"Halloween costumes?"
Madoka had been quietly eating her lunch on the school rooftop with the rest of her friends. She hadn't been listening properly to Kyoko and Mami's conversation until she heard mention of a particular holiday that was coming soon.
Mami nodded at the pinkette and smiled. "Yeah, we're all going to dress up and get lots of candy this year."
Kyoko swallowed whatever piece of food she had just been eating. "Although what she we dress up as? Meh, if it comes down it, I could just go in my Mahou Shoujo outfit."
Mami shook her head at the statement. "Oh dear Kyoko-chan, half the fun of Halloween is getting to dress up in costumes."
The blonde turned her attention to the bluenette sitting with Homura on the bench next to herself. "Well Sayaka, what do you think you'll be wearing?"
The said bluenette was sitting next Homura, who only listened in on the conversation and not actually participating in it.
"Actually I've been meaning to dress up as a vampire this year." Sayaka said with an audible gulp of the water she was drinking. She decided to face Homura to get her in on the conversation.
"What about you Homura? What are you going to wear on Halloween?"
The brunette bite off part of a cookie before responding without even looking at Sayaka. "Why would I engage in something so childish?"
Sayaka wasn't phased at all by her cold and curt response. This wasn't the first time she had received such an answer from Homura. When the two had first met, it was even worse than the way she was now.
"Aww come on Homura, we are more or less still kids anyway. You need to have fun more often."
"I don't think something like this can even count as fun."
Something about the way she worded that took Sayaka by surprise. "Hang on...have you never gone trick or treating on Halloween before?"
Homura chose not to answer as she looked away with a tint of pink in her cheeks. Sayaka was right in her assumption that Homura had never gone trick or treating before. For most of Homura's life was spent indoors. Her frailty before becoming a Mahou Shoujo never allowed her the luxuries an average girl had. That frailty caused Homura to become cold and not very sociable. She ended up viewing things like trick or treating to be childish even though she had never done it before. It wasn't like a small part of her secretly wished she could find herself to enjoy such childish things. Not at all.
"Of course not, I have no desire to participate in such activities." The violet eyed girl tried her best to not look Sayaka in the eye as the bluenette inspected Homura's face.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun. Plus we get free candy."
The sword wielding Mahou Shoujo was adamant on the idea of Homura joining them. The brunette could only sigh internally. She had a suspicion that this would not end well for her.
Halloween Night
Homura stood a top one of the many skyscrapers of Mitakihara. She currently wore her Mahou Shoujo attire but she would have to transform back eventually. Back into an outfit that Homura found a little embarrassing to wear.
Homura continued to stare into the distance until she heard a particular voice that snapped her out of thoughts.
"The air is quite dense with magic tonight, isn't it?"
The brunette tilted her head back at almost an unnatural angle to see who had spoken to her.
It was Oriko Mikuni.
"Mikuni-san?"
Homura noted that the white haired girl wore her Mahou Shoujo outfit. Meaning she was planning on a Witch Hunt tonight.
"Have you not noticed the change in atmosphere tonight at all?"
"Of course I have. What about it?"
Homura had already noticed the unusual amount of magic residue in the air before Oriko mentioned it.
Oriko stood beside Homura and lifted her arm to point towards an old abandoned home that was situated near the Mitakihara cemetery. The house was isolated from most of its neighbourhood and was even said to be haunted. Homura of course dismissed all
Homura could only raise an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"I recommend that you and your friends take a trip to that place later tonight. It's where all this dense magic is coming from."
"And why's that?"
Oriko smirked before she turned her body around and began to walk away. "You'll find out for yourself."
Homura turned around and sure enough, she was gone. The brunette hated it when Oriko would drop on randomly to give out a vague warning or two before disappearing from sight. It wasn't like Homura hated the girl herself, but sometimes the way the elegant girl acted would rile the brunette up for no reason at all.
She turned back and narrowed her eyes at the far away home. Even though a Mahou Shoujo had advanced eyesight, it was still only barely visible to her from atop the skyscraper.
Homura figured that she should investigate the place at the very least. Oriko had the power to see into the future, so it wasn't a good idea to disregard any warning the white haired girl happened to give.
Homura let out a long sigh. She had a feeling it was going to be a long night.
Kaname Residence
The group had decided to meet up outside Madoka's place before they went trick or treating. Kyoko Sakura had arrived with Yuma Chitose before the rest. Kyoko was wearing a big black cloak along with a fake scythe and skull mask. Clearly she was the Grim Reaper tonight.
Yuma was wearing a child's version of nurse's outfit. Obviously to go with the fact that she was the healer of the group.
The next to arrive was Mami Tomoe and Nagisa Momoe. The blond wore a black top hat with black dress of sorts with an assortment of gems near the sleeves. She even wore a few necklaces as well around the now. Mami was going as the stereotypical witch for Halloween.
Nagisa was wearing some kind of pumpkin shaped hat with a orange robe that had shapes of yellow cheese all over it. The other girls didn't know what she was dressing up as but they decided not to bring up the topic.
Nagisa and Yuma started to talk amongst themselves. Those two were always close. The other girls assumed this was the case because they were the youngest.
Sayaka showed up in her vampire costume. She even had fake fangs along with the outfit.
The bluenette was had dragged Homura along with her, who was wearing a very...peculiar costume. It was a black cat girl outfit. Something Sayaka insisted that Homura wear it for Halloween. While it wasn't a revealing outfit by any means, the usually cold girl still felt a little embarrassed wearing such a costume.
Kyoko took note of the costume Homura was wearing. She couldn't help but start snickering at the fact a girl like her was wearing a cat girl outfit of all things.
"Oh wow Homura, I never thought you were that type of girl." Kyoko teased while resisting the urge to fall over laughing.
A single stare from Mami that was informing the redhead to not make fun of Homura. Along with a telepathic warning as well.
The brunette rubbed her hand on her forehead before glancing at Sayaka. "Why did I let you talk me into this?"
"Oh don't worry so much, you look cute. So don't listen to what she says."
Madoka finally exited her home with her outfit on. "Sorry everyone, my mom was helping me with my costume."
The pinkette's outfit was one that was meant to resemble Little Red Riding Hood. Madoka wore a red cloak with a pink inside. Madoka's casual clothing was under the cloak, a suggestion by her mother. She was also carrying an orange basket, one that would hopefully be filled with candy by the end of the night.
"You're supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood, right Madoka?" Kyoko asked.
The pink haired girl nodded nervously. "Yeah, that's right."
"Then where's your big gun-scythe?"
Kyoko received a slight smack on the head by Mami. "Wrong Little Red Riding Hood."
The redhead could only rub the back of her head meekly in response. Homura sighed as Yuma and Nagisa began giggling.
The red eyed Mahou Shoujo ignored them and psyched herself to get a haul of candy tonight. "So we're all ready? Then lets get started!"
Mitakihara Park
A Witch barrier disintegrated around Oriko and Kirika as the white haired girl picked up her Grief Seed.
Kirika looked as if she was worried about something. Her orange eyes couldn't help but stare in the direction of the house near the cemetery.
"Are you worried about what might happen?" Oriko asked with a tilt of the head.
"Are you sure it's okay to leave it up to them?" Kirika was referring to Homura and her friends.
Oriko placed a reassuring hand on the black haired girl's shoulder. "You needn't worry, they'll take care if it while we have fun tonight."
Kirika shrugged her shoulders. In the end she would always trust Oriko's judgement. "Well if you say so..."
Abandoned Home Front Yard
The girls had been trick or treating for a few hours and their bags are almost full with candy. The experience wasn't as bad as Homura first thought it was going to be. All she really did was say "trick or treat" as the group went to each house. Her bag had become filled with lots of different types of candy. It would've been fairly heavy to her if she was a normal human.
"So why are here again?" Kyoko asked out loud to the group as she stared at the old run down house covered mostly in shadow by the large trees.
Homura stepped ahead of the group. "Oriko said this was where all that leaking magic is coming from."
"Is that a problem?" Madoka asked.
"I'm not sure, but its better to be safe than sorry. I'm sure this won't take long."
Homura began to shine a bright purple light and eventually ended wearing her Mahou Shoujo outfit. Something that was much more comfortable than that cat girl costume she was wearing before. The rest of the group followed suit. Now all the girls were now wearing magical girl costumes. They wouldn't need to worry about someone seeing them since they could pass it off as just dressing up for Halloween.
Sayaka's eyes widened as she noticed something near the front door to home. "Hey guys, check that out."
She pointed to what she staring at. Everyone's eyes eventually landed on the object that Sayaka had seen. Homura wondered how did she not see it until now. It was a lit jack-o-lantern.
Madoka felt a little nervous at the sight of it. "Umm, isn't this place supposed to be abandoned?"
Nagisa and Yuma stepped back a little while standing very close to one another. The two had fought Witches before but they still spooked them out to an extent.
Homura knelt down and inspected the jack-o-latern. She peered inside the sharp mouth to check on the candle inside. It definitely looked like it had been lit recently. Homura stroked her chin at the sight.
Mami went up to check on the pumpkin jack-o-lantern herself. "Is it possible then someone merely came by here to set one up as a prank?"
"Perhaps." Homura curtly replied. "Regardless, we need to investigate this place. So lets make this quick."
Everyone gave their bags of candy to Homura to keep safe inside her shield. The brunette proceeded to grab on the rusted handle and opened the door inside.
The group of seven Mahou Shoujo entered the home, and immediately realised they needed some light. They a held up their hands and summoned a magic light in each of their palms. Spheres of magic began to glow and shine around its caster. The color of each light corresponded with the color of Soul Gem. Kyoko had a red light floating around herself, Yuma had a dark green one, and so forth.
The group saw that the interior of the home looked similar to a mansion of sorts. Cobwebs covered the walls and strange smell filled the entire location. Before they could start take in their surroundings however, everything started becoming distorted and warped. The seven Mahou Shoujo realised what was happening. They had stepped into Witch's Labyrinth.
The girls summoned their weapons all at once to get ready for a fight. They ended up in a multicoloured cave of sorts. Different types of familiars began to surround the group. Large bats, skeletons, pirates and massive jack-o-lanterns.
Sayaka looked weirdly at the familiars. "Err, do these familiars look...Halloween themed to anyone else."
Mami shot a few bats down with her muskets. "Yeah I noticed that, I wonder what it means."
Kyoko extended her spear forward and bended the handle to strike down multiple bats. "Who cares, the Witch here was probably obsessed with Halloween or something."
Sayaka was exchanging sword strikes with a few skeletons attacking her. The bluenette summoned a second sword and struck them down with a single horizontal slash. "Well I guess we gotta just move forward and take them all down. There are seven if us right, this should be easy."
Sayaka immediately regretted those words when the group had reached three orange doors as the walls continued to change color around them.
Homura narrowed her eyes and thought about their current situation. Only one of the doors would probably lead them to the Witch within. She sighed at her dilemma. They would have no choice but to split up.
"Okay, we'll split into two groups of two and one group of three if we're going to find the Witch." Homura declared. No one had an issue with that. As long as no one went alone, they were more likely than not going to be fine.
Mami and Nagisa took the door on the right. Kyoko, Madoka and Yuma took the middle door. Which left the door of the left to use for Homura and Sayaka.
Right Door Pathway
Mami and Nagisa walked along the narrow path. The two girls had noticed that the walls had stops changing color and now stayed orange of all colors.
"Mami-san?" Nagisa asked quietly.
"Hmm? Something wrong?"
"Umm, not exactly, I'm just wondering something."
Mami looked down at little girl walking beside her. "Well what are you wondering?"
"Well...I wonder if I got any cheese flavoured candy this year."
Mami could only giggle. For a moment she had believed it was something serious.
"I don't know if any candy even comes in a cheese flavour."
"Well there should be. It would be the best flavour ever." Nagisa said with a big smile on her face.
Mami smiled along with her. "I guess we should check after we get this over with then."
Middle Door Pathway
Madoka had her bow out and ready to fire down the pathway as Kyoko prepared herself for a possible melee fight. However they encountered no enemies to do battle with so they relaxed their composure.
Yuma stayed behind the two. She figured that they would prefer to talk amongst themselves. The green haired girl had noticed that Kyoko and Madoka were quite close, so she didn't want to interrupt anything.
"Well this is boring!" Kyoko exclaimed as the redhead and pinkette continued to walk down the pathway. Kyoko enjoyed fighting Witches and thrill she would get from it. Madoka however...not so much. She preferred to finish a Witch fight as fast as possible to avoid potential injuries.
"At least we're safe." Madoka pointed out. She dissolved her bow for the time being. Seeing no reason to keep it out for now.
The two walked for a couple of minutes before Madoka let out a loud yawn.
"Something wrong?"
"Just...really tired. What time is it?"
The two then realised neither had a watch on them. They both made a mental note to buy one later. Of course in Kyoko's case, she would probably end up stealing one instead.
Madoka ended up resting her head on Kyoko's should as they walked. An action that caused a slight blush in Kyoko's cheeks.
"I was up late last night still thinking about what it wear tonight. So can I just rest my head like this? Just for a little bit? Please Kyoko-chan?"
The redhead knew it would be pointless to argue, she didn't really object anyway. "Sure, but make sure you're ready to fight if we have to."
Another yawn. "Yeah I know...I'll be fine."
Kyoko reached her over and placed it on the pinkette's head. It was done to make sure her head didn't slip off and smack into the wall or ground. It absolutely wasn't because she wanted to feel her fingers through Madoka's hair what so ever.
The pinkette smiled gently. She didn't mind it all.
Left Door Pathway
Homura's torchlight from under her assault rifle shone down the pathway. While they had more than enough light around themselves with the purple and blue spheres of light. They had lacked a directional light, which the torch provided.
"You think the others are okay?" Sayaka asked as she held two swords, ready for battle.
"The others are should be fine. You should be worried about yourself."
"Hey! I can take care of myself you know!"
Homura rolled her eyes as she remembered their training sessions in swordplay. Sayaka had admittedly improved quite a bit since they started, but still not at Homura's level. Not yet anyway.
"Familiars! Dead ahead!" Homura exclaimed as she began to open fire. The bullets ripped right through them until she ran out of ammo in her magazine.
A sword wielding skeleton charged forward while Homura was reloading. There wasn't enough time, so she raised her shield to protect herself.
The sound of metal colliding with metal resonated throughout the pathway. Sayaka had blocked the attack with her sword and was attempting to push the black blade back.
"Looks like you're the one who needs to worry about themself." Sayaka couldn't resist a wise crack.
Homura grumbled and finally reloaded her weapon. A small of burst of bullets was all it took to kill the skeleton.
"Lets move forward." Homura said, trying to ignore the bluenette.
The two found themselves in a round room that had tombstones everywhere. Large spikes were placed on the ceiling while normal sized jack-o-lanterns were around the edge of the room.
One thing caught Homura and Sayaka's immediately was the a very big pumpkin in the centre that had numbers engraved into it. They realised that the numbers were changing as each second went by.
"Is that thing-"
"It's a countdown." Homura finished. "Whatever it's counting down to, it looks like we have just under an hour left."
Sayaka scratched her head at it. Confused at what they were supposed to do. "So...do we break it? Is that the Witch?"
"Only one way to find out." Homura pulled out a magnum and fired at the pumpkin.
Before the bullet could connect with the target, the pumpkin began to rise out of the ground.
What stood before Homura and Sayaka was a massive pumpkin creature that had giant green roots as its pusedo body and arms with a pumpkin head.
"..."
The two had no words about the Witch they were facing. This was going to be a tough one.
Homura equipped her arm mounted flame thrower as Sayaka magically enchanted the durability of her swords.
"I'll work on weakening it. Sayaka, you try and deal the killing blow."
"Got it."
The Witch swung its arms toward the two girls. Sayaka jumped over it while Homura jumped back and began firing her flamethrower. The orange flames hit their target and began burning up, but the roots resisted the flames more than Homura anticipated.
Sayaka tried to slash her way through but her swords had a tough time cutting through.
They didn't know how long the battle lasted until Sayaka took a look at the countdown. They had forty five minutes left. Homura and Sayaka needed to kill it quickly, but the Witch was regenerating its injuries at a frightening pace.
"I don't think this is working!" Sayaka called out as she deflected a blow with her swords.
Homura grumbled under her breath at their situation. It was groaning worse at every minute. She had heard rumours of Witches becoming more powerful on Halloween but assumed it to be nothing more than superstition. However it seemed like it was true now.
A massive explosion appeared on a wall and Charlotte flew through the smoke. It was Nagisa's pseudo Witch form.
Charlotte tried to take a bite out of the Witch's arm as Mami entered the fight. The blond assumed the head was the weak point and began shooting. The musket shots seemingly had no effect.
Before Mami could use a stronger weapon, red spears and pink arrows began raining down on the Witch. Kyoko, Yuma and Madoka had finally arrived.
Yuma rushed to heal Homura as the brunette had revived a few cuts and bruises from the fight. Sayaka received injuries as well but she could heal her own without help.
Madoka jumped around and fired arrows from all sides. Kyoko jumped straight at the head.
"Rosso Phantasma!"
Multiple illusions of Kyoko appeared and sliced at the Witch. The monster couldn't tell which was the real one and only destroyed the illusions.
The Witch turned it's attention to Charlotte and threw her against a wall, but she wasn't going to give up that easily. Charlotte charged forward and dodged an incoming punch from its root made fist. Charlotte wrapped her whole body around the Witch, holding it in place.
Everyone saw the opportunity. Red spears, blue swords and pink arrows were fired into the Witch and embedded themselves into the head of the Witch. Charlotte let go and back away as much as she could. The weapons exploded all at once. Red, pink and blue explosions covered the head of the Witch. It was Mami's turn next.
"Tiro Finale!"
A golden blast made direct contact and exploded. The Witch was pushed back against the wall. The head was almost destroyed.
Homura lifted up an RPG and fired right inside the mouth of the Witch. That was the final explosion of the night as its head exploded from the inside. The Witch Labyrinth was disintegrating as the Grief Seed fell.
The group exited the home. They were all tired because of how late it was.
"Did I do good?" Nagisa asked, looking at Mami.
The blonde smiled sweetly back. "Of course you did." Mami rubbed Nagisa's head affectionately.
Yuma, Kyoko and Madoka were using Grief Seeds to cleanse each others Soul Gems. Sayaka and Homura determined that they didn't need to use one.
The dense magic in the air was gone. The Witch was presumably the source of it. Homura wondered what might've happened had the timer reach zero. Unfortunately she probably wouldn't know. Oh well. The Witch was dead, and that's all that mattered.
However something caught Homura's attention once more. The jack-o-lantern was gone. Did someone take it? Or did it disappear along with the Witch? Homura scratched her head and yawned. She was getting way too tired to think anymore.
The rest of the group save for Sayaka dispersed after Homura returned their bags of candy from her shield.
Sayaka gave Homura a questioning look. "So, was it fun?"
The brunette shrugged. "I guess, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Well except for the Witch."
She did genuinely enjoy her time trick or treating, even if it was a little repetitive.
Sayaka smiled and wrapped her arm around Homura's shoulder. "So you think you'll do the same next year?"
Homura smirked. "Sure, but I'm choosing what I'll wear next year."
"You party pooper."
Author's Note: I know this is a little late but hey, better late than never. Sorry if this felt a little rushed. It definitely isn't my best work. :/ Oh well, I hope you all enjoyed this one-shot regardless.
Happy Halloween by the way. :)