All the water, sweat, and dirt swirled down the shower's drain. Homura could feel her scalp becoming cleaner by the second. She thoroughly washed her long hair with shampoo.
After cleaning her body, she walked over to the bathtub and sat down in the hot, steaming water. She placed her soul gem near the edge of the bathtub. The muscles in her body began to loosen and relax, the numbing pain slowly began to disappear.
I wonder how many times Madoka sat here, in this same spot, Homura pondered.
Homura clutched her chest, feeling the pulsating heart within.
Am I really alive? This all is a dream right? I'll wake up and go to school, seeing Madoka. Right? Tears flooded out of her eyes.
"What are you crying about?" Kyubey asked, bathing in a basin near the bathtub. "You humans are such difficult creatures to understand."
Homura quickly rubbed the tears off her face. "What are you doing here?" Her voice was sharp.
"I need to warn you about demons appearing so it's only natural that I stick very close to you." He tilted his head.
"And you didn't follow Mami instead?" Homura formed fists.
"Out of the two, you are definitely stronger. Though, you aren't as rational as I assumed. I saw that little stunt you did over this house earlier." Kyubey had his eyes closed while rolling in the basin. He almost looked like he was enjoying himself.
"Great. I would kill you now, but doing it won't make me feel any better."
Kyubey hopped out of the basin, shaking his coat free of water like a dog. He jumped on the edge of the bathtub. "Why do you feel 'anger' directed towards me, as your kind would say?"
Homura covered herself with her arms. Her already reddened skin grew slightly redder, and her temper grew into a darker shade of red. "Privacy." The word slithered out her lips. "I'm naked, and you're invading my privacy."
He tilted his head again. "You call sitting in a room where you can easily be detected privacy? Now, you are also much more naive than I thought. I'm sure having a mental disorder is such a nuisance. I thought you were as logical as humans could be, Homura."
Mental disorder? Homura was just about ready to send an arrow through his skull, if he even had one.
"The only logic I need is for you to shut up before I do something to get myself killed. That would be a major blow to your plans, wouldn't it?" She glared at him.
"While I do admit that you're very strong and efficient, you dying wouldn't be as major as you think. You aren't indispensable. There are over 893 million girls in this world. Finding a replacement wouldn't be too hard."
Homura bit her lip.
She lunged at Kyubey, strangling him with a grip as strong as an anaconda's. She forced him down into the bottom of the tub until his body slowly stopped twitching. Her burnt hand ached, both hands trembled. She panted heavily before taking a deep breath and threw the body out of the bathtub.
Another Kyubey appeared, devouring the corpse, complete with munching noises. "Such a waste."
Just like Homura said, killing him did not make her feel any better. Now she felt worse, and more vulnerable than ever.
Kyubey hopped on the edge and placed his paw on Homura's soul gem. "I'll show you just how disposable you are." He put slight pressure on the gem and it grew brightly.
Homura felt something inside, something excruciating. Of every physical pain she had felt in the world, this was the worst by far. It felt like the fingertips of death itself poisoned her very soul. The wound she had on her hand was child's play compared to this pain. She wanted to scream but she held it in. She didn't want to scare the Kaname family. Her body became numb and paralyzed, swallowed by the water. The fear of death returned once again. No matter how many times she faced it, it was always a strong and frightening feeling. To think that creature would be the end of her, it was ridiculous, and that thought persisted as water painfully started to fill her lungs up.
Am I really going to die here? She asked herself, while unable to even lift a single finger.
"Don't forget your place, Homura." Kyubey took his paw off the gem, and walked off towards the middle of the room. Homura immediately came up, gasping for air. She never wanted to feel that pain ever again.
"May I join you?" A voice suddenly asked. It came from a speaker in a corner of the large bathroom.
"Mrs. Kaname?" Homura looked at the area where Kyubey was. He was gone. "Umm… yes, you may…" She tried to keep a normal composure.
Junko walked into the room.
Homura stared at her body for a minute. The curves on it were slender. It was as if her body was perfectly sculptured. Her womanly proportions impressed the speechless Homura.
"You're staring honey. I don't know if I should take pride, or feel embarrassed." The sober Junko giggled and smiled.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Homura blushed, not knowing what to say. How did things take a turn this way? How did she end up in the bathtub of her goddess with her goddess' mother? "It's just that… your body... it's impressive," she awkwardly stated.
Junko went into the tub laughing. "Why thank you Homura. I'm afraid I'm getting too old now though. Sometimes I wonder when my husband will decide to desert me for a nice, young woman." she joked.
Homura smiled. "You're still young, aren't you? I bet you could still have another child."
"We had this discussion before didn't we?" Junko eyed her.
"Yes, I suppose so." Homura wondered if Junko were to have a child, would it look like Madoka? Maybe it would even be Madoka. Would it be the same Madoka though? The same one that was always was so selfless and kind?
She must have been in deep thought, as Junko had observed her.
"You're in love aren't you?" A smile of confidence showed on her lips.
"What?" Homura replied, unready for the sudden question.
"So you are then." The woman yawned and stretched her arms widely, feeling the combined after effects of drinking and fatigue from work. She smiled.
"How did you know?" Homura's own response surprised her. The two violet eyes grew larger, and her skin grew as red as possible at that point.
"Because you just told me." The trademark laughter displayed once again. "Well that and you could call it woman's intuition, I guess."
"It was obvious wasn't it?" Homura dipped half her face in the warm water, trying to hide her embarrassment.
"I'm afraid so. The way you deeply blushed and freaked out when I asked you. It was very obvious." She petted Homura's head. "So, who's the lucky guy?"
Homura took her face out of the water "Umm…" Homura fiddled with her fingers and played with her hair, trying to hide the smile she had.
"My my, someone's deeply in love!" She lightly punched Homura's shoulder. "You don't have to tell me though."
How do I explain this to her? Homura pondered. Was I really in love? With whom exactly did I fall in love with?
Homura thought of pink hair and kind golden eyes, but for a split second she thought of large yellow curls and serene, caring yellow eyes.
"I don't know if it is love, but… well…you see… It's not a boy." She covered her face in shame.
"Ooohh…" She paused. "So, who's the lucky gal then?"
"You mean you don't think it's wrong that I might be in love with another girl?"
"Love is love, no matter what your sex is. I believe if someone wants a person of the same gender, then by all means, they should go for em. Any kind of love that a male and female couple can experience are experienced by a same-sex couple too. The difference is only body parts really."
The wisdom of Junko Kaname never ceased to amaze Homura.
"I'm gonna tell you a little story, Homura, so sit back and relax." Junko leaned back on the tub, arms stretched out on both sides. "It's a secret that only two people know about. You'll be the third. Got it?" She winked at the attentive girl.
Homura nodded like a child. She hungered for more information. She almost felt like she was a little kid again, and Junko was her mother, telling her, her favorite bedtime story. Her eyes gazed into Junko's.
"Back in high school, I was a naughty girl doing very naughty things. I was such a bad person back then." She sighed nostalgically. "Anyway, one day I met this really cute girl. Man, her hair was so long and light brown that in the sunlight it looked like locks of gold flowing in the air. And her eyes, don't get me started with her eyes! They were so big, I just wanted to put them in a jar where I could stare at them forever! She was so moe! She sat next to me one day in the cafeteria of Mitakihara High School out of a whim, or miracle, luck, whatever you wanna call it."
Junko smiled. "I told her she was cute, and I wanted to get with her for an experiment. Curiosity, you know? After school we hung out and by the end of the day, she was mine - or so I thought. She told me it was fun and all, but she was in love with a boy, and she told me she would love to just be friends. I accepted the offer and we're still friends to this day. She's terrible on dates with guys though, it never works out for her." She laughed.
"I had a drink with her earlier today before I talked to you. Anyways, I guess that experiment is the reason I'm okay with forbidden love. I'm in full support for you, Homura." She gave Homura a thumbs up and big smile.
"Does that woman happen to wear glasses now, and does she have short hair now?" Homura's eyes widened, deeply widened.
"Yeah, why do you - oooohhh… wow… that's kinda awkward." She scratched her head.
Awkward wasn't a strong enough word. Brown hair, big eyes, terrible with men, glasses… That could only mean one thing.
"Well, tell her Junko says 'hi' the next time you see her. Okay?" Junko asked.
"Yeah…" Homura would never look at those two women the same way again.
／人◕‿‿◕人＼
"God! These apples taste so rotten today!" Despite the bad taste, the girl ate it until leaving nothing but the core. She furiously took out another apple from the brown paper bag, devouring it with ferocious bites that seemed unnaturally large while she walked out of a closed food market. Broken shards of glass lay near the busted front door.
A fang jutted out of the girl's mouth.
After finishing the remaining apples, she neatly folded the empty brown paper bag and deposited it to the nearest recycling bin.
If it wasn't for the streetlights that the girl constantly countered at each block, it would be black in the streets. She walked on the lonely sidewalk, and it traversed with her. The two kept each other company. They were a lot like each other. They tried helping others and what did they get in return?
Nothing but pain.
The girl had lost people she cared for deeply even though she tried her best to help steer them in the right direction, especially those that needed an extra push. The sidewalk had transported people across different parts of Asunaro city. People mistreated the sidewalk. Gum and shoe prints lay all over. The girl and the sidewalk weren't so different. She still felt alone though.
Kasamino city. That was her home. As of late, it called to her, but going back there would only bring back unwanted memories. She wasn't going back to the 'other' city either, so she decided to stay in Asunaro for a bit until she felt better. If that was even possible. Every time she blinked, blue hair persisted in her imagination. It made her angry, but it wasn't time for anger. It was time to get what she needed.
The city was sleeping. She knew it was the right time to tend to her business of collecting money. Breaking ATMs was such an easy process. Just taking a little money from them across neighboring cities was no big deal, right? It's not like she was hurting anybody.
She took out a pocky stick and placed it in her mouth. To her left and right were what seemed like an endless number of buildings, some small, some medium, some big. Some buildings with dull, uninspired designs, others with strange shapes and names like 'Kafe Lepa Macha.'
Finally, she found an excellent spot. The Buy-Lot shopping mall. Right outside its closed doors was an ATM, just asking to get broken.
She walked up to it, tucking her long red hair in her green hood before putting it on. A few cars passed by now and then, but other than that, it seemed like an easy steal.
After making sure no one was around, the redhead readied a fist to break the ATM. Her body became much stronger after becoming a magical girl. A feat such as this would be child's play.
The balled up right hand went for the strike, but stopped barely a couple of centimeters away from the jackpot. There was something unusual going on about. This feeling wasn't something she felt in a while. The feeling of another magical girl. One close by.
Kyouko broke the pocky stick in her mouth, knowing her shitty day just got shittier.