The day couldn't pass by soon enough. But at last, it did.
"Hitomi, are you okay?" Madoka asked as the last school bell rang. "You've been acting odd all day."
The greenette shook her head. "I'm fine; I'm just going to see meeting someone after school. I'm sorry, but I won't be able to hang out with you two."
Madoka smiled. "It's okay; we're actually kind of busy after school, too."
"So, what's keeping you? Is it a boy? Did you finally agree to date one of your admirers?" Sayaka asked, grinning mischievously.
"I'm not meeting any boys, no," Hitomi said, shaking her head.
Sayaka blinked before she raised an eyebrow, a perverted smile spreading on her face. "So, it's a girl then?"
Hitomi stared at that before she vehemently shook her head, face burning at the thought. "Girls can't love girls like that!"
"Whatever you say~"
When she finished collecting her things, Hitomi got up and was about to walk to the door when she noticed the two females in the courtyard below, as well as hearing Bernadette's booming voice calling her name as Grace face-palmed. Hitomi felt several of the classmembers eyes on her and her face burned slightly.
She exited the school and went over to the two females, who were attracting quite a bit of attention from the students.
"HITO-"
Bernadette stopped mid-bellow out before she noticed Hitomi coming over to them and then she grinned and chirped out, "Yo!" and waved to her. Hitomi repressed a flush of embarassment as she walked over to them as the students watched the preseedngs with various sweat-drops and twitching eyebrows.
"Do you know if there's some place we can go that's private? We'd take you to where we are, but it'd be preferable if you showed us," Grace said before scowling slightly at Bernadette. "People tend to stay away from us for obvious reasons."
The dark-skinned young woman pouted.
Hitomi thought for a moment. "The school roof is fairly secluded, but I don't think they'll let strangers in..."
Bernadette shrugged. "Not a problem."
At that, she quickly ducked behind some bushes before a bright light flashed from beneath the leaves and she emerged, wearing the same outfit Hitomi saw her fight in yesterday.
"You moron!" Grace hissed incredulously. "Don't transform in the middle of a-"
However, the younger girl wasn't given any time to finish her sentence as Bernadette scooped both Grace and Hitomi up into her arms and without any hesitation, made a giant leap into the air, landing on a window ledge before hopping up higher and higher until they got to the school roof.
Hitomi collapsed onto the ground in shock when Bernadette let go of her and Grace hopped out of her arms and said with a stern voice, "I know you're here, Kyubey. Come out right now."
"Very well," a child-like voice said.
Hitomi looked behind and down to see the same cat/ ferret, Kyubey apparently, walk up to the three females.
"Alrighty then, let's get t' th' explainin', shall we?" Bernadette stated as she looked at Hitomi expectantly. "Ask yer questions."
Hitomi blinked before she picked herself up and asked the questions she had gone through the previous night. "What was all of that yesterday? What was that creature, those stones, that black bead-like object and why were you wearing such odd outfits when fighting them?"
Bernadette grinned at that as she elbowed Grace slightly and laughed, "I toldja she'd ask that!"
Grace scowled as she gave her older friend a few bills before she turned back to Hitomi.
"That creature yesterday was a witch," Grace answered. "A being that feeds on hatred, despair and many other kinds of intense negative emotion."
Hitomi's eyes widened at that. "But witches are just fairy tales..."
"You asked what it was and we told you such," Grace countered. "Besides, Bernadette just got us up here by leaping great bounds and got us up here; you're not really in much of a position to say what's impossible or not."
The greenette blushed at that. Her brown-haired acquaintance did make a valid point.
"Anyways, as for th' stones-" Bernadette said before she took off her glove on her right hand and Grace also showed her own hand.
On their middle fingers was a silver ring with strange black runes with a small symbol on the fingernails; a grey circle on Grace's and an amber cross on Bernadette's. The rings shone shone brightly and before Hitomi's eyes, two egg-like glass objects in a golden place-holder appeared, one a shimmering orange with a few blotches of black squirming inside it and the other was grey and pristine as can be.
"These're called Soul Gems," Bernadette explained. "They're th' source of our power as Magical Girls."
"'Magical Girls'?" Hitomi repeated.
"Magical girls, Puella Magi, call it what you will," Grace said before she gestured to Kyubey. "That creature named Kyubey gave us the opportunity to become such in return for granting us any wish we wanted."
Hitomi stood up straighter, intrigued. "Any wish?"
"Well, 'cept fer more wishes," Bernadette shrugged.
"Actually, I granted such a wish before," Kyubey said, his tail swishing back in forth.
"Sonovabitch!"
Hitomi tried not to chuckle at the spontaneous, yet almost instinctive retort.
"Anywho gettin' back on track, these Soul Gems," Bernadette said after she had gotten over herself, now sporting a serious expression, "are literally what they're called; our souls're n'side these things an' if they break, or get sep'rated from us by more th'n 'hundred meters, we die."
Hitomi's eyes widened at that even further. "But why would you agree to become Magical Girls then, even if you were promised such a wish?" she almost exclaimed.
"'cause that bastard," Bernadette practically snarled as she glared at Kyubey, "decid'd not t' tell us th' downsides of becoming one o' his slaves."
"You never asked me for such information," Kyubey said simply.
"Withholding information for nefarious ends as well as speaking in only half-truths is the same as lying and far worse," Grace said, scowling at him. "You have no right to plead otherwise."
"I highly doubt that preventing the universe's entropy by taking human emotions on as a power supply would be called 'nefarious'," Kyubey said simply.
Bernadette rolled her eyes and Hitomi looked at the creature with renewed horror.
"I almost wish that our souls being taken out of our bodies was the worst bit," Grace continued, her face becoming graver, " except that witch we fought yesterday, used to a be a Magical Girl."
Hitomi gasped at that. "How...?"
Bernadette held her Soul Gem out for Hitomi to see. "Ya see the black stuff in there?"
Hitomi nodded.
"It's 'cause it's tainted. When ya use magic too much, when ya don't keep it clean 'nuff, or if ya get super depressed, it'll get dirty," Bernadette explained. "When it b'comes totally black, then it'll turn 'n to a grief seed and the Magic Girl turns 'n to a witch. That's what th' object ya saw us usin' yesterday was. When we use it t' our Gems, then it cleans 'em."
"As for the outfits," Grace said, "we don't know why they appear; they just do to make us look impressive when we fight I suppose."
"... what did you two wish for, if I may ask?" Hitomi asked.
Bernadette and Grace glanced at each other before Grace said softly, "That's private for the both of us."
"I understand; please forgive me for asking," the greenette said, bowing.
"'t's fine, really," Bernadette said, shaking her head. "If some guy told me they gave up their souls fer a single wish, I'd wanna know what was so damn important for them t' do so."
Hitomi nodded, but couldn't help but feel so sorry for them both. To think that these two would become some kind of creature like "Beverly" was awful. Even if she had only known them for a short time, it was so sad that they would eventually meet such an end-
"Hey now."
At that, Bernadette leaned down and gently ruffled the green-haired girl's hair, looking at her kindly. "We're th' ones who chose this path, even if we didn't know that we were gettin' into," she said gently. "So ya can't pity either us, 'kay?"
"What's done is done," Grace said simply, her expression softened. "We can't go back, but we can move forward."
Hitomi could see the logic behind it, but she still felt the way she did. Still, she was amazed by both females and how strong they were.
"So, would you mind telling me what you two are doing here now? Why did you come to Japan?" she asked.
At that Bernadette and Grace both frowned before the former spoke. "'bout a few weeks ago, Gracie's Chromebook-"
"'Chromebook'?"
"Th' little computer-thingie she uses in fights; anyways, it started actin' up like hell," Bernadette said, "and that thing only acts up like hell if there's some major power out there. It c'n track a witch's an' gauge it's power, a Magic Girl's potential or their strength an'- well, pretty much anythin' 'bout a Magic Girl or a witch an' it's mooks."
"And what did it pick up?" Hitomi asked.
"A witch," Grace said, her expression grave, "with power unlike any either of us have ever seen before. I tracked down the power and it eventually led us to here, in your town of Mitakihara, Japan."
"'t's not here yet, but it'll be soon; th' fact Gracie's sensors picked it up when it ain't even arrived yet, is really sayin' somethin', believe me," Bernadette added.
Hitomi's blood was beginning to freeze; a powerful witch, a being that revelled in discord and evil, was coming to her home?!
"What- what can be done to stop them?" she asked almost frantically. "The army, navy-"
"Witches can't be seen by normal humans, and even when they cause disasters, no one knows how they were caused. In fact, many unsolved murders and suicides, as well as many freak weather incidents are actually a witch's work," Grace said.
"'sides," Bernadette added, "d'ya really think they'll believe somethin' like that from us? Nope, th' only way t' stop a witch is for a Magic Girl t' do th' job."
After that, there was a long silence on the roof between the four of them. Hitomi was very disturbed by this point, and she had been rendered almost incapable of speaking as she looked at the two females before her.
Witches exist and Magical Girls fight them for the sake of a single wish, but at the price of becoming liches and being doomed to become creatures that can only destroy and eventually be killed by other Magical Girls, who in turn will suffer the same fate. And yet...
Kyubey looked back at her as Hitomi glanced at the white creature.
If this Kyubey is to be believed, this would be for the benefit for the universe to keep it from burning out.
"... what are you going to do now, since I know such things?" Hitomi asked.
"That depends," Grace said simply. "Do you plan on becoming a Magical Girl, do you intend on telling anybody, or will you go about your days with this knowledge and take it to your grave?"
"So... you'd let me go on, even though I know all of this?"
"'ts not like anybody'd believe ya," Bernadette pointed out.
She has a good point, Hitomi silently conceded before she asked, "Do you think you have any chance of defeating this witch?"
"I've been running simulations of our fight for some time now," Grace said before frowning, "but-"
Suddenly, Kyubey seemed to almost bristle before he said, "There's a witch close by."
Grace snorted. "Lovely."
With that, Grace and Bernadette straightened up and the older female scooped up her friend before Hitomi suddenly said, "Wait, please; let me come with."
Bernadette blinked before she raised an eyebrow. "Uh, ya do realize what we're 'bout t' do, doncha? D'y really wanna tag 'long?"
Hitomi stopped for just a second. Why did she want to go with them? So that she could see them fight, so she could support them?
"I do," she finally said.
"We can't be responsible for any harm that comes to you; we'll have our hands full with this one anyways," Grace said sternly.
"I understand."