Chapter Two
"This was supposed to be over!"
Sayaka slashed her sword across one of the curtains on the walls. It split with a tear as if it were paper. It was not enough.
"It was going to be over! I was never going to have to see Kyousuke-kun with Hitomi-chan ever again, or even think about him! I fought like I promised Kyubey I would, killed witches and demons and I don't even know what happened anymore, but everything was over! I wasn't going to have to feel anything anymore! And now I have dozens and dozens of Kyousuke-kuns in my head and they're all different and they all don't love me and I can't make it stop and I hate you!" Sayaka screamed and whirled around, eyes darting across the room. "Where are you? I know you're here! I saw you here, I know you didn't leave, I would have seen you leave! Madoka!"
The room, and Sayaka's heart, throbbed as if a giant speaker had played a deep bass note just under the range she could hear. She was shoved—she didn't fall—to the floor, and her sword dropped from her grasp and slid behind her on the carpet.
Sayaka-chan… I'm here. Don't hurt yourself trying to get to me.
"I don't see you. Come out where I can see you." Sayaka edged back, feeling behind her for her sword. "Can't you even face me?"
I always face every Puella Magi, whether I want to or not. That includes you.
The room hummed and shuddered, and… Madoka… or something like her… stood in the center of the room. Her skin was a whirl of colors and patterns that reminded Sayaka of witches' barriers, with draped over a body that couldn't quite decide its shape. Gradually, the form settled into one that was at least more familiar. Madoka stood before her as she remembered, but in the magical girl costume she'd drawn in her notebook and with her hair down rather than tied up with ribbons.
"Is this better, Sayaka-chan?"
Sayaka's hand found the blade of her sword. Her fingers slid to the hilt. "I guess."
Madoka sat on the floor. "You don't have to fight anymore, and you'll never have to see Kyousuke-kun again. I… don't know if I can make you forget."
Sayaka grasped the hilt and pulled the weapon toward her, but didn't pick it up from the floor. She drew a few deep breaths. "That was all I wanted."
"I- I'm so sorry, Sayaka-chan…" Madoka shook—no, she sobbed, just once. "I don't know if there's anything I can do for you. But—but I'll try! I won't give up!"
"You told me, Madoka-chan. You told me it was over." Sayaka's voice shook. "I don't know if I can take this." She couldn't take this. She knew she couldn't take this. Was there even a way to kill yourself in a place like this?
Madoka sighed. "I'm so sorry…" She got to her feet. "I'll do anything I can!" Sayaka almost managed to feel a twinge of regret when she saw the tears in Madoka's eyes. "I'll show you around everything, you probably didn't really notice a lot when you came here—there's a room for everyone, from when they were back alive, you know, but you can also be with other magical girls any time you want, there are lots of us here!"
Sayaka nodded her head. There wasn't anything more to do but accept it for now. "All right. Show me."
Maybe once Madoka had showed her around the "Paradise" she'd constructed, she'd tell her how to die from here.
Kyouko tore the wrapper from the popsicle and jammed it into her mouth. After all that, Sayaka was gone. There wasn't even a body to look at to make it feel real, like there had been with her parents.
The worst part was that she'd known. Her father had taught her all that she needed to know about the way a person smiled when they'd decided to die. No, the worst part wasn't that she'd known at all. It was that she had decided. It was that she had seen Sayaka come in that night with a corpse's staring eyes and had decided that she would let her die the way she chose. She hadn't been able to go through with it in the end, but… if that was what her… friend wanted, then… it was okay if she wasn't able to keep Sayaka from…
"Kyouko-chan?"
Mami stepped into the kitchen behind her. "I can make dinner, if you want," she offered.
Kyouko didn't turn around. "Don't you have school in the morning?"
"I'm not going again tomorrow," Mami replied. "So do you want me to cook something? I have the ingredients for a lot of things, or I can go down to the convenience store if we need something special…"
Kyouko drew the popsicle from her mouth, letting the watermelon taste fill her mouth, and turned around to face Mami. If she wanted to cook that much, well… "Sure." She gave the popsicle another slow suck. "I don't really care what you make, anything would be great." She made herself smile, the one that she had practiced for charming young men into buying her lunch.
Mami nodded her head and hurried toward the pantry. "Let's see… I can make soba noodles, if that's okay… or maybe something sweet would be better… should I find the taiyaki mold?"
Kyouko answered something—she wasn't even paying attention to what she said—and took a bite out of the popsicle. Mami answered her with genuine pleasure in her voice; something about how just making a late-night breakfast would be great and miso paste. She could do something for Mami, even if it was a small thing.
It dawned on her that she was not going to have to mourn alone.
"Is red miso okay? We have plenty of that, though I should probably go get some tofu…" Mami pulled a few packages from the pantry and set them on the counter. She examined everything with a critical eye. "I can probably throw something together without going out if you'd rather," she added, giving Kyouko a quick glance.
Kyouko realized that she had let a genuine smile creep up on her.
She walked up to Mami and slung an arm over her shoulder, the other arm drawing the popsicle to her mouth. "So let's see what we have here…"
Kyubey sat on a bench and wondered.
Sayaka had been lost that night. It was a shame that she had allowed herself to succumb so easily. The girl was an excellent fighter. He'd made quite the good choice in selecting her, in telling her she was fighting for the boy's sake too. It never ceased to impress him how readily girls would contract to get something for other people… or how quickly depression spiraled when the target of the wish wasn't grateful enough.
Her comrades seemed to be holding up about as well as experience had taught him to expect. Kyouko was crying but pushing herself to live. She'd always been the fighting type. Mami was moping around. He expected her to be over it within a few days. She recovered quickly from adversity when she found some way to be useful. Granted, Homura's reaction was extreme, babbling about some person that Kyubey's brief investigation into her past hadn't turned up, but sometimes the "strong, silent" types were actually the ones most vulnerable to damage. The girl had a wall covered in information about her companions, their fighting styles, the kinds of strategies that worked best when they were together… and she'd known that Sayaka was coming apart. However, he was quite optimistic about the odds she would improve. She'd collected quite a few Grief Seeds in the day since everything had happened.
Still, Sayaka's loss meant that another Puella Magi was necessary as soon as possible for maximum efficiency, even If all of the current girls remained active.
Kyubey pondered his list of candidates. Kisa would agree readily after her interactions with other Puella Magi, but her potential was less than stellar. Hitomi had seemed promising, but now that she was in the relationship that she'd wanted for over a year, her motivation would be low. Hina would be a solid contract when she was older, but contracts with girls younger than eleven were rarely successful. Mai lived further from the most populated parts of the city than he really wanted, though the prospect of creating a Puella Magi that already had modern combat training before making the contract was quite tempting.
Well, no girl was ever the perfect choice.
The pros and cons of the situation whirled through his head for a few minutes. He wished he had a little more time to consider the situation, but something about the behavior of the Magical Demons the previous day was unusual. The city needed another guardian now. In fact, he worried that he would need to contract all four of them and then some in the coming days.
Somewhere in the back of his head, he sensed… something. Opportunity knocked. "Well, I suppose she'll do."
Kyubey teleported into Hina's room and bounced onto her bed, waking her with his paws. "Hey, hey! There's something you should see!"
The small girl rubbed at her eyes. "What…" She blinked. "What are you?"
"There's no time for that! Hurry!" Kyubey directed Hina's attention to the window. As always, his timing was precise.
Hina glanced out her window. "That's Haruka-onee-chan… outside…"
"That's right. We have to follow her. She's about to do something dangerous!"
"Shouldn't I tell Mom and Dad?" she asked, uncertain.
That was one of the problems of using barely-pubescent girls. "No, there's no time!"
Hina looked puzzled for a few moments before scooping Kyubey into her arms. "All right then…" She hurried down the stairs as quietly as she could so that she could follow her sister. Maybe that was the advantage of younger girls. They believed what you told them.
