Chapter 4: A Crash Course
"You should consider yourself lucky, it could be worse."
"I know."
"You really worried all of us."
"I know."
"You could have gotten hur-"
"I know!" Rin emphasised as much as she could, indicating to Yukio to stop his unneeded lecture.
Unsurprisingly, Rin had gained further punishment for sneaking out, now stuck with an earlier bedtime and having all her manga taken away for the duration of her grounding.
And, of course, her brother was completely unsympathetic to his sister's plight.
Yukio gave Rin an unimpressed look.
"Why would you even sneak out when you were already in trouble? You're not usually this dumb." Yukio question.
"I-hey!" Rin scowled at the jab to her intelligence.
She folded her arms.
"I just wanted to spend some time with Ami." She defended herself.
"That's you're new friend, right. When'd you meet her?" Yukio asked, curious about his sister's new friend.
"I made her." Rin answered honestly, seeing no reason to lie to her brother.
"What?" Yukio pulled a face, as if he didn't hear correctly.
"I made her." Rin repeated. "I met this wish-granting cat creature called Kyubey who told me that I could become a Magical Girl and get a wish, so I did and made Ami."
Yukio frowned heavily.
"Nee-chan, don't make up stories." He said.
"I'm not making it up." Rin pouted.
"You are." Yukio insisted. "Magical Girls aren't real."
"They are. Look!" Rin showed off her Soul Gem ring.
Yukio didn't look at all convinced by the ring, not understanding the meaning behind it.
Before Rin could remember that she needed to transform her Soul Gem into its proper form, Shiro called for Yukio from downstairs.
"Coming!" Yukio called back.
Yukio then sighed, looking tired. "I'll talk to you later."
Rin pursed her lips in annoyance as Yukio left the room, finally remembering to summon her Soul Gem from its ring form, holding it in her hand.
"It's not that hard to believe." Rin insisted to herself.
Her brother had just been lacking imagination lately, getting all serious and denouncing the existence of anything fantastical, like fairies or Santa Claus. Which was just stupid.
Rin knew better though, she had seen for herself that magic existed. And if Magical Girls existed, it was almost certain that fairies and Santa really did exist and Yukio was trying too hard to be a stupid grown-up.
To say things were uncomfortable between Rin and her father was an understatement.
Like any child who'd gotten in a lot of trouble, Rin had opted for silence around him, lest she draw more anger towards herself that she didn't want to be the focus of. And Shiro had also opted for silence with his daughter, not wanting to talk to her after she broke his trust by sneaking out.
In the middle of it was Yukio, who fidgeted as he looked between his father and sister, the both of them pointedly not looking at the other as they ate breakfast.
Yukio hated it when this happened, though this time seemed to be the worst so far. Even though he had done nothing, he felt as though he was being punished with the silence too, unable to speak himself lest he ignite something and be caught in the crossfire.
He was torn between staying at the table until breakfast was finished like it was polite to do, and leaving to set off for school early so that he could escape the oppressive atmosphere that felt like it made it hard to breath.
"Since it's a Friday, you won't be going to school today. Your in-school suspension will start Monday." Shiro eventually spoke up.
Rin and Yukio paused eating at the silence finally being broken.
"But don't think for a second that this will be a day off for you." Shiro added, his anger at his daughter still clear in his voice. "You'll be cleaning the church and house today, top to bottom."
"What?" Rin burst out at the large task being forced on her.
Shiro silenced her with a glare.
Yukio saw Rin's hands tighten around her spoon as his sister fought to constrain her poorly managed anger, the spoon audibly scraping against the bottom of Rin's bowl.
From the narrowing of Shiro's eyes, Yukio could see that his father noticed it too, but thankfully didn't comment.
It was a relief when it came time to leave, Yukio able to escape the oppressive anger put out by his family and the worry that it would blow with him in the middle. He practically rushed through pulling on his shoes and coat, almost forgetting his hat in the process, then was out the door and on the way to school, on his own.
'Things will be better after school.' Yukio assured himself as he walked.
While Rin's temper flared high and hot like a flame, it tended to extinguish quickly like a match with distance. And no matter how angry and disappointed their father became, he also calmed quickly, though more out of mental control than it being his natural emotional state; the Paladin couldn't let himself be controlled by emotions after all.
Things would likely remain uncomfortable for the next few days, Rin had broken their father's trust in running off without telling anyone after all, but it wouldn't be the suffocating and uneasy silence from breakfast, and Yukio wouldn't be caught up in it.
Rin groaned loudly as she stumbled into her room.
Having to clean the church all on her own had been both a painful and boring experience, she ached all over and her brain screamed for the stimulation it wanted. At least her father seemed to have lost some of his anger towards her by the end.
But now, with her chores done, not wanting to be around her father and brother at the moment, and having no manga or TV thanks to being grounded, Rin had nothing to do. And it was also near her very early bedtime as another part of her punishment.
"What now?" Rin asked herself aloud.
Absentmindedly, Rin looked at the ring on her finger and summoned her Soul Gem from it.
Her family still remained unaware of her new status as a Magical Girl. With her father and angry as he was, she didn't feel like revealing what she had done, as if it would somehow get her into further trouble. And there hadn't yet been any opportunity for Rin to show off her Soul Gem to Yukio as proof of her claims without their father being nearby.
Suddenly, Rin remembered that Melodie had told her to meet up for her first Witch hunt. Eyes darting to her alarm clock, Rin gritted her teeth and hissed when she saw it was almost eight.
Rin already had her window open before she remembered that she was meant to be grounded, and that her father and brother would most certainly notice her missing a second time, which would result in even worse punishment.
But Rin couldn't just stand up her new Magical Girl mentor. Not only would it be rude and give the older girl a bad impression of her, but Rin really would prefer someone there to walk her through her first hunt.
The shows Rin watched always made it seem like organising pillows and stuffed toys under the covers would result in a convincing decoy. But when Rin tried to do that, the lump under the covers was clearly not human-shaped and would be uncovered in an instant.
Rin huffed in frustration and brought out her Soul Gem again. She had magic, didn't she? Could she use that to make it look like she was in bed for her brother and father?
Holding out her Soul Gem in front of her, Rin screwed her eyes shut tightly and concentrated.
"Come on, do it." She whispered under her breath. "Make something."
When Rin opened her eyes, she stepped back in shock.
There, standing before Rin, was an exact duplicate of her, right down to the clothes.
Rin whooped briefly in excitement before covering her mouth and looking to her bedroom door with worry. Thankfully, no one downstairs seemed to have noticed her brief outburst at her successful magic.
When the duplicate didn't do anything, Rin waved her hand in front of its dull eyes and then poked it, still receiving no reaction.
"Uh, can you understand me?" She asked.
Her duplicate nodded once with a blank face.
Rin scrunched up her nose. At least with Ami, her created 'friend' talked and responded like she had a mind to think with. Her duplicate seemed to be completely blank, eyes lifeless and uncanny in how it looked.
Still, it was what she had been aiming for this time. And the duplicate didn't need to act like her, just be in her bed 'sleeping' so that no one noticed her gone.
With her decoy in place, Rin jumped out her window and effortlessly landed on the ground.
The girl then proceeded to nearly jump out of her skin when Ami was already beside her after she stood up from her landing.
"Jesus, Ami, don't do that." Rin tried to calm her heart.
"Sorry, I'll not do it again." Ami promised evenly.
"Have you been waiting long?" Rin asked.
"Yes." Ami didn't see the point in lying to her friend.
Rin flinched, which Ami noticed, filing away her friend's response to the honesty to think on later.
"Sorry." Rin apologised. "My old man punished me hard for leaving while grounded, so I got extra grounded. I only just managed to get out."
"I don't mind." Ami said.
Rin could leave her waiting for days and she wouldn't mind, she wasn't capable of it.
The two girls walked to the park where they had previously met Melodie but ended up running into the older Magical Girl on the way.
"Ready for your first hunt?" Melodie asked with her hands on her hips.
"Oh yeah." Rin grinned, ready for action.
Melodie gave a small laugh at Rin's excitement.
She then turned her attention to Ami.
"Uh, no offence, kid, but why are you here?" She asked the day-old girl.
"I came with Rin." Ami answered.
"Yeah, she just followed me. I didn't ask." Rin said. "Is it a problem."
"We're going to hunt Witches, which will try to kill us alongside its Familiars." Melodie stated blandly, like she couldn't believe that she had to explain that to Rin. "It's going to be dangerous for us, let alone a non-Magical Girl. Unless she has special abilities or something. Do you?" Melodie asked the girl as she remembered that Ami was a wish-created being.
"Not that I know of." Ami replied.
"Then you should probably head back home." Melodie told Ami.
"Does she really have to?" Rin questioned.
Despite not being what Rin had actually wanted when she made her wish, and Ami seeming to have no emotions, Rin found that she still felt attached to her new 'friend' and that she didn't like the idea of sending her away.
"I will always be there for Rin-chan." Ami told Melodie, almost as if she was challenging the older girl despite her tone and face never changing.
Melodie sighed, not wanting to argue with a pair of kids.
"Fine, you can tag along." She relented. "But you'll be staying outside of the labyrinth. It's too dangerous and you'll only be a liability if we have to protect you and fight."
Ami turned to Rin for her friend's opinion.
Rin shrugged. "Sure, I guess."
It would be nice to have Ami there to show off to, but Melodie knew more about fighting Witches than her, and she didn't want to let down her new Senpai by trying to argue for Ami's inclusion.
"Then I will stay outside the labyrinth." Ami told Melodie.
Rin's excitement for the hunt had quickly died out when she learned just how they hunted.
Unfortunately, Magical Girls didn't gain an instinctive knowledge of where to find a Witch, Witches didn't announce themselves to be found, and they didn't leave easy to track clues either. What they did have was 'magical signatures', which a Magical Girl could use her Soul Gem like a compass to follow.
However, these magical signatures apparently covered large distances and followed the path that the Witch and her labyrinth travelled instead of leading directly to the Witch itself, unless a Witch decided to remain stationary for a large period of time. And on top of that, the signatures could only be picked up at a certain distance, meaning that the girls had to wander around for a while before they even picked up a signature to track.
"Ughhhhhhhhhhhh! This is taking foreverrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Rin complained loudly as she trapsed after Melodie.
It had been half an hour and they were still tracking the signature of the Witch Melodie had latched onto, the trail leading further than Rin had ever gone in South Cross without her father with her.
"This is what you signed up for." Melodie informed her new protégé, holding out her Soul Gem in front of her to track the Witch. "This is eighty percent of the hunt. It's rare that you'll just stumble across a Witch."
"Isn't there any faster way to find them?" Rin moaned, leaning heavily on Ami as they walked.
"Eh, there are usual haunts that you can find Witches in." Melodie shrugged. "Old buildings, bridges, places with high…death rates. I usually hang around those places until I catch the scent. But it's better to go for the first Witch you latch onto than hope you'll find a closer one."
After what seemed like forever, the girls came to a stop at Hamada's Pond, a recreational park built around a large, man-made mass of water. Rin rarely got to come to the park because it was so far away, and everything sold there was expensive.
"Okay, the Witch is close by." Melodie announced.
Rin was very vocal in her relief.
Melodie's Soul Gem led them to a fenced-off boat house with a small pier over the pond. From the state of the boathouse and pier, the gate had likely been locked for a long time.
Rin was just wondering how to climb over the fence when Melodie suddenly jumped impossibly high in the air, easily clearing over the fence.
"Woah. You can do that?" Rin asked in awe.
"All Magical Girls can." Melodie informed. "We get advanced strength and agility and stuff. Go on."
At Melodie's encouragement, Rin eyed the fence before bending her legs and jumping as high as she could. She gasped in amazement as she was launched far into the air, so much further than she ever could before, landing without injury on the other side of the fence next to Melodie.
"This is so amazing." Rin quickly hopped from foot-to-foot to express her excitement.
On the outside of the fence, Ami jumped but only made it a foot in the air before coming back down. Nowhere near what was needed to make it over the fence.
"Just stay there. The Witch is here anyway." Melodie told Ami as she held up her Soul Gem.
At the end of the small pier, a magical circle appeared in the air. At the centre of the circle was a picture of a horse with a pole through it.
With the entrance of the labyrinth revealed, Melodie threw her Soul Gem lightly into the air and let it come down on the back of her wrist. Then, Melodie was briefly engulfed in blue light, which faded away to reveal her Magical Girl outfit.
Rin's eyes practically sparkled as she took in Melodie's outfit, having not been able to do so when she first met the girl, too occupied with the threat to her life and learning that Magic was real.
A blue dress, a blue cropped vest, white sleeves with dark-blue cuffs, and dark-blue knee-high boots, the outfit complete with white swirl designs and gold detailing.
"Your turn." Melodie reminded with a smirk.
"Oh, right." Rin nodded, summoning her own Soul Gem and willing it to transform her.
A tingling sensation washed through Rin alongside the light, then she was transformed.
Looking down at herself, Rin was amazed to find just how different she looked to Melodie. Her costume was a mix of whites and varying shades of light blue, layered and flowy.
Rin shimmied from side to side and smiled widely at how the layers of her cute dress swished.
She didn't remember the last time she owned a dress that looked so nice and new. Living in a church and never having that much money, Rin and Yukio's clothes were almost always second-hand from donations, and any nice and cute looking clothes that were donated that Rin was able to fit into still showed signs of having been well-worn before she got them.
But now here was a dress and outfit made specially for her, as cute and fancy as any newly-bought dress from those expensive clothing stores.
Rin grinned up at Melodie, who was smiling herself at Rin's reaction to her new look.
The two Magical Girls approached the magical barrier at the end of the dock and Melodie jumped inside, followed by Rin when the younger saw that the older didn't just pass through into the water.
…
When Rin emerged into the Witch's labyrinth she was amazed to find herself in what looked to be an absolutely huge carousel, the moving horses and carriages going deeper than she could see, with multiple walls also moving around. Behind the girls was an extremely long wall of decorated panels that stretched far and curved, likely encompassing the entire carousel.
Rin instinctively covered her ears as disjointed and off-key fairground music assaulted her senses from all around her.
"This is the Witch's labyrinth?" Rin questioned, trying to remain steady on her feet as the floor vibrated beneath her feet.
It was so different to the labyrinth Rin had been dragged into with all the dolls, though it still gave off the feeling of unease and uncanniness.
Melodie nodded. "Come on. The Witch will be deeper inside."
As the girls moved quickly, weaving in and out of the moving pieces of the ride, Rin suddenly cried out in pain and was sent to the ground.
"Rin!" Melodie chased after the young girl as she was carried away by the shifting floor.
Above Rin, the carousel horse that she had dismissed as just a part of the labyrinth reared back its hooves, breathing fire out the sides of its mouth.
Rin rolled out of the way in time before she could be crushed by hooves, and the horse was then beheaded by Melodie's chakram blades, which caused it to go still on its pole.
"You alright?" Melodie asked.
Rin nodded and quickly climbed to her feet.
Now that they were looking for it, the girls could see that the carousel horses were actually alive, some breathing fire, others with impossibly large and sharp teeth, some seemingly dormant while others galloped and trashed around on their poles.
"Familiars. Of course." Melodie hissed.
She looked through the fray but could see no easy path through. The Witch Familiars were too close together and moved in alternating directions. So, even though the Familiars were stuck to poles, slipping through without a fight wouldn't be possible.
"Alright, Rin, time to fight." Melodie told her protégé. "We're going to have to make our own path to the Witch."
Rin nodded and held her hand out to summon her weapon to it.
A mass of light blue light appeared in Rin's hand, dispersing to reveal a huge sword as she clenched her hand around the grip.
There was a single second that allowed Rin to be in awe of her new weapon before the true weight of the sword registered with reality.
"Oof!" Rin huffed as her sword almost dragged her to the ground when it dropped through the air.
Melodie whistled at the size of Rin's new weapon. It looked to be as big as she was.
Thankfully, Rin would not have received a weapon that she couldn't use. So, after getting over the surprise of just how big and heavy her weapon was, Rin was able to lift and manoeuvre it with a display of advanced strength.
With their weapons in hand, Melodie and Rin began to carve their way through the carousel, slicing down Familiars and weaving in and out of the moving walls.
Melodie was quick, throwing out her chakram and practically dancing through the rows of horses and fake carriages. Rin was slower, still weighed down by her sword despite her own strength, though her sword was capable of creating more damage than Melodie's chakram, completely destroying the Familiars instead of just slicing through them. Multiple times, the girls were almost separated due to Melodie rushing ahead along with the revolving floors and walls of the labyrinth.
Eventually, after much running and slicing through Familiars, the girls reached the centre of the carousel.
A tall pillar of mirrors, lights and paintings stood stationary at the centre of the labyrinth, surrounded by descending levels of Familiars and fake carriages dangling from the ceiling that rotated around it. If the Witch was anywhere, it would be here.
Yet there was no Witch in sight.
"Where's the Witch?" Rin asked, looking around.
Melodie frowned heavily.
From experience, she knew that Witches took on many forms, but they usually stood out in some way. And though they could wander, most Witches did tend to remain in the centre of their labyrinths, no matter the size or complexity.
Perhaps the Witch was very small and they just couldn't see it from where they were. Witches did tend to be large, but Melodie had met a couple that were smaller than usual, at least at first.
"Check around, it has to be here." Melodie said, jumping up high.
The Familiars didn't make it easy, biting and breath fire at the girls as they searched the chamber for any sign of the Witch, with new ones eventually popping down from the ceiling to replace the destroyed ones.
"Agh!" Rin sliced at the Familiars closest to the central pillar, cutting one of the mirrors in half in the process.
At that, the labyrinth suddenly started rotating so much faster, sending Rin and Melodie flying from the force of the spinning.
"What did you do?" Melodie demanded as she used a horse-free pole to pull herself to her feet.
"I don't know. Everything just started going crazy when I slashed the horse." Rin said, grabbing her sword and digging it into the floor to create and anchor for herself.
In reaction to the stab, the labyrinth reacted even more wildly, the hanging carriages flying out wildly and dropping down further to hit Rin and Melody.
"What the hell?" Melodie exclaimed. "Why is it suddenly acting like this?"
A carriage collided with Rin, forcing the younger girl to let go of her sword and sending her flying into the shifting walls of the chamber.
"Rin!" Melodie cried out, jumping over to her.
"It's alright." Rin insisted, holding her head in pain. "I landed on my head."
The two phrases were meant as separate sentences, an assurance and then a complaint. However, because of the way Rin had said it, it sounded like she was assuring Melodie that she was alright because she had landed on her head.
Melodie bit her lip, tried to hold in her laugh, then started laughing hysterically.
'Oh, I've been desensitised.' Melodie mused to herself.
Melodie then put her mind back on the mission, looking at the chaos now unfolding in the central chamber. The Witch had to be there, the danger wouldn't have picked up so much unless the labyrinth was responding to the Witch, but they still couldn't see it.
"I don't know if I can reach my sword." Rin complained.
"You can just summon a new one." Melodie informed the younger, summoning another chakram herself.
Looking at where Rin's sword was still embedded in the ground, it occurred to Melodie that the carousel had its second increase in speed at the same time that Rin had stabbed the ground. And now that she was thinking about it, the carousel had started going wild after Rin had gotten near the pillar.
"Wait." Melodie mumbled to herself, eyes focusing on the damage that Rin had accidently done to the pillar.
Testing the theory forming in her mind, Melodie threw out her chakram, sending them flying at the pillar. Just before the blades hit, the row of horses surrounding the pillar suddenly rose up to take the hit instead.
"That's it!" Melodie exclaimed.
"What?" Rin asked, attacking the Familiars revolving near them.
"We can't find the Witch because we're in it. This entire carousel is the Witch." Melodie revealed.
Rin gasped as she tried to comprehend the pure scope of the Witch, to be so big that it encompassed its entire labyrinth and be ran through without giving away what it was.
Melodie summoned up new chakram and gritted her teeth.
The weak spot to head for was obvious, the central pillar. But for the Witch to be as big as it was, doing enough damage while avoiding damage themselves was going to be hard.
And on Rin's first hunt too.
One of the hanging carriages suddenly detached as it swung, getting launched straight at Rin and Melodie. The girls barely managed to dodge out of the way in time.
"Aim for the pillar!" Melodie yelled, making for pillar, doing her best to dodge attacks and fight against the inertia of the rotating room.
The Witch didn't make it easy, sending carriages and even horses flying at the girls, the Familiars revolving around the pillar fast and moving up and down to protect it.
Rin summoned a new sword, this time prepared for the sudden weight, and cut through the carriage sent at her instead of dodging, then charged forward. Familiars kicked, bit and blew fire at Rin but she continued running forward, using her sword to cut down the Familiars and carriages in her path and block what she could. The young Magical Girl gained many scrapes and bruises in the process but she'd been in enough fights before even becoming a Magical Girl and could easily ignore the pain.
With one giant leap, Rin struck at the pillar with her sword, cutting through several familiars at the same time. However, the sword only managed to dig into the pillar partially before coming to a stop.
Rin screamed as she tried to push the sword through the pillar further, only to be kicked away by more familiars coming around from the back of the pillar.
Landing on her feet a short distance away, Rin glared at the pillar. She could cut through it, she knew she could, she just needed to put more force into it. But those horses weren't going to allow her.
"Well, you did some damage, more than I could." Melodie analysed. "Keep going for the pillar, I'll do my best to keep the Familiars off of you."
It became a sort of dance after that, Melodie would slice down Familiars and flying carriages so that Rin could focus on digging deeper and deeper into the central pillar of the Witch. But the further Rin cut, the more rapidly the Familiars were replaced on their poles, forcing the girls into retreat before they attempted again.
Rin was getting frustrated with their slow progress, with having to fall back and then attack again, she hadn't always been able to strike in the same place, and she'd had to summon up a new sword more than once after the sword she was using became lodged in the pillar.
Her next attack needed to be her last. She would cut through that pillar in one swing, no matter what.
As if reading Rin's intentions, Melodie summoned many chakram at once, sending them slicing through the air without pause, slicing through Familiars and carriages as soon as they appeared. Though, focusing on keeping the way to the pillar clear was leaving her vulnerable to the familiars around her and flying carriages, so Rin would have to hurry.
Gripping her sword tightly, Rin envisioned pouring all of her power and magic into it for one big swing, which caused the blade to start to glow blue.
Then, Rin pounced forward, jumping high with her sword drawn back. Behind her, a trail of rapidly fading blue lights followed her sword.
"Ahhhhhhh!" With a cry, Rin swung her sword and cut deep into the central pillar of the Witch as Melodie's chakram few around her.
The sword only made it a third of the way before stopping but Rin kept pushing. Bright blue sparks flew out of the pillar as Rin forcefully dragged her sword through it, ignoring the fire and burns from the horses Melodie didn't cut down in time, refusing to pull back again until she was all the way through.
The further Rin cut, the faster the carousel around her spun and the more chaos it unleashed, accompanied by ear-splitting screeches of metal.
With one final gut-wrenching cry of exertion and a shower of blue sparks, Rin cut the rest of the way through the central pillar of the Witch.
Around Rin and Melodie, the revolving of the carousel began to slow as it fell apart. Wall panels and the ceiling giving way, carriages dropping to the floor and horse Familiars going still on their poles.
Then, everything began to fade away, slowly revealing the small boathouse pier they had stepped into the labyrinth from.
"I did it!" Rin cheered.
She then almost fell into the water, having emerged from the labyrinth at the very edge of the pier, saved by Melodie grabbing the back of the winged cape she wore in her Magical Girl form.
Melodie then knelt down and picked something off the pier.
"This, is a Grief Seed." The older girl showed it off.
It looked like a black ball in a metal frame that had a sharp point at one end and a moulded shape at the other.
"It's what we get for fighting Witches." Melodie continued. "Though, not every Witch is guaranteed to drop one."
Melodie abruptly transformed back into her civilian clothes and held up her Soul Gem.
"Our Soul Gems darken over time, especially when we use magic use. See?" She showed Rin.
"Uhh, yeah." Rin said, not really noticing any difference in the Soul Gem from the last time she saw it.
"So, we need Grief Seeds to cleanse our Soul Gems. Like this."
Melodie held her Soul Gem and the Grief Seed close together and Rin watched in amazement as darkness rose out of the Soul Gem and was absorbed into the Grief Seed, causing Melodie's Soul Gem to gleam brighter than it had before.
"It's good for another use." Melodie said, handing the Grief Seed to Rin to try.
Transforming back herself, Rin held up her Soul Gem and copied what Melodie had done, darkness rising out of her Soul Gem and getting absorbed into the Grief Seed. After she was done, the Grief Seed seemed to pulse darker than before.
"You have to be careful when doing this though. If you feed a Grief Seed too much, it could cause it to hatch and you'd have to fight the Witch all over again." Melodie said, taking the Grief Seed from Rin and throwing it into the shadows of the boathouse.
The Grief Seed was caught by a large tail, then bounced off it and into a compartment on Kyubey's back, which then shut.
"When you use them up, Kyubey disposes of them." Melodie added.
"Right." Rin said to show she understood.
She didn't voice it, but something about the way Kyubey's back opened up to swallow the Grief Seed disturbed her.
"That was an interesting fight, and against such a strong Witch too." Kyubey said, showing that they had been watching.
"Really?" Rin asked.
"Yes. It is fortunate that you were with Melodie today. She would have struggled severely on her own." Kyubey said.
"Yes, yes. We all did very good." Melodie rolled her eyes.
She was well-aware that she was ill-matched against the Witch. While she had taken out Familiars no problem, the Witch itself would have been hard to cut down, especially with the rate that the Familiars were replaced after the Witch started taking damage.
"Now, if you excuse us, it's too late at night to deal with you and I'm hungry."
Leaving Kyubey behind, Melodie and Rin hopped back over the fence, Ami waiting right where they left her.
"You won." Ami acknowledged.
"Yep. And I'm the one who took down the Witch." Rin bragged proudly.
Ami clapped in congratulation, but it was slow and sarcastic sounding, though she did mean it honestly.
"Well, Witch slayer, how about a post victory meal to celebrate?" Melodie suggested with a grin.
"Cool. Uh, I don't have any money." Rin wilted when she remembered she'd already spent her pocket money, and likely wouldn't be getting anymore for a while with how she was grounded.
"I'll pay." Melodie waved off.
The 'post victory meal' turned out to be ramen from a street vendor, though Rin didn't find it half bad as she ate ravenously. Melodie and Ami ate theirs at a much slower pace.
"So," Melodie said. "How did you find your first hunt?"
"It was…" Rin said around a mouthful before swallowing. "Weird, I guess. That Witch was nothing like the one you saved me from. And it wasn't even a fight, really, just hitting a pillar 'til I got through. But it was also really fun to be able to hit stuff like that, and I jumped so high, and I have my own giant sword!"
Melodie chuckled. "Scared at all?" She asked, poking at her ramen.
"Nope!" Rin proclaimed proudly.
"Really?" Melodie called bullshit on that.
Rin had been unlucky enough to get a strong Witch right out the gate and things had become chaotic towards the end. Melodie's own first Witch fight had been much easier and she'd still been scared.
"Well, maybe a little." Rin mumbled, like she was ashamed to admit that she didn't have a completely cool head to her Senpai. "But I was alright, because I had you there."
Melodie smiled. "That you did."
She supposed having another, experience, Magical Girl there would make things less…anxiety-inducing.
Throwing her empty carton in the bin, Melodie stretched.
"Well, may as well walk you home." She said.
"I can get home fine by myself." Rin frowned, she and Ami throwing away their own food containers.
Melodie looked up pointedly at the darkened sky.
"Tough, I'm walking you anyway." She told her young protégé.
Rin may have been blessed with advanced with extra strength and agility on top of being able to summon giant swords any time she wanted, but she was still a nine-year-old child who could be taken advantage of.
With a small bit of grumbling about not being a child, even though she was, Rin allowed Melodie to walk her and Ami home. Once she had guided the girls safely to the church, Melodie continued walking to her own home.
"Night, Little Spark." Melodie waved as she left.
Rin waved back and felt something in her chest warm at the nickname she'd been given.
Going to her window, Rin saw that it was dark but thankfully still open. Yukio was probably in bed, though Rin had no idea what the time was, likely past her own bedtime.
"See you when I can next get out." Rin told Ami.
"See you then." Ami replied.
Rin looked up at her window and jumped, grinning when she easily made it to the windowsill. Carefully and quietly, she slipped inside.
Inside, Rin spotted her brother sleeping in his bed and her duplicate still lying in her own. Tiptoeing to her bed, Rin tapped the shoulder of her duplicate, prompting it to get up out her bed and stand before her.
"Good job." Rin told her duplicate, even though it didn't have a mind to understand the praise with. "Uh, you're dismissed?" She said when she realised that she couldn't have a duplicate of herself just standing around.
Rin blinked as her duplicate suddenly lost all colour and then began to flake away like the pieces of a burnt log, rapidly reduced to nothing with no evidence it had been there at all.
Shrugging her shoulders, Rin changed in her sleep clothes and slipped into bed to sleep.
…
Outside, Ami continued to watch Rin's window for a minute before accepting that her friend was done for the night.
With her duty as Rin's friend done for the day, Ami wandered back over to the tree she had been staying under and sat down, closing her eyes and slipping into sleep herself.
Author's note: Please comment.
Since Rin's demon half is still sealed, working out her Magical Girl powers and the form her magic takes on is a bit of a chore. I've settled on Rin producing sparks, like the beginnings of a fire, and a blue glow, sort of like the embers of a fire. So, her magic is still linked to her flames, but the sparks and embers show that it's supressed.
As for what her special magical power is, magically created duplicates is a rather obvious follow on from her "I want friends" wish, though they lack the individual thought that Ami was given.
I've further developed Rin's Magical Girl design and decided on what her weapon is, so I'd like some help on figuring out the colour studies next. Go to my DA or Tumblr to see.
No art for the Witch yet, though I would appreciate some help with deciding on her information, like what her name and description should be.