"Thank you for coming now." Oriko said, smiling at Komaki. To her embarrassment, she realized that she had never gotten any way to contact her outside of school, but fortunately, Mami had met her before, and was able to give Oriko her cell phone number.

"Yeah, whatever." Komaki dismissed her with a wave of her hand. "So, you're finally ready to get out there and gank the goddamn jester girl? I was expectin' you to take a bit longer, but if you're ready now, I'm ready."

Mami cleared her throat, standing over to the side as she observed the other two magical girls. "Well, Asako-san, I'm not quite sure if 'gank' would be the proper word to use here." She said, frowning slightly. "I would say that we should go and ascertain her intentions first, or else we-"

"She tried to kill me last night, Tomoe!" Komaki burst out, glaring at Mami. "The hell do you mean, 'ascertain her intentions'?! There ain't nothing to ask her here!"

Oriko winced. That was her fault- she really should have told Mami about how Komaki knew about Sasa. "Please, Komaki-" She raised her hand. "Mami doesn't know all the pieces of what's going on with Sasa. I thought I would have more time to get everyone together, but this was a very sudden opportunity that I felt we needed to take."

"Okay, okay, fine." Komaki snorted. She still seemed a bit annoyed, but at least she wasn't trying to start a fight now. "So, what do you want us to do now?"

"Well, I would say that we should simply follow whatever patrol route Tomoe-san was planning on taking me before." Oriko said. "It is almost certain that the barrier I foresaw was one of those that we would have encountered along that route."

"Yes, that would make sense." Mami nodded her head. She still seemed a bit stiff after Komaki's outburst, but nothing more, thankfully. "Come, follow me." She made a small wave with her hand. "I would generally go down this road here, and then…" They followed along as Mami talked, Oriko feeling tense. Hopefully, the plan would work out.

—

The trio trudged along the side of the road, keeping a wary eye out for any sudden attack that Sasa might try to pull. It wasn't a bad neighborhood, exactly, but it wasn't the kind of place that Oriko would have wanted to spend time in, either. They had found a single, thankfully weak Witch on the way so far, and while Oriko would have rather gone on looking for Sasa, Mami had insisted that they defeat it together when she realized that Oriko only had a couple of half-filled Grief Seeds. Komaki was willing, and with the trio working together to take down the Witch and its familiars, it had been defeated without a hitch. It wasn't too bad that they were making the detour, Oriko reflected. She hadn't gotten any new visions warning of imminent doom while they were hunting, and it gave her a chance to learn how to fight better alongside Mami and Komaki. Mami was obviously the most skilled magical girl in the trio, and at the front of the team due to that, but Komaki's shields allowed her to get in close behind Mami's ribbons, and when the Witch was harried by both of them, it allowed Oriko a much easier time lining up her shots from her orbs. They still had some teething troubles, but the team was coming along well.

"Oh!" Mami suddenly came to a stop, prompting the other two to stop as well. "Do you see that barrier over there?" She pointed. Oriko had trouble making it out in the distance, but she could see a flashing barrier entrance, set slightly off the street on what seemed to be an abandoned property. "That flashing means that there's another magical girl in the barrier." She explained. "And while it may be that other magical girl who you mentioned, I think we should go in and check to see if it's where your vision was."

"Indeed." Oriko said, peering a bit closer. The barrier shined brightly, a large symbol shaped like the face of a teddy bear emblazoned on the front. She stopped for a moment, waiting to see if she would receive a vision, and then let out a breath she didn't even realize she was holding when nothing happened. "Alright, everyone, let's go in. Be careful."

Komaki jumped in first, Oriko and Mami following close behind. Strange cylindrical objects floated through the barrier, casting a long shadow over the ground below. Oriko looked from side to side, looking to see if she could find their target, and- yes, there she was, seeming to observe the barrier. But before she could say anything, Sasa turned around, and put her hand to her mouth, as if surprised. "Oh, are you also magical girls?" She walked towards them. "I've been looking to say hello to the girl in charge of Mitakihara ever since I got here, but-" Her eyes widened theatrically when she saw Komaki, who was growing progressively more red as Sasa blathered on. "Wait a second… You're the girl who tried to kill me!"

"What 'tried to kill me'!? You're the one who tried to kill me! Who the hell d'you think you are, you goddamn liar!?" Komaki held her ax forward, ready to charge forward. "I'll just-"

—

Komaki charged towards Sasa, ax at the ready. She almost reached her, ducking beneath the cylinders as she ran, but just before she got to her, a sudden strike of lightning rang out, knocking her to the ground.

—

"Komaki!" Oriko barked out. "Don't rush in there like an idiot! Stay still!"

When she saw that Komaki had stopped, although still burning with rage, she nodded. "Thank you." Oriko turned to Sasa. "Now, what were you saying…?"

"Oh, I'm Sasa Yuuki!" The girl said, perking up a bit. Her smile seemed fake, but Oriko couldn't tell if that was because she knew Sasa's true nature, or if it was a real deficiency in her acting skills. "I'm a magical girl from Kazamino. There's been some fighting going on in the city, so I'm looking to move here to keep from getting involved in… that mess." The expression on her face changed to consternation. "But why are you working with that crazy girl!? I heard the magical girl in charge of Mitakihara was kind, I can't believe that you guys just go around with this kind of girl!"

Mami and Oriko exchanged a look, while Komaki somehow grew even redder than she already was. Was this girl serious? Oriko cleared her throat. "Please, Yuuki-san, let us not play games. We have full knowledge of your intent for the city." She said formally. "We would like to request for you to leave the city as soon as possible."

All at once, Sasa's innocent look dropped like it was never there in the first place. "Do you really think you can mess with me?" She scowled. "All you high and mighty popular girls, you all think you're better than me. You guys have no idea how strong I am! Go to hell!" She motioned forward, and both the ribbon elephant Witch that she had seen previously, and a less familiar Witch wearing a large bone mask stepped forward. As she readied her orbs, Oriko glanced around the barrier. Shouldn't there be three Witches? Where was the third Witch from her vision? But she couldn't think about that now. Two sets of ribbons flew through the air as the elephant Witch charged towards Mami, gunshots firing out, and Komaki was barely holding off the flashes of electricity from the bone mask Witch. She had to go in to help right now.

As she rushed towards Komaki, Sasa laughed. "You see!? You all think you're so strong, but I'm just as strong as you once I'm on top! I'll crush each and every one of you!" Mami aimed a gun at her and fired a shot when she got a break from the Witch, but Sasa easily dodged it, throwing herself behind the elephant Witch. "Not gonna work! Anyone who the world says is better than me can't touch me!" Sasa cackled, a mad grin on her face. She pointed her staff, and-

—

Three, four, five, six familiars materialized in thin air, jumping out behind the fighting trio. Mami noticed early enough, shooting out ribbons to take out the familiars before they could jump at her, but Komaki didn't notice soon enough, getting tackled by a large doll-like familiar, and Oriko barely fought one off, slamming it with a crystal ball.

Seven, eight, nine, ten- they kept jumping out. Sasa was panting, but she looked excited. "Ha! Betcha weren't expecting that, were ya?!" She spat out breathlessly. "And there's more where that came from!"

Eleven, twelve, thirteen- the familiars were slowing down, but they still kept materializing- just where were they coming from? Komaki struggled with the familiar, but just as she was finally able to wrest herself away from it, another two dolls hopped towards her, a menacing grin on their face. She swung her ax, but that did nothing but delay them as the other two girls could do nothing but look on in horror, even as they took out the other familiars…

—

And sure enough, there came the familiars. Oriko saw the first one beginning to materialize. "Komaki! Mami! Look out for the familiars behind you!" She cried out. "She's summoning them somehow!" Thankfully, they both got the warning, and instead of being jumped on, Komaki swiftly turned around, slicing the familiar in half as it jumped at her.

"Oh, for god's sake." Sasa muttered, causing Oriko to turn to her. "You're that annoying seer girl Kyubey mentioned, aren't you?" Her scowl turned into a twisted smile. "Well, it's all fine! You guys are done for anyways!"

"...Kyubey?" Oriko thought to herself confusedly. "What in the world did he tell her?" Her expression hardened. "But whatever the reason is… It can't be good."

Meanwhile, Sasa wasn't waiting around for Oriko's thoughts to finish. She twirled her staff once more, but this time, instead of summoning familiars, another Witch emerged out of the shadows. It was much more humanlike than the other two Witches, but its face was blank, and its arms half again the length of its body, strings dangling all along the arm. Oriko's eyes widened, and she saw the other two girls look on in consternation as they continued battling with the other Witches.

"Don't worry, you two!" Oriko called out. "I can take on this Witch, you two just handle taking out your own. This is Sasa's last trump card! We just need to get through this, and we're done."

She pretended that she was sure they could actually take out all three Witches, but Oriko wasn't so sure. They all had to watch out for the backlash from the other's fights, and each of the Witches would have been a tough fight even for all three of them together. They were barely able to hold on the way the fight was going. At least she was well suited to combat the puppeteer Witch- evidently, the familiars were coming from it, but with all her attention on the Witch, Oriko was able to maneuver her orbs to take each one out as it materialized. But she couldn't keep it up. Even now, her Soul Gem was rapidly filling up with corruption as she fired shot after shot at the familiars. One down, then another, then another. But it didn't matter. The Witch was slowing down, but it wasn't slowing down fast enough for her to be confident in being able to take it down. And even if she could take it down, all it would take was for even one of the other girls to lose their fights for the rest to be completely done for.

She would have to take decisive action if they wanted to make it through this mess. But what to do, what could she do? She was nearly at the limit of her abilities. Oriko pursed her lips as she held a Grief Seed to her Soul Gem, slightly staunching the rapid flow of corruption into her Soul Gem. Could she-

—

Kirika laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. A video game controller sat on the foot of the bed, but evidently, she didn't feel like using it. She was still in the same school uniform that she had been wearing in the barrier, but her shirt was half unbuttoned, and her legs kicked listlessly as a groan came out of her mouth.

"Hello there, Kirika." Kyubey said, jumping from the floor onto the foot of the bed. "Would you like to make a contract with me now?"

"Agh!" Kirika jumped up, her groan turning into a cry of shock. She glared at Kyubey once she saw him. "For god's sake Kyubey, d'you not know how to knock!? And for the last goddamn time, no, I ain't gonna contract! Oriko would kill me herself if I did that, and she'd be right to do it! So screw off, ya stupid bunnycat!" She stuck out her tongue at the little white creature.

"Oh? Is that so, Kirika Kure?" Its bright red eyes flashed ominously. "I suspect that you may find the situation to be somewhat different now…"