Chapter 2
"Are you and Homura fighting right now?" Junko Kaname asked her daughter, after spitting toothpaste into the sink. "She hasn't been over in a while."
"No," Madoka said, still brushing her own teeth. She held her hair back with one hand as she spat into the sink as well. "She's... She's just away right now." Junko looked down at her daughter, feeling as though there is something she was not saying. Normally she always knew exactly what was on her daughter's mind. Lately however, Madoka had seemed like much more of a closed book. "She'll be back soon." Madoka said, with a smile.
Junko had first noticed Madoka becoming distant a couple of months ago when Sayaka was having a fight with their friend Hitomi over a boy. She was not sure why something like that would cause Madoka to act so strangely, but it turned out that did not actually have anything to do with it after all. It was several weeks later, when Junko had met Homura for the first time, that it all started to make sense.
Madoka brought Homura home one day, and they stood hand-in-hand as Madoka announced that this was her girlfriend. Junko was taken aback at first, having not realized this about her own daughter until then. She supposed having a tomboy friend like Sayaka growing up may have had something to do with it. She didn't have a problem with it of course; she was happy her daughter had found someone, boy or girl. All the same, Madoka's revelation had come as a bit of a surprise to her.
Her husband had offered for Homura to stay for dinner straight away, which Homura accepted, with a bit of an awkward blush creeping onto her face. Junko, after gaining her composure, went right to fawning over how cute she was, which deepened her blush even further. Madoka laughed, and so did Homura - a bit shyly - and she instantly became a part of the family.
Junko found that she really liked Homura. She seemed like a strong and caring person, and she was always very polite. She was a bit shy and withdrawn, it seemed, but Madoka appeared to smooth that side of her over a bit. She thought the two of them really were great together. However, soon after the disaster that had the whole town evacuated, Homura abruptly stopped coming over. It didn't make sense for such a sudden change so Junko asked again "Are you sure everything's alright? You know you can tell me about anything, right?"
"Yes, really," Madoka assured her, "Everything's great! She'll be back soon, I just miss her a little bit is all." She smiled again, and Junko guessed that her daughter was being honest after all. Sure, she was not as communicative as she use to be, but Junko thought back to when she was in that age herself, and realized it was natural for teenage girls not to be so open with their parents. Especially once they have started dating.
Breakfast went normally enough, and when they were all done Madoka announced that she was going over to Mami's house to do some studying with her and Sayaka. "Okay," Junko said, "Just make sure you call if you're going to be late coming home."
"I will, mom. Bye!"
Madoka decided to take the city bus in order to get there sooner. Normally she would be just fine with the walk, since it was such a nice day, but she was anxious to hear about how things had gone last night. Kyoko had infiltrated the laboratory, but Madoka had to go home before hearing the results of the mission. Madoka had been very worried about Homura these last two weeks, but Mami assured her that in the end everything would be fine.
"Yeah," Sayaka had chimed in, "With four Magical Girls on the job, those suckers don't stand a chance! In fact, there's five of us if you count Homura herself. They really picked the wrong people to try and mess with, you know?"
Still, Madoka could not help but worry. It was a dangerous thing they were all involved in, especially Kyoko. If something had gone wrong Kyoko could be locked up right along with Homura right now. Without her enchantment magic, finding another way into the laboratory would be difficult.
Kyoko had once suggested that they all just storm the building and take Homura back by force, but Mami had flat-out refused this suggestion. She said as an absolute last resort they could start to think about considering that, but it was not something they should do unless there was no other choice.
Madoka tried to stay positive, and just have faith in her friends. Things would be okay. She knew they would all come through in the end.
She made it to Mami's apartment and let herself in. She knew she was already expected, so there was no need to knock. When she entered, she looked around. Neither Mami, Sayaka, nor Kyoko were anywhere to be seen. Leiko, however, sat in front of an elaborate computer station she had set up in Mami's living room. She was deeply focused on the screen, clicking and typing away at a rapid pace. She seemed not to notice Madoka's presence at all.
"Um... Good morning Amaya-san," Madoka said to her, not yet feeling close enough to call her by her first name. Leiko still seemed not to have noticed her, so Madoka stepped closer to the white-haired girl and spoke louder "Um, where is everyone?"
Leiko jumped suddenly, startled, and her typing ceased as she looked over to Madoka with an annoyed look on her face. "Kyoko is still in bed. Mami and Sayaka are out on the balcony."
"Kyoko is back? She made it back okay?"
Leiko nodded and pushed up her thickly rimmed glasses that had started to fall off her face. "Indeed. I provided her with a pretty solid identity, so she would have to mess up pretty badly to get caught."
"D-did she get to see Homura?"
Leiko just nodded again in response, and tried to turn back to her computer to end the conversation, but Madoka pushed on.
"Is Homura okay?"
"I guess. Look, I don't know. Ask Kyoko about it when she gets up." And with that she cut Madoka off completely and went back to vigorously plugging away at the giant computer terminal.
It was a relief to hear that things had gone well. Although, she would feel better when she got more details than Leiko's short indignant responses were able to provide. She didn't dislike Leiko, but she seemed like a hard person to get along with. She had this way of always seeming to treat people as if they are beneath her. This had led to some close confrontations with both Kyoko and Sayaka, but Mami and Madoka managed to calm things down before the fighting got too serious. Besides, Leiko had been a huge help to them. If it were not for Leiko's hacking skills they never would have been able to get Kyoko into the laboratory in the first place.
Leiko was a Magical Girl, but she was certainly of a different breed. She admittedly was not much use in fights against witches, as her magic mainly had to do with altering things on the Internet. Madoka honestly did not understand how it worked. She tried to ask Leiko about it before, but the small white-haired girl just looked at her with a bored expression and said: "I could TRY to explain it to you, but I doubt you would comprehend any of it even if I did." Sayaka had overheard this, and walked over to her with a raised fist, but Madoka had quickly gotten between them and guided her away. It seemed Leiko had not even noticed Sayaka doing any of this, for she turned back to her computer without any kind of acknowledgement.
Madoka went to the back of the apartment and stepped out onto the small Balcony. Mami was sitting down at a small table with a cup of tea. Sayaka was leaning her back against the railing and looking out over the cityscape horizon, with a slight wind blowing her short blue hair.
"Oh, good morning Madoka." Mami said to her.
"Hello, how are you?" Madoka smiled.
"Hey, Madoka!" Sayaka waved to her.
"Um, what are the two of you doing out here?"
"Oh man," Sayaka said, "I just finally needed a break from Miss Congeniality in there!" She put her hands around her throat and acted as if she was choking herself.
Mami just smiled "She can be a bit eccentric, it seems."
"She told me Kyoko made it back okay," said Madoka, breaching into the subject.
"Yes, things went better than expected," Mami said, and sipped her tea. "We haven't heard much about it ourselves, yet. Kyoko got in pretty late and went to bed almost instantly. She just put a thumb up and smiled, and went into the bedroom. I imagine using her enchantment magic for long periods of time can really take a toll on her."
"Do you know how Homura is doing?" Madoka asked.
"It seems things are okay with her," Sayaka answered. "Like Mami said, Kyoko didn't tell us much, but I could tell by the look on her face that things are okay."
"Good... I mean, they're not... not... punishing her? For tearing up their test room the other day?"
Sayaka burst out laughing at the question "Oh man, get this, they took away her TV! Leiko told us, she saw it written in their logs. Heh, I wonder how it went. Did they just come into her room and tell her: 'RAWR! NO TV FOR A WEEK! YOU'RE GROUNDED!'" Sayaka could not help the grin that was spreading over her face - she was clearly very amused by the scenario. It made Madoka feel a little better, too. She had gone through some nightmare scenarios in her own head about how poorly Homura might be getting treated in there, but it sounded like things were not too bad. No doubt Sayaka knew this as well, and was trying to lighten the mood.
In actuality, there was a darker side to the scenario that they had agreed to keep away from Madoka for now, lest she worry too much. First of all, Madoka did not know about the taser, or the drugs they had pumped into the side of her neck while she was out. On top of that, there were reports in the logs telling that they were going to start trying to introduce mood altering drugs into her food soon. Also, it seemed they had figured out her power does not work if she is tied down. There were some troubling things revealed in their notes related to this, although it seemed they had not acted on any of it yet.
They had all gotten quiet as they thought things over. Mami, not wanting to lead Madoka too far astray on the seriousness of the situation, said: "There is still a long road ahead of us. We'll have Kyoko getting in there on a regular basis now. She'll be able to smuggle some GriefSeeds in and help keep her SoulGem purified. However, we don't have much of a plan for actually getting her out yet. Also, I worry Homura might push her luck with them too far. She was never one for taking orders from others very easily, you know."
"That's true." Madoka said, suddenly becoming more downcast.
"But don't worry." Mami reassured her, "You know we are all doing our best for her, so things will work out." This returned the smile to Madoka's face and she nodded.
Then, Kyoko stepped out onto the balcony. "Hey, morning sunshine!" Sayaka said. She was still dressed in her night clothes, with heavy bags under her eyes, a cup of coffee in one hand and a doughnut in the other. She moved over to Sayaka and leaned forward to give her a quick peck on the lips. She then sat down at the table across from Mami.
Kyoko turned to Madoka and put a thumb up. "Homura's looking good." she said, through a mouthful of doughnut.
"Come on, girl, we want details!" Sayaka started, "Seriously, how long are you planning to leave us in suspense?"
Kyoko rubbed her eyes and swallowed. "Can I at least finish my breakfast first?"
Sayaka grinned. "No way."
Kyoko took another big bite from the doughnut. "Alright, fine..." And she began to tell the story.
Getting inside turned out to be easier than she had thought. Really, the hard part was the night before, when Mami was quizzing her on details about her alias 'Dr. Kay Sakura'. Leiko had started off the quizzing (as she was the one who made up most of the details in the first place), but she became far too frustrated when Kyoko didn't get an answer right, which in turn got Kyoko angry with her. So, to avoid letting World War Three start, Mami had taken over on the study session.
As a group, the five of them had also brainstormed questions a psychologist might ask Homura in a situation like this. They had to keep up the appearance that she was indeed a psychologist, after all. Luckily, Kyoko did not have to memorize any of that, as they allowed her to write it down in a notebook that she was to bring in with her. Mami also suggested that she be polite - but short - with anyone she met in there. If she got sucked into a long conversation, it meant more chances for her identity to be found out. Still, they practised a few conversation skills, just in case. The hardest part was getting Kyoko to stop using swear words and slang terms.
When they thought she was ready, Kyoko used her enchantment magic to make herself appear as though she were in her late twenties. Leiko set up the appointment via email, and thus the plan had taken off. Mami also provided her with a spare GriefSeed to take to Homura. She had been stuck in there for over two weeks already, so chances of her magic running low were high. The plan for tonight was to just lay low, make note of anything that might be useful for future escape attempts, and to let Homura know that her friends had not abandoned her.
When Kyoko made it into the laboratory, all she had to do was go to the front desk and state her name and that she had an appointment. That desk led her to another desk, and another, and another, until finally one of them sent her on an elevator that took her far below the basement level. Once down there, she was greeted by two armed guards. This place is way too secure, she thought, just what kind of stuff do they got going on down here? She would not get any answers to that question, however, because from there on all she saw was white walls and metal doors.
After going through the third set of metal doors, Kyoko realized breaking Homura out was going to be far harder than they had originally thought. Well, finding out things like this is the main reason she was here, so at least her current mission was going well so far. Finally, they brought her to a room with normal wooden doors, and sat her down on a couch. Apparently 'Dr. Endou' wanted to speak with her before she met with Homura. Great, she thought, feeling just a little nervous. Originally she was not too worried because she thought she could just bust her way out if things went south. The way it was looking now, though, she would have a hard time escaping if they saw through her disguise. It's all good, just like Mami said. Short and polite.
She was called into his office after a few minutes. Showtime, she thought. She walked into a colorful well-lit room, and thought how much of a difference it was from the rest of this place. He had family pictures on his desk, a few paintings on the walls, and a small fish tank with a goldfish swimming around in it. In the family photograph, Kyoko noticed a teenage girl. She wondered how he would feel if his daughter had been kidnapped and locked up in some room underground?
The man himself was a clean-cut gentleman who appeared to be in his late-forties. His face did not hold much expression, he had a thick boxy build, and Kyoko noted how his chin line was parallel with his square shoulders.
"Doctor Sakura." He said, gesturing to a chair opposite from where he sat behind his desk. "Please, take a seat."
"Thank you." She said as she sat down.
"It's good to finally meet you in person."
"Yes, I'm glad we managed to work things out."
"You had shown interest in this project early on. We didn't think your services would be necessary, but after a certain incident the other day we thought it might be a good idea. You also came highly recommended from several contacts of ours who had been recommending psychological evaluations." Those supposed contacts of his were all just smoke and mirrors set up by Leiko. Leiko did not do a great job explaining exactly how she put all this together, but whatever the hell she had done seemed to be working.
"I'll do my best to live up to my reputation. Will I be meeting with Akemi soon?" She wanted to stray him away from the topic before he started coming up with questions about her past work and how she knew this contact and that. She had studied the answers to those possible questions, but still wanted to avoid them.
"Yes, momentarily." He said, shuffling through some papers "I told her you would be coming in soon, but before that I want to brief you on how we expect this to go." Kyoko nodded, signaling for him to continue "First of all, I'm the lead researcher of this project, and while you are here you are thought to be on contract working directly under me. Therefore, any questions you have related to Subject One should be brought to me. Any suggestions you make must be approved by me, and I have the final say in anything related to her 'treatment'. Is all this alright with you so far?" Kyoko nodded. "Furthermore, the rules of patient confidentiality don't apply here. I want to know everything that is said to her and said by her. You won't need to trouble yourself with this, though, we have recording devices in her room that will record everything for me. However, I expect a weekly report of your personal thoughts and findings, which can be delivered to me via email. Is all this acceptable?"
"I would prefer to work with her in private, but if that can't be done then yes, it is acceptable."
"Good. None of your own personal recording devices are allowed in the room. If you need to review one of your sessions with her, you can see me about getting a copy of our footage from that day. However, this copy must remain in the lab, and not be altered or re-recorded."
"Naturally."
"Now, you understand that Subject One is thought to be highly dangerous. In our emails I had suggested to you that you meet with her behind glass, but you seemed pretty adamant about refusing those conditions. Do you still stand by that?"
"I do. I won't be able to do my work properly and make a connection with her if we are not meeting face-to-face." She was reciting a well rehearsed answer that Leiko and Mami had written for her. "I accept the risk associated with the subject. Although, based on the notes you have provided to me about her, I don't think I will be in a high risk situation. She doesn't seem to lash out for no reason, only when she is provoked, and even in those instances she doesn't seem to want to cause irreparable harm to anyone."
"All the same, we will be watching closely from the security cameras. Also, we will have guards stationed outside the room in case there is an issue. We have come up with a way of detaining her in case of an outburst, so you should be fine. So, that just about wraps all of that up." He folded his hands and made an expression that she supposed was meant to be a smile, but his face did not seem capable of moving in that way "Any questions?"
"No, I think we have covered everything."
Dr. Endou pushed a button on his keyboard and spoke into a microphone. "Homura. Dr. Sakura will be coming in now."
Kyoko was quick to gloss over Homura quite nearly blowing her cover. "Anyway, how are you doing today? Mrs. Akemi."
"F-f-f-fine." She could not believe it. It was Kyoko! It was really Kyoko! How was this possible, though?
Homura had been captured soon after Mami met Leiko and recruited her to their team, so her interactions with Leiko had been limited. Homura had met Leiko once, but did not know about her peculiar form of magic. Therefore, she was clueless to how Kyoko possibly could have gotten this far under an alias.
"Just fine? Are you sure about that?" Kyoko spoke very intensely, looking her in the eyes and trying to tell her to wipe that shocked look off her face and start playing along. Homura got the message.
She folded her arms and turned away from 'Dr. Sakura'. Her voice took on the irritated tone she would have given to the real Dr. Sakura, if one actually existed. "Yeah, just fine. Like I said."
"That was quite a violent outburst in the testing room the other day. Would you like to talk about that?" Homura kept her arms folded, and looked away with an angry look on her face. "Jeez! What the hell's your problem!" was Kyoko's initial thought, until she reminded herself that Homura was putting on an act, and Kyoko slipped back into character herself "Like I said, I would like for us to be friends. I know we just met, but I'm here to help you, and I want you to know you can talk to me about things. If you would rather not talk about that right now, that's fine, though."
Homura sighed, and brushed her hair back. She looked to the ceiling, and her expression became distant for a moment, letting a small smile touch the corner of her lips ever so briefly. Then she looked back to Kyoko with a shy, hurt expression. "I was upset. I don't want to be here. I feel as though my heart is filled with grief, as if my soul is hidden away in this place." When she said 'this place' her fingers pointed between her breasts. Damn, thought Kyoko, someone give this girl an academy award. She got the message. Homura was saying she needed a GriefSeed, and she also stated that she had managed to keep her SoulGem secret from her captors.
"If there was something to help with the grief, I would like to give it to you..." Kyoko looked around, trying to think of a way to slip the GriefSeed to her. Then she noticed an open notebook with a drawing of a cat inside it. "Did you draw that?" She asked. She glanced around a bit more, and noted a camera to her back and a camera to her right. "May I see it?"
"I guess." Said Homura, as she slid the notebook over to her. Kyoko sneakily put her hand into her pocket and hid the GriefSeed in her palm. As the notebook was passed to her, she lifted up the back cover so the camera would not be able to see inside, and she passed it into Homura's hand, hidden behind that small blind spot.
"Would you like some tea, Kay?" Homura asked her, with a shy smile. She now had the GriefSeed hidden inside her own palm.
"Yes, that would be lovely. Thank you."
Then there was a bright flash of light as Homura transformed into her Magical Girl uniform and disappeared, reappearing again in what seemed like a split second. She was now standing over the table and there was a cup of tea sitting in front of Kyoko. Kyoko jumped back, trying her best to look surprised.
While time was stopped, Homura used the GriefSeed to purify her SoulGem. When that was done, she went into the kitchen to pour the tea, and slipped the spent GriefSeed back into Kyoko's pocket before resuming time.
She stood over the table with a humorous smile spread across her face. Kyoko tried her best to react appropriately as someone who had heard of magic but has just now actually seen it for the first time. "T-that's quite impressive, Miss Akemi."
"Please, just call me Homura." she said with a smile as she took her seat again. With another flash of light her clothing returned to normal.
"Alright, Homura it is then." Kyoko looked back to the drawing. "This is very good. Do you draw often?"
"I never used to before. I started doing it as a way to pass the time when I was taken here." She leaned back, letting a sad expression come over her face once more "I drew that one for a friend of mine. I don't think I'll ever get a chance to give it to her... But... since we are going to be friends, would you like to have it?"
Kyoko nodded "Thank you, I would love to keep it."
They spent the rest of their time together casually talking about TV shows and movies. Kyoko helped her finish the puzzle she had been working on, and also looked through some more of her drawings. After about an hour and a half of this, Dr. Endou (or Dr. Mono, as Homura knew him as) announced that Homura would be needing to get some rest soon, as not to affect tomorrow's schedule.
"Alright. I guess that's all for today." Kyoko said "I can come back again in three days. Would you like that?"
"Of course." Said Homura, with a smile "I can't wait."
Sayaka had grabbed another two doughnuts for Kyoko as she told the story. She was now stuffing the last of it into her mouth. "When I left the room I talked with Endou again. He totally bought the act! He said he couldn't believe I had gotten on her good side so quickly. I said something like 'She is a young girl, and she is lonely. She just needed a friend.' Or something like that. Anyway, I'm good for two sessions with her every week now." She grinned and put a thumb up, then looked over to Madoka "Oh yeah, and before I forget. Hang on a sec." Kyoko left the balcony and returned with a folded sheet of paper. "I'm pretty sure this was actually meant for you."
Madoka took it from her and unfolded it. A big smile forced itself onto her face, although she sniffed as light tears started to fall from her eyes. She sat down at the table and leaned over the cat drawing. She was still smiling, despite the tears.
"Madoka?" Sayaka asked, after a while. "Are you ok?"
"Yes, I'm fine." She said, as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Then she got up again and threw her arms around Kyoko. Kyoko stepped back a bit, feeling embarrassed, but then returned the hug. "Thank you so much!" Madoka said, crying. Mami and Sayaka shot each other a look, conferring a mutual feeling.
"Hey, no problem. She's my friend too, you know."
After releasing Kyoko, Madoka rushed into the house. Leiko was in there, still clicking away in front of the massive computer terminal, numbers and letters and symbols Madoka had never seen before rushed past the screen. Madoka came up behind her and threw her arms around her as she had done with Kyoko.
Leiko screamed in surprise, nearly losing her glasses. Then she realized who it was and tried to pull away "Woh, hey! What's the deal?" But Madoka refused to let go of the small snowy haired girl.
She whispered "Thank you for everything, Leiko."
