CHAPTER 16: Time & Again
"Can I ask you something?" Sayaka asked her Senior as they prepared for their sparring match.
"Always." She replied.
"Do you prefer that I call you 'Sensei', or that I keep calling you 'Miss Jones'?"
"Either is fine by me." She stepped out from the lift and into the artificial environment. "Why are you asking?"
"It's just that…" Sayaka followed three steps directly behind. "I get the feeling you don't like being called 'Miss Jones' all that much."
"What? Why would you think such a thing?" They watched a series of explosions going off in the distance. Nagisa was practicing again. "It's a lovely name. And it's certainly grown on me a bit since you first pitched it."
"But it always takes you an extra split second or so to respond, whenever I say it." Sayaka noted.
"Huh." Miss Jones winced a little. "Maybe I'm just not used to hearing it yet."
"But you always reply to 'Sensei' right away!"
"Is that so?" Miss Jones put her hand on her hips. "I guess that must be the Time Lord in me, so stubbornly stuck on tradition." She handed Sayaka her training light sword.
"Tradition?" Sayaka wondered. "What do you mean?"
"On my world, thanks to our, I'll call it 'pathological' need to constantly honor our ancestors, newborn babies are given the names of not only their most direct relatives, such as their parents, but also bits and pieces of names from their parents' parents, and then the folks of those folks, and so on and so on for whatever number of relatives they care to honor."
"Sounds cumbersome."
"You have no idea," Miss Jones chortled. "And it doesn't even stop there… The State will tack an extra bunch of names onto whomever was involved in the child's conception, the physician presiding over their birth, the nurses tending, even the flippin' research assistants… Probably even the caterer. Gives us all our own unique, rather long and tongue-twisty monikers."
"So what was your name?"
"Ha!" Miss Jones blared as she itched her temple. "Too much of a mouthful to get in to. And I hate it anyway." She sighed. "Fortunately, that's just our State designation. Our families would then give us a more fitting, day-to-day traditional name… Though it was usually a snippet of our state designation."
"Two names?" Sayaka changed into her magical form.
"More like seven." Miss Jones smiled. "Only around thirty eight characters long if I remember correctly."
"That's still pretty long!"
She nodded. "We managed." She continued while she took her position. "Anyway, once we got into the Academy, those more diminutive names were exchanged for Student Designation numbers… Ugh, only things worse than our State Name."
"What's this all gotta do with-"
"I'm getting to it." Miss Jones waved. "Anyway, after the student graduates, and they assume a role amongst our society, we choose to adopt a new name, and it's typically a title that's associated with our job."
"A job title?" Sayaka raised her brow. "So what if two people have exactly the same job? Do they just have the same name?"
"Surprisingly… No." She signaled that she was about ready to start training. "What they do instead, is they co-opt a title from a similar societal role in another culture's language. With so many billions and billions of species, and even more trillions of languages to choose from, theoretically, there'd never be a duplicate name. So for example, let's say there's an ancient nomadic tribe of the far upper eastern mountains of the Planet Tayspeus Two, and one of its tribesmen has the distinct duty of chronicling the tribe's history and its travels."
"You mean, like a historian or something? Sayaka tensed as she got ready to fight.
"Indeed! It'd be a job so important that the tribe would create their own word for it… A job title! Now back on Gallifrey, some new graduate who's assumed a role in a similar field, looks up this particular tribe in the Abh Archives and sees that word in the language base. And they really like that word. So they adopt it as their new title."
"Weird." Sayaka took a deep breath, and charged. Miss Jones dodged and thrust her training blade in a counter move. "Kinda cool," Sayaka ducked underneath. "But weird." She danced around looking for an attack window. "So the reason you answer to 'Sensei' is…"
"I'm hard-wired to respond to job titles." Miss Jones whipped around. "Guess I've gotten so old I'm upholding silly old traditions out of habit." She quick-slashed and missed. "Very nice! One of my favorite old teachers..." She continued talking. "Had this very unique name. When I was once but a humble assistant I searched and searched for where they might have found it." She danced around Sayaka's follow-up thrust.
"What was it?" Sayaka quick-stepped away from her Sensei's counter move.
"Ballizeau." She twirled around in a quick tribute. "My dance instructor. Turned out that my teacher would sometimes sneak offworld and teach emergent cultures how to dance. Some of these cultures would later turn my teacher's name into a form of dance or even the generalized term for dancing itself." She hopped two steps forward. "Tell me, Sayaka, do you like ballet?" She thrust her sword full force as Sayaka dodged with an improvised twirl of her own.
"So wait, if you guys would go off and play roles in other cultures, and sometimes those cultures would name those things after you guys, and you guys would find those words and use them as names…"
"It's a chicken or the egg thing, I know." Her Sensei chuckled. "It was one of the many many reasons why our Upper Pantheon expressly forbade us from interfering in the greater development of the Universe. Unfortunately for those stuffed shirts, a fair share of us did it anyway."
"So what was your old title?"
"Extremely egotistical sounding, and not the person standing before you today."
Sayaka stopped maneuvering about. "So would you rather I call you 'Sensei' or 'Miss Jones?'"
Miss Jones paused for a moment. "Good question. While I do like the former's formality, I think I'd actually prefer you address me in the latter's more personal touch." Sayaka took her pause as an opportunity to land a blow to her thigh. "Hey! Cheap shot! That's cheating!"
"S- Sorry." Sayaka apologized. "That's the only time I've gotten to you."
"Eh, it's fine." The Time Lady brushed it off. "Actually, let that be a part of today's lesson: When the opponent gives you the chance to cheat, especially when your life's on the line, screw those scruples and cheat like Hell!"
"Um… Okay?" Sayaka tilted her head.
"No," Miss Jones firmly held out her palm. "I know exactly what you're thinking with that look." She took a deep, reflexive breath. "Look, having a personal code is great and all, and it would be such a wonderful universe if everyone out there is going to respect it. But they don't, and should such situations arise where it's either your life or your honor, choose to live. A living person can still carry on, do good and play hero... While a dead person is but a decaying clump of matter.
"What about martyrs or legends?" Sayaka asked.
"Meh. Stories." The Time Lady stated. "Stories that often get twisted to suit whatever agenda or morality play those with power want to shape." She looked directly into Sayaka's eyes. "Remember, living heroes can still shape their own cause, while legends and martyrs too often galvanize the masses into causing even greater suffering and harm. But the best heroes, at least all the ones I've met, knew exactly when it was time to cheat."
"Boy," Sayaka scratched her face. "That got heavy real fast."
"Tell me about it." Miss Jones set her position and drew her blade. "Tell ya' what: When I'm teaching you all that I know about the realm of heroics, call me 'Sensei'. In any other time, 'Miss Jones' will work fine."
"Yes, Sensei." There was one other thing Sayaka wanted to ask, but she wasn't quite sure how she should ask. "Hey, Sensei," Sayaka began, figuring there would be no better time to ask than now, anyway. "Can I ask you something else?"
"You should know by now that you don't have to ask to ask." Miss Jones smiled.
"Heh." Sayaka chuckled. "When this is all over, and we beat Walpurgisnacht and get out of this mess."
"You wanna know what you should do after?" Her Sensei surmised. "My offer to set you up with a new life in a new home and all the cash you'll need still stands, y'know."
"I know," Sayaka replied, took a breath then said, "But I was wondering… If you'd like to have someone at your side when you get back out there. Someone… Like me?"
"Hmmm." She hemmed. After a few seconds of more hemming, she replied "I'll think about it."
"Oh." Sayaka drooped. She was old enough to know that 'I'll think about it' was just an adult's polite way of saying 'no' without outright saying it. "Oh-kay."
"The fourth deck is the University level. The first thing you are going to do is hit the books. If I'm to travel with a companion again, I want them to be almost as knowledgeable about what's out there as I am."
"Really?" Sayaka's eyes brightened. "What do you want me to learn about?"
The Time Lady confidently gazed into her student's eyes. "Everything."
"I don't like this idea," Sayaka shook her head at Kyoko's reflection in the mirror. "At all."
"Would you relax?" Kyoko slid a spare red t-shirt of Sayaka's over her body. "Just doin' reconnaissance."
"What if that Mami chick tries-"
"She won't try nuthin' in public." Kyoko assured. "She values keeping her magical life secret as much as anythin' else."
"What if those other magical girls aren't the same way?"
"Eh, I could probably take 'em." Kyoko glanced at Sayaka's stern, concerned reflection. "Look, I'm not just doing this to get the scoop on the competition, you know. I'm doing this for you, too!"
"How?"
"I know what I owe ya' from these last few days." Kyoko slipped on a skirt. "Ya' skipped class, blew' off practices, and avoided yer friends." She straightened it as she slid it up her thigh. "I figure me bein' there can take some heat off ya' if all of 'em see that there really is a 'Cousin Kyoko'. Then we'll be square!"
"It only worked on Miss Jones because she's a substitute." Sayaka countered. "Miss Yamazaki knows my parents, and my friends know too much about my life."
"That so?" Kyoko tried on a set of Sayaka's tennis shoes. "Ya' got any cousins?"
"Yes." Sayaka said.
"You talk about 'em all that often to your buds?" She laced them up with a self-satisfied smirk.
"I, uh-" Sayaka was sure that she did, but couldn't remember the last time she had talked about them. "No. But that doesn't mean I never have! And Miss Yamazaki-"
"How's she know your folks?"
"She was friends with my Mom in College."
"'Kay then. I'm from your Pop's side." Kyoko jumped to her feet. "Now c'mon! Make up the rest as we go along!"
"Let's say there's this tree," Sayaka posited in the morning study hall with Homura. "And on a limb of that tree, grows this fruit," She continued. "And this fruit grows and grows until one day it falls off the tree, and onto the ground where it withers and dies. That's its original destiny." She doodled a circle. "But then this time traveller comes along, and the time traveller catches the fruit as it falls, whereupon he or she gobbles it up. Changed its destiny." She doodled another circle over top of it.
"But the snack turned out to be really yummy, and now the time traveller feels a little bad about eating it on the spot." She paused while some girls annoyingly chatted and gossiped behind them. "So the time traveller goes back a day, picks the fruit off the branch before it even falls, takes the seeds elsewhere and plants them somewhere fertile." She drew a third circle. "Now this new tree, with a whole new, it carries the cosmic, or karmic or whatever you want to call it, it bears the weight of that little fruit upon its existence." She pointed at her book bag. "That's what that book says is a Stacking Multiverse, where whole new realities are shaped around the slightly different fate of one little, yummy fruit." She concluded. "And if someone were to look at these similar, yet very distinct universes from say, an omnipotent, omniscient perspective, they'd see them overlapping together forming this big, sort of pulsating ball. At least that's as best as I can describe it." Sayaka turned toward Homura. "Pretty cool stuff, don't you think?"
"I'm sorry." Homura confessed. "I wasn't listening at all."
"Something bugging you?" Sayaka for once wasn't particularly offended.
"Yes." Homura replied. "Have you seen Madoka?"
"We're supposed to avoid drawing any more of Kyubey's attention. Remember?"
"I can't help it." Homura apologized.
"I know." Sayaka sighed. "Neither can I. I thought Miss Jones was just joking when she said she'd extended Kyoko an invitation to come to school. Geez, was I shocked when she actually showed up."
"Kyoko is not one who would accept such an invite without an ulterior motive." Homura added. "She should be monitored."
"Agreed. But what's bothering you about Madoka?" Sayaka steered the topic back to her friend.
"She seemed to be rather perturbed by something." Homura explained.
"How do you sense that?"
"She's slow to respond when the other girls try to talk. She lagged even further behind the rest of us in laps than she normally does in Phys-Ed. She couldn't answer a math question that I know she's successfully answered correctly in the past." Homura observed. "And most of all she's been outright avoiding both you and Hitomi Shizuki."
"Maybe she's finally pieced together the reason Hitomi and I have been so cold to each other." Sayaka theorized.
"And that she might soon become the mutual target of their scorn." Homura affixed. "If what we witnessed was indeed real."
"You're worried she might try to patch it all up with a wish?"
"It's a definite possibility."
"So what if she does?" Sayaka shrugged. "I mean, now that we've got Miss Jones's microwave and we won't need Grief Seeds, wouldn't it be better if we had someone with her talent joining the fight against Walp-"
"No." Homura flatly interrupted. "I'm absolutely not going to gamble Madoka's future entirely on a technological miracle, particularly one that has yet to be reproduced." She continued, "And might I remind you, Madoka giving away her soul over something frivolous is the very reason we're all here."
"Hey now! I don't see our friendship as something friv-"
"If the friendship is meant to last, then it should be bigger than any problems with boys."
"F- Fine. I'll stick with your way." Sayaka reluctantly conceded with a resounding sigh. "So what should we do about it?"
"We can try." Homura Started. "Talking. Again." And stopped. "With them." She started again. "Once more at the very least."
"Okay, I'm game." Sayaka agreed. "Next question, who's talking what with whom?"
"I'll talk with Madoka you talk with-"
"But that's what we did last time!" Sayaka protested. "Why don't we switch it up this time?" She repeated, "I'll talk with Madoka, and you-"
"How about we resolve it your way then?" Homura stoically placed her fist in her palm. "Like last time. Rock-paper-scissors." She briefly gave the slightest sign of a smile.
"You can't be serious!"
"It's the fairest way." Homura's brow raised slightly. "As you put it."
"Ugh! Whatever…" Sayaka went along. "Rock… Paper… Scissors… Shoot!" Sayaka threw 'rock'.
"I win again." Homura had thrown paper. "I talk to Madoka."
"Ughhhh…" Sayaka buried her face in her palms. "I have no clue what I'm supposed to say to Hitomi."
"You don't need to say anything." Homura collected her books. "You simply have to be a willing ear. If she wants you to be." She placed them in her bag. "And if this helps you feel any more confident," She got up from her seat. "I want you to know that I'm making this up as I go along, too."
"Kind of." Sayaka half smiled. "So what do we do about her?"
"About who?"
"Who do you think?" Sayaka's smile vanished. "The last person in this weird love tri-square-angle. Me?"
"I don't know," The class bell rang. "I can only guess what these last few days of Kyoko's influence has done to her worldview." They glanced towards the hallway and saw Kyoko cocksuredly striding past them.
"Hey!" Kyoko impudently flung the door of the Teacher's Lounge open. "One of ya' geezers tell me where the cafeteria's at." She demanded as she scanned the room's layout.
"Uh… It's that way. Down the stairs." The math teacher got out of his seat and pointed his finger. "Take a left. Go down the hallway. Then take another left."
"Heh! Thanks!" Kyoko waved as she eyed a familiar leather coat on the teacher's coat rack.
"What, exactly, was the logic of inviting Kyoko to attend classes here?" Homura asked Miss Jones in passing as they selected their lunch meals.
"Why, your logic, of course." Miss Jones smiled. "What was it you said? Keeping her distracted keeps her out of trouble? Figured school's just as good a place as any for a young lady to be. Is there a reason to be worried?"
"I hope not." Homura uttered. "While she isn't nearly as ill-behaved as she pretends she is, she can still be very rough and aggravating. I recall far too many situations that spiraled out of control simply because Kyoko couldn't help herself." She stuck a straw in her box of juice. "That's largely what made me cease relying on her as a partner."
"Mmmmmm!" Kyoko sniffed the aroma of food in the air. "Smells like I'm headin' the right way!" She stopped walking as she examined a sign at the hall's intersection. "Now where would she be?" She examined a group of older students walking past. "Hey you there! Tall guy!"
"Who? Me?" The boy stopped dead in his tracks as the others turned their heads.
"What grade ya' in?"
"Ninth." He looked at the others. "Why?"
"I'm lookin' for somebody." Kyoko assertively stepped closer. "Same grade as you... I think."
"Who?"
"Little shorter than you." Kyoko described. "Blonde hair, pair o' big curls in the back." Kyoko outlined a round, shapely pair of breasts around her chest with her hands. "No mistakin' her!"
"Oooooooohhh!" The boys in the group all nodded at once. The girls next to them simply rolled their eyes. "Mami Tomoe!" The boy grinned.
"Ya' got it!"
"She didn't come to school today!" The girl in front of him disgustedly folded her arms.
"Aww, she didn't?" Kyoko disappointedly replied.
"Sorry!" The group continued on their way.
"Damn it!" Kyoko palm pounded the wall. "Friggin' figures! I went through this whole stupid charade of going to school with Sayaka, and it's the one day Miss Queen Bee's a no-show!" She reflexively rubbed her recently-healed leg. "Maybe it's for the better. What was I even gonna say? 'Sorry I'd been such a brat? You're definitely the better fighter, so ya' can take this new recruit. Just don't expect her to be some blindly loyal ass kisser, and she might grow into someone who can fill that... Hole in your life. Y'know... That one I couldn't fill? Please?' Pshhh!" Kyoko shook her head. "Do I really have to apologize? We were the ones mindin' our own business, when she barged in, guns blazin' and mouth yappin'. That patronizin' high horse attitude of hers really pissed me off!"
She slowly stepped down the hallway towards the cafeteria. "But I sure as hell ain't cut out for this partnerin' biz, honestly... Who am I kiddin'? Sayaka would be way better off if it's Mami showin' her the ropes! Then she wouldn't have to choose between me and her little friend!" She turned the corner. "So I guess if that means swallowin' my pride a little, and pretendin' I was wrong, then maybe they'll all kiss and make up." She sniffed the enticing aroma of food in the air. "Yeeeeeah! Just what I needed!"
"Madoka Kaname." Homura arrived on the rooftop and very promptly locked the entry door behind her. "Do you typically eat up here alone?" She asked, pretending she didn't know the answer.
"Homura?" Madoka reflexively cradled the Kyubey at her side. Homura stopped in her tracks.
"I'm not here for a confrontation." Homura displayed her lunch. "Only to eat my meal." She proceeded to sit down on a makeshift bench across from Madoka. She then forced a smile.
"Have you always worn those glasses?" Madoka asked.
"Until recently, yes." She pushed them up her nose. "I've been nearsighted since I was a young girl."
"Did becoming a magical girl fix your eyes?"
"Yes it did." Homura replied. "With some focused application of magic. But I would never recommend forming a contract simply to fix a minor physical ailment." She took a bite of her lunch. The two sat quietly eating for a few minutes.
"Why were you in that alley with Mami?" Madoka asked. "You weren't fighting with Mami, were you?"
"Not at all. To the contrary," Homura emphasized. "I was trying to break up a fight. I find pointless territorial battles between magical girls to be deeply distasteful." Madoka smiled upon hearing Homura say those words. The two sat eating quietly for another several minute stretch.
"May I ask you about something?" Homura figured it wouldn't be very long before someone interrupted their meal together. So she decided to cut right to the chase.
"What do you want to ask?" Madoka's head perked.
"I noticed that you appeared to be," Homura took a bite of rice. "Rather preoccupied all throughout our classes today. She took another quick bite. "Is there something on your mind?"
"There is but," Madoka admitted as she nibbled. "I'm not sure if talking to someone about this is going to help me at all."
"But talking can offer one another perspective," Homura forced another smile as she nibbled. "Which can offer you a solution that you otherwise wouldn't consider."
"I know that," Madoka shifted in her seat. "Normally I'd be talking about it with my friends Sayaka and Hitomi."
"Ah," Homura nodded slightly. "I take it, in this instance, that they are the source of your woes?"
"They are, but," Madoka hesitated. "I think I might've accidentally made their problems a lot worse."
"Do you wish to elaborate?" She lightly pressed her on.
"I'm not sure," Madoka demurred. "Can you keep it a secret?"
"Yes." Homura firmly nodded. "You have my strictest confidence."
Madoka reluctantly opened her book bag, ferried through its contents, then pulled out an unsealed envelope. "I was supposed to deliver this to Sayaka."
"But you haven't done so," Homura got up from her seat and took the unsealed letter from Madoka's hand. She skimmed through its message. "And by the looks of it, I take it you've read it?"
"I- I really didn't want to," Madoka lamented. "But it was getting late, and I really really needed to find her," Her confession gradually slid into a whine. "So I thought the note might give me a clue to where she was."
"But now that you've read it, what's done is done," Homura said. "I take it that you're desperately seeking a way to preserve their friendship." The phone in Madoka's backpack buzzed disruptively.
"And then things got a lot more complicated than that." Madoka took her phone, checked her message, and smiled wanly. "You see… I went to see Kyosuke Kamijo in his room in the hospital yesterday…" She scrolled through her past messages. "Because Sayaka goes there a lot and I thought that she might be there… but," She scrolled some more. "She wasn't. And then so- some things happened. Between me and Kamijo."
"Things?" Homura swiftly sat down next to her. "Was that a message from him?"
"Yeah." Madoka sighed. "He's been texting me constantly since yesterday," She tried to focus on her meal. "All during the night too. I'm exhausted!"
"He wrote you a poem?" Homura looked over Madoka's shoulder at the screen still displaying his message.
"Poems and pictures of cute drawings he made," Madoka blushed. "He's all over me."
"Oh?" Homura tried to act surprised. "Do you happen to reciprocate his affections?" The act took less effort than she thought.
"Ummm… I think he's plenty handsome and nice but…" Madoka trailed off.
"But he is already someone else's object of affection." Homura nibbled a little bit of rice. "Two people's, if this note is to be believed."
"Yeah," Madoka longingly stared into the city skyline. "One time, I asked my Momma what made her so attracted to my Papa, and she had this whole list of stuff she liked! His compassion, his cooking, the way he dressed, the way he held the door open for little girls at restaurants… They dated for three years before she and him married."
"I see," Homura interrupted. "You feel that you don't know Kamijo well enough to fully embrace his feelings for you. And that disqualifies you from any right to his hand."
"I definitely don't know him nearly as well as Sayaka does." The phone buzzed again. Madoka tapped a smiley-faced reply on her phone. "Or Hitomi." She tapped the rest of her reply and sent it back to her young suitor.
A timely, barely audible knock struck against the entrance door.
"Oh." Sayaka had found Hitomi dining all alone in the cafeteria. "There she is."
"Hey, you!" She heard another familiar voice call over her shoulder.
"Huh? Uhhh… Me?" Sayaka hesitantly replied.
"Yeah you!" Kyoko pointed at the food laid out next to the kitchen. "Any idea how much is all this food's 'sposed to cost?"
"Five hundred Yen." Sayaka replied. "But today's a leftovers day, so as long as you can pay, you can take whatever you want."
"Cool!" Kyoko's mouth watered with the mention of an open buffet, even if it merely consisted of leftovers. She reflexively reached into her pants pocket. "Crap." She muttered. "Arcade."
"You can take mine." Sayaka walked over and offered the money.
"Eh?"
"It's okay." She forced a smile. "I brought my own lunch today."
"What's your name?" Kyoko's eyes scanned up and down Sayaka's body.
"Saya-" She barely stopped herself from yet again uttering the last part of her actual name.
"Saya-" Kyoko snatched the money from her hand. "Free advice: Don't go around being kind to every odd stranger you meet!" Kyoko's eyes suddenly narrowed. She leaned right up and sniffed Sayaka's face. "'Cuz there's lotsa people out there who'd take advantage of yer kindness." She abruptly reached out and grabbed Sayaka by the wrist.
"Hey! Lemme go!" Sayaka tried jerking it loose.
"Hmmm… Ya' smell awfully familiar," Kyoko's eyes latched right to Sayaka's Soul Gem ring. "Have we met?" She grabbed Sayaka's arm.
"No!" Sayaka jerked again.
"Ya' ever been to Kazamino City?" She suspiciously studied the ring on Sayaka's hand.
"No!" She finally pried it loose on the third try. "I'm from Okinawa."
"That right?" Kyoko stepped back. "'Nuther piece of advice: Stay outta that town. Real nasty girl runs the show there… She'd stomp yer cute little face the moment she saw ya'!"
"Thanks for the warning." Sayaka uncomfortably stepped her way around her.
"Heh! Thanks for the cash. Hope you at least got what you wanted from your deal… With him." Kyoko lightly pat Sayaka's shoulder as she watched Sayaka scurry away.
"Keep it simple." Sayaka reminded herself with a deep, courageous sigh. "If she doesn't want to talk, don't force it."
"Not having lunch in the library this time?" She innocently asked Hitomi.
"All the kids were talking about me behind my back. I thought Honor students were supposed to be above the petty gossip." Hitomi nibbled on a fish stick. "I couldn't stand it."
"That's just the way most people are. Hiding away isn't going to stop them." Sayaka pulled out a chair. "If anything, that's going to fuel it more." She gestured permission to sit down, which Hitomi granted with a meager smile.
"What could I possibly do about it?" Her head sunk. "What would you do about it?"
"I'd sock all their teeth in." Sayaka facetiously suggested. "But that's just me."
"Heh." Hitomi breathed. "It's funny. You remind me of my friend Sayaka." She paused. "At least I thought she was my friend."
"You wrote her that apology note, didn't you?"
"I wrote the note, and in it I made my intentions clear." She replied. "But she hasn't replied. Too busy entertaining a cousin that she never bothered to mention until now. I Guess I never knew her as well as I believed I did."
"There you are!" Kyoko burst out the school's side entrance and leapt right up the steps. "Been lookin' all over for ya!" She shoved a trio of long french fries in her mouth as she reached the top. "Whatcha' up to?"
"Madoka and I always go and eat lunch up here on the roof." Sayaka pounded her palm against the door. "I was going to give her a big talk about the Magical Girl world," She slammed the rest of her body against it. "But the door's locked from the outside. I think she locked it."
"So?" Kyoko stood there with her lunch tray in hand. "Open it up!"
"I'm trying!" Sayaka pounded harder and harder. "But she won't open it!"
"Move over!" Kyoko thrust her tray to Sayaka and pushed her aside. "I got this." She positioned her body to kick the door open.
"You can't do that!" Sayaka just as quickly put herself in Kyoko's way.
"Eh?" Kyoko slightly lowered her foot. "Why not?"
"That'd make too much noise for one thing." Sayaka shook her head. "It'd startle the heck outta Madoka for another."
"Fine," Kyoko drew her Red Soul Gem out. "I'll do it the sneaky way, then! Zap it open with magic!"
"Is that gonna bust the lock?"
"Dunno. Prolly."
"Then nope!" Sayaka put her body in Kyoko's way again. "What if the custodians find the broken lock? Then the Administrative Staff would stop letting us eat where we wanna!" She handed Kyoko's meal back to her.
"Ugh! Yer so pushy sometimes!" Kyoko begrudgingly relented and grabbed a chunk of french fries. "So what're ya' gonna do? Just keep poundin' 'til she hears ya'?"
"Shhhh!" Sayaka pressed her ear to the door. "Sounds like someone's out there with her!"
"Oh yeah?" Kyoko followed suit. "Could be why I'm sensin' magic… Who do ya' think it might be?" She jabbed her chopstick into a slice of meatloaf.
"Better not be that Mami chick!" Sayaka whispered.
"She didn't come today." Kyoko said through her chomping. "Her classmates said."
"What? Don't tell me you went off looking for her!"
"Relax! I was only gonna apologize!"
"Why would you do that? You're the one who got shot in the leg!"
"Definitely sounds like a strange girl!" Kyoko bluntly shifted back on topic.
"Can't be Hitomi." Sayaka concluded. "I've heard her voice through a door. Ain't a match."
"Well if I'm sensin' magic it's gotta be another magical girl." Kyoko stated. "Place is practically crawlin' with 'em anyway!"
"What? Like who?"
"Like that one girl who looks a bit like ya'," Kyoko kept eating. "Wellllllll, If ya' squint hard enough." She swirled up some pudding with her spoon. "'Saya'? I think she said her name was? Eh, anyway, she gave me some lunch money." She shoved it in her mouth.
"The new transfer student? Crazy!" Sayaka tried peeking through the crack underneath the door. "I suppose you're convinced Miss Jones is one, too?" She could just barely make out the forms of two girls sitting together.
"I got my eye on her," Kyoko shoveled some more pudding in her mouth. "But frankly, the one that really scared me was that long black haired girl who sits at the front of the first class."
Sayaka suddenly went pale. "You don't mean that other transfer student,do you?"
"I sensed she was really tough." Kyoko tilted her head. "Why?"
"Because I'm thinkin' it might be her!" Sayaka shot to her feet and banged on the door as loud as she could. "Open up Madoka! We gotta talk!"
"Hey! I thought you said you didn't wanna draw any extra attention!"
Sayaka studied the doorknob. "Maybe we can pick the lock somehow!"
"I dunno. Never tried pickin' a lock before. Have you?"
"What about your magic?"
"Oh, now you wanna zap it?"
"No, I mean…" Sayaka paused. "Remember that thing you did to my bat? Can't you like, maybe turn something small and metal into something like a fake key?"
"Huh. Never thought of tryin' that!" Kyoko gave Sayaka an amused, somewhat awed glance. "That should work!" She quickly snatched Sayaka's hairpin from her head. She jabbed the pin into the keyhole, pressed her Soul Gem to it and the hairpin morphed into a perfectly-slotted key. "Y'know, I'm actually startin' to think you and I would make a pretty kickass team!"
"I'm sorry…" Homura scratched her head. "Your mother told you that you should… Do something wrong ?" Madoka had asked her mother the previous night about how she should resolve the dispute between her friends. Madoka had just shared her mother's onorthodox advice with Homura.
"She said that I could try to lie, or maybe chicken out, or even run away." Madoka clarified. "I didn't understand it at all."
"I don't see how any of those are viable options." Homura mulled. "But she may be onto something in suggestion you do the wrong thing." Homura pretended not to hear a follow-up knock. "Or at least what you feel would be wrong. May I see your phone?"
"Here." Madoka handed it over.
"Hmmm." Homura scrolled through the message history. "You desire to save the friendship between your two friends, while at the same time, making sure this boy's needs are satisfied." Madoka nodded. "Tell the truth. Tell them he wants to be with you."
"B- But they might hate me if I do that." Madoka worried.
"Then play the bad guy if that's what unites them." Homura slipped the note in her pocket.
"I don't think I could stand it, both of them hating me."
"You can do it. You're stronger than you think." Homura slid a little closer. "Much stronger."
"But it might not work out between Kyosuke and me." Madoka fretted. "Then I won't have any friends left at all."
"You can make new friends. Life will go on for you." She comfortingly put her hand on Madoka's shoulder. "And life will go on for him as well." Madoka glared at her. Madoka's unexpectedly scared reaction to her comment surprised Homura. "Oh."
"Madokaaaa!" Sayaka urgently marched outside and onto the rooftop. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Nothing!" Madoka leapt to her feet. "We were just talking!" Homura more slowly rose to her feet as she stepped behind her.
"Sayaka Miki…" Homura drew her breath. "I strongly urge you to refrain from doing anything reckless."
"You stay away from her, Transfer Student!" Sayaka shouted.
"Leave her alone!" Madoka objected.
"Whatever they're telling you," Sayaka warned. "Don't believe them! They're lying to you!"
"Sayaka…" Madoka apprehensively gazed at Kyoko.
"Your assumptions are sorely mistaken, Sayaka Miki." Homura flatly stated. "Again."
"Didn't she tell you to back off?" Kyoko strolled over to Homura.
"... I don't want you to get hurt." Madoka meekly responded.
"Me getting hurt?" Sayaka looked incredulous. "Madoka, have you ever seen one of those witches up close?" She put both her hands on top of Madoka's shoulders. "Here's the truth: They're these huge, terrible monsters that inhabit their own gigantic labyrinths, and they control whole armies of icky things that are equally as scary!"
"Biiiiiiiiig difference between havin' the talent and havin' the guts, Shrimpy!" Kyoko grinned. "Job's not fun 'n' games in frilly dresses! That's the truth!"
"And if that isn't awful enough, magical girls are very territorial and dangerous." She momentarily glanced at the nodding Kyoko. "Their battles get really intense! Sometimes they'll fight to the death! For reals! Trust me, it's not a world you should be involved with!"
"I know that!" Madoka shook herself from Sayaka's grip. "I know all of that! So tell me, why are you with one of the bad ones?" She pointed at Kyoko.
"Moi?" Kyoko innocently put her hand on her chest. "Bad?"
"Who told you about Kyoko?" Sayaka staked her body between Madoka and Homura.
"Mami told me!" Madoka stood up and shook her head. "Mami told me all about her!"
"Oh, Mami," Kyoko disdainfully rolled her eyes. "What a joker!"
"Don't listen to that Queen Bee Mami chick! She's a bully! She's just as violent as any of 'em, only worse 'cuz she acts all high and mighty about it when she does it!"
"Honestly, Sayaka Miki." Homura stepped forward and warned. "Can you not see that your needlessly contentious tone is only harming your own cause?"
"Hmmmmm," Kyoko tugged Homura by the side of her school uniform. "Seems Mami's not the only high and mighty lecturer in this town!" An unsealed envelope tucked in Homura's pocket immediately caught Kyoko's astute eyes.
"Kyoko Sakura," Homura casually tugged herself out of Kyoko's grip. "There's no need to be confrontational about this. This is an issue where I happen to agree with you completely." She flipped her hair and approached Madoka. "You don't need a miracle to resolve your situation," she leaned in closely and whispered in her ear. "Doing the wrong thing may be the only right choice."
"Sayaka, I," Madoka swallowed. "I have something important to tell you about Kyosuke." She bowed apolgetically "Please hear me out first!"
What about Kyosuke?" Sayaka leaned toward her. "What's he got to do with any of this?"
"H- He-," Madoka stammered. "He's..." Homura's expression betrayed an ever-so-slightly noticeable concern.
"The Backstabber Girl's gonna tell him that she loves him." Kyoko blithely said behind them.
"What?"
"Says it right here!" Kyoko waved the note in front of them all. "So apparently if you don't say something to him first she's gonna tell him straight-up." Kyoko cocked her head. "Oh, and if that bothers you she also says she doesn't wanna hang out with you anymore, either."
"Give that back!" Madoka pleaded.
"Damn it!" Homura exasperatedly exclaimed. Kyoko had discreetly picked the note right from her pocket.
"Too slow." Kyoko impishly pushed Madoka away.
"Who the hell does she think she is?" Sayaka irately snatched it from Kyoko's grip. "Givin' me an ultimatum!" She disgustedly read Hitomi's words for herself.
"Hitomi told me to give that note to you and so I looked all over for you but I couldn't find you so I thought I might find you at the hospital with him and when I got there l…" Madoka rambled through her story as fast as she could talk. But the fuming Sayaka wasn't listening. She was already storming away.
"Please listen!" Madoka and Homura shouted in unison.
"Where the hell is she?" Sayaka shouted down the stairs.
"Miss Backstabber?" Kyoko hollered back. "Saw her in the cafeteria!"
"Sayaka!" Madoka chased after her.
"Damned Hothead." Homura strode after them, only to be cut off at the doorway by Kyoko.
"Hold yer horses for a sec, Miss Dark-And-Mysterious!" Kyoko put her hand out. "What's your gaaaame?"
"You couldn't help yourself, could you? Now get out of my way."
"Dooooon't think I'm not on to you guys!" Kyoko pushed against Homura's chest. "What are you really up to?"
"I have no interest in feeding into your paranoia." Homura juked around her.
"Don't give me that crap!" Kyoko kept pace. "I've got a pretty keen sense of magic, can practically smell it, y'know! And you absolutely reek of it," Kyoko slid down the stairway railing as she talked. "So does that Otonashi chick. You two planning to chase away Ol' Mami? 'Cuz y'know, she's really tough! Even the two of you together, she'd be a pretty big boss fight."
"We-" Homura corrected herself. "I'm not planning to grab anyone's territory." Homura could tell by the look on Kyoko's face that her minor slip up did not go unnoticed. "A Walpurgisnacht is coming soon." She chose instead to throw Kyoko a bone.
"A Walpurgisnacht? Kyubey ain't mentioned 'nuthin 'bout any Walpurgisnacht comin'."
"Kyubey doesn't mention a lot of things."
"Eh, I can believe that." Kyoko briefly glanced back up the stairway. "But still, he's pretty forthcomin' whenever a witch pops up. You'd think he'd say something 'bout a fish that huge."
"We're here to make sure it's annihilated. After that, we'll leave this territory to you or Mami Tomoe or whomever wants to claim it." They continued down the hall towards the cafeteria.
"So what, then? You're assemblin' a team or somethin'? That the real reason you were talkin' to Shrimpy Girl?"
"I've stated my intentions." Homura accelerated. "Either join our cause or go away."
"I'll think it over." Kyoko let her have the lead. "So tell me who else is in yer group, at least! There's you and Otonashi… And what about that English teacher?"
"What about her?" Homura said, without skipping a beat.
"Sayaka said she was new around here too. She a magical girl?"
"No," Homura added, "Her arrival here is merely coincidence."
"That's bull!" Kyoko objected. "I've smelt magic comin' on her, too."
"Then you are mistaken." Homura dismissed as she picked up her pacing.
"Oooooh! Struck a nerve! Who's the ringleader? You or her?"
"We've talked long enough." She brushed Kyoko aside.
"Tch. See you 'round." Kyoko stopped and looked at the hallway intersection at the Teacher's Lounge. The hallway was empty. The lights were off. No one inside. Her impish grin gradually overtook her face.
"I remember my snowglobe fell on the floor and hearing it shatter," Hitomi reflectively examined her bandaged hand. "But when I tried to pick up the pieces, I guess I must have cut myself." She pensively stared at the bandages. "It might have been the sight of the blood, because I also remember feeling terribly ill. Like I was quite certain I was going to throw up."
"You were sick? Was that the reason you didn't go to school?" Sayaka queried.
"Oh, that?" Hitomi leaned closer. "Actually, I skipped that day. I needed a day where I could simply collect my thoughts, focus on my studies, and avoid any and all interaction or confrontation." She sighed, "Particularly with Sayaka."
"I've been down that road before." Sayaka had skipped school quite a few times in her former life, especially after her contract. "So what happened next? Did you puke?"
"That's the part that continues to vex me." Hitomi drew a deep breath. "The next part that I can entirely remember, was waking up on the other side of Mitakihara inside an abandoned factory with, like, a large group of other people I didn't know!"
"That's wei-" Sayaka paused, realizing she should be a little more empathetic with her words. "Wild!"
"The police said it was something like a mass hallucination, as if the fact that there's a precedent for it makes the experience any less confusing. Or traumatizing." Hitomi hit her eyes under her hands. "Or humiliating. Or the aftermath any less stigmatizing." She ashamedly hunched down in her seat. "The craziest part of it all is that, if I really, really try, I can remember very faint moments from while I was hallucinating… You know, like those vanishing fragments of a dream you remember after you first wake up?"
Sayaka couldn't help but think back to those fleeting moments she could recall from those final days of her previous timeline, those bleak nights on the streets she'd spent battered and downcast, all alone battling familiars and sleeping under bridges and in storm drains after she and Madoka parted ways. "Are you sure you want to remember what happened to you?" Sayaka certainly didn't believe doing so would offer any closure.
"I don't think I can even begin to move on, if I don't at least try." Hitomi sipped what little remained of her juice. "I can remember… A frog."
"Did you see a frog?"
"No. I didn't see a frog." She corrected. "I was the frog. I think."
"Say what?"
"That's it... I recall I was paging through my Biology textbook. I guess my mind drifted back to the time we had to dissect a frog in biology class."
"Sounds like you got caught up in a daydream."
"That'd be the logical conclusion, under normal circumstances," Hitomi concurred. "But the feeling was worse than any nausea I've ever had. It felt like something was stabbing me right in the gut, and tearing me open."
"Gee, that's…" Sayaka sympathetically clutched her own gut. "Awful." It was exactly the sort of pain to which she could relate.
"I'm sorry if any of this is making you uncomfortable." Hitomi had noticed Sayaka's uncomfortable gesture. "I'll stop."
"No, it's cool." Sayaka pressed, eminently curious to learn what someone under a witch's influence experienced. "I had appendicitis when I was little is all," she fibbed. "Kinda hit home. Keep going if you want. If it helps you."
"This is where the rest of it gets more and more hazy. More and more like a bad dream." Hitomi continued. "I was lying down in pain and I opened my eyes and I saw," Hitomi hesitated. "Sayaka. Or a monster. Or was it a Sayaka-shaped monster?"
"M- That's horrible!" Sayaka exclaimed. That a witch would use her own image to manipulate her friend, the thought deeply disturbed her. And it seemingly gave credence to the idea Miss Jones suggested, that witches acted with both intelligence and intent.
"I was certain that whatever that thing was, it was going to torture and kill me, but then…" Hitomi trailed off. "I was saved. Someone saved me from the monster."
"Saved? Who saved you?"
"A voice." Hitomi closed her eyes. "I don't quite recall how or why, but after I heard the voice, everything magically went away. And after that I had no pain, no fear, and no worries about anything at all."
"You think that the voice, whatever it was, rescued you?"
"I know it did." Hitomi wistfully stared out the window. "It was absolutely the most beautifully soothing voice I'd ever heard in my life. The way it spoke to me, it was as if it had touched the very core of my soul. I was completely in love with it. And it was wonderful." She lightly touched the skin on her neck. "And yet, I don't remember what the voice sounded like at all. Or perhaps I lack the words that would properly describe it." She placed her bandaged hand to her heart. "But I am absolutely certain of one thing: At that moment, I would have done anything to protect it."
"In love with a voice." Sayaka could only politely nod. "Strange." Was this, she pondered, always the sort of scenario that all the people under the witch's influence experienced? Furthermore, she wondered if this was the way all witches operated, and whether these things, whatever these creatures truly were, genuinely thought they were liberating people with their magic.
"I'm sorry." Hitomi apologized again. "I can see I've made you uncomfortable again."
"Oh, no!" Sayaka apologetically shook her head and waved her hands. "It's not you, it's me! It's, uh, my imagination… I'm trying to put myself in your shoes, y'know? And the picture's very vivid!" She wanly grinned. "I can totally see myself as the frog too." She noticed Hitomi's expression instantly changed. "Did I say something odd?"
"You-" Hitomi paused. "Reminded me of Sayaka when you said that. That's the sort of thing she would have said."
"Meandering minds think alike, I guess?" She self-deprecatingly said as she chuckled.
"She'd say that too." Hitomi said. "You two seem to have awfully similar dispositions." She smiled. "Mind you, I'm basing this on what few talks we've had, versus the years she and I have known one another." she hedged.
"And you're really ready to let a boy flush those years down the drain?" Sayaka asked, studying closely her false reflection in the window.
"It does seem sort of melodramatic, doesn't it?" Hitomi pensively closed her study book. "But to be totally honest, I've been having second thoughts about our friendship for quite some time now."
"Wait," Sayaka's jaw dropped. "What? For reals?"
Hitomi's mouth was equally as agape. "Wow. I finally said that to somebody out loud." Her eyes blinked in rapid succession a half dozen times. She tilted her head and wearily studied Sayaka's false face. "'For reals'." She muttered. "Strange."
"W- What is it? Why are you staring at me?" Sayaka awkwardly slid back in her seat.
"That hairpin of yours." Hitomi answered. "I've only just noticed it now. But it looks quite a bit like the one she wears, too." She slowly reached out to touch it.
"Hitomi!" Sayaka's own angry voice shouted from across the lunch room. "What's going on? What the hell is this letter?" Sayaka turned around to see her other self angrily holding up a note. "If you're gonna tell me we're not friends anymore, you should at least have the guts to say it to my dang face!" She stomped toward their table and slammed a crumpled note onto it.
Hitomi took a deep breath as she got out of her seat. "I'm sorry you found out about Kyosuke and I in the way you did." She tried to maintain her calm as she spoke. "For that, I do owe you a more direct apology." She momentarily paused as she took another deep breath. "However, I'm not going to apologize for my feelings. And I believed that a note would express those feelings in as clearly and concisely a way as I could conceive."
"Wait, you guys!" Madoka had finally caught up to her friend in the lunchroom. "You don't have to fight!"
"Spare me the platitudes!" Sayaka ignored Madoka's plea. "Say it all to my face! Don't wuss out and pass along some note!"
"Would you have reacted any better if I had done so?"
"No." The Sayaka in disguise answered. "She wouldn't have."
"You keep out of this, Transfer Student!" Sayaka impulsively tried to shove her counterpart out of the way.
"But she's right!" Hitomi swatted Sayaka's hand away a scant-second before the two could come in contact. When she realized what had almost happened, the Disguised Sayaka cognizantly retreated behind Hitomi.. "With a note, I believed I'd be offering you enough space and enough time to make a rational decision." She stood firm. "So what are you going to do?"
"Ooooh… What a benevolent pal! Giving me a chance to play bad guy first!" She stepped right up to Hitomi's face. "If he wants me, you're gonna use it as an excuse to quit being friends. If he swings to you, you're gonna claim that he's the reason we can't be friends. Either way, your hands stay clean. Is that right?"
"Gah! Why would he ever want to be with someone so hotheaded?" Hitomi angrily shot back.
"Ugh! Why would he ever want to get together with someone so uptight and reserved?"
"Why would he ever want to be with someone so ignorant?"
"Why would he ever want to go out with someone so passive agressive?"
"With someone too absorbed with videogames?"
"With someone too absorbed with studying?"
"With someone who can't sew?"
"With someone who can't cook?"
"Stop it! Stop it Stop it!" Madoka had finally caught up. "Stop it right now, you guys!" She burst at them. But she was ignored.
"How's somebody who's so squeamish around blood gonna take care of a guy like him?"
"How's somebody who's so impatient and hyper going to take care of a guy like him?"
Madoka frantically searched around the cafeteria for a means of getting their attention.
"I've known him way longer!"
"I know him far better!"
"Stop it! Stop! He doesn't…" She saw a pot of leftover baked beans in the buffet area. "You're both wrong! He doesn't want to be with either of you!"
"Face it! Your hoity-toity mom would never let you go out with him! She lives her dreams through you, y'know!"
"Face it! His parents would never lower their social standing and allow him to be with you! You low-class commoner!"
Madoka dashed and grabbed the pot.
"You biiiiiitch! You take that back!" Sayaka raised her fist. "Now!"
"You wiiiiitch! You take it back!" Hitomi followed suit.
"Madoka! Stooooo-" Two other girls called out in unison.
"Kyosuke wants..." A flying pot of beans unexpectedly flew over both their heads. "Meeeeeeeeee!"
"Where was it again?" Kyoko was trying to retrace her steps through this unfamiliar school. The bell signaling the end of the period had just rung. Students shuffled through the hallways as they impeded her effort. "Damn it!" She squeezed between one group of ninth graders and jostled against a trailing group of seventh graders.
"Bingo!" Kyoko looked at the sign hanging above the room she was searching for. She ducked behind a row of lockers. She watched and waited patiently until the lights in the room were switched off as the last teacher strolled back to his class. She clandestinely approached the door, smirking impishly upon discovering it had not been locked.
She toed over to the coat rack in the corner. She hurriedly reached into her target's coat pocket. She grabbed and checked the first object she touched. It was a yo-yo. She felt for the next object. It felt wet and leafy. She took it out and sniffed it. "Celery? Sheesh, what a weirdo!" She took a nibble on it and picked again. A couple Yen coins. She quickly stashed those into her own pocket and moved on to the inner pocket. The first item looked like a long pink calculator, but with markings on the buttons she didn't recognize. She shoved it back in and dug deeper, into a sub pocket within. That's when she felt it, right away she knew what the object she'd touched was. "Hooooolyyyy crap!" She gasped as she pulled it out and examined it. "So that's what I sensed! I knew it! I was right about her!"
"What are doing, Kyoko?" A voice from the window interrupted her pickpocketing. Kyoko deftly stashed the item in her sweatshirt pocket.
"Nuthin'!" She closed the coat and proceeded to raid the other coats on the rack. "Just stockin' up!" She picked a half-melted chocolate wafer bar out of one pocket. "Gonna have another DDR session later!" She hastily snatched a couple Yen coins from the next coat on the rack.
"I'll never understand you humans' affinity for frivolous entertainment." Kyubey made his way inside from the open window.
"Hey, Kyubey," Kyoko surveyed the hallway. "Was what Sayaka told me true? Were you really serious about takin' away your invitation to make Sayaka a magical girl?"
"Yes. I was just going to tell her," Kyubey replied. "Her deadline has passed, and at this time, I see no need to make any gratuitous contracts. Even if she does have a wish in mind, the decision is final."
"What?" Kyoko exclaimed. "What about that Walpurgisnacht comin' to town? Dontcha think it'd be better to have a ton of help fighting it?"
"Walpurgisnacht? Interesting, how have you become aware of its arrival?"
"Answer me!" Kyoko shot back. "Is it comin' here?" She tried to duck under a desk, but a small pet carrier was lodged underneath. So she ducked behind a file cabinet instead.
"The evidence collected at present would seem to support such a conclusion, yes."
"And ya' didn't think that was important enough to tell me about before I came back to this town?"
"You didn't ask about it. You simply wanted to know where all the witches were going."
"Tch!" Kyoko scoffed. "Typical answer outta ya'." She peeked back towards the hall. "I really hate being led around by the nose ya' know!"
"You are the one who ultimately made the decision to return to this city." Kyubey leapt atop the desk she was hiding behind.
"Tch, whatever!" Kyoko grabbed him by the nape of his neck. "So why yank the chance away from Sayaka? Never heard of you doin' that to someone!"
"For her own safety." Kyubey's head tilted. "With the unexpected excess number of magical girls in this city, given the territorial nature of most magical girls, I calculated that she would most likely become a casualty in an inevitable future territorial clash."
"Buuuullshit!" Kyoko tossed him across the room. "I've seen her in action! She's got what it takes!" She took another peek out from behind the desk. "I'd bet on her in a fight over most of these other chicks! Better odds than that Shrimpy yer so big on, anyway!" She closely watched the foot traffic out in the hallway.
"That 'Shrimpy,' as you call her, has the potential to immediately become the most powerful magical girl that's ever existed."
"Get outta town! Ya' mean she'd be even stronger than Mami?"
"Far stronger than Mami." Kyubey promptly got back on his feet and headed for the window. "Indeed the difference in scale between Madoka Kaname and Mami Tomoe would be akin to the difference in size between The Earth and the gas giant that humans call 'Jupiter'. And even that would be vastly understating the difference."
"Which one's Jupiter again?" Kyoko confusedly scratched her head and picked her nose.
"Perhaps that was a bad analogy, considering the girl I am addressing." Kyubey slightly tilted his head to the other side, as if he were trying to tease her.
"Grrrr. Watch it!" Kyoko growled resentfully.
"Surely you have sensed her innate potential yourself," Kyubey swished his tail. "You do seem to possess a uniquely acute ability to sense the magic of others."
"I can smell yer stench all over her fer sure!" Kyoko remarked. She took one extra peek over the desk into the hallway before she broke for the door. The coast seemed clear. She leapt off the floor booked for the door, then instantly stopped and dove behind another desk
"What. The. Hell?" She exclaimed as she watched a teacher traipse Sayaka, Madoka and their friend Hitomi disgracefully through the hallway to detention, each girl utterly drenched in beans, rice, and beef. What a sorry waste of food, Kyoko thought to herself.
"Shit!" She angrily pounded the floor. "If those two both make a contract, they're gonna wind up just like Me and Mami." She frustratedly muttered to herself. 'You like making deals, right?' She transmitted her thoughts to Kyubey, who was proceeding towards the window.. 'How 'bout this… You keep that contract offer open and I'll help Sayaka make up her mind once-and-for all, while you stop harassin' her friend. Deal?'
"Why would I agree to that? You have no means of enforcing such an arrangement."
'I'll stop tossin' ya' about and ditchin' ya', too. How 'bout that?'
"While dealing with your erratic temperament is quite tiring, again, it's not in any way an incentive. If you have nothing to offer, then we have nothing to discuss." He turned his back and got ready to leap through the window and out of the room.
"Gaaahhh!" Kyoko grunted aloud. Then she remembered the item in that pocket. 'Okay… Maybe I do have a little something for ya!'
"And that is?"
'I got info! Good info!'
"Information?" Kyubey turned back around and paused. "Of what sort?"
'Nah-ah! Promise me you'll keep your invitation open to Sayaka first!'
Kyubey stared at her while whipping his tail back and forth. "Very well."
'And lay off her Shrimpy friend!'
"That is her decision."
'Gaaahh! Fine!' Kyoko relented. 'One to one swap! Info for Sayaka's wish.'
"Very well." Kyubey's tail swished. "What information do you possess?"
'First, let's agree upon how many magical girls are in this place, not counting Sayaka and Shrimpy.' Kyoko smiled. 'There's me, Missing Mami, That odd Homura chick and that even odder Saya girl.' Kyoko arched her eyebrow. 'Riiiiiiight?'
"That would be a correct assessment." Kyubey kept impatiently swishing his tail.
'Bzzzt! Wroooong!' Kyoko's smile widened to a face-encompassing grin. 'Aw, way cool! I actually know somethin' ya' don't know!'
"Is that so? Would you care to enlighten me? That is what we've agreed to exchange."
'Have ya' looked at Sayaka's teacher? That foreign lookin' lady from her first class! Somethin's off about her!'
"You believe her to be a magical girl?" Kyubey suddenly stood up. "Do you have any evidence for this assertion?"
Kyoko got up from her hiding spot and hustled over to the coat rack. "Right here!" She pulled a Grief Seed straight out from Miss Jones's coat pocket. "Ta-Da!"
"That's a Grief Seed." Kyubey's little mouth visibly opened slightly. Kyubey was already aware of the two anomalous magical girls. "Quite a curious thing to have indeed." Now Kyubey had to consider the possibility that there might exist a third.
"Oh, she stinks of magic alright!" Kyoko kept talking aloud. "You gonna keep yer word now?"
"That is what we agreed upon." Kyubey leapt onto a nearby desk. He leapt from desk to desk, his unblinking stare never leaving the Grief Seed. "Now give it to me."
"Oh? Ya' really want it?" Kyoko immediately noticed his rather excedent attention upon it.
"It is a used Grief Seed. It would be of no further use to you. It would be dangerous to keep."
"Is that right?" Kyoko leaned towards Kyubey. "Hmmm." Kyubey's eyes noticeably widened. She slowly extended her arm towards him. "Ya' know what?" She quickly jerked it behind her back. "I'll take my chances." She slyly grinned while she opened the door behind her. "Keep yer promise to Sayaka. Then I'll hand it over."
Judging by Kyoko's general tone and demeanor, the likelihood that her information was a deliberate deception was very low, Kyubey calculated. So if her instincts were correct, it had to investigate. But should it investigate first, and then report to its counterparts, or report first, and proceed only upon having a consensus over what to do with this information? If this woman was in league with the other two anomalies, then the matter was urgent and it would have to decide quickly. But If this woman were a teacher, it reasoned, then she would be obligated to remain at this establishment for at least the next few hours, thereby minimizing the chance that she may disappear and reappear elsewhere and evade them, as the other two anomalies so frequently and successfully have. Its decision made, Kyubey headed back inside the school.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Mami Tomoe's silhouetted figure apologized as she blasted away at the witch's animalistic familiars.
She had done nothing but hunt on autopilot all day. She was extremely tired. Even so, exhaustion could not keep her from doing her solemn duty. This was to be her seventh euthanization of the day. And her last.
"What were your hopes? Your dreams?" She pulled musket trigger after musket trigger. "What family is going to be mourning your disappearance? What friends?" She magically materialized a barrage of guns and aimed for the center of its mass. "I would have liked to have known you better… Known who Kyubey took from them. From this world." A ravenous pair of familiars attacked her from behind. From Mami's arms sprouted a set of golden ribbons that tied them tightly together. She yanked as hard as her diminished strength could muster, forcibly severing them from the witch's main body.
"What drove you to become a magical girl?" She leapt high into the air and formed a gigantic gun, she was positioned to take her final shot. "Me? I wanted to live. Connect with life." When once she would have boldy and proudly proclaimed the name of her finishing maneuver, now, here in this labyrinth, she took no such pleasure. "Not become an angel of death." She fired her weapon, piercing straight through the witch's core and exploding, a successful execution. Mami stared sorrowfully at the Grief Seed in front of her as the labyrinth around her dissolved away. She dug a shallow hole right next to it, scooped it up, placed it inside, and buried the Grief Seed.
"If magical girls become witches, we have no choice! We have to die! All of you!" Mami formed a small flintlock pistol, and pointed it at the flower-shaped Soul Gem adorning the side of her head. Her exhaustion and despair now overwhelming, she was all but resigned to her fate. And what better place to do it, than at the very park where she once failed to save a young child? Where she once swore she'd end herself if she ever stopped being a creature of hope? Where else but this park… Surrounded by the company of her fallen comrades she collected and buried?
"And m- me!" Mami closed her teary eyes, grit her teeth and leaned her finger against the trigger. "I'll be with you again soon, Mom and Dad."
An unexpected burst of wind rushed past her body. She heard the sound of something hitting the ground in front of her. She reluctantly opened her eyes to see it. It was an apple. A reminder from heaven, of business still left unfinished on earth. Mami knelt down and picked up the fallen apple. "Oh. That's right. Thank you so much for reminding me," She choked her words as she wiped away her tears. "Mom and Dad." She stood up and approached the Grief Seed on the ground. "And you too."
Mami transformed out of her magical form, and formed her Soul Gem in her hand. She slowly undug the Grief Seed from the ground, and lightly touched it against her gem. "I'm sorry I have to do this to you. But I need to borrow your strength, so I can face an old friend. For her, I must give one last act of mercy." She walked over to the tree where the apple fell, and she dug a new shallow grave with her bare hands, then laid the Seed to rest under the foot of the tree. "Now you can rest in peace, dear friend." She stood up, bowed her head, crossed her heart and turned back towards the city skyline.