The creature slunk through the corners of the brightly lit city, lurking in the darkness until it could find its target.

There was no rush, though. It could wait for as long as was needed. After all, its target would soon be near, and then there would be no stopping it.

It was late in the night when they finally turned up. A short, pink-haired figure emerged through the lights before pausing and slowly turning to face the shadows in which it was lurking.

The small white creature emerged from the shadows and sat facing the figure. 'Hello,' it said, face completely still, 'would you like to become a magical girl?'

III looked back at the creature that was facing him. 'Why would I want to become a girl?' he replied.

Kyubey looked at III for a long time.

'Well,' it said finally, 'that was unexpected.'

Elsewhere in the city, two figures were walking through it, taking in the city's sights and sounds, and basically just revelling in the experience of being in a new place.

At least, one of them was.

The taller of the girls appeared very on edge, constantly looking around for something, even as her partner happily skipped beside her.

'Come on, Homura-sama,' said the shorter girl. 'I brought you here so you could enjoy yourself. Stop worrying.'

'It's a hard habit to break,' replied Homura. 'And please don't call me "sama"; if anyone should be called "sama", it's you, Madoka-sama.'

'I'm not a "sama"!' replied Madoka, poking the taller girl. 'You're the "sama"!'

'You are,' said Homura.

'YOU!' yelled Madoka, causing several people nearby to glance at them.

'Y-' started Homura, only to stop for a second and turn slightly. Far off, there was the tiniest note of a scream of horror.

In the space of a second the two girls had vanished and reappeared as close to the scream as they could estimate. Homura paused again, but whatever it was had gone silent.

'Damn,' she muttered.

'Don't worry about it,' said Madoka. 'If there's something wrong, then someone will turn up to fix it. That's the way things work, Homura.'

There was a second scream, and now Homura could tell where it was coming from. And once more, within a second, the two were gone.

The tall, crimson-haired man stood laughing as before him, three people had collapsed on the ground, obviously in pain. Around the group was a computer-simulated graveyard, and in front of them was a huge black puppet, arms outstretched and wielding a wicked-looking whip.

'And now it's time for my TRUE fanservice!' laughed the man, grinning insanely. 'Go, Giant Killer! Final Dance!'

The huge puppet swung its whip towards it three helpless victims – only for it to stop just before hitting the first of them, caught in Homura's hand.

IV's eyes widened, but then he began grinning again. 'Someone else to enjoy my fanservice, huh?' he laughed.

Homura stared back at him, eyes calm.

'And who might you be?' asked IV, smirking.

'I am Homura Akemi,' replied Homura. 'And I'm not about to stand here and let you hurt these people.'

'So what are you going to do about it?' asked IV, tilting his head.

There was a deep purple flash, and suddenly Homura was lying on the ground, looking slightly dazed.

IV laughed, and presented his left hand, upon which was a glowing seal. 'Sorry, little girl. But if you're going to waste my time, then I'm going to have to dispose of you.'

Homura glanced at the strange blade-like object on IV's left arm, and smiled softly. 'So, you're one of this world's duellists?' she asked.

'And what's that meant to mean?' asked IV, as Homura stood up and dusted herself off.

'I'll make a deal with you,' said Homura. 'I'll play your game. If I win, then you stop hurting people. And if I lose, then whatever you would inflict on them, you can inflict on me instead.'

IV raised an eyebrow. 'Interesting suggestion. Alright, I'll take your challenge.'

There was a flash of violet, and Homura spun in the air, reappearing with a strange bronze device on her arm, from which emerged a thin D-Pad.

'Let's duel,' said Homura.

III was returning to his family's current home, the strange white creature clinging to his shoulder. Despite the lack of facial movements, it seemed to be quite distressed, muttering to itself about how "this isn't right" and "you should be a girl". At one point III stopped at a bakery and bought it some bread to eat, which seemed to make it a bit more relaxed, but even so it still seemed to be quite on edge.

They finally arrived at the massive hotel that III's family was residing in for the duration of the Duel Carnival.

'Nice place, huh?' said III, but Kyubey was silent.

As they went into the elevator, III began to wonder about the strange creature he was carrying. Could it have something to do with the Numbers? It didn't seem like it at first glance, but he couldn't think of any other explanation for the thing's existence. But his brothers would know. They always knew.

III walked in and held Kyubey out in his hands, presenting it to V. 'Nii-sama, do you know what this is?' he asked.

V looked at III holding his empty hands out to him, and sighed. 'What what is, III?' he replied.

III looked down at the creature in his hands, and it looked back at him. 'Only the people I have chosen can see me,' it replied.

'Oh, I see!' said III, as V looked at him bemusedly.

'III, what are you talking to?' asked V.

'Uh… it's a little white thing!' said III. 'It says its name is Kyubey.'

V looked at III's outstretched hands once more, then shook his head. 'III,' he said, 'we don't have the time for this right now. IV is duelling someone, and losing.'

'What?' replied III, looking at the screen. IV indeed seemed to be losing – he had no monsters on his field, and his opponent had four, strange monsters of a kind that III had never seen.

Kyubey leapt behind III's head. 'Her,' it said.

III examined IV's opponent – a tallish, black-haired girl in a purple outfit and a very hard gaze. Whilst IV was looking increasingly agitated, she seemed to be hardly putting any effort in her duelling.

'Her first move was to destroy IV's "Xyz Colosseum",' stated V. 'From there, she's been completely ruthless. Your brother's had to revert to stall tactics.'

'Who is she?' asked III.

'Not a clue,' replied V. 'There's no information on her in the records anywhere, and those monsters aren't showing up either. All we know is her name – Homura Akemi.'

IV was worried. He'd underestimated this girl, and was paying for it. She'd even been able to circumvent his "Giant Killer OTK" with her own field spell, and since then she'd ruthlessly torn through his defences like they weren't even there.

'It's your move,' said his opponent quietly.

IV glared, drawing. Then, his face curved into a vicious smile. 'From my Graveyard, by discarding two copies of Gimmick Puppet – Necro Doll, I can Special Summon the Level 8 Gimmick Puppet – Spider Web!'

Before him appeared a bizarre clockwork spider, eight false red eyes staring emptily at Homura.

ATK: 0, LV: 8

'Then, from my Graveyard, I can Special Summon one copy of Necro Doll by banishing the other!'

Beside the spider appeared a coffin, which opened to reveal a girl doll, her face heavily bandaged.

ATK: 0, LV: 8

'With these two Dark monsters I will construct the Overlay Network!' yelled IV, throwing his hand out and the seal on the back of his left hand glowing as the two monsters turned into glowing purple orbs and vanished into the galaxy-shaped portal that had materialised between him and Homura.

'Xyz Summon! Number 40! Gimmick Puppet – Heaven's Strings!' he declared, as his monster unfolded and took form in front of him.

ATK: 3000, RK: 8

'Now then, I think it's my turn to take the advantage, hmm?' laughed IV, smiled extending madly. 'Heaven's Strings attacks your Madoka the Follower!'

Homura glared at him coldly. 'Do you think I would let my friend be destroyed by your abomination?' she said. 'Trap activate, Hope Spot! This prevents Madoka from being destroyed, no matter what you throw at her!'

As the deformed puppet swung its blade at the girl, a glowing shield appeared around it, cocooning her and deflecting the blade.

IV cursed. 'Well then, I guess we'll just have to play hard mode. I activate Heaven's Strings' effect!'

One of the glowing orbs orbiting the creature was absorbed into its sword, and above it appeared a huge vortex as the puppet began to play the strings on its right arm with the sword. From the vortex flew thousands of red strings, which attached to all Homura's monsters.

'At the end of your next turn,' declared IV, 'all of your monsters will be destroyed, and you will take damage equal to their total attack points. Your move, "protector of hope"!'

Homura looked steely back at him. 'Draw,' she said. 'I Summon the last "Puella Magi" – Guardian Homura!'

Before her appeared a duplicate of herself, complete with buckler.

DEF: 2000, LV: 4

'Now, I activate the effect of Gunslinger Mami!' she continued. 'By cancelling her attack during this turn, she can negate the effect of an opponent's monster!'

'What?!' yelled IV.

'And, I activate the effect of my Spearlady Kyoko! By cancelling her attack this turn as well, I can reduce the attack power of your Heaven's String's by 500 for each of my other "Puella Magi" monsters. As I control three, your monster's attack power is reduced by 1500!'

Mami flung out two thin golden cords that wrapped around the puppet, pulling it to the ground. Then, Kyoko threw her spear at the puppet, where her spear split into chains and crashed into IV's puppet, ripping pieces of it off.

ATK: 3000→1500

'Now,' continued Homura, 'I attack and destroy your Heaven's Strings with Sayaka! Go, Finishing Steel Strike!'

IV: 1600→1200

As his monster was destroyed, IV flinched, but then began to laugh as he noticed his Life Points had been reduced only to 1200. 'Seeing as none of your other monsters can attack this turn,' he said, 'I guess that means I win.'

'Not quite,' replied Homura. 'I activate my – Homura's effect! By Releasing her, I can allow any of my "Puella Magi" monsters that have already attacked this turn to attack once more!'

IV's eyes widened, and he involuntarily took a step back.

'Now go, Sayaka! Attack him directly! Finishing Steel Strike!'

The blue-clothed girl leapt in front of IV, then drew her sword back and stabbed it forwards into IV, knocking him backwards and causing him to stumble into the wall.

IV: 1200→0

III and V stared blankly at the screen. For a second there was a silence, then III began to make a weak laugh.

'Well,' he said, 'at least it wasn't an important duel.'

V turned to him. 'Don't you get it? Someone just turned up and utterly destroyed him. And seeing as he's trying to uphold his reputation as "undefeatable", that might cause his reputation to sink a fair bit, which is something we cannot allow. III, I want you to hunt down this "Homura Akemi" and stop her from letting people find out about this. I will deal with the others that were watching.'

III nodded, whilst Kyubey crawled up onto his shoulder again.

'Confronting Homura Akemi is not a good idea,' said the creature.

'I have to do as my brothers ask,' replied III, causing V to cast him another glance, before looking back down as III vanished into a vivid black portal.

After this is all over, III's going to a psychiatrist, V thought. A fifteen year old's psyche isn't meant to be able to deal with this.

Having made this decision, V left to retrieve his brother.