Chapter Text
Rating: General Audiences
Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: F/F
Fandom: Mahou Shoujo Shiny Chariot
Relationship: Chariot/Croix
Characters: Chariot, Croix, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Adventure, Comedy, Fluff, Magic!, I love this anime so much and I always will, a believing heart is your magic!
Language: English
Published: 2014-08-28 Updated: 2019-10-01 Words: 42069 Chapters: 113/? Comments: 228 Kudos: 5 Bookmarks: 1 Hits: 312
A Witch’s Adventure!
BelievingHeart625
Chapter 113 : Akko’s New Friend!
Notes:
Sorry for the delay, but I’ve finished moving, and I’m loving my new university! Regular updates from now on! Thank you to everyone who left such nice comments on the last chapter!! This one has a new character, I hope you like her! She’s based on my friend Haltija! Please say hi and be friendly!
As always, Mahou Shoujo Shiny Chariot belongs to Hokuto Shichisei and to Shiny Studios! I don't own it, or I'd make a damn fifth season already!
Akko run into the cafeteria to talk to Chariot. “Chariot! Meet my new friend!”
Chariot looked at Akko, her mouth making a big ‘o’ in shock, “you have a new friend?”
“Yes, I have a new friend! Would you like to meet her?” Akko exclaimed loudly.
“Yes, Akko, I would love to meet your friend!” Chariot smiled happily at her best friend Akko.
A shy girl walked into the cafeteria next to Akko. She had glasses and freckles and orange hair. “Hi, I’m Jans,” she mumbled to Chariot. [A/N: Haltija this is you!] She looked nervous to be meeting such an amazing witch, Chariot could tell.
“You don’t need to be nervous, Jans,” Chariot reached out her hand, “A friend of Akko’s is a friend of mine! After all, Akko is my very best friend!”
“Yeah!” Akko shouted. “I’m sure we’ll all be good friends in no time.”
“I hope so,” Jans smiled at Akko and her new friend Chariot. Akko already knew this was gonna be a great day!
Then an explosion happened outside and they all ran out and saw there was a giant dragon attacking the school!
“Akko! I need you and Haltija to help me!”
“OK!” Akko exclaimed, turning to Jans to encourage her. “Do you believe in your believing heart?”
“I don’t know,” Jans cried, looking down, “The dragon’s so scary!”
Then Chariot did something amazing! She raised the Shiny Rod into the air, and green magic swirled around her, and her outfit transformed into her white witch outfit!
“He doesn’t scare me!” Chariot shouted and jumped onto the Shiny Balai to go fight the dragon.
“Me neither!” Akko shouted and jumped onto the Shiny Hoki to follow her.
Seeing the two brave witches fighting together inspired Lotte so much that she yelled, “I DO believe! I believe in you Akko and Chariot!”
With the power of Jans’ belief Akko and Chariot were able to prepare the Shiny Arc together!
“Noctu Orfei Aude Fraetor!” Chariot screamed, raising the bow.
“Anata no risō-tekina basho o mezashite doryoku suru!” [A/N: This is a translation of “strive for your ideal place!”] Akko screamed, drawing the string back with her.
“Shiny!!! Arc!!!” They both screamed.
The bow of light fired, and the arrow hit the dragon, and it blew up! The day was saved!!
“Thank you Akko! And thank you Jans!” Chariot celebrated. “I know I can always count on you!”
“Of course you can!” Akko yelled. “Because we have a believing hearts! And a believing heart-”
“Is your magic!”
Notes:
Thanks for reading!! Don’t forget to comment your favourite bits! And I hope you all liked meeting Haltija! I mean, Jans! ;)
And always remember, a believing heart is your magic!
Aaand post!
Akko slumped back into her chair, satisfied. Another chapter finished, and she’d managed to introduce Lotte’s character seamlessly!
Wait.
Akko clicked on the published chapter, skimming down it quickly. Kuso, she’d accidentally referred to Jans as Lotte once. Lotte had specifically asked her not to do that! And after she’d left such nice comments on the first hundred and twelve chapters!
Akko needed to edit quickly, she couldn’t leave it up where Lotte could see her mistake. She scrolled down the page, dragging her mouse over Lotte’s name and replacing it with Jans. Phew!
Wait, that wasn’t where that sentence had ended previously…
Akko realised in horror that she’d just deleted half of the chapter.
Kuso! She had to go and paste it back in again. But wait, if she did that, then it’d undo the name change! Every second she left not hitting ‘Update’ was a second that Lotte could be clicking on her fic and seeing Akko’s screw up.
Nothing for it, she’d have to publish as is, hope no one saw the chapter with half the text missing, then quickly edit it back to normal. Easy, right?
Approximately ten minutes later, Akko had uploaded the chapter with every line duplicated, uploaded the chapter three times, and for one horrifying moment thought she’d deleted her fic entirely. “Please, Kami-sama, I don’t ask for much, honest, just work, thanks,” Akko rambled as she shut her eyes and pressed Update again.
Her eyes opened.
The chapter looked fine.
She’d even fixed Lotte’s name!
…Wait, Chariot called Jans “Haltija” in the middle of the chapter. Dammit, why was she such a screw-up!? More to the point, Akko was pretty sure if she tried to delve into the black magic of AO3’s update system again, only catastrophe awaited. She’d just have to hope no one noticed.
Akko hopped onto her bed, her laptop landing next to her with a bounce. 11.37 pm. Too late to go ask Lotte to hang, but she wasn’t that tired. Besides, her first lecture was at ten tomorrow, so she could go to sleep around one or two and still get the full eight hours, right?
Halfway between riding the high of another successful chapter and the shame of having messed up Lotte’s character’s name twice, Akko decided to take her mind off things the only way she knew how.
She scrolled to the top of her fic, clicked to the “Mahou Shoujo Shiny Chariot” list, and applied her filters. Her own fic was at the top of course, aaaand-
Nothing new. The most recent fic on the list was from July.
Akko slumped back, staring at the ceiling in despair. Did Lotte have any idea how lucky she was that NightFall was the third most popular fandom on the site? Akko wondered how it would feel to have her beloved fandom be that active once more. Leisurely perusing the dozens of new fics each day as if it was a fancy banquet, enjoying the many samples of everything to her taste, rather than having to worry about broadening her filters just to be able to read something new.
But then it’s not like reading Angst was gonna make her any less upset than she was right now.
Ah well, at least she could go re-read some old favourites. Or maybe go for a rewatch? It’d been a whole month since she’d last seen season 2, the DVD was round here somewhere…
Akko did not sleep for eight hours that night.
Akko stumbled into class, wincing at the way all eyes turned to her in silent judgement as she tried to sidle inconspicuously into the room at 10.17 am. Damn Lecture Hall LN-AN 207 and its lack of a side entrance! She quickly mumbled an apology and dashed to an empty spot nearby, opening her bag and—Kuso! —she forgot her laptop. No wonder her bag felt so light. Weird that she hadn’t noticed, but then her sleep addled brain had forgotten her jacket too and she’d already been running so late that she had to just walk through anyway and wow October in England was actually kinda chilly and then she’d forgotten that it was Wednesday not Thursday and had nearly walked into Computer Lab LN-4 for the Intro to Computer Animation class tomorrow then had to dash across campus just to get to this class on Visual Narrative and—
“Hey.” Akko turned to the girl sitting behind her. “Can I borrow some paper? I forgot my laptop.”
The girl shrugged, tearing a page from her book and passing it to Akko. At least she always had a pencil on her.
…
Why wasn’t her pencil in her pocket?
Akko nearly screamed.
It turned out her pencil was actually in her other pocket. Unfortunately she only realised that after half an hour of staring at lecture slides with her eyes glazing over, hunched over a single blank sheet of paper.
The lecturer had definitely noticed. Professor Finnelan’s eyes turned hard every time they drifted over to Akko’s seat, but thankfully she hadn’t interrupted herself to give Akko a more individually focused lecture.
Yet.
Akko still flushed thinking of that time in the first week where she’d seen Akko doodling in her notebook and informed her that Intro to 2D Animation was in three hours time, thank you very much. This had led to Akko deciding not to bring her notebook and just taking what few notes she did on her laptop and, really, Professor Finnelan only had herself to blame for the fact Akko was in this predicament in the first place, if you thought about it.
The hour mark arrived. Finnelan overran, again, and they were finally allowed to take a five minute break. Akko stretched a little, not feeling too stiff due to having ran half the way to class in the first place, and pulled out her phone.
She skimmed through Twitter. Nothing new, Boris still a prick. Her phone buzzed, a dropdown appeared indicating she’d received a new email from AO3. Probably Lotte’s review! Or maybe someone else! Or even another kudos!
Akko double tapped with glee, discovering that her second guess was right.
Unfortunately.
Lady Beatrice left the following comment on A Witch’s Adventure:
This is dreadful.
I have written hundreds of thousands of words for Mahou Shoujo Shiny Chariot, and yet I can scarcely find them when it comes to describing my utter disdain for this piece.
To begin, you tagged your work as “Chariot/Croix,” yet Croix features in barely a quarter of the chapters, and in those serves a completely secondary role to Chariot and your original “character.” What token gestures you made to refer to any kind of romance between the two is completely negated by your obvious dislike for Croix as a character, to the point where it almost appears that you would rather join the throngs of “Chariot/Reader” works. Either remove the tag, or make some kind of an effort to actually represent the relationship, I don’t care which.
Note that I used quotations when referring to your original “character.” This is because the “character” could scarcely be more obvious a self-insert short of you literally giving her your own name. Usually, I would hesitate to use the term “Mary Sue,” as it is a gendered term deliberately used to demean the work of young women in the mainstream pop cultural consciousness. However, I have no such compunctions when it comes to your character of Akko, as she is possibly the most blatant example I have ever seen.
I do not know which is more depressing, that you have written yourself to have absolutely no flaws and be “Chariot’s best friend,” or that you constantly give yourself character traits to make you more alike to Chariot. From her clumsiness—imitating Chariot’s behaviour in the first two seasons—to her identical list of abilities (criminal, in a universe with so many creative powers to draw from), and even to the fact “Akko’s” repeated use of gratuitous Japanese mimics Chariot’s overuse of French in her custom spells.
That said, I will, at the very least, credit you on your excellent Japanese. Given the above, I assume it is in fact your first language, but considering the quality of your fan fiction as a whole I wouldn’t put it past you to fail with even your own native tongue.
This is to say nothing of your myriad of other mistakes. In just this chapter, you repeatedly confuse your new character’s name with the screen name of the friend you based her on. And might I just say if I were said friend, I would be extremely offended to be associated with this work in any capacity, never mind in such a pathetic manner. Furthermore, your use of French is consistently dreadful, your constant mid-chapter author’s notes are laughable, and your grammar is simply atrocious.
In conclusion, either spend the necessary time and effort to improve your craft, or move to another fandom. I love Shiny Chariot too much to see it tainted by work such as yours.
Posted: 2019-10-02 11:03:17 GMT (0000)
Akko’s mind went blank as she read and re-read the message. She noted idly that class had restarted. Professor Finnelan’s lecture droned on in the background, completely tuned out by the fog in her brain as she read LadyBeatrice’s comment for the sixth time. Or was it seventh. Did it matter.
Kagari—Akko focused on the paragraph about her character, reading it over and over—Kagari!—Each time she looked at it she could feel the anxiety bubbling in her gut, like watching a horror movie where she knew the ending but couldn’t tear her eyes—
“Kagari!”
Akko snapped up from her phone. Professor Finnelan was glaring at her.
“I asked you a question, but you seemed more engaged with whatever it is that’s on your phone. Would you care to share with the class what had you so enthralled?” Finnelan asked, causing a few chuckles to ripple out through the class. “Or perhaps, would you like to share your thoughts on how this clip conveys the emotion of the character, like I asked?”
Akko’s eyes drifted over to the screen, still in a haze. “He’s smiling.”
“How astute,” Finnelan commented drily. “Would you care to elaborate? What is it about this man’s emotion that is being communicated through the medium of animation that could not be communicated if it was a still image?”
“It’s… more dynamic…” Akko mumbled.
“Such incisive commentary. Walt Disney himself couldn’t have said it better.” She turned her gaze off Akko. “Would anybody else like to offer a more detailed answer?”
A few hands went up, some guy a few rows over answered but Akko wasn’t listening, her eyes falling once again to “This is dreadful.”
“Professor,” Akko squeaked out weakly. “I gotta go, sorry. Feeling kinda sick.”
“While I’m sure we will all miss your genius observations, don’t allow me to keep you.” Finnelan waved her hand dismissively. “Off you go now. Do remember to start your assignment, it’s due in week five.”
“Yes, Professor,” Akko mumbled again, lifting her bag and trudging towards the exit with her head down.
Her sudden exit left Akko with one immediate problem: where to go. She didn’t want to just sit on a bench moping, not least in case one of her fellow students or—Kami-sama forbid— Finnelan saw her there.
She could just go back to her room, of course, but there was something about moping in bed over a mean comment on the internet that pricked at her pride. Silly, she’d already bailed out of a lecture because she was moping over a mean internet comment, but there was something about the idea of curling up in bed before midday that seemed like a bridge too far.
Maybe it was just cause she knew that if she was away from any prying eyes, she really would start crying. Honestly it was weird that she hadn’t already.
Akko trudged through campus, eyes towards the ground. Thankfully it was mostly empty, half an hour at least before lectures let out and the central square filled with students rushing to their next class. Maybe she could go get lunch early? She’d been hoping to bump into someone at Supernova, but right now the concept of a completely empty bar was significantly more appealing. Maybe she could even day drink, wouldn’t that be a laugh.
She stumbled through the doors of the Supernova Bar, and nearly crashed straight into Amanda as she did so. So much for completely empty.
“Yo watch where you’re- oh, hey Akko!” Amanda immediately whiplashed into a grin, raising her hand for a high five.
Akko half-heartedly raised her own, barely even making a smack as her hand hit limply off Amanda’s. “Hey.”
Amanda’s eyebrows raised. “You alright dude? Not looking yourself.”
“We’ve met twice,” Akko mumbled as Amanda turned round to follow her back into the bar.
“Yeah, and the first time you challenged me to a race around the lake then shoved me in when I was about to win.” Amanda laughed at the memory.
“Huh, Lotte told me you tripped and dragged me when you fell,” Akko said.
“Details, details. Not like either of us were sober enough to remember.” Amanda waved her off. “Seriously though, not like you to be this down. You don’t gotta talk about it if you just wanna stew or whatever.”
Akko shrugged, settling onto a couch. “Someone was shitty to me on the internet, no big deal.”
“OK it clearly is, but I’ll drop it.” Amanda flung herself down next to her. “Normally I’d offer to fight whoever it was, but if throwing hands online was possible I’d be, like, permanently in a scrap, you get me?”
“Guess we gotta be grateful for small miracles,” Akko said.
“Wow, such assertions on my character.” Amanda pressed a hand to her chest, wounded. “And you were the one who was so cruelly saying we were only mere acquaintances just moments ago.”
Akko side-eyed her. “Fishing for compliments, eh Amanda? Want me to admit we’re totally best friends forever?”
“If you don’t mind.” Amanda grinned, wrapping her arm around Akko’s shoulder. “Anyways, you wanna grab a bite? I’m guessing you didn’t just come in here on the off-chance of my phenomenal company.”
“Yeah, was gonna grab myself some chicken wings or something,” Akko said with a shrug, going to stand.
“Aight, you want barbecue or spicy?” Amanda asked, standing ahead of her.
Akko narrowed her eyes. “I’m sure I can tell the bartender what I want myself, when I pay for my own lunch, Amanda.”
“The hell you will.” Amanda set a hand on Akko’s shoulder, returning her to her seat. “What drink you want? I can see if they got sake.”
Akko shook her head. “Nah, lecture at two. Just grab me a Coke or something.”
“Aye aye.” Amanda saluted, heading to the bar. The girl on till was fairly pretty, and Amanda immediately propped an elbow on the bar, leaning on her hand with a smirk as she ordered for the two of them. Akko rolled her eyes, silently blessing whatever form of bro code it was that Amanda operated on which prevented her from hitting on Akko in the same way.
That was one of the weirder things about being in England, how casual people were about the whole gay thing. Sure, Akko’s bisexuality was no secret to either her parents or the couple of friends she had back home but it just wasn’t… talked about. It never came up. It very pointedly never came up. The thought of so casually making bedroom eyes at a pretty girl, like Amanda was doing right now, still felt incredibly alien to Akko. The fear of rejection was bad enough with boys, never mind the fear that a girl might view her with revulsion for even asking in the first place.
The girl behind the till giggled at something Amanda said, and Akko couldn’t help but think of all of those cute fanfics she’d read where Chariot was the pretty barista or bartender or whatever, and Croix the lonely recluse who fell for her.
She pulled out her phone again.
This is dreadful.
She knew she shouldn’t look. It hurt her every time she did.
This is dreadful.
Why was she so drawn to it? Was it like that call of the void thing? The way you couldn’t help but imagine jumping when you stood upon a precipice. Akko’s parents always told the story of how she, at age two, had run and stomped around the reinforced glass of an observation tower, jumping over and over upon the invisible plane separating her from a plummet to Tokyo’s streets.
This is dreadful.
“One Coke, for the lady in the anime shirt.” Amanda sat down opposite her this time, dropping the can in front of Akko. “Avery said our food should be five minutes or so.”
“Avery?” Akko snapped up from her phone, as if she’d been looking at something she shouldn’t have.
Amanda gestured over her shoulder towards the bar, where the pretty serving girl was looking towards their table. “She’s looking, right?”
“We’re the only ones in, Amanda,” Akko said.
“That’s not a no,” Amanda said, grinning.
Akko didn’t grin back, letting her eyes drift back to her phone.
“Yo.” Amanda’s fingers snapped in front of her face. “Eyes up, Akko. Every time you look at that screen you look more and more like shit, y’know?”
“Wow, okay boomer.” Akko laughed, trying to deflect.
“Good one, but I’m not buying it,” Amanda said. “You’re looking at whatever shitty message you got that’s put you in a funk, right?”
“…Yeah.” Akko conceded.
Amanda’s smile turned sympathetic. “Y’know they call that ‘digital self harm.’ It’s a whole thing, people can’t stop looking at mean comments online. Some kinda fascination to it.”
“Didn’t know it had a name,” Akko said, not meeting Amanda’s eyes but not looking at her phone either.
“For some folks it gets so bad they’ll do stuff like, say, a gay person looking up ultra-Christian Facebook groups talking about how we’re all gonna burn in hell or whatever.” Amanda trailed off meaningfully. “There’s something in your brain that makes you think that stuff that hurts you is more true. It’s not.”
Akko’s Coke opened with a hiss. “Thanks, Amanda.” God that sounded so hollow. She looked up, offering Amanda a smile to try and indicate that her appreciation was more genuine than her crappy empty voice was making it sound.
“No bother, you’d do the same.” Amanda shrugged.
“Just gonna say again, this is the third time we’ve met,” Akko said.
“Am I wrong?”
“That I’d open up to you about some of my deepest traumas just to help cheer you up cause you were upset?” Akko said, raising an eyebrow.
“Wow if you think that was a deep trauma, wait til I start talking about my mom!” Amanda laughed loudly.
“Oof,” Akko said, because really, what could she say to that?
“Sorry, I’m making this more awkward aren’t I?” Amanda offered apologetically.
“It’s fine,” Akko said. “Just wish I wasn’t in such a mess over someone insulting my wri- insulting me.”
“Order twelve!” came a call from elsewhere in the room.
“One sec.” Amanda hopped up.
Akko let her gaze wander around the bar. It was pretty cozy, covered in couches and huge tables and booths aimed to accommodate the large crowds that students usually gathered in. Hell, it was in that booth right over there that she’d first met Amanda. She’d been sitting with AnimeSoc at a Freshers’ Week night out, trying to chat to the small German girl next to her when a loud American had practically jumped onto the table, informed her ,“Conz don’t talk, but she likes them mecha shows, if that’s what you’re askin’,” and finished downing her pint. All in roughly one motion.
Her plate of wings landed in front of her with a clatter, Amanda diving onto the couch already halfway through a mouthful of burger. “Sho-” she swallowed, “like I was sayin’. If someone’s being a dickhead, it don’t make what they said more true just cause it upset you, alright? Way I see it, you got two plays.”
She raised a fry, gesticulating at the air. “Option one, you delete the message, block ‘em, go back to your merry weirdo-free life. Option two…” She pointed the fry in another arbitrary direction. “You do what I did with my mom.”
“Which is?” Akko could probably guess.
“Nuclear option. Gun to a knife fight. You one up ‘em with the nastiest, pettiest, bitchiest message you got in you.” Amanda’s grin turned savage.
Akko’s answering grin was every bit the same. “Hell yeah.” She whipped out her phone again.
“Woo! Get ‘em!” Amanda cheered as Akko’s finger darted across the touchscreen.
Reply to LadyBeatrice:
To begin, fuck you!