Akko had said she was the Monster ambassador, and Professor Membrane had said the ambassador was responsible for the brain-tank in the first place, as well as their 5000c subspace FTL engines and 500,000c subspace communicators, not to mention the replicators, though deflectors and terraforming were merely based on the understanding of subspace she¡¯d provided and a natural consequence of casual interplanetary travel, respectively, but outside confirmation that she could pull some strings to get her to see one of the world¡¯s most prominent minds in the modern age, when they had bodyguards nearby at all times to keep them protected in the event that aliens had X-J9 and the PPG preoccupied and then attacked them while their defenses were compromised, or a similar situation arose, really made it sink in. ¡°Really? Wouldn¡¯t he have better things to do?¡±


    Spooky made a so-so motion with her finger-less stubs. ¡°He could use a break from trying to get the minimum time for full terraforming under a decade. Mars and Venus only just started to become livable recently, even though they started 5 years ago, and he¡¯s still trying to get it lower. Titan¡¯s only supposed to take 8 years, but he feels like a lifetime just to get the Sol system as habitable as possible is way too slow. He can run himself ragged if his daughters don¡¯t rein him in. Supposedly, there¡¯s about a hundred billion planets in the galaxy, but we can barely travel to a tiny sliver of it, so we ¡®Have to make the most of what we can actually reach in less than a generation.¡¯ according to him.¡±


    ¡°Guess I¡¯ll ask later then.¡± Sucy looked down at the cards Akko had given them, and the small pile between them. ¡°You want to play?¡± she asked. She was planning to just ignore them until Akko¡¯s old friends left, but she was running out of conversation topics, and Akko would get on her case if she just ignored Spooky. Plus, she¡¯d prefer not to alienate something she could only hurt with her finite supply of magic, but had no such problems in return, and who seemed genuinely a bit psychotic, instead of the act she kept up because it she found it hilarious. Well, it was mostly an act.


    *** Bendy and Lotte ***


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll uh, use this Sun mana to summon this Unicorn?¡± Lotte half-asked.


    ¡°Good enough for me. You don¡¯t have to force yourself to play you know. Akko won¡¯t think any less of you. You have to do something really bad to actually make her mad at you.¡± Bendy reassured.


    ¡°Oh, sorry, I¡¯ve... never had many friends.¡± she admitted. There weren¡¯t a lot of people in her town her age who didn¡¯t make fun of her for being a Witch.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Bendy shrugged. ¡°I didn¡¯t use to have a big circle of friends either, but trying too hard can be just as bad as not trying at all.¡± he pointed out.


    ¡°So, what did Sans mean when he said Akko collects strange people?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Well, there¡¯s the Monsters, who aren¡¯t exactly like humans, then there¡¯s the weirdos she hangs out with, like me, or Spooky, or Soldier. The point is, she doesn¡¯t have a lot of normal friends.¡± He pre-empted the concern he saw on her face. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about standing out though, being normal is probably the least common trait anyone in the group has.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t really make me feel better though.¡± Lotte sighed. Being the normal one wasn¡¯t all it was cracked up to be, especially since she was too weird for regular people, but too normal to stand out among strange people.


    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t really help you there. How you feel isn¡¯t really something you can control. Still, your options are to get used to it, or work hard and get good at something. You¡¯re from a pretty old Witch family, if not a powerful one, right?¡± At Lotte¡¯s nod, he continued. ¡°Then you probably have a talent you inherited from your family, right?¡±


    ¡°Well, yes. I can talk to spirits. Anything old enough to be a tsukigami qualifies, and the spirits of things like the air or water are pretty easy to call up. There¡¯s actually a legend that one of my ancestors could call on Earth¡¯s spirit itself, but she hasn¡¯t come when she wasn¡¯t warning people about something or correcting someone on something since the BCs.¡± Lotte admitted. It only made sense, while Earth-chan was decidedly against misunderstandings of the universe¡¯s workings, she mostly just¡­ existed. Like most planets. Supposedly, DT from fallen humans had seeped into the environment, as while 99% of it was in the SOUL, the body had traces quantities, which, when coupled with the 130 billion people who¡¯d lived and died (minimum), was enough to give it a full physical form, though the awareness of its existence in the collective human psyche certainly helped. Belief was a known force these days, though spirits tended to be most heavily affected.


    Bendy hesitantly began, ¡°Uh, yeah, Akko has her on speed-dial, so if you really want to talk to her-¡± when Lote practically pounced on him.


    ¡°Really?! Witches who can talk to spirits would give their good arms to be able to talk to the planet¡¯s spirit!¡± The last time Earth-chan had shown herself to world as a whole had been when that group of mad scientists had nearly put Earth back into the Ice Age. She showed up for more minor crises, but only to key players. She wielded awesome power in theory, but she was limited by the collateral damage using it would cause.


    ¡°Talk to her later, I¡¯m sure Akko could get her to visit for a little while.¡± Bendy gently pushed Lotte off.


    ¡°Uh, thanks for the advice.¡± Lotte muttered, red-faced when she realized her reaction. She usually only gushed about Night Fall like that, but her talents with spirits were what got her interested in being a Witch in the first place, before she understood the realities of running a magic shop.


    *** Akko And Sans ***


    ¡°any leads on finding Chariot kid?¡± Sans asked as he used an ability following Lotte¡¯s outburst. Akko had encountered Chariot in the first timeline, but had found no sign of her since then, save her insane episode, and she didn¡¯t really remember that well.


    ¡°No, 10 years, and nobody¡¯s seen her since her last show.¡± she sighed. She¡¯d seen it when she was roughly 6, and she¡¯d researched the occult in hopes of it carrying over into proper magic training for the next couple years until the¡­ incidents, at which point she¡¯d been dealing with the occult for the next year, until she jumped into the Underground. In this version of the timeline at least.


    The others had finished their games by this point, Spooky and Bendy eventually triumphing over the less experienced players, while Sans and Akko, with the former¡¯s ability to read Akko and the latter¡¯s deep knowledge of the game, were in a grinding stalemate, and so moved back over to watch them play. ¡°These cards were hard to come by when I was a kid, since Shiny Chariot was so popular they only made a limited printing of them to price-gouge. I¡¯d spend my allowance on card packs every time I got it. I never did get that premium card I wanted.¡± she explained for the benefit of her new friends.


    Sucy picked up a mushroom card, which Akko had been expecting, while Lotte picked up another Unicorn. She¡¯d gotten multiple of a lot of the more common cards in her efforts to find the rarer ones. Not exactly unexpected.


    ¡°A mushroom believed to rekindle romance.¡± Sucy muttered. Yeah, poisons weren¡¯t the only thing non-edible mushrooms were good for, even if most people didn¡¯t think of them as medicinal. The main difference between a poison and a remedy was the dose, after all.


    ¡°A Unicorn.¡± Lotte, no longer nervous about messing up the game, could appreciate the artwork properly now.


    ¡°¡®An eternal holy creature. The protector of happiness.¡¯¡± Akko quoted without being able to see the card.


    ¡°Wow, you¡¯re really dedicated to these cards.¡± Sucy noted. Being able to read the card¡¯s flavor text off the top of her head was impressive. It would be a little pathetic if she wasn¡¯t so earnest about it.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not sure on the pronunciation of a few of them, but yeah. It helps that I have an eidetic memory. I never forget anything, whether I want to or not. Of course, if I¡¯m not paying attention, then it doesn¡¯t help much.¡± The downside was that traumas wouldn¡¯t fade with time. It would merely grant her perspective, not heal the scars.


    ¡°That sounds useful, studying must be a snap.¡± Sucy noted, a hint of jealousy in her voice. Having to actually put effort into studying was a huge time-sink, which she didn¡¯t appreciate Akko being able to completely ignore.


    ¡°It¡¯s too bad studying bores me out of my mind.¡± Akko noted. She was a learn-by-doing type, not a ¡®I read a book about it.¡¯ type. Unfortunately, reading research already done was her only recourse if she didn¡¯t want to do everything from scratch.


    Lotte noticed another card. ¡°I know this one, a magic butterfly.¡± she didn¡¯t know most of the things on the cards, but these she¡¯d encountered in her studies. The butterfly was mostly a golden color, with a marking similar to its general form on it¡¯s chest. It¡¯s larval form apparently had it on it¡¯s head.


    ¡°¡®Pappiliodya. A butterfly that can fly long distances. It hatches once every century, and is said to give hope to anyone who gazes upon it.¡¯¡± she recited from memory.


    *** Meanwhile, Luna Nova Greenhouse ***


    ¡°Hm.¡± Principal Holbrooke hummed in mild concern. ¡°It looks very sick.¡± she observed, looking up at the central tree of the garden. Specifically, the Memorial Tree.


    ¡°Any progress Professor Ursula?¡± Professor Finneran asked her younger blue-haired colleague.


    ¡°Well, this has happened before, but these books are so old I can¡¯t quite make out what the root cause is, though it does say that the symptoms are temporary as long as the root cause is eliminated. With a little more time, I should be able to find out what that is.¡±


    ¡°Report back as soon as possible. The tree¡¯s health was already beginning to decline from age, I doubt it¡¯ll last much longer if this continues.¡± Professor Finneran ordered.


    ¡°Professor Holbrooke!¡± Diana called out from the entrance, escorted by Hannah and Barbara, causing the trio of teachers to turn towards her. ¡°I can¡¯t believe the Memorial Tree¡¯s become this weak.¡± she said with genuine sympathy.


    ¡°It¡¯s sad, but we can¡¯t ignore that this is a very old tree, it may simply be too old to keep going, and is at the end of it¡¯s time. It happens to everything eventually.¡± Principal Holbrooke responded morosely.


    Crossing her arms, Diana scanned the tree. ¡°The Jennifer Memorial Tree, said to have inherited the will of the Great Witch Jennifer, and sacred to Luna Nova.¡± she muttered, half to herself. Hannah and Barbara turned to her for guidance, determined expressions on their faces.


    A few minutes later, they¡¯d gathered a number of low-quality magic crystals, essentially very weak version of the Philosopher¡¯s Stone the school¡¯s magic ran on, and arranged them in a pair of concentric circles around the tree. One at the roots, one a foot outward to account for the parts they couldn¡¯t see. ¡°Finished on this side.¡± Barbara reported.


    Diana stood up from her efforts to ensure the circle was even, and announced. ¡°I¡¯m going to attempt Revitalization magic. It will imbue the tree with potent nutrients and magical energy to restore it¡¯s flagging health. It¡¯s been passed down in the family for generations, so it should work.¡± Raising her wand above her head, a green glow like a miniature sun surrounded it.


    ¡°Louperial Ral!¡± she shouted, the magic, synergizing with her Kindness Trait, forming a ring and diving into the circles, which briefly formed into a wall of green light which traveled up the tree, before said tree, previously drooping, began to regain a healthy hue, the bark turning a healthy brown instead of a dull grey, and the leaves growing out again.


    Smiling at a job well done, ¡°All the nutrients seem to have soaked in.¡± she observed.


    ¡°You¡¯re amazing Diana!¡± Hannah said smiling in awe like Barbara, before the two turned to each other.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go tell the professors!¡± Barbara suggested. The pair ran off to do just that.


    Diana paused as she heard the sound of moving earth, and looked down to see a small hole in the ground she was certain had not been there before. She narrowed her eyes. ¡°Strange, did the spell work a bit too well?¡± she muttered. Overgrowth had happened before when used on plants that were only mildly under the weather or small, but the Memorial Tree had seemed on the brink of death.


    *** Luna Nova Library ***


    Professor Ursula was rechecking the book when something caught her eye. One of the pages seemed to be stuck to another. Carefully prying them apart, she found an illustration of a butterfly. ¡°Oh, this explains it. This is actually a good omen.¡± she murmured.


    *** The Game ***


    ¡°How long do these games usually last?¡± Sucy asked as Sans and Akko seemed in greater danger of wiping out her stockpile of cards than beating each other.


    ¡°Well, usually when they go this long something interrupts, usually food, sometimes trouble.¡± Bendy answered, and sure enough, a root, glowing green, erupted out of the ground.


    ¡°Game¡¯s over!¡± Akko hurriedly collected her cards and shoved them back in their case, and then her Inventory.


    ¡°It¡¯s coming from the greenhouse!¡± Lotte pointed. The root snaked out from the building she pointed at.


    ¡°let¡¯s go.¡± Sans said. The quintet ducked and dodged their way past the violently fast-paced growing roots, until they made it inside the greenhouse. Akko had never actually stowed the Shiny Rod, and so had it Equipped.


    ¡°Stay back!¡± Diana called out, alerted by their footsteps. Spooky merely ducked the roots, as the magic they¡¯d been imbued with made them ignore her intangibility.


    ¡°Diana?! Do you know what¡¯s going on?¡± Akko asked. She hated being out of the loop when stuff like this happened.


    ¡°probably the chrysalises.¡± Sans pointed to glowing green spiky oval attached to a rising root. More appeared all around as more roots erupted from the ground.


    ¡°Yeah, strange growths are almost never good.¡± Spooky commented, even as the roots began to lose their glow and then wither.


    Diana had an epiphany. ¡°There were parasites in the roots, that¡¯s why the tree got so sick!¡± she said, even as the roots turned white, clearly dead, as the chrysalises swelled twice as large. ¡°All my spell did was feed these vermin instead of the tree itself!¡± she pulled out her wand. ¡°They have to be stopped! Murowa!¡± she gestured at the nearest cocoon, and a bolt of green magic spiraled out, causing the cocoon¡¯s spikes to droop and it¡¯s color to darken to a very dark grey. She continued this process with four more cocoons, including one a few feet from Akko, who reflexively leaned back.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Akko muttered as she noticed a familiar star-like pattern on the top of the chrysalis. She teleported in front of Diana¡¯s next target, causing her to hesitate. ¡°Hang on a second Diana!¡± red magic briefly washed from her hand, and knives rose to intercept the direct paths of Diana¡¯s Extermination spells. ¡°They might not be bad after all! I think these are Pappiliodya!¡± she claimed. She pulled the cards back out of her Inventory, and quickly flipped through them pulling out the relevant card, as the other pupae turned dark grey. ¡°See? These cocoons have the same mark as the Pappiliodya, so they must be them!¡± Her logic was simple, but not exactly hard to follow. ¡°They hatch once every hundred years, and are said to bring hope to all who gaze upon them!¡± she finished triumphantly.


    In response to her conviction, the Shiny Rod began to glow green, as they watched in awe, the knives vanishing with little fanfare.


    ¡° I have an idea!¡± Lotte grabbed the card and pointed at the spell inscribed on it. ¡°Try casting this on them!¡±


    ¡°The Pappiliodya spell?¡± she asked for confirmation.


    ¡°worth a shot.¡± Sans agreed.


    Grasping the rod tightly, with Lotte and Sucy supporting her, she started to intone. Pappiliodya Feel-uh¡­¡± she trailed off, unsure of the pronunciation.


    ¡°It¡¯s Papillio Fillio Nymphodya.¡± Diana corrected.


    ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s how you pronounce it. Thanks.¡± Akko nodded at Diana, and repeated the spell. ¡°The magic butterfly, Pappiliodya, spread your wings and fly! Give us all hope!¡± The Rod glowed brighter, until small streams of magic flowed around it. ¡°Papillio Fillio Nymphodya!¡± she yelled.


    Bursts of green magic fired off, and were absorbed by the cocoons, which quickly revitalized, even the roots directly connected regaining their healthy color. The cocoons burst open, one by one, releasing beautiful golden butterflies as big as the girls. As they rose, golden sparkles trailed from their wings. ¡°This is one of the most beautiful things I¡¯ve ever seen.¡± Bendy sniffled. Old-timey cartoons tended to focus more on the funny than the beautiful.


    ¡°Hey, let¡¯s go outside to watch them go! They won¡¯t be back for a hundred years after all!¡± Spooky proposed. With the exception of Diana, who was feeling guilty about almost killing innocent creatures, they all left to do so.


    *** Luna Nova Library ***


    ¡°¡®While it takes flight immediately upon leaving it¡¯s cocoon, the Pappiliodya hibernates underground for 120 years before emerging.¡¯¡± Ursula recited from the book.


    A nearby student pointed out the window. ¡°Hey! Look at that!¡± The students and professor turned to look, many scrambling to the windows, as a golden stream of butterflies made its way across the sky, golden sparkles raining down behind them.


    ¡°¡®The flutter of its golden wings, give hope to all who witness them.¡¯ Hm.¡± she smiled at the sight.


    *** Greenhouse ***


    Barbara and Hannah finally came back with Professor Finneran and Principal Holbrooke. ¡°The Memorial Tree looks 50 years younger.¡± Professor Finneran noted happily.


    ¡°It¡¯s because of Diana¡¯s spell.¡± Hannah informed them proudly.


    ¡°Thank you miss Cavendish.¡± Principal Holbrook said earnestly.


    ¡°Ah, no, I can¡¯t take the credit for this.¡± she began.


    ¡°Well, who else could have done it? You were the only one here.¡± Professor Finneran countered.


    Diana opened her mouth and the shut it again. They¡¯d never believe her. ¡°Excuse me.¡± she gave the barest of nods, and walked out as swiftly as she could.


    ¡°What a humble girl, she¡¯s the pride of this school.¡± Principal Holbrooke said, unaware of the irony of her statement.


    Diana walked out with her head down. She supposed she¡¯d simply have to do her best to repay Akko. Speaking of which, her Check had very clearly informed her that Rod was a fake, so why had it worked? On instinct, she looked up to see Akko flying with Lotte, as Sans and Bendy crowded Sucy, while Spooky floated behind them, as the quintet kept pace with the Pappiliodya. Akko waved happily at her, as the golden butterflies continued to fly away.

 Flying Lessons

    Shortly after Spooky, Bendy, and Sans left, and while there wasn¡¯t anybody around besides the trio, Lotte asked ¡°Say Akko, Bendy said that you know how to get in contact with Earth¡¯s world-spirit. Could you call her up any time?¡± slightly nervously. It would not be inaccurate to compare meeting Jesus to this, as far as¡­ pretty much anyone with any connection to spirits went.


    Akko looked up from her camera after dealing with the pictures she¡¯d taken. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not sure about this place. That would involve her actually showing up, and this isn¡¯t quite Earth, it¡¯s basically it¡¯s own pocket dimension, and I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s still part of Earth, if it ever was. Maybe if I knew how this place got made, but I don¡¯t want to risk weird inter-dimensional stuff messing with Earth¡¯s spirit¡­ projection¡­ thing, since that tends to reflect on the thing it represents. Once we get back to Earth proper, then sure. Until then, nope, not chancing it.¡± she responded. Earth probably wouldn¡¯t show up if there was any risk of something going wrong because of the sheer casualties any such incident would cause, but why risk it?


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it just not show up if it couldn¡¯t show up properly?¡± Sucy asked.


    Lotte grimaced. ¡°Not... necessarily. Sometimes if a spirit tries to show up too far from it¡¯s main body, or pushes some kind of sympathetic link too hard, they¡­ explode.¡± As Sucy blinked but Akko merely nodded, Lotte continued. ¡°Twice.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, Gramps explained why it was a bad idea.¡± Akko agreed. Bad things happened when projections overextended themselves, if anything happened at all. Not as much of a problem when trying to put pieces back together though.


    *** Several Days Later ***


    A few days had passed since the Papililiodya incident, and while Diana had ended up with the credit for it, Akko didn¡¯t really mind. As long as everybody got out alive and mentally sound, it didn¡¯t matter much to her who did what, and Diana hadn¡¯t exactly trumpeted it, which suggested the teachers had assumed her responsibility in resolving the incident.


    Toriel, Papyrus, and Undyne were visiting next, all together actually. Undyne¡¯s days off from police work often coincided with one of Toriel¡¯s days off from the school, while Papyrus¡¯ diner wasn¡¯t open on Sundays to begin with.


    A *Vwoorp* announced their arrival to the dorm room, Sans leaving a few moments later to visit Gaster. ¡°HELLO AKKO! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE ARRIVED!¡± Papyrus announced. While he was exuberant, he usually kept it from getting annoying, and people who did get annoyed tended to feel like they¡¯d punched a little kid in the face.


    ¡°How has the food been my child?¡± Toriel asked. She always got worked up when she felt someone hadn¡¯t been feeding Akko properly, which tended to mean anything that wasn¡¯t her cooking, though family friends were usually exempted. Akko still felt guilty about not telling her about Asriel or Chara, but they¡¯d made her promise them not to, and she wouldn¡¯t want them blabbing her secrets.


    ¡°How are ya squirt?¡± Undyne asked with her usual snaggle-tooth grin. She and Alphys were an official thing these days. Really, they had been since the Barrier was destroyed. Undyne was a police officer, while Alphys was working with Professor Membrane to get Monster magi-tech functioning in modern society, which was made more difficult by much lower levels of mana on the surface, and there weren¡¯t nearly enough Monsters to produce enough excess mana to power enough machines for everybody on even Earth Prime.


    ¡°Could use variety, fine, made some new friends,¡± she answered in order, gesturing to Lotte and Sucy as she finished.


    ¡°Uh, hi.¡± Lotte waved. Sucy merely stared at them, tilting her head slightly. Akko was pretty sure she was just a naturally quiet person, as Papyrus was naturally loud, now that she knew the other girl better.


    ¡°Well don¡¯t get any funny ideas. Me and the kid are besties!¡± Undyne proclaimed in a joking manner, grabbing Akko by the arm and dragging her over to noogie her, to Akko¡¯s mild exasperation.


    ¡°NOT SO FAST! I WAS THEIR FRIEND FIRST!¡± Papyrus jabbed.


    ¡°Well, I knew Spooky before either of you, so by that logic-¡± Akko was interrupted by a polite cough from Toriel before their old argument could proceed any further along it¡¯s well-trodden path.


    ¡°I believe you were introducing us to your new friends my child?¡± she interjected.


    ¡°Oh, right. Lotte likes to read and her family owns a magic shop in Finland, and Sucy is from the Philippines, and puts up a creepy front because she thinks how people react is funny, but it¡¯s somewhat genuine, kind of like Spooky.¡± Akko had talked to Spooky and Bendy about what they¡¯d learned and picked up a few new things from the two girls. ¡°She¡¯s really good with potions too.¡± she added.


    ¡°INTERESTING! SANS TELLS ME POTIONS ARE SOMETHING OF A LOST ART AMONG MONSTERS. PLANTS HAD TROUBLE GROWING WITHOUT SUNLIGHT, AS CAVES ARE WONT TO BE, AND WHILE RAW MAGIC CAN DO THE SAME JOB, IT MESSES WITH THEIR CHEMISTRY TOO MUCH FOR THE POTIONS TO WORK THE SAME. WE¡¯VE BEEN WORKING TO RELEARN THE SKILLS, BUT SO MANY MAGICAL PLANTS AREN¡¯T AROUND THESE DAYS THAT WE¡¯VE BEEN HAVING TROUBLE. YOU MUST BE VERY DEDICATED TO YOUR CRAFT!¡± Papyrus stated with some admiration. If there was one thing Papyrus respected, it was dedication.


    ¡°Uh, thanks.¡± Sucy nodded at him with mild bewilderment. She seemed a little unused to such earnest compliments with neither snark, nor ulterior motives attached. Only the most cold-hearted of people could remain unmoved by Papyrus if he was able to get a word in edgewise.


    A few minutes later, they were touring the academy, Undyne demonstrating her use of spears and having wandered off to do it, with Toriel having left to make sure she didn¡¯t get near the kitchens, or cause any other incidents. Undyne had a bad habit of leaving the teachers or equivalent disgruntled by her over-the-top antics, though Toriel or Alphys usually reined her in before she caused any true problems. It wasn¡¯t that Undyne was overly reckless (though she was a little bit reckless) it was more that she wasn¡¯t the type to really think through what she was doing, which was the main reason she could bring herself to try to kill Akko back in the Underground, the other being psyching herself up/talking herself into it, as, much like Asgore, she wasn¡¯t really the sort of person to kill without some serious provocation. Akko didn¡¯t have to SOUL-Suicide when she died, and DT-trait humans retained full awareness of what was happening around them after being reduced to a SOUL, so she¡¯d heard the immediate reactions to her death from a few people. That was the main reason she went directly to shattering her own SOUL whenever she died, these days anyway.


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Diana.¡± she noticed down one of the side halls as the quartet walked, Papyrus oohing and aawing at Sucy and Lotte¡¯s explanations of what various things were. As usual, Hannah and Barbara flanked the green and blond-haired girl.


    While she¡¯d need to engage a Fight to really know for sure, as her Justice Magic was too weak for Check to tell her outside one, the green streak made her suspect Kindness was Diana¡¯s dominant Trait, as she didn¡¯t seem the type to use highlights. While it wasn¡¯t a 100% thing, a person¡¯s eyes or hair would often match their SOUL-Trait. Purple-haired people were nigh-universally PV-Trait SOULs, for example. She seemed a little too impatient for her eyes to be the match, as hypocritical as it was for Akko to jab anyone about that, after the incident with correcting the teacher instead of waiting until after class. Respecting the teachers themselves, if not their subject matter was something that had been drilled into her by the Japanese education system¡­ so long as she was in their classroom anyway. She chafed under direct authority too much to act particularly obedient when not in the center of a teacher¡¯s authority.


    ¡°HELLO THERE HUMANS! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE MYSELF!¡± Papyrus called attention to both himself and the rest of the group. As he walked over, and they followed him, he continued ¡°I LIKE SPAGHETTI, AND MY FAVORITE COLOR IS RED! ANY FRIEND OF AKKO¡¯S IS A FRIEND OF MINE!¡± he proclaimed.


    ¡°Uh, well, I¡¯m not sure ¡®friends¡¯ is the word I would use.¡± Akko corrected. ¡°Acquaintances is a better word.¡± she probably should have informed them of her most recent network of connections with the locals. She could only really keep track of every set because of her perfect memory, but a basic run-down wouldn¡¯t have been out of place. She really only did that when she had disparate groups working together to stop some supervillain or catastrophe and she had to play mediator to a bunch of conflicting personalities.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re not friends.¡± Barbara pointedly stated.


    ¡°WELL, I SHALL DO MY BEST TO REMEDY THAT! COME, LET US DISCUSS YOUR ISSUES.¡± He said, putting on a pair of reader¡¯s glasses.


    ¡°Wait a minute, we don¡¯t-¡± Hannah began.


    ¡°NONSENSE!¡± He grabbed each of them by the arm and started to drag them off. ¡°EVERYONE WHO DISLIKES AKKO HAS EITHER TURNED OUT TO HAVE MAJOR EMOTIONAL TURMOIL GOING ON, OR TURNED OUT TO BE MISSING PART OF THEIR SOUL! I¡¯M SURE YOU HAVE SOME SORT OF PROBLEM, AND YOU¡¯RE TAKING IT OUT ON PEOPLE YOU PERCEIVE AS BEING LOWER ON THE SOCIAL LADDER!¡± he explained, having been taking some psychology classes to try and help his father with his issues. While Hannah looked offended, Barbara seemed briefly stricken.


    ¡°AHA! I THOUGHT SO! LET¡¯S DISCUSS THIS MORE PRIVATELY.¡± The skeleton and his¡­ patients disappeared around the corner.


    ¡°Well, that happened.¡± Sucy muttered.


    ¡°That was weird.¡± Lotte agreed.


    ¡°Papyrus is a unique person.¡± Akko offered by way of explanation.


    Diana blinked, then shook herself slightly to focus. ¡°Miss Kagari, I was hoping to talk to you.¡± She fixed Akko with a stern look. ¡°I distinctly recall my Check telling me that Shiny Rod was fake, but you performed a spell with it. After reading it off a card. No practice, so the only other explanation is help from a powerful artifact. Except that would mean my Check was wrong, and few things can affect a Check besides Justice Magic, which only improves a Check¡¯s accuracy.¡± Her eyes narrowed. ¡°What, exactly, is going on?¡±


    ¡°Not sure what you¡¯re so worked up about. The Shiny Rod worked, and everything turned out okay, so what¡¯s the big deal?¡± Akko evaded. She hadn¡¯t really thought about Diana getting suspicious about the Rod when she was using a clearly-functioning artifact to cast a spell, despite having made it look useless earlier that very day. She¡¯d been too concerned about the Papililiodya getting blasted.


    ¡°If your magic stopped working right, wouldn¡¯t you want to know why?¡± Sucy pointed out, unhelpfully. Though, in fairness, Diana hadn¡¯t looked like she was buying it.


    ¡°Precisely my motivation.¡± Diana agreed. ¡°So if you wouldn¡¯t mind illuminating me on why the Check malfunctioned in your presence?¡± she pressed.


    Akko didn¡¯t have any excuses prepared, which gave her few options. Just as she was contemplating a LOAD to try and avoid Diana, Undyne dashed over from past Diana, Toriel in hot pursuit. ¡°You should¡¯ve told me this place was so huge! I got lost trying to find you, and I never get lost!¡± She explained, seeming personally affronted by the building¡¯s confusing internal structure.


    Centuries of enchantments, secret passages, and simple remodeling by progressive/eccentric headmistresses, or conservative ones who were trying to restore the original/previous form of the school, from the founding of the school roughly 1600 years ago had given it an incredibly confusing interior. The fact that it was in a pocket dimension and was nearly inaccessible to those lacking in magic or highly specialized dimension-hopping technology, the latter of which was only really available in the last decade and every example was a custom piece, was all that saved it from the Witch hunts of the 1700-1800s.


    Toriel took one look at Diana and said. ¡°Oh dear, you seem very stressed. Have you been taking proper care of yourself? You seem like you¡¯ve been focusing too much on your studies and not enough on enjoying yourself.¡± Her ¡®mom¡¯ instincts were going off like alarm bells. Strange, although Toriel hadn¡¯t seemed to notice the frequency that this was the case (which was probably because their reactions were usually fairly subdued to the show of motherly affection and Akko took a cue from Gramps and worked to shield people around her from harsh/harmful/dangerous truths), that usually only happened to people who had neglectful parents or who were missing theirs. ...Oh. That would explain why she was so stuck-up, she was either putting up a front, trying to live up to some kind of promise she¡¯d made to her parents, if only in her own mind, or both. Still, while she didn¡¯t know for sure either way, it wasn¡¯t her place to pry. What was she supposed to do? Ask if Diana¡¯s parents were still alive?


    Diana stiffened. ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ speak to you about this more later.¡± she said with a distinct edge to her voice, as she turned around and left.


    ¡°What did I say?¡± Toriel asked, confused as to why her questions had made Diana withdraw. If Akko¡¯s theory was correct, then Diana might be unused to properly motherly affection. An actual hug might have made her shut down, if a few sentences did this. Either it was a deeply felt, and potentially fairly recent, loss, or Diana was entirely unused to this sort of motherly affection, which said unpleasant things about her current home life.


    Surprisingly, there hadn¡¯t been any real trouble that day besides that confrontation, though Akko had the firm impression something was on the horizon. While nothing appeared to be happening on Earth Prime, save a minor zombie outbreak yesterday, which was of the slow-moving, normally-decaying type which easily contained even before she rewound time to before it happened to give Mr. Fury a heads-up, she suspected something nasty was brewing on another Earth. She¡¯d gained good instincts for this sort of thing over the¡­ she wasn¡¯t sure how long she¡¯d had RESET for in terms of how much time she¡¯d rewound, but it was a long time. Besides, the first timeline had gotten a few months ahead of this point, and while quite a few events had played out differently because of Monsters being freed alone, she was sure something had happened around this point. Unfortunately she hadn¡¯t been paying much attention to the dates or the news, as she hadn¡¯t particularly expected to need to know them as she hadn¡¯t expected to use RESET ever again at the time, so she had little idea of what it was beyond a few comments from people around her about something happening on the World of Twelve. Still, nothing major was happening at the moment, so now, a week after the Papililiodya incident, she was practicing with her magic. Specifically, with her wand.


    She figured she ought to get used to it if she was going to be a Witch, plus it was a decent magical focus, which wasn¡¯t common without being Trait-specific. While it took a few tries to get working right, a downside of not being designed for a specific Trait, she found that channeling all of the various Color Magics through it worked just fine. She¡¯d use it for now, but she didn¡¯t want it to become a crutch, so as soon as she had decent enough control with it to reliably not destroy anything she was using Blue Magic on, she¡¯d work on it without the wand, though she could probably use the others with the support the wand gave her, she¡¯d rather not risk SOUL-damage.


    Yellow Magic was rarely useful outside combat situations, save for more precise Checks, which allowed Sans to see someone¡¯s EXP and LV outside a FIGHT, but Check wasn¡¯t exactly subtle, so she couldn¡¯t really practice with that without practice dummies/sparring partners, and Purple Magic was basically Red Magic only with less direct power and more unusual angles of attack, the difference between a rogue and a warrior, which meant she could use Red Magic for almost everything she¡¯d use Purple Magic for, and Red Magic was easily her strong suit. She couldn¡¯t really use Cyan Magic, as Patience was decidedly not her strong suit, she didn¡¯t have a strong desire to seek retribution for wrongs committed by anybody, so her Yellow Magic wasn¡¯t the strongest, and with RESET, her Bravery wasn¡¯t really as strong as someone in equivalent situations without it might possess, as she had relatively little to fear unless facing someone willing to torture her horrifically in a place she couldn¡¯t escape, such as Omega Flowey, or someone who she could only hope to talk down and not to actually defeat, like Asriel with what he¡¯d claimed and likely believed to be the equivalent of 7 human SOULs (Although by her math, the amount of power he¡¯d gained was more like 14 human SOULs instead of the 10 it should have functioned as since the combined population of the Underground plus 6 human SOULs was equivalent to 11. While he needed 7 of them to regain his Asriel form, only one of them was occupied keeping him there during the battle. Gramps had explained it was because multiple SOULs, regardless of origin, had synergistic effects, though it wasn¡¯t really noticeable below a few thousand unless the SOULs were stupidly powerful.), not in terms of a strong enough personality trait to qualify as a SOUL Trait at least. This limited her use of Orange Magic as well. She had an acquired resistance to pain from more deaths, some of them still-causing nightmares, than she could count, and her DT let her continue despite debilitating injuries, poison, or illness, but that was more raw willpower backed by literally forcing reality to conform to her desires than bravery, in the sense of fighting in spite of one¡¯s fear, though her ability to resist pain and other forms of coercion let her use it to some degree.


    For now, Akko was, very carefully, moving the books she¡¯d pulled out of the shelves back to their original resting places with Blue Magic. While she¡¯d SAVEd immediately beforehand, she didn¡¯t want to abuse RESET, and it would defeat the purpose of this exercise if she simply used her almost literal undo button to force the universe to comply with her wishes by, well, force, every time something happened that she didn¡¯t like. She had more than enough power, as evidenced by 999 HP and 99 DEF (though her ATK fluctuated wildly with her mood) without the bonuses from her equipment (35 DEF, 25 ATK, 1 HP regenerated every 5 seconds, and a few seconds of invulnerability when damage was inflicted, assuming she didn¡¯t have time to grab extra equipment. Though if she gave Chara control, it was 109 ATK and 119 DEF because the Knife and Locket meant so much more to her.), she needed better control now.


    She was sure a ton of spells were more about finesse than the amount of mana you could dump into them, especially in the current era of low quantities of mana on Earth. Earth Prime was okay, if declining at a slow but noticeable rate, but the World of Twelve and Supernatural Earth were the only ones doing significantly better. The others were so badly off that there was barely any magic left, most of what they had leaking from Prime, though a couple had work-arounds. While raw DT could substitute, using simple reality-warping in place of actual magical energy, most people didn¡¯t have DT as a dominant trait like her, limiting how useful this ability was since they couldn¡¯t use it for more powerful spells, generally using it to boost the potency of their existing mana. Even those who did have DT as their dominant Trait had distinct upper limits to the spells they could cast using it, usually fairly minor ones.


    Anyway, she needed to work on her skill at using her power, to be more like Sans or Papyrus, basically. Sans had low reserves, as a consequence of his lack of regular practice, though it wasn¡¯t as bad these days since the Monsters had undergone regular exercises to acclimate to the surface¡¯s lower mana levels as one would with higher elevations, in addition to his generally low Stats, other than SPD. He compensated with sheer skill, and he outdid even Asgore there if one counted by lethality instead of general skill, though the younger brother was more skilled in general and probably the stronger combatant overall, by simple virtue of a) taking much longer to wear out, and b) simply having much higher Stats and therefore far more powerful attacks. Of course, Papyrus simply couldn¡¯t work up any real intent to harm, and thus couldn¡¯t really hurt people with his magic by comparison, which made it something of a moot point. Though he was easily superior in terms of non-lethal combat, able to take off fractions of an HP if he felt it necessary. Considering Sans¡¯ 1 HP, and the brothers¡¯ closeness, this made sense.


    She was about halfway done reshelving when a familiar voice asked ¡°Miss Kagari?¡± and Akko turned to see¡­


    ¡°Huh, not Chariot.¡± she muttered. She hadn¡¯t noticed the first time they¡¯d met because of the hurry she was in, but it was strange. Miss Ursula sounded exactly like her, but she had glasses and blue hair. Akko would recognize hair dye after all the times she¡¯d seen some politician or their families with the stuff, and Chariot had red hair, though she could certainly have grown her hair out, and she¡¯d met people who wore glasses because they liked the look, but why would Chariot be wearing a disguise instead of just living in hiding? Besides, what would she be doing teaching at this stuffy school? Wasn¡¯t this the most likely place for her to get discovered with all the magical mishaps that happened on a regular basis assuming she¡¯d used magic to disguise herself?


    Ursula¡¯s forehead broke out in a nervous sweat, which her hat luckily hid. ¡°No, just me, Professor Ursula. I¡¯m your guidance coach remember?¡± she asked. ¡°Though I also teach Astronomy.¡± she added.


    ¡°Wait, mages use that for divinations right?¡± Akko asked. She didn¡¯t actually need a refresher, having been made very familiar with the various types of future-sight by Gramps, but she could tell the subject bothered the teacher. Note to self, avoid talking about Chariot unless relevant to subject at hand around Ursula.


    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s a second-year class though.¡± Apparently divination was taxing, since there was so much interference from the distorted downward dimensional counterpart of the Realm of Magic (not that most people knew about it), and the number of universes directly connected to Earth Prime didn¡¯t help at all with things being unclear. It was possible to brute-force it to some degree, but it wasn¡¯t exactly cheap energy-wise to begin with, and seeing further in the future was exponentially more draining and less accurate. It was simply too much for too little most of the time unless you could throw around anti-city blasts like candy as Gramps could, and even he had trouble seeing more than a few weeks into the future reliably.


    ¡°Oh yeah, sorry for blowing you off on my first day. Papiliodya only show up once a century, you know?¡± Akko had been a bit preoccupied with what would ordinarily be a once-in-a-lifetime view, though she¡¯d taken some pictures and Sans had recorded a lot of the butterflies¡¯ initial flight on his phone, on the first day, and, to be fair, Ursula hadn¡¯t actually told her where they were meeting up. She didn¡¯t really know anyone here besides her roommates, who didn¡¯t know either, and she wasn¡¯t going to ask Barbara, Hannah, or Diana.


    The former because, to be frank, she expected them to be huge jerks about it, because even though whatever Papyrus had talked to them about seemed to have resolved some kind of issue between them, they hadn¡¯t improved much towards other people, and the latter because she didn¡¯t really want to ask anything of her after the first timeline. Also, she¡¯d been acting like Akko was hiding something before she¡¯d run off to avoid Toriel. She was, but that wasn¡¯t Diana¡¯s business, so she was avoiding the taller girl. The other teachers, well, she kind of got the impression that most of them disliked her, plus she didn¡¯t really know most of them beyond the basics like their names.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. I¡¯m actually here to give you your official school broom-¡± as the professor started to hand her the broom in her right hand, she was startled to see it turn blue, then teleport into Akko¡¯s hands. Emotional highs did make magic easier.


    ¡°So cool!¡± she squealed, with stars in her eyes. She¡¯d always wanted to fly! It was why she got on the roof when she was little! A Check revealed: *School-issue broom. Enables flight, having been enchanted to handle extreme acceleration and similar forces, though much like a brick wall it is much weaker on the side. Doesn¡¯t have any precautions against falling either.*


    ¡°Uh, I also wanted to ask you about that display with the statue a few days ago.¡± Ursula asked, a little awkwardly. Strange, her own Check hadn¡¯t had the bits about the wall or falling, and Akko¡¯s dominant trait was Determination, not Justice.


    ¡°I found Shiny Chariot¡¯s rod in the forest, and I¡¯m planning to give it back when I find her. It probably only works when I need it or something. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s hers.¡± Akko stated. ¡°Lotte said I should turn it in, but I¡¯d rather give it to Chariot myself. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll run into her if I just hang onto it.¡± she explained. It was unlikely Ursula would believe her. She¡¯d probably just assume Akko was in denial, and trying to pretend that she¡¯d been convinced that the Rod was a fake would only make her look more suspicious, especially with how bad a liar she was.


    ¡°Uh, well, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll... meet up with her if you hang onto it.¡± Ursula was very clearly uncomfortable with the topic. Some kind of bad experience with a personal hero maybe? Or even Chariot herself? ¡°Fate¡­ or magic, or... something, will bring you together if you-¡±


    Akko cut her off, as she was clearly not enjoying the conversation at all. ¡°Hey, is flying really the best thing ever? Tsunderplane took me up once, but a plane isn¡¯t really the same as a broom. This is how a real Witch flies.¡± she nodded as if she¡¯d given out a piece of great wisdom. ¡°By the way, should I write my name on mine, or am I not allowed to do that?¡± she asked. Nothing distracted people like acting clueless.


    ¡°Uh, no, you¡¯re not allowed.¡± Ursula smiled awkwardly.


    Akko shrugged. ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll go find the others while we wait for flying class to start.¡± she said, before running out the door. She was pretty clearly not helping.


    ¡°...¡± Ursula left, lost in old memories.


    Akko, Sucy, and Lotte were sitting in the main building¡¯s inner courtyard, as class wasn¡¯t starting for another 20 minutes. Akko, ironically, made racecar noises as she pretended to fly on her broom.


    ¡°Akko, don¡¯t you think you should save your energy for the actual lesson?¡± Lotte asked, eyes instinctively following the moving object, like a cat.


    Akko had never actually flown under her own power before, so she was practically vibrating in anticipation. ¡°But aren¡¯t you guys excited? We¡¯re going to fly! People have wanted to do that ever since they saw birds doing it!¡± she said excitedly, stars in her eyes. Which usually meant a severe case of jealousy towards them in early civilizations, when they weren¡¯t worshipped. ¡°I got a bunch of scars when I was little from trying to fly. Tumbling down a hill, falling off the roof, and falling out of a tree, for starters.¡± She gestured to a spot on her left knee, one on her right elbow, and tapped a her right ankle, while counting with her other hand, which was somewhat awkward because she was holding her broom with it. ¡°You can¡¯t really tell because Monster Food fixes normal scars, but I had them!¡± Ones caused by things involving the shattering of space-time were the exception, as conceptual damage was a bit beyond Monster food and Green Magic that wasn¡¯t incredibly potent, such as that which required using multiple human SOULs or equivalent power. RESET generally worked just fine, though she wasn¡¯t sure that would be true if she was the target. Hence Undyne¡¯s missing eye not being fixed until Gramps did her a favor. Core shard shrapnel would do that.


    ¡°You can¡¯t fly reliably unless you have a Sorcerer¡¯s Stone, or you¡¯re on a Leyline, and even that¡¯s more likely to extend the time you can fly on your own than give you long-term flight. Flying eats through magic a lot faster than most people can recharge on their own. It¡¯s technically possible, but a jetpack is a more reliable method of flight unless you have an external source of magic.¡± Sucy explained. Considering the kind of energy flying burned, it made sense that it would be magic-intensive. Levitation was much the same, and was relegated to truly potent mages and/or those with direct links to the Realm of Magic, or at least environments extremely rich in mana.


    Jetpacks for the common man, instead of the genius inventor, were a very recent invention, as Professor Membrane (taking some cues from Jimmy and Dexter¡¯s work) wanted to make Zero-G construction easier, since a Stellar Bellows was finally under construction in the Sol systems of all space-capable Earths now that there was actually some infrastructure (large shipyards designed by collaborative effort of the very best engineers across the multitude of Earths, though they could build system defenses and smaller shipyards in addition to ships, getting a sizeable workforce up there in the first place, having to rotate them, building up to their current gargantuan size by combining many smaller shipyard to progressively larger sizes and having those shipyards build smaller shipyards to combine, rinsing and repeating being what took so long) from Earth¡¯s orbit and inward, as a general rule, to take advantage of the resources of one. Before, it had been put off because less than 1% of the projected resources of one could actually be put to use, but now there were projects in the works to consume them, in addition to the plans for a stupidly massive amount of system defenses.


    The frequency with which one or more Earths were threatened by something potentially world-ending, and/or an alien invasion, meant that Arcologies to potentially hold an entire other planet¡¯s population were a necessity to have any hope of dealing with a flood of refugees like that, as Ogrest¡¯ Chaos had once caused approximately two hundred years ago, and Torus platforms of the defense-focused Safehold design, to serve as stupidly potent defenses for the planet below, were in the process of construction both around Earth and around the functional colonies, with plans in the works for the rest of the Sol system once it was in a colonizable shape, as people were well and truly fed up with alien overlords seeking to take over the planet, and there was always the fear that a zombie virus wouldn¡¯t burn itself out or would break containment before a cure could be found one of these days. They kept getting nastier, what with that semi-intangible type from about 5 years ago.


    ¡°Well, I know that now, but I was 6 then. I figured out I was doing it wrong and tried looking it up on the internet, but all I found was bunch of occult rituals which I was smart enough not to use because of all the stories about horrible things happening to people who used them..¡± Except for that one time, since there weren¡¯t any bad stories about it, and it was more than 20 years old, so she¡¯d figured it was safe. She¡¯d been very, very wrong, but she first met Gramps in the incident¡¯s aftermath, so there was that. Although they had a poor relationship for a while afterward, it got better after the end of the first timeline. ¡°So I decided not to use the Internet any more. Until I was 9 anyway.¡± It was a very traumatic time.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    After the pair stared at her with disturbed expressions for a few seconds, as she proceeded to cheerfully return to pretending to fly while making racecar noises, even if her heart was a little less in it now, Sucy queried ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be making airplane noises?¡± to try and put that particular landmine out of her mind.


    ¡°I have more experience with Papyrus¡¯ car than with planes.¡± she answered. Tsunderplane wasn¡¯t much like real planes either, further distorting her view of them.


    ¡°Papyrus has a car?¡± Lotte asked. Surprisingly, that hadn¡¯t come up during their visit, in favor of the stories of some of her escapades with Milo, Phineas and co, and the KND, or several at a time a few times. She liked to keep in contact with the various heroes of the various Earths. Partially because she felt she owed them, and partially because she simply liked to keep an eye on important people, which she¡¯d picked up from Gramps and¡­ other people, both in general, and especially in the original timeline. She¡¯d even loaned out RESET to a few people who remembered RESETs other than TRUE RESETs, including Medic.


    She was the one who recommended the members of RED for bodyguard duty of the scientists (Spy and Scout with Wakeman, Heavy and Medic with Utonium, and Engineer and Pyro with Membrane, with Demoman, Sniper and Soldier rotating between the groups in varied numbers depending on how active the various threats in the general area of their charges were, though at least one of them was usually with Sumdac, who was targeted less often and had a number of robots less potent than Jenny capable of dealing with most of the things he did encounter) after Mann Co came apart from the strain of constantly fighting Gray Mann¡¯s empire under Saxton¡¯s less-than-strategically-minded leadership over on Quarantine Earth (thanks to her scissors letting her bypass the quarantine). and got themselves doing any job they could get their hands on since the 1970¡¯s. For all their quirks and friendliness off-duty, they were incredibly dangerous on the job, with an Ubercharged Heavy able to hurt some of the smaller kaijuu.


    ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s always been a fan of racecars, so he got a convertible as soon as he could. Since the Monsters lived underground they had a lot of gold compared to the average human. Since it was useless for anything besides high-end electronics, because gold is pretty much the softest metal there is, they made it the money they used. Trees didn¡¯t grow very well down there, so they weren¡¯t willing to use paper money.¡± Funnily enough, the US economy had actually benefited somewhat from the injection of solid assets. Although the world economy as a whole hadn¡¯t really been affected very much.


    A few minutes later, they were over by the school¡¯s track. Where a normal school would use this for running, this one used it to delineate loops for flying laps. It was a bit more complicated than running laps, as you had to keep an eye on three dimensions instead of two, but nothing she couldn¡¯t handle once she got used to it. The equations behind teleportation were much, much worse.


    With the students lined up in front of her, and the bell ringing in the background, Professor Nelson began to speak with a noticeable Boston accent. ¡°Alright, flying class is in session. I¡¯ll be working with the new students to get you lot up to speed on the basics. Everyone else, work on acceleration.¡± she ordered.


    The majority of the class cast the flight spell and rose into the air, almost in unison. It was very impressive to watch. ¡°New students!¡± The professor called. ¡°Ovah here!¡± Akko and Sucy walked over. Apparently Sucy was relatively new to the greater Witch community as well.


    ¡°Flight magic¡¯s a classic, in the last thousand years it¡¯s been simplified to the point even kids can learn it, and it¡¯s one of the most basic spells in a Witch¡¯s skillset, but it¡¯s also one of the most dangerous ones that we teach new students. This is probably the most likely place for you to get hurt on school grounds if you¡¯re not careful.¡± The teacher explained seriously, to nods from the girls. ¡°First, grab hold of your broom. Firmly, but not so tight your hands start achin¡¯, or else your hands are gonna get tired and you could fall.¡± The teacher explained seriously. Akko nodded and placed her broom squarely in front of herself, doing her best not to keep her broom in a deathgrip. Sucy, more calm, was a little slower, but had no such problem with her grip, that was in part due to slightly greater experience with a broom, which wasn¡¯t saying much, though a bar on the ground was still a bar.


    ¡°Next, pay respect to the broom. The magic soaking into these things doesn¡¯t give ¡®em minds like us, but they¡¯ve got opinions on things, and nobody likes being disrespected.¡± she continued. Akko saluted her broom, while Sucy merely gave it a nod. ¡°Now, get on, and say the spell to lift off!¡± she hopped onto her broom and wordlessly lift off. Once you were familiar enough with a spell, you didn¡¯t actually need to say it¡¯s incantation, though it was more taxing.


    The girls copied the teacher. ¡°Tia Freyre.¡± Sucy enunciated clearly, floating upwards without trouble. While her uniform reached to the ground, as Akko¡¯s was much shorter than average to minimize loss of mobility, somehow it was no obstacle to seating herself on the broom.


    Akko¡¯s excitement proved her downfall. ¡°Tia Freyle!¡± she blinked. ¡°Wait a sec-¡± Her broom cannoned to the left, smashing her into a nearby copse of trees. Luckily she broke the impact with her body, so her broom didn¡¯t break.


    5


    She intentionally hid her HP bar as soon as she stopped moving. ¡°I¡¯m okay! I just mispronounced the spell!¡± she called, standing up and brushing off her uniform. She¡¯d be back to full HP in less than 30 seconds anyway, so what did it matter? Technically that wasn¡¯t a backfire, merely a miscast. The distinction was sometimes subtle, but it basically amounted to the magic lashing out at the caster and/or anything near them when a spell backfired, and a miscast was when the spell worked, but not as intended, such as your broom abruptly flying off in a random direction.


    As she walked back over, the other students went back to what they were doing when no obvious signs of injury made themselves known, though the teacher gave her a closer look before clearing her to try again. While it was difficult to see from the field, she¡¯d carved a big chunk of a tree out with her body, and she was concerned because she was fairly certain it hadn¡¯t been leaning like that before. It wouldn¡¯t hit the field even if it fell in a very odd direction relative to it¡¯s missing hunk, but it would provide evidence of her sheer toughness. She kept her real power under wraps to avoid overt scrutiny of her SOUL or life, which could only cause problems.


    Akko paused as a joyous laugh made itself known. She looked up to see a tall orange-and-red-haired girl flying a broom with amazing grace and acrobatic skill. ¡°Amanda! How many times do I gotta tell you no broom acrobatics?!¡± Professor Nelson yelled harshly at the girl¡¯s standing on her broom as it flew.


    Amanda lay back on her broom in a manner reminiscent of Sans on his hammock. ¡°Party pooper.¡± she muttered.


    ¡°I can hear you from there!¡± A mildly annoyed note entered the teacher¡¯s voice.


    As Akko managed to get herself flying with the proper incantation, if jerkily because she was trying very hard to not to smash into anything, she heard a whooshing noise from to the side. It sounded straighter than Amanda¡¯s had, though turning to see Diana¡¯s broom making the Road Runner¡¯s skidding noise while stopping was an odd juxtaposition with her serious expression.


    ¡°8.01 seconds! That¡¯s a new personal best!¡± Barbara remarked happily, looking up from the stopwatch she¡¯d timed the taller girl with. Diana said nothing, merely adjusting her hair, which had fallen into her field of vision from the abrupt stop.


    ¡°She¡¯s going to a favorite in the races for sure.¡± the teacher remarked.


    Akko shrugged and kept trying to get her broom flying at a measured pace, instead of in fits and starts. A few minutes later, Hannah and Barbara pulled up alongside her. ¡°Wow, you¡¯re kind of terrible at this aren¡¯t you?¡± Hanna jabbed as Akko¡¯s broom juddered forward.


    ¡°It¡¯s like you¡¯ve never ridden a broom before.¡± Barbara agreed.


    ¡°Well, I actually haven¡¯t ridden a broom very often, so it¡¯s not really that bad.¡± This being the first time she¡¯d flown a broom, she thought she was doing pretty well.


    ¡°Hm, so¡­¡± A sly grin made itself known on their faces. ¡°You could use training wheels then.¡± Hanah concluded.


    ¡°Wait, how are those even a thing for brooms? Wouldn¡¯t it be training wings or something? I mean I¡¯m in the air so-¡± Akko began to question.


    She was answered by Barbara casting ¡°Oruihon Deance!¡± and a sphere of mana circled Akko¡¯s broom, before making it transform into a toy car, which was pretty obviously intended as mockery, considering Barabara mostly just attached shoddy car parts to the broom to make it look like a trike. Turning her hat into a bike helmet was admittedly a nice touch, though she didn¡¯t appreciate the laughter at her expense.


    Akko gave them a deadpan look, and tapped the broom with her wand. With a cloud of grey smoke similar to the original transformation, it changed back. ¡°Papyrus taught me how to undo effects like this ages ago. It¡¯s basically picking the spell apart with magic. Sort of like a lockpick.¡± Well, you had to be careful, since picking a spell apart was the most likely way of causing it to backlash other than intentionally misfiring a spell, since destabilizing it was a common consequence of ripping hunks of it¡¯s structure out. It was as much forcing certain sections apart to defuse the spell as anything else.


    The difficulty of doing it was a mix of the power and complexity of the original spell. A spell like this, she¡¯d have been able to take apart just fine 4 years ago. Something like the Leylines? She might be able to disrupt a local network if she really wanted to, but she¡¯d probably be bedridden for next three days. Instant helmet spell was potentially useful though. Seriously, that seemed like something they should teach first, though considering how easy it was to pop the construct like a soap bubble, the spell¡¯s utility for creating protective gear was probably limited.


    ¡°You can¡¯t tell us it wasn¡¯t funny.¡± Hannah pointed out.


    ¡°I mean, it was kind of funny, but I don¡¯t think it was that funny.¡± she grouched.


    Several traded barbs and 30 minutes later, she was leaning against the wall in the hallway. ¡°It wasn¡¯t that bad.¡± Lotte tried to comfort her.


    ¡°You only smashed into the treeline three times. Most people would have broken their broom by the second time.¡± Sucy was kind of giving her conflicting signals here. The second time she¡¯d gotten distracted while turning. The third, the teacher yelling at Amanda again had set her off. Sudden loud noises often signaled attacks in her experience. She could normally suppress the reflex, but if she was concentrating especially hard...


    ¡°You know, I was kind of expecting riding a broom to be less temperamental since it¡¯s such a power-hungry spell.¡± Akko groaned. You¡¯d think that something simple, yet draining, would be the easiest type of spell for her to use.


    ¡°They¡¯ve made the spell simpler, but flying¡¯s not simple. Even birds mess up sometimes.¡± Lotte pointed out.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got really good spatial relations though.¡± Akko countered.


    ¡°Really?¡± Sucy asked, pulling out one of their thinner textbooks, which she proceeded to toss in Akko¡¯s general direction. Akko¡¯s hand shot out and caught it in a vice grip, despite the fact that it would have fallen short of her. Getting things tossed at her had almost purely negative connotations to her.


    ¡°Really.¡± She deadpanned, handing Sucy her book back. Sucy was unnerved to see depressions in the cover where the book had been grabbed.


    ¡°Oh, hey, they¡¯re practicing baton passing for the race.¡± Lotte gestured to the field out the window, where Witches were indeed passing batons, in an admittedly desperate attempt to get Akko¡¯s mind off of her poor showing with her broom.


    ¡°Oh yeah, the teacher said something about Diana being a favorite for a race. What¡¯s that about?¡± Akko asked. About 5 minutes later, they stood in front of a trophy case. Trophies and photographs of winning teams from the last 40 years were here, though apparently the older ones were stored in a grand trophy hall... that no one visited because everyone in it was dead a hundred years before they were born and hadn¡¯t made the sort of mark the 9 Olde Witches had. Supposedly they¡¯d made paintings before photographs became a thing, with it being a matter of the winning team¡¯s preference before color photographs had arisen.


    ¡°The Luna Nova Cup Broom Relay. It¡¯s a traditional race where teams of three people, usually roommates, compete to reach the finish line. You have to pass your baton to the next person and have them complete their leg of the race or else it doesn¡¯t count.¡± Lotte explained.


    ¡°Well I guess I can¡¯t do that. I¡¯m a terrible flier and I¡¯m pretty sure you guys aren¡¯t both interested.¡± Akko sighed. Maybe next year?


    ¡°I¡¯ll pass.¡± Sucy agreed, then groaned as she saw Akko stiffen. ¡°I¡¯ve known you for less than 2 weeks, and I can already tell what your body language means.¡± she sighed. She¡¯d changed her mind, and she was about to start yelling about why.


    ¡°Shiny Chariot won this race!¡± Akko pressed her face up against the glass. ¡°Look, there¡¯s her photo!¡± she pointed. Sure enough, there was a photo of an exuberant red-haired girl about Akko¡¯s age with red eyes of almost the exact same shade. Her teammates looked a bit perturbed by her excitement. ¡°That settles it, I¡¯m going to race too! I¡¯ll get my photo put right next to hers!¡± Hero worship was unhealthy, but so was cake!


    ¡°But you still can¡¯t ride a broom.¡± Lotte poked a hole in her plan.


    ¡°Plus the teacher said she didn¡¯t want you practicing when she wasn¡¯t around after you crashed so many times. You¡¯ll never be able to practice enough to go from ¡®barely fly in a straight line¡¯ to racing material in the next few days.¡± Sucy helped Lotte.


    ¡°Hm, I¡¯ll think of something.¡± Akko responded. While using RESET for something this trivial was a no-go, both because of what she¡¯d inflict on those aware of the RESETs and the dangers associated with using any sort of ridiculously broken power for frivolous reasons, she was good at improvising.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got to pick up my broom from the Magic Item Cafe, so I¡¯ll see you guys later.¡± Lotte stretched, briefly closing her eyes, before opening them to find Akko¡¯s face inches from her own.


    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± It sounded cool! Also potentially useful.


    ¡°You wanna come?¡± Lotte asked, leaning back. Akko nodded enthusiastically.


    A half hour later, they were walking through town, wearing cloaks to mark them as students. They¡¯d had to walk after they left the Leyline Terminal. ¡°A broom would have gotten us here faster, but I guess we¡¯re too far from the Sorcerer¡¯s Stone huh?¡± Akko asked.


    ¡°Plus students aren¡¯t supposed to use magic off school grounds. Partly because our wands only hold so much charge and take a really long time to recharge away from the stone, and partly because it¡¯s more dangerous to try and force magic out when you don¡¯t have much left. Also, the teachers just don¡¯t want us using magic unsupervised.¡± Lotte explained. Made sense, that was how you got bad necromancers and people who summoned¡­ various things.


    ¡°So, what¡¯s this Magic Item Cafe thing about?¡± Akko asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s a shop that sells magic items, and you can have drinks at a little bar off on the end of the counter too. It¡¯s always been like that supposedly, the cafe part was more of a side business for when the students were off for their breaks.¡± she explained. Pubs that doubled as other things were fairly common in Europe, from what some acquaintances of hers over here had said. Black markets, secret passages, and the occasional hidden hospital and/or museum were all things she¡¯d encountered personally.


    They stop in front of a gothic-colored but normally-designed building with Last Wednesday Society in an arch above the door. Akko blanches in disappointment as she sees a bunch of junk in the window. It looked neat, but from what she knew about the occult, she doubted any of it would have much significance beyond being a stuffed lizard, for example.


    They walked inside, to a man tending the counter with a slightly glazed look, common to people with little better to do but wait. It left as he turned to greet them. ¡°Oh, customers.¡± he sounded slightly surprised, which boded poorly for the business. ¡°Welcome!¡± he said, surprisingly not forcing the cheer.


    ¡°Hi, I¡¯m here to pick up my broom if it¡¯s ready.¡± Lotte stated, pulling out a card and giving it to the shopkeeper, or teller. It was difficult to tell, and Checking was often a prelude to a FIGHT, so it was considered rude to do so without permission, which nixed that option.


    The man scanned the card for a few seconds, before nodding. ¡°Yeah, it should be. Give me a second.¡± he turned around and began rummaging in a side room.


    ¡°So, this is the cafe?¡± Akko deadpanned, pointing to a small bar area and a single table. Lott had said it was a side business, but she hadn¡¯t quite expected it to be this extreme.


    ¡°The tea¡¯s really good.¡± Lotte defended, smiling a bit at the place¡¯s expense.


    Akko moved over to a rack of potions. ¡°Juice that turns you into a frog leg, and this one makes you into a chameleon tongue¡­¡± she moved her gaze between a pair of the potions, making a face. ¡°Why would someone make these? If they wear off, it¡¯s a really mean-spirited prank. If they don¡¯t I¡¯m pretty sure that would constitute magical assault. I don¡¯t want to know why someone would use it on themselves.¡± she muttered. Ever since the incident on the island at summer camp, back when Rodney tried to freeze the world, she¡¯d gone from zero interest in knowing about people¡¯s weird fetishes, to negative interest.


    She turned as she heard a strange rattling from a nearby cupboard. She found a red broom with a spearhead the size of her own head at the top chained up in a cage-like cupboard. ¡°What¡¯s with the broom?¡± she asked. She actually remembered it from her first run, but she¡¯d never actually found out what it was rather than what it could do.


    ¡°It looks like a racing broom. Familiar too.¡± Lotte tilted her head, which was a tic Akko had learned meant she was trying to remember something, not get a better angle. She turned to a newspaper clipping, and gasped. While Akko couldn¡¯t read the fine print, the headline stood out just fine. MYSTERIOUS FLIGHT BROOM DISCOVERED, LEGEND OF THE SHOOTING STAR, the headline of the paper and the first column almost blared, with a broom advertisement for 38 presumably British (as the photo lacked color it was safe to say the EU was after it¡¯s time) pounds in the bottom right corner.


    ¡°That¡¯s the legendary racing broom, Shooting Star!¡± she exclaimed. At Akko¡¯s questioning look, she explained. ¡°There¡¯s supposed to have been a Witch who crossed the Pacific on a broom that supplied it¡¯s own magic to fly with a long time ago. Not only did it not need the Sorcerer¡¯s Stone, but it was so fast that it looked like a shooting star. According to rumor at least.¡±


    ¡°Wow. That¡¯s really cool, but it seems not to like being locked up. Professor Nelson said that the magic soaking into the brooms made them develop opinions on things. Do you think this broom can think after flying around with that much magic?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Basically.¡± The teller said, walking over with Lotte¡¯s broom, which he handed off as he continued. ¡°Of course, this thing keeps going even if you fall off, so it¡¯s way too dangerous for anybody to ride. That¡¯s why it¡¯s locked up and chained up on top of that. The boss wouldn¡¯t be happy if it got out, but nobody¡¯s been dumb enough to try and ride a broom this rowdy.¡±


    Akko opened her mouth, and he waved her off. ¡°Sorry kid, you can¡¯t borrow it. This thing¡¯s gonna take off the second it gets free, and it ain¡¯t comin¡¯ back. Not that you couldn¡¯t handle it but¡­ actually yeah. I don¡¯t know you, so that¡¯s exactly the problem.¡± he pointed out.


    ¡°But I can¡¯t ride a broom properly, and there¡¯s no way I can learn in time for the race.¡± Akko attempted to counter, though she realized he wasn¡¯t going for it before she even finished.


    ¡°Guess Diana¡¯s gonna win this year then, but hey, there¡¯s always next year.¡± he shrugged.


    Meanwhile, Amanda leaned up against a nearby wall, hidden from their view by virtue of being around the corner. ¡°The legendary broom huh¡­¡± she grinned in anticipation. Akko glanced over, but by the time she¡¯d walked over to Check, Amanda was long gone to get some supplies for her heist.


    ¡°Something the matter?¡± the teller asked.


    ¡°I was sure I heard somebody.¡± Akko said, before turning to Lotte. ¡°Want to go find a spot to do the thing?¡±


    ¡°Thing?¡± Lotte asked, before comprehension forced confusion aside. ¡°Won¡¯t Sucy want to see?¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not convinced she¡¯s all that interested, and anyway, you want to see it more right? By the time we get to school, find Sucy, and get back, it¡¯ll be dark out.¡± Akko reasoned. Lotte hesitated for a moment, then nodded.


    Before they went back to school, Akko found an isolated, but nature-filled spot not far from town. ¡°Uh, do I look okay?¡± Lotte asked nervously.


    ¡°Lotte, Earth-chan was around for the caveman, you¡¯d have to go pretty far out of your way to look good or bad enough for her to care.¡± Akko pointed out.


    ¡°Uh, yeah I guess that makes sense.¡± Lotte agreed, fiddling with her hands from nerves.


    ¡°Are you sure you want to? We could always do this next time we¡¯re in town.¡± Akko faltered at Lotte¡¯s second thoughts.


    ¡°No¡­ no, just¡­ give me a minute.¡± Lotte took a deep breath to calm down, and then nodded.


    ¡°Okay, time to meet Earth-chan.¡± she pulled out her phone, and pressed the planet icon. She¡¯d probably need a different phone with a general world-spirit call whenever the colonies made world-spirits emerge on the other celestial bodies humanity had a presence on, but for now this worked for whichever Earth she was on.


    A mound of dirt rose up, and, upon reaching roughly the same height as Lotte, shook off the outer layer, revealing what appeared to be a girl about their age, with a white shirt, brown shorts, and short hair. Two things slammed home the fact that she wasn¡¯t human. First, her hair was actually a globe of sorts, the blue sections actually flowing like water. Second, there was a heaviness to her presence, like a pillar of rock that could come crashing down, or the distinct sense that you were in avalanche country. ¡°HELLO.¡± she cleared her throat. ¡°Hey Akko. What¡¯s up?¡± she asked, no care whatsoever for the borderline reverent look on Lotte¡¯s face giving way to shock.


    ¡°I wanted you to meet my friend Lotte. She¡¯s a spirit-talker, and she wanted to meet you really badly.¡± Akko explained.


    ¡°Hey there. Sorry, not what you expected right?¡± At Lotte¡¯s stuttered denials, she smiled. ¡°Yeah, letting myself go full ¡®Will of the Earth¡¯ mode tends to get worship or bleeding orifices, usually both.¡± She gave a sidelong glance into the distance, probably Gramps general direction. The two were close, mostly because they were both effectively immortal. ¡°So I do my level best to suppress that and your perception of me is affected by that, so it seems like I¡¯m talking more like a normal person to you, even though what your ears are getting is a mix of me mimicking human vocal chords with very fine geokinesis and a constant stream of memes and ideas that your brain is doing it¡¯s best to translate into something coherent. Push it too hard and¡­ bad things happen.¡±


    After that explanation, she and Lotte began to talk, Earth-chan¡¯s casual demeanor swiftly breaking the ice, and once Lotte got over her nerves they quickly fell into a conversation about the specifics of spirit manifestation. Any and all of the spirits Lotte had encountered up to that point were tiny fragments of Earth-chan herself, which meant that she was technically calling on avatars of a greater entity, sort of like how divine spellcasting worked in most stories. Akko suspected being on terms with Earth-chan of even a recent acquaintance would give her a massive power-up, at least while on Earth.


    Much like a human did the regulation of their breathing and similar processes, Earth-chan handled most of these requests subconsciously. This meant that a malevolent spirit-caller was less likely to be able to call up a greater spirit, because anything major was kicked up to the conscious mind, and generally received a resounding no. Lotte, on the other hand, would likely receive some favoritism because of her good first impression.


    RESET interacted with Earth-chan oddly, sometimes she remembered, sometimes she didn¡¯t. While technically the second-most Determined being in the universe, since she had roughly 1.35 billion times the average human¡¯s Determination, it was so spread out across thousands and thousands of cubic miles that she barely ever managed to muster enough to do much of anything to the space-time continuum with it actively unless faced with an existential threat, which was the sort of situation DT was at its strongest in. She could Refuse destructive attacks that would utterly annihilate even her counterpart Earths, and provide major power boosts, but she was not a valid candidate for RESET, as she was not a quite alive in the sense that even Flowey was. Technically speaking, Earth-chan was an inanimate object with a collective consciousness, just on a larger scale than usual. It was more complicated than that, and more metaphysical, but that was the gist.


    It boiled down to the fact that Earth-chan was like if the blood spilled from every wound ever inflicted upon humankind became part of a hive mind and gained sentience. This pseudo-existence left her drowsy until relatively recently, about the time of the Industrial Revolution, when the human population, and the number of deaths, skyrocketed. With the massive increase in DT all at once, she was able to fully rouse herself. It was for this reason that the World of Twelve¡¯s planet, as well as the relatively inaccessible Earths, were very sleepy by the standards of the others, as the other world-spirits of the Sol System likely would be.


    Akko was self-aware enough to admit that making Lotte stronger for her sake was superseded by simply not wanting to have to LOAD a friend¡¯s death away again. She carefully schooled her features as this thought made itself known while Lotte actually giggled at something Earth-chan said. She was pretty sure that glance Earth-chan had sent her was knowing too, but Lotte didn¡¯t need to know. People always got nervous when they found out Akko was a doom magnet, and she was sick of being treated like a bomb about to go off. Not to mention that was a can of worms she definitely didn¡¯t want to open.


    *** Approximately Half An Hour Later ***


    Later, when they made it back to school, Akko grumbled to herself as she made her way back to the dorm. ¡°Okay, so I¡¯m not getting a self-flying broom, because stealing stuff like that never ends well, and I can¡¯t borrow it. Which means I¡¯ve gotta learn to ride a broom by the race, which is in the next couple days.¡± She barely kept herself from shouting, before sighing. ¡°But how?¡±


    ¡°I might be able to help.¡± Akko jumped as Professor Ursula showed up behind her. ¡°I¡¯ve talked to Professor Nelson, and I can vouch for your safety so you can practice with your broom, but I¡¯ll need to know your Stats in detail. HP in particular.¡± she explained.


    Akko thought it over for a moment. On one hand, she¡¯d prefer as few people as possible knew how nutty her Stats were, since it raised a lot of questions she had trouble answering the follow-ups to. On the other hand, her abilities being known to at least one member of the faculty would simplify things a great deal whenever some kind of crisis popped up. Everybody knew some kind of world-ending event would happen sooner or later, as the Toruses were of little help against home-grown menaces, for all that even 4 of the Eden types would make the average alien fleet dash itself against the rocks. ¡®The problem with hiding how strong you are is that your own allies also underestimate you.¡¯ as Gramps put it. ¡°Just, uh, keep it to yourself okay?¡± she asked, the world turning monochrome as a Fight was initiated. A familiar box and 4 buttons appeared. Since Akkko was the stronger SOUL, she went first, but Mercy let her skip her Turn. Ursula used Check, and gasped.


    *Atsuko Kagari.


    999/999 HP.


    25 ATK. 134 DEF. High SPD.


    Easily placated, but dangerous when provoked. Difficult to provoke, luckily.*


    ¡°Uh, yeah, I don¡¯t want to go into all the whys or the nitty-gritty right now, but I¡¯ve been training really hard to get strong magic ever since the Monsters got free, partly because it was really weak at first, and with tutors like I had, I got strong fast. I kinda overfocused on combat training though, and I guess I¡¯m paying for it now.¡± Akko gave a bare-bones explanation to appease the teacher¡¯s obvious and understandable curiosity, though she looked guilty for some reason. What was going on with her?


    ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ tell them you¡¯re over 100. They¡¯ll let you ride with that. Everybody¡¯s got secrets.¡± Ursula nodded slowly.


    Akko blinked, she¡¯d expected that to be harder but- Yeah, she owed the teacher the benefit of the doubt at this point. Like she said, everybody had secrets. As long as it didn¡¯t put people in danger, it wasn¡¯t her business. ¡°Thanks.¡± she sagged slightly in relief as the FIGHT ended, neither of them actually interested in fighting.


    There was a short awkward silence where both parties could tell the other wanted to ask about the other, but didn¡¯t want to dig into secrets they¡¯d indicated having themselves, before the Professor reached into her bag. ¡°Oh, uh, here. This is for beginning fliers. I think you should read it while I go get you permission to practice.¡± Ursula pulled out what was clearly a children¡¯s book. MY FIRST BROOM RIDE in big, colorful, balloon-like letters (and a picture of a little kid on a broom with a rainbow behind them) took up nearly the whole cover. A spiked bubble on the bottom corner, the only large spot unoccupied by the title itself, proclaimed that it was fun and easy. Well, one of those was true. ¡°It might look childish, but since you don¡¯t have much experience, I think it¡¯s best if you start from the basics and-¡±


    ¡°Gonna study hard! Thanks!¡± Akko yelled as she sped down the hallway to retrieve her broom.


    *Akko fled.* The narration helpfully informed Ursula. ¡°Um, okay then. I¡¯ll see you around?¡± she asked no one, a bit bewildered by the sudden exit.


    A few minutes later, Akko was sitting on a bench outside, with her broom leaning against her, and the book on her lap. ¡°Okay, the book sa-¡± ¡°Hello Akko.¡± Asgore said from the other bench, sipping some tea. He¡¯d become something of a connoisseur of the different blends, since tea was kind of hard to come by underground. Flowey¡¯s pot was nearby, and presumably he¡¯d swiftly burrowed into the ground so Sans, and by extension Akko, would be technically telling the truth about not snooping around if anyone asked. Akko trusted him to be careful and not to kill anyone, and hey, his snooping might find something she¡¯d have to deal with, like that thing from Sleepy Peak. Hopefully she wouldn¡¯t need to call in Gramps this time though.


    ¡°Oh, hi Asgore.¡± Akko paused her reading and parsed what she¡¯d just said. ¡°Wait, when did you get here? I didn¡¯t see Sans or hear him teleport.¡±


    ¡°A few minutes ago. Sans had a hunch you¡¯d be running around a great deal today.¡± Or rather, Gaster was keeping an eye on her because she¡¯d voluntarily stuck his old pocketwatch in her Inventory so he could do just that as a peace offering and he¡¯d told Sans. Not that Asgore knew about that. ¡°What have you got there?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been having trouble flying, so the Astronomy teacher gave me a book on the basics. It says that brooms love to be cleaned with, and that you need to show them who''s the boss, kind of like a dog-dog.¡± When the Canine Unit was a thing, that distinction was important.


    ¡°Yes, I remember being quite surprised when the human mages hopped onto wooden sticks in order to fly, since they didn¡¯t feel comfortable having the magic coming straight out of them like one of the rockets they have these days. Not as fast, but a lot safer.¡± Asgore noted. He¡¯d had little to do once the governmental reforms went through, which didn¡¯t take long since he was the king, and Alphys took care of most of the technological side of things. Not on a regular basis at least, so he¡¯d had a look at the mechanics of various magics the citizens used and worked on education reform thereof. ¡°Of course, these days they have to use the brooms, so I suppose it¡¯s something of a moot point.¡± he admitted.


    Akko nodded and skimmed the book¡¯s first few pages one more time. ¡°Alright then, I guess I¡¯ll start with sweeping, and move down the list.¡± She started sweeping the ground near the bench. ¡°What a good broom you are.¡± she cooed at it in a sickly sweet tone. ¡°Hm, Professor Ursula said she¡¯d talk to the teachers about my riding a broom without supervision, but she probably hasn¡¯t done it yet.¡± Akko muttered, still sweeping. ¡°So I probably shouldn¡¯t try to fly just yet.¡± she admitted.


    ¡°If you¡¯re asking my advice, then don¡¯t do anything rash. It almost never ends well.¡± Asgore offered.


    ¡°...Hey Akko, who¡¯s this?¡± Sucy asked, as Lotte was still on Cloud 9 from speaking with the personification of Earth, and wasn¡¯t really paying attention.


    Akko grinned and made a makeshift trumpet with her hands. ¡°Asgore, the king of the Monsters.¡± Akko proclaimed, making a classic fake trumpet noise.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve lost a lot of authority as far as other nations are concerned, after the¡­ methods used to break the Barrier, so Akko here¡¯s ended up picking up the slack.¡± Asgore admitted. He definitely hadn¡¯t gotten over it, but he didn¡¯t flinch whenever the subject came up any more. Progress. The tone of his voice snapped Lotte out of it.


    ¡°Having a 10-year-old be a foreign ambassador seems weird though.¡± Sucy pointed out.


    ¡°Well, Akko¡¯s pretty capable when she gets passionate about something, and I don¡¯t begrudge the reasoning behind their problems with Monsterkind¡¯s foreign policy being dictated by myself.¡± Asgore answered. ¡°It would be extremely hypocritical of me if I did.¡± he added.


    Toriel wasn¡¯t really eligible either, as while the Monsters had more or less ignored her returning since she hadn¡¯t tried to reclaim power, admitting that she didn¡¯t really deserve the position after leaving it for so long, neither she nor Asgore, nor Akko, were sure they¡¯d be so understanding if she tried to reclaim a her former position. The human nations, particularly America, had experience with unusual ambassadors, in part due to the frequency of crises, so while Akko taking the position was certainly balked at, there weren¡¯t any candidates more viable, as Papyrus was most definitely not suited for politics, even more so than Akko had been before getting a lot of experience. Undyne was too easily baited, Alphys too lacking in confidence, Sans was too difficult to take seriously when he wasn¡¯t being threatening, and the Annoying Dog was impossible to take seriously at the best of times. Akko had endured more than a few accusations of race betrayal, which she¡¯d admit was not entirely inaccurate, as she had a higher opinion of Monsterkind than humanity, but she didn¡¯t see why it particularly mattered. After all, more than a few of the officials she¡¯d dealt with weren¡¯t too fond of Monsters (non-humans in general really) either, as she¡¯d noted just before abandoning a run gone bad several times.


    ¡°Okay, Professor Ursula is getting me permission to ride my broom without supervision, so I can drink coffee and practice all night in preparation, but I need you guys on my team or I can¡¯t compete.¡± Akko pleaded.


    ¡°You know I don¡¯t really care about this sort of thing right?¡± Sucy deadpanned.


    ¡°I thought you¡¯d say that, so I looked at the race¡¯s details, and the winner gets a prize from Professor Lukic.¡± Akko pulled out an application form. It wasn¡¯t filled out yet, but it laid out the general rules of the race, including the prize.


    A thoughtful look passed over Asgore¡¯s face. ¡°Lukic¡­ Oh!¡± He had an epiphany. ¡°She¡¯s the Potions teacher yes?¡±


    ¡°Magic Pharmaceuticals, so her prize is probably something good.¡± A slightly creepy grin made itself known as Sucy corrected him. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m in.¡±


    Akko cheered and turned a hopeful gaze to Lotte. ¡°Well, I guess I can join too.¡± Lotte added with some hesitancy, to cheering and a hug from Akko. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll practice all night so we can practice some baton passes tomorrow and-¡±


    Sucy interrupted her, after examining the registration sheet. ¡°Actually, I have a potion that should help with that. I don¡¯t think you can learn to fly properly in one day, but the rules don¡¯t say you need to fly. I¡¯ll need a little while to brew enough to practice with and for the race though, so we¡¯ll practice passing batons tomorrow.¡± she tossed Akko a pen and the sheet, muttering ingredients to herself as she walked off. Akko smiled as she filled out the form. This could work! She still felt like she was forgetting something though.


    *** Meanwhile ***


    A strange group stared at a tower, faced with a dragon and a hooded figure.


    *** Akko POV ***


    Eh, it was probably nothing important.