From Mahou Shoujo to Shinigami
Every time it ended the same way.
Walpurgisnacht, the legendary Witch that invaded Mitakihara would wreck havoc and destruction. And every time Homura Akemi failed to stop it.
This timeline was no different.
No matter what Homura threw at the Witch, it just never stayed down. Rockets, mines, and even crashing entire buildings on top of the thing. Every weapon she had in her arsenal couldn't pierce the defences of the Walpurgisnacht.
Her body laid in the rubble of a destroyed building as she stared at up at the monstrously powerful Witch. A Witch that continued to laugh at Homura's efforts as it started to light more floating buildings on fire.
"Damnit..."
Homura raised the arm that held her shield on it. Her other hand reached over toward it and took hold of the buckle.
Her eyes stared at her time traveling device. How many times had she repeated this exact same situation? Throwing everything she had against Walpurgisnacht and ultimately coming up short. Just what did she need to do to truly prevail?
"Next time... I'll..."
"There won't be a next time."
Homura's entire body froze up as she heard a familiar voice. It was the voice of someone who wasn't supposed to be here. Someone that was supposed to be dead.
She then noticed a humanoid figure wearing a black outfit land in front of her. Homura's purple eyes were drawn towards the katana on the person's hip. It seemed pretty ordinary at first glance, until she detected the immense amount of power that emanated from the sword.
Her head lifted itself upwards so she could see the person's face. Homura found herself to be stunned speechless as she recognised the face of the figure staring down at her.
It was Sayaka Miki.
"H-How? I don't understand... you're supposed to be-"
"Dead? Yeah, and technically I still am."
To say that Homura was confused would've been quite the understatement. Just how was Sayaka Miki standing before her right now? She had witnessed the girl's soul become a Witch and slain by Kyoko Sakura. Her body had already been buried at the funeral. There was no way Sayaka Miki could be here right now in Homura's mind. To her, this didn't make any sense.
Before anything more could be said between the two of them, three of Walpurgisnacht's familiars started heading toward their location.
Sayaka already sensed their presence and unsheathed her sword. With faster speed than Homura had ever seen before, Sayaka swirled her body around and slashed through the familiars with her katana.
The blade sliced through all of them with no resistance what so ever. Homura stared at the sword, and continued to feel some strange power flowing out of it despite how normal the katana looked.
"What... is that?"
Sayaka realised that Homura was referring to her weapon. "This? It's my Zanpakuto."
The word was completely alien to the dark haired girl. She didn't know what it meant, but the sword was definitely was no normal blade.
"Homura."
She felt her breath being caught in her throat as Sayaka referred to her by the first name.
"Please, just stay here alright? You don't have to suffer through this anymore."
Sayaka gave Homura a bittersweet smile. "I'm sorry for everything I've put you through, so please let me make it up to you."
The blue haired girl turned around and stared up at Walpurgisnacht. It was more powerful than any other Witch in history. The Witch that would cause Homura to repeat this cycle of suffering.
"Sayaka Miki... just what have you become?"
"...a Shinigami."
Homura felt her eyes widen as her mind tried to comprehend what the girl standing before her had just said. A Shinigami. A God of Death. Sayaka had become something like that? How was that possible? What was going on here?
Sayaka herself continued to look at the massive Witch. It was clear that her Zanpakuto's sealed state wasn't going to be enough to deal with Walpurgisnacht. She lowered her sword and rested it at her side.
"Orchestrate this concert, Oktavia!"
Homura felt herself gasp as Sayaka spoke the name of her Witch. Just how did she know what it was called? She didn't get a chance to continue her thought process as the katana suddenly shined a bright blue light.
The Zanpakuto started to change shape as it shined. The light soon faded to reveal a surprising sight to Homura.
The katana had taken the form of Sayaka's cutlass sword, the weapon she held when the blue haired girl was a Mahou Shoujo.
Homura was feeling more lost and confused than ever now.
Sayaka jumped into the sky and charged directly towards Walpurgisnacht. The familiars started to surround her but Sayaka swung her sword around her whole body in response. Water started coming out of the tip of the sword. The liquid acted as an extension of her blade and cut through the familiars with ease.
She continued to charge at Walpurgisnacht until Sayaka was right in front of its face. A look of determination overcame Sayaka's face as she plunged her Zanpakuto into the head of Walpurgisnacht.
An almost ear piercing screech erupted from the Witch as it created a huge gust to wind to try and repel Sayaka. However the Shinigami did not relent. This thing had caused so much suffering to Homura, crushing her hopes time and time again. It was time for some payback.
Sayaka had forced herself watch Homura fight Walpurgisnacht many times from the Soul Society. Every time it hurt to watch, knowing that she wasn't strong enough to help.
If there was one good thing about watching Homura's time loops from the Soul Society, is that it gave her a sense of perspective. Sayaka used to hate Homura Akemi with every fibre of her soul, but after discovering the real circumstances from watching the time traveler's journey with her own eyes...
Well it caused many things to happen, but eventually she decided to become a Shinigami. She obtained herself an Asauchi and attended the Shinigami Academy. Through the years of training, that Asauchi had become her very own Zanpakuto, taking the name of Sayaka's Witch form; Oktavia.
And now she was here, after finally obtaining the strength and power necessary to fight against Walpurgisnacht.
Sayaka twisted her sword inside the Witch's head. Another cry of pain as the girl dug the blade ever deeper into Walpurgisnacht.
She sensed more familiars surrounding her location, and so with a short grunt she pulled her sword out and started backing off. However while doing so she raised her left hand and opened her palm in the direction of the Witch.
"Hado Number 33: Sokatsui!"
Blue flames shot of out her palm. At the very same moment, orange fire gathered around Walpurgisnacht's mouth and let loose a stream of flames.
Oranage and blue fire crashed together in the sky but Walpurgisnacht's flames won out and overwhelmed Sayaka's kido.
Her body was blasted away by the fire. Sayaka quickly recovered mid air and created a spiritual surface under her feet in order to stand in the sky.
"Damnit, gotta remember to use the incantation next time."
Before Sayaka's thoughts could continue, a floating burning building started flying right towards her. She swung her Zanpakuto in its direction and fired an arc of water out of the blade. The water was sharp and strong enough to cut completely through the building.
Sayaka started flying higher into the air until she was above Walpurgisnacht. She looked down at the gears that made up the top of the Witch. The Shinigami swung her sword once again, creating another arc of water that shot directly towards the gears.
Unfortunately the gears were too tough and it looked like Sayaka had done no damage at all. She frowned and charged downward with sword in hand. An attempt to strike the gears directly with her blade was made but the sword only scraped the surface.
Okay, maybe this isn't exactly a weak point. Damn it could be the exact opposite.
She flew down back toward the head as it seemed like that would be a better spot to attack. However familiars started to swarm her position mid flight and Sayaka was forced to cut through them. The moment she slashed them down, Walpurgisnacht had charged up a massive torrent of flames and fired it at her.
"Crap!"
She raised her sword in front of herself and projected a water shield as fast as possible. The stream of fire crashed against it and overcame the water almost immediately.
Sayaka was blasted away from Walpurgisnacht and her body slammed through the window of a nearby skyscraper. Her body ended up breaking through multiple desks in an office before hitting a wall with a resounding thud.
She groaned while trying to recover. Sayaka had to admit she actually didn't expect that kind of power out of a fully charged attack like that.
Her body panted as she stared down at her Shihakusho that had been burnt in several places thanks to the flames. Of course her body and outfit were made of spiritual energy so it wasn't like it had been completely burnt but it was still fairly noticeable.
If my Shikai isn't strong enough... then I have no choice but to use-
Sayaka's thoughts were broken off as her vision could see even more familiars heading towards her. Before any of them reached the windows however, gunfire could be seen shooting through all of them.
Homura Akemi jumped through the broken window that Sayaka crashed through and ran to her side to see if she was okay.
"Are... are you... alright?"
Truth be told, she had no idea how to interact with this Sayaka Miki at all. Not too long ago she saw the blue haired girl curse her very existence, and now Sayaka Miki had somehow returned to life. She claimed to be a Shinigami and held powers that felt completely different to that of a Mahou Shoujo.
Still, if there was one thing she could believe in, it's that Sayaka Miki was here to help her. That much was seen to be true.
"Homura... yeah I'm alright. Just need a moment, I didn't think Walpurgisnacht was this tough."
Sayaka got up and dusted herself off before extending her hand toward Homura, which caused the other girl to give her a look of surprise.
"What are you-"
"Look, I need you to freeze time for a bit. So we can safely make it up to the roof."
"...you know? About my-"
"Yes I do. I promise, I'll explain after the battle is over."
Homura honestly wanted more time to think. More time to just comprehend the entire situation in the first place, but instead she ended up going with her gut feeling and took Sayaka's hand with her own. Her shield started turning the gears and froze time in an instant.
Sayaka could see Walpurgisnacht outside, completely frozen in time.
"Wow, so this is what it's like..."
She shook away the feeling of awe and started floating in the air while still holding Homura's hand. Sayaka then flew the two of them out of the already broken window and up to the roof of the skyscraper. To be flying through the air while holding the hand of Sayaka Miki was definitely not something Homura Akemi expected to ever happen.
When the two reached the top, Sayaka took another look out at Mitakihara. To see time stop moving for everything else was quite a unique experience, but she couldn't afford to dawdle any longer.
"Okay you can unfreeze time and let go now. You might want to back away too."
Homura wondered what Sayaka was planning but decided to do as she said. Time continued and she let go of the bluenette's hand.
She then backed some distance away on the rooftop as Sayaka began to emit more energy from her body.
The Shinigami raised the Zanpakuto to the air above her head and took in a deep breath.
"Bankai!"
Sayaka's body was consumed by a blue explosion. Homura could feel an intense amount of energy erupting from her as huge gusts of wind flowed out. The kind of power Sayaka was emanating felt more powerful than almost anything Homura had sensed before.
The blue smoke died out and Homura could feel herself gasp upon seeing Sayaka's form again.
She was wearing her Mahou Shoujo outfit once more. The same top, skirt and even cape were all the same. Everything looked as it she was a Mahou Shoujo again, and Homura would've thought so if not for the fact that Sayaka didn't feel like a Mahou Shoujo at all.
"Oktavia von Seckendorff."
The girl turned around to face Homura, which caused the dark haired girl to note that there were actually two differences in Sayaka's new form.
The first was that there wasn't a Soul Gem visible anywhere. That alone was cause for questioning as to how did Sayaka wear her Mahou Shoujo outfit again without seemingly being one.
The second, was the addition of a yellow hair clip in the shape of a musical note in Sayaka's blue hair.
"Sayaka Miki... what are you? Truly?"
"Like I said before, I'm a Shinigami now. I'm not a Mahou Shoujo anymore, despite what my Bankai's appearance might tell you."
Homura tilted her head to the side in confusion as yet another unfamiliar term was used. That was the word Sayaka shouted before assuming her new form. "Bankai?"
"That's an explanation for another time, I promise."
"...very well. You are here to help me right? I won't complain then."
The Shinigami smiled at her. "Thanks. Now... are you okay with continuing to fight? You really don't need to do any more. You've done more than enough-"
"No. I haven't done enough. Not until Walpurgisnacht is dead. I refuse to stand by in this."
Homura could feel a surge of renewed determination within her. It was something she hadn't felt in a long time. Who would've thought that it would be Sayaka Miki that ended up instilling that feeling inside her. Was this really how her long journey would end? With Sayaka saving her?
She might've started laughing if Walpurgisnacht still wasn't around at that very moment.
The dark haired girl reached inside her shield and grabbed a spare RPG. "I started this journey, and I need to be one who ends it."
Sayaka nodded and touched the hair clip with one of her hands. "Alright. You might want to get ready then, because I've got a few more surprises left."
Homura wondered what else could Sayaka to surprise her with but she mentally prepared herself to just go along with whatever would happen next.
Sayaka's hair clip started changing colour from yellow to black, but that was only the beginning as the environment around the two of them shifted to an all too familiar sight to Homura.
It was the centre of Sayaka's Witch Labyrinth. She had placed the two of them inside it along with Walpurgisnacht itself.
Homura desperately wanted to know what in the world had Sayaka done but knew that now wasn't the time for questions.
Sayaka breathed a sigh of relief as she managed to bring the Witch inside this space. "Okay, this should prevent Walpurgisnacht from causing any more damage to the city."
"Just one surprise after another with you..."
The two girls began to attack. Homura started going through the few rocket launchers she had left, as Sayaka cut right through Walpurgisnacht's defences like it was nothing. Her Bankai gave Sayaka higher speed, defence and destructive capability. The familiars couldn't hurt her, and the flames Walpurgisnacht were quickly nullified by wrapping her entire body in the cape.
The Shinigami noticed the Witch was charging up another fire attack as a ball of flames started to slowly form around its mouth. She sensed that this attack was going to be a big one.
Sayaka stood directly within its line of sight as she could tell it was being aimed right at her. She stabbed her Zanpakuto into the floor and raised both of palms outward together.
"Homura! Keep the familiars busy for moment!"
The girl nodded and switched her weapon to a sub machine gun. She focused on gunning down any new familiars that came out of Walpurgisnacht as she began to feel an immense amount of energy gathering at Sayaka's palms.
"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens."
"Hado Number 73: Soren Sokatsui!"
Sayaka discharged a huge burst of blue flames from her palms as Walpurgisnacht fired its own at the same time.
Once again blue and orange fire crashed against each other in the air, but this time Sayaka had used a stronger kido with a full incantation, and so her blue flames won out. It pushed back against Walpurgisnacht's fire and hit the Witch right in the head with a massive explosion.
The Witch certainly wasn't laughing any more. The head had now been severely weakened by her full power kido spell. Sayaka picked up her sword once again and pointed it toward the Witch. It was time to completely cripple Walpurgisnacht.
"Come on out, Oktavia!"
A huge torrent of water erupted from behind the Witch, and out of the blue liquid came a sight that stunned Homura.
What looked like Sayaka's Witch came out of the water, and used one of its hands to grab an arm of Walpurgisnacht. The other hand of Oktavia summoned a giant cutlass sword and it used that blade to cut off one of Walpurgisnacht's arms with a single swing.
An ear screeching cry of pain rang out, one that almost caused Sayaka to feel sorry for it. Almost. She smiled as watched Oktavia, her Zanpakuto Spirit, take hold of Walpurgisnacht again to prevent it from getting away and stabbed the Witch through the chest.
Homura shook herself out of her stunned state as she noticed Sayaka holding out her sword toward her.
"Miki-san?"
"Take it, you want to be one who ends this right? Then use my sword to deal the killing blow."
The dark haired girl eyed the blade that Sayaka was offering her. Was this really going to end it all? With this sword, would the long journey filled with suffering and tragedy really be over?
Homura steeled herself and took hold of Sayaka's Zanpakuto. The Shinigami created a glyph under Homura's legs which would give the girl a huge burst of speed when activated.
Oktavia brought Walpurgisnacht's body down to the red floor so that the head of the Witch was within striking range.
"You ready Homura?"
"...yes."
The glyph activated and shot Homura out toward Walpurgisnacht at a high velocity. She raised the sword and stabbed the head of the Witch in a single instant, right in the wound Sayaka had left in it earlier.
A final cry of pain resounded within the confined space. She twisted the sword and dug it in deeper as much as she could until finally, she head the Witch's dying cry. Homura looked up in awe as Walpurgisnacht started to disintegrate before her eyes.
That was it. The battle was over. Walpurgisnacht, after so many failures had finally been defeated. A part of Homura's mind couldn't believe it, even as she watched the Witch disappear from existence.
A single Grief Seed appeared on the floor. However it did not look like an ordinary Grief Seed. Most had an inner colour that was almost pitch black. Once a Grief Seed did become completely dark, that meant it was full and couldn't hold any more corruption. The fact that this Grief Seed started off with a pure white could only mean it was capable of holding a lot more corruption than normal.
Such a Grief Seed could only belong to the strongest Witch, Walpurgisnacht.
Homura heard Sayaka walk up beside her.
"It's over now. You've won."
The realisation finally hit her. Too many feelings hit Homura all at once. She dropped Sayaka's sword and heard it clatter on the floor as tears began to form in her eyes. Homura could see Sayaka walk in front of her before the other girl embraced her in a hug.
"It's okay, let it all out. The battle is over."
Homura stopped holding back her tears and started to cry. Happiness overwhelmed her as she cried tears of joy. Sayaka was more than happy to hold her as the girl finally let out her pent up emotions.
Madoka Kaname watched the storm slowly die down outside through a window the city shelter. She spent the entire time hoping and praying that her friend would be okay.
Her phone started ringing, which almost caused the pink haired girl to jump surprise.
She stared in surprised at the caller ID. It was Homura. Madoka picked it up immediately.
"Homura-chan? Are you okay?"
"Yes, I am. Everything is going to be okay Madoka. It's all over now."
Madoka noticed that Homura sounded different than the usual. She sounded... relieved. Almost cheerful. That in turn made Madoka feel a lot better. She didn't know what she would do if her friend had died out there.
"Are you sure Homura-chan? You're not hurt or anything?"
"I... wouldn't say that, but I'll be okay. You don't have to worry about me."
"If you say so Homura-chan. I'll see you again soon?"
"Yeah, you can count on it. See you soon Madoka."
Homura ended the call as she and Sayaka stood in the middle of debris. After the now ex-time traveler finishing letting out all of her tears, she composed herself and wanted to let Madoka know she was alright and so made the call.
"Miki-san, are you sure you don't want to see Madoka again?"
The blue haired girl shook her head as she disengaged her Bankai and returned the Zanpakuto back into it's sealed state.
"I'm dead now, best to leave it like that. Besides, she wouldn't even be able to see me."
Well there was the option of using a Gigai. So it wasn't impossible for Madoka and herself to see each other again, but that decision would have to be left for another time.
"She can't see you? Then how am I able to?"
"Because you wield magic, so you're able to see spiritual beings like Shinigami."
"Right, you mentioned that you had become a Shinigami. Care to explain?"
Sayaka laughed nervously. "Oh boy where to begin? I suppose I should get this out of the way first but, I'm not the Sayaka Miki from this timeline."
"What?"
Out of all the things that surprised Homura today, that was it. That had to be what took the figurative cake.
"You see, I'm from a much older timeline. When I died, I didn't get absorbed into Walpurgisnacht like a Mahou Shoujo typically would. Instead, my soul wondered and ended up in a place called the Soul Society. To put it simply, I suppose you could call it an afterlife. That place is a seperate world from this one, so your time looping didn't actually affect that world, at least not in a traditional sense."
"What do you mean by that?"
"To oversimplify it, your time loops caused quite a stir. The Shinigami spent years looking over the World of the Living trying to discover the cause, lucky for you their systems were never made to detect Mahou Shoujo."
And if they did find you, they probably would've had you killed.
Homura was trying her best to take in what Sayaka was telling her. There was clearly so much more to the world than Homura had ever thought.
Sayaka continued to explain. "When I found out what was happening with you, I decided to become a Shinigami myself. So that one day I would be strong enough to help you defeat Walpurgisnacht."
The blue haired girl let out a sigh. Years worth of training had led up to this battle. While she wouldn't claim to truly understand what Homura had gone through, Sayaka thought that she at least shared similar feelings to her.
The Shinigami unsheathed her Zanpakuto and turned around. Using the sword as a key, she began to open the Senkaimon.
"It's time for me to go, if I don't return soon then my Captain is going to get suspicious."
The doors began to open in front of her, but before Sayaka could take a step a forward Homura spoke up.
"Miki-san wait, will... I see you again?"
She smiled and tilted her head back to face Homura.
"Yeah, we will. We can talk more about Shinigami and the Soul Society another time. Oh right, I almost forgot..."
Sayaka turned her body back around and extended her hand.
"Think we can start over, and be friends?"
Homura stared at the hand of friendship Sayaka was offering. A chance to be friends with Sayaka Miki again. The last time the two of them shared a friendship was a very long time ago. It could almost be considered another life entirely.
The dark haired girl allowed herself to smile just a little and shook Sayaka's hand. It was the least she could do for someone who had just helped end her journey and cycle of despair.
"Yeah... we can."
Sayaka grinned in a way that caused Homura to experience a sense of nostalgia before letting go and walked through the Senkaimon.
"See you later Homura."
One Week Later
Reconstruction of the destroyed areas of Mitakihara were underway but it could well be months or even years before the city would be fully restored. To Homura though that was a minuscule price to pay for Madoka's safety.
One place that thankfully didn't get caught up in the battle however was the Mitakihara Cemetery.
Homura walked through the graves until she found the one she was looking for.
The grave that belonged to Sayaka Miki.
Of course the Sayaka of this timeline wasn't the same one that was a Shinigami, but Homura still felt the need to pay her respects.
She prayed for Sayaka as a gust of wind blew through the cemetery. Homura closed her eyes and hoped that wherever the Sayaka Miki of this timeline ended up, she hoped it was a happy place. She thought the same for Mami and Kyoko too.
Her mind wondered to other Sayaka, the one that saved her. The Shinigami had yet to return to Mitakihara, which was fine. It had only been a week after all. Still, Homura couldn't help but look forward to the next time the two of them could meet.
She looked up at the sky as the wind picked up around her. Homura smiled as she thought of the one who saved her.
"Thank you... Sayaka."
Author's Note: Okay so this idea came to mind while I was writing my HomuSaya fanfic. It really ended up distracting me from writing that story so I decided to put this out as a one shot.
The thing is I am kinda toying with the idea of making this a more expansive story. Maybe detailing Sayaka's training as a Shinigami, her learning Shikai and Bankai as well as interacting with the other Bleach characters.
If I do choose to do that, then it likely would be as a different story and not for a long time.
Still, this was fun and refreshing to write. I love both PMMM and Bleach so the idea of taking this idea and turning it into a multi-chapter fanfic is very appealing. Just not very practical for me at the moment.
Anyway I hope you all enjoyed it~ and see you guys later~