I

Kyoko vaulted from one rooftop to another, keeping track of the bus on the city streets below. "Damn it," she grunted to herself, breathing heavily as she stuck a landing and started sprinting to the next building. "She just had to get on a bus!"

Well, she figured this would probably actually be better, if Homura went by foot and did her little disappearing act it would have been a lot harder to keep track of her.

The bus may have been faster, but at least it was an easy target to keep track of. Even if she lost it for a moment, she could take a shortcut and move diagonally across a city block to catch up again. Since the bus always had the next stop printed it's back she always knew where it would end up, too. This bus was eventually going to go to the center area of the city with lots of hotels, so Kyoko was glad to find out her initial assumption that that's where Homura was hiding out was correct.

In mid sprint, she slammed the blunt end of her spear into the rooftop just before the building's edge and vaulted over the gap to the next rooftop. The tail of her crimson red tunic trailed behind her like a cape as she flew through the air.

She landed in a roll on the next rooftop, barely losing any speed before getting her feet under herself again. Before she continued her full spirit, however, she saw someone at the other end of the building. Her feet shuffled, and her heels dug into the ground to skid herself to a stop. A grin appeared on her face as she pulled her spear up to rest it over her shoulder.

Kyoko laughed and put up the peace sign. "Yo!"

"Why are you following me?" Homura asked, with a blank expression on her face. She stood there in her full Magical Girl attire, her hair and dress blowing in the wind.

"Heh, how did you know?" Kyoko asked.

"You shouldn't underestimate me."

The truth is, Homura had gotten lucky. She knew that sometimes Kyoko had a tendency to stalk the other Magical Girls after first arriving in the city. Normally, she would have been more careful about this, but the events of the day had her somewhat distracted. Sitting upon the bus, it occurred to her that she ought to check her surroundings. Not just for Kyoko, but Homura also worried about Kyubey being on her tail.

With time stopped, she just happened to notice the crimson Magical Girl in mid leap between building tops, then came up here to confront her.

"Whatever, chick," Kyoko said, rolling her neck as she walked toward Homura. "Well, I'm actually glad this happened, all I wanted was to talk to you." She reached under her tunic and Homura flinched, getting into a more battle ready stance as Kyoko approached her. Kyoko grinned as she produced a box of pocky and held it out. "Want some?"

"I'll pass," Homura said, flatly. "Now I have to ask, are you going to cause problems for me?"

Kyoko shrugged and stuck a pocky stick into her mouth before returning the box under her tunic. "Na, I'm not looking to start trouble with you. Those other Magical Girls are one story, but you…" Her grin widened. "I kind of like you. In fact, I wanted to propose a team up. That's the only reason I was following you."

"If you simply wanted to talk, you would have shown yourself sooner. You were trying to find out where I live."

"And what's so bad about that? It's not like I care about your little pet girl or anything, and I certainly wouldn't give your location away to the other girls. Heh, alright, I can see you're pissed, so how about this: Why don't we just call it even on the GriefSeed I lent you last night?" Kyoko could still see the stern look on Homura's face, so she smiled and said, "Come on, don't be like that!"

Homura shrugged and turned away to look out over the city. "Perhaps there will be some use for an alliance between us in the future. However, if this alliance entails attacking the other Magical Girls, then you can count me out."

"Huh? Don't you get it? It's already three against two. The rookies probably aren't going to be much trouble individually, but with Mami helping them out it could be a problem. If we don't work together they are going to end up taking over this whole city. There simply aren't enough GriefSeeds to go around for FIVE Magical Girls to co-exist. You strike me as a veteran yourself, so you should understand this. Besides, you locked your petgirl up for the sake of eliminating some competition, didn't you? So, surely you understand how things ought to work."

"I would appreciate it if you stopped referring to Madoka like that. She deserves more respect."

"Heh, that's kind of ironic coming from the girl who went and leashed her up like a dog, you know?"

Homura turned and narrowed her eyes at Kyoko.

"Hey, relax," Kyoko laughed, "I didn't mean anything by it!"

Homura sighed and brushed her hair back as she took on a more dignant posture, putting a foot up on the ledge of the building as she returned her gaze out over the city. "A month from now, GriefSeeds will no longer be a problem."

Kyoko frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm alright with an alliance, but we will need to bring the other group in on it."

"Look chick, this isn't Tokyo. I'm telling you, there aren't enough for five girls to work together! That's ridiculous!"

"Oh? And what if we defeated a Walpurgisnacht?" Homura turned with a soft smile touching her lips. "You know that word, don't you?"

Kyoko's eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms. "That's just a rumor. A myth that's spread amongst Magical Girls. Those types of witches don't actually exist. Besides, even if they were real, who's to say one will ever show up here?"

"They are real, I have seen one before. I wasn't able to defeat it myself, but I know it is still out there." Her expression darkened and became more intense. "On the first of May, the Walpurgisnacht will return."

"Even if that was true," said Kyoko, "I'm a two year veteran, and you seem to know your stuff as well. We can probably just defeat it ourselves."

"No… the truth is, even with those other three working with us, victory is not assured. I promise you, this witch is unlike anything you have ever seen before."

"How do you know so much?" Kyoko asked with a raised eyebrow. "How do I know yer' not just pulling my leg?"

"I have my ways. You'll just have to trust me on this." Homura brought her other foot up so she was standing on the building's ledge as she turned her back to Kyoko. "We'll talk more later. I'm late for something."

"Need to get back to your petgirl, huh?" Kyoko said with a challenging look in her eyes.

Homura simply glanced back over her shoulder with an unamused expression, then disappeared.

Kyoko clicked her teeth and kept her spear casually balanced over her shoulders as she walked to the other end of the building. She looked around at the streets below, wondering if she would see Homura down there. She didn't know much about Homura's little disappearing trick, but would like to get more details on exactly how it worked.

"You think you're so smart, huh?" The pocky stick between her lips pointed up toward the sky with her grinning face. Kyoko already knew what bus Homura was using to get back home. She wouldn't know the exact building Homura kept her petgirl locked up in, but the list of possibilities had just been narrowed by a large margin. "You shouldn't underestimate me either, dumb bitch."

II

The original plan for the day was to search for either a witch or a familiar, after Sayaka got an afternoon's worth of training. The encounter with Nagisa threw that plan off a bit, however, and now it was getting later in the day with only a few hours of daylight left.

"We're not going to find a witch every time we go out on patrol," Mami explained, as they walked along the city streets. "I was hoping to at least cross a familiar today, though. How late can you stay out? If you want, we can continue this at night."

"Well, my parents are away on business, but sometimes they call in around eight to check up on me. I'll have to be home for that to avoid getting into trouble… but after that I could come out again."

"Are you sure?" Mami asked, "You don't have to push yourself, you know. Tomorrow's sunday so we'll have the whole day to get back at it."

"No, it's alright. Really," Sayaka said, giving her a determined smile and a slight nod of her head. "I'm new to this whole Magical Girl thing. That's why I need as much practise as I can get to become stronger! Besides that, as long as we are out hunting witches there's a chance we might cross paths with Homura, right?"

"Well, it's not a guarantee, and honestly the chance is probably slim, but yes that's still when we are most likely to find her."

Sayaka tightened her fist and looked up to the sky. "Then there's no choice. I didn't just become a Magical Girl to help Kyosuke, I need to do everything I can to save Madoka too! Not to mention the people we'll help by taking care of these witches and familiars!"

Mami gave Sayaka a smile. Her new kouhai certainly had the right attitude, at least. "All right then. I suppose I wouldn't be able to talk you out of it either way."

"Heh, no way!" Sayaka said, putting a thumb up. Then, her stomach let out an audible gurgle and her determined face quickly gave way to a frown as she looked down. She blushed and put a hand on her stomach. "Eh, guess we should eat first too, huh?"

"Guess so," Mami said with a laugh.

"Well, I don't live too far from here. I've got some food at my house so why don't we go there? I can also check in with my parents then I'll be good to go for the night."

"Alright," said Mami, "Sounds like a plan!"

III

Nagisa had a deep frown on her face as she finished wiping off the kitchen counter. She was so excited about bringing her cake to Mama that she forgot to clean up after herself before she left, and Aunti just spent the last half hour scolding her for it. "Stupid Aunti," she muttered to herself, now that the older woman finally left her alone. She put her hand on her shoulder, squeezed, and then winced. She was a little bit sore there because of her aunt grabbing her and forcing her forward. It was probably bruised.

"I was just trying to do something nice for Mama!" she angrily muttered as she threw the rag down hard into the trashcan. When she thought about her mother, her anger subsided and a smile ended up touching her lips. Mama's going to be okay now.

Soon she would be released from the hospital and they could both go home together. Then they could bake cakes together all the time, and be happy like they always were before Mama got sick. Besides that, she wouldn't have to live with stupid Aunti anymore. Mama told her to be nice to her aunt, and show her respect because apparently it was some kind of big favor to let Nagisa live with her. However, Nagisa never actually felt too grateful about it.

Everything was going to be okay now, though, and it was all thanks to her wish she made with Kyubey... As she thought about that, she suddenly gasped and realized that she had forgotten something important! "I forgot to offer Kyubey some cheesecake!" she exclaimed to herself. He had been so nice to her by giving her a chance to make a wish, and she didn't even think to invite him to the party or anything!

She glanced over to the plastic bin which still had plastic wrapped over it and the barely touched cake inside. She hasn't even tried it herself yet. She hoped it was good. The party was delayed anyway, so hopefully she would see Kyubey again and have another chance to invite him.

"Nagisa! Are you done in here yet?" her aunt's stern voice called from the other room, as she walked through the house.

When Nagisa heard her voice, she grimaced, but responded in an overly polite tone, "Yes, all finished Aunti!" Had her aunt been more keen to Nagisa's wit, she would have realized Nagisa was making fun of her with that response.

"Oh, look at you. You're filthy," her aunt said as she walked into the kitchen. Indeed, Nagisa was now covered in flour. "Well, at least the kitchen is clean. Now go get washed up and get ready for dinner, after that I want you to work on your studies until it's time for bed. Understand?"

"Yes…" Nagisa said, less enthusiastically.

Her aunt walked over to one of the kitchen cabinets and started pulling out pots and pans so she could get dinner started. "Honestly, I am not going to allow myself to get blamed for you falling behind on your school work. You should have been studying as soon as you got home, but instead you went running around town unsupervised like a degenerate."

Nagisa's frown deepened. She was not just running around town like her aunt accused her of. Her whole outing was for the sake of trying to help Mama, therefore, this particular insult hit her a little deeper than her aunt's usual beratings. "I just went to see Mama," she muttered with a disgruntled tone.

Her aunt stopped what she was doing for just a brief moment, then got back to work. "I understand you wanted to see your mother, but you easily could have waited for me to get home and I would have taken you. You are simply too young to go walking through the city by yourself." The words themselves could have held some level of compassion or understanding, but the dismissive tone of her voice spoke against this.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. Mama's going to get better soon, so you won't have to worry about it!" With that, Nagisa started stomping toward the kitchen door.

"Nagisa," her aunt said, turning around to face the small girl. Her voice still held that fake level of compassion. "Listen, I know this is hard, but you need to understand that your mother-"

Then, the phone rang and Nagisa quickly shouted, "I'll get it!" and ran out into the living room where the house phone was located.

Her aunt sighed and slammed the pots down on the kitchen counter, then went to follow the girl. When she heard Nagisa pick up the phone and shout "Mama!" her feet suddenly stopped. She listened for a moment, and when she heard Nagisa's cheery voice supposedly responding to her bedridden sister, her feet slowly started to move again.

Nagisa's aunt stood in the living room doorway. The lighting was poor, so she was like some strange dark shadow stalking the young girl from just outside the room as she listened.

"No I'm okay Mama," Nagisa said, "I knew you were going to be okay too, because I met some new friends and… w-well, I can't tell you everything because Mami, she's one of my new friends, said it's supposed to be a secret!"

"Oh, a secret?" her mother laughed, her voice was completely back to normal. It no longer had any hint of raspiness to it, and all her words were perfectly clear. "Well that's okay, I wouldn't want you giving away your friend's secrets."

"Can I come visit you tomorrow, Mama?" Nagisa asked.

"Of course you can. I'm feeling a lot better now too, so we can actually have some fun this time."

"Can I bring the cheesecake I made? I really want you to try it!"

"Yes, that sounds lovely. Nagisa, is Aunti there with you?"

Nagisa glanced back at her aunt who still lingered in the doorway, Nagisa was too excited about her mother to take note of the dark expression on her aunt's face. "Yup, Aunti's here."

"Can you put her on? I want to tell her the good news."

"Sure, I need to get started on my school work anyway."

"That's my girl," her mother laughed, "I'll talk to you again soon, sweetheart."

"Okay! Bye Mama!" Nagisa then held the phone out to her aunt, who crossed the room with slow, heavy steps. Nagisa only caught a few words of her aunt's side of the conversation as she went up the stairs to her room.

"What? But, sister, I don't understand how… No, of course I'm glad but… are the doctors sure about that?... I-I see, well that's… No, Nagisa's been a pleasure, of course…" Nagisa's aunt gulped nervously as she asked her next question, "D-do they know what caused the illness in the first place?" A pause, and then a controlled sigh of relief, "Well… I'm just glad to hear you are getting better, sister."

IV

Homura stepped out of the elevator on the top floor of the hotel. She was two hours later than she said she would be, and she felt incredibly guilty about it.

Back when she got off the bus, before entering the hotel, she walked by a small flower stand on the side of the street. She had stopped, and thought about buying a small bouquet for Madoka as an apology for being late. She decided against it, though. She was too uncertain about how Madoka in this timeline felt about her, and something like that could easily be taken the wrong way.

She sighed as she put her hand on the door of her room. What had Madoka been thinking these last two hours? Trapped, and tied to the bed, with no certainty of when Homura would be back. Homura knew how taxing the last few days have been on the poor girl, and with the state she was in, her mind could have been going through all kinds of nightmarish scenarios. Homura was once again blaming herself for causing Madoka pain. She hated it. She just wanted Madoka to be happy and safe, but failed to bring that to her time and time again.

She opened the door, and stepped inside. "I'm back," she called out right away, and shut the door behind herself. "I'm sorry I'm late… Everything's alright, I just…" She hadn't come up with a good explanation for why she was so late. She didn't want Madoka to worry, though. "Something just came up is all… But it's not anything you need to worry about, everythings fine."

She opened the door to Madoka's room, and stopped. Her heart sank, and her guilt hit an all time high. Madoka's chest was moving up and down and a rapid rate, as if she were out of breath, and wet streaks glistened in thin lines down both of her cheeks.

"Madoka…" Homura quickly went over to her, and started working at undoing the tape. Madoka wouldn't look at her, she just stared at the wall with her glassy tear-filled eyes. Her chest rose up and down in quick contorted bursts from trying to suppress her sobs. She must have spent the last hours crying. "I'm so sorry… I didn't mean to be late... I'm here now, though, so everything's okay."

Madoka winced as the tape pulled the tiny hairs on the back of her neck, and a small cry came through the gag. Then Homura helped her spit the cloth out, and pulled the rest of the tape away from her cheek.

"How can you say everything's okay!" Madoka shouted at her as soon as speech was available to her again.

"I… um…" Homura took a step back, never being able to deal well with Madoka being upset with her.

"Just hurry up and untie me!"

Homura nodded, and quickly got to work with the noose around her left hand. As soon as the rope was loose, Madoka pulled her hand away and turned her body away from Homura as much as she could and started untying the other hand herself. Homura then went to undo her left ankle. By the time that was done, Madoka was reaching for the right ankle, and she quickly turned her shoulder to stop Homura from trying to help her.

Homura's hand fell away. "Listen…" she said carefully, her voice reverting back to its monotone nature. "This kind of situation is only tempor-"

"Shut up!" Madoka shouted.

Homura jumped back as if she were struck by something, then swallowed nervously and glanced around. She wasn't sure how thick the walls were and thought Madoka might have been being a little too loud. She tried to express this carefully, but her lack of finesse betrayed her as if often does, "Can you lower your tone?" she said.

Madoka let out a frustrated growl, and got off the bed. Her hands bunched up into small fists, and to Homura's surprise, Madoka started punching her! The blows didn't have much power behind them, Madoka being a small girl, but she pounded against Homura's chest over and over again, her fragile voice grunting with frustration with each strike. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" Homura just stood there with wide eyes, completely at a loss for what she should do. That terrible feeling of guilt hurting her more than anything else. But, she allowed Madoka to vent her anger, and didn't so much as move a hand to try and stop her.

Eventually, the rate of her strikes slowed with less force behind them, and Madoka seemed to have run out of breath. Her head lowered with the bottoms of her fists still delivering slow soft blows, and Homura realized she was crying. Madoka let out a sob, and practically fell into Homura's chest with her hands still bunched up into tiny fists.

"Mado… ka?" Homura said cautiously, starting to feel tears stinging her own eyes as Madoka cried into her chest. Then, her arms raised, and her hands gently fell over Madoka's shoulders, and she hugged her.

"Do you have any idea how scared I was?" Madoka's small cracked voice asked. Her head was held tight in Homura's embrace, and her body occasionally shook with a soft suppressed sob. "You tell me all these scary things… a-and… then you just disappear… l-leaving me like that."

Homura held onto her tighter, tears flowing more freely from her own eyes as well. "I know… I'm doing my best… but it feels like things just always end up going wrong… I don't know what to-"

Madoka suddenly pushed her away. "Stop that!" she shouted, once again leaving Homura with wide eyes, not sure how to respond. The lost expression on Homura's face only seemed to upset Madoka more.

"I…"

"Stop making me feel like I should feel bad for you!" Madoka shouted, as if to clarify. She then abruptly turned away and stormed out of the room.

Homura was a bit delayed in following after her, but once her thoughts caught up with her, her feet moved quickly. Once outside of the bedroom, she saw Madoka heading right for the front door of the hotel room, and Homura sped up her pace. "Wait! Where do you think you're going?" she demanded.

When Madoka turned around, the fury in her eyes was enough to stop Homura dead in her tracks. "I'm taking a bath! Is there a problem with that?" she shouted.

Homura tucked down into her shoulders, almost defensively, and she quickly shook her head. Madoka abruptly turned away again and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind herself.

Homura stood in the middle of the empty hotel room by herself, with her hands folding together nervously. She really shouldn't be slamming doors like that, she thought. She looked around for a moment, until her eyes set themselves on the kitchen. She sighed. Maybe I should get started on dinner…

V

Sayaka led Mami up the walkway to her house, just before dusk when the sunlight was starting to turn a darker shade of yellow. Mami had been here once before, but last time it had been night and the house now seemed a lot bigger since she could see it clearly.

Sayaka bent down and lifted up a potted plant by the doorway, but stopped as if mildly surprised. "Huh?"

"What's wrong?" Mami asked.

Sayaka set the plant back down. "Usually there's a spare key here…" She stood up, then tried the door handle. It turned without any trouble. "Well… at least it's open, but... that's really strange." Then she glanced at Mami, with a trace of worry in her eyes.

Mami lowered her voice. "Are you sure it didn't just get misplaced?"

"It's possible… Sometimes I bring it in the house with me without thinking about it… but it's strange that I also would have forgotten to lock up…"

"Well, the last time you were home was when we first met a couple days ago, right? The night we came across Homura in the witch's barrier? Maybe you just forgot."

"Yeah… but…"

Mami nodded. "Let's proceed cautiously, just in case… We still don't know how much Homura knows about us, or what kind of lengths she will go to against us." Sayaka returned the nod, agreeing with that sentiment, then carefully opened the door.

"Nothing's missing," Sayaka said, as she walked in and looked around. They started checking all the rooms together. They didn't find anything, and Sayaka verified that everything was as she left it. "I guess I really did just forget to lock up after all," she said with a laugh, "Sorry about the false alarm."

"No, not at all." Mami smiled, "Better to be on the safe side, right?"

"Heh, yeah… Anyway, I gotta use the restroom real quick, I'll be right back. Feel free to make yourself at home."

"Okay," said Mami, and then when Sayaka left her she started looking around. She took note of how big the house was and thought about how Sayaka said she was mostly here by herself. Mami thought that must be pretty lonely in such a big house like this… Well, Mami could certainly relate to that feeling anyway. She lived alone herself, and because of her Magical Girl career, she never had much time to work on building friendships. She had a few acquaintances at school, but no one who she could consider a close friend. All of a sudden, it seemed like that was starting to change for her, though. Not only Sayaka, but also Nagisa was her friend, and they were all Magical Girls… After years going solo she was no longer going to have to do this alone anymore, and that thought filled her with relief.

Somehow, the situation made her think about Kyoko. She had zero doubts that it was Kyoko who had broken into her own apartment and raided her refrigerator the other day. That thought led to another idea, and she walked into Sayaka's kitchen.

She opened the refrigerator door, and saw that it was pretty well stocked. She grinned to herself. Of course Kyoko couldn't also be the mysterious intruder here at Sayaka's house. As far as Mami knew, Kyoko would have no way of even knowing of Sayaka's existence yet… and this thought led her to another more troubling one.

She walked back out into the living room.

She hadn't told Sayaka about Kyoko yet. Mami didn't want to believe that her old kohai was dangerous, but she couldn't deny facts either. She always hoped that Kyoko's grief over the loss of her family would eventually subside, and she would return to her once warm hearted self. Chances are that wasn't the case though, and Kyoko could be here in Mitakihara with the intention of vying for territory. If that were the case, Mami had to make sure Sayaka and Nagisa were aware of the danger the crimson Magical Girl could present.

Although, Mami hoped to get a chance to speak with Kyoko before anything bad like that happened. She hoped she could get Kyoko to start walking a moral path again… Even though they had separated from each other on bad terms those years ago, Mami still thought of Kyoko as her kohai, and still wanted to help her… She just wished there was some way she could make Kyoko understand that.

Mami then noticed a red ribbon on the floor, near the front door. When they first came inside, she and Sayaka were worried enough about the possibility of an intruder that neither of them must have noticed it. Mami bent down and picked it up. It was pretty, and she noticed a strand of pink hair was stuck to it. She didn't think much of it though, thinking it was probably dropped when moving laundry or something, so went to set it on the coffee table where it at least wouldn't be on the floor anymore.

That's when Sayaka came out of the bathroom. "So, what are you in the mood for?" Sayaka said as she entered the living room. "I've got…" She stopped and stared at what Mami had in her hand.

Mami looked back and forth between Sayaka and the ribbon with a confused expression at first, then smiled and said, "I noticed this on the floor, I didn't want it to get dirty so…" Before she could finish, Sayaka suddenly ran across the room and snatched it from her. "Um… Sayaka?" Mami asked with an awkward smile, not sure how to take the sudden seriousness in Sayaka's demeanor.

"Mami…" Sayaka said in a whisper, staring at the ribbon as if it were some rare artifact. "This is… Madoka's!"

"Madoka's?"

"Yes! She was wearing this the day she disappeared!" Sayaka shouted, "Madoka was here! She must have escaped and… and…"

Then there was a knock on the door. Sayaka looked down at the ribbon, stuck between thoughts.

"You should go see who that is," Mami said calmly. "Then we can get to the bottom of whatever this means."

Sayaka nodded, clutching the ribbon in her hand, then walked over to the door. She put her eye over the peep hole, and got a bit startled when she saw who it was. She looked back to Mami. "It's Madoka's mom," she said.

Mami thought for a moment, then said, "You should hide that." Referring to the ribbon.

"What? Why?"

"This might sound a bit harsh, but we need to do our best to keep regular people out of the affairs of Magical Girls. It could lead to too many questions which we will not be able to answer honestly."

Sayaka didn't like it, but she understood the logic, and stuffed the ribbon into her pocket. Junko knocked on the door again, and called through the door. "Sayaka! Open up! I can hear you in there." Her tone wasn't one Sayaka had ever heard from the usually cool and collected woman she knew Madoka's mom to be. She gulped nervously, then opened the door.

"Hey Mrs. K," she said, "Sorry… I was just…" Her words trailed off when she saw the stern look on Junko's face. The closest thing she had ever seen to it from Junko before was a couple years ago when she had a sleepover at Madoka's house. Junko caught the two of them staying up well past their bedtimes, watching a movie they shouldn't have been watching, and scolded them for it… this current expression was WAY more serious than that though, and for the first time ever Sayaka felt herself getting nervous standing in front of Madoka's mom.

"Just how much do you know about what's going on with Madoka?" Junko said, sternly.


-Atomyst

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