Mami's apartment-Early Afternoon

The soup in Nagisa's hands sloshed back and forth as she carried it to Mami's bedside. A twinge of guilt seemed to spread across her face, but it very quickly faded as she sat up.

"This should imbue your gem with strong healing magic. It'll be like the curse never existed over you."

"What kind of witch did you have to kill to get this?" Mami took a spoonful, only noticing the steam coming off of it after it was already rushing down her throat.

"...And did it happen to have any cold water with it?" she continued, dropping the spoon in the process.

"It was nothing more than a lowly familiar, taken down in one fell swoop to my swarm of bubbles" she replied, already rushing to the tap while making the motion of a bubble wand trailing behind her.

Mami let herself relax for a moment, thinking of the care Nagisa had given her. She also only now realized that she was still wearing her magical girl uniform, carrying around her favorite doll in tow. Kyubey also decided to nuzzle up against her legs with a sharp meow that said something along the lines of "Hey, food bowl is empty. What would I do without you?"

Nagisa seemed to recognize this and simply shook up the bowl a little so the bottom wasn't visible. This was apparently satisfactory for the little cat.

"Sorry, my telepathy was a little weak."

Nagisa handed her the glass. The burning had already passed, but it was refreshing nonetheless. She took another spoonful of the soup. Still far too hot to eat, but she powered it down anyway.

"Nagisa, none of this is your fault. I shouldn't have pushed myself as hard as I did.", answering the unmentioned feeling of guilt Nagisa was showing.

She shook her head anyways.

"It was my idea to play the witch and bring you along for it." She turned to look at the bodysuit laying on the floor, alongside Mami's dirty and grass stained uniform.

"I'm gonna need to get that cleaned at some point…"

Nagisa lowered her head.

"Oh, that wasn't against you at all. I really shouldn't have even gone out." Mami clarified. "We can always do it another day, if you'd like."

"It won't feel the same, though. It was supposed to be a big surprise."

Mami racked her brain, but she came up empty.

She could maybe get Kyouko involved, but she knew that would end up feeling too forced.

"Hey, Kyouko, can you come outside the hospital for something? No, it's a surprise, you'll need to come here for it. Also, bring your uniform."

Of course, she would probably agree to it, but Mami knew for sure it wouldn't be what Nagisa wanted.

Her gears started turning.

"It would be a bit of a waste if we didn't at least get a picture of you in the witch suit, even if we don't end up using it."

Nagisa seemed to cheer up a little,

"Would you mind if I put it on now?"

Mami nodded her head and gestured for the open bathroom. Nagisa quickly grabbed the suit and brought it in, shutting the door behind her.

Perfect.

Mami didn't have a whole lot of time, but she crawled out of bed and picked up the other pair of clothes off the floor. They were still messy and wrinkled, but it would work.

Within minutes, Nagisa walked out of the bathroom. Mami was nowhere in sight.

There's no way she left, right? She knows better than that…right? right?

"Foul witch"

Nagisa inched closer into the room to see Mami in a kneeling position, propped up by one of her muskets.

"You think you can take me down so easily? Well, as long as my soul gem still glows bright, I will keep fighting. For everyone."

Nagisa simply cocked her head to the side, only picking up on what was happening after she narrowly missed one of her shots. A smile creeped onto Nagisa's face.

"You're too weak to beat me, I'll eat you just as I did with the others."

Mami dove through the arena, narrowly avoiding the monstrous rampage of what was formerly Nagisa Momoe.

"To think it would turn out like this…"

The doll still sat in the center of the arena. She assumed this would be a trivial job, but the witch had jumped her from inside of it. How such a massive creature could fit into such a small thing was far beyond her, but she didn't have the time to be worrying about that. Right now, she needed to survive.

Loving onto the witch, she fired a point-blank shot. Surely, this would do something.

Instead, it did nothing more than bounce off the witches head, nothing more than a slight hindrance. Her injuries were bad. She knew it. The witch knew it. She wasn't going to last much longer.

"Please, I know you're in there somewhere. It's me!"

The monster continued rampaging, tearing apart the arena to find her. Mami's constant firing made that job easy.

"Remember back to all the times we used to share together. Remember your humanity."

She was very quickly losing places to hide herself. She needed a better way to hit it where it hurt.

She threw out a ribbon to the upper section of the arena, grappling herself above the witch. Another volley of shots flew from her guns as she flew towards her.

Her snakelike body flew up to meet Mami, jaws slowly getting wider and wider before snapping down overtop of her. It was almost too easy, taken completely whole.

Almost.

A shooting pain came from inside her, followed by another, and another.

From inside, Mami had set up a web of ribbons. She could feel herself being slammed from wall to wall inside of her as the witch tried to shake her into exhaustion. Unfortunately, Mami held strong, once again forming her colossal rifle, just barely fitting into the confined space.

"TIRO FINALE"

Light filled her eyes, but the body quickly slammed to the ground. Everything was motionless.

Before long, the arena had disappeared.

I wish it didn't have to turn out this way…

Nagisa clutched her heart and fell to the floor, laughing more than she had in a long time.

"That was pretty clever of you. I never would have thought to do something like that."

"I'm not so easy a target to just throw myself into your mouth"

"Well, you did, didn't you?" Nagisa asked, still in joy, licking her lips.

"Yeah, I guess I did…"

Mami felt herself collapse to the floor, this time for real.

"Sorry, I overdid it a little bit, I guess."

Nagisa wanted to apologize, but it was clear Mami wouldn't let her do that.

"I'm fine, don't worry. Just tired is all."

Both were silent for a moment as Mami stood up.

"Hey, Nagisa?"

"Yes?"

"Was that enough of a surprise for you?" Mami asked with a laugh.

She was hesitant to respond, but the answer was clear from her face. It might not have been the surprise she was looking for, but it was enough of a surprise nonetheless.

Nagisa moved to get changed, but Mami stopped her, gesturing towards her phone. Within a few moments, she had a timer set up with Nagisa in her most "ferocious" pose looming over her.

"Everyone's gonna love this"

The camera flashed with a click, and Mami moved herself to take a look. Both of them had closed their eyes, but it was still a more than perfect moment.

Nagisa, meanwhile, made her way towards the bathroom again, bringing in her normal clothes rather than the magical girl uniform. Understandable, of course. She was probably tuckered out after all that.

Mami walked to her bed as well, picking up the bits of ribbon she'd carelessly strewn along the apartment floor. Unfortunately, Kyubey was already paws deep into one of the strings, and there was no way she was wrestling with a cat any day of the week.

Approaching her bedside, she slid the spoon out from her soup, a small layer of film having formed across the top. How long had it been…

The cold taste gave her the answer: way too long.

Even so, she could feel the healing spell kicking in as she drifted off to sleep.

Sayaka slowly walked into Kyousuke's room, the last of the sunset filtering through the window. He looked over at her from the corner of his eye to see her hands not-so-subtly hiding something behind her back.

She didn't say a word as she tossed a classical CD onto his lap. Just a grin across her face.

"I know you like this album, so I thought we could listen to it together."

He nodded his head, putting the disc into the CD player, and a pair of earbuds into each of their ears.

The music rang through them both, neither saying a word. Sayaka was lost in a world of her own.

That world began to crumble, however, when she looked at Kyousuke.

Distress.

She clicked the pause button on the player. She wasn't sure what to do. Would it be more polite to say something, or just leave him be?

Instead, she tried something she never thought she would.

"If...you could grant me one wish…"

Kyousuke looked over to her to see her in what looks to be a prayer. Her face was a bright red, and only grew redder when she looked up to face him.

"Sorry. I was just hoping for a miracle."

This seemed to lighten Kyousuke up a little, but only a little.

"I appreciate the sentiment, I just wish I could play these beautiful pieces myself…They're hard to listen to."

"Is there any hope for a recovery?" Sayaka asked hopefully

Kyousuke shook his head.

"The doctors say my hands will likely never recover, or at least not to the degree of being able to play the violin…which is really the same thing, when you think about it."

Sayaka couldn't say anything. The mood had very clearly passed a long time ago.

"Thank you for coming tonight, though, and for the thoughts as well." He continued, though with a little bit of a cold tone.

The room continued to hold its awkward silence. Sayaka awkwardly backed away from the bed.

"It's getting late, I should probably get going."

"Yeah, thanks again." was all he said before she walked out the door, the CD still resting over his lap.

Miracles, huh?

Sayaka fell back against the outside walls of the hospital. She'd made her wish, and only felt a sense of regret.

What was she expecting to hear, really?

"Actually, the doctors have approved me for an experimental procedure that will completely repair my hands. I'll be out of here within a week, and ready for my next recital soon after. It's nothing short of a miracle, and all thanks to you!"

She shook her head at the thought, wanting nothing more than to go home and rest…and yet, she felt oddly refreshed somehow, like she'd just gotten a massive weight off of her chest. Was this what Homura was talking about?

She jokingly started swinging an empty sword around, sidestepping invisible targets, before stabbing into empty air.

"Die, witch!"

Before she knew it, she snapped back to reality, darting her eyes around to make sure nobody was around to notice her.

Even so, she just couldn't shake this feeling she was being watched.

A/N: So, uh, it's been a good while. 4 years, in fact.

I actually don't remember why I stopped writing this one, even before I took a long break in general.

Anyways, people seem to really like this story a lot, and I do too, so I'm gonna try to continue it. Hopefully, the next chapter comes a little sooner.