There was nothing magical about being a magical girl. The despair eats you alive once it sinks its unforgiving talons into your burning flesh and your sanity will crumble before you can truly appreciate the majesty of your power. Some girls think death and destruction are reasonable prices to pay for the fulfilment of their wildest dreams – their wishes – but not every contract runs as smoothly as one would like. In all honesty, there was nothing Kyoko regretted more than wasting her wish on something so stupid, so naive and childish as she did – happiness is irreliable and temporary in the fickle human hearts – but she was too foolish to understand the weight of becoming a magical girl.
Now she's fighting for her life, staving off the unbearable ache in her lungs, choking on saliva, phlegm and blood, but she can't bring herself to pity her circumstances. There's nothing in the world she'd exchange for her strength, her one constant in an ever-changing universe hellbent on destroying her mind and soul.
Her fingers curl around the cold steel of her spear's pole and her strained knuckles turn paper white.
"Madoka!" She screams as loud as she possibly can. It feels like she's tearing her vocal chords apart, but teamwork is what's going to keep her alive, as much as she hates to admit it. "Madoka, pull back!"
The archer's lost deeper within the witch's labyrinth, supposedly fighting alongside Sayaka the determined albeit impulsive swordswoman and Akemi Homura, a timid little mouse of a girl with no real spine to call her own. Their quartet is already down to four; any more deaths would be a real tragedy. A cause worth her tears, if Kyoko could bring herself to cry.
She and Mami were in charge of keeping familiars at bay. The mission was supposed to be simple: send the three most inexperienced girls in on a seemingly weak witch, and their whole unit would benefit as a result. However, the witch was stronger than they'd anticipated, and an onslaught of familiars kept the unit's best pair busy whilst the remaining trio went on alone, isolated from the rest of the group.
Mami started panicking halfway through their battle and fell to her knees when a stealthy familiar caught the backs of her legs with a scythe. Another familiar finished the job and slit her throat before Kyoko could provide back-up, and she was left to fight alone.
The familiars stop coming and Kyoko falls, inches from death with a smoky soul gem and a worse-for-wear heart, a cracking bravado and a dying will. She drops her spear and slumps forwards, spitting out one last mouthful of diluted, frothy blood.
"Please, if there is a God," she croaks, uncertain as she clasps her hands together in prayer. Her voice is rough and laboured, her throat raw. "Please. Show me one happy moment and bring light into my life, or lift my soul from this rotten place an' bring me salvation." She's as serious as she can manage but she's slurring some of her words together as fatigue takes over.
She's suffering from deep wounds all over her body and one particularly large gash is causing her more trouble than any battle is worth. It runs from her left shoulder down to her hip, and it carves a huge split in her flesh. It burns with more intensity than any pain that has ever plagued her body.
"Please take me from this darkness."
The strange, unnatural lighting of the labyrinth flickers slightly, and Kyoko is drowned in a cerulean light.
"I-I couldn't do it."
It's Sayaka.
Kyoko stabilises herself. Takes a deep breath. "...What... what d'ya mean?" She asks. Her voice is broken but soft. She's forcing as much care into her words as possible.
"I-I... couldn't save them!" Sayaka shrieks, her outburst completely unexpected. She staggers forward, rushing to Kyoko's side, falling to her knees to brush the crimson hair out of her eyes. "Madoka is gone and I left Akemi for dead!"
"Akemi's still alive?" Kyoko almost laughs. "She made it?"
"She's dying... I-I couldn't take her with me. She's as good as dead." Sayaka's cheeks are streaked with all kinds of grime, sweat, tears and blood that's probably a mixture of her own, Madoka and Akemi Homura's. "I'm sorry, Kyoko."
The lancer can't help but feel bitter. "It's okay, Sayaka. Mami's dead too... we've just gotta' get out of this hell-hole alive."
Something isn't right. Sayaka pushes herself up, letting Kyoko cling to her shaking legs to prevent herself from slumping forwards. Kyoko's expecting her to extend a hand but she doesn't.
"S-Sayaka?" Kyoko splutters. "A little help here?"
Sayaka steels herself, remaining silent as she draws her sword. When she does speak, her voice is a quiet whine and Kyoko has to strain to hear her words.
"...There's no getting out of here." She whispers, bringing her blade up to her side in a slow arc. She doesn't try to hide her tears and there's something liberating in her openness. "I'm sorry, Kyoko."
"Sayaka-"
She plunges the sword down, through Kyoko's soul gem and into her chest, forcing it down to the hilt. The scarlet glass shatters and Kyoko's eyes lose all light they once held, leaving Sayaka alone in a witch's labyrinth, surrounded by the corpses of the girls she did call "friends", who she'd betrayed and abandoned and ignored and saved.
"I'm sorry, Kyoko." She repeats, lonely and cold. She presses her boot down on Kyoko's thigh, yanking her blade out of the girl's body only to turn it on herself, stabbing herself through the stomach, mimicking the murder of Kyoko through breaking her own soul gem and letting it splinter in the wound. She falls backwards as her sentience leaves her vessel.
Becoming a magical girl isn't as desirable as it seems, Akemi Homura realises as she twists the dial on her shield, blinking back tears as she leaves Madoka's body behind only to relive the horror of a puella magi's life once more.