Homura gave Sayaka an odd look. A part of her didn't believe what she just heard. Another part of her wanted to break out into a fit of laughter at the ridiculousness of the situation. Countless timelines had gone by for the time traveller. She had seen small changes like Kyousuke playing the guitar instead of a violin. Homura had seen highly irregular timelines like the one that involved a Mahou Shoujo named Oriko Mikuni killing Madoka. It had gotten to the point where almost nothing could surprise her anymore. However it seemed like this timeline would have irregularities Homura has yet to see.
There were about a lot of different ways Homura could've answered the blue haired girl, a sarcastic comment, a nice response, or an indifferent one. Though the dark haired girl was still a little tired thanks to the antics of a certain redhead, she just spoke whatever came to mind first.
"I'm sorry, but I believe I may have misheard what Miki-san just said."
Sayaka couldn't tell if the response was genuine or if the transfer student was mocking her. However in the end it didn't matter which one it was. Sayaka couldn't exactly say or do anything hostile towards Homura Akemi, not with Madoka standing right next beside her. Despite her appearance, the pinkette was actually stronger than she looked.
The blue haired girl tried to speak clearer this time. "You saved my life last night. I don't know why, but thank you anyway." Sayaka said, glancing at the transfer student's eyes before turning away again.
Homura's violet orbs widened in surprise.
So I wasn't hearing things.
The dark haired girl was in a situation she wasn't familiar with, and in a way it scared her. Not knowing what to do, she hadn't had an irregular timeline in awhile. However, this was also an opportunity for her. If she could play her cards right, then she might be able to finally stop the blue haired girl's Witch transformation, which in turn would keep Kyoko from needlessly sacrificing herself.
Is it too late for her though?
Homura needed more time to analyse the situation.
"I see. Don't mention it. I did what I had to." Homura turned her head back to facing the front. Signalling the end of their exchange.
Sayaka, realising that the conversation was over, took Madoka and led up her to the school rooftops to have lunch. Opening the door to the rooftop, Sayaka sat down on a bench finally being able to rest.
Her heart was racing at an extreme speed. She thought it could explode at any moment. That was way more difficult than she thought it would be. Madoka sat down next her to best friend.
"See? That wasn't so bad Sayaka-chan. Maybe now you two can even be friends." Madoka had a hopeful smile on her face.
"I don't know…how did you befriend her anyway?"
Madoka thought for moment. "Hmm, I'm not sure actually. She's-" Sayaka interrupted her friend by placing a hand over her mouth. The blue haired girl's attention was focused on something else.
Madoka eventually pulled the hand away from her mouth. "What was that for Sayaka-chan?"
The bluenette stood up and walked forward. She took very slow and careful steps.
"Sayaka-chan?"
"I think...I feel...a Witch." Sayaka then turned to the right and kept walking in that direction. Madoka got up and followed until Sayaka stopped and stood in a single spot. Checking her soul gem, she saw it was pulsating blue light. She was near a Witch barrier. It was very close to her.
Transforming in bright flash of blue, Sayaka readied her cutlass blade, and swung the sword in front of herself. The blade cut open a Witch barrier, opening a way inside.
Madoka stood behind her friend, ready to go within the barrier. Sayaka however just stood frozen on the spot. She was hesitating. She had only ever fought one Witch before, and it was much weaker than the one she felt inside the barrier.
"You okay Sayaka-chan? Maybe we should get Homura-chan to help you."
The mention of the brunette snapped Sayaka out of her thoughts. "No, I can do this without her help." The blue haired girl summoned another sword in her other hand. She handed it to the pinkette.
"Here, you'll probably need this."
Madoka took the sword, surprised that it wasn't as heavy as she expected. "Okay, lets go."
The two entered the barrier, finding themselves inside a garden of sorts. There were a few familiars that looked a lot like a Venus flytrap, except much bigger and with sharp white teeth. It would've been easier to avoid fighting them and go straight for the Witch, but she knew Mami wouldn't have done that. Mami would've made sure to wipe out any familiars that stood in her way.
Wrapping the white cape around herself, she summoned a dozen swords surrounding her. She proceeded to throw the blades right at the enemy. She killed all but one familiar, who then floated in the air and charged at the blue haired girl, with its jaws open wide that were ready to devour her.
Sayaka griped the sword tighter, and cut the familiar right down the middle. The blade moved effortlessly through the enemy as she killed the familiar in a single strike.
They moved through the rest of the labyrinth, having next to no trouble the whole time. That is until they found the Witch itself. It resided in a field full of dead roses. Looking up, the sky was cloudless, and had black and blue swirling lines.
The Witch lay in the middle of the field. It had the appearance of a dead tree, but with a hollow face carved into its trunk. The face looked sad, like it didn't want to be here. Sayaka felt a little sorry for it, completely oblivious to the full truth of the Mahou Shoujo.
The dead looking branches on the Witch suddenly came to life and moved at an intense speed, and in no time Sayaka found her entire body wrapped up in the branches. There was no escape, she could barely move. The Witch lifted her up, only to slam her back down on the ground, crushing the dead roses. She felt herself being lifted up again only to swing her in another direction into a nearby tree. Sayaka felt little pain from the onslaught. It was only then did it truly hit her, she was nothing more than a walking corpse. She felt like a zombie from those movies who could take many bullets before going down.
The Witch then smashed the bluenette's face on the ground, and dragged her along floor, leaving a trail of smoke behind her.
Sayaka was then beaten against a large stone over and over and over again.
Madoka couldn't take it anymore, and charged ahead with the sword Sayaka gave her. The Witch had a spare branch to use, and sent it straight towards the pinkette. Before the blade and branch could clash, the branch burned right before Madoka's eyes. The pink haired girl blinked as it pulled back away, trying to shake the flames off itself. Madoka realised there was someone near herself.
"Homura-chan?!"
The brunette had arrived just in time. She was wielding an arm mounted miniature flamethrower. It was an experimental weapon she had stolen from a military base.
The Witch used all its spare branches and tried to wrap them around Homura while continuing to bash Sayaka against the ground repeatedly. Golden flames burned them all up as soon as they got close to her. The raven haired girl leaped forward and shot the flames at the remaining branches that held onto the bluenette. Sayaka dropped to ground, wondering what just happened.
Sayaka's vision was a little blurry thanks to the repeated assault she had received. Her outfit was tattered and ripped while her body had bruises all over itself. Using magic, she created a magic circle with musical notes under herself to heal her own wounds.
As her vision returned, she saw someone jumping around, dodging attacks as the person sent out yellow flames. When her eyes had been completely restored, she gasped at the sight. Homura was ruthlessly burning the Witch with everything she had.
The black haired girl pulled out a blue grenade with a flame symbol on it from within her time shield. Homura launched herself towards the mouth of the Witch. Removing the pin, she threw it inside its mouth and jumped back as far as she could.
Seconds later the Witch exploded into blue flames. A loud shriek filled the air as the labyrinth crumbled around them. The Witch was completely engulfed in the flames as it slowly disintegrated. Sayaka watched, wide eyed at the sight. Homura removed the weapon from her arm and placed it back in her shield, reminding herself that she would need to refuel just in case she needed it again.
The dark haired girl picked up the Grief Seed and stared at it. She was deep in thought.
Madoka ran to Sakaya's side to check if her best friend was okay. The blue haired girl rose from the ground and lay back onto the fence of the school rooftop.
"You okay Sayaka-chan?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm...I'm fine." Sayaka said between breaths.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you."
"It's okay, just forget about it."
Sayaka closed her eyes and sat on the ground to regain her stamina. The blue haired girl was going to have to get used to losing if she was going to be a Mahou Shoujo. She soon heard footsteps headed towards her. When she opened her eyes she saw that the transfer student was kneeling down, with her arm outstretched, revealing the Grief Seed in her palm.
What is she…
"Take it."
Sayaka blinked in confusion. "What? I-I-It was your kill, wasn't it?"
"I'm not giving you a choice."
The blue haired girl however had way too much pride to be accepting pity Grief Seeds. She saw it as an insult.
"Look, you killed the Witch, therefore it's yours. I don't need it anyway."
"Like hell you don't." Homura's responses were very cold and curt. Sayaka didn't appreciate the tone that Homura was using. The two girls glared at each other. It didn't look like either would be backing down from their position anytime soon.
"Then you two should share it!"
The bluenette and brunette turned their heads towards the pinkette. They had momentarily forgotten that Madoka was even there. She was smiling at her own idea.
"Since you both fought the Witch, then you should both use the Grief Seed."
"Hang on a second, is that even possible?" Sayaka asked.
The dark haired girl had never tried such a thing before, but figured that nothing bad could happen from it. Homura placed the Grief Seed on the ground between them. "Only one way to find out." She proceeded to remove her gem from its place on her outfit as Sayaka did the same.
The blue haired girl took in a deep breath. "Well, here goes nothing."
The two girls lowered their gems towards the Grief Seed, and sure enough, it started draining the corruption from both of the soul gems. Black lines of corruption were being absorbed into the Grief Seed as Homura's and Sayaka's soul gem gleamed brighter and brighter. The lines cut off as soon as the Grief Seed had reached its capacity limit. The two Mahou Shoujo placed their soul gems back where they belonged before transforming back into their school uniforms.
The Grief Seed was pitch black as Homura picked it up. She saw Kyubey out of the corner of her eye, no doubt waiting to take the Grief Seed off them.
Homura casually threw it in the direction of the little white alien. After watching it harvest the seed, the dark haired girl ran her fingers through her hair and started walking away.
After taking a few steps, she stopped where she was and spoke to Sayaka through telepathy.
Miki-san, are you free after school today?
Huh?
This took Sayaka by surprise. She stared at Homura, she couldn't see the raven haired girl's facial expression because her back was facing the bluenette.
Yeah, I'm free, why?
Meet me at the main school gates when you can.
What? Why?
I'll be bringing you over to my place. We have some things to discuss.
Homura began walking again, her long black hair gleamed as it continued to flow in the breeze.
Class
Sayaka's mind wasn't concentrating on whatever her teacher was going on about. It was math anyway; she knew she was going to fail, whether or not she actually paid attention. She found it too confusing anyway. Instead her thoughts were transfixed on the transfer student. She was wondering why the dark haired girl wanted to meet up with her.
To think that twenty-four hours ago, the bluenette despised the transfer student with every fibre in her body. Now she had no idea what her opinion on the dark haired girl was.
It was clear from the way the transfer student talked that she had her own agenda, what that was, Sayaka had no clue. However she also couldn't ignore the fact that her life had been saved twice now by her. She knew she owed the transfer student.
Homura had been called up to answer a question written up on the board. The question looked way too hard for the bluenette figure out, but in no time, the dark haired girl had the answer.
How the hell does she even have the time to study when she's a Mahou Shoujo?
Sayaka was pretty sure that she would never completely understand the raven haired girl.
After School
"Hey Madoka." Sayaka started as she approached her childhood friend when their last class ended. "Listen, I'm going to be headed to Akemi-san's house today so-"
"What really?!" The pinkette squealed. She then hugged her best friend from what she heard. "See, I knew you two can be friends!"
Sayaka scratched the side of her head. "I really don't think we're friends." She sighed at Madoka's optimism. "Anyway, are you going to be okay walking home alone?"
"Of course I'll be okay!" Madoka was absolutely ecstatic. "Don't worry about me, I'll be just fine." The pinkette was practically skipping out of class from sheer joy. The blue haired girl sighed as she slugged her school bag over her shoulder and went to meet up with the transfer student.
School Gates
"Huh, you're here after all." Homura uttered as the blue haired girl walked up to her.
"How long will this take?"
"As long as it needs to." Homura started leading Sayaka down the path to her house. She had only ever done this once before, but those days felt like a lifetime ago to Homura.
It wasn't long before they reached the transfer student's house. It turns out that Homura didn't live that far away from Sayaka actually.
The dark haired reached for the door handle, just as she thought, the door was unlocked. She sighed. Kyoko always had a habit of breaking in whenever she was bored and Homura wasn't home.
Regardless, she pushed open the door to allow Sayaka Miki entry into her house.
Authors Note: Okay, I shall shamelessly admit, I had a lot of fun beating the utter crap out of Sayaka. XD. Since the technology in the Madoka world seems more advanced than what we have, I decided to take a few liberties with Homura's weaponry. Please review to tell me what you think.
