July 22, 2024

On patrol in the ruins of the red light district, Mami and Madoka were largely silent, still processing the news about Sayaka. They had wished her well, but both had many worries for her due to the risks. As they rounded a corner to an alleyway, Mami finally broke the ice. "So, Kaname-san, this alleyway reminds me of another experience I once had in the red light district."

"So it does," Madoka replied as she kicked an empty and crushed soda can on the ground. "What was it?"

"I was accosted by a man in his 40s I believe," she relayed to her. "Like many of these perverts, he thought I was much older than I actually was. This time, though, he didn't want me for himself. He tried to convince me to work for him. On a hunch, I lied and told him I was 19 even though I was 13 at the time. I followed him back to his little brothel he had hidden in an abandoned building, and from there, things got interesting."

...

2 years earlier

"So," Mami asked the man she had been accosted by. "Is this the place?" They had walked in to the front of the building, which from the outside was rather dingy, but inside was relatively well-furnished.

"Yeah," the man, who had black hair and was in his 40s, replied. "The rooms are upstairs. Downstairs is where I live and conduct business. Some of the girls stay here 24/7, but most just come in when they're available." His tone gave off a sense that he was partially lying to Mami. "Anyway, I gotta head into my room for a sec. Stay out here." He then walked down the hallway and towards his room.

As he closed the door to the room, Mami began her plan. She transformed silently while nobody was watching and crept up the stairs. As she looked around, she saw about 10 rooms, but it was eerily silent. As she peered into one room that was empty, she saw that the room was mostly empty, minus a bed where the "business" was presumably done in and a dresser. "How empty," she said to herself. She then moved on and walked down the hallway, arming herself with a musket with her ribbons. "Ah, I love this new ability of mine..."

Then, a door behind her slowly crept open, followed by a timid pair of eyes looking out. They belonged to a girl who looked rather young, only a few years older than Mami. "Um... Hello?"

"Huh?" Mami turned around and saw the girl. "Are you a sex worker here?" The shy girl, who had red hair, nodded. "Do you want to be here?" This time, the girl did not answer. "Hey, come on, you can answer me. Do you want to be here?" Finally, the girl shook her head. "Are you 18?" The girl reluctantly nodded. "Are you sure you're 18? I'm not." The girl admitted the truth again, shaking her head. She was despondent in her answer. Mami extended her hand to her and told her, "Come with me."

"Okay," she replied. "You have a gun?"

"Yeah," Mami affirmed as she cocked it. "Now, you may wanna cover your ears." She then aimed the musket at the ceiling and fired a loud shot into it, the gunshot echoing throughout the building. She then loudly announced, "Everyone, if you all wanna leave, go ahead. Get out!"

Immediately, another door opened as a scantily-clad girl ran out. This girl seemed of age, unlike the girl Mami had found. As she ran to Mami, the man who had brought her to the brothel ran up the stairs. "What the fuck is going on?!" He had a pistol in his hands, but Mami did not care.

"I'm busting your brothel for underaged prostitution," Mami explained to him as she summoned several ribbons to tie him up in the hallway. "I'm actually 13 years old, not 19, but you didn't verify that." She then formed another musket in her hands as he began to cut himself from her ribbons with a knife since his hands were free. As he came down, he aimed his gun at her, but Mami fired first, striking him in the chest and killing him. "There, now you're down for the count."

As she ran down the stairs, several of the girls followed her. When she reached the bottom, she was met by two guards armed with knives. Mami quickly kicked one of them, causing him to fall onto the other, before grabbing his knife. As the other man got up and attempted to stab her, Mami dodged it and stabbed him in the neck, causing blood to spill over her outfit. As she dislodged the knife from his neck, the first man got up and charged at her, but she stabbed him as well, getting him right in the chest. One of the girls, standing on the stairs behind her, shouted, "There's still one more guard!"

"Where?" Mami then spun her head towards the end of the first floor hallway, and found the last guard charging at her with a machete. Mami gasped and formed a ribbon musket pistol rapidly, firing it just as he came within stabbing range and striking him, killing him instantly with a bullet to the head. She had recoiled a bit, expecting to be stabbed, but she had just stopped him in the nick of time. "Thank God..." She then turned to the girl on the stairs and gave her a thumbs-up. "Thanks."

...

Present Day

"There were six girls in there," Mami told Madoka as she concluded the story. "All six were freed by my efforts, Kaname-san."

"That sounds so cool," Madoka replied, amazed by the story. Then, she felt her cellphone vibrate, interrupting the conversation rather abruptly. As she looked at it, she saw that the caller was Homura. "Hello, Homura-chan?"

"Madoka," Homura explained to her. "Report back to base camp immediately. There's an emergency. Turns out the Heavenly Kingdom cult wasn't quite dead."

Madoka gasped in fright. "What?! But we killed them!"

"They had followers in Tokyo," Homura explained. "And they're all migrating to Mitakihara to raise Hell. Japan's police and military are taxed enough by relief efforts, so they couldn't stop them all on their journey. They estimate that about 300 of them will approach the city soon."

...

At the same time, back at base camp, Kyouko ran into Sayaka's tent as the base began to get ready for the attack by the cult's remnants. She opened the flaps and yelled, "Hey, Sayaka-chan, let's go! We got an emergency!"

Immediately, Kyousuke stood up first from the floor on the other side of the bed in the tent, adjusting his pants as he said, "Alright. Just give her a sec. We, uh, had some fun." Kyouko blushed intensely as she realized what she had walked into. After about 15 seconds, Sayaka stood up, putting her bra and a blue t-shirt back on quickly before picking up some crumpled-up tissues in her right hand and wiping her mouth with another tissue.

"Hey," Sayaka chuckled to Kyouko, also blushing. "Sorry you had to see the ending of that. You walked in not a moment too soon, since I had to wipe up a bit on my mouth and che-"

"I get it, I get it," Kyouko interrupted her with. "You don't have to go in more detail. Anyway, both of you, grab guns and get ready. The Heavenly Kingdom Cult had more followers, and they're coming to attack us!"

Sayaka threw out the tissues as she grabbed an M-16 in her tent. "What the hell do you mean more followers? I thought they were just a cult in our city."

"They're not," Kyouko explained hurriedly. "They had followers in a few other places, too! There's more to them than we thought! The military and police are too tied down by relief efforts to have been able to stop them all before they reached us!" She then took her bookbag off her back and set it down, reaching in and pulling in a modified magazine from it. "Here, take this. I modified it so it's two M-16 mags taped together."

"Jungle-style?" Sayaka then grabbed the magazines, both of which were fully loaded. "Excellent. Here, take my original mag." She took the single mag out of her gun and handed it to Kyouko, who put it away in her bookbag.

As Kyousuke grabbed another M-16 of his own and loaded it, he asked Kyouko, "How many are they expecting out there?"

"300," she told him. "They say it started as a group of 1,000 in Tokyo, but they were able to arrest or kill about 700 of them before they reached us." She then readied her own gun, a Mineba PM-9 machine pistol, showing it off to the two of them. "I just got this one from a sergeant in the JGSDF. Small, compact, and easy to handle. Not the most accurate gun out there, but SMGs were never meant to be highly accurate anyway."

...

An hour later, the whole gang was lined up behind temporary fortifications consisting of HESCO barriers and concrete T-walls set up along the perimeter of the camp, ready for a firefight. As Azuma and Mami both sat in a small outpost along the wall, alone and in a rather cramped space together in the sweltering summer heat, they wondered when the onslaught would come, and also talked to one another about the events of the day so far. None of the girls were transformed, all of them instead wearing casual clothes combined with body armor, as did Azuma and Kyousuke.

"This heat's killing me," Mami remarked to her boyfriend. "Hang on a sec." She then slipped her vest off before sliding her hands under her shirt to take it off as well. She humorously remarked, "And before you ask, no, I'm not trying to seduce you." As she ripped her shirt and bra off, she let them fall to the ground before she put the armored vest back on again, covering herself. "Hey, hand me a water."

"Yeah," Azuma replied, grabbing her one as he decided she had the right idea about her clothes. "I'm gonna join you, and also no, I'm not trying to seduce you either." As he stripped down from the top and put his vest back on, he told her, "What's the ETA for the cult?"

"They said another 30 minutes," Mami remarked as she looked at a digital clock on the wall of the cramped outpost. "I'm sure that isn't entirely accurate." As she finished the water she had been given, she looked around and had an idea to pass the time. "We're locked in here, right?"

"Yeah," Azuma replied, wondering why she asked such a question. "What's up?"

Mami quickly but softly pushed Azuma to the ground, causing him to laugh in response. "You know exactly what we could do with 30 minutes." She then closed her eyes and kissed him, slowly moving her hands underneath his vest. As she split from him, she told him, "Let's get it all out of our systems before they get here."

"I like your way of thinking," Azuma replied with a smile before returning the kiss back to her and rolling her over so that he was now on top of her. "The heat may be unbearable, but it's not gonna stop me."

Then, just as Azuma was about to reach his right hand towards her crotch, they were interrupted by the screeching of a radio and the voice of a JGSDF soldier. "Outpost Yellow, what's your status?"

The two lovers quickly scrambled up as Mami grabbed the radio and replied back, "Outpost Yellow is ready. How far out are those cultists?"

"About 35 minutes out," the radio replied back. "Based on their current land speed and their distance. You got plenty of time to prepare and grab more supplies if you need to."

"Roger," Mami replied. "We'll be all set." She then turned back to Azuma. "We also have plenty of time to fuck."

"I like your honesty," Azuma told her as he took her vest off and picked her up, holding her against the wall of the outpost. "It really turns me on." The two then kissed again as they began their "session."

...

Meanwhile, Madoka and Homura sat up against the perimeter wall, both of them tired from the heat. Both of them wore helmets, but as Madoka ripped her helmet off, drops of sweat poured from it. "Homura-chan, dear, take your helmet off. It's freaking hot."

"Yeah," Homura replied, who had her hair tied up in a ponytail bun, as she ripped her helmet off. "You're not kidding. If these cultists don't kill us, the heat will." She then changed the subject, wanting to not think about the heat anymore. "Hey, Madoka, I think... Despite all that's happened, of all the timelines I've been in, I think this is the happiest I've ever been." She then reached for Madoka's hand, holding onto it. "And I have a lot to owe to you because of it, Madoka. You're my best friend, and you're the love of my life, and I wouldn't want it any other way."

Madoka smiled. "You really think that about the timelines? Well, I myself wasn't around for those other timelines, but second-hand accounts from you were all I needed to know that's true." The two then shared a laugh, both agreeing with that statement. "Hey, Homura-chan, I want to make a promise to you."

"What is i-?" Homura was then interrupted when Madoka planted a kiss on her lips for several seconds. After they split, a dumbstruck Homura replied, "Madoka-chan..."

"When we get through this," Madoka told to her with conviction. "And when they make it the law of the land in Japan, I want us to be permanent."

"Pe-... Pe-... Permanent?!" Homura's face reddened intensely.

"We're young," Madoka explained to her. "But I still know I love you with all my heart. Homura, when they remove the barriers for people like us, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, no matter how long or short it may be, and I want to do that by becoming your wife." She then stood up, guiding an even redder Homura up as well, before bending down on one knee. "What I'm saying is... Akemi Homura, will you marry me?"

It was at that very moment that Homura-.-exe stopped working. She stuttered as she tried to form a response, seemingly overwhelmed by the question. "I... Uh... Madoka... Me... And Madoka... Married...? Marriage...?" She could already picture Madoka in a wedding dress at that very moment, walking down the aisle, not to mention the "activities" they would be doing right after the wedding. Then, she came back to reality, and gave Madoka her answer. "Yes... Yes! I will!"

Madoka and Homura embraced as they laughed and cheered, more overjoyed than ever, before they shared a kiss. As they locked lips, they both tongued each other, sharing a kiss more passionate than any other before, even when they had made love. It was as if the whole world around them melted away for that brief moment, and it was just the two of them. Though all three of the couples had been very affectionate with one another, they had often been considered the most outward in their affection, and this moment confirmed it.

...

Sure enough, as predicted, the small army of cultists arrived half an hour later. They all had mobilized at the front entrance to the camp, all standing and waiting as a single messenger broke from their ranks to deliver a message to the JGSDF commander of the camp. The commander, an older man in his late 40s, stood with several other soldiers in front of the main gate as the messenger delivered a note on a piece of paper. He bowed and told the commander, "Here are the demands of the Heavenly Kingdom."

"Thank you," the commander replied. As the messengers retreated back to his lines, the commander read the note aloud. "Hmm... Let's see here... 'Surrender the magical female hysteric abominations that murdered our king to us, or we will bury you.' Well, that certainly sets the mood for us." He and the other soldiers then calmly walked back across the gate to the camp. As he did, he radioed, "Command to Violet, they are demanding your head and the heads of the other girls. I assume you don't want to give them those, right?"

"Of course not," she eagerly replied back to him. "Just give us the signal to open up on these guys and we'll take them out."