STARS ABOVE: Chapter 1

STARS ABOVE

By BHS and AshenDream

A Lucky Star/Puella Magi Madoka Magica crossover

Cover by Hikari-Luv (remove spaces): fav .me /d4w1y0y

***Author's Note: We do not own the LS or PMMM characters or settings, and made no profit from this work. This story takes place at around the same time as the beginning of the Lucky Star anime, at the start of the cast's eleventh-grade year.

10/22/2015: I've made some changes to the first chapter, including a new title and various grammar fixes that I missed when I wrote it in a hurry back in 2011. I think it should be more in line with the rest of the story now. - BHS***

PROLOGUE: The End of Everything

So that's them…

Yes, there's no question about it. They're exactly as Nico's information described. You can feel it too, can't you? The power they possess is incredible... yet it's completely different than anything we've seen before.

I know.

With that much potential energy in one place, they're certain to be targeted.

We'll stop that from happening. No matter what it takes, I won't let it happen again.

You really have learned from your mistakes, haven't you?

It doesn't matter. That's all in the past.

So you claim.

Now, one last time before we begin… give me your word that you won't make contracts with them. No offers, no wishes, and no contracts, is that clear?

I am as aware of the stakes as you are; I see no need to-

I said, is that clear?

Very well. I give my word that I will not make, nor will I attempt to make contracts with these girls.

Good.

I still don't understand why that was necessary, though. Contracting them would be foolish and irrational, no matter the circumstances. If they ever became Puellae Magi… it would mean the end of everything.

CHAPTER 1: Something Weird is Happening

2007

Ryouou High

"… and it really stinks, doesn't it?"

"Oh, you're right, it's horrible!"

"I bet it smells worse than Kagamin's burnt cookies!"

"Sh-shut up! I'm getting better at making them, you know!"

"You just keep telling yourself that, Kagamin. Meanwhile, try putting some sugar in the dough next time, huh?"

"Why you…!"

Four friends sat around a lunch room table, laughing and occasionally trading verbal barbs with one another. The speaker, a teenager with twin violet pigtails and sharp blue eyes, was currently threatening to bludgeon the girl to her left with her empty bento box.

That girl, who let out a good-natured chuckle while attempting to dodge out of the way, was astonishingly short for her age, looking more like a grade-schooler. A long curtain of blue hair extended almost to her feet, and she had an odd, almost catlike smile.

"Onee-chan, calm down… people are gonna start staring!" On the pigtailed girl's right, her sister tugged at her arm, her voice quivering. Her hair was the same violet color, but she wore hers short, with a yellow ribbon tied in a bow. Likewise, her eyes were an identical shade of blue, but far softer and gentler than those of her sibling. Their appearances were alike enough, but in terms of personality, it was hard to believe that they were related at all, let alone twins.

"Kagami-san, you have been using sugar, haven't you?" The last occupant of the table sat in a very proper manner as she dabbed at her face with a handkerchief. She was slim and generously figured, her large round glasses magnifying her purple eyes. Her hair was pink and long, though far less so than that of her friends. She spoke in a formal dialect that was totally unnecessary for this group, but coming from her, it was rather charming.

"Of course I have, Miyuki!" Kagami Hiiragi flushed bright red; the color almost spread to the tips of her pigtails. "I just- I have trouble with the measurements, that's all..."

"It doesn't make any sense, Kagamin!" said Konata Izumi, having successfully evaded the bento box. "How can you be so awesome at everything else, but suck at cooking? Owwch!"

Apparently, she had let her guard down too soon. "Don't think you didn't deserve that." Kagami shoved the empty box back into her bag and stood up, brushing one of her twintails back. "I should get going. Sakuraba-sensei hates people being tardy."

"We'll see you later, onee-chan!" Tsukasa Hiiragi waved goodbye, her smile as innocent as a child's.

Miyuki Takara nodded. "Goodbye, Kagami-san. I hope your class goes well."

"Yeah, yeah," said Konata, rubbing the growing lump the bento box made on the top of her head. "Go make good grades and stuff."

Kagami said her goodbyes and walked out of the lunchroom, unaware of the eyes following her.

It's so unfair. Kagami took the route to her classroom as if on autopilot, letting her thoughts wander. I don't understand why Kuroi-sensei won't put me in Class E with the others. What does she have against me?

Up the stairs, down a hall, turn right and wait for the line of seniors to pass. It was all routine.

I think I'm gaining weight again. Maybe I should lay off the pocky for a while. The seniors dispersed. Kagami continued on her way, her shoes making clacking noises against the polished floor.

That Konata… she always pigs out whenever I make food, but she has the nerve to insult my cooking afterward. I should make cookies filled with wasabi or something, just to show her… No, no way, that's much too cruel. Besides, knowing her she'd probably like them that way.

As she put her hand on the door, she stopped. Fine hairs rose on the back of her neck. Kagami was never one for being paranoid, but she had the strangest feeling that someone was staring at her… that prickling sensation was unmistakable. She turned on her heel and shot a glare at the offender… but there was no one there. The hall was almost empty.

"Hello?" Her voice echoed weirdly in the silence. She stood there for a moment longer, then sighed with disgust at herself for thinking about such foolish things as being stared at. It was probably just some boy, one who was too shy to talk to her, or something like that. There were far more important matters to attend to... but she couldn't quite shake her suspicion. There was an odd chill at the base of her spine, as if... as if...

As if something weird is happening.

Now wasn't the time to worry, though... into Class 2-A she went, trying to push it from her mind. Misao and Ayano were already there. Misao Kusakabe was, to put it bluntly, an idiot. She had the body of a typical teenager, but the mind of a five-year-old, if that. Kagami never failed to be amazed at how Misao could amuse herself with stupid things like making juice straw "pocky", or blowing bubbles in her milk, or laughing hysterically at jokes that would be too immature for a second-grader. It was a wonder that Ayano could put up with her. Ayano Minegeshi was everything Misao wasn't: soft-spoken, patient, polite, feminine, and an overachiever. She seemed to have a full-time job as Misao's caretaker, which tested even her indomitable patience to its limits. Misao and Ayano… they were rather like a manzai comedy duo stepped off the stage and inserted themselves into real life, Kagami thought.

"… an' the bear is all like, 'Roar!', an' all of a sudden the guy's gun jams. He takes off runnin', with the bear right behind him, right?" Misao was obviously deep into a story that she found fascinating.

To Ayano's credit, it was impossible to tell if she was faking enthusiasm or not. "Yes, yes, and then what?"

"What's Kusakabe going on about this time?" Kagami asked as she slid into her seat.

Ayano smiled. "I think it's supposed to be a joke, but I'm not sure."

"… so the guy's like, 'Crap!' as he tries to run faster, an' the bear's right behind him…" Misao blathered on, oblivious. It was clearly a joke; she was already starting to giggle as she got closer to the punch line. "… an'... an' all of a sudden he trips, an' drops his gun, an' breaks both legs, an'-"

"Kusakabe, that's enough. We're about to start." Hikaru Sakuraba stood at the front of the class. She was shorter than any of her students, almost like a long-lost relative of Konata, but she made up for it with a blunt manner and a glare that could melt steel.

"Va~!" Misao nearly fell out of her chair. She scrambled into a more dignified position and tried her best to look attentive, grinning so widely that her one snaggletooth was visible.

Thank you, Sakuraba-sensei, Kagami thought to herself with a mental sigh of relief. Misao's sense of humor tended toward the bizarre as well as juvenile, and it looked as if that joke was heading in a decidedly violent direction.

"That's better. All right, now before we start the next period, we have a new transfer student."

"Oh my," said Ayano quietly. "A transfer this early in the term? That's unusual, isn't it?"

"Huh." Kagami frowned. As class rep, she expected that she would have heard about this sooner.

"Could you come in, please?" said Sakuraba-sensei, turning to the door.

The girl that walked into Class 2-A instantly caught the eyes of the boys… and quite a few of the girls as well, Kagami noted. She was tall, willowy, and pale-skinned, with long black hair decorated with a red ribbon for a hairband that looked oddly out of place. The girl wore long, dark kneesocks with her Ryouou High uniform; not necessary, especially with the weather getting warmer, but there were enough boys who liked that sort of look that she could probably justify it. Her face… Kagami couldn't help but notice how cold she looked. Her violet eyes stared straight ahead with no emotion whatsoever, almost like a statue. As she came to the front of the class, she spoke in a monotone voice that should have gotten lost on its way to the back of the class... yet something in it resonated, and carried it from one end of the classroom to the other. Not a soul misheard her.

"My name is Homura Akemi," she said. "I am happy to join you." She bowed to the accompaniment of total silence. There wasn't the slightest hint of happiness in her tone… or anything else, for that matter; her words were as indifferent and impersonal as if she were speaking to one a wall. She wrote her name on the blackboard, then turned back around to the class.

"Thank you, Akemi-san, we're glad to have you. I expect you all to make Akemi-san feel welcome," said Sakuraba-sensei. Her voice broke the spell and set most of the class to whispering with one another. "Now then, I believe there's a seat next to Hoji in the fifth row…"

"I see it, thank you," said Homura. She walked briskly down the aisle…

… and as she passed, she stared right at Kagami, just for an instant. Though her face never changed, those cold violet eyes bored into her like some great drill, making her erupt in goosebumps all over. An eternity seemed to pass between one of her steps and the next…

… and then she was gone. She placed her bag next to her desk and sat down without another word.

Kagami felt shaken… like the world was still spinning, but she and her desk had stopped moving along with it. There was no question about it, the new girl had stared right at her for no reason she could fathom, with something going on behind her violet eyes and statue-like face, but exactly what was impossible to tell.

Now she was seated directly behind Kagami, calmly taking notes as Sakuraba-sensei began their biology lesson, as if she had always been there. The rest of the class reluctantly returned to their books, though a few snuck fleeting glances at her. There would be a mass interrogation of the new girl later, but it could wait until break. No one else had noticed anything odd between them…

Kagami sat in a daze. It was a minute or two before she picked up her pen and mechanically began to take notes. That odd prickling sensation swept over her again, just as it had in the hall… the sensation of someone watching her every move. But who…? Was it Akemi? If so, why?

Something weird is happening, and I don't like it. I don't like it at all...

END OF CHAPTER 1