The girl grinned. Just as Mami had described, her cheeks were decorated with a pair of wiggly red lines; her matching hair, fluttering around her head and mixing with the flames, was tied into a long ponytail with a black ribbon, which she had also tied around her forehead in a kind of turban.

"Do you guys… know each other?" Sayaka looked from one to the other, her transformation dispelled in her confusion.

"Never met these people in my life," said 'Avdol' cheerfully. "They must have me confused for someone else. You, however…"

"What about me?"

"You were fighting and continuously replenishing your soul gem for hours last night," the girl said, taking out a packet of chocolate snacks from her pocket. "You remember that, right? The fighting?"

"Y-yeah…"

"Tch. Figures." She looked at the three of them and ate one of the snacks meditatively. "You should consider giving it a rest. Go to school, or whatever. Take a bit of time away from those grief seeds." With her free hand, she held up her egg-shaped gem. The red stone already had a few dark clouds on it and looked more like an active volcano than a pretty jewel with all the flames flickering around it.

"You can't be serious." In response, Sayaka presented her utterly pure blue gem, the same colour as the sky, and scoffed. "You really think I would allow myself to be corrupted like that?"

"Who is it who's being corrupted?" The girl's dark red eyes bored into Sayaka. "Do you even remember what you started fighting for?"

"For my sister, goddammit!" Sayaka began to shake. "She – died –" A pause, a small sob. "She died, and these two don't even know who she is! Madoka-chan –" She pointed to the pink-haired girl. "Madoka-chan, my close friend, doesn't remember her. Jotaro-kun –" she moved her accusing finger upwards – "never even heard of her!"

"Sayaka-chan, you're acting crazy…" Madoka laid a hand on her shoulder once again. "Please…"

"No! I need to keep fighting!" She clutched her soul gem tightly in her fist. "And if that means I have to beat the shit out of some redhead who strays in my territory, so be it!"

'Avdol' sighed. "I thought you might say something like that. Very well." She ate another chocolate snack, then stuffed the pack back in her pocket. "You two, please stay out of this."

She began her transformation. For a moment, a large bright flame licked over her, burning its imprint into their eyes, flickering aggressively as she transformed. Jotaro blinked. Her Stand stood in her place: a muscled masculine torso and arms, with a bird's head and a red-feathered lower body. The last remaining flames flickered around her wrists and ankles.

"Magician's Red…" Jotaro rubbed his forehead and frowned. Why did he associate that name with that form? Why, when he looked at that completely strange body, was he reminded of prison bars and gunshots? Why was everything here so achingly familiar? He pulled down the brim of his cap and bunched his fists uselessly. If he could just… remember…

"Eh? You know her Stand name?" Madoka turned to him. "Or… is it a memory?"

"The second." He gritted his teeth. "That person…"

"My name in this form is Magician's Scarlet, actually, but you were close. Do you know me, then, Jotaro-kun?" The massive bird-headed Stand gave a mocking curtsy. "You have the advantage of me, I'm afraid. Perhaps we can discuss the subject further after I have defeated this rookie fool."

"Fine."

"Wait, though, Jotaro-kun, Avdol, I don't want Sayaka to be hurt!"

"Don't worry, Pinky," grinned 'Avdol'. "Her magic will heal her if I don't damage her soul gem. It might even be good for her."

"All right, bird brain!" Sayaka held up the other object in her hand. A grief seed. "I'll take you on, for this."

"Don't want it."

"Then you can have my gem instead." Sayaka put the grief seed on the ground and held up her gem. "But I predict you will not get it."

"Predictions, eh?" The bird-person put a sharp-nailed finger to its cheek. "I look forward to seeing how that turns out for you."

The blue soul gem in Sayaka's hand glowed. Something surrounded her body for a few moments; then, in her place. stood an armoured knight, clad all in blue with only a pair of yellow eyes showing from inside an enclosed helmet.

This time, Madoka was the one to identify the name of the Stand: she'd seen it before. "Blue Chariot… This is really getting serious." She looked up at Jotaro and smiled. "It feels weird not to be doing anything, right? We should leave them to it."

He shrugged. "This 'Avdol' said she might talk to us afterwards. We should stay."

"We don't even know her real name…"

The two Stands jumped towards each other. Blue Chariot – shouldn't it be silver? – drew its sword, while Magician's Scarlet crossed its arms in front of its chest. The flames on the bird-man's wrists grew, spewing out in a fountain of fire towards Sayaka, who leapt over them with the skill of a dancer. A volley of smaller flames came next, deflected quickly by the blue-armoured knight's rapier.

And then it was Sayaka attacking, lunging forward with swipe after swipe towards Magician's Scarlet, who dodged and blocked and parried with tongues of flame.

She – it was very difficult to call a half-naked bird-man a she – seemed to be beginning to flag a little bit, working her way around to the right of the constantly attacking chariot. An errant tendril of flame spilled out – and licked at the handle of the chain-linked spear, still stuck in the ground from earlier. Sayaka ignored it, kept attacking; 'Avdol', whatever her real name was, kept defending and moving around, a little at a time.

And then – she picked up the spear and, with a flourish, pointed in in Sayaka's face.

"Yield now, Miki Sayaka."

"Tch." The blue knight put her blade up to meet the spear. "Even if you covered this in flames I could still deflect it."

"That was not my intention." Flames shot down the shaft of the spear, funnelling off the point onto Blue Chariot's rapier, channelling down her hand and over her entire body.

"Now will you yield, Miki Sayaka? Now you are clothed in flames?"

"NEVER! I'm doing this for my sister!"

The bird-person tipped her head. "What is it, exactly, that you're accomplishing for your sister? Dying in order to join her? Picking useless fights?"

Sayaka gave 'Avdol' another swipe with her sword, but her heart wasn't in it. She sagged, the flames beginning to eat away at her.

"De-transform, Miki Sayaka. De-transform and I will stop the flames, and you and your friends can talk to me. De-transform and the pain goes away."

"Pain…" Yellow eyes burned beneath Sayaka's blue visor. "Pain is knowing your sister is dead, and you couldn't stop it. Pain is when –" she winced – "real stuff happens. This body is only physical. True pain lasts forever."

"I guarantee, Miki Sayaka, you will not feel that pain of losing your sister forever. If you do not transform, however, you will be in pain for the rest of your life, because you will burn to death."

In response, there was only the sound of Sayaka gritting her teeth.

"Well, it's a shame." The bird-headed stand turned away from her and looked towards Madoka and Jotaro. "I'm sorry about this, but she's being very persistent. A few more minutes perhaps should do it."

"How… How dare you?" Madoka was shaking, her small fists bunched up with rage; she glared at the chicken person angrily. "This isn't the kind of behaviour that befits a magical person! Even though she provoked you with her predictions –"

The avian eyes gave her a long, hard stare. "This is necessary. She has to learn. And, to be honest, if she wanted to defeat me with fortune-telling –"

"She's ten years too early. We get it." Jotaro frowned. "But this is too much."

"Huh? How did you know I would say that?"

He stared at the muscled Stand's chest for a while. "Déjà vu, I guess."

"Well, anyway," interrupted Madoka, standing on tiptoes to try and get on the same level as the other two, "this is too cruel. Mami-san would never do something like this."

"Mami-san?" Suddenly the fires around the struggling Sayaka went out, and 'Avdol' de-transformed into the redheaded girl with face tattoos. "You don't mean Tomoe Mami, do you?"

"Oh… Mami-san…" Sayaka de-transformed suddenly and crumpled into a ball on the ground; a tear ran down her bare face. "How could I forget… She's dead, Mami-san's dead, I remember… oh, god, I remember everything…" She grabbed at the grief seed, which had rolled towards her, and held it to her darkened gem. "I don't need to know…" The black fog lifted, and her face went blank again.

'Avdol' stared. Then, she turned to the other two and frowned. "Well, you two need to explain some stuff, I think. Come on, I need a snack."

They nodded, reluctantly, and followed her out of the alleyway.