I
Madoka walked quickly, occasionally glancing back to make sure Homura was not following her. She wasn't - after a minute Homura was no longer anywhere in sight.
Madoka felt completely freaked out at this point. Part of her still wanted to give Homura the benefit of the doubt, but she was just too strange! Grabbing her hands as if they were close friends, and being so mysterious, as well as telling her such scary things. She decided to get home as soon as possible and tell her mother all about it; she didn't know what else to do.
With that idea, she glanced back one more time to make sure she wasn't being followed. When she turned her head back again Homura was standing in her path. Madoka came to a sudden stop, almost stumbling. Homura stepped forward slowly, not making eye contact. Her lips were sunken down into a guilty frown.
"H-how did you?" Madoka stammered, dumbfounded. How could Homura be standing there right now? Madoka had left her behind, and she knew there was no way Homura could have passed her without her noticing. On top of that, Homura's clothing had changed! She was now wearing a purple and gray dress that Madoka could only describe as something that would be worn as cosplay, and there was a metal shield with a rather intricate design over her wrist.
Then, she noticed what Homura was holding in her hands. She was trying to hide it at her side, but Madoka could see she was carrying a bundle of rope and a pair of handcuffs. Madoka backed away again, her heart started thumping in her chest as she prepared to turn and run in the opposite direction.
Homura turned her head up to look Madoka in the eyes and said, "If something strange happens to you, please know that it is for your own good." And then, in an instant, she disappeared.
II
Madoka gasped and rubbed her eyes. How was that possible? Was she imagining things? Then she felt someone grab her from behind. It couldn't be Homura, she thought, Homura was just standing right in front of her!
She tried to fling her arms backward to push her assailant away, but found her wrists were locked together behind her back by something metal... handcuffs! But how did that happen so quickly? She hadn't even felt them go on! She thrashed her body around and screamed, trying to escape. The hands that had grabbed her were now throwing rope over her body. Madoka screamed again as her assailant wrestled her to the ground. She would have landed right on her face, but the assailant was careful not to let her drop too hard. She let out another scream as loud as she could: "HELP!"
"That won't do you any good," said Homura's voice — it was Homura! With one hand she held Madoka's head against the ground, she kept her pinned with her knees and with her free hand she pulled the rope up from under Madoka's right arm. "Please stop resisting, I do not want to hurt you."
Madoka, not heeding the request, thrashed around as much as she could and tried to escape. "What are you doing to me! Let go of me!" What was going on? How did Homura disappear like that and end up behind her? Aside from all of that: why was she tying her up?! "Stop it! Please stop!" She screamed as she felt the rope pull tight against her chest.
Her eyes darted around desperately, looking for someone to help. Far in the distance, on the other side of the park, she saw the silhouettes of two people standing together, but they were not moving at all. She screamed in their direction: "OVER HERE! HELP! PLEASE HELP!" They still were not moving — why wouldn't they move!?
Homura wrapped the rope around Madoka's chest a second time, pulled it tight and then brought the rope over her shoulder. It wasn't easy, as Madoka hadn't stopped thrashing her body around ever since this started. However, thanks to the handcuffs Madoka did not have much of a way to resist, and besides that, Madoka wasn't a very strong girl in the first place. Homura's progress was slow and sloppy, but she still managed to get the rope around Madoka's body.
Then, suddenly, Madoka's struggling completely stopped. She stared in disbelief as she saw something impossible. While trying to get the attention of the motionless people on the other side of the park she noticed a bird. The bird was in mid flight, but it was completely still, just hanging in the air as if gravity didn't exist and it was locked in time. Not even its wings were moving!
"Im-impossible," Madoka whispered. "This is a dream. It's a dream."
Upon this realization, Madoka's struggling completely deceased. She was frozen in her disbelief. Homura took this opportunity while she was not resisting to finish tying her up, taking a little extra time to make sure the rope was tight against her body.
"That's right." Homura spoke calmly as she worked. "This is all a dream, so just relax. Everything will be fine. I am not going to hurt you."
III
Homura was nearly complete with tying her up by the time Madoka snapped out of it and started struggling again.
"What's going on! What is this? Please tell me!" Tears were streaming from her eyes as she turned her head back to look at her captor.
"Please don't cry. I know this is scary, but you will be fine."
She had originally run the rope above and below Madoka's chest, then ran it over her shoulder and under itself again to make a V shape between her breasts. She then wound the rope around her forearms behind her back, and with the excess she tied her arms together in several more places until she was satisfied that it would be quite impossible for Madoka to escape. She then took the handcuffs off, thinking it was too rough. When she did so, she saw that there were scratches around Madoka's wrists from struggling against the metal.
"You hurt yourself," Homura said, touching her wrists lightly, causing Madoka to wince. "I wish you hadn't struggled, I really did not want to hurt you. Here, stand up." Homura pulled her up by the rope harass she created over Madoka's forearms. Even with Homura's help she struggled to her feet. "I have one more thing to do, for now," Homura said, and grabbed a smaller length of rope. She looped it through the bottom of the V between Madoka's breast and tied it to itself so it could act as a sort of leash.
Homura, needing to look right at Madoka's chest to perform this last tie, blushed and quickly darted her eyes away. The rope lined the shape of her boobs and pushed against them enough to raise them up, making them seem perkier and hard not to notice. Homura hoped Madoka didn't realize she looked, but she must have as she started blushing furiously as well. There were still tears lightly streaking her face.
"I... I know this might be a little embarrassing, but please bear with it. Let's go." Homura then started to walk in the opposite direction that they had come from, holding the leash she had tied to Madoka in her hand. Madoka was reluctant to move, so after only a few steps Homura had reached the end of the rope and pulled it to move Madoka along. She stumbled a few steps forward, but still would not start walking.
"Come on," Homura said, and looked back at her. Seeing Madoka's face, she instantly felt guilty. Madoka hadn't said much in the last couple minutes, perhaps she was in shock by the situation she was in, but now it all caught up to her. Her face scrunched up and tears began to flow freely. She fell down to her knees and stared at the ground, letting the tears fall with long sobs escaping her.
"What's going on!" Madoka cried out, "Why are you doing this to me?"
Homura was too ashamed to look at her. She stared off in the distance, still loosely holding the rope that was attached to the bound crying Madoka. There was no time for this, though. Her time stop magic would not last forever, and things were already progressing far slower than she had planned. "If you need to cry, you can do so later," Homura said sternly, still unable to bring herself to look at poor Madoka. "There is no time for it now... come on, or I'll have to drag you."
With that, she stepped back over to Madoka and pulled her up to her feet. "Come on, hurry now," she said softly as she could, and led Madoka on by the shoulder. This time, Madoka walked along more submissively. "That's it, just relax. I know how it seems, but just trust that I'm trying to help you."
Madoka looked around as they walked. She saw many peculiar things; the trees were stuck in mid sway, the water of a nearby pond was completely still as if it were made of ice (in spite of the fact it was nearly summer). She realized that there was no wind, either. There had been a slight breeze before all this started to happen but now the air was completely still.
Once they moved along for a while and Homura did not see anyone else in sight, she stopped using her magic and time returned to normal.
"I returned time to normal for now, but I'll have to switch it on again once we get out of the park," Homura told her. She was still guiding her by the shoulder while holding the rope in the other hand. She figured doing it like this was at least a little more dignified for Madoka. "If you happen to see someone, don't try screaming for help. It won't do you any good, and... and... well, I suppose if you do that... I'll have to gag you."
Madoka stopped suddenly and pulled away from Homura's touch, then she turned to face her captor directly. Her eyes and cheeks were wet with tears, but her lips formed an angry scowl.
"Who do you think you are!" Madoka yelled at her, "You say you're doing this to help me but you haven't explained anything yet!"
"I will," said Homura as she looked around. She felt rather anxious about the situation, worrying about someone seeing them. "But wouldn't it be bad if someone saw you like this? They might get a weird idea about what we are doing."
Madoka's face reddened, partly from anger and partly from embarrassment. She could have screamed at Homura, but she didn't know what words to use. She wasn't normally the confrontational type and therefore lacked the vocabulary to express what she was feeling right now.
"All I am saying is it might be in your best interest to just go along with me for now. I won't let anyone see you, but that will be difficult if we keep delaying." She then started walking, this time going back to the method of using the rope as a leash to pull Madoka along.
At least she stopped crying, so Homura didn't feel as strong a need to comfort her. She supposed a little anger might be a good sign. Madoka might not seem it sometimes, but she truly did have a strong spirit and it would take far more than this to break her.
Madoka stumbled as she reached the end of the rope and gasped after being jerked forward.
"Hey! You don't need to do that!" she blurted out, then blushed with her eyes sinking away. "I-I'm coming, ok?"
"Good," Homura said, and slowed down for just a moment while Madoka caught up. Madoka still trailed a step or two behind her, and Homura still held the rope in her hand, but they were at least moving along at a quicker pace now.
After a minute of walking in silence, Madoka spoke up. "S-so…" Homura glanced back at her through the corner of her eye. Madoka wasn't able to look at her directly, and her eyes sank downward as she tried to express her thoughts. "W-why?" is all she managed.
Homura looked forward again and thought it over. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I promise I will explain everything in time, but for now we just need to keep moving."
Madoka seemed to accept this for now, and didn't say anything else. Her arms struggled against the rope but she didn't have even an inch of wiggle room. She was scared and confused, but there was nothing she could do. As she was now, she had no choice but to just continue following her captor.
"Um… Th-that thing that happened earlier," Madoka started, "When everything around us stopped... you're the one who caused that?"
"Yes, but I'm limited to how much I can use it. That's why I'm saving it for when we get back into town."
"How is that possible?"
"I'm what's called a magical girl." Homura explained, "And that is my power. It usually only affects me, but if I'm in direct contact with someone it will affect them as well." She glanced back and lifted the rope leash to show it to Madoka. "This rope is sufficient enough contact for that effect."
"I-I see," Madoka trailed off. She glanced down at herself, to examine the rope around her chest, but noticed something else and her face turned bright red. "Uh-um… H-Homura?"
"Yes?"
"Earlier, I guess when we were struggling... W-well, you see… um..."
"What is it?" Homura asked curiously, looking over her shoulder at the blushing Madoka.
"It's just that, you see, my skirt got pulled up a bit... and..."
Homura hadn't noticed before, but it was true. Madoka's skirt was pulled up high enough that her panties were nearly visible, and her thighs were completely exposed. Madoka looked away, her face completely red. Homura could not help but be embarrassed herself, and tried her best not to look.
"I... eh... here," Homura mumbled, and she went to pull the skirt back down. She looked to the sky as she did this and operated on touch alone. She pulled the skirt down a bit and glanced down there just long enough to make sure it was decent. She saw that it was, and they both started walking again, not saying anything more about it beyond that.
IV
"Ok, we are near the end of the park," Homura said to Madoka. "I'm going to stop time again. Like I said, it's limited so we have to be really fast from that point forward, understand?"
"I suppose." Madoka said, still a bit reluctant to take orders from this girl.
"I mean it. If time returns to normal while we are standing in the middle of town in broad daylight it will mean big problems for both of us. If you try anything funny or try to slow me down at all, I'll have to get forceful with you. I don't want to do that, but I will."
Madoka got angry at her for making demands like that. "And just how long are you planning to keep me like this anyway!"
"As long as necessary," Homura said, maintaining her controlled tone. "Now, let's go." With that, the gears on her shield turned and the world returned to that eerie windless version of itself from earlier.
Homura started running and Madoka followed close behind. A few times Homura was just a little too fast and the rope she held grew tense and snapped Madoka forward, making her stumble. When this would happen Homura would just quickly turn her head and say "Faster." Madoka wanted to complain, but Homura was moving forward too quickly for her to gather her thoughts together. She just ended up grunting as she forced her legs to move.
As they ran through the town Madoka looked around in wonderment at all the motionless sights. She saw a group of children in mid run, playing some game but completely frozen like statues. She saw a man with a cigarette butt he just flicked away still hanging in the air beside him. Even the smoke coming off the end of the butt was frozen in time.
She saw a car that had just run over a puddle of water, and the beads from the splash were hanging in the air like small crystals. Again, she slowed down as she stared in wonderment but was quickly snapped forward again by Homura who once again turned and said "I said move faster!"
This made Madoka angry, but she couldn't do anything about it, so she obeyed.
She was getting tired and starting to run out of breath. The ropes tied tightly around her chest weren't helping the situation, making it difficult for her to get a good breath of air in. She also found running to be awkward with her arms pulled behind her back like this. With each long step her body swayed back and forth. All the momentum was coming from her legs, causing her calves to wear out and her muscles to burn. "How much further is it!" Madoka called over to her.
"Not much further, we are going to a hotel. It's not too busy this time of year so we can find an empty room on the top floor for a while, until I come up with something better."
Homura noticed a few strange movements from Madoka out of the corner of her eye. She was likely trying to pull some of the rope free and unbind her arms as they ran. Homura didn't worry about this, though. In this situation it was still natural for Madoka to want to escape, but Homura was confident the bindings would hold. As long as Madoka kept moving quickly, they wouldn't have a problem.
They continued to run, and after a few minutes Madoka stopped suddenly. This time, instead of her being jerked by the rope it was Homura who almost stumbled as she was jerked back.
"What!" Homura turned and spat at her, a bit more aggressively than she intended. She knew the magic was almost up and they were in a bad place for that to happen. They were right on a busy street full of cars and people. If two girls suddenly appeared out of nowhere, one who was tied up and panting, things probably would not go over too well. Moreover, it would give Madoka a way to escape her.
Madoka fell down to her knees and gasped for breath. Her face was completely flushed, and her skin glistened with sweat as she looked up at Homura. "I- I can't." Her chest moved up and down violently, her breathing was heavy. "I need a break! I can't run anymore." Her arms fidgeted, and her fingers feebly scratched at the rope around her wrists. "P-please!"
Homura glanced around anxiously. "This is no good." She looked down the street. "It is only two blocks away please bear with it just a little longer."
"I can't." She said again, now her head lowered all the way to the ground, gasping in and out violently. "I can't even breathe, the rope is too tight!" She looked really pathetic in the state she was in, and it made Homura feel horrible.
Homura bent down over her and put her hand on top of her head. "You really reached your limit, huh?" Homura cursed herself for putting Madoka through this. She knew the poor girl ran until she really just couldn't take it anymore. Plus the ropes must have made it even tougher for her. Homura hadn't thought of that before, and now felt terribly guilty about it. "Come on, we'll just walk the rest of the way then."
Homura grabbed the rope harness under the back of her neck and pulled her back to her feet. Madoka groaned as she did this. "Walk fast though, ok? I'll help you. It's just another two blocks."
Madoka still breathed heavily as they continued. Homura was in great shape because she had spent decades training for the fight against Walpurgisnacht, and therefore wasn't too tired from the run. Madoka was just an ordinary highschool girl, however, and Homura had just asked a lot of her. Still, they couldn't delay too much. They had to keep moving. With Homura pushing her along she at least managed to maintain a speed slightly faster than walking, although Madoka would pant with each of her heavy steps.
They cleared the first block. Madoka's breathing was still abnormal, but it was getting better. Homura took out her SoulGem and looked at it.
A healthy SoulGem glows brightly, and an unhealthy one turns black and ugly. If it gets too black it is at risk of becoming a GriefSeed, if that happens its owner turns into a witch.
Aside from emotional turmoil, using magic also causes it to turn black. Homura had used a lot of magic already. Her SoulGem wasn't completely black yet, but it was not looking good. If she pushed too far it would soon become a serious life threatening problem. That's why they needed to hurry. She knew she could push it a little while longer, but she would need to find a GriefSeed soon after.
"Madoka," Homura said. "Just one last sprint, it's right there, can you see it?" Madoka looked at her pleadingly. "Sorry, but it's not a choice." Homura then grabbed the rope leashed to her chest and started running. She yanked on it to force Madoka to quicken her pace as well.
They reached the hotel quickly, Madoka now looking like she was ready to pass out. She groaned and sighed through her heavy breathing. Her legs wobbled, and she looked like she might lose her balance. Homura quickly grabbed onto her arm to steady her.
"Are you ok?" she asked. Madoka just looked at her with exhausted irritation, but her eyes still pleaded for release. Homura wanted to comfort her, but there was no time for that. So, she put her hand on Madoka's shoulder, and led her through the front door.
Inside, there was a cozy little lobby with couches and a small coffee table in front of a TV set. The clerk was sitting behind the front counter, frozen in time.
"Over there, the stairwell," Homura said, and pushed Madoka forward.
When they crossed through the doorway, they were at the bottom of a long winding flight of stairs. "This is good," said Homura, "I'm going to stop using my magic now, so time will resume."
She knew Madoka still likely had plans of escape in her head, so before Homura resumed time she had to make sure Madoka would not try anything. She suddenly pushed Madoka against the wall, making her gasp. She stuck a finger in her face and looked at her with such intensity Madoka could do nothing but shrink away. "Don't you dare scream," Homura warned her. "Don't you even think about it, understand?" Madoka nodded slowly, her eyes wide and frightened. It seemed the point had gotten across, and Homura backed off. "It won't do any good anyway. I'll just stop time again the second you do, I still have enough left for that."
She didn't want to get so mean with Madoka like that, but she had to be absolutely sure Madoka wouldn't do something foolish at the last minute. True, she could remedy the situation by stopping time, as she said, but her SoulGem was in bad shape and she would still need to have enough power left to fight a witch and get a GriefSeed sometime in the near future.
With all that said, the gears turned and time resumed to normal.
"We have to go all the way to the top," Homura whispered. Despair filled Madoka's eyes at the thought of putting her poor legs through even more punishment. "Don't worry, we can take it slowly, there's no rush now so you don't need to push yourself." Homura turned to Madoka with compassion in her eyes and touched her cheek lovingly. "You did really well Madoka." But, Madoka shrank away from this gesture even more than when Homura scolded her.
Homura realized Madoka hated her right now. It couldn't be helped; less than an hour ago she was walking home through the park on a normal day with not a care in the world. Now she was at the mercy of someone who surely seemed like an evil sadistic person. It would be ok though, Homura assured herself, soon everything will be explained and she could start working on repairing their relationship. After all, Madoka may not know Homura, but Homura knew Madoka very well. She probably knew her even better than she knew herself.
Homura looked up the flight of stairs. "Ready?"
Madoka nodded pitifully.
-Atomyst
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