Chapter Text
Atsuko Kagari played with the pudding in her cup with her spoon, watching the delicious sugary treat slide off of the utensil.
The afternoon sun shone through the cafeteria’s windows, warming the girl’s back. The place was relatively empty, with most of Luna Nova’s students out and about, taking advantage of the good weather to bask in the warmth of the sun. Akko’s comrades, Sucy and Lotte, were attending their own tasks. Sucy was using her time wisely back at the campus’s greenhouse to tend to her rare mushrooms, some of which were ready to sprout. Lotte, in the meantime, had elected to be tutored by Diana at the cabbage-haired aristocrat’s dormitory.
That left Akko alone for the afternoon. Classes that day had been taxing for the savior of magic, and a trip to the cafeteria for a sugary pick-her-up was just what she needed. She scooped a spoonful of creamy pudding out of the cup and stuck the spoon in her mouth.
Normally, Akko was quite an energetic girl. Over the course of the first year, the witch that everybody had written off as a hopeless fool ended up proving them wrong. Fuelled by the words of her idol, the performer Chariot du Nord (formerly Professor Ursula Callistis), she refused to give up even when things seemed bleak. She had released the Papilliodya, ridden the Shooting Star, saved Vajarois, brought Diana back to Luna Nova, and most important of all, restored magic across the world.
Not bad for a commoner who had yet to fly a broom.
In the months following the departure of the Shiny Rod to the stars, Akko and the gang became respected witches, Akko eventually learned how to fly a broom, and the red, green, and blue teams helped form seven-ninths of the New Nine.
Akko swallowed her mouthful of pudding and sighed. Her lack of energy today didn’t stem from the classes. The learning material were manageable, even if Akko was now in her second year of learning. Her mind was pre-occupied with something more personal.
She thought back to her first year at Luna Nova. It felt like a distant memory Diana’s two roommates, Hannah and Barbara, would tease her ineptitude at every opportunity. They mocked her for not being part of a witch family. They mocked her for being unable to fly a broom. They mocked her for failing to cast spells properly.
Now, the two bullies were good friends with Akko. They spent time with her, helped her study for exams, even occasionally took her out to town for treats.
Akko wouldn’t have had it any other way, and yet…
“Akko!”
Speak of the devils and they shall appear.
The girl looked up from her pudding cup to see Hannah and Barbara approaching her.
“Oh, hey guys,” Akko called out half-heartedly.
Hannah and Barbara noticed Akko’s tone and shared a concerned look towards each other. They moved towards Akko’s table and circled to the girl’s sides.
“Are you okay?” Barbara asked, placing a hand on Akko’s shoulder. “Lotte mentioned that you were feeling down today.”
Akko cursed herself silently. She couldn’t blame Lotte for looking out for her (because that’s definitely not Sucy’s job). The two blue team Brits took their seats next to Akko.
“I’m feeling okay. Thanks,” Akko replied, nudging the pudding with her spoon. That was a lie, of course. She definitely wasn’t okay.
“Come on, Akko. You can tell us,” Hannah encouraged her, placing her own hand on Akko’s shoulder.
She wished she could tell them, but Akko really couldn’t. Especially to Hannah and Barbara.
“It- it’s fine, really, but thanks for looking out for me,” Akko hastily replied, getting up from the table and quickly scooping the rest of the pudding into her mouth. “I gomma go stumy, bye.”
Hannah and Barbara looked on with confusion as Akko fast-walked away from the two, tossing her empty pudding cup into a nearby trash can and disappearing into the hallway.
“She’s walking away from the library,” Hannah noted.
“Maybe she’s studying in her dorm?” Barbara asked.
“That’s in the same direction as the library.”
Barbara hummed. “Something’s gotta be eating her,” she wondered aloud.
Akko leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. She exhaled through her nose, groaned, and slammed her fist down. “Whyyyyyy?” she moaned.
She tried not to think about Hannah and Barbara, but the moment those two girls crossed her mind, the memories of their bullying took over. Their mocking laughter, their barbed insults, the humiliation of when they put training wheels on her broom, the haughty tones in their voices...
...she craved for more.
The brown-haired witch shakily sighed, gulped thickly, then sighed again. She needed Hannah and Barbara to make fun of her again. To humiliate her. To dominate her. To rule over her like masters. She missed being abused.
It had been four months since Akko’s masochist awakening. She could still remember the very first dream that she had.
Her wrists and ankles were hexed by Barbara’s spell.
“You pathetic, lame, first-generation loser!” the raven-haired girl laughed. “You don’t deserve to be here! You’re a stain on Luna Nova!”
Akko tried to wriggle out of the magical bonds, but either she was too weak, or the bonds were too strong. Behind her, Hannah taunted Akko with a wooden paddle. She ran the smooth wooden surface along her thighs and rear.
“If you want to act like a child, maybe you deserve to be punished like one,” Hannah added slyly, drawing the paddle back.
Akko swallowed and closed her eyes. Hannah swung the paddle with full force and clapped Akko’s behind, making her shout and writhe in agony.
“Gonna cry?!” Barbara mocked.
The Japanese witch panted. “N-no! You won’t...a believing heart...is my magic...” she whined.
“Oh, of course. Your stupid idol, Chariot, right? She’s a blight on magic!” Hannah laughed, readying her paddle for a second spanking.
Akko cringed and braced herself for another painful smack. She heard the wind rushing from the swing of the paddle and...
She’d woken up with a jump, covered in sweat and gasping for air.
Ever since that night, Akko had been plagued by masochist fantasies, and each one involved Hannah and Barbara as her masters. For a while, it was just the spanking that she dreamed about. As the weeks went by, Akko craved for something new. Whenever she was alone in the dorm, she borrowed Lotte’s crystal ball and looked for new fetishes (and made sure to delete any trace of her searches). From then on, she had new dreams with Hannah and Barbara. Leashes. Whipping. Feet.
If she told Hannah and Barbara, she would be putting their friendship in jeopardy, but at the same time, she knew that letting it stew inside her was a bad idea.
“What do I do...” she mumbled to herself. She turned around and slid down the wall, holding her head in her hands and sighing.
As she closed her eyes, she saw more images of the duo. Hannah and Barbara were the pinnacle of beauty. Akko felt the corners of her mouth upturn into a blissful smile. She thought about Barbara first. Her beautiful dark hair cascaded down her back. The way it caught the sunlight whenever Akko saw her outside...God, it was simply magical. She wanted to take a few strands of her hair and kiss them. She wanted Barbara to feed her cake, read her Nightfall in her silky voice, then force her to do submissive roleplay while dressed as one of the characters. She wanted Barbara to give her a lap dance with that amazing ass. That enormous, jiggling ass...
And then there was Hannah. She was the meaner of the pair, no contest, but that didn’t matter to her when she yearned for it. The way she stared at her with those dark, menacing eyes, oh man, that withering gaze could’ve made her face burn. And that ponytail! The way it twirled at the end like a corkscrew, how it was tied by that cute yellow ribbon. All the things Hannah could do to her with that ribbon. She could choke her with it, bind her wrists or ankles together, tie it around her face and silence her...
Then they could double-team her. They could take turns smacking her. Hannah could tie her ribbon around her wrists while Barbara tortured her by tickling her armpits...
“GAHHH!” Akko huffed. “Why was I cursed with this!?”
If the dreams weren’t tormenting as they were, the daydreams really made her suffer. Akko tried so hard to keep her attention focused on her professors while simultaneously trying to force Hannah and Barbara out of her mind. Sadly, no matter how hard she tried, she could never get through a class without daydreaming about those two.
Her grades were slipping. She remembered studying hard for an exam, but twenty minutes into the exam itself, Akko caught a glimpse of Barbara’s hair, which triggered one of her fantasies (Barbara forcing her onto all fours and sitting on her back). By the time she could control her thoughts, she’d forgotten nearly all of what she’d studied and ended up having to retake the exam.
And thus, Akko was in a quandary.
Option 1: Take her secret to her grave, but risk her academic career (and potentially get expelled)
Option 2: Come clean to Hannah and Barbara, but risk her friendship (and potentially have her secret be exposed)
Akko weighed up both options. Neither one of them were appealing as the cons far outweighed the pros, and that was assuming there were any pros to consider. Perhaps she could overcome her feelings. Perhaps Hannah and Barbara would understand.
She swallowed and fished around in her skirt pocket, pulling out a coin.
“Someone said...if you flip a coin, it’ll tell you what you truly want to do,” Akko thought. “Something like, whatever the outcome of the coin flip, I’ll know what I really want.”
Akko assigned heads to the first option, and tails to the second option. She balanced the coin on her thumb and finger, closed her eyes, and flicked the coin up into the air. She opened her eyes and watched the coin glinting as it caught the sunlight entering through the window. Opening her palm, Akko caught the coin and slapped it on the back of her palm.
She took a steady breath and moved her hand away.
Heads.
The universe had decided that she should keep her secret.
Akko disagreed.
Akko tentatively raised her hand and knocked on the blue team’s door three times. “Okay, no going back,” she told herself quietly. “You can do it.”
She nervously mish-mashed her hands together and looked down at her shoes. She knew that Diana was busy doing favors for the professors, so it was likely that Hannah and Barbara would be alone.
The door clicked and swung open. “Oh, Akko!” came the voice of Barbara, genuinely happy to see the girl who had departed so suddenly, seemingly ready to talk to her. “Please, come in!” she encouraged, turning her head to call out to Hannah. “Han, it’s Akko!”
Barbara ushered Akko into their room, patting her shoulder as she did so. “Th-thanks, Barbara,” she acknowledged quietly, shuffling inside and glancing at Barbara briefly. “Oh, the Nine, she’s so cute,” Akko thought, quickly averting her gaze.
She heard the door close behind her just as Han popped out from behind the study desk. “Would you like some tea?” she offered. Akko nodded in response. “Wonderful. Three sugars, right?” Akko nodded again.
The raven-haired girl kept her hand on Akko’s shoulder. “Hey, do you need anything else?” she asked kindly, trying to get Akko to look at her. “Anything to make you comfortable?”
“U-um...can I sit on your bed?” Akko asked. Barbara smiled and gave her an affirming nod.
The two girls walked around the study desk, where Hannah was finishing adding sugar cubes to Akko’s tea. She gave Akko the teacup and saucer, which she accepted politely with a quiet “thank you, Hannah.”
Akko composed herself and sat on Barbara’s bed, while Hannah and Barbara sat across from her on Hannah’s bed. She sipped some of the tea. “Great tea, Hannah. Thank you,” Akko complimented with a warm smile.
“So, well, you already know, but,” Barbara explained, “Lotte was talking about you earlier. She said you were looking lethargic.”
Akko nodded. “Yeah. I’m happy she looks out for me,” she sighed.
“We kinda figured that you would talk to us eventually,” Hannah added.
“Really?”
“You went the wrong way of where the library is. And your dorm.”
The Japanese witch groaned. “Damn it,” she sighed, even managing a little chuckle out of herself. “Good old airheaded me.”
Barbara tittered quietly. “Anyway, serious talk,” she said, changing the subject back. “Tell us what’s bothering you. I’m sure we can help you through it.”
Akko felt the brief moment of happiness vanish. She quickly sipped another mouthful of her tea and steeled her nerves. “O-okay, first of all...I need you to know that,” Akko said, a tremble apparent in her accent, “th-this is something that’s really...oh God, this is hard.”
Hannah instinctively reached out to her, but Akko raised her hand to stop her. “I-it’s okay, I-I think I can do it,” she said. She inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Alright, I think I can now...I just want you to know, guys, that I understand if you see me differently.”
The British pair perked up.
“O-oh,” was all that Hannah said.
Akko breathed again and clenched her skirt. “Okay, here...here goes nothing...” she said, the tremble in her voice now more prominent than before. “B-Barb...Hannah...I-I’ve been having these...indecent thoughts.”
The mention of indecency immediately grabbed both girl’s attentions. Somehow, even though nothing else had been said, they seemed to know exactly where it was going.
“Th-these thoughts, they’ve been...every day for a few months, I think, now. I-it’s hard to focus on classes. And yet,” Akko continued, feeling the weight in her chest growing, “...and yet I can’t banish them, like...like I just need them, like I need them to be real.”
There’s a tense period where neither girl spoke for ten seconds, before Hannah finally broke the silence.
“And these thoughts, these indecent thoughts you’re having,” she pressed, “what are they about?”
Akko gulped and shut her eyes tightly. “They’re about...you two,” she admitted painfully. She opened her eyes and gazed down at her skirt in shame, completely unable to look at her friends.
“Ooooh...”
She could hear Barbara reacting to her admission. “Sh-shit, that’s not good,” her mind screamed. “You’ve messed up now, you dunderhead.”
Akko grabbed at her hair and clenched handfuls of her locks tightly. “Oh, by the Nine, why did I admit it?” she cried shamefully. “This was a bad idea! I-I’m sorry, guys, I’ll...”
“No, no, no! Wait!” Hannah interrupted, standing up and holding Akko down by placing a hand on her shoulder. “Breathe. Breathe.” Akko obeyed her and gulped mouthfuls of air. With every exhale, she felt the load on her chest lessening.
The secret was finally out, and it seemed to go...well, judging by Hannah’s reaction, maybe not so bad.
“Feeling better?” Hannah asked.
Akko nodded, but still couldn’t bring herself to look directly at the redhead. “A-a little bit better,” she admitted quietly.
Barbara piped up from the background. “Akko, m-maybe you got the wrong idea,” she said in a comforting tone. “Look, if you think we’re upset at you...well, I’m not. You’re not upset, right Han?”
“No, no, you got it right the first time.”
“Okay, cool,” the raven-haired witch sighed. “We’re not upset at you, Akko. On the contrary, in fact. We think you’ve got guts coming here to admit what you just did.”
With those words, Akko finally gained the strength to look up and face the two. “I-I thought you’d hate me,” she said shakily. “Oh my God, guys, thank you for not thinking I’m a freak. I was terrified of coming here in the first place.”
Hannah sat back down on her bed and smiled. “We’re pals now, Akko. Gal pals, if you will,” she said in a comforting tone of voice. They sat in silence for a while, allowing Akko to let the calm overtake her. For the brown-haired witch, she felt a lot better knowing that she was in the clear. The load from her chest was finally removed.
“Um, you guys,” Akko broke the silence.
“What’s up?”
“I-is it alright if I tell you...exactly what my thoughts are?” she nervously offered.
Hannah and Barbara’s faces reddened as the pair looked at each other. They looked back at Akko, who was shifting in her spot uneasily.
“Like, if telling you what’s plaguing me could, you know, help you understand my problem better, then maybe you could find a way to help me overcome it?” Akko tried to explain. “Th-that makes sense, right?”
The duo looked at each other again, and with telepathic confirmation, they glanced at Akko and nodded their heads. “I think that might work,” Barbara agreed.
Akko put her hands in her lap and looked down. “Okay, okay. I want you guys to keep this stuff a secret. You don’t have to say you will because I know you will. I trust you guys,” Akko clarified. Hannah and Barbara hummed in unison.
“I-I’m kind of a masochist,” the Japanese witch began. “I-I didn’t know when you used to bully me, but a few months ago, I started having these dreams. You’d bully me in those dreams, not just verbally, but physically too. I didn’t understand it at first, but I kept having the same dream for a few weeks. They were irritating and making me tired during the day, but...but I loved them.”
The blue team pair listened patiently as Akko continued to exposit her fantasies.
“Just the, well, thrill of being mocked by you two, oh my gosh. The way you’d stare at me, degrade me, even hit me. I started having new dreams about different situations you’d put me in. Then I started having daydreams, and I couldn’t focus on classes or studying without thinking about you two. It was hurting me more than it was helping me.”
“Wow,” Hannah breathed.
“That’s...geez, Akko. That does sound awful,” Barbara admitted.
Akko threw her hands in the air. “I know! I can’t focus anymore when I’m pining for you two to dominate me!” she groaned, prompting the duo to double-check that they had just heard Akko say that sentence. Akko suddenly threw her head into her hands. “Ugh, I’m having them now! Oh God, I’m seeing it...Hannah, you’re, oh geez...”
“Wh-what are you seeing?” Hannah asked.
“You’re...you’re taking off your ribbon,” Akko admitted. Hannah subconsciously reached up to her ponytail and brushed the yellow ribbon as Akko kept talking. “Y-you’re putting it around my neck and choking me...oh God, Barbara, you’re there, you’ve calling me every name you can think of...”
Hannah and Barbara felt their faces burning. Barbara brushed her hand under her bangs and stroked her forehead, feeling the warmth emanating from her skin. Hannah looked to the side and brushed the stray strand of hair that stuck out from her part.
“Just being here is killing me,” Akko said painfully. "Whenever you're around me, I can't think about anything else. How am I supposed to go on?"
She looked up, finally eyeing the two British witches. They were talking softly to each other, whispering in each other’s ears. Akko cocked her head, wondering what they were talking about. Hannah then leaned back from Barbara's ear and faced the girl.
“A-Akko, listen to me,” Hannah said, getting the girl’s attention. “I think we can help you.”
Not even a second after her offer for help was extended, Hannah and her BFF immediately found themselves in the middle of a trademark asphyxiating Kagari hug.
“Oh my gosh, thank you, thank you! You don’t know how much this means to me, you guys!” Akko wept happily. “I’ll take any help you can give me!”
“A...kko...”
“Need...air...”
“Wah! Gomen, gomen...” Akko shouted, immediately freeing the two from the painful hug and letting them take in deep breaths of air. “I-I gotta learn how to hug softer, don’t I?”
Barbara couldn’t help but chuckle. “Definitely. We appreciate your embraces. Just not the rib-crushing ones,” she joked.
Hannah straightened up and got back on track. “Anyways, Akko, I think there’s a way we can help you manage your problem,” she explained, “and frankly, I think you’ll be pretty eager to hear it.”
Akko nodded. “Sure thing. What is it?” she asked.
Barbara and Hannah turned to face each other. They smiled in unison and turned back to face Akko with sultry, knowing eyes.
“We’re going to fulfil your dreams.”
A beat.
And then...
[kagari32.exe has encountered a fatal error and must straight up die and go to heaven...]
Hannah and Barbara immediately sprang to action as Akko fainted on Barbara’s bed, having lacked the capacity to handle the bombshell she had just heard.
“...kkooooo...”
“Aaaakkoooooo...”
Akko’s eyes opened for a moment, then shut tightly as the light irritated her eyes.
“Oh, she’s waking up!”
“Akko!”
She opened her eyes again, shielding them from the light.
“Oh, man, what happened?” she groaned weakly. She moved her arm away from her face and let her eyes adjust, finally recognizing the blurry shapes in front of her as Hannah and Barbara.
“Thank goodness you’re okay,” Hannah sighed, walking to Akko’s side, where she was carefully placed on Barbara’s bed with her head on her frilly pillow. She held a hand to her forehead and sighed in relief. “All better. Geez, you freaked us out.”
Akko smiled and relaxed. “Man, I had the weirdest dream,” she giggled. “I was telling you guys my deepest, darkest secret, and then you said...”
“...we’ll help you fulfil your dreams?” Barbara ventured, amused by Akko’s genuine reaction.
The Japanese witch fell silent as her eyes shrank to pinpricks. “O-oh. That was real?” she asked distantly, staring at a spot on the ceiling.
“Yup,” Hannah confirmed.
“That was real,” Akko repeated to herself. “That was all real. You’re actually...oh my God. Hannah, please pinch me.”
Hannah was all too happy to oblige. She grabbed a bit of Akko’s skin on her arm and gave her a rough pinch. Akko yelped, sat up, and swatted Hannah’s arm away, rubbing the spot she’d pinched. As the pain subsided, she looked at Hannah, then at Barbara.
“You...you weren’t kidding, right?” Akko asked nervously.
Barbara sat at the foot of her bed and placed a hand on Akko’s leg. “Nope, not kidding, Akko. We’re serious about this,” she promised.
Hannah copied Barbara by sitting on the bed, shoulder to shoulder with Akko. She made perfectly sure that her ponytail brushed Akko’s cheek just for kicks. “Your problem is that you’re not getting to live out your dreams,” the redhead explained, “so, we figured, hey, don’t let your dreams be dreams.”
“If we let you have that experience, perhaps your daydreams will subside,” Barbara added. “Can’t have our little Akko falling behind, can we?”
Akko’s cheeks turned a deep crimson, and her lips contorted into a nervous, twitching smile. “Uh-huh,” was all she could squeak out.
“And besides,” Hannah continued, “when we used to bully you and say all that mean shit about you and your friends...” she paused for a moment and drummed her fingers on Akko’s thigh, “it was kiiiinda because we liked being in a position of power.”
The last part of Hannah’s sentence echoed in Akko’s mind.
“You’re like...doms?” she guessed.
“Exactly. We’re the doms,” Barbara confirmed. “We’re your doms. And you’re the sub.”
Akko felt as if she could’ve fainted from hearing Barbara say “dom” and “sub” in the same sentence. “O-oh, hell yes...” she gasped.
Barbara swung her legs up onto the bed and crawled towards Akko sultrily. As she neared the Japanese witch’s face, she observed the way it changed as she closed in on her. The pupils within her red irises shrank. Her breathing shuddered and paused. Out the corner of her eye, Hannah was grinning. Barbara extended a finger and placed it gently under Akko’s chin, holding her head up.
“B-Barbara?” Akko asked.
“So, our little submissive Akko, what do you say?” Barbara asked sexily. “You in, or you out?”
Her chocolate-brown hair danced gently as the Japanese witch furiously nodded her head. “Y-yes, I-I’m in!” she agreed.
“Good girl,” Barbara said.
Hannah got in on the act as she stood up and leaned in close to Akko’s face. “Now, why don’t we set a few ground rules?” she asked. “What does our little submissive Akko like us to do to her?”
Akko gulped. “U-um, well...I-I guess anything goes?” she suggested. “Stuff like...spanking, name-calling, hair-pulling, choking...n-nothing too gross! Spitting’s fine for now, I guess? But I guess if it’s not gross, I-I’ll totally want it.”
“Oh my,” Barbara giggled, “what a deviant you are. What about anything...sexual?”
“Uhhh, n-no. I can do...kissing with tongue, if you’re okay with that?” Akko asked.
Hannah and Barbara looked at each other for a moment.
“I think we can work with that,” Hannah agreed.
“One more thing, Akko,” Barbara added. “I think you’ll need a liiiittle safe word, just in case. Anything you have in mind?”
Akko’s eyes darted around as she thought about words she could use for when things get uncomfortable. However, once she figured out the perfect word, she wondered how it wasn’t obvious to her from the beginning.
“Chariot.”
“Ooh, that’s perfect,” Hannah purred in her ear, sending a little tingle through the Asian’s body.
Barbara pulled back and crawled away from Akko, getting off of her bed and joining her redheaded friend by her side. “Well, I think we’re all on the same page,” she announced, nudging Hannah with her elbow. “Anything you have to add, Han?”
“Nope, I think we’re all good.”
“Wonderful,” Barbara said with a grin. She held out a hand to Akko. “Do you feel better? Would you like us to walk you back to your dorm?” she offered.
Akko hesitantly took Barbara’s hand and got out of her bed. “Um, I-I think I can walk back, but thanks for the offer,” she declined, but as she let go of Barbara’s hand, she leaned in to hug her. “Thank you for this, guys. I owe you.”
“Owe us?” Hannah asked curiously. “Don’t be silly. The experience is more than enough.”
“But I gotta give you something in return!” Akko insisted, breaking the hug with Barbara and throwing her arms around Hannah. “I could take you out to the town? Get some sweets?”
“Akko, please. We appreciate your insistence, but I promise you, you’re not in our debt,” Barbara calmly replied, patting Akko on the shoulder. “This is for you.”
The message finally got through to the brown-haired witch as she pulled back from Hannah. “Okay, I understand,” she conceded with a dopey smile on her face. “S-so, when’ll we start?” she asked. “We should align our schedules, right?”
“Oh, don’t you worry your pretty little head,” Hannah replied. “We’ll give you a heads up.”
Satisfied with their answer, Akko bowed respectfully. “Th-thanks again, guys. I’ll see you soon,” she farewelled, making her way around the study desk and leaving through the door. As she trekked through the dimly-lit halls towards her dormitory, Akko couldn’t wipe the goofy smile off of her face. The dreaded scenario that had played out in her mind had just turned into a dream come true.
“I must be the luckiest girl in the world,” she said to herself. “God, I should buy a lottery ticket.”
Hannah and Barbara, the two girls that dominated her dreams both figuratively and literally, were literally going to dominate her in reality.
She imagined every fetish that they were going to make come true. Spitting on her face. Spanking her with a riding crop. Tying her up and making her immobile. She felt her body heating up as dirty images filled her mind once more. For the first time in a while, she didn’t mind daydreaming.
Akko opened the door to her dormitory and stepped inside. It had become a predictable sight for the girl: Lotte was reading a Nightfall novel, and Sucy was mixing potions at her desk.
“Akko! You’re back!” Lotte greeted, putting a bookmark in her novel and setting it down. “Where have you been? We were getting worried!”
“Hey, I was enjoying the silence,” Sucy added with disinterest.
The ginger ignored Sucy’s brutal honesty and pressed the Japanese witch. “Were you studying? Did you have a detention?” she asked.
Akko shook her head. “No, neither of that. I was talking to Hannah and Barbara,” she answered. “You kinda mentioned me to them.”
“Oh, right!” Lotte realized. “I-I was going to talk to you later. Are you feeling okay?”
“All good. I talked things out with them,” Akko grinned.
“That’s great to hear!”
Akko’s grin shrank into a small smile. “Yeah, it’s pretty great,” she admitted.