Chapter 12

“They’re not monsters! They’re Feoras and Alan. And neither of them is bad. There’s just been a little mistake, and… Agh!” Feoras lashed his long tail at us, appearing irritated by the way we were darting around him. Because he’d moved so suddenly, Amanda didn’t manage to dodge him, and he hit her on the shoulder and knocked us both off the broom. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” We almost plunged to the earth, but Diana caught us just in the nick of time. Right before we would’ve been dashed to the ground, she circled around beneath us, and we fell onto her broom. “Gweh!” The thin broom hit me right in the stomach so hard, I thought it would knock my guts out. “Would you kindly explain what on earth is going on here?” Diana asked me sternly after she set me down on the ground. Even though Professor Ursula looked nervous, there was a sharp light in her eyes as well. Ooh, yikes. She’s mad for sure. “Well, they’re both Sifla’s friends, you see, and she asked us to…,” I started to explain. As they listened, their expressions got more grief-stricken and stiff, and both heaved deep, deep sighs. “Really, Akko, nothing good ever comes out when you’re involved.” There it was: their go-to line. They both put a hand on their foreheads and shook their heads. I could almost hear them thinking: Good grief. Th-this isn’t all my fault. It’s Feoras’s and Alan’s fault for being stubborn! But I didn’t want to waste time arguing now. “Anyway, we have to stop them. I know they really don’t want to fight each other like that!” “Miss Kagari, how did the end of that song go?” “Huh? Um…” I started to hum. A wish shall become your strength on a blessed night of falling stars. Unless our hearts soften and melt into one, the world will never settle into harmony. That was something the first Sifla had said. Did this happen because they were both hardheaded? Was it because they just wouldn’t get along? Was this punishment? My eyes filled with tears. And when I looked up, I saw that the wrinkles between Professor Ursula’s eyes were deeper than I’d ever seen them. “…These two got it wrong.” “Huh?” “Miss Kagari, you told them the first Sifla’s wish was for the three of them to become one. When she asked what their wishes were, I think she may have been testing them to see whether her own wish had gotten through to them.” “But…they both refused it, so…” Was that why they’d gotten so big? Was it because they’d said they wanted vast power? I was this close to bursting into tears when the professor raised her head abruptly. “Miss Kagari. Do you remember the characteristics of the twelfth tree, the broom tree?” Huh? Seriously? She’s testing me on homework at a time like this?! But I combed through the depths of my mind, desperately trying to remember. “I think it was, um, that it links the human world with other worlds and brings with it a mystical peacefulness…or something like that.” “That’s right. Well done.” Even in a situation like this, Professor Ursula smiled softly. “If used correctly, leaves from a broom tree can act as a medicine and as a healing power. But if misused, it’s just like a drug, agitating the soul and even making you hallucinate.” Whud. Feoras’s foot came crashing down just behind Professor Ursula. “…There’s no need to ask if it’s acting as a medicine or a drug right now,” she said. “Oh no! Then what should we do?” “Unfortunately, all we can do is restrain the two of them somehow…” “No, don’t!” We heard a scream rip through the air. When we turned around, Sifla was standing there. Her face was crumpled and tearstained, and both her fists were clenched. She was shaking. “You can’t do that. Please don’t hurt them!” Professor Ursula turned her intent gaze onto Sifla as the young girl spoke through her sobs. “Oh, so you’re… To think we’d meet like this.” She hugged Sifla by her shoulders as if to give her courage and strength. Sifla clung to the professor. “It was my fault. It’s all because I just waited too long, because I didn’t do anything.” Her tears spilled over endlessly as she spoke. “That dream Akko saw about the first witch, I’d seen it for ages. I knew it was my job to make the two of them get along. But I didn’t know what to do, and I kept waiting, thinking they were sure to understand someday!” Sifla sobbed. “I knew it wouldn’t work. I knew I had to do something, but still I…” I looked at Amanda, but she frowned back at me, shaking her head. “My shoulder took a hit back there. I won’t be able to keep my balance. Riding double like that’d be too risky.” “No…” Just then, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand, Sifla straddled her own broom. “Get on, Akko.” “Sifla… You can ride?!” “Uh-huh. I’m not much of one, but I am still a witch.” “But riding double is…” “…I suppose I’d better help.” Lotte mounted her broom with a wry smile. “You fly by yourself, Sifla, and I’ll take Akko with me.” Nodding in agreement, we all took off together. “Ah, wait, Miss Kagari! Girls…!” Shaking off Professor Ursula’s attempt to stop us, we soared up into the sky. During the few moments our attention had been elsewhere, Feoras’s and Alan’s faces had gotten all scratched up. “Feoras! Alan! Please go back to your old selves!” Sifla was half crying, half chanting a spell at the two of them. But they didn’t so much as twitch. Honestly! After those two swore up and down that they didn’t want to make Sifla sad! Where was the sense in making her cry this hard?! “Mroooooooooowr!!” “Awoooooooooooo!!” As the pair fought each other, howling, their eyes blazed and burned. I saw through them, though: Those eyes were moist. Both of them were crying large translucent tears. One of those giant drops came down right onto our heads. Kabloosh! We were soaking, sopping wet. It was as if someone had dumped a bucket of water on us. And bleh, it was salty. I felt sticky and gross all over. Arrrgh, once those two were themselves again, I was gonna give them such an earful! We’d stopped our brooms with a start, and this time, Alan’s tail nearly slammed into us. But Diana fired off another light at him to keep it from happening. When Sifla heard Alan give a little shriek in response, she looked as if she might faint off her broom. I glared at Diana, who was calmly holding her wand at the ready. “I thought I told you not to attack them…!” “It won’t do any physical damage. It’ll just inflict a little bit of pain. Unlike you, I do have that much control.” “…Rgh.” “But we won’t get anywhere this way. What do you intend to do? I understand you don’t want to hurt them. But if we’re going to stop them, there may be no other alternative, you know.” As Diana spoke, there was no hesitation in her voice. She was right. I knew that. And I knew she wasn’t the type to recklessly hurt people at random. She obviously didn’t really want to do anything like this in the first place. I got where she was coming from: If things went on like this, those two were gonna keep hurting each other, and she wanted to stop them before they got seriously injured. I couldn’t do anything, so I wasn’t qualified to argue. But… But! It was at that moment. “…Elder,” Sifla murmured slowly. “Say, Akko? Sucy’s particularly good at experiments, isn’t she?” “Huh? Oh yes. She is, but…”