Author Notes:
Hey, we're back! Alright, for anyone who's just joining us this is a sequel to Scarlet Wind so it might be a good idea to go back and read that one first. You don't have to, we go over all the important stuff in this chapter and the story stands on its own pretty well. You can probably read this without reading Scarlet Wind. I'm not the person to ask about that though.
Not a whole lot happened this chapter, it was more of a introductory chapter to set up what's going on, why these three people are together and so on. Of these three characters, I think Madoka is the one I'm having the most fun writing. I was a bit worried at first because she's the only one from the original series to show up and I was worried I wasn't going to get her personality right, but then I remembered I don't really need to. See, if you didn't read the first story or perhaps didn't quite catch it, this story takes place a little over a year after Walpurgisnacht destroyed Mitakihara. Madoka's has been alone for that entire time, and has quite a few stories to tell about what she was doing during that time. As a result of all those adventures, she's changed a little bit and seen quite a few things. I'm going to have fun writing her.
Anyway, we'll talk more next chapter when more plot important things and characters are introduced. See you then!
Chapter 1: "That's who we're looking for?"
"This is this town?" I ask.
"That's what I heard from Kyubey," my pink haired companion tells me. "Morioh, the city where a magical girl is using her abilities a bit too much."
"Um… what can she do, exactly?" my little girl asks, tightening her grip on my hand.
"Last I heard from Kyubey, she can turn normal humans into magical girls."
"You know, I think the little rat mentioned that to me once," I say.
"Kyubey didn't tell me anything else about her, so we just need to keep an eye out for other magical girls. Once we see one, we can just ask them if they're the girl we're looking for."
"Is that so? I don't think they'd be that cooperative," I reply.
"If we're nice and polite to them, they'll be nice to us," she tells me.
"Nothing is ever that easy," my little girl says.
"Whether it's easy or not, we probably should start looking around town," I say. "It would certainly help to know where exactly we are, right?"
"Great idea!" my little girl says.
"That sounds like a fine idea."
"Okay then. I suppose the first thing we should do is find where we'll be staying during our time here."
*Line Break*
So, you're probably wondering who I am. Realistically you probably don't care, but that previous line allows me to move into introductions a lot easier, so allow me to pretend that you care. Anyway, my name is Scarlet and I'm… Twelve years old, I think. I have short blonde hair, have red eyes, I happen to also like the color red, and it's been a little over a month since I've last eaten anyone's neck like I was some kind of vampire monster. Also, no, that's not really my name, but it's what I choose to go by. I'm technically a rookie magical girl. I've been a magical girl for a little over a year, but about a month ago I woke up with no memories so all that experience doesn't mean much. After I woke up, wondering why I wasn't dead, I made a bunch of friends. Their names were Inugami, Yagami, Inko, Yukari and Yoko. With the exception of Yukari, they're all dead now. We ran into some trouble with a somewhat mean magical girl group all of whom, barring one, are now dead. It wasn't a very fun time for any of us. After I dealt with that whole situation I met my little girl and my pink haired companion.
Yui Nekoyama, or as I call her, my little girl. She's younger than me at only nine years old. She's also got short blonde hair, though her eyes are blue. Unlike me and my pink haired companion, she isn't a magical girl. She knows all about it, but I've made it very clear on every possible occasion that she should not contract under any circumstances. I don't want her becoming a magical girl. Anyway, I met her a month ago after I rescued her from a witch that nearly killed her. She brought a grief seed home, it hatched and her parents died so she was on her own when I found her. As such, I'm looking after her and taking care of her. Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite food is anything sweet.
The third member of our little group is named Madoka Kaname. She keeps telling me to just call her Madoka, but I've stuck with Kaname because I'm weird like that. She's the reason I'm in this city to begin with. I don't actually know much about her. She's a magical girl, like me, but that's where my knowledge of her ends. I ran into her just a few days ago and she asked me if I'd help her investigate the magical girl causing havoc in Morioh. We've had an encounter before that when she helped me out a little, so I don't have any reason not to trust her. We're at the bare minimum level where we could be considered friends. I wouldn't mind if we bump that up a bit and become actual friends as opposed to comfortable acquaintances. I don't actually know, but I'm pretty sure her favorite color is pink.
So that's the three of us, a magical girl, a young orphan and a somewhat amnesiac sort of vampire. Together we're working together to track down the magical girl who is supposedly turning various normal girls into magical girls. Why is she doing this? How is she doing this? What does she even look like? I don't know. We're here to figure all that stuff out and make sure she doesn't cause any more trouble. No, that does not automatically translate to "kill her." It's completely possible that she'll be a perfectly reasonable young woman, and that we'll have a nice conversation and wrap this up with no trouble. It's also possible for me to be the captain of a pirate ship and go pillaging on the high seas while singing a jaunty little tune, that doesn't mean it's likely to happen.
But, we can worry about that later. For now, we need to worry about finding a place to stay. We're all in agreement that we'll probably be here for a bit, so a nice place to stay is our first priority.
"I suppose just a normal hotel would be fine?" Kaname asks. "We're not looking to stay here permanently, so we don't need to actually buy a house, right?"
"Me and M- I mean Scarlet have been living in a hotel," Yui says.
"Just pay a little bit every once in a while and they leave you alone," I say. "That, or you can sneak into an empty room and use that. That option saves a lot more money for when you need important things, like food."
Kaname giggled a little at that.
"You're as bad as Kyoko," she says.
"Old friend?" I ask.
"Old friend," she confirms. "But breaking into a hotel is definitely something she'd suggest. I don't necessarily agree with it though."
"Is that so? Are we going to put that to a vote?" I ask.
"Scarlet, voting isn't fair!" Yui yells at me. "You know I'd just vote for whatever you chose to do, and that's not fair to Miss Kaname."
"Well, she's got me there," I say.
"Let's look at the closest hotel first," Kaname offers. "We can look and see how much they'd charge us to stay for a week or two and we can make a decision from there. Is that okay?"
"Fine by me," I say. "Come on Yui, let's go."
"Got it," she says, grabbing on to my hand so she doesn't accidentally get lost.
And so we found the nearest hotel, a pretty nice place if I do say so myself and looked at the prices they were offering for a three person hotel room. After gasping and rambling in shock for a few minutes, Kaname eventually regained her composure.
"H-how can one room cost so much money?" She asked once we were outside the hotel. "My monthly allowance was barely a hundredth of that. Is this town full of rich people? Is that price normal?"
I check my wallet and compare how much money I have to how much the room would have cost. Huh. I kind of figured my family was pretty well off considering how nice our house was, but I don't exactly think mom and dad would be okay with spending that kind of money. Hmmm, what would Inugami do in this situation?
"We're breaking in," I say. "I'm not paying those prices."
"I can't pay those prices," Kaname says somewhat sadly.
"So this place is going to be our home for a while?" Yui asks me.
"More like our headquarters," I tell her. "We'll be resting here, but I can't imagine we'll be spending a lot of our time here. We've got a bad guy to stop, remember?"
"Right," Yui says. "So are we going to go there now? It's getting kind of late."
"She's right," Kaname adds. "We should turn in for the night and maybe talk a little bit."
"About our plans and how we're going to work on tracking down that other magical girl?" I ask.
"Um… I was kind of hoping we could maybe just get to know each other a bit better," Kaname says with a shy smile. "We did just meet, so maybe we could learn how to work with each other a bit more?"
"Oh, like what we're each capable of?" I ask. "Like abilities and things like that. That's pretty smart too."
"N-no, I meant… Never mind," Kaname says. "That's fine, we can talk about that."
"Sure. First we need to find a good room to actually stay in," I say.
We spent a bit of time going up and down the hotel's floors, trying to find a nice empty room that would fit the three of us. It didn't take too long until we found a nice two bedroom, one bathroom hotel suite. The three of us did have some luggage we brought with us so we unpacked, and got comfortable. Kaname took her shower first, followed by me giving Yui a bath. Once the three of us were done and resting comfortably in our pajamas (Kaname had a yellow set of pjs, I had a red nightdress and Yui was wearing pajama shorts and a t-shirt with a panda bear on it. Yui likes pandas), we all sat on a bed and began the discussion.
"… Um… it's a nice night out, isn't it?" Kaname asks.
"It's a little cold out, but it's kind of nice out," Yui says.
"I don't go out often so I don't know what qualifies it being a nice night," I say.
"You know, nice and cool, but not freezing cold out," Kaname says. "Good weather for resting outside and looking at the stars."
"Is that so?" I ask.
"It is," Kaname says. "It's really relaxing."
"That sounds nice," Yui says.
"…"
The conversation stalls.
"Um… Any hobbies?" Kaname asks me.
"Yui reads a lot," I say.
"I like books," she confirms. "Reading's a great way to pass time while I wait for Scarlet to come back from witch hunting."
"You don't go with her?" Kaname asks.
"Scarlet doesn't let me," Yui says with a pout.
"Of course not," I say. "You're not a magical girl, and I'd never forgive myself if I let something bad happen to you."
"Kyubey's always around, if you would let me contrac-"
"Absolutely not," I tell her. "I can take care of myself, and I've got Patchy if I need assistance. You don't need to throw your life away so needlessly."
"Mmmm," Yui grumbles angrily.
"It sounds like you've had this conversation a lot," Kaname notices.
"I just want to become a magical girl and help Scarlet, but she won't let me," Yui pouts some more.
"Unless you have a wish you're willing to risk your life for, I have to agree with Scarlet," Kaname says. "Being a magical girl isn't something to take lightly It takes a lot of time and effort, and it never stops being a life threatening experience."
"I know but… I just want to help," Yui says.
I put a hand on Yui's head and ruffle her hair a little.
"You're doing just fine," I tell her. "You're find just being my little girl. I can take care of myself, so don't worry."
Yui gets ready to argue, but is interrupted by a yawn. I stroke her hair a little bit more and she nods off not long after. I lay her down on the bed and tuck her in.
"She really is just a child, isn't she?" Kaname asks.
"She is," I say. "That's why I don't want her being a magical girl. As long as I'm there I could keep her safe, but I'm worried about if for some reason I can't be there and she gets hurt. I don't have many people left in my life that I'm close to, I don't want to lose her."
"I think I understand what you're saying," Kaname says. "I wish I had someone I could care for like that."
"Considering they're only as close as they are because all of Scarlet's friends and family were killed and she craved some semblance of companionship, it isn't a relationship I would think many would want," Kyubey says, deciding to join us in the hotel room.
"Pleasure to see you again, cat rabbit," I say as it walks over and sits in Kaname's lap. "Anything interesting happen recently?"
"Not particularly," it replies. "I believe you three are here to deal with the influx of anomalous magical girls?"
"We are," Kaname confirms. "Is there anything you could tell us about what's going on?"
"I can't tell you anything you don't already know," Kyubey says. "A magical girl is using her powers to turn normal girls into magical girls."
"Can you tell us a little more?" I ask. "Wouldn't stopping her make things a lot easier for you guys?"
"Yes and no," Kyubey says. "While we would certainly need to do a lot less clean up regarding the families who suddenly need to deal with their daughters suddenly gaining magical abilities, the sudden appearance of unexperienced and uninformed magical girls results in many more witch transformations which greatly benefits us. Whether or not you stop her or she continues going about her business matters very little."
"Thank you for your help," I say dryly.
"Please Kyubey, can't you give us a little help?" Kaname asks. "Even something as small as a name?"
Kyubey pauses, pondering what course of action to say.
"Very well," it concedes. "I see no reason not to at least give you that information as it will not influence either party's chance of victory. The magical girl's name is Hikari Kagiyama. That would help you find her, I presume."
"Thank you very much Kyubey," Kaname says with a smile.
"If you'll excuse me, I do have other business to take care of," Kyubey says, standing up and heading for the window. "Good bye Madoka, good bye Scarlet."
"Good bye Kyubey, we appreciate the help," Kaname says.
Kyubey jumps out the window and disappears, leaving us on our own.
"Hikari Kagiyama," I roll the name around a bit. "That's who we're looking for?"
"Seems like it," Kaname says. "I've known Kyubey for a long time, and he hasn't lied to me at all in that time. Sometimes he twists words around a bit, but I don't really see how he could do that here."
"Alright, tomorrow we'll start asking around?" I ask.
"That sounds like a good idea," Kaname says. "Let's rest up, we've got a big day tomorrow."
"Right. Good night," I tell her.
"Good night!"
Since there were only two beds, Kaname got a bed to herself and I shared a bed with Yui. We all had a very relaxing night's sleep.