"What the heck is all of this!?" Sayaka shrieked, looking upon the supernatural environment of the witch's labyrinth, running towards Madoka. The location was so detached from their normal world that chills ran through her spine.
Sayaka shook her head; there was a better time for questions like those. Sayaka grabbed Madoka's hand, who jumped at the sudden contact.
"Whatever, let's just get out of here!" Sayaka said, pulling at Madoka's arm while shuffling in place, looking around for a way out. "Come on Madoka, we need to find an exit! There has to be one somewhere!"
"W-wait!" Madoka intervened, pulling away from Sayaka's grasp. Sayaka looked at the girl in surprise. Madoka's face looked hardened, though she was sweating an abnormally great deal.
"Madoka? What are you doing? We need to get out!"
"Listen Sayaka." Madoka began, pausing for a moment before resuming. "We don't know what this place is, or how we got here. We shouldn't go anywhere unless we have to. We're at least safe here, but we don't know if we will be anywhere else."
"Sure, but we won't find an exit by just sitting on our butts doing nothing!" Sayaka argued. Madoka sighed in annoyance.
"I don't think we can just find an exit. I mean, whatever got us into this place disappeared on the spot. If there's no traditional entrance, the odds of there being a traditional exit is small." Madoka explained.
"There has to be a way out of here! Even if it's a 1% chance of an exit, it's better to go looking for one than give up and do nothing." Sayaka said.
Despite her words though, Sayaka knew it was not going to go anywhere. Sayaka has known Madoka for a long time, and was good enough at spotting the different tones Madoka used when she spoke. Sayaka became especially good at recognizing whenever Madoka used this tone of voice, the 'you're wrong, I'm right' tone. It was nearly impossible to change her mind whenever she talked like this.
"Look, if the entrance to this place dropped us here and disappeared, the exit is probably the same, right? For all we know, if we just stay here, we'll be back outside like nothing happened. So we're just going to stay put for now." Madoka stated as though the conversation was already finished.
This was probably the one thing Sayaka disliked the most about Madoka. There would be random times where Madoka spoke to her less like a friend and more like a child who couldn't understand what the current situation was and had to be shushed any time her mouth opened at the risk of her doing something stupid. And sure, Sayaka was and technically still is a child, but Madoka was as old as she was! How much smarter could Madoka be compared to her, anyways?
Well actually, quite a bit. Whenever Madoka used that tone, she more often than not ended up being right about whatever the subject of argument was, saving Sayaka from a lot of trouble she would've underwent had Madoka convinced her to not do what she was planning.
That was probably the reason why Sayaka would ultimately drop arguments against Madoka, since a lot of the time Madoka was right. It was also one of the reasons Sayaka considered Madoka a dear friend; she would correct any kind of faulty judgment Sayaka brought up and protect her as a result. Sayaka really appreciated that.
Despite all that though, being talked down like that still stung.
What kind of hero got treated like a kid?
"I guess…" Sayaka relented before adding. "But if in an hour nothing happens, we're off to find an exit!"
"...Two hours."
"That's fine too." Sayaka grinned. At least she got something. "Don't worry, if you're scared, I'll protect you from whatever weird stuff we find!"
"Give me a break." Madoka sat down on the mossy surface and brought her knees to her face. "I'm not scared at all."
Sayaka opened her mouth to make a comment but opted not to, instead sitting down next to Madoka. As an awkward silence began to reign over the two, Sayaka wanted to believe that Madoka was right, same as always, and they'd be out in no time.
While Sayaka thought it was a good idea to explore whatever this place was to find an exit, she sure was terrified of doing just that.
Entering a witch's labyrinth was an inevitability, something that was bound to happen over the course of the next six weeks. With the approaching oncome of Walpurgisnacht, witches would become more rampant across Mitakihara, to the point where not encountering one was practically an impossibility.
Nonetheless Madoka wanted to avoid getting trapped as long and as much as possible. She knew well that the witches that inhabited them were extremely dangerous. Madoka hoped that the eventual witch encounter would be more than a week in, in the best case scenario.
Instead, Madoka got stuck in a witch's labyrinth on day one. Tricked into it, no less.
Her luck truly was the worst.
Of course, being trapped in a witch's labyrinth could easily result in death, so that was naturally the biggest concern for Madoka, right?
That was a factor, yes, but it wasn't it.
The main concern for Madoka was that a witch's labyrinth was synonymous with hell.
Everything inside was the stuff of nightmares; in Madoka's case literally so. Whenever she had a nightmare, Madoka would always be in a labyrinth as hellish creatures tortured her and despair was forced upon her. The witch's labyrinth was traumatizing to her.
Needless to say, she was just about one pull at the seams away from completely unraveling in panic from being in a labyrinth in the real world.
But Madoka was able to keep her composure, barely. Most likely because Madoka knew in advance that the labyrinths were going to show up. She was able to mentally prepare.
However, being mentally acute in this situation wasn't going to get her out of the labyrinth. The only way to get out of a labyrinth after getting stuck in one was for the witch to either flee or die. None of which were options Madoka could provoke.
The only way to escape, then, was to wait for another magical girl to come and save them. And while Homura was technically an option, it almost certainly was going to be Mami.
Thus, Madoka's objective was clear. Making sure both she and Sayaka stayed clear of danger until she arrived.
Which was way easier said than done.
It had been about 10 minutes of pure waiting. Sayaka had attempted to initiate conversation with Madoka on a few times, but Madoka never spoke back, leaving the two in a heavy silence.
That silence did not last. Laughter and chants flooded the air, putting the two girls on edge, especially Madoka. The odd scenery around them began to spin around them.
Madoka cursed under her breath. "Sayaka, we need to get going!" Said person quickly nodded.
"Yeah, that definitely isn't a good sign. Who's laughing anyways!?" Sayaka said once the two got up.
"Doesn't matter, we just can't be here." Madoka responded hastily. She knew exactly what the source of laughter was. "There's a passage to the left. Come on!"
With that, Madoka began to run with Sayaka following soon after. The laughing only grew more intense and eventually became deafening, causing the two to pick up speed.
Just as the two were about to reach the passage, two creatures suddenly appeared to block their path. Their head was made of cotton and their body of a butterfly's wings.
They were a witch's familiar.
At the sight of them, Madoka stood paralyzed for a few seconds, as memories of the pain they inflicted upon her within her nightmares flashed through her mind. Though it was only for a moment, that was all the familiars needed as they charged her.
"Madoka!"
The immobilized Madoka suddenly found herself on the ground, with Sayaka on top of her. She pushed her down before the familiars could hit her.
Looking in the direction the familiars had gone towards, Madoka saw that they hadn't stopped moving and flew into a wall, where they exploded into confetti.
Madoka then looked at Sayaka who, after checking herself what happened to the familiars, met her slightly astonished gaze with one filled with anger and concern.
"Madoka, you can't just space out like that! Those things could've hit you!" Sayaka hollered at her. Madoka opened her mouth to respond, to say that Sayaka was overreacting and that she was fine.
Except she wasn't. Madoka really did freeze up in panic, and really was about to get seriously hurt if not for Sayaka's intervention.
Words got tangled together in her throat as she struggled for a response, and the only thing that managed to come out was:
"... Sorry. Thanks."
Sayaka immediately beamed at those words. An apology or a thanks from Madoka happened once every blue moon, so hearing both at the same time back to back might as well have been the equivalent of winning the Madoka lottery.
"Heheh, no problem!" Sayaka stood up, extending a hand to Madoka. "I told you, I'll protect you from whatever we find!"
Madoka stared at her hand until a sigh slipped from her mouth, then a small smile.
"Sure."
Madoka accepted the hand and was pulled up by Sayaka. Her smile then dropped.
"Okay, the fami- creatures are gone now. The path is clear. Come on."
Mami Tomoe had just finished gathering her belongings. Her textbooks, pencil case and bento box all placed neatly inside her school bag.
Mami wasn't exactly in the best mood, per se. She had just had a test, and while she didn't think she failed, she also didn't think she did particularly well.
Mami sighed, closing her shoe locker. 'I really should've studied more.'
As Mami walked out of the building, she began to think.
'I was busy with magical girl duties, but that's not much of an excuse. If I want to keep my grades up, I should study more consistently. Maybe it'd help if I set aside a time of day just for studying. I could even invite other people and make it a group study session at my house."
She hummed happily at the idea. 'Oh, that'd be great! I could make tea and some cakes for us to eat while we study different subjects! When would be a good day? Tomorrow would be too soon, and the day after that I'll be patrolling for witches. Thursday would work then!'
Mami clapped her hands together, having made her decision. 'So, who should I invite?"
That line of thought backfired as Mami realized she had no one she could invite over.
Mami sighed once again, though way more depressingly, her plans ruined and her mood thoroughly soured.
"I guess I can just study when I get home." Mami supposed. She was just about to do just that, until she felt something with her Soul Gem.
"What's this?" Mami wondered. She took the flower hairpin off her head and reverted it back to its original stage, her Soul Gem. It was flashing brightly. Which meant one thing.
"There's a witch nearby!"
Madoka and Sayaka had been running for a while now. The cotton ball familiars were appearing a frequent rate, but simply dodging them were enough to get them to disappear.
"Damn it, we still haven't found an exit!? Where the hell can it be!" Sayaka shouted in frustration. She was frantically scanning the labyrinth in the hopes of finding a way out.
"It has to be somewhere. Just keep looking!" Madoka replied.
That was a lie, of course. Madoka wasn't running to try and find an exit, she was trying to run out the clock until Mami arrived and dealt with the witch.
Suddenly, the two girls heard the loud ringing of a bell.
"What the…" Madoka said under her breath, turning to the source of the sound, as did Sayaka.
It was another familiar, but it wasn't the one they were familiar with. It was bigger, with multiple eyes and butterfly wings. Its mouth was open, emitting the bell sound. Around it were two smaller versions of the same creature.
Before Madoka and Sayaka could even react, the two smaller familiars flew towards them. The two girls managed to get out of their trajectory, and the familiars hit the ground. However, instead of exploding into confetti like the ones before, the familiars transformed into thorny rose vines.
"Rose vines?" Sayaka commented. Right as those words left her mouth, the big familiar charged at Sayaka.
"Heh, these dumb things only know how to tackle!" Sayaka said cockily, evading to the left. However, just as she did, she remembered that the rose vines had been placed there moments ago.
"Oh sh-" By the time she realized that, it was too late.
Sayaka stepped on the vines, and the thorns penetrated her shoe and stabbed her foot.
"Aaaah!" Sayaka screamed in pain. She fell to the ground, fortunately missing the vine, but was bleeding excessively.
To make matters worse, while the big familiar did miss Sayaka and hit the ground as expected, it didn't disappear into confetti or rose vines. It rose back up, faced Sayaka and charged at her once again.
"Sayaka! Get out of the way!" Madoka yelled. Sayaka tried to crawl away but couldn't get very far due to the pain of her injury. And so, the familiar rammed itself head first into Sayaka's body.
And it hurt.
Despite the fact that the creature looked as though it was made of papercraft, it felt as though a wrecking ball slammed into her.
Sayaka coughed up blood at the impact.
"Sayaka!" Madoka yelled. She felt rooted to the spot. A part of her wanted to book it right now, let Sayaka get killed by this familiar to buy her some more time until Mami came. Even if Sayaka did get out of this situation, she wouldn't be able to walk at all. Sayaka would just be a burden on Madoka.
The other part of her, though…
"Madoka… run away…" Sayaka weakly muttered. The familiar raised its head and was about to headbutt Sayaka again.
With a rush of sudden adrenaline, Madoka grabbed one of the rose vines. She hissed at the thorns pricking her, but ignored it.
"Hyah!" Gathering as much strength as she could, Madoka whipped the vine over the familiar. It screeched at the attack, but didn't disappear. So Madoka did it again. And again. And again. Madoka whipped the vine as many times as needed, the thorns digging into her skin deeper and deeper as she did so.
After the seventh strike, the familiar disappeared.
Madoka dropped the vine, which also subsequently disappeared. She made her way over to Sayaka.
"Are you… okay?" Madoka asked, panting heavily. The vine was surprisingly heavy and using it was a weapon took a lot out of her.
"Not the best but nothing that I can't deal with." Sayaka answered, before going into a small coughing fit. She glanced at Madoka's hand, which was covered in blood. "What about you?"
"I'm fine." Madoka answered. "But we should-"
Without warning, Madoka and Sayaka heard loud, very childlike singing. Following that, familiars manifested all around them. They giggled as they stared the two girls down.
"M-Madoka? Was that bell sound that thing made before…" Sayaka trailed off as realization dawned on her.
"... It was a warning sound." Madoka had the very same realization. The bell sound that familiar made was meant to attract other familiars to their location.
Now, the two were surrounded with nowhere to escape. She and Sayaka were injured, and had struggled greatly to take down just one of the familiars. There was absolutely no way they would be able to take on dozens of them.
Madoka's head began to swim. 'No, this can't be it. This can't be it. I can't die. I can't die! I didn't prepare for the cycle for 12 years to die as soon as it starts. I can't die! But then... how do I escape this situation?'
'Madoka, over here!'
Her eyes darted to where the voice came from, which was the ground in front of them.
Sitting there was Kyubey, who had come from seemingly nowhere.
'Madoka, you can't defeat these familiars as a human. Quick, if you contract with me and become a magical girl, they won't pose a threat to you at all!'
Madoka glared daggers at the Incubator, having pieced together that it was him who had tricked them into getting trapped into the labyrinth in the first place.
'I still won't-'
Cutting Madoka off was the sound of gunfire. Following that, a portion of the familiars had blew up in a burst of fire.
"They exploded?" Sayaka said in surprise.
"Mhm." An unknown voice affirmed. Madoka and Sayaka turned to the voice and saw a yellow-haired girl, wearing the same school uniform as they. She looked a year old then them.
"This is a bad predicament to be in, but everything's okay now." She remarked with a smile, before noticing Kyubey. "Ah, Kyubey is with you? You must also have magical girl potential."
"Magical girl? Kyubey? I don't know what those are." Sayaka said in confusion. "Honestly, I'm lost about this whole situation."
"I'll be sure to explain all of that later on." The yellow haired girl stated. "You're from Mitakihara School, right? Juniors?"
Sayaka nodded, then asked. "Who are you?"
"Ah, how rude of me. I haven't even introduced myself. But before that…" The girl scanned all the familiars surrounding them. They look about ready to attack at any moment. "Allow me to take care of a little something first, would you?"
She pulled out a gem, a Soul Gem, and held it out in front of her. It flashed a beautiful yellow light, which then encompassed the girl.
Moments later, the girl had completely different clothing on. She was now wearing a whirt shirt, a brown corset and a beige skirt.
Her magical girl attire.
She jumped up into the air, gaining the attention of all the familiars.
"Hah!" With a flick of her hand, dozens of giant, sleek-looked muskets manifested, all poised to fire. Pointing at the enemy, the muskets all fired at once. The wave of familiars was no match for the onslaught of bullets, and they all wiped out as though they never existed at all.
"W-wow…" Sayaka said in awe. Madoka's awe was more subdued but still present.
Abruptly, the witch's labyrinth faded away. The scenery warped for a few more seconds, and then it was gone altogether, leaving Madoka, Sayaka, Kyubey and the older girl exactly where they were before they had gotten trapped outside the labyrinth, a few minutes away from their school.
"W-we're back…" Sayaka said in relief, sitting up. Madoka made a sigh of similar relief. However, she then caught the appearance of one black haired girl, perched on top of one of the street lights. Homura, already in her magical girl uniform, was looking down at the group, her eyes piercing.
The yellow haired girl turned to her, still smiling. "The witch escaped. If you want to escape, you'd better go after it right now."
"I'm not interested in the witch." Homura stated. Her attention was clearly on Madoka. "Madoka, I hope you're not getting any ideas now just because you think you're under protection. Remember, even a thought of becoming a magical girl and you're dead."
"Hey! Don't threaten Madok-" Sayaka groaned in the middle of her words. Her wounds were getting to her now.
The yellow haired girl held a hand out to Sayaka to silence her, then walked in front of Madoka.
"Now now, I can't allow threats against my juniors." She said. "I think it'd be better for both of us if we avoided unnecessary conflict. With that said, you won't be killing anyone here. So it would be for the best if you dropped your threats against Miss Madoka."
Homura glared at Madoka and the yellow haired girl for a while longer. Afterwards, she turned around and jumped out of sight.
The yellow haired girl, after having made sure Homura was gone, spun around toward Madoka and Sayaka.
"I'm sorry. I used your name without you having introduced yourself." She apologized with a curt bow.
"Oh, that's fine-" Madoka hissed, suddenly feeling the pain of her hand. The older girl approached her.
"If I may," She took her hand and hovered her own above it. The girl's hand emitted a yellow glow. Slowly, Madoka felt the pain vanish. When the light faded, Madoka's injury was gone completely.
"Woah!" Sayaka said, bewildered. The girl's smile only grew with Sayaka's awe. She proceeded to do the same with Sayaka, and a minute later Sayaka was fully healed.
"That," The girl began to explain after being asked to by Sayaka. "Was magic. Specifically healing. It's one of the many abilities a magical girl possesses."
"Magical girl? You're a magical girl!?" Sayaka asked excitedly. The yellow haired girl giggled at Sayaka's excitement.
"Mhm!" She answered. "You probably have a lot of questions to ask, and I'd be happy to answer them, but this probably isn't the best place to do it."
Madoka supposed she was right. They were in public.
"I'd be delighted to have you over to my house. It'd be a better place to talk then here, anyways. Would that be alright, miss...?" She asked the two girls.
"That'd be great!" Sayaka agreed. Madoka nodded as well. "Oh, and my name is Sayaka Miki. She's Madoka Kaname."
"So, can you tell us your name?" Madoka questioned her.
Of course, Madoka knew exactly who this older yellow haired girl was. She was one of the people most involved in the cycle, and the one whom she had been waiting to arrive to save them in the first place.
The yellow haired girl smiled and reverted back to her school uniform.
"My name is Mami Tomoe."
Notes for Chapter 5: Further notes will be added as necessary.