It all started easily enough. A madman with magic came after a family, and killed the parents with only the child being spared through the god's own luck.

An old man with the ambition to rule the community he lived in with an iron fist left the orphan with her magic hating relatives, intended to retrieve her when she was ready to start her magical education. The only person he left as a guard for the girl was a woman who was unlucky enough to be born in a magical family, but was unable to access her magic.

What the old man didn't count on was the fact that while Lily Potter ne Evans was a witch, she also possessed another power that even he had never heard of.

Lily Evans was a Meister. Her sister had been born with the weapon gene, which she passed to her son.

Since Petunia Dursley was terrified her beloved son would turn out to be exactly like his aunt and cousin, she convinced her husband to move them to Death City in the hopes that the two could learn a more suitable profession other than magic.

And now, our real story begins.

Aurora was not very happy. While she was thrilled that she didn't have the same classes as her awful cousin, she still had to deal with her guardians at night. She was also the youngest meister attending the Academy, which meant it opened her up to a lot of teasing from her classmates.

Fortunately, none of the teachers had a problem with her hiding in the library for hours on end. After all, the paper exams were mostly a formality.

At Death Weapon Meister Academy, the most important thing were the practical lessons.

There was only one tiny catch.

Aurora didn't have a weapon partner. Her specialty was mostly blade type weapons, but all the good ones were taken. Or they refused to partner up with someone so young.

Which meant she spent a lot of time in the library reading. Thanks to that, her intelligence jumped by leaps and bounds.

"Witches are people born with a power called magic. While you are required to hunt and consume at least one witch's soul for your weapon, we prefer it if you only go after witches that actually cause trouble. All around the world, there are secret communities of witches (both male and female) that do not cause any trouble and live normal lives like us," said Sid.

From behind her, a student raised their hand.

"Yes Ox?"

"Are witches allowed to enroll at the Academy?"

Sid looked at him sharply.

"While it is our job to preserve the peace and hunt witches, there are some cases when a witch has enrolled and become a successful Meister or Weapon. Though the only time it's allowed is if the witch in question has followed the rules Lord Death has set down. And if they have never eaten a human soul."

"So witches aren't evil?" asked another.

"Most of the witches you encountered in the field usually are. But the best policy is to determine if you are facing a run of the mill witch or one you can hunt is to wait and see if they attack you first. If they attack you without probable cause, then it is acceptable for you to hunt them. Otherwise you are recommended to leave them be."

Aurora raised her hand.

"What is the easiest way to tell if the person you are facing is actually a witch, and not a Wiccan?"

Sid stared at her. Mostly because it had become very clear how much time the girl had spent in the library. Very few of the students would ever notice the difference between a witch and a Wicca practitioner.

"The most common type of witch that you may hunt usually invoke their powers using a simple rhyme that tends to be related to their bound familiar. A few have a rhyme that is based on their power, but such witches are rare. The ones that disguise themselves best, which are part of the magical communities I have discussed use a stick that they call a wand. If you somehow find yourself in a situation where you have seen something even remotely magic related, they will often send someone to erase the memory of the event," said Sid.

Aurora read the book with open amusement. It only grew when she read the author.

Who would believe that Excalibur was so vain as to write a book about himself?

It was as she was reading the book that she failed to notice her cousin sneak up behind her. He sneered and grabbed it from her hands.

"What's a freak like you think you're doing?" he asked.

Aurora winced, then an idea came to her. It was a cruel, spiteful one, but then again so was her stupid cousin.

"Hey Dudley, did you know that anyone who can beat the holy sword can graduate early?" she said suddenly.

Dudley hated the classwork, and barely managed to pass the practicals. To make matters worse, he didn't even have a proper meister, which angered him to no end.

"Where is this...holy sword?" he asked.

"That book there tells you exactly where to find him," she told him.

Dudley hated reading. It was one of the reasons he avoided the library like the plague.

"Or I could ask an upperclassmen to take you there," she suggested.

That appealed to him.

It took little convincing for the older student to lead Dudley to the cave. Of course when her aunt learned why her son came back with broken bones and an irate letter from Excalibur to Lord Death, she wasn't very happy.

But things came to a boil when her son complained that they were planning on kicking him out of Shibusen.

He was a perpetual headache to everyone, and none of the teachers would vouch for him. His grades were so bad that it would have been a miracle for him to even graduate with his class.

Whereas every teacher who had Aurora absolutely loved the girl. She was attentive, followed orders and even helped the other students with their homework. The only complaint they had was that she spent far too much time in the library to be healthy and kept skipping classes for no reason.

Oh, and she didn't have a partner yet, but most thought that was because the girl wanted a proper Japanese katana instead of the broadswords.

Petunia knew exactly what she had to do to help her son. She would help him in getting a witch's soul. She didn't even like her niece anyway.

"So if I eat the freak's soul I can stay in the Academy?" asked Dudley, trying to think.

"The letter said that the only way you could stay was to get at least ten Kishin souls or one witch's soul. And Aurora is a witch."

Dudley didn't know how to react to that news. Neither of them realized that Aurora had heard the entire conversation. She hid in her small room to think.

I'm...a witch? Then why did they accept me in the school? I always thought mom was a meister. And male witches can't pass the magic gene...I think.

As she sat there, she heard the door open.

Apparently Petunia wanted to kill her sooner than she had thought.

She had three options.

She could run away through the window and hope to survive the fall. She could let her aunt kill her and suffer with living inside her fat cousin. Or she could attack her aunt and never come back to the Academy.

She took the lamp from her desk and shattered the glass. Petunia's look of rage fueled her jump. Something inside of her cushioned the fall, and made the glass avoid her. She did a perfect duck and roll, and ran for her life.

She had no idea that someone had seen everything that had happened. Someone who could have protected her from her aunt, had she just asked for help.

Lord Death felt saddened that Aurora felt the need to leave Death City just because she found out the truth. The girl was likely the strongest meister in a generation, yet she didn't feel safe in the one place where she could actually find peace.

All because of the other half of her heritage.

It wasn't the first time that Death wondered whether sending Lily Evans to that school was such a wise idea. If he hadn't sent her undercover to make sure that the witches in their precious magic societies were a threat, she would have lived.

Aurora paused, breathing heavily. Unlike her cousin, she had adjusted quickly to the more physical exercises at the Academy. Four years of running from her obese cousin and his little gang of idiots had served her very well.

She was the fastest girl in her class.

Dudley still couldn't believe that people kept asking him to set them up with her. Even she didn't understand why they were so interested in someone like her.

She looked at where she was. She had been running for several days, and had absolutely no idea where she had gone. Then she sensed running water and started walking.

It took her another two hours to find the water. There was only one problem. It was a waterfall that ended in a hot spring. The water fall wasn't strong enough to dilute the sulfurous water. Still, a soak would do her tired body good.

She almost drowned when the warmth put her to sleep. If it wasn't for the fact that she woke up from being unable to breath, she would have died right there.

She choked, coughing up water. It was then that she realized someone was there.

She looked around carefully, and found her clothes. She hated wearing them because they all used to belong to her fat cousin and hung off her skinny frame badly. They tended to show bruises a little too well.

She tried to find who had intruded on her soak, and it took ten minutes before she bothered to look up.

It was a human male with a sword at his waist. She could only hope he didn't see her in the spring.

"Who are you?" he asked.

She looked at him, and tried not to burst into tears. The wound her aunt had left in her soul was still too fresh.

"My name is Aurora," she managed to get out.

"Have you come to attack Angela?" he asked seriously.

"Who? I have no intention on attacking anyone!" she protested.

He looked at her hard, then turned. If she wasn't after his charge, then he wasn't going to bother her.

For the next week, Aurora hung around the waterfall, having discovered a small cave behind the sheet of water. While it wasn't too cold, it also wasn't very comfortable. At all.

For some reason, the man from before had apparently figured out that she was still around, and had a soft spot for young children. Every once in a while, she would wake up to find some fruits or vegetables next to the spring. She considered the chance that he was trying to poison her, but years of living with her horrid aunt had taught her to eat practically anything if she had to.

She had been living in the cave nearly a month when her body finally protested to her current living arrangements.

The cave was cold and damp at night, and she had developed a high fever. She had walked outside the veil of water to try and find something to lower her fever...only to collapse without warning.

When she woke up, she found herself face to face with the man from before. And a little girl with a gecko or lizard on her hat.

"You're awake!" chirped the girl excitedly.

"Where am I?"

"Mifune found you at the stinky pond and brought you to the house!" said the girl.

"Mifune?"

The man from before looked at her. Then went back outside.

"What's your name?" asked the little girl.

"Aurora. My name's Aurora."

"That's a funny name. Rhymes with Pandora, like in the book Mifune reads to me!"

Aurora looked at the book in question. It was a collection of Greek mythology.

"You like to read books?" she asked.

The little girl nodded.

"My name's Angela, and I'm a witch!"

Aurora smiled. If she hadn't learned that she was born a witch too, it would have bothered her. But unlike that idiot Dudley, she actually liked to play with little kids.

Mifune walked in with some strange concoction.

"Drink this."

She looked at it with confusion in her eyes.

"Fever reducer," he said simply.

He was surprised she didn't grimace at the taste. Then again, she was the only child he had ever met who always ate the vegetables and fruits he left her.

After a week (her fever had broken two days after Mifune had found her) she quickly realized how lonely Angela must have felt. Mifune wasn't exactly a conversation person. Then again, so long as she didn't try to hurt Angela or hunt her, he could care less if she stayed around.

Of course even he was surprised to learn that Pandora (Angela had started calling her that because it was easier to remember) could use magic.

Every night, Pandora would read to the little witch who treated her like family without question. The two learned how to cast magic together.

Pan Pan Pandorian Pandemonium!

The shadows under the tree collected under Pandora and she began to float. A fellow witch had explained why they used odd rhymes to use their powers. Which was why the first thing Pandora tried on her own was the power of flight.

Angela was on top of Mifune's shoulders watching. She had mastered hovering, but she didn't have enough magic just yet to actually fly.

After about five minutes her concentration was starting to slip. Until she fell ungracefully onto the ground with a thump.

"You flew Nee-chan!"

Pandora grinned. Then reappeared behind Angela with a pop.

"BOO!"

"Eek!" she squeaked with a laugh.

Mifune was quick to put the girl down before he got dragged into the game of tag.

Much to his surprise, Pandora was having a positive effect on Angela. It had become quickly apparent that Pandora wasn't used to being a child. And that she was far too used to pain for her age.

Once, when she was cooking dinner (she was rather good at it, and Angela actually ate her vegetable concoctions) the knife had slipped and she had a rather deep cut. It had bothered him greatly when the girl didn't ask for help, but rather went into the bathroom and expertly bandaged the wound before finishing the cutting.

She didn't even flinch while she wielded the rather sharp knife. It had been that incident alone that had him decide to keep her around.

Then there was the fact that the girl had actually asked him to teach her how to properly use a sword.

She was a little too good at it, even though she had freely admitted that while she was at the DWMA, she had only used a wooden one.

It made Mifune wonder what her life had been like, that she was so willing to accept living with a Witch, even one as young as Angela.