The walk back to Mami's apartment after the whole ordeal had not been pleasant. It had been mostly quiet, after Homura had calmed down to a certain degree. Sayaka, Mami, and Kyoko were especially shocked to see Homura completely lose herself like that. The mask that had hidden a tortured, desperate soul had finally shattered in front of them. Kittan was also not in a good mood, after hearing that his sacrifice was in vain. Did that mean that the Anti-Spiral had won? They couldn't have. He knew for a fact that Simon would never go down so easily. That Anti-Spiral had to have been lying! When they reached Mami's apartment, everyone was silent, thinking of how they were going to deal with this situation. Kamina was also deep in thought on how to fix this mess. It was Sayaka who broke the silence.
"Damn it…does no one here have any ideas on how to get Madoka back?!" She cried out. "I mean, we're not seriously going to just sit around here while tons of innocent magical girls are walking into death traps right?!"
"Of course not!" Kittan shot back. "Look kid, I may be new to this whole "magical girl" business, but even I can say that the Anti-Spiral ain't like those witches! Hell, we don't even know how to get to where he's hiding!"
"But we have to think of something!" Mami responded before looking at her Soul Gem. "We can't just sit here and let Madoka be trapped with that monster!" It was after she said that when Kamina slammed his fist down on the table and he growled.
"Damn it all! I can't believe we have NOTHING to go on to find that bastard!" Kamina added as he turned towards Kittan. "How the hell did you guys find where that bastard's home world was again?! Something about warping there with fighting spirit?"
"It ain't exactly as simple as you think you bozo!" Kittan shot back. "For one thing, it was Nia's ring that revealed the source, and another thing is that we don't have the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann to do that! We have literally nothing to go on here!" Kyoko growled and took an angry bite out of Pocky after hearing that.
"Just great! So what the hell are we supposed to do then?! Sit here while all magical girls get killed and let the witches take over?!" Kyoko retorted.
"You do have one option." Said a familiar voice. Everyone turned their heads and found Kyubey's dark shadow sitting on the windowsill behind the curtains. Everyone's faces immediately gained angry expressions, with the exception of Kittan, who only looked confused. "To put things simply, our race is led by a central mindset that gives each of us orders. Each of our many bodies is connected to that core. We share its thoughts, memories, and knowledge. The Anti-Spiral has taken control of that core. To do so, it made a contract with us. Its wish was for absolute control over our core."
"Get to the damn point fuzzball!" Kamina shot back.
"You know that the fate of a magical girl is to become a witch correct?" Kyubey replied. "Then it should be obvious. By making a contract with us, the Anti-Spiral has become a witch as well. No matter what form it is in now, with its power, it has reached the status of a witch. By our estimation, our entire core has essentially become a witch labyrinth." At that, Mami took out her Soul Gem to discover it was reacting to Kyubey. It reacted in the same way it would if a witch labyrinth was in front of it.
"So you're saying if we used your Soul Gems on you, we could enter the core, where this Anti-Spiral monster is holding Madoka?" Mami replied with suspicion in her voice.
"That is correct." Kyubey responded. Everyone but Kittan stared at the Incubator for a moment with a massive amount of suspicion in their faces. "It is the job of a magical girl to hunt a witch after all." Once again, Kamina slammed his fist down on the table.
"You can't fool us fuzzball! Why the hell are you telling us all this?! You never gave a damn about us before, so why are you saying that there's a way for us to get to this bastard?!" He shouted. The Incubator kept its emotionless expression as it responded.
"I am telling you this because there is a witch you have to defeat. Isn't that how it's always been?" That didn't change the angry expressions on the girls' and Kamina's faces. They knew that Kyubey probably just wanted them to try and fight the Anti-Spiral just so they could fall to despair for more energy. Seeing their expressions not changing, Kyubey explained more. "You have two choices. You can either stay here or let all the magical girls die and leave Madoka trapped, or you can use your Soul Gems on me to go and fight the Anti-Spiral. The choice is yours."
Everyone remained silent in thought. There was no doubt that there would probably be more of those Mugann things waiting for them once they got into the labyrinth. They would no doubt have to use everything they had if they wanted to win. Kamina continued to look at that fuzzball in disgust as he thought those thoughts. Everything about it has been nothing but trouble. Now here it was, offering them a path to the enemy was. He would never accept that thing. Not its race, not its ideals, not its stupid ugly soulless mug, not anything about it.
But if there was one thing it was offering them now, it was a chance. A way to save their friend. Kamina looked up at the tearful-eyed Homura, who was also in thought about what to do. As much as he hated to admit it, but they had to accept this thing's help in order to save Madoka. Kamina stood up and pointed a finger at Kyubey.
"Man, I do not like you at all fuzzball! You trick girls with the promise of wishes, you hide the real details of what happens, you let them fall into your stupid twisted plans, nothing about you is good news! I can bet everything that you wouldn't care if we all died in there, not that that would ever happen!" He paused as the girls all watched him rant at the creature. "But if there's one thing I can't deny, it's that you're giving us a chance to save our friend. As much as I hate to admit it, you're our last hope of saving her." The girls immediately gained shocked expressions on their faces after hearing that for a moment, before realizing that he was right.
"We're not going to forgive you for all that you've put us through Kyubey." Mami replied softly as she stood up. "But we're not going to forget this chance that you're offering us."
"You take our souls, you turn us into witches, and now you're giving us a chance to save my best friend." Sayaka added as she stood up as well. Her face gained a determined expression. "You really are a mystery, you know that?"
"I guess it's true what they say." Kyoko responded, taking one last bite out of her Pocky as she stood up. "Desperate times really do call for desperate freaking measures." Homura looked up and saw her fellow magical girls. She saw that their eyes held hope that they now have a chance to go after their friend. She turned towards Kyubey with a scowl on her face.
"I will always hate you for everything you've done. I swore not to let things go according to your plans. We're nothing more than disposable energy supplies to you." She clenched her fists, and struggled to hold back tears. "But…I promised to save Madoka at all costs. If…if we can truly go to where this Anti-Spiral is holding her prisoner through you, then we have no other choice."
"Very well then." Kyubey replied before hopping back onto the windowsill. "I would suggest that you prepare yourselves, as it will most likely not be an easy fight. I will meet you in the same spot where Madoka was taken." After that, the tiny white fuzzball hopped off. The entire apartment was silent for a few moments before it was interrupted by Kamina.
"All right! You bozos heard the creepy thing! We're gonna stomp right through that labyrinth and give those Anti-Spirals the whooping they deserve! You guys better psyche yourselves up, cause we're gonna pull out all the stops to save Madoka! We'll meet at that same place in one hour!" Kamina shouted as he readied himself in a fighting pose. Kittan smirked at him.
"Seven years and those crazy tactics of yours don't change. As crazy as I think you are, it's that same bravado that got us to take back the surface! When you say it like that I actually think we stand a chance!" Kittan replied as he began to exit. "I'll be meeting you there ya bozos!" He shouted as he left as everyone watched.
"Good grief, I better follow that moron before he gets himself lost." Kyoko replied, beginning to leave as well." Sayaka followed her, until it was only Kamina, Mami, and Homura in the building. They immediately began purifying their Soul Gems with the Grief Seeds from Walpurgisnacht.
"Kamina-san." Mami spoke up. "Do you really think we can defeat this…Anti-Spiral?" She asked. Kamina scoffed.
"What kind of question is that?! Of course we can beat that thing! Just who the hell do you-"
"Kamina." Homura spoke up softly. "From what your friend Kittan said in his story they sound more powerful than Walpurgisnacht. He also didn't get a chance to face it directly in battle, so we don't even know how to go against it! Even so, you're still-"
"We will win because we have to." Kamina bluntly replied, his bravado disappearing. "It's not just Madoka that's at stake here. It's all magical girls. If we just let that bastard do what he wants, then all magical girls will end up dead, and then the witches will overrun this place. That's why we have to win." He took out his Soul Drill from his pocket and showed it to Mami. "Remember what I said that day? About me having faith in the luck of this drill? This is the time where we need to have the most faith." Mami lightly chuckled.
"When you put it that way, it makes me feel like we can really do this." She replied, remembering everything that happened that past month. "It's strange, Kamina-san. I might have thought those same thoughts even if you weren't around, but without you, I wouldn't have had the spirit to back it up. I really was frail. I would seem to fall apart whenever something slightly went wrong in my life. But you were different. The more we got knocked down, the bigger the smile was on your face when you got back up." She turned towards Homura. "This partnership between all of us…would probably not be possible without your help."
"You dumbass!" Kamina replied back while grinning, much to her shock. "You're making it sound like I was the one solving everybody's problems! I didn't do anything! I just stuck to what I believed in and put all of my fighting spirit into what I said. YOU were the one who saved us back inside the witch. Sayaka was the one who defeated the witch that came from her own Soul Gem, and YOU-" Kamina turned and pointed a finger towards Homura. "You were the one who gave us that last bit of strength we needed to take down Walpurgisnacht! Everything I said was nothing but big talk! You guys were the methods to my madness!"
"But still, without your words, we would have been-" Homura began before Kamina interrupted her.
"We don't need to worry about what happened then." Kamina in his usual fashion pointed his index finger towards the sky. "All that matters is what's straight ahead, and we'll bust through whatever decides to stand in our way!" Homura only showed a soft smile in response. She had always held hope that Madoka could be saved, but every single time, there was always a lingering sense of doubt in her mind with every loop. Now that doubt had been completely erased, and only her hope and fighting spirit remained. With a determined look on her face, she nodded towards Kamina.
"I promise we won't let it end here Madoka. Don't worry. No matter how many times we're knocked down, we'll keep standing up until we save you."
Madoka used every urge of her body to remain in control of herself through the pain. As the Anti-Spiral held onto her head, she felt these horrible thoughts seeping into her mind. She also found her body undergoing a horrible change. Slowly but steadily, her magical girl dress was beginning to morph into something else. Her legs had begun to turn a dark black with short lines colored red, green, and blue.
"You waste your time resisting us, magical girl." The Anti-Spiral said. "You only delay the inevitable. To fully prevent your wish from being realized, we must make you one of us." The Anti-Spiral continued to focus its dead white eyes, with only small red dots in the center, on Madoka. She grunted as she continued to resist despite the monster's words.
"I'll never let myself turn into someone like you!" Madoka shot back. "Homura-chan and Kamina-san will come. They won't let you get away with this!" She continued as she struggled to say those words through the pain.
"We are aware that the two Spiral-life forms and the corrupted magical girls will come in an attempt to save you. However, they will perish before they get a chance to even see you. We have prepared some…guests to greet them." The Anti-Spiral coldly responded.
Somewhere in the infinite space witch labyrinth, shadowy figures had emerged. Each of them looked around, not knowing where they were in this space. They continued to look around, all confused, until something caught their attention. Up ahead, they could see the image of a familiar blue-haired man and a blonde haired man, accompanied by young human girls. However those human girls served no interest to these shadows. All that mattered were the two men. The shadows growled at first, but then each of them grinned maliciously. They didn't know where they were, and they didn't care now. Because now they had a chance. This was a golden opportunity that they would not pass up.
At long last, these four shadows would have their revenge.
Again, apologies for the wait. This was another hard chapter to put together. But in any case, I see no reason to tell you who those four shadows are. :)
Next chapter, the storm on the Anti-Spiral's labyrinth begins! But what will Team Dai-Gurren find inside? And why is Kyubey allowing them to go to the Anti-Spiral? Find out next time!