Homura Reacts to School, Part 2!

A/N: Welcome, one and all, to the second coming of Homura Reacts Redux! No, this time, this was supposed to be delayed. I'm trying out a new thing where I'm going to be writing the chapters in advance (and spending my holiday doing it); that way, even if I can't write a chapter that day (and I often can't because college is taking its toll on my stress and workload) I'll have something to give you guys. Don't worry, the update schedule will still be there, but the updates will be written a week in advance. Anyway, I know you guys have been waiting for a month for this update, so, let's get started.

DISCLAIMER: Puella Magi Madoka Magica belongs to Studio SHAFT, otherwise we would already have that promised show with Mami as the protagonist (I need this).

All mentioned franchises and characters belong to their respective owners.

On the way to Mitakihara High…

"Wow!" Hitomi looked enviously at Madoka and Sayaka as they walked alongside each other, heading to school. "I'm so jealous. You two got to see Mami-senpai's apartment…."

"It's not that big a deal," Madoka shook her head, chuckling. "It's not as fancy as your place, anyway. Mami likes simple things. Makes it easier to take care of everything."
Hitomi nodded slowly. "Oh, right. I forgot Mami lived alone…..she must feel so lonely."

"She always has us come over to her house to have cakes with her," Sayaka explained, snorting. "You'd think she was bribing us to be her friends."

"Huh…..you know, I never see her with anyone around her, come to think of it," the green-haired girl looked down, frowning. "Maybe I should come with you when you go over and say hi!"

Madoka smiled. "You'd really be Mami's friend too?"
"Of course," Hitomi nodded back quickly. "You're always going on about how cool she is and how much of a real lady she is, maybe I could even learn a little from her."

"I always wanted a little of her lady-ness to rub off on me," Sayaka mused to herself. "People always complain about me being the tomboy between us three….."

"Speaking of us three….." Hitomi looked around between her two companions. "…..didn't you say Akemi-chan was coming with us?"

Madoka blinked, before looking behind her confusedly. "Huh….yeah, she left with us but she's just….disappeared. I guess Homura got left behind. Maybe she'll catch up when we get there?"

Of course, Sayaka already had an idea as to where Homura was, judging from their last meeting.

'Oh, Akemi,' the blunette sighed, closing her eyes. 'Please tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing.'

"Sayaka? You looked irritated," Hitomi remarked. "Did something cross your mind?"
"Nothing, just a…..never mind," Sayaka shook her head. "Let's hurry. Maybe we'll be late if we keep waiting up for her."

'And maybe we'll be able to get in before Homura does something. She's not crazy enough to pull something at school, right? Right?'

Madoka frowned. "But Homura-"
"-can catch up with us, now let's go, go, go!" Before either girl could protest, Sayaka had already grabbed their hands, yanking them forwards with their yelled protests being ignored.

…..

"You know, the only reason I'm hanging out with you right now is because I've got nothing better to do, right?" Kyoko remarked, rolling her eyes as she squirmed in her school uniform, looking down at her skirt. "These things are so short. How do you even wear these? Screw it, I'm changing to my shorts. I don't want some pervert looking up my skirt."

"Be quiet, Sakura," Homura muttered under her breath, clutching her belt of smoke grenades. "….tch. So. Miki has made her allegiance clear. She's standing against me this time."
"This situation is rather intriguing, to think you would go to such length to protect the girl's innocence," Kyubey plopped itself on top of Homura's head, tail swishing behind it. The magical girl responded by yanking the Incubator off of her head, pulling it to the ground.

"You…." The black-haired girl almost growled out. "I thought I told you this was none of your business."

If Kyubey had shoulders to shrug, perhaps they might have done so. "I told you I was interested to see how you would handle this situation."
"Maybe he's bored because the rest of his species fired him after….whatever you and Mami did," Kyoko shrugged, munching on an apple.

"Why don't you go to school?" Homura grumbled at the sound of her munching. "Don't you have something better to do than bother me?"

"I dunno, don't you have something better to do than stalk Madoka?" The redhead retorted without missing a beat. "And who are you, Sayaka? I don't need school. I'll just work at a Wcdonalds or a Burger Lord or something if I need money. Besides, they're the ones with employee discounts for food, right?"

The black-haired girl clenched her fist, resisting the urge to smack Kyoko around the head, while wondering briefly how Sayaka resisted the urge to. "Is food all you think about?"

"I'd make another Madoka joke, but at this point, I think this story's going to make them better than I do," Kyoko replied. "Seriously, your insults are worse than Sayaka's cooking."

Homura sighed irritably, standing up as Sayaka rounded the corner of the street, leaving her field of sight. "…..it seems I'll need to catch up. I assume you kept my request, Incubator?"
"I have no reason to lie," Kyubey replied, tilting their frozen face. "Miss Tomoe isn't aware of what you're doing."

"Good," Homura nodded brusquely as she stood up and strolled towards another bush where she'd hidden something. Kyoko looked over to whatever she'd hidden before her eyes widened, nearly dropping the piece of apple she'd been eating.

"…you know Mami's going to kill you if she finds out you took that?"

"I'll take my chances," Homura calmly replied. "Anything for Madoka's sake. I must protect her innocence, whatever the cost."

The Classroom….

"…..and Yukizome…..that makes everyone except Akemi present!" Miss Saotome, their homeroom teacher announced, ticking off people on a register on her pad and swiping the picture of the girl she'd just checked in away, adding it to a table of pictures of the other students who were present. "…..alright! Well, perhaps we'll need to start class without Homura today….."
Madoka squirmed quietly in her seat, looking at the empty seat where Homura would have been. "Um….."

Sayaka closed her eyes, groaning and dreading whatever Homura had planned. "Please, please just be late and not be stupid….and where's Kyoko, anyway? That girl, I swear…."

Hitomi looked concernedly at her two friends, shifting in her seat as she looked in her bag for today's work.

"Alright, class!" Miss Saotome announced. "Today, we will be discussing basic English sentence structures!"
A collective groan issued from everyone bar Madoka.

"Don't 'awwww' me, class!" The woman protested, tapping her palm with her pointing rod disappointedly. "Complaining about easy work isn't welcome in a school environment!"
Before their teacher could go on boring the class, however, the fire alarm went off. The class stood up, preparing to leave and piling out the door. Miss Saotome flailed in the air.

"W-wait! Where are you going?" She cried. "You're all supposed to leave in an orderly fashion!"

"Is today a fire drill?" Madoka pondered, looking towards Sayaka, whose eyes narrowed irritably.

"No. No, I think this was deliberate."

Hitomi's eyes widened. "What, like someone set fire to the school?"
"No. Worse."

….

"That's how easy it is to trigger the alarm system here," Homura muttered to herself, one of her smoke grenades lying underneath a smoke detector, billowing smoke out from the cap. Kyoko looked around, a mixture of awe and exasperation on her face.

"I'd tell you you're going too far by this point," the redhead muttered as she took out a box of Rocky and placed one of the chocolate-covered biscuit sticks in her mouth, placing her box of Rocky in the pockets in her newly-worn shorts. "But considering you already stole a literal ship, more weapons than the Yakuza and the military have combined and more panties than a perverted kleptomaniac in a lingerie store, I think 'the line' is a concept that doesn't exist for you."

"Why are you even here?" Homura muttered irritably. "This isn't your fight, Sakura."
Kyoko shrugged. "What, you want me to go join Mami in class? Ugh, no thanks. Class is boring anyway."

"I agree, seeing the lengths you would go to, just to preserve Madoka's innocence is quite intriguing," Kyubey mused.

"See? Even the furball wants to see how crazy you can get."

The black-haired girl huffed, striding back over to Mami's stolen motorcycle; a shattered window with skid marks lay as evidence of Homura's journey. The paint job was somewhat scuffed- something Homura would likely fix once her mission here was done.

"Insanity is subjective," the time traveller retorted, a hint of defensiveness in her voice as she mounted the motorcycle, revving it up and placing her hands on the handlebar. Kyoko rolled her eyes dismissively as she pulled herself off the wall, shaking her head and preparing to catch up to her fellow magical girl.

"'Insanity is subjective' my ass," she muttered under her breath.

"Eeh? Where are we going?" Hitomi inquired as she followed behind Madoka and Sayaka, the latter leading the trio as they stormed up the stairs.

Madoka frowned at Sayaka. "We're supposed to leave the school building when fire alarms sound-"
"Yeah, well, I need to find Mami first," the blunette hastily replied, all the while groaning under her breath. 'Of all possible times, Homura, you had to pull this off today.'

Their search was not long in the waiting, as Mami happened to walk by them, her blonde curls bouncing in the air behind her. Sayaka immediately strolled up to her, tapping her on the shoulder.

"Mami, it's an emergency."
"Eh?" The blonde girl stared at her confusedly. "What about?"
"It's an emergency," Sayaka started, before looking as if she was about to say something stupid. She sighed. "….mrmhmt mmrph."

"Huh? What's that?" Mami perked up and placed her hand to her ear. Sayaka glared at her, but sighed, acquiescing to her silly request.
"…..it's a Hermit Purple," the blunette muttered, almost growling out her irritation at the nonsense. Mami seemed satisfied, smiling as she brushed a curl from her shoulder.

"Ah. I see. Let's go then!"
Sayaka rolled her eyes a moment before she was dragged off by the hand of her senior.

Madoka reached out for her, her hand finding thin air. "H-hey! Wait! Hermit Purple? What's that supposed to mean? Is that out of an anime or something?"

'Hermit Purple' was one of the codewords Mami and Sayaka had agreed upon when they first retired from being active Puella Magi, in a deal to make sure Homura didn't completely screw up Madoka's life in a vain attempt to protect her. This particular codeword meant that Homura had broken into school, probably armed and most likely dangerous. Of course, Homura was no threat to anyone at all in practice, except if the unfortunate person on the other end of her gun was a Witch or someone stupid enough to even think of hurting Madoka; if that were the case, they'd have taken her weapons away long ago or made her promise to leave off the firearms around people.

Nevertheless, neither Mami nor Sayaka had the money to pay bail for Homura to get out of jail, and both girls doubted that Junko was going to pay for bailing her erstwhile tenant out of jail for waving around assault rifles and rocket launchers in front of civilians.

"…..ugh, did you really have to use such weird codewords?" Sayaka complained as she and Mami snuck into the girls' restroom, making sure nobody followed them. "We could've just used normal code words like normal people, instead of weird things like 'Hermit Purple'. I mean, seriously?"

"You have to let a girl have some fun sometimes," Mami chided her softly, wagging her finger as she pulled out her Soul Gem. "So, do you know what Homura's up to now?"

"She's probably trying to kidnap Madoka," Sayaka explained with a sigh. "She wanted me to go tell Madoka that school would corrupt her innocence or something."

Mami raised an eyebrow, giving her a curious look. "Well, that simply won't do, will it? Shall we, Sayaka?"

"Well, I'd rather not get shot at, so yeah, okay," the blunette replied as she pulled out her own Soul Gem. "You know we're at school, though, right? Isn't there like a rule that you can't do this stuff at school?"

"If we're going to have any chance of fighting Homura," Mami pointed out calmly. "I'd say magic is probably necessary."

Sayaka sighed, nodding in assent; she knew Mami was right. "…yeah, alright."

With a giggle, her senior winked at her, throwing her Soul Gem into the air and twirling elegantly, as yellow ribbons enshrouded her body, replacing her uniform with her magical girl outfit, a small black feathered cap perching itself on her head. Landing deftly on the floor as her transformation ended, Mami twirled in place, puffing up one of her curls to brush it back behind her head.

Sayaka closed her eyes, closing her fist around her own Soul Gem as she assumed her magical girl form with little fanfare. "You and Kyoko twirl so much when you transform. Do you really have to dance around so much? It's just putting on some clothes."

"I'm never going to get tired of doing that," Mami replied with a smirk. "It's quite fun. And anyway, you twirl around when you transform too, don't you?"
"That's different!" Sayaka replied defensively. "And anyway, we're in the toilets of our school, if I twirl around, I might break something," the blunette continued, looking back towards the door. "We should probably get moving before Homura takes this too far..."

Mami nodded, suddenly serious again. "Yes, I don't think the school's going to want to find out their students stole guns from the Yakuza….."

Outside, on the school grounds….

"I wonder what Sayaka and Mami were talking about…." Hitomi pondered, frowning as she stood in line with Madoka, as students from their school piled out into ordered lines, teachers in front as they waited to register everyone.

Madoka frowned slightly. "I don't know, but it was sorta weird…"

'Is there a Witch in the school?', the pink-haired girl briefly pondered. '…..no, can't be. Mami said Witches don't exist anymore. Right?'

Hitomi brushed a stray strand of green hair from her eyes. "What's wrong, Madoka? You looked worried for a second."

"U-uh?" The girl blinked. "O-oh, it's nothing, really. I, uh, I'm just worried about them, that's all!"

"We're only missing Akemi, Yukizome and…." Miss Saotome pored over her list of students, comparing it to everyone in front of her. "…Miki? Huh? Kaname, do you know where your friend went?"

And that's when a loud bang sounded from the queue nearby, releasing a lot of smoke as students ran away from the chaos, the queues flying into disarray as more loud cracks ensued.

"W-wait! Stay calm!" Miss Saotome yelped, before one went off behind her, causing her to shriek in surprise. Madoka almost jumped.

"Wah!" The pink-haired girl yelped, as Hitomi crouched, hiding her head beneath her hands. Madoka instinctively reached down into her pocket, reaching for her pink Soul Gem, though not pulling it out of her pocket yet.

"W-what was that?" The green-haired girl squeaked, looking up. "Was that an explosion?"

Madoka shook her head; she'd seen enough explosions fighting Witches to know that wasn't a deadly one. "…..no, no it wasn't. Stay close, okay? I'll watch out for you."

'What's going on today?' The pink-haired girl wondered to herself. 'T-this isn't...wait a second. Are those….'

….

"Firecrackers. The human tendency towards ingenuity is a curious one indeed, to turn weapons like this into recreational items," Kyubey uttered in their usual flat affect, clinging on for dear life as Homura sped around the outside of the group with a bag of firecrackers in her arms, one hand throwing firecrackers and the other steering Mami's stolen motorcycle.

She didn't bother to grace that with a response, instead resuming throwing more firecrackers into the crowd.

'Soon, Madoka will know school isn't safe for her,' she thought to herself. 'Then Madoka will let me protect her as she needs to be protected. This is necessary.'

The firecrackers faded into white, as they joined the stopped time stream. Homura pulled up behind a nearby building out of sight, pulling up her shield and resuming time, watching the miniature explosions throw up smoke, cracks and light as they hit the ground. Madoka was standing in the middle of the panicking crowd, looking around as Hitomi clung to her for dear life.

Homura's eyelid twitched at the sight.

'They're just friends, they're just friends, they're just friends, Shizuki wouldn't dare,' the time-traveler reassured herself, breathing deeply. "Okay, now for the finishing touch."

Pulling out her buckler, Homura exhaled as she attempted to stop time again, before-

"Miki."

Homura deftly moved her buckler upwards, allowing Sayaka's thrown sword to embed itself into the wall instead of into her shield, before making it click, turning around and pulling out a gun to point it at the frozen Sayaka, whose eyes were wide with surprise. The black-haired girl breathed deeply, closing her eyes before putting her gun away.

"…..sorry," she muttered under her breath, though Sayaka couldn't hear her. A lifetime of unfortunate reflexes had rendered her too quick for her own good.

Besides, she couldn't shoot Sayaka. She was a useful ally in protecting Madoka.

And maybe Homura did like her. Just a little.

"As am I."

Before Homura could speak, a yellow ribbon flicked out, wrapping itself around her as Mami, a ribbon tied between her and Mami's ankle, smiled at her, wagging a finger at her with one hand and holding her hostage with another.

Homura squirmed in the trap, glaring at her senior. "How did you-"
"Sayaka told me, dear," the blonde responded, placing her free hand on her hip. "And really, a fire alarm and you going missing on the first day? For someone who's fought Walpurgisnacht two hundred times, you really can be a little sloppy."

Homura's reply was deft and swift, in the form of a slash with a knife across the bottom of the ribbons holding her hostage. The ribbons falling away, the girl twirled away from Mami to evade another ribbon, using her momentum to whip out a gun from her buckler and point it at the ribbon tying her to Mami-

"Not a chance!"

Sayaka's sword stabbed itself into Homura's pistol, forcing it out of her grasp and locking it in midair as time froze around it. The black-haired girl's head whipped around to see her blue-haired comrade, a ribbon tied to her ankle from Mami's, sword at the ready in one hand. In the other was a ribbon, with Mami holding the other end.

"Sayaka, it's time for manoeuvre Killer Queen!" The blonde girl declared.

"Do you have to come up with such silly names?!" Sayaka yelled in exasperation, but sighed as she cast the ribbon around Homura. The black-haired girl replied by pulling on the ribbon being thrown at her, yanking Sayaka towards her to pin Sayaka to her side.

"Ah!" The blunette yelped, her sword pinning itself in the back of Homura's buckler, shifting some gears-

-and Homura, Mami and Sayaka were suddenly in the normal flow of time again, Sayaka's sword pinning Homura's pistol to the wall.

And everyone was staring at the three girls, currently entangled in a mess of ribbons and in their magical girl forms, Madoka and Hitomi included.

"….e-eh?" Hitomi blinked. "Madoka, is….are those Homura, Mami and Sayaka?"

'Oh, we've done it now,' Sayaka thought to herself, looking down nervously at her suddenly much more exposed costume. 'They'll be asking all the weird questions….'

Mami closed her eyes, smiling as she kept holding her ribbon tightly. "Hello, everyone! This is nothing to worry about, only an impromptu…..art installation!"
"An art installation?" Homura hissed under her breath. "Is that the best you can come up with, Tomoe?!"

If Sayaka wasn't entangled in ribbons, she would be using a hand to palm her face out of exasperation. Instead, the look she was giving was more than enough.

Madoka paused briefly, blinking at the madness before…..

"…..yeah, that's totally what they're doing!" Madoka declared, nodding hurriedly. "Yes, that's my, uh, art project!"

'She's totally not going to buy that,' Sayaka thought to herself, closing her eyes.

"…..I see. It's…." Miss Saotome adjusted her glasses and looked closer, tilting her head. "…..a rather interesting art project. Tomoe, Akemi, Miki, get back in line! And get those silly costumes off when we get back in!"

The blunette's mouth hung in shock. 'Did she seriously buy that?!'

As Mami pulled her ribbons back, Homura strolled towards Madoka, nodding to her.

"…I….can explain. I was only doing all this to protect you," she explained calmly and without a hint of irony.

Sayaka stared at her disbelievingly. "I-Is that seriously the excuse that she'll-"

"Awww," Madoka giggled, hugging Homura tightly towards her. "It's okay! All is forgiven! You were only trying to protect me, right? And nobody's hurt…"

The black-haired girl almost immediately faded into a fugue as she took in the feeling, touch and scent of her protectorate. "T-thank you…."

"….but Homura," the pink-haired girl's voice took on a warning, motherly tone. "You have to come to school from now on. I'm going to go to school, and if you want to protect me, you're going to have to come too."

Homura whimpered like a hurt puppy. "But….the school-"
"It won't corrupt me," Madoka reassured her. "I promise. Pleaaaase, Homura? Do it for me."

"…fine," the black-haired girl acquiesced, unable to deny Madoka. "…..I….will allow you to….attend school."

Madoka smiled brightly. "That's the spirit!"

"WHAT?!" The blunette cried indignantly. "A-are you kidding me?! Homura just got away with a slap on the wrist!"

"Madoka is truly a saint," Mami reminded her, sighing good-naturedly. "Then again, that's our Madoka."

"Aww, I was expecting a better ending than that," Kyoko complained, munching on another stick of Rocky. "That blows. I was hoping she'd do something flashier."

Sayaka grabbed her by the collar, glaring at her. "Just where have you been?!"

"Ooh, getting violent, are we?" Kyoko raised an eyebrow. "Heh. I thought that was my job."

"WHY ARE YOU STILL WEARING THOSE SHORTS?!"

Homura sighed in defeat as she walked back in line with Madoka holding her hand. Pushing aside the fact that Madoka was holding her hand, she closed her eyes.

'…..if I can't keep Madoka from this corrupt, evil place,' the black-haired girl concluded. 'I'll just have to attend every day to make sure nobody can corrupt her. Yes. That's the perfect course of action.'

"…..Homura," Hitomi frowned. "You're….um…..you're drooling." The green-haired girl offered her a handkerchief. "Is something wrong?"
"…no. Thank you." The black-haired girl took the proffered handkerchief, dabbing at her mouth with her free hand while holding Madoka's.

'…..her hand's so soft….' Homura observed, her cheeks reddening at the thought. '…I could hold it forever…..'

"…..u-uh," Madoka squeaked. "You're…..squeezing my hand a little tight…."

END

A/N: Well, now that the stage is set, let's get on with it! Next chapter, let's do it right away, Homura Reacts to Matchmaking.

So, I hope you enjoyed that, leave your ideas, comments, criticisms, suggestions, reviews and thoughts, and I hope you have a GREAT day! Until next time!