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Chapter One: Final Jump

My name is Mahou Shoujo Akemi Homura, but most people call me Akemi; the only person to call me Homura in a long time was Kaname Madoka. I'm a Mahou Shoujo, a Magical Girl. We trade our souls for one wish, in exchange for fighting monsters to collect energy for the Incubators, supposedly to counter the forces of entropy in the universe. That is the universe Madoka created with her wish.

Sometimes I see her in my dreams, talking to me, encouraging me when I'm lonely and congratulating me when I do well, telling me how proud she is that I'm protecting people, but lately her messages have been getting strange; I think she's trying to tell me what to do, but for some reason she can't. She's saying that she's lonely and that she misses me, and Kyoko, and Mami; that she can see all the timelines that I went through, and how she was going to fight alongside Mami in the last time we lived through together, that there was even one where we all lived.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"I thought that you were finished jumping between dimensions," Kyubey said as I appeared in my hospital bed.

"I thought that the whole universe was rebuilt, and that you wouldn't remember me," I replied angrily.

"I do not know what you are talking about," he replied. I threw off my covers, tossing them onto Kyubey. "I realize that you are angry, but we still must find a way to defeat the Walpurgisnacht."

I picked up my soul gem and held it out. Releasing my powers, I stopped time. "I don't know who or what you really are," I said knowing that he couldn't hear me, my voice seething and steady as I pulled a bomb from the dial on my arm and armed it, "and I really don't care." I removed the blanket from over him and stared into his eyes; as always, they were smiling. I placed the bomb in his mouth. "You lied to me. You lied to all of us. You knew all about this, about my wish and about what I was trying to do, and still you tried to make her contract with you." I grabbed my glasses and walked out of my hospital room. I turned back one final time. "I will kill all of you."

Walking down the hall, past doctors and nurses and patients, I kept my gaze locked ahead, focused on the mission. As I turned down the hall, I happened to glance into an exam room whose door had been left open. Inside sat a girl no older than me, getting an examination; she was slightly taller then me, with white hair that was pulled back into a short ponytail. "Shinju," I read from her chart. I entered and removed Madoka's ribbon from my hair. I tied it around her ponytail. "Don't worry, Shinju, never again will any girl trade their soul around Kyubey's lies."

I continued down the hall, entering the public bathroom closest to my room. I entered a stall and took a deep breath. 'What if I did the calculations wrong?' I thought. Shoving away my doubt, I resumed time and listened to the explosion, and the screams coming from every direction as so many rushed, frantic, to the scene. I returned to my normal form, still in my hospital clothes, and left the bathroom, making my way down the hall to where my room had been. I squeezed through the crowd until I could see what had happened. As planned, the explosion had destroyed everything in the room, but had left the rest of the building untouched; a single gold ring which had once circled Kyubey's ear was now resting at my feet. I picked it up and looked it over, slipping it over my wrist.

"You're alive!" my doctor shouted in surprise and relief as he walked out of the charred room. "We were afraid you had been caught in the explosion."

"What happened?" I asked, trying to keep my cover. "I went for a walk down the hall to stretch my legs, and then I heard an explosion."

"The officers say it looks like it was just a gas explosion from a damage oxygen valve and a spark from somewhere," he told me. "Are you injured, or are you ready to be discharged?"

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"And boys, don't grow up to put catsup on your eggs!" Miss Saotome said with ire. "Oh, and one more thing: We have a new student I'd like to introduce."

"Wait, that was an afterthought?" Sayaka commented as I entered the classroom.

Madoka gasped as she saw me. "Why don't you introduce yourself?" Miss Saotome asked.

"I'm Akemi Homura; pleased to meet you," I said. Miss Saotome reached for a pen to write out my name on the board; I reached out and stopped her, taking a pen and writing it myself. I turned around to face the class and bowed; they applauded. I looked at Madoka, and she squirmed nervously.

"Do you know her from somewhere?" Sayaka asked.

"I don't know," Madoka replied uncomfortably.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"What school did you go to?" one of my classmates asked; as many times as I'd been through this, I never learned her name.

"A mission school inTokyo," I replied.

"Were you in any clubs?" another one of my classmates asked.

"I'm sorry, the stress seems to have gotten to me; I feel ill," I said. "I think I need to go to the nurse's office."

"I'll take you," the first girl offered.

"I'll come, too," the second girl said.

"No, you don't have to," I said. "I'll ask the class monitor." I stood up and walked over to Madoka. "Excuse me, Kaname Madoka; you're the class monitor, correct?"

"Um…" she replied, nervous.

"Can you bring me to the nurse's office?" I asked.

"Uh… Yes," she replied shyly, standing up. We walked out of the classroom and down the hall; everyone we passed stared at us, whispering in excitement. "How did you know I was the class monitor?"

"Miss Saotome told me earlier," I replied.

"Oh! Well, the nurse's office is-" she began.

I stopped at the end of the hall, looking both ways, and turned the corner to the left. "Here, right?" I asked.

"Yeah," Madoka replied. "I didn't expect you to know where it was." I turned another corner. "A-Akemi?"

I stopped for a second before continuing on. "Call me Homura, please," I insisted softly.

"Homura," she said, trying out my name hesitantly.

"It's a bit unusual, I know," I replied.

"I-I think it's cool," she said nervously.

I stopped and turned around; we stood on the skywalk. "Kaname Madoka…" I started, pausing. "Don't change who you are. You should just stay Kaname Madoka forever, just like you have been until now."

"Um, ok," she replied, blushing.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"I don't get it…" Madoka said, confused, as she ate with Sayaka and Hitomi; I sat across the room.

"I thought she was a genius beauty, smart and athletically-talented, but she's just a nut!" Sayaka insisted. "How many quirks is that transfer student trying to show off?" She dropped her head onto the table.

"Is this really your first time meeting Akemi?" Hitomi asked.

"Really, yeah, but…" Madoka started.

Sayaka sat up and said, "So, what, you recognize her from somewhere unreal or something?"

"Well, I feel like I met her in a dream last night," Madoka said.

Sayaka and Hitomi giggled. "Wow, so now you're trying to be quirky, too?" Sayaka asked.

"Meanie!" Madoka shouted. "I'm really wondering about it!"

"I've got it!" Sayaka said. "This is fate! You're destined friends, brought together by the universe itself! You-"

"What kind of dream was it?" Hitomi asked, interrupting Sayaka, who was staring daggers at her.

"I don't really remember," Madoka said, thinking, "just that it was something weird."

"Maybe you really did meet her," Hitomi continued, "and she left such a strong impression that, despite not remembering her, she happened to pop up in a dream."

"Isn't that a bit far-fetched?" Sayaka interjected. "It's just a coincidence."

"I guess," Hitomi conceded. She opened her phone. "Wow, it's already really late. I'm sorry, I have to get going."

"What is it today?" Sayaka asked as Hitomi stood up and prepared to leave. "Piano? Japanese dance?"

"Tea ceremony," Hitomi replied. "But with exams coming up, I don't know how much longer I'll be doing it."

"I'm glad I was born into a working family," Sayaka commented.

"We should get going, too," Madoka said.

"Hey, Madoka, why don't we stop by the record store?" Sayaka asked.

"Alright," Madoka replied. "Kamijo again?"

"I guess," Sayaka giggled.

"Excuse me, Hitomi, is it?" I asked as she passed me.

"Oh, yes?" she replied, stopping next to me.

"You're good friend with Madoka and Sayaka, aren't you?" I asked.

"I am," she replied.

"Do you…" I began. "No, never mind."

"Um, ok," she replied. "Have a nice day."

"You, too," I said.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"How is it that no matter how many of you I kill, you always come back?" I asked Kyubey as I held him by the ears.

"I cannot explain how we work to someone of such limited intelligence as a human," he replied in his usual smug attitude.

"I'm not human anymore," I said bitterly.

"By one definition, yes, but your soul and your mind are still that of a human," he said. I whipped him by the ears, and his neck snapped, his body falling lifeless. I turned immediately to the sound of Kyubey running away, and, managing to catch a glimpse of him before he ran too deep into the darkness of the building, I fired off a shot. I returned my attention to the Kyubey in my hands, removing one of the gold rings from his ears and slipping it over my wrist, next to the other. I tossed the corpse to the ground and ran after the other Kyubey.

"What do you seek to gain from killing us?" he asked me through my thoughts.

"Revenge," I replied.

"I will never understand you humans," he said. I laughed. "What is it that you find amusing?"

"You'll never understand us, but you have no problems killing us, turning us into tools of grief and despair, just so you can do whatever it is you do with the energy you harvest," I said. "You are a culture of murderous psychopaths who feed on beings you deem lesser for your own ends, and you feel nothing about it. You do not deserve to live." I stopped time again and slowed to a walk, moving ever closer to Kyubey, his conversation with me giving away his position. As I approached, I stopped; Madoka held him, with Sayaka by her side. I turned back and hid behind a pillar before restarting time. I stepped out.

"Homura!" Madoka exclaimed.

"Step back," I replied.

"But he's hurt!" Madoka insisted. "Don't be mean!"

"This has nothing to do with you," I said.

"But he called out to me!" she replied. "I heard him ask me for help!"

"I see," I said, disheartened. "Remember what I told you earlier." I turned around and walked away.

"As long as Madoka lives, she will protect me," Kyubey told me.

"You forget that I know what's going to happen," I replied, "and you don't." I climbed into the ceiling and moved back over to where Madoka was, staying hidden in the darkness.

The room below began changing, transforming into the labyrinth of a witch. "What is this place? It's changing all around us!" Madoka shouted.

"What's going on?" Sayaka shouted.

"Something's there!" Madoka shouted, turning around.

"This has to be some kind of a joke," Sayaka said, grabbing on to Madoka. "I have dreams like this sometimes."

Suddenly, orange light shot up from the floor. "Wait, what's that?" Madoka asked.

"That was a close one," Mami said from behind them; Madoka and Sayaka turned around to face her. "But everything's alright now." She walked up, smiling, a chain and her soul gem in her hands. "Oh, you saved Kyubey. Thanks; he's a dear friend of mine."

"He called out to me," Madoka said. "His voice appeared in my head."

"I see," Mami replied. "Those uniforms are from Midakihara, aren't they? You're, what, second-year?"

"Who are you?" Madoka asked.

"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself," she said. "But first…" She danced around, releasing her magical form. "There's something I need to finish up!" A hundred flintlock rifles appeared in the air around her, all firing down upon the witch's illusions.

"Wow!" Madoka exclaimed.

The illusions faded, returning us to the abandoned floor of the shopping mall. "We're back!" Sayaka shouted gleefully.

I dropped from the ceiling, and Mami said, "The witch ran away. If you want to catch her, we'd better hurry up. It's up to you."

"I have other plans," I said.

"You're pretty dense," Mami shot off. "I was implying that we're letting you go. We wouldn't want to make trouble for each other, would we?"

I dropped from the box on which I had landed, and Madoka and Sayaka breathed a sigh of relief. Mami took Kyubey from Madoka and laid him on the ground, laying her hands over him and healing him. "Thanks, Mami! You saved me!" he said.

"You should thank them," Mami replied. "I just happened to pass by."

"Thank you!" he said, turning to Madoka and Sayaka. "I'm Kyubey."

"Did you call out to me?" Madoka asked.

"Yes!" he replied. "I want you to form a contract with me and become mahou shoujo!"

"And still you go after her," I said to him telepathically. "You have sealed your fate once again."

"We are many," he replied.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"One day, perhaps, the light of love, which shines in your eyes, will create a dream from this scarred world," I said as I stood outside Madoka's window. She turned around in surprise. "Swallowing down your hesitation, what is it that you wish for? On a path of yearning as greedy as this, will our tomorrow be again fleeting? When I was a young girl, I dream of you wielding something like ancient magic; I want to be by your side as, smiling, you shatter the darkness. In my trembling hand, I grasp the life of an innocent flower; as my emotions waver, my prayer awakens the light." I turned away from her, another dead Kyubey in my hands, hiding behind my back.

"Homu…" she started to say as I walked away.

I hid by the side of her window, listening intently to her, trying to understand what must be going through her thoughts. "Remember what I told you, and if someone comes offering miracles in exchange for your soul, don't ask for one until you know the consequences." I jumped onto her roof and watched as she stuck her head out the window, looking for me. I removed both golden rings from Kyubey ears, putting one on my wrist and dropping the other onto Madoka before running away; the ring landed on her head. She grabbed it and looked up, trying to find the origin.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Note:

As I watched the series, I guessed every step along the way, except for maybe two; one was that Madoka use her wish to bring Mami back from the dead (which, I guess, technically, she did do in the end, but I was thinking it would happen right then and there), and the other I will talk about below. Despite that, this has to be one of my favorite stories ever. I think it's simply brilliant, and I will be very sad if they don't continue it in some way beyond what is already planned.

The other thing that I didn't get right is that the only solution to this problem isn't what Madoka did, but, well, a wish that all magical girls are able to grant the powers, and the complete genocide of the Incubators; when Homura says that she's planning on killing all of them, she means it, but first, she must get Madoka to make the right wish, and for Kyubey to grant it right. I tell you this, I give you these spoilers, because that's not the plot of the story, it's just where it ends, and is simply a means of conveyance into the next story in the series (yes, I will write a sequel, and I know this despite only having written out one chapter). After all, you're not here to find out what happens to that annoying little rat-creature, you're here for the journey Homura and Madoka will take. Now, a real spoiler would be for me to tell you that there's a very graphic sex scene between Homura, Kyoko, and Mami (which doesn't ever happen, so relax).

And yes, I am using Kyubey emoticons to separate sections, instead of boring horizontal lines.