.
OoOoO
Madoka ran through the streets of Mitakihara. Behind her, the staccato rhythm of marching boots. The distant roar of flames and pillars of smoke against the starry night sky told her the city was burning somewhere.
The streets ahead of her were overrun by purple tin soldiers and… and… cotton-swabs with fish tails, locked in battle. She ducked and weaved through the melee with a frantic grace. She couldn't move like that, could she? It was like standing aside and watching as her body rolled beneath stray weapon blows and slid between fighters all on its own. She ran through streets choked with the fallen without stumbling and once jumped over a raging melee by rebounding off the side of a building above the soldiers' heads. That couldn't possibly be her.
The tin soldiers kept to tight box formations, jagged spears set as they charged. Swarms of the cotton-swabs, armed with their own curved black spears, screamed shrill chittering war cries and threw themselves recklessly against the tin soldiers' formations en masse. Most of the formations held, but a few broke and scattered under the sheer press of bodies thrown against their front. Knee-high black polka-dotted mice ran panicked through the battle, a few unable to escape the shifting lines and getting trampled underfoot.
Above it all, Madoka heard the marching wave still charging behind her.
She couldn't turn around to see them, but she knew they were there. A wave of tin soldiers, an entire army of them, marching shoulder to shoulder in a dense formation that went from one side of Mitakihara's plaza-like street to the other. The soldiers did not shout or call out as they marched and trampled, but they cut down and silenced the skirmishes in the street as they advanced, cotton swabs and polka-dot mice and fellow tin soldier alike. They were hunting her. She mustn't be caught.
A whistling noise, and a spear thrown from the wave of soldiers behind her plunged down and impaled a cotton swab ahead of her. More whistling noises, one after another until they nearly drowned out the marching, and that first spear became a rain of spears. The skirmishes broke and scattered into chaos, survivors trying to flee. One spear pierced a polka-dot mouse an arm's-length away from her; it had an expressionless blue ring instead of a face, but its body shuddered and legs twitched.
She couldn't be caught. If she was caught, they would tear her to pieces.
She had no idea where she was going, but she couldn't keep running down the street until she was struck with a spear or bogged down and trampled. There weren't any intersections nearby she could reach, but she cast about until she spotted an alley set in the dense downtown sprawl. She sprinted, deft and fleet, dodging falling spears and cutting around fighters running every direction. The tin soldiers were relentless, but rigid; she could hide in the alley while they swept the streets. At the end of her frantic dash, she slid into the alley and stopped herself against a wall. The alley was a dead end. She sank into its shadows, letting them hide her from the lights of the main street.
The sounds of marching swelled. Seconds after she reached relative safety, the army of tin soldiers burst past the alley entrance. And then, in perfect synchronization, they slowed their charge as if they'd been given some wordless command, stopped, and turned to face her.
Madoka backed up as they set their spears and advanced on her. A wall blocked the alley end behind her; there was a fire escape running up the side of the building, but if she went for it they'd attack her from behind. She didn't have a choice, she had to try for the ladder before they got even closer.
She turned and ran for the ladder, and just as she did she got a look at what was coming down the building.
Enormous, sinuous. It rushed past her, and Madoka threw herself to the ground. Teeth, razors that could shred her, red blotches on a black body. The giant snake-thing struck at the tin soldiers. They still gave no word or cry, but the sound of rending teeth and frenzied chewing was enough.
Madoka bit her lip to keep herself quiet and looked at the fire escape. The drop ladder wasn't lowered, so the bottom rung was almost a whole floor off the ground; somehow, she knew she could reach it anyway. The black flying snake-monster wasn't paying attention to her and its tail wasn't quite blocking the ladder. She slid around the monster, stood under the ladder, gathered her breath and bent her knees, and froze when the monster suddenly turned away from its feast to look at her.
Its face was almost clownish, or would have been if it hadn't been chewing on… chewing. Mad ringed eyes of blue, red, and yellow sat in a face as white as makeup and stared at her with open interest. Blue and red feelers or wings fluttered at the top of its head, and it sniffed at her with a red star nose. The silence was broken only by the sound of its chewing on leftovers and a distant explosion that sent a single tremor through the ground. The monster swallowed, and gave her a razor smile large than she was, framed with yellow-dotted cheeks.
Then it surged upwards between the buildings and out of sight, and Madoka let out the breath she'd been holding.
The tin soldiers anywhere near the alley had been shredded, but she could hear fresh ranks marching in. The monster's attack had given her time and room, but she had to move. She gathered herself and leapt for the drop ladder. It was twice her height off the ground, but her hand easily closed around the bottom rung and she scrambled up it easily. A few spears clattered off the metal around her as she all but flew up the escape stairs. She burst up to the rooftop, and finally got a clear view of the city.
Mitakihara burned. Streaks of fire like comets blazed through the sky, striking the towers with resounding explosions. Buildings crumbled into flame, and the outer edges of the city had simply been consumed in one vast inferno.
And at the opposite edge of the roof, a child stood facing away from Madoka. The devastation stretched out beneath her, but she looked up steadfastly into the sky. She was even shorter than Madoka and wore a black cap with cat ears over waist-length wavy hair, pure white but cast in orange from the reflection of flames.
The girl was familiar. The girl was a wounded monster, the girl was healed, the girl was known to her. Madoka found herself walking toward the child, arms out as if to hug her from behind.
If the child sensed her presence, she didn't give any sign. Instead of turning around, she raised one hand to shield her eyes against the sky and spoke with a hollow voice.
"A Curse binds us down and chokes us into silence."
Madoka was only steps away and reached out to grasp her, but before she could, the other girl's body lost coherence and burst into a thick, smoky mist so dark red it was almost black. Madoka gasped and stepped back; the mist writhed and boiled violently, then dissipated into nothingness.
A burst of orange light in the sky drew Madoka's eye. There was a blazing ball of light hanging in the air exactly in the direction the white-haired child had been staring, hanging while all the other lights streaked through the sky. Madoka watched as it steadily grew larger, until she could make out a vicious grin set on its front and the flaming skeleton of a dirigible behind. It was an aircraft, falling from the sky in a hellish blaze. Another second, and she realized with a start that it seemed still because was heading right for her.
She sprinted for the side of the roof, knowing she probably had no chance to get clear. The crackling roar and whoosh of flames filled the air ahead of its impact, and Madoka jumped from the side of the building—
—and gasped as somebody grabbed her mid-air, spinning her about and changing her direction. To the side, the dirigible slammed into the building and sent it crumbling with a thunderous roar, but Madoka and her rescuer were speeding away from the blast. They swung away on a spread of yellow ribbons stretching out into the city around them. From the fireman's carry, Madoka could look out over the city. More flaming dirigibles were plummeting like bombs and the fires were spreading unchecked, but now the city was flooding too.
Purple liquid sloshed and swelled in the streets. Where had the water all come from? The river that ran through the city's heart couldn't be enough for all this. The water rose, and Madoka could see soldiers and mice struggling and drowning. The fish-tailed cotton swabs flitted through the water like mermaids, freely spearing the soldiers and dragging them beneath the surface.
Madoka and her rescuer were swinging downward. With a splash, they landed on a hill that was giving way to the rising tide. Her rescuer set her down in ankle-deep purple liquid. Before Madoka could get a look at her face, she kept walking a few more paces up the hill, looking up to the sky. She was taller than Madoka and wore a feathered cap above golden blond curls that tumbles from either side of her head in enormous spirals. Her blouse, corset, skirt, and boots were in whites, yellows, and browns. One hand gripped a long musket, pointed at the ground.
This girl too was familiar. Protection and dedication, stretched across a yawning void. Madoka wanted to burrow into her side and use her as a shield. Instead, she tried to follow the other girl's sight. There was no leering dirigible falling toward them this time; there were other dirigibles, but they were all falling elsewhere.
Madoka kept staring, until she found a dark patch in the night sky. Starless and flameless, it seemed to swallow everything and trap it within. She squinted, trying to make anything out. She thought she saw…
...hanging in the sky, not because it was coming in their direction, but truly hanging unsupported and unmoving. She saw a stone. There was a stone graven with the image of a girl, arms out in mercy, and…
Madoka blinked, and lost sight of it.
The girl who had rescued Madoka finally spoke, her throaty voice heavy with loss and shaky with tears.
"A Curse drags our hope down from the heavens."
And she burst into red-black coils of mist that twined around Madoka. She shuddered at how oily and sick the mist felt against her skin, and then it dissipated just like before.
The purple liquid sloshed against her stockings halfway up her calves. It had been only up to her ankles when they landed. Madoka hugged herself and started hiking up the hill with the street, quickly leaving the liquid behind and heading the same direction she'd seen the stone hanging in the sky.
There were still tin soldiers and fish-tailed cotton swabs fighting in this part of the city, but only a few in small pockets. Giving the fights a wide berth was easy. The fighting had been fiercer earlier, though; the number of fallen monsters vastly outnumbered those still living, and Madoka had to jump over unmoving lump after unmoving lump.
Deep tremors shook the ground, Madoka's only warning before two behemoths burst into view from a sidestreet. They scraped across the sides of skyscrapers as they fought, large enough to stand above some of the towers. One was an enormous skeleton in a black dress, the other an armored leviathan with a fish's tail. The skeleton's hands were bound in stocks, which the leviathan grasped with one hand while flailing about with a sword in the other.
Madoka had only seconds to take this in, and then the two towering monsters crashed through the other side of the street and vanished again. They knocked loose a mass of debris that came falling toward the street below, and Madoka caught a glimpse of enormous white teeth and glittering scales before she jumped back to try to stay clear of the landing.
The teeth and scales never had a chance to hit her, though, because a wall of red chain netting burst into existence to catch them. Madoka turned around to find the girl who made the chains, a girl with a messy red ponytail all the way down to her waist and a flowing red outfit that tapered into a loose skirt. She had a spear slung over her shoulders, and one hand was stretched out to the chain net; when she lowered it, the chains vanished.
Like the others, she faced away from Madoka. Like the others, she was familiar. She walked through the valley of shadow and rekindled her light. She spoke, and her voice was quiet and sad.
"A Curse drives us apart from one another," she said, "And a Curse delivers us into evil's power."
Then she too was nothing but dark red mist. Madoka reached out as though to grab the tendrils and keep them with her. The feel of it made her flesh crawl as her hands grasped in vain. The mist dissipated, and Madoka choked back a sob as one more friend vanished.
And then Madoka stopped short as a fourth girl walked past her, heading up the hill.
A white cloak billowed behind her, and her blue hair whipped out in a breeze that Madoka couldn't feel. Madoka gasped, and knew this girl. She chased after her, trying to grab the other's cloak, a thousand questions stuck in her throat and her limbs heavy as though swimming in amber.
"A Curse mocks our struggles." Sayaka's voice, though low, trembled with barely-contained fury. She shuddered as she walked; her fists were clenched, one bare and the other holding a sword that rattled and sparked as its tip trailed against the street behind her. Madoka desperately tried to catch Sayaka to pull her into a hug that could still her trembling fury, but somehow she was always just out of reach. Sayaka spoke again, voice tight. "A Curse poisons our sincerity."
Sayaka came to a sudden stop and lifted her sword until it pointed ahead and above. With small, mincing steps, Madoka walked around to Sayaka's side and looked where Sayaka's blade pointed.
At the top of the hill not far ahead, two parallel wooden poles stretched into the sky, with something glinting orange in the light of flames between them. With a start, Madoka realized it was a blade suspended in the air by a rope; the entire thing was a guillotine.
"A Curse drowns us in hate."
Then Sayaka turned away from the guillotine in disgust, faced the slowly-rising flood of purple liquid, and stood with her blade at guard.
Madoka looked again at the guillotine, and realized there was a girl waiting at the base. She stood with her head bowed, elegant black dress and long raven-dark hair both flapping, and if she were to kneel then her neck would be beneath the blade.
Sayaka was still shuddering and twitching as though in pain or holding herself back. Madoka probably should have stayed with her, but she was also sure Sayaka was standing guard so that she could go up the hill. She wavered, looking between her best friend and this dark phantom, then took a deep breath and began up the hill.
The girl was crying. Her shoulders were shaking only minutely and she made no sound, but Madoka could tell she was crying. She shouldn't have to cry. She deserved better! That conviction burned in Madoka's heart with an intensity that surprised her, and her feet began to move faster.
"Curse me."
The other girl's voice rang out clear and beautiful over the hill and above the din of distant battle. Madoka's heart leapt into her throat when the girl spoke and her hands came up on impulse, whether to reach out or ward the dark girl away, Madoka didn't know.
"Curse me!"
The girl shouted this time. Madoka wanted to run away; she wanted to run forward and embrace the girl. They weren't in Mitakihara anymore. The city and the hill and the guillotine had somehow melted away when she wasn't watching. Now a dewy field of grass and flowers was beneath her bare feet. The sun was bright and clear as it climbed above them, trees in the distance swayed in a gentle breeze, and two handsome chairs made from solid white wood lay strewn on the ground on broken turf as though they'd been thrown down in a violent rage. The chairs were on either side of the girl, facing away from each other where they fell.
The girl was writhing, hands clutching at her face. Madoka herself trembled as she came to a stop only paces away. The twin urges to flee and to run toward the girl were overpowering; fear and want warred with each other, leaving Madoka standing paralyzed with indecision. But there was a name on the tip of her tongue; she knew this girl. It tore its way from her throat. "Homura!"
Homura spun around and burst forward, hands arched and grasping.
"CURSE ME!"
She slammed into Madoka and tackled her to the ground. Her eyes were filled with red light and crimson lines trailed down her face like bloody spiderwebs. Madoka shrieked as Homura thrashed and grasped and tore at her. Madoka threw her arms in front of her face and sobbed and begged her to stop as Homura howled in mindless pain. Something tore, something ripped in half, and Madoka's strength gave out entirely. She couldn't struggle anymore, couldn't fight as Homura's hands clenched around her throat and squeezed. She was falling, she was fading into darkness.
OoOoO
A Curse Between Us
Chapter 1
OoOoO
Someone was knocking at her door. The voice of her father, Kaname Tomohisa, came through. "Madoka? Sweetie, are you up?"
Madoka jerked her eyes open, then squeezed them shut again when the sun decided to stab her in the face. Was this how Mama felt every morning? She pried her eyes open again and looked at her clock, and then she was very awake. "Oh no! I was supposed to meet Homura this morning!"
"Sweetie?"
"I'm up, Papa!" She suited her words by flinging her blankets away and jumping out of bed. She was awake now, but her body still disagreed, and pins and needles jabbed all up her sleepy legs as soon as they tried to hold her weight. Madoka stumbled but caught herself against her nightstand, wincing as her blood all-too-slowly crept back into circulation. "Sorry, Papa! I'm fine! I'll go get Mama up."
"I already woke her. Take your time if you need to, you still have a little bit. I'll have breakfast ready for you downstairs."
"Thank you! Something I can take with me, please!"
By the simple expedient of leaving her bed sheets in a tangle, not brushing her teeth, and dressing as fast as she could even though her legs still weren't quite cooperating, she managed to stumble down the stairs to the kitchen in a record time four minutes later, trying to tie her red ribbons blind. The ribbons Homura gave her.
Her mother, Kaname Junko, was already downing her last bit of coffee and looked far more composed and mature in her business suit and skirt than Madoka could possibly hope to manage this morning. Judging from the look Junko was giving her daughter, Madoka probably wasn't doing a very good job tying her pigtails up without a mirror either. She glanced at the clock, then smiled at Madoka. "I can make a few minutes more, I think. Let me help with that, your pigtails are lopsided."
"Thank you, Mama." As her mother moved behind her and started fiddling with her ribbons, Madoka couldn't help but keep glancing at the clock herself. Her father was standing over the stove, putting the finishing touches on what smelled like eggs. Her stomach grumbled at her. Only her little brother Tatsuya was cheerfully unaware of the morning rush, sitting in his high chair and happily knocking cheerios around his tray without a care for whether they got to his mouth or not.
Why couldn't she stay and play with him like that? She hated waking up late!
"I missed my usual wake-up call," her mother said as she worked. "Maybe I shouldn't complain, though? Tomo's much nicer about getting me up. He doesn't slam doors and yank curtains open, unlike my sweet and gentle daughter."
Even though she said it with good humor, Madoka still felt bad. "I'm sorry I didn't get you up, Mama. I haven't been sleeping well at all lately." Her eyes drifted back to the clock. She was going to be late, definitely for meeting Homura and probably for the start of class.
Her father looked over from the stove. "Is jet lag still bothering you, sweetie? We've only been back a few days."
"Maybe…."
"Well, let us know if it keeps up," her mother said. "We can pick something up from the pharmacy to help you switch to Japan time again if you need it." She finished the last touches on Madoka's ribbons and pigtails, then stepped back to get a better look. "There you are, adorable as always."
Madoka immediately poured herself a glass of juice and chugged it as fast as she could as soon as her mother was done. She was so distracted she missed the timing when her mother came over for their customary morning high-five goodbye; she hadn't even noticed her mother giving Tatsuya and Tomohisa their goodbye kisses right before. Junko took pity on her flustered, off-kilter daughter and patted her cheeks before leaving for work, saying, "Keep your head up, sweetie. Alright, now I'm off!"
Madoka grabbed her bag and started for the door, but her father stopped her. "You already had something to drink? Good. Lunch is in your bag already, and here's something for the road." He passed her a fried egg and toast sandwich bagged for transport. "We can talk about the pharmacy when you get home if you want to. Have a good day, sweetie!"
"Thank you, Papa! Bye, Tatsuya!" And then Madoka took off out the door, without waiting to give her father a hug or see if her brother looked up from his cheerios to wave at her. Her stomach was still grumbling at her, but she took off running anyway. She didn't think she should slow down enough to try eating until she'd made up for lost time. Then, as she got out to the main road and hit the first intersection, she saw the tin soldier standing at the corner.
It—or she?—wore a nutcracker uniform of white and light purples, with darker accents on the legs, arms, and tall hat. Red-rimmed glasses clung somehow to its smooth, featureless purple face framed in braids that were almost familiar. It stood rigid and motionless, locked in guard, though guarding what or why Madoka couldn't say, and its jagged spear pointed straight up into the sky at attention. A child in a black dress with a hood with an orange bobble on its head jumped around and danced at the soldier's feet, trying to get any reaction out of the stoic soldier.
Mitakihara burning. A tide of spears and charging tin soldiers, charging forward to trample without mercy. A razor grin, and two heads turned away from her, both with hair whipping in the wind, one short and blue, one long and black….
It was just a silly dream, of course. Being back in Mitakihara was strange, but the city was fine. She didn't know anything about polka-dot mice or cotton swabs with fish tails, but all the tin soldiers she'd seen in Mitakihara only stood guard.
She almost ran forward to pull the child away from the soldier anyway, the anxiety from her dream was that strong. But surely that was silly. They only stood guard. The child wasn't in any danger.
But to make herself feel a little better, even though she was in such a hurry, Madoka took the time to cross to the other side of the street before passing the tin soldier.
OoOoO
On the way to school, Madoka couldn't help but gawk a little. No, not quite gawk. Gawking would be understandable. Mitakihara had been built to be a clean and sharp city of the future, skyscrapers gleaming in the morning light and floating holograms used trivially in everything from billboards to crosswalk buttons. She'd lived in a big city in America, but big wasn't the issue. Mitakihara was also new, recently built and every aspect of it brimming with the need to show off.
But Madoka wasn't gawking like some tourist or newly returned citizen. She was watching the corners and over her shoulder. No matter how clean and pretty Mitakihara tried to be, she couldn't rid herself of the feeling of being watched or followed or out of place or… or… something. Which was silly, because the only people following her were other late-rising Mitakihara students who were also rushing to school.
She thought she recognized the child that had been taunting the tin soldier once when she looked over her shoulder, but there wasn't anything odd about spotting someone twice in a day. Or maybe she just wasn't used to all the crows that seemed to love perching in the trees along the path to school? They hopped about and squabbled noisily, eyes intent and a splotch of white on their face. She could swear that some of them were staring at her as she jogged by.
It certainly didn't help that thanks to her late wakeup she felt sweaty and grungy and her teeth needed brushing and she was almost certainly going to have to use the washroom at the first break, or before class if she had enough time. She slowed down to eat her fried egg sandwich once she'd made some headway, which at least helped with her grumbling stomach. When she was done, she couldn't quite make herself start running again.
She didn't want to be late and she'd promised to meet Homura on the way to school, but somehow the reluctance wouldn't go away. It probably didn't matter. She'd made up a lot of time running, enough that she'd caught up with more than just the other last-minute stragglers. She could slow down, probably.
Homura had been in her dream. The details were already fuzzy even though they'd been vivid and cutting when she first woke. Her pace grew slower as she tried to remember anything she could.
"Hey, you!"
Homura had been sad. No, not just sad, in pain. Because… she wasn't sure why. Was it because there was a war in the city? Did Homura even care about that? Of course she would, everyone would care about a war in their city, wouldn't they? But was that why Homura'd been so upset? She'd been wearing a beautiful dress, but it was dreary like something worn to a funeral. Had someone died?
"Hey, transfer studeeeeent!"
Madoka squeaked as someone ran into her at full bore, sending both of them staggering. Instinctive footwork kept her from falling down, but so did the arms that clamped around her from behind. Madoka shrieked and twisted in place to try to shove her attacker off.
"I found you, Madoka! I found you at last!" her attacker said, giggling.
…giggling?
She opened her eyes, and found she recognized her "attacker." Earnest blue eyes glittering with mischief, loose chin-length hair scattered just a bit tomboyishly, wearing the same Mitakihara girls' uniform, and leaning in eagerly; Madoka sagged with relief into what was actually a hug. "Sayaka?"
Sayaka, still holding on, turned up the full energy of her smile. "What's with this, Madoka? I heard from my mom you were coming back to Japan and I saw you in class yesterday, so why haven't you come over to see me yet?"
Madoka's sudden pleasure wilted a little. "W-well, honestly, I thought you wouldn't really remember me? It's been a long time..."
"What? That's stupid! I'd never forget My Dokes!" Sayaka swatted her shoulder. "We've been friends since we were babies and you think I'd forget you from just three years apart? The only reason I didn't jump you yesterday was because Akemi absconded with you in the middle of class before I even got a chance! 'I thought you wouldn't remember me.' Honestly, that hurts!"
Madoka giggled. "I'm sorry, Sayaka."
"Well, if you're sorry, then I have no choice but to forgive you." Sayaka broke the hug and then started walking, grabbing Madoka's hand and tugging her along. Madoka felt a wave of warm nostalgia as they walked; it was just like when they were little kids, holding hands and skipping along their way to elementary school to meet up with Hitomi and Kyousuke. Sayaka started talking again, saying, "So tell me about America, then! You lived in Seattle, didn't you? What was that like?"
Madoka nodded. "It wasn't that different from Mitakihara, at least where I lived. I guess it was louder? And rainier. And there were a few bad parts of town Mama told me not to go in. It's not as new as Mitakihara, so it can be run down in places. And… I never really felt like I fit in at school, even after my English got better."
"You must be happy to be back in Japan then, right?"
Madoka looked away. "I… don't know."
Sayaka looked at her, noticing Madoka's fallen spirit immediately. "Oh?"
Madoka had been trying to stay cheerful for her family. Mama and Papa and even Tatsuya had all been so happy to be back in Japan, not that Tatsuya knew what the change of scenery meant. But one look at Sayaka's worried face, and Madoka knew she wouldn't be able to pretend in front of her oldest friend. She didn't even want to, and it all started tumbling out. "I mean, I've only been back a few days really, so maybe I'm just getting used to it again, but everything feels off. Maybe I'll feel better when my sleep adjusts?" She heaved a sigh. "I've been having nightmares too, but I didn't want to tell Mama and Papa about that. They knew I didn't like living away and they were really hoping I'd feel better once we came back to Mitakihara, but now I feel even worse. All I know is the city feels creepy and wrong somehow, and I'm not supposed to be here, and I don't even know what's wrong that's making me feel like this."
Sayaka pumped her free hand in the air. "Good thing I'm here, then! If anyone tries to give you any trouble, I'll smack 'em around and show the bastards how to welcome a returning citizen home properly!"
"Thank you, Sayaka!" Madoka giggled and gave Sayaka a sidelong look, "But you know, you shouldn't swear like that!"
"Heh heh, sorry! I guess I don't get a free pass now that you're back to keep me in line." Then Sayaka realized something, and a wicked grin split over her lips. "Oh, Madoka, but you're going to absolutely crazy when you meet Kyouko."
"Who?"
"You'll see! She's in our class." Sayaka was almost giddy at the idea. "Hey, I asked why you didn't come over already, didn't I? Yeah? So you should come over already, right? How about today?"
"You haven't changed a bit, Sayaka."
Madoka said it fondly, but when she did a shadow seemed to pass over Sayaka. It was fast, so fast that Madoka only caught it because she was still drinking in the sight of her oldest friend's face. Then it was gone, and Sayaka's smile was back but not quite as strong as it was before. "You'd be surprised," she said.
Despite the strange moment, Madoka still giggled at that. "I'm not sure I believe you! But, anytime after school's great for me."
Sayaka looked away, thinking. "Um... maybe a few hours after? I have some homework and other things I gotta blitz through first."
And Madoka stopped mid-step, stopping Sayaka with her. "Eh?"
"What?"
"You're doing homework first?"
Sayaka blinked a few times. "Yeah, I try to get it out of the way. What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing! Nothing at all! But you always used to put homework off as long as you could."
Sayaka gave her a flat glare and rolled her eyes. "See? I have changed! So we just get to know each other again, that's all." Her irrepressible smile popped back onto her face and she let go of Madoka's hand to pull her cellphone out of her bag. "Phone check!"
Madoka pulled out her own phone, pulled up her number, and held it up for Sayaka to see. Sayaka fiddled with hers, then sent Madoka a text. "...there," she said. "Now you've got my number and my house address if you don't remember the way. Mom's already got your new address, so don't worry about that."
Then, putting her phone away, Madoka got a glimpse of the time on its screen and gasped. "Oh no! I have to hurry, I told Homura I'd meet her before school. Um, do you want to come too?"
Sayaka's smile dimmed again. "Maybe another day?" she said. "I kinda ran ahead of Kyouko when I saw you. I should wait for her to catch up."
"Oh. Okay."
They looked at each other for a moment, Madoka fiddling with her bag straps and Sayaka bouncing her weight between her feet, neither wanting to be the first to leave but not knowing what else to say. When the pause had lasted long enough that they heard the first bell in the distance calling them to class, Sayaka, eyes shining, reached up with her free hand to squeeze Madoka's shoulder and said, "I'm so glad you're here, Madoka. There's not much point in it without you."
Madoka couldn't help it; she could feel herself tearing up. "Sayaka?"
Sayaka cocked her head, smile still warm and strong. "Yeah?"
"I... just wanted to say your name."
Sayaka giggled, warm and true, chasing the shadow off her face. "Well then! Madoka! Ma-do-ka! My Dokes!"
Madoka was halfway between laughing and crying, so she settled for jumping toward her friend for a hug. Sayaka caught her and wrapped her up in strong arms, letting Madoka hide in her taller frame. Everything felt wrong and out of place, nightmares with some message she couldn't grasp plagued her sleep, instincts she didn't understand told her she was vulnerable and hunted, the city itself felt wrong and broken, but Sayaka—Sayaka was still her friend, Sayaka would never forget her. In the middle of everything wrong, Sayaka was right.
Even so, she couldn't let herself stay here and go to pieces. It would be nice to just stay home and cry and laugh with her best friend, but she needed to live. Right now, that meant going to meet Homura before school, and the thought of that more than anything else told her she needed to get back to the fight. She pulled back from Sayaka after a moment, covering her face with her hands, and laughed. "I'm a complete mess, aren't I? Don't look at me right now!"
Sayaka tugged a handkerchief out of her pockets and pressed it into Madoka's hand. "Here."
"Sorry about this," Madoka said as she set about cleaning herself up.
"You're my first friend," Sayaka said, shrugging like that was all there was to say on the matter. "You've got to go meet Homura now, right?"
Madoka gave her a tremulous smile on the verge of breaking out into another round of tears. "Thank you, Sayaka."
Her friend flapped her hands in Madoka's direction, laughing. "Ah, you're embarrassing me! Now get! Get!"
Madoka gave her one last look, happy and grateful, before turning and running down the path. Sayaka stood with a content smile on her face, watching as Madoka weaved in and out of the thickening crowd, growing distant. Eventually Madoka slowed to a walking pace again as she caught up with someone and waved in greeting.
Sayaka couldn't make out much of the other girl at this distance other than long black hair and a liquid gait; she was lucky the crowd left her enough of a window to see them Madoka and Homura at all. One detail was obvious, though. The sunlight caught on the purple gem hanging from her earring, reflecting a piercing gleam.
'I should thank you, Miki Sayaka. Madoka's in quite a better mood now thanks to you.'
Sayaka's mouth twisted into a grimace as she replied to the telepathy. 'I don't want Madoka unhappy, Akemi.'
Homura's reply was wordless and soundless. Sayaka felt a distinct wave of approval flow down the telepathic connection, as though nothing could please Homura more than to hear that sentiment. Approval, tinged throughout with her bubbling amusement at the sight of Sayaka doing her work for her. Sayaka scoffed as the telepathy connection cut and the sense of Homura's mind faded.
The crunch of Kyouko biting into an apple roused her. Kyouko came up the path at a sedate pace, school bag dangling carelessly from a loose grip. Clamping down on the apple to hold it in her mouth for a moment, she grabbed a second apple with her free hand and tossed it to Sayaka. "So, any particular reason you wanted me to hang back just now, Blue?"
"Didn't want to crowd her much just yet." Sayaka nodded her thanks and bit into her apple. "She's feeling kinda jumpy, after all."
Kyouko cocked her head to the side, sending her ponytail swinging. "Alright, I'll bite. 'She' who?"
"Old friend of mine. Transfer student from yesterday. You'll meet her later, she's coming over."
"What, you up to something?"
Sayaka flashed Kyouko a grim, tight smile. "Tell you later."
"Alright, whatever, if it's not important then."
Sayaka let the smile disappear, turned her back, and started walking toward the school again. "It's important," she said over her shoulder.
"Well la-dee-da." Kyouko flipped the apple core over a knot of students and into a trashcan. "Aren't we fucking dramatic today?"
That got an amused snort out of Sayaka, however worried she was. "Heh. A bit, yeah."
OoOoO
The miasma over Mitakihara was thick. The faux-city within the mists was silent; no chattering crowds, no honking traffic, no life, only the claustrophobic mists pressing in. The afternoon sun, choked out by the wraiths' power, barely lit the world in a dull lifeless gray. It was barely better than fighting at night. Of course, the sun was supposed to burn away the miasma during the day, leaving night the only time the wraiths were able to coalesce from the darkness and fear in human hearts and come forth to wreak havoc.
Sayaka felt someone should tell the wraiths this.
'Nother one on your eight o'clock, newbie!'
Sayaka snarled and put on another burst of speed as she skipped over the rooftops, trying to keep the new wraith on her left from getting a good position. The others ahead and behind her circled, constantly moving. Enormous pale men four times as tall as her with strange faces as though bits of them were breaking off into pixelation, their long robes whipped and fluttered as the wraiths flew about her. Hands outstretched, luminescent energy beams like golden burning light shot from their fingers whenever they thought they had her pinned. She hated the flying ones. Extra mobility just made them even more of a pain than usual.
She rushed the front, and the wraiths there fell back and melted away while the ones at her back and sides swooped in. Turn to face the ones at her back, and the ones now behind her dove for the kill. Sayaka survived only by staying in constant motion and jumping from roof to roof and building to building as a rain of golden light from the wraiths struck every position heartbeats after she left it. The circle of wraiths was still wide, constantly forced back by her reckless bulrushes, and leaving her a wide choice of landing points for every jump. This was probably the only reason the wraiths hadn't pinned her with fire yet.
A crimson spear flew within arms' reach of her. Sayaka traced its path, and found a wraith she'd missed frantically backpedaling through the air. Kyouko's voice spoke in her mind. 'Oi newbie, didn't I tell you to watch your goddamn back?'
Sayaka flung her sword, sending it spinning like a rogue buzzsaw across the city and right through another swarm of wraiths across the street, scattering them briefly. Kyouko was in the middle of that swarm somewhere, a flash of vivid crimson in all the fluttering deathly white. Who are you calling newbie? You're the one who let them separate us, Kyouko!
'Cuz I can take 'em myself, Blue! Shut up and fight your share of toga freaks!
Sayaka snarled at the wraiths flying around her. Bravado aside, she and Kyouko needed to fight together. They both knew it. Sayaka dodged over a burst of golden light, manifested a new sword in her grasp, rebounded off the side of a radio tower with a leap, and hung in the air for a split second as a platform formed of blue music staffs formed at her feet. She was ready to launch herself in Kyouko's direction, but the wraiths shifted to block her path. She could charge anyway and force the issue, but she would leave herself open to attack as she tried to rush past them. With a curse, she let the magic platform fade away and fell back to perch on top of the radio tower. 'I can't get to you now.'
'Tch. Goddamn monsters.'
Sayaka didn't disagree with that, but they also weren't stupid monsters. They'd seen Kyouko and Sayaka together, and weren't letting that happen again. She had seven or eight wraiths circling her, waiting for an opening, always keeping the bulk of their forces between her and her friend.
Well, fine then. Let them block Kyouko off all they want. 'Hey Kyouko, send another spear my way! I wanna do a thing!'
Kyouko didn't reply, but she flung three more spears with a shout that echoed in the still mists. The spears spread out, the flare of red magic flickering at their tips as they sped toward Sayaka's swarm of wraiths. Of course, over this distance it was easy for the wraiths to spot and dodge the spears before they became a threat, doing nothing but clearing a momentary gap in the swarm.
But that was all Sayaka needed.
She kicked off the radio tower and called out the blue music platform again. The wraiths brought golden light to their hands and prepared to intercept her as they flew back into the gap, and then she launched herself in completely the wrong direction. Instead of rushing the wraiths between her and Kyouko, she followed the path of the spears as they opened a hole on the far side of the swarm. Caught off-guard as their prey escaped in the wrong direction, all the wraiths could do was send bursts of golden light trailing after her.
'Back in a minute! Don't die while I'm gone!'
'Yeah, just hope I leave some leftovers for you, Blue!'
She was faster than they were, at a sprint or over distance, Sayaka was sure of it. They'd only managed to hedge her in because she hadn't gotten sustained speed, but now she kicked from musical platform to musical platform, not even bothering to come back down to the rooftops as she launched herself over and over. Bursts of golden light arced past her, only barely faster than her and doing little more than illuminating the mists around her. She could feel the wraiths chasing her, twisted knots of rage in her magical senses, but they were rapidly falling behind.
And then she came to the edge of the miasma. Tendrils of dark mists pulled at her, trying to keep her from escaping the wraiths' domain. For one second, she hung midair at the border between the miasma and the wholesome day, sudden sunlight hitting her eyes and warming her skin. Another platform, and she reversed her direction and launched herself back into the battle, back toward the wraiths.
The wraiths had followed her, but they were spread out and their formation was broken from the chase. She dropped from the sky and into Mitakihara's streets, first onto a broad boulevard and then rocketing into side streets, still not giving up any speed. Then she was beneath the swarm, dodging their bursts of light as they fired at her from above. By now the wraiths were so spread out that there was never more than one at a time positioned to fire into her street.
She was almost through the swarm. She cut back into the wider streets again, ready to make one final dash before passing the wraiths and heading back to the rooftops. Ahead of her, a wraith dropped from the sky and into the streets to cut her off.
"So you'll fight one on one after all," Sayaka muttered. Her grin was savage. "Too bad for you."
She let her sword dissipate into magic, then reforged it as an enormous straight-edged greatsword as tall as she was. Golden light flared in the wraith's hands, and Sayaka launched herself off one last platform for a final burst of speed. Blue magic flared into the crashing of cymbals and the screech of strings as she caught the golden blast on her sword. She spun, the light veered away off her blade, and she was inside the thing's guard.
It bellowed, a sound so deep the air vibrated. The pixelation that distorted its face left little room for expression, but the bite of its unknowing and unrelenting hatred filled Sayaka's senses with poison.
Her momentum carried her, and her spinning greatsword bit into the wraith and cut it apart from shoulder to hip in a single blow. Its corpse dissolved around her in a burst of squares and sickly pale light.
She leapt up to the rooftops again, letting her greatsword fade back into her normal blade. The swarm of wraiths that harried her was behind her and at the edge of the miasma, out of the way for the moment.
'Kyouko, where are you? Get to rooftops if you aren't already.'
'At the—shit, fuck you scumbags!—Weltstadt mall. If you're gonna do something, hurry!'
Sayaka changed course and sprinted through the rooftops. Weltstadthaus mall was a long bulging bubble of glass and metal shaped almost like a whale swimming through downtown Mitakihara. As she got closer, she could see five wraiths flying around it blasting a steady barrage of energy beams, strafing a figure in crimson atop the building. Kyouko spun through the storm, footwork guiding her around blasts that splashed against the glass windows, spear spinning and deflecting what she couldn't dodge. She was hitting all the right steps like it was a DDR machine cranked up to the highest difficulty, but she also wasn't getting any room to counterattack.
Sayaka hit the rear of the swarm before they even knew she was there, crashing into the back of a wraith and shoving her sword up to the hilt through its center of mass. The thing bellowed and died in a burst of light. Sayaka kept going, hit the rooftop running, slid inside Kyouko's dance, and started deflecting blasts with a sword in either hand.
"Hey Blue, what happened to your friends?" They spun around each other, weapons flashing, but with the nearby wraiths down to four and the two of them back to back, the stream of fire couldn't force them to move unless they let it.
"Ditched 'em aways back. Pretty sure they'll catch up in a minute."
"Better kill these scumbags quick then." Kyouko glared at the wraiths, watching their motions. "The two on our north keep flying past each other. Lillian thing."
Sayaka nodded. They held their ground, still deflecting blasts, until the two wraiths were near each other again. Kyouko burst from position and sprinted toward them, spraying red-linked chains above her. Sayaka leapt into the air and flung swords through the chains, hooking them into a heavy net. It crashed into the wraiths, Kyouko's chains grasping and constricting, and pulled them down. They hit the rooftop, the crash of shattering glass beneath them filling the air.
Sayaka and Kyouko were already sprinting in new directions, each heading for one of the two wraiths still free and flying. Kyouko skipped around the blasts coming her way, shouting a stream of insults. Sayaka just clenched her jaw and set two blades to block and barreled right through them. Trying to rush a position while completely surrounded by wraiths was suicide, but one on one the wraiths could only scatter useless light at the puella magi bearing down on them.
Sayaka and Kyouko struck. One wraith fell in two pieces, cut through at the middle. The other crashed to the ground with three spears buried in its stomach, heart, and throat. A moment later Kyouko and Sayaka fell upon the two bound wraiths struggling to get free. The monsters' enormous towering stature and pure radiating hatred counted for nothing while they were helpless, and they each died to a single cut to the head.
"And that is what you get, motherfucker, for thinking you could go all wolfpack on me!" Kyouko threw a single red link of chain at a wraith. The link went right through the giant corpse as it dissolved into pale light and pixels, instead hitting the rooftop and sending spiderweb cracks through the glass windows. "Tell all your toga friends next you see 'em, Sakura Kyouko's gonna wreck their shit!"
Sayaka nodded toward the air, where the rest of the wraiths she outran were nearly caught up. "Guess who's back?"
Kyouko looked up. The wraiths were in a tight clump of crisscrossing flight paths, hanging back now that their enemies were united again. "I see seven. You had seven on you earlier?"
"Eight. I got one alone."
"And we got three before they split us up. How come they only threw five at me and you got eight? That doesn't seem fair. Should I feel insulted?"
Sayaka rolled her eyes. "I guess they just love me. If you want them, go ahead!"
Kyouko spun her spear in front of her and set it ready for attack. "So, you wanna go charging the rest like a screaming berserker, or stand here looking all stoic and badass and cut 'em down as they come?"
Sayaka grinned and crossed her two blades. "Hmm. Stoic badass sounds pretty cool, but standing around letting them come at us however they want got us into this mess in the first place."
"Charging berserker it is. You watch my back, Sayaka."
"Only if you watch mine, Kyouko."
The two puella magi sprinted into a charge, side by side, weapons ready as they ran deeper into the dark mists. Kyouko let out a whoop. "Toga scumbags don't stand a chance!"
OoOoO
After, the miasma thinned and vanished, and Kyouko and Sayaka shifted back into the busy world of the living. They sat on top of the radio tower looking out over the city, back in their street clothes and legs dangling over the edge. A small hoard of grief cubes sat between them, pulling away clouds of dark corruption as they pushed the cubes to their soul gems. "Damn me," Kyouko said, stretching. "How many even was that? Like, sixteen in one go? In the middle of the fucking day, even. Been awhile since I saw that many wraiths at once."
"The miasma's getting thicker." Once her grief cubes were full, Sayaka chucked the used ones out into the air as hard as she could. They disappeared into the city below.
"Thicker? Meh, Mitakihara's always been a hellhole. Yeah, it's all shiny and shit up top, but it's got the Great Curse right in the middle, and there's always miserable people to curse the world and their fellow men, you know?"
"It's still getting worse. More of them, and they're working together better."
Kyouko shrugged. "I said I haven't seen this many in awhile, not I haven't seen this many at all before. Before your time, newbie. Wraiths come in waves a lot of the time."
Sayaka sent Kyouko a flat stare. "Didn't I tell you to stop calling me newbie? I've been at this for months already. And aren't you even a little curious why wraith numbers are spiking so hard?"
"Pfft, yeah, you know what? I asked Kyubey about some of that shit, like what determines wraith concentration." Kyouko shook her head and started building a little tower out of her used grief cubes. "So many numbers. He's got this thing down to a science, Blue. Like, did you know there's a spike in wraiths every Christmas? Everybody's running around stressing and freaking out about the holiday and parties and lousy weather and expensive presents they can't afford but got to buy anyway or they think their friends'll hate 'em for being cheap. All that extra anger and stress that people can't do anything with, it just floats around until more wraiths start popping up. Freaking moneychangers. Stupid things like that. Leave the arcanodemographics of blasphemy to bunnycat, we just gotta kill the togas where they pop up. And you're newbie until we get another newbie, newbie."
"Alright, wraiths come and go. But you ever get this many in the middle of day? You ever get any in the middle of the day?"
"So it's getting real bad right now. Mitakihara, hellhole, like I said. What do you expect to do about it? We just kill wraiths, we can't do anything about people being shitty."
"We can't counter the enemy if we don't even ask why our they're changing their patterns."
"For God's sake, Sayaka!" Kyouko threw her arms up. "It's fucking whack-a-mole. Wraiths don't plan, don't strategize, don't think. They just rampage and try to eat people. All we got a do is smack 'em down where they pop up."
Sayaka didn't respond or look at Kyouko. She just clenched her jaw and scowled, staring out over the city, sunlight glittering deceptively off the steel and glass and chrome.
The sudden grim silence dampened Kyouko's own mood. She set aside the grief cubes she was adding to the top of her tower and looked over at her friend. "Hey. Sayaka. Do you see something in all this I don't?"
Sayaka flung a few more cubes one by one out over the city and watched them disappear before answering. "It's not just my puella magi senses picking up wraiths all the time, and it's not just combat instincts either. Even just sitting at school or listening to music at the mall, it's like I'm always almost catching something at the edge of my sight. If it didn't match up so nicely with the surge in wraiths, I'd almost say I'm just going crazy, but…." Sayaka huffed, impatient and frustrated. "There's something wrong in this city. You really don't feel anything?"
"I'll… keep my guard up," Kyouko said, uncertainty obvious in her voice.
Sayaka replied with just a wordless sound of assent, then threw another cube.
"Why chuck cubes away like that, anyway?" Kyouko asked after a moment of silence. "That's got to make collecting them a pain in the ass for Kyubey."
"He can find them without my help," Sayaka muttered. "It's not like they hatch into new wraiths if you leave them alone. I'm just here to protect the city, not make things convenient for him."
"Fine, whatever. I haven't seen him around much lately anyhow." Kyouko sighed, knocked over her tower of eldritch building blocks, and started shoving the used grief cubes into one pocket and the unused spares into another. "Look, I'm not saying you're wrong about the wraiths or going crazy or anything, but you've been all kinds of keyed up and grim as hell lately. It couldn't hurt to rest up a bit, do some normal stuff, and have fun for once. Live it up while you can, you know?"
Sayaka nodded, threw the rest of her used cubes away in one handful, and pocketed her half of the spares. "Good thing I've got an old friend coming over today then, right?" She jumped to her feet. "Let's head home, I have homework I have to finish before Madoka comes over."
"Ugggh. Homework. I said fun, Sayaka."
"And if I've got homework waiting, that means you do too," Sayaka said with a quirked smile, then leapt into the air.
Kyouko smacked her palm into her face. "Is this my reward for looking after your ass? God damn it."
OoOoO
Madoka hummed as she walked along with a bounce in her step, carrying a lidded glass dish in both hands. She felt better about everything after meeting Sayaka this morning on the way to school. Just knowing that there was someone nearby who cared about her… Well, somehow the city wasn't as alien anymore. She wanted to walk the busy Mitakihara streets, see students getting out of their afterschool clubs now that it was late afternoon, see people shopping and buses rumbling. She wanted to know if the city felt right again.
That was why she out here walking to Sayaka's house instead of taking transit or getting Papa to drive her. He'd offered, of course, but she told him he'd already done more than enough by baking the cake she was carrying. Strawberry, with a filling Papa made by hand and stored canned and fresh fruit on top. It wasn't very ornate, since she sprung the request on him so late, but strawberry cake was one of Papa's best desserts. Sayaka would love it.
Madoka passed a broad tiled plaza, and stopped to rest at a bench and watch. Lines of pink and purple flowerbeds cut along the edges of the clearing. A radio station's event booth drew a cheering crowd at the far end from Madoka, shouting out prizes and slogans before going back to blaring bouncy J-pop. A small troop of tin soldiers had another corner of the plaza to themselves, practicing parade formations. Closer to Madoka, a raised fountain in the very center spurted gurgling water in rotating arcs. A flock of white-splotched crows played at jumping in and out of the water, shaking their wings to scatter rainbow droplets in the air.
See, just happy people. Madoka stood up, a little reassured, and began her journey again—but stopped, and squinted.
There was something just a bit wrong with the light above the plaza. It was darker, like a haze was eating the sunlight. Madoka rubbed her eyes and squinted, hoping it was a trick of the eye, but the haze didn't go away. Instead, it got thicker. Despite the warm day, Madoka felt a chill creeping over her.
OoOoO
'So what's so special about this Madoka chick that I gotta make a special run for snacks, anyway?' Kyouko asked by telepathy. She should be almost to the convenience store by now.
Sayaka fiddled about arranging food and a stack of plates on the low table she'd dragged into her room. ' We've got juice for drinks and some cookies for sugar, but we don't have anything solid in case she's actually hungry. Make sure you get a good pick of rice balls. Do you think ice in juice is overkill?'
'Duh it is, don't water that down. And see, that's a nice reminder what I'm picking up, but it doesn't answer my question.'
'Grab some pocky too if you want.'
'Was gonna anyway. Hey, maybe I'll lift a box or two for shits and giggles. I'm losing my edge living with you like a tame little doggy.'
'Kyouko!'
'Sayaka!'
'You have plenty of money! I even gave you some of my allowance to cover this! You don't need to steal to eat anymore!'
'I'm teasing, dork. Now answer my damn question. Why am I running errands for this Madoka chick?'
Sayaka huffed. She was pretty sure Kyouko would feel her annoyance at her seeping through their mental link. 'Because Madoka was my very first friend, and you enjoy doing me favors?'
'Cute. Adorable, even. Don't you forget what happens when puella magi and muggles get tangled up with each other, Blue. Ugly as hell. You do remember how things went with violinboy, right?''
'Shut up, Kyouko.'
'I will fucking not. You remember how bad that fucked you over? Sure, protect the muggles all you want, but you've got no place in their world anymore. Forget them and just stick with me.'
'No seriously, shut up!'
This time Kyouko noticed that Sayaka wasn't angry, she was taut, and promptly shut up. Sayaka strained her senses. For just a minute there, she thought she'd felt… There. A patch of poison seeping into the world, to the… north. North and a little west. 'You feel that?'
'Oh come on! What the hell is this, Blue? Another one? Two banks of miasma in one day? In the middle of the goddamn afternoon?'
'It's bullshit,' Sayaka agreed.
'At least you spotted it while it's still small and weak. It's not gonna nom on anyone or move around for a day at least. We can get it later after your playdate.'
'Better to get it before it even has a chance to get out of hand.'
'Fine, whatever, if you really want to. But weren't you the one all jumped up about having your new girlfriend over? The only way that thing's waking up today is if we dangle the tastiest magic snack in all Japan right in front of it.'
Sayaka didn't like it. Catching a miasma bank this new and weak was lucky, and every instinct she had was telling her to run out and kill it before it even had a chance to become a problem. But Madoka would be here any minute, and if anything could justify ignoring harmless miasma for a few hours, it was sitting Madoka down and having a long talk with her before Akemi managed the same. Maybe Akemi already had; she'd dragged Madoka off to who-knows-where for who-knows-what again during lunch today. Kyouko was right about them having time to spare, too. Even with Mitakihara's freakish rate of pumping out miasma, they should have a day before it became a threat.
'I'll go clear it out right after Madoka leaves,' Sayaka decided. 'How's shopping coming?'
'You'll be proud to know I'm paying for my pocky. In return for good behavior, one or two of these rice balls are gonna mysteriously vanish before they reach our place.'
OoOoO
The haze thickened. The soldiers marched on in place, the crowd around the radio booth kept clapping and cheering. Why was no one reacting to it? "Hello," Madoka tried to call out, her voice weak and thin. "Hello! Does anyone else see that?"
It saw her. She shouldn't have called out! Somehow, someway, the haze knew she was there. It roiled, thirstily gulping away the sunlight, rapidly becoming more solid and viscous than a mere shimmering haze. Madoka stumbled backward, then shrieked as the haze suddenly dropped from the sky and pulled thick around her.
Cold. So cold, like the warmth was being drunk from her body. Something hungry was shrieking in her head, she couldn't think. Her limbs were dead from cold anyway.
She forced her eyes open, and found the whole world had gone dim. The only light was the dull bronze glimmer of the sun choked by masses of clouds and mist that hadn't been there a second ago. Three writhing masses of off-white something rippled and seethed in the air before her. The crowd of people and the radio booth had vanished as though they had never existed. The crows were gone. The tin soldiers—were charging right at her, formation broken as they sprinted full bore with spears set.
The bone-deep cold held her shivering and paralyzed as the soldiers cut the distance down. She couldn't move. Her dream. Her dream of Mitakihara burning, waves of marching soldiers coming to trample her.
The three floating, seething masses ballooned outward, and became dirty white robes—became bodies—arms crossed over their chests. Three white robed men emerged from the tears in the world, the cold in her bones deepening as they swelled and grew. They were kneeling as they came into being, droning out a chant so deep it became part of the world and rattled the screams in her head to new heights. Still kneeling, they were larger than she was. Still kneeling, they raised their heads. Madoka heard the distant crash of glass as the cake dish slipped from her hands. They had no faces, and pieces torn from their heads floated about them in squares of cut flesh.
The tin soldiers struck. They charged the robed giants en masse, spears flashing, their tiny bodies crashing in droves against their larger foes. One giant screamed in death as half a dozen spears pierced its head. The other two surged to their feet, arms outstretched.
And the instant the giant's attention swung from Madoka to the soldiers, the cold inside her vanished. She spun around and burst into motion, running for her life. Bursts of golden light illuminated the world; the sound of tin soldiers hitting the ground without a cry chased her.
She fled, down the street as fast as her legs could carry her and harder. She ran every bit as fast as she had in that impossible dream where she bounded up buildings and dodged through battle. More tin soldiers ran down the street in the opposite direction, toward the robed men, in ones and twos. Was this what they were for? Is this why they stood a stoic guard throughout the city? Did they fight these monsters? They charged, and she heard them die behind her.
She tore down the street, into the shadow of an underpass, still more soldiers passing her. And then she skid to a stop, and whipped her head to look behind her.
There was a child among the scattered flow of soldiers. She wore a black dress with a hood and skipped happily along as though completely unaware of the danger coming toward her. In a flash, Madoka recognized her. She saw her taunting a tin soldier this morning, and caught glimpses of her on the way to school.
A single robed giant swept along the road, toward the underpass.
It wasn't even a choice. She couldn't let a child blunder toward that monster. Madoka turned and sprinted back toward the child, and back toward the monster.
OoOoO
'Now let me tell you why that jackass clerk deserves to get his whole store shoplifted out from under him. First off, he was rude as hell when I paid, tried to hit on me then called me a bitch under his breath like he thought I couldn't hear. And I was being nice! I woulda ripped off enough to get him fired if I wasn't living in your house.'
'You really didn't rip him off, did you?' Sayaka couldn't muster the focus to be properly annoyed anymore. Madoka should've been here by now.
'I told you, I really didn't. Second, he was making it easy as hell, had his nose buried in a porno mag the whole time I was wandering around the store. Even if I'm wearing nice clothes and look all respectable now 'cause of you, there were some other kids in the store who looked like they needed a good meal, you know what I'm saying? Idiot keeps his guard down like that and he deserves what he gets.'
Kyouko's light chatter on the way back kept her distracted for the last ten minutes, but now Sayaka couldn't ignore the feeling something was deeply wrong. She tuned out Kyouko and focused on the magic in the city around her once again, and swore violently when she realized the miasma was active, moving, and hungry.
It was still to the north, north and a little bit west. Wait. That was directly on the path between her apartment complex and Madoka's house.
'Kyouko! Forget the food!' she shouted, cutting Kyouko off. 'The wraiths are hunting, meet me there!'
She transformed into her duelist's uniform with a flash of blue light, threw her window open, and leapt into the air from the fourth floor. She prayed she wasn't too late.
OoOoO
The giant raised its arms like a holy man exhorting the damned, and a golden light gathered at its fingers. The child tensed and crouched, as though ready to burst into motion. She didn't get the chance. Madoka crashed into her from the side and scooped her up, sprinting away as golden light splashed across the ground behind them.
Madoka was a big sister, and big sisterly instincts made her start scolding without even needing to think about it while she ran. "What are you doing? That was dangerous, you dummy!" She emerged from the other end of the underpass and cut to the right, following the hill she'd just gone under.
Other questions bounced around her head. Why was the child here? Where did everyone else vanish to? Where were the police? Where did the monsters come from, how far would they chase her? They flashed through her head without answers or time to think.
"It wasn't dangerous," the child said with an absent airiness. "Help is coming!"
The deep, droning chanting behind her told her the monster was still chasing her. To her right, the hill continued unabated. To her left across the street, a walking park with thick trees that might hide her. But she also wouldn't be able to move as fast, and the monsters might just blast their way through the trees? There was another tunnel through the hill ahead on her right, a bike path. It was much narrower than the underpass, much smaller than the giants chasing her. If she went in the park they'd know where she hid, but if she went in the tunnel they'd have to double back and go through the underpass again to follow her, giving her ground and time to lose them or hide. She ran into the tunnel.
Her heavy breath and feet hitting the ground echoed off the narrow concrete walls; even the lights in this tunnel were dimmed and dying, just like the blocked sun outside. She kept her eyes on the end of the tunnel ahead, planning. After she got out she'd be maybe a minute ahead of them. Should she keep running, or find someplace to hide? But how far would they follow her? She didn't know.
Dirty white robes swept in front of the tunnel exit.
And Madoka suddenly realized—there had been two monsters chasing her, but she'd only seen one following her at the underpass.
No. No no no! The monster at the tunnel end knelt, its torn head filling the exit. Madoka spun around, ready to go back the way she came, but the other giant was already blocking the other exit. No other exits, no other paths. Golden light began to gather at either end of the tunnel.
Madoka sank to the ground, throwing herself over the child she'd failed to rescue. "Close your eyes," Madoka told her. Better not to see it coming. She wasn't going to see Mama and Papa and Tatsuya again, she'd never arrive at Sayaka's place, and she'd never find out why Homura seemed so hurt.
The child tensed underneath her, bracing herself as though ready to throw Madoka off, but then suddenly relaxed. "It's okay," the child said, her voice light. "Good-for-nothing is here now."
The gold light peaked, Madoka clenched her own eyes shut… and as one, the giants bellowed in agony. Their cries died off into silence, and Madoka slowly realized she wasn't dead.
She opened her eyes. Sunlight streamed in from both ends of the tunnel, real sunlight, bright and wholesome. At one end, a girl lowered a black bow. A shield rested on her bow arm, and she was dressed in white, black, and purple. At the other, a girl clenched two swords. A white cloak billowed at her back, and she wore blues and whites out of a swashbuckling movie.
The two girls who saved her looked at each other over her, the one with bow and shield smirking, the one with swords clenching her jaw.
Madoka recognized both of them.
"Sayaka? Homura?"
OoOoO