Chapter Two: Folded in Flowerless Fields

By: ZipCode

The sound died away to nothing and then the stillness after nothing before Sayaka quietly summed up all her thoughts:

"Fudge."

Kyouko stifled a sigh.

She really was going to have to teach that girl how to swear.

"I don't get it," Sayaka said as they raced down the stairs, landing to landing, flashlight lighting the stairwell up erratically. Even the emergency lights were offline. "A witch is supposed to be in – in that other place, right?"

Kyouko grimaced, clutching her spear more tightly. "Something's different."

Damnit. She had thought they were past all this crap.

Guess not.

Maybe they were dead. Maybe this was some form of Hell or Limbo or Purgatory where all they'd do is what they did in life. Battle witches forever and ever and ever as punishment for their sins-

She chuckled darkly.

"Kyouko?"

The redhead waved it off. "Was thinking of my dad."

That pretty much killed the conversation, which wasn't what she had intended at all, oops. It did make her think about that dream though – the one she'd had just before waking. Had that… had that been heaven? Kyouko shook her head. No use wondering about that now.

Especially since, well, Dad probably wasn't in the same place Mom and Anko were. Not if the good book were right about things.

The two of them went from landing to landing, dashing down eight stories in half the time it would have taken the elevator to go straight down. They probably could have made the jump out the window but it was best to be miserly with ones energies.

"Maybe this is all a dream," Sayaka said musingly as they hit the ground floor.

"Shush." Kyouko warned. At the other girl's inquisitive glance: "Security in the lobby. I'll put him to sleep but it's better if he doesn't see us at all."

It wasn't illegal to leave at odd hours, per se, but according to the fridge no one had glimpsed a certain redhead in at least two months. She was still a little confused as to why they'd just disconnected the utilities and not thrown out her stuff out and gotten a new tenant but supposed there was some clause in the lease she'd signed that had forbidden it.

Lucky for them.

In retrospect though, she really should have taken the fire escape.

Oh well. Live and learn.

The door connecting the stairwell to the ground floor opened smooth as a whisper. Kyouko poked her head out, flashlight having been clicked off on the landing before, but either the guard either wasn't using his flashlight or his batteries had gone dead. She could perceive vague outlines of the receptionist's desk – thank god for this city's fixation with windows – but little else.

She took a tentative step forward.

Crap wooden paneling creaked as she put her weight down. Damn. Motioning Sayaka to stay still, she scurried forwards as fast as she could, almost hugging the floor she made her way forwards.

She was nearly there when a crash and yelp sounded from behind her. It was followed by a piercing: "Ow."

Well, there went Plan A.

Throwing caution to the wind, Kyouko threw herself forwards the last few feet, prepared to use a 'forget-me' spell (which, admittedly, was a sharp blow to the back of the head)-

Only to discover that the security desk was devoid of its attendant.

"Huh," she muttered. Then, on a whim, she turned the flashlight back on.

Sayaka rubbed her head where she had fallen.

It was silly – Kyouko had told her to stay behind but in the leering gloom her thoughts had started to bottleneck. Alone again, alone, alone-

Perhaps it had something to do with having been a witch. Perhaps she wasn't the person she thought it was. In any case, something in her just couldn't take being alone again, even if she wasn't really alone.

Sayaka wasn't proud of it, but she panicked. After opening the door, her sword had snagged onto something and then she'd pitched face-first into a chair or a couch or maybe a potted plant. There had been a crash, the ringing sound of metal spinning on wood and then her head had smacked onto the ground, hard enough to draw blood and elicit a piercing: "Ow."

She lay there for a few moments, feeling embarrassed.

"Get it together," she grumbled to herself. "Mami wouldn't have gotten scared."

Before her wandering thoughts could get started on the subject of Mami – her inspiration, personal hero and so on – the red of Kyouko's flashlight winked back on existence, throwing everything into sharp contrast.

Then Kyouko started swearing.

After a moment, Sayaka noticed it.

Dust. Dust everywhere.

"No one's been here for months," Kyouko declared, leaning heavily on her spear as Sayaka approached.

Sayaka nodded wordlessly: she'd seen the dust too. Kyouko's room could be excused, even the stairwell – but at the receptionist's desk and in the lobby? Where, presumably, people passed day after day?

Something here was very wrong.

"I'll check out the witch," Sayaka declared, surprised that her voice was so steady. "You-"

"Wherever we're going we go together," Kyouko warned her.

"Alright," Sayaka agreed, doing her best to hide her relief. "What do you think we should do, then?"

There was a pause where the redhead stroked her chin.

"We'll need a grief seed eventually," Kyouko stated, starting to pace. "But we'll also need to double-check what happened to the apartment… and then," she grimaced, "ditto with the city."

Sayaka gawked at the enormity of the scale involved. "You think-"

"I don't know what to think," Kyouko countered. "But we're alive when we should be dead… and now this…" she gestured towards the dust,"I think anything's possible." The redhead faced her. "So, boss, what are our marching orders?"

Sayaka blinked at the unexpected curveball. "I'm not the boss."

"No, but you're definitely the hero," came the teasing reply. "So, marching orders?"

Sayaka tried to think it through logically but found her thoughts spinning in odd circles. "We… umm…" Well, they definitely needed more information. Maybe there was a logical reason for the apartment – or even sections of the city - to be abandoned even if they were relatively intact. Gas leak, biological hazards, terrorist threat and so on.

But that scream they had heard… and the lack of personnel dedicated to whatever emergency this was…

Odd. Very odd.

Very odd indeed.

Sayaka took a deep breath.

"We heard something-" she couldn't be sure if it was a witch anymore, "scream. That means there's definitely someone else alive out there, possibly in need of help." She straightened her shoulders. "We'll go find them, first."

Kyouko gave her a hearty slap on the back that nearly pitched Sayaka face first into the door, betraying the redhead warrior's nervousness. "Sounds like a plan."

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing on the streets. No cars, no late-night revellers, no street workers, no working streetlights – nothing. Just the pale glow of their soul gems and the sound of their feet hitting asphalt and Kyouko's laboured breathing.

After a few minutes, the redhead called for a halt, jamming the butt of her spear on the ground and taking in deep, gasping breaths.

"I'm tired," she growled, making it sound as if it were a personal affront, somehow.

Sayakaglanced at Kyouko's soul gem but it shone bright red without a hint of darkness.

Actually, it was a lot brighter than she remembered it being. They didn't even need to use the flashlight, which was good because batteries might be even scarcer than grief seeds.

"Do you want to go more slowly?" Sayaka offered. Kyouko grimaced and shook her head. "Nah. I'll keep up. Go on."

They ran but at a more sedate pace. Sayaka was worried about the sheen of sweat on Kyouko's face but the determined line that her mouth had settled in didn't look like it would brook too many more questions. At least not when it came to the senior puella magi's abilities.

Sayaka briefly wondered why she wasn't affected in a similar way but then dismissed the thought. It really could be anything.

And – actually – yes, if she focused on it she did feel a little pain. But it disappeared just as quickly as it came.

They traveled a few blocks at an easier pace before Sayaka stopped. After a few steps, so did Kyouko.

"Wha-"

"You're getting worse," Sayaka pointed out. Kyouko tried to laugh it off but Sayaka shook her head. "We'll walk."

For a moment it looked like the redhead would argue but then she deflated. "I… yeah, alright." She rubbed her calves and admitted, between panting breaths: "I don't know what's wrong with me today."

What if…

Hmmm.

Kyouko seethed.

What the heck! What the bloody heck. Tired? Her? She had run from her city to this one in the span of a single night. That had been a distance of no less than forty kilometres. Now, after a few blocks her legs were trying to crap out on her? And there was a stitch in her side? And sweat was stinging her eyes?

As an okama had said in an old cartoon: stop joooking around.

Kyouko stumbled and nearly couldn't catch herself – purely on reflex the butt of her spear hit the ground, shattered through an inch of concrete and stabilized her. She cursed again.

"Damnit, damnit, damnit."

"Are you okay?" Sayaka asked, sounding worried.

She should have probably felt angry at that tone in her voice – solicitous, caring, mothering – but somehow found it comforting instead. "I'm fine," Kyouko said gruffly.

It didn't look like Sayaka bought that particular line for an instant, but neither did she call her out on it, which was all that Kyouko desired.

Come on you stupid legs, she said mentally. Come on. Start working again. A godsdamned normal human could do this. You're freakin' magic.

Perhaps she should have been thankful that her legs didn't reply. Then she really would have been certain she'd gone off the deep end and was more or less screwed.

As it was, she remained pissed that her legs decided to take a breather without her consent and collapsed into jelly. She slid down her spear and onto her knees.

"Kyouko-!"

"Gimme," Kyouko said taking in a deep breath, "a sec."

A sec quickly became a minute. Then two.

Her heartbeat steadied and then she finally climbed back to her feet. "Hoo. That was weird. Let's-"

Another scream pierced through the still air.

It took a moment for Kyouko to realize that this one wasn't a death cry.

"Leave," Kyouko barked.

The shadows before them warped and twisted unnaturally. Sayaka swallowed heavily before moving in front of the redhead, sword held up in an en guard position.

"Sayaka," Kyouko growled.

"Wherever we're going, we go together, remember?" Sayaka said, a lot more confidently than she felt. The grip on her sword was slick with sweat and she realized in a moment of clarity that she was a lot more terrified of losing Kyouko than losing her own life.

Huh.

A shadow stabbed forwards, aiming to gut her and then there was no more time for epiphanies.

Shadows reaching, grasping, cutting. Perhaps it was the night that made it seem larger than it was, or perhaps it was merely her imagination – in any case, no matter how she slashed and hacked, the darkness continued to attack without respite. It felt cold too, like being cut with the sharpest of ice.

At the same time, though, it was weak. Extremely weak. They felt like paper cuts.

Which was good because although Sayaka had never had the physical strength to equal Kyouko, before her 'death' she had been considerably stronger than her frame would have allowed for.

Now she felt like a thirteen year old waving around a sword she didn't actually know how to use.

Kyouko cursed.

Stupid-stupid-stupid. Did Sayaka think she was going to sacrifice herself or something? She would have set up her seal and then retreated. This was not the place to be fighting witches willy-nilly. Especially since she was weakened and Sayaka was – despite being lovably heroic – kind of crap at killing witches.

Like right now. The teal-haired girl was already surrounded by the grasping shadows, sword awkwardly swinging up and down, more like a hammer than a sword. And since they were so close to each other a chain-link seal would separate her from the two of them, but not one from the other.

Kyouko briefly wished she had something to eat. Sugar always helped with thinking. She shoved the strap of the flashlight into her mouth and hung on.

Alright, focus.

Sayaka in the middle of some weird living shadow. Shadows, barely visible, streaming towards her too. Not an ideal position.

Was this a familiar? But why wasn't there a barrier? And why hadn't her soul gem tipped them off?

Oh, screw this noise.

Her spear broke into pieces, the chain that connected each wrapped firmly around Sayaka before ripping the Puella Magi away from the weaponized shadows. Punching her right hand into the palm of her left she summoned up a barrier of red chains as soon as the teal-haired girl was free.

... which would have probably worked great if the shadows didn't just start oozing between the links.

Okay, time for a new plan.

Also: hit Sayaka over the head.

"It's weak," Sayaka reported. Kyouko tried not to stare at the multitude of cuts that adorned every visible inch of the sword-wielder. Already they were beginning to close. "Like really, really weak."

"You're not that strong either," Kyouko grumbled, dropping the flashlight back into her hand as she watched the shadows ooze through the links, little by little. Witches normally couldn't get through the seal without taking the entire thing down which lead her to believe that it wasn't exactly a witch.

But the question then became: what the heck was it?

And would it be better to flee or stand and fight?

Kyouko realized where her thoughts were going and had to chuckle. Like that was even a question. She was barely up to the challenge of walking and she was planning to flee? Dream on, dream on. Sayaka could probably get away – as for a certain redhead, she'd have to be carried.

Stand and fight it was. She wrapped the flashlight's strap around her wrist a few times and hoped it would hold before flipping her spear around a few times.

And although she owed Sayaka a slap on the back of the head, there was also the chance that this was going to be dangerous.

"Sayaka... maybe you should run-"

Sayaka frowned before holding forth her sword, smiling. "Together, remember?"

Kyouko frowned and then had to laugh before touching her spear to the sword. "Together."

Author's Notes: Do you guys prefer faster updates and shorter chapters or longer chapters and slower updates? I feel like I'm just shoving half chapters atcha. Also, minor edit to the last chapter due to formatting issues.