Puella Magi Madoka Magica fanfiction
Observation
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Knowing is half the battle, and Homura Akemi knew many things that the other don't.
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Alliteration three had passed, and she had failed again. This time by her hand, Madoka Kaname lost her life.
No, she thought to herself as she lied flat on her back, it was a mercy kill. She did it at her request, to stop her from turning into a Witch. To stop her, no, both of them from falling into their despair.
Homura gritted her teeth in frustration. There's must be something that she can do. She jumped down the hospital bed and walked to the bathroom. Staring at her reflection, she frowned at herself.
She was weak, that's why she always failed. If she became strong, that she will surely succeed. Killing Witches without effort like Mami-san and Kyouko, facing her fear and despair without turning into a monster at least for years to come, surviving the Walpurgisnacht with everyone. That sounded really nice even just for an imagination.
But she was weak, and she can't do all of those as long she was weak.
Hands tugging at her braids, she let her hair flowed like a curtain behind her. Several times already those braids tangled to things in the Witches' barrier. Those braids were nothing but hindrance, but she couldn't bring herself to cut it. Since she was small, people always praised her hair. Thick, soft, silky, they had said. She was proud with her hair. She was still a girl, after all.
Raising her hand to pick her glasses from her nose, she stopped.
'You just need to become cooler!'
'Can I?'
She then removed the glasses and healed the eyes with her Soul Gem.
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She had walked in circle for hours, constructing strategy for her next Walpurgisnacht. Everything that she threw at that Witch seemed to be useless until she has more than one ally by her side. Maybe it's just she didn't use enough explosive? Her pipe bombs only did that much damage, and weapons from yakuza hideouts were not sufficient for a large area damage that she needed to knock Walpurgis out of balance. If she raids military storage, will she get caught?
Homura threw herself to one of her couch. The Witches, she knew that they were Puella Magi who had fallen into their corruption. Just like their human self, they must have some kind of weakness, a soft underbelly behind tough scales and iron skin that she could exploit. Maybe it wasn't explosion that she need; it was the understanding of their fall from grace that she had to find out. But how?
Homura wasn't a fool, no matter what she said about herself after realizing just what kind of contract that she had signed, and she had noticed those strange letters that scattered inside the Witches' barriers. She didn't know what those letters mean, even though she had notice that several phrases were being repeated several times inside one barrier.
'Like a mantra…'
Something clicked in her head.
March the 17th 2011, Homura went to her first Witch hunt in her fourth timeline. But she wasn't going with the Witch as her primary target. She recognized the barrier, this crayon-scrabble landscape and unintelligible nonsense of the familiars. A bizarre visage of a little girl on vehicle floated down until it faced Homura, curiously examining the stranger with its nonexistent eyes. Homura spied a small yellow ball rolled to her feet and picked it up before throwing it far into the barrier. The familiar chased after it, quickly forgotten about the intruder.
She quickly pulled out a camera from inside her shield and took every single of those runes' picture before going after the Witch. A clown doll with blonde hair in pigtail. The girl she was before must be a pretty young child. Homura averted her eyes as she detonated her homemade bomb under the Witch's feet and watched as the barrier collapsed.
March the 19th 2011, Homura hid behind several barricades and police-lines as those cotton balls familiars passed over roses between them. Chanting in a high-pitched voice, she started to realized that those chants weren't nonsense at all. A German chant about presenting a beautiful banquet of roses to their queen. Homura then peered behind the thorns and squirming familiars to take picture of the rest of the runes. She was in luck, there were several non-rune graffiti written by this Witch's victim. Might be a clue, she had considered.
That evening, she compiled all of her catches. Two barriers, thirty two photos, one voice recording, all of those spread on her table. She looked on the graffiti first. After Mami's obsession to name her attack in Italian, Homura had since started to look up on other language that she might be able to use to name hers. She chose German in a spontaneous reflex when Madoka asked her about it without thinking.
She seemed to recognize the lines; a poem from how it looked like, but she couldn't name it. It was on the tip of her tongue. Finding those lines in the internet bore a result. Goethe's Faust, a story about deal with devil. Homura can't bite down the dripping sarcasm of 'how fitting,' from her mouth.
So at least she had the clue that the runes might be written in German, but there were still a chance that the letters might not be written in western alphabetic order. But she could try to make sense some of them. Six days until she enrolled the school, after that she might not have enough time to decipher the code.
If the runes were written in German, or in a small chance English, then she could use the numerical analysis to determine the individual letter. Most common letter in German and English was 'e' and she put the 'e' on the most frequently appeared letter in the photos, and she continued to put a letter based on how often a rune appear.
The result was… a nonsensical jumbled mess. There were several phrases that she could make out, but some of the runes were different from others and thus unintelligible. Not to mention that the phrasing of the words were quite awkward. Homura stared at two photos in her hands, specifically two runes that looked similar but different to each other. One rune, the one that she had identify as an 's', had three horizontally-lined comas while the other only had three horizontally-lined dots. Similar, but different. Homura had no other choice but to suspect that these runes had different fonts.
She cursed, determining one font was already hard enough, and now she had to determine God knows how many of them.
But then she at least sure that one kind of font won't be mixed with each other, so she made two hypothetical fonts based on the appearing runes. Fixing some of those awkward phrasing by changing the spacing and guessing any typo, she could finally made sense of those runes.
There was one stanza of Faust in the second Witch's barrier, while most of the runes were mantras that the Witches seemed to repeat in their madness. But the most important of them, she could now name the Witches along with their possible personality from what she had witnessed.
Albertine, the Scribbling Witch. Ignorant in nature. She love the 'Hide and Go Seek' game, but her familiars are not very intelligent and none of them seek her out.
Gertrud, the Rose Garden Witch. Distrustful in nature. She holds her roses dearer than anything else and expends all for their sake. Although stealing the life-forces of those who wander for her garden, she has an absolute hatred for the simple thought of them trampling inside.
Homura turned her head to see her clock. 5 AM in morning, which meant she had spent 21 hours without eat and sleep to decipher the runes. As she fell unconscious on her sofa, there was a thought crossed her mind as she stared at her ring, now she knew it bearing her name, before it died like a light switch.
'Worth it…'
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March the 25th 2011, Homura Akemi started enroll in Mitakihara Middle School. This time, there wasn't a single student badmouthed her as she kept her lips in a thin line and her eyes in a hard gaze. She wasn't weak anymore, and she won't let people walk all over her again. She then stared at her objective, that familiar pink-hair, but frowned at how Madoka slightly flinched under her gaze.
This Madoka was as kind as the Madoka she had remember from other timelines. She not yet contracted with that white fur ball since she had spent several days hunting for him along with two other Witches. As long as Madoka doesn't contract, then she can rest easy. Homura absent-mindedly acknowledged that black cat she had saved, whom might be sleeping in her house.
It pained her, but she had to keep her distance with anyone she had encountered in previous timelines. If they knew about the system, then they absolutely broke under the truth. They were unstable, especially Mami Tomoe, she couldn't let them destroy her work.
In her residence, Homura gathered everything she had and organized them into several folders. A bit troublesome to search information in it after she looked at it, she then thought about other way she could organized them. She could always buy some of those screens, but it might be very expensive. She still lived by herself, after all. Remember just how many thing Puellae Magi can do with their Soul Gem, the black-haired beauty made a very large reconstruction in her living room.
That western-styled room quickly turned into a four-walled aula, white and blank like hospital corridors. The image slightly shimmered as the illusion took form before hardened into something that she could touch. Kyouko might be slightly better in illusion because of her wish, but this is sufficient enough to go along with her objective. Creating about thirty screens that floated on the center, a giant pendulum that connected with the screen movement mechanism, and several colorful sponge sofas in circular position for her seating. Satisfied with her work, Homura rewrote the folder into the floating screens and put away the giant folder inside her shield.
There were still many screens that empty, but she could add those later. But remembering on how her power works, she predicted that she couldn't save Madoka in this timeline yet.
But it didn't mean that she could not do anything. She spent the entire March and April hunting Witches, writing any runes and the Witch's information into her database, hunting Kyubey, preventing Madoka's contract, annoying Mami with her standoffish attitude, and building up her arsenal.
Homura sat in her lonely blank space, staring at her collection, eternal inside the screen.
Urhmann, the Canine Witch. Carving in nature. She had taken appearance of a dog in vain hope of being loved. Those who enter her domain can't help but to embrace her in concern. Those who hope to defeat her are by faking their love.
Elsa Maria, the Shadow Witch. Self-righteous in nature. She continues to pray for all and drag all into her shadow without breaking her posture. Only those who know the blackest anguish have chance to fall her.
Roberta, the Birdcage Witch. Angry in nature. She stamps her feet inside the cage without stop, directing her rage into those who don't respond her call. Fond of alcohol and books, and her minions are easily burnt.
Oktavia von Seckendorff, the Mermaid Witch. To fall in love in nature. Continues to dream of the guitar strings resounding in a concert hall, a last deep memory of the previous life. Repeat that time without notable differences, her wheels of fate move around calmly.
Suleika, the Dark Witch. Delusional in nature. She gets stronger as darkness deepens. In complete bleakness, she's unmatched and unrivaled. But light is numerous nowadays, and her power isn't something to be feared.
Ophelia, the Wudan Witch. Self-abandoning in nature. She who wanders aimlessly inside fog, leaving hollow footsteps in her wake. No longer has she remembered what the horse that accompanies her actually was.
H.N. Elly (Kirsten), the Box Witch. Covetous in nature. A staunchly reclusive witch, she makes it her habit to lock away anything she covets behind the glass. Her prisoners' thoughts are laid bare, but those who don't think much can strike her without problem.
She had to become stronger. By understanding these girls' despair, she could understand suffering better, and by understanding suffering better, she would become stronger, by not falling into their despair and keep going with her mission and by learning their strengths and weaknesses. And if she was strong, then it was not impossible to survive the Walpurgisnacht along with everyone else.
She was sure of that…
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April the 30th, Walpurgisnacht, alliteration four, Homura Akemi lied dying in shallow water the Witch had destroyed the river from. Her power wasn't enough, and Mitakihara was destroyed. Mami Tomoe came to her aid and wordlessly fighting by her side. Seeing that the senior dying to save her, even though she had never met her in this timeline, opened Homura's eyes that she can't do this alone, that she didn't have to scorn other's help.
Explosion of light, pink light, came from the direction of the now in ruin Mitakihara. She didn't have to make sure, when that demented laughter stopped and suddenly the world engulfed in darkness, she turned her hourglass.
Waking up in the hospital room, Homura reorganized her memories behind her closed eye lids. Those two colossal Witches, and the runes she had seen.
Walpurgisnacht was not the Witch name. It was her title, the title of the most powerful Witch that comes to random places in the very date every year. This Witch had been a Walpurgisnacht for so long, that she couldn't see any other name in her being, that even she herself could not remember her own name.
?, the Stage-constructing Witch. Helpless in nature. Symbolizing the fool who spins in circle without end. Her mystery had been passed down for generations of Puella Magi, and only known as Walpurgisnacht. Rotate aimlessly throughout the world, until the entire era turned into her drama stage. When her usual upside down stance has turn into upward position, the mark for her falling curtain and destruction of civilization she passed through reaches its climax with her gale wind flight.
'The fool who spins in circle without end', huh? That sounds familiar…
Kriemhild Gretchen, the Salvation Witch. Merciful in nature. She absorbs any life into her heaven, her barrier. Only way to defeat her is to create the world where there is no misfortune. In that way, she will believe that she's already in heaven.
Even as a Witch, she still kind. That desire to help everyone…
Wait… Gretchen…? Just how many Faustian allusions existed in the magical girls' system?
Homura thought deep and long. If Madoka was 'Gretchen', then who was the 'Faust'? She wanted to think herself as the 'Faust', which was not too far-fetched when she considered her power. But then, if she failed, she might turn into a Witch that will destroy time itself to gain a single moment of happiness. She will stop the time in this world and make it frozen forever as she died.
The imagery was enough to frighten her. Made it a motivation to not fail.
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Alliteration nine, April the 7th, she had trained her confidence and tried to reintegrate herself into Madoka's life and it went along smoothly. Sayaka Miki had a better relationship with Kyouko Sakura after Mami ironed their first meeting. Even though Mami and Kyouko weren't exactly in friendly term after their past dispute, at least they civil to each other.
She widened her eyes when discovered that Mami got eaten once again and Sayaka's Soul Gem was lost inside the Dessert Witch barrier. They only had about a day and half before the connection between the body and the Soul Gem separated for good. Today search was nihil.
The time was almost up, she started to sweat a nervous sweat. Kyouko had not say anything and run on her own to search for the Soul Gem. She and Madoka had no idea where she had hid Sayaka's body, how she would find the barrier (might be in the next Pyotr familiar that turned into Charlotte), or what would she do when it was too late. Ophelia was a quite strong Witch, her fight wasn't exactly a pleasant experience and she would rather not fight against her again.
She and Madoka found Kyouko, who now frantic trying to find Sayaka that runs off when she fell unconscious. From what Homura could see Kyouko seemed to be much panicked over her condition. Was it that bad?
They found her, legs folded under her weight. Homura cringed at the damage. It seemed that Kyouko had no enough magic to preserve her body and fight the Witch at the same time, which resulted in the decomposition of her body went on without hindrance. Staring at the hanging flesh on Sayaka's face and the white puss that leaked in her eye socket, Homura added another event in her to-do list.
The timeline ended with another mercy kills; for Oktavia, Ophelia, and Gretchen.
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Alliteration twelve, Homura stared for the nth times at her collection, which had been grown larger every day. She sorted out the thing that messed with her attempt to save Madoka, no, everyone.
'Let's start with the most often occurred disaster in the timelines. Oktavia von Seckendorff. That girl is suicidal, no question, but if she doesn't make contract then Kyouko is very unlikely to join the fray of Walpurgisnacht, while she's the most trustworthy magical girl that I can count on. To gain her support, I have to make her pleased with her condition in this town. Kyouko's happiness depends on Sayaka's happiness. Sayaka's happiness depends on Kyousuke Kamijou's happiness, or so she thought. Kyousuke Kamijou's happiness depends on his recovery, which is no longer a problem if Sayaka makes her contract and if she doesn't, he would make a suicide attempt that will force her to do it anyway.'
Homura slammed her fists on her table.
'All because of him…'
As she tried to snuff the growing flame of hatred for that ignorant boy, she randomly grabbed on a paper in her Witch dictionary. What a coincidence that the paper she pulled in the one with Ophelia's information in it.
'Ophelia… of Hamlet. She who is remembered for her suicide driven by the death of her father and her emotionally abusive lover.' Homura tried to bite back a bitter chuckle, she really did, but she couldn't, 'She who had lost her hope and does not resist the dragging flows of water, ends up drowning in her guilt in her attempt to save her beloved.'
Homura quickly added, 'If only Sayaka Miki can see that…'
Homura took another one. Gertrud the Rose Garden Witch. Gertrud was the name of patron saint of gardeners and herbalists, travelers in search of lodging, and insane people. Presumably, she was a rose lover who was betrayed by a person, a man with mustache based on her familiars, which stayed in her house and made her fell over heel to him. She, by far, the most grotesque of the Witches she had encountered. Her despair might have something to do with beauty.
Charlotte the Dessert Witch, the name was from a dessert and another allusion of Goethe's Faust. She who was bane of Tomoe Mami's existence and had a preference to chomp on her head first. Presumably attacking the 'big sis' of the group because she was yellow, just like cheese. Charlotte the glutton, Charlotte the selfish, she who made her wish when she could save her mother, she who fell into despair because of her absolute ignorance and the fastest magical girl turned Witch that had exist. The only Witch she had to keep an eye on, for her despair was so great and her doubt created layered shells of the gluttonous creature she really was.
Everything is perfect, it should be perfect. She knew everything that she needed to destroy any Witch. She knew the weakness, their nature that she could exploit, their despair that she could learn from and avoid. But why…?
Homura slammed her fists again in frustration. Of all Witch, why only Walpurgisnacht that she could not defeat? Was that Witch actually immune to her weaponry; that her physical defense is so utterly high only magical attack in nature could harm her?
Homura walked in a circle, a habit that she developed along course of her time loops.
'If only I can gain their trust…'
An idea appeared in her head, so absolutely ridiculous that she almost laughed at the imagery.
Why the hell not? She almost drove herself insane with all these hopeless scenarios, one moment of OOC looked normal by comparison. Maybe it would be crazy enough to work.
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Alliteration thirteen, Homura awoke in her hospital bed with an extra thick dark cloud looming over her. Turned out unifying the group through the power of friendship and slice of life scenario wasn't exactly optimal when you didn't prepare yourself with the main event.
… Goddamit…
Maybe she should just kill the violinist next time around.
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Alliteration twenty one, April the 1st Homura Akemi found an anomaly. Unlike the mad prophet Oriko Mikuni and her lackey, this anomaly was a Witch. Not just a Witch, an alien Witch. A Witch from outer space, an evidence of the Incubators' action on other races in a place far away in the edge of the galaxy. The only thing that made this Witch successfully came to Earth was the fact that this Witch sought an utter extinction of magical girls and their contractors.
Determination that went beyond grave and hatred that transcend her despair; an emotion that so frightening, Homura wrote the entry with trembling hands. The fight was almost as bad as Walpurgisnacht's and she hoped that the Witch would never appear in the next timelines even more than Ophelia's
Itzli, the Oblivion Witch. Vengeful in nature. A Witch who was said to be a magical girl from beyond the stars and lived at the end of the galaxy. Shown herself in order to destroy the trace of any magical girl in the universe and for it to be forgotten.
She was silent for some time, before sluggishly dragged her aching body to watch over Kyouko's arrival in Mitakihara and make sure she didn't kill Sayaka in their first encounter.
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Alliteration twenty four, April the 24th, she put Sayaka Miki out of her misery. The girl had reached the apex of her despair. She would do no good with her corrupted state of mind.
Or at least attempted to.
She reached for the Soul Gem, fully intended to destroy it. Until suddenly a chain spear warped around her like a serpent. Homura frowned at the hindrance, wordlessly releasing a small flash bang, already active and frozen in time, from behind her shield. Kyouko took a step back in surprise, she really didn't expect a grenade thrown to her face. The sudden light explosion made her cringed, a chance that Homura didn't waste as she dashed to the fallen girl, who could only widen her eyes in terror.
Homura reached for the Soul Gem, hand grasping like talon.
But she stopped on her track.
The Soul Gem wasn't there, only the golden casing remained. Homura stared at a small blue light that floated in front of her face, unconsciously tilted her head in curiosity. The orb flew to Sayaka's chest and went inside of it. The situation ended fairly peacefully, but the atmosphere only got heavier.
"What was that…?" Kyouko, still disoriented, asked. Homura knew exactly the answer.
"Sayaka Miki's contract had been canceled. Someone made a contract to null hers."
"What?"
A step, sound of a heel tapping the concrete echoed deafeningly in the empty hall. Homura dreaded the moment, but she kept on turning her head to face the pink frilly dress that she hated so much. Madoka, of course, she would make a contract for her best friend's happiness. Homura added the line into her ever growing list.
This Madoka though… she made the contract and yet, she had not achieved what she wanted. She thought that if she made contract, then it would make her at least a little more sure of herself. But seeing the transfer student tried to kill her friend, she hesitantly prepared an arrow to pierce that hand before she stopped on her own, then stared at her accusingly. Those eyes, cold and unforgiving, prying at her very being before settled on the small gem rested on the base of her neck.
Madoka felt that she made a greatest mistake that she would have make in her entire lifetime when Homura threw her head back and laughed a shrill laughter that sent a shiver down to her spine. That laugh didn't reach her eyes, which bled unstoppable waterfalls. Madoka could see the anger, the frustration, the murderous intent that had been bottled for a long time between those tears, and it frightened her.
"H-Homura-chan…?"
She didn't respond and continue to laugh.
"Homura-chan!"
She couldn't hold herself, Madoka run up to the laughing girl, wanted to say that everything would be alright now she became a magical girl. That she would share her pain and suffering, that she didn't have to be all gloomy anymore with all of them by her side.
The loud cracking sound, left after skin hitting against skin, echoed in the corridor where Uhrmann decided to settle.
Madoka stared blankly at the wall where her head was forced to face, hand slowly rubbing at the bright red hand print on her right cheek.
"What have you done?"
Madoka didn't understand why Homura spoke with such a distressed tone.
Until Homura's Soul Gem started to darken in an incredibly fast rate.
Homura's expression darkened in unison with the Soul Gem when she realized it and, after cursing Kyubey's name with so much hatred, did something to her Soul Gem that Madoka didn't comprehend. It, however, made her slumped forward to Madoka's arms, suddenly prone and unmoving. Kyouko staggered to the crying girl and felt Homura's neck. The pulse was still there, she just unconscious. Kyouko's gears moved in her head with agitation. Did she knock herself into a coma to prevent her Soul Gem from darkened? Just what would happen if the Soul Gem fully tainted?
Kyubey walked from behind shadows, stared at Homura's body with somewhat-like-but-not-exactly respect.
"Her determination and willpower are exceptionally strong, but how long she would hold on now?"
Kyouko growled and summoned her spear from her Soul Gem, its large head reared dangerously before the alien's muzzle.
"Just what the hell is going on with you and this chick?"
"Homura Akemi wants to prevent Madoka Kaname's contract because she knows what entails behind it."
"Homura-chan… is trying to save me?" Kyouko had her hypothesis after what she had witnessed, but she wanted to know more.
"And what the so called entail that you are talking about?"
"The balance between hope and despair that heavily congregated in the contract system of the Puella Magi, when in every hope the magical girls who made their oath feel bubbling up to the surface, the equal exchange of despair will fall on their life. The magical girl spread hopes, and while the Witches infect the world with despair. It's only natural that the magical girls will soon turn into Witches, true to the contract."
Madoka Kaname felt her world shattered into millions of pieces.
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Sayaka, who heard everything, only widen her eyes in disbelieve. Suddenly everything started to make sense, having your mind cleared also helped. She had saw Homura clenched her teeth when Mami made her veiled death threat after she hunted Kyubey down, how she always referred to the Witches with pronoun 'she', how she berated her for being a fool she was for falling into despair so fast after all of her bravado.
And as Sayaka stared at the crying Madoka hugging Homura's head close to her bosom and Kyouko that went apeshit on the furry white critter, she realized that she never felt the same heaviness of the guilt that right now swelling in her chest. She was forcing her long time best friend to fall into a death trap because she was not strong enough to deal with her own problem. She lashed at Madoka, forgot Mami's advice, rejected Kyouko's out-stretched hand, and Homura's standoffish help to the point of her trying to kill her so not to make Madoka suffered even further.
The group decided to bring Homura back to her home. Kyouko had talked about the Walpurgisnacht, and Homura's strategy to defeat the Witch, as she directed them to the European-styled residence with a single name on its plate. Sayaka who offered herself to carry Homura can only stared in awe at the interior. She shivered at the disturbing atmosphere she could only felt in the Witches' barriers. But said shiver only intensified when their gazes fell on the flickering ghost of a pigtailed girl wearing a pair of glasses who sat on the circling sponge sofa.
The ghost gestured at the seat, letting Sayaka to put the burden and them to take the seat. This Homura was different; melancholic and sad. Was it the real Homura, the Homura behind that icy mask and mysterious fog that she seemed to expel from her being? Sayaka was the first one that shattered the silence.
"Who are you?" seeing the ghost smiling kindly at the question was very disturbing when you accustomed with the ice queen persona.
"I'm Homura Akemi. Or… should I say, the part of her that she hates so much."
"Why?" Madoka asked behind her sobs.
"Because I'm weak, and she can't tolerate weakness. Especially if it was from herself."
"So you're saying that she hides you in a corner of her head so not to hinder her judgment."
"That's right, her mission leaves me no place to stay. But even though it's very cruel of her, I understand why she would do something like that. I've done nothing but to make everything even more difficult"
She threw them a sad smile, with eyes closed to prevent the tears from forming. Kyouko cupped her chin with her hand, striking a thinking pose.
"I only heard about split personality in magical girls when they in their 30, just how old are you anyway? I've been a magical girl for about two plus years, and I only just know the truth."
"I was lucky, or unlucky in this case, I guess. I found out about the truth back when I was just a fledgling, a month and half after I contracted. And no, it isn't a split personality. More into 'hiding behind the mask' and such." 'Homura' shrugged.
"Then how old is your contract?"
She stared at the ceiling, before glanced at Madoka with a mournful gaze.
"I'm, or should I say we're, in 46 days times twenty three of our contract. There's no way to count it other than that"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Because we've been repeating the same month for twenty three times, in wake of our wish."
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"Try to imagine it this way; Homura Akemi walks in to the class like the one you knew. But instead the cold Akemi-san, you have me, the sickly and shy girl sheltered for years in hospital, introducing herself with her shaky knees. That's the circumstance of the first timeline. That was the time before I made my wish."
"Back off, back off…" Kyouko rubbed the bridge of her nose, "You're saying that your wish give you a time travel power thing?"
"I just want to elaborate that matter. So you see, it isn't surprising that everyone was bullying my incompetence. Everyone… except for you Madoka."
Madoka looked up to the ghost.
"Your kindness knows no bound, and you get along well even with me. You saved me from a Witch, you and Mami-san, and gave a company that I lack for who-knows-how-long. I was so happy, I finally have a friend. And then Walpurgisnacht came. Devastating everything, killing hundreds, Mitakihara was in ruin. As the magical girls of this turf, you and Mami-san died fighting to save it."
'Homura' rubbed the back of her left hand, where her Soul Gem should be. The floating screen flashed with memories, every single one of them are more terrible then the previous clip shown. Madoka stared at her own Witch, a giant mountain that swallowed the world into a gigantic brainwashed planet, Mami turned into Witch, Candeloro, and forced her to kill her beloved mentor, Homura dragged her slashed clean torso from a brain-like Witch's attack to her lower half, reattaching herself with magic and thick threads for three days straight. Madoka covered her eyes in horror.
"I was a fool back then, I made my wish to repeat the time of our meeting so I'll be the one that protect, not someone who should be protected. And I got it; the wish is too well for my own good. I became someone who protect, but I'm not strong enough so everyone I swore to protect always ended up dead. Until in the fourth loop, she got fed up of me and started to push me to the back of her head before outright dumping me in this place. So she can defeat Walpurgisnacht and you saved from your fate, she had to abandon herself."
Sayaka slammed her fists to the table, entire body shook in horror and disgust.
"There's must be something that we can do."
"There's nothing. Madoka had made her contract, and as long as she made contract, the fate of becoming a Witch will always remain. It's our wish to make sure you are saved. When she wakes, she will surely turn the hourglass and start everything anew. We have to, or we no longer have purpose anymore and automatically turn Witch in our despair." Sayaka wilted in instant, the silently cried with her pink haired friend.
"Just what happen to her back then?" Kyouko asked in a quiet voice like she didn't want to disturb the pair.
"The one that made herself fainted? It's just the more advance form of cutting connection with your Soul Gem, but instead the connection to the nerves that feel pain, it more to her consciousness. She can't let herself fall to despair, so she let her mind died temporarily to calm herself."
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Homura opened her eyes, only to stare at her endless white ceiling. She frowned; it seemed that she had not turned her hourglass yet. She forgot what exactly happen after Madoka came to her with those horrid pink frills.
Still lied down of her sofa, she transformed, silver buckler strapped on her left arm.
"Please don't."
Homura turned her head, and looked back at the three pair of eyes that now gazed at her with different intensity. She then lifted her face slightly to glance at the ghost of her old self with distain.
"You told them." The ghost nodded. Homura said nothing to her.
"Now you know…"
"I… I have no idea… that it will turn out like this."
Madoka sobbed. Homura stared at the girl; her eyes were already red and swollen, just how long she had cried? She walked up to the crying girl and gave her a hug, a firm hug she might add.
"Why, Homura-chan…? Why you would do something like this? Why you let yourself suffer over me?" Homura's answer was firm.
"Because you're my friend, the only one that I can call my best and dearest, and I love you. I owe you my life, I treasure your friendship, and I don't want to see you dying over something like being deceived by extraterrestrial creatures. I promise you to save you, and no matter how many time it will take… I will definitely save you."
The screens on the ceiling flickered and showed a scene. Homura and Madoka lying in Mitakihara's ruin, victorious but dying. Oktavia's Grief Seed pressed to the purple Soul Gem, the Homura in-screen screamed the same phrase with her hoarse and wounded vocal.
I will definitely save you… all of you…
The hourglass flipped.
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Alliteration thirty seven, March the 29th, Homura sniffed out the air like a predator caught a smell of its prey. After her twenty-sixth loop, she gained an ability to detect the Witches without following her Soul Gem's tracking attribute by simply perceived the heaviness of their barrier on the sky of Mitakihara. This gluttonous desire, no mistake, it was the Dessert Witch. In the same place, hospital northern wall, and in a moment that slightly faster than the usual. Homura cursed, she just found out that she had another power besides stopping time, and now she was drained of her power by its single use.
A pair of giant white wings retracted to her back. Her surroundings were nothing but dust. Her time power in reality wasn't limited to her time stop and time travel, but also speeding up and slowing, whether it was her allies, enemies, or herself. And the strongest power manifested into those wings, which would turn black and distorted when she activated the effect. Speeding up the time of everything that her wings engulfed in a frightening scale, she made those who unlucky enough to be caught inside her barrier literally rot and crumble. Homura stared at bleached bones of a previously mangy mutt, who spent the last 7 seconds howling in agony as its flesh fallen off from its skeleton and being eaten alive by maggots that suddenly appeared.
She was too drained; she couldn't use her magic to accelerate herself or even just to propel her jumps on the roof. She won't make it to the place before Mami came and got herself killed with her already suspected recklessness from the euphoria of Madoka's friendship and kindness. That technique was dangerous and too risky to use, Homura swore to never use it again unless she no longer had anything else to bet.
She wasn't strong enough, and Mami might die because of that. Mami didn't know about Charlotte's safety pins, Mami didn't know about the Witch's multiple bodies, Mami didn't know that if she restraint her now, she would absolutely bite the dust.
Mami didn't know, and the knowledge of that she knew about it but couldn't say made Homura even more frustrated.
Why don't you listen? Why you make me your enemy? Why you always make more difficult of my problems?
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She survived; Mami Tomoe survived, though the witnesses didn't realize it. Why she saved her, she didn't know. After all these death and despair, Homura started to feel numb inside. 'It's okay, there's always next time,' she would think that way. Her failure started to feel ordinary, she felt used with the fact that she was an utter failure, that their death meant nothing for her because she could always turn the hourglass. Even Madoka's death no longer meant that much either.
But her body reacted on its own, untangled herself from that chained ribbons, tackled the upperclasswoman from the gapping mouth of the Dessert Witch, and hid her inside her shield to prevent her further breakdown. Unorthodox, yes; but it got the job done.
She walked away from the hospital, nonchalant words left behind a bitter taste that she grew accustom of but couldn't kill. Well, she had to keep an appearance, right? That; or she would have more problems with Madoka's contract. A little shock of the real risk of magical girls' work would straighten the girl up. No matter what she said to or what people thought about the pink-haired girl, Madoka was not stupid. Naïve, yes, but never stupid. Though… she couldn't say the same to the little mermaid.
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April the 3rd, that foolish girl made a contract. That was expected. Standing on the top of Elly's remains, giving her childhood friend a twirl of her cape, Homura could only sighed in defeat over the hard-headed girl before leaving the scene without revealing herself.
In her domain, Mami made her a cup of warm black tea. Raising her own cup to her lips, Mami said the obvious.
"So Miki-san made her contract?"
"Yes."
"She only made it because she thought I'm dead, right? Then, why don't you just tell her that you saved me? If she really such a burden when she becomes a magical girl…"
"No, even though you aren't dead, she will still make her contract. She still naïve, and there's nothing that can stop her to make her contract, especially when her crush is involved."
"I see… she really makes a selfless wish." Homura snorted in discontent.
"There's no such thing as selfless wish, Mami Tomoe. We made our wish, because the wish will have benefit to us, even though it's not directly. She just too stubborn to see it yet, and project herself as a selfless martyr that she saw in you."
"And you worry about the revelation later on will do to her?"
"Pretty much."
Mami nodded, sipping her tea slowly and sighed.
"I still think it's better for me to show myself in front of everyone. If what you say is true, than I can restraint Sakura-san in her debut."
"… Fine, but until that time, then you should not."
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April the 7th, Sayaka Miki went to her hunting and came across one of Albertine's stray familiar. Everything went along the script; Kyouko stopped Sayaka from killing the familiar, Sayaka attacked Kyouko, Kyouko countered said attack and intended to destroy the blue haired girl's life.
Until the familiar blonde twin drill and ebony tresses put themselves between the opposing sides.
"M-Mami-san…?"
"… I expect more from you, Miki-san."
"Well… what a surprising turnabout. Really don't expect you to be alive after Kyubey said you got ahead of yourself, Mami." Kyouko let her fang peeked out of her mouth.
"Now, now, that's very cruel of you, Sakura-san. I still have to thank Akemi-san here for knocking some sense to me."
"Yeah… sorry, drill bit, but I'm not here for chit chat."
Kyouko reared back her spearhead, but stopped middle way through the swing when a cold steel of Beretta's muzzle pressed to the back of her head. She blinked in confusion; she just saw the mystery girl beside Mami few seconds ago. Knowing she got herself stuck in the position, she dismissed her weapon, confident that the girl won't make a hole in her head if she still just threatening her while had a chance to do the deed before she realized it. The dark magical girl smirked at the gesture.
"So, you wanna talk? Then, talk. You think you still have use of me, don't you?"
"Indeed, killing you would give me nothing other than loss of firepower I need. I propose you an agreement, Kyouko Sakura. You will help me defeat an adversary that I've hunt for several years, in exchange of Mitakihara's northern territory."
"Wha-" Sayaka widened her eyes. How could she just say something like that to a rogue! But Mami put her hand in front of her when she wanted to lash at the transfer student. Sayaka reluctantly put down her sword when the blonde senior smiled at her.
"Miki-san, let Akemi-san talk. She the one who know the most of all of us."
Kyouko could only let out a bitter laugh.
"And what make you think that I want to do that?"
"I know you will. In the end of the month, April the 30th until Mei the 1st, Walpurgisnacht will come to this town in the celebration of the Witches' gathering." Kyouko sputtered in surprise. Homura let a smile slipped unnoticed, she got her, "And I believe you had heard about what will happen when Walpurgisnacht comes to a town, no? I'm sure you still have something in this town that you treasure, right, Kyouko Sakura?"
The redhead was in conflict before finally relented.
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"Let me get this straight, so the transfer student was actually saving you by putting you inside her infinite space, that's why there's no body left behind when the Witch seemingly killed you."
"Pretty much." Sayaka turned to Homura, flabbergasted with the black-haired girl's actions.
"Why…? Why you don't say so?"
"Because I need to give you a scare about what entails in the magical girl business. You," She gestured both Sayaka and Madoka, "Both of you are no good to be magical girls. For different reasons of course." Homura flipped her long tresses, her hand got shaky.
"And of course, I really expect you to not heed my warning."
"You seem to know a lot about us." Kyouko said after cramping an entire taiyaki in her mouth, "Just who are you actually?"
Homura told them everything.
April the 8th, Homura finally gained her army's trust. It was a step up, to say the least.