It had been a while sense Amaya and Hana had been out of their houses, and so they had decided to meet at the park at around lunch time. Shirou would serve as Amaya's escort, and Sakura would go with Hana. Rin would have gone with Shirou, however, she had business to attend to with Lord Waver concerning deciphering the new Grail, and he had information on another Master.
It would seem as though this war was particularly slow to start off, even though from intelligence gathered from several different sources said that all of the Masters were already in Fuyuki at this point. More than half of them were foreigners, so Shirou wouldn't be surprised if they were all simply finding their bearings in the town and setting up barriers around their locations.
Nonetheless, he would keep an eye out for anyone potentially looking to pick a fight. He knew that Amaya's and Hana's Servants were Servants for a reason, but he honestly still didn't want such young girls fighting, and would take it upon himself at any point if necessary.
As he was walking with his daughter, he noticed that the two of them were being terribly quiet. That seemed to be the problem with young teenagers. They never really seemed to talk with their parents on much.
"Hey," he started. "Why don't you see if Assassin wants to come out with us from being dematerialized for so long?" He supposed it might drive anyone nuts to not do something for so long, after having been dead and all.
Amaya looked up, seemingly jolted back to reality. It was then that he realized that the reason she was so quiet was probably because of being lost in deep thought.
"Oh, yeah. I guess it would be a good idea."
"It is a good idea." He winked at her, in that silly way he always did whenever they were playing.
Assassin didn't seem to have a problem with coming out, now that they had gotten her some public-appropriate clothes. If she had gone out in her original clothes, countless heads would have been turned at a cosplaying teenager, and a select few heads might be turned to a low-class Servant. An easy target.
When they reached the park, it would appear that Sakura and Hana had gotten a similar idea about inviting Archer to materialize and enjoy the day with them.
The trees were just beginning to loose their flowers, soon to be replaced with rich green foliage, so whenever the breeze blew by, a shower of pink and white petals came floating down, sprinkling themselves in everyone's hair.
Sakura had brought a wooden picnic basket and a large blanket to spread over the grass. In the basket were some sandwiches, drinks, and pocky. Just enough for everyone, and it occurred to Amaya that perhaps her aunt had counted ahead of time on Shirou to want the Servants to be with them.
It was obvious that the two Servants had been close to each other in life, as they sat side by side, quite literally leaning on one another.
"I forget," Sakura spoke to them after having been conversing with Shirou and the young Masters. "What were your names again?"
The two looked at each other. "Kaname Madoka," Madoka said with a small nod.
"And Akemi Homura," Homura stated.
"So what did you guys do to be Heroic Spirits?" Hana inquired.
"We were Puella Magi," Madoka said. She set down her can of Milkis, and Homura took another sip of her own before continuing the subject.
"It's really a rather long story," she started. "But to put it simply, our lives took place over two different universes, not to mention countless timelines."
The other four just stared at them. "Well how does that happen?"
"Again, long story," was Akemi-san's short reply.
Well then, Amaya thought. Though I guess it doesn't matter right at the moment.
Other small talk was made amongst the six of them, and by the time they were done with catching up (not that much had happened in the last few days), eating, and cleaning up, well over an hour had passed. Not that anyone there wanted it to end soon.
After packing up the blanket and throwing away their trash, they decided to all go for a leisurely walk down to the signature red bridge of Fuyuki City. They stopped at a couple of shops for miscellaneous items, and by the time they reached the bridge, evening was approaching. The day had been fair and enjoyable, and so it was time that they go on their separate ways for now. Rin had told them not to stay out past dark, and there was no going against the words of that woman in her household when it came to such things.
But just as they had begun to part, a strange wind came on from the streets, and Akemi-san suddenly went on edge. Kaname-san was soon to follow her lead.
"What is it?" Shirou asked them, their tension rubbing off on him.
"Wraiths." Instantly after Homura uttered the word, a huge, whitish figure, with half its face covered with scattered pixels, loomed over a nearby building.
Shirou held out his hands to his sides, and a pair of falchions shattered into existence in his palms, one white and one black.
But Kaname-san looked to him and shook her head, saying, "Thank you, but this is a job for Puella Magi." And with that, both her and Akemi-san's casual outfits burst away in small, glowing, glass-like shards, to be replaced with the cute and frilly dresses they were summoned in.
They leapt upward and toward the Wraith, rosewood bow and military arsenal drawn. Pink blazes of light streamed toward the white-robbed figure, and it moaned like a ghost in the wind. Before Homura could pull out an RPG, the beast of despair raised a glowing hand, and swung at the magical girls, who both dodged aside with seeming effortlessness. They continued to glide farther up the sides of the buildings, closer to the thing's face, buried in little squares and rectangles. The Wraith was swinging about violently, trying to swat the girls out of the air like flies. Along with this, randomized bursts of energy would form around the Wraith and then fire at a non-linear course at the two Puella Magi. They managed to dodge them, something Madoka did out of sheer knowledge of these things and their capabilities, Homura from sheer experience.
Alas, an RPG was drawn form Homura's stash of weaponry she kept nowhere, and the fight began to conclude with a bang as the creature was unable to fend off such a blow, but that was not quite the end of it.
"Madoka, now!" Homura shouted, and her friend complied. She was right on top of the building next to the wraith, and from this vantage point, the beast didn't stand much of a chance. A flashing rozen burst throbbed at the crest of Madoka's bow before a huge magneto flare fired into the Wraith.
And with that, they landed back on the ground in front of four people who looked flabbergasted, right after Homura picked up a small black cube that had fallen from the Wraith.
"So that's what Puella Magi do," Hana said aloud to herself.
"Apparently…" Amaya didn't think her mom had too much to worry about. That thing had been incredibly fast, and looked as though it would kill with a single swipe, had one landed, but these girls had wiped it out in a matter of less than a minute.
The Incubator tilted his head. "I don't know who these two are yet, but they sure are powerful," he said.
"You sure as heck ain't kidding!" The green-eyed girl was standing on the roof of a sky-scraper a good ways away with a pair of binoculars. "Boy they just knocked that sucker out…I mean, they're not entirely hard to beat one at a time, but still…" Her bouncy curls blew about in the wind, her usually mousy-ish hair turned almost ginger in the light of the sunset. "And you say you don't know who they are?"
"Not a clue," said the Incubator. "Though I could check in with the Japan unit's data base and find out."
"That'd be nice. You wouldn't mind, would you, ya little space cat?"
"Not at all," was his reply as he closed his eyes for a while, the circle on his back glowing a bit.
"I have the identity of one of the girls, but not the other's."
"Alright, well something is better than nothing," she said.
"Her name is Homura Akemi, from Mitakihara, and former student at the city's middle school."
"Former student? Girl still looks like she's freaking thirteen or something," said the green-garbed Puella Magi.
"Well, it appears she met her demise as a magical girl about a year ago, according to that region's overseer." the Incubator informed.
The teenager stared at the space cat like he was nuts. "Well you're records are off or something," she debated. "There is no freaking way that she's here if she's dead."
"Is that so?" The creature's vision seemed to train on the back of her right hand.
"Eh, bug off. I mean, Puella Magi as Heroic Spirits?" she chuckled. "If it were that simple, I wouldn't have to be putting up with the jack-ass I'm living with now."
"Hm. Though, just because it is unlikely, doesn't mean that it's impossible."
"True that…but still…" She squinted some more through her binoculars, watching the group of six split into groups of three, and go on their marry ways. "And no info on the kid in pink?"
"None acquired."
She sighed. "Well then…I guess this just might require a little more investigating, huh?"
"Perhaps, if you wish to. I too am interested in the circumstances. This Grail War you speak of sounds intriguing."
"It is until you get the most obnoxious Servant ever," she mumbled.