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Merken

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Anticipation.

Anticipation was a feeling Madoka was very familiar with.

Ever since she realized that the nightmares she had were linked to the future, anticipation was, whether or not she realized it, bound tightly to her soul. She had prepared mentally and informationally as best as she could, slaving her free time away in order to ready herself. Nearly all things, whether they may be activities or people, that would impede with that were quickly tossed aside, because Madoka was tunnel visioned solely on that one period of time her nightmares foretold.

Thus, one could say anticipation is a huge aspect of Madoka's life.

Especially during moments where that anticipation came to a head.

"Hello, Madoka Kaname." The small, white creature with eyes a piercing ruby stared at Madoka. The creature's mouth didn't open at all, but she could still hear his peppy yet monotonous voice. "I think this is the first time we meet each other, yes?"

Kyubey was the one who created magical girls, and by proxy witches, in the first place. He would trick and manipulate girls into forming contracts with him with promise of him being able to grant a miracle for them, as well as giving them the powers of a magical girl without informing them of the darker sides of becoming a magical girl. Days or weeks later, however, the grueling life of a magical girl or their miracle going awry would destroy their normal life, eventually resulting in them either dying or becoming witches.

The manipulation Kyubey was so proficient at made no exception during the cycle within Mitakihara City. He manipulated and misinformed every single person who had potential to form a contract with him, leading to the deaths and breakdowns of those very same people.

Kyubey was the one started this all.

And here he was, trying to befriend her, not knowing that Madoka knew all of that.

If Madoka's reaction to Homura was anything to go by, one would think that Madoka would be freaking out at the mere sight of Kyubey.

However, despite everything she knew Kyubey had and could do, Madoka's reaction was completely different to her reaction to Homura.

Madoka was calm. A bit tense, yes, but calm.

The reason for this was simple. Unlike Homura, Madoka was fully expecting Kyubey to show up. He was an inevitability, whilst Homura's being a magical girl was a possibility. Even then, though Homura looked like the Homura Madoka dreaded, her wish was completely different. Add in her overall rather messy feeling on the black-haired girl as is and Madoka's overreaction becomes warranted.

Comparatively, Kyubey was, as previously mentioned, going always to appear as the manipulative and incredibly hateable little creature he was, regardless of circumstance or timeline. He was inevitable.

And it was far easier to prepare for an inevitability then it was for a possibility, especially considering the amount of time Madoka had to do just that.

Madoka broke from Kyubey's stare, her eyes instead looking at her surroundings. Most of her peers were getting tired from the jog, opting to walk and chat with each other instead. The gym teacher was applying bandages to a scrape one of the children had received running. There wasn't anyone else around her, so with an exhale her gaze fell to the ground.

"I am up here, on the tree you were just looking at." Kyubey telepathically spoke to the pink-haired girl. Madoka's head slowly turned to that tree, their eyes making contact once again. "I am the one you're looking at right now."

Madoka's eyes widened a bit in confusion, before shaking her head rapidly and muttered: "Must be losing it…"

"You are not going crazy, Madoka. I'm real. My name is Kyubey." Kyubey assured, his tail wagging a little.

Madoka rolled her eyes, but humored the voice. "For something real and apparently talking to me, you aren't doing a good job at it. What with your unmoving mouth." She snorted.

"It's telepathy. I've made a mental connection with you, so you can communicate with me in the same way. Just imagine it." Kyubey explained. He climbed up one of the branches of the tree, settling himself near a seemingly empty bird's nest.

Madoka's stare hardened for a few moments until a sigh came out. She closed her eyes. "... Like this?"

"Yes, exactly like that. I can hear you perfectly fine." Kyubey's tail wagged faster. "With this, it should be evident that I am real."

"Well, this does make it more credible, yeah." Madoka said, slightly turning herself to better face the white creature. "But anyways, what do you even want?"

Kyubey tilted his head, eyes closed. At the same time, a very small egg that was tucked in the nest Kyubey was next to had somehow been pushed out by his tail. The impact when it hit the ground resulted in a sickening crack as the underdeveloped contents leaked out of the shell.

"I want you to make a contract with me to become a Magical Girl!"

Madoka blinked. "A contract to become a… magical girl?"

The creature nodded. "Yes. I can grant you one wish, anything your heart desires. And in exchange for that wish, you will receive a Soul Gem which identifies you as a magical girl, and is the main source of a magical girl's power."

Madoka was silent for a moment. "And what do we need to do in return?"

"All magical girls are given the responsibility to fight witches."

"What's a witch?"

"You can think of them as the opposite of a magical girl. If magical girls are born from wishes, then witches are born from curses. While magical girls spread hope, witches spread despair. They are a cause of endless despair and tragedy across the world."

"And how am I supposed to deal with something that spreads despair and tragedy?"

"As I previously said, a Soul Gem is the main source of a magical girl's power. With a Soul Gem, a magical girl can tap into that power and use it to combat witches. You'd be especially amazing, Madoka."

Madoka raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Well, not everyone has the potential to become a magical girl, only a select few. Among those select few, some have more potential than others. To be frank, Madoka, you have the most magical girl potential I have ever seen from anyone. You'd be the world's greatest magical girl!"

"Really?" Madoka said. She closed her eyes. "Sorry, I'll have to refuse your offer. Even ignoring how ridiculous this all sounds, I'm not so valiant that I'd put myself in danger for any reason." She looked up to gaze at the cloudless blue sky.

"Besides, for years now I've been wary of anything that seems too good to be true. If something sounds so amazingly perfect that you would jump at the opportunity to grasp it, chances are it's just fate trying to make a cruel joke out of you. A wish or a miracle sounds especially too good to be real, even with the condition of becoming a magical girl."

A layer of tension suddenly appeared.

"... Anyways, that's my answer. I'd like to be left alone now."

The tension then evaporated, though not entirely. Kyubey licked at his paw.

"That is fine. If you have a change of heart, I'll be here to-"

And suddenly, there were several bullet-sized holes in his body.

Madoka made a short gasp in surprise, scooting away from the tree Kyubey had been in. Kyubey's somehow bloodless corpse fell over before one of the bullet holes got caught by one of the oak branches. Seconds later, an adult bird landed on that very same branch and began to very aggressively devour the remains of Kyubey.

"Madoka."

Said girl quickly turned to the source of the voice, who happened to be Homura, walking towards her with a glare.

"O-oh, Homura. Weren't you supposed to do laps until class ends?" Madoka questioned, standing up and dusting herself off. The school bell rang whenever a period ended, so it was easy to tell that class was still going.

"The teacher said I had done enough and that I should rest so that I don't overwork my heart." Homura clarified quickly. She walked right past Madoka, towards a corner of the school building. "Come with me." Her voice was stern.

Madoka decided that it would most likely cause less problems to listen to her then to not.

The best way to deal with the Incubator, Madoka had devised for years, was to pretend that she was unknowing of what Kyubey or magical girls were.

Lying to a creature like Kyubey could be dangerous, and like was, but up to this point Kyubey has not had a reason to consider Madoka any differently to any other of his targets. More importantly, Madoka's knowledge on the events that were to transpire in 6 weeks time and the darker side of magical girls was Madoka's trump card. She had no idea what Kyubey would do should he figure out that Madoka had that information and she was in no rush to find out. Thus, Madoka acted as though she had just heard of the creature.

Of course, Madoka would sooner take Homura's bullet to the head before making a wish Kyubey and becoming a magical girl, which was unfortunately the fate of most that met the Incubator. She would feign contemplation with the idea to avoid suspicion, but that was the furthest she'd go.

Unfortunately for her, this very much contradicted how she reacted to Homura. The way Madoka reacted towards Homura when she first saw her appearance inadvertently revealed that Madoka knew about magical girls. It certainly didn't help that Madoka did nothing to deter her from thinking otherwise; in fact, Madoka ran with the idea.

It was perhaps too early to tell if that decision would end up being harmful or beneficial, but one thing was certain.

If Madoka's lie were to be discovered, the consequences would likely be severe. And the possibility of discovery was rendered far more likely with the contradiction that existed between the two different stories Madoka told Kyubey and Homura. Thus, upholding that lie was going to be very important.

Her survival probably hinged on it.

A slam.

"O-ow..."

Madoka recoiled a little bit as her body hit the wall. Homura had roughly pushed her against the brick surface and was now holding her wrist in a very painful grip. In the black girl's other hand was a pistol, likely the very same one that had blown a hole through Kyubey moments ago.

"It doesn't look you understood exactly what I told you hours ago entailed." Homura stated dangerously. Her anger seemed to be leaking into her usually stoic expression as her eyebrows furrowed. ""Don't become a magical girl.", those were the simple directions you needed to comply to, and yet you couldn't even do that. Are you purposely trying to lose your life to me?"

This was nothing like how Homura was like in her visions, not at all. Especially towards Madoka. Even now, Homura's demeanor threw Madoka for a loop. She was fully expecting a shy and harmless Homura or, if the worst scenario had occurred, a cold Homura who kept her distance but protected her whenever needed.

"I wasn't talking to Kyubey to become a magical girl, he's the one who started the conversat-" Madoka hissed as Homura's grasp on her wrist tightened exponentially, Homura's purple Soul Gem glowing a little as she tapped into her power to make the pain Madoka was feeling that much worse.

"Don't talk to him period."

"Y-you know as well as I do that that isn't possible. He'll show up whenever he wants to." Madoka winced but tried her best to look Homura in the eye despite the pain. "What are you going to do? Maim me every time he decides to make an appearance?"

Homura clearly didn't like the underlying tone of sass in Madoka's response but unceremoniously let go of the girl's wrist. Madoka slowly closed and opened her hand while massaging her reddened wrist with the other to reduce the pain as blood began to flow back into her hand.

"Fine. I do agree that he is quite persistent to a very pestering degree. Still, even entertaining his words with your own means that you are clearly okay with walking on a very thin line." She flipped her hair before putting away her pistol within her shield. "If I overhear even a contemplation of becoming a magical girl, you'll be dead before you can even make the wish."

Madoka shook her head. "Don't worry. I don't have any intention to endanger my life or yours." She assured, still rubbing her wrist. "I don't have any real wish I want granted." Her thoughts floated to the nightmares she had on a constant basis. The exhausting dreamless slumbers. The lack of any true happy dream in her entire life. The chance to get rid of that misery.

Madoka dispelled those thoughts immediately.

"Even if I did, it wouldn't be worth putting myself at risk. I want to live more than anything else."

After a few moments of tense silence, the school bang rang. The school day was over, and the sounds of chitchat grew in volume as the students left the running track and shuffled into the building to change and get their things. With that, Homura wordlessly nodded and made her way back to where the rest of the students were.

As the black-haired girl left, Madoka took a good look at her wrist. Despite her rubbing it still stung, and the red mark Homura's hand left probably wasn't going to get better until tomorrow at the very least.

Even so…

The sheer animosity Homura felt towards her, so different from what the personality Madoka expected and feared Homura to have...

Was it wrong to be excited by it?

Most of the students had left the courtyard by the time Madoka had returned. The only one left was Sayaka, who was panting heavily practically drenched in sweat while walking away from the running track.

"Oh… Hey Madoka." Sayaka rasped between breaths.

"You look like you just swam through the Pacific Ocean." Madoka remarked.

"Well, I tried to run as many laps as the transfer student did. She stopped a while ago but I only just reached the same amount as her, with 10 extra minutes. And she barely broke a sweat! Heart problems my butt." Sayaka complained, her breathing becoming more stable. "Speaking of the transfer student, I saw you follow her around the corner. What were you both…" At that moment, Sayaka's eyes fell on Madoka's arm. Specifically, her very reddened wrist.

"Madoka, your wrist! What happened!" Sayaka said worriedly, walking up to the girl to examine the injury. Madoka pulled back her arm in response.

"It was an accident, that's all." Madoka lied through her teeth. It was much more preferable that Sayaka only got angry with Homura after she saw her interact with Mami, as any anger now could lead her to confront Homura herself, which could either result in her death or her becoming a magical girl, which in and of itself could cause a giant problem with her wish alone. Mami could at least give Sayaka a veil of protection and reason to control herself. Despite this, Sayaka's expression made it clear she believed none of what Madoka said.

"What kind of accident can make your whole wrist all bruised like that?" Sayaka questioned in a rhetorical manner. Madoka couldn't say anything in response, after all, she was right.

"It was the transfer student, wasn't it!? Why the heck did she hurt like that!?" Sayaka yelled in outrage.

"Sayaka, she didn't do anything to me. It was an accident. Homura just wanted to… make sure I was feeling okay. Calm down." Madoka tried to smother Sayaka's rage before it grew out of control.

"Like hell I'll calm down! I've been getting bad vibes from the transfer student ever since she volunteered to bring you to the nurse's office so adamantly for no reason, now I know she's just some bully! I'm gonna tell Ms. Saotome and make sure she never does that again, if I don't already find her myself and let her have it!"

"You won't be doing anything like that, Sayaka." Suddenly, Madoka's voice was stone cold. "Even if Homura did hurt me, you won't get anywhere with your story. Both Homura and I will deny it." By this point, Madoka had all but dropped her intent of deceiving Sayaka. However, this plan trapped Sayaka either way. "Just drop it. You should know that I'm not stupid enough to stay in a problematic situation with reason if there was a way out as easy as just telling the teachers. If you believe Homura is bullying me or somesuch, you should similarly believe that I have a reason to stay in that situation. And of course, a reason like that is extremely hard to find and justify. So, it stands that it makes more sense that it was simply an accident, right?"

Sayaka tried desperately to find a way to combat those words, but a very big sigh signaled her defeat.

"This is for the best." Madoka commented, exhaling a small breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Don't get me wrong Madoka, I still think the transfer student's super suspicious. I just trust you on this." Sayaka conceded, then smiled lightly. "Let's just head home."

Madoka nodded, and the two made their way towards the school building to change and get their stuff.

"Man, today sure was insane. You had a random panic attack, and we met some kooky transfer student who is supposed to have heart problems but runs like a pro athlete!" Sayaka reflected on the events of the school days, hands on the back of her head and she walked side by side with Madoka. The two had left the school building about a few minutes ago, and just reached an intersection between two paths that'd bring them home in the same amount of time.

"..." Madoka didn't feel the need to respond to her, instead about what was going to happen next. What was supposed to happen, according to her visions, was that Madoka and Sayaka found Kyubey in the midst of being hunted down by Homura. They would then encounter a witch, which would be where they'd encounter Mami.

That initial witch encounter didn't happen, yet at least; they were supposed to come across it at the mall today while Sayaka browsed for music to gift to Kyousuke, which ended up happening nine days ago. With both this and the black cat's early death, it stood to reason that while events in her visions would undoubtedly happen, the time of some of those events were uncertain.

She would get back to her main point, however on the pavement of the right path stood Kyubey. His tail wagged as their eyes made contact, though oddly enough he made no attempt to approach the duo.

"Hey, is that a white squirrel over there?" Sayaka pointed at the white creature. "Preeetty sure that isn't something that's natural."

While Madoka knew that it was impossible to prevent their meeting, prolonging the time before it was indeed an option.

"And it's exactly because it's not natural that we shouldn't get close to it." Madoka said, already walking ahead on the left path home.

"I guess you're right." Sayaka agreed, catching up with the pink-haired girl. "Honestly, it looked cute. What if it was just a stuffed animal or something?"

The fact that she had just referred the Incubator, a terrifying Machiavellian manipulator, as cute… while she wasn't mad at Sayaka, it did cause her to close her eyes and rub at her temples.

"No Sayaka, it couldn't have been a stuffed animal. Its tail was wagging and it was blinking. And it was not cute."

"They have toys that blink and wag their tails nowadays, don't they? Battery powered ones, right? Doesn't Tatsuya have one?"

"Besides my old one, Tatsuya isn't really interested in stuffed animals."

"You mean the pink teddy bear you got when you were four? You still have that?"

"I don't, Tatsuya does."

"Basically the same thing!"

"No it isn't." Madoka massaging her temples didn't stop her rising annoyancr, and her closed eyes weren't helping her concentrate on said attempt at calling down at all.

"Well, you still have it in your house so... uh…"

"What is it now?"

"I don't think I'm freaking out right now, but I might..."

"What do you mean, Sayaka?"

"What the heck is going on?"

Madoka's eyes snapped open.

Her surroundings were shifting rapidly, warping in a very unnatural manner. The calm reality they were experiencing seconds ago was slowly disappearing and was starting to be replaced with something else entirely.

While Sayaka had absolutely no idea what was going on, Madoka bolted the second she realized what was happening.

"Madoka, what are you doing!?"

Madoka cut Sayaka's voice out. She hoped that if she was fast enough, there was a chance that she could escape.

But of course, that was impossible. Moments after Madoka's sprint, the warping stopped. Reality completely disappeared. The two were now in an almost alien location, roses on nearly every part of the discolored and mossy surface. Butterflies with what looked like craft paper for wings flew above, and plants grew to full bloom in the span of a few seconds, only to die right after.

"H-hey Madoka, w-what is all this?" Sayaka sounded, clearly spooked going by the tone of her voice. Said girl was pantint as she took in her surroundings.

It was now evident what had been done. Kyubey had figured that Madoka didn't have a good impression of him with their sole conversation with her, perhaps realizing that Madoka wasn't likely to make a wish with him. So, in order to force her hand, he indirectly lured right where he wanted her to by sitting on the other pathway so Madoka would avoid him and fall right into his trap.

And fell into his trap Madoka did.

For Madoka and Sayaka were now stuck in a witch's labyrinth.

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Merken

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Notes for Chapter 4.: Further notes will be added as necessary.