Warnings: Toys, bondage, hate sex, dubcon (this chapter's going to be fuuuuuun)

Part II

Chapter 7

Every step was painful. Kyoko focused as hard as she could on not letting the tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes fall. She wasn't that weak.

She wouldn't let a traitorous bitch like her have that kind of power over her.

Out of all of her emotions, anger was the one she had the most difficult controlling for as long as she could remember. She was quick to snap, which she knew was something she should work on but never had the time or willpower to.

She was never quick to cry though.

It took a lot to make her cry.

Anger could at least bring out something fierce, like a warrior. Sadness and crying were just for snivelling little girls.

She wasn't a little girl. Not anymore.

It drove her crazy that she could have this kind of effect on her.

She called Yuma to go hunting.

She wanted to kill something that was sadder than her.

Every step was painful. Every breath was painful.

Everything was painful and everything hurt.

Sayaka had always sensed that Kyoko had a mean side to her. The girl had never really shown it though.

Her actions were cruel. Her words were crueler.

She wouldn't have thought doing something like that would have made her mentor so angry. Lady did it all the time.

Maybe this is going to make her feel like she has to do things too. She'll be the only one not putting out now.

Sayaka sobbed a bit harder. She was selfish too.

Nothing but a stupid, selfish, conniving prostitute.

Her phone rang. Hitomi was calling her for the fifth time in ten minutes. She ignored it to focus on the increasingly laborious task of walking.

I should go to a hospital.

Her phone buzzed with a missed call indicator. Then it buzzed with a new text.

"I really appreciate everything you've done for us." It said.

Sayaka pulled at her sky coloured hair, threatening to rip them out of their roots. She had already thrown the disgusting yellow thing in her bag, where parts of it swayed limply out of the side.

Why are you so nice to me? I don't deserve it! I don't deserve anything!

She didn't deserve anything good, anyways.

The pain she felt inside her vagina, like something had been torn. She deserved that.

The pain she felt in the back of her head from where she had been smashed into a dumpster. She deserved that.

The pain she felt in her chest, where each breath felt like her lungs were being gouged by her ribcage. She deserved that.

The pain she felt, like she was worthless, pathetic, idiotic, and an overall bad person: she deserved that.

She called Kyousuke. She had to find out exactly where he was if she was going to go fetch him for her well-intentioned, agoraphobic best friend; her best friend who was smarter than her and stayed inside. There were bad things out here, and Sayaka had dived straight into every single one that she could.

"What do you want?" Kyousuke's voice muttered. He sounded tired, resentful and subdued. She'd never heard him like that before; not since the accident.

"Are you-" Her ribs hurt like she got stabbed when she tried to speak and walk at the same time. She stood still to wheeze for a few moments and tried again. "Are you alright?" It was a croak, but at least it was comprehensible.

"Of course I'm alright. I'm alright compared to you. I'm alright compared to all of you."

While in this specific situation, he was probably right in that he was better off than her simply because nature gave him the genetic advantage of not being a total fuckup, she doubted he meant it in that way.

"That still doesn't sound like you're alright."

She decided that talking quietly didn't hurt as much. She didn't have to breathe as deeply. Steady, shallow breaths were better.

"But I'm not allowed to ever say anything different, right? I mean, I'm not the one who saw all of the 'monsters eat my classmates'." His tone sounded like he was mocking her and Hitomi. It hurt too. She deserved it but Hitomi didn't. "I'm not the one who nearly killed himself doing drugs, so I'm not allowed to hate myself or my life. I can't remember the thing that destroyed my life, so really I have nothing to be upset about right? I'm so lucky. You all keep telling me I'm so goddamn lucky!" He hissed.

"You don't sound like you at all. What happened?" Sayaka strongly suspected he had been having a fight with Nakazawa. They both brought out the demons in each other. She wouldn't put it past Nakazawa to say things like that to him either if he was high on something or in withdrawal.

"What happened? You think the only reason I could be saying this to you is because something must have happened? I'm just sick of being a pussy all the time Sayaka! Is that so hard for you to believe? Of course it probably is! You have your head so far up your ass all the time that you can't even see anyone around you! No one else can have any problems besides you! It's all about you!" He was shouting. She had to pull the earpiece away from her because it was making her head throb worse.

"Wha? Kyousuke, what's wrong with you?" She had to remind herself to keep her voice down. Have I been that bad?

"I'm sick of your shit! I'm sick of Hitomi's shit! I'm sick of Nakazawa's shit! I'm sick of my father's shit! And most of all…I'm sick of me. I'm sick of my life. I'm so pathetic." She couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying…or both. "Look at me. I'm a cripple. The only thing I was ever really good or special at was the violin and I can't even do that anymore. I haven't been able to do anything for myself for over six years. I haven't ever been able to do anything for myself. I never even got the chance to try."

Now he was clearly crying.

"Kyousuke…" She whispered. She doubted he could even hear her.

"I'm done with my life. Goodbye Sayaka." He hung up.

He hung up.

He said that and he just hung up.

"Kyousuke?" She asked louder. She called him back.

He didn't answer.

Hitomi had said he was near the bridge. He was only about a ten minute walk away.

She didn't think that would be fast enough.

She pushed herself off the wall of the building she had been using to support herself. She ran as fast as she could.

Her lungs felt like they were going to explode. She couldn't even tell if she was running in a straight line.

Everything hurt so fucking bad.

But it sounded like he hurt worse than her, and he was about to do something really, really stupid.

"Are you alright?" Yuma's face was contorted with worry. Kyoko had once heard an old wives' tale that if you kept the same expression on your face for too long, it would get stuck like that.

If that was true, Yuma had better be careful.

"I'm fine." Her voice broke when she said that. "Nothing a good witch hunt can't help." Yuma's eyes widened in shock.

"Did you have another magic attack? I brought some extra grief seeds." She had already pulled one out and offered it to her before she finished her sentence.

"No, nothing like that. Just…yeah. Found out a friend was a backstabbing bitch. Tale as old as time." She tried to shrug it off. She just looked meek pretending it didn't hurt.

"You had a friend?" Good point. She never really was a friend was she? More of a co-worker or showmate or something.

"You're a brat." Her voice had no bite.

Yuma took on a more sympathetic disposition.

"There's this girl at school I had kind of been becoming friends with. A girl in my art class, but not the club. She and I had been having lunch together every day and she even invited me out to the movies. I was actually really excited for it, because I've never really had any friends other than you. My Mom never let me go out when I was little."

Kyoko wasn't sure where she was going with this, but listened attentively and waited patiently. Yuma looked down and chuckled mirthlessly.

"That night when I got beat up by the race car witch, we actually had been planning on going out. I found her and she was on the phone with some of her other friends. Turns out she'd heard a rumour that people who were picked to go to New York could decide who could go in their place if they couldn't. Someone told her I was too poor to go, so she started hanging out with me so I could give her my ticket.

"I told her to leave me alone after that. Kurasaki-sensei found out about it after I asked if I could give her my ticket. The teacher called her parents; she got grounded and couldn't go to the school dance. Now she's started some rumour that I'm not a virgin and I've been hooking up with guys to get enough money to go. I never really talked to a lot of people at school, but now a lot of them really won't talk to me." She put her hands in her pocket and shrugged meekly. "And a lot of the ones who do talk to me, I wish wouldn't." She added with a cringe as an afterthought.

Kyoko didn't feel sad after that. At first she felt shocked.

Then she felt angry; her good old happy medium.

"Who is this bitch? C'mon, what's her name?"

"Why do you need to know?" Yuma fired back. It didn't look like that had been the reaction she had been hoping for.

"Because I want to kick her ass, that's why."

"Kyoko, it's fine. She's just a stupid kid. She's not going to get to go anyways, so it doesn't matter."

"Hell no it doesn't not matter! She obviously hasn't learned anything and now she's made things worse for you!"

"I can handle it. This isn't that big of a deal. It's just a stupid rumour."

"Fine, we'll compromise. I'll kick her ass a little. Just a little." Kyoko made a gesture with her index finger and thumb while squinting to accentuate that it would be 'just a little'.

If the girl had been a magical girl, she would have royally whooped her ass without any restraint.

"I'm fine. Sorry I told you." Yuma rolled her eyes.

"No, you should be sorry you didn't tell me sooner. This must have been going on for weeks! Why didn't you say anything?" Kyoko's frustration turned on Yuma.

"You already had so many things to worry about."

Kyoko felt sad again. She sighed and hung her head in aggravated defeat.

"I've been ignoring you, huh?"

They walked side by side down the flooding streets. Yuma shrugged.

"It's okay. You've been busy."

"No, it's not okay. You don't deserve that. You don't deserve any of this." She gestured between Yuma and herself.

"What do you mean 'this'?" Yuma copied Kyoko's gesture. "I don't deserve to be with you?"

"Nope. You don't deserve to be stuck with someone you sold your soul for who ignores you. That ain't right."

"I'm happy here."

"You shouldn't be."

They walked in uncomfortable silence.

"Really, you shouldn't be. I want you to do better than I did, but you're always okay with just settling. It doesn't matter if this is better than what you had before; it's still not good."

"I heard someone say that appreciation is the key to happiness."

My father said that too. "In your case, that's the key to being a pushover. You can do so, so much better than what you've got."

"If it makes you feel any better, I am doing a lot better than you. When you were thirteen, you were a homeless dropout that swindled your way into hotel rooms and stole food. You were a stripper by the time you were fifteen. Now you're really, really shady. It's going to be pretty hard to beat that." Yuma grinned.

This was probably the first time Kyoko actually laughed about how much of a failure she was, and not in an insane way.

"You've got a point there." She ruffled Yuma's messy hair. It was never very orderly on the best of days, but the rain always made it worse.

"Why did you try to give that girl your ticket?"

Yuma kept her eyes downcast.

"I couldn't go, and I figured if she wanted to go so badly that she would waste her time on me, she deserved it."

Kyoko barely restrained herself from throttling the girl.

"Hey now, that girl is lucky you wasted your time on her. If she really wanted to go on the trip, she should have joined the art club. You're a great person to be around. You're caring, fun, and accepting. Anyone should be happy that you spent time with them. Why don't you think that?"

"I think it said in a movie once that parents always think things like that about their kids."

"Well I'm not your mother so the point still stands."

"You basically are in a weird, demented way."

"You still haven't answered my question."

Yuma sighed in defeat. She had been trying to dodge the question. She shrugged.

Kyoko walked into her and nudged her gently with her elbow. "Come on. I can tell you have an answer. Spit it out. I promise I won't ride your ass too hard for what you say." She already suspected what it was. Yuma sighed again.

"There's no reason for anyone to want to spend time with me. I don't even understand why you do."

If Kyoko could make a second wish, she would wish that Yuma had been born into a different family: a good family that actually deserved her. Not that cunt of a mother and dead beat of a father she had.

She would wish for that even before taking back her own.

She hoped her mother and Momo wouldn't resent her too much for feeling that way.

Kyoko slung an arm around Yuma's shoulders and leaned their heads together. She wanted to say something perfect to make the pain go away, but she was never really good with things like that.

"You're my Miss Poofy Pants. That's why."

"You suck, Kyoko." Yuma smiled.

Are you alright?

Sayaka kept asking that question to her friend who wasn't there; who wasn't in front her; who she had no idea where he was; who sounded like he was about to kill himself.

The thought made her sick.

Or maybe that was just the combination of sprinting with badly injured ribs.

Probably a combination.

"Kyousuke!" She tried to yell out. It came out as a strangled gargle. It frustrated her that she couldn't yell louder.

She was coming up to the bridge. She could see it just a less than a kilometer ahead of her.

It was deserted.

Goddammit Hitomi, this is a terrible time to be wrong for the first time in your life!

She closed her eyes to try to focus on running faster. She had to get there. She just had to get there.

"I'm coming Kyousuke. I'm coming. Please don't do anything stupid, I'm coming. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." She wheezed to herself, tears streaming down her face.

"What good will you coming do? You've never been able to do anything right, have you? Why should this be any different?"

"I know. I know. I just…" The tears came harder.

"You heard him. You caused his pain. It's your fault. You hurt everyone around you, don't you?"

"I know." It was getting harder to breathe.

"You should do everyone a favour and just kill yourself. They'd be better off without you. You should have died instead of Madoka."

"I-" She snapped her eyes open. She looked around her in shock.

Where am I?

The buildings around her looked like adorable huts that could have been found in a German child's play set or a fantasy-themed fair for young children, but there was something off about them.

This place looked overly cheerful; wrongfully so.

It had just been raining, but suddenly the sky was a pure, aquamarine blue. There were clouds that looked like marshmallows. There was a bright yellow sun with a smile on its face. Its jagged teeth were disconcerting.

The road was filled with pastel pink, blue and purple cobblestones. They wound through the houses, leading to a little brown bridge over a Caribbean blue river with a gel-like consistency that didn't seem to be flowing anywhere. Just beyond the bridge was a wooden platform at the base of massive house; it was at least one hundred times the size of the huts that surrounded it.

The house looked like a giant cuckoo clock.

She looked more closely at the bridge.

Kyousuke's wheel chair was there.

Kyousuke wasn't.

"Kyousuke!" She tried again to yell. He was here. She knew it.

There was something so disturbing about this place; so unsettling. It seems so wrong, unnatural, and yet familiar.

There was something about this place that reminded her of the attack on Mitakihara Middle School six years ago.

She was terrified.

"Is it time? Is it time? Is it time?" She heard harmonized childish robotic voices ask, surrounding her.

They looked like life-size villager dolls holding giant mallets that were the same size as they were. They had the same jagged smile as the sun.

"Is it time?" The first one smashed its mallet into the ground. Sayaka had to jump out of the way to avoid it. The dolls had no knee joints, so they had difficulty moving and turning, but they tried to face her.

Ticktickticktocktockticktocktocktocktickticktickticktickticktocktocktocktockticktocktocktockticktickticktock.

The disjointed ticking sound of a clock sounded so wrong. It had no rhythm and it went way too fast.

"It's time! It's time! It's time!" The robotic voices cheered as the dolls all fell backwards. "It's time! It's time! It's time!"

Time for what? What's it time for? Sayaka's instincts were screaming at her to run away. There was something wrong about this place; and whatever it was time for, she didn't want to be there.

The sun's smile turned into an angry frown and it turned into a sort of gravel grey colour. The clouds turned red. The sky turned black.

She couldn't see anything other than the sun and clouds. Everything else disappeared around her.

She heard a swooshing sound behind her.

She whipped her head around to see a pendulum swing just inches away from her. It looked like there was a video clip of her mother sobbing while drinking a bottle of wine on her own and eating chips. She was waiting by a phone.

"Come home, Sayaka. Please." She whimpered pathetically.

It passed. Another pendulum swung to her right.

This time, it was her father sobbing into his hands at work. She noticed how grey his hair was. She never knew he even had any.

"Please stop doing this to yourself, Fuzz. Please." He whispered while tugging on his hair.

It passed. Another pendulum swung above her. Hitomi had declared she was going to confess to Kyousuke because she wanted to die soon anyways.

It passed. Another swung behind her. Kyousuke was in a hospital bed and had just smashed the Walkman she had brought with a rare classic CD inside. "Why are you doing this to me?!"

It passed. Another swung to her left. Nakazawa looked high, way too high. He was choking on vomit. "Help me, Sayaka." He gargled out.

It passed. Another swung by her diagonally. Madoka was thanking her for coming along to help her. A huge piece of wood was shoved through her torso, blood and entrails flying forward.

It passed. Another swung underneath her. Saotome-sensei was being eaten by the worms. "Is there something on my shoulder?"

It passed. Pendulums were swinging all around her.

The baby from the crime scene was crying. Ryo was telling her he was disappointed in her. Kyoko was calling her a whore. Fusao said he had a thing for blondes.

Then they all swung back. The images repeated themselves.

Ccccccuckoo! Ccccccuckoo!

The images repeated themselves faster. The voices were getting louder and more frantic.

Ccccccuckoo! Ccccccuckoo!

"Stop! Stop! Make it stop! Stop! STOP!" She was screaming. Her ribs felt like they were about to burst. She had her eyes squeezed as tightly as she could and covered her ears with her hands.

She could still see the images. She could still hear the voices.

Ccccccuckoo! Ccccccuckoo!

CCCCCCUCKOO! CCCCCCUCKOO!

She collapsed to her knees in tears. "STOP! STOP!"

There was a club or something in front of her. She couldn't see it. She could only see the images and blackness.

She picked it up and swung at the pendulums as they passed.

The destroyed her mother. She destroyed her father. She destroyed Madoka. She destroyed Hitomi. She destroyed Nakazawa. She destroyed Kyousuke. She destroyed Kyoko. She destroyed Saotome-sensei. She destroyed the baby. She destroyed the classmates at Mitakihara Middle School. She destroyed Ryo.

She swung as hard as she could, destroying everything.

Ccccccuckoo…

The maddening cuckoo sound faded away. The sky turned blue again. The sun smiled again.

The village appeared again.

She was still holding her club. She looked down at it.

It was a string of black diamonds, identical to the one she had picked up and used as a weapon at Mitakihara Middle School six years ago.

She let out a bloodcurdling scream, dropping the diamond club to the ground and letting it shatter into diamond pieces. She collapsed and clawed at her head.

"You need to get out of here while you still can Sayaka! It's not too late." An androgynous voice spoke into her mind. Her wet eyes looked up, blinking. She couldn't see clearly past the tears.

There was a white cat in front of her.

"Are you one of the monsters?" She asked, voice raspy and quivering.

"No, Sayaka! I'm Kyubey. You need to run away. It's too dangerous for a regular girl like you to be here. If you turn around, you might be able to make it out of here alive. Only a magical girl should be here." Its white tail swished.

The creature was odd and had red markings on it. It looked like a cat, but it had wing things coming out of its ears. There were gold rings suspending in midair beside them.

What the hell kind of cat is that?

"I'm not a cat. I'm Kyubey. You need to get up and run away now if you want to live."

"You heard that?" She was flabbergasted and terrified. What the fuck is wrong with this place? What the fuck is wrong with ME?

"You're in a witch's labyrinth. The witch is doing this to you. Only a magical girl can defeat a witch. You're not a magical girl. You need to leave now." Kyubey repeated patiently.

Sayaka pushed herself up. Her ribs were hurting even worse now. She had been screaming and running too much.

She saw Kyousuke, crawling on his belly up the stairs to the platform in front of the giant cuckoo clock.

"Kyousuke!" She managed to scream. He didn't hear her.

"It's too late for him. He's too far in. You're not yet. You can still survive, but you have to leave now."

"No, no, I can't leave him. I can't. I WON'T!" She ran through the winding street, getting to the bridge quickly. She grabbed the wheelchair and pushed it over to him.

"Kyousuke! Come on! We need to get out of here!"

"Is it time? Is it time? Is it time?"

The clock started its ticking again.

"You can't escape now, Sayaka. You're too deep. You're both going to die. What a waste." The cat sounded disappointed, though it still looked like it was smiling.

She tried pinching herself. She was digging her nails into her skin, hoping she could make herself wake up. This was just a nightmare, right? This wasn't real.

The robotic dolls were crossing the bridge. There was no way around them. Her instincts were screaming that there was something dangerous about going through the river. This felt real.

She didn't have her gun.

It sunk in.

She was going to die. Kyousuke was going to die.

They were both going to die.

"I want to stop this…I don't want to die. I don't want either of us to die." She whimpered.

"There is one way you could save the both of you." Kyubey offered.

"What? Really? How? What is it? I'll do it! I'll do anything! Please, how can I save us?!" She was frantic. She was desperate. Did the cat have a gun? It seemed weird enough that maybe it could.

"You can make a contract with me and become a magical girl!"

Kyoko decided that she was either insane, stupid, or both.

She was kicking herself for letting things get so bad with Yuma. She hadn't even thought for a second that the girl could be getting bullied.

She still really wanted to kick that bitch's ass.

And Sayaka's. She wanted to kick both of their asses.

Fighting the witch had felt good. It was a strange spiral kind of thing; it looked like a giant spring.

She had to admit: the trampolines in that labyrinth were kind of fun. Yuma thought so too.

They decided to get some takeout, go home, and watch a romantic drama.

Yuma looked content. Kyoko smiled at her.

She knew she had to abandon the church. She had to get out of all of the shit she had gotten herself tied up in.

She strongly considered giving up on the church.

She felt her stomach drop and pressure behind her eyes like she wanted to cry.

She couldn't give up on it.

She hated herself. She was too weak. She couldn't let them go.

She couldn't let her family go like that.

Sayaka decided that she was either insane, stupid, or both.

She was stupid to go to the Kurosawa base. She was stupid to go on any undercover mission without a gun. Hell, she was stupid to come in here.

She was insane because she was stuck in a medieval fantasy German village on crack.

She was stupid and insane for listening to a mutated cat. But she didn't really have any other options.

Maybe Kyoko actually did knock me unconscious when she smashed my head into the dumpster?

"I'm afraid not Sayaka. Do you have a wish? I can grant any wish you have, and in turn you will become a magical girl and fight witches like this one!"

"Okay, fine, I'll do it!" I'll wake up, right? And this will all just be a weird nightmare?

"What is your wish, Miki Sayaka?"

What did she wish for? What did she want?

She thought of the images she saw; the people she loved and the way she either hurt them or failed to help them.

"I wish I could protect the ones I love!" She blurted out.

"Consider it done! Miki Sayaka, accept your soul gem and accept your destiny!"

She couldn't describe how to feel what was happening to her. All she saw was a bright sky-blue light. She was relieved to see it; it was better and more calming than the unnatural aquamarine in this place.

Her chest hurt, from deep within, but it wasn't a physical pain. It was like a spiritual pain.

She accepted it. She had to.

She held the source of the blue light between her hands. It was so warm. It felt right to be touching it. It soothed the ache she felt.

Her ribs no longer hurt. Her head no longer hurt. Her legs no longer felt unsteady.

She felt strong and whole.

The light turned into a beautiful oval gem on a golden base. There was a C-shaped marking on it that reminded her of her old Walkman: the one Kyousuke broke. She'd loved that thing and regretted never being able to find a new one. Music players like iPods just didn't have the same kind of nostalgia to them.

"You should try out your new powers. Just focus on them and they should come out right away."

She wasn't sure how she was supposed to do that, but she tried. She closed her eyes and imagined being strong.

She felt a sort of buzzing sensation and felt a dam inside of her break. It was like waves of energy were pouring out. There were light weights in her hands, and she grabbed them.

She opened her eyes and saw she wasn't wearing the skimpy outfit she left the Kurosawa mansion in.

Her arms were covered in what looked like dark blue knights armour. She held a shield in her left hand and a large, silver sword in her right.

She was surprised by how light they felt. They looked like they should each weigh a tonne.

The sky turned black again. This time she could see through the darkness though.

"It's time! It's time! It's time! It's time!"

The sky turned black but she could still see. The gigantic wooden doors opened. It looked like a replica of one of the villager dolls, but fifty times larger. Its mallet was fifty times bigger too. It moved forward but its feet didn't; it sounded like it was being pulled by gears she couldn't see.

Kyousuke had crawled onto the platform right in front of it. The massive villager stopped.

Sayaka was already running before it raised its mallet. Running felt easy, though a part of her recognized that she had never run this quickly before.

She leapt onto the platform, covering Kyousuke's prone body with her own just as the mallet was coming down. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion.

It was instinctual to raise her left arm, the one with the shield above her. It was awkward lifting it behind her like that. She didn't feel like she had a strong position.

Oh my god we're going to die.

She heard another smaller door open above the massive villager. An angry looking scraggly deformed cuckoo bird emerged.

She could almost feel the air being forced away from her as the mallet came down. She pathetically kept her shield arm up.

It felt like a feather touched her. That was it.

Ccccccu-

A second later, she heard a crash that sounded like a bomb had gone off.

Then there were yellow feathers falling around her.

She looked up and saw the villager was knocked backwards off its feet. Its mallet was embedded in the cuckoo clock, with blood, gears, wood and feathers around it.

The horrible place faded away.

She could feel the rain again. It was dark again. She was laying on top of Kyousuke on the centre of the bridge. She could hear cars rushing by beneath her like nothing had happened.

She looked at her shield. It was the first time she noticed it had the insignia of the Kazamino Police Force on it.

It looked like an ordinary shield.

She adjusted the angle of her arm so the shield was facing up. The rain drops that hit it were projected upwards, far and fast.

"Your best form of magic is defense magic. You made a wish to protect. Your magical powers are based on your wish. Your shield is able to deflect anything with three times as much force as whatever hit it. It will be very useful for fighting witches like the one you just did."

"So that giant villager thing was a witch?"

"No, the bird was. When the mallet hit your shield, it was deflected into the bird. While I am sure it was just a fluke, I must say it was very impressive for your first battle. Here!" Kyubey passed her a black, circular gem that was on top of a long point.

"What's this?"

"It's a grief seed! It's your reward for defeating the witch. You can use it to clean your soul gem after a battle."

"My what?"

Kyubey sighed. Considering the fact that its mouth never moved, it meant it sighed mentally. Sayaka thought that was unnecessary.

"Focus on seeing the blue gem you held earlier."

She obliged and surely enough it materialized in her hands. It looked the exact same as it did before.

"Your magic was an excellent match against that witch, so you didn't really need to use much to win that battle. However, when you do use more magic, your gem will start to go darker. You need to use grief seeds to clean it and keep it bright, or else you'll run out of magic."

"What happens if I run out of magic?"

"You won't be able to be a magical girl anymore."

She imagined running out of magic in the middle of a fight. Just trying to handle the force of that mallet without her shield…she shivered at the thought. She would die in no time.

She looked down at her friend beneath her. He was unconscious but his face was twisted in pain. It hurt her seeing him like that. Was he going to be upset with her when he woke up because she didn't let him get crushed?

"He tried to kill himself. He actually tried to kill himself." She said quietly to herself, trying to let it sink it.

"Not exactly. He has darkness in his soul. Most humans do. Witches are attracted to it, thrive on it and abuse it. The witch in there gave him what's called a witch's kiss; it's a curse. She used it to lure him in. She was going to kill him and then eat his body."

"Oh my god! That's disgusting! Wait, did that witch actually eat people?"

"I would think so. It's been active for a while, from what I could tell. It's a good thing you stopped it!"

"So where are their bodies? I only see Kyousuke and his wheelchair."

"Anything that is dead in the barrier disappears with it unless someone living brings it out. Those bodies will never be found."

Sayaka covered her mouth with her hands. That was terrible!

She wondered how many missing persons cases were from people who had been killed by these witches.

She had a bad feeling; a sinking one in her stomach.

"That statistic…that thirty-five percent of the city's homeless addicts go missing…"

"I imagine the majority of them were killed by witches, yes."

She felt herself crumbling. She was almost trafficked and almost witch food.

No one had even realized how big a problem witches were.

"How is that-"

"Witches hide themselves very well in their labyrinths. Only magical girls know they exist. Even humans who walk into them, like your friend did, who make it out typically don't remember what happened or fear others will believe they are insane, so they say nothing."

"The attack on Mitakihara Middle School six years ago…that was a witch, wasn't it." She said, not really asking a question. Kyubey nodded.

If only I'd had this power back then…it wouldn't have taken anything at all to save her.

"That was my fault more than anything. I had no idea Oriko was trying to kill her; I figured she was aiming for me. I did not take due diligence to secure Madoka's safety."

"You were there?"

"Of course I was! I watch over all magical girls. It's a shame, really. Madoka had the potential to be an excellent magical girl, and so did you. I was too focused on the magical girls who were there. I am very sorry I did not look at you more closely sooner. It could have saved you a lot of grief."

Sayaka didn't have the energy to be irrationally mad.

"It's not your fault. No one did anything right that day. I should have stopped her from going there. That girl shouldn't have killed Madoka in the first place. You were just trying to do your job." She figured she may as well be reasonable. No point in getting upset over something that happened six years ago, and realistically would have been very impressive if he could have stopped that. Hindsight's twenty twenty.

She looked at Kyousuke again. She hadn't moved from her position on top of him.

She remembered the first aid training she had to take at the academy. She started to feel his head and neck for damage or blood.

"You know, you could use your soul gem to check him. You can even heal him too."

"Wait, really? How?"

"Just pull out your soul gem and focus on analyzing his body."

She did, though it seemed odd to her. She couldn't imagine how it could even work.

It did though. It was like magic. She could see his insides light up in a bright, sky blue colour that matched her soul gem. It was like she was taking the most detailed x-ray ever taken in history.

It was beautiful.

She could see that he had no major cuts; just a few scrapes from how he was crawling. She wanted them healed, and immediately they closed up, just by her thinking she wanted them to heal.

She could see his bones; there were no breaks.

She could see all of his organs function normally. She could even see his heart beat steadily and his blood flowing through his arteries

She had never taken any kind of advanced biology or medical training, but she could just tell his brain and other organs were fine. There were beautiful blue branches illuminated, coming down from his head along his spine; his nerves. They created a neat path of branches. It could have been from a forest in a fantasy novel.

They were a dead, grey colour in his arms and legs, particularly at the ends. They looked broken.

And they were. Those were what had given him so much grief for years; what had led to the darkness in his soul; they were what let the witch inside.

She focused on them.

The fine grey ends shifted slightly, connecting with the bright blue. The grey ends started to flood with light.

His hands were quickly glowing cerulean like the rest of his body. His legs took a bit longer, simply because there was so much more.

A bit longer meant they took an extra two minutes.

His whole body glowed blue. There was no dead grey. It was all lively and blue. Just like her-

Her soul gem wasn't the same colour blue. It wasn't dark, but it was just dull.

"What-"

"You just used a fair bit of magic to heal him. Put the grief seed next to soul gem."

She complied. She felt a pleasant feeling of relief spread through her. She exhaled calmly.

Her soul gem returned to the same brilliant blue that his body had a few moments before.

"That was very irresponsible to do when you only had one grief seed. You completely used it up! You'll have to find another witch soon to get another." Kyubey took the frightfully black grief seed and it disappeared into the red marking on his back. Literally; his back had opened up, revealing a void of black and the grief seed disappeared into it.

"What the-" She began disgustedly.

"Another one of my duties is to manage grief seeds that have been fully used. If you tried to use it to clear any other impurities from your soul gem, you risk having the witch rehatch."

She thought of the disturbing village and decided that no, she'd rather not have that come back to life thank you very much. She nodded accepting it.

Kyousuke started to stir. He was waking up.

She was still on top of him.

Blushing furiously, she clumsily scrambled to get off of him and focused on returning to normal. Her shield, sword, and armor disappeared instantaneously. She didn't feel as strong anymore; she felt restrained.

"Kyousuke? Kyousuke can you hear me?" She gently shook his shoulders to get him to come to faster.

"Sa-Sayaka. What happened?"

"You're okay. You're okay, right?" She realized he could probably barely hear her over the rain. His eyes went wide with horror.

"I…oh god I think I tried to-"

"It's okay. It's okay. You're okay." She pulled him up to her in a fierce, tight, protective hug. She broke down and started to cry.

This had been a really, really rough and eventful night.

"Oh god, Sayaka I don't know what came over me. I don't even remember what happened and…I said some terrible things to you and Hitomi. I'm so sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me." He hugged her back, crying too.

She almost missed it. She almost didn't notice it.

His fingers clenched her shoulders tightly as he hugged her.

His fingers moved.

"Kyousuke! Your hands!" She pulled herself away. He looked confused and stared at them, before his jaw went slack in awe.

He could move his fingers. They were obeying every command from his brain to move easily.

Sayaka had healed his hands. The best doctors in Japan said it was medically impossible, and she had healed his hands in minutes.

She felt amazing.

She was amazing.

"Sayaka!" A massive grin broke out his face. "Sayaka!" He just laughed, and smiled wider than she had seem smile in years.

The way he said her name brought back the butterflies that she had felt all those years ago stronger than she'd felt in a long time. She hoped this wasn't just a weird dream.

"Kyousuke." She smiled back, nothing but happiness and adoration and tears of relief in her eyes for her best friend.

Kyoko slept well that night. She agreed to let Yuma stay home the next day for a 'sisters' hang out' kind of thing. They had a marathon of some stupid anime they downloaded illegally (of course), cleaned the apartment, made a nice meal, and went to the arcade. Afterwards, they hunted two witches.

Kyoko didn't have a magic attack.

It was a good day that they both needed.

"I need to ask you something." Kyoko said seriously, after they finished laughing about some stupid joke.

"Sure, what?"

"Did you give up your spot on the trip?"

Yuma looked at her cautiously.

"Not technically. I'd asked but Kurasaki-sensei said she'd only take me off if you said something. She hasn't heard from you, so I'm still on for now."

Kyoko smiled.

"Good. Because you bet your ass you're going on that. I don't care if I have to knock you out before tying you in on that plane. You're going to go, you're going to have a great time, and you're going to do all sorts of modern art bullshit."

"No, I'm not. Kyoko I don't want to leave you alone when you're having these magic attacks. They're really scary things."

"I'll be fine. Besides, we've got a bit over a month left before you're leaving. I'll figure it out before then. Remember what you said yesterday: I'm the parent. It's my job to worry about you, not the other way around. So you're going."

"We already went through our stockpile of grief seeds over the past few weeks. We don't have enough saved up for both of us. It's really not a good idea for me to go. I'd way rather stay here than go and think about you dying the whole time. It would really, really suck if you actually died too."

Kyoko sighed. They were going to keep repeating themselves if they did this. Their arguments always went the same way; they were both too stubborn for their own good.

"I would never forgive myself if you missed out on something like this because of me. I've always wanted to see another country like Canada or America, but I was never able to go. I want you to have things I never could." She hated opening up this much, even to Yuma; but she felt like it was the only thing that would work.

Yuma studied her and waited patiently. Kyoko gave her a look that inferred that she had said all she was going to say.

"Why Canada or America?"

"I heard they give big portion sizes at restaurants but don't charge much for them." She shrugged. Yuma looked at her slack-jawed.

"Seriously? You want to go there because they give more food? What if it's not even good?"

"There is no good food or bad food. There is just food. And when you get more for cheap, that's awesome."

"So you're not even thinking about specific places you want to see, like the mountains or the Met or anything like that? You're just thinking about food?"

"Food's important."

"Then go to France or Italy!"

"Their portion sizes are small and expensive!"

Yuma was laughing hard. Kyoko huffed indignantly.

"We might need more parent chaperones. Come to New York! I bet they have lots of food there. It could be fun." Yuma smiled, trying to hide the amount of excitement she was feeling.

"I'll think about it." She answered honestly. "I'll definitely think about it."

She'd like to go.

She thought about the church. There was no way she could go.

She could feel the atmosphere in the room begin to deteriorate.

Yuma could tell what she was thinking.

Kyoko sighed.

"I'm sorry, Yuma. I know you're right. I do. It's just…I can't let them go. I loved them. I still do."

"I know. I know." Yuma smiled sadly, and perhaps a bit bitterly.

They watched the rest of the anime in silence.

Sayaka slept well that night. She had been completely and utterly exhausted. She had not welcomed her alarm clock fulfilling its duty in the morning.

She had not welcomed the terms of her contract that gave her the whole magical strength thing either; the alarm clock and nightstand were both crushed under the might of her agitated hand.

"Aw shit." I guess it wasn't just a dream.

The rest of her morning was not quite as disastrous. She didn't accidentally destroy her shower or anything like that.

She got dressed in casual clothes. She was going to go to the station to catch up on a bit of paperwork, have a meeting with Ryo, and then get the rest of the day off. She was owed so much overtime it hurt.

She stared at the floor length mirror in her bedroom. She looked the same. She didn't look like she had gained magical powers.

She focused on transforming. She felt the powers burst out again.

She took a good look at her new alter ego.

She had dark blue armour that extended up her arms and covered her shoulders with decorative gold patterns. She wore what looked like a metal corset that had a blue bust that was lighter than her arms and was white along her stomach. For some stupid reason, her cleavage and lower belly were bare; her soul gem took the form of C and looked like a belly button piercing. Those gaps seem like a serious design flaw.

A white cape flowed behind her. She had a metallic dark blue diagonally cut skirt and the dark blue armour on her thighs that matched her arms. Her boots were metal and white and also had the golden vines.

Other than her cleavage and belly button, she was well protected.

She turned to the side and looked at her silhouette critically.

Doesn't make me look too fat …

Her shield, black with gold engravings of the KPD crest laurel leaves shone was shaped like an extremely oversized version of her badge. Her sword was long and dark silver-blue with a shining gold handle.

She had to admit, her outfit looked pretty cool.

The cleavage was ridiculous though.

"You designed your own magical girl form. You should have been more careful."

She hadn't even noticed him enter the room.

"Is there any way I can change it?"

"Not that I am aware of."

"Fuck."

She looked at the time and saw that she had to go if she was going to make a nine o'clock meeting with Ryo.

The subway ride to work was uneventful. It was odd having Kyubey, a weird looking cat thing sitting on her lap while no one batted an eye.

"No one can see or hear me. We can still communicate if you would like. I speak to you telepathically. Whatever you think, I can hear that too."

It freaked her out.

"I will be respectful of your privacy, of course."

She didn't think she was going to like this.

Everyone at the office was still excitedly chattering about what had happened with the Miyamoto arrest almost a week ago.

"So we're running as stealthily as we can between these giant rows of crates to save our undercover. The scumbags are just confessing to all of these crimes that we have on tape! Seriously! All three! The only way they could get away would be if they could run without us catching them. But then bam! We have them surrounded on all sides! I'm holding up my gun, safety off, ready to shoot in case they open fire." It was one of the junior guys on the mission, Eito who didn't really do much aside from be backup. Sayaka decided to let him have his glory though.

The office admin women were all swooning over the guy. Sayaka snorted and rolled her eyes.

She went straight to Ryo's office.

"Miki! Not a minute too soon. Sit-." He directed, gesturing to the chair. Sayaka closed the door before she even bothered asking if he wanted it open or closed.

"I found the Kurosawa base." She interjected. He blinked a few times, trying to process it.

"Wait, what?"

"I found the Kurosawa base."

"You found it?!" A grin broke across his face.

"Yeah. It's hidden in plain sight in the New Industrial District." She told him the street name and the two buildings it was between. He looked like a child who was surprised that he got exactly what he wanted from Santa for Christmas.

"How did you find that? How did you get there?"

Sayaka bit her lip and looked down, feeling ashamed. She'd tried to avoid thinking of that all night. She'd had plenty of other things to think about to distract her.

"Ah. I see."

She hoped he didn't, but she was pretty sure he did.

"Miki, you throw your all into missions, more than anyone else I've seen. I'm sorry you had to do something like that." He sounded genuinely sympathetic. "Do you want to talk about it or-"

"No thanks, Captain." She cut him off. She sure as hell didn't want to talk to him about being fucked in a hallway by an up and coming crime lord.

"Ah. Well, if you change your mind, I know some good outside people. The Force would cover all of the costs of course."

She suspected that meant that he would cover the costs and in turn the outside psychologists wouldn't say anything to the deputy chiefs.

"But you know what? Your devotion makes me proud to give you this."

He slid over a badge holder.

"I already have one."

He smiled at her and opened it. The badge was the same, but the ID was different.

It said she was Detective Miki Sayaka of the Organized Crime Unit.

"Congratulations Detective. We'll be working together a lot more from now on."

Kyoko answered her phone dutifully but unenthusiastically. "Hello?"

"Hello there." Hideki, a loan shark friend of Kurosawa's greeted pleasantly. Kyoko had been working with this man for a few weeks now.

Hideki generally seemed like a kind, trustworthy man, but Kyoko had heard otherwise. According to Kurosawa, Hideki became a monster if you owed him money.

It was how he made sure he got collections, after all.

The man was well into his forties, but looked fantastic for his age. He had a full head of blonde hair that only had a few grays along the bangs that were always slicked back. He always seemed to wear designer clothing. If he had had another name that was less Japanese, Kyoko would have guessed he was German.

The only rule about guarding for him that Kurosawa had given her was to not borrow money from him. She could do whatever else she felt was necessary.

"What can I do for you today, Hideki?"

"Can't a friend just call to talk?"

"When did we become friends?"

He laughed in good humour. "Fine, fine, you caught me. I was hoping you could work an extra shift today. See, we're going to be trying to call a debt in and I have a feeling it could get ugly. I know he has the money, but he's trying to not give it to us. I trust you would be able to help us with that?"

"I'd rather not be involved in breaking a guy's legs."

"No, no, nothing like that. But I've heard you can be very persuasive."

She sighed.

"What time?"

"Twenty minutes, please."

"See you then." She hung up without saying goodbye. The terms of this agreement with Kurosawa and Hideki was that Kyoko would be on 24-hour standby. Kyoko was just thankful that Hideki wasn't taking merciless advantage of that.

She wasn't thankful at all that Kurosawa was dumb enough to owe money to a loan shark.

Her phone rang again, but this time it was her personal one.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Miss Sakura-san?" A goofy voice asked.

Oh fuck. It was Kermit the builder.

"Hey there. How are things going with business?" She knew what this was about. She wasn't happy about it; she'd been putting it off for weeks.

He needed payment.

"It's fine. It's fine. I'm sorry to pressure you. I have a few other contracts that I could bid on. I haven't been tryin' too hard for 'em though because I've been waitin' to hear from you. Are you sure you have everythin' you need for the church?"

"It's coming along. Really, it is. I'm sorry for how long this has been taking. Can you just give me-"

"I need at least 10% by Friday Miss Sakura-san. I'm really, really sorry. My wife's gonna kill me if I hold onto this too long and don' get any security."

Bob the frog was married? She was surprised.

So he wanted 60 million yen.

She had nothing even close to that. She'd been saving all of the money from her tips and contracts and wasn't even at the halfway mark.

She was so, so fucked.

"I'll get it. Thank you so much for your help." She smiled pleasantly, even though he couldn't see it.

"So I'll see you on Friday?"

"Yeah, see you Friday and I'll have it for you. Have a good day." She hung up.

Fuck.

Sayaka answered her phone giddily. It was her parents calling. She wasn't sure how happy they would be to find out about this promotion (and significant pay increase), but she trusted they could at least pretend to be happy for her.

She hoped they could, anyways.

"Hello there!" Sayaka chirped happily.

"Ah, well hello Sayaka! You sound like you're in a good mood today." Her mother sounded surprised at this, but pleasantly so. Have I been that much of a miserable bitch lately?

Probably.

"I am!" She debated briefly if she should tell her mother everything right now. Well, she could tell her about the promotion. She wasn't sure how well the whole magical girl thing would go over though.

"Well, I'm sorry to put a bit of a damper on that sweet pea, but your father and I can't make it tonight. Something's come up."

Oh.

Her parents had never missed a family day. Not once.

"Oh, uh, that's okay! I get it. I guess I'll see you Thursday then?"

"Sounds good. Have a good rest of your day off! You deserve it."

The line went dead.

Sayaka guessed that her parents were still mad at her for what happened last Thursday. Sunday hadn't been a particularly nice brunch either.

A lot of their meals together hadn't been particularly nice recently.

She swallowed and straightened up. They may not realize how important her work is, but at least she could.

She realized she had a lot of free time now. She didn't feel particularly tired either.

Kyubey jumped onto the couch next to her. She hadn't even noticed him before.

She decided she would try to find another witch.

Kyoko genuinely wondered if she was going to get herself killed. She had certainly known she was going to die someday, likely a violent and premature death. She assumed it would be a witch that would get her, either by becoming one or being eaten by one.

Now, she was convinced it was going to be this fucking church.

Hideki seemed to notice her distress.

"What's wrong Ophelia? You seem stressed."

She glanced over at him, not turning her head. They were sitting in his extravagant limousine. She kept looking out the window where the impressive modern metropolitan landscape of New Mitakihara passed by. She thought it looked more beautiful at night when the lights made it shine brighter than the stars, but it was certainly easier to admire some of the architects' finer creative details during the day.

They were on their way to the City Hall to pay the Mayor a visit. One of Hideki's side contracting companies that dealt with waste management got a massive contract with the city's sanitation department. In turn, the Mayor accepted a large bribe.

The night he received the money, he lost double the bribe in a game of poker with Hideki. He was trying to say now that he didn't owe Hideki anything because of the contract.

The bribe had been larger than all of the money Kyoko had ever had in her entire life.

"Not stressed. Just tired." She lied.

"A woman as beautiful as you should be getting her beauty sleep. It would be a shame if you were to start getting wrinkles."

She sneered, exposing a fang disdain. She knew better than to react any more strongly than that. She had no desire to get a penalty on this project for being rude to the client.

This long-ass project that didn't seem to have a finish date.

"Is there anything I can help with? Would you like a drink?"

"The only thing I want is a nap."

"Then be my guest! Traffic is going to be ugly up ahead. I bet we still have at least an hour before we get there. Feel free to doze off. I'd rather have you up and peppy when we get there." He smiled kindly.

She could swear she saw a glint of malice in his eyes. She didn't want to get too comfortable around him.

The Mayor had and Kurosawa had.

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Suit yourself." He shrugged.

She looked out the window again. Her spirits were low, and it felt like no amount of decadent food could lift them.

Yeah. Trying to save this church was going to kill her.

She smiled bitterly to herself. Her father may not have succeeded in burning down the whole family and church seven years ago, but Kyoko was still going to go down with it.

Sayaka genuinely wondered if she was going to get herself killed. She wondered afterwards if anyone would ever find her body.

This thing was way, way harder than the first one was.

This witch was a tiny, fast little white demon rabbit. The rabbit itself couldn't do much damage because it was so small. Heck, it was about the same size as Kyubey and even kind of looked like him.

The familiars which looked like skeletal zombie farmers that shot at her were another matter. And the traps in the field; those were another matter too.

She noticed that her reflexes had significantly improved. The moment she heard a click beneath her rapid feet, she could snap it up before the bear-trap like device could clamp on her ankle.

The devices themselves looked like jaws with fangs. She didn't want to see if they could actually eat her foot or not.

A farmer shot at her again and she raised her shield in time to bounce the bullet back at him. He exploded. One farmer down, a hundred more to go.

Unless she could kill that damn rabbit. Then they would all go down.

She noticed a blur of white speeding through the corner of her eye.

"I see you, you little bastard! Get back here!" She darted forward, almost reaching it.

A farmer appeared next to her, a slight distance away, gun poised for a clean shot. The farmer was on her right.

Her shield was on her left.

He was just out of reach of her sword.

She swung her sword, hoping to somehow miraculously block the bullet that could aim for anywhere.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit…

And then the strangest thing happened.

Her sword morphed. It expanded and curved so it sliced right through the skeletal rib cage, causing it to fall apart in a heap of dirty bones.

She didn't have much time to gawk at her transforming sword.

The rabbit witch suddenly turned around and leapt at her, tiny fangs bared.

It was aiming for her heart; the one area that was fully exposed.

I fucking hate this outfit.

Her fantastic transforming sword changed shape again as she swung it in front of herself, becoming more like misshapen axe.

It sliced right through the rabbit's neck, knocking its head clean off with a squeal that sounded disturbingly like a little girl's.

The labyrinth faded away, leaving nothing but a grief seed with a little rabbit's foot on it behind.

She was now dressed in an elaborate, inappropriately revealing suit of armour in the middle of an alleyway in the Old Industrial District. She collapsed to her knees panting.

She could sure go for some rabbit soup right around now. She'd never had it before, but she imagined it would taste good.

She pressed the grief seed to her soul gem which had gotten a bit murky again. Her soul gem cleared right away, but the grief seed didn't look as sickeningly dark as the first one had.

"Very good Sayaka! This seed should have one more use at least. Now you have a backup when you go on your next hunt."

Sayaka groaned. "How often am I going to have to hunt these things?"

"That depends on how efficient you are. Most girls try to hunt every night though."

Every night! Arg!

She didn't want to chase fast little fuckers around every night. She already did that at her damn job!

She stopped and reminded herself. These things are dangerous; they kill hundreds, no thousands of innocent people every year. One of them almost killed Kyousuke. One of them probably killed Karana-san's daughter.

One of them had killed over half of her school.

It was an honour to be able to hunt these monsters every night.

By day and some nights, she could defend the innocent from the worst criminals in Japan seeking to exploit them, like the Kurosawas and the Miyamotos.

By night and some days, she could defend the innocent from the monsters that spread despair throughout the world.

If that didn't make her a hero, she wasn't sure what would.

That still didn't change the fact of the matter at hand.

"These things are harder to fight than I thought! Kyubey, could you give me some extra training or something? Maybe we could take a weekend or something like that?"

"While I am not opposed to helping you, I am afraid I cannot provide that kind of assistance. I can't imagine any fighting techniques I have would do you much good. I am more of an information provider than a hands-on trainer."

Sayaka flopped backwards on the ground of the filthy alley, not caring if her hair was going to get dirty. It was already drenched with sweat. She had been chasing that rabbit around for two hours.

"Perhaps having another magical girl train you could be more helpful?"

That caught Sayaka's attention.

"There are other magical girls?" She asked, raising herself on her elbows.

"Of course! Did you think you were the only one? Kazamino would be overrun by witches by now if that were the case."

The comment made Sayaka look away embarrassed, feeling narcissistic. A part of her had thought she was the only one and was special.

That being said: a squad of magical girls would be much stronger than just her alone.

"Well in that case, yeah it would be great to meet some others! Do you know where I could find them?'"

"Hmm. Well, there is one I could think of who could be helpful. She has been a magical girl for over six years and has fought some very strong witches; much stronger than either of the ones you have fought so far."

"Six years? Wow! She's a real veteran. She would be great! Where could I find her?"

Sayaka was surprised that this magical girl was at the Kazamino Middle School. She wouldn't have thought a teacher would do something like this. She figured cops, fire fighters, paramedics…more action-based physically demanding heroic kind of professions would do this. But she wasn't one to judge. This woman clearly must have an idea about what she's doing.

She heard the school bell ring. A few minutes later, a flood of students in the matching black, white, and blue uniforms emerged. She still thought those uniforms were ugly.

She recognized only one girl: Kyoko's odd little sister Yuma. She wondered if she should go say hi, but decided against it. She started to feel self-conscious about how creepy it was to be sitting outside a middle school staring at the students leaving.

"I see you've already noticed her. That is Chitose Yuma. I would imagine that she would be your best ally in Kazamino."

Sayaka's stomach dropped.

"Her? She's only like thirteen or fourteen or something! She shouldn't be out there fighting witches!" Sayaka exclaimed angrily.

"Sayaka, I should warn you that you are the only one who can see or hear me. You may want to restrict your communications with me to telepathy or you may disturb some of the humans walking by."

Kyubey was right. A few people had given her odd looks. She blushed and fiddled with her ear, pretending to be fixing a blue tooth. That being said, no one else could tell that was what she was doing, but it made her feel better to have a sane rationalization for her strange behaviour.

"Okay, so does this work?" She asked him.

"Perfectly. But yes, Chitose Yuma is thirteen. That being said, she is an excellent and very experienced magical girl."

"But she's so young! She-wait, she's been a magical girl for six years? She became a magical girl when she was seven? That's horrible!"

Sayaka couldn't even imagine a seven year old trying to fight the cuckoo clock or rabbit; for god's sakes, she had zombies shooting at her just a few hours ago! She should be fighting; she was an adult. Kind of.

A child shouldn't be fighting these things.

She was about to ask about her parents, and remembered that they had died in the Mitakihara disaster; Kyoko had told her that.

Her gut felt even heavier. She covered her mouth and gasped in pity.

"Did she become a magical girl after her parents died?"

"Yes, she did."

"The poor girl; that's so awful. Does Kyoko know about this?"

Sayaka would have been terrified to find out someone in her family was doing this. She doubted her parents would be too thrilled to find out she took this on as well.

Kyubey tilted its head and swished its tail.

Then she thought of something else.

"Wait, what did you say her name was?"

"Chitose Yuma."

"Chitose? I thought it was Sakura?"

Kyubey's tail swished faster, like it was wagging. Something doesn't add up.

Sayaka sighed, looking at the girl with furrowed brows. She felt so sorry for the tragic girl. She felt even sorrier that she was going to be asking the girl to teach her what she had learned, in essence benefitting from her misfortune.

"Don't feel bad, Sayaka. It's beneficial to her too if you form a team. Two girls fighting together is almost always better than one."

Sayaka nodded. That was true.

She might as well try to help the poor girl as much as she could.

Looking at her more closely, she realized she was the only student walking alone. She wondered why.

She then wondered if the girl would even have time to make friends with school on top of being a magical girl. She felt even worse for her.

Sayaka started to feel guilty that she wished for the ability to protect the ones she loved, when really most of them were better off compared to this girl. She should have made a more altruistic wish.

I wish I'd had more time to think about my wish.

"Hey Yuma. Do you remember me?" She tried to be friendly. She was very, very conscious of how she could come across as threatening or a pedophile approaching a middle school student. They had learned all about detecting warning signs at the police academy.

Yuma had been in her own little world and was stunned to see the blunette standing in front of her.

"Uh, Sayaka hi! I wasn't expecting to see you here. How's your hand?" She looked flustered. Sayaka hoped she wasn't terrified.

"It's great now; way better than before." She realized then that Yuma must have used magic to heal it. Aww, that's so sweet of her! "Thank you so much for that by the way. I really appreciate it. I bet it would still be in a cast now if you hadn't helped me out."

Yuma had an expression of combined confusion and panic on her face.

"Oh no, I bet it was fine. You probably just banged it up a bit. It couldn't have been broken."

"I am not sure what event you two are talking about. What happened to your hand, Sayaka?" Kyubey asked curiously. Sayaka hadn't even noticed him sneak into her hood. He sauntered out of it onto her shoulder and perched himself there. She wondered if he did that for the dramatic effect; it sure seemed like it.

It seemed to work. Yuma looked at her with an expression of pure horror.

"Sayaka…Sayaka, what did you do?"

The talk wasn't a particularly pleasant one.

First, the mayor was flabbergasted that Hideki had the nerve to show up during work hours. Then, he was defensive, and repeated the same argument over and over again.

Then, he started to ridicule Hideki for bringing Kyoko. That pissed her off beyond belief.

"Really Hideki, bringing a girl to fight your battles for you? Ha! She's a foxy one too; are you trying to bribe me to give you the money by offering me an hour with her?"

Kyoko inhaled and exhaled deeply. She counted to ten.

She tried to focus on everything in the room except for the infuriating man she was there to intimidate. She focused on the beautiful mahogany furniture, the rich red velvet carpets, the bamboo plants, the elegant traditional Japanese paintings, anything but the ugly man that was so out of place surrounded by such aesthetically pleasing things.

"She at least looks like a classy whore, but she's surely not worth that much."

Oh fuck this!

Within a few seconds she had crossed the massive office and held the obese middle-aged man by the scruff of his neck with one hand. His toes were six inches above the ground. She bared her teeth at him.

"The only thing I'd offer you is my fist up your ass. So I suggest you hand over the money so we can all go home and put this bullshit behind us. You think because you've got some fancy overpriced office that you're better than me and can order me around? It's survival of the fittest, fucker. So guess who's going to kick whose ass in that."

He cut out a cheque on the spot. It was deposited by Hideki in front of him.

Kyoko looked out the window on the way back to Kazamino, absentmindedly admiring the cityscape in the sunset on the other side of the highway that she hadn't seen the first time.

Hideki was flipping through his online banking on his phone.

"Ophelia…I've heard of you, you know. I hear you have special talents. Talents to make things disappear, correct?"

Kyoko's lip curled.

"I'm only here to provide guard services. I shouldn't have even done that back there. He was just pissing me off."

She wondered if Kurosawa would be mad that she overstepped her boundaries. She was too fed up to care. It felt good being able to pick on someone she knew deserved it.

"Oh no, you did phenomenally. I had no idea how convincing you could be." He smirked as he said the word 'convincing'.

Kyoko still never turned her body to face him. She felt no need to.

She chortled mirthlessly.

"Glad to be of service." Through her tone it was obvious that she was not really all that glad at all.

"I still get the idea that you're stressed about something. What's the problem? Boyfriend? Family? Job?" He looked at her slyly. "Finances?"

She bristled a bit. It showed. His smirk widened.

"My dear lunk head of a friend Kurosawa has been having you work so hard. You've been doing difficult tasks too. You'd think he'd be paying you more than enough to cover your needs."

"It's none of your damn business."

"It can be, if you let me help you."

Somehow this man seemed even more malicious to her than the Miyamotos or Kurosawas did. And that was saying something.

"I don't need your help."

Her personal phone rang. She moved to ignore the call.

Caller ID identified the caller as being someone from the City. She felt her throat constrict.

"You can answer it. I don't mind." He allowed with a carefree wave of his hand as he turned back to his own phone.

She didn't want to take this call here, but this would only be the second time she had spoken with them. She figured this must be something really important.

It pained her to click the green 'accept' button.

"Hello?"

"Hi, may I please speak to…uh…Sakura-san?"

"Yes, speaking."

"Oh, hello Sakura-san. Is that the name you prefer?"

"It's fine. What is it?" Her tone was guarded.

"I am calling to check on the status of the repairs of the church. Has a contractor been selected yet? We have not heard anything from one."

"What? No, that can't be right! I picked one over a month ago! He said he'd be in contact with you." Dammit Bob, what the hell are you doing?

"Really? Ah, I apologize for the misunderstanding Sakura-san. We haven't heard anything. Usually once they get the deposit, they are in contact with us. Could you have them call us again? I am very sorry for the inconvenience." The man sounded very apologetic. "If you could do this quickly, that would be very much appreciated. I'm afraid that if we do not receive some kind of confirmation that something is being done within the next few days, we will have to begin construction."

Kyoko felt a sinking feeling in her gut.

The deposit…

"Yes, of course. Thank you for letting me know. He'll call you right away."

She hung up.

She wasn't looking in his direction, but she could feel Hideki's eyes on her.

"I apologize for eavesdropping. It's hard not to when you can hear the conversation a few feet away from you. I believe I heard something about a deposit on the phone?"

Kyoko winced and kept her eyes closed. She ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

"I'll make it work." She said hollowly.

"I can help you make it work, if you need."

She looked at him through the corner of her eye. She would have imagined his expression to be like a Cheshire cat grin, or maybe like Kyubey's.

It wasn't. His expression was unreadable.

Kyoko didn't like that.

She didn't like any of this.

Is there any other way I could make 60,000,000 yen in a few days?

"I need 60 million yen." Defeat had a bitter taste. Her instincts were telling her to run. She was walking straight into a trap.

She'd walked willingly into traps for many, many years now.

"Consider it done." He reached his hand out to shake hers. She took it, the unease inside of her growing.

He had a Cheshire cat grin now.

The talk wasn't a particularly pleasant one.

"What were you thinking?!" Yuma whispered to her in a combination of frustration and disappointment. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I was saving my friend's life. He was being attacked by a witch. I don't regret this at all." Sayaka was feeling defensive. She had no idea what could be so bad about her being a magical girl.

Yuma on the other hand…she never should have been signed up for this.

"When did this happen?"

"Yesterday. I'm kind of new to this so I was hoping you could train me! Kyubey said you were a veteran who might be willing to take on some help." She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. She hoped this could at least change the topic.

Yuma was shocked, and then glared at Kyubey skeptically. Then she sneered, full lips baring teeth that would have been only slightly more intimidating had she had her sister's fangs. Sayaka had always thought Yuma had a sweet and gentle face; she realized now that when she was angry, there was something that could be cold, almost cruel; like the face could belong to someone abusive. She had no doubt in her mind that Yuma was not cold or cruel herself, but her face looked like she could be.

She could see more of a resemblance between the two sisters now, but it wasn't a physical one.

"Kyubey, go away." She ordered eerily calmly. "Sayaka, come with me."

Kyubey hopped off Sayaka's shoulders and disappeared into the shadow of a tree, complying with her demand. It was the first time Sayaka had ever seen him actually vanish like that. It was a bit unnerving.

"I hope you're not busy…" Sayaka realized guiltily that she hadn't even asked.

"I can miss it. It's fine. We need to talk." Her words were short and clipped.

"What are you missing?"

"Art club."

"Don't you really like the art club?"

"What makes you say that?"

Sayaka had to pause for a moment and think. She had put herself right into a trap. She had heard plenty about Yuma's talent and passion from Kyoko, but she heard that as Rin. She didn't even think about how she could be blowing her cover doing this.

"I just remember seeing you at the park with your amazing paintings. I figured you liked art."

Yuma accepted her answer. "Yeah, I do. But it's fine, I almost never miss it. They'll understand if I miss it once. You can't mess around with something like this. I hope you know that."

Sayaka noticed that Yuma looked much, much older than her years. She realized that she probably had to grow up, both with her parents dying and contracting with Kyubey.

What a tragic, tragic story.

"Don't look at me like that." She said calmly. Sayaka couldn't help but notice how much Yuma's attitude towards her had changed; she was a completely different person now. She was distant.

"Like what?"

"Like you pity me. I don't need it." Sayaka flushed.

"No, it's not that, I-"

"You're like me now. Neither one of us is any more tragic than the other. We're both going to end up the same."

"Oh…like, dead?"

Yuma looked at her blankly. Sayaka couldn't interpret her expression.

"Yeah." Sayaka couldn't interpret her tone either.

"Ah…well, who knows? You've been doing this for six years! Sounds like you've got it covered." It made Sayaka profoundly uncomfortable to see a thirteen year old girl like Yuma being like this. She didn't sound hopeless or anything. She just sounded accepting of something she shouldn't have accepted at her age.

Sayaka hadn't accepted her mortality at her age. She hadn't accepted anybody's mortality. It terrified her. She feared it. She avoided thinking about it or acknowledging its everlasting threat altogether by any means; she did anything to not be alone with her thoughts.

That hadn't been the right attitude either, judging by the shit she pulled. Kids shouldn't even think about that kind of stuff, or they should only think about it superficially.

Yuma had evidently truly come to terms with it.

It was disturbing.

"I'm a very, very lucky girl." She looked at the ground with hands awkwardly at her side, as if seeking pockets to bury themselves into. They quickly realized there were no pockets with the uniform, so they distracted themselves by pulling on her sleeves instead.

The girl was anxious.

"Are you alright?" Sayaka felt like she may have pushed a few too many boundaries with the girl today, but she had no idea how to stop. She knew so much more about the girl than she realized.

And she may know more about me than I know, if our last conversation is anything to go by.

"Yeah! Yeah." She was trying too hard to seem calm. "I'm just thinking is all."

"What are you thinking about?" Sayaka prodded. She couldn't tell what was racing through the young veteran's mind, but she was willing to bet most of it would be valuable things to learn.

The girl started to gnaw on her lip in a way that must have been painful.

"A lot of things." She dismissed the question. Sayaka had been right before; the girl was odd. Now she understood why though.

It would be pretty weird to be a normal magical girl.

Sayaka decided she didn't know her well enough to pry any more than that.

"So what were you hoping to get from talking to me?" It concerned Sayaka how nonchalantly Yuma said this; like she expected the only reason anyone would talk to her would be to get something. At the same time though, that was exactly why she had sought the young girl out.

She felt guilty, even though she knew rationally that she shouldn't. Going out of your way to find and befriend a thirteen year old was at least slightly creepier than what she was doing.

"I want to learn how to be the best magical girl I can be."

"Why though? Why do you want to be the best one you can be?"

Sayaka made a cocky expression, as if ready to explain why the answer to that question was obvious.

Then she paused. It actually wasn't. Her expression went to neutral, then to uncertain.

"I guess it seemed obvious to me before. When you say it like that, I guess I'm not completely sure. I'd like to help as many people as possible. I want to protect the people I love. I want to make this city a better place. I don't want to let all of those people, those addicts like me die in such a horrible way."

"But what about you? What will you get out of it?"

That answer did come quickly to her.

"I'll feel like I'm actually doing something right for a change. I'll feel like a good person."

The shorter greenette peered into her eyes as if searching the depths of her soul. She even felt like something weird was happening inside of her. Sayaka wanted to look away, but she restrained herself from doing so.

"And honestly, I'm sorry I know you don't want me to say anything like this, but now that I know you're a magical girl I want to help you. It feels so wrong to me that someone as young as you should be doing this. I want to make sure you're okay."

Yuma made a displeased face, like there was a mildly offensive food in front of her that she had to eat.

"So you want to feel like a hero?"

"I'm not sure if I'd go that far. I just want to stop feeling like this." Sayaka made vague gestures to her entire body.

Yuma was scrutinizing her carefully with narrowed eyes. It made Sayaka nervous; she had no idea what criteria Yuma was judging her on.

Yuma eventually gave a discrete nod.

"Okay, I'll help you."

Kyoko knew she signed up for something that would be a lot for her to handle, but it was already painfully clear that it was too much.

Hideki had a few dozen collections that he decided were bad debts. Apparently, some of the other criminals in the city had noticed this and were feeling cocky enough to try to attack the man to get more; someone was almost successful in murdering him just two weeks ago. That was why Kurosawa had loaned her out to him in the first place.

That, and Kurosawa owed him a shit ton of money.

Hideki wanted to prove that he was just as big a man as any other, and he wanted everyone to see.

He wanted everyone to know that the only men who don't pay debts are dead men; and no one will have any damn idea what happened to those dead men.

There must never be a body left for loved ones to mourn over.

This was why he was thrilled to find out that Kyoko needed a loan, and a large one at that.

"Don't worry, don't worry! I like to think I'm a reasonable man with reasonable terms. In your case, you have some excellent collateral you can put down." Kyoko raised an eyebrow, not aware of any particular asset she could put down. "By collateral I mean your skills of course. I won't try to collect the debt from you so long as you do what I need you to do when I need you to do it. And on my family's honour, I'll never expect you to do anything like what Kurosawa made you do before; there will only be one to two at a time."

She sighed in resignation and nodded.

The deposit was paid. The city was called by Bob. She had made something work out.

She wondered how happy her father would be that she was saving the church by doing the devil's work.

This was seeming more and more like an effort in ironic futility every time she thought about the man that she had given and lost everything for.

She was going to hide the first body for Hideki tonight.

She begrudgingly accepted her new life.

Sayaka knew she signed up for something that would be a lot for her to handle, but it was already painfully clear that it was too much.

Yuma was able to find a witch exceptionally quickly. It had taken Sayaka a solid three hours to find the rabbit, and then another two to kill the fucker. It only took Yuma half an hour to find this mutated demon offspring of Freddy Krueger and the Wicked Witch of the West launching flying dynamite broomsticks at them between slashes of long black talons. The barrier looked like a landscape of a dystopian future that had been destroyed by nuclear warfare; even the sky was a putrid green colour.

There were two middle schools students unconscious at the witch's feet, being dragged there by oversized bats with the heads of red macaws and black buttons for eyes.

Witches and their labyrinths are fucking weird.

"I'll handle to two students. You try to beat the witch. I want to see what you can do." Yuma ordered calmly, considering that the fucking parrot-bats apparently had saber fangs as they discovered.

"Right." Sayaka nodded. She didn't want to seem scared shitless in front of a calm and collected thirteen year old. She had some pride after all.

Sayaka transformed easily. She already felt much safer with her sword and shield, and she already couldn't imagine her life without them.

She leapt towards the witch, vaguely recognizing her astonishment that she could leap dozens of meters in the air like she was just going up a few stairs.

Her wonder at her new abilities was cut short with a broom stick flew at her. She held up her shield to it, hoping to deflect it into the witch.

That didn't work though. It exploded on impact with her shield. Fortunately, the shield's magic seemed to provide a bit more coverage that it looked like it would based on its physical size; she wasn't burned or moved at all.

Still: that was her first and only strategy, and it wasn't going to work.

Shit.

She noticed that she had done a good job at distracting the witch from Yuma and the two students, so at least she had done that right.

Yeah, that was totally part of my strategy so I'm kind of getting this right! She tried to convince herself.

It wasn't working that much.

The chimera familiars crowded her and screeched. Their screeches sounded like young women in horrible pain. It was almost as maddening to listen to as the cuckoo clock's chiming was.

Sayaka's sword transformed as she swept it around her; it made a gigantic five-pronged blade that cut through each familiar in front of her effortlessly. She marveled briefly at how sharp her wonderful blade must be.

She marveled very, very briefly.

"SAYAKA GET OUT OF THERE! RETREAT, RETREAT!" Yuma screamed from somewhere that sounded just too far away for her to be able to help.

Fuck!

The witch must have caught on to her shield trick and sent in broomsticks and familiars from all sides.

Sayaka instinctually curled up into a fetal position. So this is how I die.

The broomsticks all collided with her at the same time. They all exploded at the same time.

She didn't have a single burn or scratch, and every familiar in the area was melted by the flames.

Sayaka blinked dumbly, not quite understanding what happened. All she knew was that holy shit I'm still alive.

"GET BACK!" Yuma screamed again.

Sayaka looked over to her, seeing a dark green blur racing towards her. Her outfit seemed so much more like regular clothes, things you might see on magical girls from the silly anime; it didn't look like they would provide much protection at all compared to Sayaka's knight armour.

Sayaka also couldn't figure out what the girl would do with the ridiculous big ball that appeared to have a cat tail. Would she use it like a hammer?

Yuma swung it; it wasn't clear what she was swinging at, as there was nothing in front of her.

Then, Sayaka noticed what looked like a shock wave of some sort being blasted out of it.

And right at her at a terrifyingly fast speed.

Oh son of a bitch.

She hopped to the side, slightly out of the way. Her shield was up.

The shock wave hit her shield. It then looked less like a large wave and more like a concentrated ball of green energy.

By fluke, Sayaka had her shield facing a way that the ball of energy catapulted right into the witch. It burst in a lime green light that was brighter and far more beautiful that the labyrinth's sky.

The witch's body disintegrated in the light. The labyrinth vanished.

They were standing in the middle of a deserted street with two passed out youth in uniforms. Sayaka and Yuma gaped at each other.

"So…can you explain what just happened?" Sayaka asked, both hoping that Yuma would have an answer and hoping that she wouldn't so she wouldn't feel so stupid for being so completely and utterly confused.

"What…what exactly is your power?"

"Kyubey called it 'defensive magic'. Apparently anything that comes at me, I can deflect it with three times the amount of force it hit me with."

Yuma looked impressed.

"I have no idea how I'm still alive."

"I saw what happened. You made a barrier surround your whole body. It was bright blue, so it was kind of hard to miss. Did you have your eyes closed or something?"

"I thought I was going to die and didn't want to see it." Sayaka chuckled sheepishly. My god I look like such a noob in front of a teenager.

Yuma smiled empathetically. "I've done that a few times before too. But what happened when my shock wave hit your shield…it actually turned the wave into a really, really powerful attack. This is interesting…"

Sayaka nodded along sagely, pretending to fully understand where the girl was going with this. Yuma was able to see right through her charade though.

"See, my shock waves are normally not strong enough to be a weapon on their own in battle. I'm kind of like you; my best attack would only work if there was something there to help me. I guess if I get close enough, I can smash the opponent with this." She pointed at her ball thing. "But overall, I'm better suited for playing a supportive role. You have a sword which is really helpful, so you could fight alone. Your defensive magic though…it can protect you but it also makes a great augmentative support for others' attacks."

Sayaka was proud of herself that she understood the majority of what the girl was saying.

"With you…I can actually fight." Yuma seemed to say more to herself than to Sayaka. It struck her as odd.

"So have you been fighting on your own before now or have you had a partner?"

Sayaka's eyes widened in realization. She thought Yuma and Kyoko didn't look much alike. Is it possible that they were actually magical girl partners who became really close?

She started to think more about Kyoko and anything that could have possibly hinted that she was a magical girl.

"I had a partner for a number of years. She died recently." Yuma said sadly, transforming into her regular clothes and holding her arms in front of her chest protectively and fidgeting with her sleeves. She looked at the ground.

I guess not. That wouldn't make sense anyways. Why wouldn't Yuma have called Kyoko when they found the witch if they were partners?

Madoka and Tatsuya hadn't looked much alike either. Two sisters who looked different certainly wouldn't be a first.

"I'm so sorry to hear that. What was her name?" Sayaka looked at the girl with sympathy. Yuma took a deep breath, closing her eyes. This must be so hard for the poor girl.

"Tomoe Mami."

Tomoe Mami…Sayaka had heard that name somewhere before. Her brows furrowed as she tried to remember where she heard the name.

"She used to go to Mitakihara Middle School. Did you know her?"

Realization dawned in Sayaka's mind. "Oh yeah, her! I never actually met her personally, but I heard the name. She was a year ahead of me. How did you guys meet?"

"In battle."

"Oh…so you had already contracted?"

Yuma did that thing again when she stared at Sayaka with an expressionless face; it weirded Sayaka out when she did that.

"Not exactly. She saved me from a witch. The witch had killed my parents though. She took me in afterwards and taught me the ropes."

Sayaka gasped and her face contorted in horror and sorrow for the poor girl; she had watched her parents get killed by a witch when she was a little kid! And she came out so strong.

"What did I tell you about the pity looks?"

"Sorry, sorry. But that's so awful. I'm so sorry."

Sayaka became confused again. Didn't Kyoko say their parents were killed in the Mitakihara Disaster?

"So…you've been fighting witches since then. What was your wish, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I mind."

"Ah. Okay, fair enough. I guess that's a pretty personal question, huh?" Sayaka rubbed the back of her awkwardly and stared at the ground. She was prying too much and she knew it.

"Does your family know? I know I'm asking so much, so it's okay if you don't answer. I just don't know how to tell mine." She said quietly.

Yuma sighed sadly.

"Don't tell them. It won't do any good. There usually isn't much good that comes out of being a magical girl. It's not all fairy tales and justice and rainbows. It's dark. It's dangerous. It can be lonely. I've always had a partner so I was never lonely. I…well in my case, I got my family because I contracted, so I guess I'm better off. I think only people who have absolutely nothing, absolutely no other choice should become magical girls. It just seemed like you did have options and you had a lot." Yuma looked away. "I know I've been a bit harsh with you. There's no nice way of saying this, but it just seems like you threw it all away and I'm sad to see that, because I was really rooting for you. That's all." She finished meekly.

Sayaka got that gut churning feeling of guilt again; it had become a relatively constant feeling over the past few weeks.

And then the confusion hit her again.

"You got your family because you contracted?" Sayaka blurted out. She saw Yuma look alerted, like she was afraid she'd said something wrong. Sayaka cringed.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm prying too much. Just ignore that, just ignore that." She waved her arms in front of her as a way to express how adamant she was in dismissing the currently inappropriate topic. She laughed weakly and insincerely. "You're a bit of an oddball, so I guess I'm a bit too curious about you."

Yuma smiled genuinely.

"I don't mind. But thanks, I would rather keep some things private for now. I hope you understand?" She looked sincerely hopeful. Sayaka's expression softened fondly.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Believe me, I know a thing or two about keeping secrets. Just…I don't know, don't be afraid to talk to me if you want! I'm happy to lend an ear!" She grinned widely to the younger girl. The girl nodded back, smiling gently. She reminded Sayaka of Madoka.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that someday."

"Well, hey, if we're going to be partners, we should get comfortable with each other sooner or later, right?" Sayaka wasn't sure if she was committing a magical girl social faux pas by casually assuming they would be partners. She didn't want to sound pathetic in asking a thirteen year old to team up with her, but she really didn't know what the proper etiquette was, or if there was one.

The students started groaning as they were waking up behind them.

Sayaka was still in her magical girl garb.

"Oh shit." She cursed under her breath, then cursed again mentally when she realized she just swore in front of a thirteen year old. She transformed back into her casual clothes; a black trench coat, jeans, and black boots. The outfit made her feel like she looked like a detective.

"What happened?" The female student asked groggily. She looked like she was struggling to support the weight of her own head. The boy just groaned into the cement comically.

"Looks like you two had a bit of an episode. Are you alright?" Sayaka asked kindly. She bent down to help them get to their feet. Yuma stood a few meters back.

"Yeah, I just don't understand what happened…who are you?" The girl asked nervously. Sayaka didn't blame her; she'd just been through a lot.

Sayaka wasn't sure how to introduce herself that would make them feel calm. Would saying she was a magical girl make them feel better or more confused?

"I'm Detective Miki of the Kazamino Police Department. Your friend here called and said it looked like you were in trouble." Sayaka gestured back at Yuma.

"Detective?" Yuma said, wide-eyed and alert. She seemed scared.

Sayaka could practically hear alarm bells ringing through her mind at Yuma's reaction, but she wasn't sure why.

She could just tell something wasn't right.

"Sakura…you did?" The girl seemed surprised. "I don't remember what happened. All I know is that I was in danger. I thought I was going to die. I…" She looked like she felt remorseful "Thank you Sakura-san. You had a lot of reasons not to help me, but I'm grateful that you did."

Yuma shrugged completely and sincerely noncommittally. "Don't worry about it."

"No, really, I was so mean to you. I'm sorry I –"

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. Detective, am I free to go?" She looked anxious to get away. Sayaka still wanted to talk to her.

Ah fuck, but now I'm kind of here in a professional role.

"I would rather you not. I can call the Force and some of my colleagues can come pick you up so you can file a report, if you would like?" Sayaka offered to the two students. They seemed anxious to go home and decided against it. Sayaka assured them they could file a report later if they changed their minds. They declined her offer to have some people from the Force give them a ride home.

That left Sayaka with Yuma, who looked like a gazelle in front of a predator.

"You seemed scared when you heard I was a detective. Why?"

Yuma didn't look at her. She was looking down, thinking.

"I knew you were on the Force. I didn't know you were actually a detective though."

"Does it really matter? And believe me, this is a really new development. I just got promoted a few hours ago."

"Oh, congratulations! Haha…" She sounded awkward. She sighed. "Honestly, I have really, really bad experience with detectives. It's just hard to get past that."

"How so?"

Yuma looked like she wanted to tell her to mind her own business. She evidently changed her mind against it, which was good; Sayaka wasn't going to let this one go easily.

"My parents were abusive. I think my Dad might have been doing some illegal things, I don't know; I didn't understand at the time. Sometimes, detectives would come by our house. They were always so mean to us. One time, I'd even asked them if I could leave with them; I'd heard at school that the police were supposed to help people. I just remembered the way they looked at me like I was crazy, and my Mom beat me so badly that night I couldn't go to school for a week. And stop it, you're doing it again."

Sayaka tried to make her face look more impassive and uncaring, but it was hard. The girl's life just seemed to be worse and worse with every story she heard.

"You've…you've had a rough life, huh?"

"Made me a great target for Kyubey. Clearly, you have too; there's no other reason it would go after you otherwise. It recruits girls when they're vulnerable." Yuma paused, looking confused. "It recruits girls when they're vulnerable. Sayaka, how old are you?"

Sayaka hadn't quite reached the age where that question would offend her, but still, social etiquette dictated that that was never a question asked. It threw her for a bit of a loop, but again figured that normal social protocols don't apply to them.

"I'm almost twenty now."

"Almost twenty…Sayaka, I'm going to be honest; I'm really surprised Kyubey targeted you."

"Why?" Sayaka thought she had the makings of a great magical girl! Better than some kids and preteens, anyways.

"In terms of magical girls, you're actually really old. I don't mean that offensively at all, but it's weird. Kyubey got me when I was seven, which was pretty young. But it usually targets girls who are twelve or fourteen-ish. I guess you're technically still in your teens but still…it's not like Kyubey. A lot of this isn't like Kyubey to do."

"Why's it not like him?"

"He doesn't normally help."

Sayaka looked at her feet uncomfortably, kicking a pebble down the road. She would rather think that she had been picked because she was a good choice and strong; it sounded like Yuma suspected there was some sort of ulterior motive.

"You really don't like Kyubey much, huh?"

"You'll understand. You'll understand someday." Her words were cryptic. It was painfully obvious to Sayaka that there was a lot she and Kyubey were keeping from her.

She also knew that she had gotten more than what she was expecting today, so she should be grateful and start with that.

"Here: you deserve it." Yuma said, passing her the grief seed.

"Oh, no, I don't need it! See?" She showed the rabbit paw print grief seed she had gotten just a few hours earlier. "I'm set! You keep it." Sayaka passed it back.

Yuma furrowed her brows in concern, the corner of her mouth twisted downwards in dislike.

"Sayaka…I don't want to overload you with things today, but trust me. That's a really, really bad attitude to have. I appreciate it, but it's a bad attitude. Take it. I've got more than you."

"No, no, really. I have more time to hunt than you do, and you even said you have trouble hunting on your own, while I can! You need it more than me; I can just hunt another one. You're going to be training me, right? Consider this partial payment. You keep it."

Yuma sighed.

"Just take a bit of it, okay? Here." She pushed the grief seed against Sayaka's soul gem, cleansing it of the bit of darkness it had accumulated in battle. Sayaka made a noise of protest.

"It will make me feel better, alright?"

"Okay fine, but you take the rest! I mean it!" Sayaka tried to sound forceful. Yuma just smiled and nodded at her.

They exchanged numbers and agreed to meet again to go hunting together. They both cleaned their grief seeds.

Overall, that had gone well.

Well, Sayaka thought it had gone well. She wasn't sure. There were a lot of things she didn't know, and as her new status as Detective, she'd be damned if she didn't find out about everything.

Kyoko's personal phone buzzed. Yuma sent her a text.

'I have good news, but you might not like it.'

Kyoko hated it when Yuma was vague about things. Sometimes the girl did it for dramatic effect, sometimes to get out of trouble; other times, Kyoko swore Yuma didn't even mean to be doing it.

She suspected that this time, it was to get out of trouble.

'What is it?'

'I can battle on my own now. I got a grief seed. Where are you? Do you need a hit?"

Kyoko read the text. She looked up and around the alley in the Old Industrial District around her. She looked down at her phone and read the text again.

She could feel anger bubbling inside of her.

'What makes you say you can do that? How do you know?'

'I know because I got a grief seed. I'll explain when I see you. Where are you?'

'Old Industrial District. See you soon. We need to talk.'

Kyoko pocketed her phone agitatedly.

When will that fucking brat learn she shouldn't go hunting on her own?!

Kyoko looked around, trying to find a good witch to use as a drop site as quickly as possible. She could sense one very close by.

To make up for the steady stream of jobs she was going to have over the next few weeks, assuming this was a good witch to use she was going to try to keep it alive for a while.

She could feel the witch nearby; it was practically breathing down her neck, it was so close.

She whipped her head around; nothing.

She looked around her and saw nothing, but she knew it should be right here.

Hesitantly, she looked up.

Found it.

Sayaka's personal phone buzzed. It was Hitomi.

'Call me as soon as you can please.'

Sayaka cringed; she had forgotten about Hitomi. She knew an emotional reconciliation was in order. She sighed and called her immediately; this was one of those things that was better to get over with quickly, like ripping off a band aid. Besides, reconciliations with Hitomi were never as bad as she was worried they would be.

"Sayaka! Thank you so much for calling back so quickly. How are you feeling today?"

"A lot better than last night. Listen, I just wanted to say I'm really sorry about that. I was completely out of line."

"No, no you weren't. Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't get more upset about that sooner. It's really unfair of us to put you in that position all the time."

"No, no it's not that bad really." They always fell into this; they both talked on and on about how they were really the one in the wrong and the other was an unfortunate victim. "I've put you through way worse before."

It was true. One time when she was at her worst and her parents had kicked her out, Hitomi let her stay at her place. Sayaka was short on cash and needed a hit when she found Hitomi's mother's jewellery collection. She pawned it off, and thankfully Hitomi's mother found it at the shop the next day; apparently (though Sayaka's mother doubted this), it was a precious family heirloom. Sayaka still isn't allowed back in the Shizuki household.

"You were ill then, and we shouldn't look at our friendship that way. Kyousuke and I need to get better at working through our problems on our own. I also wanted to thank you for being there for him yesterday. He didn't tell me everything that happened, but I know having you there was such a big help."

Sayaka smiled. She wondered when she would bring up the miracle.

"And you will not believe what's happened."

Here we go… Sayaka thought giddily.

"It's incredible! It's absolutely incredible! Apparently, the doctors have never seen anything like this. Sayaka, I know you were there when he first moved his hands, but they have full mobility now. His legs do too! He can already walk for thirty minutes without needing a break; they think he won't even need crutches soon. He just needs to work on strengthening his muscles again because they have been out of use for so long. I mean, it's absolutely incredible! Did you see anything, or know what could have done that?"

"No, I don't. I found him lying down on the bridge by his wheelchair. When we hugged, he was able to squeeze my shoulders. That's all I know. It's really amazing, huh?"

"It is. I guess he just needed the right motivation. I wish I could have been the one to give him that, but I'm glad he got it." Hitomi's voice sounded a bit melancholic at her last thought. Sayaka's gut lurched. She hadn't even thought of Hitomi feeling that way.

"There's no way that's all it was Hitomi. I don't know what…" I do, I'm lying. "But it couldn't have just been that. If it were, you would have made him move mountains years ago."

Sayaka heard her laugh lightly. "Thank you Sayaka. I know you're usually busy on Tuesdays, but would you like to come over? I'm thinking of having a celebratory meal for him."

That sounded really nice. Sayaka was looking forward to it already.

"Actually, as luck would have it my parents cancelled on me. I guess I'm too much of a loser for them!" Sayaka laughed. "So yeah, I'll definitely be there! Should I bring anything?"

After being assured that just bringing herself at 6:30 would be great, they hung up on a good note. She still had an hour and a half yet.

She lifted her arm to smell. She cringed.

Running around after those witches had done a number on her, and she needed a shower stat.

Kyoko walked through the labyrinth cautiously. It looked like a moss-covered cave that was only lit by multi-coloured fireflies, lazily flickering in and out and moving at a snail's pace. The walls were covered in vines with tightly closed flower bulbs of all sorts of different colours. This place looked like a place elves and trolls would live. Kyoko wondered if the flowers would spit acid out or something when they opened.

She didn't like the look of this barrier, but she also knew that it would be a good drop zone. She got out as quickly as she could to meet Yuma at a café that never pulled in a lot of visitors.

Yuma was waiting obediently in her Kazamino Middle School uniform. It was a pretty ugly uniform; Mami's had looked way better.

"Hey kid." She greeted casually. She figured making her complete and utter displeasure about her earlier text known now, in front of a bunch of witnesses, would be a bad idea. She also usually got more information if she worked her protégée into a false sense of security first.

"Hey." She greeted back casually. "Want to eat?"

She knew this trick. Yuma was trying to get Kyoko into a better mood.

"Always. Want to go to the old ramen place?"

They had a good meal and talked about things pleasantly. Both could tell that the other was being overly and falsely cordial.

They were saving the inevitable shit storm for when they got home.

Kyoko tried to draw some internal relief from the fact that she would have to leave pretty soon after they had the argument. It would give both of them a chance to cool down.

And it would keep Hideki off her back for another day. Overall, no downside.

The moment they both dreaded arrived after Kyoko locked the door to their smaller apartment. She really missed the old one. Moving had been a pain and completely unnecessary.

"So…" Kyoko started. "What's this about hunting alone?"

Yuma nodded gravely.

"I found a way to focus the energy in my waves, so it's a much stronger attack. I killed an average witch with one shot today. It's a work in progress, but I know I can do it if I keep working on it!"

Kyoko hated to admit that she was a bit impressed. She wasn't going to tell Yuma that though; she didn't want to encourage this.

"Why were you fighting a witch alone?"

"Two of my classmates were being attacked. I didn't want to let them die."

Kyoko scrutinized the girl. She decided Yuma was telling the truth, but was not giving her all of the details. She was starting to fidget.

"Anything else?"

"What do you mean?"

"Was there any other reason you were fighting alone?"

"No."

Kyoko narrowed her eyes. Yuma fidgeted with her sleeves; her telltale sign that she was lying. She was pretty good at lying, but it wasn't as effortless for her as it was for Kyoko.

"You're lying to me. Why else were you fighting alone?"

Yuma gnawed her lip worriedly.

"Spit it out. C'mon."

"I wanted to prove that I could." She exhaled quickly. Kyoko pursed her lips disapprovingly and closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Had she kept them open, she may have noticed that Yuma didn't stop fidgeting with her sleeves.

"It's great that you can concentrate your attacks more; really, it is and I'll say I'm proud of you for that. I want you to keep practicing that, but only when you're in battles with me, got it? I don't want you messing around with witches on your own."

"You have so much going on now though! This would be something off your plate that you don't have to worry about. Here." Yuma threw the grief seed at her. "Use it."

Kyoko obliged; she needed to be cleared up anyways. She looked at the grief seed carefully.

"Looks like you had to use a fair bit of it on yourself already; more than a hit, at least. How draining is this magic concentration for you? It's useful to have, but if it's throwing your energy out the door for no reason, there's no need to keep doing it."

Yuma inhaled sharply; she clearly hadn't thought about that. Kyoko couldn't keep herself from smiling smugly.

"We're good with how we're doing things. No more fighting on your own. We can handle this. Got it?"

"Yeah. Got it." Yuma didn't sound happy about it, but at least she conceded.

Kyoko sighed in relief. It had been a lot better than she thought it would be.

She walked over to the couch and flopped down beside Yuma, throwing an arm around her shoulder and drawing her close to her into gentle hug. Kyoko had never been comfortable enough with anybody to act this way towards somebody; not even her own sister. It had been natural to be like this with Yuma for years though.

"I get why you keep trying to do this. I do. And I really appreciate it, kay? It's just that the worst thing I can imagine happening is you getting hurt." She absentmindedly massaged the girl's scalp, making her messy hair messier.

Yuma nodded, face buried into Kyoko's shoulders. Most girls her age wouldn't be caught dead snuggling with their family members like that; a nice thing about facing death every few days was that they didn't have to care about feeling embarrassed to show affection.

Kyoko kept an eye on the clock over the TV. Yuma had dozed off about an hour ago and was peaceful in her slumber. Kyoko wondered how often Yuma slept like that; she hoped if was often, but it made her jealous at the same time.

She carried the girl to bed and tucked her in. That would piss off Yuma if she woke up before Kyoko got back.

'Wear the boots and gloves we left on the East side of the building' The text said. She raised an eyebrow at the odd demand, but figured that she shouldn't ask questions.

She went out and found the bodies, right where they should be. The witch, which she still had not seen behaved remarkably well and followed her obediently. There was so little mess it was almost miraculous. She wore the heavy rubber boots and gloves that were left for her.

They had been electrocuted and were lying face down in a puddle of water. Kyoko understood why she had the peculiar instructions now, and vaguely felt a twisted sense of appreciation that they showed such care for her safety. She didn't think Kurosawa or Tomi would have done something like that.

She threw the two bodies on the ground of the cave-like labyrinth.

The vines with the flower bulbs reached away from the walls towards the bodies. The flowers opened. They were sickening.

Some of the flowers had enlarged human eyes in them that peered at the corpses. Others had long tongues that tasted them. Some just had empty holes. Every petal was lined with fangs as sharp as razors.

The vines suddenly snapped forward, fanged petals tearing the bodies apart and throwing pieces of human flesh everywhere. The flowers with the holes sucked the bits of meat away, not leaving a single trace behind. Kyoko felt queasy.

The flowers with the eyes turned to look at her. She had her spear ready, just in case they attacked.

The petals tightened in a way, making it appear as though each eye were on a smiling face. The flowers with the holes made a contented gargling sound. The vines returned to the walls and the blossoms closed.

Kyoko suppressed a shudder and went home.

She had found a willing witch accomplice, and she had a nagging feeling that it was going to be a real bitch to get rid of at the end of all of this.

Sayaka walked through the halls of Hitomi's apartment building comfortably. She was so familiar with them, it felt like she was going back to a third home now.

She knocked on the door. She knew that had Madoka been alive today, the girl would have kept her door unlocked for Sayaka any time she came by. Hitomi was always more formal and guarded than that.

Her newly acquired superhuman hearing picked up on the sound of rustling beyond the door; there were a number of people in there. It was great that so many people came out on such short notice to support Kyousuke!

Hitomi opened the door while staying partially behind it, like she was trying to stay out of Sayaka's way.

"Hey Hito-"

"SURPRISE!" A group of people jumped up from behind the couches.

Oh shit, this was a surprise party?! Why didn't you tell me?!

"SURPRISE!" Sayaka yelled, clearly out of sync with the group with arms outstretched over her head, looking for Kyousuke to make awkward eye contact.

The crowd of people looked at her strangely. She noticed a banner hanging to the side.

'Happy two years, Sayaka!' It read proudly. It looked like a few people had spent a lot of time making that; the calligraphy was beautiful and designs along the borders intricate. She suspected her mother had played a very active role in making that.

She blinked a few times, letting the situation sink in. It was true; she had been clean for two years now.

"I thought this was a surprise party for Kyousuke." She groaned, letting her arms fall limply at her side. The crowd laughed.

Actually, a lot of people had come. Hitomi and Kyousuke were there, along with their parents. Her own parents of course rushed over to hug her. Seven people from the Force, including Ayumi were there. She recognized a group of the regulars from group sessions too. Having them all in Hitomi's fairly cozy apartment made the group of people seem much larger and more numerous than they were.

Still, she got a happy, bubbly feeling in her chest seeing everyone here.

"Congratulations Fuzz. We're proud of you." Her father smiled paternally. She smiled back.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the police group huddled together, trying to coordinate something amongst themselves.

"Okay, one, two three." She heard Ayumi whisper.

"SURPRISE!" The police group cheered very spiritedly on their own, making everyone except for Sayaka jump.

They had a banner too, that was comically less pretty than the banner that was hung. It read 'Congrats on the Promotion!'

"You got promoted?" Kyousuke asked excitedly.

"Show us the new badge, Miki!" One of the force members shouted. "Show it, show it, show it!" They started to chant, urging others to join in. Soon, the whole room except for her parents were chanting in rhythm.

Her parents looked conflicted.

Sayaka grinned and pulled it out of her pocket, throwing it to Ayumi. She opened it, and cleared her throat as if about to make a proclamation.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting: Detective Miki Sayaka of the Organized Crime Unit!"

The crowd cheered again. Sayaka blushed bashfully.

"Congratulations Sayaka! You've had a lot of achievements recently." Hitomi smiled kindly.

Oh, if only you knew…

"Thanks, but really the exciting one here is Kyousuke! I mean he can-"

"No, no, this is about you!" He was struggling to get through the crowd on his crutches. She imagined it would have been even worse in this wheelchair.

"We've been holding our breath while planning this for months." Her mother cut in. "Really, two years is such an accomplishment and we are so proud of you!"

She noticed the way neither of her parents said anything about her promotion.

They weren't going to make an issue of it now, but they were going to later.

"Thanks Mom." She said, trying to keep any bite out of her tone. No one but her mother seemed to recognize that there was any strain in her voice.

Yeah, this is going to be a fight.

The rest of the party passed pleasantly enough. There was a lot of fantastic food (her parents probably advised everyone of her favourites) and a ridiculously over-the-top cake for the occasion.

They had speeches, which was actually incredibly embarrassing. Hitomi and her mother had sentimental speeches; her Mom cried, which made Sayaka almost cry. Her father and everyone from work(literally all seven of them) had ones that made merciless fun of her. Some of the people from the group sessions said quick, nice things but didn't go into much detail; they were probably trying to respect the privacy of what was said in the meetings, which she appreciated.

The last one to speak was Kyousuke.

"Sayaka, I'm really proud of you. I'm not surprised though; if anyone could do this, you could. I'm not really good with words…" He looked down sheepishly, before pulling out his old violin. Sayaka's breath hitched as she brought her hands in front of her mouth.

"I haven't played in a very long time, so please go easy on me if I'm really, really bad." He asked the room sheepishly.

He awkwardly placed the violin against his throat and grappled with the bow, but he got it quickly enough. There was something so odd but so sweet in the scene; he had clearly grown a fair bit physically since he lost the ability to play which made holding it awkward; at the same time though, it just looked so natural to see him and his violin together like that.

The violin screeched a bit through a childish rendition of 'For she's a jolly good fellow'. Some of the officers teased him ("Weren't you a freaking violin prodigy or something?'), but it was all in good humour.

His first song since getting his hands back was for her; he played his first song for her.

This had brought tears to her eyes.

She didn't notice the fleeting dark look Hitomi's eyes had.

Kyousuke put down the violin and hobbled over to her to give her a hug. Sayaka got up to meet him. His crutch got caught on the table leg. He fell into her.

The crowd laughed at their spectacle, but Sayaka didn't hear any of it.

She felt the way his warm body fell into hers. She felt the cold wall on her back.

She heard his grunt of pain or annoyance or embarrassment or something in her right ear.

It brought her back to a scene from the night before that she didn't want to play out again. The way her body had been pinned to the wall while he thrusted in and out of her, grunting with each movement in her ears and she let it happen.

Her eyes widened in fear, face full of terror. She pushed him away from her.

Her newfound strength emerged, fuelled by her sudden spike of adrenaline.

Kyousuke was literally launched across the room, only halted about halfway across because he was pushed into some of her friends from work. They all tumbled down.

It took her a moment to process what had just happened.

"Sayaka? Are you alright?" Her mother asked with great concern.

She breathed deeply a few times, still putting pieces together.

Oh fuck.

"I'm so sorry!" She burst out, tears streaming down her face. She noticed the warm droplets and quickly tried to wipe them away before anyone noticed. Unfortunately, the whole room had been staring at her uncomfortably.

"I'm…I'm okay." Kyousuke said, evidently winded by the force of the blow. She pulled him and everyone else up as gently as she could.

"Come on, let's go talk Sayaka." Hitomi took Sayaka's arm gently and spoke the way she might speak to an animal that was about to run for it. Sayaka swallowed and nodded as they went into the bathroom, turned on the fan, and locked the door.

"Sayaka…I didn't want to say anything, but I know you had been really upset last night. That reaction was…well it was a bit strong. Did something…happen? Something you want to talk about?"

"Oh my god, I practically threw Kyousuke across the room." She groaned into her hands. "I need to go apologize. I need to go help him."

"Sayaka, you already did and he's fine. What happened?"

"I need to make sure everyone's alright. I need to make sure I didn't ruin the party. I really fucked up didn't I? That was bad. I shouldn't have done that. I need to make sure they're alright." She said hurriedly and frantically.

She just wanted to get out of this cramped room.

"Sayaka, it's alright! We don't need to talk. Let's not talk, alright? But I don't think you're ready to go back out there. Here, just sit down." Hitomi tried to gently guide Sayaka to sit down on the rim of the tub. After a few moments, Sayaka relented, heart rate and breath slowing down. "Good, good. Just sit down. Let's just sit."

The sat for a few moments while Sayaka got herself back together. Hitomi sat patiently next to her. They didn't say anything to each other. They didn't look at each other. They just sat.

"I had sex last night and I really, really didn't want to." Sayaka started to say. It felt good to get it out, but it hurt to say. "I did it to get information for work. I'm a prostitute." She choked out.

Hitomi looked at her with shock and sympathy.

"Sayaka, I'm so sorry. Can I give you a hug?"

Sayaka was curled in on herself, shaking. She honestly didn't know.

She hurriedly nodded, and as soon as she felt the comforting pressure from her friend, she broke down miserably.

Sayaka wasn't sure how long they stayed like that for, but eventually she calmed down and wasn't sobbing. She felt better, but still not perfect.

It wasn't as bad as before though.

"I know your parents are worried about you, Sayaka." Hitomi said gently. "I am too. Are you sure this is good for you? What you're doing?" Hitomi wiped a few tears from her face.

Hitomi looked so immaculate and polished and beautiful.

Sayaka made the mistake of glancing in the mirror to see her mascara had smudged terribly.

"I know it's not good for me. I know, but it's good for everyone else. I can't stop now. I'm so close to getting all of them. I have to keep going. I have to." She whispered, more to herself.

She had to get the criminals off the streets by day, and get the witches off the streets by night.

She could do it, and she would.

"Please don't hurt yourself, Sayaka. None of us want to see you self-destruct."

She thought to some of the cryptic warnings Yuma had given her.

She doubted it was possible to avoid that path.

Kyoko was not excited to work at the club tonight. She had entertained thoughts of quitting for years, but more so recently.

But it was a good way to launder money and Tomi and Kurosawa would freak if she did. She sighed and looked in the mirror.

I went too heavy on the black eye makeup tonight. Ah well; too late to change it now.

Well, it was truly not too late to; it was more that Kyoko had no motivation to. She had no motivation to be here.

She had no motivation to deal with the undercover cop she had eaten out on numerous occasions and beat the shit out of just two nights ago. She had been exceptionally surprised to hear that she hadn't called to cancel her shift tonight; she would have thought that she would still be recovering.

Blue's fucking crazy. I can't tell what to expect from her.

"Hey, Kyoko, how are you." Speak of the devil. Sayaka looked hesitant and awkward; her question hadn't even sounded like a question at all.

"Fine." Kyoko shrugged, not intending to move the conversation any further. She continued to pretend to fix her hair, staring at the mirror. In reality, she never took her eyes off of Sayaka's reflection.

"Can I talk to you for second?" God this girl is so pathetic. Kyoko tried to convince herself that was how she was feeling; disgusted by this desperate cretin of a cop.

It pissed her off that she still just felt sad.

"No."

"I understand why you're mad. I'm sorry, I should have talked to you first."

Kyoko didn't turn around, but she stopped pretending to be doing her hair. She crossed her leather clad arms in front of her equally leather clad chest. The dominatrix outfit was her favourite; it was the least bad of a bunch of bad choices.

"Why do you think I'm mad?" She was genuinely curious to see how the girl had rationalized their last unfriendly encounter.

"Well, you know, I guess there's going to be more pressure on you now to do things…you may not want to do. I mean, James isn't my type but I could see why Lady might like him. Honestly, I don't know how I feel about Fusao but…Kurosawa I wouldn't…well, you get it."

Kyoko thought about it for a second.

Son of a fucking bitch, I hadn't even thought about him thinking he could sleep with me.

"Yeah, well, you did what you did. I guess it was pretty damn good based on how much noise you were making." She bit out. Sayaka flinched and looked profoundly uncomfortable and hurt. "Can't change it now."

"Is everything alright here?" A cool voice asked. This was not a night that Kyoko would have wanted to have the robotic bitch working.

"It's fine Geisha, thanks. Are you ready?" Sayaka asked politely. Kyoko didn't think the girl really cared to hear an answer.

Geisha was wearing one of her overly extravagant kimonos again. Sayaka was wearing a green Lolita dress that really looked terrible with her skin tone, but matched those disgustingly fake eyes.

She would look so much better in blue.

Now she understood why she always hated her hair and eyes. They were fake. She was honestly surprised that there had never been an instance when the wig got pulled off or something.

Well, it's always been me pleasuring her so…

Kyoko entertained the thought of switching the roles, just to get at least some sort of personal revenge. After all, the girl would clearly do it.

Something about that made her feel hollow inside.

"Precious, you got booked somewhere else tonight." Lady walked over, tossing a plastic bag at Sayaka that would have her costume.

"Huh? But I always work in Room B with you guys."

"I tried to say that to Mangohead. There was a last minute booking for Room A and for some reason, she was convinced you would be the best choice for it. Sounds like it's some guys living out a weird fantasy of their friends or something, because they want you to wear a wig. You're only booked there until 11:30, so you can come up after."

Sayaka nodded and pulled out the costume. She froze. Her eyes were wide and startled.

Kyoko raised an inquisitive eyebrows and looked over to see the costume.

Her expression matched Sayaka's.

In Sayaka's hands, she held the slutty cop outfit and a short blue wig, identical in style and colour to her actual hair.

Sayaka was not excited to work at the club tonight. She just wanted to take a break. Last night's party had been awkward after her little outburst, but luckily everyone (with the help of some alcohol from the cops) seemed to forget about it quickly enough.

Most of all though, she had been right in assuming that her conversation with Kyoko was going to be uncomfortable, but she hoped it would at least patch things up a bit. It didn't. She should have taken more time to plan what she was going to say, but saying that she had had a few other things on her mind would be the understatement of the century. She had hoped and hadn't thought that having Kyoko mad at her wouldn't be too big of a deal; she could still work here.

But now…now that she was holding this cover-blowing costume…her intestines felt like rocks. She could hear her heart pounding. Her adrenaline was racing.

She wanted to run. She had to run. She had no idea how to.

She glanced around furtively, somehow hoping she could get a good strategy to escape. She desperately tried to form a strategy in her head, but was coming up blank.

"What?" She snapped at Kyoko, who was looking oddly smug.

"You seem nervous, Precious. What is it? What kind of senpai would I be if I let my poor kouhai be this scared and not worry about her, hmm?" She traced the side of Sayaka's face with the back of her fingers patronizingly.

"It's nothing. I'm not nervous. Why do you think I'm nervous?" She tried to play it off cool while batting Kyoko's hands away. Sayaka thought she sounded convincing. Lady seemed to accept it.

There was something about the glint in Kyoko's eyes that implied that she didn't.

There was something in Geisha's steely expression that implied that she didn't either.

"Sango, could I speak with you?" Geisha asked in way that was more ordering to the frazzled girl as she passed by.

"Oh, hi Geisha, yes. What can I help you with?"

"I am wondering why Precious will not be with us in Room B for the night? I cannot imagine that our clients would be overly pleased by her absence. They are fans of her…entertainment." It sounded like Geisha was trying to find a diplomatic way of saying 'getting fucked by Kyoko in front of them'.

"I certainly thought about that, but I think I would be good for Rin to get a bit more variety, you know?" Sango smiled at Sayaka. "Maybe get some new clients who aren't quite as dangerous." She shrugged.

Oh fuck, you're trying to help me.

"Hey, I appreciate it, I really do. But I'm happy where I am. I'm happy with-" She gestured to Kyoko.

"You should do it." Kyoko interjected. "She's right. You shouldn't be so reliant on one set of clients. I'm guessing you're going to be getting paid quite a bit by these guys if they're making you wear a special outfit, yeah?" Kyoko looked at Sango.

Sango looked uncomfortable.

"Well, you won't be getting quite as much with this group as you would in Room B, but just try it! It's only for half the night."

"YOU BITCH!" A girl screamed from down the long, narrow room. Sango sighed.

"I should get check on that. You're due in Room A in ten minutes. Have a good night!" Sango sprinted to the source of the commotion. Geisha marched after her.

Sayaka stared at the outfit again. She had no idea what was going on.

She wanted to call Ryo and ask for her advice.

She wanted to call her Mom and ask for advice.

She really needed some advice and she had nowhere to go.

She was fucked.

"What's the problem?" Kyoko had a shit-eating grin on her face.

"Why the hell do you look so happy about this?" Sayaka snapped. Kyoko was acting strange and it was not helping her situation at all.

Kyoko took the wig, putting it on her hand to observe the style of it.

"I know a girl…a cop, actually. I never really thought about it, but you and her really look alike; it's uncanny even. And she has hair just. Like. This." She twirled the wig. "The only thing that's different about you two is your hair and eyes. Her eyes are just so much prettier than yours though." She whispered into Sayaka's ear. Sayaka started to blush.

"Maybe there's just something exciting to me about you being her. Just for tonight." Kyoko nipped her earlobe before quickly pushing herself away. "In any case," She said much more loudly, "You have a good time with these other clients tonight. Mango's right, you need to get out there with other clients more. See you after your private show."

Kyoko sauntered away. Sayaka was embarrassed (and even more embarrassingly, slightly turned on and she had no idea why).

What the hell was that?

Geisha walked back towards her quickly and gracefully.

"Someone named 'Nakazawa' booked you in Room A. Does that mean anything to you?" She asked.

"Naka-" Oh dear fucking GOD no! "Ah, no, of course not."

"Be honest with me. Is it alright for you to go in there?" She whispered quickly.

"That's a weird question." Sayaka responded, truthfully. Geisha sighed.

"We'll speak later. In the meantime, if this is not safe for you, don't do it. Do you understand?" She continued to whisper. "You don't look like you are feeling well. Do you have a fever?" She asked much more audibly. She pressed the back of her hand to Sayaka's forehead.

"Let me check." Lady pushed Geisha's hand away and felt her forehead. "Seems fine to me. Are you feeling al-"

"FIVE MINUTES LADIES." Tomi yelled.

"You're going to get a nasty penalty if you leave now, especially for a private show. Hurry up, get changed, and just head home after if you're sick." Lady said to Sayaka kindly. She turned to Geisha and sneered "Let's go bitch."

The walked out. Geisha shot her a concerned look back.

Sayaka's heart rate hadn't slowed down, and she doubted it was going to.

She had to put on a show.

Kyoko walked into Room B, pretending to be much more confident than she actually was.

This was not a crowd she was expecting.

The Kurosawas were there; they were typical. Same with James. Having Miyamoto Tsubasa back was odd, and she had a hard time looking at him without thinking of everything Suki told her.

The one who scared her most was Hideki.

"Oh, you look fantastic in that." He nearly growled to her. He held out a wad of notes for her, appearing to be something like 100,000 yen. It was clearly a joke; she would have to give it back to him at the end of the night anyways.

Still, to not raise suspicions, she went over there and started to give the man a lap dance.

He let his hands wander.

"No hands, Hideki." Kurosawa said, clearly displeased by the notion of Kyoko entertaining someone other than him. He didn't say anything though.

He was in just as much shit with the loan shark as she was.

Hideki smiled, seemingly innocently and put his hands in the air as if he were being arrested.

Lady and Geisha arrived with drinks and chicken wings. Geisha also had a pot of green tea, which she immediately served to Tsubasa.

"Ah, it's been too long, hasn't it Geisha?"

"It certainly has." She smiled politely. "Where is your sister? Is she not feeling well?"

The feeling in the room got significantly darker.

"She may not be joining us for a while yet." Tsubasa said tactfully to dismiss the conversation.

"No, I would actually like to hear more about this." Kurosawa prodded.

"Me too." James added.

Hideki just leered at Kyoko.

"Based on the little I know, she will not be joining us for a very long time. It's as simple as that." His tone implied that this was the end of the conversation about Suki.

Kurosawa glared. James shrugged and threw a shot of sake back very impolitely.

"Where's Precious?" The younger Kurosawa asked curiously.

"Double booked. She'll be up in a few hours." Lady said quickly and tersely.

In general, these were clients who got their every request filled here. Not having one of the girls they requested was very, very odd. Kyoko doubted Tomi knew that Sango booked Sayaka in another room.

The thought made her smirk.

Hideki raised an eyebrow at her mistaking the reason behind her amusement, before smirking himself and rolling his hips up so she could feel his growing erection right between her legs.

Her lips twitched in dissatisfaction, but she tried to keep the smile in place.

She could feel Kurosawa glaring at them.

She felt like they were playing some kind of game of tug-o-war over her; she felt like a sex object.

She wasn't sure how she felt about Sayaka coming up to join them.

This was not going to be a good night, she decided.

Sayaka walked into Room A, pretending to be much more confident than she was. She was going to be penalized for being late.

She had tried putting the wig over top of her wig, but it was just making both of them fall off.

After comparing, she determined that the wig was basically identical to her natural hair, and she just took both wigs off and hid them in her locker.

Her stomach was in knots. She prayed Nakazawa wouldn't recognize her.

She vowed to someday, somehow kick his ass for this.

"Holy shit, dude! She looks exactly like your friend!" A young man she had never met exclaimed. She smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. She had to be professional, after all.

Room A had the same colour scheme as room B, but the layout was different. This room was much less for socializing between the patrons. The stage was clearly in the centre of the room, surrounded by a large, circular couch with a few side tables interspersed along it. There were eight young men in this room and five workers including herself. She recognized all of them, particularly Mei and Lei who looked suspiciously like Hitomi in their costumes, but she had never really spoken to any of them.

Of the men, she recognized Nakazawa who was gaping at her.

She was stunned and incredibly disappointed to recognize Kyousuke gaping at her too.

Sayaka froze, but forced herself to keep moving almost instantaneously. She had to pretend she was just impersonating herself for a tip, after all.

"That's insane." Nakazawa almost whispered.

"Go on, introduce yourself." Mei prompted. Mei and Lei were seating on either side of Kyousuke, who was making a point of keeping this hands on his lap.

She couldn't ignore the flattery she felt that his eyes were firmly set on her.

"Officer Precious, reporting for duty." She said in a voice that was higher than natural. "I understand someone here has been a very, very bad boy." She put a hand on her hip, sauntering towards the group of guys.

A few guys put up their hands insisting they had been bad. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and proceeded to walk to the nearest one. She used her free hand to hold his chin and make him look her in the eyes, both for dramatic effect and to get him to stop staring at her tits.

"Do you have any bad crimes to confess to, boy?" She tried to do a purse her lips sexually. She felt ridiculous, but he didn't seem to notice.

"I stole a candy bar from a convenience store when I was eight." He shrugged sheepishly. The room laughed. She lightly slapped him.

"What a bad, bad boy. What am I going to do with you?" She asked, leaning over him and giving him a good view of her chest. The longer she could stay away from Kyousuke and Nakazawa who were on the other side of the room, the better.

"I've been bad! I've been bad too!" A friend a few seats away piped up. She was hesitant to go over there, but also glad because she had no idea where she was going with the scene she had built there.

"What's your crime, boy?" She asked, sauntering over.

"I was looking at naughty photos of you."

The crowd, aside from Nakazawa and Kyousuke jeered. She resisted the urge to shudder.

"That's hardly a crime. They're easy to find." The traced his jawline with her finger before reaching down and grabbing some of the small notes out of his hand. The boys gaped at the response.

"Oh Officer Precious!" Mei sounded like she was a bad actress calling for help from the leading man in a movie. "I need help Officer Precious!"

Sayaka was going to go with this. She hadn't thought out her act very far.

"Officer Precious, my boyfriend Kamiju-"

"Kamijou" Nakazawa corrected.

"Our boyfriend" Lei interjected. Mei looked ready to slap the other one.

"Our boyfriend Kamijou has made a miraculous recovery and we want to celebrate for him! But neither me nor my twin sister want to let go of him, and someone needs to dance for him."

The room cheered, including Nakazawa this time. Kyousuke still seemed uncomfortable.

She and Kyousuke looked at each other. He was staring at her eyes intently.

"Just the eyes…" He whispered to himself. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes.

"Well, that just won't do for a good, law-abiding citizen to not get his just reward, now will it?" She said. She swayed her hips as she walked over the iPod that was connected to the speakers.

She could feel his eyes watching her as she walked. Usually, when men at the club did that it was either a slight nuisance or degrading.

With Kyousuke, there was something empowering about it. She felt sexy and desirable.

There were plenty of song with heavy beats and trashy lyrics to choose from. She knew she should pick one of those songs; something a typical stripper would be expected to do.

At the same time, all of the employees here knew the songs she tended to pick; songs that had a bit more of a classical edge to them.

She never thought about how Kyousuke might have inspired that. She looked over her shoulder to see him still watching her, ignoring the copies of his girlfriend sitting on either side of him in favour of her. She suppressed the shiver that threatened to move down her spine.

She felt bits of sweat prickling the pores of her skin. She was nervous, and yet she was excited. She was going to dance for Kyousuke.

She felt like she was going to have to apologize to Hitomi after this.

She picked a song without lyrics. This one had a smooth beat and a saxophone and violin that played a sultry, beautiful duet. She adjusted her hat to try to make sure it would stay on her head.

The room went still and quiet. All she could hear was the beginning of the song, her heels as they clacked onto the stage, and her steadying heartbeat.

All she could see was Kyousuke's stormy grey eyes watching her with rapt attention.

All she could feel was the blood rushing to her cheeks, and power starting to trickle from her core. It felt like her magic was leaking from her.

She could tell that's what it was when she grasped the pole. She was able to lift herself up and go inverted with almost no physical exertion at all. The room gasped at this.

She quickly learned she was more flexible than she was before too. She was easily able to split her legs and connect her toes to the back of her head. She was so much stronger than her body didn't even slide down the pole a bit.

She was stronger. She was more flexible. She was more graceful.

She closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of Kyousuke's gaze on her.

She was more beautiful.

She continued to effortlessly move her body along to pole, doing spins, inverts, slides, and twirls. The rotating metal accentuated her physical form all the more, making her feel like she was flying.

There were a few points she was almost worried the speed she was making the pole spin at would make it break from the ceiling, but it was well anchored.

She landed softly, rolling towards him and facing him. She traced her fingers up her body, not breaking eye contact with him.

The song seemed to end too soon. She was breathless, but not because of physical exertion. There was something in Kyousuke's eyes; something lustful.

She had never seen that. He had never had a look like that for her.

She wondered if he had that look for Rin or for her.

She crawled over to him slowly and seductively.

He's the guest of honour tonight. It's my job to do this. If I didn't, it would be suspicious. She rationalized.

"Do you have any crimes to confess to?" She asked softly. She worried that she let her voice fall to a pitch that was too naturally hers. His breath seemed to hitch when she asked him that.

"I fantasize about my best friend who looks just like you when I'm with my girlfriend. A lot."

That look was for her.

She opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't know what to say. She reached out to him, not sure where she was going with it, but it felt so natural and right. It was something she had suppressed wanting for years. Both of them seemed to be leaning into each other.

"Gentlemen, I am so sorry to interrupt you all!" Tomi exclaimed apologetically from the doorway. "I'm afraid there was an error made in the scheduling of our employees. Officer Precious should be in another room right now. In return, we have two other lovely ladies who will entertain you and a bottle of sake on the house."

Sweetie and a violet-haired girl came in carrying the bottle and the small glasses, smiling politely. Most of the room's patrons cheered at the free alcohol and extra attractive bodies in the room.

She was both frustrated and thrilled by Kyousuke's look of utter disappointment.

"Be good, boys. I don't want to hear about any disturbances down here." She said in her higher pitched tone, bidding them adieu. Nakazawa got up and rushed to follow her.

"Hang on a second, can I see something?" He asked quickly.

"She needs to go to another room now sir." Tomi insisted impatiently.

"I get it, just a second." He gently held her left arm to inspect it. Sayaka bristled. If he was going to be checking for needle marks…

And then she remembered. A few years ago, they had gotten into a fight with a dealer. She had gotten a nasty scar on the back of her left forearm from when she fell on the cement, having been thrown down and beaten. She'd needed to get seven stitches for it. It was faded now, but if you knew where to look for it, there was no way you could miss it.

He was sliding the black material of her long-sleeves gloves down her elbow. A trace of the outside of the scar was visible.

Tomi grabbed Nakazawa's hand, not forcefully enough to hurt but enough to make a point.

"No one touches the girls. Anyone who violates that rule will be thrown out. Understood?" He had a firm expression on his face; it was so different from the cowardly visage he usually wore in front of the clients in room B.

Nakazawa let go.

"Of course sir. I apologize."

Tomi led her upstairs to go to room B. Nakazawa watched them go, before eventually rejoining the party he had arrived with.

"Uh, Tomi can I quickly get changed?"

"You're fine with what you have. They want you now. Have a good shift." He opened the door and forcefully pushed her in the room, closing the door behind her. She felt like she had just been sealed in a cage full of hungry lions.

"I'll be damned. You look just like Sapphire." Tsubasa said in awe.

Kyoko had to admit that Sayaka never ceased to amaze her. She just walked into a room full of the most dangerous criminals in Kazamino in a cop outfit dressed as herself.

That girl had balls.

"Who's that?" Sayaka played dumb.

Thankfully, Sayaka's presence had helped lessen the tension in the room significantly, because everyone here was stupid and assumed she didn't know anything about anything. It was painfully frustrating how dumb everyone else was.

Kurosawa 'informed' Tomi that he was not impressed that Sayaka had been put in another room. Being Hideki's bitch must have been causing him some psychological trauma so he had to make up for it by being a total ass to Tomi and Kyoko.

Kyoko was experiencing some psychological trauma from all of these assholes.

Maybe that was why she was getting so much enjoyment out of playing this cat and mouse game with Sayaka.

"No one important." Kyoko shrugged off the question on behalf of the others in the room. Besides, in the long run it was in her best interest if Sayaka's cover remained intact.

"I would have to disagree with that. She was one of the girls who was selected as a target a few years ago. As it turns out, in a 'brave story of redemption" Tsubasa was sneering "she became a police officer and got three of our best arrested."

"Was it bad luck that she was there, or did the famous, acclaimed Miyamoto management have a problem with a rat?" Hideki grinned. Tsubasa's and Kurosawa's mouths twitched downwards.

"We both had the same problem in New Mitakihara. It is being dealt with." Tsubasa replied curtly. Kurosawa nodded grimly. There were a few moments of awkward silence.

Kyoko studied Sayaka intently. Sayaka said nothing and her face appeared to be impassive. However, she was sure that her mind was racing about this mysterious problem in New Mitakihara that Kyoko herself was not aware of. It frustrated Kyoko too; she was convinced they would have thought therewas a rat at the club, but now there was some scapegoat in New Mitakihara getting the blame. Kyoko took a deep breath and counted to ten. She couldn't let them know about Sayaka; not yet. They needed to find out they had a problem with a rat, and then she could hand Sayaka over to them on a silver platter; then she would get more 'compensation' to deal with the church, and that will be two problems gone. She just had to wait. Just a bit more; just a bit more.

Kyoko wondered how many times Sayaka did this: stayed silent, pretending to not know or care about her surroundings while she tried to process and memorize everything around her. How many operations had she already fucked up for Kyoko's clients?

"Can you take that wig off, Precious? The outfit's fine, but I don't like the hair. It doesn't look like you." Fusao requested politely.

Kyoko had to keep herself from bursting out laughing and screaming at everyone in the room. They were so stupid it was actually painful. How could no one else see it? She was literally right in front of them!

But that was it: she had never seen it either. She should have, there were so many signs there, and she hadn't seen a single one until it was too late and she lost what may have been her only saviour. Kyoko didn't care what Tsubasa said; she didn't believe that their new business was going to get off the ground without Suki.

"No, no. I like this. I want her to stay like that." Tsubasa said. James nodded.

"This would be a good time for a show, I think. I wouldn't mind seeing Precious role play as our favourite officer with the good old KPD." James sneered.

"Oh, I'd quite like to see that. In honour of Atahiko, of course. Precious, would you mind? We'll tip you extra. It will be just a bit rougher than usual." Tsubasa promised.

She noticed Sayaka take a sharp intake of breath.

"Of course. I'm always happy to put on a show." Her smile seemed sweet, but Kyoko was convinced it was dripping with insincerity. Sayaka went over to the stage and sat down, looking at Kyoko in a silent way of beckoning her to join her.

Kyoko wasn't sure how to feel about this.

"What is it, Koko? Don't you want to put on a show?" James goaded. "That's not like you."

Sayaka looked at her sympathetically and walked over to her.

"It's okay if you don't want to do a show." She's sounding like me now. "But I'm okay with being her for you. Just for tonight." Sayaka whispered to her.

Kyoko's eyes widened in shock. She hadn't been expecting something like that. She didn't welcome to excited reaction stirring from the bottom of her core at those words of pure consent from the natural blunette either.

Sayaka took her hand and gently pulled her towards the stage, artificially coloured eyes never leaving her own.

"Only the eyes…" Kyoko muttered to herself. She could see traces of a blush underneath the layers of makeup Sayaka was wearing, but she smiled bashfully. Kyoko felt trusted; it was an oddly nice feeling.

The younger Kurosawa made a noncommittal noise, clearly not overly excited to see 'Rin' dressed as someone else. Sayaka's face twitched and she swallowed nervously, legs clenching together unintentionally.

And then Kyoko remembered why this girl was here, and why she was doing this.

Her mood darkened, and her face reflected it.

She pushed Sayaka forcefully onto the stage, knocking the girl on her back.

"Kyo-"

"Shut up." She ordered harshly. She could feel the excitement from the sadistic members of the crowd who had a personal grudge against Sayaka.

She could feel her own sadistic excitement, and she had her own personal grudge against Sayaka.

"Lady, get the kit."

"The kit?" Lady was surprised. It wasn't often that they brought that out, but what the hell; she was going to give the audience a show they were going to remember for the rest of their lives.

She was going to put on a show Sayaka would never, ever forget; maybe she would finally get a clue and get the fuck out.

Knowing the utter lack of self-preservation this girl seems to have though, probably not.

"Yeah. The kit."

"Uh, what kit is this?" Sayaka was starting to sound hesitant.

"You'll find out. Now shut. Up."

Kyoko crashed her mouth to Sayaka's, dominating and violent. She was sure Sayaka could probably feel her fang more than she could feel her tongue.

She pinned the undercover to the stage beneath her, forcefully pushing a leg between the girl's own. She held Sayaka's wrists in one hand, not worrying about her being able to get them free if she wanted to. Kyoko used her other hand to wander down to the open space between her legs; Sayaka gasped into Kyoko's mouth. Kyoko was surprised too.

The girl was really, really wet.

"You perverted girl; you like this?" Kyoko slid two fingers in thrusting them in and out slowly. "You are such a slut, aren't you?"

Sayaka's blush was very apparent, and her expression was a combination of embarrassment and hurt. You deserve it.

"Got iiiit." Lady sing-songed as she re-entered, leaving an unlabelled black box by Kyoko's feet before going back to the couch to rejoin James.

Kyoko could feel Sayaka trying to twist her head to look at the box, but she wasn't able to see past Kyoko's red ponytail. Kyoko was attacking her neck, leaving love bites and actual bite marks behind.

Sayaka squeaked when a particularly hard bite drew blood. Kyoko wondered if she should be concerned by how much she loved the taste of salt and iron on her tongue.

"This is always so one-sided." Kyoko growled out. She got up, leaving Sayaka on her back to catch her breath. Kyoko pulled down the black thong she was wearing and pulled the short skirt up just a bit; she really didn't have to do much. Sayaka's eye widened, but she quickly swallowed and nodded, understanding what she was being commanded to do.

Kyoko exhaled with pleasure when she felt Sayaka's tongue against her. It was obvious that Sayaka had never done this for another girl before, but she was trying to mimic Kyoko's style which was generally a good way to go about it.

"Nnng." Kyoko grinded her hips down against Sayaka's face, using the pole behind her to keep herself up. She looked down, getting an admittedly sick sense of pleasure seeing the bitch on her knees between her legs.

She hated the way those overly bright emerald eyes were looking at her, seeking approval as she tried the different letters of the alphabet.

Just the eyes…

"Hang on." Kyoko pushed Sayaka away, making the girl tumble backwards. Kyoko hurriedly picked up the black box, digging through the various items in there. One of them was a curved, thick hard one she looked forward to using later. In the meantime, she would be happy with the long piece of black satin that was thicker in the middle and shaped like goggles.

"C'mere." Kyoko pulled Sayaka up by the front of the black tube top she was wearing, making her breasts threaten to spill out. Kyoko hurriedly tied the blindfold around her eyes; the ribbon on the back of Sayaka's head looked perfect, just like the ribbon she regularly wore in her own hair.

"Keep going." She growled, pulling the girl back in to her crotch. "By the way, do an 'x'." It was unfortunate having a good letter so far down in the alphabet. Sayaka complied and Kyoko couldn't keep the relieved smile off her face.

It's been way, way too long.

Sayaka had to admit that Kyoko never ceased to confuse her.

She could understand why Kyoko hated Rin, but she didn't understand what she had done to deserve the harsh treatment. Well, yes there was plenty she had done, but she didn't think that Kyoko knew the extent of it. It didn't feel like it was all for show. It felt personal.

But hell, it felt good.

Just two days ago, she'd felt powerless during sex. Even now, she felt uncomfortable taking part in this in front of him.

Kyoko was right; she had been wet. But most of that was because of Kyousuke. Some it was because of Kyoko. This time, she had her identity and she was with someone she didn't think was somehow behind dozens of the worst crimes in Kazamino.

She was with people who wanted her.

She tried her best to please Kyoko; after all, she was right; their shows always were very one-sided. She'd been here for a few months and had never gone down on Kyoko once. She wasn't sure what she thought about the taste, but she could handle it. The main problem she actually had was breathing; Kyoko wasn't giving her many chances to.

She could hear every breath Kyoko took; they were surprisingly feminine. She wondered if anyone else could hear the quick, steady rhythm of high pitched inhales and exhales or if it was only her; they weren't loud, but they were all she could hear.

Her other senses were so much stronger with her sight gone. Sayaka let her fingertips trace the inside of Kyoko's thighs. Kyoko's skin was soft, but she could feel the solid muscle definition that she must need for dancing like she does. It got progressively warmer to further up her fingers went.

Kyoko let out a quiet mewling sound that Sayaka didn't even know the hot-headed girl could make when her fingers (embarrassingly) struggled to find her clit. In Sayaka's defense, she couldn't freaking see.

Kyoko ended up guiding her fingers away and did it herself while Sayaka dutifully continued with her tongue.

"S-Saya-" Kyoko whispered so quietly she was sure she was the only one who heard it.

Something just for her.

Sayaka nearly fell backwards when Kyoko shoved her hips down and groaned. She could feel Kyoko clench around her tongue.

Did she just-?

Kyoko was panting hard, having those beautiful high-pitched inhales.

Woohoo! I did it!

Sayaka smiled up at Kyoko, though she couldn't tell if Kyoko was even looking at her. The room cheered, which made her proud feeling come crashing down.

"Now for the good part." Kyoko growled out lowly.

Kyoko pushed Sayaka off and rooted through the box again. She didn't want to let the cunt get off the hook that easily.

She noticed Sayaka moving her hands up to untie the ribbon.

"We're not done yet." She chided. She pulled Sayaka's hands behind her and fastened them together with a pair of handcuffs. Kyoko wasn't sure if the key was still in the kit or not. They would just have to find that out later.

Sayaka experimented, trying to pull her hands apart.

"Uh, Koko what's in that-"

"All sorts of things to punish bad girls."

Kyoko did her best to ignore the excited leers from the audience.

"Is there a safe word or something?" She whispered back hurriedly.

Traitor. Liar. Whore. Bitch.

"Sapphire." Kyoko whispered back before fastening a red ball gag in the girl's mouth.

Kyoko pulled up the mini skirt and pulled down the thong that had always been superfluous in that outfit; Kyoko knew, she had worn the cop costume before.

"And bad cops deserve the worst punishment." Kyoko smiled. She pushed Sayaka forward so she was on her knees with her chest on the ground. She was completely vulnerable. Kyoko could see that above the blindfold, Sayaka's eyebrows were furrowed with worry.

Kyoko wasn't sure how she felt about Sayaka. She wasn't sure she could use the word 'hate', or even 'strongly dislike', though she felt she had every reason to. Still, it didn't mean that she necessarily wanted to cause the girl serious grievous harm.

Just a bit of grievous harm was all.

"Remember the safe word." She whispered. It seemed to calm the girl who nodded slightly.

Sayaka nearly jumped when Kyoko brought the leather flogger down on her ass. Kyoko was surprised by the girl's strength; it was hard to keep her down. She knew it wasn't the pain that startled her; probably more the sound. Over her years at Tomi's, Kyoko had become a professional at using floggers and whips in a way that would make loud, painful sounds but not actually hurt that much. Kyoko brought it down again.

"Three for Suki." She flogged her once more. "Three for Atahiko." Three more. "Any for Megumi?" She asked the crowd.

"Nah, he doesn't deserve any." James said. "But feel free to keep flogging."

Kyoko stared down at the girl. She decided to do one last hard slap, and she made sure to make this one hurt. Sayaka made a startled sound. One for me.

Kyoko threw the flogger behind her and ran her hand soothingly over the reddened flesh. Sayaka was flushed, whether from humiliation or excitement Kyoko wasn't sure, but she looked okay.

"Now for the grand finale…" Kyoko whispered to Sayaka. She reached back and pulled it out.

The bright red vibrating double-ended strap-on was Kyoko's alone and never used. She'd had a stage partner three years ago and they planned on doing a show like this for Kurosawa and the Miyamotos; her partner was an idiot and got pregnant with a powerful client's kid, and was paid to disappear. So the strap-on never came out until today. And she couldn't have thought of a better partner to try it out with.

There were some things Kyoko was not willing to share with the other employees. This was one of them.

Kyoko gasped as she put the shorter end inside herself; the part outside fit perfectly against her clit. She fastened a few straps to keep it from falling out.

The longer end stuck forward proudly, and was ready for the unsuspecting blue-haired cop on the ground of front of it.

"I'm about to put something inside of you." Kyoko whispered. She didn't want to give the whole surprise away. Sayaka nodded hesitantly.

Kyoko wasn't sure if kissing the back of Sayaka's shoulder blades tenderly was appropriate given the reality of their relationship, but it felt like the right thing to do as she guided the longer end in. She was sure that Sayaka had been wet enough. Sayaka groaned.

Kyoko experimented and thrust in and out and bit. Short, quick thrusts would definitely feel better for her to grind against the front part. She figured she should be kind (though she didn't particularly want to be) and let Sayaka adjust.

When it moved more easily and Sayaka wasn't grunting every time she moved, Kyoko reached down and turned on the vibrator full blast. Both girls jolted; one from surprise and one from ecstasy.

Kyoko grinded against Sayaka much harder and faster now. She felt great. This was so, so much better than doing something on her own, or doing it with Precious. It was so much easier to believe that this was Sayaka.

She shouldn't want this to be with Sayaka, but she did.

They ended up practically lying down on the ground, hips only slightly elevated. This made it easier for Kyoko to bite and leave hickeys all over Sayaka. She wanted the girl to have a visual reminder for days about what they did. She wanted to Sayaka to remember who she really belonged to.

Kyoko was grateful for her superhuman strength because it was the only way she could keep going without using either hand as leverage. One hand twisted Sayaka's nipple, making the girl squirm. The other hand played with her clit; she wanted Sayaka to be humiliated by how much she loved this.

Sayaka was moaning and drooling around the gag; she looked like a mess. Her moans sounded so much more sincere this time than the echoes down the hall had two days before. The thought made Kyoko grin smugly.

That's right. You love this. You're MINE.

She loved the possessive feeling of being in control; she hadn't felt like this in way too long. And here she had a beautiful, unsuspecting girl whose life was literally in her hands and letting her do whatever she wanted with her body; Kyoko planned to take full advantage of that.

If only you knew that I know what I know.

Kyoko was close again. The pressure was building up, getting warmer and warmer, stronger and stronger.

Sayaka evidently was closer than she was, based on the way she practically screamed into the gag and thrusted back against her. Her body shivered underneath Kyoko's.

So close, so close, I'm so close.

Sayaka continued to squirm. Kyoko pulled her hand away from her clit and grabbed her arm, trying to anchor herself and keep Sayaka a bit more still.

"Saa-fffrrr" She groaned into the gag. "Saa-ffrrr" She tried pulling away.

Just a bit more, just a bit more.

Sayaka's brows were contorted in discomfort. She was trying to move away. Kyoko had to work a bit harder to get it to go in. Kyoko held her arm and breast tightly to keep her in place. The pleasure grew into a promise of ecstasy. It was almost at its apex.

"Saaa-fffrrr!"

An explosion of sensation wracked Kyoko from the bottom of her core, spreading rapidly and powerfully through her thighs and core. She practically spasmed from how amazing it felt.

Or rather, she did spasm.

CRACK.

Sayaka screeched in pain into the gag. Kyoko's high immediately plummeted as she looked at the girl beneath her. Kyoko pulled her hands away to see what happened.

Sayaka's right arm was dislocated and swelling fast.

Sayaka kicked Kyoko off and tried to get away. It was hard when that thing was still inside of her and still buzzing. All she had needed was for Kyoko to give her a break, for just a few goddamn seconds. That was it.

And now there was pain shooting through her right arm. Her poor arm had really been getting a beating over the past few weeks.

"Get off of her." Geisha commanded harshly, pushing Kyoko back, evidently being mindful of whatever was inside of her. She felt the gag and blindfold fall from her face.

She hadn't realized that she had tears in her eyes. She wasn't even sure what those had come from; pain or pleasure. Up until the end, it had felt so good.

"Where are the keys?" Geisha asked quickly. Sayaka turned her head around to see what the thing inside of her had been.

Her eyes widened to see a strap-on connected to Kyoko, who was digging around inside the box for the key. She blushed furiously.

Her arm protested at her movement. It didn't hurt as bad as she thought having a broken arm would, but she still cringed.

If everyone would leave me alone for a goddamn second I can fix it. She just knew her magic could mend it perfectly within seconds.

"I think it's broken." Geisha said matter-of-factly. "That sound was not good and it's swelling very fast. We need to take you to a hospital immediately.

Sayaka could feel that the bone was indeed broken; something about her magic told her that her arm was misaligned, beyond just being out of the socket. Her magic also told her she could fix this easily on her own.

"I'll be fine, just get these handcuffs off."

Geisha complied and was using the blindfold to make a splint with a riding crop. Sayaka resisted the urge to laugh immaturely. It occurred to her that she should be more concerned about her current situation, but she just knew this wasn't a big deal. Her magic would make her fine.

Lady entered the room frantically, followed by Sango and Tomi.

"What happened this time?" Tomi sounded exasperated.

"This one wasn't us, it was Koko." James pointed at Kyoko who looked like she felt terrible. Sayaka was annoyed with the girl to say the least, but she wasn't angry. She was glad that she at least felt guilty though.

With all of the commotion, no one was really paying attention to her. She pushed her arm back in place and squeezed where the bones were broken. She felt a cool, refreshing sensation as the bones mended back together within seconds. She pulled off the makeshift splint constructed by bondage toys.

"All employees in my office now." Tomi ordered, marching out of the room. The group of young women followed him. Sayaka rolled her shoulder a few times to try it out. It felt fine.

"Let me see your arm." Sango said as soon as they entered Tomi's office. Tomi combed his fingers through his thinning hair in exasperation. Sango's jaw dropped.

"Her arm looks fine."

Geisha blinked in surprise and moved forward to look at it. There was no swelling or bruising. Of course not; Sayaka had just fixed it.

"But how…"

"I think it was just the lighting. It looked worse than it was. I'm fine, really." Sayaka shrugged.

"No, I saw your shoulder, it was popped out! Like your arm wasn't connected!" Sayaka only realized then that Lady looked incredibly pale. She must be more squeamish than she thought.

She thought of a lie on the spot.

"That actually happens a lot. I hurt myself playing baseball when I was a kid and it pops out pretty easily. I'm used to it. I can just pop it back in on my own."

Lady shuddered. The rest of them, including Kyoko just gaped on her.

"That doesn't change the fact that Kyoko ignored the safe word." Geisha criticized.

"You did what? You know what, this hasn't been working out. This hasn't been working out at all. Sakura, Yamasaki, I don't want you two working together anymore. And Yamasaki, you should focus on building up clients outside of room B." Tomi ordered.

"What? No! It's fine, it's not that big a deal. I like working with Kyoko, really!" Sayaka insisted. She looked to Kyoko for back up. She couldn't read the girl's expression.

"Yes, it's a big deal. I don't want any clients, even them, thinking that that kind of thing is alright here. You're too much of an easy target. I don't want you in there."

"Why are you punishing me because of her?" Sayaka screamed. This was bad. Ryo was going to kill her for losing this. "They're great clients! The tips are incredible! And Fusao-san really likes me. Wasn't it a problem for them not having me there for just an hour?"

Tomi tensed. She was right.

"What if we paired Yamasaki with Geisha?" Sango suggested. "Geisha seems to be better with watching over Yamasaki than Sakura is."

Geisha's never THERE.

"No, no, Kyoko's always here. I'm happy with Kyoko, really."

"Tomi, we can kill two birds with one stone." Sango was saying quietly to Tomi, but everyone could hear it. "There has been pressure from numerous clients to bring Geisha in more, and this way we have a good reason staffing-wise to do so. We should pair them up."

Tomi looked like he was considering it.

"The employees are going to have a fit." Lady promised. "We don't want the client-stealer back."

Geisha tensed slightly, but one had to look closely to notice it.

"I want to work with Kyoko." Sayaka said firmly.

"Precious, why don't we talk about this later? I think this would be a good idea for both of us." Geisha said quietly.

"No, I want to work with Kyoko." She replied loudly. I have to keep my way in. I have to keep my way in.

"I'm fine working with her if she's fine sticking with me." Kyoko added. Sayaka still couldn't tell what the girl was thinking.

"I'm not listening to you right now." Tomi pointed at Kyoko accusingly.

"Just think about it, Rin. I think it would be a good thing." Sango insisted.

"No! I-" Geisha put a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Let's talk about this later." She said firmly. Sayaka could tell arguing wouldn't get her anywhere.

Tomi sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Yamasaki, I want you to go home for the rest of the night, just in case your arm is injured. I won't penalize you for this or being late earlier. You're a great employee, but I need to think about this. Listen to Sango and think about it. Everyone else, get back to work."

Sayaka stammered indignantly. Tomi gave her a hard look. She slouched her shoulders in resignation and left, adjusting her hat that had gotten skewed at some point.

She knew Geisha was a client stealer and had other clients beyond Miyamoto. She couldn't work with her. She couldn't lose her way in.

She hid as she put the blonde wig back on and got changed into casual clothes. She felt silly getting more dressed up to leave.

"Precious." Geisha said softly, but firmly from around a corner. Sayaka was just about to head out.

"Yes, Geisha?" Sayaka wasn't even trying to be civil. Geisha sighed.

"We should talk about this more later. In any case, here." She handed Sayaka an envelope. Sayaka raised an eyebrow, looking inside. The envelope and her jaw fell to the ground.

There was over 1,000,000 yen in there.

"Your tips from room A and B tonight. Have a good night. Hopefully a good night's sleep will be beneficial for you." Geisha nodded and left. "We'll speak more later." She promised.

Sayaka went home and flopped backwards on her bed. She fell asleep quickly, having a surprisingly erotic dream about a threesome with Kyoko and Kyousuke. She dreamt that the contrast between Kyousuke's gentleness and Kyoko's passion was just incredible.

She was rudely awakened by her work phone.

"Hello?" She groaned, looking at the clock. It was 8:32 am. She wasn't supposed to have work this morning.

"I need you to come in immediately Miki. You have some visitors. Don't waste time." Ryo said curtly before hanging up. Sayaka was too groggy to understand everything, but got up and got changed. She didn't bother having a shower.

Had she been thinking, she might have put on a scarf.

She yawned the entire train ride to work. The black trench coat was becoming like a second layer of skin quickly.

She walked into the station at 8:55. She felt like a zombie.

Eito, one of the other newer officers who was at her birthday party smirked when he saw her.

"Had a good night, eh Miki?" He grinned.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" She yawned.

He pointed to a window that had a reflective surface. She looked.

She went beet red and woke up immediately.

Her neck was a minefield of hickeys, bite marks, and bruises. Son of a bitch! Goddammit Kyoko!

Eito laughed. A few of the other officers hollered. She tried to find something to use as a scarf or a covering.

"Miki, get inside my office now." Ryo ordered. Some of the officers made mocking "Ooooooh" sounds. She quickly ran towards her desk, hoping she'd left a scarf there.

"NOW MIKI." She winced and walked to the office right away.

Ayumi deliberately bumped into her and passed her a pink scarf she had been wearing.

"Thank you!" Sayaka mouthed to her, throwing it on.

She walked into the office.

"Close the door, Miki." Ryo ordered. She did.

She looked and saw two people in neatly pressed blazers. One of them was a man who looked about ready to retire. Another was a younger woman holding a large coffee, definitely older than Sayaka but significantly younger than the man. She had very short cropped black hair, red-rimmed glasses and bee-stung lips. Sayaka squinted at the woman, realizing that she was incredibly familiar.

"Miki, these two are from the federal bureau, special victims unit. It sounds like they have been working on Tomi's for some time now and would like to speak with you." Ryo said seriously. Sayaka gaped like a fish out of water.

"Geisha?"

The woman's superior snorted. Geisha made a disgusted look.

"I think we can both agree that we have to do things on the field we would rather not discuss here with our superiors. It's nice to meet you in a more professional setting, Detective Miki. I'm Agent Akemi Chiyo."

AN:

Well folks, I think it is safe to say that this story is about 50% complete now; huzzah! We are past part I and are now firmly established in part II of II or III! Thank you once again to my magical beta, the MagicalGay for awesome edits and story help. MagicalGay is the real MVP!

At long last, Geisha/Agent Akemi Chiyo is fully introduced. On a scale of one to ten, how obvious was it that Geisha was an undercover too? I want to make one thing clear: Agent Akemi Chiyo is the same Chiyo that went to interview the Sakura family in Kyoko's flashback in chapter five, and that is going to be very important later on. I never wanted that to be a secret, and I figure since that was a fairly minute-seeming detail over 100 pages back, it might be easy for people to forget. And if anyone is curious about any…relations she may have, I urge you to venture back to chapter 3 to see Sayaka's original description of her. Chapter 3 was basically all foreshadow for a lot of the big plot lines.

This is getting more and more fun to write now that the story has been completely set up; it feels like major plot points are flowing a lot more freely now. Within twenty pages, Sayaka became a magical girl and healed Kyousuke! Ah, it feels good to get things out faster! Kyoko was supposed to find out about Sayaka being undercover at the end of chapter three, and it ended up being at the end of chapter six. But oh well; there were a lot of plots that I hadn't included before (e.g. Kyoko originally wasn't going to be a criminal, there were no problems with the church and Sayaka wasn't a former addict; that's like eighty percent of the story right there).

I'm curious to know what people think about Sayaka's wish and powers. I know in the anime, she always made the same wish; I just couldn't imagine her making that particular wish at this stage in her life. I also had her outfit change a bit, because I feel like someone older wouldn't be silly enough to pick a fabric outfit for battle (I never understood that). Lastly, and arguably most importantly, Yuma's wish has already made her a healer. Sayaka had to have something else then.

Also, please don't be afraid to leave critique about the BDSM/hate sex!

Yuma is getting to be so, so much fun to write! I'm tempted to have a Yuma's POV chapter in the future (the very, very distant future mind you). But Yuma's definitely going to be playing a more active role in the next few chapters for both characters.

Also, I firmly promise that things are going to start looking better for Kyoko next chapter, even if they're in weird ways. But they will! Also, this chapter was very Sayaka-heavy (sorry to the folks who don't like Sayaka much), but I think it will even out more next time.

Thanks for reading!

-Don'tKillKenny