Author's Note: Story was originally posted on AO3. It's already finished, but I will be updating it once a week. So it gives me time to make updates and finished a few other things. Hope you enjoy.

Edit 7/2/18: Added a few things here and there.

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Past and Impatience

"HOMEWORK!?"

"Miss Kagari!"

"...Urk!"

Ah, another magical day in Luna Nova.

Akko just sunk into her desk to avoid looking at Anne Finnelan's glare, getting amused looks from all around. After a moment of silence, the teacher went on to explain the dreaded homework.

"As I was saying before being rudely interrupted," Finnelan sent a look at the girl who had caused said interruption, "this will be your last assignment before you leave for the holidays. Nothing too difficult. Nothing too extraneous, no matter what some of you might think." The professor cleared her throat and grabbed her wand, it's tip touching the blackboard behind her. In seconds, the blackboard glowed with green energy and soon, words and lines began to materialize on the surface.

"What you see here," Finnelan began, tapping the blackboard. "Is an example of a family tree...or a pedigree chart, however you wish to call it." The woman put her wand over her desk, and nodded towards her students. "Originally, the original plans for this final week before the holidays was doing revisions and essays but, I have decided, on insistence from the Headmistress due to the upcoming visit, to do this instead."

Most of the girls let out a sigh of relief. A family tree. Piece of cake! That was easier than a ten page essay describing the history of that rune, or the usage of that other one. Or how can one forget the history and different variations of the language of mermaids!? (Turns out that mermaids have different dialects depending on the currents that swept them away or in which part of the seven seas they live in...very interesting stuff.)

"Since this assignment is not part of the curriculum, it will be mere extra credit, however!" Akko let out a groan as the professor glared at her and a few of her classmates for cheering. "Just because it's not part of the curriculum does not mean you won't be graded, Miss Kagari...I expect everyone, and I mean everyone…to do it." At this, she gave a look to the all the girls in the room. "What will be part of your grade will be the presentation you will all give to the class."

Akko tried not to groan too loudly at that, and Professor Finnelan appreciated her support by saying, "The assignment will be due next week, before the holidays. Presentations will start in Monday with the first being Miss Diana Cavendish...and Miss Atsuko Kagari...followed by Miss Amanda O'Neill and Miss Hannah England for laughing during class."

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"...mouu...what am I gonna do?"

Classes had concluded for the day, and as was usual, the red team began making their way back towards their room.

"What's the big deal, anyway? It's just some stupid family tree…" Sucy pointed out as Akko let out another groan.

"My family's not super big, though! And she wants all these explanations and dates and arrggghhhh!" Akko let out a frustrated growl. "I haven't done one of these since I was in elementary school!"

"Oh, Akko...it really isn't that difficult." Lotte told her, smiling softly. The team were right outside their room, with Akko dangerously close to slamming her head against the door.

"But what about the presentation!?" Akko cried out. "What am I supposed to say?"

"That you were raised on a farm?" Sucy snickered when she received a glare from the Japanese witch.

"I wasn't raised on a farm!" Akko yelled, pushing upon the door before stomping her way inside the room. "Why does everyone keep saying that!?"

"Because everyone thinks you're an idiot?" Sucy helped again only to end up getting a pillow thrown her way for all her trouble.

"Hmph!"

"Any-anyway…" Lotte began, giving Sucy a look as the other witch picked up the thrown pillow and she closed the door behind them. "Why are you so upset about the assignment anyway? Is it really that bad?"

"It's not the assignment I don't like, Lotte! It's the work! And during the final week too!" Akko groaned as she sank into her bed, leaning on the wall and covering half of her precious Shiny Chariot poster with chocolate-colored tresses. "And then I have to present it! It's just soooo unfair!"

"...the presentations should take you about two or three minutes, though...unless Cavendish drools on and on about her mother and her family and their contributions to society...maybe she should, it would certainly be more interesting than your family...probably." Sucy smirked Akko's way, but was rather disappointed when Akko didn't react. The girl just let out a sigh as she processed Sucy's words.

Sucy had a point. What was her family's history compared to the Cavendish's long, generations old history? Heck, Sucy and Lotte probably had more interesting stories to share about their families than Akko would ever have.

What did her family have?

Both sides of the family could trace their ancestry up to a certain point, right between the Tokugawa shogunate and even then, time had erased most of their clans' history so it was rather difficult to trace what exactly her family, Kurosawa or Kagari, did during that time. Where they merchants? Samurai? Farmers? No one knew. They just knew they existed and had moved on with the world around them.

As for the now, well, Akko's parents were rather normal. Her father worked as an account manager for a company that had dealings both in Japan and overseas. Her mother, too, worked as a detective in the local police station, like her father before her. As for her other relatives, they too had decent jobs and they were normal. They had their own stories too, but none of them could truly match the stories of the other little witches and their magical families.

Her parents weren't witches. Her cousins, uncles, aunts and her surviving grandparents had no magic to speak up.

How was she going to compare to those other girls if her stories were just...normal and uninteresting?

Akko sighed again, and glanced at her poster of Shiny Chariot, who smiled encouragingly and waved at her.

While Sucy and Lotte began to argue about the former's rudeness, Akko's thoughts wandered to the past, to the show she had seen in Japan so long ago when she was but a mere little girl.

She still remembered the excitement, the thrill. She was finally, finally, going to be seeing the famous Shiny Chariot up there in that beautiful stage, as she dazzled the world with her magical tricks and charming words. She remembered pulling her parents towards the auditorium, remembered her mother's sweet smiles and her father's gentle laughter. "Calm down, sweetheart," they told her, "the show's about to begin." And when it did, the young girl still remembered the amazement, the joy, the wonder.

Akko remembered jumping up and down on her chair, smiling and pointing and waving. "There she is, momma! There she is!" And her mother, calm and gentle, had patted her head and pulled her down to her seat, telling her to stay still and watch the magic unfold.

Oh, how happy it made her to see her idol in person! How elated! How exciting! Shiny Chariot was just so amazing! Firing spell after spell, fighting monsters in the sky, flying, creating illusions, creating joy...it was perfect.

And yet, that had been the only magical thing she and her parents had shared. The joy, the wonder.

What could she possibly share with her classmates that….

...wait. Wait. Wait…

...wait!

Akko's eyes began to twinkle, her heart began to race, as her mind was doing backflips and frontflips. She remembered now! How could she possiblyー

Akko stood up quickly, slamming her head on Lotte's bunk, as her roommates turned to stare at her, one with concern and the other trying very hard not to laugh. But Akko didn't care about the bruise forming on her head, as she stared at Lotte with a piercing expression and asked, "LOTTE! Can I borrow your crystal ball!?"

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By Thursday, Sucy and Lotte had finished their own family trees, the two of them deciding to show their work to a struggling Akko, who still had nothing to show for all the information she had gathered since Tuesday.

Lotte's family, Akko learned, was a large one. Most of them had their own businesses scattered all over Finland, selling ingredients and materials to witches and humans alike. Originally, the Yansons' story begun generations ago, with a pair of competing brothers that had tried to one-up each other for years. While the story of these two brothers had changed over the years and was heavily contested during festivities when the alcohol became too much, everyone pretty much agreed that they were the reason the Yansons ran shops all over their homeland. It all began when they opened, each, similar shops that sold mostly the same things. The shops were located rather close to each other. The two were always trying to outdo one another by offering discounts, price drops, demonstrations and many, many other things. It had almost bankrupt the two, but they were too stubborn to quit and one day, when the rivalry had gotten too hot, the two wizards had opt to settle the affair once and for all with a duel. And they failed. Spectacularly so. Their wives tell the story of how the two Yanson brothers continuously missed each other, the spells hitting everything but them. Eventually, after two hours of the same, embarrassing show, the two men had called it quits and, in order to save their finances, decided to combine the two shops into one. That shop still stands in Helsinki, managed by one of Lotte's aunts, while her other relatives, her parents included, run similar shops all around Finland...minus the rivalries, of course.

Sucy's family, on the other hand, was a tad bit smaller. Her family had never really spread far and wide on the Philippines as Lotte's was in Finland with their tiny shops. The Manbavarans were experts in poisons, and rather surprisingly, in their antidotes as well. Sucy's family had prided themselves for their knowledge of all poisons and were always sought after by locals and foreigners alike for their expertise, whether it was a cure for a venomous bite or a simple stomachache. One other thing the Manbavarans were known for, and mostly avoided because of it, was their snake familiars. Sucy's mother alone had over a dozen different snake familiars, who had contributed to many cures and antidotes in the past and who were free to wander in the wild as they pleased. As for history, Sucy couldn't really say. Some of her aunts said they were descendants of old witches that had made deals with demons to get where they are today, while others, said that they evolved from dragons themselves. None of it was true, however. It was just stories to scare those door-to-door salesman that never seemed to stop coming. There was, however, one particular story the Manbavarans were well-known for. It all started when a famous politician had come to visit the Manbavarans for help of getting rid of a rival. The head of the family, Sucy's grandmother, had refused despite the money and threats that were offered by the man. Angered, the man assured the old woman he would drag their family's reputation to the ground before he disappeared. But, the man never returned back to the city. He was found, days later, mad and disoriented, covered in snakes. The fool, ignoring the warnings of the local villagers and even of Sucy's grandmother herself, had ran afoul of the local snakes that wondered about the area near the Manbavaran's home. The area had many poisonous spiders and snakes and other creatures whose bites could cause, if not death, paralysis, insomnia, madness, etc., etc.

"...are you sure you want to put that in?" Lotte questioned after Sucy was done with her story. The other witch shrugged.

"...eh, maybe not. I'll just say he got eaten."

"...I don't see how that's any less morbid." Lotte shook her head, trying to get the image of a mad man out of her head, before turning to Akko, who sat on her bed, with pieces of paper scattered all over the covers and an open notebook to the side. "So...any idea how you're going to start your family tree?"

"The clock's still ticking," Sucy pointed out. "I thought you called your parents yesterday and the day before that...and you still got nothing?"

"I'm working on it! I want to make it perfect and all that! I'm going to be presenting on Monday, after all!" Akko told her, smiling. "I...uh...just need to translate all of these…" She gestured towards the pieces of paper scattered all over her bed. Sucy just shrugged.

"That's kinda your fault for writing everything in Japanese…"

"True…" Lotte agreed, eyeing the papers and the odd characters written on them. "Why would you do that?"

"It's just easier this way…" Was Akko's simple answer as she began to gather her papers and put them inside the notebook. She jumped out of bed, barely avoiding Lotte's bunk. "I'll be in the library!" the girl cried out as her two companions blinked. The library? But, Akko never went to the library, at least, not willingly.

"Huh?"

"Umm...to the library?"

"Yep! I'll see you guys at lunch!" And with that, Akko was gone.

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The librarian let out a sighed as she settled into her morning routine, trying hard not to glance at the papers that were piling up at her desk, and ignoring the tall, imposing shelves and thousands of volumes they contained. She stared around the room, empty, well, except for a particular desk that was barely hidden by the Magical Crafts section. The desk was surrounded by piles of books, and between them, a student sat upon a chair, leaning over the desk as she wrote in her notebook. The girl would glance once or twice at another piece of paper lying next to the notebook, before writing, sometimes even opening one of the tomes that lay around the desk.

The old librarian blinked.

Had Atsuko Kagari stayed here all night?

She remembered the girl coming before lunch on Thursday, and then, she was back on Friday in the late afternoon, and now, it was already Saturday! Good heavens!

The librarian stood there for a few second before smiling and shaking her head.

Miss Kagari was obviously hard at work and it will do her no good if the librarian disturbed her. She only hoped the girl would get the rest her body needed once she was done.

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When lunch arrived on Saturday, a few girls were already talking about one Atsuko Kagari, who had been seen almost all day working hard on one thing or the other.

From what it was said, Akko had stayed at the library all Friday evening all the way to the early hours of Saturday. A couple of hours later, before Sucy and Lotte left to get lunch, a haggard-looking Akko had arrived and had mentioned that she'll grab a snack later, collapsing on top of her mattress, snoring before hitting the pillow.

Diana Cavendish didn't know whether to be impressed or to just roll her eyes.

The Cavendish heir could admit she was impressed by the girl's work regimen, now if only she applied that to all of her studies she probably wouldn't be so far behind. But, considering what she was working on, even with all that hard work, Diana figured she was just going to be doing all that work at the last minute.

Hannah and Barbara, however, certainly did not know how to feel about this development.

"You should have seen her! Her! Actually working!" Hannah said, as the three girls were making their way back to their room. Barbara nodded.

"She was, like, totally out of it, too...it was almost scary. She was actually doing work!" Barbara shuddered. "I hope it's not, like a bad omen or something…" Hannah scoffed at that, while Diana sent her classmate an amused smile.

As they went on walking and her classmates went on talking about Akko, Diana couldn't help but be curious on what had motivated such a change over the normally lazy girl.

But Diana had learned that Akko wasn't really lazy, no. Diana had learned that if determined enough, Akko could accomplish almost anything. Like that parade those months back. Sure, the parade hadn't been too bad, if Diana was honest. Perhaps it would have been even better if one didn't include the titan that had been unsealed by that foolish mayor of Blytonbury, but that wasn't really the point. Akko had accomplished her goal. Eventually.

Even so, Akko wasn't the most competent witch. Her magic improved, true, but her attitude had not. She still complained about work, was rather cocky about her lack of magical ability and was still very much a troublemaker. But, Diana knew, that deep inside, Akko wasn't really a bad person. She was endearing, if anything, if the Cavendish heir was honest with herself. Sometimes. Not always.

She only hoped that whatever had caught Akko's attention, she would certainly give it her all, whatever it was.

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When Sucy and Lotte returned to their room later, they found an odd scene waiting for them, courtesy of Akko.

Their teammate had taken her bedsheets and covered the lower bunk like a fortress. They could see Akko's shadow on the sheets, moving about, using her wand to create a light and then something else, before it flickered and died. Seconds later, Akko let out a frustrated whine at her supposed failure.

"Akko?" Lotte called the girl, spooking her. They heard a yelp, before something made contact with Lotte's bunk and then, Akko let out a painful whimper. "Akko!"

"Ouch…" Sucy muttered as Lotte moved to push the sheets aside, only to be beaten by Akko seconds later, who was sticking out her head from the fortress of blankets, massaging her aching head.

"Hey! Hi!" Akko said with a smile, flinching slightly as she ignored the pain on her head.

"Are you alright?" Lotte asked her, only for the Japanese witch to nod and smile.

"Yeah! Yeah...I'm fine!"

"I...I see…"

The trio was silent for a while, before Sucy asked, "Don't you think it's a little too early for a pajama party?" as she walked towards her bed, as Lotte gave Akko a plate of food that she carried all the way from the cafeteria. She figured the girl had forgotten to eat again.

"Here," Lotte said, offering Akko the dish. "We remembered you hadn't eaten yet, so…"

"Aww! Thanks, Lotte!" Akko grinned as she quickly took the plate from her friend's hands and hid back inside her little fortress. Lotte looked back at Sucy, who shrugged.

"...umm...Akko?"

"Hmm! This is sooo goーhuh?"

"What...what exactly are you doing there?"

"Oh! My family tree!"

"...so...the blanket fort is what for, exactly?" Sucy questioned, eyeing the bedsheets with slight interest.

Three days, and still, Akko's teammates didn't know what Akko was planning for her presentation. Everyone was already talking about it. And this latest display only served to peek Sucy's own curiosity despite her own feelings on the subject.

"Oh! I'm practicing for the presentation!" Akko explained, sounding happy as she munched unto some food from inside her safe haven." I decided-munch-to do something I learned in a book I found in the library!"

"Oh?" Lotte began, smiling. "And what is it?"

"It's a secret!" Akko replied, and Sucy could just imagine her devious grin. "Besides, you guys won't be waiting long! I'll be presenting on Monday...so...yeah...I just need to practice a little more...and finish translating and...uh, everything else! Yeah!"

Sucy frowned.

Oh, come on! That wasn't fair.

She had wasted valuable time talking about her family to help Akko when she could have done something else and now after all that suspense and help it was still a secret?

"...so, we don't even get a preview?" Sucy asked.

"Well...uh...maybe...maybe we can help you!" Lotte said, her curiosity getting the best of her. "Check the spelling and whatnot...if...if you want to." At least Lotte had restrain. Sucy admired that.

"Naw! It's okay! Thanks!" Akko replied. "I just want to surprise you guys! And I want it to be a big hit, too!"

"...tough luck," Sucy muttered, getting a glare from Lotte, before the Finnish witch turned back to the blanket fort and sighed.

"O-oh, well...but...but if you need anything…"

"Don't worry! I got this! But thanks anyway!"

When night arrived, Akko finally removed her little fortress of sheets, a mess of papers covering most of the bed with an opened book near the corner.

As she was putting her papers away, Sucy caught sight of a few set of English words that Akko had circled and then crossed out. Sucy couldn't make heads or tails out of the Japanese, but she could make out a few of the words Akko wrote in English. One of those words was 'princess', but this one was crossed out, a small question mark following after it and beside it an arrow pointing towards a block of Japanese text that had also been crossed out with a large x multiple times with multiple questions marks beside it.

Once Akko had put her notes and papers away, she let out a yawn and placed the large book and her notebook next to the empty plate on her desk and fell right to sleep, wishing Sucy and Lotte a good night.

After waiting for twenty minutes, and making absolutely sure Akko was still asleep, Sucy got up from her bed and moved towards Akko's desk, opening the girl's notebook all the while receiving a look of disapproval from Lotte.

"Sucy! What are you doing?"

"Some light reading," the other witch responded, as Lotte let out a sigh. "Aren't you the least bit curious?"

"I am!" Lotte admitted before shaking her head. "But I can wait until Monday." Sucy frowned at Akko's work and then, stared back at her teammate.

"...well...you're in luck…" Sucy began showing Lotte a piece of paper containing the chicken scratch of one Atsuko Kagari. Everything was written in Japanese.

Apparently when Akko had meant she needed to "finish everything else", she had meant it.

On Sunday morning, Akko was gone.

She had muttered to a sleepy Lotte that she was heading to the library to finish her work and they should probably not expect her for breakfast...or lunch...and dinner.

When the two members of the red team arrived at the cafeteria for breakfast, they found Amanda and the rest of her team already waiting for them, waving at them from their seats to come and join them at their table. After grabbing their plates of food, Sucy and Lotte made their way towards them.

"So, where's Akko? Is she hiding in the library again?" Amanda asked them, as they sat down. Lotte just gave her a smile and nodded.

"Yeah...she left early this morning...said she was going to finish her work."

"Whoa...that's really something...that family tree of hers has got her all pumped out!" Sucy shrugged.

"Probably…"

"So? What she tell you about her family? What are they like?" Amanda asked them, as she took a bite out of her scrambled eggs. Sitting next to her, her teammate, Jasminka, had just finished her food before moving towards a box of donuts. She offered a donut to both Sucy and Lotte, who declined with a smile. Constanze, for her part, ate her food slowly, shaking her head at the donuts as she stared silently at the two members of the red team.

"Who knows…" Sucy told the American witch. "She's being rather secretive about it."

"Huh."

"We offered to help but...well...you know how she can be…" Lotte explained, taking a bite out of her toast. "She's excited though...so that's a good thing."

"That's great to hear," Jasminka responded with a big smile as she finished her second donut. The small girl next to her gave a thumbs up, showing her agreement of her classmate's statement.

"Still...what's so secretive about a normal, non-magical family?" Amanda asked, pushing her plate aside. "Hell, I have a few normals in my family and they don't really lead exciting lives...so what gives?"

"Beats me." Sucy told her, taking a sip from her mushroom juice carton. "I'm getting a little too curious myself."

"Oh yeah?" the redhead asked, looking amused. Usually if Sucy was interested, it meant trouble. Or fun.

"Yep."

"So, what you planning to do about it?"

"I'm going to make a memory potion and get over this secret once and for all."

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And then, Sucy screwed up.

Well, Sucy wouldn't really admit she screwed up a perfectly innocent memory potion. She had Akko for that. Akko was a magnet of bad decisions and complications and those usually ended with explosions right in the face.

However, something had gone wrong.

Memory potions were not too complicated to make, and Sucy was counting on that. But for some reason, the potion Sucy had made had decided, for some reason, to spout fire. Fire, that had been dangerously close to burning down the school. Fire that, Diana Cavendish, little witch extraordinaire, had tried to douse with some water spell but that had only created more fire and smoke before it exploded on their faces. Or it would have, had Diana and Amanda not created a barrier spell all over the place. And that, in itself, had created another chain reaction and the shield broke.

As the smoke cleared and the girls were done coughing their hearts out, they realized, with a bit of confusion and dismay, that they were no longer in the empty classroom but inside a small room.

The room they were in appeared to be a living room; two sofas, a carpet, a television set and some furniture here and there decorated the room, while the walls were decorated with photographs and a few papers sticking to the walls. They could also make out a kitchen behind them. All neat and small, with a counter before it, and a small table right nearby with two chairs and a flower pot in the middle.

But, before anyone could question what had happened, a door opened and in came Akko, looking all glum and silent, as she stepped inside the room. She let out a sigh, before blinking and turning towards the group of girls nearby that were staring back at her.

Akko's eyes widened slightly before they narrowed and she asked, "お前は一体誰だ?"

Yep. Sucy would definitely blame Akko for this one. Whatever this was.