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Chapter 2:

"Akemi-san! Sakura-san! You two can come in now!"

The two entered the classroom, Kyōko trailing behind Homura. She had been reluctant to even agree to this, but during the last time loop, the redhead had grown to admire the time traveller's calm and collected nature. Too often, she ran into people who were quick to make rash decisions, but not Homura. Homura was different. In order to make the whole process of getting Kyōko into the school easier, the two decided that Kyōko would be presented as Homura's cousin. They had left the house early in the morning to get Kyōko's paperwork done, claiming that Kyōko had to enter the school here since she now lived with Homura. The cover excuse behind this was carefully constructed behind the premise that Kyōko moved in because of Homura's heart condition. The heart condition was no longer a problem, since Homura had healed it after contracting with Kyuubei. The entire class broke into a wave of whispers as the two walked through the door and stood at the front.

"My name is Akemi Homura. Nice to meet you all."

Every pair of eyes turned to the redhead beside Homura.

"U-uhhh, hey… I'm Sakura Kyōko… n-nice to meet everyone," Kyōko managed to stutter out. Unbeknownst to her, Homura mentally facepalmed. Kyōko was many things, but shy was not supposed to be among those things.

Once Homura finished writing their names on the board, the two took their seats for their first class. After going through a few different classrooms and falling into a pattern of self-introduction for each class, they finally ended up in English class. It was the class with Madoka and Sayaka in it. They introduced themselves yet again, then Homura sat in the front row and Kyōko near the back, slightly behind and to the left of Madoka, whom she would approach later. The redhead took out a notebook and a pencil, pretending to pay attention whilst thinking on the plans that Homura had made.

"Madoka and Miki-san will run into Kyuubei at the city mall after school. The plan is to let them make contact. After that, they'll run into a witch. Tomoe-san will rescue them, at which point they will go to her apartment. I want you to intercept Madoka on her way home and warn her away from the contract. That way, once Miki-san contracts, she and Tomoe-san will both survive facing Charlotte at the hospital," Homura had said to her that morning.

She wanted to ask the stoic girl how she was so confident everything would go according to her plan, but she was given no time. Without skipping a beat, Homura had got up and they left the house right after the plan was laid out. Shifting her attention back to the class, she found herself staring at a board with English words and phrases that she didn't understand. She yawned.

'This is so boring… Homura didn't even let me bring food. No eating in class, she said. A quick nap wouldn't hurt, right?'

As soon as she finished that thought, Kyōko placed her head on her desk. Within seconds she was fast asleep, doomed to sleep through the entire hour of English class. To her, however, it felt like ten seconds as she was abruptly woken when her desk shook. She looked up to find the black-haired Magi staring down at her.

"Class is over," Homura said, in her usual monotone. She gave no indication that she had just kicked the desk leg to wake Kyōko up. "You slept through the whole thing."

"Wha-... Oh…"

Kyōko realised that by now, the pinkette that Homura was so obsessed with was probably on her way to the mall. She grinned. Time to do some shadowing.

Hours had passed since Kyōko sat up on the tree just outside the front door to the apartment building where Mami lived. An apple rested in her hand, tossed up and down as the redhead attempted to dispel her boredom. It wasn't until 8 PM that the familiar pink hair of her target could be seen exiting the building. As Madoka passed underneath the branch that Kyōko rested on, she spoke.

"Yo, Kaname-san. Over here."

"Ehh..?"

The confused pinkette looked around for the source of Kyōko's voice. The action was quite cute, actually. Kyōko found herself grinning as she watched the shorter girl continue to look around the area. As Madoka was beginning to move on, she spoke again.

"Look up here, pinkie."

Madoka looked up and found the transfer student sitting on the tree.

"Ehhhh? Sakura-san? What are you doing up there? That's dangerous!"

"Homura was right… You worry about others too much…" she muttered under her breath. Then, louder. "You got some time? We should talk."

"Sorry, I spent too much time with Mami-san and Sayaka-chan today. I have to get home soon. A lot has happened today, and I have a lot to think about."

Kyōko jumped down from the tree, biting into the apple. She was no longer dressed in the school uniform, but rather in her typical green hoodie and shorts. Madoka stared at the taller redhead, slightly apprehensive about their difference in size and the fact that Kyōko looked like a delinquent. In response, Madoka got a grin which showed fang-like teeth jutting out. Kyōko had tried her best to appear non-threatening, but judging from the pinkette's reaction, that was not at all how she was perceived.

"It won't take long. Come walk with me."

The two began to walk through the nearby park in silence. Madoka wanted to get it over with, partially because she was going to get home late and partially because she was still scared of Kyōko. Finally, after several minutes, she spoke.

"So… What do you think of Mami-san and what she does?"

"Ummm… I'm not sure what you're talking about…"

"I think you do, pinkie," Kyōko responded, turning her Soul Gem ring on her finger back to its regular egg-shape. Madoka's eyes widened.

"Sakura-san, you're a Puella Magi too?"

"Well duh! You can just call me Kyōko by the way. But this ain't about me. Nope. I'm asking what you think about what we do. I know Mami-san probably talked about how it's good since we get to save lives by killing witches, but I'm interested in your thoughts."

"Errrr…. I mean, it sounds pretty dangerous. And… we only get one wish right? So I don't think it's something that should be rushed. And if I'm honest, it kind of scares me after what happened today," Madoka said. The Soul Gem morphed back into a ring.

"That's right. It is dangerous. Your wish can backfire if you let it, just like mine did. Just like Homura's did. So, whatever you think is worth wishing for, don't. You still have family and friends who care about you. Once you walk down this path, you will never hold a normal life again. I'd stay away from it, if I were you. It's for your own good. This is coming from both me and Homura, by the way. "

"Akemi-san is a Puella Magi too? That's right, isn't she your cousin, Kyōko-chan?"

But Madoka found herself speaking to no one. Immediately after she had finished saying her piece, Kyōko vanished, leaping a distance that was impossible for regular humans. She blinked. She hadn't even seen Kyōko leave. Confusion showed on her face as she contemplated Kyōko's words. It was clearly a warning, but...why? A wish, plus she gets to help people. But something about those words gave Madoka the impression that Kyōko had suffered something terrible in the past because of her wish.

Her cell phone rang. It was her mother, calling to chastise her for being out so late. Dismissing the redhead's words from her head for another time, she rushed home.

The door closed with an audible clack. Homura sat by the small table in the middle of the room, fussing over maps of the city with Xs marked all over certain spots. Kyōko didn't understand what those meant, but figured she would find out very soon. The last time she stood in this particular room of Homura's house, the black-haired girl drilled every single detail of Walpurgisnacht's capabilities into her. That was before they were beaten by Walpurgisnacht and sent back in time by Homura herself.

"Hey. How'd it go?" Homura asked without even turning to look at the redhead veteran.

"It seemed okay. She seemed to take my warning to heart. I had to let slip that both of us are Puella Magi though."

"That's fine. She would've found out eventually, anyway," Homura said, drawing lines from the Xs towards an empty portion of the map. "I'm gonna leave these maps here. The spots marked with an X are where I'm placing mortars. The line shows where it'll fire. Don't get caught by any on the day Walpurgisnacht shows up. It's a different setup from last time. Hopefully more efficient this way."

"Aye," Kyōko responded. "Got any food?"

A small cardboard box flew through the air, landing in the redhead's hand. It was a box of green tea flavoured Pocky. She looked up to see Homura standing by an open cabinet. Inside was filled with various food items, undoubtedly stuff that Homura's parents had bought and left her.

"Help yourself," the time traveller said. "Seriously, I'll never get why you eat so much. We don't even need food."

"Hey, hey, old habits die hard," Kyōko said, waving her hands defensively. She bit off half a stick of Pocky. "Besides, you've never been in a starving family or had to steal to survive."

"Fair enough. Don't sleep too late. We have school tomorrow."

"Ugghhh. Don't remind me."

The stoic girl left the main room, leaving her to wallow in despair at the thought of having to go to school everyday. Sure, Homura had plenty of grief seeds, so needing to hunt witches wasn't the issue. The issue was that Kyōko hadn't been in school for years, even before her family died. She took the opportunity to look over the maps, easily memorizing the locations of the artillery that would be set up that day. She knew Mitakihara like the back of her hand from her days with Mami, so knowing where to move for the actual battle would be easy.

Madoka… The pink-haired girl who, for some reason, occupied most of the thoughts of Homura. While Kyōko did admire Homura for her level-headed approach to everything, she never did understand why she was so obsessed over a single pink-haired girl. The only thing that Kyōko could think of the really justified the obsession was how powerful she would be if she contracted. By extension, that included the pinkette's witch form as well, which Kyōko supposed would be a problem to deal with.

'She's quite cute. That's something,' she thought, recalling the way Madoka had looked around earlier that night when Kyōko was in a tree above her. 'Wait… Homura couldn't possibly…. nononono. The Homura I know has no emotions. She's like a robot.'

Sighing, the redhead laid down on the couch, closing her eyes and attempting to sleep. A few seconds later, she sighed and got up again. She had been told not to sleep without showering and brushing her teeth, something that Homura had basically ordered her to do. Though, life on the streets did give Kyōko some cruder habits than most girls her age would have. Then again, Homura was nice enough to let her stay in her house, so the least she figured the least she could do was comply. Though, tomorrow would be a long day…

A/N:

Phew! This was probably the hardest thing I've had to write. For whatever reason, I spent a lot of time working on this but was never happy with it. Writer's block was not very helpful either, but here we are! I hope you guys enjoy reading it more than I did while writing it! If this chapter seems kinda shoddy compared to other things that I've written, it's because I got really burnt out with a huge university assignment.