Akko Kagari and the Seven Stars

Chapter One: The Star-Born Child

Mr. and Mrs. Kagari, of 1-10-4 Jingumae, were about as perfectly normal as you would expect anyone to be, if they said so themselves. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, though if you asked Mr. Kagari, he would do with some excitement in his life.

Mr. Kagari was a simple office worker that worked at a technical firm for…well, he wouldn't bore you with the details. All he would tell you is that it was a good job that provides well enough. He was a thin, almost gangly sort of man with often unkempt brown hair and round, wire-frame glasses. Mrs. Kagari was just as tall as her husband, but looked less awkward with sleek black hair that seemed to glimmer naturally in the sunlight, often making any who meet her compare her to a true Japanese beauty. Mrs. Kagari worked at a local café called Midori-ya with her old school friends the Takamachis and their children.

The Kagaris were happily in love, almost like constant newlyweds. They had well-paying jobs, a good home in a nice neighborhood, plenty of friends, and a close relationship with their families who would visit them whenever they were in the neighborhood. The Kagaris had everything they could have dreamed of….Except for the one thing they wanted most of all.

Despite their seemingly perfect life, the one thing that Mr. and Mrs. Kagari wanted most in this world was a child. Not to say that they haven't tried. For the first few years of their marriage, they had tried very hard to have a baby and resorted to almost any method they could think of to successfully have one. Mrs. Kagari had even asked advice from her dear friend Momoko, who had given birth to two daughters and a son. Despite everything, their efforts bore no fruit; Mrs. Kagari simply could not get pregnant. They had gone to several medical examiners and were told that there was nothing wrong; in fact, according to one doctor, Mrs. Kagari should have already had at least three children by now. It was something that simply could not be explained. Their dreams of a family all but shattered, Mr. and Mrs. Kagari eventually gave up and accept their childless fate.

But as they were soon to find out, fate had other ideas.

When Mr. and Mrs. Kagari woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that this day was different from any other. Mr. Kagari hummed as he picked out his favorite tie for work (the one his wife says makes him look like a stuffy old man), and Mrs. Kagari gossiped away happily on the phone as she teetered a five-layered cake she had made overnight for work.

Neither of them noticed a large, spotted owl peering through the kitchen window.

At half past eight, Mr. Kagari pulled on his coat, picked up his briefcase, and tried to kiss Mrs. Kagari good-bye but missed, because Mr. Kagari bumped his wife's shoulder by accident, causing her to stumble and nearly drop her prized confection. Mrs. Kagari all but shoved her husband out the door at that point; she loved him dearly, but she swore he had two left feet. He got into his car and backed out of the drive.

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar – a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Kagari didn't realize what he had seen – then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a purple-furred cat with an exaggeratedly curled tail wearing a tiny witch's hat standing on the corner of the street, who indeed appear to be reading a map. The cat seemed to notice his stare, looked back at him unblinkingly, and then waved its tiny paw at him with a Cheshire grin. Mr. Kagari didn't know what he was thinking at the moment, only waving back at the cat on reflex. As Mr. Kagari drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now walking past the drive to his home as Mrs. Kagari trotted down the walkway, also giving her a little wave, which Mrs. Kagari returned without appearing as perturbed as her husband.

Mr. Kagari shook his head, dumbfounded. There was only one reasonably logical explanation: magic.

Magic was nothing new or secret; it had been around since the early medieval ages where everyone turned to magic for the answer to everything. Such things like witches, warlocks, dragons, demon, and angels were all common knowledge, but they had been in sharp decline since the turn of the century when humanity started inventing more advanced technology and the need for magic became less and less. There were those who say that magic is a waste of time and should be left buried in the past, but Mr. Kagari never agreed with them. Magic was an amazing thing full of wonder and enchantment. Mr. Kagari often dreamed of being a magician himself when he was a boy, though he never even learned a simple card trick.

But on the edge of town, childhood fantasies were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks and pointed hats. People with wings sprouting from their backs, halos over their heads, and horns twirling from their skulls. Even people who couldn't even be classified as human and more like dragon-humans or dullahans. There was beyond a shred of a doubt that they were all magical beings! But why would they all show up like this all of a sudden? As far as Mr. Kagari could remember, all types of magical beings had kept themselves separated from normal humanity – something about them not being able to use magic and such outside of certain places or something of that nature. But as he looked up and down the street, he could see that there were dozens, maybe even hundreds of these people just walking around like it was a normal. Mr. Kagari wasn't the only one who seemed to notice this peculiarity; other normal people were looking at them with the same strangeness and some even gave them a wide berth.

The traffic moved on a few minutes later, Mr. Kagari arrived at the office parking lot, his mind moving away from magic and back to statistics.

Mr. Kagari's work desk was in the corner of the office on the ninth floor, right next to the large wall of windows overlooking the street. He found it very hard to concentrate on statistics when there were angels and demons swooping past in broad daylight as well as many of his co-workers who found themselves staring out the window instead of their screens, pointing and gazing open-mouthed. Most of them had gone their whole lives without ever seeing magic, so this was more than overwhelming. The only one who seemed focused on their work was his neighbor, Miss Kobayashi, who continued diligently despite all the ruckus. Mr. Kagari chuckled to himself as she stared at the screen with her cold, dead-fish eyes.

"Pretty strange morning, wouldn't you say, Kobayashi?" asked Mr. Kagari.

"Is it?" said Miss Kobayashi, her eyes never wandering from the computer. "Eh, I guess so."

"Only you could find magical creatures parading down the street uninteresting," said Mr. Kagari jokingly.

"I guess I'm just used to it," said Miss Kobayashi.

Mr. Kagari had a pretty normal afternoon once the excitement of flying magical creatures had died down. He worked his fingers tirelessly writing up new reports and accessing the workload while often asking Miss Kobayashi for help when there was a problem he couldn't understand. It was soon lunchtime and he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a ham and cheese sandwich from the diner. But when he walked inside, he was surprised by the large number of people there, and most of them were like the other magical beings that had been running around all day. Mr. Kagari wasn't sure if he should be uneasy or annoyed since this meant the line to the counter was now longer than normal. He joined the queue nonetheless; he was hungry, after all.

The line was slow to move when he heard a group of gossiping women in witch's hats and robes gossiping at a nearby table. He only managed to hear a few snatches of their conversation before he reached the counter:

"Magic is now free across the world – "

" – finally walk in broad daylight – "

" – thank the Star-Born Child – "

Mr. Kagari couldn't follow what they were saying, but he could only guess that it had something to do with why magical beings are now walking around. Magic was now free across the world…Well, it wasn't any of his business anyway.

He dashed back across the road, already running short on time since he had to wait in line, hurried back up to the office with the sandwich in his mouth. He wanted to put the whole magical world behind him and focus on his statistics again since he knew his boss would chew him out if it wasn't done by the end of the day. Unfortunately, that became a lot harder when he walked back to his desk and saw his desk neighbor being smothered to death by a blonde-haired woman in a maid's outfit. The strangest thing about this woman besides the fact that she was a maid standing in the middle of the office hugging the most stoic woman in the room was the fact that she had horns growing from her head and a large scaled tail poking from under her dress. Miss Kobayashi looked mildly annoyed, at the…dragon maid, but she didn't seem to notice as she was overjoyed by something.

"Tohru…," said Miss Kobayashi in a low voice when Mr. Kagari was close enough to hear. "What are you doing at work? I told you to stay home and hold down the fort. That's your job as a maid."

"I know you did, but I just couldn't resist coming to see you, Miss Kobayashi!" Tohru the Dragon Maid squealed with excitement. "Especially not on this, the joyous of days!"

"And why exactly is it the 'joyous of days'?" asked Miss Kobayashi. "And why couldn't it wait until I got home?"

"Because it's literally the most magical time in the world to celebrate!" shouted Tohru the Dragon Maid, twirling happily in place. "Our darkest days are finally behind us! The Eclipse Queen is finally defeated and the Star-Born Child has been birthed at last! Magic that was once confined to Ley Lines has now been released into the world! Magic is now free for everyone, which means we don't have to hide anymore! Isn't that great, Miss Kobayashi?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Miss Kobayashi, having largely ignored her speech and went back to work. "Could you back home now please?"

"Why are you so cold?" cried Tohru the Dragon Maid.

Eventually, Tohru the Dragon Maid did go home and everyone went back to work as usual.

Mr. Kagari finished work after five o'clock that evening and walked back to his car in the parking lot where he saw that the streets were still filled with a mingling of normal humans and magical people. He was reminded again of Tohru the Dragon Maid's proclamation: that the magic was now spread across the world and magical beings were free to warder where they chose. Everything seemed okay now, but he knew there was eventually going to be a huge upheaval and people all over the world weren't going to be taking this lightly, especially the government. It was not secret that political figures openly loathed magic in fear of losing power, especially the statesmen in England. Well, there was no point in worrying about it now, Mr. Kagari thought as he stepped into his car and drove home. He would just have to accept what came next.

As he pulled into the driveway of his home, the first thing he saw was the purple cat in the witch's hat he'd spotted this morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall, grinning at him like he was some kind of amusing program. He heaved a heavy sigh and walked over to the cat, patting it on its head; the cat purred at his touch.

"I guess you're the least strange thing I've seen all day," he said to the cat.

Mr. Kagari left the cat on the garden wall and let himself into the house, wondering if his wife had a strange day like his.

As it turned out, Mrs. Kagari's day was even more eventful than her husbands. She had arrived at Midori-ya early to drop off her cake when she had accidentally bumped into a group of witches during her walk. Luckily, the witches were nice enough to use their magic to fix the cake she dropped and even used a levitation spell to help carry it. That was only the beginning of it. All day, she had been serving all kinds of people from angles and demons to vampires, snow women, and succubus. But the real topper was when Momoka had brought her three-month old daughter, Nanoha, to work that morning and the tiny baby ended up blasting a spider-woman that scared with what Mrs. Kagari described as "the pink beam of death".

"Momoka thinks Nanoha might be a witch," Mrs. Kagari told him over dinner. "You should have seen Shiro's face when he found out. At first he was scared because he thought the spider-woman would sue him, but then he was so thrilled that his daughter knows magic. Imagine, if she's already this magical when she's a baby, just think about what she'll be like when she gets older. Momoka thinks she might even get enrolled in Luna Nova."

"That famous magic school in England?" asked Mr. Kagari. "Well, that's pretty ambitious."

"Imagine if we had a daughter that went to Luna Nova," said Mrs. Kagari, her eyes glazing over half-finished meal.

"Yeah…yeah, that would be something," said Mr. Kagari halfheartedly.

They were doing it again, Mr. Kagari knew. Despite trying to find fulfillment in their lives with their work and friends, nothing could replace their desire for a child of their own. Mr. and Mrs. Kagari tried to push the thought from their minds as they cleaned up after dinner and tried to distract themselves with some television just in time to catch the last report on the evening news:

"And finally, magic is in the air, and I mean that in the most literal sense. Many people all over the country have reported strange sightings of non-humans roaming through the streets at all times of the day. Although these Demi-Humans as the local media has been calling them are normally restricted to areas with high potency of magic based on Ley Lines, there have been hundreds of sightings of Demi-Humans in almost every region in the country and – wait a minute, I'm receiving an update, folks," The newscaster reached for a sheet of paper handed to him and read it. "This just in. It seems that these strange phenomenon are not just happening in the Land of the Rising Sun, but in all parts of the world. Yetis buying produce in a Chinese market street. Mermaids surfing in Miami. Americans electing a competent president. It's as if the whole world has been turned upside down.

"In other news, it seems that the United Nations has called an emergency summit in the wake of this magical uprising as some people are calling it. There is much speculation about what details will be spoken at the national summit, but it is known that the Earl of Hanbridge is planning on attending as well. As a vocal advocate of anti-magic regulations, you can bet that the Earl will be making his opinion known. On the other side of the fence, the Duchess Bernadette Cavendish will also be making an appearance representing the Demi-Human side. I can practically see the sparks flying already."

"Guess we're not the only ones dealing with this weirdness as of late," said Mr. Kagari lightly. "Surfing mermaids, shopping Yeti, Americans gaining some common sense – you can definitely tell there's magic at work. I wonder what caused all this."

"Well, I think it's wonderful," said Mrs. Kagari. "Magic is a precious thing. I can't understand why those stuffy old men would want to stifle it."

"A lot of people feel that magic doesn't have a place in the modern world," said Mr. Kagari understandingly. "But mostly it's because a lot of people are afraid of change, especially something as drastic as this. You know there's going to be a lot of hard times ahead before things get better."

"Ugh, why do you always have to make sense," mumbled Mrs. Kagari exasperatedly.

"Because it keeps you from getting arrested for punching a police officer," said Mr. Kagari teasingly.

"That was one time!" Mrs. Kagari yelled. "And you weren't there! He was practically undressing me with his eyes!"

Mr. Kagari laughed as his wife tossed a throw pillow at his face; the subject of the new world ahead temporarily pushed from their minds as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Kagari was in the bathroom, Mr. Kagari crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down the street as though it were waiting for something. It noticed Mr. Kagari staring out the window, turned to him with its usual Cheshire grin, and tipped its hat to him.

Mr. Kagari shook his head and shut the curtains; his day was already strange enough without that cat looking into his window.

The Kagaris got into bed. Mrs. Kagari fell asleep quickly but Mr. Kagari lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last thought before he fell asleep was that even if the world was changing and Demi-Humans were finally coming out was that there was no reason for him or his wife to be worried. The Kagari were about as perfectly normal as you would expect anyone to be….He couldn't see how either of them could get mixed up in anything that might be going on – he yawned and turned over – it couldn't affect them….

How very wrong he was.

Mr. Kagari might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of the road. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two fairies swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.

A woman appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appearing so suddenly and silently you'd have thought they'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's curly tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.

Nothing like this woman had ever been seen in the neighborhood before, but then again, most things today have never been seen in Japan period. She was short, stooped and very old, judging from the faded color of her pale green hair. She wore a red jacket over dark purple hooded dress that brushed against the ground, a necklace of green stones, a white scarf, rectangular lenses, and a large hat. This woman's name was Miranda Holbrooke.

Miranda Holbrooke was busy rummaging in her coat, looking for something. But she did seem to realize she was being watched, because she looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at her from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse her. She chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."

She found what she was looking for inside her pocket. It seemed to be a crystal bottle. She pulled off the topper and held it up on the air as a purple mist wafted from the opening. The purple mist drifted to the nearest street lamp and swallowed the light with a little pop. The mist moved to the next lamp and flickered into darkness. The Light-Eater did this twelve times until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching her. If anyone looked out of their window, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Holbrooke corked the Light-Eater, slipped the bottle back inside her coat, and set off down the street toward the Kagari's home, where climbed up to sit on the wall next to the cat. She didn't look at it, but after a moment she spoke to it.

"I must say, I am surprised to see you here, Blair."

She turned to smile at the cat, but it had gone. Instead she was smiling up at a voluptuous and scandalously clad woman in a very tight dress that effectively displayed her curvaceous figure and her head topped off with the same witch's hat the cat had worn. He short purple hair curled on either side of her face, resembling the cat's tail. She smiled down at the shorter woman with her wide, cat-like grin.

"How'd you know it was me?" she asked teasingly.

"My sweet little Blair, only you would wear such a raggedy hat as a cat."

"It's not raggedy, it's stylish!" said Blair the Witch Cat, pouting with her arms crossed. "You just don't have any sense of style."

"I'm far too old to understand the latest fashion trends," said Holbrooke amusingly. "So, have you been here all day? I would have imagined at girl like you would be off celebrating. I must have passed a dozen festivals and parties on my way here."

"Oh yeah, nobody wasted time celebrating, all right," said Blair, frowning worriedly. "I get why everyone is so excited now that magic once trapped in the Ley Lines has now been freed into the world's atmosphere. This means that Demi-Humans don't have to hide anymore and they're free to use magic wherever they like, but did they have to come out all at once? The humans are wasting no time. I heard it on the news." She jerked her head back at the Kagari's dark living room window. "The world leaders are gathering to get a handle on the situation; especially that damned Earl of Hanbridge. You can bet he's going to do everything in his power to make life miserable for the Demi-Humans."

"We'll worry about that when the time comes," said Holbrooke gently. "For now, let us just bless the Seven Stars that we have reason to celebrate now. After all these years living in terror of tomorrow."

"Eh, I guess you're right," said Blair, leaning against her palms and staring into space. "I guess everyone deserves a little bit of a break after everything that happened. Magic is finally free on the same day that the Eclipse Queen has finally been banished….Or at least that's what people are saying nowadays."

"Let them believe what they want," said Holbrooke. "At least for the time being. You can never tell when the darkness will return. We should just be grateful for this respite. Would you care for an umaibo?"

"A what?"

"An umaibo. They're a kind of Japanese snack I've become rather addicted to."

"Um…no, thanks," said Blair strangely, as though she didn't think she could trust strange foreign snacks. "Anyway, even if the Eclipse Queen is gone – "

"My dear little Blair, surely someone such as yourself can call her by her name? All this 'Eclipse Queen' nonsense – for years I have been trying to persuade people to call her by her proper name: Aradia." Blair flashed her golden eyes at the diminutive woman, but Holbrooke, who was unwrapping an umaibo stick, seemed not to notice. "It just seems like a whole lot of bluster to keep calling her the Eclipse Queen. I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Aradia's name."

"I know you haven't," said Blair, "but you're different. If you ask any Demi-Human on the street who the most powerful witches are, it always comes down to three names: Miranda Holbrooke, the Eclipse Queen, and Shiny Chariot. In some ways, the Eclipse Queen – oh, all right, Aradia, was frightened of you."

"You flatter me," said Holbrooke calmly. "I am getting along in my age and I'm not nearly as powerful as I once was. If anything, I would saying that Aradia or Shiny Chariot could definitely surpass me if they wanted to."

"What're you talking about, granny? You could whoop either of their asses with both hands tied behind your back."

"It's lucky its dark. I haven't blushed so much since Porlyusica complimented me on my new earmuffs."

Blair shot a sharp look at Holbrooke out of the corner of her eye and said, "The Demi-Humans emerging are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone is saying? About why she's disappeared? About what finally banished her?"

It seemed that Blair had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Holbrooke with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" as saying, she was not going to believe it until Holbrooke told her it was true. Holbrooke, however, was choosing another umaibo stick from her pocket and did not answer.

"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Aradia turned up at the Grand Triskellion seal. They said that she was trying to pull all the magic from the Ley Lines into herself, to make herself unstoppable. They're saying that Shiny Chariot went to intercept her. There must have been a very dangerous battle, because the seal was broken last night – the Grand Triskellion was destroyed in the fight. That's why the Ley Lines were shattered and the magic now mingles in the air. It was like magic itself was fighting back. And then…she was just…destroyed. After everything she's done…all the people she killed…Aradia was just defeated…just like that."

"And do you know why that was, Blair?" asked Holbrooke. "Why Aradia, who was considered the most powerful witch of the age, was defeated?"

"People are saying that the Great Witch Jennifer's prophecy had come true," said Blair, trembling slightly. "They say that it was the Star-Born Child, given birth by the seven stars themselves. They say that when the Child was born, Aradia's power somehow broke – and that's why she's gone."

Holbrooke nodded grimly.

"But – but that doesn't make any sense," faltered Blair. "I may not know much about magic as you do, granny, but I'm sure as the sun will rise that there is no possible way that a child could simply be born from magic alone. The greatest witches of every age have tried to create life, but they always failed. And even more than that, there's no conceivable way that a child who was only born for a few moments could destroy Aradia when you and Chariot failed to do it. There's a logical explanation for this, right?"

"I will not pretend to understand it myself," said Holbrooke. "Only Chariot knows what truly occurred at the Grand Triskellion, but she has become oddly silent on the matter."

"Ugh, i should have been there," said Blair. "But instead, I got wrapped up in all that DWMA business in America. If I had been there myself..."

"What happened changed a great deal, both to us and to the world," said Holbrooke sagely. "Whatever Chariot witnessed in that forest is hers to reveal when she feels the time is right." She took a golden watch from her pocket and examined the time. "Chariot is late. I suppose it was her who told you I'd be here, by the way."

"You know old friends can't keep secrets from each other," said Blair with her usual Cheshire grin. "Though she didn't really explain to me why you're here, of all places."

"I've come to bring the Star-Born Child to the Kagaris. They are childless, though the desperately desire one. I think she would be very happy here."

"Wait, you're seriously gonna drop the kid off here?" yelped Blair, jumping to her feet and pointing at the Kagari household. "Don't get me wrong, I've been watching them all day and I think they're the sweetest couple ever. They're pretty nice and they have decent lives and good friends, but it's just so…random! You're expecting the Star-Born Child to come and live with a couple of average humans?"

"It's the best place for her," said Holbrooke firmly. "Mr. and Mrs. Kagari will be loving parents to her, they will raise her right. And when she is old enough, they will be able to explain everything to her. I've written them a letter."

"A letter?" repeated Blair faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, granny, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people are the most normal, non-magical humans I've ever seen. They'll never be able to understand what she is, what she can do! She'll be famous – a legend – I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Star-Born Child day in the future – there will be books written about her – every human and Demi-Human will know her!"

"Exactly," said Holbrooke, looking very seriously over the top of her glasses. "It would be enough to turn any girl's head. Famous before she can walk and talk! Famous for something that happened moments after she was born! Can't you see how much better off she'll be, growing up as a normal girl living a normal life away from all that until she's ready to take it?"

Blair, opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes – yes, you're right, of course. But how is the girl getting here, granny?" She eyed his coat suddenly as though she thought she might be hiding the girl underneath it.

"Chariot is bringing her."

"You think it's a smart idea trusting Chariot with something as important as this. I was her best friend for ten years and she wasn't always the most responsible person. Remember that one potions class where she made a forest of mushrooms that nearly destroyed the school."

"How could I forget – we spent weeks cleaning out the halls," said Holbrooke amusingly. "But nevertheless, it was Chariot who found the girl. It will be Chariot who brings her. We simply have to trust her."

"I'm not saying I wouldn't trust her with something like saving the world and all," said Blair wearily, "but we're talking about a little kid here. You have to admit she can be a little careless and – is that shooting star flying towards us?"

Holbrooke blinked animatedly and turned her head to follow Blair's line of sight. One of the stars in the skies was not like the other; it was glowing a brilliant shade of green and zipping back and forth across the sky like an irritated firefly before plunging in the middle of the street, exploding in a small display of flashing lights bright enough to illuminate the neighborhood. Blair hissed and Holbrooke seemed to take the display in stride as the light dimmed and darkness swallowed the street again. A moment of silence passed and thankfully no one on the street seemed to notice the light show out their windows.

A young woman strode out of the darkness; her short hair was red like a burning flame that matched her heated-red eyes. There was little doubt that she was a witch of great caliber and dressed to match her flamboyant style: a loose-fitting white jacket with exaggeratedly open sleeves and coattails and a short skirt and thigh-highs matched with a flapping red cape and a white pointed witch's hat decorated with a single golden star. In one hand she carried a staff with seven marble-like crystal embedded in the surface and in the other was a small bundle of blankets.

"Chariot," said Holbrooke, sounding relieved. "At last. I was starting to get worried something had happened."

"I actually did get lost halfway across Mongolia," said Chariot. "I had to stop by a trading outpost for directions, and then I had to double time in all the way here. Thankfully, the little tyke fell asleep just as we were crossing the Pacific."

"But was the light show really necessary?" asked Blair dryly. "You could have woken up the entire neighborhood."

"It is fine," said Holbrooke gently, eyeing the small bundle. "So this is really her? The Star-Born child?"

"See for yourself," said Chariot.

She crouched down to Holbrooke's height while Blair leaned forward over the bundle of blankets. She gently unwrapped the cloth to reveal a small baby girl with a tuft of chestnut-brown hair, fast asleep. Chariot cautiously rested the baby against her shoulder and she slid the blanket further down until they could see seven four-point stars marking the child's back in a peculiar pattern.

"Are those - ?" whispered Blair.

"Yes," said Chairot, slowly bundling the baby back up. "The Marks of the Seven Stars. It is undoubtedly her."

"Couldn't you do something to fix it, granny?" Blair turned to Holbrooke.

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the Eastern Badlands. Well - give her here, Chariot – we'd better get this over with."

Holbrooke took the baby in her small arms and turned toward the Kagari's house.

"I can't help but feel that this is all my fault," said Chariot in a small, almost defeated tone of voice. She brushed her hand across the baby's small tuft and gently caressed the girl's cheek. The child unconsciously nuzzled against Chariot's warm touch, grasping her tiny hands around the woman's pinky. "It's because of me that all of this is happening. That she is forced to endure this curse…."

"Hey, that's not true," said Blair gently. "I'm sure that whatever happened, you did the best you could."

"But it wasn't enough," said Chariot somberly.

Chariot held up her staff in front of her face, staring at the gems that sparkled despite there being no light to reflect upon. Then she grasped the uppermost jewel on the scepter with her fingers and plucked it out of the groove with a sharp snap that echoed in the empty streets. Chariot bent forward over the bundle of blankets once more and tucked the jewel inside next to the baby; the girl turned towards the new touch in her sleep and clutched the gem in both hands.

"After everything I've done, this is the least I can do for her," said Chariot, standing up and taking a step back. "The rest of them will have to be scattered – safely protected until she's ready for the responsibility."

"I think that would be for the best," Holbrooke agreed. "She has a heavy burden to bear…when she is older. But for now…."

Holbrooke, Blair, and Chariot silently stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. Holbrooke laid the child gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of her coat, and tucked it inside the child's blankets. For a full minute, the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Chariot's had gripped her staff roughly, Blair blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usual shone from Holbrooke's eyes seemed to have gone out.

"Well," said Holbrooke finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here any longer. "We may as well go and join the celebrations."

"I don't think I will," said Chariot in a very muffled voice. "I still have a lot of amends to make – a lot of unfinished business before I disappear. Take good care of her, Blair – good night, Professor Holbrooke."

Wiping her eyes furiously on her sleeve, Chariot raised her staff into the sky and exploded in a wave of green, mystical energy, shooting off into the sky to join the twinkling stars and disappear into the night.

"I suppose I'll leave the rest to you, Blair," said Holbrooke, nodding to her. Blair sniffled in reply.

Holbrooke turned, stepped over the low wall once more, and walked down the street. On the corner she stopped and took out the crystal Light-Eater. She pulled off the stopper and the purple mist floated back to the dead street lamps, returning their missing lights so that the road glowed suddenly orange and she could make out a purple-furred cat in a tiny witch's hat curling up to a bundle of blankets on the doorstep.

"Good luck, sweet innocent child," she murmured. She turned on her heel and with a swish of her coat, she was gone.

A breeze ruffled the neat hedge of the Kagari household, which lay silently and tidy under the starry sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. The Star-Born Child rolled over inside her blanket without waking up. Her small hands held closed on the crystal marble beside her and she slept on, not knowing that she was special, not knowing she was famous, not knowing she would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Kagari's scream as she opened the front door to take out the trash, nor that she would spend the next few years raised to be a normal girl with a normal family living a normal life….She couldn't know that at this very moment, Demi-Humans meeting all over the world were holding up their glasses and toasting to the messiah.

They toasted to Atsuko Kagari – the Star Born Child.

Most of those who are reading this are probably coming from my other story, Ben 10: Omnisentience, and are probably worried that just because I'm starting a new story that I'm not gonna work on the other one. Well, that's not true. Ben 10 is still going, it's just that sometimes I lose motivation for one thing and become distracted as a result, which makes it take longer to do. But by writing this story, I can become motivated again to write Ben 10. And I've been into LWA since the first OVA and always thought about doing something like this, but never really had the idea fleshed out until now.

To all those wondering, no it's not going to be an exact copy of the books. It follows a similar guideline, but the entire plotline is completely changed. There is an overarching plot between Akko, Shiny Chariot, and the main villain Aradia that goes in a completely different direction that the HP books. You may have already seen some of these changes because magic is not a secret in this world, Demi-Humans walk freely with normal humans, and there are a lot of political and religious undertones mixed in. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

Next Chapter: The Enchanted Parade