PLEASE SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR MOST DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE & CHARACTER PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Three Days Later – 3:35 PM
The past couple of days hadn't been too eventful. While the five local girls continued their training (so far they had all improved their physical reinforcement magic, boosting their strength and speed, and Madoka had started on simple element manipulation), there had been three Witch attacks, which were quickly dealt with by Sora, Sonic, and Optimus, who all dispatched their monstrous foes with little difficulty. Kirika Miki had soon found herself mothering Kyōko, who couldn't bring herself to object to it; meanwhile, Homura had become quite close with Junko Kaname, very gradually letting her barriers down around her, while the woman in question and her husband were also giving Mami the chance to stop worrying about staying strong for everyone else's sake and let herself act her age and seek comfort with them.
Kyōsuke had been discharged from the hospital just yesterday; Sayaka had been part of the group of volunteer escorts. Afterward, Kaidan had swung by to check up on the family. At Sayaka's request, the Kamijō family had not yet been informed of the Puella Magi's identities; Sayaka wanted to tell him herself, in a way and at a time of her choosing. She had been spending quite a bit of time with him, though, just hanging out together. Also, Tsunade was almost done with giving Thane his curative treatments; already he could breathe easier than he could in years, and had more energy and stamina.
Yesterday, Homura had disappeared for several hours, following Evangeline and Negi across the dimensions, to Mahora and into Eva's Resort. Later that day, they'd returned, with Homura looking tired but confident; when the others asked how she was, only Eva and Negi noticed the briefest flicker of familiar runes/symbols on her hand and arm when she replied she was fine. Homura had also petitioned Rock Lee to teach her how to improve her speed, and he'd been happy to oblige. Meanwhile, Setsuna and Sasuke had started helping Sayaka with her sword skills (to the Konoha group's surprise that Sasuke had the patience to teach anyone anything).
At the moment, several people were gathered at the park, waiting for the arrival of reinforcements promised by the higher-ups. They hadn't said who was coming, so speculation ran wild through everyone's heads.
"I wonder who they're sending this time…" Aqua said.
Suddenly, there was a minor disturbance in space-time nearby, drawing everyone's attention as the air seemed to flicker with orange, dark-blue, and white. After about a second of this, two figures appeared, the shorter one removing his hand from the taller's shoulder with an annoyed expression while the taller removed his index and middle fingers from his forehead. Upon recognizing the two, many of the present DDF members felt astonished awe. These two particular men were from a universe that had a fictional counterpart in nearly all realms, and even those who hadn't seen it or were from the few realms that didn't have it had watched the recorded 'footage' regarding their universe. Still, the fact remained that many of the present group were utterly starstruck at being in the presence of two of the most famous heroes in anime history.
"That took a fair bit longer than usual, Kakarot" the shorter one said with an ever-present scowl.
"Sorry, Vegeta" the taller one replied with a sheepish grin. "It was a pretty long trip in cross-dimensional terms, so even my Instant Transmission wasn't quite instant."
Aqua had to catch Sayaka as she tilted backward, the younger blue-haired girl feeling a little overwhelmed. Marie, Negi, and Mana K. weren't faring much better, the three of them almost trembling with excitement, stars in little Negi's eyes. As the two Saiyans walked up to the group, it took the trio all they had to hold it together.
"It's an honor to meet the two of you" Teana said to them.
"Same here" Goku replied. "We've seen a lot of what you guys can do, and some of it's pretty darn impressive. That Susanō of yours and Sasuke's could probably tank a Super Saiyan's attacks."
"For a while, at least" Vegeta added.
"S-So you're going to be helping us here, too?" Marie asked.
"Not all the time, unfortunately" Vegeta replied. "We're going to be popping in & out, handling issues on other worlds, but we'll swing by here periodically, and we'll assist whenever we're here."
At this point, Team 7 arrived.
"Hey guys!" Naruto said. "What'd we… miss…?"
Two famously powerful ki-using heroes met for the first time, staring at each other in silence for several seconds. Finally, Naruto spoke:
"I'll teach you the Rasengan if you teach me the Kamehameha."
"Deal" Goku replied, as the two shook hands. "Now let us solidify the deal-making with a humongous meal."
"I'm game for that."
Sasuke and Vegeta let out simultaneous sighs and facepalms. Then they turned to each other.
"Gallick Gun for Chidori?" Vegeta asked.
"Deal" Sasuke replied.
-SCENE BREAK-
Same Day – 4:30 PM
A dimension-shift barrier had been erected over nearly the entirety of Mitakihara – not because of any single über-powerful enemy, but rather a swarm of 'minor' enemies popping up all over the place. It was mostly Demons, with some Unversed and a handful of Heartless. The DDF forces on hand scrambled, dividing into groups so as to deal with the dark entities, which had now been forcefully isolated from the mundanes. As the fight kicked into gear, a transmission rang out:
"Command to Prime, we've detected a Cybertronian energy signature that just entered the area through a transwarp rift. We cannot identify it."
"There weren't any other Autobots scheduled to cross over" Optimus Prime replied as he, in truck form, bulldozed through a pack of Unversed on the way to his assigned combat zone. "Perhaps a Decepticon found a way through. Tell everyone to be on the lookout."
As the battle-composed-of-multiple-small-battles raged, a pair of M808 Scorpion tanks rolled out from a drop-off point. They started rolling down a main street, and as they progressed a third Scorpion joined them at an intersection. A pack of Type-Es up ahead were blown to bits by a 90mm explosive shell from Scorpion #3, while S#1's machine gun mowed down the accompanying Type-Gs. The trio of tanks hung a right around a mall, the marines manning their machineguns taking out a pack of Scrappers.
As they passed through a small business area, something unexpected emerged from up ahead: a Witch. Seeing as it looked identical to the Witch that Sonic had killed two days ago, that meant this was a Familiar that had somehow escaped the battle and fed off enough human life-force to transform into a copy of its progenitor. However, in this situation it was completely outgunned; three cannon shots, one from each Scorpion, brought it down before it could do anything, and the three tanks continued heading for their objective.
Soon the trio of tanks reached a large intersection, and each of them went down one of the three paths (other than the one they came from). Scorpion #3 rolled on straight, heading for the area where Optimus, Marie, Subaru, and Mami were leading a group of soldiers in mowing down Unversed. The tank approached the battle-zone, its cannon blowing away clusters of Unversed. The marine manning the machinegun hopped out, adding his DMR's fire to the cause. Soon, the area was clear.
"Sir," Charon reported, "there is something interesting about that Scorpion."
"And what would that be?" Marie asked her Device.
"According to scans, it does not have a driver."
No sooner had everyone in earshot processed this, than the tank began to shift, parts moving and transforming with a metallic sound of five climbing 'notes'. Within several seconds, the 'tank' had assumed the form of a Cybertronian standing at least 40 feet tall, his tank-form's gun sticking out over his right shoulder. His glowing blue optics focused on the Autobot leader present.
"Hey, Optimus. Sorry it took me so long to find you, sir."
Behind his faceplate, Optimus smiled. "Good to see you again, Warpath. We could use your firepower."
"As always, huh?" Warpath grinned. "Ratchet gave me the low-down on everything before I came here. Sounds like we're mixed up in something pretty big, sir."
"As is usual for us, old friend."
"Optimus," Ironhide radioed, "have you found out anything about that Cybertronian signal?"
"Is that you, Ironhide?" Warpath asked. "Still kickin', huh?"
"Warpath! Ha! I was wondering when you'd show up! Good to hear from you!"
"Likewise, ya trigger-happy loon."
"Hey, I'm not the one who took out that bridge by firing an artillery shell to take out a lone Decepticon spy-drone clinging to the support."
"And took down the convoy of cloaked 'Cons trying to sneak across it, don't forget that part. And what about you? Blown any more planets up?"
"Oh, come on! That was one planet, it was uninhabitable, and it was about to blow up on its own anyway!"
"Right. Need any help?"
"Nah, we're good – just on mop-up duty right now. I'll meet you on the ship; we'll swap stories, like old times."
"Looking forward to it, Iron. See you there."
-SCENE BREAK-
City Central Park (Dimension-Shifted)
25 Minutes Later
Most of the personnel had gathered here after finishing their assigned clear-out tasks. A few teams were still out & about, sending back progress reports now and then. The Local Five and the Harmony Element bearers were present, as were Sigma Team, Teana, Sarah, Ahsoka, Trixie, Erio & Caro, Zaeed, Jacob, and a handful of soldiers.
"We're getting a communiqués from Marie's group" Ahsoka said, referring to the team composed of Marie, Erika & Timmy, Sonic, and Sakura.
"Patch 'em through" Teana replied.
A holoscreen appeared showing Marie with her usual grin, the background behind her looking rather warped and bizarre and multi-colored, with sounds of light combat in the background.
"We found a Witch!" she said with an exaggerated British accent. "May we burn her?"
There was a quiet 'snerk' from Homura, who was hiding a grin with her hand and trembling with suppressed giggles. Zaeed chuckled, too, while a lot of the others just looked confused. Sarah walked up to the holoscreen, grinning.
"Does she weigh the same as a duck?" she asked.
"Uhhhh… Maybe?"
"Go ahead then!"
"Yes'm!"
The transmission cut. After a few seconds, Trixie turned to Teana.
"Is this some kind of human pop-culture reference?"
Teana raised her finger and opened her mouth to answer, but said nothing, and after a few seconds she turned to Mami.
"Is it some kind of Earth pop-culture reference?"
Mami raised her finger and opened her mouth to answer… and then turned to Sarah.
"Is it some kind of American pop-culture reference?"
"British, actually" Zaeed replied.
He then pulled up his Omnitool, enlarging the ensuing holoscreen and playing a certain musical vid-clip.
"Camelot!" "Camelot!" "Camelot!" "It's only a model." "Shh!"
-3 Minutes Later-
"On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It is a silly place."
As the clip ended, expressions of bewilderment were on the faces of some of the unfamiliar.
"What" Trixie started.
"the" Ahsoka continued.
"fuck?" Jacob finished.
Pinkie Pie giggled. "I liked it! I wanna find this movie and watch the whole thing!"
Homura, meanwhile, was still blushing a little; even though she'd been quiet and toward the back of the group, out of people's range of attention, Madoka had caught her quietly singing along under her breath with a rare grin on her face. The other girl looked to her and giggled lightly, causing her blush to deepen a bit.
-SCENE BREAK-
Miki Residence
Next Day – 11:15 AM
"Ha! Got ya again!"
Kyōko celebrated her newest victory against Sayaka on the latter's Super Smash Bros. game; the two were currently at 7 to 5, in Kyōko's favor, and the first to score 10 victories was the overall winner. And the characters and stages had to be Random-Selected, for a little extra challenge. Madoka, Mami, and Homura were present as spectators, as were Sora and Twilight Sparkle.
"I wonder what it would be like if I were in this game…" the Keyblade-wielder murmured. "Like, what would my moves be?"
"I think we should take another 15-minute break" Sayaka said.
"Alright, alright" Kyōko replied.
Sayaka's mother walked in, this being her day off work, and set a platter of snacks down on the table; the girls quickly went for them. As they ate, Sayaka pulled out her Soul Gem, just staring at the beautiful little shiny blue stone held in a gold frame. After a few seconds, Mami followed suit, holding it up to the light coming through the opening window, making it sparkle. Sayaka reached over to Kyōko, sticking her hand in the redhead's pocket.
"Where's your gem, Kyōko?" she asked.
"Eh, I gave it to Takamachi-san when she left a couple minutes ago; she was talking with someone and then she was gonna take it up to the Starshot to examine it."
"What?!"
Everyone turned to Homura, who had made the very uncharacteristic outburst.
"You can't do that!" she said. "You have to keep your Soul Gem within 100 meters of your body or-"
"What?" Kyōko interrupted. "Why are you freaking out so much? What's so impor-"
She stopped mid-sentence, the light leaving her eyes, and she fell over, going still. Immediately everyone rushed over, concerned.
"This can't be…" Twilight murmured as she ran a Scanning Spell. "H-Her heart and brain functions are… completely stopped."
"S-She's…" Mami stammered in disbelief and horror. "She's dead?"
Homura, meanwhile, shouted out telepathically so loudly that everyone within 500 meters 'heard' it. "Takamachi! Bring Kyōko's Soul Gem back here right now!"
In a manner of seconds, Nanoha flew in through the open window. She gasped as she saw Kyōko lying still and lifeless.
"Give it!" Homura shouted. "Give it, give it! Hurry!"
Nanoha quickly handed the gold-framed crimson gem over to Homura, who placed it in Kyōko's hand. Within seconds, the redhead stirred, groaning lightly.
"Why am I on the floor?" she asked. "And why are you all staring at me?"
"Y-You…" Twilight stammered. "You were dead… The second Nanoha got 100 meters away from you, you dropped dead. And when Homura touched your Soul Gem to your body, you came back to life instantly like nothing was wrong…"
Kyōko now looked visibly shaken. "What?" she squeaked out.
"What the hell's going on here?" Sayaka said in a ragged whisper.
Sora gently grabbed the crimson gem, closing his eyes in concentration for a few seconds. His eyes snapped open.
"No way…" he said. "This gem… It's her Heart."
"B-But…" Mami replied, looking quite shaken. "T-That means… I mean, what you guys call the Heart is what most mundanes call the… s-soul…"
"That is exactly right."
Everyone startled, turning to see Kyubey sitting on the windowsill.
"What are you talking about?" Kyōko asked in a worryingly low tone. "Are you saying that… this gem is… me?"
"Yes" the enigmatic little being replied. "Because your bodies of flesh are fragile and fall apart too easily, even a small fight can leave you broken. In that situation, you'd be useless, and there would be no way you could win. That's why we – my people – decided to extract your souls and transfer them into the Soul Gems. If you become the Soul Gem, then it'd be a lot easier to utilize your magical power, and even if your bodies were destroyed, we could use magic to repair them. This would allow you to plunge into battle without even the slightest hesitation. Don't you think this presents you with nothing but advantages? As long as the Soul Gem remains unharmed, you Puella Magi are invincible. It's magnificent, isn't it?"
"You're lying!-!"
Mami's voice, normally so calm and controlled, was rough and filled with emotion. She was trembling, holding her Soul Gem.
"This… This thing is me? That can't be true! You've got to be lying! This… This is a just a tool for using magic! This… Why? …This thing is me?!"
"Allow me to demonstrate" Kyubey said as he hopped over to Sayaka's Soul Gem.
"Sayaka, say that you've been impaled by a spear. How much pain do you think you could take before you simply went into shock?"
He touched his paw to Sayaka's Soul Gem, which glowed faintly. Sayaka cried out, gripping both arms over her stomach as she dropped to the floor, trembling. He twisted his paw a little, and she let out a loud, strangled cry, writhing in pain.
"Sayaka!" Kirika frantically knelt down by her daughter, holding her close as she whimpered and tried to gasp.
"Stop it!" Madoka shouted. "Stop it now, Kyubey!"
Kyubey removed his paw from the Soul Gem, and the pain assailing Sayaka faded away near-instantly.
"Have you girls not once thought something strange was going on?" he said. "You've been slammed into walls, fallen from high places, taken damage that would kill normal humans, and come out totally unscathed. And those injuries you took did not cause nearly as much pain as they would have. This is because your bodies and souls are no longer fully connected. With time and the proper technique, you could even completely shut down all of your body's pain receptors… though this would cause a significant decrease in reaction time, so I would not recommend it."
"Why…?" Kyōko said, anger building in her voice. "Why would you do this to us?!"
"…I really don't understand you humans. Why do you get so worked up over where your soul is? There's all this anger and resentment just because we gave your souls a tangible form. You don't even believe in the existence of things such as "souls" half the time. Besides, it's not like you truly understand what they are, anyway."
"W-We're… zombies…" Sayaka whimpered out.
"Incorrect. A more accurate translation in human terms would be 'lich', not 'zombie'."
"This matter of not even being human any longer once we become Puella Magi…" Mami said, distraught. "Why didn't you just tell us this from the start?"
"My request had always been "Please become a magical girl", right? The one who mistakenly assumed that being a magical girl still equated to being human was you, was it not? Besides, Tomoe Mami, had you not decided to become a magical girl, you would have died with the rest of your family anyway, right? Humans eventually pass away regardless of any outside interference, so having the chance to become a magical girl is quite lucky, I'd say. Randomly dying for no particular reason is so wasteful. On the other hand, besides the times you're fighting witches, your life as a Puella Magi is no different from being a normal human, don't you think?"
"You turned us into monsters!" Sayaka shouted.
"I made it so you could fight more effectively. It is a practical, logical act, and I cannot understand why so many beings get so upset about it."
"How can you say that?!" Twilight said. "Do you even have feelings?!"
"Of course not."
This was another little bombshell for the Puellae.
"Among my people, emotions are considered a mental illness. To us, every human is born insane. But your insanity, your emotions, can somehow generate extraordinary power that we cannot. It is unfortunate that your 'emotions' overpower your logic more often than not, though; I do not desire to know what would happen to my people if we lived that way. Well, I have other things that I must attend to, so I shall be leaving now. Oh, and one more important tidbit: if a Puella Magi's Soul Gem is destroyed, she dies instantly. Keep that in mind when you fight."
The little white being vanished into thin air, leaving an eerily quiet room.
"…We are going to cast every long-term protection spell known to magic on these gems" Twilight said after a long silence.
"…I'm so stupid…" Mami trembled. "I've been fighting for others… from a sense of responsibility… I've been putting on airs… letting it all go to my head… all of it. And all this time, I've… been turned into…" She sobbed. "I'm such… an idiot…"
"No" Sora replied, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It doesn't matter what form your Heart is in, Mami. The desire to help and protect people… No matter what, those feelings are a part of your Heart, a part of you. That's not affected by where your Heart is located in relation to your body; you're still a gentle, kind-hearted, strong-willed girl who uses her gifts to help protect the world. You're still you, and nothing that little trickster says or does can take that away from you."
Mami looked up at Sora, and despite everything she found a small, genuine smile coming to her face as his words sank in, giving her strength. "Thank you…" she said.
"…Homura-chan…" Madoka said. "You knew already, didn't you?"
The others turned to Homura, who had her head bowed. "In the previous groups I've worked with," Homura said, "nobody ever believed me when I tried to tell them the truth. The last group accused me of trying to cause dissent and break them up. And now they're all dead except for me. I didn't want that to happen again, so I kept quiet."
"Don't you trust us?" Madoka asked.
"I do. But not all of you fully trust me. No-one ever does…"
Mami and Sayaka felt pangs of guilt over their old suspicion of the black-haired girl.
But then Homura startled a little as she felt Madoka's gentle hand grasp hers. "I do" the pink-haired girl said with a warm smile. "I don't know how to put why I do in words, but… I trust you."
Homura made a little smile. "Thank you…" she whispered.
"Alert" Raising Heart chimed. "Unversed activity detected in the residential sector."
There was a flash of blue and a blur of movement as Sayaka transformed and leapt out the open window, roof-hopping through the area with speed, headed for the trouble area.
"Sayaka!" her mother called out.
"It's alright" Nanoha said. "She probably needs to cool her head a little, distract herself with some low-level monster-slaying. Now if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to go spread the word of what we've learned here, so everyone knows what we're dealing with."
-SCENE BREAK-
Kyōsuke backed away on still-unsteady legs, as the considerably large pack of Floods and Scrappers approached him. Apparently, they had detected his latent magical potential just like the Heartless at the hospital. But this time, it didn't look like there were any dimension-hopping heroes around to help him. He gripped one of his crutches and wielded it like a club; if he was going down, he'd be taking these things with him.
A quartet of Scrappers charged and leapt… when suddenly, a blur of motion swept in, and the four Unversed fell to the ground in cleanly-cut halves, dissipating soon after. The person responsible leapt into the fray, using her sword to cut the Unversed down quickly, her white cape and blue hair fluttering in the breeze. …And as she fought, Kyōsuke recognized her very quickly, feeling shock as he remembered the mention that there were magical girls native to this world. She stood, panting lightly amongst the now-emptied battlefield.
"S… Sayaka?"
She turned to him, a forced smile on her face. "A-Are you alright, Kyōsuke?"
"Yeah… When they rescued me, they did mention there were magical girls already here on this Earth."
"I became one the night of that day. I'm the group rookie, more or less."
He smiled. "This is so cool. I always knew you were the 'shining heroine of justice' type. To know you're out there helping people…"
She turned away from him and sobbed. His expression quickly changed to concern.
"Sayaka? …What's wrong?"
"Kyōsuke…" she whimpered out, trying to keep her tone level. "I… I fell in love with you a few years ago, you know. And it's only gotten stronger and deeper since then. That's why I was… a-always hanging out with you, always visiting you at the hospital. …I love you…"
His eyes widened, and a faint blush appeared on his cheeks.
"The… To become a Puella Magi, this world's form of magical girl, I m… made a contract with Kyubey, a little pink and white cat-bunny thing. He looks just like what you'd expect from a typical magical-girl show mascot. When you forge a contract, you get a shiny little thing called a Soul Gem; it acts as a transformation trinket, upon other things. But… A-About 15 minutes ago, w-we were all at my house – me, the three other Puella Magi, and Madoka who's in training but hasn't forged a Contract yet. Kyōko-san had g-given her Soul Gem to Takamachi to take up to the ship in orbit for study. And… w-when it got 100 meters away from her… she dropped dead. And when Takamachi rushed back, Kyōko-san came back to life the second her Soul Gem touched her. Kyubey… H-He…"
She turned to face him, and he saw tears streaming down her face.
"He ripped out our souls! The 'Soul Gem' isn't just a fancy name! It's our soul! When he forges the contract, he rips it out of your body and turns it into a shiny stone! He never told us! He never told any of us about that! H-He says it's for 'convenience', so we can fight without worrying about taking damage; because it turns out his people don't have emotions or empathy so they can't understand they're robbing us of our humanity!" She concentrated, and the little blue gem appeared in her hand. "This is me! This… This thing talking to you is j-just a meat-puppet! He turned us all into zombies! He never told us he did this to us! And he doesn't care! His people don't even have emotions, so he can't care! He touched my Gem and made me feel the pain of being impaled through the chest just to prove a fucking point!
"I… K-Kyōsuke, I love you so, so much… But I can't! I can't have you; I don't have the right! You can't love someone who's already dead! I… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"
She turned and began walking away.
"W-Wait! Sayaka!"
She flash-stepped away, roof-hopping as quick as she could, tears streaming from her eyes as she went. Kyōsuke leaned there against the wall, in shock. His heart ached from seeing the girl who… who loved him suffering like that. Unbidden, memories of the time they'd shared, the things they'd done together, rushed through his mind, as did the odd feelings he'd felt recently whenever he was with her.
"I…" he murmured. "I really have been a fool… Sayaka… I'm so sorry I never noticed…"
After several minutes of thought and reflection, he came to a decision. He got up, a determined look on his face, and his search began.
-SCENE BREAK-
90 Minutes Later
"Any sign of her yet?"
"Unfortunately, no. Not yet."
Sayaka had not returned after slaying the Unversed. She was actively blocking all attempts to contact or locate her telepathically. Now, several DDF volunteers were combing the city for any signs of her, forewarned with the knowledge that she was likely not in the best of places mentally right now. The other Puella Magi were, of course, aiding in the search, while Kirika Miki and Madoka waited at an old warehouse that had been transformed into a 'small' groundside base for the visiting realm-hopping coalition, its secrecy protected by the exterior being totally unmodified, and Vetus-system perception inhibition magic fields set up around the locale that would deter mundanes not in the know.
"Wait, scanners just detected something. …Uh-oh."
"Did you find her?" Kirika asked.
"No" the technician replied. "But a Witch just manifested in the industrial sector."
Witch's Domain
Sayaka kneeled, panting for breath as she gripped her sword. In this bizarre realm, where everyone was in silhouettes & shadows, and the sky was white with shifting light-grey symbols, the Witch knelt in a praying position at the base of a red statue of sorts. The Witch's Familiars, long tentacles tipped by dragon/snake heads with mouths full of sharp fangs, wavered through the air between her and the Witch. In her emotionally distraught state, Sayaka was not fighting at her best; already, several tears marred her costume, while wounds bled here & there.
She gritted her teeth, gripped her sword, and charged again. Again the snake-like Familiars rose to block her and attack, but she hacked her way through them, ignoring the hits they dealt as she rushed at the Witch. She neared the Witch, sword raised to decapitate it, but a thick tree branch suddenly shot out from the Witch's back, slamming into Sayaka and sending her flying back. The Familiars struck at her as she fell, and she barely managed to regain enough control to land on her feet.
Then the snake-like beings attacked her en masse from several directions, overwhelming her defenses; she cried out in surprise and pain as she was tossed about by their tackles that hit like heavy punches. They watched and waited as she weakly struggled to her feet, panting. She gazed up at them as they reared back, preparing to hit her from every direction at once… and her grip on her sword loosened.
'This is it…' she thought. 'I can't win like this. I'm not good enough. …What does it matter? I'm already dead anyway.' She closed her eyes and waited. 'Sorry, Madoka… I did my best…'
The Familiars rushed in, striking with fangs bared… and a burst of power erupted, blowing them all away. A blur of motion shot out, stopping outside their range. Sayaka, eyes still closed, could feel that she was being held by someone, bridal-style; their hands and body felt so warm. She slowly opened her eyes. A tight black shirt, a grayish-blue short-sleeved jacket, grey pants that reached down to gleaming silver boots, a waist-length cape that was the same color as hers, a kind smile directed at her, and… dark-grey hair with silvery-grey eyes. Her eyes widened.
"K… Kyō…suke…?"
"I'm sorry it took me so long, Sayaka" he said. "Between sorting through my feelings, making my decision, and tracking Kyubey down…"
It was then she noticed the silver diamond-shaped jewel in the center of his forehead. "A Soul Gem…" she breathed out. "Y-You've…"
"Yeah. Kyubey said that, in all the millennia his people have been on Earth, there have only been 19 Puer Magi. …I'm number 20."
"…Why? Why go this far?"
"For you. You've always been there for me, Sayaka – every step of the way, ever since we were little kids. It's time I return the favor, and make up for being too thick-headed to realize you were in love with me… and too oblivious to my own emotions to realize that at some point I had come to feel the same way."
She gasped, as he gently set her down on her feet.
"Kyubey told me how your wish was to be strong enough to protect me. Well… my wish…" He concentrated his newfound magical power, and a pair of armored gauntlets appeared over his hands and forearms. "…was to be strong enough to protect you!" He pounded his armored fists together, and a burst of electrical magic – his elemental conversion affinity – coursed over them. "Let's do this, Sayaka!"
Sayaka's expression was tears of joy and a big, radiant smile. She wiped her eyes, and then nodded. "Right!" she said, summoning two new swords from within her cape.
The two charged, side by side. Several snake Familiars appeared, only for Sayaka's swords to cut them down. A larger, thicker one went for her, but Kyōsuke hit it with a punch from one of his gauntlets that struck with such force, the Familiar practically exploded. He held his right gauntlet out with fist clenched, and something unfolded from a small hatch on the top at the wrist: a blaster, which he opened up with on autofire, gunning down several more Familiars.
Sayaka led the charge, her blades hacking through Familiars in her path, with Kyōsuke following right behind and giving her covering fire. Happiness and courage flowed through her, giving her strength and will like she'd never felt before. As they neared the Witch, Kyōsuke pointed his left gauntlet and fired a small device that exploded on impact with the tree-branch sent at them, the launched grenade violently fragmenting the magically-generated wood. Sayaka rushed in, a swing of her sword decapitating the Witch, and the eldritch being's body transformed into a shifting amorphous black blob, and several more Familiars emerged from it to try and stop her. Kyōsuke power-punched a few away, giving Sayaka leeway to slice the rest with her swords.
Kyōsuke's gauntlets surged with power as he dealt three crushing blows to the Witch, each of them strong enough to fracture the ground beneath it. Then, Sayaka channeled magical energy into her blade, and with a war-cry she brought it down, bisecting the shadowy being and splitting the ground. The Witch dissolved rapidly into nothingness. Seconds later, the Witch's Domain ceased to exist as well, returning the duo to the normal realm. The two stood there, panting lightly, as Sayaka picked up and pocketed the Grief Seed. Then, she lunged at Kyōsuke, throwing her arms around his neck and upper back as she kissed him passionately. She heard as he dispelled his gauntlets, and then felt as his arms wrapped around her body.
They pulled away just as reinforcements arrived in the form of Homura and Kyōko. Homura's eyes widened in shock as she noticed Kyōsuke's mana-forged outfit and the Soul Gem in the center of his forehead.
"N-No way…" she murmured. "This… This has never happened…"
"A magical boy…" Kyōko said. "Well, I'll be damned. And it's the guy she's got the hots for, at that."
"We should… probably get back to the others" Sayaka said.
"Yeah," Kyōsuke replied, "and I've got a loooot of explaining to do with my parents. …Eh, it'll work out."
"…Homura, you're staring at him" Kyōko whispered. "Right at his… tight-shirt-covered, slender, lean-muscled chest…"
"So are you" the other girl replied. "And you're also staring at Sayaka's butt, exposed tummy, and legs, too."
"You mean like I've seen you do to Madoka and Mami?"
"…Touché."
Sayaka, meanwhile, remained oblivious to her comrades' ogling, snuggled up against Kyōsuke with eyes closed and a big smile. Maybe being a Puella Magi wasn't such a big curse after all…
-CHAPTER END-
Next Time: A few of the Dark Voice's higher-ranking underlings make appearances, and a big, terrible truth is revealed.
I've received a few complaints that the story is – in short terms – not grimdark enough. Well, I've recently added to the outline an entirely new storyline for a future Book, and it's gonna be pretty dark. I've also got a couple new villains in the works. So stay tuned.