Author Notes:

And so ends Part 1 of Scarlet's Bizarre Adventures, for real this time. We did have that one last end to tie up after all. Yes, she was exactly who you thought she was… Ssssssssort of. A lot of stuff has happened since you might have last seen her, and she's not the same character she was back then. But that's stuff we get into in part 2. Speaking of which, the first chapter of Part 2: Diamond Arrow will be up next Tuesday. For reals, not delays on that one. See you then, and happy holidays.

Epilogue: "Time for one more?"

*One month later*

"That one! Let's play that one next!" Yui exclaims as she pulls my arm. "C'mon Scarlet! Look at this game!"

"Okay, okay, calm down Yui," I tell her. "Don't pull my arm off. We're not on a time limit, we can enjoy the games as much as we want."

I hadn't been able to spend as much time with Yui as I would have liked this past week. There were a lot more witches than usual. As such, I thought I'd take her somewhere to try and make up for it, so I took her to the arcade that Remi used to take me when I was younger. Yui's face lit up the second we stepped in and she started bouncing from arcade game to arcade game. She was currently pulling me towards a dancing game.

"C'mon M- Scarlet! We can play this one together!" Yui says excitedly. "Let's go, I'll beat you so bad that you'll have to call me teacher!"

"Is that so? I suppose we'll have to see about that," I tell her.

I pumped a few coins into the machine and Yui picked a song. Considering she doesn't have a ton of experience, we set it to a somewhat manageable difficulty level. After a few minutes, the song ended and Yui was left breathing heavily.

"Not… Not… fair…" Yui pants. "You're a… A magical girl and I'm just a malnourished little girl."

"You had an awful diet for a week at most," I tell her. "You're pretty healthy now."

"One more!" Yui declares.

"One more!" Yui declares after she lost again.

"O-One more, I got you this time!" Yui exclaims.

"One last time!" Yui says after her tenth straight loss. "I-I'm starting to get the hang of it, I got you now!"

"Perhaps it'd be best if we stop," I say. "I don't want you collapsing form exhaustion because you're so stubborn.

"Awwww," Yui pouts. "I had you this time. I would have won."

Yui hops off her section of the dancing game, and I get ready to follow her when I hear the sound of money being put in the game. The person who put the money in was a girl, perhaps a year or two older than me. She had bright pink hair tied in twin tail (it looked so good on her) and was wearing an unzipped brown jacket with a pink shirt under it, as well as jean shorts with black stockings. She looked at me and smiled.

"Time for one more?" she asks.

"Excuse me?" I ask in return.

"One more game," she explains. "Would it be too much to ask for one?"

"Well I was just about to leave and-"

"Do it Ma- I mean Scarlet!" Yui says excitedly. "You shouldn't have any trouble beating her! You're unstoppable at this game!"

"This is the only time you've ever seen me play this game, how would you know if I'm any good at it?" I ask. "I beat you, but you could just be kind of bad at it."

"I know because I have faith in you," Yui says. "I know that you'll never lose at anything!"

"Is that so? Fine, fine, one game can't hurt," I concede.

"Thank you very much," the pink haired girl says. I put a few coins in for myself and let the girl pick the song. She picks some upbeat idol song, and sets the difficulty to the highest level. Oh, an expert? This could be fun. The song starts, and we focus solely on the game.

"Come on Scarlet, you can do it!" Yui cheers me on.

At the end of the song, both me and the pink girl were left gasping for air. That song was no joke. Who would have thought the pop song would be as nearly impossible as that was? Despite the difficulty I managed to pretty soundly beat the pink girl. Yui cheers and gives me a hug, and the pink girl smiles.

"Ah, I should have known I'd lose," she says. "I was never good at these."

"Do you play them often?" I ask. "Practice makes perfect and all that."

"Not me, but I had a friend who spent a lot of time in arcades," she says. "I'd go with her and play occasionally, but she'd always beat me."

"Is that so?" I ask. "Well, it's been fun, but we should go. It's nearing the little one's lunch time."

"It's not that late," Yui asserts. "And I'm not little!"

"I know a pretty good café around here," the pink girl says. "How about I treat you? You did win the game, I feel like it wouldn't be fair if I just left it at that."

"Miss, games don't work like that," Yui says. "You don't play games to get anything from anyone, you play them for fun."

"That's true," pink girl says with a smile. "Still, it wouldn't feel right if I didn't get you two something."

"Saying no to free food is hard," I admit.

"I know but…" Yui doesn't seem convinced. "I don't want to be a burden on someone else."

"It wouldn't be a burden at all," pink girl insists.

Me and Yui finally relent, deciding that there's no reason not to agree to her proposal, and the pink twin tails lead us to a nearby café. I think I've passed by this place a few times. It just opened up I think. The three of us get a table and place our orders. I wasn't too peckish, so I just ordered an iced tea. Yui ordered a ham sandwich with milk and a side of vegetables (she thinks they'll help her grow super quickly). Pink twintails ordered some cream stew and a cup of tea. We didn't talk much while we were waiting for our food, it was mostly Yui asking me about all the things they had on the menu. Since I'm still working on remembering a lot of things I forgot, I wasn't able to help that much and I wound up forwarding Yui's questions to the pink girl. Eventually our orders came in and we ate in relative silence. Talking during a meal is rude, you know?

"Thank you for the meal," Yui said once she finished her food. After finishing the sentence she yawned.

"Nap time?" I ask her.

"I'm not a child," Yui insists. "I don't need to sleep after a good meal."

"I don't know, you did play a lot at the arcade," I tell her. "Maybe a nap wouldn't be a bad idea."

"I'm not tired," she insists. The fact that she just yawned again kind of betrays her words.

Considering how stubborn Yui can be about some stuff, I break out my secret weapon. I put my hand on her head and start stroking her hair a bit. Almost like she's a cat she closes her eyes and starts leaning into my palm. It wasn't long before she had completely fallen asleep. I let her lean up against my shoulder so she didn't fall out of her chair. The pink girl was trying to keep herself from laughing.

"That's adorable," she says. "Does stroking her hair really make her go to sleep?"

"It relaxes her," I reply. "She likes taking a nap after lunch time, but she's too stubborn to admit it. Rubbing her head just gets her to drop her guard enough to let herself take that nap. Sometimes I have to sing a lullaby as well, but usually I just stroke her hair for a minute or so and she falls asleep."

"Is she your sister?" the pink girl asks. "You seem to know her well."

"No, we're not related," I tell her. "About a month ago her parents died, so now I'm taking care of her. I couldn't just leave her alone."

"That's awfully kind of you," the pink girl says. "It can't be easy to take care of a child and fight witches at the same time."

"Not especially hard. I sometimes wish I had more time to spend with her, but she doesn't mind," I reply. "She knows what I do and why it's important."

"You don't seem surprised that I knew you were a magical girl," the pink girl says.

"Why should I? It's kind of obvious," I say, holding up my left hand. "The ring, remember? It's how I know you're also a magical girl."

"Guilty as charged," the pink girl admits.

"So what are you doing here?" I ask. "Attempting to discuss some magical girl business with me? Perhaps warn me of an impending territory dispute? I'll have you know I'm not the only magical girl here at the moment. I got a cell phone last week, so I can call up Patchy and time I want and have her help me."

"Patchy?" the pink girl asks.

"A friend of mine," I tell her. "She's a magical girl who arrived in this city a little over a week ago."

"No, I kind of figured that, but Patchy? Is that really her name?"

"It's short for Patchwork," I explain. "She has an odd fashion sense. She looks really patched together, hence 'Patchwork' and the slightly shorter 'Patchy.' She's a tough magical girl, we could easily fight off a magical girl invasion."

"I-I'm not invading!" the pink girl insists. "I'm just here because I was in the neighborhood. I had to deal with some serious stuff here last month, so I had this idea in my head that this is a pretty nice city to rest in for a few days."

"Last month?" Hmmm. Pink twintails suddenly sounds a lot more familiar. "You don't happen to use a bow, do you?"

"I do," the girl confirms. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh," I say. "I need to thank you."

"Thank me? Why?" The pink girl asks.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we've met before," I tell her. "Well, met in the loosest definition of the word. Do you remember last month? There was a burning house, you pulled someone out of it?"

"O-oh! That was you?" the pink girl asks. "I didn't even recognize you! I'm so sorry, I went in to try and get your parents, but the fire spread too quickly and I couldn't find them and-"

"I don't want an apology," I interrupt. "You saved me, so I thanked you. That's all that needed to be in that conversation. I truly am thankful. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't helped me."

"Don't say that, I didn't do anything," the pink girl says. "I could barely save you, I couldn't even save your parents. I'm not worth thanking. Wait, if that was you, than the other girl was your friend, right? Brown hair, pink sweater?"

"Yukari? Yes, she's a friend," I say. "You saw her again, right?"

"Right, she helped me fight the sword girl and the girl with the puppets," the pink girl confirms. "So that means you were the one who took care of the boss of that awful magical girl group?"

"I am. Why, were you hoping to stop her?" I ask.

"I was hoping to do something," the pink girl admits. "I heard all sorts of awful stories about her group and I was really hoping I could convince her to fix her group. Have it do what any magical girl group should do and help people out, not hurt them."

"Wouldn't that have been a nice ending," I say. "Maybe you could have pulled off something by talking to her. I certainly couldn't. At least her group isn't a problem anymore."

"I suppose," the pink girl mutters. "I wish there was another way it could have happened though."

"So do I," I say. "Unfortunately we don't always get the endings we want."

"No, we don't," the girl says sadly. Sounds like she's had her own share of bad events. I suppose it comes with the job. "… Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"There's a town nearby, a smaller place called Morioh," the girl says. "I heard that there's a magical girl there who's abusing her powers and causing all sorts of trouble. I was going to stop by and see if I could convince her to stop. Would it be too much to ask if you could come help me?"

"Why ask me for help?" I ask. "Don't you have any friends you can call up and ask for help?"

"No, I don't," the girl says, shaking her head from side to side. "Not anymore, at least. I just thought that we kind of indirectly worked together a month ago, right? You seem nice enough, I just thought that it would be nice to have someone to actually work with again."

"Can't stand the thought of being alone for any longer?" I ask her. The girl doesn't reply. "Yui would have to come with us, I'm not leaving her alone."

"I wouldn't dream of separating you two," the pink girl assures me.

"What if Patchy needs help?" I ask. "Say she starts having trouble with witches. What would I do then?"

"Believe in your friends," the pink girls tells me. "You said she's tough, right? Do you believe she could protect this city on her own? If not, then please, forget about everything I'm saying. Your home and friends should always take priority."

"… I suppose that's why I can agree to help you," I say.

"Really?!" the pink girl says, getting excited. She catches herself before she gets too happy and clears her throat. "Wait, what do you mean by that?"

"You saved my life, we danced together, and you bought me and Yui lunch. I think you qualify as a friend," I say. "I'm sure Patchy can keep this place safe on her own, and even if she can't, she'll call me. She's smart, she knows better than to tackle something she can't handle on her own. There shouldn't be any problems with me going with you to solve whatever that problem in Morioh is."

"Thank you," the pink girl says. "I really appreciate your help. You have no idea how much it means to me. Ah! I'm so sorry, I never got your name. Would it be too much to ask the name of my new friend?"

"I'm Scarlet," I introduce myself. "Just Scarlet, no family name. The little one is Yui Nekoyama. And you are?"

"My name is Madoka Kaname," she says with a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Scarlet. I look forward to working with you."

Part 1: Scarlet Wind

END