The following takes place after the events of PMMM Episode 12. Sayaka has already been collected by the Law of Cycles, leaving Mami, Homura, and Kyouko as the magical girls of Mitakihara.
Homura is not known to be a person of leisure, but when she does take some time for herself, she likes to play chess. Usually she plays against herself, but today she has wrested Kyouko Sakura away from the arcade to have a match with her. It's a decision she is beginning to regret.
"I don't get it, Hom," the redhead whines. "Why can't I move this guy two spaces?"
"You can only move pawns two spaces forward the first time you move them," Homura explains with a patience born of a hundred timelines. Kyouko's hand darts to a taller piece, one shaped like a horse's head, and Homura grabs her wrist before she can even pick it up. "Do you know what that does?"
"Yeah, it moves diagonally!" Kyouko says defensively.
Homura sighs. "That's the bishop you're talking about. The knight moves three down, one across. Or however you want to do that. Three and one, okay?""
Kyouko shakes free of Homura's grip and scowls. "This game is too complicated. I don't get how ya can like it."
"I don't," the time traveler confesses, running a fingertip over a black pawn, one of her own. "It's become a... habit of mine. You eat. I play chess."
"By yourself?" smirks Kyouko. "Bah, I knew ya were dull, but I'd never thought ya had it this bad. Should come with me sometime. I'll show ya some real games. Watcha say?"
Homura shakes her head, having experienced more than once Kyouko's choice in games. "Are you going to make your move or not?" she asks. The other girl scowls and slams her knight on another square, then reaches for the box of Pocky protruding from her jeans.
"You play like you fight," Homura muses, nudging a pawn forward. "Reckless."
"'S that a problem?"
"No. I find it refreshing. Unpredictable." Homura's gaze drops to her feet as she breathes, "Playing alone can only get you so far."
"That's why Mami and I keep tellin' ya to come chill with us! Ya look like ya could use the company. Really, we only see ya when we hunt wraiths now."
"Has it ever occurred to you that I don't want to have to see you two more than is necessary?"
"Then why'd ya ask me ta come over?" Kyouko slides one of her rooks forward and stares at her counterpart, waiting. Homura counters by shifting another pawn; replies with silence. Kyouko's eyes narrow as she moves her queen out to the middle of the board, where it can menace one of Homura's knights as well as an untouched rook.
"I wanted to play against a real person for once," she says after a long pause. "Nothing more."
"Tch. Mami would be better at this than me. She's a strategist."
Homura bites back a sharp reply about how the best strategists can be the weakest, emotionally. She glares at the redhead's snag tooth, refusing to make eye contact while she waits for Kyouko's next move.
Pieces dance across the board in silence, the thumps of felt-covered bottoms on marble like a third heartbeat. Homura loses the first piece of the game, and the second, third, and fourth as well: all pawns. In return she seizes one of Kyouko's bishops, but leaves her king unprotected and is forced to surrender one of her knights a few moves later.
"Ya know," Kyouko mutters as she removes the piece, "It's like you're not even trying."
"Perhaps I'm not." Kyouko eyes her skeptically. "It would be refreshing to lose once in a while, don't you think?"
Kyouko's scowl becomes a snarl as she slams her hand down on the board, sending pieces flying. "If ya're gonna ask me ta play a game with ya, I'd at least expect ya to try!"
The outburst is met only with a stone cold facade. Kyouko settles back in her seat; Homura's eyes remain unfocused, her expression flat. Finally, she moves, picking up a white knight from the similarly tiled floor. "Do you know who this is?" she whispers, forcing Kyouko to lean in. "Guess."
"A knight?" asks Kyouko.
"It's you." Homura runs a calloused finger over the cool stone of the figurine. "Mobile. Unpredictable. Painfully limited in some areas, but in others, amazingly versatile." Homura's fist clenches around the piece as she goes to put it back on the board Kyouko stares at her, bewildered.
"What brought this on?" mutters the spear-user. She bends down to grab another piece; shoves it at Homura. "Then who's this?"
Homura glances at the object in Kyouko's hand and reaches for it, but quickly pulls her hand back. "The bishop? ...Mami. She's quick... gets the job done, she's..." Homura trails off, words failing her as for the briefest of moments, the falling form of Kyouko Sakura paints her mind's eye. "She needs backup, though," she concludes. "If she's alone, or you put her in the wrong situation, push her too hard, she... can be overwhelmed easily."
"This one," Kyouko says, now holding a rook in a way that makes Homura think it's another stick of Pocky.
"Sayaka." Homura keeps her eye on the chess piece, refusing to look at the other until she's done. "It's her nature to protect, but... she only has two paths. Cut off her escape, and things..." Homura presses her lips together; what she can see of Kyouko's hand is paling from holding the rook so tightly. She casts her eyes around for another piece and calls forth the queen.
"Kyubey's the queen," she blurts, desperate to divert Kyouko's attention. "He can shape the field, he's hard to kill, and he... he respawns, I suppose." Homura's expression thins, trying and failing to make any other correlations. Really, that one word that would allow Kyouko to better understand the Incubator's nature was already a far reach.
"So what are you?" Kyouko asks, voice low. "The king?"
Homura smiles, a bitter grimace that lasts only a half-second and vanishes just as quickly. "I'm a pawn, of course." Kyouko's eyes burn into her, seeking explanations, so she elaborates. "The only thing a pawn can do is put one foot in front of the other, rushing either toward its death, or an eventual change for the better. If it's got the initiative, it can go twice as far- but only once. There are many pawns, so for most purposes, they're expendable."
"Are ya talkin' 'bout the pawn, or yourself?" mutters Kyouko. "Okay fine, so who's the king?"
An image of pink flashes through Homura's mind, one of a girl far too easily threatened, whose fall signaled the end of a game, who her entire purpose revolved around. She just as easily could turn a game, a timeline, around by going on the offensive, but it was too great a risk and often ended the match early.
"No one's the king." Homura closes her eyes and lets a deep, shuddering breath seep from between her lips. The sigh fades into yet another silence, broken finally by the soft thump of pieces on the marble board. Kyouko is placing the pieces back on their starting squares, taking great care with each one, especially, Homura notes, the pawns.
"We're playing again," Kyouko states. "And this time, I want you to actually try. You got it?" Homura shrugs noncommittally, and Kyouko shoves a pawn forward. "If you don't, I'll tell Mami what you said about her."
"That's not much of a threat," says Homura, moving her own pawn forward.
"I'll break in and eat all your food!"
"I'll just buy more."
Kyouko's brow furrows; she moves a knight out to the fore of a wall of pawns and looks Homura square in the eyes. "Do it for me."
"That's not a request, is it," Homura sighs, flicking at her pieces. "Fine. But if I beat you, you stay out of my food storage for a week. Deal?"
The redhead makes a pouty face at Homura and draws her hand away from the chessboard. "Homuraaaaa," she whines.
"Shut up and play," the other girl replies, and her steely tone calls to the competitor in Kyouko. Both their gazes drop to the chessboard, their conversation fading to the muted echoes of felt on stone.
Homura is not known to be an open person, but when a monochrome world splays itself before her, it is then she feels most comfortable. Usually she keeps her thoughts and emotions locked deep away, but today she lays them bare on the chessboard. It's a beginning, and for once, it is a choice she does not regret.
I wrote this as a sort of character study, since the idea of comparing the cast of PMMM to chess pieces really struck a chord with me, and there are definite correlations between the roles of the pieces in the game and the characters themselves. Dedicated to .com as both a birthday present and a thank you for being the beta for another project of mine. X-Posted to AO3