Tear Jerker / Witch Hat Atelier

• Chapter 1: Coco's happiness at being able to do magic is instantly turned into horror as it runs out of control, turning her mother into stone. Had Qifrey not intervened and then decided to take her on as an apprentice, she would have been left with no one else.
• Chapter 23: Euini helping Agott get away from the Brimhat resulted in the Brimhat turning his attention to Euini, using forbidden magic to turn him into a monster. Richeh wants to help save Euini, but can't since she doesn't have the necessary skills because she refused to learn other magic and is forced to leave it to Agott.
• Chapter 24:
  • Coco gives the people of Romonneau who were turned to gold a warmth stone Orugio designed to help people stay warm, because their predicament reminded her of her mother. They place it in a magic mirror designed to amplify the effect because its too little, and the amplified heat ends up melting them. Coco is unable to stop them in time, leaving her and Tetia crying as the gilded citizens of Romonneau thank them for what amounts to a Mercy Kill.
  Coco: Why...? Why are they thanking me? I didn't do anything to make things better! Why are they grateful?!
  Tetia: I can't explain it either, Coco. But I'm sure of one thing. I hope I never have to hear... another thank you that sounds so sad.
  • Learning that Euini's transformation may be impossible to undo because the magic was branded onto his skin... then learning that even as an unwilling victim of forbidden magic, he would still be considered a criminal by the Magic Security Council.
• Chapter 43: Coco encounters Custas again at the hospital in Kahln, and despite his attempts to keep up a cheerful facade, it's all too clear he's not doing so well. Now in recovery and facing a lifetime without the use of his legs, he's all too aware that his treatment costs quite a bit of money, and he has no way to help Dagda by performing like he did previously. Throughout the scene Custas swings between forced chipperness and barely concealed cynicism, showing how rough things have been for him since Volume 3, and it's clear that Coco and Tartah have no idea how to comfort him.
  • Coco actually does have an idea to comfort him: telling him that anyone could use magic to make their lives easier. But of course, she can't say that, so she stumbles and backtracks into just offering a weak-sounding platitude. To Custas, Coco seems to live a perfectly charmed life as a witch, and hearing that from her causes him to snap:
  Coco: Just because you aren't born a witch doesn't mean... What I'm saying is... there's hope for everyone! So, please...
  Custas glares at Coco, causing her to flinch.
  Custas: (suddenly smiling) Yeah! Maybe you're right! If I'd had a house and a school... and no worries about food or money... and the ability to cast spells, maybe I'd be just like you! (slams fist down on armrest) But I wasn't born on fortune's side! The whole world's against me... and now I gotta make my way through it on these stupid, brittle legs of wood!
  • After Custas snaps at them, Coco and Tartah come across him meeting an extremely rough-lookin Dagda. It turns out that Dagda has been taking dangerous mercenary work in an attempt to pay for Custas' hospital fees, adding even more to the boy's feelings of guilt and self-loathing, as he finally breaks down in tears and begs Dagda to just abandon him and return to his life.
• Chapter 44: Coco and Tartah decide to work together to come up with a spell to help make Custas' life easier, but they keep hitting snags in their ideas. There's something really melancholy about two kids trying to make their friend's life a little easier only to realize what an absolutely staggering task that is, and how little power they actually have to change that.
  Coco: Even if I want to change the world, and start where I can... what we can do... still isn't very much is it? I can't even begin to imagine the size of spell we'd need... to change every road in the entire world.
• Chapter 45: Things finally look like they're turning around for Custas when Coco and Tartah give him the Wingcloak, only for tragedy to strike when he and Dagda are ambushed by a bunch of thieves looking for revenge. After finally being given a break only to have such a cruel twist of fate happen, leaving his beloved adopted father near death, it's hard to blame Custas for joining the Brimhats when they offer help.
  • Early in the chapter Custas has a flashback to his time as an orphan. The scene is brief, but even that is enough to convey how hard and cruel his life was, including a scene of him finding the corpse of a fellow orphan being devoured by carrion creatures.
• Chapter 50: Coco encounters a little girl who claims she wants to grow up to be a witch just like her. And this breaks her, because she knows both the desire to be a Witch and how painful it was to have that dream crushed when the only thing that separates them is knowledge but its been shown for good reason why the Witches keep it secret. Telling her she can would break the law and telling her she can't would be a lie that would hurt her, so she's left unable to respond.
• Chapter 51: Coustas returns as a Witch and he attacks both Coco and Tartah about how they were relieved he didn't use magic to heal his legs, stating that they were humoring him and his pain while pretending to be his friend. Even after Coco explained Tartah already violated the law by learning medicine for his sake, he blackmails both her and Tartah into helping the Brimhats or else they'd have a magic circle branded onto them in the same manner as Euini.

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