CHAPTER 13: Window of Opportunity
"You can blow bubbles with a trumpet?" Sayaka looked on as Nagisa practiced with the magical weapon she was able to materialize. With a deep, anxious breath, Nagisa blew on her instrument, a horn that instantly inflated bubbles that flew off into the fake horizon. "And they explode?" Sayaka shielded her eyes while the bubbles blew up in a series of bright flashes hundreds of meters away. "Okay, I definitely got shafted in the magical powers department." Sayaka jealously muttered.
"It's pretty impressive, sure." Miss Jones nodded. "But she's gotta find a way to put it to practical use. Don't want to accidentally blow someone's face off." She patted Nagisa on the head. "Homura, will you coach her on that?"
"Me?" Homura stepped out from the TARDIS lift behind them. "Why me?"
"You seem to be our guns and explosives expert. Maybe you can figure out the 'magic' to her magic."
"I'll…" She stared at Nagisa, her face displaying the slightest glint of trepidation. "See what I can do for her."
"Fantastic!" Miss Jones pointed off to the distance. "There's a quarry a few hundred meters that way. It should serve as an adequate shooting range for you two."
"Here you go!" Miss Jones took from her bag a non bladed sword hilt and casually flipped it to Sayaka.
"What's this for?" Sayaka juggled the catch.
"Practice." Miss Jones took a hilt of her own from the bag. "You and I are going to spar. For an hour a day each day before school, and another two after. Exempting nights like tonight when there's a mission and-or when I have a social obligation to fulfil."
"I don't rea-"
"Press the button on the underside." Miss Jones interrupted. A gold light beamed from Miss Jones's hilt and formed a makeshift blade. "A good friend and I used to spar all the time back in school. The one you've got used to be theirs."
"Woah!" A blue blade of light flashed right before Sayaka's eyes.
"En garde!" Miss Jones slashed across Sayaka's wrist. Sayaka's hand went limp as she dropped her weapon.
"Hey!" Sayaka rubbed her wrist reflexively.
"Body damage with these is simulated in such a manner similar to a real sword battle. Your hand will be paralyzed for the rest of the fight… That is, unless…" Miss Jones just as quickly slashed across Sayaka's neck. "An equivalent of a killing blow is delivered. Then the game resets." Sayaka's wrist returned to normal as she knelt down and picked her blade back up.
"You really learned to fight with these things in school?" Sayaka asked.
"Yes I did. Was even asked to join the battle club. But I graciously declined. So did my friend. They were were going through a bit of a pacifist phase and I had that wee bit of a crush... You know how it goes." Sayaka took a defensive posture. "Wait a tic… Let's make this a fairer fight first. Change into your magical girl form."
"Tch! What? Are you serious?" Sayaka glared at her. "But I'm like, way stronger and faster when I'm changed."
"As I said, it'll be a fairer fight." Miss Jones smirked. "Trust me. I'm Your Sensei."
"Ooooohhhhkayyy!"
Hitomi Shizuki watched her parents pull out of the long driveway as they both headed to work that morning. It took some skillful acting, but she convinced them that she was too sick to go to school today. So much for her perfect attendance record. One less trophy for a case that's already full to the brim.
But that was the least of her concerns at the moment. She reached into the trash can beside her desk, where the crumpled note she tried writing yesterday was sitting. She uncrumpled it, and straightened it out.
"Dear Sayaka…" She reread its message aloud word-for-word. She next turned on the phone beside her, and scrolled through her message history with Sayaka, all the way down to the last text she had sent her: "Liar."
She took out a notebook, and after taking a heavy resolute breath, she started writing a new note.
'Dear Sayaka:
I confess that I have been seeing Kyosuke Kamijo in secret for quite some time. I regret that you found out in the manner in which you did.
This note was originally intended as a way to explain in writing my motives, my actions, and above all to apologize and ask forgiveness, but I fear that you've already made up your mind about me. No explanation is going to change that.
So instead I will only lay before you my deepest feelings: For a long time now, I have always liked Kyosuke. But now I'm in love with him. My secret visits to the hospital have made me more and more certain. And I refuse to stay silent about it any longer.
But I also acknowledge that you two have been friends for much longer, and that you may have developed similar feelings toward him. Therefore, in the interest of fairness, I will give you twenty-four hours to tell him what you feel. If you don't, rest assured I will. Can you face your true feelings?
If this matter harms or brings about an end to our friendship, I am terribly sorry. But I want you to know that, whatever happens next, I sincerely wish you the best.'
- Hitomi
An ultimatum. Had it really come to that? Was Kyosuke's heart so important that it could cause the end of a friendship? She asked herself that question as she reread it out loud. Maybe a written note was still too impersonal, she thought. Perhaps she still owed Sayaka a face-to-face warning.
Her parents had bought that she had spent the night at a friend's house. Lied and said it was one of the transfer student's, Otonashi's, so that her parents wouldn't do the due diligence of calling Madoka or Hitomi's parents. Sayaka's next plan was simple: Sneak in little early through the gym door, retrieve her school clothes and book bag from the girls' locker room, change into them, go to class, feign illness early on, go home, grab food, money and supplies, remember her phone this time, head to the train station, get off at the last stop, then walk all the way back to the church to tend to Kyoko. No needless distractions.
"There you are!" A familiar voice blared at her in the locker room.
"Aw, crap!" Sayaka muttered. She had just barely changed into her school clothes before getting noticed.
"You left practice early yesterday." Miss Yamazaki was reading in the Coach's Office. She set her book aside. "Said it was urgent. What happened?"
"I- I uh…" Sayaka hesitated. "I got a call from a cousin of mine. She came to town for a sudden visit. We're good friends but we don't get to see each other a lot. So I sorta, uh, got a little giddy and took off to go see her!" Another on-the-spot lie so elaborate, she was almost impressed with herself. "Forgive me for cutting practice yesterday!" She bowed repentantly. "Forgive me! It won't happen again."
"Be sure that it doesn't." Miss Yamazaki waved her on. "A team only perseveres when everyone is at their best. Breaks at its weakest link."
"Gee… Reading from the big book of sports clichés in there?" Sayaka muttered back as she passed.
"There you are!" A second familiar voice gasped at her as she got to her regular locker.
"Madoka!" Sayaka half-smiled. "What's up?"
"You disappeared yesterday. Where did you go?"
"Made a surprise visit to Kyosuke at the hospital. It's been a while since I last saw him. Been meanin' to say a few things to him that couldn't wait."
Madoka was surprised. This was the first time she could remember that Sayaka had ever outright lied to her face-to-face. She had Sayaka's jersey tucked in her bookbag, her first instinct was to call her out on it. But she could tell from the look in Sayaka's eyes that her friend was both tired and really stressed out. She might not react well to Madoka's concerns.
"Sayaka, I wa-"
"There you are!" Yet another voice boomed at her from down the hallway.
"Crap! Oh, crap!"
"Those glasses look really cute on you, Miss Akemi." The female student sitting across from her complimented her eyewear, a red pair of glasses augmented by Miss Jones to protect her against any future mind-mind invasions by Kyubey.
"Uh, thank you." Homura acknowledged.
"Are they new?" She asked.
"Uh, no. They're an old pair." Homura paused. "I'm wearing them while my contact lens prescription is being changed."
"You should keep wearing them in school. They really highlight your pretty eyes." The girl resumed talking to the girl sitting behind her.
"That's like, the fourth person who's said something like that to you today." The Disguised Sayaka, sitting beside her with her own set of specialized specs on her face, commented. "While the only thing said about mine was that they were 'teacherly.'" She added with a tinge of jealousy. "Not cute."
"Personally, I'd prefer not to be the center of attention." Homura admitted. The two turned their heads watching Miss Jones at the front of the room merrily writing out the first period's lesson plan on the board. "She seems to be in a rather good mood this morning."
"She would be. She beat me in every single sparring match we had."
"You sound like you were expecting a different outcome?"
"I was transformed. I should've been moving way too fast for her to keep up." Sayaka lamented. "What good is magical powers if I can't even take on an old lady in a sparring match?"
"Have you forgotten? She's not human."
"Oh, how could I? Not when all the while she's regaling me with tales of her exploits traveling around the Murgatroyd Cluster." Sayaka sighed. "Wherever that is."
"Perhaps that's why she's in a good mood."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"She's had the chance to share a small part of herself with someone."
"Good Moooooorning, claaaaaass!" Miss Jones chipperly greeted with the ring of the morning bell. "Everyone be seated, and we can take the morning's attendance!"
"Miss Jones! Miss Jones!" Madoka stormed into the room, her eyes full of concern. Homura immediately shot up from her seat. "They're fighting! They're in the hallway!" Sayaka followed suit.
"The offer to join me still stands, you know." Mami Tomoe stood blocking the hallway with her arms folded and a medium-sized bandage over her nose.
"Thanks." Sayaka looked her directly in the eye. "Not interested in being the loyal lapdog to a queen bee wannabe."
"A queen bee?" She huffed through the bandage. "Is that what she said I was?"
"Using your strength and status to do whatever you want and punish all who don't bow before your holy beauty and grace? Nope, just callin' it as I see it."
"I was defending myself. She was going to slice my head off if I hadn't. You saw that much yourself."
"And yet she's the one with the hole in her leg. A gracious person would've just walked away and let us chase that familiar."
"That familiar was in my territory, and unlike Kyoko my philosophy to destroy both witches and familiars." Mami yelled. She added, slightly more softly "I'm sorry that you got in the way."
"Woooooow! Even that apology sounds condescending and petty. I hate people who put on such airs."
"Is there a problem, Miss Clown?" Miss Jones strutted toward the two girls in the hallway.
"No, Miss Jones." Sayaka answered. Madoka came running and put herself firmly between the two girls.
"Good to hear. Now you two get the heck into my class before I mark you as absent."
"Yes, Miss Jones." They dutifully marched down the hall.
"You're an upperclassmen, correct?" Miss Jones addressed Mami. "Your place is on the other side of the building. Move it along now."
"I'm aware." Mami stood firmly watching the two girls pass. "Thank you."
"Seriously? You went to get her?" Sayaka disgustedly whispered to her friend.
"I don't want to see you in any trouble." Madoka whimpered.
"I can handle a bully on my own."
"Mami's not a bully," Madoka corrected. She's-"
"Wait, what?" Sayaka stopped in her tracks. "You know who that girl is?"
Kyubey leapt down from his perch at the top of a locker, and onto Madoka's shoulder. "B- But. You didn't tell me… Why?" Sayaka muttered under her breath.
"I found your jersey." Madoka proceeded to her seat in the classroom. "Please stay out of trouble."
'What year did The French Revolution Begin?'
It was a pretty basic western history question to which Hitomi should've known the answer right away, but somehow she was drawing a total blank. She double checked her notes, and copied the answer.
She was always a few lessons ahead of the rest of the class, that's why she figured it wouldn't hurt to skip a day and just focus on her work at home. Away from the stress of social interaction. Away from their teachers and their increasingly demanding expectations. Away from the class gossip mongers. But mostly, away from the cause of her woes, Sayaka Miki.
'Who was the tyrant that soon after rose to power?'
Speaking of tyrants… That Sayaka… Right now she was probably spreading rumors and lies about her around the class. Then just out of spite, she'd spoil all those intimate secrets in which Hitomi had confided in her. Hitomi was going to be the laughingstock of the entire school by this time tomorrow. Who was she kidding? She'd made a huge mistake in skipping school today. Her unforced error would let Sayaka run rampant over her good name unrebutted. 'Napoleon Bonaparte', she copied out.
'Who was the British military commander that defeated him?'
But Sayaka was her best friend... She wouldn't do something as wantonly cruel as that. Where were these nasty thoughts coming from? Even when they argued or disagreed, Sayaka had never been the sort of person who'd ever antagonize, let alone seek revenge or vindication over it.
'But that's what she did. The evidence is right in front of you.'
A peculiar little voice whispered into her ear, coursing its way right into the back of her mind. She couldn't focus on history right now. She decided that maybe it was time to move on to the next subject.
'Translate This English Nursery Rhyme:
Hey Diddle Diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed,
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon'
Ugh, English. Sayaka would be completely failing that class if it weren't for the notes that Hitomi kept providing for her. And how was she repaid for her generosity? By being called a liar? By having their private matter so callously tossed before the rest of the class? The nerve of that girl!
'She's not really your friend. She's just been using you the whole time.'
Come to think of it, when was the last time Sayaka went out of her way to do something nice for her? Hitomi was the one who paid for their last meal together. Hitomi was the one who assembled their group art project. Hitomi was the person who stuck it out and went to that crummy movie with her and Madoka after all the boys canceled.
'That's terrible! You don't need her! You deserve friends who will appreciate you better!'
English was a nonstarter. Next up, Biology class. Everyone paired up last week to dissect a bunch of frogs. It was the only class where both her and Sayaka's grades were on par, so naturally they paired up. Hitomi was the type who'd get squeamish at the sight of blood and guts, so Sayaka volunteered to split the poor creature open, while Hitomi would do the write-up. At the time she'd thought that Sayaka was simply doing her a favor, saving her from having to do the dirty deed of dismembering an innocent creature, but looking over those notes and thinking about it now, she realized Sayaka was totally taking advantage of her. Of course Sayaka would want to splay that frog's body open, Hitomi thought to herself. Sayaka's always had an unusual affinity for blades and sharp objects. She probably even got some sort of sick thrill from dissecting the thing.
'Using yoooooouuuu!'
She was painting this elaborate picture in her mind of Sayaka gripping that scalpel, gleefully cutting away at that frog's body parts, laughing like a maniac and having the time of her life. Oh, what a sadistic creep! It made her stomach churn. Hitomi had to stop thinking about it.
'Terrrrrrrrible!'
So why couldn't she stop thinking about it? It seemed no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't erase the image of that bloody scalpel from her mind. Nor could she think of anything but Sayaka's menacing laughter. So ingrained now, she couldn't think of anything else. Where were these twisted thoughts coming from?
'You deserve betteeeeeer!'
"No! Stop it!" Hitomi promptly jumped to her feet and screamed out loud, banging her knee on the table. She heard a shattering sound. She looked down to find that she had just knocked over and shattered that precious snowglobe her father had gotten her for Christmas. She panickedly fell to her knees to clean up the fractured mess, but her movements were stilted, her concentration increasingly obstructed by an influx of gruesome imagery and frightening sounds.
'Not your friend!'
"Owwww!" She whined, realizing that she'd cut the side of her palm on a big glass shard. It looked pretty deep, as deep as Sayaka's cuts in that poor frog's chest. She hysterically jumped back to her feet, then thrust her queasy, wobbling body onto the bed as she shut her eyes. But strangely, her bed did not feel at all like a bed, it suddenly felt very hard and very cold, like metal. And her room absolutely reeked of formaldehyde. Hitomi wearily opened her eyes…
To her utter shock and abject terror, she was no longer in her bedroom, no longer even human, her physical form was now that of a frog, helplessly splayed out on a dissection tray. And above her slimy green body stood a giant, deranged Sayaka holding a long, terrifying scalpel right up her chest. The beastly creature's first incision was quick and terrifying, she gleefully flayed Hitomi's skin open and ripped her heart from inside and clenched it within her grotesque, clawed fingers! Hitomi screamed at the top of her lungs, thrashing her body around with as much force as she could still muster and rolled straight off her bed. Control momentarily restored, she impulsively dunked her entire frog face into the wastebasket, she was absolutely certain she was about to puke her guts out. But nothing came out, instead she flopped onto the cold, hard floor, the wastebasket plunking right onto her head. She instinctively curled up on the floor in the fetal position. She tried to scream and shout for help, but she could only cry a weak, hopeless frog-like croak.
Was she going crazy? Was there no one around to save her from this hellish, waking nightmare?
'I'll box up that memory,' Whispered an angelic voice from the ether. Whose voice was it? Was this the voice of Hitomi's salvation? From what wonderful land did this benevolent spirit hail?
Hitomi reluctantly sat up and slid the wastebasket from over her eyes. To her pure unadulterated joy, her form was human again. The once-monstrous Sayaka had been reduced to an annoying, squealing, harmless image trapped inside a floating television screen. Hitomi reflexively smacked at the floating screen and the apparition vanished into a puff of smoke. Just as quickly as it had appeared, her horrifying nightmare had been vanquished. And she just knew, deep within the core of her soul, that she couldn't have had the courage to overcome it had it not been for the assistance of that mysterious, lovely voice.
Hitomi suddenly felt a soft and passionate, tickling touch on the side of her neck. It was like a gentle kiss, a token of love from her invisible savior. The alluring sensation worked its way down her entire body, dissipating every single one of her imagined agonies. The tortuous cuts of the scalpel had vanished. The need to vomit was no more. That stinging pain from the cut on her hand was completely relieved. This voice, she truly and deeply knew, was her guardian angel.
"T- Thaaaaaaaank youuuuuuu!" The enraptured Hitomi affectionately stroked the side of her neck. What an intoxicating sensation this was, all her troubles in the world had evaporated, she was lighter than air and overwhelmed with joy. She was so happy here, so contented in this moment, that all she wanted now was for this sublime, carefree sense of elation to never ever end.
'Come with me! I'll appreciate you better! I'll be your bestest friend forever and ever!'
"Yes… I'd like that very much." Hitomi obediently stood on her feet and followed the alluring call of her wonderful liberator.
"I'll try to be quick." Sayaka and Homura appeared just outside Kyosuke Kamijo's hospital room. It was the middle of the afternoon. Sayaka figured he'd be resting in bed after another long day of physical rehab.
"If Kyubey senses us in this room together, he will immediately come and investigate." Homura stated.
"I know, I know. Believe me, I know." Sayaka waved her hand impatiently. "But I have to try again." They quietly snuck down the hallway. "His rehab got bumped up to earlier so there shouldn't be any visitors." She opened the door and peeked inside. "Good, he's asleep." She whispered. She sprinkled a dose of dust over his eyes, a substance Miss Jones told her would help him remain that way.
"I'll keep watch." Homura put on her protective glasses, shuffled to the window and closed the blinds.
"Thanks." Sayaka gently grasped Kyosuke's damaged hand with one hand, and held her Soul Gem over it with the other.. She closed her eyes, held her breath and tried to focus her mind on healing it. A couple minutes later, she exhaled and checked to see if there was any progress. But nothing looked healed.
"You said you definitely remember watching me heal other people right?" Sayaka asked.
"Yes. You have the ability." Homura cautiously peeked out of the blinds.
"Oh yeah? So who'd I use it on?"
"Me." Homura answered.
"You? For reals?" Homura simply nodded.
"Okay. So why's nothing happening?" She took a deep breath.
"I… I also remember you were transformed at the time."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense." Sayaka rolled her eyes, took a couple steps back, and flipped her Soul Gem above her head. In a blue flash, she donned her magical appearance, complete with the musical "ff" symbol on her transmuted hair clip. She took an even deeper breath and tried to focus her energy on the sleeping Kamijo.
"Anything else you remember?" Sayaka opened one eye and glanced over to Homura.
"I remember a bunch of…" Homura drew circles in the air with her finger. "Musical notes around as my wounds closed."
"So it isn't working." Sayaka huffed again and sat down in the chair beside him. "I don't get it. What did those other versions of me know that I don't?"
"Perhaps your problem isn't ability. Maybe it's will."
"Will? What do you mean?"
"Maybe you don't want to heal him."
"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I wanna."
Homura stepped closer. "In the short time you spent with Kyoko, did she tell you that she used to possess the ability to cast elaborate illusions?"
"No." Sayaka slightly turned her head and looked at her. "What happened?"
"After her wish destroyed her family, she lost the ability to create them." Homura examined Kyosuke's hand. "She was typically elusive about going into the details, but she did once trust me enough to tell me the story of a witch she was fighting not long after they perished, when suddenly she had completely forgotten how to make illusions. And that Kyubey had claimed it was because she had subconsciously rejected her own wish."
"No kidding?" Sayaka dejectedly stared at the floor. "Gee, that's... Awful."
"I can only speculate, but maybe there's a part of you that's rejecting your wish as well."
"How can I reject something I never learned to do?"
"You gave up a big part of your own self to help him, only to be emotionally wounded by your later experiences. Maybe you're afraid of risking your heart and soul for someone else only to have the same things happen again. So reflexively you're rejecting it."
"But I get that I'm not going to be with him. I know it. I accept it." Sayaka huffed. "I just wanna move on with my life."
"Like I said, I'm only speculating. I can't claim to know what's in your heart."
Sayaka sighed, "That makes two of us." She sighed, sat back down, and gave another try.
Nagisa Momoe sauntered over to the swingset, and seated herself in one of the swings. Her Papa used to bring her to play here a lot, back when they were still a happy family. She'd hop right into this swingset and he'd push her, up as high as she could comfortably go. He'd even continued to take her to this playground after her Mom became ill, but she could sense he was growing less and less enthusiastic about it with each trip, with every little push. Then one day, he was gone, he was there to push her on no longer.
Yet she would still take time out of her life every day to visit this little playground, whenever the chance came. She'd return to this very swing and sit, hoping that someday, somehow, her Papa would come back to play with her and push her on it again. And then after, just maybe, he'd take her away from here.
But today she decided it was time she tried something different. Today, she wanted to figure out how to keep this swing going up and down all on her own. She resolved to make this day her first small step towards freedom, towards independence. She pushed off against the ground. She swung back and forth a couple times, then stopped. She settled her bottom in the swing, moved her body back as far as it could go, and picked her feet up. She swung a couple times more than her last try, then stopped moving again.
She tried again, putting her body back as far as it could, and picked her feet up. This time, she tried kicking her legs rapidly as she swung back and forth, but that only jerked the swing from side to side. What could she possibly be doing wrong? She sat there and wondered to herself.
She put her body all the way back one more time, and picked her feet up. This time, she kicked her legs up together as she swung forward, then jerked them down in singular a kicking motion as she went the other way. Was this, she wondered, the trick? She kept at it, pumping her legs as the swing kept going, her height getting a little higher with every sway.
"Greetings Nagisa Momoe. Where have you been since yesterday?"
"Animal! Go away!" Nagisa barked at Kyubey. "I'm busy now!"
"I must say, I don't understand young humans' infatuation with such an activity. It's a repetitive kinetic motion that serves little benefit to your physical development." Kyubey jumped his way to the top of a post along the playground fence.
"I said go away!" Nagisa turned her body as she snapped back. The swing twisted around, as she was veering out of control. She spontaneously drug her feet against the ground, and leaped to safety, falling to her hands and knees as she landed in the dirt.
"Interesting that you now wear those eyeglasses. Did you need them?" Kyubey prodded. Nagisa hastily straightened the thick, black frames on her face. "Where did they come from?"
"I don't wanna talk to you, animal." Nagisa stood up and dusted herself off.
"I am merely fulfilling my duties, when I watch over you magical girls." Kyubey patiently sat on his post.
"I don't need you to watch me." Nagisa sat down in the swing and tried again. "I'm free."
"Your needs or desires are not relevant to the matter, I am simply telling you this as a matter of fact. I am simply doing my duty."
"Go away." Nagisa swung back and forth.
"If your perception of me has been skewed by recent events, perhaps a clarification would put you at ease." Kyubey waved his tail along the side of the post. "You see, that magical girl you met is another irregularity. I have no memory of making a contract with her. Therefore I judged it to be in my best interest, and by extension, the interest of all other magical girls of this city, to directly investigate who she was, and discern the nature of her presence and the reason she was at the hospital."
"You hurt her." Nagisa drug her feet along the dirt, her swinging height had gotten a little too high for comfort.
"Whatever discomfort either she or you experienced, I assure you, it will not happen again, there will be no long-term ill effects from it." The data retrieved from the deceased Kyubey was partially fragmented, due to the nature of its untimely termination. This one had some idea of what incident she was referring to, but nonetheless thought it more prudent to keep the apology generalized. Then maybe she might fill the rest of the gaps for it.
"Bad animal." Nagisa stopped swinging.
"Perhaps my wording has been too sophisticated." Kyubey mused. "I'll simply state that I do not mean you, nor the other magical girls any harm. My only aim yesterday was to determine exactly who this 'Saya Otonashi' person really is."
"She's free." Nagisa slowly dug the tip of her shoe into the dirt.
"An interesting description." Kyubey titled his head.
"Free, free, freeeee!" Nagisa stood up. "Like me, me meeeee!" She ran over to the slide on the other end of the playground.
"You appear to be uncharacteristically carefree today, Nagisa." Kyubey leapt from his perch and followed her over. "Is it reasonable to presume your recent contact with this 'Saya Otonashi' has affected your demeanor in some way?"
"Nope nope." Nagisa looked up from the bottom end of a long slide, to its top. Her parents always told her never to climb up a slide, saying that she could slip and hurt herself, and that it was inconsiderate toward the other kids on the playground. But she was all alone today. Free. No one around to offend nor object.
"From what I've since witnessed at the hospital, it would seem that your mother has made a rather unexpected full recovery from her illness. Was that Saya Otonashi's magical power at work?" Kyubey scurried over to the slide.
"I let her try." Nagisa took a step on the slide's bottom base.
"Did she do it as a token of alliance? Have you two become allies?"
"Nah, she just wanted to help." Nagisa took a steady step up the slide, followed by another, then another. "'Cause she's freeeee." She extended her arms out as she balanced herself going up.
"Have you talked to your mother? Does she know who is responsible for her condition?"
"Nope. No talking." Nagisa's steps were smaller and less steady as she climbed up. "She can come find me if she has to." She was almost there, at the top. "But I don't know if she wants to."
"What about your wish? Has that special cheesecake affected you, perhaps?" Kyubey unexpectedly appeared in front of her at the top of the slide, having climbed up the steps. Nagisa gasped as she fell to her butt and slid back-first all the way down and off the slide.
"Ow." She got up and dusted off her back. "Bad animal." She held her glasses tight to her face.
"I did not intend to startle you." Kyubey trotted back down the steps.
"I ate a bite." Nagisa pushed up her glasses and stepped away from the slide. "I guess she can eat the rest if she really wants it."
"The product of your wish no longer matters to you?" Kyubey tried to follow behind her.
"It's just a cake." Nagisa looked up at the sky to the Sun above. She figured she had played around enough. Now it was time to do what she'd been asked to do here today. She held out her hand, as her Soul Gem changed from a ring on her finger to its bright white egg form.
"You've brought your Soul Gem out?" Kyubey's rabbit-like ears perked out. "Whatever for?"
"Shhhh!" Nagisa strode over to the playground's entrance and held it out. She quickly ran to the entrance on the other side and held it up. "Ohhhh!" The light in her Soul Gem shimmered as her gut suddenly felt very perturbed.
"It would seem…" Kyubey stopped and stared at her. "You've come upon the trail of a nascent witch." Nagisa scampered around the corner, where a group of people had just gathered. "Impressive for such a novice."
"Shhhhh!"
"This isn't good." Kyubey narrowly avoided being stepped on by an entranced human male. "Do you see that marking on its neck, Nagisa? That's the mark of a Witch."
"Be quiet, animal!" Nagisa ducked behind a bush. "Spooooky." She whispered to herself.
"With your present level of magic and experience, I do not recommend that you fight this witch. Not without some kind of assistance." The gathered horde shuffled steadily towards the highway overpass ahead. Nagisa followed along behind them. Kyubey dutifully behind her.
"Our feelings will be stronger by sharing our joy and sorrow …" Sayaka quietly crooned to herself as she cupped her C-shaped Soul Gem above Kyosuke's sleeping body. "If my voice can reach you, then I'm sure a miracle will happen." She paused. "Right?"
"Does the singing help?" Homura peeked through the blinds.
"It can't hurt." Sayaka moved her gem up and down Kyosuke's arm to his hand. "Besides, I've had that song stuck in my head all day. If I don't sing it out loud then it's never gonna lea-" The phone in her pocket abruptly buzzed.
"It's her." Sayaka checked her screen. "You were right. It passed near that playground."
"Always does." Homura came over to the bed, reached into her magical sleeve and pulled out a gas mask. "We're out of time. Put the mask on and let's go."
"Gimme a sec." Sayaka hurriedly shuffled through her bookbag, took out a notebook and pen, then tore out a page. "I want to leave him a note before we go."
"Why?"
"Because today was not only the day I became a magical girl, it was also the day he…" Sayaka hovered over his sleeping face. "Gave up. I wanna leave something here that might help him."
"You really think that's going to help?" Homura skeptically asked.
"It might. A little bit." Sayaka started writing, then stopped. "Actually, can you write it for me?"
"Me? Why?"
"He might be able to tell it's my handwriting, you know?"
"If you insist." Homura sighed and took the paper. "What do you want to say?"
Sayaka thought for a moment. "How about, 'Don't listen to them. Don't despair. There's so much more to you than your talent'."
"That's all?"
"Doesn't have to be a lot." Sayaka added, "Sign it, 'From a friend'."
"As you wish." Homura complied.
"I'm going someplace wonderful." Hitomi shuffled along the overpass as she entered the city's industrial park. "Sooooooo wonderful." She whispered blissfully, echoing the words of that alluring voice that was calling her forth. "Woooooow." She cooed as she joined up with the rest of the collectively entranced people. "Oooooooooooh."
"It's either going to manifest in the abandoned factory like last time." Homura shouted to Sayaka as they jumped onto the next rooftop. "Or about a kilometer south in a storage warehouse. The odds are fifty-fifty."
"I'll ask her where she's at." Sayaka hastily wrote out a text on her phone.
"Interesting that you now possess a mobile device." Kyubey observed. "Where did you acquire it?"
"Not talking to you, animal." Nagisa lightly pushed him aside and sent her text.
"She doesn't know the difference between the buildings." Sayaka read.
"Ask her if the smokestacks are big and close to her or small and farther away."
"I strongly urge you to answer my questions, Nagisa. I have no desire to be more intrusive than I need to be." Kyubey hopped onto a trash bin.
"Big smoke stacks. Big, big big!" Nagisa uttered as she typed and looked around.
"The Factory." Sayaka and Homura said in unison.
"Let's go!" Homura clutched Sayaka's hand as they disappeared from view.
"I'm worthless." The despondent man uttered. "It's true. A failure. I couldn't even keep this little factory's doors open long enough to turn a profit." The mesmerized crowd of just over a dozen people huddled around him. "There's no room for a person like me in today's world." They lowered the factory's shutters. Nagisa snuck inside and took cover behind a crate. "I'm… Obsolete." Kyubey made his way in through an open office window.
A sleepy-eyed woman holding a bucket shambled to the center of the gathering. She poured a pair of bottles into the bucket, as Nagisa peered at them. A man holding a large canister lurched over to the bucket.
Nagisa immediately recognized the liquids they were about to mix together. After her mother first became ill, she and her father had to start doing the cleaning chores around their residence. Her father, just before he left her all alone, warned her that mixing those two chemicals up was a very dangerous thing to do. It was a warning both sudden and stern enough that it scared her away from cleaning with any chemicals. Then it lingered long enough to scare her from cleaning on her own altogether.
"Oh, I am so, so blessed to bear witness to such a sacred ceremony!" A middle school girl standing in front of Nagisa audibly whispered. Nagisa peeked out and saw a funny-looking mark glowing on the young lady's neck.
"It would appear that they are planning to perform an act of ritualized suicide." Kyubey commented. "We're witnessing a typical example of a witch's power to manipulate humans' wills."
Without thinking, Nagisa ran out from behind her hiding place and at the lumbering man ahead of her. She charged and kicked him as hard as she possibly could in his shin. He reflexively dropped the canister, Nagisa picked it up, ran over to the bucket, then kicked it over as well. The gathered group immediately turned their collective scorn on Nagisa.
"You're interfering with our ceremony!" The middle school girl admonished the scared Nagisa. "Don't you see? We all want to go on a most wonderful journey, to a magnificent new world!" The crowd collectively lurched towards her. "But we can't do so until we get rid of these bodies that hold us back!" Nagisa looked down at the floor and saw the shadow of her own head obscuring the evening moonlight. "In a little while, you will understand, too!" The girl called out. Nagisa turned around and noticed she was standing just beneath a window to the outside. With all the might that she could muster, she chucked the canister over her head, straight through the window and ran. The group collectively staggered in pursuit of her.
"This is not good." Kyubey spoke from a beam above the fray. "These people are all being directly controlled by the witch. There's no telling what they might do to you if they catch you!"
Nagisa reached into her pocket and took out her Soul Gem. Without any pomp or preparation, she transformed into her magical girl form. Nagisa picked a direction, and ran. The middle school girl lunged at her, narrowly missing Nagisa's ankle. Two adults tried to tackle her down, but she instinctively leapt straight over their heads and nearly all the way up to the ceiling, a feat made possible only by her new magical powers. "She's over there!" The middle school girl pointed as Nagisa staggered to the ground and straightened her specs. Nagisa darted her head around in search of an exit. Three to the left of her, four to the right, and two in front of her, she had effectively been cornered.
Nagisa spontaneously conjured her weaponized horn in her right hand. "A musical instrument?" Kyubey observed her struggles from a rafter above. "Of what use is that?" Nagisa thought back to her early morning training session with Homura. The two of them quickly discovered that, if she played a certain correct sequence of notes on her trumpet, it would play a loud, boisterous, disorienting stanza. Seeing no other option, she took a deep breath, put her lips to the mouthpiece, and blew as hard as she could, pointing her instrument straight into the air.
"Auuuuugggh!" The middle school girl curdled to the floor in pain and covered her ears. The others just as spontaneously followed suit. Kyubey was shot right off his perch above. "Wha…" The young lady appeared to momentarily come to her senses. "Wh- Where… ?" Nagisa dashed away and up a staircase leading to the factory's office. She locked the door and tried to hide under a desk.
But unwittingly, she had stumbled directly into the witches' inner labyrinth. All the computer and video screens in the room flashed on at once, each displaying a horde of small, angel-like one-winged creatures. The creatures tried to swarm around her, but she put her mouth to her horn and blew as hard as she could a second time. The swarm was temporarily blown back, but they regrouped, as Nagisa tried to scramble around searching for another exit.
It was no use. By that point, the room had been completely subsumed by the witches' world, and Nagisa found herself spiraling straight towards the angelic creatures. Nagisa let out another blow, sending them back and propelling herself upward, but now she was spiraling in the opposite direction.
"I've got you!" A voice cried out from a caped figure charging in her direction. "Grab my hand!" Nagisa threw her hand as high as she could above her head.
Sayaka grabbed a hold of her arm, followed by the rest of her body, as they launched mid-air toward the labyrinth's edge. The angelic swarm tried to follow, but were quickly dispatched by a barrage of automatic gunfire.
Sayaka conjured a sword and stuck it directly into the lair's solid edge. She conjured another and did it again. "Grab onto it!" Sayaka commanded through her gas mask. Nagisa nodded and complied. "Wait here while I help her out." A ring of musical notes swirled underneath Sayaka's feet, as she blasted back toward the labyrinth's center.
Homura shot the angelic familiars to pieces with an Uzi. She jumped and landed on the labyrinth's opposite end and bounced back. "Why don't you just… Die?" She shouted. The witch dispatched another pack of familiars toward her, which she dispatched easily with the lob of a grenade. "Damn it, where'd it go now?" Homura instantly found herself floating in the middle of the labyrinth, suddenly surrounded by video screens.
"Huh?" Homura's head twirled around. "What's it-" The screens flashed, transfixing her mind, assaulting her with images of her own past failures. "No! Stop it!" She sat by, powerless as Madoka went to Walpurgisnacht alone that very first time. She watched helplessly as Madoka transformed into a most terrifying witch not long after. "Madoka!" She instinctively cried. She was rendered defenseless, that time Mami Tomoe bound her up for execution that night they collectively discovered the truth about witches, and then she witnessed her last attempt, for all she'd learned, for everything she'd planned, Madoka's fate remained unchanged. It was using her own recovered memories against her… And she was helpless to stop it! She had not felt this useless since the day she had first begun her long quest.
"Are you alright?" Sayaka's voice rang around her as the monitors encircling her Homura were instantaneously hacked and slashed to pieces. "You look like you totally spaced for a moment there!"
"I- I'm fine." Homura answered. "This witch likes to twist your memories around and fills your mind full of anguish and self-doubt." She panted. Homura promptly turned her buckler, stopping time, and launched herself from a torn piece of a dead familiar over to Sayaka.
"Woah!" The relieved Sayaka smiled as Homura reappeared face-to-face with her.
They took a moment and scanned around the labyrinth. "There's the witch." Homura pointed at the frozen, silhouetted image of a female being on a giant computer monitor above them. "When time resumes, I'm going to throw you at it. Remember, don't think at all. Just strike fast and true, as you always do."
"Gotcha." Sayaka nodded.
"Ready?" Sayaka put her foot in Homura's hand, and precharged her attack with a ring of musical notes.
"Ready!" She raised her sword to strike.
"Go!" Time resumed and Sayaka was flung as fast as she'd ever moved directly into the giant computer screen.
"This is the end… For you!" She screamed as she struck its center with all her remaining might. The two beings impacted the ground with an almighty boom, blood-like liquid squirting from the witch in all directions. The labyrinth around them rapidly collapsed and the girls were transposed back inside the locked factory office.
"Did I…" Nagisa breathlessly jumped off a desk. "... Do a good job?"
"You did…" Sayaka caught her breath. "... An awesome job! Sorry we took so long to come get you."
"I didn't miiiiind." Nagisa swooned into Sayaka's arms.
"You go ahead and rest." Sayaka hoisted her into her arms. "You've earned it."
"My, oh, my!" Kyubey's unnerving voice came from the window. "It seems that Nagisa Momoe has a penchant for attracting the attention of atypical magical girls."
"Buzz off, bunnycat." Sayaka scoffed at him through her mask.
"The obfuscation of your identity will not protect you indefinitely. I have already deduced that you are indeed native to Mitakihara City, despite there being no apparent record of your existence."
"You just like hearing yourself talk, don't you?" Homura suddenly appeared before him and grabbed Kyubey by the neck.
"And I am aware that your existence is somehow tied to Homura Akemi's." His eyes flashed bright red, in a fruitless attempt to make Homura put him down. Homura choked him tighter. "I see. Those pieces of eyewear you all wear function as a countermeasure to my psychic influence." His strained gaze shifted over to Sayaka. "Could your personal magic perhaps be that of altering the perception of both animate and inanimate objects? But why would you need to don any sort of disguise while transformed? It doesn't make sense."
"That's enough out of you." Homura covered his eyes as they headed out the office door. "You're coming with us." Sayaka went first with the sleeping Nagisa in her arms.
"I think I'll have to decline such an invitation." Kyubey said. "I'm not particularly eager to join a pair of magical girls with whom I am not properly acquainted."
"It was not a request." Homura stated as they got to the bottom of the steps.
"I'm afraid we must insist." Three more Kyubeys awaited them just outside as they raised the factory shutters. "Since you have both inflicted fatal harm upon one of our previous bodies, we suppose it is only sensible that we dispense with the pretense that we exist as a singular entity."
"Tch. We already knew that." Sayaka approached the door.
"We do, however, function as a collective. And we cannot abide by the detainment of one of our kind. You will release that individual now."
"Not happening." Homura squeezed its face harder in defiance.
"Release that one. Our command will not be repeated again."
"Or else what?" Sayaka took a step outside.
"Tell me, have either of you ever done battle against a revived witch?" A Kyubey stepped in front of them just outside the door. A used up Grief Seed slowly rose from the glowing red marking on its back. "Of course it is an extremely rare phenomena so we have only limited data on what ensues when it happens, but what we do know is that it merely takes a concentrated dose of additional unstable energy applied to a saturated Grief Seed to instigate a chain reaction. It is energy, we'd much prefer not to waste, but energy we do possess, and if forced to act, ultimately can provide."
"You're bluffing." Homura scoffed.
"Do you really wish to find that out for certain, with so many humans around whom are already primed to serve as its fodder?"
"Unghhh…" A number of the entranced people were slowly beginning to regain consciousness behind them. Sayaka immediately spotted Hitomi Shizuki amongst the gathered victims.
"Or are you the sort of magical girls who do not care about human casualties?" The three Kyubeys joined together side-by side in front of them. "Whatever your decision, I will simply state that we are a kind that is willing to experiment, whenever the opportunity to collect new data presents itself."
"Homura…" Sayaka shook her head.
"Very well." Homura tossed the Kyubey in her clutches to the ground.
"So you are not willing to risk human lives, after all." Kyubey picked himself up. "That in itself is useful data."
"Willing to cause a confrontation for the sake of one?" Homura stepped over to Sayaka and Nagisa. "Yes. Useful data." She reached toward her buckler and the trio disappeared before Kyubey's eyes.
"Teleportation magic?" One Kyubey theorized to the others.
"The evidence would seem to support it, but drawing that conclusion would be premature." The other replied.
"There does, however, seem to be enough evidence to conclude that Homura Akemi is the group leader, and the two others are subordinate." Another commented.
"Agreed." The fourth concurred. "Humans typically follow a hierarchy based on power and experience. It would not be an unreasonable assertion." It added.
"We must determine what she is ultimately planning."
"Her aims are most likely just territorial." Kyubey asserted. "Mami Tomoe is the only other local magical girl with a comparable power level. The two have been observed to be hostile. She is probably building a coalition capable of defeating her."
"Indeed." Kyubey agreed. "And her attempts to prevent Madoka Kaname from making a contract, and thus the creation of a more powerful magical girl, would fit such a goal."
"But she appeared to try to avert any further confrontation, after Mami Tomoe defeated Kyoko Sakura."
"Because she lacked the others as back-up."
"It could also be that she's trying to build a coalition for another purpose."
"That is speculation." The Kyubey said. "What possible purpose?"
"She may know that a Walpurgisnacht attack is imminent, and may be planning accordingly."
"Intriguing notion. But no evidence that she's aware of it. Besides, none of these girls have the level of power necessary to defeat it, except Madoka Kaname. Preventing her contract would not be conducive to such a goal."
"She might have other reasons for wanting to prevent that particular contract."
"Such as?"
"She may also be aware of the fate of all magical girls." The other three Kyubeys simultaneously stared at it. "It's not unprecedented that a magical girl discovers their fate. She could be trying to avert that with Madoka Kaname."
"Baseless conclusion. But we shall take it into consideration."
"We should also have a more vested interest in determining the true identity of this 'Saya Otonashi'." Another Kyubey put forth. "She has gone to exorbitant lengths to protect her identity. We need to determine why."
"By all appearances, she is a magical girl of middling talent in combat. The reason is most likely because her only unique asset is her anonymity."
"That is so. But it may not be the only reason." A single Kyubey postulated.
"Go on."
"Her magical aura, her signature, is rather unusual."
"Unusual, how?"
"It is an energy signature that bears an unusual resemblance to another girl's."
"Whose?"
"It cannot be said for certain, since the individual it resembles is not presently a magical girl, so the signature could certainly change in the event that she makes a contract. But, in my analysis, the similarity is closest to that of Sayaka Miki." The other three Kyubeys simultaneously stared at it.
"Do you believe the two have some kind of prior relationship, possibly familial?"
"No evidence for such a conclusion. But we cannot rule out the possibility of a connection between the two.
"Whatever the case, it would still be beneficial to encourage Sayaka Miki to make a contract. She is sympathetic towards Kyoko Sakura, and apparently hostile towards Mami Tomoe, judging by events recently transpired."
"Yes." The Kyubeys agreed. "And her contract may serve as the catalyst toward Madoka Kaname making a contract. That must remain our ultimate goal."
The Kyubeys nodded all at once. "We must do whatever it takes to make Madoka Kaname a magical girl. All options are officially on the table."
