Night of June 12, 2009…
The rain just started to fall. The city was quiet. There were a few cars, but they're very much far from the barriers that the witch was in before a certain foreign object entered the barrier.
Janeth saw the floor as she dropped and rolled before she stopped and was on one knee. She stood up with QB still in her hand before the Incubator got off her arms. "Nice ride?"
"I had worse, Janeth." QB then looked forward to a set of confusing staircases from different directions. The world they got into wasn't quite normal, seeing small items at large sizes and random colors and shapes around walls. "Those two witches have to be at one of the paths."
"I know the sound and how it's placed on the stairs. We gotta walk and use our ears on this one. Mind if I lead, QB?"
"It's Kyubey, and yes."
"What's your deal with the name?"
"They get confused with my name, Janeth. And if you know you might have another version of me, that version will say the same thing." QB explained it before she saw Janeth take the lead, walking with the umbrella opened and on her shoulder. "What's with the umbrella?"
"The Strike-Umbrella is no joke. And I believe I told you before. Now shut it." Janeth then focused and kept her eyes alert while walking forward. The staircases were confusing once they look at it from afar, but they lead at the right direction. They might be going sideways or upside down in a sense, but their sense of direction shouldn't be lost while using these staircases to keep themselves on track. And so far, Janeth and QB were doing well.
Later, a large flower bloomed and showed its little cannon of a center. Janeth smirked and spun her Strike-Umbrella, morphing it to her Cannon-Rifle and said: "Spara." Her voice vibrated and echoed before she pulled the trigger and one shell was fired from her weapon. The shell splits to three before they simultaneously hit the flower cannon, burning it down to ashes. "Works… everytime." She smirks and morphs her weapon back to her umbrella.
"I bet you always say that when you slay things like that."
"Not really." Janeth then summoned a Golden AK-74 SMG in one hand before aiming forward at what appeared to be bats having butterfly wings and pulled the trigger, releasing a barrage of rounds at the flying creatures. She shot around, not changing the pace of her walk. "The only thing I'm good at is adapting to something of the same events." Once her magazine was emptied, it was automatically dropped and another glowed and appeared on the weapon before she cocked it and resumed firing. "This is one of those events. The worst that I've faced are Gemini Swords. Right now, I might be seeing the same minions, with only having less power than the ones than I know."
"I see. You're starting to sound like you've done this a million times."
"…a million and one. Still, I don't get tired of various thrills. This is one that is still unique."
"How so?"
"Two witches, and I'm seeing flower cannons on the walls? What I must be facing are agile witches ahead of me. Besides… they always have differences. If they are Gemini Swords, they should be weaker, I could tell."
"Great… You faced them before."
"They're more common in some universes I got into, and they're not easy to beat. They have shielding, but it can easily be taken down." Janeth was leading QB just at a door after the confusing directional staircase was coming to an end to the same opening. "This should be the end of the twist and turns. Get ready, QB."
"For what?"
"…for anything. You'll have to hide." Janeth's instruction came at the same time as the opening was passed by her and QB behind her as they both entered an area from the ground floor. Big soda cans were floating. Doughnuts were on the floor and flowers just nearby some red grass. The wide space enough was weird. What is normal is where the witches reside. And as Janeth predicted, her enemies are Gemini Sword witches. They have a bodies of a serpent or an eel, while their teeth are sharp to the fact their appearances look different from reality, having smaller eyes. Two of them showed up with one flying off the ceiling and the other from the ground. Both flew next to each other when they met and halted to face the white Magical Girl with a sun hat. She smiled as the twin witches were looking at her with hostility. "Greetings. You two must be the younger versions of Gemini Swords. I faced some larger versions of you, with different colors. You're all so bothering." And she looked around while hearing small growls. Small serpents flying low on the ground began to come out from the sides and get to Janeth.
"Watch out!" QB's warning came with Janeth summoning a rapier in replacement to her umbrella. "Whoa…"
"HIDE, RIGHT NOW! These scum are mine." Janeth then sprinted with the AK-74 on one hand and the Strike Rapier on another as she started with a jump and a spin-kick to one of the serpent minions while she fired a barrage of rounds on another, killing it, just before she defends swings of a tail from another with her Strike-Rapier. While defending herself and killing some serpent minions, one of the Gemini Swords focused and aimed on the white attired Magical Girl and opened its mouth, before letting a hypersonic speed beam come out. Where she was standing was being damaged, but she wasn't there. She slid back and out of the way in time to see it was too close. "Cheaters as always, aren't you?" She instead sprinted past the serpent minions, not giving time for them as she got to the wall and ran up, just before lets go of her AK-74 and holds her Strike-Rapier with two hands as she jumped off the wall and got to the Gemini's and slashed both of them once. She touched and stayed on the wall, while seeing the two witch serpents growl in anger. 'This'll be easy.'
QB watched as Janeth jumped off the wall and changed her rapier into a pair of automatic shotguns in her hand while aiming at the two witches and minions below her. 'Who is this Magical Girl? She seems to handle pretty well against these witches she's facing.'
Janeth lands on the ground before aiming her USAS-12 Tactical Shotgun to her sides and repetitively pulled the trigger as she was taking out serpent minions around her. The two witches fired two hypersonic beams at her and she rolls out of the way while shooting back. 'This is exciting. They're making it a challenge. Unfortunately, I'm not a normal Magical Girl.' She smirked and got on her feet before dropping her current weapons and summons her Strike-Umbrella, just before she morphs it into her Cannon-Rifle and suddenly runs to the wall, runs up and jumps just above the serpent witches and aims with one hand holding her weapon downward. "SPARA!" Her voice vibrated and echoed while she pulled the trigger and fired explosive shells at the minions below, destroying many of them in three separate explosions. She suddenly dived and replaces her weapon with her Strike-Rapier before landing hard on her feet, then suddenly jumping up to the Gemini Swords directly. They saw her and one of them swung a tail strongly before she blocked it with her Rapier before swinging back, partially cutting the tail off. Once she was above them, she saw more minions forming up on the ground as her rapier was given a current of electricity. She dives downward towards the Gemini's and the minions at the same time while screaming out on the top of her voice before she slashed past the Gemini's and slashes the sword on the ground, killing more serpent minions at a wide area with a strong electric current.
QB was only watching and was amazed of this. 'Whatever she's doing, she's wearing down the witches controlling those minions.'
"I will not let you start an attack for me! You don't deserve anyone's mercy!" Janeth said this before both Gemini's fired their beams at her, whiles she rolls to the side avoiding it. She then finds them sending strings of fire at her later before she strongly swung her rapier at her, before a chuckle came from her. From a chuckle, she lowered her head and chuckled more, and laughed loudly at the two witches in front of her. "Good. Don't hold back, because I won't either." She raises her head with a grin towards the two hostile witches. "Let's finish this." She strongly jumps up and gets in level of the Gemini's before time slowed down extremely, and she puts the blade of her rapier held with one hand on the hilt near the side of her head, and the other hand near the tip pointing towards her foe. Green aura surrounded her as she starts her signature. "Uno!" She glided forward and stabbed the two Gemini's until she was across the room before kicking the wall and started another attack run. "Due!" She slashed diagonally downwards-left and the two were damaged again. She kicked the wall from the opposite room and charged for one more attack. "Tre colpi di fila!" She slashed diagonally downwards-right and was across the room before her rapier charged with electricity was pointed towards the serpents in danger of losing. "Your life is over. STERMINARE!" Her voice vibrated and echoed at her signature, letting her fire a concentrated electric attack against the Gemini Sword witches in form of a railgun bolt. The bolt of electricity hits them before they were briefly electrocuted, finally covered in an explosion.
QB sees Janeth land on the floor, and she herself was looking beneath the smoke. "Is that it?"
Janeth examined it herself and saw the burnt ashes of the witches slowly falling from the fiery smoke she made. Nothing was left but pure ashes as she walked to them. "That's about it." And soon, the colors of the environment inside the barrier were briefly flickering, until they're noticeable. "The barrier is breaking apart. There's nothing else in here."
"So it really is over…" QB muttered seeing the barrier flickering greater, and eventually shattering into pieces from above and from the sides. None of the shattered pieces fell like glass but like spiritual pieces as they passed the ground.
The magical girl felt time flow normally as the cold rain fell from above, and letting each drop of water get her briefly wet before she used her umbrella to cover herself. "Great…" Eventually, she even saw QB join her under the umbrella. "QB, let's leave already. I'm going to take you into cover first. Get on my shoulder." And like a demand, QB was somehow obedient that time as she climbed up Janeth's arm, even wrapping her long tail around the girl's rear-side neck. With no doubt in mind, Janeth jumped up the roofs again.
And old warehouse in the outskirts of Mitakihara…
Thunder rang from afar inside the old warehouse, with a dim candlelight at one side of it. A simple blanket on the cemented ground was placed along with some bread there.
Janeth was in her clothes of rags and took her upper garments off. She hanged them a nearby clothesline made of nylon, leaving only her bra and pants on. She looked towards the candle and blanket, seeing QB still looking intently at her.
"If you'll stare at me, I'll assume you're a pervert." Janeth said this with a chilling tone.
"No… It's not like that, Janeth. What you showed me, is actually, something of a record. I've never seen Magical Girls handle combat as you do. I mean, for such a short time, you were able to manage, like you're experienced. Not to mention, I've never seen you before, and I'm still aware that you're from another world like this one."
The girl then sat down on the cemented ground, feeling the cold temperature before taking off her pants, and her boots, leaving her bare with only her undergarments on. She stood up again and hanged them on the clothesline. "It's not like I haven't trained, QB. I've trained for quite a long time. And THAT was only for exterminating witches and familiars to be exact. I have another kind of variation, in case I go up to duel other Magical Girls, which was very useful really."
"You dueled other Magical Girls?" QB asked, seeing Janeth gently lie down on the blanket on the cemented floor.
"Yeah. I know that I was missing out on so much that I decided to give it a whirl. I trained some too, so they'll have the basics mastered. The rest is up to them. But dueling is what I find fun."
"Well, you don't duel, or kill witches and familiars for fun, do you?"
"Of course not. They're already threats to humanity, and I know the difference between meeting them cleanly and underestimating them."
"There's nothing to worry about you then."
"There isn't. Worry about the number of Magical Girls here. None. Those two are our priorities for tomorrow. I'll observe them as always, and you do it at a different spot. Don't spook them either if you plan to show up to them."
"Remember… You're…"
"…invisible to who aren't Magical Girls or candidates even."
"How do you know these things?"
"Just trust me. I trust you, and you should do the same."
"It's not within my own objectives. My objective is to just recruit girls into Magical Girls. Having candidates for them is sufficient enough, and those two should be our priority."
"Tell me one thing, QB. Are you always doing this while witches exist?"
"I am. Is there anything wrong?"
"Sometimes, you could be a nuisance. Don't ask why, but I know one day, you will be." Janeth sighed afterwards before blowing the candle's light out…