Chapter 2: Contract?

Author's note: Sorry for the long wait. It turns out that being a responsible adult means that you have much less time to write fanfiction. My current job takes up half of my day, and my free time is being taken up by a lot of stuff such as my costume and craft projects, playing with friends to unwind, reading fanfiction myself, etc. So, there's not much time left where I want to sit down and write anymore.

I'm still going to keep writing and chipping away at this story, but updates are going to be incredibly slow going.


Rin looked down at the creature sitting in front of her, blinked and then rubbed her eyes hard.
When the fuzz faded from her vision, the creature was still there.

She then pinched herself and winced at the pain.

"You're not imagining things." Kyubey 'spoke' again. "I really am in front of you, yes I can speak, and what you just experienced also really did just happen."

"Wh-what? I don't understand." Rin mumbled, backing away from Kyubey. "Are you like that thing? Are you going to hurt me?"

"Oh, no." Kyubey stood and hopped onto a nearby fence to be closer to Rin's eye level. "I am very different to a Witch."

"Are you…are you a demon." Rin asked cautiously, her body geared up to run as far away as possible at the slightest provocation.

Kyubey sighed. "No, I am not a demon either, and not even remotely involved with them. That Witch you saw wasn't a demon either, before you can ask."

"Oh." Rin said, not really knowing what else to say.

"I can see that you're struggling to comprehend this information." Kyubey said neutrally. "Perhaps you should sit down while I explain things in a way that you can better understand."

Actually, now that the talking stuffed toy suggested it, Rin noticed that she felt very tired, her legs heavy and her entire body shaking with the adrenalin draining from her system.
Thankfully, there was an old-looking bench nearby that Rin managed to stumble her way over to.

Kyubey hopped onto the bench next to Rin as she sat down and began their explanation without provocation.

"I think we should start with what just attacked you." Kyubey said. "As I explained, that was a Witch. They're beings born from curses that the majority of humanity can't see or even notice. And as you found out yourself, Witches are dangerous and will kill anyone, either through dragging humans into their labyrinths or through spreading their curses outside their labyrinths to make humans kill themselves."

Rin bunched her skirt up in her hands at the information, Kyubey apparently seeing no reason to pull any punches about what Witches did for the nine-year-old.

"It didn't look like a Witch." Rin noted, trying to keep focused as she took in the information.

Witches were meant to be dressed in long flowing clothes and pointy hats, and fly around on broomsticks, not be made out of assorted doll parts or be a decapitated doll strung up in glass.

"It didn't look like the traditional depiction of European witches." Kyubey corrected. "Actual Witches are much more varied in how they can look, many not even looking vaguely humanoid."

"Okay." Rin said. "So, these…Witches, hurt people and no one can see them." She laid out what she understood. "Why could I see it then?"

"Because you have the potential to be a Magical Girl." Kyubey answered with a bounce of their tail.

"Magical Girl?" Rin's eyes widened, her mind going to all the manga she'd read of girls in cute dresses fighting monsters.
Could that sort of thing be real?

"Yes. It is the duty of Magical Girls to fight Witches. So, naturally, you need to be able to see what you fight." Kyubey explained.

"So that girl who rescued me? She was a Magical Girl!" Rin realised.
She had to be, no normal person could summon bladed rings out of nothing, and she had been wearing an unusual outfit.

"She is." Kyubey confirmed.

"I…I'll have to say thank you." Rin said. "Will I see her again."

"Most likely." Kyubey said. "Especially if you make the choice to become a Magical Girl yourself. Since you both live in the same area, you'd naturally be hunting the same Witches."

"Me, a Magical Girl." Rin said with wonder to herself.
Her, fighting against the forces of evil, proving to everyone that she could do good and wasn't the demon they claimed.
And a team too. All Magical Girls had to form a team eventually, right? Meaning that she could have friends, not the type that lied to make fun of her, but true friends who would have her back against these Witches. Maybe that Magical Girl who saved her already had a team and would bring her into it.

The distant ringing of a bell broke Rin out of her thoughts and alerted her to what time it was. School would be over by now and her dad would be expecting her home.

"Maybe I can go home and pretend that nothing happened." Rin said aloud.
Maybe if she feigned ignorance, pretended that she had a perfectly normal day at school and then walked home like usual, her dad wouldn't be as mad about what happened at school and then the running away.

"I doubt that would work." Kyubey said, somehow not needing the context for what Rin had said. "Though, from what I've seen of human behaviour, staying away will likely just exasperate a negative response."

"Yeah." Rin sniffed, getting to her feet. "I guess you're right."

Reluctantly, she began to walk home with Kyubey following.

"So…what's the whole thing with Magical Girls? Is it like Usagi, or Sakura, or what?" Rin asked as they walked.

"Being a Magical Girl is not like those examples." Kyubey told Rin.
Their tone and cadence didn't change at all, but Rin still got the impression that this was a question that they'd been asked one-too-many times before.
"In some ways being a Magical Girl is similar to how your media depicts it. You will gain magical powers and a new costume and weapons that appear on command, but these will be entirely unique to you and your wish, instead of being part of a group uniform." Kyubey then relented on the similarities. "You will also gain a reward out of fighting Witches other than just protecting people."

"What sort of rewards?" Rin asked eagerly.

"Witches you fight will have the chance of dropping a Grief Seed, which is something that will allow you to cleanse the Soul Gem you will receive on making your contract, allowing you to continue using the magic granted to you."

"Magic." Rin quickly focused on the word. "What will I be able to do?"

"That will depend on you and the wish you'll make. For example, more than one Magical Girl has made the wish to become popular in their school or as a celebrity, and many of these Magical Girls then gained some form of mind control powers or to shapeshift."

"Wait, I get a wish on top of magical powers?" Rin was practically hopping in excitement of what she would get.

"Of course. It's how our contract is completed to form your Soul Gem." Kyubey nodded.

Rin stopped.

"Contract?"

She didn't know much about contracts, but she'd consumed enough media at this point in her life to know that contracts were something to be wary of.

"Of course. This is a transaction of sorts, after all. A deal needs to be made for me to turn you into a Magical Girl." Kyubey said simply.

"Oh." Rin said.

Nothing had actually changed in the scenario that had been built up for Rin, she would still get a wish and magical powers, which she would then use to take out these Witches like the one who had attacked her. But, somehow, the idea of it all being part of a 'contract' had cooled her excitement.

"So, do you have an interest in becoming a Magical Girl?" Kyubey asked, placing themself in front of Rin.

"Uh…" Rin struggled for words.
Only a minute ago, she would have immediately jumped to make a wish, but now she found herself hesitating for reasons she didn't understand.
"I…I'll think about it. I'm almost home anyway." She said.

Kyubey didn't respond, just continuing to watch Rin and walk beside her the rest of the way home.

It didn't take long to reach the church that doubled as Rin's home.
The young girl began biting her lip anxiously as she reached for the door handle.
Turning to look at Kyubey, she was surprised to find the strange creature already gone. Which left her wondering if she'd just blown her chance to be a Magical Girl.

Any further thought was stopped by the door handle in Rin's hand being wretched out of it as the door opened, revealing her very disappointed father on the other side.

"Rin! Where have you been?" Shiro exclaimed as soon as he caught sight of her, quickly looking her over for any sign of injuries.

Her clothes were a bit rumpled and ripped in a couple of places from her run in with the Witch, but at least nothing to suggest that she had gotten into a fight after running away from her school.

Speaking of which…

"Why did you run from school? Do you know how many years you took off my life when I arrived and you weren't there?" Shiro ranted as he pulled Rin inside.

Rin stayed silent, looking at anywhere but her father.

Shiro sighed heavily. "You are grounded. Two weeks."

"Two weeks?!" Rin exclaimed. "That's so unfair. I wasn't gone that long."

Shiro looked down at his daughter with a frown.

"Not only did you run off without telling anyone where you were going, during school hours. But don't think that I've forgotten about you breaking that girl's nose." He said.

"It wasn't my fault!" Rin quickly defended herself. "She-"

"It doesn't matter what she said. You don't resort to violence." Shiro told his daughter sternly.

"I didn't mean to." Rin felt tears return to her eyes. "How am I supposed to react when someone pretends to be my friend to make fun of me, then soaks me with water?"

"By telling a teacher, not escalating to violence. How do you expect to make friends when everyone knows you as the girl who attacks other students?"

"The teachers never listen!" Rin yelled in anger.

Teachers always had one of two reactions whenever Rin tried to take the 'correct' action, either thinking that Rin was lying due to her reputation as a trouble student, or giving a limp handed talk to the other students about how to treat each other, which did absolutely nothing about the issue.

"Don't raise your voice at me." Shiro narrowed his eyes.

Not able to take it anymore, Rin let out a scream of rage and barged past her father, running up to her room and slamming the door as hard as she could to convey her anger.

Shiro sighed heavily, deciding that it was better to let Rin calm down before attempting to speak to her again.

Rin stormed into her room and threw herself onto her bed, crying into her pillow.

"It's not fair." Rin's sobs were muffled by her pillow.

Pulling her face from her pillow, Rin looked over to her brother's side of the room and noted with some relief that Yukio wasn't there, likely taking those 'extra lessons' that he'd been having for a while now, as she didn't feel like getting a second lecture from her brother.

Eventually, Rin got up from her bed and started pacing, too wound up to stay still.

"No one ever understands." Rin sniffed. "'Just ignore it'. Yeah right." She mocked the advice given by the adults who clearly didn't understand just how hard that was.

As she paced, Rin noticed an unusual shadow coming through her window and looked up to see Kyubey sitting on the outside windowsill.

"Kyu-uh, hi." Rin smiled slighting as she opened the window, forgetting the creature's name.

"Kyubey." The creature reminded as they jumped into the room.

"Right. I thought you left." Rin said.

"No. But from what I've observed of human behaviour, it's my understanding that you wouldn't want me present for your argument with your father." Kyubey explained.

"Oh." Rin said.
Kyubey was right. It would have been worse if Rin had an audience to being lectured. Though, maybe the lecture would have been delayed by having to explain what Kyubey was.

Rin resumed her pacing.

"I'm grounded for two weeks. Two weeks! On top of school suspension. Meanwhile the ones behind all this get off with a warning because I punched one of them in the face." She vented to Kyubey. "And I didn't even mean to punch her, I just got angry and lashed out. It's not fair."

"It is illogical to only punish you if the other children in this incident also carry blame." Kyubey agreed.

Rin felt something lighten in her chest and Kyubey seemingly siding with her. People rarely took her side.

"They do." Rin said. "That girl pretended to be my friend just to get everyone to laugh at me, then they poured water on me. And yet I get punished for retaliating while they get nothing? It's not fair."

Rin grabbed Kyubey as she began to cry again, hugging the creature tightly to her chest for comfort while Kyubey's legs flailed helplessly.

Rin sat back down on her bed and waited to stop crying, talking a calming breath before sitting there in silence for a while.

"Hey, Kyubey." She eventually spoke, hesitantly. "When you said that I get to make a wish, could I have anything I want?"

"Of course." Kyubey answered as they wriggled out of Rin's grasp. "With how much potential you have, you could wish for anything."

"No limits?" Rin asked further.

"No limits." Kyubey confirmed, settling on Yukio's bed.

Rin bit her lip as she contemplated her choices.

"And, I get my wish and magic, and have to fight Witches in return, right. That's the catch?"

"Yes." Kyubey said, not elaborating further.

Rin fidgeted with her hands.
The deal sounded too good, there had to be more to it.

"How dangerous are Witches? Will I actually be able to fight them?" Rin looked back to Kyubey.

Kyubey blinked before answering.

"Realistically, all Witches are dangerous. They will attack as soon as they see anyone intruding on their labyrinth, and their Familiars will also add additional dangers. But the danger they'll present to an individual Magical Girl will depend on both the Witch's and the Magical Girl's power and skill levels, a weak Witch is unlikely to succeed in killing a strong Magical Girl, but it's not impossible if the Magical Girl is distracted or low on magic." They explained.

"Kill." Rin picked up on the word. "So, I could die being a Magical Girl?"

"It's an unfortunate waste but yes." Kyubey answered. "As I mentioned, being a Magical Girl is very different to how your media portrays it, Magical Girls frequently die when fighting Witches, it's very unlikely to have a last minute save or miraculous escape."

Kyubey tilted their head at Rin's horrified expression, realising that they were turning the young girl away from the idea.

"Though, I wouldn't worry so much about yourself. You have the potential to be a strong Magical Girl, meaning that it's less likely that a Witch would overpower you, you'd just have to remain focused when fighting." They added.

Rin looked away from Kyubey and down at her hands as she contemplated what she had just been told.
That was the catch, it had to be. Not only would Rin have to fight Witches in return for her wish and magic, which would likely interrupt her home and school life if that aspect of Magical Girl media was true, but fighting against those Witches would be extremely dangerous with a high chance of dying. And, as Kyubey claimed, last second saves where the Magical Girl survives after being beaten or discovers a new power-up that turns the tables wouldn't be happening.
But Kyubey did also say that Rin would become a strong Magical Girl, meaning that death by Witch would be less likely. Though, just how much that improved Rin's survival chances wasn't clear.

Would it be worth it?

A destiny of battle where death was always hanging over Rin's shoulder in return for whatever she wanted.

"I…" Rin said unsurely. "I-"

To be continued…


Author's note: Please Comment.

Will Rin make a wish, or will she pull a Madoka and only do something near the end of the story?

This chapter was originally going to be part of the first chapter, but by the time that I got to the point of Kyubey appearing and explaining the concept of Magical Girls in my chapter plan, Chapter 1 was already getting really long, so I decided to split it into two chapters for the sake of making it less daunting to read.

The way that I'm going to write Kyubey is not evil and not good, but not neutral either.
He's a manipulative little shit who is willing to do whatever he needs to do to make those Contracts, like knowing what to say to make them more appealing.
But he also isn't an outright liar. Like, he'd tell the truth if asked, but also liberally uses lies by omission whenever he can get away with it because he knows that the full truth would make his offers unappealing. So, if Rin had asked for all the consequences of making her contract, Kyubey would have answered honestly, but he was able to leave out most of the hidden consequences because Rin only focused on the fighting aspect and didn't ask about any other clauses.