Little Pilot Academia

Chapter 1: Prologue

Summary:

What if LWA was about races in alien planets? When a child Akko sees her first race in person and is amazed by Chariot, she decides to become a Witch.

Chapter 1: Prologue

The little brunette girl was sitting in the middle of the stands, surrounded by all kinds of people - even if most of them weren't human. The cheering or booing was almost deafening, and the smell of weird and exotic foods overpowered her nostrils. She excitedly looked up at the massive screen floating in the air - well, that was not an accurate description, since this planet lacked such a thing. The little girl didn't know what it was this planet had in its stead.

She couldn't see it thanks to the taller beings next to her, but she knew that if she could look around she'd see a collection of giant sand-castles that she didn't understand how were kept standing, lit by strange glowing stones. Maybe one day she'd get the chance to dig through one of their walls and see what happened. The sky was completely black, the atmosphere of the planet, apparently, had a weird way of reflecting light that didn't allow the stars to shine during the night.

The screen showed a series of hovering vehicles, each one more interesting than the last, traversing a barren wasteland at high speeds, only their own lights to guide them, with a commentator - barely audible to the girl - shouting with energy and narrating the events onscreen. The current vehicles included a strange water-like long teardrop with what looked like a giant jellyfish inside, a cloud of a smoke-like substance in the shape of a triangle, a slim and completely black fuselage with a couple of sharp-looking wings coming out of the back at an angle, giving the whole thing an arrow-like look and a rocket apparently made of stone with a metallic ring surrounding it, completely disconnected from the main body.

None of them had obvious methods of movement, they had no engines.
The pilot the little girl, Akko, was cheering for wasn't onscreen.

She had trouble remaining still, so she stood on her seat to see the giant screen a little better. Since the race was close to finishing the focus would be only on the first places. She started to grow more anxious with each passing second. The pilots were all tightly fighting for first place. When one managed to get slightly ahead, the barrage of attacks from the other three vehicles kept them from getting away.

Akko perceived something from the corner of her eye. She turned her head a bit to her left - a light had appeared on the horizon, but she could barely see it. She tugged on her father's clothes next to her. He smiled at her and put her in his shoulders.

The girl tried not to move too much, but she couldn't help almost throwing her father off balance when she noticed the four lights in the horizon getting closer - they were definitely the racers! They closed in at high speeds. This planet was slightly bigger than earth, so the horizon was slightly further away. Even then, in less than a minute, the four vehicles had closed one third of the distance to the finish line, which was just slightly to the right of Akko, glowing red and with the highest concentration of spectators per square meter in the universe right now, even if one had in mind the completely empty space that was the track itself.

As the girl's anxiety was reaching critical levels and she started to think she didn't want to keep looking, something else appeared in the horizon. A fifth light. A big smile appeared on her face as she realized who it was. She strained to hear what the commentator was saying, and she could just make out the words.

[And there she is! The dark horse of the competition, Chariot and her broom: the Shiny Rod! Will she be able to catch up in time?!] The commentator sounded as excited as Akko felt as she saw the beautiful white ship approach at an incredible speed. It was a long and slim 'Broom-Racer' - that was the name human ships received - which ended in a point. While it didn't have wings, it was slightly flattened, which somehow allowed it to fly straight. Seven green spheres, the broom's weapons, were spaced around the fuselage, covering most angles. Besides the pilot, there would be another member onboard, handling the defense and attack of the ship, though no one knew who the gunner of the Shiny Rod was. The most impressive part, however, was the back: The Magic-Engine of the broom, a golden lambda-looking piece connected to the cockpit which was emitting a powerful pale-green light that danced like fire. The Shiny Rod moved fast, faster than any of the other vehicles, even if

Akko didn't fully understand why.
The other racers had already made half their way to the finish line, but Chariot was fast as lightning. When the other pilots entered the final stretch at three-fourths of the way, marked by the start of the sand-castle city, the Shiny Rod caught up to them. All the firepower now focused on the human ship, but the seven spheres on the fuselage all started to glow at the same time and a strange pale-green force-field appeared to protect it.

Akko felt her grin widening and she started squirming - accidentally hitting her father's head in the process - with excitement. Her heart started pounding on her chest and she held her breath, trying to blink as little as possible. The five racers moved through the city's streets so fast that the spectators had to be careful not to fall over from the wind created - wind of something that wasn't air.

The attacks kept focusing on the Shiny Rod - zaps of electricity from the jellyfish-like creature, bombs of smoke from the cloud, energy beams from the arrow-like ship and strange floating stone spheres that kept banging the shield with energy from the stone ship.

Akko knew the Shiny Rod couldn't keep up for much longer, they were already at four-fifths of the way to the finish line, but the human ship couldn't attack while defending and it was going to be impossible to get past the four pilots in front of it.

Unless...

The brunette girl jumped in her father's shoulders as she saw lines appear on the Shiny Rod. Pale green lines connecting all seven spheres. [Oooh here it is, ladies and gentlebeings!] The commentator exclaimed.

Akko looked at the screen to get a better view of what was happening. Then, in a heartbeat, the ship's front separated, apparently cutting it in half, making a way for the cockpit. [The madwoman is about to do it again!] The firepower got even heavier from all four other contestants, but it was too late. Right as the Rod's force-field gave up, the cockpit shot out of the main ship so fast that it broke the speed of sound - sound somehow carried through the not-air. [The Shiny Arc!] The commentator cried the name, obviously partial to the human Witch - the name female human pilots received.

Akko shouted in encouragement, her eyes following the cockpit as it flew through the four ships that didn't have time to react.

It crossed the finish line, passing so fast that Akko saw nothing but a blur of white that crashed to the ground, skidding for a long time before coming to a rest. The crowd had gone silent, they didn't even pay attention as the other four racers crossed the line. They all looked at the cockpit of the Shiny Rod half buried in the ground, not moving...

Until the emergency exit at the back opened and a pilot in a white, tight anti-g attire came out of it, her red short hair visible through the helmet that allowed her to breath.

The crowd went wild and Akko with them. She almost fell off the shoulders of her father while he tried to keep up with his excited child. She had never celebrated so loudly. That night her vocal chords got absolutely destroyed, but she didn't mind. It had been the most exciting moment of her life.

A team of strange of sand-like aliens - originating from the planet they were currently in - who were more like sand-blobs than anything else, quickly approached Chariot and handed her a microphone.

"Never forget," she started with her catchphrase as she always did. "A believing heart is your magic."

The cheering continued, but Akko paused, staring in awe at the screen where Chariot's face was barely visible. That was the moment when she made up her mind.

She was going to become a Witch.