Chapter 10: Under the Mask
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The three girls were yet again chasing another witch. Madoka shot the incoming familiars, covering Akemi as they came closer to the witch.
"Madoka-chan, I'm taking this one alone."
"What? But I can help! I can sav..."
"We really need grief seeds right now, Madoka-chan, so no 'buts'."
Madoka didn't protest and stayed back, occupying herself with the familiars instead. She wasn't pleased at the thought of killing the witch, but she knew better than to protest. She kept her pleas and sadness for herself, feeling she had failed once again the task she rendered possible with her wish.
Homura was a few hundred feet behind, her last rocket launcher already materialized. Because of the event of the other day, she couldn't bring herself to let go of this safety measure. Especially if they were fighting apart from each other.
Watching the fight, her thought wandered a bit on what Masami had said the previous day. 'You have her to keep you human'. Was turning into a witch really a good idea? Of course not! What was she thinking!
On the other hand, she was useless right now. She couldn't fight at all after this last rocket, and her soul gem was still getting dirtier every day simply to allow her to use this body and to exist as a human. If she did nothing, she will only be a burden on the other two Puella magi since she would require seeds without being able to help for the hunt. And if she transformed, she could have another wish, maybe.
But she was Walpurgisnatch, and that thought alone frightened her to no extent. She was a monster, the monster she was fighting since the beginning, the monster that took Madoka's life in the first place, in this first timeline. An abomination that the mere appearance would cause hundreds of causalities. No, she could not become that. She will not become that.
But...
She didn't get the time to finish her reflection. Akemi had just killed the witch on her own. Before vanishing, the dead body looked more like a porcupine than anything else, glass needles covering it body whole. She bowed down and took the grief seed, the labyrinth slowly disappearing and giving way to the normal world and its own wonders of technology. She paused for some time, looking avidly into the black bead of despair, long enough that Homura started to fear she would use it only for herself.
But she didn't and came back toward Madoka and the veteran.
"A single seed. Let's make it worth it." She showed her soul gem in her open palm, quickly imitated by the other two girls. In the center of them three now shined dimly the three crystals.
They were all mostly shaded by shadows. Homura thought that hers was bad, but she was actually on par with the other two. "You two are over abusing your powers too much." Homura said, surprised showing in her criticism. "Especially you Akemi-san. It's been barely two days..."
"I know, I know."
"But I mean, what do you do to use so much magic in a single day?" Homura was really skeptical.
"And Madoka? How come she is as bad as me?" She asked, eluding the question.
"I think it's because it requires quite a bit of magic to turn a witch in a girl." Madoka explained. "I do in fact put more magic in my blasts since the event ... with Mami." As she explained this, she twitched on the last part. The wound of Mami's death, her second death at least, wasn't healed yet. "But that's for the blasts. The small arrows I use against minions are nothing in comparison."
"So you think you could slow down your use of magic like this?"
"If I only deal with familiars, yes. But..." She stopped midsentence, knowing her argument would not be received but still feeling really bad that she couldn't save anyone for the time being.
"Yeah, we know, Madoka-chan." Akemi said, putting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "But right now things are crazy, and the first priority is..."
"Grief seeds." She sighted. This argument would get her nowhere. She just needed to wait and resign herself to her fate.
Seeing that Madoka wouldn't bring that problem forth for now, Akemi returned to the subject at hand. "So, about this grief seed; I think we should split it between Madoka-chan and me, since we are the ones who do all the fighting."
Homura was shocked by the proposition. It was what she had in mind, but she wanted to propose this herself. The way Akemi put it it seemed more like she was saying: Since you don't work, you don't get your share. It was just rude; she should have proposed to share it between all three and then Homura would have refused her part.
"But Homura-chan's gem too is really dark."
"I'm fine Madoka-san." She was staring at Akemi and she swears she saw her sight in relief. The seed was shared between the two, and at all time Homura didn't stare away from Akemi. She was bothered by something, although she couldn't grasp what.
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They parted their ways after the hunt at night. Akemi blinked to Eden with Mitchiko, Madoka went to her house, and Homura had nothing better to do than to go back too. She walked slowly under the lampshades of the street, thinking back on the recent events. So much in so little time! Was it really fine like things were? Were the smiles she saw on her friends' face really appropriate to those events? It had been merely two weeks since she had the luxury of seeing the sun of the 1st of May, and yet she didn't felt relieved at all. Nothing finished on that night of the Walpurgis. Despair just went on, following her like pest. And she couldn't spend an instant without thinking that a group of magical girls were coming anytime for their heads. Great!
When she arrived to her street she saw a police car parked on the way and two officers knocking angrily at her door. Oh yeah, I used a gun in public a while ago. She turned around and left the officers on her doorstep. Even if they broke in, they would find nothing relevant at all: only a few documents on witches they won't be able to figure any sense of.
Now, where was she to go?
Her feet got her to the park not far away from Madoka's home. There she found a somewhat comfortable spot, nice, tight, and sheltered from the wind. She couldn't bring herself to go knock on Madoka's door. Too many years trying to save others and you find yourself unable to accept help on your own. Maybe Akemi would shelter her, but she couldn't be contacted across dimensions.
Trying to fall asleep for many minutes now, she saw that a certain alien was observing her; for how long that she didn't know.
"What do you want, Kyubey."
"I don't want anything. I'm just keeping watch on my Puella magis, as this is my duty. It just so happens that right now you are in a position that allows no blank spot for me to hide."
Stupid shitty alien! She thought. "Well you are not doing you duty correctly. You can't keep an eye on Akemi as long as she's in that world of hers."
"Actually, I had a body come in it when Akemi contracted, so she is still under my supervision even there."
Homura cursed under her breath, low enough so that just she would hear it. "You stalker freak, spying on us just to better doom us!"
"I am not spying on any of you, for spying would imply using what I have collected against you or reporting to somebody else such information."
Homura rolled on her other side, trying to ignore that insolent dude to the best of her abilities. Who cares about the definition or the word 'spying'? So what if he can watch them and learn all of their secrets? None of them had much to hide anyway!
And then she thought about herself. What was she hiding? She was hiding from Madoka, her feelings and details about herself; and she was hiding her own personality to appear as an unmovable rock.
What could Madoka be hiding? This took a bit more reflection on her part, but then she found some ideas. She could hide her sadness, knowing that grief seeds were the priority but feeling repulsed each and every time she sees a witch die. In fact, Homura knew this was the case. She could hide the wound made by Mami's death. She could be faking her friendship with both Homuras, not wanting to forgive them but unable to make any other move. This last one was pretty freaky and sent a chill down Homura's spine.
What could Akemi be hiding? When she thought about it, her doubts started to grow. Why was Akemi so aggressive against Masami? It was Akemi, not Masami, who started the hostilities yesterday. Why was she so absorbed today into that grief seed? Why had she been so rude?
Turning around once again, she noticed without surprise that Kyubey hadn't move from his spot. "You say you can watch Akemi right now?"
His ears twitched. "Of course."
"What is she doing?"
"Right now, she's looking at her soul gem, and she is talking to me. Or maybe she's just thinking aloud."
"What is she saying?"
"You are asking me to spy on Akemi?"
Homura turned around again. "Forget it." She didn't make a move for a few instants, seemingly falling asleep. A few minutes later she turned around again, anxious. "What is she doing now?"
Kyubey smirked.
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Akemi was sitting on a comfortable couch, Mitchiko fast asleep with her head on Akemi's knees. The fireplace was bringing warm and comfort to the beautifully decorated room. This was all the comfort she could dream off, all the luxury that was within her reach. The wall of glass of the house gave sight to a sky of unnatural nebulas and to a full landscape of trees, flowers and animals. The night was calm, not a sound was heard in the room other than the occasional cracking noise of the fire. She was stroking leisurely Mitchiko's hair. And she was looking with an empty stare at her soul gem, half cleansed from the seed she shared with Madoka. From time to time, a tiny lightning of darkness passed in the shadowed half. Kyubey was laying on the other side of the table.
"What a waste."
"It is not." Her voice was calm and distant, maybe the effect all this scenery and comfort.
"You don't really need to expand your barrier this much. Why do you care so much about having a horizon or a few hundred pets?"
"They both contribute to the beauty of this place."
"I don't understand why you put so much importance on this concept of 'beauty'. You should focus more on efficiency instead."
She was still staring into her gem, looking at the strange reflections of the fire on its smooth surface as if hypnotised by it. She liked the feeling. "You would understand if you had emotions."
"I understand perfectly that you are wasting in vain your magic around when you could do things more meaningful with it."
"Like what?"
"Like dealing with more witches before needing to clean your gem. It is worth nothing that you need a grief seed every two days just to maintain a few miles of useless land."
"This is my world. I do what I want." She continued to stroke kindly the kid's hair and just to prove her words made a blanket appear out of nowhere to cover Mitchiko and herself. Staring back into her gem, she continued talking, kind of tired. "And what a place is this? It's nothing. It doesn't exist. It's just all an illusion. The real world is out there, ugly and sad, and I'm here, hiding in heaven where I'm God." Another small black lightning flashed for a second in her purple gem before reverting to normal. "There is no place for me in the real world of this timeline. I'm an irregularity, a double, someone that shouldn't be. There already was Homura, so why did I need to show up? What was it that put me here?"
"Coincidence. Fate. Luck. Madoka. Make your choice."
"Whatever it is, I don't care. I'm here, in the only place that belongs to me. Nowhere. I'm no longer belonging to any timeline, any reality except this void where I create all things. Even in this world, even if it is Madoka who brought me here, what use do I have? I'm a burden on everyone, and when things start to go bad, they rely on me to do all the work. I don't go to school, I can't see any friends and can't make any new either. I'm just a replacement, someone to do the hard job and to throw away when it's finished." She glanced outside the large window, looking at the paradise that was hers. "This is the only thing that I have; I'm not going to let it go." Her soul gem flashed again, catching her attention from the perfect scenery outside. "And then there is Mitchiko. What should I do with her? She too doesn't have any ties to this reality. So what now?"
Kyubey jumped down and rolled itself in front of the fire. "That's right. What now? What will you do next?"
"Do as I did today. Smile and go through with it."
"And for Jyubey's Puella magis?"
"I will protect Madoka like I promised to Homura — I'm sure you listened didn't you? —; I won't back up on my words. But I don't know what I will do after that. Maybe I'll just lock myself in this barrier, cut all links to reality, issue a rule that the barrier may never be altered on the inside and let myself turned into a witch? I don't know if I really care anymore. Life or death; it only has a meaning for those that have a reason not to die."
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"Satisfied?"
Homura was completely shocked of what she just heard through the mouth of Kyubey. "You are lying!"
"We, incubators, don't lie."
"You're lying! This can't be true!"
"As I said..."
"You meant to tell me Akemi has suicidal thoughts? And she had them since when? It's been merely two days she contracted!"
"I do believe those feelings were there, hidden, well before the contract. I believe she resents you for existing as the Homura of this timeline, or maybe she resent herself for being the other Homura."
"Shut up, and just go away!"
"The second one I can't do. But I will keep quiet if you ask."
And with this, Homura passed the whole night awake trying to make sense of what Kyubey had just told her. And her that thought everything was going just fine!
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The morning came, cloudy and gray. Light slowly made its way into Masami's apartment. She was stealing it each night, the couple that lived here being absent for the week. When they will come back, it will be time for her to change spot, but for now she could enjoy a bed and a roof.
Kyubey had invested the apartment too, sleeping on the ground in a small ball of fur. Not that he really wanted to stay here — Masami had the bad habit of killing him as often as she smoked, which was to say a few time per day— but this girl's wish made him stay against his will. All he could do was to be the least of an annoyance as possible to avoid being killed to many times. Still, he had started to think of some ways to deal with this, but none of them would have served his purpose before the conflict with Jyubey was resolve. He just needed to bear with it for now.
Normally, this body would wake up with the dim light of the sun and would then watch over the lazy girl until she woke up, late in the afternoon. Not today. Today, something caught his attention before dawn. Every Kyubeys in the sector started to move at the same time, taking their respective position to cover every inch of the town. This one jumped on the window and tried to cover this area as best he could.
They were coming!
Somewhere else at the northern edge of the city, Jyubey was running, a dark object in his mouth. The preparations were almost ready. This was the last thing needed for the confrontation to take place. The desired location had been located some days ago; close enough to attract some attention, far enough that they wouldn't be able to make it in time.
As he ran, he was getting closer and closer to the desired part of the city. There, in the middle of the north park, where many people walked by every day. It would provide all the souls necessary to the creation of the witch. She was ready to hatch any second now; a fleeting wave of negative emotions would be just enough.
When he arrived, Kyubey was there, at the precise spot he had planned to drop the grief seed. They looked at each other, none speaking a word, each trying to figure out their own chance of success at this action. Then Kyubey made the first move. He nodded, acknowledging the challenge.
Jyubey dropped the grief seed to the ground.
Two minutes later, someone passed by the invisible seed. He was in a hurry, stressed about his work schedule and angry about his boss.
Just with this much, the seed exploded, and the man wasn't stressed anymore. He wasn't anything in fact.
As everyone else that happened to put a foot in the park for that matter.
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Homura woke up, chills running down her back. She could sense the aura from where she was without making any effort to locate it. It was abnormal, too powerful.
She immediately stood up, cutting the pain of her stiff body from the rough night.
"Kyubey!"
The little dude was still there, looking in the direction the aura came from: north. "Yes"
"Tell Akemi we need her. Fast!"
He paused for a second, blinked, and then talked to Homura again. "I told her to meet you at Madoka's house."
Homura glared at Kyubey, a sinister thought forming in her head. "If this is your doing..."
"I didn't do anything." And this was the truth; he did not stop Jyubey from creating the witch.
She wasn't convinced, but quickly turned around to go meet Akemi at the pink girl's house. She had a bad feeling about this.
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"I still don't understand your thinking." Jyubey was observing the majesty of the witch from within the labyrinth, trapped there like Kyubey. They were at a safe distance from the many familiars. Not like they would really get attacked or anything —familiars were feeding on grief and despair, both alien to the aliens— but they couldn't see clearly in the middle of all that agitation.
"You don't have to understand."
"It's not about your motivations, but I can't apprehend why you would put yourself in such a situation. If your girls manage to survive mines, then Hachibey will personally end you. And if they die, any plan with those irregulars will end with them. You lose in every case."
"You are seeing it backward. If you manage to kill them, then I get to live with the valuable knowledge I've gained. And if they live, then I don't have any care in the world what happen to me."
"Why?"
He didn't talk for some time, trying to put the information into a though that would be coherent to his counterpart. "Because this world will then become the seed to save all worlds."
Yes, a seed, exactly. Just like a grief seed, simply on a much greater scale. He was an incubator after all; he will just be the first to farm worlds.
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I feel like I rushed this chapter a bit, like there is too much happening at the same time, but I wanted Kazumi and co. to make an appearance soon. If I listened to myself, I would put many more chapters before the encounter, but that would end up long and boring. So next chapter, you will get to see Kaoru, Umika and Kazumi. Promised!
Keep on reading, and post your reviews!