A/N: The main reason why this story isn't as updated as frequently is mainly due to the lack of time, which I decided to put into Crusaders since it doesn't get as much attention from me as this story does. Also, I've just been looking at this story and at times, I wonder how more condensed and faster-paced it could've been if it weren't for the fact that it was the story that jump-started and honed my writing skills. Not going to abandon it after all that time, though. Definitely not. Also telling and not showing is a reoccurring problem of mine (along with never spotting spelling errors/grammar mistakes for days or possibly months).

It had been several hours since word of Krieg the Hunter's failure had gone back to the Warlocks' opera-house. Proof of his defeat was brought back by Clyde as the remains of his mask that had been found in the streets after a long a search and was then fed to the leader of the Warlocks himself. Since then, the physical manifestation of Phantom's mind had been sitting in one of the upper rooms where, on one of the dusty tables, a barely-functioning laptop covered in dirt and scratches had been set up. It was connected to a private line that allowed Phantom to speak to Oriko about her newest premonition of what's to come.

"Information regarding the future, you say?" Phantom mused while resting his chin on his hand, the moonlight peeking through the window beside him shining on his inconsistent, ghostly form.

"Correct. Although I am severely disappointed now that two of your Warlocks have already failed to eliminate the Puerum Magi leader, it seems that both a problem and an opportunity has presented themselves. Tezuka Mamoru is alone in Kazamino as of now and carries files detailing what could happen in the next few weeks, along with various dossiers on Puella Magi such as myself. This will be problematic, so I request that you send one of your own to destroy these files before he uses them to gain an advantage over either of us."

"May I ask how he attained such information? Last I checked, only you could see the future."

"... Akemi Homura," the name sounded vaguely familiar to Phantom's ears, "She is the Puella Magi who recruited the boys that have been troubling you so much, and though your right-hand man had already killed her, she seems to have passed all of her work to the Puerum Magi's leader; those files must be destroyed. I trust that you can handle a simple task such as this?"

Phantom chuckled, crossing his legs with a light sigh, "I'd ask that you to put more faith in me, but I can understand your shrinking confidence. Don't worry. Those files will be destroyed by tomorrow night. I promise you that. Now, have a pleasant evening, Mikuni."

The line ended from Oriko's side of the call without another word from her and Phantom lied back in his seat with tented fingers. Staring out of the window next to him, the Warlock gazed at the moon sitting in the night sky and ran his hand over his translucent wrists. The Warlock leader could feel his strength beginning to return after consuming the remains of Zed, Lucio Simplicio and Krieg. Just 3-4 more Warlock remains were needed for his physical body to regenerate, and although none of the Magi had fallen so far, nothing they could do would stop him from achieving his resurrection.

The outcome of each fight was going to benefit him, no matter what.

The sound of a van being parked outside then caught the Warlock's attention, along with a subsequent knock on the room's decaying door as Clyde's voice spoke through, "Lord Phantom, he's here."

"Bring him in," Phantom answered with a loud snap of his fingers.

Spinning his chair around to face the room's door, the Warlock waited as after a few minutes, he begun to hear heavy footsteps outside the room. With each step, there was a loud whirring noise one would hear from a machine, each step almost a march that could break the rotting floors, and as the footsteps sent silent, the door suddenly blew open from its hinges and fell to the floor. There, underneath the door frame, stood their another Warlock, "Kroenen," Phantom addressed him, always amused by the Warlock's flair for dramatics.

The 2nd Warlock marching into the room wore a leather trench-coat and a blank, metallic mask that covered his entire head, devoid of all features but a simple microscope built into the side of it. Steam poured through the vents at the back of his head and as the Warlock halted in his steps, he snapped his feet together in respect.

Warlock 256, one of the most essential members to Phantom's cause, raised his hand into a military-like salute. Kroenen was responsible for constructing the very coffin that housed Phantom's physical remains, creating the prosthetic limbs and artificial bodies that Krieg and Kroenen himself used, along with merging the remains of the two Warlocks Lucio and Simplicio into one being to save their dying lives. He had zero experience in combat, but his mind made him more valuable than any of his other servants.

"I take it that Germany had been a pleasant hide-out? You're looking healthier than last I saw you," Phantom said in an amused tone and Kroenen's metal fingers clicked as he repeatedly curled them out of habit.

"Spare me the pleasantries, Lord Phantom," Kroenen's accented voice echoed through his mask's metallic filter, "Smuggling my equipment into this city has left me vexed, so I'd prefer that I resume my experiments without any further delays," the Warlock scientist clicked his tongue with a dramatic flick of the wrist, "As per your order, I have also brought with me the half-dead remains of W-321, W-199 and W-215. Do point me to the nearest source of test subjects so that I may begin my work."

"You will easily find plenty outside our doorstep then," Phantom lifted one hand and gestured to the window where one could see the graveyard across the street, "Clyde will be the one to excavate any of your choosing. Just ask him nicely."

Kroenen clapped his hands together as hot steam hissed from his mask's vents. The sound of experimentation always did excite the Warlock to an almost mad glee, "Excellent! I will get to work immediately, Lord Phantom," raising his hand into another salute, Kroenen turned towards the door, marched away, but then looked back at his leader and added, "Ah, before I forget, you should know that my assistant is currently awaiting his own orders as well. Jack hasn't had a single thing to kill for the past few days, so he's quite antsy lately. Would you like me to assign a task to him straight away?"

A glowing smile formed on Phantom's ghastly face as his lifted his hand and closed the laptop that was behind him, "Yes. It's quite a simple task indeed..."

It was an ordinary Wednesday morning as the Mitakihara Middle-School school bell heralded the arrival of lunch break. A flock of birds flew over the school's rooftop where all was quiet and not a single soul present to break the peaceful silence. But, this quiet was not meant to be, as bombastic music suddenly blared through the rooftop, an array of bright colors shining amidst the roof as if a laser-light show had begun. Among all this, 5 voices all shouted the same magic words in complete unison.

"Soul Change!"

Zipping through the air on wings of fire with his thruster pack, Hakamichi Hideki crashed into the roof and skid to a screeching stop. His blades sprung from his vambraces as they cut through the air with an almost audible sharpness, "The Azure Lupus!" he shouted through his clear visor, "My claws will tear the enemy apart!"

Ikezawa Tateyama's three shields hovered through the air, revolving around his body as his heavy, knight-like armor encased his entire form. Carrying a door-sized shield in one hand and an immense lance in the other, the red mono-eye on his helmet's T-shaped visor glowed menacingly, "The Steel Aegis. Protecting the innocent."

Performing a series of acrobatic flips like a circus performer, Fujimaki Takuya jumped into the air and did a three-point landing with ease. His energy bow flared into his left hand and his coat-tails fluttered in the wind as he pointed his grappling hook into the air, "The Healing Arrow! In the name of the sun, I will punish you!"

Tezuka Mamoru's short cape danced as a gust of wind blew by, the boy fixing his ornate domino mask's grip on his face as the sunlight reflected off his emerald top-hat and suit. His third arm brandishing his axe, he raised his shield in his left hand as his free hand dramatically cut through the air, "The Marionette Master! The Strings of Fate are mine to manipulate!"

"And last but not least..." standing in the middle of the gathering boys, Tomoe Mami spun around like a ballerina as muskets manifested around them, every single barrel of each gun elevating until they were aimed straight at the skies. As she spun to a halt, she struck a pose and gave a wink as her muskets fired a celebratory volley of shots into the air, "The Golden Gun! One shot is all I need to catch your heart!"

All five them striking a pose in unison, they words were filled with an enthusiastic glee, "Magi United! Holly Quintet!"

As their Super Sentai roll-call came to an end on cue with the music, the five Magi had been standing in front of a recorder placed on a tripod the entire time with Tateyama's laptop beside it having been producing all the music. Tomoe then clapped her hands together and the Puerum Magi cheered as they had finally managed to get it right after several failed attempts. If it wasn't for the fact that Tomoe had personally requested this, the boys after their 3rd try.

Rolling a sore shoulder, Mamoru handed the recorder to Tateyama for editing and brought a hand to his chest as he smugly exclaimed, "As I expected, none can quite match myself in terms of grace and finesse," his short cape still fluttering in the wind, his Magi uniform then disappeared to reveal his school uniform as the others did the same.

"Grace and what now?" Hideki said with an intentionally loud yawn, "I don't wanna hear that from a discount Tuxedo Mask. I mean, what kind of prick wears a tux to a fight of all things?" his words caused Mamoru to visibly flinch and Hideki held back a chuckle, "Yeah, I bet a tux is really gonna send those Warlocks running."

Mamoru flicked his wrist, his smug smile returning to his face as he glanced back at Hideki, "So says the boy that calls himself the 'Azure Lupus'," he stifled his laughter upon even saying that title, ""My claws will tear the enemy apart'? You had an hour to think of something and that was the best you could come up with? Typical of you. I had to fight the urge to grimace whenever I heard your lines."

Flashing a cocky grin as his teeth clenched, the two proceeded to butt heads with one another like kinder-gardeners as Tateyama and Tomoe focused on editing the footage, "It's badass, alright? In fact, I think that it might even impress Miki and Kaname! It sounds a lot better than some crap about the 'strings of fate'!"

"Oh, that's quite the boast!"

"Come on, you two, enough fighting!" Takuya got in-between them before things could get heated for no reason and the two simply sulked at each other.

Seeing all of this as Tateyama typed away on his laptop, Tomoe wondered if asking them to do all of this was too much of a bother in the end, "Does this happen often?" she quietly asked the silver-haired boy beside her who quickly assured her worries.

"It's fine, Tomoe. They don't mean any of it. It happens a lot."

Once the footage was edited and saved, the 5 Magi sat around the rooftop benches with their lunch boxes in hand and quietly set up their meals. But when they noticed that Madoka and Sayaka were still nowhere to be seen, Tomoe was about to go get them when Hideki stood up to go in her stead.

"I'll go see if they ran into trouble with the teachers or somethin'," Hideki said as he dusted himself off and placed his lunch box aside. Heading towards the door, he heard Mamoru uttering something about being brave enough to talk to his crush and Hideki playfully flashed him the finger before heading down the stairs.

In the meantime, the remaining 4 opened up their meals and dug in as all that practice has worked up a large appetite. The sun shining in the sky as a cloud hovered above the school, meager chatter arose between the Magi to pass the time. A mundane moment such as this felt like godsend when one's schedule involved hunting down Witches, Warlocks and protecting the innocent of the town 24/7.

Suppressing a yawn with one hand, Takuya chewed on the lunch Miss Narita had made for him as Mamoru noticed the dark circles underneath his eyes.

"You've been staying up playing 'vigilante' again, haven't you?" Mamoru assumed, a stick of meat in his mouth as his hands were busy carving out a piece of wood with a chisel of all things. Having not done his hobby for some time now with all this Magi business, he made sure not to get the wood shavings into the food.

Takuya meekly nodded, eating his food with a childish groan, "I went out for 4 hours and I couldn't find a single Warlock or Witch. Oh well," Takuya shrugged, but then suddenly smiled, "But I did save a bunch of cats from trees though. So, that's something! I had to go out with Mirai, too, so I had to spend even more time looking for Warlocks just in case!"

Mamoru wasn't sure what to make of Takuya's endeavors, so he simply nodded and listened along, "How about you, Tateyama?" he turned to the boy with a laptop and a large lunch box of food on his lap, "You haven't caught that much Witches nor Familiars in a while, correct?"

Tateyama shook his head and swallowed a mouthful of food before answering, "No. Tomoe's been teaching Hideki and I about fighting. She knows a lot, after all."

"And they're doing remarkably well," Tomoe interjected whilst sipping her tea, "Although, I admit that I may be spoiling them a little. Both of them had asked me to mentor them even for that upcoming test you boys are so worried about," chuckling with a hand on her cheek, her words got Mamoru shooting an envious and almost suspicious glare at Tateyama who nonchalantly averted his eyes away.

Scratching his cheek, Takuya gave the two an innocent smile and curiously asked them, "Oh, so are you and Tateyama a couple now?"

Tomoe nearly choked on her tea and Tateyama's face burned red as he rushed to pass the girl a tissue to wipe her mouth. All the while, Takuya watched on as Mamoru simply smiled in amusement at the only thing that could get Tateyama so flustered, "I-It's not like that," Tomoe insisted while wiping her tea off her cheek, "It's p-purely professional. Mentor and protege. Teacher and student. R-Right?" she glanced at Tateyama who was too embarrassed to give anything more than a hasty nod.

"Eh? But I remember last time that Tateyama wanted to give you back your umbrella and he was embarrassed-"

"A-Anyway," Tomoe coughed into her fist, regaining her lady-like composure almost effortlessly, "Your friend, Sanbey. I wanted to see him, but I assume he was too busy to be here?"

There was a small pause, as if the gears in Takuya's brain had to spin for a minute or two before he let out nervous laugh and sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "Well... I kinda accidentally fed him some bad food I cooked up in a hurry and... well... his stomach's pretty upset right now. He had to stay at home."

Tateyama wasn't event surprised at Takuya screwing up to that extent and all Mamoru did was wonder how he even managed to get Sanbey of all things food poisoning. Did his body even work that way? Mamoru tried to come with an idea of how it worked before dropping the topic entirely for something he had been meaning to ask, "Tateyama, could I ask your a favor?"

The boy tilted his head to one side while chewing on his food.

"Could you lend me some of your power tools? The thing is, I've been working on puppet lately since I find my combat prowess a bit lacking in comparison to you guys. I just need several of your tools so I can finish up the prototype," raising the piece of wood he was carving in his hand, the simple block of wood he had been carving for some time now had been turned into a shape of a humanoid doll, "This is an example of what it looks like."

Tateyama placed down his chopsticks and thought about his answer for a second, "Buy me a cake at the bakery first."

"Deal."

The two shook hands in a firm businessman-like manner and sealed the transaction as Takuya and Tomoe simply smiled in amusement. Then, Mamoru's phone began to rang and the boy excused himself for the moment as he got up. Heading over to the corner of the roof where no one would be able to hear him, he stood behind a small shed and flicked open his phone to see that it was Mikage calling him.

He answered the call in a hush tone, "How goes your findings, Mikage?"

"I've been digging into Tezuka Corp's records for some time now, along with Mikuni Corporations. I haven't found anything regarding the Warlocks, but I have been looking into that 'Sakura Kyouko' that your father mentioned. I'll pass to you what I've found about her later. In the meantime, it looks like it will take a while to find anything about the Warlocks as those files would be heavily confidential."

"Alright. Do be careful," Mamoru leaned on the side of the shed, "The Warlocks may catch scent of us."

"Understood. Also, your father will be arriving with Sakura tonight for dinner. Do arrive on time and dress nicely tonight. Mikage out."

Closing the cell phone, Mamoru wondered if he should mention Mikage to the others. Though she's been an asset to their cause so far, him mentioning to them out of the blue that he had met someone with knowledge of the Warlocks would garner some unpredictable reactions.

Clutching his phone, Mamoru looked back at the others as they peacefully talked away, and hesitantly, the boy chose to keep all of this to himself for now. The investigation on Oriko was something that had to be kept covert, at least for now, and the first thing about tricking your enemies was to first trick your own allies after all. Until they could get a solid lead on Oriko, this was something he had to do in secrecy.

After classes were over, Tateyama and Hideki accompanied Tomoe back to her apartment to study up for a test that was coming soon. That is, what they were supposed to have planned, but instead Tomoe was too busy showing their new Super Sentai-esque transformation video to Sayaka and Madoka that everything they came here for became an after-thought. Playing all of it on the living room television in high definition and surround sound speakers, the girls were amazed at the results of their filming while the two boys silently lamented over their upcoming tests.

Sayaka couldn't hold back her laughter and was rolling on the carpet with tears in her eyes, "Wow, you guys actually did it!" she clutched her aching gut, "'Azure Lupus, 'Marionette Master', y-you guys went all out with this, alright!"

Madoka gazed at the screen in silent awe, her eyes practically shimmering as she watched the video.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" a proud Tomoe said with her chin up high and her chest puffed out. Beside her, Tateyama nodded in earnest agreement as he refilled her empty teacup for her.

Hideki on the other hand, had a face as red as a tomato once he heard his lines blaring through the speakers. All the cheesy posing and lines he had come up with in an hour was painful to watch now that he got a good look of it himself, and Sayaka of all people laughing at that made him want to wish that all of this was just a bad dream, "Y-Yeah, I was definitely going for that kind of ridiculousness," he coughed in-between some forced laughter, "Oh, why is this happening...?"

Once the video had ended for the 5th time, Tomoe grabbed the remote and closed the TV, finally resisting the urge to watch it again. She was still giggling to herself like an excited child until she took in a deep breath and reaffirmed herself, "Anyway. We should continue studying. Not even a Magi can ignore this kind of duty after all," she said while picking up her pen.

Sayaka wiped away the tears in her eyes and opened up her notes with Madoka and the other boys when suddenly, a loud alarm blared from Tateyama's laptop on the floor as the silver-haired boy checked the screen.

Hideki leaned over to see what was going on and on the screen, there was a notification that one of the surveillance bugs that were flying throughout the city had detected a Witch's presence.

"Showtime," Hideki muttered and sprung to his feet to put his shoes on.

Tateyama and Tomoe also got up and left their belongings on the table as they prepared to head out. Changing into some thick clothing for the cold outdoors, Tomoe put her shoes on and told the two girls, "We'll be back in a bit," she assured them whilst fixing her shoes, "Do watch over our things!" and with that, the Puella Magi ran out the door with her two students in tow as they headed off into the city for their usual duties.

Without the three, the room began to feel very empty, even boring, so Sayaka dropped her pen on the table and switched the TV back on to watch the video again. Hunching over the table, Sayaka sighed while the two girls tried to pass the time by gazing at what the Magi were capable off on screen, "Madoka, you ever think about becoming a Magi like Mami?"

Madoka shook her head, her lugs huddled to her chest, "Not... really... Mami did say it's dangerous after all. Going out there and hunting monsters; it's a big responsibility, don't you think?"

Sayaka hesitantly concurred with a nod, "But don't you wanna, you know, be actually useful to them? I'm fine with not being one if Mami tells us not to, but sometimes... I just want to be like that," she said and pointed a finger at the screen as the video lopped once more, "A hero of justice, saving people like in a manga and doing the right thing. Sounds cool, right?"

Madoka's eyes fixated on the screen as she looked the outfits the Magi wore and what they could do, she couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"And he went, 'My claws will tear your apart!', and then, 'Protecting the innocent is my duty', and he went, 'The strings of fate are mine to manipulate', and I said, 'In the name of the sun, I will punish you!', then there was this huge explosion with Tomoe and in the end it was so fun!" Takuya let out a long, cheerful laugh as he finished explaining what went on earlier ago and wiped away a small tear in his eyes from all that laughing, letting out a low sigh once he was done, "Though... I wish you could've been there to be a part of it."

Under the yellow light of the setting sun, the passing-by breeze picked up Takuya's long hair and a batch of leaves blew past the Puerum Magi who sat in front of the Akemi family gravestone. A bouquet of purple flowers placed in front of it, Sanbey had been sitting in the boy's bag the entire time they were at the cemetery, watching as Takuya had prayed and even took the time to clean up Homura's gravestone. Too sick to even help a little, Sanbey had simply laid in his bag ever since Takuya picked him up from his house to visit the cemetery.

"I bet Homura's smiling down on us right now," Takuya said with an almost wistful smile, "Don't you think so, 'Bey?"

"She'd be proud of what you boys have accomplished so far," Sanbey weakly said with a small nod, feeling the urge to puke every now and then to his dismay, "As for myself, well, I haven't really done anything important in a while, have I?"

Hearing a tinge of self-deprecation in that tone, Takuya lifted up a hand and patted Sanbey on the head, "Don't say that. It's because of you that we've been able to fight as well as we do. Cheer up, m'kay?"

Sanbey wished he had the boy's level of optimism, as ironically as that sounded, but still couldn't stop himself from letting out a depressed sigh that was interrupted by a rising pain in his gut. He hadn't do anything of note for the past few days aside from just guiding and teaching the Puerum Magi basic things. At this point, he was beginning to feel more like dead-weight, even more so now that Hideki and Tateyama were being taught by Tomoe. Of course, he had kept this to himself, along with that encounter with Kyubey, but now he was utterly sick despite the fact he had plans to meet with Mamoru tonight.

"Come on, let's head back," Sanbey said with a paw covering his mouth the moment he felt something rise in his throat, "You should- Ugh- continue with your patrols soon. She would want that, at least," he said while looking back at the gravestone in front of them.

Takuya pet the Familiar on the head one more time and dusted himself as he got to his feet. His bag with Sanbey inside hanging under one arm, the Puerum Magi turned on his heel and headed for the entrance after giving Homura's gravestone one last look. Gazing at it for a few seconds or so, there had been something off about the grave ever since he had come to visit, something he never really noticed until now. Thought he couldn't really put his finger on what it was that was bothering him, it was almost, as if, it had been tampered with.

The ringing of his Warlock/Witch Detector interrupted Takuya's train of thought and he pulled it out to see that a Witch was not too far away from their current location.

Closing the device, Takuya then bolted out of the cemetery with the intention of dropping Sanbey at home on the way to the Witch. His Soul Key forming in his hand, it was time to tend to his responsibilities.

Within the depths of the Witch's Barrier, gunfire and explosions roared from the deepest, most heavily guarded sanctuary of the monster's den. Underneath a dark sky with stars in the shape of flaming jack-o-lanterns, a forest of black trees oozing with blood glowed with the fires of battle with Tomoe, Tateyama and Hideki having been the first to cut into the Witch's final lair. Needless to say, resistance was the heaviest here and the tall bleeding trees acted like barricades that sprouted from the ground, giving the Magi little space as they fought off the Witch's servants.

"Hakamichi, close in and disrupt their formations! Ikezawa, keep up the defense!"

Following her orders, Ikezawa dug his feet into the dirt and braced himself as a ball of flame struck his door-sized shield with a large blast. His three floating shields spinning around him and Tomoe behind him, the Puella Magi continuously summoned flintlock rifles with each wave of her hand and blasted shells nonstop into the army of scarecrows surrounding them. Each shot meant one more rifle discarded and one more to replace it with. With Tomoe firing non-stop, Tateyama sweated underneath his bulky knight armor, his lance raised in case they broke through the shields spinning around them like a blender.

"Violent Punish!" Hideki screamed in gratuitous English with his wrist-blades stabbing into the straw-filled neck of a scarecrow and slicing its throat open for his 13th kill so far. Hideki's thrusters reignited and the blue Magi zipped through the crowd of Familiars on wings of fire, carving into anything he ran into with reckless abandon, "Violent Strike!" sliding underneath another Familiar, he drove his foot straight into the scarecrow's chest and then ignited his leg thrusters as the exhaust torched its body like a match tossed into a haystack.

Hideki jumped back with a smirk on his face and drew in a sharp breath when a scarecrow sprung from the ground behind him.

A flintlock round blew its head clean off its shoulders and Hideki sent its headless body flying with a clean roundhouse kick for good measure.

"Pay attention, Hakamichi!" he heard from the veteran Puella Magi and groaned to himself.

Tomoe still strict as ever on the fields of battle, Hideki brought his attention back to the fight and split a scarecrow coming at him from behind in half when he suddenly noticed another patch of land behind the bleeding trees barricading them inside this tight space. His backpack kicked into full power and Hideki leaped over a bunch of Familiars with ease before he skid to a stop near the blood-covered trees. Seeing something in the distance, Hideki barked over to Tateyama over his comms earpiece, "'Teyama, I need your eyes here!"

The shields spinning around him and Tomoe sliced a scarecrow into bits as Tateyama looked to where Hideki was pointing at and the mono-eye on his T-shaped visor shimmered vibrantly. Under his helmet, his visor zoomed into the distance with binocular-like vision, gazing past the thick, bleeding trees surrounding them and there, crucified and surrounded by Familiars in an open field, were two unconscious school girls.

His mono-eye dimmed down and Tateyama shouted to the others, "Tomoe, Hideki, two civilians on the other side of the barricade!"

The 40th or so flintlock rifle falling to the ground, the next crack of gunfire was accompanied by the bullet piercing two lined-up scarecrows in a row, "I'll give an opening! Hakamichi, break through the trees on my signal!" looking at all of the Familiars surrounding them in a circle, Tateyama's shields continued to spin around them as the Puella Magi began summoning rifles non-stop with graceful, ballerina-like movements. Each rifle hovered around them in a clockwise position, aiming at all directions as the Witch's servants began to close until they were mere centimeters away from Tateyama's shield formation.

But the moment they stepped close enough for another scarecrow to be cut apart by his shields, Tomoe had already surrounded both her and Tateyama in a circle of multiple rows of flintlock rifles.

Hideki kicked up dirt as he landed on the ground and materialized his buster sword. With a heavy groan, he planted the blade in the ground as a make-shift shield and hid behind the over-sized weapon, "Ready when you are!"

"Ikezawa, shields down!"

The spinning shields shrinking and returning to his shoulder armor, Tomoe's snapped her fingers and the air then rang with the blaring cracks of gunfire as every shot illuminated the dark forests with constant muzzle flashes. Bullets soared through the air and cut apart the straw-filled Familiars with utter ease, bouncing off Hideki's gigantic blade as the rifles spun around Tomoe and Tateyama like the hands of a clock.

When the last rifle had fired its round, smoke poured from the barrels of her used rifles before disappearing with a flick of Tomoe's wrist.

"Hakamichi, go!"

"Gotcha!" getting out of his cover, Hideki stomped one foot on the ground and his chest-mounted Soul Gem brimmed with intense energy. The black body glove under his armor glowing gold with Recicio energy, a fiery aura flared around his feet as the A.I module announced in his ears.

"Strength Amplification Powers activated. Directing all energy into legs. Time limit is 5 minutes."

With more of the Witch's servants beginning to rise up from the ground again, Hideki soared high into the air with his thrusters and reoriented himself to face the barrier of trees around them. His backpack then reignited, burning twice the energy it normally consumed as Hideki dove towards the tree barrier with one fiery leg curled inwards and the other stretched outwards. Like a shooting start falling to the ground, a loud, "Rider Kick!" from Hideki echoed through the air as he crashed into the tree barrier and collapsed an entire segment with the force of a missile strike. The ensuring impact kicked up a cloud of dirt and smoke that Tateyama shielded Tomoe from with his body while the Familiars around them flew through the air.

Once the dust had settled, a clear path to the other field had been made in the tree barrier with Hideki calling them to hurry up.

They moved from their defensive position and the two rushed past the new scarecrows bursting from the ground with scythes in hand. Even under all his heavy armor, Tateyama kept the pace with the Puella Magi, his steps practically stomping into the dirt.

"Come on, we got girls to save!" Hideki shouted to them when he suddenly heard the loud neighing of a horse echo through the barrier. At his feet, the shattered, blood-covered bark of the trees begun to shake and Hideki jumped away out of reflex as even more trees suddenly sprouted from the ground in a near instant. Sealing the path Hideki had made, he was now separated from the other two, "You gotta be kidding me!"

On the other side of the barrier, Tateyama and Tomoe looked behind and saw an enormous jack-o-lantern crash into the ground from the starry skies. Drawing their weapons, the jack-o-lantern immediately exploded, spraying juices everywhere, and there, the Witch had finally made its appearance.

Riding on a black steed, moonlight reflected off the silver swords it wielded in its hands as the Witch's long-coat fluttered in the wind. A smiling jack-o-lantern sitting where its head should be, flames spewed from its eyes and mouth as the steed it rode on let out an ear-piercing neigh. The horse then sped towards the two at speeds faster than a race car.

"Hakamichi, go rescue the civilians!" Tomoe leaped into the air and blasted several shots that the Witch swatted away with its blades, "Ikezawa, Attack Plan Contra!"

Hesitant to leave it to just them, Hideki grimaced and flew towards the crucified girls in the distance. The Puerum Magi flew past rows upon rows of pumpkins, nearing the two girls with his guard kept up, but the moment he began to even get close to them, a thousand or scarecrows begun to sprung from the ground, clawing their way out of the dirt as Hideki drew his wrist-blades and halted to a stop, "Damn it!"

Every direction was now filled with nothing but those straw-filled monsters, beads of sweat trailed down his face with fatigue present in his heavy panting, and as he readied to take them all on by himself, an energy arrow shot through the air and cleaved apart the scarecrow closest to him. Hideki gasped when he saw two more figures landing right in front of the crucified girls and a wide smirk grew on his face as the boy sighed in relief.

"Well, it's about fucking time!"

"The Healing Arrow!" Takuya back-flipped into the air and fired several energy arrows that cut the two girls free of their bonds and dismembered the Familiars guarding them into bits and pieces. He did a three-pointed landing and flashed a peace sign with his fingers, "In the name of sun, I will punish you!"

"The Marionette Master!" Mamoru caught the two girls in his three arms and laid them gently at the base of the crosses before throwing his shield which then ricocheted between several scarecrows like a pinball, "The strings of fate are mine to manipulate!" his shield bounced right back into his grip and he struck a flamboyant pose with Takuya right next to him.

"Yeah, yeah, let's just get to killing already!" Hideki's thrusters flared and he dove into the crowd of Familiars with an reignited strength to fight, "The Azure Lupus! My claws will tear you apart!" slicing off a scarecrow's head with his blades, Hideki jumped into the air and stomped his flaming feet into the ground, causing the land to quake and knock the Familiars off their feet as both Takuya and Mamoru jumped into the fray.

Mamoru cleaved his first kill in half with ease and Takuya's grappling hook wrapped around the scarecrow's bleeding torso before the archer threw it right into a group of its own allies. The knocked-down Familiars attempted to get up, only for both Hideki and Mamoru to dash past the group with a loud slicing noise ringing in the air. In a flash, a large number of Familiars were cleaved into pieces, and those that survived were then pelted by arrows from the archer flipping through the air.

Back on the other side of the field, Tateyama planted himself into ground and stood perfectly still, a shroud of energy surrounding his body, "Impact Absorption powers activated," his eyes narrowing with focus under his helmet, the shroud surrounding him solidified and formed a golden dome of energy as the Witch charged at him and fell its blades upon the dome. Unfazed by its attack, the blades struck the field and its weapons shattered apart like glass, "Converting absorbed force into offensive measures. Releasing."

The protective dome burst apart with an immense shock-wave projecting from the Puerum Magi in a circle and the Witch was blown straight off its steed. Tumbling to the ground as the nearby scarecrows began to ran away in a panic, ribbons sprung from the ground and entangled the Witch like a snake trapping its prey. The more it tried to struggle, the tighter its grip became, and when the Witch turned to the Puella Magi responsible for this, the Witch could only freeze with what seemed to be fear as it looked down the gigantic barrel of an immense battle cannon forming into existence.

Tateyama standing by her side, both Magi then held the cannon's grip and Tomoe flashed a wink as they both squeezed the trigger, shouting, "Tiro Finale!"

The sound of a hundred bombs going off thundering throughout the barrier, the Witch screamed in pain as it was burned away by a wave of fire and turned into ashes. With its ensuing death, the Barrier broke apart like glass and everything around them slowly reverted back into the small playground it previously was.

The Magi all turned back into their school uniforms and Tomoe and Tateyama, after picking up a small Grief Seed on the floor, approached the rest of the boys who were checking up on the two rescued girls' conditions.

The two girls were laid down on two parallel benches and Takuya between them hovered his glowing hands over their bodies while his Restoration Magic caused all the cuts and bruises on their bodies to seal back up. Once he was done, Takuya dusted his hands and smiled with his hands on his hips, "A-OK! Now we just have to wait for them to wake up!"

"Thank you for assisting us back there," Tomoe said with a hand on her cheek, "Hakamichi was in quite a pinch, wasn't he?"

Hideki blew a raspberry, crossing his arms in denial, "Oh, I could've taken them all myself."

"Hmph. I was just passing by, that's all," Mamoru insisted with a smirk, "I just happened to run into Takuya on the way to the train station."

"You're a bad liar, Mamoru," Tateyama quietly pointed out and the Protector Servorum leader acted as if he didn't hear that.

"Anyway," Mamoru cleared his throat, "I have time to spare, so we'll be watching over these girls until they awaken. You three must be busy, so you all can head off in the meantime," he said with Takuya nodding assertively beside him.

"We'll gladly do that then. Come along, you two," giving a grateful bow before they left, Tomoe then headed off with Hideki and Tateyama in tow and begun making their way back to the apartment.

Sayaka and Madoka were there after all, and it was rude to make people wait.

The light of the setting sun bathing the streets in yellow, Hideki went up to Tateyama's side and in an act of curiosity, whispered to him, "Hey, I've been meaning to ask, but how're you and Tomoe doing so far?"

"What do you mean?" he replied after making sure Tomoe was out of earshot.

"Well, you know, guns don't make you feel comfortable ever since your parents-" he began to mumble to avoid mentioning that directly and shook his head once he knew that Tateyama got a gist of what he was trying to say, "I mean, it was like that with Homura, wasn't it? Back at that arcade last time. I was just wondering since you and Tomoe have gotten... close."

Gazing at the back of the veteran Puella Magi in front of them, a warm smile grew on Tateyama's face as he waved off Hideki's concerns, "It's fine. In Tomoe presence I... feel safe. She gives that kind of feeling, no matter what. Besides, what happened in the past, I'm already over it since I talked about it with Homura."

Hideki smirked and gave a light shrug once he realized that all his worrying was unneeded, "Well then, if you're happy with her, then I won't stop you. Don't keep hesitatin' like me and do nothing but sit on your ass," letting out a low sigh, the rest of the walk continued with light talk between Tateyama and Tomoe as Hideki watched. But over the course of the trip back home, Hideki could not bring up one thing, and that was the fact that ever since Tateyama had meet Tomoe, his Soul Gem had been eerily shifting from pure silver, to a faintly gold hue.

A few hours since Mamoru had taken the detour of helping take down that Witch, Mamoru had arrived in his apartment in Kazamino and was now awaiting the arrival of his father and their newest 'guest'. Standing in front of the door with Mikage beside him, the living room had been cleaned to a T by Mikage with not a single surface covered in dust, while Mamoru was still in his school uniform and had yet to even change nor bathe.

"You're late."

"I had business to tend to."

"You reek."

"A consequence of my usual duties."

Mikage shook her head disapprovingly as the two stood still at the door at rigid attention with his father soon to arrive. Ignoring her criticisms at his punctuality, Mamoru took a few seconds to look around at the clean-up living room and noticed that Mikage had also taken the liberties of fixing a few things like that flickering lamp in the corner and a few holes in the wall. There was even a painting hung up all of a sudden, one that he did not remember having before, but the sound of the doorbell caught both of their attention before he could wonder where the painting had come from.

Mikage pulled the door open and both her and Mamoru bowed deeply as Tezuka Kenji, a man with scruffy hair and an easy-going smile, slowly walked into the room with one hand grasping onto a worn wooden cane. At the sight of the two's formality, the man just laughed and waved a hand, his voice sounding considerably deep, "No need to be so formal, you know? I get enough of that at work already."

Standing upright once more, Mamoru couldn't help but feel something tug at the corner of his mouth at the sight of his healthy father, the boy attempting to be as formal as he could, "It's good to see you again, Father. I was worried if you were still recovering from your incident," his speech sounding more well-bred than usual, the boy then stifled a yelp as his father ruffled his hair with his free hand, "I-I'm not a child anymore..."

"You're still 14, Young Master," Mikage pointed out in a matter-of-fact tone before turning to the elder Tezuka with her hands behind her back, "Good evening, Master Tezuka," she tried looking past his shoulder, "Is our 'guest' not with you?"

"Guest? Oh," Kenji looked back at the door with his free hand still ruffling Mamoru's hair, "Sakura, you can come in now."

Both Mikage and Mamoru turned their attention to the door, and with the smell of sweets and food suddenly filling the air, a young girl with long, red hair tied by a ribbon stepped into the room with her hands in her pockets and an uninterested glare stuck on her face. She held a Pocky stick in her mouth like a cigarette, the boots she wore were used to the point of tear, her jacket had faint food stains here and there, and in one finger, there was an ever present crimson Soul Gem in the inconspicuous form of a ring. Her eyes met first with Mamoru's and the faint smirk she shot at him was returned with a suspicious glare that he had covered with a smug grin.

"Sup'," her speech sounded like someone who had spent a lengthy time in the streets, "So, you're Tezuka Mamoru, eh?"

Moving past his father, Mamoru's smug grin did well to hide his suspicious expression as he lifted his hand for a formal handshake. It took a full minute for her to even notice the gesture and another full minute for her to accept it. Her grip felt filthy as they shook hands and Mikage noticed the boy's shoulders tremble with growing frustration, "Pleased to meet you, Sakura Kyouko. I heard you were the one that saved Mikage and I?"

"Yeah, sure," Kyouko shrugged her shoulders and looked at Kenji expectantly, the man simply smiling unknowingly at all of this, "Are we gonna eat or what?"

Kenji glanced at Mikage who bowed to hide the evident annoyance on her face at the redhead's attitude. Kenji looked completely fine with her rudeness, but neither Mamoru nor Mikage could stand her, "Dinner is ready in the dining room. Right this way, please."

The mere mention of food created a glimmer in Kyouko's eyes as they then headed to the dining room.

With dinner proceeding as planned, the four ate in relative peace with Mamoru and Mikage eating with polite dinner etiquette as Kenji discussed with them about work and other mundane things such as Mamoru's school life. They both freely listened to him, but Kyouko, whom was no-talk at all, just chowed down on her food with the grace of an animal, something that Mamoru couldn't help but find repulsive, especially in the presence of his father. Mikage though, simply ignored her, regarding her with much attention as one would for an ant one accidentally stepped on.

When the last plate had been cleaned of food, Kyouko's chair screeched against the floor when she got up and presumably headed for the bathroom without a word.

Then, once she was out of sight, Mamoru tented his hands and rested his elbows on the table, letting out a long, frustrated sigh he had been holding in for some time now.

"I can see that you both don't really like her, huh?" Kenji said with an amused smile and one hand gripping a mug of coffee. He got a polite "Yes" from both of them and Kenji chuckled as he sipped his mug, "Well, I understand your frustration. Sakura is quite... well..."

"Repulsive?"

"Manners, Mikage," Kenji cleared his throat with a hand covering his mouth, "Anyway. Sakura had been living alone for some time now in the streets. I know Kazamino has a lot of problems with homelessness compared to Mitakihara, but, there's a few things I want to mention to you two about why I took her in so suddenly."

"Sudden is putting it lightly, Father," Mamoru couldn't help but point out and Kenji agreed to it with a defeated sigh and chuckle.

Putting down his mug on the table, Kenji slumped back in his chair and curled his fingers together, his tone lowering just in case Kyouko would hear them, "A few years back, Sakura's family ran a church around these parts, you see. People rarely ever came, since I heard that what they preached was a little - How do I put this? - different, from the usual religious teachings. So, they weren't exactly well-liked. Then, her family suddenly became very popular, to my surprise, with many people, even some of my workers, coming to their church," his fingers drummed the table and his deep voice began to sound almost regretful, "But one day, Sakura's family were caught in an accident."

Mikage nudged Mamoru on the elbow and the small shake of the head she gave him indicated that something else entirely happened to Kyouko's family.

"I didn't know exactly what happened, but I was surprised when I found out that every one in her family but her died one sudden night. So, I was rather surprised when I found out it was Sakura being the very one that saved you both in that train incident," Kenji gave an almost lifeless chuckle and rubbed his temples with two fingers, "But, the main reason I took her in, was not just this. Instead, before her family became popular, I was actually one of the few that once visited their church. I was lost, unsure of myself, but when I met her father and had a nice, long chat with him, he helped me guide me through the problems I had with myself at the time."

His hand grasped his mug once more and he downed his coffee in one go before wiping his mouth with a tissue Mamoru handed him.

"If I had known him sooner, I honestly would've saved them from the poverty they were in before. But... this is all I can do right now for that man and his family, so I hope you two understand now why I'm doing all of this."

Once he was done explaining things, the two kept quiet out of respect. They understood fully well on why he'd do this, whether or not they actually liked it. As soon as things got quiet, they heard a toilet flushing down the hall and Kyouko came back with her hands in her pockets and a Pocky stick in her mouth.

"What'd I miss?"

"Oh, nothing," Kenji said with a chuckle as he picked up his cane and stood up from his chair, "Right, I should get going now. Sakura will be staying here from now on, so I hope you all get along," he said that, despite knowing full well that it would not be so easy.

With dinner done and the dishes subsequently cleaned by Mamoru and Mikage, Kenji now stood at the front door with both of them seeing him off. His cane in hand, Kenji took the chance and ruffled Mamoru's head one more time, this time, the boy not looking so hesitant to it as he was before. Mikage opened the door for him, and though Kyouko was nowhere to be found, Kenji assumed she was just checking out her new room and proceeded to take his leave as it was already late.

Resisting the urge to hug his father, Mamoru instead stood firm with his hands at his side, "Have a safe trip, Father. We will... try to get used to Sakura."

"Don't hurt yourself trying," Kenji said with a light laugh before stepping out of the door, "Stay safe, alright? I don't want you two of all people to get into trouble," he said to the two in a low, worried tone before smiling and closing the door behind him.

With his father now gone, Mamoru's stiff shoulders relaxed and the boy chewed on his thumb to ease his mind, "He's too kind for his own good sometimes."

Mikage nodded in silent agreement, "Now then, would you like to see the files I found regarding Sakura's family? I already have it prepared."

"Sure," Mamoru shrugged whilst holding back a yawn, "I want to see if-" all of a sudden, Mamoru's eyes went wide with shock and an intense cold shiver ran through his entire body. His hand grasping his chest, he knew very well what it was at this point: the sensation of a Warlock's presence. But upon taking out his Warlock/Witch detector in his pockets, he flipped open the device and spotted nothing on the radar. Not only that, but he felt the Warlock's presence slowly disappear as well, "Bloody Hell..." he muttered under his breath as beads of sweat were present on his face.

Mikage put a hand on the boy's shoulder, her lips pursed, "Young Master, what's the matter?"

"It's... It's a Warlock," Mamoru took in a deep breath and loosened his collar's grip on his neck with one finger, "I sensed one, but it seems to have either retreated or hid its signal," he looked at the opened curtains and walked over to them to pull them closed, "Be careful. I've met Warlocks that cannot be sensed before. It was problematic, too, but first," he tossed the Warlock/Witch detector to Mikage and she caught it with ease, "Keep that. I can sense a Warlock's general presence, so you will need that more than I do. So before we ready in the case of a Warlock attack," he looked at the direction of Kyouko's room, "Let's see if our guest is keeping anything from us."

Puerum Magi Stats Sheet

Name: Hideki Hakamichi

Destructive Power: A

Speed: A

Range: D

Durability: C

Abilities: Strength Amplification - at his peak, Hideki can channel Recicio energy into his limbs, a weapon or another person entirely and give them immense super strength for 5 minutes before having to cool down.

Weapons, Gadgets and Tools: Hideki carries an over-sized buster sword that is too heavy to swing without using his super strength. At best, he can swing it around clumsily or use it as a shield. Hideki also has more practical weapons in the form of blades built into his arm bracers and on his legs and back, he has thrusters that can give him either flight or immense jumping power.

P. Magi Uniform: Hideki mostly wears the typical body glove that all the Puerum Magi wore before attaining their actual uniforms. Instead of replacing it upon unlocking his full potential, he wears bits of thick armor over it on his chest, his forearms, waist and legs, giving him enough defense and making him light enough for flight. His face is covered by a full glass visor that clamps onto his head and can be removed with ease if needed.