Friday night came quickly, and Ichika was happy to be away from school for the weekend. The stars gleamed brightly in the seemingly endless night sky as Ichika rode down the street on her new bike. She drove a bit slower than she usually would because tonight she just wanted a relaxing ride down the road. The road in her neighborhood was straight and had very few unexpected turns, and it was easy to drive on. Ichika felt a sense of serenity while riding down the road. A downwards slope awaited her and she took her foot off the gas a little bit to adjust her speed for the slope, and she quite enjoyed cruising down the hill. When the ground evened out again, Ichika sped back up, but she stopped abruptly when she saw a weird white crack in the road. A grief seed was stuck in the road and when Ichika's tire touched it, Ichika and her bike were transported to a witch labyrinth. It was very colorless and dead. Wilted flowers and leafless trees were everywhere and the sky was an ugly shade of brown.
"So this is where Witches hide…" Ichika noticed the place. "But how do I transform?" Ichika didn't know how to transform yet, but just then, her soul gem glowed a lovely emerald green. She was surrounded by a bright green light as her jacket turned into a glittering green cape. Her tank top turned into a golden chest plate and her shoes turned into newly shined black boots. Ichika's soul gem was then placed onto a ring on her finger and the remaining light from her transformation turned into a pair of dark green assault rifles. Ichika looked at her guns, then looked at her outfit, and then she squealed.
"OH MY GOD I LOOK LIKE SUCH A BADASS! AND I HAVE GUNS TOO!" Ichika was fangirling over her new look and her armaments. "Look out, Azusa! The taxidermist is on her way!" Ichika was ready to shut Azusa down until she heard a clanging footstep. Small armies of soldier familiars were running away from the militia witch, a gigantic teal four armed mech with a different weapon in each of her arms, and twin-mounted sentry guns on her feet. She had two large black braids of hair coming from her head and they both had grenade launchers on the ends of the braids. Ichika looked up at the militia witch and her heart just skipped a beat. Fear began to fill her eyes as she saw the gigantic walking arsenal in front of her. The witch spotted her and aimed one of its arms at her, firing streams of musket projectiles at the magical girl in front of her. Ichika ran for her bike and hopped on. Thankfully, her bike was part of her magical girl costume, so she could drive quickly around the witch. The witch tracked her every move and used one of its other weapons to fire a heat-seeking missile at Ichika and her bike. The missile made contact and blew up in Ichika's face, knocking her off her bike. Thankfully, her bike suffered no damage, since it was made of magic and was nigh invincible. Ichika tried to get up as the witch opened her mouth, revealing a small cannon that spewed liquid napalm that began surrounding Ichika. She leaped over the liquid and ran as far away from it as she could before the witch used its third arm to fire a small ember onto the napalm to light it ablaze. Since the liquid was chasing Ichika, the flames followed her wherever she went. She went back to her bike and tried to outrun the advancing wall of flames before she remembered she had guns. She took out one of the guns and opened fire on the witch while she kept driving. The bullets were somewhat effective, piercing the metal covering on the witch's head and knocking her back a little bit before she fired another heat seeking missile at Ichika. Ichika recognized that the missile was a heat-seeker and shot a bullet towards the wall of flames, and the missile disappeared into the wall of fire. Ichika then opened fire on the missile launcher, destroying the clip to make the heat seekers unusable. The witch used its fourth hand to launch a hydrogen bomb directly where Ichika was going to be. Ichika braced for impact until she felt a harsh chill and the bomb landed harmlessly beside her, completely frozen. Ichika turned around and saw Lauren wielding a spear made of ice. She leaped onto the bom and then leaped up to the witch's face before stabbing it's tracking mechanism with her ice spear, blinding the witch and causing her to fire off all her projectiles randomly and recklessly. Lauren turned to Ichika, who had parked her bike next to the frozen bomb.
"I've blinded her for ya. It's up to you to finish the job." Lauren told Ichika exactly what to do.
"Don't worry, Lauren!" Ichika smiled, showing that she was having a hell of a good time fighting the witch. "I'll finish it now!" Ichika then drove at full speed towards the witch, and she saw a black heart shaped piece in the middle of the witch's chesst. Ichika readied her guns and opened fire, shooting the witch's weak point until it began bleeding out black energy and dissolving. When the witch fully dissolved, the labyrinth disappeared, leaving behind a grief seed. Ichika and Lauren un-transformed and Lauren picked up the grief seed. She turned to Ichika and gave her a serious stare.
"You did pretty well in your first witch fight." Lauren complimented Ichika. "Most rookie magical girls struggle against a basic witch, but you held your own against one of the strongest witches around."
"Thanks for the help, Lauren." Ichika seemed grateful that Lauren stepped in when she did. Lauren shook her head.
"Don't take it for granted, Ichika. You're gonna have to fight witches by yourself more often than not." Lauren gave Ichika a stern warning. "But you're welcome. It's pretty rare that I make a friend, but you seem to be someone who understands me, and I didn't wanna lose ya so soon." Lauren cracked a small smile as she turned to leave. "I'll see ya soon, Ichika. Don't lose your head." Lauren jumped away, leaping across rooftops as she made her way home. Ichika smiled as she gave a solemn wave goodbye. She had slain her first witch and got a grief seed all to herself. To her, being a magical girl seemed like a hell of a thrill. But she didn't know it was going to get darker and darker over time. This was only just the beginning.