DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.
The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Girls of the Crystal: Longinus and Propane
by Regina Magia
C&C by Fred Herriot and Rose Ash
A side story to The End of the Circle: A Tale of the Yizibajohei, by Fred Herriot
Based on characters and situations from Azumanga Daiō, created by Azuma Kiyohiko; KimiKiss, created by Enterbrain; Worm, created by John C. McCrae; Urusei Yatsura, created by Takahashi Rumiko; Sister Princess, created by Tenhiro Naoto and Kimino Sakurako; Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika, created by Urobuchi Gen, Shaft and Aniplex; normalman, created by Jim Valentino; and Highlander, created by Gregory Widen.
Mitakihara, a Saturday in mid-November, early afternoon...
Miki Sayaka shook her head while the barrier around her dissipated. "Just a familiar."
"The witch it came from could still be around here somewhere, Sayaka-sama," an eager Kirsten Weiss advised via hologram. Grateful for receiving a virtual second chance at life on the proverbial silver platter when she had been effectively captured and reborn earlier in the week, the former eldritch witch had taken up the rôle of being the centre of communications for the adopted Children of the Forge now resident in the city near Fukushima. Thanks to her first life as the sentient dark echo of some poor magical girl who had been overwhelmed by despair, the woman also known by the handle "H.N. Elly" and now addressed on Yiziba as the Sovereign of the Virtual World was in the perfect position to tip off her once-enemies when other eldritch witches — or even those magical girls who had yet to be Gifted — came into town. She also maintained ties with other groups of would-be Incubator victims such as the Pleiades Saints as well as the Terran members of the Cosmic Mage Guild.
"Any idea where?" the Guardian of the Oceans asked. "We can't let people get killed because of her suffering."
The adopted Californian hummed. "Let me see if..." Her voice then broke. "Wait! Sayaka-sama, I'm picking up something similar to an eldritch witch approaching your position now!"
As another ice sword materialized in her hand, the brunette tomboy spun around...
...just as a punkish-looking girl with shaggy burgundy-brown hair in a high ponytail and crimson-chestnut eyes leapt down from a nearby rooftop, an annoyed look on her face. "Don't know who you are," she declared without any preamble, raising her gloved hands to calmly crack the knuckles. "...but I ain't letting you intrude on my new territory."
"That was just a familiar," Sayaka announced, relaxing herself. "You wouldn't have gotten a Grief Seed from it anyway."
A leer then crossed the newcomer's face. "I know. Once it gets strong enough, it'll turn into a witch. Then I'll kill it."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"You'd let innocent people DIE?!" the Ocean Guardian snapped, her face as pale as a ghost's before the welcome emotions built up from the memories of over TWENTY lifetimes fighting on the World of the Forge surged up to send fresh adrenaline through her body. "No way in Hell am I going to let a selfish heel like you get away with that, bitch!"
And with a bellowed cry, she was off, making the newcomer summon her own naginata-like spear to parry the blow from Sayaka's ice sword. Soon enough, the clanging of weapons echoed through the back alleys, reminiscent of the timeless battles between Immortals that had been fought in near-total secrecy for the past five millennia and more away from normal people's eyes. While there was a middle-aged man with the ringed stylish bird-like insignia tattooed on the inside of his left wrist who had the luck of being in range to pick up the noise of weapons clashing in the traditional manner, the quite familiar fighting jumpsuit of the Ocean Guardian made the Watcher grimace before he shifted to a more secure location; even if the Heiresses of the First Race didn't merit the ancient organization's attention as a man like Duncan MacLeod did, there was that incident back in the late spring that involved the Trickster of the Show — who had saved the life of Connor MacLeod's beloved charge Rachael Ellenstein from death near the very start of Tariko Katabarbe's decade-long casting drive in late 2001 — when she stepped in to help the Highlander overcome his kinsman's most ancient foe Jacob Krell and his posse in the back streets of the Big Apple.
Observing the incredible duel, the man could only nod in appreciation. He and his friends had been read in on the whole situation concerning puella magi, the Incubators and their millennia-old contract with the Sidines to acquire the power of Despair itself from untold thousands of innocent girls — including some of the most famous names in history, the Watcher knew — by the ultimate SACRIFICE of said girls' pure souls to create eldritch witches that would prey on other innocents to feed the race of empathic vampires that had long vexed the Yizibajohei since even before the Dawn of Power. Knowing who Miki Sayaka was and how she had been Gifted during the summer just past, he was quick to see her not going all-out on the newcomer; sadly, he didn't know the punk girl's name. Using the full range of the Ocean Guardian's power would be insanely excessive; it was clear that the newcomer was a puella magi herself since if she had been Gifted by people like Tomoe Mami, such a brutal bout would have been saved for the legendary Battlezone that covered most of the Forge World's central equatorial continent. And even if Sayaka was righteously angry at the newcomer for allowing people to DIE to ultimately help her keep her soul gem cleansed of despair, she was obviously out to capture the other girl so she could be saved in a more permanent fashion.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity — it was actually ten minutes by the Watcher's own count — the newcomer's spear was pinned out of her grasp by Sayaka's sword thrust. The reaction, however...
"Man! I haven't had a fight like THAT in a while!" the newcomer said as she allowed herself to transform out of her battle clothes into a grey hoodie and thigh-length jogging pants. "How long have you been a magical girl anyway, Ojō-chan?"
Surprised by the other girl's lack of care for being defeated like that, Sayaka blinked before she allowed her clothes to melt back into normal. "I never was a Puella Magi," the Ocean Guardian announced. "I'm Yizibajohei."
Silence.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Then...
"What?" Sakura Kyōko asked, clearly confused...
Kaname Madoka's home, an hour later...
"She's NEVER heard of the Yizibajohei?!" a flabbergasted Airi Gardner demanded. "How in the Forge's Name is that even possible?! We may not have been front page news since the rimrae umale were finally expelled from the planet back in August, but you'd think someone like her would have heard SOMETHING about us by now!"
The others now gathered in the bedroom of the Noble Neighbour nodded in agreement. "If I was to hazard a guess, the Incubators have something to do with it," Akemi Homura concluded, shaking her head. "Since we started sending silent feelers out through the Internet to alert other puella magi about what we could do for them, they no doubt decided they didn't want the girls they've targeted to know there are other options than fighting eldritch witches, ESPECIALLY those who've already made contracts. Given they possess some telepathic power..." Here, the Mind Custodian shook her head, a scowl crossing her face. "It's bad enough that they're swindling innocent girls out of their very SOULS — and doing it in a fashion akin to RAPE! — but if they're warping their minds, too, to NOT see the clues we've been putting out, that's just unforgivable!"
"Some of Mami's recruits are former puella magi," their host pointed out as Izabel Monvoisin served snacks. "Eldritch witches can be reborn as battle dolls. Kyōko-chan can still become Yizibajohei even if she's been blinded to our presence here until now."
"She might not be able to take in the truth about the puella magi system," Momoe Nagisa warned. "We know it would help if we persuade her to get Gifted AND she deserves to know. Still, how do we make sure she won't become an eldritch witch herself?"
"Leave that to me," the group's resident psychic answered, holding up her hand...
Minutes later...
"Gonna give me some answers about what's going on?"
Homura chuckled as she telekinetically summoned a chair over to relax on. Her group's current target of interest was being held in the basement of the Kaname home, tied in place by intricate webs made by Airi, using her abilities as the Mistress of Webs to tie Sakura Kyōko up like Spider-Man often did criminals he wanted to hand over to the police as shown in North American manga and anime. "Actually, I'd like to hear a bit about you first," the powerful psychic stated, allowing her empathy — she was clearly no Saeru Hinako or Sukeyama Sakuya by any stretch of the imagination, but she did have a touch of emotion-altering abilities — to calm the other teenager down. "So what led you to become a puella magi?" At the redhead's confused look, the long-haired brunette shrugged. "I could look into your mind, but I'm sure we'd both prefer you tell me willingly."
Blinking — even if she hadn't heard anything about these people until she ran across Miki Sayaka a couple hours before, her own experience in dealing with the supernatural made Kyōko realize she wasn't going to get ANYWHERE if she didn't cooperate; besides, she WAS very curious about how these people got powers and why they were so interested in puella magi — Kyōko shrugged as she relaxed herself before she began, a cloud of depression then crossing her face.
How she had long wished for people to come visit the small church her family owned and hear her father's sermons...
How such a wish had brought Kyūbē into her life, giving her the chance to help her father...
How such a wish tragically backfired in Kyōko's face when her father saw her power as Satan's own evil made real...
How, no matter what the redhead tried to do to make him see reason, her empowerment drove him to start drinking...
...which ended in tragedy when one day at the church, something made Father Sakura Nobusuke snap...
...and how he turned and slew his wife and younger daughter — both of whom had tried to understand what had driven Kyōko to do what she did to become empowered — before immolating himself within his own burning chapel.
Watching her guest as she told her tale, Homura shook her head as she felt the other girl's long-buried despair and grief shift into a well-forged wall of bitter contempt; thanks to a subtle psionic bond she always maintained with Airi, she had the Web Mistress mentally disperse Kyōko's bonds in a visible show of understanding and sympathy. She didn't need to reach into the other girl's mind to feel the searing haze of outrage she felt at her father's ultimate cowardice, how such drove her to conclude that if people wanted something done right, it had to be done by themselves. The completely senseless deaths of Sakura Nobusuke, Sakura Mariko and Sakura Momo made their surviving relative decide that there was simply no reward in helping others.
If she was to survive, she had to do it TOTALLY on her own.
No help. One girl against an unforgiving world...
Shades of the Starvation Times! the Mind Custodian mused to herself, faint memories over two millennia old echoing deep within her conscious soul, showing her first-self Funosa Atine trying to survive in a land nearly rendered totally lifeless by miniseries of non-stop fighting. Homura's first-self had been a native of R'bekatuto, one of the smaller nations on the western equatorial continent, which had been quite thoroughly devastated by the copious use of metahuman warriors in the Final War; Funosa himself had been a reconnaissance scout in his homeland's version of the Specialized Warfare Regiment of Canada fighting against the fascist lunatics surging over the border from neighbouring Kutotuto, a land that made Nazi Germany decades ago seem SANE in comparison. And while then-Senior Ranger Scout Atine had been able to fight back the likes of the future Fabulous Quartet — recalling the foursome now living as three natives of Kibina near the western end of Honshū (the fourth of that group had been effectively reborn the previous fall as one of Moroboshi Ataru's true friends in Tomobiki, Inu Chigaiko), the Mind Guardian could hardly imagine any sort of fight developing between her and the likes of the VERY coldly analytical Futami Eriko, the current incarnation of the Dark Genius of the Fabulous Quartet, Ror'buo Bolem ("Madame Fabulous") — what then came in the wake of the Freedom Parade launched by the third incarnation of the Healer of Destruction himself...!
"Hey! You okay?"
The brunette jolted on hearing Kyōko's concerned voice, then she shook her head. "Memories..."
"Of what?" the redhead wondered. "You looked like you saw a ghost."
Blinking, the psychic chuckled. "In a way, yes. We're all like this, those of us who take the offer to become metahumans in the way of Yiziba." Humming as she considered that fact for a moment, she then offered her hand. "Here, trying to speak out about what a person like I am..." Here, she shrugged. "Words alone can't describe what we became, what a lot of us had no choice BUT to become to escape being turned into eldritch witches thanks to umale like Kyūbē LYING to people like that."
Staring into her host's mixed amethyst-lavender eyes, the orphaned fighter blinked before she felt a terrible chill flood her.
Those eyes...
They had the same wall of dark pain Kyōko saw in her own eyes all the time...
Not to mention the couple of times she watched other puella magi when they finally succumbed to despair...
The same...
The damned same...!
"Were you...?!" Kyōko blurted out.
Homura blinked before she reached up to slip off her glasses. "Oh, no! I didn't meet someone like Kyūbē or Kyūiin; he's the other Incubator we definitely know about who's running around all over Earth ruining people's lives." Here, she took a deep breath as she grasped the redhead's hands gently in her own. "I nearly became the victim of an eldritch witch before Madoka-chan saved me, then gave me the whole story about what was happening to so many like us worldwide. So I jumped in with both feet...and, atop becoming one of the most powerful psychics ever to live, literally had nearly TWO THOUSAND YEARS of memories acquired over TWENTY-SEVEN lifetimes slammed into my head. That's what you're seeing here, Kyōko-san." She pointed to her own eyes in emphasis. "This isn't someone going through a Trigger Event to become a parahuman 'cape' like the Quadrumvirate or the local Protectorate teams in America. This is what we of Yiziba call the Great Show of Life."
Here, she made a "what can you do" motion with her hands. "And if I was forced to choose again, I'd definitely say 'yes'."
Kyōko blinked. The pain was still there...
...but there was also PRIDE.
THAT, she could sympathize with, go along with.
"Show me."
Homura nodded as she took the other girl's hands in her own...
...and then, both seemed to find themselves drawn into a black hole of memories.
Somewhere...
«Damn...your past-selves really ROCKED things, didn't they...»
Homura chuckled as she allowed hers and Kyōko's astral forms to hover while tantalizing bits of the former's amassed memories were gently fed into the latter's mind. «Sometimes, my past-selves loved to really rock the boat,» the Mind Custodian explained. «Sometimes, they simply elected to live their lives as if they were actually one of the Nameless...»
«'Normal folks', right?» the preacher's daughter asked. «Yeah, you gotta have powers...HOLY FUCK! WHAT IS THAT?!»
«In our language, they're called 'landsharks',» the raven-haired psychic explained as the memories of one of her past-selves moving to tame a creature similar to an indominous rex straight out of Jurassic World played out for her new friend to witness. «Quite the ravenous little scavenger when they move to hunt down the herbivores that are as much pests on Yiziba as they are the primary means to keep the plant life from going crazy and swamp all the inhabited areas on the planet...»
«All because of the mesonium on that planet, right?» Kyōko asked.
«Same...»
The redhead suddenly winced. «Ow...! What the...?»
Homura grimaced as part of her mind — Thank you so much for teaching me multitasking, Taylor-san! she hissed to herself on remembering the quick lessons she gained from the permanently dimensional-challenged leader of the Brockton Bay Undersiders, Taylor Hebert, one day near the Battlezone — started to rip away the psionic blocks forced on Kyōko's mind by the Incubator who recruited her; while the preacher's daughter was allowed to watch her host's memories of a life that was truly wild beyond anything that could be experienced on Earth, the Mind Custodian had begun the work to tear away whatever mental barriers were forced on her new friend to ensure she could ultimately continue to feed the Sidines in their quests to become living avatars of Despair. «Lucky for you, the mental blocks the Incubator put on you aren't very strong,» she then explained as Kyōko gave her a curious look. «It sacrificed strength for subtlety. Those little monsters know it's only a matter of time before its true motives are exposed, so it's trying to prolong the inevitable in the hopes it can escape, but that's NOT going to happen...!»
With that, the background images surrounding the two astral forms shifted, a growing aura of darkness falling over the scene...
«Wait! I REMEMBER NOW...!»
Homura smiled as she herself watched what Kyōko herself had seen a month ago...
...a girl holding an almost completely darkened Soul Gem, murmuring about how the name was literal...
...said Soul Gem turning into a Grief Seed, allowing the eldritch witch Elsa Maria to emerge...
...how said witch was then immediately set upon by Miki Sayaka and Kaname Madoka, the former practically single-handedly taking the creature while the latter deftly kept said witch's minions at bay...
«What happened to her?!» Kyōko asked as the images of the Ocean Guardian and the Noble Neighbour departing the scene via PAA teleportation faded. «I heard Sayaka and her friend talk about actually MAKING that witch like you!»
The Mind Guardian chuckled as she allowed her own memories from the denouement of that incident play forth...
...the Cave of the Future near the old city of Nimiro, now unimaginatively called Habitation Four on Yiziba...
...the booming voice of the living spirit of the Great Crystal itself making a vital announcement...
...as a grinning — to say anything of a FULLY HUMAN — Elsa Maria stepped out, draped in a similar model of uniform as what Kyōko herself had seen people like Sayaka and Madoka wear in battle...
...then a grinning Mihama Chiyo of all people — who in Japan did NOT know the incredibly intelligent pre-teen from Itabashi who had advanced FIVE GRADES to begin attending HIGH SCHOOL when she was just TEN YEARS OLD?! — came up to properly enter the just-named Nagasaki Kimi as the current incarnation of the Fortress in the Dark, Mekeno ("Nightfall"). Thanks to the link with Homura, Kyōko knew that such a person was a FISS-type — what Americans parahuman fans often called an "Alexandria package" — who also could become totally invisible in shadow while still able to see as if it was daylight...
...then a normal scene in Mitakihara, with Kimi befriending some of her fellow ex-eldritch witches...
The Kaname home...
"So as you can see, the Incubator had ulterior motives for contracting you," Homura concluded as she escorted Kyōko upstairs to join the former's friends. "People like Kyūbē claim they're recruiting people to help fight entropy, but we know that to be nothing more than a lie. The people who contracted those like Kyūbē have nothing save malice on their minds when it comes to someone like you." Here, the Mind Guardian stopped as they reached the top of the stairs. "Luckily, you're not beyond saving; by becoming Yizibajohei, your soul is yours once more and you won't end up like so many others over the last millennium..."
Here, the resident psychic of the team of would-be puella magi then winked. "And you'll gain SO much more..." she then seemed to leer, making Kyōko laugh. "So are you in?" the psychic then wondered, winking.
Dramatic pause.
"Ouch! Leggo my hand! Of COURSE I'm in!" the redhead declared with a smile...even if the Mind Guardian was quick to sense the outrage the other person now felt at how she had been so easily tricked by someone like Kyūbē...and how that had come to cost her dearly. "No way in HELL is that piece of shit gonna get away with tricking me into selling my SOUL!"
"I rather thought you'd say that," the brunette trilled...
Outside old Nimiro (AKA Habitation Four) on Yiziba, an hour later (local time: An hour after breakfast)...
Nesu...R'BUORUO!
As people who had gathered for this latest Gifting that would welcome fresh blood into the Great Show of Life whooped and applauded the Conservator's announcement, a grinning Sakura Kyōko emerged from the Crystal, her well-muscled form now draped in a scarlet new model jumpsuit with bronze accents, an emblem shaped like a cross superimposed over an oval over her breast. People then perked as a loud whistling echoed from the man-made hole that allowed the natural sunlight of Kaeyu to shine upon any of the Caves of the Future, then heads turned up while the just-reborn Repentant Wandering Warrior, R'buoruo ("Longinus") calmly held up her hand...before a well-designed spear dropped into it, she barely reacting from catching it.
As the preacher's daughter dramatically twirled her weapon for those who were recording this event for immediately upload into the Great Show networks, the group of metahumans from Mitakihara — they were STILL trying to decide on a proper team name — exchanged looks. As with so many other weapon users on the World of the Forge, Kyōko's first-self had gained her spear thanks to the first-self of the Master at Arms, now living as Shigaten Benten's Avalonian clone sister Shigaten Kamen. Having adopted a battle philosophy that one Dean Raeburn herself would admire, the then-native of nearby Wejer'buko — who had become a mid-level FISS when she was first empowered — elected to live her life as a formidable neutral to anti-face; making those not in the know about her abilities believe she wasn't quite powerful before they would be simply overwhelmed.
"DAMN! THAT FEELS GOOD!" the redhead spearwoman howled. "TAEIM LETAM!"
As the witnesses to this event — both native-born and Terran-born — howled their delight on hearing the reborn Wejer'buko-mem call out one of the most well-known catch-phrases used by the Children of the Forge, her new friends moved to escort her out so they could get to a restaurant and give Kyōko a decent meal to keep the post-Gifting shock down to a minimum. "Feels good to have your soul back where it belongs, huh?" Sayaka asked teasingly as she patted her new friend's shoulder.
The preacher's daughter hummed. "Most of it's back..."
The wall of mesonium suddenly glowed star-bright!
Nesu...FYUODAM!
Everyone exclaimed as they turned as one to gaze upon the Great Crystal...
...just as a blushing girl who could be initially mistaken as Kyōko's own TWIN SISTER stepped out!
"Her eldritch witch?" Kaname Madoka quipped knowingly.
"Eldritch witch," Akemi Homura affirmed with a nod.
Staring at whom she realized had been her own darker self made flesh, Kyōko could only gape as she took in the newcomer's deep purple jumpsuit in the modern sleeveless cut, an orange-yellow hooded demi-cape shrouding her shoulders. A closer look at the face of the just-reborn Phantom Inferno, Fyuodam ("Propane"), quickly revealed that she wasn't pure Japanese; her eyes were a light blue and her general facial features indicated a strong hint of Scandinavian ancestry. Then, on remembering that her own first-self's very own sister had become the first-self of the immature eldritch witch-turned-metahuman girl before her...
"Er...?" the Repentant One trilled.
"Ophelia," her near-clone answered before humming. "I guess I can call myself Sakura Nakami now." Here, she raised her hand to calmly draw the kanji 佐倉 支美 in phantom flames before her other-self's face, then her eyes sparkled. "Aneki!"
The preacher's daughter blinked before she reached over to draw her new sister into her arms, earning her another wild chorus of cheers from the many onlookers who came to witness this event; that people on Yiziba, Named and Nameless alike, always gathered to watch someone get Gifted as if some idol had come to town to give an impromptu tour simply amazed the preacher's daughter. And while she had been bothered at the fact that her own personal history had been splashed broadside throughout all of Yiziba's social networks, Kyōko now understood the "why" something like that happened; this was a planet that had violently evolved AWAY from maintaining any sort of general secrets from its citizens, doing such to ensure that no hidden dictator could arise anew to plunge the World of the Forge back into the dark days before the Final War and the Dawn of Power...!
Noting that, Kyōko hummed. "Hey, Imōto, you want to do a fight scene after breakfast?"
She then awked as Nakami's face lit up like Kaeyu in sunspot season. "Let's eat, Aneki! I know just where to go!"
The Repentant One yelped as the Phantom Inferno snared her hand, then half-flew/half-dragged her out of the Cave of the Future. As some of the onlookers laughed, Kyōko's new friends exchanged knowing looks. "Anyone up for a trip to Hōzuki?" the Mind Guardian then inquired, making the others perk with interest. "One of Mami-sempai's ex-puella recruits found a whole TEAM of puella magi." Here, the brunette psychic gave her friends a warning look. "With Walpurgisnacht coming...!"
"We're going to need all the help we can get," Sayaka moaned, rubbing the back of her head.
"Walpurgisnacht is very powerful," Madoka agreed with a nod while the others moved to leave the Cave. "That's probably because of how many eldritch she absorbed before she changed. Even someone like Tariko-san would find her a challenge."
"I'll contact Mami-sama," Momoe Nagisa offered. "She can help get the word out."
The others nodded...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
This particular story is set about a week before the start of Boy Meets Girl Meets Metahuman.
The issue concerning Tariko Katabarbe (Tuyuki) and both Connor MacLeod and his kinsman Duncan MacLeod from the Highlander film/television series will be covered in a future short story. Another short story will cover how the cast of KimiKiss such as Futami Eriko (Madame Fabulous) would be Gifted and how that factors into the life of Inu Chigaiko (the Unseen Woman), who was a minor character the The Senior Year.
R'bekatuto is the Yizibajohei analogue of the Netherlands. As stated before, Kutotuto is the analogue of Germany at the time the Nazi Party were in control before and during World War Two.
As previously shown in my omake Magic In Miami: Nightmare At The Matinee, this short shows how the universe of Worm by John C. McCrae factors into the wider universe of The End of the Circus. A more detailed explanation will be given in a future side story now being written by Dr. Tempo and Fred, For Gifts and Shards. And yes, the "queen of escalation" herself, Taylor Hebert (Skitter), will be at the very heart of that particular story.
Nagasaki Kimi (Nightfall) is based on a picture of Elsa Maria done by the artist Aku no Hana, which appears at the Deviant Art web page, entry #637209340. Just replace the outfit with a purplish-black jumpsuit with a red sunburst emblem on the chest.