Incubus knew that retreating to where he knew some of his Phantom honeys were to ask for help would be giving the wizard much too much time. Much too much. To seek out one of his lady friends would mean traveling much too far — and it would give that pesky human more than enough time to undo the knots he had tied. No, he needed to find someone local. Surely there were Phantoms already living in this area... Surely...!

Not all Phantoms were able to hunt Gates in the way Incubus was. Oh no, not at all. Incubus had a special ability that made him a rare breed, even among Phantoms. Besides for his mastery of manipulation, the abilities that already made him unique, he also just happened to have a knack for finding female Gates and, on occasion, female Phantoms. It was a gift that he was more than happy to indulge in for his rather... unsavory games.

However, it was an ability that meant little to him now if the only Phantoms around were men or females that were deep in hiding.

The Gates were easy enough to find, with Phantoms inside of them practically screaming from within to escape. Phantoms he was familiar with were ones he could find from miles away as well, having "marked" them in his mind. On the other hand, new Phantoms — ones he had yet to have the pleasure of meeting — were a different story. Unless they were using their powers in some way, he would undoubtedly have a tough time finding them unless he was fairly close. Even if he was close, finding one was still a roll of the dice. An especially large dice with many, many sides.

Still... His range could be pretty good once he started looking. Sure, if the Phantoms around here were laying low, he probably wouldn't find anyone, but why would they lay low? What reason did they have to? They clearly weren't paying the wizard any mind, and it wasn't like he cared about most Phantoms besides for the ones in his ever growing "harem" of honeys. He didn't normally stick his nose into the business of other Phantoms unless they did his.

... Except for now, anyway. Now, he was explicitly sticking his nose into the business of whatever Phantom he could find.

"But they couldn't know that...!" the Phantom complained under his breath. He was currently standing atop a particularly tall building, so it wasn't really like he needed to keep his voice low, but even so, it was becoming something of a habit for him at this point. "I can't be the only Phantom in this dumpy town, can I? There must be at least one pretty thing around here somewhere I can work my magic on..."

And that line meant more than flirting if she didn't want to play along. He was sure he could convince anyone he ran into, of course, but it didn't hurt to have a backup plan — though he doubted it would come to that. With luck like his, this was just a minor speed bump. He'd be cruising again in no time flat.

As if right on cue, Incubus felt a sudden spike from across town. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before — but the timing was perfect. It was the same feeling he would get when he was closer to other Phantoms, just... stronger. It was unusual, but he wasn't about to complain about weird things happening to him at this point — not when the exact thing he wanted was jumping up and down right in front of him now.

Maybe his range was improving with his luck?

Letting out a happy cackle, the Phantom began to leap from building to building, heading at top speed towards the source of the surge of Phantom power...

... the hospital.

Sayaka stared at the box that was held out towards her. Considering what she was thinking about the girl holding them right now, the fact that she was offering Sayaka food was... funny, in a way, but also pretty darn suspicious. She recalled what the monster, the "Phantom" had said to her about this girl wanting to eat the monster that supposedly was inside of her... Was this the girl's way of fattening her up or something?

The redhead quirked a brow at Sayaka's hesitation. Starting to get a bit exasperated, she shook the box a little, before repeating her question...

"Wa~n~t so~me~?"

... but straining it in the most annoying way she could manage. She was trying to goad the other girl into calming down, even if it meant through annoyance, not into being her best friend.

"F-Fine!" Apparently Kyouko's tactic did the trick. The blue haired girl seemed to set aside whatever she was thinking about, at least long enough for her to snatch a stick of pocky out of the box she was being offered. Her mission complete, Kyouko retracted the box for safe keeping as Sayaka began to nibble hesitantly on the snack.

The magic user sighed.

"It's not poison or anything." She shook her head as she watched a bit of pink spread on the schoolgirl's cheeks as she took a bigger bite out of it, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. She couldn't blame the girl, at least — if anything, Kyouko was impressed that the blue haired girl wasn't jumping on her for being a "hero" or anything like that. Considering this Phantoms way of messing with people, a little suspicion and wariness would go a long way for her.

Little did she know that Sayaka's wariness was largely thanks to the Phantom's intervention in the first place.

"Hmph." Whether or not the girl was making a show of being "tough" for her own benefit or for the magic user's was up in the air, but the fact that she could be tough after what she had already been through was something that Kyouko appreciated. The blue haired girl didn't seem to notice, instead choosing to partake in the snack with even more energy as she realized that it was good tasting — heaven forbid she let that show on her face.

"Oh? Shouldn't you be disappointed? Now I'm that much hungrier... Hahahaha...!"

Kyouko's expression darkened at the sound of the voice. Leave it to Chimera to spoil her good mood — her relief. She didn't want this girl to fall into despair, and she definitely didn't want her to turn into a Phantom and go attack random people — if the Phantom inside of her was a cruel sort, that was definitely a possibility.

"You're right here. You wouldn't let that happen. You would never let a meal slip out from under your fingers either, would you?"

"Stop it already! I know that!" Finally losing her patience with her own "pet" Phantom, Kyouko snapped. With her crappy social skills, talking out loud to the monster in her belt had never been an issue before — no one cared if the poor homeless girl talked to herself, it was just one more reason on top of every other reason to avoid and ignore her. Right now, however, it was just her and the girl she had "saved," and right now, said girl was staring at her like she had just sprouted an extra head.

Well, Chimera did have, like, four extra ones to spare all over him, didn't he? Maybe she would sprout one of his someday if she kept up this life. Now that was a gross thought.

"You know... what?" There was the wariness again, though it hadn't exactly left. Kyouko wanted to scream internally. She had started off a little impressed with this dumb schoolgirl's foresight to not just jump into her arms like some damsel that had just been saved by her masked prince, but now she was getting nowhere! How was she supposed to help if this dumbass wasn't talking to her?

Sure, if Kyouko hadn't started screaming at something that only existed in her head (or belt or... belly... or wherever Chimera hung out!) then she probably could have continued building off of the progress she had made by offering the pocky, but being reflective like that wasn't really one of Kyouko's strong points.

"Uh... Nothing. I was getting a... magical phone call?" Kyouko held up her hands, forcing a sheepish, "humble" grin onto her lips. She knew darn well she looked like a total fool right now, but if the Gate ran off when the Phantom could still be close, it wouldn't do either of them any good. If she managed to stick around the girl, she'd have more than enough chance to find something to vent her frustrations out on later. Hopefully that Phantom.

Sayaka quirked an eyebrow, but she said nothing more on the matter.

For the thing was, not that Sayaka knew what the girl was thinking, but the redhead wasn't wrong about her. She was thinking about things and she was smart enough not to trust at just a glance. Not without reason, anyway.

Now that the situation had changed considerably, she was thinking about what the monster had told her.

Maybe the monster hadn't been lying about some things, but between the two of them... Between the monster who had openly tried to hurt her twice and the girl who had led to the monster leaving twice... Sayaka decided that she'd rather have this strange redhead to deal with than that monster. Even if, based on everything she had seen up to now, she couldn't — shouldn't — trust either of them, at least the girl wasn't being particularly threatening to her. The girl, if nothing else, was someone she could probably call the police on. The same didn't go for that monster.

"It would be much better for her than it would be for me for the Phantom inside of you to be born."

She swallowed as she recalled the monster's words... and how the girl had acted when she had first seen her earlier.

"You can always try for the Gate though. Maybe I won't stop you. That just makes two Phantoms for me instead of one. I was getting hungry anyway."

Even if the "Phantom" was playing at something, though it really hadn't seemed like it had been when it had told her what it had... That comment had come from the girl's own lips. It matched up with everything the monster had said about her too, and it had happened before it had had a chance to Sayaka about it. So it couldn't have been planned assuming she would say something. She had already done it herself. Even if the girl, the "wizard," had just been saying it to psych the monster out, it was something that had, at the very least, crossed her mind enough so that she was able to use it as a taunt.

As Sayaka finished her piece of pocky, she sighed. She still had to deal with the fact that, among the other things that she had learned tonight, she had apparently gotten the luck of being some monster's living cage. She wasn't sure how to feel about that at all.

While not a mind reader, Kyouko was no dummy. It was clear to her that the girl was thinking about something, and it was something that was making her expression turn sour. Kyouko had nothing against sour candy, but she'd much rather this girl stay sugary sweet until the Phantom chasing her was dead — then she could do whatever she wanted for all Kyouko cared.

"Comparing her to food already, are you, Sakura Kyouko? I see... Hahaha...!"

Kyouko grit her teeth. She hadn't meant it like that...! Damn this Phantom! Shaking her head, the girl offered her hand to the blue haired girl. She needed to get this show on the road. Sticking around here was just asking for trouble, after all.

"So, uh... You." It occurred to her she had no idea what the girl's name was. If she was going to be sticking around, she should at least get some basic info down. Figure out what Incubus might try to use against her and all of that. "What're you doing out in the middle of the night? It's kinda late for a kid like you, isn't it? Don't you have school?"

Sayaka stared, her mouth falling open as the strange girl asked her the most unexpected thing she could have asked. There was nothing else she could do but gape.

First of all, this girl couldn't be more than a year older than her anyway! Two years, tops, and that was pushing it! From a "developmental" standpoint, Sayaka was easily the older looking of the two anyway!

"Who are you calling 'kid'?!" Sayaka finally cried out defensively, instinctively pushing her chest out in a show of pride — then deflating somewhat as she recalled her earlier thoughts about that area. Instead, she placed one hand on her hip and jabbed an extended index finger towards the redhead, which made the other girl grit her teeth. "You're not that much older looking than I am!"

Now Kyouko was just annoyed. Here she was trying to make small talk, trying to get to know this stupid girl that she didn't even care about, and this brat had the gall to get angry with her? Rubbing a hand through her hair, clearly frustrated, Kyouko smacked the girl's outstretched hand away from her. She would have almost been more grateful for one of those sappy "my hero!" types than this!

"So what? You've probably never had to worry about a thing in your life, right? You've probably never seen the real world as it is once — age is all relative, ya know? What matters is experience." Starting to sound cocky, as if she was proud of all of the rotten things she had been through that had brought her to this point, Kyouko popped out a stick of pocky and stuck it into her smirking mouth. "You're a baby compared to me. You should be grateful."

Surprisingly, Kyouko didn't get a rise out of the girl, like she had expected to. For some reason, she felt like she wanted to fight this girl — then again, she had wanted that even when she had been following her before, hadn't she? Hadn't she thought about how ignorant this girl probably was before...? Yeah, she had, hadn't she? So...

So she was just projecting, wasn't she? She didn't know anything about this stupid girl, and...

None of that seemed to matter now. Not with the way the blue haired schoolgirl was looking at her.

Kyouko knew what came next. After the look that was on her face now, there was only one thing that could possibly follow the girl's current expression.

Pity.

Kyouko hated pity.

"So... You don't go to school, huh..." Damn. Kyouko could see how the gears were turning in the girl's head. She was putting things together. Kyouko's stupid tirade, her question, her clothes... Of course this prissy schoolgirl would just see her as another dirty street rat now that she had enough information to go off of. It wasn't like it wasn't true. She was just a dirty street rat that happened to have a magic lion inside of her.

In another life, with more on the line, with more information known, with greater idealogical differences on the table, with more than a simple rude exchange of words between them, things might have played out rather differently for these two girls right then. In another life, with worlds of values and ideals between them, this very well could have turned into a brawl — a fight to the death, even.

This life, however, was not another life. This life was this life.

To Kyouko's surprise, the girl laughed. It wasn't a nice laugh. Even with as little as Kyouko knew this girl, she could easily tell that much. It was a harsh laugh — a mocking laugh.

But it wasn't a laugh meant for Kyouko.

It was a laugh meant for herself.

"Look at me... Sorry." The girl shook her head, and Kyouko was quickly realizing she would have much preferred pity to the expression on the girl's face now — she practically felt pity for the sorry thing she was looking at now! "I can't talk. You're totally right. I'm all worked over something stupid, something I could have even stopped myself, and now I might even die over it. But it's nothing, really... Isn't it?"

Kyouko glanced away. She didn't feel guilty per se... After all, chances were that the girl was right. Kyouko had thought as much earlier when she had been following the girl, hadn't she? That was just the tough truth of the world. Good on her for figuring it out, right?

On the other hand, she hadn't thought the girl would feel guilty about it. Not a lot of people these days did, all too eager to stay in their comfort zones and feel pity or disgust. But this girl? She'd even apologized — Kyouko was the one who had insulted her, was she seriously too stupid to remember that?

"H-Hey, I didn't..." Kyouko bit her lip. She was terrible with people, especially when it came to situations like this. Kicking her foot, her shoe making a scraping sort of noise against the group, Kyouko scratched the back of her head before stuffing her hands into her pockets awkwardly. She had already tried to break the ice with food, pulling that move again would just look half-assed — and it totally would be anyway. "I don't know what your damn life is like, okay? You can't know about anybody else's but your own, so you shouldn't feel upset about it if somebody's got one you think is 'worse' or something. Just worry about your own problems."

Sayaka looked at the redhead.

This could be an act, she realized. The monster had gotten her wary of everything now, and the girl had certainly given her more than enough reason with one statement alone to feel suspicious... And yet...

"I'm Sayaka. Miki Sayaka." Before she knew it, Sayaka had offered her name to the stranger. She was still feeling a lot of things, but for now... She wanted to give this girl a chance. And if it worked out badly for her, then maybe the monster inside of her just deserved to live more than she did. "I'm out this late because of... Well, I guess you'd call it baby stuff."

This time, as the blue haired girl — Sayaka, Kyouko now knew — laughed at herself, there was a little humor in it. It was still a pretty nasty thing to hear, but Kyouko had heard worse enough that it didn't bother her all that much. The fact that there was some humor in it now set her mind at ease somewhat, and she was able to shift into a more confident position as well.

She was making progress now. That was what counted here. In the end, this was about sticking it to Incubus — that was all. That was what it should have been about from the start. She had already gotten too invested, too upset. Time to fix that.

"I'm Kyouko. And, uh, forget about that." Kyouko waved her own "baby stuff" comment, and thus the girl's following one, off dismissively with her hands. She didn't want that kind of thing to be what the girl associated her with anyway. It'd make her look just as bad as those petty schoolgirls, and if this one was trying to move on already, she damn well could do the same too. "Anyway, I was following you earlier and I saw that you were upset before the Phantom got you again, so that-"

The girl, Sayaka, gasped, interrupting both Kyouko and her train of thought.

"So you are a stalker!"

"Wh- I am not! I was waiting for the Phantom, the Phantom!"

"Well you sure took your time about it, Miss Stalker."

Kyouko groaned, her hand coming to her face instinctively. Sayaka couldn't help but laugh in response — a real laugh this time. To her surprise, Kyouko found herself following suit. For a moment, despite the misgivings both girls shared about the other, they had something in common. It wasn't a bad feeling.

This was turning out to be a new experience for both of them, it seemed.

And while Sayaka still didn't trust the girl, not by a long shot... She could still give her a chance. She could certainly give her that much, at least for now.

"You can always try for the Gate though. Maybe I won't stop you. That just makes two Phantoms for me instead of one. I was getting hungry anyway."

She just hoped she wasn't serving herself to the girl on a silver platter by doing it.

Slipping into the hospital was easy for the likes of Incubus. He'd done it before, after all, and it was getting to the point that he might as well call it a side job. The nurses were no problem for him to slip past, and that meant he could just waltz right over to the room he was seeking if he wanted to. To his surprise — delight, even — he was on the same floor he had been on when he had snuck in earlier. Imagine if that Kamijou boy was a Phantom too...!

"Now that would be lucky...! Heh..."

As he mulled over that delightful possibility, Incubus frowned. He continued to walk towards the source of where he had sensed the Phantom, but quickly began to realize that the likelihood of that being the case was slim to none, at least based on whatever had brought him here now. It didn't make sense. Even if that Kamijou boy was a Phantom, there was no way Incubus would have known about it — and certainly not from the distance he had felt it. Not when they were talking about a boy. Unless this was a rare, one in a million case in which a female Phantom had emerged from a male host, it simply wasn't possible.

The Phantom began to slow his sneaking footsteps, eventually coming to a halt just outside of the room where the power he had felt should have come from — not the Kamijou boy's room, though that was expected at this point. Incubus may have been a lecherous sort of Phantom, but he wasn't a stupid one. Despite the fact that their kind was essentially an endangered species, there were plenty of Phantoms who cared little for others. The fact was, when it came to male Phantoms and female Phantoms he couldn't "play" with, he himself could be considered among them.

He wasn't a particularly strong Phantom — he was plenty skilled in the areas he was skilled in, but pure strength was just simply not his forte. On the other hand...

He had been on this floor before when he had been tailing the Gate.

He had been on this floor tonight.

He had passed almost every room on this floor more than once.

He had passed this room more than once.

He hadn't noticed anything.

He had never noticed anything like what he had felt earlier coming from here.

If there was a Phantom in here strong enough to catch his attention from so far away, yet clever enough or with enough power in other areas to avoid his detection until now, even when he had been just a short distance away... Wasn't coming here just a bit risky?

If there was one thing Incubus never failed to revel in, it was that he had been incredibly lucky until now. But could that have only been thanks to his only adversary being an incompetent wizard? Not only that, he had a gaggle of Phantom honeys and an impressive set of skills for all sorts of occasions.

Potentially ticking off a Phantom of this caliber, though... That wasn't really one of those occasions.

Incubus considered his options. He could chance it and see how far his luck would take him, or he could ditch this place and try to see if any other Phantoms were lurking around the city. It wasn't impossible — he wasn't opposed to working with a guy if it truly had to come down to that, it just wouldn't be nearly as fun for him — and the Phantom in question wouldn't be nearly as easy to manipulate. He could always run away, too. Go find a new Gate somewhere else. Start over where the wizard wouldn't even think to look.

In the end, it actually didn't seem like much of a choice at all.

After all, if Incubus had learned anything about himself after these past few conquests of his, it was that he was one lucky son of a gun. Having a pretty Phantom who could pack enough of a punch for both of them, if it all went well for him, would be way more helpful than some temporary truce with a random thug — and give up? That was out of the question.

Already picturing what kind of beauty he was about to meet, Incubus shot a glance at the nameplate next to the door — no doubt the name of the human who had given birth to the Phantom he was about to grace with his presence. He raised an eyebrow as he read it, unsure if he had misread it... Nope, it was right. Weird name. For a human anyway.

Incubus shrugged after a moment more of considering the peculiar name. It wasn't his problem, and he doubted such a strong Phantom particularly cared much about the name of the human she had been born. If she did? Well...

"Still not my problem. The honey I'm about to meet must have a nicer name than 'Akemi Homura,' and that's the only name I want to know."

And with that, the Phantom opened the door.

It was time to see if his luck would last.