"Professor, you have yet to tell me where we are heading?"
"Oh, my apologies, Diana. Well you see, we are going to Blytonbury to pick up some people. I believe you heard about the news that there will be some new additions to our staff members."
"Yes, I've heard. If I recall correctly, it has to do with security?"
"You are correct. The people that Mistress Holbrook accepted are from the Demon Slayer Corp. Repeated sightings of demons keep rising all over the world for the past 5 years." said the red-haired professor with a grim look.
"How many people came here, the Demon Slayers I mean?" asks the young blonde, as they reach the end of the Ley Line.
"I'm not quite sure, but there should be at least dozens of them since they would be guarding our school and Blytonbury, both places are quite a large land to cover." They both land at the gate of the Blytonbury train station.
"Professor Chariot, when will they be arriving? And how will we identify them?" the young British girl turns toward the older woman.
"The headmistress said that they all would be wearing a fox mask and - Oh look they're they are!" The older witch points out a group of three, all wearing fox masks with various different markings and patterns, as they got a closer look they saw the three had a certain kind of uniform on, the only difference where the color of their robes, that they wore over their uniforms, they each held a suitcase in one hand and the other hand was resting on the visible handle of their swords, that were securely strapped by the belts on their waists.
"I thought they would look more intimidating, they just look like normal human girls playing dress-up. How are they supposed to protect everyone in Luna Nova AND the citizens of Blytonbury." The two witches thought.
"Are you two the ones that were sent by Luna Nova to pick us up?" Approached the middle girl with the white smiling fox mask with two red stripes under each eye holes and what could be described as a third eye on the forehead, surprising the two witches with her perfect English.
"Y-Yes we are, my name is Chariot Du Nord, and are you perhaps Miss Ats-Atsuki Kika-re?" Utterly butchering the poor girl's name, the older witch cringed at her poor pronunciation. "Please forgive me, I'm horrible at pronouncing foreign names."
"It's alright, and it's Atsuko Kagari but please call me Akko." Giggles the brunette, she gestures to the two girls behind her "This is Chihiro Agatsuma," Bows the masked dirty blond. "And this is Mirai Hashibira" the masked black haired girl only nods. The brunette then turned her attention to the younger witch. "And who might you be?"
The blond witch puts her hand on her chest and proudly states "Diana, Diana Cavendish, the future heir of the Cavendish family. It is a pleasure to meet you, are we waiting for the rest of your team to arrive?"
"Nope, there's only the three of us and we're all good to go." The brunette simply stated.
"Ah, I see, so then, let's all head to the Ley Lina terminal." so the two witches and the mysterious Demon slayers started walking towards the old building on the hill, which was covered by various different plants and vines, and at the top, there is a very old tree, covering the sides of the building with its roots.
As they approached the terminal, they saw a ginger-haired girl carrying a large bag, obviously too heavy for her as she struggled to go up the stairs. The ginger then failed to see the rock in front of her and tripped, as she fell with a startled yelp and closed her eyes shut, bracing herself for impact and inevitable pain of falling face first. Yet the pain never came, curious she opened her eyes, her face only inches away from the hard pavement, she then felt a strong grip around her waist slowly and gently pulling her and setting her on her feet. She turned around to thank her savior, but when she did so, she was face to face or rather face to mask with a masked stranger, she couldn't utter a single word let alone a surprised shriek, she was too engrossed in the beautiful crimson orbs the stranger had for eyes.
"Are you alright?" the stranger asked her softly.
"I-I am now..." She could only reply, but her mind was going a thousand miles per hour 'It's just like how Bell and Edger met in the first book, and this person's eyes are a living definition of how Annabel Creme described Edgar's eyes: surreal yet refined, warm yet cold, gentle yet powerful, and authoritative... OH MY GOD, am I like Bell, and is this masked stranger my Edger?' thousands of questions and fantasies filled the girl's head and she had kept staring at the brunette's eyes and failed yet again to notice four other people coming up to them.
"It's a good thing she caught you, Miss Yanson." The not so sudden appearance of the older witch had startled her, snapping out of her stupor.
"Miss Yanson, huh, well you should be more careful of your surroundings, that would have been a really nasty fall, ya know." The masked brunette then started gently dusting off the ginger witch.
"Th-Thank you... my name is Lotte Yanson, but please just call me Lotte. And you are?" The ginger witch asks.
"Atsuko Kagari at your service and these two are my companions Chihiri and Mirai." The brunette introduced with a slight bow, and the two masked girls behind her merely waved or nodded.
"Sorry to interrupt but at this rate, we might be late for the ceremony." The blonde witch steps in.
"Oh my, you're right Diana, we should start moving." The older witch turns to the ginger girl, "Lotte, would you mind helping us, by giving our guest a ride on your broom?"
"I don't mind."
The demon slayers had taken a seat behind the three witches, Chihiro behind Ursula, Mirai behind Lotte, and Akko behind Diana. The ride through the Ley Line was relatively peaceful, as they got closer to the end of the tunnel of ethereal green and yellow light, the Ley Line then started to violently shake and tremor.
"Why is it being so cranky?" The freckles face ginger yelps out, as she and the rest of the witches try to steady their brooms.
"It shouldn't be like this, not unless -"
"Are any of you carrying any salt!?" The blonde witch interrupts her teacher, as she grunts, trying to control her broom.
"No, but we do have pickled plums." one of the masked girl shrieks.
"Then throw it away quickly, before it's too la-" yet again the older witch got interrupted, as they were trusted off their blooms and collided with another witch, bringing them all out and off of the Ley Line.
Now all six of them and another witch were falling down from the sky, their brooms were too far to reach and the ground was getting closer and closer by the second, luckily the blond witch and the professor quickly whipped out their wands and chanted a quick smell, creating a giant cushion on the ground.
When they finally hit the ground, the witches groaned and looked around, they were surprised to see the masked girls were on their feet and perfectly calm, observing their surroundings.
"What is this place and where are we?" The brunette asks.
After a little more looking around the older witch says "We are in Arcturus Forest, the Forbidden Forest."
"Why is it forbidden?" The brunette tilts her head to the side.
"The Forest Of Arcturus, a holy place protected by magic trees and beasts, legends say once lost, even a witch has trouble getting out." the ginger witch shivers, her eyes getting teary. "Forget making it to the ceremony, we might be stuck here forever."
"Don't worry girls, I can get us out of here but we will be late for the ceremony though, come on let's gather our stuff and find our brooms." As they started to search for their belongings, they realized just who they had bumped into, it was a gloomy-looking girl with long mauve-colored hair that covered the left side of her face, and the one visible eye was a color of a dark red, similar to dried blood.
The new witch spoke in a low, monotone voice, "Do you guys think, you'll be able to beat a Cockatrice?"
"What makes you ask that, Sucy?" The shy Finish girl asks.
"I don't know, probably because we are right in front of a giant chicken hybrid." The girl was now known as 'Sucy' deadpanned, pointing to the giant cockatrice head, ominously looming over the girls.
"Dear Jennifer, please be with us." The blond staggers, suddenly feeling pressure on her shoulder, the heiress turns around to face her offender. Azure blue clashed with scarlet red. "What are you doing, we need to find our wands to protect ourselves or at least run!"
"Calm down, I got this." The brunette turned around to face her friends, "Could one of you give me a boost?"
The black-haired girl, known as Mirai stepped forward, the two slayers quietly nodded and walked toward the Cockatrice. "What are they doing!? They're going to get themselves killed." The older witch tried to protest but got interrupted by the other masked girl putting her hand in front of the young professor.
When the witches first met the young demon slayers, they couldn't truly understand why they were sent here. The three girls looked like normal teenage girls, and their supposed leader's voice sounded too nice to even harm a fly. But when they saw the display in front of them, they understood why exactly they were sent to protect them, why the cheerful brunette was their leader. When the black-haired slayer gave a leg up to their leader, she unsheathed her sword in a blink of an eye. The brunette moved at an unspeakable speed, the witches' eyes failed to comprehend what exactly happened. At the time the girl landed, the cockatrice's head fell to the ground. With one last slash, all the blood that once covered her sword was cleared, she slowly and steadily put her sword back in its sheath. As the body of the lifeless magic beast fell down with a loud thud, dark crimson rained down on the brunette slayer, her mask and her uniform were now fully drenched in blood. She cheerfully turned around on her heels to her companions and "Well, that was messier than expected. Now that the threat is eliminated, let's find a way out."
None of the witches knew what to say, so they just silently nodded and started their search. The witch named Sucy quietly went to the body of the now headless corpse and plucked a handful of feathers, all the while cackling evilly.
The rest of the group found their wand one by one. When the four witches found their wands, they decided to make a quick teleportation spell to school, since they had enough people to cast the spell with.
The girls managed to finally get to their destination, they were teleported in the dead center of the main hall, where the entrance ceremony was held (or in this case, about to be held). Students were just starting to enter and take their seats, the Headmistress and professors were talking amongst themselves a few seconds ago, but now all attention was on the newcomers.
No one knew what to say, they're clothes were all disheveled and dirty from falling thousands of feet from the sky and crawling through the woods to find their wands. But that was not the worst part, the worst part was that one of them was completely covered in blood, yet still somehow looked calm as ever.
Akko quickly made her way toward the headmistress, she politely bowed and introduced herself. "Sorry for our appearance, Headmistress Holbrook. We had a little trouble on the way."
'Calling a Cockatrice a "little" is a huge understatement.' The witches deadpanned.
"There's nothing to worry about dear, besides I'm the one who is supposed to worry, you and your team came all this way from Japan for us, and we are truly grateful." The headmistress gave a gentle smile. "Though I never expected the Demon Corp to send someone so young. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you, Miss Kagari?"
With that simple question, everyone's attention was drawn to the brunette demon slayer. It was already quite obvious that the girl in question was young, but no one knew exactly how young she was. So the witches that had accompanied the young slayer were eager to know the answer, eager to know how old the girl was.
"I turned 16 this summer, but please don't let my age cloud your decision. I have years of experience, so your school is in capable hands, trust me." they did not expect the young slayer was that young, they thought that she was at least in her early twenties or anything but a highschooler.
"Of course I trust you. I was merely curious as to know about the child prodigy who became a Hashira at the tender age of 14, there isn't an ounce of doubt in me about your capabilities, your title alone is proof enough." Holbrook got a bit closer to the brunette. "Let me clean you up." She waved her wand and magically all the blood just washed away. "Now girls, please take your seats. The ceremony is about to start. Oh, and Miss Kagari, about the other agreement."
Atsuko sighed and made her way to the stadium, where all the other Luna Nova professors were sitting, she sat next to a French woman with short lavender hair and teal eyes.
The Headmistress was coming to the end of her presentation. "Before I finish and let you girls be on your merry ways, I would like to make an important announcement. Once every week, on Friday. Every student is required to come here, after class before dinner, and sit for a lecture. This lecture would count as an extracurricular class for Demonology, once a month you would be tested to see if you paid any attention to the lecture. As you all probably know, the sightings of demons had drastically increased, so the board wants all students to know as much as possible about Demons. So I am proud to announce that we will be having 3 of the demon corp members as our security team, so the students of Luna Nova and the citizens of Blytonbury will be in the care and protection of these young women." The three members standup and either bowed or nodded, as the students and staff applauded. "So now, I would like to invite Miss Kagari to the stage to give a speech, as both as your new Demonology Professor and the leader of the security team."
Atsuko stood up and made her way to the now-empty podium. She stood there, her eyes quietly scanning through the sea of students in front of her. Akko sighed and gently removed her mask, as she did so, she heard multiple gasps and even whispers. It was no surprise to her, how the students reacted when they saw her face. Atsuko had dark crimson eyes that resembled an endless inferno, her skin was a bit tanned but also somewhat pale, these were all normal descriptions of an attractive girl but there was one that that stands out like a sore thumb. When Atsuko was born, she had a very distinct feature/birthmark on her face. The birthmark was located right under her left eye, there were two lines coming from under her eye, that resembled two pretty nasty scars over her eyes or she would straight up look like she's crying tears of blood, the marks were it was back that slowly faded to blood red when it got closer to her eye, she did not suffer any health problems, so thank heavens for that.
The irony of this whole situation was that only Atsuko herself thinks that her birthmark looks weirdly ominous, while the others around her stare at her with awe, not judgment. Everyone in the central hall thought, that the brunette was the pure definition of Japanese beauty and that her mark only makes her look like she was from a fantasy world, even a certain British blond couldn't stop being mesmerized by the sheer beauty, she could only stare in wonders as heat rushed threw her body and face.
"Hello, my name is Atsuko Kagari, and as the Headmistress had told you, starting today I'll be your Demonology class professor and the head of security. Since today is Wednesday, our first-ever class would be held here in 2 days, I would like everyone to bring a new notebook for this class and of course something to write with. But enough about classes, I would like everyone, students, and staff to be at their respected rooms at sunset. No one is allowed outside of their rooms past sunset, and I know for a fact that some will go past curfew and sneak out to raid the kitchen or something, so for our own safety please travel in groups. And if there is a matter of importance that requires your utmost attention then please seek out for our help so we can chaperone and/or guard you against danger. Now this concludes my announcement and please take the buddy system seriously, this goes for both student and staff." With that, Atsuko slipped on her mask and turned around and went back to her pace with her teammates.
The headmistress took her place at the podium and said a few more things to the students, while the students looked like they were paying attention, they were actually in a daze still mesmerized at the beauty they were faced a few minutes ago. The entrance ceremony ended and the students went to their dorms, while the teachers and professors stayed behind to talk to the demon slayers or more specifically to Atsuko Kagari.