How could she have been so reckless?

Mere moments before, Mami had no trouble with the witch Charlotte. It was, in hindsight, going a little too well, but the girl hadn't truly been paying attention to the battle. Instead of focusing - which could have prevented her near-death - she'd been planning to make another get together for her and her friends about a week from then.
A very stupid, but fatal mistake.
As the monster's teeth closed in around her throat, however, it was brutally blasted away by none other than Yasutora. It turned out that the older teen had followed her once he saw her entering the labyrinth.

Mami pulled some more magic from her soul gem, forcing it to heal her neck faster and numb the pain. Her head may not have been severed from her body, but the close call still caused deep gashes. Considering that she still couldn't breathe and the amount of blood that was still pouring out of the wound, the Puella Magi thought that it was a miracle that she was still alive.
The fact that the Fullbringer had only checked her soul gem for damage and wasn't worried about her injury - which should have been fatal - bugged her a little, but the blonde reasoned with herself that he was probably just making sure she had enough magic to heal herself. Now wasn't the time for questions anyway.

This witch turned out to be a fairly hard one to defeat. It didn't matter how many times they destroyed it; it would literally vomit another clone of itself, forcing the two fighters to start over from square one every time. That was starting to become very annoying...but at least it's labyrinth wasn't as bad as the previous one she and Yasutora had been against not too long ago.

...

The long fight and the lack of grief seeds to replenish her magic were starting to take a toll on Mami about half an hour later. She knew that she could continue for much longer, but the fact was that she wasn't used to fighting for this long. Her aim became less accurate, and she was becoming a bit sluggish (mostly because she had numbed the feeling of pain). Familiars started appearing in quantity, making them a distraction from the witch itself since the two teens had to be wary of them or risk getting a nasty surprise.

Eventually, it seemed her worst fear would occur. The older teen - who was, by now, someone she considered to be a friend - was cornered. The familiars weren't giving any openings, and jumping wasn't an option since the witch was right above him.

The blonde was much too far to hope to have an accurate aim, and knew she'd probably unintentionally hit him instead.
She was also too far to ensnare the witch with her ribbons - and that went without saying that she probably couldn't summon a ribbon or a musket in time to begin with, with how sluggish she'd become...
But now wasn't the time for second-guessing. It was now or never.

She hastily summoned a large canon - it came out slightly deformed, but the girl was well beyond caring, she knew it was still able to function - and, lacking the tine to properly aim, she threw caution to the wind.
She fired.

And, of course, she missed. She'd shot about half a meter to the left of the monster.

It happily ignored her attempt to blow it's head off and went in for the kill. Yasutora now held a grim expression, but didn't seem hesitant to face it head-on, readying his left arm to try and hit it at point-blank without getting devoured in the process.
From his current position, however, Mami was just about sure that that'd be near impossible.

It was over.

Her friend was going to die, and she couldn't do anything about it.

{~$~}

Mami was tired, but happy. She and her parents were in their car and on their way back home from the resort they'd stayed at for summer vacation . The day was perfect, too. It was sunny, the birds were chirping, and everything was calm. Yawning, she made herself comfortable in her seat and was just about ready to sleep.

{~$~}

Tears blurred her vision as she forced herself to flash-step as fast as she could towards him, unwilling to accept losing another person.

{~$~}

Her mother suddenly screamed, and her father practically smashed the brakes, but it was too late.
She heard a very loud crash, the world went upside-down...and everything went black.

{~$~}

Her body started to strain, receiving way too much magic at a time. She continued, uncaring, disregarding her injuries. Her neck wounds reopened. She ignored them.

{~$~}

The blonde went in and out of consciousness, not staying awake for more than a few seconds. At times, she could swear she could hear sirens in the distance.
She was also almost sure she saw something huge and black with a white mask, but would later dismiss it as a hallucination.

{~$~}

The witch was less than a meter away from him now. She pumped more magic into her muscles, causing her blood to start oozing out of the pores of her skin. It didn't matter. She was a few hundred meters away. Just needed to be a little faster...

{~$~}

Mami finally woke up for what she was sure would be the last time.

{~$~}

Her major arteries exploded. Two hundred meters left.
She had to make it.

{~$~}

She saw a cute, cat-like creature on the windowsill of the car.

{~$~}

Her bones started to crack. A few dozen meters.
She wouldmake it.

{~$~}

"Make a wish", it said. "It will save you", it said.

{~$~}

Her nerves fried. Her body was now only working because of the excessive magic. Just a couple more meters.
She couldn't let him die.

{~$~}

The girl reached out to it, pitifully weak.
"S-save...me..."

...She never once thought to save her parents...

{~$~}

Her heart failed and her lungs collapsed.

He was right there,nearly engulfed by the witch's jaws.

SHE WOULDN'T LET HIM DIE.

0.0

Mao realized that she probably should have saved the confrontation for later. Welp, nothing she could do about that anymore!
She passively watched as Hitsugaya got out of his gigai and immediately activated his zanpakuto.
The Puella Magi didn't even bother. That 'Yasutora' dude Mami seemed to be so fond of didn't look like he was gonna survive that one. There was no need to be worried about Mami; the blonde was much too far to be able to do anything about it, if she estimated the girl's speed in battle correctly. This meant that she wouldn't be able to interfere, eliminating the possibility of her getting hurt. As a result, the maroon-haired teen didn't care about the death that was likely about to happen right in front of her.
She'd seen so many before, so why care about that of an individual she didn't know? If he didn't want to die, he shouldn't have come into the labyrinth.

She blinked, surprised, when Mami practically appeared right beside Yasutora and shoved him out of the way, putting herself in danger. Her usual cheerful expression soured a little.

Since when was she that fast?!

Mao flash-stepped to the blonde teen, finding her bloodied and unconscious. There was no need to worry about the witch anymore; Hitsugaya had frozen it right before she got there.
As the witch broke into pieces and the labyrinth wobbled out of existence, she used one of her spare grief seeds on Mami's murky soul gem and begun to heal the worst of the wounds. Everything was damaged, from the arteries to most of the important organs of the body...not even the pores of her skin were spared, having been stretched open much more than what should have been possible.

Overall? It was a gruesome sight. If she hadn't already been used to seeing these kind of things, she probably would've been scarred for life.

However, all of these wounds seemed to have been inflicted because of a magic overload. She'd probably have to help her learn how to use more magic than usual without hurting herself, then.
The Puella Magi gingerly picked her friend up and off the ground, and looked up to see the other two individuals. Yasutora was silent, simply watching. He was sneaking a few glances to Mami though, obviously worried.
Darkness started clouding her mind.

What right did he have to be worried?

It was his fault her friend had nearly died, and now he was going to act like he was worried?

No...hE waSn'T wOrRied.

HepUt hErIn dANger...

...THe nErVe of ThAt baSTaRd...

....He WaS a dANgeR tO Mami...

...HE... wAs a DAnGer... TO aLL Of THEM...

...SHE... HAD TO...ELIMINATE-

Mao snapped out of her thoughts when Hitsugaya quickly came in front of her, simultaneously handing over the grief seed and blocking her view of the older teen. She blinked. Ah... She'd been starting to get tunnel vision before he stepped in, hadn't she? Her stance relaxed, and she dismissed the aggressive tone her magic had abruptly taken. She also took a few steps back, realizing that she'd approached the older teen a bit too much for comfort, and loosened her vice-like grip on Mami's body.

That...probably would not have ended well.

The teen quickly plastered a toothy grin on her face, causing both the boys' eyes to widen, before acting as though nothing ever happened, accepting the grief seed and offering to invite Yasutora over to Homura's in order to heal him along with Mami. The older teen looked like he wanted to refuse before he looked at the unconscious blonde again and reluctantly accepted.
Not surprising. She'd just slipped, after all. Really, the girl would definitely have to find a way to keep her anger in check...

It was mutually decided that they'd have to jump across the rooftops to get to their destination ; there was just no way they could walk there because of the state Mami was in.

...

Mao made sure to stay in front of Yasutora during the short trip ; it would be inconvenient to have him beside her since she was almost sure it would put him on edge thanks to her little moment of blind rage. Hitsugaya, in the other hand, was more than bold enough to stay just a meter or two to her right - even if he was clearly put-off by her sudden change of attitude.

Eventually, about halfway to Homura's house, Hitsugaya did surprise her by coming up close and matching her pace, obviously wanting to keep his voice low enough to prevent the other teen from hearing what he had to say. Curious, she used a little bit of magic to enhance her hearing in order to prevent him from having to repeat himself.

"Suzuki, I don't suppose you would know what is going on, but... I have been unable to contact the Soul Society for a while now."

She raised a brow. So, he was going to ignore her outburst? Well, so be it.

"You can't contact them at all? Why don't you use a senkaimon?", she inquired, already feeling that she had a good idea what was going on.

"The senkaimon wobbled out of existence the second I summoned it on my first try. The second time, it didn't even appear. My phone isn't damaged, but calling them doesn't work. Lieutenant Kuchiki has been having similar results."

Yep, definitely the Incubators...but why was he telling her this at all? Last time she checked, he was being cautious around her, trying to avoid getting on her bad side.
Mao eyed him as if it'd be written on his forehead or something. The boy was looking resolutely ahead.
She thought back a little. So far, Hitsugaya had been trying to make her an ally of the Gate 13. In fact, she was pretty sure it was the only reason he came. Clearly, he hadn't been happy with her lack of trust towards him, though.

...Oh.

By giving her information (and potentially seeking advice) , he was probably trying to emphasize the fact that he was willing to trust her with important things like these if she was going to cooperate. This may have been done in order to encourage her to stop being so closed off...
But that was much too easy to figure out, so either he wanted her to see what he was doing, or she got it all wrong... Or maybe she was just overthinking it...

It was at moments like these that she wished she had Yuzu's abilities.

Well, she hadwanted to be on the Soul Society's side, hadn't she? In fact, she was the one who'd been all about winning them over for a war that was likely to begin soon, if the Incubators' actions were anything to go by...
The teen supposed that she'd have to at least be a little useful if she wanted to be serious about that at all, but that didn't mean that right there and then were the best time and place to discuss that.

"...I have a hypothesis as to what is happening, but we'll need to talk about it later. Perhaps tomorrow, if you aren't busy?"

He nodded.
"That would be adequate. I'll be sure to inform Lieutenant Kuchiki."

"Don't bring her along. We can tell Homu-chan and Rukia-chan later; if we all leave now, that would give the Incubators the opportunity to contract other girls here. We don't need that complication right now."

By other girls, the maroon-haired girl actually meant Madoka and Sayaka... But he didn't need to know that.

The Puella Magi abruptly dropped down in front of the building Homura's apartment was located in, cutting off any further communication.