Saving Life — Sakura Kyouko x Miki Sayaka
Prologue / Chapter 0: A Choice to Make.
Warning: This fanfic concerns death, violence, sensitive social/sexual/religion issue. Heavy angst. Read at your own risk.
Disclaimer: This fiction is purely fanmade. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica / Puella Magi Madoka Magica belongs to the owners.
"God damn it... Madoka..." a choking blunette held onto her dear friend's arm tightly as the newly contracted Magical girl lied on the floor.
It was raining, still, and the city of Mitakihara was in a mess. The day they all had been waiting had arrived and left in a breeze, as if nothing mattered to the organizers of this "Gathering of Witches". A group of young girls, who hold an important role of saving citizens and protecting the city, gathered and fought endlessly for hours that morning.
It all ended when a flash of pink light blasted through the middle of the huge gear-driven witch, Walpurgis Night. A raven-hair girl stood by the sideline witnessed it and she knew that it was over, in many ways more than the fight.
The end of a spear stuck to the ground and the owner groaned, "Another one... Another one!" she kicked away a rock by her foot, "Fuck this, seriously fuck this! Innocent people just keep dying and I can't do a shit about it!"
The aforementioned raven-hair girl took a deep breath and drop her bazooka to the side. Quietly, her primary weapon resurfaced and she whispered to herself. "Madoka... I'll save you again. I'll make sure you won't contract with Kyuubey this time..."
The gears in her weapon started spinning. She closed her eyes and just as she was about to step into another barrel...
"Huh? Homura, did you just say you'll save Madoka?" the spear wielder asked, "She's dead". This distracted the time-traveller. Her gears stopped spinning and she glanced over her shoulder.
Well, no harm telling them who she is now since she's about to leave.
"I... I repeat time," she said monotonously, "I save Madoka from her fate. That's my duty."
"Huh..." came a reply, "You... What?" A confused sigh came from the redhead. She turned to face the still-crying blunette for a moment and then turned her attention to the fallen girl beside her.
"I wish I could do that too. I wish I could go back in time and save the ones I loved too."
An interest perk in Homura as she turned to give the redhead her full attention. 'Doesn't Kyouko loves Sayaka? Isn't she still there?' she thought.
The spear disappeared and the owner changed back into her regular outfit. She continued, "Say... Homura," her fist tightened around her now egg-shape Soul Gem, "could you possibly... Send people back in time as well?"
This time, the blunette lifted her face off the body and faced them. "Wha... What are you guys talking about?" she sniffed and wiped the back of her palm over her teary face, "Madoka... She's dead! Are you guys gonna just leave her and go off else where!"
Homura took a peek at the only unmoving body among them and looked away quickly. Too many times. She had witnessed this too many times. But why does she still feel the pain hitting her so hard? It still hurts a lot having to look at Madoka's corpse."I... I am...-"
"Sayaka, Homura just said that she could go back in time to save Madoka. She's not leaving her anywhere," Kyouko covered up. She paused before continuing, "Madoka will be alive again."
The tears stopped instantly and Sayaka frowned. That was a little too-much-info suddenly to her and her brain capacity was not as huge as Homura's. She thought Kyouko was just sprouting nonsense to cheer her up. She let out an amused smirk and grab Madoka's tiny palm tightly, "Thanks Kyouko. I don't know about that transfer student but Madoka's here. Going back in time won't bring her back to life now."
Sapphire eyes stared straight into the ruby-coloured ones. "Once they're dead, they're dead. You know that, Kyouko."
That hit the redhead hard. She flinched and back away from Sayaka. Tears just about to fill up her eyes as she recalled the day that changed her life. 'Damn it...' She knows about that, she knew it! Once they're dead, they are dead! And she can't do a damn thing about that! She couldn't-
"Going back in time... At least Madoka is alive in the past. So are your loved ones, Sakura Kyouko."
Both of the teary girls looked at the time-traveller. Homura's face remained expressionless and she look down to her diamond-shape Soul Gem on the back of her left hand. "The ones we love are alive in the past. And that's where I am going."
Her palm turned and the raven-hair girl is now staring at her clenched fist. "I've never tried sending anyone else but me back into the past..." she looked up to the pair, "Neither have I tried going further back more than a month..." then the purple eyes stared deeply into the pool of confused reds, "If you are willing to, I could try."
Kyouko's face lighten up at the end of that sentence. Her mouth left a gap and she blinked; the knowledge of traveling back to the past, to give her a second chance of saving her family was kind of overwhelming for her, since she had given up on that two years ago.
Suddenly, a declaration cut through her thoughts, "If Kyouko's going, I'm following her."
The redhead turned to the source of the voice. Sayaka had let go of Madoka and stood up, steadying her steps. She clenched her fist and continued, "Kyouko saved me and I know perfectly well who she wants to save. Let me help you, Kyouko." Her blue eyes stern and determine, burning right into Kyouko's bewildered ones. Or maybe, that's just Sayaka being stubborn. 'Or maybe she just wants to go back so she could see Madoka?' Kyouko thought. She does not see a reason to stop Sayaka anyway, and perhaps that could bring her the happiness she had been dreaming about: To live with her family happily once again and during an invited dinner, she could introduce them Sayaka as her girlfrien-
"Miki Sayaka, that's going to be very dangerous. Though Madoka's not here anymore and your death should not be of my concern, I would still suggest you to think twice," said Homura.
Sayaka rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever you say, Transfer student. You just wanna see Madoka and I am not allowed to?"
'Just as I thought' Kyouko sighed mentally.
"This is not about seeing Madoka-"
"I said I am following, can't you hear me?"
"And I am saying it's too dangerous for weaklings like you."
"What!"
"Hey, hey cut it." Kyouko had enough, "Homura, I appreciate your thought of her safety, but I'll be grateful if I have someone to come with me too... And no one else is better than Sayaka." Her voice soften near the end of her speech.
Homura sighed and stared at Madoka's body behind the annoying blunette. 'Just this once,' Homura promised herself that she would not endanger the life of her lover's best friend again, just in case Madoka would really get mad at her if she learned about it.
The time traveller lifted her shield-wielding arm and glanced at the two, "Are you ready?"
A fanged grin and a stiff nod were her replies. She took a deep breath and shut her eyes to focus. She made a silent prayer that sending other people back to more than a year ago would work and that she would still have enough energy for her own time-travel. She whispered loud enough for the two to hear her, "Here I go..."
White flashes of light emerged from the sandy ground and swallowed the blue and the red Magical girls instantly. The light lasted for a moment and it slowly died down, being absorbed to the ground, leaving nothing behind. Purple eyes stared straight into the space ahead of her, where the two girls were just a moment ago. Another glance over to the corpse, she mentally cheered herself on and lifted her shield arm again.
"Madoka, I'm coming."
A/N: That's it for prologue! I hope my writing is still fine, I have not written anything in ages *hides from flying daggers coming from the K-ON fans*. And yeah, I suck in English and I could tell there's tons of errors all over the chapter. Feel free to correct me, I'll change it!
Anyway, this fic is going to focus solely on Kyousaya, the rest of the cast are only mentions and a little appearance. I'll try to keep everything as canon as possible, but the most non-canon fact is that Homura's shield could work on other people and could travel even further more than a month which is over the "amount of sand" in her shield (yeah, I read up almost everything I could in the Puella Magi wiki).
Correct me if I'm wrong to say that Kyouko's family should have died around two years prior from anime's Walpurgis Night timeline, right?
Another warning for the weak-hearted ones: There's a fair reason to why this fanfic is categorized as ANGST. So if you cannot take any major amount of angst, even more than the original anime plot, I'll suggest you to not read this fanfic. I'll try to chip in bits of fluff so that the fic will not feel too horribly heavy.
That aside, welcome to Kaito's world of angst!
Kaito / 8 Feb 2013