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"Fuck!" I yelled as a blade narrowly swung past me. Behind me, a voice yelled back.

"Oi, watch your language, Kyōko!"

"Shut it, blueberry!"

We were surrounded. Sayaka and I stood back to back, staring at a ring of people surrounding us. We could have easily beaten them all, seeing as they weren't Puella Magi, but Sayaka insisted on harming them as little as possible. Instead, we now looked for openings to run through and flee the bandits. The leader of the gang, the largest of the men who surrounded them, spoke.

"Give it up, kids. You're outnumbered and surrounded."

I shifted my head back a little to speak to Sayaka.

"May I?" I ask as sarcastically as I can. She knew exactly what I was talking about and grinned.

"Just this once, Kyōko. Just this once."

I took a deep breath, gathering as much air as I could.

"EAT….SHIT!"

The ring of bandits charged. Bad idea. In perfect unison with each other, Sayaka and I bashed our way out of the ring. Then, we bolted. It was a shame, really. I had been itching to beat something up ever since Walpurgisnacht knocked us all the way to Kazamino. As a bit of salt in the wound of defeat, we crashed through the roof of my family's church and landed in the middle, destroying at least half the benches in there. If only Sayaka wasn't such a goody two-shoes, then I could finally get some exercise.

It had been three weeks since we got our asses whooped by that giant monstrosity of a witch. We got off lucky, since we survived, but a few others weren't so lucky. Mami, for instance, got her Soul Gem smashed to bits. Last I saw Homura, she had been flung into a nearby building, which collapsed from the impact. Then there was Sayaka's best friend, pinkie. Who knows what happened to them? Certainly not us.

We had decided to head to Tokyo. It was a flimsy plan, but maybe there was still some form of society there. I highly doubted it. Even from Kazamino, we could see the massive form of Walpurgisnacht leaving Mitakihara and moving on with its rampage.

By the time we got back to Mitakihara, everything was in ruins. Sayaka….took it well enough, as good as can really be expected. So now, here we were, chased by humans that we wouldn't even break a sweat beating. We ran for what seemed like several minutes until we reached a thick forest. The canopy overhead was thick enough to block out most of the little sunlight made it through the grey clouds.

We went in, slowing our pace once we saw that they had given up the chase. After a while, we came across a clearing, with a log on its side in front of a fire pit. We sat, unpacking some food. We didn't actually need to eat, but we liked to. So whenever we managed to get some, we'd eat, pretending like we were still normal humans. We opened a few packs of crackers and some tuna.

"Hey, Sayaka. Do you think Homura's still alive?" I ask the blunette sitting next to me.

"I'd like to believe so, but that transfer student had some serious issues. I would be surprised if she died trying to continuously fight Walpurgis. If I'm completely honest though, I only hope she's alive because she's hell-bent on protecting Madoka."

"So pinkie's the one you actually care about then?"

Sayaka looked up at the sky.

"Yea, I guess. I'm not much better than the transfer student in that regard."

"Huh," I said. "I never thought your pride would let you say that."

"...shut up, Kyōko."

"Heheh, love you too, Sayaka."

That night, it was my turn to keep watch whilst Sayaka slept. There was little to no movement in the forest we were in. All was silent. Well, silent except for the sound of me eating some Pocky. People sure are weird, in my opinion. They'll go pillaging for food, but even in time like these, they leave stuff there if they don't consider it "real" food. Oh well. More for me.

Living in the wilderness certainly had its uses. Sayaka and I learned pretty quickly on how to use our magic to block out the cold at night. I wish Kyuubei had taught us things like that, even though I was never quite fond of that little rat. The sound of Sayaka's breathing really bothered me. Who knew someone could breathe this loudly? Oh well.

I'm no genius at geography, but I think we're at least close to Tokyo at this point. The two of us should be able to reach the city in the morning. Hopefully there was still some form of order there but I highly doubted it. Still, if it was to exist anywhere, it'd be in the capital.

At some point in the night, I dozed off. When I came to, I found a familiar blue-haired figure glaring at me, arms crossed.

"Jeez, Kyōko. Falling asleep on the watch again?"

"Sorry," I said, scratching my head.

It was daytime now, maybe around noon. Time to go the distance. Tokyo was probably east? I don't really know, but Sayaka has the map so I'm not gonna say anything. I didn't really want to break her hopes that there would be some form of organised community there after the shitstorm that was Walpurgisnacht, but if nothing else, we might find Homura there. And where Homura is, there's probably a very bubbly pink-haired girl with her. If, that is, she's alive. We walked in silence. I was really tempted to just say something to bait a reaction out of Sayaka. Silence was way too boring for me.

About an hour later, we were on the outskirts of the city ruins. Massive towers stood on either side of us, windows smashed and bodies everywhere. Most of the towers had been knocked over, creating rubble strewn all over the roads. We slowed our pace, taking in the scene of utter desolation around us. As was usual with any area that had experienced a major disaster, there was bound to be grief. And where there was grief, there would be witches. Without saying a single word, the two of us fanned out to try and find the entrance to a barrier. Even though we argued a lot, Sayaka and I understood each other like words in an open book. I guess it could be called a love-hate relationship?

"Oi, Kyōko! I found one! Over here!"

In an instant, I had appeared by her side, staring at a section of a stone wall that seemed to shimmer and shift. We both took out our Soul Gems and plunged inside. To the outsider, it would have seemed like we just walked through a wall. Which, I guess, we did. The barrier was all dark, with very little of the creepy landscape that usually marked a witch's lair. A bad vibe ran through me, some sort of intuition that this was a fight we shouldn't be taking. Sayaka stepped over to me, as if sensing my hesitation.

"You alright?" she asked.

"Something about this place doesn't….feel right. I don't think we should fight this one. We should leave."

Normally, Sayaka would have argued that leaving it here would be a danger to other people. She didn't try to do that this time, which told me she had the same feeling about this barrier as well. It was...too calm for a barrier. Without turning, we slowly stepped backwards while keeping an eye on our surroundings for any attacks. None came. We stepped back out into the ruins of the city, letting out a deep breath. An awkward silence descended as we stared at the wall. Then Sayaka laughed nervously.

"Well, i-it's not like we need a grief seed immediately, right? We still have a few, hahaha…"

"Y-yea. Let's go, Sayaka."

Shaken by the unnerving feeling of the barrier, we decided to spar a bit to calm our nerves down. We went to an area isolated by rubble that would prevent any normal people from seeing us fight before transforming and going all out.

"Hell yeah!" I yelled. "This is more like it!"

The exhilaration of being in a fight always got to me. I was never a very violent person when my family was still alive, but after contracting, the thrill of fighting witches always felt like so much fun. I would always actively seek out witches to fight them. The grief seeds were a huge plus, but mainly I just loved the fight. At least, that was until Homura came to Kazamino and pulled me off the streets. She made me train Sayaka, since we're "both melee fighters" even though I knew little about actually fighting with a sword. Of course, with Sayaka, I have to be careful not to go into kill-mode.

Residual magic filled the air as my spear met her sword over and over again. We continued sparring, locked in a dance of blades for at least a few hours. By the time we finished, there was a bit of murkiness in both of our Soul Gems, but not enough to be a cause for alarm. The sky was getting dark again, indicating that night was fast approaching. As we left the secluded area, I quickly realised that the amount of magic we released while fighting could have easily attracted the attention of less-than-friendly Puella Magi. Luckily, it didn't, but I'd have to be more careful about that in the future.

We spent about an hour looking around the ruined city. Surprisingly, some street lamps somehow still flickered. The city itself looked a whole lot worse than Mitakihara had, even though Walpurgis actually met resistance there. Then again, the absence of any Puella Magi in Tokyo so far likely indicated that whoever held this territory died fighting as well.

Eventually, we found ourselves in an old office building. Producing an apple from my hoodie pocket, I bit into the fruit. It was...bitter. Strange.

"Hey Sayaka, do apples go bitter? Cuz this one I'm eating right now tastes like shit."

"Bitter? No, I wouldn't imagine so."

She stared at me as if I was taking LSD. I supposed it DID sound ridiculous, a bitter apple. I shrugged and tossed the apple over my shoulder. I don't need food anyways. Blue eyes followed me as I walked back and forth between the desk cubicles in the office. Various things were knocked over; telephones, keyboards, pens, papers, and such. Then I came across one particular cubicle that was surprisingly orderly, as if it had simply decided not to be completely wrecked like its companions in the rest of the office. The pen container was still knocked over, but a picture frame still stood. I stared.

Footsteps behind me indicated that Sayaka had joined me. We both stared. The picture was of a couple, probably in their late twenties. Both of them wore a suit and tie, a clue-in that they worked in the same place. Probably this very office that we stood in. The part of the photo that really caught my attention, however, was a young girl in between the couple. She looked to be no more than nine or ten. Her glossy black hair was tied behind her head in two braids, tied at the end with light purple ribbons. Red-rimmed glasses sat on the girl's face.

"Kyōko, is it just me or does that look suspiciously like…"

"Yea. It does. Same glasses. Saw them in her house before all this."

"Shit… Why does she live alone again?"

"I wish I knew, Sayaka. I wish I knew. C'mon, let's get some sleep," I said, turning to find a spot on the carpet floor. Then, one last thought occurred to me and I couldn't resist turning back. "Hey. Hey Sayaka."

"Hmm?"

"Watch your language."

A/N:

Hey guys! For those of you reading that are following Eternity, expect some really slow updates. For some reason I'm having a really bad case of writer's block whenever I try working on that one. As usual, I hope you guys enjoyed this. If you did, please show your support by leaving a review. Luv y'all :P