"Alright, the hell was that, Mikuni?! How the hell didja know about that!?" Komaki said loudly, all but yelling in Oriko's face. She sighed. As soon as their first break from class started, Komaki had marched right up to her and started demanding answers about her mysterious warning, instead of hanging out with her little posse like she normally would. It was quite understandable, which didn't make it any less annoying. "I go huntin' for Witches, then I see some creepy girl pretending to be some kinda joker, and I manage to get outta there just ahead of some weird elephant Witch stompin' on me! Just how the hell were you able to find out about that girl ahead of time?! And besides, how the hell didja know about me?!" She stopped her rant for a moment to breathe in, giving Oriko a chance to interject.

"Those are some very reasonable questions to have, Komaki-san." She said, a benign smile on her face. "Did you get injured at all escaping from the rogue magical girl? She seemed to have been quite tough."

"Yeah, it went fine after I realized it was who you told me about…" Komaki said absentmindedly. After a moment, her face turned angry again. "But no! That's not what I asked about! You gotta tell me how the hell you knew about her! Didja see her in a dream or something?!"

Oriko smiled wryly. "Well, I suppose you could say something like that." She said. "But it wouldn't be entirely accurate."

"For God's sake Mikuni, can you say at least one thing that makes sense?" Komaki glared at her. "You've been talking in circles all damn day!"

Oriko let out an involuntary giggle. Komaki's friends, watching the conversation from across the room, kept on looking more and more nervous as the conversation seemed to get more heated. Was this not a regular occurrence for them yet? She raised a hand up as Komaki prepared to yell something at her yet another time. "Forgive me, Komaki-san. I was having a bit too much fun there, I feel." She smiled. "I'm sorry, could you ask your question again? I won't tease you this time, I promise."

Komaki blinked at her, vaguely nonplussed. "Uhhhh… Okay, sure, I guess." She said slowly. "Did you… No, forget about it." She said, dismissing her confusion. "What I wanted to ask was, how the hell did you know about that magical girl? Did someone tell ya about her? Or did you see her or somethin'?"

Oriko nodded her head. She wasn't surprised that Komaki would keep on wondering about that. "Yes, I can answer that." She said, trying to gather her thoughts. She knew that Komaki could probably figure it out on her own anyways at this point, but it still made her nervous that she was revealing her status as a magical girl to so many people. She wasn't sure of the underlying laws of magical girl society, exactly, but what she was sure of was that basically everything magical girls could do was completely and utterly terrifying. Still… It wasn't as if Komaki was uninvolved in that world, right? With that in mind, Oriko took a deep breath. "As you may have suspected, I am what is known as a magical girl, just like you. My magic gives me some amount of knowledge of the future, and in one of my visions, I foresaw you being defeated by the magical girl in jester's clothing. I… Do not know you very well, but nevertheless, I decided that I would pass on a warning to you to keep you from being slain."

Komaki blinked once more. "Huh. Makes sense, I guess." She said, but then raised her voice back to her normal level. "But if ya had some vision of me dying, why didn't you just tell me instead of doing your weird mysterious oracle bullshit!?"

Oriko tilted her head. It wasn't a bad question- why didn't she just tell Komaki outright? "That's… To be honest, I don't really know. I suppose I was in a bit of a rush?" She admitted. "Now that you mention it, however, I must admit that you have a point." Her face reddened slightly.

Komaki rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah, of course. You've been doin' the whole weird silent treatment thing ever since-" She shut her mouth, and now it was her turn to redden, but she tried to hide it with her typical bluster. "Well, uh, what I meant was, you gotta stop with the weird mysterious act! It ain't good for anyone."

Oriko acknowledged that with a slight nod of her head, masking the sudden wave of sadness that struck her. God, why did it have to happen? "...Perhaps. But can we ever truly know what will result in good? We spoke about-"

"Y'see!?" Komaki interrupted her. "That's the exact kinda thing I'm talkin' about! Just say what you're thinkin'. Don't hide it by being all mysterious and shit!"

"Komaki-san, please." Oriko allowed a small twinge of annoyance to show itself on her face. "I understand your… proclivities, but you must understand- not wanting to shout out every last thing that crosses your mind to the world does not make you 'mysterious'. While in this specific instance, I was perhaps too reticent with my words, that does not mean that I shall suddenly dismantle my brain-mouth filter." Oriko waved her hand to the side, as if to dismiss the notion. "In any case, let's discuss more material matters. Could you tell me any more details about this jester magical girl?"

All through Oriko's dressing-down, Komaki's jaw had been stretching wider and wider, but once Oriko addressed a question to her, it snapped back closed. "Uhh… Well, there ain't really much to tell." She said. "I was goin' hunting for a Witch, and then I come across this magical girl in the barrier. She acts all friendly and shit to me, but after a second, I recognize her as the one ya told me about, so I run as quick as I could to get the hell away from her. She was givin' off bad vibes anyways, I guess." She shrugged her shoulders. "I was lucky to run away then, anyways, cuz as soon as I start runnin', this weird-ass elephant thing, kinda looked kinda looked like a Witch, hops outta the corner and starts chasin' after me."

"I see, I see…" Oriko replied, musing to herself. Most of that matched up with what she had seen in her vision, but she didn't realize that the girl would try and be friendly at first. It made it even luckier that Komaki was actually willing to listen to her instead of just disregarding her warnings, she supposed. "In any case, I'm quite glad that you made it out safely." Oriko smiled. "That girl could have been quite dangerous."

Komaki's face reddened again- or was that a blush? "Yeah, uh, thanks again, I guess…" She mumbled, and then straightened back up. "Real question is though, what the hell do we do about this? I'd be willin' to work with you to kick her out if ya want. Do you think that would be a good idea?" She looked questioningly at Oriko.

"Well…" Oriko frowned, pondering what their options were. It wasn't even a question that the jester magical girl had to be taken down. A girl willing to use force against innocence as ruthlessly as she seemed to be doing it was simply a danger to the common good. The question, then, remained on how to go about performing the task. After a moment of silence, Komaki looking at her quizzically, Oriko spoke once more. "Obviously, we have to take care of this rogue magical girl. In terms of what we should do specifically, I believe that-"

The rogue magical girl stood in an alleyway, an eerie grin spread across her slight features. In front of her was Komaki, her Soul Gem already smashed, and Oriko, not dead yet, but to her shock, she could see that her other self was bleeding from her chest, and her Soul Gem cracked in three separate spots. The rogue seemed like she was about to say something, but all of a sudden- no! It was Kirika, a Soul Gem shining black on her lapel. Was there really nothing she could do to stop her from contracting?

"Oh? Another-" The rogue magical girl began to speak, but she was interrupted by Kirika immediately rushing in to attack her, swiping her with two huge claws. She attempted to parry, barely-concealed panic in her eyes as

"Where is she?! Where is Oriko!?" Kirika growled out, eyes darting in panic as she continued to press the attack against the rogue magical girl. As soon as she saw Oriko lying off to the side, she ceased, immediately rushing over to her. "No! What even happened!?" Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes.

"Kirika…" The other Oriko rose up slightly, looked pained, as well she should. Her breathing came in heavy, as if she was struggling to take in each and every breath. "I…" And then she fell back to the ground. The cracks on her Soul Gem finally took their toll, and it burst into pieces, completely shattered. Oriko took her last breath, letting out one final sigh.

"NO!" Kirika cried out, and to Oriko's horror, she saw that her Soul Gem was clouding with corruption, pushing out the regular black of her Soul Gem. "Damn it Kyubey, why couldn't you have told me earlier?" She muttered wildly to herself, tears leaking out of her eyes.

The rogue magical girl recovered from her shock and began moving towards Kirika to attack, her staff at the ready, but before she could do anything, Kirika's Soul Gem completely filled up. Like a balloon filled to its limit with air, the Soul Gem burst, and like Oriko had seen once before, a horrifically deformed, eldritch being emerged from the shattered Soul Gem- Kirika's Witch. The many torsos of the Witch soared out of the ground, her scythe-arms swinging at the ready. The one small consolation was the way the rogue magical girl's face twisted in horror as she realized what had happened, but it was nothing next to watching Kirika turn into a Witch again.

—

For a wonder, she was finally able to restrain herself enough that Komaki didn't notice the little shudder she released this time. She took a quick little breath. "I believe that… I believe that we simply do not know enough about this magical girl to engage her yet. There are far too many unknown factors at play here."

"Whaaat!?" Komaki said incredulously. "We can't wait for that kinda shit! This girl is completely goddamn insane! She literally tried to murder me last night, or did ya forget!?"

Oriko raised her hand, trying to silence Komaki from her rant. "Please, calm yourself, Komaki-san. I recognize your concerns, but it would be foolhardy of us to rush in headlong to fight a girl whom we barely have any knowledge about. She can control Witches, yes, but what else can she do?" She raised an eyebrow towards Komaki. "If we don't know the answer to that question, I fear that we may run into some very unwelcome surprises."

"Well… you ain't wrong, I guess." She said reluctantly. "But how do you wanna go about finding that kinda info? It's not like she's gonna tell us, y'know."

"Yes, that is something we must figure out." She said calmly. "But with my ability to use visions, I should be able to find something out. And if the worst comes to worst, well…" She gave a minute shake of her shoulders. "We attack anyways, and we would be no worse off than if we never decided to try to gather information in the first place. However, if you'll excuse me?" She rose from her seat. "The break is almost over, and I must go for a moment."

Komaki gave her a nod, a thoughtful look on her face. As Oriko hurried off as quickly as she could while still retaining her poise, she saw Komaki's friends rush over to shout something at her out of the corner of her eyes. Oriko glanced back, but she shrugged. It wasn't really her concern, after all. She quickly made her way to the bathroom, keeping her expression controlled all the while.

Once she entered the stall and locked it behind her, it was as if someone had flicked a switch on her. Her calm demeanor was utterly shattered, replaced with a crumpled face, tears beginning to flow from her eyes. "I thought I stopped it! I thought it wouldn't happen!" She thought desperately to herself. "Is there truly nothing I can do to stop her from becoming a magical girl!?"

She sat down on the seat, willing herself back into normality. Her hands massaged her cheeks Just put the mask back on, isn't that what she had been telling herself all this time? What's another day of having the mask on? She took a shaky breath. At least she would be able to stop Kirika from martyring herself for her this once. Hopefully she would be able to stop it fully soon. Oriko rose back up, wiped off her face one last time, and opened the door to the stall. She had to get back to class. By the time she reached the classroom door, she looked like the same calm, poised Oriko Mikuni that she always was.