To Save Two Friends
Steins;Gate and Madoka Magica
Chapter Four
2015.12.24 - 9:55 AM JST
Thursday
I went back to school the next day alone. I entered the classroom and the first thing I noticed was that Madoka was absent today. I sighed. I hadn't talked to her since the night before, but I had a pretty good idea of what happened. Madoka was probably in shock and in a state of grief. She clearly needed time to recover. I did consider skipping school to see her, but I wasn't sure what to say. What could I say to comfort her? Class ended and a group of students approached me.
"What do you want?" I growled at them. My goal was basically to tell them to go away. This didn't work.
"You were there, right?" A girl asked me. "You saw Mayuri-san last night? After she died."
This information spread around faster than I expected. I looked back up at her. I was trying to get a message across. I didn't want to talk about this for multiple reasons. Couldn't they take a hint? I guess not.
"What happened?" Another girl spoke up. "I heard she got mugged or something."
"But that doesn't make any sense." Someone else chipped in. "My Dad is a police officer and he said that they found her wallet on her body. It couldn't be that."
I slammed my hands on my desk, silencing everyone. I felt even angrier than usual. I broke the mood with my death stare. I then spoke to them in a hursh tone.
"If you're going to have this conversation, could you please go to another room?"
The girls looked at me and stepped back. They gave me an unconvincing apology and filed out of the room. I sighed again. Those people seemed like the gossiping type. They were far more concerned about what happened than they were about my feelings. It was a good thing that Madoka wasn't here, she shouldn't have to deal with this stuff.
I was once again sitting by myself at lunch when Sayaka took a seat beside me. She was followed by Hitomi. I could already tell where this was going.
"Hey, Homura." Sayaka addressed me. Her was voice rather serious and cold. "I heard through the grapevine that you and Madoka found a dead body last night. Is… is that true?"
The only response I could give her was I hesitant nod. Both Sayaka and Hitomi looked upset after I said that. They knew that Madoka wouldn't skip school unless it was important. Clearly they understood now that Madoka was in a lot of pain right now and she probably needed them really badly. Sayaka clutched her hand into a fist and made a bold announcement.
"Okay. I'm skipping the rest of the day to see Madoka. You two are welcome to come with me."
Sayaka got up from her chair and headed out of the cafeteria. I followed her, alongside a really nervous Hitomi. She clearly never tried skipping school before. We left the school and walked over to Madoka's house. When we arrived we saw a bit of a strange sight. There was a man and a woman talking to Madoka's father on their front porch. We couldn't hear what they were saying, but it didn't look pleasant. Neither of them appeared to be police officers though. In fact, the man was wearing a lab coat for some reason. As we got closer, we began to hear their conversation.
"Please, sir." The man begged Madoka's Dad. "Please let us talk to your daughter. Just for five minutes. Please."
"I'm sorry, but Madoka is not emotionally ready for a visit from complete strangers." Mr. Kaname replied. "Come back in a few days."
"We can respect that, Kaname-san." The woman butted in. "But we can't stay here for very long. Mayuri's funeral is in three days and it's a long trip back to Tokyo."
"I'm afraid you'll have to leave this for later then." Madoka's Dad shoot them down again. "Have a good day."
He then shut the door in an uncharacteristic act of irritation. The man and woman talked for a bit more before walking back to the sidewalk. They passed by us, I guess they were headed to the train station. Our group then approached the door and knocked. We were greeted by Madoka's Dad again. He took a look at us and sighed in relief.
"Oh, hi girls. You're here to see Madoka?"
"Yes." Hitomi shyly responded. "Is she available?"
"Of course." He said with a sad smile. "She's in her room."
Mr. Kaname let us in and we headed up the stairs to Madoka's bedroom. Sayaka raised her hand up to knock on Madoka's door, but the door flew open before contact could be made.
"Hi Sayaka-chan, hi Hitomi-chan, hi Homura-chan." Madoka's voice was weirdly monotone. She had bags under her eyes too. This was clearly affecting her greatly.
Madoka moved aside and let us into her room. I had seen Madoka's room in various other timelines. This one looked no different. We all sat down on her bed.
"Madoka, are you okay?" Hitomi broke the ice. "You don't look very good."
"Yesterday shook me up quite a bit." Madoka told us, looking down at the floor. "I assume you heard what happened."
"Yeah." Sayaka confirmed. "You apparently stumbled across a dead body."
"Not just any dead body." Madoka corrected her friend. "It was Mayuri-san."
Sayaka and Hitomi were shocked. I hadn't told them this information and I was a bit surprised that Madoka was so open about this considering her current condition.
"You.. you mean the new teacher's aide?" Hitomi asked us. "So… so that's why she wasn't at school today."
"Oh man." Sayaka let out a sad sigh. "This is so messed up."
Madoka looked up from the floor and looked me right in the eyes. This got questioning looks from everyone, even from me.
"Homura-chan, can I talk to you in private?"
This request hit all of us like a block of concrete. It was very unexpected. Sayaka and Hitomi quietly got up and left the room. Madoka cleared her throat once her two friends had made their exit.
"Homura-chan… are you sure that we can't tell them about what actually happened last night? About the whole magical girl thing?"
"I wouldn't do that." I told her softly. "The existence of magical girls is a secret that you shouldn't ever talk about. Not unless someone accidentally finds out. They're better off not knowing."
"I see…" Madoka looked back down at the floor again. I hated seeing her like this, but what could I do to cheer her up? Was this the right time for a hug or should I react with a different gesture? As I thought about this, the door creaked opened. It was Sayaka.
"Hi. I hate to interrupt, but Hitomi and I are thinking of heading over to a café. Would you two like to join us?"
"Sure. I'll go." Madoka replied. "'I've been confined to my room since I got home from the police station last night. I could use some time out of the house. You're coming too, right Homura-chan?"
"Yeah." I said with a small smile. "A hot chocolate sounds appealing."
******
(Chapter Five: In Progress)
