[FIVE YEARS LATER]
[P.O.V. - Madoka - February 24th]
It was a bad day, Madoka concluded, as she continued to walk along the sidewalks along the streets of suburban Tokyo.
Life had been good, although her definition of good had drastically decreased since Ichika had disappeared all those years ago.
It felt like she was missing a part of herself every day.
Like someone had just come up to her one day and stabbed her through the chest, and then expected her to just walk it off if nothing had happened.
She could never remember what happened to her and Chifuyu before Ichika had come into their life, but she didn't care enough to remember either. When she looked back at the 5 years Ichika had lived with her and Chifuyu, it felt like a blur. Like someone had pressed fast forward on her life.
But… now?
Now each day was slow, like swimming through molasses. She felt like she was always fighting against an invisible current, and day by day her will to strain against it was lessening. She was afraid that if something didn't happen soon she would give up… drown… and she was terrified that a part of her was starting to hope she would.
She couldn't imagine how Tabane or Chifuyu felt. Ichika was her adoptive elder brother, and yes, Madoka herself was very close to him. He was the most important person to her. But she knew that however much she cared for Ichika, they both still cared more for him.
Madoka was walking home. There was public transportation all over Tokyo, but she needed the fresh air. After school she had attended her weekly therapy session. Chifuyu meant well when she signed her up, Madoka knew that, but she never liked it. Telling a stranger her most private moments and secrets, just to be told what to do as if they knew her and her problems? She would rather not. She would rather someone just listen to her problems for once, and not force her to follow their "oh so helpful" expert advice.
If anything, she would have liked to talk to Chifuyu or Tabane. But… Chifuyu was not one to be open with these kinds of things. Chifuyu bottling up her emotions always backfired, without fail. Either she would have a breakdown in private or attempt to drink her problems away. For perhaps the only time in her life, Madoka pitied her elder sister.
As forTabane, she always made Madoka slightly uncomfortable for reasons she could never pinpoint. She felt slightly guilty for that. She knew Tabanes eccentric personality made it hard for her to make friends, but she couldn't change her instincts. Whenever she was with Tabane, no matter how nice they were to each other, she felt like she was in danger.
Maybe it was because, in all honesty, Tabane was dangerous. Extremely so. But only to her enemies.
More likely, it was because even though all three of them had changed, Tabane seemed to have changed the most, at least personality wise.
She was cheerful, but it never felt genuine anymore. It felt like she was pushing herself to the absolute maximum to be as smiley and peppy as possible. People that met her would assume that's how she always was. Madoka knew better.
Tabane was incredibly depressed, and without a doubt lonely. Madoka knew that without Ichika constantly hanging out with and working with her… no one was. Tabane lived in her secret layer, away from her family. Her sister resented her, her mother was dead, and her father had never been close to her. She pushed everyone besides Madoka and Chifuyu away.
There were moments, when Tabane visited them, where she felt… unhinged. It was… more than slightly. She didn't know when it started but she was getting very worried for her friend's sanity at this point.
The relationship between herself and Chifuyu hadn't grown whatsoever in the past years, if anything it backpedalled. They weren't the sisters that shared everything with one another and always read each other's mind, they were nearly strangers. Chifuyu would pay the bills and stay at work. She would call her once a week to check in and Madoka would see her in person maybe once every three months. She had gone to Germany for an entire year, the year before last, but Madoka hardly even noticed with how little they talked anyways. It was clear neither of them had any idea how to communicate with each other without Ichika.
Her family was a puzzle with a third of the pieces missing.
It was late and getting cool outside. She stopped for a second just to take a long breath of cool air, then sighed heavily and kept walking home. She found it odd that Chifuyu hadn't called her. She usually called her once a week after her therapy session.
She arrived in front of her house.
After the destruction of the home, they had built an identical copy in its place.
She usually liked it. It did usually feel like home, but anyone could sense that something was missing. Without Ichika there to live with her and Chifuyu… it felt fake. Like when a visual effects artist brings back a dead actor for a part in a movie. It was completely identical… but at the same time… it just wasn't. Something was just… off.
That one empty room.
In between her and Chifuyu's on the second floor. Completely furnished… but untouched… everything covered in a thick layer of dust. The door was never opened, the window was always kept closed. It stayed bathed in darkness.
The way the house had just a little too much extra space.
A third chair at the dining room table… always there… but always empty.
She snapped out of her thoughts and walked up to the front door, unlocking it with the house key and pushing it open.
Before she even stepped into her home the permeating stench of alcohol bombarded her senseless, and her attitude fell to rock bottom.
She walked in, swiftly closing the door behind her. She took off her shoes and walked to the staircase, taking a glance at the living room. Sure enough, a black out drunk Chifuyu was laying on the couch. She was laying on her stomach, her hair was a mess and she was drooling onto the cushions. One of her heels was next to the couch, the other Madoka couldn't see. Chifuyu had taken off her work clothes, which were now on the floor next to the couch she way lying on.
Madoka gave a look with a mixture of pity and sympathy, since she knew how Chifuyu felt, but also disappointment that her sister had resorted to drowning her problems in alcohol yet again.
She quickly went into her room, changing out of her school uniform into more casual clothes and putting away her backpack. She grabbed her wallet and exited the room, going back through the hall and downstairs.
After walking up the sleeping form of her elder sister she saw a photo frame in her hand. She slowly took the frame out of Chifuyu's hand and observed the picture. She already knew what photo it was, it was Chifuyu's favorite picture.
A teenage Chifuyu stood holding a very young Madoka's little hand. Madoka stood on her left with a huge smile plastered on her face. To the right of Chifuyu was Tabane, and on Tabane's shoulders was Ichika. Everyone was smiling widely and genuinely, a rare moment, especially for Chifuyu. Ichika had strands of Tabanes purple-pink hair in his hands. Everyone was looking at the camera, but he had his eyes closed tight mid-giggle, without a care in the world.
Madoka smiled bitter-sweetly at the memory, and then set the frame back down on the living room table where it belonged. She looked back to face her sister and sighed.
"...Chifuyu…?" She named the sleeping form of her sister. Chifuyu would never allow someone other than her family to see her in this state. The proud and invincible warrior turned into a helpless alcoholic.
"Chifuyu." She stated, and started to shake her sister lightly, only to get no response. This might have been worse than she thought. Even black out drunk, Chifuyu was still a fighter, she would usually instinctively know someone was watching her and wake up, but this time she simply continued to sleep.
"Chifuyu." Madoka raised her voice slightly… nothing. She sighed heavily, but stopped trying to wake her up. She got out her phone and sent her elder sister a text for when she woke up, which read, "Going out to get groceries, be back by 9. The medicine on the table will help with the headache."
After writing the note she set it, a bottle of medicine, and a glass of water on the living room table. Madoka took one more look at the sleeping form of her sister, then turned and exited the house.
Chifuyu's eyes shot open as her phone rang. She grabbed around until she finally found her phone in her back pocket. She looked at the caller ID. It was… Tabane. Deciding she was not in the mood to deal with her hyperactive, childish friend, she declined the call and repositioned herself on the couch to fall asleep.
Silence took over the house for mere seconds before the loud ring of the phone went off again.
Chifuyu grunted in annoyance as her head spiked in pain from the noise. She harshly grappled for the phone until her hand grasped it, bringing it in front of her face.
It was Tabane, again. Chifuyu was quite annoyed at this point. Her head was killing her and Tabane calling her was not making it any better.
Madoka was walking along the sidewalk, heading towards the grocery. She had only left a few minutes ago and was almost there as it wasn't far. If she kept up her strid she would be there in a few more minutes, but the ringing in her pocket caused her to pause as she grabbed her phone from her pocket. Though, only half of her phone could actually fit in her pocket, leaving the other half poking out of it.
Sliding the phone out while being cautious not to drop it, she glanced at the screen. Tabane was calling her. That much was enough to tell her something was off. Tabane didn't call, she texted. Even if she did call, which was rare, it certainly wouldn't be her.
She answered the call after concluding Tabane must have a good reason to call her. Bringing the phone to her ear, she began her walk to the grocery store.
"Madoka!" Madoka stopped, having only barely started walking. The urgency and seriousness in Tabanes voice was very out of character, that alone was alarming. Not to mention Tabane said "Madoka", not one of those ridiculous nicknames Tabane would call her friends.
"Ya?"
"I need you to get Chifuyu on the phone, NOW!"
"Wh-" "Now, Madoka! It's Ichika, I think I found him."
Now that got Madoka's attention.
They had all searched for him since he had gone missing, but never found anything. Well, primarily Tabane and Chifuyu had looked. Madoka wanted to help but Chifuyu made it clear she was not allowed, since it could be dangerous. However, in the past year, Chifuyu seemed to have become so depressed she stopped trying to find him.
Madoka felt slightly annoyed Tabane had cut her off, but any annoyance instantly disappeared at the mention of Ichika. The moment Tabane mentioned him, she had turned on a dime and began sprinting back to her home, running through crosswalks and bumping other pedestrians in the process.
Ignoring the various yells and few curses thrown her way, she continued her spirit back to the Orimura household. It took less than five minutes to reach her house, but it felt like a lifetime.
"Chifuyu!" Madoka yelled while panting. Completely out of breath from pushing herself so hard, she threw open the front door, running to the passed out form of her sister on the couch.
"CHIFUYU!" Madoka called her sister's name as she tried to shake her awake, to no avail. Chifuyu seemed to have drunken herself into a blackout.
"CHIFUYU!" Madoka screamed at the top of her lungs as she shook the disheveled body of her elder sister. With a lot of effort, and a little luck, Madoka was finally successful in waking her sister.
Groggily sitting up whilst pinching the bridge of her nose, the twice brunhilde finally woke, clearly severely annoyed that she was stirred from her slumber.
"What?!" Chifuyu barked through slurred speech before even opening her eyes, making Madoka flinch.
"It's- It's Tabane, she thinks she has found Ichika." Madoka had tried her best to speak calmly and clearly, hardly succeeding on either front. She was still panting from her run to the home, and her mind was beyond hectic in thoughts. She extended the phone to Chifuyu, who had gone wide eyed when she mentioned Ichika.
"CHIFUYU!" Tabane yelled through the phone as Chifuyu grimaced in annoyance and moved her head away from the speaker.
"SHUT UP! You said you think you found Ichika!? Explain!" Chifuyu outright demanded. Even in her drunken state, she knew she was being harsh, but manners was not what was important right now, nor were they ever her forte.
Madoka was standing a few feet from her sister, with her hands on her knees as she panted while doing her best to follow the conversation. The thought to sit down on the couch or floor never even coming to her mind, the thoughts of her adoptive brother possibly being alive overriding any other thought. She was zoning out, and heard very little of the conversation between her sister and the inventor. From what she gathered Tabane had reason to believe she found Phantom Tasks maximum security prison, in which Ichika would be held, assuming he is still alive.
After regaining her composure, Madoka could hear Tabane and Chifuyu arguing. Chifuyu was insisting she would leave immediately, whilst Tabane was arguing caution. Tabane being the voice of reason was an immediate cause for her to worry. Chifuyu hung up, reaching her limit of annoyance with Tabane. As she made way for the door, Madoka ran up and stood in her way.
"Chifuyu! I know you want to go get Ichika, and believe me, I want nothing more than to get him back, but we have to be patient! You are in no condition to-" Madoka was cut off as Chifuyu shoved her out of the way, exiting the house.
"Chifuyu!" Madoka got up and followed her sister outside the house.
Madoka continued to yell in protest at her sister, to no avail. In a quick flash of light, the legendary armor of the Kurazakura appeared on Chifuyu. With the sound equivalent of a bullet from a gun, the IS shot off into the sky above Tokyo, breaking the windows of the surrounding houses in the process.
She was acting irrationally. Extremely irrationally, and very out of character. Chifuyu knew that. She wasn't a genius, far from being as intelligent as Tabane or Ichika, but she was also far from an idiot. This was a bad decision. Rushing in blind to a place with an unknown amount of enemies. Sure, Tabane said her scans had indicated no more than a few dozen guards in total, and no IS. But… technology… is technology… and, especially in current times, technology is easily fooled.
There were a dozen ways this could turn south. But this was something she couldn't just not do.
She was a Brunhilde. She was the Brunhilde. The peak of strength and the strongest women under the heavens, or so they said. The one thing she wanted more than anything was to get Ichika back. It had been five long years without him, and now that Tabane had given her reason to believe he was alive, she couldn't make herself turn back, no matter how many times her mind told her she was making a foolish decision.
She was the strongest. She could do this. She had to do this, and any doubt she had was completely overridden by her current depressed, drunken, and desperate, state of mind.
She had gotten lucky, or unlucky, depending on how you thought about it. Before Chifuyu had hung up, Tabane made the mistake of telling her where she thought Ichika was being held, meaning she could fly to the exact coordinates. Without that information, she wouldn't have been able to go after him.
But with the information? She had relayed the coordinates to her IS's navigation system, and would arrive in minutes. The fact that Ichika had been held so close infuriated her to no end.
Chifuyu had tried desperately to take control of her emotions. She had not been successful to say the least, and just when she thought she had, the building in which Ichika was being held came into view. Her emotions spiked, and her rage burned brighter than the sun.
It was in the middle of nowhere, although she was going so fast it had only been a few seconds since she whisked past the last building.
There was a large pair of cement doors in a dugout of a hill, to which she assumed lead into an underground bunker of some kind.
She could land and simply cut down the doors and walk in, but she wanted to waste no time. Besides, that would only take away the element of surprise.
Making up her mind, the engines of the Kurazakura flared as it shot towards the ground a few meters past the large pair of doors.
It seemed like the IS would simply crash into the ground and get its pilot killed, but the second it made contact with the ground, it gave way. The few feet of ground acting as a ceiling to the underground bunker gave way, and the Kurazakura broke through, slamming to the floor and cracking the cement.
Chifuyu glanced around, clearly confused. Above her was the hole she had created, streaming in moonlight. The problem was the hole was the only thing lighting the room. The bunker was completely dark, and something was interfering with her IS's sensors.
IS's sensors or not, she still had instincts. Instincts she was glad to have, as she maneuvered her IS blade behind her, sloppily blocking a surprisingly powerful strike.
Very Long A/N (TL;DR at bottom if you want to skip):
I'm a senior in highschool… so I had some pretty major plans for 2020 until Coronavirus FUCKED MY SHIT.
My plans for this year have gone off the rails. My last semester of highschool was whack, but I have my diploma now, and all of that is behind me.
I had planned to publish the first chapter of my fanfiction on January 1st, right at the beginning of this year. Then, I would continue to update every other week and hopefully finish the story by the end of 2020.
Suffice to say that hasn't happened, but I do have some good news. I never planned to publish this, so I began writing the story in the middle, but this chapter completes the chronological gap I had. That means that I now have the next seven chapters already written. So, besides a few adjustments, and maybe a few small cuts and additions, they are already done.
I will never give myself specific dates for updates since I think giving yourself a time limit, limits creativity as well. But I still hope I can tell this story by the end of this year, since well… I have many more ideas. I mean, I have like 3 other ideas for just IS fanfictions.
I have one specific idea for a story that I think would be great, but I've seen how things go on this site. All the unfinished fanfictions. Now I ain't badgerin' on all the people who have started a fiction and not finished them, most of my favorite fictions have gone unfinished, and I make no promises that I won't get bored as well and stop this fiction. But I don't want that to happen.
*sigh* OK. All that outta the way, about this fiction specifically.
I got rid of the chapter names, simply replacing them with numbered chapters. I may change it back in the future, idfk. I had names for later chapters that I felt gave away bits of the story, so that's why I made the change.
I already have outtakes, different versions of chapters, or events that I feel didn't really fit into place. I will have more in the future, assuredly. My question, would you like to see them? If you say yes I will post them in an entirely different fiction that you can access through my author's page.
I had to google how to spell "assuredly" in the last paragraph. It still doesn't look right. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The reason I wanted to write this story altogether was the amount of wasted potential in this anime is almost sickening. Chifuyu is a bitch of a sister. The girls don't feel like his friends, they feel like his captures. Ichika himself has so little backbone I'm surprised he can physically stand. I just feel like if they had taken this story more seriously, taken away some of the "Haha the main character is a fucking idiot, lmao", then this story could've been amazing. When nearly every character is introduced, they sound interesting. A championship kendo practitioner? That's dope. Two heirs to IS manufacturing corporations? I'm down. A fucking genetically engineered supersoldier? Hell ya! But the interesting background of all of the girls are pointless, because they feel so one-dimensional. As if the only character trait they all have is that they have a crush on Ichika.
I've digressed from my original point of my Author's Note.
In this chapter, I was trying to show just how much of a toll Ichika being gone has taken on the characters. Chifuyu may put up a good front in public, but in reality she lost the most important person to her and is absolutely shattered and exhausted.
My original plan was for this chapter to show a failed attempt at Ichika escaping, but for the life of me I couldn't write it while also making it fun and interesting to write/read. I wanted to show Ichika failing, and I'll still mention failed escape attempts in the future, but the failed attempt I wrote just wasn't good enough for me or my audience.
TL;DR: My timetable for this story has been screwed up, but I still have high hopes for it.
Personal Review Replies:
HowLife: Thank you for your offer, but I actually have little interest in the actual manga. I'm just not a manga guy, maybe I'll read it in the future, maybe not. Idk. But I appreciate your offer.
Dat Guy: You'll have to see. I don't give hints, and I don't give spoilers. Them's the rules. :)
Angron & Ghostflint: While the idea is very entertaining to think about, and while I can promise you Ichika will be making trinkets to keep some tricks up his sleeves, Ichika is a good person in this story, so him turning to the "dark side" isn't something that will happen. He is by no means perfect but he is far from evil. Now, that being said there will likely be times in this story where Ichika's morals are questioned or even compromised. There will be darker moments. I do constantly imagine Ichika being thrown into the Star Wars universe. How bout' that new season of Clone Wars? My opinion? The first two arcs were okay, the last arc was perfect.
Nicky: Hahahaha. You expected a dead fanfiction, but it was me, DIO!