It was almost one in the morning. Empty bags of chips, candy wrappers, soda cans and cookie packets were carelessly tossed all over the place around the eight girls who were playing a game of Uno.
Mao munched on a donut and held her last card in the other hand. The next card to be put on the pile would determine whether she'd win or not. She waited patiently as Madoka took her time deciding which card she wanted to put down. Karin looked bored (pretty much her version of a neutral expression) as she ate the last few chips in a bag before tossing it in a random direction. Sayaka was having a hard time staying awake, her eyelids closing for a few seconds before she'd jerk them open...only for them to close again. Homura just watched stoically, an Mami took a few more sips from a can of soda. Rukia, being the one with the most cards left (the teen would never understand how on earth she managed to collect fourteen cards...) constantly arranged and rearranged them, even though it wasn't her turn. Yuzu yawned, apparently tired (oh hey Sayaka just fell asleep... Maybe she could take a peek at her cards?... Nah, that would suck the fun out of the game).

The pinkette finally put down her chosen card, clearly hoping Mao would have to take two more instead of placing her last one. She had no such luck; the maroon-haired teen claimed victory for the third time in a row.
Mao got up and stretched, announcing that she'd have to go to the bathroom but that they could just continue without her.

That wasn't what she had in mind though.

The Puella Magi had decided that she liked Sayaka; the girl didn't deserve to have the same fate as her. Plus, while Homura was visibly disturbed by her idea to eradicate what would later be the cause of the bluenette's contract (which was illogical, really - it was the easiest way to save her!) she never explicitly told her not to do it.
Once the girl got to the bathroom, she passed it without hesitation and headed towards Homura's room. No one was following her - except that white haired boy she saw from the restaurant window earlier, but he didn't seem keen of following her into buildings. That was something she'd use to her advantage.
Mao entered her friend's room, opened the window and jumped out, transforming during the fall. The teen never hit the ground, instead kicking off the wall behind her and sailing towards the next building. Despite the fact that the ravenette didn't know she had left, it wouldn't take her long to figure it out since she muffled her magic. She'd have to make this quick.

...

The target's name was Kyosuke Kamijo...it wouldn't take long to find him if she could just find the information she needed on the damned computer.
Mao had entered the hospital by a window near the back door. The Shinigami couldn't go in after her if he wanted to avoid suspicion, but she'd probably have to come up with a cover story for this anyway. She managed to sneak past most of the staff, but once she entered the secretary's office she was forced to kill the confused and alarmed secretary to avoid any witnesses. Trying to find his particular location was becoming a real time-consuming problem, however, and she knew Homura was probably already starting to sniff around. That wasn't good.

The Puella Magi sighed. It seemed she'd have to go for a flashier solution.
She went back to her civilian clothes and reached into her purse. Finding what she was looking for, she looked around to see if there was anyone she could plant the blame on...
Her eyes spotted a particularly bulky young man. Perfect.

At least she'd anticipated this possibility.

0.0

Everyone except Homura and Mao left the apartment at about ten in the morning, thanking the ravenette for her hospitality.

To say that Homura was pissed would be quite the understatement. She listened as the reporter on the television continued to talk about what everyone thought was a terrorist attack, but she was well aware that that wasn't the case. Not a single person survived. Not surprising, when one considered the fact that the 'terrorist' had made sure to bomb not just what supported the hospital - after the building finished collapsing, said 'terrorist' had conveniently set some remaining bombs to explode a few seconds later than the rest, killing any would-be survivors.

A poor man, who was clearly very out of it, had been falsely accused of the crime. He did try to deny having done the crime here and there, but the policemen had evidence against him and saw his head injury, immediately assuming he had amnesia. They arrested him without a second thought.

What the hell was Mao thinking?! The entire hospital?! Really?!

The culprit, who sat on the couch beside her, watched the news like it was about the weather while happily eating a sandwich. The ravenette had no doubt in her mind that Sayaka was definitely devastated (or would be soon if she somehow was still oblivious to this), but she had no idea how she could cheer her up - this had never happened before!

Plus, this forced her to acknowledge the fact that her friend was extremely dangerous. Her definition of right and wrong may have been irreversibly twisted, but that didn't automatically make it okay for her to just kill a few hundred people. What was she supposed to do?
Telling the others was a big no-no; Sayaka and Madoka would go straight to the authorities, and it was likely that Rukia and Mami would try to kill her. If Mao survived going against the two of them, it would only be because she killed them. It didn't take a genius to know she would put down anyone who tried to arrest her (if the police believed Madoka and Sayaka to begin with). As if that wasn't enough, Rukia's death would paint a target on Mao's back since the Soul Society wouldn't just sweep a lieutenant's death under the rug (...at least she didn't think they would). Homura didn't know the Kurosakis well at all, but she imagined that it wouldn't end well.
The girl had already refused to see a therapist, believing that she was perfectly sane (even after being confused when Homura was furious with her for ending so many innocent people's lives, not for going against what she thought). Her justification for her actions? 'I was just preventing Sayaka's contract; the rest was collateral damage. Plenty of them were probably gonna die anyway.'

Homura pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache coming up. Predictably, her childhood friend (ahem, murderer) noticed and immediately tried to cheer her up.

"Hey, come on! Sayaka-chan's safe now! It's not like she's got anyone else important enough to make a wish for!"

...The ravenette decided not to let her know about the girl's family and other friends, for fear of something similar happening in the near future.

Not wanting to continue to think about this, Homura got up and turned off the television.
"Mao, where is everyone?"

"Hmm? Mami-chan is in her house with Yasutora. Sayaka-chan's loitering around the destroyed hospital along with Madoka-chan and plenty of other people...she seems to be sad about something... Rukia-chan is outside the window eavesdropping and making an effort to cover her reiatsu -"

Unimpressed, Homura parted the curtains and opened the window; Kuchiki, who'd indeed had her ear against it, fell right in with an undignified yelp.
Looking back at Mao, she asked her to continue where she left off.

"Yuzu-chan and her sister are out of range, so I'm assuming they're back in Karakura. Oh, and there's been another Shinigami spying on us - more specifically, me - since last night. I'm not sure what he wants..."

Homura nodded, taking in the new information (and trying not to panic at the mention of a new Shinigami).
"...I see."

Homura was suddenly very glad she'd talked to Mao about her mass murder with the time stopped. Everything would have been ruined if the two Shinigami heard about that.

Kuchiki, who'd rubbed feeling back into her nose (she had landed on her face) looked at the maroon-haired teen like she had two heads.
"You...you could still sense him?"

"Well yeah! Whatever he was using wasn't as good as he probably thought...", answered Mao, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

It was then that the voice of an unknown person came from outside.
"I see... I suppose continuing to hide would be pointless."

The black-haired teen raised her head, and found a relatively short, white-haired boy with turquoise colored eyes that seemed to be around her age sitting on the windowsill. His gaze was cool, but not threatening. He wasn't wearing anything special; a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He nodded towards the two girls in greeting.

"I am Toshiro Hitsugaya, captain of the tenth squad."

...

Homura wasn't sure how to react, but her friend didn't even miss a beat.

"...Eh? Why'd they let a kid be a captain? I knew you were the youngest, but this is just ridiculous! I mean look he's super cheeky and all! Are you sure this isn't some kind of prank?"

Kuchiki grimaced, watching the captain and looking like she was ready to bolt. Homura understood why once the temperature of the room dropped a few degrees.

If Mao had noticed the not-so-subtle hint that screamed shut up, she didn't show it, and what she said next made Homura want to permanently close her mouth with superglue and cover it with duct tape.

"Oh, look! Poor, poor little Shiro-chipmunk got angryyyyy~"

0.0

After waiting for a few hours as Sayaka looked blankly at the pure devastation that used to be the hospital and was now blocked off by police, Madoka gently coaxed the bluenette into going back home, or at least somewhere where she could feel at ease. The girl's face was dry - she'd already bawled several times, mourning Kyosuke and by extension, the other innocent people's deaths. From what the pinkette could see, she was clearly feeling exhausted and depressed...which was to be expected.

Madoka was at a loss. Tomoe, Akemi and Suzuki had made it clear that a witch's kiss would only make a person go to the labyrinth or commit suicide. That meant that what happened was done on purpose by someone who knew what they were doing. She couldn't just blame this on a witch.
The pinkette didn't know why, but she wasn't sure she could bring herself to actually hate the man despite it all. She couldn't quite place what it was about it just seemed...wrong, somehow. But he evidence was clear as day ; his fingerprints were on a bomb that hadn't detonated, and he'd been caught on camera near the secretary's office - where one of the bombs had exploded - looking around suspiciously right before the camera stopped working. It was vague, but apparently enough for people to draw conclusions.

The teen was sure of one thing though: she'd support Sayaka as well as she could, because she knew that that boy had meant a lot to her.
With that in mind, she led the distraught girl to her house, pulling her along by the hand since she wouldn't walk otherwise.

Not a single word was spoken between the two.