Episode 10: Swordbearer's Curse
"The sky is crying," Marisa looked pensive as she spoke, staring out the window at the wet and dreary morning. All the girls were up early, the effort needed to get Junko up and out the door saw to that if nothing else, but although there was much that needed to be done, they couldn't actually do anything until they could get back to Gensokyo.
"How very . . . poetic of you, Marisa," replied Alice, a bit warily. In Alice's experience, her love had never taken well to enforced downtime, and the puppeteer was mentally preparing to have to restrain Marisa when her impulses turned to the devious and destructive.
"No, she's right," added Homura, grim-faced as ever. "It seems Ragnarok is not simply content with bringing us misery. Witches walk in the shadows once again, and the world itself weeps at the pain of it all. We must bring about the conclusion of this fight and quickly, or I fear what might happen."
"Y'know, that's what burns me the most about all this," grumbled Marisa from her seat on the windowsill. "If Yukari was here, she would tear this Ragnarok guy a new asshole, and I mean that in the most literal since, and then she'd stuff the rest of him up his own hole and we'd be done in time for dinner. But nooo, she has to go play Queen Bitch, get us and you guys fighting each other, and now we have to fix her too. Where's the freakin' justice?" Madoka and Homura looked at each other as they absorbed the rant, and heard in the other's thoughts a shared resolution: This girl and Kyōko are never, ever to be let near each other unsupervised.
"Speaking of, any word on when we're going to be able to transit again?" Homura flipped her hair and consulted her cellphone with a frown. "Right now everything is under control, but that will last precisely as long as Yamaguchi's good will and Aya Miki's valium prescription."
"Reimu said she should have a solution by this afternoon, and I trust that she will come through. In the meantime, I will go and calm the Oyabun," replied Alice. "After all, the 'carrot and stick' method only works if you offer both a carrot and a stick." Homura nodded her assent and Alice left the room, Marisa hurrying behind.
Homura's question was a popular one for the morning, or at least popular with people not named "Patchouli Knowledge." An expedition to the library was forestalled in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's large kitchen by a very frazzled-looking succubus.
"I have been sent to inform you all that the teleportation spell will be ready when it is ready, and not before," said Koakuma in a sarcastic parody of anger. "Furthermore, until it is ready, should anyone who is not named 'Koakuma' and is not bearing a kilogram of chocolate and a liter of coffee enter the library, they shall be, and I quote: 'disjunctioned, torn limb-from-limb, and then left to drown in their own blood', end quote. Now, is there anything else I can assist you with?" asked the succubus, licking her lips.
"Hey, here's a dumb question, but does that actually ever work?" Kyōko looked up at Koakuma. "The whole 'blatant flirting at all hours of the day' thing?"
"Hasn't so far, but you can't blame a girl for trying. Or you could be really really kind and fall for it anyway?" Kyōko just stared.
"Weaaak." came the assessment.
"Hey, what do you want? I've been awake for 25 hours now, and I've been forcibly teleported all over the damn Mansion. Come hit me up sometime when I'm on my game, and we'll see what happens." Without her falsely chipper attitude, the succubus looked at least as bad off as she was claiming, possibly worse.
"You mean besides me skinning the both of you alive?" Sayaka joined in the conversation.
"Well you're no fun. Or maybe you're just afraid I'll steal her away?"
"Yeah right! You must need sleep worse than you look, if you think you can pull that off!"
"Oh yeah, wanna bet?"
"No thanks, I already have my quota of Faustian bargains for this lifetime. And before you ask, no I won't change my mind should I happen to die and get resurrected. Not that I don't trust you or anything, but no need for there to be temptations in the heat of battle now is there?"
"Ahh, phooey!" Koakuma replied, but she was grinning as she left the kitchen. Peace reigned for all of 2 minutes, and then Satori trudged in, looking worse off than Koakuma had, if such a thing was possible.
"First person who says 'look what the cat dragged in' is reactor chow, got it?" Satori growled out as she headed for the coffee urn. Her own eyes were barely open, but Satori's Third Eye was putting out plenty enough glare to go around.
"If I may ask, what did happen to you?" Reimu asked, which earned her a look of daggers from Satori.
"I was kept awake by the emotional fumblings of two idiots who should have long ago realized their feelings for one another!" came the snarled reply.
"Huh? I didn't think Rin and Okuu went like that-"
"I was referring to you and Remilia. My pets have a more sisterly relationship." The last bit caused Reimu to blanch, which in turn caused Sayaka to look at the shrine maiden in a perplexed manner.
"She is contemplating the connotations of 'sisterly' in light of a comment which I made yesterday in retaliation for a poorly-chosen thrust in our conversation at the time," Now that the Elixir of Life in her coffeecup had restored a measure of functionality, Satori preempted Sayaka's question. "Yes, I can read minds, no I do not care if it comes off as rude. Ask me again when I have had a chance to properly rest. As for Reimu, you may ponder where the truth lies with regards to myself, my sister, and my pets, but please do not do so in front of Rin, I have no wish to vicariously experience you getting disemboweled." Satori refilled her coffee and shuffled over to a seat.
"You're a real ray of sunshine this morning," muttered Reimu.
"You would be too if horrific powers from beyond the realm of understanding were attempting to inflict a fate worse than death upon someone you cared about, leaving you the option of delivering the coupe de grace yourself or watching her devastate your homeland in an uncontrolled rampage." Satori took a sip of her coffee, daring the others to gainsay her.
"At least someone would mourn Utusho. Cirno wouldn't have gotten even that much."
"With reason. Cirno has not endeared herself to many, if any, of the people she has been in contact with. Of all the things you could spend your time on, Reimu Hakurei, why that ice fairy?"
"Because someone has to care, damnit!" Reimu banged her fist on the table, making the coffee cups, and coffee drinkers both jump. "What do you think this is all about, anyway?"
"I had rather suspected you were gathering together all of the heavy hitters whom you could strong-arm into helping you to go smash in Yukari Yakumo's face in order to salve your ego. If that is not the case, then by all means, please enlighten me."
"You really thought this was all just to settle a grudge? Hah! I have much bigger fish to fry than that old hag, namely the Purifiers. But Yukari has outright declared that she intends to be a problem, so that makes her Item Number One on the list. And no, that doesn't mean smashing her face in. In fact I am going to ask her, politely even, to not interfere until the Incident is resolved."
"And when that fails to work?" came the reply, full of disbelieving sarcasm.
"If that happens, then we smash her face in. But I want to at least make the attempt to handle things in a civil manner."
"Very well, but don't say I didn't warn you."
"Trust me, I know how unlikely it sounds." Reimu drained her own cup, which had been green tea instead of coffee and stood. "I asked for the others to be here in three hours, so I had best get started."
"Uh, started with what?" Kyōko asked.
"Praying for good fortune," replied Reimu with altogether too much cheer.
"So, you're sure this is going to work?" Marisa was fidgeting in her chair nervously. For a criminal enterprise, the Yamaguchi-kai certainly looked and felt like a smallish government bureaucracy, right down to the bored secretary at the front desk and the cheap plastic chairs in the waiting room.
"Yes I'm sure. We're playing to basic human instincts, and those certainly haven't changed since I was a child."
"Um, would now be a good place to point out you grew up in Makai, with fallen seraphs for parental figures?"
"No, no it most certainly would not be."
"Just checking." Marisa thrust her hand into her pocket, grasping the reassuring weight of the Hakkero, just in case.
"You may enter now," said the secretary, motioning the magicians to Oyabun's office.
"Good morning, ladies. To what do I owe the honor of your presence?" The acid tone of Yamaguchi's words made clear that he considered the visit anything but an honor.
"We are here to make amelioration for the manner of our first visit. You must understand that the foe is exceptionally troublesome and we were obligated to act as quickly and decisively as Humanly possible," said Alice, stressing the "Humanly" to reinforce her argument for breaking ties with the Purifiers. "At the same time, we recognize that we were overzealous in presenting our arguments, and so I offer some repayment." Alice pressed a coin upon the Oyabun's desk and slid it across with one finger. Yamaguchi snatched up the coin and his face began to fall as he read the inscription which said "1 Yen".
"Is this a . . . joke?" The Oyabun trailed off when he saw the inscription on the obverse face, which declared the coin's date of manufacture as "Meiji 17". "Where did you acquire such a thing?"
"It was simply a matter of being in an appropriate place at an appropriate time," replied Alice as she fished out six more of the venerable coins. Five were handed across immediately, but the last coin remained under the puppeteer's finger. "If it is possible, I need an account set up so that I and any of my associates who happen to be in the area can draw funds without drawing undue notice. Say perhaps half the market value of this last piece?" Yamaguchi readily nodded assent and the last coin was passed over. Five minutes later, Alice had an anodized-metal credit card in hand and a car was waiting to usher the girls wherever they wished to go.
"See? Carrot and stick. Works every time."
"I think I'd much rather have the carrot over the stick, thanks." replied Marisa with a bit of a shiver.
"Girth is better than length, or so I have been told," was Alice's counter, which turned Marisa's face scarlet. "Anyway, we have both money and time on our hands. It is time to make a long overdue adjustment."
"Uh, okay?" Marisa suddenly looked very worried. Alice eyed her companion curiously, but then shrugged.
"All I meant was we need to get one of these 'cell phones' for ourselves, to make communications easier if nothing else."
"Oh, uh, that's all? S-sounds good, ze!" Whatever it is, it will shake out soon enough. Probably. Alice made a mental note to talk with Marisa about the situation, just as soon as there was a convenient time to do so.
"Has Hitomi shown up yet?" Mami asked her fellow Puella Magi once the Gensokyans were done in the kitchen, and was greeted with shakes of the head in stereo. "If it was Kyōko, that would be one thing, but Shizuki-san doesn't make a habit of running off." Mami ignored the raspberry she was getting from the redhead, and instead chuckled as Charlotte raised her hand.
"Well, me and Cirno were planning on getting out of the Mansion for a while anyway, we could go look for her."
"That would be a good-" Mami began to speak, but Charlotte was already out the door as soon as she heard the answer wasn't going to be "no". Favoring the situation with an indulgent smile, Mami then said "It is good to see Charlotte-san is still able to act her age."
"You're not worried about what might happen to her? I mean, I get the impression Icicles and her gang aren't very well liked around here, and that was before she went, um . . . " Kyōko trailed off
"I believe the term you are looking for is 'bat-shit crazy' there Kyōko. And since when have you had trouble telling it like it is, anyway?" Sayaka looked Kyōko over intently, making sure there were no alien brainleeches or anything of the sort on her.
"Hey, bite me, Blueberry- gahh!" Kyōko squealed as Sayaka grabbed her arm and sized it up for a mouthful. "Anyway, as I was saying," growled Kyōko after snatching her arm back, "I guess all this fighting and political- er, shit, has made me feel the need to buck up a bit more, although apparently this is the wrong crowd for that," Kyōko punctuated her statement by wiping the spit on her arm off on Sayaka's sleeve, which in turn brought a squall of displeasure from the blunette.
"Alright, up 'n at em, you lazy oafs! We got stuff to do!" Charlotte stood way the hell back as Cirno roused the rest of her gang to wakefulness. True to her word, Remilia had given the Nineballs sanctuary, even though the room they had been given looked more like a closet than a bedroom. Still there were plenty of futons, pillows, and blankets on hand, if only because Sakuya Izayoi knew the Nineballs would raid other parts of the Mansion for what they felt they needed otherwise.
"Ngaa . . . what the hell, 's still light out. Too early to be up!" Mystia tried to re-wrap herself in a blanket, but that was snatched from her grasp by Cirno.
"Yeah, and some of us can't see in the dark, so move your butts!"
"What're you talking about, you come out on night capers all the time!" replied the furious sparrow youkai.
"I was referring to Rumia, genius!" The retort earned Cirno a pillow in the face, but before the other girls could gang pile on, Wriggle held up a fist.
"Whoa, wait, stop for a sec. Cirno, say that again!"
"What? I said 'Rumia can't see in the dark,' which is true. What's the big deal?"
"Yeah, no, I get that. (Sorry Rumia, but you know it's true)." Wriggle added the aside in when she noticed the little darkness youkai getting steamed up enough to start throwing bullets. "But when did Cirno stop saying 'Eye' like a little kid who was dropped on her head too many times?"
"Hey, choke on it, Lightbulb, there's nothing wrong with the way I uhhh-" Cirno stumbled over her words as she heard the difference herself for the first time.
"Well, the Soul Gem is supposed to repair minor defects in the host body, but this would be the first time I've heard of it fixing a personality defect!" Charlotte added her two yen to the conversation, and now it was Cirno who looked hot under the collar.
"Ooh, you! I'm gonna get you for this!" Cirno burst forward in a headlong charge, but Charlotte wasn't fazed in the slightest, especially since she saw Rumia's foot had been placed in a very convenient location. Sure enough, Cirno tripped over the offending appendage which turned her charge into something of a sprawl. Charlotte sidestepped just a bit and clasped one of Cirno's flailing arms, using the momentum to pirouette the ice fairy around herself and dump her onto a futon, and Charlotte herself fell in afterward, pouncing and pinning Cirno to the mattress.
"Okay guys, where's her weak spots?" asked Charlotte, and the other girls quickly reduced Cirno to a squealing, giggling wreck as they helpfully "demonstrated" what the best ways were to send the ice fairy into overload. Of course, Cirno was fighting back, and then Mystia "accidentally" grazed Rumia's side, and the whole matter dissolved into a maniac free-for-all until everyone was too out of breath to be able to do any more damage.
"Hey, I think the new girl's gonna work out!" said Wriggle, once she could breathe again. "So anyway, what was this about stuff to do?"
"Yeah- yeah, in a minute. Eye want you to know. . . hah . . . Eye hate all of you right now!" said Cirno, still gasping for breath.
"Oops, 'Eye' think we broke her," said Mystia.
"Shaddup!"
Marisa looked at the sullen sky with a glum expression. She was leaned against a pillar in the atrium of the mall, amazed and not a little disturbed by the sheer immensity of the structure. Geez, I thought Eientei was big. Scarlet Devil Mansion was big, well on the inside at least, ze. But this, this is big. Who in their right mind would want to live here? Brrr, and it's chilly, too. There was a chill in the air as in the rain outside and it seemed to be seeping into Marisa's soul. The magician stood in the middle of the tumultuous throngs of the crowd, wearing a borrowed set of clothing and feeling utterly lost. Strangely, for all the activity, the masses seemed to be no more pleased than Marisa was, as though the rain had washed away everyone's good cheer.
A tap on the shoulder spooked Marisa, and she whirled about to see Alice standing there, with her new treasure in hand, and a light in her eyes.
"So I don't quite understand half the things the salesminion said this device can do, but even so, what I have here will revolutionize our world! Amazing, to think the Outsiders have come so far, even without magic."
"Uh, yeah . . . " Marisa slipped a hand into her belt pouch, feeling about to make sure her own treasure was still secure. Why the hell am I so nervous? It's just one little step forward, right? Yeah, that's it. And it's not like you're ever the bashful one. You're Marisa Kirisame, world-renowned for charging in headfirst and never worrying about the consequences. So get set and charge already! "Hey, can we, er, get out of here, go somewhere to talk-"
"Just a minute," replied Alice, silencing Marisa with a finger. "Aha! I did remember correctly! Hello, Homura-san," Alice already handled the phone like a native, instead of someone who had spent less than one full day in the 21st century.
Huh. Marisa felt a new finger of chill touch her, but she hardly noticed as the numbness set in. So that's it. I shouldn't have expected her to need me as much as I need her. Ah well. As long as she's happy, I guess I can't say too much. Huh. I smell roses . . .
Reimu's prayer session had rapidly devolved into a fretting session, and so she was quite relieved when none other than Koakuma came to tell her to come to the library for some good news. Remilia was there as well, and the Puella Magi had shown up as a group, probably less because of their keen interest in the Outside World and more because there was little to do in the Mansion except sit in skull-numbing boredom since everyone else was busy.
"Yes, you may all breathe a sigh of relief, I have successfully done the impossible, and done so in the space of a single evening," said Patchouli in more of a croak than a voice. The sorceress fanned out a small stack of what looked to be very unusual Spellcards. "This method isn't perfect, nor is it foolproof, so your black-white bother may be stuck Outside for a time yet-"
"And Kyōko is probably stuck here forever," said Sayaka in a stage whisper.
"Oh put a sock in it, Blueberry!" To Sayaka's raised eyebrow, Kyōko then added, "Well, you were taking things literally earlier, I wanted to see how long that would last." Instead of further replying when Sayaka gave her a raspberry, Kyōko snatched one of the "brain food" pastries off the table. The roll was stale from sitting out all night, but that didn't put even close to the worse half of things Kyōko had eaten during her vagabond days, and so it was gone before Patchouli even resumed talking.
"If you are quite finished," replied the angry magician, arcs of electricity crackling between her fingers. "These cards will facilitate teleportation. They work on the Spellcard system, so if you haven't managed to get on-board with that yet, do so. Bear in mind also that since they are Spellcards, they will count against you within a declared duel, and could be countered. Lastly, you need a specific familiar and stationary target to teleport to, and you yourself cannot be in motion when you activate the card. For those of you unfamiliar with the mechanics of matter translocation, this last restriction is a universal one; failure to ensure these conditions results in what is called a 'traumatic loss of physical integrity'."
"That sounds . . . bad." said Kyōko, around a mouthful of pastry.
"It seems even a fool can state the obvious. Should you screw up and get 'splinched', to use a vulgar colloquialism, I hope you are on good terms with the gods of the Underworld, for only divine intercession will save you at that point."
"So if we mess up, Komachi's getting another mouthful of fist, got it." smirked Kyōko. Patchouli coughed when she heard this, trying not to choke on her own disbelief, while Reimu just sighed and cradled her forehead in the manner of one with a powerful headache coming on.
"Here's a question, if I may?" Sayaka interjected, shoving another pastry at Kyōko in an effort to keep the redhead from making things any worse. "Could you reverse one of these cards, so that you could summon people to your location, rather than teleporting out?"
"Well, you could, but I don't see the point, you could only summon someone with whom you were quite familiar, and even then they would have to be willing, else they could resist or bomb out of it. Honestly it would only be good for pulling a few companions to your position . . . " Patchouli trailed off as she began to realize the implications, and then a literal exclamation point popped up over her head as she put it together, although that was perhaps the doing of Koakuma, who was only slightly trying to hide the fact she had snapped out a conjuration cantrip.
"If you included a linking invocation here, and channeled the extra mana into the counteraction effect, so that it warded enough area for the arrivals . . . " Patchouli wandered over to her desk, muttering over one of the cards the whole time, while Koakuma rolled her eyes.
"Oh great, here we go again. This time, you get to be the guinea pig, okay?"
"Sure thing, whatever you say." Sayaka was grinning as she took a handful of cards off the stack with one hand, while punching the speed-dial button on her phone with the other.
"Hold on a moment, please." said Homura across the phone line. Alice took the phone away from her ear and stared bemused at the device as she was disconnected and then almost immediately it began chirping at her. Alice growled under her breath and mashed the "answer" key- she understood enough about the technology to know what was happening, but not why Homura had felt the need to drop her so abruptly.
"Hello?" said the puppeteer in a pleasant tone of voice, not giving vent to her impatience.
"Good, you got the connection. Go ahead." Homura said across the line. Before Alice could decipher the message, another voice came on the line.
"Guess what? Patchy says we're in business! I'll be coming over in a minute to deliver the good so you can get back, and Reimu says the others are gonna be arriving soon." Sayaka's announcements brought a smile to Alice's face. Finally, things are falling into place.
"Excellent. Hey, Marisa . . . " Alice trailed off as she realized Marisa was no longer standing next to her. The magician threw out a simple divination, more annoyed that Marisa would wander off than anything, but what she sensed cause a chill to creep up her spine. "Shit!" exclaimed Alice.
"What? What happened?!" came several voices at once from the phone, startled by the vehemence of the curse.
"It seems I have swapped Witches," muttered Alice. When blurts of confusion shot from the phone, she added, "Marisa has gone missing and unless you sent Hina as a courier, there's also one of your Witches in the area."
"Shit!" hissed a voice on the line.
"Indeed." was Alice's reply.
"Where are you at? We're on our way to help!"
"Main atrium of the Mall. Head toward the Witch, that's where I will be." Alice smashed the call end button with far more anger than the calm, cool expression on her face would have suggested. She turned and began to follow the trail of the monster in their midst.
"You know the meeting is supposed to start soon, right?" Charlotte shouted over the howling winds. She and Cirno were zooming around at treetop level, searching for any sign of Hitomi. The rest of the Nineballs had been less than enthusiastic about the search, especially when they learned of the possibility that their target might be defended. 'Eye' love the gang, thought Cirno, trying to force her internal voice at least to stay the way it used to be. But yeah, they woulda been more trouble than anything. Oh well. Cirno rolled to her left then cut back sharply in a maneuver which was good enough to shake even the likes of Reimu occasionally, but Charlotte was too swift with her new flight powers to be fooled. That and hearing Cirno's plans via her empathy didn't hurt either. On any other day, the fact that one of the Puella Magi had mastered the power of unaided flight would be something noteworthy, possibly even shocking to the Gensokyan crew, but today it simply removed a minor inconvenience from a schedule of major ones.
"You know we're not gonna find her like this, right?" Cirno shouted back when Charlotte had caught up once more. "If she was smart, she ducked in to Human Village, or broke into Alice's pad for a place to hole up overnight. The wilds aren't nice at night. I should know, I help make 'em that way!" Cirno had a broad grin on her face as she said this, which earned her a glare. "Course if she was smart, she would'na run away in the first place!"
"Then why-" Charlotte started to shout again, then shook her head. Then why are we out here?!
Whoa, what the hell? Cirno radiated shock over the empathic link.
Empathic link, remember? Were you paying attention at all when we were explaining how all this works.
Yeah, yeah, sure I was.
YOU BRAT! Charlotte wound up and slung her yo-yo at Cirno, but the ice fairy looped out of the attack and blew a slobbery raspberry at her attacker.
'The focal point of a Puella Magi's existence, literally, is her Soul Gem. This device contains the girl's mortal soul and her magic. The Soul Gem must remain within a specific radius, 100 meters, give or take, of the host body. . .' and so on and so on. You guys can sure blabber on when you wanna.
Well, it's important. You screw up now and you won't resurrect.
Yeah, sure, unless you get the crazy fuzzball to fix everything. Ha! I gotcha there, don't I!
Maybe. We still don't know where the limits of Nova's powers lie, I mean she's out-and-out cheating the laws of nature. How long before that comes back to bite her on the ass? Or better yet, since it's connected to her wish, how long before she knows all of us well enough that it no longer works?
Jeez, sorry, I was just trying to make a joke.
Yeah, I know, and I appreciate the attempt. It's just something that's been on my mind a bunch, especially since I owe my whole existence to her mucking with reality like she does. Charlotte shook her head, throwing off the line of conversation with a will. So, why are we out here?
Ya never know, we might get lucky and find your idiot. But I kinda like hanging out with ya, figured we could play a bit more before being stuffed in with all the windbags.
Whatd'ya mean, play?
What what do I mean? Do ya want me to mean something by it?
I- Charlotte let out a sigh. Never mind. I think I'm reading too much into it. The peach-haired girl looked up after a minute of silence had passed to see Cirno "lounging" on her back while flying, staring back at Charlotte.
"Well, are ya gonna spill, or what? Don't leave me hangin' here, especially if you're gonna hang it on me."
". . . alright. You know how our wishes give us some general-purpose powers, a weapon, and then some other tricks, that are based on what we wished for?"
"I already said I was paying attention last night, dummy!" Cirno crossed her arms and pouted.
"Hey, shove off, it's part of the story! Anyway, Mami's special trick is her binding ribbons, and Nova's is giving reality a headache. Well mine is listening, sorta. I can hear peoples thoughts, like as if I was linked to 'em even when I'm not, and I can hear stuff over the link a lot farther away and a lot stronger than everyone else. Save it," Charlotte added when she saw Cirno have a "eureka!" moment and hold up a finger. "Actually, Nova can hear people too, kinda, only it's more like she can just tell what a person's feelings are from the outside."
"So you're like a Satori and a Miko, got it."
"A what and a who?"
"Y'know Satori, pink-haired creep with the extra eyeball on her shirt, she has the bird-bitch and the cat-bitch for pets? She's a mind-reader, just peels your thoughts right out of your head. It sucks."
"Oh, her, yeah I think I saw her talking to Reimu and Sayaka when I came down for breakfast. She looked really pissed."
"Mind reader, in the same building as all of us freaks and your freaks, and the SDM crew are already freaks." Cirno rattled off the facts like they should be patently obvious, which startled her even as Charlotte was nodding agreement. "Wait, how'd I just do that?"
"Just do what?" asked Charlotte.
"Uh, well I know Satori, kinda, but not well enough to just take her apart like that. It's like I know what her problem is, and how to make it worse if I wanted."
"Aaand now we know what your secondary is." To Cirno's questioning look, Charlotte added, "You said you wished for the strength to beat your enemies, right? Well your wish is interpreting that as 'how can I beat someone, given what I know about them', or something like that. Once you know how a person works, your magic will fill in their strengths and weaknesses."
"Ooh, really?" Cirno's eyes lit up with devious delight. "Coooool!"
"No, you may not use this newfound power to go on an epic pranking spree, no matter how legendary and awesome it might be." Charlotte rolled her eyes at Cirno's heavily exaggerated display of sadness and begging at her pronouncement. "One, it will probably burn up your Soul Gem, and remember that's a limited supply, and two Reimu will probably kick your ass for doing so. Also, shrine maiden seals will lock out the Soul Gem, and then you go flop, just like if you're out of range."
"Yuck, that sucks! Why do these things have to be so fragile, anyway?"
"Because the Incubators want us to fail and die," grumbled Charlotte in reply.
"Well they fucking suck! How soon can we off them for good?" snarled Cirno with surprising anger.
"We're working on it. They are kinda a whole alien race, so it's gonna take some doing."
"Yeah, well, they just made their worst enemy ever! Cuz I'm the strongest in the whole world, and I'm gonna show 'em what's business!" Charlotte almost fell out of the sky laughing as Cirno smacked one fist into the palm of her other hand, deadly serious. "Wait, where were we again?" Charlotte made a great spectacle out of rolling her eyes at the ice fairy.
"Well, we were talking about what your secondary power is because we discovered it while you were explaining who Satori and Miko were, not that you actually finished with that, and before that I was explaining my secondary because it related to why I was reading too much into the situation earlier and-" A resounding BOOM interrupted Charlotte, and wisps of dark smoke began to rise in the distance. "-now, things are exploding. Great. And- hey, wait! Where are you going!" Indeed, Cirno was already charging headlong toward the rising smoke, much to Charlotte's dismay.
"Where d'ya think I'm going? Where all the action is! C'mon!" Charlotte shook her head and dove after the vexing ice fairy, stretching out with her empathic link to its' maximum extent in the hopes that Hitomi was in some way involved with the pyrotechnics. Whoa! That's . . . weird, and yet familiar. Nova? No, can't be. Wha~! No way!
"Cirno, watch out!" Charlotte threw on a burst of speed, and her Puella Magi regalia burst into being as she broke through the treetops and into a firefight. Most noticeable amongst all the beams and bullets were not one, two, but three forest fairies who had earned the Warlock treatment. Cirno heard her companion's distress through the link and examined the wretches who had fallen into the Overseer's clutches, but she dismissed them once she realized that none of the three were anyone she personally knew. But then, Cirno had to take a second look as the full horror of what she was seeing sunk in. The Grief Seeds didn't produce the webbed iron armor the Puella Magi were used to seeing, but instead partially masked the fairies' faces in poisonous black steel and their wings had been replaced by terrible blades. One thing these abominations had in common with the Warlocks from Outside was the amount of firepower they had on hand- they appeared to originally have been just common fairies of the kind you couldn't swing a Master Spark around without tagging a dozen or more, but each one was hurling out enough danmaku to make Marisa herself jealous.
What was truly shocking however, was what the fairies were attacking. Cirno gazed on in openmouthed shock as an Incubator was blown into scraps of fluff by one barrage. Homing-type shots weaved around the base of a large tree, throwing up another large explosion from which chunks of Reductor-fluff rained down. The attack spooked more of the creatures from their cover, and a wave of the sinuous and spiky fiends swarmed toward the fairies. Bullets shredded the Reductors by the dozen, but Charlotte already knew what was going to happen. Incubators were cautious about taking injuries only because revealing their true nature had a tendency to disturb potential contractees; Reductors possessed no such sentiment, and one of the Warlocks was carried down by a weight of bodies. A harsh squealing noise filled the clearing, of teeth chewing on metal, and moments later Cirno spotted the characteristic vapors of a fairy giving up its' essence.
"Holy hellsickles! What's going on there?!" Cirno pulled up short before the Reductors decided to add her to the menu. It was mostly a rhetorical question, which is why the answer came as a total surprise.
The damned and the lost are receiving their just due. A beam of utter darkness cracked across the way, leaving searing afterimages of the venomous shadow in Cirno's vision, while the fairy struck by the beam disintegrated in a puff of vapors. The source of the beam was a shadow of terror half-hidden among the trees, fronted by the form of a man carved and dressed in fathomless black. Ragnarok comes for all those who stray from the one true path. Come and face judgment, or flee and await your end in terror, your ultimate fate shall be the same. Another beam lanced out and blew away the last of the fairies, and then the shadow retreated and the Reductors followed. I shall capture all you deviants and rebels, and your fall shall hasten my ascension!
"Eye think Eye'm gonna be sick!" exclaimed Cirno, wobbling her way to altitude. "Those beams, they're bad news, like the worst thing in the world. How can he do that?"
"I'm not sure I want to know." Charlotte shivered, for she could hear what Cirno couldn't say, and even before that, she had recognized the nature of the beam; it was the corruption from a Soul Gem, concentrated into a weapon that could slay anything that ever had been alive with one solid touch. Even now, the grasses in the clearing and the trees in front of which the fairies had been floating were beginning to brown and wilt. "Come on, let's get back to the Mansion, the others will want to hear about this."
"Yeah, I suppose so."
A predator stalked through the throngs of people in the Mitikahara Mall, and they remained unaware of the danger only by virtue of not being targeted. Cold malice and lethality cloaked the predator as the prey's actions gave it away. What normally gave the prey strength, made it a predator in its' own right, here only served to draw the other predator to it. Ordinary people shivered and unconsciously shied away from the area that was soon to be a battleground; they were not aware of the supernatural powers among them, but they could feel the negative energies gathering and instinctively fled. That left only the extraordinary, those who had been both blessed and cursed by magic.
"Hold up." The voice interrupted Alice as she was pondering whether to blast through the Witch's Barrier, or blast through it, the major difference being only in the radius of destruction beyond. Alice looked up to see Homura looking typically grim and Madoka looking typically flustered. "I believe the saying is, three heads are better than one."
"Indeed," replied Alice, but a hand landed upon her shoulder as she turned to make for the Barrier once more. The look which was turned in Homura's direction was nothing short of murderous.
"My apologies, but you have steered me fairly and well when I was dangerously foolish of late, and I wished to return the favor. Clear your head, Alice Margatroid, if you go in their in your current state, you stand to lose everything.
"So noted. And, thank you. I realized I had not been paying enough attention. Marisa has not taken to the Outside as well as I, and if a Youkai can let her moods get the better of her, I have no right to ask a Human to do what I myself cannot."
"Nobody can avoid all the pitfalls in life," replied Madoka. "But we can make friends so they can pull us out, right?"
"Exactly. Although with Marisa you tend to need anchor chain and not just rope." said Alice with just a bit of a smile on her face as she stepped through the Barrier. Madoka and Homura followed close behind. Stepping into the cut-paper madness of the Barrier set both Puella Magi on edge, but neither could put her finger on why as they ventured into the writhing garden presented to them. A mustachioed puffball popped up in front of the party, looking harmlessly goofy until it bared teeth and leaped for Alice. The Familiar exploded in midflight, and the source of the unease hit Homura at the same time as the pistol casing hit the ground.
"Getrud. What in hell?"
"So, we have Witches appearing again." Sayaka squeezed her phone in a white-knuckled grip, to the point where Kyōko expected the blunette might shatter the device in a 21st Century take on shooting the messenger. "Damnit, and damn them too."
"Alright, out with it Fluffernutter, you're angsting hard enough for us thick-headed types to hear it." Kyōko bonked Nova on the nose for emphasis, and was rewarded with the sight of her long white sidelocks flapping back and forth as Nova tried to shake some sense back into her brain.
"I just don't get it. This shouldn't be happening."
"Well, we have plenty of proof the Overseer is a jerk, so I don't see-"
"That's the thing though, creating Witches isn't part of an Overseer's functions!" Nova threw up her hands, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Each part of the Project is specialized for its' own purpose. Incubators make contracts and collect Grief Seeds. Nobody else can touch 'em but us and Processors. Reductors and Purifiers are the only ones who can fight. You only see Witches spawned when a Surveyor prepares a world for harvest. There shouldn't be Surveyors unless the Communion declared Earth sound for harvest once more, and that can't be, because the one Overseer currently riding our asses would have to have gone home to vote in the Communion, and it takes a unanimous vote to proceed. And if that's the case, why would he be using Witches against us?"
"Maybe they have decided to go back to normal, and they're hoping the Witches finish us off. I mean, it's what I would do," said Kyōko, which earned her a round of dirty looks.
"Maybe . . . " Nova perked up a moment later, turning to look away from the rest of the group. "I hear Charlotte. She's wound up about something, is it too much to hope that she has good news?"
"Yes," came three voices in reply simultaneously.
A minute later, Charlotte and Cirno burst into the room at full tilt, both trying to say everything at once. Sayaka rolled her eyes and forcibly sat the two girls onto a couch.
"Sit down, shut up, and start again when you can actually say what you're saying, okay?" After Sayaka stepped back, Mami provided tea as a more polite way to get the searchers calm enough to speak. Charlotte dropped a sugar in her tea and drank, and Cirno did the same, but only after glaring at her cup until it frosted over.
"Okay, so we were looking for Hitomi, and then there was this explosion. We went to go check it out, and we found some fairies who had been Warlocked! But wait, it gets worse." Charlotte held up a hand to forestall the wave of shock which her comment was sure to cause. "The fairies were shooting up some of the Purifiers' guys, Incubators and the nasty burnt-looking ones too. And then this guy who called himself Ragnarok-" Here Charlotte was interrupted, and there was no way she could have stopped it, as Nova let out an exclamation best decribed as "Eeeeeee!" and fell off her chair. The former Incubator had gone as white as her hair, and it took several minutes before the Puella Magi could snap her out of her state.
"A-are you sure this thing was called Ragnarok?" Nova asked when she was able to speak once more. "Really, really sure?"
"Yeah. Sorry," replied Charlotte, looking glum.
"Well, that's it then, we're screwed. Game. Over."
"Nova, dear, if I may be so impolite, but you've said that every time something goes wrong," said Mami, with wry cheer in her voice.
"Yeah, but this time it's for real. Ragnarok- the Endbringer, would be the proper job title, it assimilates what we know of a species' mythology in order to cast itself as a specter of dread. The Endbringer is just that, it's the end, when the Communion decides something endangers the very continuation of the Project. Last time an Endbringer was authorized, we were in a shooting war, I mean full-on alien space armada looking to nuke us out of existence. There is nothing the Endbringer can't do. At all."
"Well, that explains the Witches then," said Sayaka. When the dirty looks turned in her direction, the blunette stood her ground. "Well, it does!"
"Witches are easy, where an Endbringer is concerned. Almost too easy. The thing is like a living wish, you could say." Nova stood, shaky, and made for the door. "I'm sorry, everybody, but I- I need some time. I promise I won't do anything stupid or crazy. I just need to process all this." The other Puella Magi nodded, but Nova was already out the door. The ex-Incubator let her feet wander while her mind reeled, and after a short time, she found herself in the back garden. Seeing Remilia's parasol casting midnight shadow in the midst of the bright afternoon brought a harsh bark of laughter from Nova's lips.
"Well, isn't that just the perfect metaphor?" Nova muttered as she plopped down in a chair within the darkness. Strangely enough, it was still perfectly light under the parasol, even though it was at the same time dark. Nova intentionally didn't ponder how the parasol worked, for fear of getting further twisted into knots.
Don't give up hope.
"Huh? Who said that?" The voice from nowhere startled Nova, and she reflexively palmed her Soul Gem.
Don't be afraid. I don't wish you harm.
"Okay? Would you mind stepping out so I can see you then?"
I cannot. This is all you get, I'm afraid.
"Oh. Sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel bad,"
Not to worry. Think of me as your very own real-life imaginary friend!
"Um, thanks? I guess?"
Anytime. I'm glad we could be friends, we outcasts need to stick together.
"I suppose. Wait, what'd'ya mean, outcast? I have my friends, even if I seem to only bring them pain."
I could hear it in your voice, when you talked about your Incubators and your Overseer. I know that pain, for the same pain scars my heart.
"Oh. I'm sorry. This is not something I would wish on anyone."
Would you like to talk about it?
"I guess. Hey, I'm not going crazy, am I?" And if the empty air answers, is that proof for or against the crazy theory? Nova mused.
No more than is necessary to survive here in Gensokyo.
"Oh, well that's good, I suppose." In short strokes, Nova began to lay out the story of her transformation, her new goal in life, the coming of the Purifiers, and the current doom hanging over her head.
"And I guess it's like my friends are all I have left, and I don't know how I would survive if anything were to happen to any of them, and yet, they're more than likely to get killed, and it will be my fault! I wish . . . I wish I could take back my wish!"
Please, don't say such a thing!
"Why not? I don't know how to bear this pain!"
I didn't either. And I made a terrible mistake. I ended up making myself numb not just to the pain, but to everything.
"I'm sorry, that sounds horrible."
I'm not sad about it.
"That's good to hear, at least."
That's my point. I'm not sad about what I lost, or anything. I have no love, but also no pain. Every day is exactly the same. So while it hurts, as long as the flames of your passions still burn, you should nurture them.
"I have to ask, are you, uh, a ghost?"
I don't know. If I can't see or be seen any more, does it matter if I am alive or dead?
"Yeah! It does matter! As long as you're still alive, you can still change your fate."
But didn't you say you could change things that others couldn't, even death?
"I can, for right now, but I don't like relying on it. I have given out these poison gifts, these wishes, for so long, and yet I don't understand how they work at all."
A wish . . . that sounds nice. I wish-
"Stop! Please!" Nova actually jammed her fingers in her ears as she cried out. "Sorry, but please don't say that around me. It's something I figured out after transforming, that I haven't told anyone else, because I've been afraid of the consequences, but here it is: If a person makes a wish before me, I mean really and truly offers up a wish, the contract will happen. I can no more control if a contract is granted than I can pull the sun from the sky with my bare hands."
Don't worry, I will keep safe this knowledge which you have given me. Your friends are probably expecting you, but know this, Nova Floresca; you are never alone.
"Thank you."
"You're going to wear a hole in my carpet if you keep doing that," said Remilia. The Scarlet Devil was watching Reimu as the shrine maiden paced furiously back and forth in the entrance hall of the Mansion.
"So put it on Yukari's tab! She owes me a new shrine, she can spring for one lousy carpet on top!" Reimu snapped, to which Remilia merely chuckled, which in turn caused the shrine maiden's temper to spike higher.
"In truth, I could care less about the carpet. However, have you heard the saying 'to thine own self, be true'? Where is the carefree and lazy Hakurei Shrine Maiden we all know and love?"
"Bludgeoned into a coma and locked in the basement, it would appear." replied Satori, before Reimu could come up with suitable reply. "This is the real Reimu Hakurei we are seeing, goaded from her lair. While we are bandying about tired phrases, I believe the one most pertinent for your situation, Remilia, would be 'you break it, you bought it'."
"Was there a point to this, Satori, and if not, do you need me to provide one?" Reimu snarled out, glad to have a ready target for her frustrations.
"Yes, I do have a point, no you do not need to unlimber Gungir, and yes I did allow you to actually have your side of the conversation for once. I can be nice, when I want to be. My point is, since I can hear your plan as though it were being shouted in my ear, you are either tremendously ambitious or thoroughly crazy, and you would do well to figure out which is the case and make your pitch to your coming guests accordingly." Satori paused to permit Reimu to absorb the rapid-fire barrage of information. "For what it is worth, I hope you succeed, and you have my unreserved support in your venture." Satori gave a short bow before retreating.
"Um, thanks," Reimu stammered out a reply. ". . . wait, did she actually say she likes my idea? She wants to help?"
"It does seem that way," replied Remilia. "Either we have entered the End Times, or perhaps your idea actually has merit."
"Gee, thanks. I think."
Yep, I screwed this one up. Marisa had awoken from her trance into a full-fledged nightmare of blood-hungry thorns and cackling demonic puffballs. And mustaches. Why'd it have to be mustaches, ze? Marisa grumbled to herself as she rolled out of the way of yet another lethal strike. The fact that she had fallen under the Witch's spell was bad enough, but there was worse in the magician's mind.
If I really couldn't give Alice more credit than that, maybe I shouldn't escape from here. Marisa was too unschooled in the way of the Witches to know that such black thoughts, expressed inside the Barrier, were meat and drink for the abomination running the show. She was however well aware of the sudden surge of aggression from the monstrous multitudes. In reply, Marisa snapped out a new attack pattern she had been working on for a while, one that evoked a pentagram-shaped wall of stars about her and then the device spun in place, hurling the bullets in all directions. One part Chen, one part Non-directional Laser, the attack bought a few seconds' respite from the horde, but it was not sufficient to win her freedom.
Angelhair wire sang a sharp cord as it rent a tangle of vines into chopped salad. Alice staked her place with the Barrier with a barrage of searing light, and the whole of the Witch's realm seemed to shudder before her wrath. Familiars poured out from every bramble and behind every plane of the Barrier and rushed to dispose of the new intruder. These puffballs were met by a veritable phalanx of Shanghai dolls and the two forces met with a tiny but impressive crash of bodies against shields. For a moment, the two sides were even, then upon a silent command the dolls surged with aggression and drove back their foe, opening a path of clear ground for Alice to pass.
"You actually came for me," said Marisa, her tone not quite believing.
"Of course I did. I could not leave you here like this." Alice extended her hand and pulled Marisa to her feet. "They have a way for us to go home now, and there I can make amends."
"W-what for?"
"For letting my desires eclipse your needs, and for letting you be taken by such despair." Marisa started to speak, but she could not find words. At that moment one of the Shanghai phalanx reported in with a mustache draped over its' shoulders as a battle trophy, and the incongruous sight caused Marisa and Alice both to break out in laughter which cleared the air. At the same time however, the influx of positive emotions enraged the Witch, and Gurtrud burst in to punish her would-be victims. Both the Gensokyans and the Puella Magi scattered and took up arms as the real battle began.
Sakuya appeared just long enough to inform Reimu that the first of the guests were at the door, which caused the shrine maiden to fall into a sort of furious calm- her mind was running too high a tilt to waste the synapses on nervous tics or fidgeting. Byakuren was the first to arrive, as Reimu had asked, but she also brought a complication with her, which Reimu had most definitely not asked for. That complication was none other than Toyosatomimi no Miko, who appeared to be acting as Byakuren's aide instead of Shou or Murasa as Reimu had expected. Reimu raised an eyebrow at Miko, but all she got in return was an amused grin.
"Might I be excused, Sensei?" said Miko, being polite unto the point of sarcasm.
"Yes, by all means. Go and enjoy yourself." replied Byakuren, which netted a curtsey from the "student", who then trotted off to investigate the operation.
"Okay, what the hell?" asked Reimu as soon as she saw Miko strike up a conversation with Sakuya, knowing that "out of earshot" would take some long-distance flying to accomplish where the Taoist with the clever ears was concerned.
"We have been having some . . . philosophical discussions, and Miko has taken to playing up the kohai to annoy me, so in turn I have found it best to play along with the gag, as it annoys her more than it does me."
"That's all well and good, but why bring her in the first place?"
"Miko-chan has been arguing for a chance to redeem herself, and considering the goals you have for this endeavor, both the stated and the unstated, I felt she would be a natural fit."
"I . . . see. Well, can't hurt I suppose." Reimu frowned. "And how in Shinki's smoking Hell does everyone know what I'm really planning?"
"I guarantee you not everyone is aware of your aims, Reimu, only those of us who share your dream, and would have recommended you be exalted to lead, had we had the courage to front this plan ourselves. I believe you will find that even Yukari differs only in degree, not in substance with your aims."
"Yeah, well, a few degrees can make a big difference," grumbled Reimu for want of something to say. Byakuren's words were still too surprising for her to digest properly. You would pick me for this? If anything I was kinda hoping you would take up the cause.
"Oh, I completely agree that diverging means can entirely alter the outcome, which is why we are almost certainly going to gift unto Yukari, as my companion would put it, 'a righteous ass-whoopin'. I suspect Lady Yakumo has been in need of what we are about to provide for some time, and might even thank us when all is said and done."
"Uh-huh, sure. Stay out of the sacramental sake in the meantime."
Miko marched through the room looking like she intended to conquer and lay claim to the space, which caused Sakuya to intercept the Taoist. Putting aside her usual cool politeness, the head maid cut right to the point. "I was unaware you were fighting for the forces of good now," said Sakuya, to which Miko gave a grin that bared sharp teeth, and Sakuya grimaced- the smile reminded her of Rumia, that the girl would actually try to take a bite out her if given half a chance.
"Oh, I haven't gone over, although the Youchrist has made some, ahem, 'passionate' arguments as to why I should reform my ways. But I hear there's a cracking good fight on, and I'll be damned . . . again . . . if I let a chance like this slip by. Think how much my legend would grow if I was the one to get the killing blow on Yukari Yakumo!" Any further banter was preempted by the arrival of the next "guest".
"You! Reimu Hakurei, this is absurd!" Eiki Shiki marched into the room to a small chorus of groans, looking exceptionally militant even by the standards of the Yama. Komachi was following behind, looking both bemused and embarrassed, the latter on behalf of her boss. "While I am glad to see that you have finally started to take your purpose seriously, to pick a target such as the Yakumo to prove your worth as a youkai exterminator is overcompensation in the extreme, and furthermore, it is unseemly to drag us away from our duties in order to witness your attack. Unseemly!" Komachi twirled her finger by her ear, indicating what she though of the Yama's problems and began to sidestep away from the fuming judge as she wound up for another tirade, but Reimu stepped up and silenced Eiki.
"That's the thing of it though, you said I was not doing an acceptable job as youkai exterminator, and you're right, if you choose for that to be your measure. But the fact is, I'm not a youkai exterminator. Leave that sort of thing to Byakuren or Marisa-"
"Bedding youkai is hardly what I would call extermination!" snapped the Yama. Reimu filed that bit of information under "D" for "Don't wanna know" and pushed forward again.
"Ether way, that's not my purpose," replied the shrine maiden.
"Then by all means, enlighten me! What is your so-called purpose, in your mind?"
"Well that's what you're here to find out, which you shall when the meeting begins."
"And when, pray tell, will that be?"
"Why, when it begins!" replied Reimu taking a bit of guilty pleasure in the Yama's continued sputtering. "No offense, but I only want to have to do this once, if possible." Eiki scowled, but nodded her assent and headed off, likely in search of another sinner whose ear she could bend. I wish Marisa was here, and for more than just to bait off the crazy bitch with the baton! I don't know how long I can keep all the crazies in one place, and that's just the crazies I asked for, let alone whomever Byakuren dug up!
BGM: Syrufit - over - "Stray Child's Alice"
"This looks familiar," said Madoka as she and Homura jumped away from the Witch's reaching tendrils. Homura nodded assent and then drew forth a double-barreled shotgun and disintegrated about a cubic meter of plant life, momentarially halting the attack. Meanwhile Marisa was showing Gertrud what she thought of being ensnared with broad sprays of burning stars.
"It should. Gertrud is the Witch who attacked the day we . . . first met." The hitch in Homura's voice was impossible to cover over.
"I thought so," Madoka replied, and then she loosed a pair of broadhead shots to keep the flora at bay for a bit longer. "But Mami-san killed her. Why is she here again."
"I don't know how, but I have a very short list of 'who'."
"Ragnarok. Is there an end to his evil?" As a reply to Madoka's plea, Homura slammed a fresh magazine into her Beretta and racked the slide hard.
Alice and Marisa both threw themselves into the battle, weaving through the air as wave after wave after wave of thrashing tendrils struck out to try and obliterate them. It was certainly a familiar game, and Gertrud wasn't putting up anything as complex as say Flandre Scarlet in a plafyul mood, or even a Prismriver gig, but there was a difference to this fight- the "danmaku" being hurled by the Witch stuck around and kept twisting to strike them in a way unlike anything either magician had fought before. And then there was the fact that the only thing to be had from grazing these attacks was a bloody line of lacerations. Still, the fight was enough to make Marisa's heart leap for joy- it wasn't that she was bloodthirsty or anything like that, but entering the dance of the duel, with Alice at her side, was pretty close to Heaven in Marisa's eyes. Heh, as close as I'll ever get, if Eiki-sama gets her way! Marisa gave a raspberry as her opinion of both the Witch and the Judge and swooped in for another pass as the joy of battle began to wash clean her heart.
Down on the ground, Homura was becoming concerned. Not because of the Witch- although this incarnation of Gertrud was much stronger than the original, which was worrysome enough. No, what caused an icy spike of worry to lodge in Homura's heart was what was happening beside her, as a seething black hate settled upon Madoka. Homura expected anger from her love- there were many times that Madoka's lighthearted raging at the follies of the other Puella Magi was only half in jest, or less. Anger or sorrow Homura could deal with, for even in those cycles where Madoka had been fully unleashed, where she tore down the Walpurgis in seconds and set the whole world to burn thereafter, there had always been a sharp pang of pity somewhere within. Not this time. Yesterday, Akiko had shown her heart to Madoka, and it had broken the Puella Magi, but if Gertrud did the same today, all she was going to get was a serrated broadhead buried as deep as Madoka's magic could drive it.
"Hey, are you okay?" Homura swept the local area clean with a double blast of shotshells, then she turned to Madoka. Epiphany clicked just as she set eyes upon the pink-haired girl. Gertrud, Witch of the rose garden, whose nature is distrust, and who thrives upon the bad feelings she inflicts upon others.
"This is too cruel, to make this soul suffer being a Witch again. Homura-chan, we will find Ragnarok and we will erase him from existence. I don't care what it takes, okay?" Homura could only nod in reply, too shaken to speak because when she had turned to hear what Madoka had to say, for a moment Homura had been looking Gretchin in the eye.
The slipping of Madoka's mask had not gone unnoticed by the Gensokyans, either, but in their case the results were far worse. "Holy hell!" cried Marisa and for a moment she looked away from the incoming attacks to see where that sudden wave of darkness had come from, and in that moment a branch walloped her, shredding Marisa's dress and hurling her from the sky. A glitter of gold caught Alice's attention, to which Shanghai shot over and revealed to be the object as a ring when she speared it. Alice let out a gasp when she realized what she had seen, and then the vines were upon her too. Homura bit back a curse and fumbled for a Spellcard to try and even things up. Even as she began to cast, though, Marisa rolled with the momentum of the crash and flipped to her feet.
"Okay, I give up. The endless waves of despair, the spoiling of the surprise I had in store for my girlfriend, the putting silly hats on statues, it's all your fault!" The Hakkero eye opened. "Now bitch, GET OUTTA MY WAY!" Marisa let loose her killing light, but it became just one voice in a chorus of power.
Binary Sign ~ Unmerciful Malice
Something suddenly overtook Homura's Spellcard as it began to activate, a touch of magic and emotions like the empathic link only so much more intense washed over her, and then a blast of grief, so deep and black that she thought for sure her Soul Gem would explode trying to cope with it all, but Homura wasn't receiving that grief. It was being given away.
Eternal Sorrow Monument ~ Flowers of Flanders Fields
The converging energies obliterated Gertrud's form, to be replaced by a tiny new star within the Barrier- her Grief Seed, which was glowing red-hot, then white-hot, then the artifact just exploded.
"Okay, what the hell was that, ze?!" Marisa was still wide-eyed as the Barrier fell away. Neither she nor Alice had been expecting to be one-upped on a technique which they still didn't themselves understand well enough to explain to others.
"You think that's bad, wait till you see Madoka angry," replied Homura, an impish grin on her face, if not in her heart.
"Uwaaah! Homuraaa-chan, that's mean!" Laughter lightened all the girls' spirits, but Homura casually laid a hand on Madoka's shoulder, so that only she could hear as the black-haired girl sent, are you okay?
I-I think I will be, once Ragnarok is dead and gone. For good.
Be careful, Madoka Kaname. Obsession is a hard road indeed. Homura let her smile show a bit more. And I should know, having some small experience with the phenomenon.
"So, can it be making-with-the-going-the-hell-home-time yet, ze?" asked Marisa after a moment had passed.
"Yes, I think it can."
"I have been awake for a day and a half straight working on this project, so I hope you appreciate it!" were the first words greeting the Outside team as they appeared within the Mansion, and they came from a very bleary and very irritable-looking Patchouli.
"Aww, did you miss me?" quipped Marisa, her spirits riding high now that she was back on the correct side of the Border.
"Hardly. I simply did not wish to have to go digging through that midden you call a house to retrieve my lost things!" Patchouli held her stern expression long enough for the others to know she was serious, and then softened. "However, it is good to have you back, if only to have more bodies among which to spread the vexation."
"Oh joy, what vexation?"
"Well, in summation: Reimu has pulled some trick from up her sleeve and this meeting is not what it appears, Byakuren brought Miko with her, and Eiki Shiki is already here, which in turn has caused the Mistress to barricade herself within her quarters. This in turn has put the shrine maiden under extra pressure as she has gone and taken the questionable step of becoming romantically involved with Remilia, and then-" A sudden fit of wheezing brought Patchouli's recitation to an end for the moment, leaving the girls to stare dumbfounded at the magician, trying to make her words make sense. After igniting a small paper packet and drawing in the vapors, Patchouli picked up where she left off. "And then, your Green Ogre has disappeared, probably captured, the white-hair is lost in a haze of angst after hearing about this Ragnarok character, and lastly, the Charlotte girl has become an honorary Nineball. Now if you will excuse me, I go to find my well-deserved rest."
"Ahh, it's so good to be home, isn't it?" said Alice in a sarcastic deadpan.
A/N: Two weeks ago, I was looking at the rough draft for this episode going, "where in hell am I gonna find enough stuff to fill out a whole episode?!", and now I had to punt the majority of the meeting back to the next episode just to get under 12k. The good news is that means the next episode should be coming soon! See ya in 2013!