I don't know if I love or hate the internet.
Kyoko's been around for a long, long time.
She can't remember the exact time she made her wish, but it was close to the turn of the century. Bigger ideals, bigger crowds, bigger everything. The family was happy and prosperous. Then Papa started preaching differently. She still remembers the one day, the day that Papa went off script and that bigger everything started to fade away. She and Momo and Mama were sitting there, with Mama's beautiful face even more radiant with her smile, and Kyoko can recall the way the apple tasted before and after Papa made the change.
The crowds started to go. There were murmurs, but everything was the same after that, and they died down.
But it happened the next week. And the one after that. Soon enough, mostly all the people had left, and there was nothing.
Nothing at all.
No food, no money, no people to preach to. Kyoko is dying, Momo is dying, Mama is dying and Papa is dying. Momo is nine. She should have so much more life left. Mama's beautiful face is gaunt, hollow, and her eyes are closed almost always. Papa is mumbling to himself. Momo doesn't understand why her father won't speak to anyone. Kyoko does.
She wishes she doesn't.
Kyoko has learned one easy way to make money. She will not tell her mother or father or sister. They can't know. She has been told that she is beautiful, and now that she has no food, she is skinny. It is a sin, something says. Don't turn to using your body to gain monetary value.
She would do anything for her family.
It'll work.
The day Kyoko sets out for the streets is the day that she meets Kyubey.
It is hard to walk, at first, because when you are dying of starvation, your body tends to get weak. Mama's face is sunken, now, and Papa is rambling on and on even more. Momo is screaming in pain, and father screams back to be quiet. You can't let your sister down.
It must be today.
"Kyoko Sakura." A shadow casts over her face, and she looks around. It is a small creature, sitting on a rooftop. It jumps down, and she sees it clearly. Four ears, red eyes, unmoving mouth.
Kyoko screams, and falls down.
"I am Kyubey. I have an offer to make you."
"Wh-what…" She croaks.
"You have enough potential to for me to grant you one wish. In return, you will become a magical girl and fight wishes." It moves closer. "Kyoko… I know that there is something you want. Somebody you want to save, perhaps."
Kyoko does not know what this thing is, if she is finally going mad like Papa, or if it's real. She has nothing to lose, so she makes the decision.
"I wish to have people listen to my father." So we can be happy again, and live!
Her first mistake was to not say what she meant.
People came back to the church the next day. There was money. Kyoko wakes up, and slips out of bed to find Kyubey (?) sitting by her door.
"Today, you will begin." And she walks and feels strength and life coursing through her veins, and sees the ring on her hand glow with power. She puts her hair up, sees herself in the mirror, and does not recognize the girl whose skin glows with health, who is not emaciated like the rest of her family, and realizes that she must inform them of the development.
"Papa! There are people at the church!"
"K-Kyoko?" Papa looks up, and sees her panting with excitement. "Church? Yes… the church I run… I must go…" She extends a hand, and smiles when he pulls himself up, and calls her mother and sister. They slowly, painfully, walk out the door.
"Come, Kyoko!" The creature reminds her, and she walks out too.
That day, Kyoko Sakura knows what it is like to fight for her life.
It is amazing, and she wants more.
She should have known that it wouldn't last.
Masses flock to her church, as if under a spell, and she is so happy. But she has troubles, and must resolve them.
"Kyubey! Where are you?"
"Right here." He jumps from her shelf.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Yes."
"Are there other magical girls? People like me?"
"Yes, there are. I wouldn't look for them, if I were you."
"Why?"
"Each magical girl has a territory. If another comes in, the nicer ones will maybe accept you as a partner or form a group. Otherwise, there'll be a battle for who rules."
"Oh…" But Kyoko does not want to be alone in her troubles. It is hard to keep her secret from Papa, from Mama, from dearest Momo. They don't know why she comes home with a new ring that she never takes off. She won't tell them, and Papa gets angry.
It is worth it, though.
Anything for the family.
The day her father finds out is the worst day in her fourteen years of life.
She is outside, at the back of the church, and practices with her spear. She has recently discovered that she can take it apart, and it is hard to control, but it is a good ability.
"Kyoko?"
"Papa!" She flips around in surprise, Kyubey lounging a few feet away.
"What are you doing? Why are you dressed like that? Where on earth did you get that spear?"
She explains everything – I'm a magical girl, Papa, I got the people to listen to you, I saved the family, and in return I fight monsters – and his face goes blank.
"What are you?"
"Papa, what do you mean?"
"You aren't my daughter."
"I'm still Kyoko Sakura, Papa, I'm just a little different now –"
"You are a monster! A demon! A witch!"
"Papa –"
"Get away from me and my family!"
She runs home, Kyubey on her shoulder. She has to get to Momo, she knows that she'll understand–
Blood. Blood on the walls, blood on the floor. Kyoko claps a hand over her mouth, and stifles a scream. Nonononono he couldn't have –
But there is Papa, standing over Mama's beautiful body, her face twisted in horror and red everywhere and oh dear god Momo –
And then Papa plunges the knife into his heart, falls to the floor, sprays blood, and screams "DON'T COME NEAR ME!" when she runs to him.
"Papa, no, what did you do?!" Kyoko barely registers the tears running down her face as she wrenches out the knife and places her hands over her father's wound.
"Monster…" He croaks out, and red mixes with clear and there something screaming, wailing like a dying creature –
Kyoko does not know that it is her making those noises.
She is alone again, for a long time.
The century has turned. She moves to Mitakihara, meets Mami, and isn't alone anymore.
They get along well, and fight witches together. Mami is so much more mature, and thinks that Kyoko is new to this business, but she isn't. Oh, no, she has seen much more than this, seen the world grow and mature, but it is companionship and there is still a little girl crying in her for her Papa and Mama to come back, to cradle Momo in her arms, but that lifetime is long gone and she's not alone anymore.
But they split up. Kyoko is selfish, and they fight. The blonde stays in Mitakihara, and Kyoko moves to the next town over, and kills the magical girl living there.
It is not the first time she has done this.
Mami is dead, and Kyoko feels it inside.
She meets Sayaka, and thinks that she's an idiot to wish for somebody else. After all, she knows what that's like.
She meets Homura, and does not show it, but she is slightly afraid, because this girl has a dead look in her eyes and Kyoko knows that look.
She meets Madoka, and thinks of Momo. It hurts too much.
Kyoko takes back Mitakihara, and frequently encounters stupid, idiotic Sayaka, wasting so much time on a boy and thinks too much about the common good. The only reason Kyoko's survived so long is because she only looks out for herself and not others – part of the reason she left Mami.
Sayaka will not last long, Kyoko knows this.
It pains her to see somebody who was just like her, once, get corrupted by the system.
Kyoko is with Sayaka in her last moments, and watches her turn into a witch.
She doesn't look at the world the same way, after that.
Stupid. How on earth did they ever think that they could turn a witch back into a magical girl? It was all for Momo – no, Madoka, she isn't your little sister – but Kyoko just didn't want to see Sayaka suffer.
She knows what it is like to be alone, to be scorned, rejected, by the people you love.
As she faces off with the giant mermaid that was once a feisty, beaming blue-haired girl, Kyoko makes her choice. She tells Homura to get Madoka out, and enlarges her spear to something as tall as the witch. But her spear, the first one, the original, is still with her.
Kyoko knows that after this, there will be no coming back. It's a suicide attack, something she learned from another magical girl, about thirty years ago when they fought.
It's alright, though. It's her time to be unselfish.
It is time to ensure that the girl that she understood, the stupid, foolish girl with too big of a heart, will never be alone again.
And in doing so, Kyoko won't be either.
Well, that was shit. This is my first PMMM story ever, my apologies for the bad characterization. Kyoko is my favorite character – I love her personality, and I know that she isn't from the Meji era, but I just kind of wanted to explore her story a little bit.
Thoughts?
EDIT: Thank you to Magical girl4 for pointing out that Momo was Kyoko's little sister.