This wasn't fair.

Sugar aggressively wiped a tear from his face.

Why did he have to get stuck with such a lame Mana type? He knew his mother didn't really care about that stuff, but he did. She always had such a calm approach to everything, saying that stuff like lineage and legacy didn't matter, it was one's skill that mattered. As if!

And even if it did: being a stupid Mineral Witch put him at a disadvantage already. He was going to have to use more Mana to do spells and—

"Are you done?"

Sugar lifted his gaze to meet the bored eyes of a certain white Persian cat.

"What do you mean, 'are you done', Why are you here? Aren't you... the headmistress' familiar?"

"... wait. You can hear me?!"

"Um." Sugar paused, slowly realising the gravity of what he had revealed, before trying to give his most casual smile,"yes?"

The cat blinked at him, before her mouth stretched into a smile.

"I see, you're one of those kiddos. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell on ya."

Sugar breathed a small sigh of relief. A familiar was magically bound to any promise they made, so he knew he was safe.

"Thanks, miss cat."

"I have a name, you know. It's Mimi." the cat sniffed, "well, at least you stopped crying now. I can't stand the sound of children crying, especially when I was sleeping so soundly..."

Sugar slowly lifted his head and looked around the corner, just to see a sign that said: Headmistress' Office. He had been too concerned with finding a place without people that he hadn't even noticed he was here.

"So I am," he sniffed.

"Hmph, took you long enough to notice," Mimi said, preening her paws, "You're really just like your mother, y'know?"

"Y-you know my mother?"

"Hun, who doesn't know your mother?" Mimi said with a bored yawn, "but if you really must know, your mother and Bea were in the same graduating class."

"Bea?"

Sugar's attention was now long-departed from his previous predicament, now fully engrossed in this story about the connection between his mother and the headmistress.

"Ah, it's just a nickname I use for Beatrix. But still, it is quite humorous, fufu."

"What's so funny?" he said cautiously

"To think the way I meet both of you is because you both had a little tantrum..."

✧༺✦✮✦༻∞　　∞༺✦✮✦༻✧

"That's not fair!"

Sybil Thorn slammed her hand on the desk, sending a fluffy white cat skittering off back to the comfort of her witch's lap, hissing all the while. This seemed to make her realise the violence of her accident, and she sighed, her hand slowly balling up into a fist, "Sorry..."

"But still, Headmaster Kingston, I really don't think it's fair that I have to be in detention too, I was simply trying to clean up the... mess that Beatrix made."

She gave a sharp glare to the pink-haired witch, who was currently comforting her familiar, before turning her gaze back onto the bespectacled headmaster. His moustache was curved upwards in a slightly amused smile, confusing Sybil, but before she could say anything more, Headmaster Kingston made his reply:

"Miss Thorn, while I do understand where you are coming from, you still used an unclassed spell, which is highly dangerous." the middle-aged man said gravely.

"In addition, I think that Miss Nightblood might benefit from your presence here. Her solitary detentions seem to be having little to no effect on rectifying her behaviour. A good influence like you might change that. I have also taken into consideration the reasoning for your actions, and I can promise you that this detention will not be reflected on your report. That will be all." he said, walking to the door.

"But, Headmaster, wait!"

However, it was too late. Mr Kingston had already shut the door behind him, and was most likely out of earshot. Sybil flopped down onto an empty chair.

"Argh! This just isn't fair!"

"You done having a hissy fit, princess?"

Sybil turned to glare at the smirking figure of Beatrix Nightblood, her feet kicked up onto the desk in front of her and cigarette dangling from her fingertips. She was dressed in rather alarming clothes for a student at such a prestigious magic academy such as Scarwood: a heavy denim jacket covered in many patches, ripped jeans, and a shirt for some human band called Nirvana. Though, for such a punk and troublemaker like Beatrix Nightblood, it seemed only natural.

"You. I wouldn't be in trouble like this if it wasn't for you... and your damn glitter bombs!" Sybil levelled her accusing gaze, but Beatrix's eyes only twinkled with amusement.

"Not my fault that you don't appreciate my genius," Beatrix laughed, gently stroking her familiar's fur, "besides, princess, we're in this together now, why not make the most of it?"

"What on earth do you mean?... and stop calling me that!"

"Ha, don't deny it, Thorn, you are a princess, walking around Scarwood like you own the place, talking like your words are gospel."

Sybil's eye twitched.

"Just stop with the stupid nickname."

"Can't be helped, I'm far too fond of nicknames."

Beatrix gently placed her familiar on the desk and walked over to the window. She looked out of it for a few moments, before a strange smile came over her face, and she flung open the window, sticking her head out, as if she was assessing the wind.

"Hmm, from experience, it usually takes Ol' Kingston a few minutes to get to his office and order one of the teachers to guard the lawn on this side..." She turned back to Sybil, a devilish grin on her face, "Hey princess, you think I can make the jump?"

"What, are you insane?" Sybil hissed, jumping up, "Or worse: actively suicidal?"

"Pfft, I'm not going to actually jump. Well, I am, but I'm not gonna die from it. Don't tell me Miss-Straight-As doesn't know how to do magic without her precious magic staff."

"Of course I know how to do that, but... just what are you planning to do?"

"Jump out, then perform a simple floating charm. Not too big that I start floating away, but enough to soften my landing, then run off before anyone notices me and that's that: detention averted!" Beatrix looked back at her companion, a triumphant smile on her face.

Sybil's head hurt at the mere thought of how many rules that sequence of events broke.

"What? I'm not going to let you do that. Headmaster Kingston gave me a job, and that is to not let you do stuff like this." she charged forward and grabbed Beatrix's arm, "We are going to stay right here and just wait this out."

Beatrix just laughed.

"Come on princess, don't lie to me, I saw your little tantrum. I know you want out of this as much as I do, so, why don't you come help me? I'll do the floating charm, and then you can cloak us in an invisibility spell so that old geezer doesn't realise we pulled a fast one on him, how does that sound?"

"That's not—"

"Or is the princess too scared of heights? I see how pale you get during flying class."

Sybil growled, screwing her eyes shut.

"Fine. We'll do your stupid plan."

"Now, that's more like it." Beatrix said with a cunning grin, hopping up onto the window ledge, "So, princess, let's get out of here, shall we?

✧༺✦✮✦༻∞　　∞༺✦✮✦༻✧

"My mom? Having a tantrum?" Sugar tried to imagine it, but his brain simply refused to conjure up the image.

"I don't see it." he finally said, with a grimace.

"Hmph, well, in her defence, she was no much older than you are now," Mimi said with another haughty sniff, "But that is wholly beside the point. What I'm really trying to say is that disappointment is pretty par for the course. You shouldn't let it get to you."

Mimi strutted over to where Sugar was sitting, and plonked down right beside him.

"So you should stop crying over whatever you're crying about."

Sugar frowned at the cat's rather harsh tone, but he supposed she did have a point.

"Thanks, I guess."

"It's no biggie. I'm always up to talk to someone other than Bea all day. She's lovely, but we've been around each other long enough that there really isn't much new stuff to talk about anymore, fufu."

"I should probably get going back to class... how much trouble will I be in?"

"Hmm, you have Ignatio, correct? Ha, you won't be in much trouble. He'll probably be the one apologising. He's always hated conflict and confrontation, even as a little boy..."

Sugar nodded at the cat's words, slowly realising how much of a loon he must seem to anyone passing by, which thankfully, no one had.

"Sugar! There you are!"

Welp, jinxed it.

The boisterous figure of Knight soon descended upon the two. His face, originally carrying a worried look, now boasted one of his signature lopsided grins.

"Looks like I was right! You would be hiding somewhere sunny! I even found you with another cat!"

"Another cat?" Sugar raised his eyebrow.

"Well, obviously, you're not a cat... but you know what I mean!" he pulled Sugar up, "Now come on, we need to get going back to class! We gotta make our wands."

Sugar looked back to farewell the headmistress' familiar, but she was nowhere to be found. Probably got spooked by Knight. And as Knight continued to talk his ear off, Sugar didn't exactly blame her.

✧༺✦✮✦༻∞　　∞༺✦✮✦༻✧

"Mimi, where have you been?" Beatrix looked up from the documents in her hands, levelling her gaze at her familiar.

"Just satiating a curiosity. The same one you have, fufu."

"It's not a curiosity..." Beatrix sighed.

"Hmph, sure. I still don't know why you care about her, when she left you to rot—"

"Mimi, that's enough," Beatrix commanded with a glare that could burn through the walls.

"I've already been promised into not speaking about it with others, now I can't even talk about it with you? Pity."

┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐

𝔸𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣'𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖

└─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

Headmistress Nightblood was quite the troublemaker when she was younger, hehe. That certainly changed...

We'll get to see more of these flashbacks in the future, to see how the adult characters were like as teens. Also if Mimi hadn't signed a magical NDA with Beatrix, she would 100% have blabbed everything about Sybil and Beatrix's past to Sugar, and we can't have that! There wouldn't be any sense of mystery then...

Also, best way I can describe the relationship between Mimi and Beatrix is like sister, except one is no-nonesense, the other is a wine aunt. No prizes for guessing who.

~Viva