Chapter 5
"You dummy!" The spear slammed down through the familiar's back, pinning it to the ground. Kyoko's feet landed on the ground softly as she tightened her grip. The familiar wriggled and screamed, trying to pull away from the spear that was impaling it. Kyoko twisted her spear and pulled it through the side of creature's body. It let out one last shriek of pain before falling to the ground where it dissipated in a cloud of black and blue dust. "Heh, too easy." Kyoko grinned.
Sayaka sat on the ground nearby, focusing her SoulGem to heal a wound she had received on her right shoulder. Her lips were shrunken down in an irritated frown.
"You alright?" Kyoko asked, pulling her spear up and balancing it over her shoulder.
"Fine."
Kyoko grinned. "Seriously, I thought you'd have the hang of this by now." she laughed, "Thought the days when I had to babysit you were over." She was just teasing, but Sayaka did not seem to take it that way. She pulled herself up to her feet and stomped past Kyoko with an angry look on her face. "Woah, hey, come on. I was just playing." Kyoko said, following after her. When Sayaka still did not respond she added: "Are you sure you're alright?"
"Just fine." she said again, bluntly. "Come on, we still have a witch to track down." Kyoko frowned and followed after her.
Sayaka had seemed to be in a bad mood all day. Kyoko teased her like that all the time, which usually instigated a good-natured scuffle between the two of them. It never got serious, and usually ended up with the two of them bursting into laughter as their weapons locked in a moment that would otherwise look like a serious battle. So why was Sayaka being so gloomy today? Kyoko just followed after her, trying to figure it out.
"You know..." Kyoko started, "that was a tricky one, even if it was just a familiar. Anyone could have been hit like that. I bet you would have taken it out just like that a second later if I didn't step in."
"Whatever..."
Kyoko sped up her pace and got into Sayaka's way. She put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her, and gave her the warmest smile she could muster. "Come on now, princess, what's the problem? You've been acting like a royal pain all day. It's not like you." Sayaka tried to hold onto her irate demeanor, but she faltered, and her grimace slowly turned into half a smile. Try as she might, she could not resist Kyoko when she got all cutesy on her like that. "Go on, tell Kyoko all about it." she laughed, "I am a psychologist after all."
Sayaka could not help but laugh in return. "I feel sorry for whatever patient ends up relying on you for their mental stability." That sounded more like her normal self.
"Yeah, no kidding, I'm definitely retiring when all this is over. The whole doctor thing is totally cramping my style."
They both shared a laugh together. It was bizarre for Kyoko to be taking on a role like that, and when either of them thought about it they could not help but see the comedy in it. When their laughter dissipated, Sayaka got serious again and sighed: "I don't know, I guess it's just that Leiko has been kind of bothering me lately."
"Pssssh, she bothers everyone. I even saw Mami getting all red-faced and angry with her once."
"Yeah, that's true, but it's more than that, actually. Really, the three of you are working so hard on putting this whole rescue mission together, and I've barely done anything at all to help. I guess it feels like I should be doing more to pull my own weight and help out the team." They both started walking again, side by side. There still was a witch to hunt down, so they could not afford to get distracted for too long.
"It's not like you aren't doing anything." Kyoko assured her. "I guess there hasn't really been a place for you on this mission yet, but think of it this way: while we are busy trying to rescue Homura we aren't getting much actual witch hunting done. Over the last two weeks you've definitely snagged more GriefSeeds than the three of us combined. Hell, I don't think Leiko ever even managed to get one single GriefSeed on her own. She sucks at combat, she even admitted so herself."
"Still, hunting witches is what I would be doing anyway."
"Yeah, and you've been stepping up your game lately while we've been busy, haven't you?" As they reached a break in the alley, Kyoko conferred with her SoulGem and pointed down another path that led to a dead end. "We all got our role on this team. I'm going undercover, Leiko is doing her weird computer thing, and Mami is like the leader, she's also been doing the most to help me study. Your role is to keep us supplied with Grief Seeds. We wouldn't be able to do all this if we had to keep up with witch hunting full-time, y'know?"
They reached the dead-end and looked around. Kyoko again conferred with her Soul Gem, but was not sure where to go. Sayaka pointed up at the fire escape just above them. "Guess the only way to go is up." she said.
Kyoko nodded in agreement. She crouched down and used her spear to push off the ground, jumping up and reaching the climax of her jump with an extended arm. She managed to grab the bottom rung on the ladder, then showed an impressive amount of strength as she pulled herself up with one arm.
Down below Sayaka couldn't help taking advantage of the angle, letting her eyes sneak along Kyoko's toned thighs, and peeking under her girlfriend's skirt as she dangled overhead.
Once at the top, Kyoko undid the latch and slid the ladder down for Sayaka. Sayaka climbed up after her, and they continued up the steel steps, looking towards a rusty chained-up door at the very top.
"You wanna take this one?" Kyoko asked, as they approached the door. "I mean, I don't want you feeling like yer' all useless or anything."
"Alright, shut your mouth." said Sayaka. She signaled for Kyoko to take a couple steps back, then held out her hands. As she pulled power from her SoulGem, her hands became surrounded in a bright rainbow light. From out of the light, two swords formed, and she grabbed onto their hilts. She slashed at the door several times, breaking the chains and leaving a deep cross cut into the steel. She tried to open the door, but it was still locked firmly in place despite the chains being removed. So, she made one more careful slash through the crack near the handle, severing the locking mechanism inside. A firm kick at it's center caused the rusty hinges to scream as the door swung wide open.
"After you." Sayaka said with a grin, gesturing inside the dark doorway.
It was too dark to see anything, even with magically enhanced vision, so Sayaka disenchanted her SoulGem and brought it to its normal gem-shaped form. She then held it out and channeled some power through it to make it glow brightly enough to act as a flashlight. The building had a stale smell to it, and particles of dust lingered all throughout the air.
"We're close." Kyoko said, as they both proceeded with cautious steps. Sayaka shined her ray of blue light in an arc across the room, finding herself inwardly jumping every time an unexpected shadow revealed itself. Their footsteps echoed as they moved forward, this sound was only accompanied by an occasional drip of water which came from somewhere far back in the facility.
Suddenly the tension was broken by a sound, and they both jumped with a start. Kyoko's initial reaction was to ready her spear, instinctively expecting that something was coming after them, but then she realized the sound was music. It was a classical number, with quick piano notes and violins.
"Heh, sorry bout that." Sayaka said, as she pulled her phone from her pocket. She flipped open the screen and answered it. "Hey Madoka, what's up? We're kind of busy now, so..."
"I need to speak with Kyoko." It was not Madoka afterall, and Sayaka instantly recognised Leiko's sour voice.
Sayaka's own voice got a bit rougher. "Huh? Oh, sure. Hang on a sec." She then held the phone out to Kyoko and smiled. "It's for you."
Kyoko took the phone. "Yaaaalo." Sayaka could hear Leiko's voice on the other side, but the volume was too low for her to make out what she was saying. Kyoko nodded, occasionally saying things like "Uh huh," "Okay," "Really?" When Leiko was done, Kyoko clicked her teeth and flipped the phone closed, then handed it back to Sayaka.
"What's up?" Sayaka asked.
"Turns out little Miss Sunshine is causing trouble again." At first Sayaka thought Kyoko was referring to Leiko, but then realized she was actually talking about Homura. "Apparently she got pissed off for some reason, threatened some of the guards, and then tore up her room. Anyway, Dr. Kay has an extra appointment with her, for later tonight. Leiko wants me to come back so we can go over some things, and prep me for the meeting... I guess." She sighed and looked into the darkness of the abandoned warehouse. "Think you can handle this one on your own?"
"Yeah, I should be fine."
"Alright, just be careful. Okay? Don't go getting all reckless on me." And with that, she turned to go back towards the door which they had managed to get only a few steps away from. Once outside, she looked back at Sayaka to give her a goodbye, but stopped when she noticed Sayaka was staring at her with a deep expression on her face. "What?" Kyoko asked.
"Hm? OH... nothing." Sayaka said, scratching the back of her head. "Well... I was just thinking." She looked back to her. "I was thinking you changed a lot over the last couple of months. In a good way." She stepped forward to be closer with her, and their hands ended up locking together. "The same goes for you. Don't be reckless while you're in there, they might just be ordinary humans, but that doesn't mean they're not dangerous."
Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Pssssh, don't worry, I'll be fine." When her eyes rolled back around and met Sayaka's, she saw that Sayaka was blushing and looking at her very deeply. Is now really the time for this? Kyoko thought. All the same, her hands tightened around Sayaka's and pulled her in closer.
Their lips connected for one quick kiss before separating only slightly. They could feel the other's breath upon their faces, and after a moment Kyoko came forward and locked lips with her again, more permanently this time.
Mami came through the front door with a paper bag full of groceries cradled in her arm. "I'm back!" she announced, and turned into the living room. Both Madoka and Leiko were there, staring at the computer screen, with Leiko clicking away. "Oh Madoka, I didn't know you would be here." She smiled, but it quickly faded away when she saw the look of concern on her face.
Leiko stopped typing and turned away from the computer. "We got a problem." she said.
"Oh..." Mami came in and set the bag down on the glass table that sat between the couch and TV set, just behind the computer terminal. "What happened?"
"Homura had another outburst. They aren't being too friendly about it this time." Leiko stated factually. "They are planning to do more than just taking away her TV set this time. I'm working on damage control as we speak."
"Is she alright?" Mami asked, coming forth to look at the computer screen, but the symbols that flew by were as alien to her as they were to Madoka.
"For now." Leiko said. "They didn't gas her this time, at least, but they have... other plans."
"Gas her?" Madoka asked. "What does that mean?" Mami shot Leiko a scolding look, to which Leiko just shrugged and turned back to the computer and continued typing. "Mami?" Madoka asked her directly, "What does that mean?"
Mami sighed and put on an apologetic face, knowing she would just have to come clean now. "I'm sorry Madoka, but there are a few things we have been keeping from you. We just thought it would be better not to worry you too much."
The concern in Madoka's eyes asked for her to continue.
"When Homura doesn't cooperate with them, they have a way to fill the room with sleeping gas. There are also times when they have used tasers and tranquilizers to get her under control." Mami looked guilty as she stated these facts. She didn't want to tell her about it, but she could not outright lie to her face when she was being directly confronted in this manner.
Madoka could see it in her face that there was more. Her eyes shifted away. She was upset that her friends had been keeping things like this from her, but more upset to find out that Homura actually has been getting hurt while she was in there. "What else aren't you telling me?" Mami was not sure how to respond. She knew how close Madoka was to Homura, and how upsetting it would be for her to find out about everything else they had done. "Just be honest with me!" Madoka was not exactly yelling, but her voice raised to a higher tone than Mami was used to hearing from the pinkette.
"Well... Leiko, why don't you tell her? You're the one with more information on this."
"Mami covered most of the things they have already done." Leiko spoke factually, "What's more concerning are the things they plan to do. Specifically, they want to start introducing a mood-altering drug into her food and water." Leiko moved her hand to the computer terminal and used her magic, causing some of those rays of light to shoot from her fingertips and into the terminal. The computer screen changed to something that Madoka and Mami could actually understand. In the top-left corner there was a picture of a blue pill, and the rest of the screen was filled with text. The document was titled 'Glazadrine'.
"It's a new drug." Leiko explained, "It has several specific effects, but the bottom line is it's meant to make the user more complacent. One effect is that the user's body can not produce adrenaline, which naturally makes them more docile. It puts their mind into a euphoric, almost dreamlike, state, which will leave them fully functional but less in touch with reality and therefore more accepting of things they would otherwise have a problem with. It has also been shown to be effective as a truth serum. On top of that, it is highly addictive. Basically, with or without the drug's actual effects, they'll have Homura wrapped around their fingers simply by getting her hooked on this stuff. Then, all they have to do is threaten to withhold her dosages if she isn't complying."
Madoka's face had gone pale at the explanation. Mami looked away, frowning with guilt. Leiko seemed rather indifferent, though she turned to Madoka and said: "Don't worry, they haven't started using it yet, but there has been a lot of talk going back and forth in their circles. I'm doing my best to intercept the emails related to this and steer the conversations in a direction away from using the drug, but I have to be careful with that. If I push too hard, and make too many people say things they didn't actually say, eventually someone will notice the communications are being tampered with. With forging Dr. Sakura's credentials and getting her inside, it was easy because there was only a few people whom the issue concerned, and there wouldn't be too much argument about something like that one way or the other. With a more controversial topic like this, it's trickier."
"Can't we have Kyoko talk them out of it?" Madoka asked, "She's Homura's psychologist, surely they will listen to her if she says it's a bad idea."
"That wouldn't be a bad idea, except the 'Dr. Sakura' alias doesn't really have all that much authority. Besides, it would be risky; what if someone else who's in the psychology field wishes to discuss it with her. She has done well so far, but I don't see the charade holding out if she falls under too much scrutiny."
Then all their heads turned as they heard the front door open. "I'm back!" Kyoko announced. She turned the corner into the living room. "Hey, the gang's all here."
"Yes. How did the witch hunt go?" Mami asked.
"We were hot on its trail when I got the call. Sayaka stayed behind to finish things off." She winked at Mami. "She's actually getting pretty good." Mami was originally Sayaka's 'trainer' when it came to the world of Magical Girls. Lately, since Kyoko and Sayaka had gotten so close, Kyoko ended up spending more time working with her than Mami. They both agreed that Sayaka had come exceptionally far regarding her abilities in just those few months she had been a Magical Girl.
"What took so long?" Leiko asked, flatly. "I called nearly an hour ago."
"Huh? Oh, I dunno, there was a delay I guess." She blushed and scratched the side of her neck. "Yeeaaaah... a delay... Anyway, what's the plan?"
"We haven't got too far with that yet." said Mami. "I actually just made it back home myself."
"First of all, you need to tell Homura to start being more cooperative with them." said Leiko.
Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Yeah, good luck with that."
Leiko gave her a raised eyebrow. "Seriously, she might have already pushed things too far. If they start dosing her with Galazadrin it is going to mean a whole new set of problems."
"Isn't there any way to actually get her out?" Madoka asked.
"Security's pretty tight." Kyoko said. "I'll keep looking around while I'm in there, but so far even busting her out by force seems like difficult to pull off." She then looked between Mami and Leiko. "Are we still against that plan?"
"We'll keep that as a last resort." said Mami "Surely we can come up with something better though… Leiko, have you thought of anything?"
Leiko shrugged. "I've had a few ideas, but I must admit none of them were very good."
"What if…" Madoka started, "What if you could tamper with their communications, and convince them to transfer her somewhere else? That way you can go rescue her once she is actually out of the building… or, is that a bad idea?"
"I don't see how I could possibly pull that off." Leiko admitted. "But yeah, things would be way easier if she wasn't behind so many layers of solid steel doors."
"Wait…" said Kyoko, "What if there was some other reason to move her?" They all looked at her.
"What do you mean?" asked Mami.
"I'm saying like… ah, I don't know. Look, she is pretty valuable to them right? So what if her life was in danger, like from an illness, and she needed to be taken to a hospital or something like that?"
"They would just send the doctors to her." Leiko said. "Honestly, haven't you noticed that every single person in that building, including you, has the word 'doctor' in their name?"
"Watch it, chick…" Kyoko said, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms.
"I think we are on the right track, though." said Mami. "As long as she is in that building getting her out will be difficult… well, we can talk about this more later. I don't think we are planning to break her out tonight, so..." She walked over to the coffee table and sat down. "For now…" she said, reaching under the table. She produced a big stack of books and slammed them down on the table. "For now, Kyoko needs to get ready for her appointment!"
Kyoko flinched back at the sight of the books, then let out a long sigh. This was the part she hated the most.
