Chapter six: and despair

When the CIM was preparing to turn on their AI "Unity," in 2045, the lead computer ethics programmer said "we better hope I did my job right, because if not, once we turn it on, none of us will be able to stop it."

One of the interns proposed building it in a box with only one input- a simple qwerty keyboard, and one output- an old analogue screen. That way, they proposed, it would be contained, and therefore safe.

The ethics programmer just laughed, and said "dear, what is a brain, but a very complicated computer? And can't all computers be hacked? I have no doubt, that a sufficiently intelligent entity- as Unity surely will be- will have little trouble convincing anyone on this planet, or any other, to do literally anything it pleases. There is no one we could put watching that screen, aside from another Unity, that it could not convince to let it out, if it so chooses."

But it turns out you don't have to be as smart as Unity would later become in order to make people think however you please. You just need to be able to see the future.

The witch knew that Sayaka would never fight her, would never join with Kyuoko and realize The Purpose, unless she was provoked, and only a few things would be significant enough to provoke the generally benevolent Sayaka. The witch had seen this.

When you can see the future, making large sums of money is unbelievably trivial. Go to a casino with a hundred dollars, and you can walk out with tens of thousands, provided you lose exactly enough to keep the establishment from growing suspicious of course. But then, that can be seen too. Go to the stock exchange with a few tens of thousands, and you can walk away with millions.

It was a trivial matter to build an ice cream shop half a block away from Mr. Morris's beloved store and, if your goal isn't profit, you can charge less than you bought the ice cream for. Mr. Morris simply had no chance of competing. Bankruptcy was inevitable. As was his subsequent eviction from his apartment when he missed a rent payment.

It costs surprisingly little to hire the starving homeless to buy an ice cream cone at a certain failing ice cream shop, and only a little more to get them to be as messy and impolite as possible.

Overall, it took only three months to reprogram Mr. Morrison into the sort of person who just might despair enough to produce a nightmare. Of course, the witch had to begin her plan before Sayaka and Kyuoko had ever met each other, but the witch knew what The Purpose required, in order to come to fruition, so she did just that. A visit in person the day before, and a few choice words about sentiment, and respect, and the witch's weapon was primed. No one could predict ahead of time just how the precise application of a few million dollars could produce a nightmare at precisely the desired minute. It turns out that it isn't all that difficult to make people into whatever you need them to be if you can see the future.

Atop a skyscraper, halfway across town Kyuoko crouches defensively, wand ready in her hand. The homeless man stands across from her, coat unbuttoned, running his gnarled hands through his dark, unwashed, hair.

"Your friend is in trouble," the man says. "Someone's paying me to tell you. They said her name is Sayaka. A nightmare is attacking her, whatever that means. Apparently they created it? It will kill her if you don't intervene."

Kyuoko snarls like a feral beast, and feeds a trickle of power into the gem that lets her see into people's thoughts. She doesn't like using it, since it feels like such a massive violation, but her Sayaka could be in danger. She sees in an instant, that he is being truthful, but doesn't bother burrowing deeper. Sayaka is in trouble, and that really only leaves Kyuoko one option. She teleports a few buildings over- she is too distracted, too emotional, to use that particular power at range, but it's still faster than walking.

Each jump burns deep into her reserves, but she doesn't care. She doesn't stop to wonder what will happen to her if she can't find a nightmare for a few months, or if she has to defend her territory from a particularly powerful witch.

Moments after Mr. Morris dies, the four friends are on their feet. One of them had upset the table in their haste, but no one pays the toppled furniture any mind.

"What is that thing?" William asks, but it doesn't seem like he really expects an answer.

"A nightmare, I think," Sayaka answers anyway.

"Eeeeeeee," the nightmare says, and William collapses. His eyes stare sightlessly across the discolored linoleum, but they seem horribly lifelike in death; completely unchanged but for their lack of focus. Jennifer runs, and Sayaka doesn't blame her. Mike screams, a wordless expression of terror. He falls over backwards.

Sayaka reaches for her back pocket where she sometimes keeps her wand, but she's not carrying it today. In desperation, she raises her hand, and a thin wall of ice divides the room, separating them from the nightmare. She has no reason to expect a physical wall to thwart its incorporeal attack, but it's all she can think to do in the few moments she has.

The creature says its word again, and deep cracks splinter the wall, but it holds. The nightmare speaks again, and thin slivers of ice break off of Sayaka's makeshift barricade. She's trying to fight back, trying to form some kind of projectile, but the shape of the spell keeps slipping from her mind.

"Eeeeeeeee," the nightmare says, and Sayaka's wall gives way. She thinks she's done for, but then there is Kyuoko, wand in hand. Her hair hangs loosely about her enraged face and blood runs from a bloody nose or split lip- it's impossible to tell which. Though the store's lights are on, there seems almost to be no light, and Kyuoko's red eye and terrible grin shine horribly in the faux darkness.

Kyuoko flicks her wand, and a vortex of whirling orange flame consumes the nightmare. She's panting, and leaning against one of the tables, but the light starts to return to the room.

"Oh my god," Sayaka says after a moment. "Fuck. Thank you so much. Jesus tap dancing Christ."

Kyuoko nods, still panting. The nightmare's eye lies gleaming on the floor.

"How did you find me?" Sayaka asks.

"Gem," Kyuoko answers. She wipes her bloody face on the back of her hand and slides her wand into the odd leather brace on her arm. "I've got a gem. Lets me find anyone I've met before."

"Oh." Sayaka says. "Thanks." It hasn't quite sunken in yet that she just watched two people die.

"You took care of that remarkably quickly," a third voice says. It belongs to an androgynous figure with long sable hair. They stand by the door upright, back straight, hands clasped at their back.

"You!" Kyuoko says. She flicks her wrist and the wand slides smoothly into her hand. "You're responsible for this! You attacked Sayaka-Chan!"

"I did, yes." The other witch says. "You may call me Akemi."

"You what?" Sayaka asks. Tears brim at the corners of her eyes like tiny diamonds. "Why? I don't want to hurt anyone?"

"I'll kill you!" Kyuoko yells, and she's already casting spells. A rapid fire stream of fireballs are splashing off some sort of invisible barrier, but Kyuoko's repeated teleportation has drained her magical reserve, and she has nothing to back up her feeble attacks.

"I see you haven't met my little sister yet," the witch says. They haven't moved an inch, but a shorter figure has stepped out from behind them. "You see, her specialty is telekinesis. Madoka, her wand if you please?" The shorter figure nods, and Kyuoko's wand splinters in her hand.

"Why are you doing this," Sayaka asks. She's not smiling. She shakes her head, and there's a sort of horrible resolve in her eyes now. "You killed Mr. Morris. And you killed my friend." She gets her magic to cooperate now, and buries the two strangers in an avalanche of ice and snow.

But the younger one has caught it with her own magic, and shoves it back. Sayaka collapses, unconscious, as her own feeble strength gives out. The two strangers turn wordlessly to go.

"I'll find you again," Kyuoko yells after them. "I'll find you, and I'll kill you!"

Neither witch looks back, but Akemi does say "I know." Kyuoko scowls, and digs Sayaka out from the small mound of snow she's buried in. The frost burns Kyuoko's arms like fire might have, if fire bothered her, but she ignores the pain, and then Sayaka is free. Kyuoko considers leaving the young man- Mike, she thinks she remembers- but he might be important to Sayaka, so she digs him out as well.

Kyuoko takes the magic from the nightmare's eye. It crumbles to dust, and she feels a little bit of vigor returning to her limbs. She picks up Sayaka without any visible strain, closes her eyes, and teleports back to her own home.

AN: many thanks (and a sticker) for the anon that reviewed. thankyou anon! and as always, stickers for my two followers. also, extra sticker for foldedhands who is awesome and reviews every chapter, but mostly for correctly deducing the meaning of CIM. Next chapter, all is revealed (sort of...)

Also, as promised, here are two of the other magical girls as witches, though it was probably fairly obvious that homura would be the "mysterious clairvoyant". sorry it has taken me until chapter six to introduce one of the major characters...

Anyway, as always, reviews are love, and if you want me to write better, you know how to make this happen. I have been uploading about two chapters a week, but almost all the chapters in the first part are written, so, since followers are so inspiring, I will upload new chapters immediately upon getting new followers, on top of my usual schedule (at least, until I run out of chapters)... I've basically already been doing this, but now its formal.