Heyyyyy guys! This is the other fic I've been working on, the Madoka Magica one I've been planning for a while now. Yes, it's rate M, but mainly for dark themes and the murder that occurs. There is a little (very little!) bit of sexual content, but nothing explicit. So please, sit back and enjoy the first chapter of After We Move On
Disclaimer: I don't own Madoka Magica, because if I did, Kyoko and Homura would become bro's and kick major ass together because they're my favorites.
After We Move On
Chapter One: Reunion
She opened her eyes and saw only darkness. Shapes were vaguely recognizable, but in her still dream-hazed state of mind, she couldn't figure them out. It took several moments of deep breathing and calming thoughts to get her mind together. She heard soft breathing beside her, and the pieces clicked into place.
Last night, she'd gone to one of the numerous clubs whose sole purpose was for people who needed another person to warm their bed for a night. She'd been frequenting these clubs for two years now, but one in particular had become her favorite. While it wasn't as new and as shiny as all the others, the name had lured her in, and the men she met made her stay. The Last Stop was not a very popular club by today's standards, but she always managed to find someone new to take home.
The man in bed with her on this morning was a twenty-something who she'd met at The Last Stop, a man who talked her ear off half the night about quantum physics and black holes until she cut him by kissing him; she then suggested that they head back to his place, a proposition to which he eagerly agreed. One thing led to another, and now she was here, in the bed of a total stranger, waiting for a good time to leave.
She lazily studied his features, remembering the softness of his black hair against her skin, and how his gaze never left hers during their…activities. His eyes in particular were what drew her to him: intense grey-blue eyes, restless like a storm upon the sea. A tattoo was inscribed in his chest, and she had to squint slightly to make it out: a small dragon with scales but no wings, above the kanji for eternity. After watching his chest rise and fall with steady breaths for several minutes, she felt the need to go bubble up once more.
Even though the sun had yet to come up, she began to feel anxious and decided that she would leave now and avoid the awkwardness that was sure to follow once her partner woke up.
She started to remove herself from the blankets when a swift arm reached up, encased her small body, and dragged her back down towards the bed. He mumbled something inaudible, most likely sleep talk, and relaxed his arm as he fell back to sleep. She quickly glanced at the clock, which alerted her to the fact that it was merely 3:15 AM. She could sleep for another two hours before she actually had to leave.
Relaxing her body, she was somewhat surprised when her partner began nuzzling her neck in his sleep; his hands surrounded her body, but the touches were light and sweet. She felt the haze of sleep overtaking her once more, and fell asleep in the arms of yet another handsome stranger.
-xxx-
A cacophony of sound roared through her eardrums as she swerved to the left to avoid another building as it was hurled toward her. She could hear it crash, could feel the air shift her hair as it barely passed her, leaving her remarkably unscathed. One breath was taken before she was moving again, always trying to get a new angle on her enemy. The enemy laughed, and the sound shook the girl's very bones. 'Not again,' she thought, as she drew nearer towards her target, 'I will not fail again'.
A stream of energy caught her off guard and slammed into her. The breath left her lungs as she fell several hundred feet towards the ground below. She landed in the water, a small mercy compared to landing on the concrete only feet away, but her lungs needed precious air and her strength was fading.
She desperately swam upwards, but the surface of the water was always just beyond her reach, no matter how hard she tried. As she finally reached the surface, a much needed breath was taken, but only one. A dark shadow loomed over her, and she only had moments to look above before yet another building piece was cast down upon her.
Her shield was cast up in time, but the building had her trapped and was taking her down. The shield provided a relief from instant death, but it did not provide any air to breathe. Feeling her strength fade as her lung began to fail. She could hear a voice quietly speaking, so softly it felt as though the words were caressing her very mind.
'Sleep now, my friend. You don't have to fight anymore.' She wanted to fight the voice, to go against its wishes and continue the battle, but her body was shutting down and there was nothing more she could do. The shield, devoid now of any power, deactivated, and the girl was left to her fate.
As the building began to crush her body, the voice spoke once more, more distant now, but still hearable: 'Keep it up, Homura-chan'.
-xxx-
Homura awoke to her bedmate speaking to her. As her mind was full of post-sleep haze once more, his words were inaudible to her in the first moments after she awoke. She blinked several times before she was able to bring everything into focus. "Are you alright?" was what the man was asking, and she nodded her head in reply.
"I woke up because you were struggling against me. I thought you wanted me to let go, so I did, but obviously that wasn't what you really wanted seeing as how you grabbed on to my arm with surprising strength and didn't let go. I didn't even realize you were still sleeping until I saw that your eyes were clenched shut."
Homura sighed, and began telling him the same story she told all her paramours when they caught her like this. "It was a nightmare, nothing more. I've always had them; it's nothing to worry about."
He nodded but still didn't look convinced. She glanced at the clock: 6:30 AM. Her eyes widened as she threw off the covers, ignored the cold, and rapidly began gathering her clothes. School started in an hour and it would take her almost an hour to get there from The Stop, not to mention that she had to rush home and get her uniform. Hopefully her bedmate lived closer to her home than the last one. It was getting rather hard to explain her lateness.
As she frantically dressed, her partner looked on with a smirk. He sat up, and the covers fell to just above his pelvis, revealing the prominent lines that Homura knew led to a piece of anatomy that she'd become…acquainted with the previous night.
"You're getting ready awful fast considering it's a Saturday morning," he said with mirth, and Homura instantly froze. How could she not realize it? She honestly wanted to slap herself in the face. In the wake of her sleepy haze, she'd completely forgotten the new rule she'd implemented on herself: to avoid further lateness at school, she would only go out on the weekends. Homura sighed and dropped her clothes
"Now that you've realized that you have nowhere to be, why don't you come back to bed? I enjoyed myself thoroughly last night, and a repeat would be a wonderful thing to experience first thing in the morning."
"And how do you know I don't have somewhere to be?" She asked, annoyed at his evident cockiness.
"I'm not an idiot; while I hope you are past the age of consent, only a person still in school would be that frantic to get ready this early in the morning. While a part of me, the small moral part, doesn't want to know, the sicko in me wants to know how old you are." He smirked once more and Homura could feel a flush coming on.
Homura was honestly surprised at his statement: most men she'd spent nights with didn't even bother to ask her age, assuming that since she was at the club, she was old enough to go home with them. She looked in the eye, and said "Seventeen," without missing a beat.
"Well thank god I'm not a rapist then. I'm twenty-one myself, and I'm a physics major at the University of Tokyo. And since I don't believe I've said it before, let me introduce myself: my name is Yuuta, Mochizuki Yuuta. I don't' believe I caught your name last night." He said; his cocky smile had returned once more.
"You didn't catch it," she said, slowly pulling her stockings back on, "because I didn't say it." She said no more, and he gave her a look of mock surprise.
"I introduced myself; isn't it only fair that you do the same?" he asked. She sighed and shook her head.
"Akemi Homura."
Yuuta waited for more, but the name was all he got. Finally, he spoke again. "Homura, huh? I suppose it's quite fitting: you are the flame that ignites my passion!" He proclaimed in a particularly dramatic voice, and Homura almost laughed. Almost.
"As wonderfully sentimental as that was, I really do have places to be, so I'll be going now." She was just lacing her sneakers when Yuuta jumped out of bed and pleaded with her once more.
"You really should stay. We could have fun, so much more fun! I would even be willing to just cuddle if that's what you wanted." His tone was bordering begging, and Homura heard a soft voice telling her to stay, to indulge herself once more before returning to the gritty reality that was her life. Logic emerged victorious, but part of Homura really wanted to stay and lose her mind and body in this gorgeous man as she had the previous night.
"I wish I could, but I really do need to leave." She walked out of the bedroom and heard footsteps behind her. Homura knew he was desperate, and hoped that walking away would be the trigger
"At least let me drive you home?" he asked, pleadingly, and she relented. Walking home would leave Homura alone with her memories; her memories were things she'd rather never think about again.
"I'd be okay with that," she said with a slight smile, and he smiled right back at her. "However," she said, making the smile stop, "at least put some pants on, won't you? My neighbors are all elderly, and seeing a naked man drop off their young neighbor could send off some bad impressions."
-xxx-
It took twenty-five minutes to drive from Yuuta's apartment in Bunkyo to Homura's apartment on the outer edge of Shibuya. It took thirty-five minutes for Homura to actually reach her apartment door, as eight minutes after their arrival to her apartment building were full of Yuuta's pleading for a second date, a real one. After six minutes Homura caved, and Yuuta cheerfully gave her his cell number before driving off. He smiled at her as he drove away, and Homura found herself surprisingly smiling back.
She watched him drive off; after his car rounded the corner and disappeared from her view, Homura swiped her apartment card and unlocked the building's main door. Homura quickly checked her mail, and, as per usual, had nothing except for some spam which she promptly discarded in the recycling bin she'd requested.
Homura stepped into the elevator at the hall, and pressed the button for the third floor as she did every day. Stepping out of the elevator, Homura felt a yawn coming on and stretched slightly as the yawn ran its course.
As she walked down the hall to her apartment, her neighbor, a kindly older woman known as Ms. Hino was leaving her apartment for her daily walk. She smiled when she Homura, and Homura smiled back. Ms. Hino was one of the few people in their complex that didn't ask questions about her family when Homura moved in alone two years ago. Instead, she invited the young woman to tea and they talked about her school and Ms. Hino's dogs.
"Ah, Homura-chan, how are you? Did you stay over at a friend's house again?" Homura winced on the inside. She trusted Ms. Hino, but she never told her about her late night rendezvous with mysterious men. She nodded and Ms. Hino smiled. Ms. Hino began walking down the hall before stopping in front of the elevator.
"I almost forgot to tell you; a girl about your age and a younger one who I assume was her sister came up to your apartment door about twenty minutes ago and was knocking quite loudly. I introduced myself as your neighbor and she called herself a friend of yours. She told me about how you two used to attend middle school together and how she wanted to catch up with you, so I showed her where the extra key was; she even showed me a picture of you two together in your younger years, so I knew she was someone you know."
Homura's face visibly paled, but Ms. Hino didn't notice. "Thank you Ms. Hino; I'll go talk to her now. Enjoy your walk." Ms. Hino smiled once more and stepped into the elevator. Homura waited until the doors shut before slowly walking towards her apartment door.
She slowly unlocked the front door, and no sound was made. She stepped inside, silently slipped off her shoes, and surveyed the area. The kitchen light was on, and that was the signal Homura needed. Only one person she knew fit the profile Ms. Hino had given her, and the fact that she was in the kitchen solidified her guess.
Homura opened the box labeled 'extra shoes' and removed her small revolver. The gun itself was a keepsake from her younger days, and it was one of the few she still kept around her home. She shut the box and walked forward, finger on the trigger.
Rounding the corner, Homura could see a figure with her back towards her and another rummaging the fridge. As quietly as she could, Homura ran forward and pressed the gun to the sitting figure's head. She heard a gasp and the figure at the fridge ceased her looking.
The figure turned and faced her, and an impish grin spread across her face, despite the fact that her friend at the table had a gun pressed to the side of her forehead.
"Damn Homura," Kyoko spoke with a smile, "it seems you still got those balls of steel you had when we were younger!"
"What are you doing in my home?" Homura asked, and Kyoko laughed, although Homura heard unease in her voice.
"Can't old friends visit each other?" Now Homura knew something was wrong. Kyoko and Homura hadn't talked since Mami died, and they'd agreed that never seeing each other again was something they could easily live with.
"What are you doing in my home?" She asked again, and Kyoko sighed.
"I'll tell you, but put the damn gun down will you? Poor Yuma's this close to peeing herself." Homura looked down, and was shocked to see tear tracks running down the girl's face. The girl, she had to say. The girl, Yuma, looked no more than ten or eleven.
"I didn't know you could even make friend anymore Kyoko, not after what happened with…" Homura drifted off after noticing the genuinely hurt expression Kyoko was wearing. She dropped her gun hand down to her side, and Yuma jumped out of the chair and ran into Kyoko's arms.
"I'm going to ignore that, because there's some serious shit going on." Kyoko stated, and Homura set the gun down on the table. She sat down in the recently vacated chair and gestured for the two of them to do the same.
"So what's so serious that you came all the way to Tokyo?" Homura asked as she shrugged off her jacket.
"Well I came because…is that a fucking hickey?!" Kyoko's tone went from serious to absolutely hysterical as she pointed to Homura's neck. Homura's hand instantly went to neck, where she could feel a spot that was warmer than the others.
"Yuma, I think you should go out into the living room; can she use the TV Homura?" Kyoko asked in a voice that held another message: I want to fucking talk about this without the kid in the room. Homura nodded and Yuma jumped up and ran into the living room. As soon as they could hear the TV going, Kyoko attacked Homura with questions.
"Are you guys serious? Or was it a one-night stand? Is he from your school? Was it your first time?" With each question, Kyoko's shit-eating grin got bigger and bigger. Homura sighed and responded to Kyoko's pestering.
"He's not from my school, it was supposed to be a one night stand but he asked me out on a real date and I accepted, and it definitely wasn't my first time." If Homura enjoyed petty things, she probably would've loved the look on Kyoko's face when she said it wasn't her first time. But Homura was a serious girl, so her face stayed passive.
"Oh my fucking god; Homura, you promiscuous girl, I'm so proud of you! How long have you been doing this?" Homura sighed and decided that because it was Kyoko, she could tell her the truth.
"Since I moved here two years ago." Before Kyoko could interject, Homura opened her mouth and continued speaking. "It's a way to help me forget all the shit we've gone through, all of the shit we still go through."
To Homura's shock, Kyoko merely nodded and sat back. "That's pretty fucking deep, Homerun." Homura's eyebrow twitched and she could feel a grimace spread across her face.
"I thought we agreed to never calling me that again, Kyoko." Kyoko smiled and merely shook her head.
"You agreed; I said nothing of the sort." She smirked again and Homura was seriously considering kicking her out of her house, but remembered that Kyoko came here to discuss something considered 'serious'
"While I know my love life is so very fascinating, let's get back to the reason why you're here." Kyoko's smile disappeared and her eyes narrowed.
"I'm glad we sent Yuma out to watch TV; god knows that she doesn't need to hear this, at least not yet." Homura sent her a questioning look and Kyoko continued.
"Six months ago, one of my contacts in a smaller town that bordered Mitakihara Town stopped sending in her reports about the demon activity. After two weeks I traveled to her home, only to find her entire family murdered. But this wasn't demon work Homura, this was human work."
This information actually shocked Homura; any of magical girl, even the weakest one could easily fend off a human killer. "That's odd, I grant you that, but why tell me? It's horrible, but it just seems like a random killing."
"That's what I thought too. But only three weeks later I got this message from another girl in the town bordering that one that her partner in her city and the partner's whole family had been murdered too. I traveled there with Yuma, but we were too late. The girl I got the message from and her family were dead. Her little sister was seven months old; they killed her too. When I found the body of the magical girl, there was something written on the floor beside her, in her blood. It said soulless things have to die." The kitchen became completely silent after Kyoko's speech. The TV, which seemed so distant earlier, roared in Homura's ears like thunder.
Kyoko recovered from that bit of horrifying information and continued on once again. "Last month I got a call from Oriko; she used to live in Mitakihara Town, but moved away not long after you did. She said she had a vision of him…he was…well, he was coming after you."
Homura said nothing, and Kyoko kept silent. Once again, the TV was the only noise. Finally, Homura looked up and met Kyoko's eyes. "…this is serious."
Uncharacteristically, Kyoko said nothing; she merely nodded. Homura sighed and leaned back into her chair. 'Are you watching me, Madoka?' Homura thought sadly, 'is this the better future you hoped for?'
Homura noticed Kyoko watching her questioningly, and so she spoke once more. "It seems that we have a serial killer that's targeting magical girls on our hands, and it seems that he's coming for me next."
Kyoko nodded and dropped her head into her hands, and she shell began to crack. "What are we going to do, Homura? I can't let that freak get to Yuma, she's already been in so much deep shit in her life; she doesn't need to be constantly afraid that some evil freak is out to get her because of what she is."
"…You really care about this kid, don't you," Homura asked softly, and Kyoko looked at her with a sad smile that Homura had never seen on her before.
"She reminds me a lot of myself, you know? Her parents were terrible people, fucking abusers, and were killed in an attack; she had no one left, so I took care of her. I got in a pretty bad situation, cornered by those fuckers on all sides, and I thought I was done for. But Yuma made a fucking contract to save my ass, and pulled me out of the fire. She was eight, and she sacrificed her future to help a girl she'd known for two weeks. I couldn't just leave her alone after that, could I?"
Homura said nothing, and allowed Kyoko to calm herself enough to speak again. "I came here because I knew a phone call wasn't enough. We've been through enough shit together that I needed to come and explain it to you, face-to-face. I couldn't leave Yuma alone, so I brought her along."
Kyoko sighed and slumped further into her chair. "I guess we just can't catch a break, can we?" She asked bitterly, and Homura merely nodded. "I however," she said with a spark that wasn't in her voice before, "am not content to just wait for the fucker to come to me; I think we should bring the fight to him and finish him before he can finish us."
Homura had been expecting this from the moment Kyoko mentioned the killer's new target, but the statement itself still shocked her. She'd never killed anyone before, and Kyoko had only killed one person, albeit in self-defense.
"I suppose you're right; if we can find him and get the jump on him, we can prevent the deaths of any other magical girls."
Kyoko smiled, and called for Yuma to come back into the kitchen. The TV was shut off and Yuma came back in with a smile on her face, obviously much happier after watching TV. "Kyoko, what are we doing?" she asked, and Kyoko's trademark smirk was back on her face.
"Well little Yuma, come over and listen close. You, me, and Aunty Homura," Homura raised an eyebrow at being called Aunty, but Kyoko ignored her and continued, "The three of us are going to catch a killer."
Aaaand the first chapter in my madoka magica darkfic is complete! Mind you that there is slight (only slight, if I tried to write a lemon I think I would laugh too hard and suffocate myself by accident) sexual content. The real reason this is rated M is because of the dark themes surrounding the killer and the girl's attempts to stop him. And no, before anyone asks, Yuuta is not the killer. He's Homura's fling and (maybe?) eventual semi-quasi love interest, if I feel it's good with the plot. But the main focus is their hunt for the magical girl serial killer. I really hope you guys enjoyed this fic, and as always, please R it rocks my world when I see a review.
-Serenity