Nobody can live longer in peace than his neighbor chooses.

-James Branch Cabell, Jurgen-

Mitakihara.

She remembered the first time she had come to the city—back before—and had been awed by the glittering, ultramodern buildings. Everything was shining and beautiful, and she had believed that the city itself was a thing of beauty, not just on the surface but at its very core. She had wanted to live there someday, surrounded by the towering glass structures and the bustling sidewalks.

Now she didn't even notice it. A lifetime had passed between then and now, and the frivolous nature of her childhood self was long gone. She had come to the city out of necessity, and soon she would be moving on again.

There was work to be done, first. She had already made decent headway, but she wasn't ready yet.

She just hoped that this time would go better than the others.

As soon as she could move, she was going to kill Sayaka.

What had started as gentle nudging had given way to rough shaking, and only Kyoko's drowsiness was preventing her from jumping out of bed and kicking her ass.

"Go 'way," she muttered, trying to hide under the covers and go back to sleep.

"Come on, Kyoko, now." Sayaka yanked the blankets off the bed and flipped on the lights, earning a snarl and a string of curses that she ignored. "I can feel them…there are wraiths nearby."

"I don't care! The sun isn't even up!" the redhead snapped, curling into a ball with her head tucked under her arms.

"I'm not leaving you alone until you get up and come with me."

"Go by yourself. I'm going back to sleep."

A note of hesitation crept into her voice. "I don't want to go alone. It's…I think there are a lot of them."

That finally got her girlfriend's attention. She knew that nothing would stop Sayaka from going out there to protect people, and if Sayaka died because she didn't have any backup, Kyoko would never be able to forgive herself. Just the thought made her chest tighten painfully.

"Fine," she growled as she rolled out of bed, squinting heavily as her eyes adjusted to the harsh light and the small hotel room slowly came into focus. She didn't bother with retrieving her clothes from where she had carelessly tossed them the night before; her tank top and briefs changed into a maroon dress in a flash of red light. She paused only to tie her hair back with a black ribbon. A small burst of magic refreshed her body and cleared the fatigue but, like a dose of caffeine, it was no real substitute for sleep and she remained in a sour mood. "You owe me for this. Big time."

Sayaka was already grinning and tugging on her arm. "I'll make it up to you, now let's go!"

"And if we get there and Homura is already mopping them up, I'm going to kick your ass."

Hunting was a tricky business. Some of the most powerful Wraiths hid themselves in self-contained realms, but often the common ones simply prowled the alleys, abandoned buildings and vacant lots out in the open. Regular people couldn't see them, and the Wraiths nurtured the darkest emotions of people around them so that they could feed on the despair and anger. It made finding them pretty easy. It also made fighting them very hard. The civilians might not have been able to see the Wraiths, but they could see the Magical Girls.

A common way around this problem was to keep an eye on the Wraiths as they fed on those around them, ready to intervene if things started to get out of hand, and then wait for the Wraiths to retreat back to one of the often isolated locations where they stayed after feeding. Even then, Magical Girls had to be fast or the noise would attract attention. Sometimes the hunters would have to cut and run before they had finished killing all of the Wraiths.

It didn't look like that would be the case this time. The Wraiths had congregated in an old, abandoned lot, and the buildings around them were empty at night.

The redhead and blunette didn't waste any time. They charged into the lot and started cutting their way through the weakest creatures. The mayhem slowed as the stronger Wraiths launched a counterattack and the girls were forced to defend themselves.

The number of wraiths gathered in the abandoned lot was tempting, but she didn't let them draw her out. The Grief Cubes that they'd provide could go to the locals. There was so much more benefit in waiting and watching the fight.

She rested on her knees, her legs folded neatly beneath her. The girl's posture was very proper and her expression was that of a demure young maiden. Folded between her hands, almost hidden in the ruffles of her purple skirt, something glinted. Every so often, she tapped her fingernails against it, betraying some impatience.

A frown darkened her pretty face. She had watched a few small fights before this night, sometimes with both of them, sometimes one of them hunting alone, but this was the first time she was able to watch a battle of this magnitude, and what she saw caused her some misgivings. The girls didn't merely fight well together—they were exceptional. They certainly weren't rookies, and the only way they could have attained such a level of coordination was if they had fought together frequently. That could be troublesome.

All the more reason to stay out of sight for now.

Wraiths couldn't stumble, per se, as they didn't actually have legs. What the creature did, as Kyoko dove in low and Sayaka sprang for its head, was closer to an indecisive shifting as it tried to react to two threats at once. Its hesitation was ended when Sayaka's sword sliced through its mouth, neatly severing its head at the jawline.

The satisfaction of the kill was short lived. Something struck her dead center in the back, and she felt as though the skin where she had been hit was crinkling and burning away like old paper. The black magic of the wraiths took many forms—this one was corrosive. Sayaka blocked out most of the pain, but the force of the blast still left her staggered. She turned to try to defend herself, knew she was in trouble as she saw the wraith already following up with another attack.

A golden chain wrapped around the abomination, binding its arms to its sides, and the dark energy that it had been summoning fizzled out. The wraith's form wavered, becoming no less substantial but seeming to occupy multiple places at the same time, and the links shattered. In the few seconds it took to free itself, however, the damage had been done. Sayaka drove her sword into its lower body, edge facing the sky, and, with a powerful wrench, sliced a path up through its torso and out its shoulder.

The wraith shuddered; Sayaka leapt back from it just in time to avoid a cloud of oily, black essence that flowed from the clean cut. The miasma separated into wisps that curled into nonexistence, and as more of it drained from the wraith, the unnerving distortion that covered its face spread across its body. Seconds after Sayaka had struck the fatal blow, the wraith shimmered out of existence. Several black cubes clattered on the ground.

With the last enemy dead, all of the magical energy that she kept in reserve while fighting drained away as her healing began to work in overdrive. The tattered skin on her back was replaced with fresh, undamaged tissue. Her cracked ribs sealed perfectly; they would show no signs of ever having been broken, even under x-ray imaging. Sayaka breathed a sigh of relief as the pain faded, leaving her feeling only tired. She groaned…she had school in a few hours. For a brief moment she wished she had listened to her girlfriend and stayed in bed. She let her Magical Girl uniform disappear, glad that she had taken the time to get dressed.

"What's the matter, baby? Tired?" The mocking voice in her ear made her jump. Kyoko was leaning on her spear just behind her, mouth twisted into a smug smirk that could either infuriate Sayaka or set her heart racing. "Must be…you were sloppy back there."

She desperately hoped that Kyoko wouldn't keep her from returning to bed out of spite. Kyoko could sleep for the rest of the day, while Sayaka would already have a hard time staying awake in class. "Uh, yeah…c'mon, Kyoko. Let's get back to the hotel so we can sleep."

Kyoko didn't respond until she had finished gathering up the Grief Cubes and dumped them into a pouch in her dress. Then she lightly cuffed Sayaka's shoulder before slinging her arm around it and starting off in the direction of their rented room. "You owe me," Kyoko reminded her, "and you're lucky sleep is at the top of my list right now, or I'd make you pay up before I let you rest."

Sayaka lay her head on Kyoko's shoulder as they walked. "I never thought I'd see the day when you'd pick something over food or sex," she quipped, unable to resist teasing her but hoping that she hadn't just changed Kyoko's mind about wanting sleep the most.

The redhead scowled and opened her mouth to retort, but froze before she had a chance to say anything. Sayaka might have kept walking for another second but Kyoko threw an arm out protectively across her chest. Her eyes were narrowed in focus on something out beyond the edge of the lot. In an instant, Sayaka was clad in her Magical Girl attire again and had a sword in each hand.

"What is it?" she murmured as quietly as she could. Kyoko slowly shook her head, eyes never leaving the spot that she was fixated on.

"Something's…" She trailed off, not sure of how to finish the statement. Was there something there? Wraiths hid themselves from normal people, but either didn't bother or couldn't when it came to Magical Girls—no wraith she'd ever come across, at least. But Wraiths weren't the only dangers. She couldn't yet place it, but she had a bad feeling. If it wasn't Wraiths, there was only one other possibility…

"Come on. You need to rest." Sayaka tenderly brushed Kyoko's hair off of her forehead. "You're still on edge from the fight. We both need to sleep."

It was a few more tense seconds before she tore her eyes away from the alley across the street. "Yeah…yeah, I just need to sleep. Let's get going." She hurried Sayaka ahead of her, and resisted the urge to look back. She knew that this feeling wasn't because she was tired, and it wasn't because she still had some adrenaline buzzing through her veins. Sayaka knew it, too.

But if her suspicions were correct, neither of them were in the shape for it at the moment.

She watched them leave, still astonished that the redhead had seen her. There was more to that girl than she had thought. She would have to be careful.

Far from reassuring her, observing the two tonight had left her with misgivings. The redhead putting her arm around the other girl's shoulders, the blunette resting her head on the red girl's collar…they were more than just hunting partners, more, even, than friends. She felt a sharp pang in her heart. She hoped, more than ever, that they would be reasonable.

She would give them a chance, as she always did. She would try to make them see reason. If they didn't, well…

There was no evil in defending herself.

A/N: This is a story that I've been working on for months now. It was originally going to be a one-shot, but grew out of necessity, and grew far beyond what I had ever imagined until it became the longest story I've put on here. While I was writing, I realized that I can't be trusted to finish writing stories in a timely fashion, so here's the thing: the whole story is finished. There's still some editing to be done, but everything between the beginning and end has been filled in.

I will be uploading a chapter every Wednesday until it's finished.

Also, unlike some of the other times I used an M rating, this one fully deserves it. There will be graphic violence and sex later on (not at the same time, of course). If that bothers anyone, then I suggest skipping this story.

That's it for now. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.