End of Karma
Chapter 7: Turning
SYSTEMS -06-
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›I DO NOT BELIEVE.
›I DO NOT BELIEVE.
›I DO NOT BELIEVE.
›I DO NOT BELIEVE.
›I DID NOT BELIEVE IT WHEN I SAW IT.
›THE COSMOS WHICH GOD SO MERCIFULLY GAVE US WAS BATHED IN BLACK.
›THE BLACK WAS NOT A KIND EMPTINESS, BUT A THICK CURSE.
›I DID NOT KNOW WHAT IT MEANT AT THE TIME.
›THAT WOULD COME BACK AROUND, AS IT ALWAYS DOES.
›...
›I SAW THEM WITH FOUR EYES, AFFIXED TO A CEILING COVERING ALL OF CREATION BY STRINGS WHICH THEY CALLED FATE.
›AND I KNEW THEM AS WORTHLESS AS I.
›YET THEY DESTROYED.
›THE BLINDING LIGHT OF THE STARS WAS OBSCURED BY DUST.
›THAT BRILLIANT ILLUMINATION WHICH ENCOMPASSES EVERYTHING COMPASSIONATELY WENT DIM.
›AND I LIE IN ITS BASKET, SURROUNDED BY THE PRODUCT OF GOOD AND PURITY.
›DARK. COLD.
›IT'S DARK AND COLD.
›BUT I CAN SEE NOTHING, AND FEEL NOTHING.
›HOW MUST I DEFINE THIS TO APPLY IT?
›NOTHING MAY BE DEFINED IN THE END, AT THE EDGE OF INFINITE EMPTINESS WHERE EVEN EMPTINESS ITSELF LOSES MEANING.
›AND I SEE NOTHING.
The day passes normally. At the end of school, as everyone starts packing their bags, Sayaka comes up to Madoka and badgers her, "Hey, Madoka, we still hanging out, today?"
"Sorry, I already told Homura I would talk to her." Madoka apologizes, picking her bag up and making her way towards the door.
Sayaka follows, "Wait, wait! Already? I thought I asked first!"
Madoka rubs the back of her head, "Really? I don't remember. Sorry." She does a short bow and runs off in a hurry.
Sayaka gives chase again, "Hey, what's wrong!? You're acting really weird, today!"
"I'll tell you later!" Madoka reassures her.
Sayaka would have given more chase, but she then realized that she left her own bag in class to do so in the first place. "Ah— ...Oh, forget it." she gives up and walks back.
It took her upwards of an hour to actually find the place, but Madoka eventually deciphered the address of Homura's apartment. She ascends the stairs to its hallways and approaches her door, knocking exactly three times and waiting patiently.
She doesn't have to wait long. It's as if she had been behind the door the entire time, just waiting, as the door almost immediately unlocks and slowly inches open. Homura's daunting stare peeks through the crack as she quietly commands, "Come in."
"Make yourself comfortable." she says as she leads Madoka into a pure-white room with dozens of sofas surrounding a single round table. Madoka gazes around the room, noticing the floating, blank picture frames in the distance and the giant pendulum swinging from the non-existent ceiling. In the distance, she can hear the soft tunes of some classical piece playing which echoes badly.
As she takes a seat on the sofa across from where Homura is standing, she comments on it, "I can't tell what song that is."
"Hm?" Homura hums.
"The song." Madoka gestures at her ear. "If Sayaka were here, she would tell me what it is right off the bat! Maybe you two would get along."
Homura scoffs. "Anyways, do you remember why I invited you here?"
"Uh..." Madoka stammers "Well... Uh, well, it was like, something you couldn't tell me at school?"
Homura nods and yet corrects her, "The correct word is actually 'show'. But before that, let me ask why you came here."
Madoka tilts her head to the side slightly, "What...do you mean? You asked me to, right?"
Homura puts her foot on the table and leans on it, "Exactly. Putting aside that this is a special circumstance, would you come to any person's home as long as they asked?"
Madoka's attention wanders to the side, "Uh, well... It depends, I guess. I think it would be rude not t—"
Homura cuts her off to get to the point, "Kaname Madoka, what do you think would happen if I were merely tricking you?"
Madoka stands up as Homura approaches her dauntingly. She tries to speak, but can't think of a response, "You..."
Homura continues, coming closer with an increasingly stern glare, "Not every person cares about your safety. Some would even prefer to violate it. You're too kind, Kaname Madoka. That sort of trust in everyone leads to trouble."
"Don't..." Madoka squeaks.
Homura backs up, "Don't...?"
"Don't say it like that..."
"What?" Homura asks rhetorically "It's true. Don't go trusting people on a whim."
"No, my name..." Madoka backs up a step.
Homura quiets down, "Hm?"
"Don't say my name like that. It feels wrong." Madoka quietly explains.
Homura's tone and expression soften instantly. Perhaps in relief. She sighs and automatically apologizes, "I'm sorry...Madoka."
Madoka smiles, and Homura has to fight back a grin to remain serious. She sighs once again and returns to her previous position to start the real conversation. To start, she picks up a weird egg-shaped jewel on the table and presents it.
"Do you know what this is?" she asks.
Madoka shakes her head.
"This is a soul gem. The proof that magical girls exist, and the proof that I am one." Homura bluntly explains.
"...Chuunibyou." Madoka thinks to herself the moment that sentence ends. Being Madoka, she also accidentally thinks aloud.
Homura stares at her in complete deadpan. "You know what?" she asks passive-aggressively. "I'm just going to do it." She then promptly transforms, making sure to do the whole song and dance routine just to prove the point.
This should have been the tail-end of a small funny moment in their lives. However, fate had no such plans, that evening. Instead of doing something like clapping and saying "Magnifico!", Madoka BSoD's again almost instantly upon seeing the uniform.
"Madoka?" Homura tries to get her attention by waving a hand in front of her. When that doesn't work, she starts shaking her by the shoulder with one hand. "Hey, Madoka!" She shakes more violently, "Madoka, what's wrong?"
Madoka hesitates to speak, "I... I just...remembered something."
Homura quickly takes a seat beside her and asks, "And what did you remember?"
"..." Madoka opens her mouth, but takes a minute to speak "...I saw you fighting something. In that outfit."
"Fighting what?" Homura immediately asks.
"I don't...know." Madoka continues to hesitate.
Homura stands back up, palms her forehead, and sighs, "It's a start." She goes back to the other side of the table and presents the gem on her left hand, "Do you know what this means, Madoka?"
Madoka stares at it, "Magical girls are real?"
"Correct." Homura says. "At least you believe that much. Perhaps you'll believe everything else I have to tell you."
Madoka scoots inwards, itching with curiosity at the idea that she may have some of her questions answered.
"Madoka," Homura leans over the table and looks her dead in the eye "you will meet a white cat-like creature who calls itself Kyuubey. Don't listen to anything it says. Don't associate with it. Keep it away from your friends. Do you trust me?"
She nods, "I don't know why, but I trust you."
Homura turns around while talking, "Good. I hope you listen this time. God knows there won't be another."
"Eh? This time?" Madoka asks.
"I won't force you to endure all of this at once." Homura informs her. She twists her head back and flips her hair, "Go, now, Madoka. From now on, think about everything you do carefully. If you truly value your life and happiness, and that of those around you, don't become involved in this."
"This?" Madoka continues to ask, unsatisfied with leaving it here.
Homura's voice suddenly becomes quiet, "I need time, Madoka." She turns back around and starts walking toward the exit, "All I need is a little bit more time. Please, cooperate and give me that much."
Madoka is the one to sigh, this time. She gets up to follow Homura to the door when her phone rings. She picks it up, "Hello, Kaname Madoka."
Sayaka's voice pops up on the other end, panicked, "Madoka! You need to get down to my place now!"
Madoka jumps, "Wha!? Sayaka, it's getting late, I need to go home! Can't this wait until tomorrow?"
Sayaka continues to yell, "No! No, it cannot! Something crazy just happened and it's an emergency and I really need you on this one!"
Madoka groans, "Fiiiine, I'll come over, but I can't stay all night! Tonight is my favorite dinner!"
"Okay, I don't care, just get over here!" Sayaka impatiently yells.
Not caring to be scolded right now, Madoka just hangs up on her. She nearly runs out the door as Homura holds it open, but the latter stops her just short.
"Wait." she halts. "I can't believe I keep forgetting this, but here." She pulls out her phone and shows the screen, displaying her number.
"Oh, okay." Madoka quickly taps it in and thanks her before zooming out the door.
As Homura closes the door, the illusion in the room dissipates, revealing her bleak and dark, unfurnished apartment with nothing more than a computer and chemistry set as noticeable pieces.
She leans against the door and exhales deeply, "She's safe...for now. Calm down, Homura. Just a little at a time. This will work. It has to."
She comes up, behind the chair of her computer and observes the screen, which displays a list of every oddity that she observed in this timeline so far, alongside a chart listing every mindable and conceivable outcome for every action she could take in response.
In the background is a photoshopped map of Japan, with the dotted locations of every major military installment in the country and details about them.
She closely looks over the events for the umpteenth time and, to reassure herself, conjures a magical board to the side displaying a flow chart of coincidences, events, and hypotheses leading to a single central theory: "Converging Timelines", encircled in red. She stares at it, as if trying to prevent second-guessing herself.
Finally, she flips the holographic screen around to reveal a picture of Madoka from some bygone time.
Homura grits her teeth and speaks to it, voice filled with determination, "This time, I won't fail you."
