Dedication: To Black Maya. For bearing with the wait, and for being an awesome official for the AoGA House Cup.
The Space In Between
by Autumn Win-Dow
(AoGA House Cup. Words: 1237)
She could feel her fingers tingle as the world around her started to fade into black. She was all alone in the darkness - the only items which she still possessed were her uniform and her baka gun, latched around her wrist.
It was so cold that Hotaru felt as if her tears were freezing up into tiny crystals on her skin.
She had stopped crying, however. The girl was too confused about her surroundings – nothing from her accelerated studies in Alice Academy provided her with a valid and scientific explanation as to why the world around her was black, and why she was still conscious of her own presence.
Hotaru looked down at her feet. Black. She was floating in the air – sustained by an unknown force.
…I thought I was supposed to be dead. Where in the world am I?
"There's a thin line between life and death." A high pitched voice piped up from behind her.
She flinched and made a great effort to turn around while levitating, and she swiftly aimed her baka gun towards where the voice was coming from.
It was a creature which she had never seen in her life – even as an Alice studying at the strangest and most brutal academy in Japan.
Hotaru was good at sensing the atmosphere, and she did not have a good feeling about the creature.
"What the hell are you?!"
"My name is Kyuubey. And you shouldn't talk to me so harshly," The creature taunted, but its tone of voice did not betray any sense of offense or hurt, "I did save your life, after all."
Her finger hovered over the trigger of her baka gun – she began to wonder how and when she had become as hesitant in her actions. She was once a stronger girl, confident in what she did, but now – ever since the chaos of the Alice War – she felt as vulnerable as what she really was.
A child.
"You just said that I'm standing on the line between life and death," She breathed, as she maintained her hold of her gun, "I'm not dead, but I'm not alive either."
"I can save you, Hotaru-chan."
The girl pondered, her violet eyes staring at Kyuubey with a pondering expression, before the grip on her gun tightened and she secured her aim. "What's the catch? I'm not dumb enough to not realise that there's more than that."
"…You're much smarter than the others, I have to say."
Others? What others?
"I want to form a contract with you in order to make you a magical girl!"
"…a magical girl?" Hotaru couldn't believe what she was hearing – she had always been a realist living in a world of Alices and unimaginable happenings, but this was beyond irrational. All she could think of when Kyuubey mentioned the term was the plethora of inspirational shojo anime which she was never very fond of, unlike her classmates.
"Stop joking." She muttered bitterly, before pulling the trigger – thus piercing a hole in Kyuubey's small body. "There's no way it's that simple."
"It is that simple!"
Hotaru sharply gasped as she heard the same voice call from behind her, and she spun back around to see the same creature, all in one piece. She glanced between the dead body and this new Kyuubey in bewilderment.
"What the hell is this?" She spat, as she watched Kyuubey sweep towards its dead body, and to her utter disgust, consumed it whole.
"I have an infinite number of bodies, Hotaru-chan," Kyuubey explained calmly after he had finished eating, "and there was only one thing I left out. But in my defense, it's to your advantage."
She could feel her own hand trembling as she listened to his words, but she made an effort to keep a steady composure – despite dealing with some unforeseen creature.
"…What is it?"
"I can grant you any wish you desire."
Hotaru huffed at the Incubator's claim. "That's impossible. You don't have the power to be able to do that."
"But," Kyuubey started as he spun around Hotaru in the air, "What if I do have the power? Would you be willing to risk such a great opportunity for something like reality? ... Do you, a twelve year old prodigy, actually know what reality is, when your life already seems unreal in itself?"
...Reality.
Hotaru was quite an eloquent person, but she was rendered speechless by the Incubator.
"You don't, do you?"
"...I'd rather die than become a magical girl." Hotaru spat, keeping her eyes away from Kyuubey, of whom she was starting to feel disgusted of.
"Strong words for a twelve year old. Are you sure you want to die, Hotaru-chan?"
"Stop calling me Hotaru-chan!" Her voiced raised in pitch as she pointed her gun once again at the creature, of whom did not move - he had nothing to fear, after all.
"Do you want to die, Hotaru-chan?"
"Stop it!"
Another shot emerged from her gun, and hit Kyuubey square in the head - but as expected, yet another body emerged from behind her shoulder, while repeating the question.
"Do you really want to die?"
"I don't!" Hotaru finally lost her composure in front of the Incubator. "I don't want to die, okay?! Happy?!"
She felt like she was sinking into madness. The black atmosphere was making her shoulders heavy, and her mind was slowly becoming unstable. Hotaru could only clench her teeth as she stared straight into darkness.
Why am I like this?!
"You've overstayed your time in between life and death, so you're starting to fade away," Kyuubey explained, as if he had read her mind, "And you'll have to choose what you want. Life or death?"
Now that Hotaru thought about it, she wanted a life other than death. She wanted a life where she could live for herself - she had already done what she could for Natsume and Mikan, and had complete faith in the teachers and students of Alice Academy.
Hotaru, for once, wanted to be selfish and reckless.
This is for me.
"Fine," Hotaru muttered, and regained eye contact with Kyuubey on her shoulder, "You can grant me any wish, right?"
"Any wish. Whatever you desire. As long as you become a magical girl."
Hotaru was certain as to what she wanted for herself.
"I want to be reborn into someone else."
She opened her eyes to a complete contrast of the darkness she had overstayed in previously. It was a harsh glare of hospital lights, coupled with the off-white walls of the room.
Before she could comprehend her surroundings properly, she started to cough violently.
She raised her hand and covered her mouth, and for a reason unknown, she could feel warm liquid start to drip down her palm.
...What?! What the hell is this?! She thought to herself in bewilderment as she pulled back and stared at the blotch of red.
To her, it was only a blotch.
She could not see the grooves in her skin, nor could she scan the room without questioning the existence of anything.
Hotaru had realised what had happened instantly - she was sick, and she had lost her twenty-twenty vision.
...Kyuubey tricked me! That little- wait... who's Kyuubey?
She felt a comforting hand on her back as something slid over her eyes, and she felt something familiar brush her hands.
A pair of thick rimmed glasses, and a much longer length for her dark hair.
"Good morning, Akemi Homura." A caring nurse greeted her.
"...good morning..." It was a timid response from a timid girl.
A/N: ...I haven't written a crossover since October 2011. Wow.