Chapter 4
Leiko seemed less pretentious when she was outside the apartment and away from her computer, although, the trade-off to that is her pessimism had gone off the charts. Her first complaint came only two steps outside when she commented on how hot it was. The next complaint was not long after that when they passed by an apartment that had music playing too loudly. As they walked down the street she complained about cars passing by too fast, and she complained about the stoplight taking too long. When she asked how far the coffee shop was she did so with a tone that even the question sounded more like a complaint.
Madoka sighed, trying to think of a way to steer the conversation in a more positive direction. Leiko mentioned being home schooled. Madoka had never met someone who did that before, so she used it to venture onto a new topic. "So what's it like being home schooled?"
"Instead of going to a school to study I do so at home." Her pretentious nature shined through again. "What do you mean what's it like?"
Madoka rolled her eyes secretly, and put back on a smile. "I mean, like, do you have teachers who work with you, or are you mostly self-taught?"
Leiko thought about it for a moment. "A little bit of both. When I was younger I was mostly taught by tutors. As I got older I started taking my studies upon myself more. I do still have a couple of tutors, but they honestly don't do much. I don't think they are really necessary anymore."
"Wow, you must be really smart."
Leiko shrugged. "I guess. Even in grade school I think I was above average, but I had a lot of advantages over the years that most people don't get. I think for the most part everyone has the same potential, but ultimately are a product of their environment." That made Madoka grin, that cool matter-of-fact way of speaking kind of reminded her of Homura.
"Um, is your family wealthy?" Madoka asked.
"Hmmm..." Leiko thought for a moment and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. I don't really think of it like that though."
She did not really get the impression that Leiko was a rich girl based off of her appearance. Everything about her seemed so average; she wore a simple black hoodie which was zipped up only half way, with a white shirt underneath containing some writing in English letters that Madoka could not read. The only flashy thing about her was the green earring she had on which Madoka knew was actually her Soul Gem. Other than that, she did not have any of the elegance Madoka pictured wealthy people having. She pictured those type of people to be more like Mami. Having personal tutors and stuff like that certainly was not something a family of ordinary income could afford, however.
"What do your parents do?"
"My father founded a company... eh, it's hard to explain and you never would have heard of it anyway. It mostly operates overseas."
"Oh, Sayaka's parents are business partners who work overseas a lot as well. Is your father away from home a lot?"
"Not really. He keeps up with things long-distance I guess."
"Oh, I see... What about your mother?"
"Never met her." Leiko shrugged.
"Oh, I'm sorry..."
"It's nothing."
"Being self taught is really amazing though." Madoka quickly changed the subject. "What do you plan to be when you get older?" Leiko just shrugged in response, not giving any inclination that she planned to answer the question. "Well, as for me, I really like animals, so I was thinking I'd like to be a veterinarian... mmm, that or a school teacher because I'm good with kids too."
"Fantastic." Said Leiko, dryly. Madoka frowned, she had thought she was starting to get somewhere with Leiko as far as making her lighten up, because she was talking a little more, but she suddenly seemed to slip back into her ordinary ways. Homura acted like that sometimes too, Madoka thought, but they were not totally the same. Even when Homura was being a bit stand-offish, there was also a certain layer of kindness to her which Leiko lacked.
"Surely there must be something you want to do. You're so good with computers, I bet you would go for a tech job, or something like that."
"Yeah, I probably would have." said Leiko. "It doesn't matter anymore, though." With that Leiko sped up the pace, forcing a cold shoulder onto Madoka. "Are we almost there?"
"Um, yes, it's right over there. Actually..."
Doesn't matter anymore? What could have she meant by that? Madoka wanted to ask, but Leiko was already leading the way into the shop before she had a chance to question her on it.
It was a Saturday afternoon and therefore the shop was quite busy. Leiko complained about it as they went through the door.
"Don't worry, they are pretty fast usually." Madoka said, trying her best to stay cheery. They got into line and waited. Leiko focused hard on the menu overhead. Madoka also glanced over it, although she already knew what she wanted.
She hoped she would be able to get through with Leiko in the end. Homura had a similar way about her. She typically was not all that talkative, and she could also be extremely blunt to the point of meanness, the same as Leiko. With Homura it was different, however. Behind her dry tone and thick-skinned nature there was a certain sweetness to her. Even going back as far as the first day they met in the school hallway, when Homura delivered all those cryptic messages and warnings of the future. Despite being totally freaked out, Madoka was still able to see some kindness in her. It seemed that the only thing sweet about Leiko, however, was the way she liked her drinks. Sometimes it seemed she was mean just for the sake of being mean, which is something Homura never did; aside from when she would occasionally pick on Sayaka, but even that was in good humor, and Sayaka usually had plenty of retorts of her own.
Madoka looked over to Leiko. She was still staring hard at the menu, but occasionally her eyes would drop away and dart around the room. Her hands buried themselves deeper into her jacket pocket and her shoulders shrunk down. It looked as if she was trying to bury herself inside her jacket and hide. Madoka was a couple inches taller than Leiko, which was an abnormal experience for her since she was on the short side herself, but the white haired girl's hunched over posture made her seem even smaller.
Madoka looked around the café, it was really crowded here after all. Nearly every seat was taken, there were several people in front of them in line, and more customers were filing in behind them already. Did Leiko feel nervous about the crowd? It would make sense; if she was home schooled her whole life maybe she never got used to being around people. That would explain why she was so rough in the way she spoke.
Madoka thought she was starting to understand her character more and began to feel guilty for thinking badly of her, however briefly it may have been. Leiko was working hard to help them rescue Homura after all, so surely that was proof she was not bad. That's right, she thought, Leiko was part of their team, and no matter what, she had to try her best to be friends with her! As she thought that, she looked over to Leiko and smiled.
Leiko noticed and responded to the smile with a raised eyebrow. "What?"
"Oh." Madoka blushed, "It's nothing, I was just thinking you kind of remind me of someone. Heh, you actually remind me a lot of Homura."
"Is that right..." Leiko pushed her glasses up and looked back to the menu.
"Heh, yup. Well, sort of, anyway."
"Yeah, well I wouldn't know. I only met her once." Madoka was around during that brief meeting, and it really was not much of a meeting. Mami introduced Homura as she came through the door. Leiko had been sitting at her computer. They both looked at each other, nodded once, and that was that.
She wondered if Leiko and Homura would be friends. They had a similar way of thinking about things, it seemed. It was for that same reason Kyoko and Homura seemed to get along, even back before the rest of the group warmed up to Homura. Although for some reason it did not work that way with Kyoko and Leiko, as they seemed to be at each other's throats quite a bit.
Mami, on the other hand, seemed to get along just fine with Leiko. It was not that they were close friends, but they hardly ever bickered at each other. Maybe it was just because Mami just was not the bickering type. Either way, it would be nice if Leiko could be in the same room with Sayaka and Kyoko without it feeling as if a time bomb was ready to go off.
It was their turn now, and they stepped up to the counter. Madoka gave the clerk a hearty 'good morning', while Leiko just stood by absent of any expression until it was her turn to order. Madoka ordered a french vanilla cappuccino, and Leiko ordered a caramel white mocha latte. Leiko reached into her pocket, presumably to take out money, but Madoka stopped her. "It's okay, I got it." Leiko seemed like she wanted to complain, but Madoka continued: "It's okay, I'm the one who invited you, right?" She gave her a big smile, to which Leiko let her eyes shrink away, giving an indifferent shrug.
After the drinks were made and slid to them, they both gave thanks to the clerk. Leiko's 'thank you' was a bit dry, but otherwise she said it pleasantly enough.
Leiko tried to go for the door, but Madoka spotted an empty booth and stopped her by saying: "Hey, there's an empty seat over there."
Her eyes shifted around. "It's kind of busy in here, I'd rather go back. You're welcome to stay, though." And she started to turn around, but Madoka got in her way.
"Hey, the agreement was that you would have a coffee with me." she said with a perfectly innocent smile. "If you don't keep up with your end of the deal, then I guess I'll just have to spend the rest of the day annoying you!"
Leiko reluctantly agreed, although in the back of her mind she was thinking: 'this girl is secretly the devil'.
What the hell are they waiting for?
Homura lied on the couch, staring at the ceiling, accompanied by nothing but that soft buzzing sound she could not stop herself from focusing on. All around her the room was a mess. There was shattered glass, broken chair legs, and all other kinds of smashed and broken debris lying around on the floor. She looked over to the clock that was stationed on the wall by the front door: 11:04. It had been just over three hours since she had denied going to their testing appointment, and instead had smashed up her apartment. Her enemy had been completely quiet since then. That worried her more than anything. She expected to just get gassed the second she refused them, but that has not happened yet. Nothing has happened. She has just been laying on the couch staring at the ceiling this entire time, not making a sound... Not making a sound...
That is right, she had been completely quiet these last three hours, and she had smashed the cameras so they could not see her either. They could not see her or hear her, yet they had not even bothered to check if she was alright. What if she hurt herself? What if she committed suicide? They wouldn't want to lose their precious test subject, so why have they not at least tried to check up on her yet?
She sat up and looked around the room. She was thinking: maybe there were more cameras she did not know about? She had checked the bathroom pretty thoroughly for hidden cameras, but she never thought to do so in the rest of the apartment. It would not make sense to hide cameras when there were already so many out in plain sight, but on the other hand, maybe that would be the perfect method for hiding cameras, because naturally she wouldn't think to look for more when there were already others in plain sight like this... But where could they be?
Her first idea was the TV. She got up and walked over to it, being careful not to step on any glass, and looked inside the hole she had created on its face. She bent down and picked up a splintered chair leg, then jammed it into the hole and started wedging it back and forth to break the rest of the glass away. When she was done there were only bits and scraps left around the edges of the frame. She lowered her head inside just enough to look around. As far as she could tell, nothing was out of the ordinary.
Where else? An idea hit her instantly, and she wondered why it had not occurred to her sooner. There was this stupid little stuffed teddy bear in her bedroom.
They had filled the apartment with lots of random things for her entertainment: puzzles, games, model kits, books... etcetera... The bear always struck her as odd, but she partly assumed it was just because they had misjudged her personality. She supposed there are some fifteen-year-old girls out there who still liked stuffed animals (her Madoka being one example), so she did not think much of it before.
She went into the kitchen to grab a knife and brought it into the bedroom. She found the stuffed bear on top of her dresser, where it had not moved since the day she was first brought here. She picked it up and turned it around, and plunged the knife into its back. Pulling down hard, she filleted it and let the white cotton spill out before pulling out the remnants. Its body was mostly empty, but when she made it up to its head she found a little black box with a wire attached to the backside of one of its eyeballs. She turned the bear so it could face her, saying: "Nice try" before ripping the wire out of its eyeball. She looked up and waited for the intercom to buzz on, but still nothing. Still going with the silent treatment, huh?
Now she knew for sure that there had been at least one hidden camera, which meant there were probably even more. That bear would not have been able to see her from where she had lain in the living room, so that meant there was at least one more hidden camera located there as well. She got to searching for it, but she did not get far before the intercom finally buzzed on. It was not Doctor Mono, but the softer-toned guy she sometimes got. "Homura, what are you doing?"
"Just a little spring cleaning." She spoke sardonically as she emptied out a vase with a fake flower in it, then tossed it against the wall, shattering it.
"If you continue destroying cameras to the point that we can no longer keep an eye on you, we will have no choice but to put you to sleep. Do you want that?"
She pulled the clock off the wall and looked at the little spot in the center where the two hands connected. She had to look closely, but there was quite clearly a lens there. Of course, so obvious.
"I'll tell you what I want." She held the clock in front of her face and spoke directly into it. "I want you people to let me out of here!"
"Please understand things from our perspective. As a society we can't have someone with your extraordinary abilities running around freely on the streets. At least not without being under close observation, which is a life you may have one day if you can show us you are willing to work with us while you are here.
"Furthermore, if we could unlock the secret to your abilities, just think of the good it would do for our country. You used your power to save Mitakihara from a disaster, so I'm sure you care for your country. Just think of all the other good deeds you could accomplish if you worked with us."
"I'm glad you brought that up. I save an entire city from a disaster, and I'm rewarded by being locked up in a basement. Sorry, but I don't see much point in doing good deeds anymore if that's how I'm repaid."
"We've tried to provide you with all the comforts we could. If there is anything else you need, please don't hesitate to ask."
She gritted her teeth, palmed the back of the clock and slammed its face into the wall, shattering it to pieces. She didn't know if she got the camera or not, but it landed face down amidst the ruins of its own broken glass, so there was no need to worry about it. Then she went to the couch and started ripping it open with her knife, trying to see if there was anything to find in there.
The intercom buzzed on: "There's a camera on the stove timer, behind the painting of a forest to the right of your bedroom, inside the VCR which you've already broken, and in the potted plant in the back-right corner. I'm sure you would have been able to find them anyway, but please don't go about breaking them or we will be forced to use the gas."
"I'm surprised you haven't used it already."
"That was Dr. Endou's idea, as was the idea to detain you this morning, but his qualifications for this project are currently being re-evaluated. Homura, we don't want to be your enemy, we understand how you must feel about all this, but we want you to work with us. Dr. Sakura had an appointment with you tomorrow, but we can see if she would be willing to come in today, if you like." Homura looked over to the plant that supposedly had a camera in it and shrugged. She did not want to seem too eager to meet with Dr. Sakura, lest she accidentally put Kyoko under extra scrutiny.
The revelation about the hidden cameras gave her something else to worry about, however. Thus, she transformed into her Magical Girl uniform and stopped time. She went to all the places that he claimed had cameras hidden, and checked them out. More important than verifying if they were there or not, she needed to get an idea of how much they could see.
Kyoko had passed her a Grief Seed from behind a notebook, where she thought it would be hidden from the cameras. If one of these hidden cameras could see that blind spot, well, that could mean serious trouble. After finding and checking out the angle on each, however, she found that it was okay. Although, there might be more cameras, she thought. If they had noticed something through a hidden camera, then the doctor would not tell her about that specific camera, lest she'd figure it out. Furthermore, maybe telling her about those cameras was just a ruse to stop her from looking for even more.
She sat down at the dining room table and tried to remember the exact angle the notebook was at. She then looked over to that side of the room and tried to look for a place where a camera could be hidden. She did not see anything obvious, but walked over there and paced around for a while, searching. Ultimately, she didn't find anything and thought it was okay. She would try to give Kyoko a warning about the hidden cameras, and tell her they were going to have to be more careful. She was thinking they should not try to do anything sneaky unless Homura could pull her into her timeflow and have a private conversation. Other than that, it was too risky to try anything while they were unaware of how much could be seen or heard.
She got up and went to stand back where she was when she first stopped time. She resumed time, and transformed back into her regular clothing. "Yeah." she said to the plant, "You can send in the psychologist. I don't mind her." Then she looked around at the wrecked room and thought 'I guess I'd better clean up a bit'.
Madoka tried her best to make smalltalk with Leiko while they sat with their coffees. As always, though, Leiko was not very present in the conversation. Madoka was finding the best way to get more than a one-word response was to force her to explain something. Sometimes that did not work either, however, for a lot of the times Leiko's strategy of avoiding that would be to say: "It's hard to explain" or "You wouldn't understand" So for the most part, Madoka just talked about herself, getting a sarcastic "you don't say" or "how enlightening" out of Leiko on occasion.
She watched Leiko rip open what Madoka counted to be her twelfth sugar packet and dump it into her latte. Aside from all the sugar, she had ordered the caramel white mocha, which was already one of the sweetest drinks on the menu. "You sure like things sweet." Madoka commented.
"Yup."
Madoka watched her for a moment, but forced her eyes over to the window, not wanting to be caught staring at her again. She was thinking Leiko did not put too much effort into her appearance, but if she did she could be really cute. A little makeup would go a long way for her, eyeliner would be great, and her hair just begged to be braided.
Madoka glanced her eyes over to her hair once more just quickly enough to get a double take on it. It was long and cut cleanly enough, but not styled at all. Madoka thought if she got the chance, she would probably just leave it straight in the back and braid the sides into a couple of twintails. There was enough volume to it that it would probably work out great! Then, maybe she would put bows on the ends - definitely green bows - to match the green of her eyes and the SoulGem earring.
Homura had great hair too, and she mostly preferred to just keep it straight, but she would let Madoka braid it once in a while. She said she used to keep it in two long pigtails, but had stopped the practice for some reason. Having been told that, Madoka just had to try it and would not take "no" for an answer. When she was done, she got a strange feeling seeing Homura's hair like that. Something about it just seemed right. It gave her a weird sense of déjà vu, like she had seen it before, but at the same time it did not really fit Homura's personality at all. Madoka's thoughts having trailed off into thinking about Homura caused her to gaze out the window and sigh longingly. She really missed her.
After testing her latte again, after who knows how many sugar packets, Leiko finally seemed satisfied and returned the lid. Madoka looked back at her and said "Leiko, I just want to say I can't thank you enough for how much you've been helping us lately."
"Don't mention it." She said dryly, sipping her coffee and getting a satisfied look on her face as she tasted the sweetness.
"No, really. You've been such a big help, none of this would have been possible without you. If we didn't have you... I don't know what we would have done."
"I'll tell you what you would have done. Kyoko's hair-brained plan to just bust in using force would eventually get through to Sayaka, and therefore Mami, and the three of them would have ended up charging in with a half-baked plan, and getting captured themselves, leaving me stuck fending against witches by myself again." She set down her coffee and pushed her glasses up, looking at Madoka. "Don't thank me so much. I'm not doing any of this because I actually care about Homura. My actions are done for the purpose of self-preservation. If I continue to be useful to this team, no-one will complain about sharing their Grief Seeds with me."
Madoka looked at her, shocked. There was something so dry and resentful about the way she said all of that. As if she did not care about any of them as friends, and instead was just using them. Madoka's eyes sunk away and her fists balled at her sides "I... I wish you wouldn't talk like that. I know you can't really mean it."
Leiko shrugged: "Think what you want." Any normal person should feel at least some level of guilt, but Madoka could see Leiko just was not capable of something like that. Why would she say all that? Was she trying to be mean just for the sake of meanness? Homura could be dry and factual like that as well, but her intentions were always revealed to be pure in the end. Maybe it was the same with Leiko. Her mother said that sometimes when people are insecure they try to cover it up with a thick skin. Maybe that is what Leiko was doing? Madoka hoped. She tried to get to the bottom of it all the same.
"You are a member of our team, though. Even if you don't always get along with the others, and you fight with them sometimes, we all care about each other and that includes you." She made eye contact with Leiko again. "If it were you locked up in that horrible place, we would all fight just as hard to get you back as we are for Homura. It doesn't matter if you are useful to us or not, it's not about that! We're friends!"
Leiko scoffed, leaning back in her chair. "You keep saying us like you are a part of the team in the first place. You're not a Magical Girl. You don't get it, you don't understand what it's like."
"Leiko, why are you being so cold?"
She shrugged: "I'm a realist, that's all. Come on, a team of Magical Girl friends, supporting each other in the fight against evil and the forces of darkness? Sounds romantic when you say it like that, doesn't it? Take a look at Kyoko: you know what becoming a Magical Girl did to her, right? Sayaka, wasting her wish on a boy who didn't give a damn about her. And Mami, forced into it by a life-or-death ultimatum. None of us wanted this. I don't know Homura's story, but look what's happening to her now as her reward for saving people. Like I said, you don't get it. Have you ever even seen a witch before? They're horrible. You're all wrapped up in these ideas of fighting for truth and justice, like this is some big fun magical fantasy adventure. You need a reality check." She grabbed her latte and stood up. "Sorry that this little outing didn't go the way you probably wanted it to. I'm going back now. I have work to do."
Madoka did not know what to say. For the first time that day, she was going to let Leiko have her way and walk out of the door. There was one thing she wanted to know, though. She did not believe in the things Leiko had said, but she wanted to understand why.
It took her a little while to gather her thoughts and decide on what she wanted to say. When she was ready she got up from her seat and chased after her. The french vanilla cappuccino was left behind, still more than half full.
She caught up with Leiko halfway down the block, and grabbed onto her sleeve to get her attention. Leiko turned around with a start, but then pushed her glasses up and put on that dry irritated face she had. Madoka looked at her, slightly out of breath and her face flushed red. "What did you wish for?"
Leiko seemed surprised by the question, but she let her face fade into a more neutral expression as she sighed and looked across the street. "It's a secret. I'll tell you this much, though. Someone did something really horrible to me, and I needed a wish to undo it. I didn't want any of this, I was forced into it." She looked back to Madoka. "That's just the way it is for Magical Girls, though."
