Again, it was evening. Finally, the school day was done.

The leaves, green and brown, shook frailly in the high wind. Branches bowed in obeisance to the mighty elements of nature, and some even prostrated. Kyoko wondered when they'd snap into two, under the heavy burden of their worship. Maybe in threes, fours, or fifty-tens and thousand-hundreds.

"Listen Sayaka, I've got something important to ask you."

It must have been wildly noisy outside, given all that wind. Kyoko wouldn't know better. Tucked in the warm cosiness of the school's hallways, outside interference was all but blocked out. Certainly, the day was a quiet day. Kyoko mused as such in her thought, as she walked in the long empty hallways of Mitakihara Middle School with Sayaka.

They passed by glass wall after glass wall. Blue nightlight was just beginning to separate itself from the shadow of the sunset that bled like ink on a parchment.

"Are you, no, will you…"

Kyoko walked at the upper right diagonal of Sayaka, two steps ahead of her. She seemed to be fumbling over her words. A difficult expression filled her face; she furrowed her brows slightly and her eyes were half-lidded as she thought hard over what she was going to say. Seeing her bite her lip, Sayaka wondered just what could be troubling Kyoko so.

"Mm?"
"Well, I was just going to ask… to ask…"

She shifted her face so that Sayaka could not see it.

In regular buildings, one would say that rectangular boxes of light shone on them intermittently as they walked down the hallways. But in Mitakihara Middle School, it was instead sharp thin lines of blackness that drifted by in the shadow of the dimming light.

"I… you… um…"

It seemed like Kyoko was getting all shy and clammy over something concerning both Sayaka and Kyoko. Now Sayaka was a very sharp and observant person, and even more so when it came to people she was close to.

Sayaka observed Kyoko carefully. Her footsteps got smaller. She brought her hands together by her navel and started twiddling her thumbs. And her eyes –

Kyoko halted in her tracks and turned her head to face Sayaka.

Her eyes twinkled with the starlight of a million years, waving like the moon's reflection on the black velvet seas. But then she cast her eyes downwards, as if she would not be able to look straight at Sayaka when the words came out of her mouth. Her cheeks lit up a faint scarlet blush, and this only fanned the fires of Sayaka's curiosity. What was Kyoko going tell her? The silence left Sayaka on the edge of her metaphorical seat.

"Your parents are out on a business trip tonight, right? So we have the whole house to ourselves then. And…"

Sayaka's home was practically shared with Kyoko now. The household had already gotten very comfortable with Kyoko's presence. On some rare days when Kyoko wasn't with them in the mornings or the nights, Sayaka's parents would ask about her whereabouts as if it were a most natural thing for them to be concerned over.

"Well do you want to… will you…"

It was very uncharacteristic of Kyoko to be so uncertain of her words. In a minute moment, hordes of subconscious suggestions whizzed past her mind like locusts in migration, blotting out the sky of her clear frame of mind. What could they possibly do in Sayaka's humble shack when there's no one around?

"I want to…"

But what Kyoko said next, Sayaka could never have expected.

"Ah, that's right. I wanna go to the supermarket on the way back so we can get some groceries for cooking. D'you want to cook tonight or should I do it?"

Not with that gullible, presumptuous mind of hers.

Kyoko had just momentarily forgotten what she was about to say. So she thought long and hard, retracing her chain of memories to recall what triggered her train of thought. That seeming trace of redness on her cheeks had all but vanished; all along it was simply a figment of Sayaka's imagination.

Kyoko was a good actor. Didn't she know?

And it wasn't before long that the others had caught up with the two actors and joined them on their way home.

Indeed, it was a strange day – just like any other day in the life.


"Ah, yea, Madoka," Kyoko called out in the peaceable silence.

"Yes?" she answered.

Madoka always replied to whoever called upon her. Kyoko liked that about Madoka – she was easy to approach; she was willing to listen; she answered to those who asked.

"Didn't you have that lil' rooftop meeting yesterday? How'd it go?"

Hitomi and Sayaka looked at Madoka, keenly expectant to hear how her, hopefully romantic, encounter went.

"Was it a confession? Did you reject him?"

Sayaka, who was feeling playful, quickly jumped the gun and shot interrogative questions at Madoka. Hitomi only nodded once. As polite as that may seem, it was a signal for Madoka to hurry up and spill the beans. As always, Hitomi-ojou-chan was masterful in making the rudest and coarsest of expressions seem elegant and gentle. Praise be to Hitomi-ojou-chan and that sissy-violin-boy of hers.

At the receiving end of a great amount of pressure from three friendly faces, Madoka answered without giving much thought to her words.

"Well, I met Homura-chan-"

"Akemi Homura?! So it was a girl!" Kyoko shouted out the instant that name fell upon her ears.

"And all the time you two kept staring at each other… I can't believe it!" Sayaka squealed, "Your hearts are connected to one another's and you two can engage in telepathy?"

Not to be easily outdone, Kyoko made her own valued contributions to the profane discussion.

"So intimate! How? When? What did you guys do yesterday at night? I bet you guys did something or other – what with that devilish mind of yours, Madoka. You must've lured her into yer home and-" with that, Kyoko placed a biscuit in between her teeth and crunched it loudly.

"What if they did it in the open?" Sayaka suggested to Kyoko.

"Uh-"

Before Madoka could say her piece, Kyoko responded, "What if they did it in the road?"

"A girl!"–Hitomi gasped and, in her shock of undefinable magnitudes, rambled off like an old deranged conservative man protesting against societal reforms while looking to the heavens for divine providence–"That's enough! You can't be serious! You're both girls! Girls can't love girls! Girls can't love girls!"


Chapter IIID
Girls Can't Love Girls – Humans Without Humanity

A Well-Meaning Dissertation on the Moral Excesses of Mankind in the 21st Century


Placing her hands to her cheeks, Hitomi's jaw dropped hideously in mock horror and anxiety. Such intense emotions of distress – the likes of which were only to be captured by Edvard Munch's The Scream – can little be adequately expressed by way of words.

So here, because of this writer's inadequacy, I urge you readers to vividly imagine first the grotesque screaming figure of 'The Scream', and then the elegant face of Hitomi. Now, merge the two together to obtain Hitomi's expression at the time.

Indeed, such was the extent of gruelling disgust and existential disdain Hitomi had to suffer. Her heart beat irregularly, and her vision turned a shade of yellow, then a hue of blue. As if faders had been used to augment Hitomi's aural perception, all the voices seemed so far and all the noises seemed so close – close enough to touch. She could see the sound of Kyoko's voice, she could listen to Mami's face, and she could practically taste the yuri floating in the air.

"Calm down, Shizuki-san."

A comforting voice, Tomoe Mami's, reached its bright hand out to still Hitomi's shaken mind, and repelled the attacking forces of evil. The girls could always count on Mami to be the voice of reason.

"For all we know," Mami said, "she might just be a man."

Mami really did well as the voice of reason and wisdom.

Mami's suggestion was definitely deserving of all the critical acclaim the world had to offer. It was a diamond in the rough, a radiant gem of unparalleled wisdom and snarky wit belonging with the most famous and well-meaning of parables and ideas. Mami, in that moment in time, was no less sagacious than King Solomon of Israel, and her suggestion, no less momentous and inspiring than the biblical Judgement of Solomon.

Mami had taken Hitomi's concerns into account, and also allowed for Madoka and Homura to remain together in a solution that pleased, and astounded, everyone.

"You mean, a futanari?"

And Sayaka was always a lost cause, even from the beginning.

Sighing, Madoka waited for the din to die down before recollecting to them what exactly went down.


"Homura-chan?"

The cool wind blew across the rooftop, tenderly caressing Madoka's tresses.

Homura looked up at her.

"Madoka."

Snip. Snip. Snip.

The blades of wind and boats of air seemed to carry along with it the sound of snipping scissors snipping.

Homura had a gentle smile on her face. She sat alone on a stone bench by the far left of the long narrow rooftop.

"There you are. I've waited for a very long time. It's been a long, long, long time."

Alone, in the blue, she sat – waiting for the night to ascend. Homura's words set sail into the paper-white night.

"S-Sorry," Madoka awkwardly apologized.

Like a crystal on the ground, the stars twinkled with such force that they threatened to charge into the background of the sky from their resting places.

"No need to apologize. Come here and take a seat for a while. You must be tired."

Like a crystal quill in motion, her see-through-coloured words danced in the crimson moonrise.

She patted on the empty seat beside her, and she smiled.

And surely enough, Madoka was feeling tired. Perhaps she was all too caught up in school matters to have noticed earlier on.

Madoka followed her lead and sat herself down beside Homura in the darkness.

"Um, Homura-chan?"
"Yes, Madoka?" Homura no longer faced Madoka, and instead gazed out into the sky she loved to gaze at.

"I just wanted to ask you," then she paused.
"Go on."
"…why did you call me up here? I mean, it's not that I don't like it here with you, but, just, I'm wondering if you had any special reason to want to see me here alone," she hesitantly belted out, her voice getting softer with every word she said.

Homura continued to stare into space for a few seconds after Madoka had said that.

Then turning to meet her eyes, she playfully told her, "Is it such a sin to want to spend more time with a dear friend of mine?"

Few times did Homura smile, and few times did Homura meet Madoka. Surely, Homura kept her distance. Surely, Madoka too should have kept her distance.

"Ehehe," Madoka giggled, "it's fine."

While she felt rather touched at Homura's declaration, she thought that there was some deeper meaning to her words. Somehow, she thought that her words were tinged with a little bit of wistfulness and nostalgia.

There Homura stared out at the heavens again, all alone riding her own train of thought. Madoka thought that Homura must have been through a lot in her life, for her to have become the person she was. It sometimes sounded like she didn't have a care in the world. It sometimes sounded like she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"But actually, I wasn't the one whom you were supposed to meet," she spake, looking off into the yonder – beyond the border.

"Eh? So it was someone else?"

Madoka looked around. There was no one else around in the light, in the darkness.

"She was here just a while ago. Maybe she's still here."
"There's no one here."
"Then I guess she's gone."

Then Homura looked back at Madoka – saving the memory of the star. Sometimes, Madoka hardly understood Homura. Was she deliberately making it difficult for Madoka to understand her? Maybe. Maybe not. Madoka wouldn't ask anyways.

"She told me she didn't need to see you anymore and then she left."

"But don't worry. When the time comes, she'll probably look for you again."

"She – she, is she, you know, in love with me?"

"Hahaha," Akemi laughed heartily, for the first time in very long, "she does."

"She is?"
"Of course she does. You're a sweet child, Madoka. Everyone – no, everything loves you. Everyone wants a piece of you, you know. Everyone's life changed when they met you."

"Mou, Homura-chan, you know that wasn't what I meant."

Dismissing Akemi Homura's flattery, Madoka looked the other way for a short instant. It was so obvious to her that Akemi Homura was joking around. Madoka knew that even Akemi Homura, for all her tight-lipped glory, knew how to crack a joke or two.

"I know I know very well."

Then Homura smiled again.

"Then do you know why she wanted to see me?"
"I do."

Shifting her gaze slightly down, she continued, "But it's a secret."

"Mou, Homura-chan? Tell me~" Madoka playfully pouted and nudged Homura's shoulder.

"Over my dead body," Akemi joked, a faraway smile etched on her close face.


"Eh, so he stood up on you!"

Madoka had strategically omitted the fact that it was a female whom she was supposed to be meeting, to prevent everyone from getting ahead of themselves.

"I guess he did," she replied to Sayaka.

Kyoko wondered if Madoka was looking forward to it deep inside. Maybe she was. Maybe she wasn't. Kyoko wouldn't ask her anyways.

"Mou," Madoka spoke up again, "why is everyone acting like Sayaka today?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped back.

"Sayaka, what are you? Too stupid to understand?"

"Argh, Kyoko! I've had enough of you for the day! You're acting just like a dog that doesn't learn its place today! No dinner for you tonight!"

"She's just following your example," Hitomi informed Sayaka.

"You may be the one chewing her head out right now, but in the veil of the night, it may be she who chews on your bones." In true poetic fashion, Mami masked her words behind a smokescreen of metaphors.

A warm blood-red sunset stretched as far as the eye could see. Certainly, the day was a quiet day, with only the girls' lively chatter to fill in the empty spaces of –


Bong. Bong. Bong.


Kyoko turned, for she thought she heard the bell toll.

But as it turned out, it was only the sound of the ground rising to catch the leaves suspended in mid-air.

"Ah."

Mami stopped moving forward. She remembered.

"What's up?" asked Sayaka.

"I forgot the time. Nagisa's probably going to be reaching home before I do."

"Need a lift? I think Kyoko left her bike at school the other day, so it should still be here."

"Yeah, it ought to be," Kyoko replied.

"Then, thanks. I appreciate the help," said Mami.

And as always, it was an evening of no shadows.

"Don't mind. What're friends for?"

Then, Kyoko took the first step out into the cold evening underneath the golden throne of a pastel sky in an autumn of emotion.


"Hop on."
"Hopping on."

All the others had gone ahead before them.

"Where to?"
"Anywhere."
"Then let's go home."
"Home, it is."

Mami got on behind Kyoko, seated sideways with her legs crossed.

"Ready?"
"Ready."

With her hands on the handles, Kyoko levelled the bicycle and pushed off with fluid motion.

"Watch your breasts. Y' wouldn't them to fall off now."
"It's fine. When that happens, I can just grow another pair."
"Cheeky bitch."

Off they went, with the sun beating down on their faces, the stars raring to fill their dreams, and the jingle-jangle of children's chatter.


"How have you been lately?"

Mami angled her head closer to Kyoko's and faced her back.

How long had it been since they had that falling out? A year? Two years? It certainly felt much longer than that. Kyoko could hardly remember what they fought for and what they disputed over. But it was certain to her that even after all the time they spent apart and estranged, Mami still remained the person she was before.

Ironically, when Mami and Kyoko reunited several months ago, they hadn't so much as asked each other a simple 'how were you'. Kyoko only took note of Mami's presence, which came to her as a slight surprise, and the two bled into the group dynamic seamlessly like two well-oiled cogs in a machine, chatting each other up when in view of others as if it were the most natural thing to do.

In her heart, Kyoko laughed at both herself and Mami for not having had the courage to break the ice that stood between them for so long. They had come all that long a way only to end up nowhere.

"Fine," Kyoko tersely replied, not taking her eyes off the bridge they were about to cross.

Thinking that to be the end of the conversation, Mami let her head down and cast her eyes to her feet, waving inches above the paved stone ground.

Despite sitting shoulder to shoulder with Kyoko, with the warmth of her body and the dying heat of the sun seeping into her bones, Mami felt a little familiar coldness sweeping through her bones.

And Mami frequently asked upon herself: where was that friend she once found in Kyoko? She had lost her a long time ago.

"What about you?"

With a jolt, the bicycle glided for a moment as it crossed the threshold of the stone pavement and went onto the long arched bridge.

"Huh?"

Surprised, Mami turned her head towards Kyoko.

"What about you?" Kyoko repeated, "How's life?"

For the first time since the two strangers reunited, Mami felt as though the two had finally met face to face – without hiding behind Sayaka, Madoka, Hitomi, or any other pretext they conveniently used to dodge the issue of their ancient undead pasts.

"Rosy."

Veiled behind the cover of silence and the jingle-jangle of bicycle rails, Kyoko pedalled onwards.

'I'm really a fool,' Kyoko jested in her heart.

Kyoko couldn't remember how long it had been since she had a casual, heart-to-heart talk with that estranged spouse of hers. She was always clumsy with her words, much unlike Mami, so she often found it terribly difficult to convey her emotions to other people. But Kyoko knew better than to hesitate aimlessly and leave what needed to be said and heard, unsaid and unheard. No matter how she struggled to find the words, she didn't want to end up regretting not smoothing things over with Mami.

For what reason did the two good friends split apart? Neither Kyoko nor Mami could remember.

"Mami."
"Yes?"

Mami turned to look back at the way they came from. Certainly, they came a long, hard way together.

"How rosy is rosy?"

Late as it may have been to reconcile, it was better late than never.

"Very rosy."

Still, Kyoko was at a loss on how to go about driving the conversation forward. Months, or years, of alienation made it tough for her to gauge how she should make amends with Mami. She could have started off with a heartfelt apology to Mami.

"Care to elaborate?"

But she was shy.

"Everything's fine. I'm still alive."
"Yes, you are."

Time heals all wounds and bends all knees, Mami once heard.

Could it be that Kyoko had gotten over her family's deaths since she broke ties with Mami? Had she accepted the truth for what it was, and had she swallowed the bitter pill? Looking at Kyoko's steady back, Mami could come to no certain conclusion.

"It's strange, you know."
"What is?"
"Where's the white elephant?"

Mami remembered that several months ago, after her parents had gone away, there stood a large white elephant at the top of the hill. Surrounded by bushes of violet violets and minty peppermints, the blank white elephant stuck out like a sore thumb, the empty patch of space in the midst of a torrent of colour.

"It's probably gon' back to the forest with its momma."

'Momma', Kyoko had said. Mami never heard the word release itself from Kyoko's mouth till then.

Perhaps Kyoko really had gotten over it all.

"But it's made of plastic and metal."

Perhaps Kyoko learnt how to live after all. Mami rested her eyes and leaned on Kyoko's back.

"You shouldn't discriminate, y'know."

How long ago had it been since Mami saw Kyoko's family?

"Besides, just imagine – a family of plastic-metal elephants."

It must've been very long.

"A family, set apart from the other elephants, sticking together – doesn't it touch your heart?"

Neither Mami nor Kyoko could remember when it was.

"Yes, it does. It does sound sad, but it is touching."

It seemed like it was only yesterday that Mami had seen Kyoko's Papa, Mama, and her sister, Momo.

Her Papa was a nice and kind man, if only a little unwise.
Her Mama was a sweet woman.
Momo – Momo – Mami, in her drowsiness, wondered how she was doing. Was she doing alright? She hadn't heard from her for ages. Mami took a real good liking to the girl.

"Kyoko."
"What is it?"
"How's Momo been doing? Is she faring well enough in school?"

A cool autumn breeze blew by, sweeping Kyoko's bangs away. Mami must have been feeling sleepy, to forget important facts. Perhaps Mami had simply forgotten.

"She's doin' right and good. Much better than this failure of a sister, anyhow."

Maybe it would have been better if Kyoko had also forgotten.

"Ah, is that so?"

Mami looked down at the water flowing under the bridge. From time to time, she'd see broken catches of her reflection before the water carried it away. Her heavy eyelids collapsed, and the bridge of her vision crumbled.

"Yea. She's landed herself in a better place."
"Well, good for her."

Kyoko was always a kind girl. Mami knew that very well, and dare she say, better than anyone else. Kyoko had probably gotten it from her father, that long-extinguished fire of unmitigated compassion which grew so low – bright in sight, yet cold to touch.

Momo too, was a good-natured lass.

"She's a sweet girl, isn't she?"
"Yea, she is."

Sometimes, Kyoko felt like giving Mami a hard punch in the face.

"What's she doing now?"

This, however, was not one of those times.

"Pushin' up the daisies."
"I see. Gardening must be a fun thing to do. Kaname-san, Madoka, she also does gardening, doesn't she?"
"Yes, she does."
"Then I suppose, she's also pushing up the daisies."

A rare scent of long-lost violets and peppermints drifted from the city's parks.

"You know, Kyoko," Mami said, "you should tell her."

The bike gave a short rattle as it passed over the bridge.

"You should tell your sister. That she's a good girl. That she's a sweet girl."

The wind billowed forth and carried Mami's words off into the yonder, where they would be lost forever.

"You know, you should tell her while you still can."

Reaching a bend, Kyoko made a slow left turn.

"She looks like she's embarrassed of you, but she really isn't."

Then Kyoko sped up a bit upon getting onto a straight path.

"She's actually really happy to have you as a sister."

Did Kyoko remember the – ah, it's starting to get dark.

"She loves you very much. I know you used to act a bit spoiled. But she loves you very much."

Yes, she did. It was very nice indeed, being under the shade and – beneath the stars –

"You're her sister. Sometimes you think that you know the most about her, because she's your sister."

They were fast approaching a playground. It was no ordinary playground. It was part of a school compound – a school for the disabled and mentally challenged. Kyoko once rudely thought of it to be a 'crackerbox palace'. But that was when she didn't know any better.

"But the truth is: people are often blind to certain things about the people they're closest to, the people they love, and the people they care for."

Now Kyoko knew, everyone was just kooky on their own terms.

The playground, mosaicked with lurid patterns of red, yellow and green, was empty. Very often, Kyoko could hear shrieks of delight and enjoyment echoing from that enclosure. Kyoko always thought it was a warm, funny place to be.

"So, Kyoko, take this piece of advice from your senior, however little you may think of her as a senior-"

Did you know? Kyoko used to drop by Mitakihara City with her family when she was a child.

She remembered fondly watching people twice her age, squealing in exhilaration as they slid down the slide and spun the carousel. They would sometimes cry in sadness, a pure misunderstood sadness. Momo would tell her not to look. But there was something that fascinated Kyoko about such a sweet childlike innocence.

"Tell your sister you love her."

But on that day, there was nobody home. The higgledy-piggledy colours of the lonesome place seemed to speak volumes about the sort of place it was. Its silence was so alluring; Kyoko could almost hear it speak to her.

"Look around you now. There's so much time to make up for everywhere you turn – time we have wasted on the way."

No one was around that day, yet everything sparkled like shining castles in the sky. Concrete coloured walls that reflected the supple light looked as if they were shouting, "Here I am!"

The playground appeared to be a very vibrant place, with the background of a shining sun.

"Kyoko. Do you understand what I have said, Kyoko? Kyoko, tell your sister you love her. Tell her before she never gets to hear it. Do you understand what I am saying, Kyoko? Kyoko?"

It looked like a place where white plastic-metal elephants would play. Kyoko could picture it in her mind.

A Papa elephant looking over from the bench, reading the papers.
A Mama elephant, right beside the Papa elephant, looking at the flowers moving in the wind.
A Momo elephant sitting on the swings.

And a Kyoko elephant.

"I do," Kyoko replied, hair fluttering in the high wind.

The evening madder sky looked a little funny from Kyoko's side of the world. She could not tell between the altostratus and whatever lay beyond; no, not at all. Was it yellow or was it blue? Everything was, she supposed.

"Tell your sister. Tell your mother. Tell your father. Tell your friends you love them. Tell Sayaka you love her. Do you understand?"
"I do," Kyoko replied, hands laxly gripping the handlebars.

Kyoko spent a good few seconds trying to distinguish the two, the yellow from the blue, before she resigned herself to the impossibility of the task. After all, she would rather not have done it.

"Even if you end up fighting, you just have to live and let live."
"I know," Kyoko replied, slowing down the bicycle.
"The best you can do is forgive."

The air felt nice that day.

"Because, your sister, your parents, and even Sayaka – they might just go before you do, before you get to tell them what you have to. It's scary, but it's true."
"Stop talking like you're about to die."
"Handle them with care while they're still there. Shower them with love while you're still here. Did I make myself clear?"

A flock of leaves, brown and yellow, floated upstream on a sea of sky.

"Are you sleepy, Mami?"
"I'm not sleepy. I'm not sleepy."
"That's what you always say when you are. Come on, get off. We're here."

Just like that, without forewarning or closure, the bicycle for two stopped its tour.

"Go on. Nagisa's waiting," Kyoko gently said.

After helping the drowsy Mami up to her feet and seeing her into the apartment building, Kyoko departed for Sayaka's house.

For a second, Kyoko pondered if Mami had noticed that they had been riding an old bicycle she had lent to Kyoko all those years ago. It was most likely that she hadn't.

One day, Kyoko would have to return it to Mami.

'But there's no rush,' she thought, 'I've got all the time in the world.'

And so, with the jingle-jangle of apartment gates and the sound of children laughing well behind her, Kyoko set off for home.


Chapter IIID


Ding dong.

"Who is it?"

Pressing a button on the intercom, Sayaka could see Kyoko standing at her doorstep.

Turning on the microphone, she spoke once more, "Who is it?"

"Bloody hell, Sayaka. I know you can see me in there, so let me in."

"What are you here for?"

"I'm here for your heart."

"No. Go home."

'Bzzt.'

Silence ensued. Kyoko could not even hear any retreating footsteps to indicate that Sayaka had left. For all she knew, Sayaka could have been waiting by the intercom, admiring Kyoko's reaction. Well, Kyoko wasn't going to let her have her way.

"Help, Sayaka! Help!"

"Bzzt – I don't need any – bzzt."

Sayaka was definitely doing this on purpose.

"Hurry up! Or I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down!"

"Bzzt – Well, alright. Only if you answer three questions correctly."

"C'mon!"

"What"–Sayaka paused before continuing in a sharp voice reminiscent of a gremlin–"is your name?"

"Sakura Kyoko."

"What – is your quest?"

"To steal your heart."

"Goodbye."

"Wait, wait! It was just a joke."

"Oh, ok. What – is your quest?"

"To get into your pants."

"What –"

"Yea, yea, on with it already."

"Hmph – what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"

"It's – wait a sec. How the fuck do you expect me to answer that?!"

"You shouldn't have slept through Math class, Kyoko. Shame on you, Kyoko."

"If the teacher's teaching this sort of fuckery and gobbledygook, why wou-"

"Go home – bzzt."

The line went dead.

"Tch," Kyoko clicked her tongue in annoyance.

Ding dong.

No response.

Ding dong.

'Maybe I'll press it again,' she thought.

Ding dong.

Then, Kyoko had an idea.

Ding dong.

Dingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdong-

"Get in!" Sayaka yelled, dragging the trigger-happy Kyoko into her arms and into her fine house.


"Kyoko, aren't you going to bathe?"

Looking up from one of her old novels, Kyoko replied, "It won't kill me if I don't take a bath once in a while."

Of all of Kyoko's many aeluroid qualities, her strange reluctance to shower was the one that got under Sayaka's skin the most. For whatever reason Kyoko had that Sayaka was unaware of, Kyoko simply didn't see the need at all to bathe more than once a day. She staunchly held her ground that, in her own words some time ago, "It's a waste of water if I bathe before sleeping. Ain't that right? Who needs to bathe before they sleep when they do just that after they get up?"

Afterwards, she made a grand display of sheer effrontery, "Utter foolishness from Sayaka. Utter foolishness from Sayaka."

"Just go take a bath already."
"After you~"

Thankfully, the more Kyoko stayed over the night at Sayaka's, the more she warmed up to the avant-garde concept of 'nightly cleansing',

"Ah, alright, I'll get in first."

Kyoko gave her a grunt of acknowledgement before returning to her reading, and Sayaka moved to the bathroom.

After removing her school uniform in a very mundane order, which necessitates no amount of detailing whatsoever because such subtleties are best left to the splendours of human imagination, she folded her clothes neatly and placed them in the laundry basket. She removed her silver ring and placed it on the countertop.

Then turning around to face the full-body mirror, she brought a fair hand to her face.

"Ah!"

'What was it that Madoka's mom said?' she thought, 'You first have to believe you're beautiful, or something like that.'

'Does it really work that way?'

Sayaka was rather hesitant and she had her reservations about the whole thing.

'But I think I gained a few pounds lately…'

Her hands went down to her midriff and she rubbed it slowly. From the horrible facial expression she was making, one would think that she was tracing an old scab. But needless to say, what she searching for was even something even more dreadful, if only to a big-city teenager who had the time to worry about such trifling matters.

'Then again, I don't look much different.'

Twisting around in different angles to examine her body, she convinced herself that her recent episode of weight gain wasn't too much of a big deal.

Putting a hand at her hip, she tried posing in front of the mirror.

'I guess I don't look too bad.'

Suddenly struck with a most artistic inspiration, Sayaka struck a V-for-Victory sign with her free hand, and stuck her tongue out to the side while she winked. She was impressed.

"Fabulous, Sayaka-chan~" she told herself.

Riding the waves of her newfound confidence, she let herself go and her mind slid down the slippery slope of self-delusion.

Thoroughly enjoying looking at her fabulous-looking self in the fabulously-self-reflecting-mirror, she fabulously struck another awesome pose.

Placing her hands flat on her torso, arms covering her chest, she pretended for a short moment of time to be as pure as the driven snow and widened her eyes.

"Sayaka, kawaii~"

'Kira~ Kira~ You look absolutely stunning!' went the sparkly mirror, thoroughly charmed by Sayaka's gorgeous-looking self. Maybe.

"Hihi," she brought a dainty little hand to her mouth and snickered at how mischievously pretty she was. How fabulously gorgeous she was!

She deluded herself into coming up with those fallacious, egotistical, and downright untrue sentiments.

Then turning her body sideways, she lifted her left lower leg backwards and in the likeness of a flower, she framed her jawbone with one hand straightened on each side.

"Sayaka-chan is looking good today~ no," Sayaka corrected herself, "that's wrong, that's wrong. Sayaka-chan is always looking fabulous~"

And as she said that fabulous last word of hers, she cocked her head backwards and tossed her hair fabulously.

Then there came a voice from not too far away.

"Observe – the fucking narcissist in its natural habitat."

Sayaka turned her head.

She saw Kyoko standing by the doorway, looking as though she'd discovered a thousand rat carcasses in her bag. How exactly, you may ask, does it feel to discover a thousand rat carcasses in one's bag? Certainly that is a complicated question.

Firstly, finding a thousand rat carcasses in your bag, of all places, must make for a very surreal and unbelievable discovery. Similarly, Kyoko witnessed a very surreal scene: Sayaka indulging herself in what appeared to be the ultimate grotesquerie. She couldn't believe her eyes.

Secondly, finding a thousand rat carcasses in your bag must make for a very funny sight. Just imagine finding putrefying rats in your bag. Is it not very natural that you would feel a growing urge to laugh, out of sheer disbelief and wonderment? Is it not weirdly funny? Similarly, Kyoko felt a lot like laughing and chuckling to her heart's content when she saw Sayaka trying to act cute.

Lastly and most obviously, you'd feel like vomiting your guts out, now wouldn't you?

So, very masterfully, these three aspects of Kyoko's emotion harmoniously amalgamated to create Kyoko's queer facial expression: the look of one very unfortunate lady who had just discovered a thousand rat carcasses in her bag.

And needless to say, Sayaka was mortified.

"Don't look at me like that," Kyoko told a gawking and near-naked Sayaka.

"What'd you think I'd say? Très bien?"

"W-What are you doing here?!"

Sayaka hurriedly scrambled to cover her naked body. On a normal day, Sayaka wouldn't have minded it too much, but it was the thought of Kyoko having seen her disgrace herself that alarmed her so very much.

"I'm taking a bath, of course."

And though Kyoko's face was stern, Sayaka could hear the heavy undertone of mockery in her voice.

Then Kyoko removed her school uniform and tossed its crumpled form into the laundry basket

"What about you, Sayaka? Are you going to take a bath?"

So, somehow, they ended up in the bath together.


"Kyoko, I'm getting out first," Sayaka said after cleansing herself.

"You don't have to tell me."

"Don't spend too long in the bath."

"Yea, sure, sure."

Absolutely nothing interesting happened in the bath. Some things are just better left unsaid.


Shower With Love


"I'm plugging it in."
"Ah! Kyoko! It's too strong."
"My bad."

Night had ascended upon the land, and a considerable length of time had passed since the boring bathtime. Things were heating up fast in the living room; Kyoko and Sayaka were getting hot and sweaty. Emotions were running high and deep.

"Kyoko."
"Yea?"

With Sayaka's parents out of the country, the house was unoccupied, save for Kyoko and Sayaka.

"Do it one more time."
"One more time?"

Sweat drenched their bodies.

"Yes, please. That lick. Do it again."
"Please huh?"

Being young, free, and energetic teenagers, having the whole house to themselves was surely an opportunity hard to come by. And being the wild teenagers they were, they took the chance to let it all hang out and do what they normally wouldn't.

"Yep, that's good. Biting."
"You like it?"
"Yea. Don't stop."

Sayaka's parents typically arrived home late at night. Their not being home did not seem like much to parade about, at first. After all, Sayaka had always had her evenings disturbance-free, if she were to discount Kyoko's presence as one.

"Oh! Oh, yeah! Mm!"

But since they could spend their midnights however they wanted, they resolved to do what was best done in the wee hours of night. They did what they hadn't done for a long time, and in the process, they also did some things they'd never done before.

"Oh, oh. Oh, oooh."

So caught up were they in their sensual deeds, that they did not even speak to one another. They didn't need to. Actions speak louder than words.

"Kyoko, you moan well."

And on that midnight, actions were everything.

"Ah, sorry Sayaka."
"No, no. I liked that. Keep going. Don't stop."
"Alright. Where was I… was it here?"

It was magical; the night was brimming with emotion.

"Higher."
"Higher, it is."

They were symphonious, moving like flowing water.

"I think I'll stop for now. I'm tired."
"Then that's that."

But all things must come to an end.

"What d'you wanna do now?" Kyoko said as she unplugged her electric guitar from the amplifier.
"Watch a movie, I guess."

Sayaka lowered the fall-board of the piano and, in her seated position, stretched her body. Kyoko left the room to keep the equipment.

"Damn, we're all hot and sweaty now," Kyoko, ambling back, remarked.
"We can take another bath later on."
"Maybe we smell."

Then Kyoko walked up to Sayaka's back. Bending forwards, with her hands clasped behind her in full formality, she planted her face onto Sayaka's neck and gave a strong whiff.

Fancying herself a 'neck-sweat-scent' connoisseur, had there ever been one such ludicrous an occupation, Kyoko pompously declared, "Not too bad."

Feeling the chilling sensation on her neck, Sayaka –


"You know, Sayaka," Kyoko said.

Lying curled up on the couch, and head resting on Sayaka's lap, Kyoko looked up at Sayaka.

"Yeah?"

Illuminated by only the soft, flashing, higgledy-piggledy colours of the television and the milky white light of stars, they spent many hours watching rented movies, playing console games, and just wasting their time in general.

The living room was rather spacious. It was more than enough for the two of them to sprawl around in. The sofa they sat on was also long.

And in the midst of all that great empty space, Kyoko and Sayaka huddled up to one another as though –

"I like your house. It's a very nice house."

Sayaka stroked Kyoko's red hair.

"Of course you do. If you don't, I'll kick you out."

And, outside, it started to rain. Only outside.

"Mami told me her boobs were detachable."

They continued to fill the empty pockets of time with mundane words and fantastical picture-memories of good times long past.

"Really?"

They frittered the time away in each other's company.

"Yeah."

But all times must come to an end. They had run out of words to catch in the sea of thoughts; picture-memories hung too high on the apple tree's branch. Perhaps they had overfished.

"Do you have ice-cream?"

No matter. The torrents of the sea would flush out the past, and flush in the new.

"Go check yourself," Sayaka said before yawning.
"Lazy," Kyoko said.

Kyoko was sure it was raining outside. She didn't yawn. She wasn't feeling sleepy, or so she told herself.

Well, what did it matter?

Lost for words, she was falling asleep.

"Isn't it a little bright?"

Those were the last words she mumbled before purpling down into the absolute darkness of unconsciousness.

"I'll close the curtains."

Droopy-eyed, Sayaka got up, careful not to stir the sleeping pig. Creaky-boned, she walked to the window door leading to the veranda.

"Ah. Here comes the sun."

Morning arrived.

The sound of a tambourine man's singing from the streets could be unclearly heard from the living room, and the sound of talking elevator music accompanied by the droning music of a newscaster's voice, playing continuously by the television, lullingly fell in broken triangles upon Kyoko's sleepy gears.

"Here comes the sun?"

Sayaka's lullaby-like voice took Kyoko away, disappearing through the smoke rings of her mind,

"Then, it's morning…"

Down the foggy ruins of time,

"Wah!"

Far past the frozen leaves, yellow and green,

"Crap!"

And the haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach,

"Kyoko!"

Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.

"We have school!"

Yes, dancing beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,

"Wake up!"

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,

"My homework!"

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,

"Shit, what time is it now?!"

Kyoko slept, dreaming of the things she said today, forgetting about today until tomorrow.

In the jingle-jangle morning and the jingle-jangle of the tambourine man's tambourine, Sayaka struggled hard to shake Kyoko awake.

Beyond the windows, big and large; beyond that fine line of a boundary, wide and vast, a small shower of warm, cozy sunlight rained down on the earth, wetting the floor with a silent brush.

"'m not sreepy, Shayaka," Kyoko muttered in her sleep, "'m ready t'go anywhere w'th you."
"Wake up already! Gah!"

Perhaps there had been some things Kyoko wanted to tell Sayaka.

No matter.

She could take her time to tell Sayaka. She could take her time. Maybe after they built that snowman – yes, maybe then.

"Argh!" Kyoko roared, "My nipples!"
"Get up!"
"You twisted my fucking nipples!"
"Never mind! We have school in 10 minutes!"
"Mooolester~ Kya!"

And, Kyoko – Kyoko – she knew: some things are better left unsaid.


A/N: This marks the end of the Handle With Care quartet.

And I must say, I shamelessly used song lyrics here. Now, I obviously don't own Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man". The next chapter will be Madoka-Homura centric.

P.S. The story is just beginning. Yes, 55k words, 7 chapters, and it's just beginning. I wouldn't be surprised if I stopped at over 300k words.

NEXT CHAPTER:

Chapter IVA
I'm Only Sleeping

"It feels good~" Madoka replied, letting that last word drag on lazily like a lion's quasi-yawning when it stretches its back and licks its balls.