The witch before us reeks of alcohol. I can already tell this magical girl, whoever she was, had succumbed to the perils of alcohol long, long ago. This was a witch that could have just as easily hatched much sooner as it would have hatched later. It just needed a disturbance once it matured enough.

"I have never seen this kind of witch before," Kyuubey says. "What an interesting development!"

"Be more useful to us than blabbin' on witcher usual bullshit 'n get eaten, fuckface!" Antonia shrilly yells, and before Kyuubey can react, she punts him with her left foot right at the witch's huge head protruding down from the far, far ceiling above. I can hear him call "I don't understand at all!" as his body disappears in the cavity of the witch's mouth.

"That was not necessary, Antonia. Kyuubey may know a thing or two about this witch, as we have had no prior knowledge of its kind before," I reprimand Antonia lightly.

"And I say that's bullshit. Kyuubey said himself he ain't got a clue 'bout this one, and it ain't like he's just gonna 'magically' know, eh?"

The sarcasm is strong with that one.

I look away from Antonia. One of the problems I do have is the fact that sometimes, I do rely on and trust Kyuubey's judgment and analysis a bit too much. It has never gotten me in serious danger, but as much as I do not mind Kyuubey or his intentions, Antonia does have a point in insisting that I do not listen to him all the time.

Cornelia Bacchi. What a fitting name.

I quickly reload another magazine into my MR-28 marksman rifle. By the looks of this one, I'll need the high-caliber rounds that the MR-28 provides, but this telescopic sight won't do. Also, I'd better get another grenade in my undermounted launcher, but I need time. I glance at the witch in her entirety, and she has a main head connected to a long, thin neck that stretches down from the ceiling that we cannot see. It has no hands or limbs as far as I can see.

"Antonia!" I shout out. "Can you buy me some time?"

"Yeah sure, why?"

I spy the witch's head, shaped like a Roman amphora, rise slightly. She is going to attack soon.

"I want you to distract her as much as you can! I'll set an explosive underneath her that'll destroy her in one hit!"

"Explosive?! What, you mean like tannerite that you used last time?!"

The witch starts spitting out glass bottles at us, and some of them are filled with highly flammable alcohol. Antonia and I split up to dodge the bottles, and the ground is even more soaked with alcohol. It is getting much harder to navigate this platform now, even with combat boots.

"No, not tannerite! It'll be military-grade!"

"But why a ground-based explosive? It won't even reach her, she's too high up!"

"You'll see!"

Antonia stares at me confused, but then she nods.

"I getcha! How long?"

I see the witch rearing up for another attack. "...six minutes!"

"Goddamn it, Hae Eun, you're gonna kill me one day having me buy you fuckin' time!"

But she jumps up anyway, swinging around Annie the Halberd to get Cornelia the witch's attention. As she's off doing that, I get to work.

Push forward the barrel of the M-203 undermounted grenade launcher, shake out the spent flare casing, insert another 40mm M-203 HE round, and snap the barrel shut.

Remove the 4x telescopic sight and replace it with a flip-up red dot sight.

After finishing these modifications, I take to one knee and set my sights on the witch's amphora head. I pull the trigger four times, and all four bullets hit -

- but nothing happens. They simply bounce off the amphora casing. Clearly it is made of something other than what the Romans used to make them.

Cornelia begins to turn to me after I fired those shots, but Antonia does a good job of distracting her well enough, bouncing all around Cornelia's head and whacking it all over with her halberd. I readjust my aim, and I fire another four shots above the amphora head at the neck-like structure supporting the head from the invisible ceiling from above. Still, nothing.

But this time, Cornelia seems to deem me the higher target priority and ignores Antonia's constant harassment. Instead of opening her mouth to spit out more of those bottles, I spot out of the corners of my eyes two small waves of clear, white liquid that are rising to smash into one another, and I tumble forward to dodge it in time. I roll back to the one-knee stance and put suppressive fire onto Cornelia. The witch keeps spitting out bottles at me, and I break stance and fire as I strafe left until my gun clacks empty around the same time that Antonia touches down onto the platform again. The witch screams again, and we hear hundreds of small splashes from far underneath us.

"Antonia! Get to the center! Now!"

Right as we start dashing for the center, we see those hundreds of splashes turn into hundreds of bottles, glasses, and whatever else kind of containers that are typically used to hold alcoholic beverages. Antonia and I both slide as soon as those bottles begin flying towards us, and right as our boots smack into each other to stop our slides, I create a shell of an IAV Stryker tank that plops down right over us to shield us from the incoming projectiles.

"Whew, damn that was close," Antonia breathes a sigh of relief that is quickly drowned out by the patter of aluminum cans, breaking glass, and other such materials. "Thank God for your unbelievably ridiculous power, Hae Eun."

"It is not all-powerful," I tell her, stretching my hand that I used to call down the Stryker. I made it so that it has no interior. "Besides that, the witch is directly above us now, no?"

"Uh, yeah, she should be. Her head was right above the center of this platform, 'n you told us to get to the middle."

"Okay, then this is what I will do." I crawl to the middle of the tank and put my hands together, palms down. "I will make a pile of explosives here. They will fire upwards to hit the witch from below. Hopefully this will punch a hole through the bottom."

"And what 'bout me?"

"Go to the edge of the platform and wait for effects. If -"

"Fuck that shit!"

Her yell stops me dead.

"You're tellin' me that yer gonna take a hit from the collateral damage from blastin' off explosives! ? And what kinda explosives, tannerite? !"

"No, not tannerite. ARGES mines."

"And how many?"

"Ten."

As soon as I say the number, ten ARGES mine systems flash into view.

"Goddamn it - look, Hae Eun, I'm tellin' ya, don't do th-"

"Antonia!"

This time, she shuts up.

"Antonia, please. Do as I say. If you stay here with me, because you are a lot taller than I, you'll be much more likely to get hurt from the collateral."

Do not get me wrong. I hold Antonia very close to my heart, she being my close friend and housemate and all. I understand that she is only trying to act out of best intentions for me, and I feel a tug at my heart whenever I make a decision like this. I empathize with Antonia's desire to keep me safe, her willingness to get hurt in my stead so that I myself do not take any damage. But at the same time, I wish to teach her the value of trust. Coming from a military background, coming from a lifetime's worth of work that more often than not, given my young age, relied on cooperation and sheer trust that my allies would complete their respective assignments successfully, I learned that trust is very often the one factor that makes or breaks a plan of action, especially those that involve a considerable degree of risk. I know that Antonia possibly cares for me than just a best friend would, but she needs to learn to trust me not only as a friend, but also as a comrade and her ally in combat.

Antonia starts to open her mouth to protest, but I glare at her. She finally relents.

"Fine, fine, fuckin' damn it. Just don't get hurt, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll try not to. Now go!"

The Stryker dissipates, and Antonia bolts for the edge of the platform, sliding once again. I get out a remote detonator and push the big red button like they always do in the movies as I start running as well.

The ARGES mines burst, sending ten missiles upwards to the underside of the amphora head. A few of the missiles punch a messy hole through the bottom, and the rest of the warheads bounce off one another and explode all about the interior, causing the witch's head to form dangerous cracks and splits. However, some of the amphora pieces and mine shrapnel come showering down right on top of me, and one of the amphora pieces gets a cut on my left tibialis anterior. I cry out in surprise and lose balance, but I break my fall and slide away on the slippery platform.

"Hae Eun!" I hear Antonia react sharply to my scream of pain, but once I slide to a stop, I wave at her that I'm still okay. The cut is not deep enough to cause nerve or tendon damage, only a bit of bleeding.

"Hae Eun, put some of the shit on it! It'll hurt, but it'll help!" Oh right, I forgot that we're virtually standing on a thin but tangible film of alcohol. I take a deep breath, grit my teeth, and gasp as I smack my hand against my injury. The searing flame of the alcohol killing the bacteria and whatnot on my cut immolates my entire leg, and it's all I can do to make myself not groan in pain. Antonia can deal with pain very well - she works out everyday when she is not fighting, and I was trained to sustain as little physical harm as possible, making me much more prone to the debilitating effects of pain. But alcohol, at the end of the day, is still a disinfectant, no matter how low the alcohol content. It smells like vodka, so it should do the trick.

In the meantime, while I was treating my injury with a makeshift method, Antonia had split her halberd in half and thrown Annie at the witch, Cornelia. Annie shapeshifts into a lizard-like creature that kind of resembles the Hydralisk from Starcraft Brood War. It digs its scythes into the sides of the already-cracked amphora, and it bashes its bladed head against it as well. Antonia also jumps up again and lodges her chainsaw blade into a crack on the surface, and the chainsaw teeth rev up and chip away. As Cornelia is occupied with trying to get Antonia off with waves upon waves of more alcohol and bottles and whatnot, I close my eyes to stabilize my breathing.

My hands know the meaning of this. Reflexively, they stretch out, and another rifle drops into my hands.

Accuracy International AS-50.

I open my eyes again and gaze my eyes upon the witch.

Not the head.

But the neck.

I stare at it for ninety seconds.

.50 BMG caliber, reduces the time necessary to execute.

Estimated distance, 80 meters.

I raise my sniper rifle and use my right knee as an elbow rest. The sniper scope settles over my target.

I hear Antonia yell out shrilly, "Annie, get off, get off! She's gonna do it!"

I inhale, and the scope freezes exactly where I want it to. I whisper...

"True Strike."

The moment I squeeze the trigger, the only thing I feel is not the recoil of the huge bullet leaving the chamber, not the slippery sensation of the alcohol-lathered platform floor, not the strain and sharp pain of my cut wound.

The only thing I experience is the sensation of joy that washes over me as the .50 caliber bullet sinks into my designated target. It is as if I can experience my victim's pain and suffering.

And to me, it is the most uplifting feeling in the world.

My shot completely severs the head from the neck, and screaming indistinguishably, the amphora head falls to the ground and shatters into an undefinable amount of pieces and shards.

The battle is over. We have won.

The Grief Seed lies in the center of the platform, peering out cautiously out of the rubble of the broken amphora pieces. I relax, sighing as my AS-50 disappears. It would have been an ordinary fight, but my wound is sapping much of my energy. That was sloppy of me, to take an injury like that. I should take care not to do that next time.

"Hae Eun!" Antonia calling out my name snaps me back to focus again, and I open my eyes to see her running over to me, picking up the Grief Seed as she comes to me. "Hehe, you did great today too! Are you okay here?" She takes a good look at my cut on the back of my left leg. "Yeah, it ain't bad. We can just wrap it up, and it'll be gone by tomorrow morning. Here's your prize!"

She offers me the Grief Seed. I lower my head.

"You already know I do not require the Grief Seeds. Why offer them to me all the time?"

"Because you're the one who needs them more."

I cannot deny that.

"...but you could use them to further your own magical capacities. I already have enough. My power is more than enough to take care of everything."

Antonia gives me a scowl. "And yer sayin' that jus' 'cause you never need Grief Seeds?"

"It is more that I cannot. I have already explained this."

"But you've never even once tried. At least you can try and see what happens if you use them!"

"I would prefer not to. My own energy is more than enough."

My friend sighs. "And that's exactly why I'm worried. You can't fight forever off your emotions alone, you do realize? In fact, you're the one who taught me that!"

I close my eyes. "Indeed, I was. But that was because you could be saved from such advice. I have no need for such advice, because I am beyond help."

"Yeah, yeah, whateva," she yaps, and she offers me a hand. "C'mon, get up. We need ta get the fuck outta here."

I stare at the hand that is offering to help me up. Before I met Antonia, the idea of assistance was very foreign to me. I usually operated alone, I usually worked alone. Everything I did was usually by myself. Even though I did say that knowing to trust one's allies and teammates was a crucial part of teamwork, my own experiences make me appear a hypocrite. Appa was the only one I trusted before his death. But Antonia revived that sense of trust within me.

I take it, and Antonia helps me up. "You okay? Can you walk?"

I nod and limp awkwardly to the center of the platform. "The exit is above us. We just need to take the waterfall back, if it was still there."

Antonia stops me. "But, like, wasn't this entire platform part of the witch too? Why'd we get her Grief Seed even though we didn't kill every part of 'er?"

"The head and neck of the witch were her vital points."

"I guess...but I'd prefer if we wrecked everything, y'know?"

I nod in agreement. "Brace yourself," I warn, and I raise my arms. The entire platform is now set with breach charges, and I set them all off simultaneously. The successive explosions shatter the platform completely apart, and Antonia and I find ourselves in free fall for a split second before I make an AV-8A Harrier VTOL fighter jet for us to land on. Antonia whistles as the pieces fall into the corrosive alcohol lake below.

"Let's go home," I say.

I am a special Magical Girl. My power may seem special enough, but that is not why I am a special Magical Girl.

By nature, Magical Girls expend magical energy that sustain their powers and existences as Magical Girls. To restock and resupply on said magical energy, they require the artifacts left behind by witches upon their defeat, called Grief Seeds. The despair and curses and negative emotion that fuel the Grief Seeds is used to replenish lost magical energy in Magical Girls, and they can also be used to cleanse the dirtied Soul Gems of Magical Girls who are losing their wills to fight and exist as Magical Girls. That is why Grief Seeds are coveted, because if one Magical Girl has infinite access to them, then she, theoretically speaking, has infinite power.

I deviate from this norm. The circumstances that surrounded the time of my contract sealing caused my existence as a Magical Girl to break off from the normal line of Magical Girls. The vast majority of Magical Girls, because they are lured by the fantastical nature of the idea of "magical girls" and the temptation of a single, omnipotent wish, usually enter Magical Girlhood with high hopes and high spirits, thus requiring the negative emotions that witches leave behind in the form of Grief Seeds to sustain their magical energy. However, at the time that I first formed my contract, I was vengeful already. Filled with the sadness and anger that I harbored in my heart from Appa's assassination, compounded with the rage and self-hatred I inflicted upon myself for suddenly losing my precious eyesight all from being a cursed albino, I became a Magical Girl who is completely self-sufficient. I regenerate my own magical energy without the help of Grief Seeds. The only limiter that my power is restrained by is my hair, my disgustingly white hair that bleeds depending on the degree of my power usage.

I have yet to see what my exact limit is, though I have a good idea what it is.

I have never seen what happens when I use a Grief Seed. Because of my naturally regenerating energy supply that my own negative emotions produce for me on a daily basis, I naturally never needed them. I usually gave them to Kyuubey, since he had better uses for them than I. My power comes directly from my emotions alone. My body may get tired, yes, but so long as my Soul Gem remains safe, I can fight indefinitely.

I shudder to think what will happen if I call upon the energy of a Grief Seed.

We reach home. The fight has certainly put me in the mood to go to sleep, even though typically I would stay up for much longer than this. It is only eleven in the evening.

Antonia and I take a bath together. At first, when Antonia and I first started living together, I was very hesitant against the idea of showering together, but eventually I gave in to Antonia's constant requests. Now, I actually look forward to taking baths together. They are extremely relaxing. Antonia bathes my white hair to get the blood off, and I rub Kyuubey's ears affectionately. He came back to us in another Incubator vessel after we emerged from the witch's portal.

Part of the reason is because apparently, according to Kyuubey, if two Magical Girls harbor strong emotions for one another, it creates what he calls a "power resonance", a phenomenon that greatly increases attack performance and constitution. Although Kyuubey's kind is incapable of comprehending human emotion, at least he understands that it is an ingrained part of human nature, and that it has, as far as Magical Girls are concerned, a concrete use. Naturally, it came as a huge surprise to him when he first sensed such resonances between us.

Admittedly, this does mean that Antonia and I share more than just a best-friends-for-life relationship. It goes a little beyond that, but not too much. I do not remember when exactly we started regarding one another as more than just friends and comrades. And even more strangely, I am fine with this. I suppose I have come to appreciate Antonia's power and assistance too much to view her as a mere comrade in battle.

But I think the bigger reason for this is because now, both my mind and heart see her as a sister, a family member. As I have mentioned before, Appa was my only family member before his death. I lived for a few years without anyone to call "family" before I saved Antonia. Looking back, those were the worst years of my life. Even if my childhood was stained with the blood of my actions as Appa's secret operative, I always had Appa to return to at the end of each day, cuddling up with him in his bed and saying "Sa-rang-hae-yo, Appa". Now, in my heart, Antonia has filled the void that the death of Appa left behind. For that reason, I am eternally grateful to her. I do firmly believe that without her, I may have succumbed to witchdom a long time ago, after becoming consumed by my own self-hatred and anguish.

Afterwards, we brush our teeth and get ready for bed. Antonia asks me if she could spend the night with me in my room, and I nod. We jump in bed together, and I turn of the lamp on the desk next to my canopy bed. I snuggle up to Antonia as I did before with Appa, and Antonia just giggles at my childishness.

"What?" I ask her, wondering why she is laughing. "I've always done this."

"Well, no, it's not that, just..."

"Just?"

"Ah, never mind. You're too cute, Hae Eun."

She hugs me back. Her warmth is overwhelming. I feel like she is absorbing the cold from my frozen heart. We lay together like that for a good few minutes in the dark.

"Hae Eun?"

"...yeah, what?"

"...I'm...I ain't trying to start shit here, but..."

"Yeah?"

"Why do you always fight in a way that puts you in the line of fire?"

"...what do you mean?"

"Oh c'mon, Hae Eun, don't gimme that bullshit. You know what I mean; why are you always the one getting hurt?"

My hand reflexively feels the white tape bandage over my cut behind my left leg. I do not say anything.

"Like, seriously. I'd much rather see us take longer to kill a witch than to see you get hurt almost every time we do fight one of those things. How'd you even last without me?"

"...I was a lot more careful."

"Careful? So why aren't you careful now?"

"Because I feel that I can afford to take risks that will get me hurt but will ensure a higher rate of success against the witches."

"Because I'm around?"

I nod. Antonia does not speak for another minute.

"I guess you've depended on me a lot more than I thought."

"Because you're fighting with me, I feel like I can put a lot more effort in my fights. I'm sorry if my way of fighting makes you feel like you can't do much for me, but you help me a lot more than you might think, Antonia. You just being there for me...I can't thank you enough."

It is very unlike me to say words like this. But it's Antonia I'm talking to, so it's okay.

"Geez..." she hugs me harder and plants an affectionate kiss on my forehead. "If you put it that way, how can I even get mad at that...I just don't want to see you getting hurt, either, even if it's just a cut or two."

"I'll try to be more careful."

"You always say that."

"I know."

She just chuckles.