Chapter 3
Homura was awakened by a loud buzz as all the lights in her apartment kicked on. With a grunt, she pulled the covers over her face. She slowly peeked out, cautiously letting her eyes adjust to the light.
"Homura." Came Dr. Mono's voice "You will be taken in for testing in one hour. You should take this time to get ready."
From under the covers, her half opened eyes looked over to the clock on her nightstand: 7:00 am. She pulled the blanket back over herself and curled up into a ball. "What if I refuse?" she asked disdainfully.
"Then we will make arrangements to take you in forcibly, in which case we will also ban your TV privileges for an additional period of time." Then the intercom clicked off, and Dr. Mono seemed to have nothing more to say on the matter.
She allowed herself to stay sheltered under the covers for another fifteen minutes, but ultimately did get up. What she knew about her enemy was this: when they said eight, they meant eight. You could try and just plant your feet and refuse to move, which she had done plenty of times before, but it never worked out for her in the end.
On one occasion, on her first week here, she spent a full twenty minutes resisting them. She used her magic to shift all over the apartment while the guards ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to grab her. She even stopped time and rolled up some bed sheets to use as rope and tie them up. There was a certain satisfaction she had not felt in a long time as she laughed and watched them squirm. Eventually, Dr. Mono's voice had come over the intercom and said: "Alright, Homura. Have it your way." and the guards scrambled back out of the apartment.
Homura had sat down on the couch with folded arms and a look of triumph spread across her face. That is, until she heard a low hissing sound coming from somewhere in the room. It took her only a moment to realize that in several places, high on the walls, small panels had opened up with hoses that were pumping gas into the room. She ran over to the front camera and started yelling at it, demanding an explanation, without a response. Even after using a chair to smash the camera to pieces, Dr. Mono had stayed completely silent as the room continued to fill with gas.
She had run around the room with her shirt pulled over her mouth, trying to think of something. She stopped time and gathered things to plug the hoses with. Unfortunately, there just was not enough rags and pillowcases in the house to plug them all, so she had no choice but to resume time and wait for whatever was about to happen. Before resuming time, she had used magic to push her Soul Gem inside herself (which was a bit painful), just in case they decided to strip her naked while she was out. She knew it would be bad if they ever discovered the real source of her power, so above all else she had to keep it hidden.
After only a minute of breathing the gas, she fainted. When she woke up, she was strapped down to an operating table, staring at a bright fluorescent light with a group of doctors poking and prodding at her as she lie there in nothing but a loose hospital gown. Later that night, she found that her refrigerator had been cleared out with nothing left but frozen vegetables... It was three days before they had stocked her up with normal food again...
She yawned and stretched, sitting on the side of her bed. She got up and selected a change of clothes, even though they were going to have her change into a hospital gown soon, and then went for the bathroom.
As far as she could tell, the bathroom was the only place in the apartment that did not have cameras. In her first week she had checked very thoroughly, scrutinizing every shampoo bottle, pulling off the air vents, unscrewing light bulbs, and once she had even shattered the mirror off the wall. They replaced the mirror a day later. Dr. Mono asked her not to do that again, and promised her that the bathroom was the one place they were allowing her privacy, as long as she did not abuse it and try to get away with something. She honestly didn't know what that something could be anyway, so she respected the condition. The only thing she ever 'got away with' in the bathroom was a few lonely nights in the bathtub, thinking about Madoka.
She took a quick shower, brushed her teeth, and combed her hair. She then got changed and went to the kitchen. Looking at the clock, she saw she still had twenty minutes left, so she fired up the stove, grabbed a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator, and threw some bread into the toaster.
She wondered what they had in store for her today. They did not test her every day, but it was at least a few times a week. Most of the time the tests were pretty mundane: teleport over here, move this over there... Her enemy apparently was not very creative.
Sometimes they would just take her into a room and ask her questions. They would ask about her powers. They wanted to know when she first noticed she had them, if there was anyone else with this power, how did she know about the disaster, has she had any other visions of the future, does anyone else know what she can do... etcetera...
She played stupid on most of these questions. She did not tell them that she was from the future. To the question of how she knew about the disaster: she simply shrugged her shoulders and said 'I just knew'. She claimed she first noticed her powers after waking up in the hospital all those months ago when she first recovered from being sick. She said she does not know how or why she has these power, and she has not had any other visions, but if she does she wouldl let them know.
The question she was most adamant on playing stupid about is whether or not there are any other Magical Girls in the world. She imagined the existence of Magical Girls was made known in the past, which is probably what led to all those old stories about witch hunts. In today's day and age of mass media and record keeping it would be a disaster for Magical Girls everywhere if people knew about them, and that was not something she wanted to be held responsible for.
The days she had to be the most on edge is when they wanted to actually examine her body and her Magical Girl related gadgets. On these days she took the same approach to the questioning, and refused to cooperate with them. Since she had to be transformed for most of her powers to work they could not just knock her out and do their experiments. They needed her to cooperate.
She had to make sure they didn't learn about her shield space. That is where her trump card was hidden, and she certainly could not let them know about her Soul Gem. She could only imagine the horrors they would put her through if they had that little gem to start running experiments on.
The eggs were now spotted with a soft golden brown, so she moved them over to the plate and started buttering the bread. She poured herself a glass of orange juice from the fridge and moved her breakfast over to the dining room table.
Kyoko coming here made her a bit nervous. She was deeply relieved to be in contact with her friends again, but there were a lot of dangers involved too. If she were to get caught, and they were to figure out that Kyoko also had powers, it would certainly lead to them seeking out even more Magical Girls. Right now, if Homura can keep them under the assumption that it is only she who has powers, then there will remain a level of doubt whether more girls like her could exist or not.
Thinking of Kyoko, Homura still had no idea how she managed to get in here in the first place. Dr. Kay Sakura was obviously a completely fictional character, so it is not like she just took over an already existing identity, and Homura was pretty sure her enemy did not just go leafing through the yellow pages for psychologists. Homura imagined even knowing about Subject One's existence was highly classified information.
Homura would have to try and get a private conversation in with Kyoko on their next session together, so she could get some answers to these questions. They needed Kyubey to use telepathy, and ever since they had a falling out with that rat bastard he had not been very helpful in working with them. Besides, Homura was pretty sure Kyubey was anxiously awaiting for her to turn into a witch down here and would not help them even if they were on speaking terms.
So, with the telepathy option out, her best option would be to try and pull Kyoko into her time flow so they could chat. She had to be careful with that though. Her enemy would recognize what she had done, and put Kyoko under some serious scrutiny about what Homura said and did while time was frozen. It would be tricky, but she did have a plan hatching. One that involved taking a certain psychologist hostage and using her as a bargaining chip. Kyoko would be pretty pissed off about that plan, and part of Homura wanted to go through with it just to see the look on her face and hear her particular set of colorful vocabulary words. The plan still had some pretty big fallouts that she was working on, but she would iron it all out in time.
She was just about finished with her breakfast when the clock struck 8:00 am, and Dr. Mono's voice came over the speaker "Homura, your escorts will be entering the room momentarily."
She mopped up the last of egg yolk with the bread and stuffed it into her mouth, before bringing the dish over to the sink to run some hot water over it. Then she went back to the main room to await her 'escorts'.
The metal door beeped and slid open, revealing two guards in their white security uniforms. No guns this time, smart, but they did have something else. Each of them held a three-foot pole with a wired noose at the end. It looked like something a dog catcher might use to leash an unsuspecting pooch around the neck. Homura just stood and stared at them.
One of the guards stepped forward and said "Please turn around and put your hands behind your back, Miss Akemi." Homura did not obey this order. Instead, she pulled her magic and became covered in rainbow light as she started walking towards them. "H-halt!" He shouted foolishly, and his hand reached for the taser at his side. The transformation completed, and Homura blinked - disappearing and reappearing right in front of him.
She took a note from Kyoko and gave him some chosen words "Put so much as a finger on that thing, and I'll break your wrist and shove ten thousand volts up your ass." They both got the message and cleared a path as she continued to walk toward the camera.
"What the hell is this?" She demanded, staring right up into it's lense.
It took a moment for Dr. Mono to respond, in the meantime Homura continued to stare the camera down with her dark intense eyes. "The escorts were given orders to detain you while you are led to the test room. Since you betrayed our trust the other day we are forced to take measures to ensure the safety of our employees."
"If you think I'm going to go along with something like that you're out of your damn mind!"
"Please consider your options, Miss Akemi. We have other ways of bringing you along if you're unwilling. Also, we ask that you do not bring any harm to these employees in the meantime."
She gritted her teeth and her fists balled at her sides "Bring it on!" She screamed "Tase me, gas me, drug me! I don't give a damn! There's no way I'm going to be led around on a leash like a damn dog!" Her anger was becoming too much for her, and she could feel tears stinging the corners of her eyes, but she held it back.
"Very well, Miss Akemi, the escorts will be leaving now. Please allow them to do so."
Homura turned to the guards, eyes bloodshot and pulsing with fury. They both flinched back at the sight of her, and froze, not sure if it would be wise to take their leave or not. With gritted teeth Homura whispered in a cold murderous voice: "Go." and they were both quick to obey as they scurried past her and out the metal door.
She kept her back to the camera, and once they were gone she set the gears spinning on her shield.
She was now alone in her own time, where no one could see her or bother her, tell her what to do or treat her like an animal. She fell to her knees and she screamed, tears falling from her eyes as she rained her fists down on the hard tile floor. She struck the floor over and over, until her knuckles were scratched and bleeding. Eventually, the pain got through to her, and she stopped.
She stood up and stormed over to the dining room. She grabbed a chair and threw it at the wall. It froze in mid-air before reaching its destination. She then grabbed another one and starting hitting the wall directly. It took a few strikes to make it shattered into pieces and freeze. Now she was left holding a single chair leg, which she used to go around to all the cameras and smash them off the walls.
After that, she started pacing around the apartment and looking for more things to break. She smashed the TV, the bathroom mirror, knocked over the stand full of DVDs, stomped on the gaming console, and went to the kitchen and threw dishes by the stack. She didn't care about any of this. She didn't care if they took everything away from her and just left her in a small white box with nothing. She was sick of this, she was sick of being here. She felt guilty about the risk her friends were taking for her, and she missed Madoka.
When her anger was all out and she was satisfied that she had done enough, she sat down on the couch. She sat with her hands on her head and her dark hair falling over her wet face.
She let time resume. The room exploded with a series of bangs and crashes, and pieces of broken furniture rained down around her. The TV exploded in front of her and sent shards of glass flying everywhere. The cameras fell from their places on the walls and smashed on the floor.
She continued to sit, and wait for the gas, now thinking how stupid all of this was. Really, she only hurt herself because those were all her own things she had just smashed. Except they were not really her things, it was their things she had smashed. They were things that her enemy had given to her so they could act like it was okay that they had locked her up down here; so they could pretend it is alright to experiment on her and keep her away from her friends; so they could chastise her as if they were so innocent and she was in the wrong, and say 'look at all we are doing for you and this is how you repay us?'. She was done with it, she was done accepting their hospitality.
She waited for the gas, but it never came. She lifted her head and looked along the walls to verify that the panels were not opening. What the hell were they waiting for? She wondered.
She listened closely. She could hear the soft buzzing of fluorescent lights - and that is all she could hear...
It was two days after Kyoko's first undercover mission. Madoka woke with a yawn, and smiled at the sun hitting her face. She had been uneasy ever since Homura first disappeared, and even more so when they figured out what had happened. Now, she was starting to feel at least a little better about the situation. Things no longer seemed so hopeless, and she was confident that they would be able to help Homura out of her situation. It might be a while longer, as Mami said, but at least they were making progress.
It was also a relief to know Homura would have a friend in there. She knew Homura was always one to put on a tough face, but the truth was in a situation like this she would be scared and lonely just like anyone else. Madoka would have liked to be able to go visit herself, but of course it would be impossible since she was not a Magical Girl, and Kyoko was the only one who could change her appearance to make herself look like an adult. Still, it was a comfort to know Homura at least had someone.
There was something else that was bothering her right now, though. Last night, Leiko and Sayaka had almost gotten into another fight.
It started when the five of them were sitting around the table, snacking on some pastries Mami had made and brainstorming their plans. Sayaka had cut in and said: "Hey guys, I was thinking, can I start helping out more with Kyoko's studying sessions?" They had decided that aside from just the details of the fictional Kay Sakura, Kyoko should also learn a few things about psychology to strengthen the believability of her character. "I really haven't been able to do much to help with all this." Sayaka confessed, "So I figure I could at least help out with that part. What do you think?"
Leiko cleared her throat, dropping a cube of sugar into her coffee, and said: "I would really be more comfortable if Mami just continued. We don't need you stepping in and messing things up." If this was the first jab Leiko had ever taken at Sayaka things might have been okay. However, she had finally pulled the last straw, and Sayaka was ready for a confrontation. Honestly, it was surprising it had not happened sooner.
"That's it!" Sayaka had shouted as she stood up and leaned over the table, rolling up a sleeve. "The hell's your problem, anyway? Are you looking for a fight or what?"
"Ooooo-KAY!" Kyoko cut in, quickly grabbing Sayaka by the collar and pulling her back. She grinned. "Why don't we all just take five?" and led Sayaka toward the balcony.
Leiko had dropped another few sugar cubes into her coffee and her hand was going back for more. "Honestly, it's bad enough we have to use Sakura. If we had someone with a little more class we wouldn't have to waste so much time on these study sessions in the first place."
Kyoko let go of Sayaka and started cracking her knuckles. Her good humored grin faded to a scolding frown and her eyes came alive with fire. "That's it, she's dead."
Now it was Sayaka's turn to drag Kyoko away; she laughed and said: "How about some fresh air?" seeming to have completely forgotten her own rage from only a moment ago.
Madoka had been was quiet through all of that, not knowing how to fix things herself. Once they were gone Mami said: "Leiko, do you think you could try to be just a little more friendly with them?"
"What are you talking about? What I said is true, isn't it?" She dropped another couple of sugar cubes in, and seemed to have finally felt that was enough.
She sure likes things sweet, Madoka thought.
"This isn't a game you know, and if she gets caught it's my ass on the line too. I did a pretty good job covering my tracks but I doubt it would hold up under a full scale government investigation. It would mean trouble for you as well, Mami. There's a chance they could trace things back to your apartment and even if they didn't catch you, your identity would be compromised.
"Although, I have to admit Kyoko is doing better than I thought she would. I honestly thought this whole thing would be a disaster, but she somehow managed to prove me wrong. So far, anyway."
Wow, Madoka had thought, that almost sounded like a compliment.
She knew deep down Leiko was a good person, but there was just that attitude of hers. She wanted all of them to be friends, but with Leiko being so absolutely opposed to opening up to anyone or even just showing basic common courtesies, she did not know how to do it.
She decided she would ask her mom for advice on this. She used to go to her mom for advice all the time, but ever since this whole Magical Girl thing started she knew she had to be careful with that. She disliked not telling her mom things, but she knew it had to stay secret. On something like this, at least, she figured she could go to her.
In a few minutes she found herself side by side with her at the bathroom sink, both of them brushing their teeth as was part of their morning ritual. When Madoka finished and spat into the sink she said: "Hey mom, can I ask you something?"
Her mom had started working on her make up, carefully applying eyeliner as she answered "What is it, sweetie?"
"Well, I have a new friend, Leiko, who has been joining our study sessions over at Mami's house, but it seems like she is having trouble getting along with everyone else."
"Is it that she's not fitting in?"
"Not exactly, and honestly it's kinda her fault. I know that she is a nice person inside because she can be very helpful sometimes, but most of the time she is just very rude to everyone. She is quick to call someone stupid if they don't understand something, and she acts as though she is superior to everyone. If you try to talk to her she just brushes you off and acts like she is annoyed with you. I don't know how to make her lighten up."
"Hm, sounds like a real firecracker." Junko laughed, "Let me ask this. You, Sayaka, Mami, and... was it Kyoko? You've all been friends for a long time, right?" Madoka nodded in agreement. "And this Leiko is new to the group, isn't she?" Madoka nodded again. "Sounds to me like she might have some social anxiety issues. She is probably intimidated about being the black sheep in a group full of long term friends. Sometimes when people are self-conscious about something, they try to put others down to mask their own insecurities. Maybe if you could get to know her one-on-one, away from everyone else, she'd have an easier time opening up. Then, once she has at least one good friend in the group it will be easier for her to lighten up around the others." Junko winked. "You should see if you can convince her to go out on a date with you." Then, remembering her daughter's relationship with Homura, "Well, I don't mean like that."
"Hmm, yeah that sounds like a good idea." Madoka suddenly became so excited about the prospect that she rushed out of the bathroom to go find something cute to wear. She hollered back: "Thanks mom!"
Madoka arrived at Mami's apartment at around noon. Since she was not actually expected this time she knocked first, but didn't get an answer. After a minute of waiting she opened the door and poked her head inside "Hello?" There was no response but she did hear the clicking of a keyboard, and decided it would be okay to just go inside. Nobody else was home, except for Leiko who sat at her computer terminal clicking and tapping away, completely oblivious to anything else in the world around her, as always.
Madoka cleared her throat to try and get Leiko's attention, but when that didn't work she said "Hey, Leiko." She said it softly, trying to avoid startling her again. It seemed it wasn't working, however. She repositioned herself to Leiko's side and waved a hand, trying to get noticed in her peripheral vision, but that did not work either. "Leiko, good afternoon!" She tried again, still not too loudly. She took one more step forward and tried a third time: "Hey, Leiko!"
Leiko screamed, jumping back in her chair. She pushed her glasses back up and looked over to Madoka "Oh, it's you."
"Sorry." Madoka smiled awkwardly. "I was trying not to startle you."
"It's fine." Said Leiko, quickly turning back to her computer, as was her go-to move when trying to avoid conversation.
"Where is everyone else?" Madoka asked.
"Mami went shopping, Sakura and Miki haven't showed up yet today. They might be out on a witch hunt." The clicking and typing had already started again. Normally the conversation would end here, but after an awkward silence Madoka reached for something to say.
"This computer is really impressive, Leiko. I don't think I've ever seen one like it before... All I have at my house is a regular laptop." Leiko did not respond, and just continued typing away. "Um... do you have another one like it at your home?"
"No, the computer at my home is ordinary... since when have you started calling me by my personal name?" There was such an unnecessary level of resentment in Leiko's voice at that last part that it nearly killed all the confidence Madoka had to continue trying to make friends. She had encountered rude people in her life before, but she was sad to say Leiko might have been the absolute worst.
"I- um... well, you've been helping out so much lately. And, and, I thought we could be friends..." The clicking and typing continued. "Um... I can go back to calling you Amaya-san if that's what you prefer..."
"Whatever, it's fine." Well, at least she had permission to call her Leiko now, but they were once again in that awkward silence that felt as though the conversation should end.
However, Madoka gathered her courage. Mama would ask her how things went, and would be disappointed to hear that she had given up so easily. More than that, she would be disappointed in herself. She came over here with a purpose and she decided she would not give up. She didn't understand Leiko's character, but she knew there was a good person locked somewhere behind all the short remarks and bad temperaments. She was going to do her best to break through and reach that nice person!
"Say, Leiko..."
"Hm?"
"There's this really great coffee shop just down the street from here. I was thinking about heading down there, would you like to come?"
"I'll pass." Leiko answered, flatly.
"Are you sure?
"I'm busy."
"I mean, all I ever see you do is sit in front of this computer. Don't you ever take a break?"
"Sometimes."
"Well then, how about taking a break with me!"
Leiko stopped clicking and turned to her with that conceited look of superiority and said "Is it your mission to be extra annoying today, or is it just that there isn't anyone else around for you to bother? I don't want to go to some stupid coffee shop, especially not with an annoying girl like you."
Madoka took a full step back, and her mouth dropped open in shock. No one had ever spoken to her like that before. Leiko's lip raised slightly in what Madoka guessed was a smile. She seemed totally satisfied with herself as she turned back to the computer and continued as she was.
Then, Madoka shook away the shocked expression, and her face scrunched up and became red with anger. Her fists balled at her sides and she stormed away with heavy steps.
Leiko got back to work on whatever it was she was doing, seeming not to give the confrontation a second thought. Next thing she knew, she spotted some movement out of the corner of her eye. She tried her best to ignore it and not move her head, she figured taking notice would only open the door to more conversation. Then, she heard something set down on the floor right behind her, and she could feel Madoka's presence upon her. She knew Madoka was there, but Madoka was being completely silent.
After a full minute of this, Leiko couldn't take it anymore, and she turned her head to see what the hell that girl was doing.
She was sitting. She had grabbed a chair from the dining room and brought it back to sit over Leiko's shoulder and watch what she was doing. There she sat, saying not a word, just sitting with folded arms and an accomplished look on her face. Leiko pushed her glasses up and gave Madoka one of those classic Leiko expressions. "What are you doing?"
"What's it look like? I'm sitting."
"I see that... but why right there?"
"I'm free to sit anywhere I want, right?"
Leiko scoffed and turned back to her computer. "Suit yourself."
Madoka watched the screen, not really sure what she was looking at. There were lines of text zipping by. Sometimes there were number and letters, sometimes there were symbols she had never seen before, other times it just looked like static. At one point Leiko's hand moved over to the actual computer tower, and Madoka noted something that looked like electricity, except with more color, shoot from her fingertips and into the tower. Madoka's eyes widened as she saw this, thinking that must be her magic. She had tried to ask Leiko about it before, without getting a clear answer, but she figured she would try once more.
"Just what exactly does your magic do?"
"It's hard to explain."
"Can you try?"
"No."
Madoka's face scrunched up again, but she was quick to brush it off. Leiko was obviously going to be a closed book about her magic, and Madoka got the impression that talking to a Magical Girl about her powers and other Magical Girl related stuff was sometimes a touchy subject, so she thought of something else to say. "You sure spend a lot of time over here at Mami's place."
"This is where my computer is."
"How come you don't have it at your house?"
"Because I'm trying to keep certain things secret from my family. They think that I've been spending time with a boyfriend these last few weeks." Madoka could not help but laugh, but she was quick to stifle it into the back of her wrist. "Something funny about that?"
"No, no." said Madoka, waving her hands apologetically. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just it's more common for someone to lie to their parents to hide that they have a boyfriend, but you did the opposite and lied about having a boyfriend to hide something else. Heh, well I don't know, I thought it was kind of funny."
"I guess I can see the humor."
Madoka also thought it was kind of strange. Wasn't it a bit abnormal for a parent to be okay with their fourteen-year-old daughter spending that much time with a boyfriend who they had never even met? Madoka didn't want to come off sounding nosy, so she did not point this out.
"Um... Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
"An older sister."
"Oh, how old?"
"Eighteen..."
"Do you get along well with her?"
"I guess."
"I think having an older sister would be really cool! Um, I do have a little brother, though. He's only a toddler, but he's so adorable! He just took his first steps a couple weeks ago... well, my dad was helping him a bit, but still, it was really cool to see!"
"Fascinating."
"Have you ever tried braiding your hair?"
"No."
"You should! I think that would suit you really well! I tried it once, I don't think it worked for me, though, so I started just using these ribbons to make pigtails. Actually, it was my mom's idea."
"Once again, absolutely fascinating."
"Um... what school do you go to? You're in the same grade as us, right? But I've never seen you around before."
"I've always been home schooled..." Leiko turned away from the computer again, with her typical look of annoyance. "Is there a point to all of these meandering questions? Or are you just trying to annoy me?"
"Nope, just trying to annoy you!" said Madoka, with a bright smile on her face.
"It's certainly working..." Leiko pushed away from the computer desk and sighed. "Well, I can't get any work done like this, and I suppose I could use a break... If I go to that coffee shop with you, will you promise to leave me alone for the rest of the day?"
Madoka's smile brightened even more. "Yup, you got it!"
Hey just wanted to send out a quick thank you to all the readers/reviewers/subscribers. This story hasn't been up for even 2 weeks yet but already there are 16 follows and 10 reviews, which seems pretty big! I'm glad that you all are enjoying!
With the telepathy thing, I kind of took that power away from them because that would make things waaay too easy lol, and I think it would totally ruin the Homura/Kyoko scenes. In the show, at one point or another, I think they said something about needing Kyubey to use it so I ran with that as an excuse for why they don't have it now. Although, I think technically that was just meant for non-Magical Girls, I'm going to ignore that detail and just say no one can use it XD
I'll keep trying to keep updates fairly frequent. I have a bad habit of putting too much on my plate, as I'm currently working on 4 fics at once and am rotating between them, but so far I've managed to not go much longer than a week without an update between each one.
Thanks again to all you readers out there! and I've enjoyed reading the reviews too :)
-Atomsk
