Chapter Text
I am Sucy Manbavaran, and welcome, one and all, to my cauldron of horrors.
Today, I’ve brewed up a nice, light story. A confection, almost. The fear we find will be hidden away in the everyday life of an ordinary witch: me. This may be a bit unconventional, but what else would you expect from yours truly? We’ll throw in a battle with demon wolves and a love confession, in case you get bored.
Why don’t we play a game? As you follow me through my day, try to find the real Sucy. That shouldn’t be hard, should it? You saw Akko venture into my mind, after all. Just see if you can point out the moments where I’m being my truest self.
If you’re ready, settle in and enjoy the show.
A Still and Watchful Sucy, a Dutiful Friend
Sucy loved mornings. Or, at least, she had in those blessed few weeks when she’d had her own room. Roommates complicated things.
Her eye drifted open on pale sunlight creeping across the ceiling. Her breath was slow and even, and her mind was a still, dark pool. For a few more minutes, she didn’t have to move or think or feel or be anyone in particular. Perfect.
A distant bell tolled, and the pool rippled. Sucy blinked and remembered that she had a body. Cool air. Some welcome soreness from the night’s workout. Her scar itched a little, but that always went down. The noise of her roommates stirring was getting less annoying every day.
Lotte whimpered and slipped out of bed, staggering off to the showers as though drunk. She’d probably spent another long night reading about that vampire boy of hers. Sucy was almost jealous.
Akko kept snoring. The bells never woke her, which left her caring roommates to help her out. Sucy’s gaze passed longingly over the rack of potions on her desk, but it wouldn’t be worth having Lotte yell at her again. She just grabbed her pillow and gave Akko a good whack.
Akko grumbled and flapped her arms, then rolled over.
Sucy grinned. A challenge! She stood tall and raised her pillow like an axe. “Any last words?”
“Mnum, blrr.”
The execution commenced.
“Ahhh! Aggh! I’m awake! I’m awake!” Akko crashed to the floor and snagged her pillow on the rebound. “RAAAAGH KURAE!” She pummeled Sucy back onto her bed and then stood over her, panting and wild-eyed, ready to parry the next swing.
Sucy just leaned back and crossed her legs with a lazy smile. “I didn’t use wakeshroom powder that time,” she pointed out. “You’re welcome.”
Akko spat a mouthful of feathers and glared.
Okay, mornings were still pretty great.
An Uncertain Sucy, Still Unformed
Sausage, thick slices of bacon, and hashbrowns. A rare breakfast feast for the girls of Luna Nova!
If you weren’t a vegetarian.
Sucy glowered at her plate of unseasoned potatoes and tapped the vials on her belt one after another. No, no, not this one, no… there were a few that she’d really enjoy, but she wouldn’t put them on a plate that some poor worker had to handle. Eventually, she settled for a drop of Million-Scoville Shaula Shroom Extract. That wouldn’t be too bad, would it? Goblins didn’t rub their eyes that often.
“Oh, no, all the good stuff today is meat!” Akko cried. “Want us to sneak you something, Sucy?”
Akko had instantly forgiven her, of course. It made Sucy wonder what life was like in the Kagari home. “It’s fine,” she said, waggling the vial. “Want to try some of this?”
“N-no, thanks.”
“I’ll get you some other time.” Sucy made the vial disappear with a flick of her wrist. She knew Akko was quick enough to catch her sleight of hand, but it was good to stay in practice.
Akko gave her a suspicious look, then turned to Lotte and committed the classic blunder. “What are you reading, there, Lotte?”
She’d probably asked to be polite, but now the floodgates were open, and they were suddenly nodding along to three books’ worth of – wait, it wasn’t Night Fall this time? This one was about aliens, starring a brave young woman caught between warring interstellar empires and their cruel, but fascinating, rulers.
Without anything else to focus on, Sucy started to get sucked in. She was intrigued by the themes of colonialism, and the boys sounded a lot meaner and more fun than Edward and Arthur. If she started hallucinating from the Shaula Extract, she’d probably see C-Beams glittering in the dark off Tannhauser Gate. Maybe she’d have to give them a shot?
A tug at her sleeve, and the spell was broken. Sucy turned to find Constanze standing by her side, which put their heads almost level. Despite her frown and eyes like flat green stones, she seemed excited today – it was in her shoulders and the tilt of her head. She was really expressive when you got used to her.
“Oh, thank Zuggtmoy,” Sucy muttered. “You saved me.”
Constanze cocked her head.
“Never mind. Hi, Conz. What’ve you got for me?”
She accepted the folded-up diagram, fighting a squirming sensation in her belly. Her breath came a little harder as she unfolded the sheet. She’d been getting little surges like that lately – sometimes when she was thinking about Conz, she’d start to feel anxious and confused, or maybe just excited? She did her best to ignore it.
The diagram showed a sinister, jagged mechanical figure, with a cutaway revealing channels for various concoctions they’d developed together. Most of the notes were in German, but Sucy got the gist just from the colors. “Oh my… how wicked,” she murmured, showing teeth. “I’ll come by the workshop tonight so we can work on this. Say, 9?”
Constanze gave her a bright-eyed thumbs up and scurried off.
Sucy watched her go with a sigh. Hopefully those squiggly feelings weren’t a nefarious psychic attack, because she’d probably roll over for them. That little bug was dangerous.
“Wait, she invites you down there?” Akko cried. “Jealous!”
That made Sucy feel normal again. “I guess some of us just have what she wants.” Sucy’s grin suddenly died as Lotte giggled. “What?”
Lotte patted her arm and then turned back to Akko. “Oh, and another thing! I just last night noticed the author doing this thing where you see worse and worse signs of the space empires’ repression after each sex scene, so we start to wonder if our heroine’s really improving anything, or…!”
A Sucy in Her Element, Masterful and Alert
Subjecting witch students to morning potions class was probably a crime, but Sucy enjoyed the uplifting start to her day. Professor Lukic presided over a vast lab full of simmering cauldrons, caustic fumes, and whining students. They were in the upper levels of Luna Nova, with plenty of ventilation and natural sunlight, for all that it helped. (After all, what kind of an incompetent magic school would put its potion lab in the basement?)
“Don’t slow down!” Lukic called merrily, pacing between the teams. “I can see some of your cauldrons bubbling over! If you don’t finish this recipe before the reaction completes, you’ll probably explode!”
Sucy’s teammates followed her lead. She stood over their cauldron with her back almost straight, sprinkling, pouring, stirring, and sending Akko rushing for ingredients with confident sweeps of her arms. Akko’s eyes were wide behind her goggles, unfocused – she didn’t have time to think between directions, so she didn’t have time to lose track or get confused. Lotte worked more methodically, pounding and kneading a giant doughy blob at their worktable, though Sucy sometimes caught her paused and looking up at her in awe.
She never thought anyone would look at her that way. It was nice. Strange, but nice.
“Hmm, you’re four or five steps ahead of the game,” Lukic observed, pausing by the cauldron. “Getting impatient, Ms. Manbavaran?”
“I don’t wanna explode,” Sucy replied easily. Her voice sounded odd to her own ears – not deeper, but more solid and confident. “Don’t worry about us.”
“Hmm.” Lukic nodded approvingly as Sucy added a handful of moly seeds to the mix. “Then I won’t.”
As she moved to Blue Team’s cauldron next door, Sucy felt herself glowing. Trust! And no urge to immediately blow it up! That was new, too. “Akko, red vial, third from the left on the main rack, go!”
Akko grunted and zoomed off. Gosh, she could get used to this obedience. Maybe she should brew deadly explosive potions more often?
That pleasant thought was interrupted by a harsh whistle from two cauldrons over. Mary, Blair, and Avery were shying back from a column of light painting the ceiling over their brew. Nearby, Diana was already winding up with her wand, but Sucy could see that her expression lacked any confidence – even with her intervention, this was going to be bad.
Sucy grabbed the ball of dough from Lotte and plunked it into the screaming cauldron with a hook shot. The light turned blue and the cauldron jumped in place with a truly disgusting BLORT-CLUNK. It sat silently for a moment, just long enough for Avery to take a hesitant step towards it, and then it coated them with an eruption of blue goop.
Harmlessly, though.
Diana lowered her wand with a sigh, waving off Hannah and Barbara’s accolades.
Lukic looked the three over and sent them off to get cleaned up. “Don’t worry, girls,” she said. “You faced the fire! That’s 80% of your grade right there!”
They didn’t seem thrilled.
The lab was still in controlled chaos; most of the students hadn’t even noticed anything wrong.
“Can somebody tell me why we are adding Mimosa Mushrooms to this brew?” Lukic called over the clamor. “It seems dangerously volatile, doesn’t it? Are you sure we’re not all going to die? Ten points for anyone who can explain!”
Sucy waved her hand in the air.
“Someone, who isn’t Ms. Manbavaran,” Lukic added with a cackle. “Leave some points for the others!”
Sucy smiled and turned back to her cauldron, swaying like a poppy.
“What a suck-up,” Barbara groaned.
A Sucy Out of Her Element, Striving
Natural and Magical Biology was an important grade for Sucy. She did her best to keep up with the readings between potion passion projects and coven catastrophes. Sometimes they were even interesting! It just didn’t come naturally. Entering the lecture hall always felt like stepping into a boxing ring.
“Before we get to our lesson about the ecosystem of the Nysa River Valley, I have a grave announcement,” Professor Keane called as the students filed in. “Is everyone here? Yes? Good. Sit down, Ms. Kagari! Ms. Shidariza, you can continue your conversation after class! I need your full attention for this!”
Keane’s tone was dire. Sucy leaned forward, curious.
“Our Forest Ranger Goblin sighted a pack of Skoll Wolves in the woods just a few kilometers south of our campus. After the sun sets, we’ll need you all to stay indoors while our hunters are at work. Now, those nasty beasties are a long way from today’s topic, but I thought we could use a minilesson on them. Can somebody tell me why they’re so dangerous? Someone other than Ms. Cavendish?”
No snide comments from Barbara that time. Glancing back, Sucy could see Hannah and Barbara preening, as though they’d done something.
“How about you, Ms. Manbavaran?”
Sucy scoffed under her breath. She’d come ready to talk about Nysa Valley, so of course she was called on for a surprise topic. That’d teach her… she stood and said the first thing she could think of. “If you harvest their skollbladder, you can dry it and grind it up to make emotion potions, but only the cruel ones. Anger, fear, love – that kind of thing.”
“Shit, really?” Keane asked blankly.
Sucy nodded eagerly. “You have to harvest it right after the Skoll dies, or it ferments and you get a neurotoxin instead. They make you get a license to work with them.”
“Very interesting, but do you have anything that will help your classmates in recognizing or avoiding them? No? Okay, anyone else? Any experts on Skolls, here? They’re from around your homeland, Ms. Jansson.”
“I was only taught that if you see a flickering blue light in the woods, you should run,” Lotte admitted without rising. “They’re not fairy spirits, so I just stayed away. Sorry.”
Keane sighed in defeat. “Okay, go ahead, Ms. Cavendish.”
Diana stood and clasped her hands behind her back, closing her eyes. Sucy noticed she always took that particular pose; maybe she was easily distracted? File it away for later. “Skoll Wolves are demons, and thus not a part of any ecosystem. They stand two meters tall at the shoulder, and might be white or black, with the blue light Jansson mentioned coming from their eyes and mouth. Their bodies are simultaneously mist and solid, expressing aspects of each at will. As they live on fear, they prefer prey that can comprehend mortality, and try to prolong their suffering as much as possible.”
Nervous murmurs spread among the students.
“Sometimes you survive,” Sucy added, suddenly remembering a bit of trivia. She’d never sat back down, so she figured the floor was still hers, too. “If they fill up on fear, they might just eat your kidneys and then leave you in a ditch.”
Diana jolted in surprise. “That was—one documented case. It’s not something to count on.”
“Umm… also, I hear that if you wound one with magic, the others will attack it,” Sucy added. She was helping! Their fellow students didn’t seem reassured, but this was good stuff to know.
“Again, they’re not so predictable!” Diana insisted, then paused thoughtfully. “However, I do happen to know a family spell that wards against…”
“If any student goes into the woods tonight and uses that spell,” Keane cut in. “You will be in very deep trouble, Ms. Cavendish. We will assume that you taught them the spell for the purposes of breaking our curfew.”
Diana stared down at the podium, wide-eyed. “Understood. I’m sure nobody would be so foolish.”
“I dunno,” Sucy said. “I kinda want a skollbladder. Want to come and help me get one?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Neither of us would stand a chance against a Skoll pack!”
“Aww, if they ate your kidneys, I’d whip a McCoy pill up for you.”
“If I’m attacked by Skoll Wolves and I have to count on you, I’ll have more to worry about than my kidneys!”
“Hey, don’t be so mean!” Akko snapped.
Keane cradled her forehead. “Oh, for pity’s sake.”
“You asked us,” Sucy reminded her.
“That I did,” Keane agreed, looking like she regretted it. “Anyway, that’s enough out of you two. The wolves are scary, stay inside, minilesson over. Everyone, get your textbooks out.”
Sucy sat and heard a dull whap behind her head. Akko had caught Hannah in the midst of aiming a smack at her.
“Ms. England, Ms. Kagari, lunch detention!” Keane called. “Textbooks, please!”
Well, it wasn’t the worst time she’d ever been called on. Unfortunately, the school day was all downhill from here.
A Sucy Far from Her Element, Both Fool and Tyrant
Ten minutes into Professor Galido’s history lecture, Sucy’s head was bobbing towards her desk. Something about a rebellion, or… were the minotaurs fighting ogres? But if she ignored the insipid content, Galido’s voice was nice to listen to. Half willingly, she started to sag and drift away…
Her pencil tripled in size and jammed up her nose, jolting her upright with a startled snort. As she froze with her back arched, eye wide, hands clutching at the air, the pencil slowly shrank and fell free, clattering to the floor.
Somewhere in the room, somebody gave a high-pitched titter.
Someone dared to prank her?
Someone dared to prank Sucy Manbavaran?
The fool! She cast about in a fury, snorting like a minotaur, thumb flicking through the vials on her belt. She’d prank their faces off! She’d prank their bones to jelly! She’d—!
“Manbavaran,” Diana hissed behind her. “Eyes forward!”
Sucy’s eye snapped to the professor just in time for Galido’s rheumy scan of the classroom to pass over her. She would have pounced if she noticed Sucy nodding off or on the warpath. Diana had just done her a big favor, but in that uniquely annoying Diana way of hers. That’d be worth a bit of revenge. Just a bit, though. Not “bones to jelly” level…
With her momentum broken, though, Sucy’s calm returned, and with it, drowsiness. She slouched and retrieved the pencil with a flick of her wand.
All these useless subjects! All these annoying people! Secondary school was the pits! Sucy couldn’t wait to get into the potions program at Pagpang U and leave it all behind.
At least she had her visit to Conz to look forward to. Or dread…