Still Waters 2.5: The Ace of Spades

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Ticking Away The Moments That Make Up A Dull Day

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School had just let out, and Madoka, now a senior in High school, decided to blow off her club meeting to pick up a CD she had wanted for a while. She had just turned on to the street the music store was on when a commotion in an alley caught her attention.

"Hey! I said stop, you! You can't get away with this!"

"Hmph. That one is below me," an arrogant sounding voice said. Madoka couldn't tell if the voice came from a man or a woman, but the speaker sounded young, like someone in their teenage years. Curious, she slowed to a stop and glanced into the alley entrance just in time to see a person of less than average height, with a hoodie and an odd half-mask that covered the face from the nose down, strolling toward her with hands stuffed in pockets.

"What are you looking at?" the person asked; Madoka recognized the arrogant voice from before, and it made something inside her bristle.

"Nothing. Nothing at all," she said pointedly as she met the other person's gaze and held it for a long ten count.

"Heh, that's cute. See you 'round, kogal*," the person said, brushing past and tossing her a meaningless wave.

"K…kogal!?!" She just watched the person's back as they left, her mouth left hanging by the jerk's insult. "I'll kill him…!"

"Stupid Nelle," a girl said from the alleyway.

Madoka looked over to see who had spoken.

The girl was also of slightly less than average height, and had foreign features to go with her curly, light brown hair. The girl suddenly realized Madoka was there and shot her a surprised look, then glanced back into the alley. Madoka looked back there and saw a body lying there.

"Ah…"

"Eh heh…"

She grabbed Madoka's hand and dragged her into the alley.

"Look," the girl said, kneeling down behind a box. "You can't tell anyone about this, ok?"

Madoka knelt down by the body and poked it; she was relieved to hear a light groan. "What happened to him?"

"…I asked him to help me with a problem," the girl said sullenly. "You see, someone is going around picking fights and causing trouble."

Madoka checked her watch...Misa would be expecting her at the CD shop soon. "And…? That's not particularly uncommon, you know."

The girl grimaced. "Well…this person is calling themself the Ace of Spades," she admitted.

Madoka just looked at her blankly.

"The Ace of Spades? The legendary Hero of the Night? He helped clean up Mahora's streets?" the stranger elaborated.

"…how long ago was this?" Madoka asked, settling down in a comfortable position against the wall. She had never heard anything about this before…it sounded a bit interesting.

The girl pouted for some unknown reason. "About eight years ago."

"Ah."

"…"

"So, what does this have to do with you?" Madoka asked as she twisted her watch around her wrist; it was a habit she had picked up a long time ago.

"Well…the Ace of Spades was my older brother," she admitted.

"Can't he take care of it?"

"…he can't. He's in the other—ah, I mean, he's in the US right now."

Madoka's cell phone rang at that moment, and she excused herself to answer it. "Hello?"

The strange girl politely ignored the conversation, instead staring hard at Madoka and sizing her up.

Madoka hung up her phone and turned back to the girl. "That was a friend of mine. Well, it's been interesting, but I've got to go, so—"

"I'm Liliana Rosario, call me Lily. Nice to meet you," the girl said suddenly, holding out a hand.

Madoka hesitantly took the girl's hand and gave it an awkward shake. "Kugimiya Madoka. Look, I've got to go—"

"Kugimiya Madoka, huh? Are you that Kugimiya Madoka?" Liliana asked slyly.

Madoka eyed her warily. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, only the Kugimiya Madoka who beat a certain senpai half unconscious when he tried to corner her once, that's all. The one who beat him senseless and then left him there and denied the whole thing when the police came."

"…"

"…" Liliana was grinning widely at her, now.

"…"

"I hear the case is still open, you know."

"…all right, what do you want?" Madoka asked.

"I want you to defeat the Ace of Spades and return honor to the name my brother made famous," Liliana said seriously. She gave a dismissive look to the man lying on the floor of the alley and sniffed disdainfully.

"Why me?" Madoka asked wearily. "There are a lot of fighters you could choose from. You could probably even get Takahata-sensei to do it," she offered.

"Because you can do it. I saw you fighting once a long time ago, you know. You could beat this imposter easy."

Madoka cocked an eyebrow at that. "It's nice to know someone has faith in me, but I really have to go."

The girl grinned wickedly. I'm sure the police would like to know about you~" Liliana said, taking out her cell phone.

Madoka decided a little intimidation was in order, so she rounded on the girl, adopted her scariest expression, and loomed over her. Well…loomed as well as she could, considering she was only an inch or two taller. She mentally cursed her lack of height. "What's to stop me from preventing you from making that call? Or any call, ever again?"

Liliana's grin changed from playful to sinister. "What's to stop me from knifing you here in the street? Do you think the police would ever find out who did it?"

All playing immediately ceased and the two girls faced off in the alley.

Madoka eyed Liliana warily. Granted, she had made a real bonehead move there, threatening the girl; but then again, this 'Liliana' certainly didn't seem to be making empty threats. She had no worries about this girl's supposed ability to knife her; many had tried before, more than a few obviously more skilled at it than this girl, but someone capable of trying something like that was also much more likely to try other, more underhanded things as well.

"Heeey, Madokaaaa~" someone sung out. Both girls' attention was ripped to the entrance of the alley, where another girl with long purple hair stood. "Come on, Madoka, we've got stuff to do."

Madoka just gaped at Misa for a moment, unable to formulate a response.

"Well, Madoka-san, it looks like a crisis has been averted," Liliana said cheerily. "Here, this is my number. Call me when you're ready to do this, and I'll find out where the target will be."

Madoka took the piece of paper and stuffed it into her pocket without looking at it. "Yeah, yeah. It sounds like this is a dangerous guy, maybe you should stay away from him."

Liliana looked sheepish. "I can't. You see, it's sort of my fault—"

"Madoka, are you coming? I'd like to get to the shop today," Misa demanded from the street.

Madoka sighed. "Yeah, I'm coming." She turned back to Liliana. "And you…I guess I'll help you. But if you try anything…"

"Ok. Thank you so much, Madoka-san. You don't know how much I appreciate this!" Liliana said. She ran to the end of the alley, then turned around and waved. "I'll talk to you later, Madoka-sempai!" She ran past Misa and disappeared into the passing crowd in the street.

Madoka sighed. Sempai? "Yeah…" She joined Misa out in the street and sighed.

"So…what was that all about?" Misa asked.

"She wants me to fight somebody," Madoka said sullenly.

"Oooh, sounds fun. Who is it?" Misa asked as they started to walk.

"Some guy calling himself the Ace of Spades," Madoka said. Honestly, the Ace of Spades? What kind of nickname was that?

"The Ace of Spades, huh? Sounds like a pro wrestler."

Kugimiya laughed at that. "He dresses like some kind of ninja-wannabe, and he's even shorter than me!"

"Heh~ sounds like a weirdo."

"Tell me about it. So, did you ever talk to…"

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Their voices faded out as they walked away, until the unusual girl sitting behind a dumpster in a nearby alley could no longer distinguish them from the noise of the afternoon crowd. She glanced down at her clenched fists and forced herself to calm down. Panicking would do no good, here. She cursed her bad luck at ever coming to this town, and curled up in a fetal position. This stupid, stupid town…stupid Mahora, stupid girl, stupid Lily, stupid mask, stupid Ace of Spades… Tears started to fall and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She wished she could scream, but even that simple thing was denied her, had been denied since she was a baby. She turned to face the wall and tried to get some sleep. It would wake up again soon, and there was no telling when she would get a chance to rest again. She raised a hand to the scars hidden by the short scarf she always wore, and relaxed a little. Just a little. Those scars were the one constant in her life at this point; everything else…

She pulled her hood up as far as it would go and wept bitterly; she wished she had never left her home in Brazil in the first place.

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Author's Notes: A little story about Madoka, and introducing some new characters that may show up in Still Waters 3 from time to time…I hope you like it. It should be four, maybe five chapters long. Eight at the very most, but that's very unlikely. Also, in case you're confused, this story takes place a few years after the events in Still Waters 2. The class are now seniors in high school, and Negi is teaching a different class. This story occurs a couple years before Still Waters 3.

*Kogal = basically a supposedly shallow, trendy young school girl that tries to look fashionable in a certain way; they apparently have a reputation for being easy. There are articles on wikipedia and elsewhere. I believe this is something Madoka would take offense to, especially the way Mr. 'Ace of Spades' said it.