Chapter Text
The day began bright and early for Atsuko Kagari, as it usually did. She yawned, stretching her arms out and wiping the sleep from her eyes, a large grin already spreading across her face. She had been at Luna Nova for a few days now, making fast friends with her dorm-mates Lotte and Sucy.
She was hesitant to befriend the latter, as when she first tried to introduce herself to the mushroom-loving girl, she ended up in a lake, struggling with ropes that the other girl had enchanted to look like snakes. She knew, of course, that they would be good friends because of the small line of thread that connected their wrists together.
Akko was taught about the soul bonds when she was around seven or eight, and to say that she was excited would be an understatement. She practically squealed in delight when her mother told her about all the different threads around her hands and what they meant. The ones on her wrist, her mother explained, were who would be her closest friends: a platonic soulmate so to speak. They were always blue and helped anchor Akko through some of her tougher days.
The strings around her thumb were plum colored, and her mother explained that they represented family: mother, father, cousins, or other relatives. The one that excited her most of all, however, was the small string tied around her pinkie. It was rose colored, and Akko thought that it shined the brightest out of all of the threads that entangled themselves around her fingers and wrist. Her mother explained that this was her soulmate string: the red string of fate. It connected her to who she would love the most, and was what brought a grin to her face everyday.
Her mother warned her to never try to follow the strings, because many people have aimlessly followed the small threads and only ended up more lost than when they started their journey. Her mother told her that fate always had a way of making them cross paths, even if it took a long while. Anyone who knows Akko knows that she’s not the most patient girl, but she makes up for it with her passion for life and general enthusiasm. Years after her mother had taught her about the different threads and strands of life, Akko had another question for her mother.
“What does the white string mean?” Akko had been wondering this for quite a while, and she remembers her mothers sad smile that day, and her comforting hand on Akko’s shoulder.
“It means that someone important to you has passed on. It may seem bleak, but I think that it’s a reminder that they’re always there, looking out for you.” Akko’s brow furrowed, and she looked up at her mother.
“So like grandpa? Is he looking out for us?” Akko’s grandfather had died a day previously, and Akko had attended the funeral with her parents a few days later, her eyes glued to the white string that seemed to infinitely extend into the sky.
“Yes,” Akko’s mother replied, placing a soft kiss onto her daughter’s forehead. Akko remembers sinking into the warmth of her mother’s embrace.
Akko shakes her head, ridding the more morbid thoughts from her head and blinking as light peaked through the curtains. Akko felt like she was so close to finding her soulmate, and her string became more taut since she had arrived at Luna Nova, changing directions every now and then.
She knows that she shouldn’t follow her string, but she just hopes that fate would hurry up already. Akko then slid down her bunk bed ladder, quickly fastening her robes and getting ready for the day.
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Diana sighed into her coffee, the black brew nipping at her tongue and burning slightly. Diana’s eyes flicked back to her thumb as usual, peering at the frayed white string that has been a constant in her life since she was a small girl. She misses her mother with all her heart, though she has since then had time to grieve and process it.
Hannah and Barbara shuffled over to her bed, shortening the blue strings between them. Diana’s always been peeved with the fact that you can only see your own strings along with your family’s and who they attach to, as her more curious side has always wondered if her two peppy friends were soulmates.
Diana hadn’t really put too much thought into the whole ‘soul bond’ idea, as she threw herself into her studies after her mother’s death and her father’s disappearance. The Cavendish house has always been respectable, and more often than not end up marrying people who are not their soulmates.
One cannot wait around forever to simply bump into your destined lover, and the Cavendish family was no exception. However, that didn’t stop Diana from being intrigued when the string around her pinky pulled taut and moved around her finger as if following some unknown entity. Diana was curious as to who it could be, as there weren’t many men attending Luna Nova.
She supposed that he could always be from her cousin’s academy, as Appleton wasn’t too far from Luna Nova and some of the boys would visit Luna Nova to talk to friends or explore the campus. Hannah and Barbara soon interrupt her thoughts, and Diana quickly focuses her attention back on them.
“Have you heard about the kind of riffraff the school is letting in these days?” Barbara snorts, quickly turning into a corridor leading to the girls’ classes.
“I heard that one of the girls this year isn’t even from a witches’ family.” Hannah says haughtily, crinkling her nose in disgust before turning to Diana for her thoughts on the matter.
“I’m sure they have a perfectly good reason for accepting someone outside of a witches’ family, after all, the Headmistress knows what she’s doing,” Diana scolds, and both girls hang their heads, feeling properly chastised.
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough, apparently she’s in our year, so we’re bound to have at least one class with her.” Hannah shrugs, and the girls turn into the astronomy class, right on time for classes to begin.
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Akko bounded into the astronomy classroom alongside Lotte and Sucy, excited to finally start a class with a nice teacher. She considered most of her other classes fairly boring, even though she tried her best to pay attention during the teachers’ lectures and lessons.
Akko plopped down at the desk in the middle of the room, Lotte and Sucy both sidling in beside her. Akko felt a mental tug of sorts, and if it wasn’t for Akko’s habit to periodically check the threads attached to her fingers, she wouldn’t have noticed who walked in the door. The red string on her pinky went rim rod straight, stretching past her fellow classmates and attached to the pinky of another girl only a few feet in front of her. Akko nearly fell out of her chair, making Lotte peer over at her, her expression filled with concern. The girl who Akko’s string was connected to was stunning, and Akko's brain was having trouble functioning correctly.
“You okay, Akko?” Lotte pushed her glasses up her nose, waiting patiently for her hyper friend’s answer.
“I-I just…” Akko’s mouth open and closed, ironically reminiscent of Akko’s philosophy teacher, Professor Pieces. Akko cleared her throat, trying to gather her thoughts. “Who’s that?” was all Akko managed to get out, jabbing her thumb towards the girl who’s string connected with her own. Sucy grinned maliciously, her teeth resembling that of a shark.
“That’s Diana Cavendish, only the most popular and distinguished witch in our year,” Sucy drawls, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she can’t even sit down because she has a stick shoved so far up her ass,” Sucy chuckles at her own joke, and Lotte turns to her with a horrified expression.
“Sucy!” Lotte squeaks, and before Lotte can reprimand her, Akko beats her to it.
“How would you know! Doesn’t sound like you even know her to me!” Akko pouts, crossing her arms and turning away from her pink haired friend. Akko would have expected something like that from Amanda, who she had only met a day prior and could already tell was a pretty impulsive person, but nonetheless, she was surprised to hear it from Sucy. Not to say that she was surprised by the insult, no, Akko had come to expect that much from Sucy. However, Sucy wasn’t one to make jokes like that, she was more of the type to bluntly state her opinion.
Akko chewed on her pen, quickly glancing back at where Diana had been, only to notice that she and the girls following her had taken a seat at the desks to the right of Akko and her dorm mates. Akko wasn’t sure if Diana just hadn’t noticed yet, or simply wasn’t interested (who wouldn’t be interested in their own soulmate for the nine’s sake?). Akko hoped that it was the former and that Sucy was just being her normal self when she said those mean things about Diana.
Akko had realized that she had been staring for longer than was probably socially appropriate (when have I ever cared about being ‘socially appropriate' again?) and when she noticed that the two girls next to Diana were whispering, Akko quickly turned away, her face flushed bright red. Akko shook her head, trying to return her focus to Professor Ursula and her lesson, though her gaze would wander to Diana every now and then.
The class seemed to drag on, despite the fact that Professor Ursula was one of her favorite teachers, so she was more than relieved when they were dismissed. She was hoping to get the chance to talk to Diana, and it was a wonder that she hadn’t burst out of her seat already with excitement due to having finally met her soulmate. Well, met in a ‘stare at her a couple of times’ kind of way.
The moment they were dismissed, Akko jumped from her seat and made a beeline to where Diana was, only her classmates seemed to have other ideas. She was shoved to the side as people stampeded past to exit the classroom, and Akko was desperately trying to reach Diana. Sucy laughed at Akko’s frustration, while Lotte only seemed confused.
“I’ll catch up with you guys later, I’ve got something important I need to do!” Akko shouted back determinedly, Sucy looking to Lotte and causing her to shrug.
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Diana had only made it about halfway to the library before she heard someone unfamiliar calling her name. She had told Barbara and Hannah to go ahead to the cafeteria, as she was planning on getting some books to help her more thoroughly understand Astronomy and its connection to magic. She was grateful that they agreed, as most often they would try to tag along and miss supper in the process.
Diana had been distracted all class, and that wasn’t like her at all. She couldn’t help but feel a sort of mental pull, but she just chalked it up to a headache and hoped that it would subside later on during the lesson. Unfortunately, that was not the case, not to mention there was someone staring at her during the entire lesson. She chose to just ignore it, as many people stared at her because she was a Cavendish, and her reputation preceded her.
Hannah and Barbara, however, had other ideas. They had been poking and prodding her the whole time, informing her that the girl who was staring at her was Atsuko Kagari: the girl who wasn’t part of a witches family. They also gossiped about how she supposedly couldn’t even fly, was clumsy, and a failure of a witch.
Quite honestly, Diana was done with their uppity and snippy remarks, and she shot a glare in their direction which finally caused them to quiet down. Diana had missed some of the lesson, which had never happened before so she thought that it would be good to grab some books on the topic to properly study the subject.
“Diana!” Diana couldn’t ignore the voice calling after her any longer, so she swiftly turned on her heel to face whoever had followed her, causing said person to run right into her. Diana rubbed her head, having fallen to the ground after the collision and bumped heads with the other person. It didn’t help that the persistent tugging was only getting stronger, so Diana rubbed her temples and sighed before opening her eyes.
She was surprised to see the girl who had been staring at her before: Atsuko Kagari. Diana was surprised that the girl was actually quite beautiful in her own quirky way, despite Hannah and Barbara’s opinion of her. Atsuko smiled bashfully, dirt staining her robes from the fall.
“Sorry about that. My name’s Atsuko Kagari. You can just call me Akko, though.” Diana furrowed her brow, about to take Akko’s offered hand when she realized something precarious.
The string on her pinky, which she had not been paying mind to as the threads on her fingers were only a reminder to many things that she lost and many that she thought she would never have, was connected to the Akko’s. Diana jolted backwards, her head spinning with a barrage of questions.
“I-you-“ Diana tried to speak but her words only came out jumbled and she sputtered as her eyes darted from her pinky to Akko’s.
“Oh! I wasn’t sure if you had noticed or anything, I’m sorry about staring at you during class, you’re just really pretty and-“ Akko stopped abruptly, her cheeks flushed with red. “I-I mean,” Akko continued, clearly embarrassed and trying to erase her mistake, “I meant to say that I was just staring at you because, you know… soulmates!” Akko said, scratching the back of her neck nervously.
Diana blinked, still processing that her soulmate was the clumsy witch in front of her.
“But-I- but that can’t possibly be! You’re a girl!” Diana blurted before she could stop herself. She immediately regretted the words after they tumbled out of her mouth, though this was definitely not how she expected to meet her soulmate. Akko’s face dropped, her mood considerably dampened.
“Um… I’m sorry if I’m not what you expected. I mean, you’re not exactly what I expected either,” Akko laughs before quickly correcting herself, “though not in a bad way! It’s just, well…” Akko paused, looking down at her shoes and scratching the back of her neck before looking back up at Diana. “You’re apparently the most important witch in our year or something, and I’m just…me.” Akko rambled, trying to find some sort of conversation to grasp. Diana blinks, looking up at Akko before shaking herself from her stupor and brushing off the dust from her robes.
“Certainly you are not…exactly what I had in mind,” Diana started, cringing slightly, “but I am surely not the most important witch in our year.” Diana states confidently. Diana corrects her posture out of habit, her back straightening and chin jutting out to face Akko. “Yes, I do come from a long line of witches, but that does not make any difference to the sort of person I am. I am proud to be a Cavendish, but that is not all I am proud to be.”
Diana continues, “I’m sure that we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other, and I’d be glad to get to know exactly who ‘just you’ is.” Diana finished, happy that she was finally able to express herself without stumbling over every other word. Akko quickly hugged the girl tightly, Diana going stiff before eventually relaxing into the smaller girl’s embrace.
When they separated, Akko was positively glowing and beaming from ear to ear. Diana may not have known Akko for long, but it was still a relief to see Akko smiling instead of frowning.
“Come on! I have so much to talk to you about!” Akko practically dragged Diana down the corridor, and Diana could almost see the stars in Akko’s eyes due to her apparent excitement. Diana let a small smile pass her lips, wondering what exactly she had just gotten herself into. She could worry about what her aunt and cousins would think later, for now the only thing she could think about was the warm and content feeling in her stomach every time Akko looked back and smiled at her.