Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nene walks deeper into the forest she saw Rui go into. “Rui?! Tsukasa needs you back for rehearsal! Where are you?”

She stumbles upon a shaded clearing where there are three humanoid figures surrounding a curled up dragon.

The figure with light pink hair tied into a ponytail seems to be conveying what the dragon is saying to the familiar purple haired person. Nene recognizes it as Rui and he seems to be thinking very hard. Before she can call out to him, the third figure seems to rush forward toward her rapidly, as if they were flying, and gets all up into Nene’s face.

“Stop right there! State your name and how you got here into the fairy forest!” The bright pink haired fairy points in her face, with her wings flapping rapidly to keep her afloat so they remain within eye contact.

“I’m Nene! I was just trying to find Rui because we have a rehearsal coming up soon!” Nene hurriedly speaks out.

At the sound of his name Rui turns towards Nene and gives her a wink before turning back to the dragon in front of him.

The pink fairy sees this and decides that Nene is safe to be let into the area. “Well it seems that Rui is ok with you here, but just to be safe I’ll only let you stay here until Rui is done. It's so you don't get lost on your way back.”

“Airi! Can you understand what Ena’s trying to say?” The light pink fairy yells, and Airi makes her way towards the dragon with Nene trailing behind her, staying a safe distance away.

Nene hears a lot of growling and huffing from the dragon which seems to be named Ena.

“She seems to be distressed. Rui are you done yet?” Airi replies.

“Almost. Mizuki did you get the secret ingredient I asked for?” Rui asks the light pink haired fairy.

“Ena’s not going to like these…” Mizuki holds up some carrots. Both Rui and Ena seem to recoil at the sight.

Rui tries to explain to the growling dragon, “Well you see, it’s a necessary ingredient to the magic-”

“You don’t even use magic! It's as you’ve said before, ‘humans use alchemy, fairies are magic!’” Airi translated for Ena in reply.

“Well does she want to try this without the carrots then?” Rui asks, taking the carrots. The dragon nods enthusiastically. “Nene, step back would you?”

Nene, now brought into the conversation, follows Rui’s directions and stands near the tree line of the clearing, with Airi and Mizuki following after.

Rui generates a large flickering ball of purple light, which gradually turns red. He stares at the dragon’s eyes before hurling the ball of light at her. Suddenly a POOF! sound goes off and steam starts forming around the shrinking dragon. The figure shrinks down to a human size and what's left is a long brown haired girl with the dragon’s horns on her head and a scowl as she stares down at her plain peasant outfit.

Mizuki and Airi shout out for Ena, and the latter tries to reply but only a human made growl comes out. Everyone looks confused except for Rui.

“This is why you had to have the carrots too Ena, this new spell is less intensive on both of us but you do have to eat some carrots to be able to speak.” Rui explains holding up the carrots still. Ena reluctantly takes a carrot to eat and when she's finished she’s able to complain to Rui directly about his methods.

Ena makes a disgusted face once she's finished eating, “Rui you’ve made the worst mistake angering the dragon of the land.”

He laughs in reply, “Well it’s a good thing the dragon isn't here right now isn't it. Or else my hard work would have been wasted and the dragon would have to eat carrots again so soon.” He moves towards where Nene is standing confused.

“You have weird pastimes Rui.” Nene says pointing at the 3 magical beings in front of them, “Befriending fairies I can understand. But dragon shifters?”

“It’s quite complicated Nene,” Rui sighs, staring into the clouded sky above the trees that grant them shade, “We were having quite the picnic before you showed up, so what did Tsukasa want?”

Topic clearly wanting to be evaded, Nene instead explains their troupe leader’s plan for the next few days. Rui nods his head to what she's saying but his mind is clearly elsewhere, whether to rehearsals or ways to make his alchemy more efficient.

By the time they are done talking, the magical beings seem to be done catching up and giving Ena nicer clothes to wear (courtesy of Mizuki). “You said this will last a week?” Ena asks Rui, knowing that he has to go soon. He nods in reply and gives Mizuki a goodbye hug knowing that their future is uncertain.

Their futures are uncertain.

All of them.

Nene just doesn't know it yet.

Chapter Text

“Your children will never be able to reach your status in dragon slaying!”

“You don't think I already know that? The elder is incompetent and weak and the younger is reckless! They will never reach my level at the rate they're going!”

Muffled whines and a small sob can be heard but all the father of the Shinonome siblings hears are the words of the witch in front of him.

“If you can’t trust in your own children to do their jobs, then what will happen when you can’t do yours?”

The witch suddenly grabs the daughter and casts a spell upon her. Her small body tries to wiggle its way out of the grasp holding her still and slowly her body starts to create steam and a cloud forms around her. The witch steps back and watches as the Shinonome father stares at his daughter, becoming the one creature he swore to slay.

“Ena!!” The younger brother yells, with tears down his small face, way before the father can react.

When the witch sees the father finally understand what has been done to his child, “Well, now you must do your job! Who knows how dangerous this young dragon may be!”

“Over there! That's the witch!” A voice from a blue haired knight says rushing over to the house where the magic is happening.

“Ah well it seems that I must get going,” the witch smirks and drops their hold on Ena the dragon. The son and father rush forward towards the dragon, weaponless. They can only hope the second son of King Aoyagi can catch the witch to turn the dragon back into a human.

 ~~~

Several years later Akito finds himself leading a group of wild stray dogs towards him in a forest on his quest to tame a dragon.

He’s left a trail of meat that he bought at the market but all he's brought to him was trouble towards him.

The dogs bark at the knight in training, and he’s seriously considering brandishing his sword at them but he knows that the knight captain’s sister might kill him instead if she found out.

But was Saki scarier than the dogs?

No, the dogs were definitely scarier. As well as whatever caused the shadow over the sun-

A dragon! Akito manages to let go of the meat causing the dogs to jump and pounce at it as he runs for a tree to climb waiting to see what the dragon will do.

The dragon swoops down and the sudden presence of such a mighty beast scares the dogs away. The dragon then looks around only to make direct eye contact with Akito. It tilts its head in wonder and then goes to town on the meat, satiating its hunger.

Akito slowly climbs down the tree and puts his sword away. He holds his hands up in surrender as he walks closer to the dragon who does a head tilt again.

“Ena?” Akito asks, “Is that you?”

The dragon huffs in reply and sits down in front of him.

“So you’re the evil dragon threatening the safety of the kingdom huh.” Akito says, “I didn't think you’d get this big.”

Akito continues to feed Ena what's left of his meat stash, “So you can’t turn back human right?”

Ena gives him the dragon’s version of “what do you think?” And Akito takes the hint.

He continues to ask mundane questions that can be answered with a head tilt until Ena’s head shoots up towards the direction of voices calling his name.

“Akito? Where are you?” The voice of the third in line for the throne prince says. He's accompanied by one other person from what footsteps Akito can hear.

“Don’t worry Ena, I’ve got an idea.” Akito reassures the nervous dragon.

“Toya! I’m over here!” Akito calls out, and the footsteps come faster.

“Woah! Is that the dragon?” He hears Mizuki ask, confirming the second pair of steps.

“You caught the dragon??” Toya asks, surprised at the giant beast seemingly tame under Akito’s gaze.

“Uhm,” Akito hesitates, “Sure! We can call it that.”

As the two newcomers circle around the dragon in awe, Akito whispers to Ena, “Can I tell them? Maybe we’ll be able to get help.” Ena seems to think about it, blinking slowly at Akito. He knows that if this backfires he’ll be forced to kill the dragon, in the name of his family and the kingdom, lest he puts a manhunt on top of his own head.

She finally nods, allowing Akito to disturb the silence.

“So, Prince Toya, Mizuki.” Akito awkwardly says, and the two look over to him, walking over.

“You know how the great dragon slayer suddenly couldn’t kill this new giant dragon right.” Akito starts explaining, “Well that’s because it’s his daughter. And he angered some evil witch so she turned his kid into the one thing he swore to slay.” He looks up at the two, and is relieved to see that they still aren’t about to stab anyone, “Which leads us to now, you see this is my sister, Ena, and my dad is a dragon slayer. I want only you guys to know, since you’ve found me but also maybe you guys could help me find some answers? Or a cure?” Ena huffs and everyone stares at her. “I think she’s got nothing else to say about that.” Akito finishes.

Toya looks like he’s thinking. Mizuki perks up, “Hey I know someone that might be able to help! It may take a while because he’s a part of a travelling acting troupe but I can try to get him when he’s free to look into Ena’s problem!”

“Will he be okay with this all?” Akito and Toya ask in unison, catching the former to be surprised. The prince he's supposed to learn to protect is directly putting himself into danger associating with the dragon.

“I’ll try to pull some strings but we can make some sort of deal about it if he can figure out the problem!” Mizuki replies.

Ena huffs happily and Akito organises a way to get her attention for the next time they meet. Akito’s found his sister again and maybe he’ll be able to prove that he can make a difference in the world.

Chapter Text

“Did you hear? The princess from the next kingdom over is coming here soon!” Ichika says to Shiho who’s busy practising her swordsmanship.

“So?” Shiho asks, taking a break from swinging her sword and looks at her fellow knight for an answer.

“Well, first of all she’s rumoured to be super pretty and that means we’ll have more on our plates working to keep the royal family and the other family safe.” Ichika explains, handing Shiho a towel.

“Another sparkly royal? Don’t we have enough on our hands with Toya? Even captain Tsukasa is getting there…” Shiho sighs, wiping the sweat on her face and following Ichika to a shaded area underneath a large tree.

“Who knows?! Maybe you’ll have to save her from a mysterious monster!” Ichika says playfully.

“A monster? Where?!” An unknown voice says excited from across the training grounds.

“Is that-” Shiho starts,

“Princess An!” Ichika stands up and hastily dusts off her pants and bows with Shiho following behind.

“There's no monster here sadly,” Shiho assures the now less excited princess.

Shiho looks up when the princess waves off their bows and sees that the princess has her hair in braids mimicking a crown atop her head with star hair clips on one side. She's wearing a gorgeous dress that starts darker around her torso and then brightens up to a lighter blue at the bottom.

“Well that’s too bad, hey what are your names by the way? I’m An! Oh well I think you knew that already,” She laughs,

Ichika and Shiho introduce themselves and ask where she’s headed.

“Toya- Wait sorry, Prince Toya said he would be here to pick me up after his training so we could go to town together.” An says, “But I also did catch him being pressed up against a wall by some orange harried knight next to the stables. So now I’m just exploring! My kingdom doesn’t really have all this training ground space at all! It’s so interesting to see.”

Ichika shares a look with Shiho saying, “They’re at it again, huh” and turns to a very accepting Princess An who’s wondering if she can get a proper tour.

The pair give her a tour having a nice break from training all day until they see a neat and tidy Toya power walking towards them. “Princess An,” he says, eyeing the two knights beside her, “Ichika and Shiho, thank you for keeping the princess company while I was occupied. Now shall we go to town? Ichika and Shiho, you're welcome to join as well.”

The knights take up the prince on his offer as they're already expecting more eyes than usual on the prince because of the princess taking a visit.

Once they get into town they visit a bakery where the smell of apple pie is wafting out the door that's propped open. The group spots the brown haired girl with a ponytail and blue eyes currently cashing another girl with brown tied hair and blue eyes who's bought 3 apple pies.

“Honami, what have I told you about using your whole salary on too many sweets? They have pies at the castle too…” Shiho sighs as she spooks Honami who was previously engrossed in her apple pies.

“Shiho? What are you doing here?” She replies but then looks behind her where the prince was, “Prince Toya?! I promise I'm not wasting my money on just sweets… Oh and Ichika is here… And Princess An?! I am so sorry you've had to see me like this, I'm nowhere as presentable as my fellow knights. Would you like a pie?”

The cashier laughs at her doppleganger and welcomes the group to her bakery. She passes around some bread and fruit as toppings and the group finishes their light snack before moving to the next store that Toya wanted to show An.

The flower shop was owned by a blonde girl with short ponytails they found and she was making a small bouquet when the group came in.

“Hello Prince Toya, I see you've brought quite the entourage today! Are you looking for some flowers for the princess?” Kohane asks, and then she spots An peeking from behind Toya.

“Kohane?”

“An?”

The knights look confused at this interaction and spot Toya amused at the turnout. An notices this and points at him, “You better not have some crazy scheme going on in your head Toya. Kohane is a nice girl and I don't want you to break her heart somehow.”

Toya, slightly taken aback laughs at this, “There's nothing to worry about Princess An, I just noticed that one of the days you came back you were wearing the same dress that Kohane is right now.”

Honami is stifling a laugh while everyone is looking at each other in shock, because she's known about this on her almost daily visit to the bakery and she's seen An and Kohane together so she told Toya.

“You know what Toya? Maybe I was trying to steal the princess from you.” Kohane gets up from where she was sitting and picks up the bouquet. “An, will you accept my flowers this time?”

“Yes of course Kohane!” An exclaims as she reaches over the bouquet to pull Kohane in for a hug. She's sticking her tongue out at Toya who's happy that she found a companion to go to when he's busy with… other people (Akito).

And so the group happily chat until it gets late and the princess and prince had to head back to the castle.

Chapter Text

Fire.

Blood.

Swords.

A warm sensation grazed the witch’s left arm where she looked down to see there was blood dripping down her arm from a slice made by a sword a Light One was holding.

“..?” The witch’s mouth opened in the form of the Light One’s name but they only looked angrier.

“Stop what you’re doing at once! Give back ███”

The witch stays quiet.

“You promised you wouldn't let any harm! Now look at ███”

The witch looks higher up to the orange sky. It gets quickly shaded by a large dragon who seems to have blue chains like it was a leash of some sort.

Mafuyu is startled awake by a cold sensation dropped onto her when she realises she's had a bucket of cold water dropped onto her head quickly dousing the fires she witnessed.

“Well?” Her mother asks, expecting a full recap of the prophetic vision she witnessed.

Before speaking Mafuyu checks her left arm for any blood. There was no visible red, but her arm did ache a little. “I saw the dragon and it seemed to have set fire to a town.”

Her mother nods and writes it down on a vision journal she keeps for Mafuyu. “I guess I'll let the ill witch bring up this event with King Aoyagi.”

Mafuyu knew the king would never learn of this information because she knew the ill witch was ill, too sick to leave home and he was not going to be doing any witch ambassador work for the next while. Her mother leaves her alone, sopping wet and cold next to the fireplace where she begins slowly drying herself off.

Staring into the fire reminds her of the sense of betrayal the person in the vision caused to the bright figure in front of her. She wonders what the end of the vision would have been, a fight to the death or a timely retreat after being defeated.

After drying herself off she goes to organise the herbs her mother bought before she asked Mafuyu to conjure a vision. She thinks she’s still cold but it's a constant feeling and the room temperature herbs she's handling don’t bring any warmth to her skin.

“Mafuyu, when I conjure a vision I am seated as a bystander to the events present to deter any bias. Just close your eyes and feel the flow of time you slowly sink to.”

Mafuyu gasps when she finds herself rooted to the ground and a white and long haired girl was surrounded by masked figures who have taken her off the path. She makes eye contact with the bright blue eyes before she sees the glint of a sword aimed at the girl’s head and Mafuyu is thrust back into the present gasping for air on the ground.

Mafuyu feels her heart pumping with adrenaline coursing through her body rapidly.

“That girl..” Mafuyu mumbles before getting up and rushing back into the room by the fireplace to practice more magic theory before her mother finds her lazing around on the floor.

“Mafuyu can you help me pack the carrots up for the market?” Mafuyu’s mother asks which takes her out of her studying trance. She gets up and helps to pack the freshly plucked carrots that get planted and grow within a week because they're magic.

Her mother frowns at a bundled bag, putting her hand over it, “Mafuyu can you take these to be disposed of? They feel rotten.” Mafuyu nods in response and heads outside.

Heading for the composter she spies a hooded figure trying to pull out a carrot. “Rui.”

The hooded figure lets go of the carrot and whips around to the voice.

“I sped up the ripening on these carrots so my mother would throw them out.” She throws him the bag of carrots, “The carrot you were trying to pull isn't ready yet, it’s too small.”

“Thank you Mafuyu,” Rui takes the bag, “I’ll be going now. See you.” He makes his way towards the treeline that surrounds her house.

She goes back inside to see her mother getting ready to take the produce to the market, “Are you ready to go now? I’ll need you to also go and buy some sugar and honey because we’re running out, while I sell the vegetables.”

Mafuyu nods and helps her mother bring the freshly picked vegetables to the market. Once they get there there’s already a long lineup because the witch folk like to use the magical carrots in their concotions or think that eating them helps their magical abilities.

Once the initial rush is finished Mafuyu is sent off to go and get sugar and honey. She goes to a neighbouring stall and gets the sugar and honey when she notices a flash of long white hair out of the corner of her eye.

When she turns she sees a man in grey armour leading the girl she saw in her vision towards the forest. Mafuyu puts her sugar and honey in her bag and follows the two people.

“Miss Witch Ambassador, I was wondering if you could get a message out to your leader…” He leads them off the road and Mafuyu hides behind a tree a little away from them.

“I need to get closer. I don't recognize this place,” Mafuyu whispers to herself. As she moves closer to see where the knight is taking the white haired girl.

“You lead me here just to ask for a meeting with my father?” The girl asks the man who suddenly disappears behind the tree, claiming to have a present, “I hope this is important, I’m on a tight schedule today.” She steps back slowly, turning around to assess where she is, and Mafuyu sees it.

The image from her vision.

Before anybody knows what’s going on, Mafuyu has pushed the white haired girl down, and somehow, defying logic, her hair tied up in a ponytail caught the blade’s edge instead.

“What? Who are you?” The man angrily asks, pulling his sword back and brushing the purple hair off of it.

“I am her protector. You are a threat to the kingdom’s alliance with the witching folk. I ask you to leave us alone so we can go and report to the king now.” Mafuyu lies with a straight face towards the angry man.

“You? The daughter of that overpriced prophet? Don’t joke with me. You two are no match for my swordsmanship.” The man replies, readying his sword for another swing.

The girl behind Mafuyu suddenly blasts a shielding spell in front of them which repels the man’s blow. She then swiftly casts a binding spell on him and leads Mafuyu out of the forest back towards the market.

Once they’re far enough from the man and the market, the girl introduces herself, “Hi, I’m Kanade, I’m filling in the ambassador role for my sick father.”

“I’m Mafuyu, as the man said I’m the daughter of the prophet. I’m sorry for getting in front of you when it seemed that you had it all under control, I was just…” Mafuyu hesitates, “worried for your safety because I saw you walk into the forest with that man.”

“It’s alright Mafuyu, you came in at just the right time.” Kanade replies, “Almost as if you saw it happening before it did.”

Mafuyu shudders in reply, walking shakily next to Kanade, “It was the first time I’ve actually seen something happen by myself.”

“Are your visions usually different then? Like the ones that my father tells the king?” Kanade asks, “Mafuyu?”

It was warm from the fires outside, in the building Mafuyu was pushed into by a Light One. There was no struggle, almost as if the witch accepted the shove onto the floor. The Light One stood over her, tears on their face, asking for answers she couldn’t give.

They made a promise, and they knew they had to take risks.

“Do it, Light One, kill me if you must.”

The Light One takes their sword out and situates it above the witch’s neck, ready for a gruesome slash.

“You won’t do it. You’re too weak.”

The sword falls to the side, the Light One pulling the witch up angrily. “You don’t know who I am ███. I’m letting you go out of mercy.”

The witch falls back and the Light One leaves.

Mafuyu opens her eyes and Kanade is staring up above her with a worried face, “Are you alright Mafuyu?”

Mafuyu goes to stand, and walks forward silently towards the market.

“My mother is keeping what I’m seeing from the king I think.”

Kanade walks up to walk in time with her, “How so?”

“King Aoyagi has not seemed to be concerned with the dragon sightings as of late. Most of my visions have been related to what could happen should the dragon be let loose.”

“Are you concerned about this? Was that what the vision you just had was?”

“I think I should be concerned about it, but my mother doesn't think so. Also I think it was a lovers quarrel of some sort.”

Kanade grabs Mafuyu’s hand, “Would you like to come with me then?” Mafuyu looks at her confused, “You’ll be able to tell the king himself! And you can learn some new magic from other witches that I’ll be seeing along the way.”

Mafuyu thinks for a while, and the pair have reached the entrance of the market once again. She leads them towards her mother’s stall, and gives her the sugar and honey she picked up.

“Mafuyu? Where did you go? I saw you head towards the stall to get this honey and sugar…” Her mother looks at her, and sees that her once long hair was chopped off unevenly, “Mafuyu what happened to you? And oh, hello Miss Yoisaki.”

“Ah, your daughter got caught in the crossfire between a swordsman trying to hurt me.” Kanade answers for Mafuyu.

“Oh my, Mafuyu, I could have never foreseen this happening! Are you alright? I’ll call the king’s guards right away to go deal with that swordsman.”

“It’s alright!” Kanade interrupts again, “He’s bound somewhere in the forest, and he won’t be getting out for a while.”

Mafuyu’s mother turns to the substitute ambassador, “That’s reassuring Miss Yoisaki,” And she smiles, “But why is it that you aren’t leaving my daughter with me and going along on your way?”

Kanade goes to speak, but Mafuyu surprisingly jumps in, “Mother, Kanade has offered to take me with her to the castle. If I go it could help me learn new skills, and hone in my abilities.” Her mother looks at her with a slight frown, “Mother can I go with her?”

The older witch sighs, and shakes her head, “Fine, I guess you can go on this one trip to see how the witch ambassador does things.”

Mafuyu thanks her mother and leads Kanade back to her house to collect enough of her belongings to be set on a journey away from home.

They manage to get in and out without interacting with Mafuyu’s mother again and make their way together to the castle.

Chapter Text

“Shiho!!” Saki runs up to Shiho with a barrelling hug. Ichika is laughing from behind her as she struggles to stand, “Good morning to you too Saki.”

Saki proceeds to let go of Shiho and hugs Ichika and Honami, her best friends in their little group of knights. “My mom said she didn’t need me for the time being so let’s get to training!!” She leads the group towards the training grounds but she spots a familiar blue haired figure approaching.

Shiho groans when she hears, “Shi!” Shizuku walks up to the knights and greets them kindly, “How are you all doing? Is training hard?” Everyone replies that they’re doing fine, and Shizuku smiles, “That’s good! Well I’m here because the ambassador has arrived and invited me to tea.”

“Tell Kanade I said hi!” Ichika says and Shizuku nods at her. “I will, don’t worry!”

The group of knights watch as the witch walks further into the castle and they go to start their training for the day.

“I heard Akito was going to lead training today,” Honami says, “Toya seemed to be busy with his father.”

“Yeah, Tsukasa was also in that meeting too!” Saki adds, “It seemed serious… I hope Akito doesn’t make us run laps around the castle again, it’s so pointless! We aren’t going to need to run that far if we have horses!”

“Well you won’t be able to use the horses if the dragon eats them all up.” Akito joins the group and startles Saki. “Go and run some laps now, we meet back here in 20 minutes to practise with swords.”

Shizuku walks toward the castle gardens where Kanade was waiting for her. When she gets in the vicinity of the plants, she feels more magic in the air than usual. When she makes it to the clearing where the witches usually have their meetings over tea, she finds that the white haired girl is not alone, she’s with a pale faced purple haired witch.

“Hello Kanade!” Shizuku cheerfully greets, “Who’s this? I don’t recall meeting you before?”

“Hello Shizuku, this is Mafuyu, the prophet’s daughter. I asked her to tag along to learn some new things that she might not have been able to at home.” Kanade replies and gestures to Mafuyu for her to speak.

“Hello, I’m Mafuyu. I apologise for intruding on your meeting today.” Mafuyu says,

“Oh don't worry! It’s always nice meeting new people. We don't usually talk about secretive topics anyways.” Shizuku reassures.

The three witches continue with pleasant conversation, and never talk about Mafuyu’s visions like her mother told her they would.

“Mafuyu, would you like me to fix your hair?” Shizuku asks, seeing the uneven strands.

“Oh, no it's alright.” Mafuyu replies, “It’s less of a headache with shorter hair.”

“Well before you leave, let me help you straighten the cut at least!”

Mafuyu nods in a grateful reply, and she takes a look into the forest, and her vision is suddenly thrust into the trees.

“Why are they taking her away?” Mafuyu is scrambling for answers, her heart beating out of her chest watching armoured men take ███ away. A Light One is being briefed by a stern looking armoured man that they think the Prince was influenced by her voice and so they're arresting her.

The Light One looks at her as they take their sword. “I’m sorry they need me here now.” Mafuyu feels tears running down her face. “Look after my sister okay? I’ll make sure nothing happens to ███ because I know that the guards are not correct.”

“Why can’t you tell them now?!”

“When we left… They basically kicked us out. They're not going to believe anything I say right now. So I have to regain the King’s trust. But don't worry, I promise! She’ll be safe.”

Mafuyu lightly punches his arm. She’d do it harder but he's put on metal plating to protect it. Her hand tingles.

“Mafuyu? Did it happen again?” Kanade’s voice rings through the silent clearing. Mafuyu nods in reply, rubbing her hand, even though it isn't physically hurt.

Shizuku holds Mafuyu’s hand, “Your hand is fine… What happened?”

“My mother trained me to be the next prophet.” Mafuyu explains, “I got a vision, but I have no clue what the context was this time. I lightly punched someone in armour at the end.”

“Train? How did she do that?” Shizuku asks, curious.

“She had me cast spells that would help to prophesize.” Mafuyu replies, looking down into her tea.

“But did you just cast a spell to see that vision?”

“No?” Mafuyu answers unsure.

“Your mother’s speciality is the gift of prophecy. Those specialties are not hereditary.” Shizuku explains, “Those visions are not normal if your specialty is not the gift of prophecy.”

“Can you tell what her specialty is?” Kanade asks, “It’s not something defensive like me.”

Shizuku holds Mafuyu’s hand between hers and mumbles a soft spell, leaving a comforting blanket feeling on Mafuyu’s shoulders. The grass underneath Mafuyu’s feet grows taller and more vibrant. A carrot also starts to grow until it is ripe for the picking.

“Mafuyu…” Kanade says in awe, “look at your feet.”

The witch in question looks down and she sees the difference in plant quality around her, “plant affinity?”

“Yes. I do think so.” Shizuku replies, letting go of her hands. “There is something fundamentally unnatural I can sense in your magic though, it might be the forced gift of prophecy.”

“Like a curse?” Mafuyu asks, and suddenly all goes quiet.

Too quiet. There are no more sounds of woodland creatures and birds.

Shizuku quickly stands, “I apologise I have to cut this meeting short. Something's happened to Shi.”

“Wait Shizuku let us go with you.” Kanade says, and quickly cleans up the table with a wave of her hands.

After everyone has packed up, Shizuku leads them towards the knights training grounds where they gradually start hearing not the sound of people, but the sounds of animals.

Shizuku speeds up leaving Kanade and Mafuyu behind to see Shiho standing in front of a winded Saki, blocking her from the view of a masked man in armour. There are small birds sitting on top of the other knights in her group, a falcon circling above, and a fox lazily going around her legs.

“What did you just say?” Shiho says angrily, “Can you repeat that for me?”

“Your little squad of weak knights will never make it on the battlefield. Look at you!” He points at Saki, “Can’t even do a lap around the castle without a break!” Saki shoots him a glare and the fox starts to growl.

Mafuyu and Kanade have caught up to Shizuku, watching the girl with the animals take a deep breath.

“I challenge you to a duel then.” Shiho points her sword towards the man. “No armour, no masks, no funny business.”

“No. I want that one.” He says pointing to Saki who seems to have recovered and is sitting petting the birds that landed on her hand.

Shiho moves her body to cover more of Saki, “No. I challenged you, so you’re going to have to either fight me or admit defeat.”

The man gets angrier, and Kanade readies a protective shield spell but Shizuku puts her hand up. The animals are visibly antsy now, ready to do whatever it takes to take the masked man out.

The man huffs in annoyance, “It’s the girl or you’re out of the knights.”

Suddenly a familiar head of orange hair walks to the group in between Shiho and the masked man. “Who’s out of the knights?” Akito comes walking out from inside of the castle, “Why are you not training? Was I not clear about what I wanted?” A small bird lands on his shoulder while he's talking.

“Sir Akito! Your sad excuse of knights should be banished out of knighthood!” the masked man exclaims, and Akito turns towards him with an unsatisfied look.

“That's all this is about?” Akito sighs, “You can't even show your face to us and yet you’re trying to nitpick our legion. Yeah right. Get out.”

The man is startled at the response and tries to reason with him but the little birds that were sitting on the knights work together to overwhelm him in the face with their winged feathers, and shred the mask into pieces with their beaks and feet.

Mafuyu gasps when she sees the man's face, it was the same one that attacked her and Kanade in the forest. Before either witch could react the man is spitting out feathers and cursing. “Who did that! No animal would go doing that on their own!”

Shizuku hides a giggle, and Akito takes him away after seeing Mafuyu’s reaction to be interrogated.

“I need to work on my more offensive skills, he got out of those bonds quickly.” Kanade says out loud, watching Saki latch onto Shiho in a big hug. She seems to be gaining back energy very quickly like Shiho was a human charger. Shiho on the other hand waves goodbye to the falcon and fox and they escape back into the forest.

“Does she have an affinity for animals?” Mafuyu asks Shizuku.

“Ah, yes my sister does have a speciality in communicating with animals. But she wanted to become a knight and I liked the idea of being a witch which is why we are where we are today,” Shizuku smiles at Mafuyu. “Oh! I must go check up on Saki now…”

Shizuku goes to the pair hugging and Mafuyu brushes hair that isn’t there anymore out of her face. “Kanade.”

The light coloured hair girl looks up at her, “Yes Mafuyu?”

“I think I would like to stay with you a little longer than just one trip.”

Kanade smiles at Mafuyu, “Alright. If you’re going to stay with me we better fix up your haircut too.”