2-2

I got to work a little earlier than usual so I could jog up on more of the paperwork that got backlogged yesterday. Mostly Bio-Data forms from the new recruits, nothing really special. Once I took care of that, I found that the coffee mugs I left here last night hadn't been cleaned. So much for self-cleaning rooms. In a place like the Cycles, you would think that things made out of magic ought to clean themselves.

I had the feeling that the day was going to be a drag. Madoka was right; it was always the little things that set you off.

There was another thing that pulling at the back of my head. I couldn't exactly think of what.

I was sitting barefoot on my lazy-boy chair when the door to my office opened.

"Momoe-san, you're late," I told her. "And you forgot to lock up the office yesterday, too."

Momoe was in a little hurry; she had a huge backpack of papers, plus two large envelopes under her armpits. Of course, I stood up and helped with her load.

"Sorry, Miki-san," she said, "I just had to go home. There were things I had to handle."

"Yeah, and looks like you have a lot more paperwork there." I stacked them on the coffee table and helped her with the backpack. It was heavy, like she brought her whole house in it. "I'll just get all of these on the table… there we go. Um, Momoe-san, will you please—those coffee mugs over there, will you please clean them up?"

She nodded. "Will do, Miki-san."

"Yeah, thank you. What time will those recruits come around?"

"Around nine."

It was a quarter before eight. "Okay, looks like we got a chance to get some work done before them. Uh, Momoe-san, do you know where my stamp is? I've been looking for it all morning."

She was carefully soaping the mugs at the sink. "Which one?"

"The one for approvals."

"It's under your desk with the others."

"I looked; it wasn't there," I told her. I remembered checking that drawer twice. No approval stamp.

"Please look there again, Miki-san, you might have just missed it."

I was already done organizing the envelopes. "I told you, it wasn't there."

She was rinsing the mugs. "Please look again, just to make sure."

"Alright, alright, I'll check…" What a drag. I walked to my drawer and opened it. "Told you, it's not here."

"Are you sure?"

"There were three stamps here. Approved, Denied and Reason for Denial. The green stamp's not here."

Momoe took a moment to wipe the mugs dry and seemed to take a little breather before nodding. "Okay, I'll check." She walked over to where I was and put her hand in the drawer, feeling deeply with a tongue stuck out to the side. After a few moments, she pulled her hand out and lo and behold…

I sigh. "I… suck."

She put a little chapstick-sized stamp next to the papers I was supposed to sign. "That's okay, Miki-san; it was really small and it was deep inside the drawer. It just got mixed up with a lot of other things, that's all."

"Madoka would've already fired me if it weren't for you; you're amazing," I told her. And I meant it.

Momoe was really glad when she heard me say that. She even blushed. "Th-Thank you, Miki-san…"

"Hah, it's nothing, don't worry. But you're just super. For reals." I picked up the stamp and got back on my chair with a fresh set of docs for approval. "Say, Momoe-san, can you make us some coffee before we start work on these papers?"

"Um, uh… please wait." She made a little sidestep to the kitchenette, and she checked the percolator, saying that the grounds inside were already bad. When she checked the cupboards for new coffee grounds, her face went white. "Um, Miki-san, I think we're out of coffee."

I was happily stamping away some documents, finally reunited with my stamp. "Funny, I thought you said that we're out of coffee."

She slowly turned her head towards me. "I… did?"

For some reason, I found that I couldn't breathe for a few moments. I thought I was coffee suffocating, until I finally regained coffee composure and laid my coffee hands on the desk. "Did you… fill out the papers to request more?"

"Yes, Miki-san, I did coffee yesterday," she said. "But Logistics coffee said that coffee coffee coffee take one day coffee coffee."

"Did you just… say it would take one day?"

"Until coffee coffee afternoon, to be precise coffee."

"Then… what do we do have there?"

Momoe opened the cupboards again, looking for coffee. "Well, there's… there's coffee."

"Did you just say coffee?"

She shook my head and took out a box of something with 'Lipton' written all over it. "No, I said tea."

Tea? "Tea?"

"You know, tea." She took other boxes out. "Chamomile, oolong, jasmine, you know, crumpets and things."

"Why do we have that there?"

"I think the Logistics Department accidentally stocked us with it."

I was wondering if we could just return the tea to exchange for coffee on that very same day, but instead I asked the more important question. "…does it have caffeine?"

She nodded. "Of course it does."

"Make some."

"Understood." She boiled some water in the microwave, and then asked me a question. "Miki-san, what tea do you want? We have Green Tea, Black Tea, lots of scented tea… Oooh, let's try this; Do you want Chamomile or Jasmine?"

"Whichever has more caffeine."

"I think they have the same caffeine content."

"Then…" I really gave a lot of effort in thinking of what I wanted to drink for some reason. "Give me Jasmine. It sounds better."

"Jasmine it is. Give me a few moments, Miki-san."

When Momoe was done with the tea, it wasn't really half-bad. It was really smooth. Had a sort of grassy taste at first, like herbs and stuff, but it was nice. The only tea I had drunk before this was green tea I'd make whenever I was hungry for some ochazuke. Very nice. Who'd know that my secretary was also good at making tea?

Why did tea always have to be so… so bland, though…?

Caffeine fill sated, we worked on the papers, signing them again, the usual process. I asked Momoe what I had been meaning to ask her all morning. About where I could find someplace for us to drink, to which she was able to give me at least four different spots, ranging from some pretty high-class places to just cozy little hole-in-the-wall bars. She sounded pretty ecstatic giving me this information, and I asked her if she usually drank out. During the whole hour after she said yes, I thought about how I could afford to pay drinks for four people without breaking my wallet for that week.

Xxx^.^xxX

By mercy of Madoka, we were able to finish all of the paperwork almost a quarter to nine. I was stunned; I never saw my desk being so clean before. It was miraculous how a stamp could make signing things faster. When we were done, I gave Momoe a good pat on the back, and we received word that the recruits had shown up.

A day before, we had already decided to cut the class in half, two classes with both rookies and those who had already been training before. It was so the rookies could hopefully learn from their upperclassmen—or upperclasswomen, if that's a word. I was going to handle Class A, while Momoe would handle Class B. Nothing was going to happen much today. Besides from role call, we would just some do some Agent Orientation, followed by setting basic expectations for the training. Of course it was all just for the benefit of the rookies; good thing that the the veterans were okay with it.

It wasn't going to be tough. I had done a number of these before; really easy. You just have to stand up, talk about what you know, get along with everybody. And like I said, everybody was very nice and understanding. It was exactly like being Miss Saotome, only without talking about failed relationships at the start of each class.

When I entered the classroom, everybody was already there, waiting. The classrooms were designed to look like the classroom in Mitakihara Middle School, complete with the digital whiteboard and folding chairs. The works. Whenever I came in here, I always felt nostalgic for those old days.

"Hi there guys, good morning," I told them. "How are you?"

After I confirmed that everybody was complete, I talked all about the basics of being a Cycles Agent. An Agent had one job and one job only: to accompany Madoka whenever she went to far-off star systems, even in other dimensions. Why did we have to accompany Madoka? Simple. Because even though she wished that she could destroy each and every witch in the past, present, and future, nobody ever talked about what form they would take or what she had to do in order to destroy them... No, that's not exactly it. How do I explain this?

Okay, one more time.

You see, in the universe there is the law of balance. Equilibrium. That all forces will have to equal out to zero. Hope and Despair, Black and White, Good and Evil, all zero. If something rises, an opposing force will have to rise against it with at least the same magnitude to achieve balance. A Magical Girl rises, a Witch also rises sooner or later to maintain the balance. Madoka's wish did not allow that; that's why she became a God. Her wish overcame the laws of Physics. But, and that's a big but, the universe continually demands balance to be met or else there will be chaos. What kind of chaos? We didn't know. But we were certainly not willing to find out.

Witches still lived, still rose. The Wraiths on Earth? They were just the fallout from the great big spill of despair that was Witches. But those Witches… if they weren't supposed to exist, where would they exist, then? Was there some special place in reality where they continue to live unharassed by Madoka's influence?

Still don't get it? Sorry, okay, let me…

Okay, take three.

Witches lived. But Madoka wished for these Witches to be destroyed before they were born. In the past, present or the future. Why was that? If Madoka absorbed a Soul Gem before it hatched into a Witch, then shouldn't be a Witch in the first place because the Grief Seed wouldn't come out. Where did these Witches come from?

Simple. They came from Madoka.

Or, rather, they are Madoka. Thousands of them, with Grief Seeds the size of gumballs, comets, planets, whole star systems.

You see, like what I said earlier, nobody was really clear on what it would take to destroy all of the Witches before they were born. In the past, the present or the future. Nobody ever said anything about the cost of it either. Physically, emotionally or mentally. Costs for all those involved, Madoka especially.

Did you get all of that? I didn't think you would. At least the general gist, maybe? A concept like this can never be encompassed in just a few words, and not one person can ever relate it so accurately. Keeping it as simple as this is me doing you all a sort of favor, even if keeping it as simple as this keeps out a few important bits… or makes things sound a little more complicated than they should.

When we were done with the orientation, I asked if anybody had questions.

"What are the Witches?"

Nothing like the Wraiths you fought with, I can tell you that.

"What makes a good Agent?"

Someone who can fight hard and think on her feet.

"Can Madoka-san beat them all?"

We wouldn't be here if she could.

"Being an Agent sounds cool! I bet you went on all sorts of cool adventures!"

Well… yeah, we did quite a few cool things… yeah.

"I want to hear about all the action you guys did! Tell us some stories."

Stories, huh?

I thought for a while about that, then shook my head. "Nah, I didn't see that much action myself. Just got to a few star systems here and there, but it's all the same wherever you go."

The whole class went 'Awww,' after hearing my objection. I couldn't blame them. I was being a killjoy for some reason, but I couldn't pin down what it was. All I knew was I was feeling that warmth above my ear again.

The Girl couldn't tell them. She was afraid to tell them.

I told the girls that I just had to go to the ladies room for a while, and that they should behave.

Xxx^.^xxX

In the bathroom, the sink overflows with water. She washes her face, looks at herself in the mirror. She still has the same hairpin, the same round eyes, the same lips. But that is what another would see. With her own eyes, the Girl sees death, despair, suffering in that mirror. All those battles, all the lives lost, all the horrors she had seen playing out in a monochromatic waltz, an old soundless newsreel.

But of course, those memories had nothing on the most horrible thing she had ever seen: her own reflection.

Xxx^.^xxX

When I came back to class, they were all behaved. Like perfect kindergarteners obediently waiting for their teacher. I love recruits for that. We were now going to asses expectations. I would stand in front, and ask the rookies what they expected in the training and in being an agent overall.

"I think it's going to be… hard, but it's gonna be worth it! On being an Agent, it's the coolest job here so I guess it's going to be exciting."

"It's pretty awesome, being able to fight with Madoka-san. Of course the training will be hard, but we need that. We'll have to train hard so we can be the best Agents in the Cycles!"

"Since its Sayaka-san who's going to train us, of course it's going to be worth it. You're the best we've ever had here; we're lucky to have you as our teacher. Please take care of us!"

"I've always wanted to fight something bigger than Wraiths. I'll do it because someone needs to. I just can't wait to become a real Agent!"

"Well, I'm glad that all of you are pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing," and I meant it. "You'll need that because being a Cycles Agent isn't all adventure and fighting. Most of the time, we're doing paperwork to keep this place running. But when Madoka calls us—and she will call us, I can tell you that—that's when you'll get your first taste of what it's really like to be an Agent. I'll want to hear what you'll have to say about the job after then. But of course, we'll still go through training, and this early we'll really see who has what it takes to be an Agent. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

I smiled. "Perfect. Okay, well, we already discussed the stuff we needed to talk about. So by tomorrow we'll be discussing unit assignments, Agent Theories and the Cycles Ethos. I suggest that you all do a bit of reading for that, because if we're lucky and we finish classroom discussion early, we might be able to get the rookies up to catch up with the original students in training. That means we'll spend some time out there training instead of in here, reading books. How's that sound for you girls?"

Of course the girls were happy about it, especially the original students since they could finally go on with their training that's been stalled for over two days now. Classes ended at 1 in the afternoon, so that meant I had the rest of it as vacant time. I went back to my office, looking for Momoe so I could see my schedule for that day, but she wasn't there. I guessed that she was still handling some work for Class B, so I took the liberty of taking my schedule book from her desk.

I thought I could fly when I saw what was inside. R&R the whole afternoon. A whole afternoon just for myself like yesterday. Perfect.

When I returned the schedule book, I noticed how disorganized Momoe's desk was. Ballpens all scattered on the surface, some document envelopes, folders, binders and all that stacked around. That heavy bag she was carrying was on her office chair, looking like some sort of big red blob sitting quite comfortably. I wondered what she brought in with that thing; probably more papers. I knew she was a little swamped with work, but she could at least try to make it all look organized.

Come to think of it, she did look rather listless that morning. Like Madoka, she always seemed to have of stuff in mind. Do all pinkettes tend to get super-stressed or what?

Before I left the office, it was settled; I had to bring both of them out on a drink.