Nick Notes: Remember when I said I was going write a story with Madoka punching things? Yeah, this is it. I made this story out of pure shits and giggles and I regret nothing.
Another timeline gone…
She woke up on the same hospital bed for what seemed to be the sixtieth time. She was getting sick of it, the smell of the sterile room, the sight of the light green windows and the dim light from the bulb above her. Her mind was still reeling, memories of the previous timeline stabbing themselves into her mind, reminding her of another failure. She could never really get used to this. The time that she did get used to it was the time she would pull a gun out of her shield and promptly ventilate her Soul Gem as soon as she woke up from this god forsaken hospital.
With the way things were progressing, she might just do it if she weren't being a spineless twat half the time. A sigh escaped her lips as she began to salvage what was left of the turning points she noted during the last timeline. Another timeline in which she spent the better half of the first hour of her assault on Walpurgisnacht with the aid of Kyouko Sakura and Mami Tomoe getting slapped into buildings and crushed by incoming debris. Her grip upon her sheets tightened once she recalled the sight of her friends' demise from a dense beam of roaring energy.
She couldn't save them. At the very least she managed to convince the Madoka of that timeline to escape Mitakihara before the fated day. She didn't even hope to think that Madoka got off safely. Just why did she choose to stay behind to fight Walpurgisnacht again? Right… It was because of a careless promise with Mami Tomoe and Kyouko Sakura after Sayaka Miki's death.
She felt sick. Why was it the gruesome memories were always the first to return? Why couldn't it have been the time she was dragged off into the carnival or maybe that time she managed to get into the lead role for her class play with Madoka? A shiver went down her spine and she turned her gaze to her left. A table was placed near her bedside where her red glasses were on top and beside it was a glass of water.
Try as she must, she couldn't stop her hand from trembling, ending up in knocking the glass into the look and shattering it.
That was okay, she wasn't thirsty anyway.
School was something that had been long since set aside for the bigger picture yet she couldn't afford picking up strange habits from it. Due to the multiple timelines she had jumped through, the repeating lessons and schoolwork had become imprinted in her mind that she knew what lessons the teacher would discuss. She could even recite the lesson plan by heart without as much straining her memory. She had to be perfect, everything had to be perfect… Otherwise she'll only keep on failing.
But maybe that was the problem? Was it because she was too perfect or was it perhaps that she was stubborn? She knew she couldn't stop until she saved Madoka, otherwise she'll break another promise she couldn't keep. She would've smirked at her own pathetic self had she not been paying attention to the lesson that was going on. The last thing she needed was for her established character to crumble from one misstep. That would limit the distance she could cross towards Madoka and would make her look weird.
In the end, she was still that Homura Akemi whom cried and sniffled whenever things didn't go her way.
Four days… That had been the amount of time that had passed since she looped into this timeline. After making the necessary preparations, she had finally been able to attend school normally with little problems. Those problems being reacquiring her apartment as well as making the important documents for her transfer into Mitakihara Middle School. She was still sloppy but if she were to take alternative routes and choices, she might be able to finish just in time for the opening ceremony. She didn't quite like how she was going to be labeled as a delinquent for being absent for the first few days.
Outside her window, the gray clouds rolled overhead. Timelines were inconsistent and could bring up the nastiest surprises. It could range from the simple placement of a stop sign to an early death to a specific individual. She couldn't predict the possible changes but she was assured that there were certain guidelines that the changing timelines followed. For example, familial relationships never changed as well as personalities.
She had yet to encounter a different Sayaka Miki or an odd Mami Tomoe, but if she did then she already had a working theory tucked in the deepest recesses of her mind. It would probably take a major event or influence to change a person's personality and so far, she hadn't caught any anomalies regarding Madoka Kaname's personality as well as Sayaka Miki. At the very least she won't be caught off guard like the last time she encountered a timid Kyouko Sakura.
Now that was a shocker. Even more so when Mami got—
"Is everything all right, Akemi-san?"
She was wrenched out of her reverie and back into reality. Classes were over and it seemed that her quarry had just left the classroom if the flash of pink exiting the room was anything to go by. The one who had spoken to her was the girl at her side giving her a worried look. It seemed that she got caught up with her memories a little bit too much.
Shaking her head, she managed to give her classmate a small smile as she replied, "Nothing's wrong. I was just daydreaming. Am I perhaps on duty today?"
"Oh, no," said her classmate, "Miki-san and Shizuki-san are on duty today so we're all free to go. Well, I better go now I still have club activities. Be careful on your way home, there's a lot of thugs roaming about the area so watch out."
Thugs? Odd, there haven't been any strange incidents until recently. Unless these thugs were sighted before she even looped in the timelines. Another mistake on her part, she had to do better next—
"…." Narrowing her eyes, she noted that her classmate had already left. At the corner of her vision, she noticed Sayaka Miki and Hitomi Shizuki discussing the division of labor of their current task. She had no reason to stick around, if anything, she had to keep an eye on Madoka for at least today. Something about those rumors was unsettling. In the worst case scenario, this could be something brewed by a Witch's Kiss.
"I'll make sure there won't be a next time," she hissed under her breath a she walked out of the classroom.
It was raining and she had lost track of Madoka. Leaping from building to building, she combed the nearby alleys and streets for any sign of the pink haired girl. She would've thought that Madoka had already gotten home by this time around but it hadn't even been eight minutes since classes ended. Clicking her tongue, she scanned the surrounding areas from the very top of a water tower and sent her consciousness around with her magic.
Feeling the rain against her clothes, she indulged herself for a moment as a cold breeze passed overhead. Unlike other Magi, the art of tracking has never been her strong suit being more proficient when it came to ranged assaults as well as being a support unit should fate deem her luck low enough to pair her with someone who won't probably live in the next three days. Still, she had a knack for locating non-witch targets, this included animals as well as humans yet the range of her scope couldn't have extended more than a couple hundred meters.
"Not enough…" she muttered through gritted teeth, straining her eyesight on the possible roads Madoka would've taken, "Where did she go now?"
She hadn't established the proper connections with the pinkette yet to know her number and contacting her parents and making up a white lie would've led to a series of complicated matters. She shouldn't have lagged behind in the classroom but what surprised her most was that Madoka had managed to evade her during the time she was actively hunting for the pink haired girl. Was it because Madoka already contracted? That didn't seem to be the case since the warm, comforting magical signature which she emitted was absent during the last two days.
Kyubey had certainly expressed his interest on Madoka yet she had already wasted a shotgun shell on his face before he finished his line of thought.
So Madoka evading her through the use of magic was out of the question. That meant that she was simply finding it hard to search for Madoka due to her god awful bad luck. It was raining, she was hungry, she was cold, she was worried sick and she felt utterly helpless. This was turning out to be a fun timeli—
A scream.
She turned around and focused her attention to where it came from. Straining her senses as well as her Soul Gem's magic, she concentrated her consciousness to the source of the scream. A flicker of magic, then a trace… An air of negativity that could only be projected by a Witch's Kiss.
She cursed under her breath and reached within her inventory. Drawing out a long metal golf club, she kicked off the water tower and glided down the roof of a building. Dashing on its rooftop, she planted her heeled shoe on the ground and jumped, using her magically enhanced body to clear a ten meter leap between two separate buildings. She was getting closer. The rain met with her face as her long silky black hair flew behind her.
Not missing a beat she jumped off the final building next to her destination, grabbing unto the edge's rail to keep herself from overextending and promptly falling down unto the street below. Landing in a roll, she stood up and looked around, good thing no one saw her that time otherwise it would've been a pain to deal with. She dashed for the alley, her footsteps splashing water unto the walls at her side while she kept a firm grip on the golf club at her side.
There was another scream and it sent chills down her spine.
"Please be safe, pleas be sa—"Homura Akemi rounded in a corner and bore witness to a rather odd scene.
A bloodied girl with pink hair ran straight into her and threatened to knock her down had she not braced herself. Wrapping her shield arm around the person, she looked down and recognized just who it was. As it turned out, it was the person she was looking for… Madoka Kaname, her uniform caked in blood while her hands and sleeves looked as though they were soaked in the stuff.
She looked up at Homura's lavender eyes, a pleading expression on her face as she sobbed, "P-Please… H-Help me… They're coming… I-I-I don't know why b-but please help me!"
No more wasting time it seemed. She had to get Madoka to safety and deal with the pursuers. However, she had to stabilize the pinkette's mental state first. Gently pushing the shorter girl away, Homura stared into her eyes and spoke in a firm and clear tone, "I'll protect you. You don't need to be afraid anymore."
A look of relief appeared upon Madoka's face before she buried herself unto the other girl's shoulder blades. An odd white hot flame suddenly ignited within the pits of Homura's being. Someone had to be shot for this and while she contemplated shooting her own foot for her stupidity, Homura preferred the culprits to be shot first.
And then there was movement behind her.
A chill went down Homura's spine as every single alarm bells in her body reacted. She got snuck up on and at this position, she couldn't afford to dodge without putting Madoka at risk! She hadn't even activated her magic yet time seemed to have slowed down. Beyond Madoka's back was a number of people shuffling mindlessly towards her direction and she was most certain that there were a group of people on her back as well.
SPLASH
Move! she thought as she was about to force her limbs to comply.
SPLASH
However, fate seemed to have been having too much fun pulling on her strings. Then by the next moment she found herself on the ground, shoved aside by the person she had sworn to protect a few moments ago.
Homura saw it, the wicked glint of a silver knife making its descent in the hands of a Witch Kissed thug, eager to sink its blade upon the pink haired middle schooler before him. However there were a few things that the time traveler found odd.
The first was the screams earlier… While they were indeed distinctly female and high pitched, they certainly didn't resemble Madoka Kaname's voice one bit. Because of her own daydreaming and worries, Homura failed to notice this until it was too late. The second was the fact that Madoka Kaname was smiling… A calm, serene smile as she turned her head towards Homura. Was she perhaps accepting her fate? At this rate, Homura would have no choice but to fail if she were to die here and the time traveler wasn't having any of that. But the factor which kept this point moot was the third odd thing Homura noticed.
It was the bloodied brass knuckle adorning the pink haired girl's right fist.
Madoka caught the thug's descending wrist by her left hand and kicked in his knee, forcing it to bend and him to kneel down with a grunt. Twisting his hand with practiced movements, she made him drop his knife before striking him across the face with her right fist.
Maybe…
Homura watched with a breathless appearance as Madoka raised her right fist bearing the bloodied metal implement wrapped around her fingers. For a moment, the smile on her face faltered and was replaced by a steely determined expression as she proceeded to cave in the thug's face with a brutal right hook. Grabbing the thug by his collar, she didn't let him go before punching him again and again and again and again and again before finally spinning once and hitting him across the face with the heel of her school shoe.
Just maybe…
A Witch Kissed civilian lunged forward and made a wild grab for the pinkette but was stopped by a foot to his gut and a brutal blow to the face. Another thug bounded for Madoka and swung his arm. The girl ducked low and made sure to land solid hits on his ribcage and moving back as he reached for her again. She closed in once she saw an opportunity and shot her right arm upwards to deliver and upper cut.
"Madoka!" Homura cried as she stood up and slammed the end of her golf club into an opportunistic thug's face.
Maybe the blood on Madoka's clothes… weren't even her own…
The pink haired girl tucked an offending thug's arm under her own and stomped on his knee and forcing him to kneel. With fluid movements, she twisted his arm and punched him across the face with her left just before backing away.
"Nice save," she said cheerfully as she stood back to back with the black haired Magical Girl, "You're really good with a golf club, aren't you, Akemi-san?"
"You…" breathing in to ease her frazzled nerves at the sudden turn of events, Homura closed her eyes for a moment before opening them once more as she replied, "You know me?"
"We're classmates, remember? Don't tell me you've forgotten about me already. I even gave you a tour on your first day!" pointed out Madoka as she wiped a fleck of blood from her face with her already bloody sleeves, smearing the red across her cheek while still maintaining her calm smile, "But I'm really glad you came to my rescue. Almost like a superhero!"
Homura let her gaze fall slightly before gripping her golf club tightly. She wasn't sure how she could react to that. She was something far from being a superhero… She wasn't super and she was most certainly not a hero… That was Sayaka Miki's front and it would be a damn shame if she took that away.
"Madoka Kaname…" she whispered, "You… Just what in the world happened to you..?"
Blinking in confusion, the pink haired girl glanced at the companion she had behind her, "I don't really understand, Akemi-san, but I'm just applying righteous self-defense. Nothing wrong with defending ourselves, yes?"
"Homura…" murmured the black haired Magical Girl, "Call me Homura…"
"Then call me Madoka! It's nice meeting you, Homura-chan!" greeted Madoka a she set her sights upon the approaching Witch Kissed thugs. There were three of them, one female among two males. She could probably take them down if she was quick enough and if she focused on them one by one.
"It's…" Homura looked up ahead and noted the shuffling figures of two thugs wielding a rusted pipe and another knife at her. She smiled as took a step forward, "it's nice to meet you too."
And then they fought.
Refraining from her normal use of firearms, Homura wasn't exactly aiming to kill here. At best, she would have to break a few bones if it meant to neutralize the ones that were kissed by the Witch. She couldn't afford to waste her ammo or magic now on simple humans. And besides, she could easily kill them with just a thought if she wished, she just didn't want to at the moment.
She could never kill a person without feeling sick afterwards.
While normally a range fighter, she certainly was no slouch when it came to close combat. She utilized the defensive function of her metal shield and batted away the pipe strike aimed for her head and swung her golf club with all her might to her left. The force of the impact made the offending thug fly to the wall and slide down on the ground unconscious. This however left her open for the other thug's knife thrust which she barely managed to dodge. She felt the fabric of her costume rip as the knife brushed against her.
Realizing the proximity of her target and herself, she didn't waste any time smashing her shield against the thug's face and sending him stumbling backwards.
Drawing out a black pistol from her inventory, she aimed at the thug's limbs and pulled the trigger a couple of times. The blaring reports of the tranquilizer gun resounded within the alley followed by the sound of bright green darts digging themselves into their mark's flesh.
Dismissing her tranquilizer pistol, she picked her golf club once more and turned around to give aid to Madoka, only to find the person in question in the middle of giving a thug a high kick to the chest while using the arm of another for leverage, promptly breaking said arm as soon as she was on the ground and dislocating the thug's shoulder. Just as the third thug was about to sneak up on her, she caught the Witch Kissed female's clumsy punch and finished her off with an overhead throw into a dumpster.
Sighing tiredly, Madoka Kaname faced the kneeling form of the thug with the arm she had broken and kicked him across the face.
Standing with her clothes stained with the growing crimson on the ground and the wounds of her would be assaulters, the pink haired girl wiped her bloodied face on her shoulder's to get the dirt off her cheeks. The bodies of her enemies lied around her, her, a middle school girl no older than anyone in their second year in middle school with blood in her hands and the expression of someone who dealt with events all too similar to the carnage around her almost daily.
Her red ribbons were lying on the ground now, caked in mud and soaked in water, leaving her hair to drip somberly on her back.
And yet despite her appearance, she still smiled at Homura like nothing happened. She smiled and spoke with the same voice which was clear as bells and pure as the rising sun. A radiant aura only known to Madoka Kaname despite the girl in question's appearance.
Her brass knuckle was still dripping with blood not her own.
"Homura-chan… Can you do me a favor..?" she asked as she had her fist clenched, "Looks like my secret's out. Don't tell the rest of the class, okay Homura-chan?"
Homura Akemi was a Magical Girl and she felt as if she had just stumbled upon something ridiculous.
Nicolas Notes: Please rate and review on the way out! I'll be bumping the rating for this if I have TOO much fun writing.
