'Oh god! I'm going to die!' The white haired girl was kneeling on the ground, cradling a broken arm. With wide, terrified eyes, she stared up into the sky at the creatures flying around in circles above her.
They were similar to vultures, but distorted. Their beaks were open, showing gums lined with pointy teeth that seemed more appropriate in a shark mouths. And their eyes… oh god! Their eye's! They looked like eyes that belonged on a human's face, except they were sunken deep into the creature's skulls, and although they were high up in the air, Leiko could see them clearly, and they wouldn't stop staring at her.
"I can do this…" She whispered to herself as she continued to stare back at them through her cracked glasses. She released the broken arm she had been tending too and raised her good arm high in the high "I can do it!"
With one last desperate burst of power, a beam of light shot forth from her hand. Strings of static danced around the beam's surface as it pierced the sky and shot towards the circle of flying creatures that had been stalking her.
Instead of panning away from it, the creatures grouped together and dove right into the center of the blast, meeting it head on.
Leiko's eyes widened, and her lips curled into a hopeful smile as she continued to release her magic from the palm of her hand. "I hit them!" She could see their dark silhouettes inside the beam, blue static surrounded the outlines of their bodies, and although they were still falling towards her, they were at least caught in her attack and taking damage! "I've got them! I got them!" She repeated to herself hopefully.
Her body felt stressed as she forced as much power from her SoulGem as possible, and she mentally begged for those silhouettes to start ripping apart inside the beam of light. "Come on! DIE!" She screamed, digging deep into her soul and pushing even harder, causing the beam to widen and glow even brighter "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" She screamed over and over again, but the silhouettes remained intact, and she felt her power slipping.
With one last burst of power, her magic ran out, and the beam's intensity simmered out and retracted back to her until there were only small strings of static coming from the tips of her fingers.
This world she was in was dark, the sky an unnatural shade of purple, and a cartoonishly drawn crescent moon hung in the sky amongst the silhouettes of pointy church steeples that lined the horizon. The trees in this world had faces which grinned at her mischievously, and she could hear them laughing. There were hundreds of laughing voices inside her head as she stared up at the sky, panting.
She couldn't see them anymore.
She grinned, she did it! She killed them, they weren't there anymore! They…
She heard a swooping sound, and her field of vision suddenly swarmed with stars as something crashed into the side of her head and knocked her glasses off. She fell down on her good elbow. The sudden movement caused the elbow of her broken arm to send a stabbing pain up her spine which tightened her jaw. She lifted her head, and she was struck again. There was another swoosh, and another, and she was struck two more times.
She hadn't killed them afterall. Her eye's had just been adjusted to the light of her own magic and hadn't readjusted to the dark surroundings. Thus, the vulture-like familiars were now invisible to her. They flew around her, diving in for an attack just to fly away again and regroup. She was struck again and again, each blow came within mere seconds of the last, and each time it came from a different direction; the attacks were impossible to defend against.
She fell completely to the ground, screaming as she hid her head under her arm. Her magic was gone, she couldn't fight back and-
Her frightened screams turned into screams of agony as she felt claws bare down upon her back and ripped into her flesh.
"HELP ME!" She cried, now completely defenceless and alone in this strange dark world she had stumbled into. "SOMEBODY! PLEASE HELP!"
Then, the attacks stopped, and she could hear a sound that she thought sounded like fireworks. There was a series of small explosions being let off somewhere, and she could hear the vultures screeching in pain. She cautiously raised her head and looked up. There was a silhouette of some new creature standing amongst the thickets of grinning trees. There were muskets hanging in the air all around it which let off explosive shots one after another. Each shot brightened the immediate area around it, and let brief flashes of light reveal the creature that had spawned them.
It wasn't a familiar, or a witch. It was a GIRL! The flashes from the gun barrels revealed a girl with beautiful blond hair done into drill curls, wearing a musketeers outfit complete with a tight corset and a feathered hat.
Leiko cautiously peaked around herself, and saw the vultures that had been attacking her dropping like flies.
Once it was all over, and the guns had stopped firing, the girl approached Leiko who was still on the ground sheltering herself under her own arm "That was a close one." The girl said with a smile, as she kneeled down "Are you alright? You're new to this whole Magical Girl thing aren't you?" Leiko looked up through the tops of her eyes. Her face was covered in blood, her lips were trembling, and she nodded pitiably. The blond girl just smiled in return "Here, I'll heal what I can to hold you over, but I'll need to take you back to my friend Sayaka to deal with the more serious wounds. She's our best healer." The girl got to work with her SoulGem, and Leiko felt a warmth surrounding her body as her cuts began to heal.
"Our?" Leiko spoke cautiously "There's more of you?"
The girl smile and nodded "Yup, there's three of us who usually work together. There's a fourth one who helps us sometimes too, but she can be a bit aloof. Anyway, I'm Mami Tomoe, what's your name?"
"L-Leiko…" The white haired girl responded with a shaky voice "Leiko Amaya."
"It doesn't change anything." Said Kyoko's voice "The appointments already set up, we don't need her anymore."
"What if it's a trap?" Mami's voice asked "What if they figured everything out and are just trying to trick you into coming back so they can capture you as well? This doctor supposedly searched your name, that's a huge red flag, we can't just pretend-"
"They don't know jack!" Kyoko said back, rather aggressively "So what if they know my name? They don't understand magic, it's not like they are just automatically going to assume thirty-something year old Kay Sakura is actually a fourteen year old Magical Girl!"
"There's more problems than just that." Mami said, keeping a calm tone "Without Leiko, how will we warn the lab staff to evacuate once the witch is released?"
"Screw em'." There was a brief silence "Don't give me that look! Who do you care about more? Homura, or some random asshole scientists? They're the people who started this is the first place! Hell, maybe a few casualties are what they need, to prove they are in over their heads with all this."
"We can't do that!" Mami said, raising her voice "Who are we to make that call? Deciding to prioritize one life over another, if we do that we are just as bad as any of them. We are Magical Girls! We protect people!" Kyoko clicked her teeth, sounding like she wanted to say something, but she stopped herself. Mami continued "Sayaka, you agree with me on this, right?"
"Well… actually…" Sayaka trailed off.
"You can't be serious…" Mami said, slowly.
"I'm just saying. If this Galazadrin stuff is everything Leiko told us it was… and they use it as a truth serum. Look, Homura knows basically everything about us! Not to mention if they learn too much about Magical Girls in general… well... who knows what that could lead to. Besides, like Kyoko said, they are the ones who started this."
"We are talking about people's lives here!"
"Yeah," Kyoko cut back in "We're also talking about the life of one of our friends. Besides, it doesn't matter anyway, because if we don't get her out of there she's eventually going to turn into… um… turn into a..." Kyoko trailed off.
"Turn into a what?" Mami pressed on, with a stern tone of voice.
"Turn into… like… I dunno… something... look, forget it. All I'm saying is we can't abandon her. If it makes you feel any better, I'll try to tell her to warn the scientists herself in one of my messages."
"Mami, I know how you feel." Sayaka said "But this is our last chance. I don't like it either. I especially don't like it because I'm worried about Kyoko, but if we don't do this now we are never going to have another opening."
Leiko could hear Mami's footsteps as she stomped away "If you two are really going to go through with this, just leave me out of it."
"Idiots." Leiko said to herself as she leaned back in her computer chair. There was a knock on her bedroom door and she quickly turned the volume down on her computer, silencing the voices of Kyoko and Sayaka as they continued their conversation together. "Yes?" She called out, with a somewhat annoyed tone of voice.
"Miss. Leiko," Came the kansai accented voice of their maid "Breakfast is ready."
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry." Leiko said back with her usual rough tone.
"Your father has asked for you to attend the breakfast table this morning, Miss. Leiko."
Leiko sighed as she adjusted her glasses "Fine…" She grudgingly agreed "I'll be there."
Once she heard the maids footsteps disappear down the hall, she turned the volume back up on her computer, and could hear Sayaka saying "...to you, I don't know what I'd do."
"Look, it's all good. Like I said, unless Homura just totally sold me out-which she didn't-, they have no idea what's going on. I'll be fine."
"Just… be careful… and if anything seems off to you, get out of there right away, ok?"
"I'm telling you not to worry, I got this. Besides, like you said, if we don't get her out it's only a matter of time before they find out about the rest of us. It's not that big a deal for me, I'm use to living on the run, but for you it's different. You would have to run away from home… and you wouldn't be able to go to school anymore or anything. I can't let that happen to you… Sayaka?" There was a sniffing sound "Hey, come here. Look, it's going to be fine. This is the last time I have to go in there. It'll be quick, just in and out so I can drop off the GriefSeed."
Leiko lowered the volume back down and rubbed her temples. She thought back to the day she first met Mami, and cursed herself for using her real name. If only she had the foresight to introduce herself under an alias, none of this would be her problem anymore. She could just fry the computer she left at Mami's house, and be done with it.
Every connection she had with them could easily be erased, but 'Leiko Amaya' wasn't exactly the most common name in the world. Combine that with a description, and she wouldn't be that hard to track down. She supposed if it came down to it, she would have to do what Kyoko said, and just run away herself.
It wouldn't be too hard. With her skills she could go anywhere in the world she wanted to go, and be anyone who she wanted to be. Money wasn't a problem, there were already at least fifty credit cards out there she had 'borrowed' from in the past, but she still didn't want to go that route unless it was absolutely necessary.
She got up from the computer and went through the door on the other side of her room to enter her private bathroom and brush her teeth.
It's not like she would really be leaving anything behind if she did run away. She did have a family… her father, her sister, various random cousins and aunts and uncles… but it's not like she was close enough it would necessarily be heartbreaking to abandon them. She didn't really have any friends, either. Really, she had no connections whatsoever, but, this life was familiar to her, and she'd rather not have to just toss it away and start over if it could be avoided.
Her bigger problem right now would be figuring out how to deal with witches and keeping her SoulGem pure. She only went at it solo once before, and proubably would have died if Mami hadn't shown up. There was a couple other times she joined the team inside a labyrinth, but she really wasn't much use. When the whole thing happened with Homura, they started their arrangement where she would just help infiltrate the lab in exchange for GriefSeeds.
Right now her SoulGem was in pretty decent shape, but it was starting to fog over a bit. She wished she had purified it before leaving yesterday. She supposed, her best course of action in the future would be to search for other Magical Girls to help her out. They wouldn't be too hard to find, she just had to follow Mami's methods of finding witches, and she was bound to run into another Magical Girl eventually. She didn't want to help fight the witches herself, but she did have unlimited access to money. Everything in the world had a price, and surely GriefSeeds were no different.
After she finished brushing her teeth, and spat into the sink, she looked at herself in the mirror. The ribbon at the end of her left braid was coming undone. It was a green ribbon which matched her eyes. Madoka had given it to her, saying "No! Keep it!" with that typical annoyingly cheery smile she always had on her face "I picked it out for you! Besides, I never wear green anyway, it doesn't look good on me. But it's perfect for you!"
She started retying the ribbon. She wasn't use to having her hair like this, and she supposed she didn't hate it. Well, if she had more time she would undo the braids so she wouldn't have to listen to any annoying comments from her older sister about it. She didn't want to take too long getting to the breakfast table, either. Her father wasn't a very patient man, and although she didn't have much actual respect for him, she still didn't want to deal with him browbeating her over something as stupid as being late to breakfast. Since he specifically asked for her to join them this morning, he probably already had some stupid annoying complaints on his agenda as it was.
Then, she heard a familiar drum track coming from her room, which led into a heavy electric guitar rift. She walked back into her room and picked up her cellphone. It was Madoka again. Leiko denied the call and flipped it closed, silencing the heavy metal track she had set as her ringtone.
She would have to write a letter to Madoka, she decided, to explain why she had to distance herself from her and her Magical Girl friends. She supposed Madoka had been nice to her, so she at least owed the girl an explanation. Once that was done, she would change her phone number and erase all connections she had with the group.
She would keep monitoring them through the computer in Mami's apartment, however. At least until she was sure they hadn't been caught and taken to the lab themselves. If it did happen, Leiko needed to know so she could proceed with her own escape plan, and leave the country.
"Madoka, are you going to eat or are you planning to just stare at it all day?" Junko asked, teasingly. She was trying to get a smile out of her daughter, who had been upset ever since getting picked up the night before and still hadn't shaken out of it.
"Sorry… I guess I'm just not very hungry this morning." Madoka said in her small voice.
Junko sighed as she buried her face in her coffee mug and looked across the table at her husband, almost as if to say 'well, I tried.'
He returned a dole frown, then looked back to Madoka and said "Madoka, you know you can talk to us about anything, right? Are you sure you're ok?"
Madoka just nodded, unable to look at either of her parents in the eyes. She slid her chair out from under herself as she stood and said "May I be excused?"
"Madoka." Junko said, just before Madoka made her exit "I want you to stay home today, alright?"
It was clear right away that Madoka did not like that idea, and she tried to argue "But, I had plans with my friends and…"
"No buts. Lately you've been dancing around all of our rules and just coming and going as you please. Besides, I'm not sure I like you being out so much with so little explanation of what you are actually doing."
"I told you… we just hang out and study…" Madoka's eyes shifted away guiltily; she never was a very good liar. Junko didn't even feel it was necessary to point out she didn't study half this hard when school was actually in session, so the idea that she had been spending every waking moment of her summer break hitting the books was a pretty transparent lie to begin with.
"It's not a punishment or anything." Junko said "I just want you to stay home today."
Madoka seemed like she wanted to continue arguing, but she didn't know what words to use and instead just ended up stomping out of the room with a loud sigh.
Junko rubbed her temple and said "I really don't know what's going on with that girl anymore. She use to be so easy to understand."
Tomohisa just shrugged with a frown "Well, she is a teenager now, I think it's normal for her to be a bit moody. She has been rather secretive lately though."
"She was like this for a while before introducing us to Homura, but I wonder what it could all be about now? And there's the fact that Homura practically disappeared overnight." Junko sighed "It makes me worry."
Tomohisa nodded his agreement as he took a sip from his own cup of coffee "Tell you what, I'll get her to help me out in the garden today and see if I can get anything out of her then. For now, aren't you going to be late for work?"
Junko suddenly jumped up as if she was hit by something when she checked the time "Oh, crap! You're right!" Then she started guzzling her coffee and stuffed the last of her toast into her mouth.
Tomohisa laughed to himself, thinking how alike she and her daughter tended to be sometimes. Then, he could hear crying from Tatsuya's room. "Ah, sounds like someone finally decided to wake up, I'd better go him." He gave Junko a kiss and said goodbye before they parted ways for the day.
Madoka had stomped off to her room, where she tried Leiko's number one more time, once again just getting her voicemail. Madoka sighed sadly, and then typed out a text message for Sayaka 'Hey, I'm grounded so I won't make it over today… How are things going over there?'
It only took a minute for Sayaka to respond 'Oh, bummer. Well, things seemed to have calmed down. I'm out shopping for Kyoko right now, and she's busy studying with Mami. We're still going through with the plan.'
'Is that a good idea?'
It took a lot longer for Sayaka to respond this time, but after a few minutes of pacing around a new message dinged in on Madoka's phone 'Well, the appointments already been set up, all Kyoko needs to do is go in there and hand the GriefSeed off to her. Mami wanted us to bail on the plan at first, but it seemed like Kyoko talked her back into it… not that I think anything could stop Kyoko at this point anyway. Mami tried to contact Leiko, but she won't answer her phone.'
'Yeah she won't answer for me either. Maybe you could get Kyoko to apologize to her?'
'Yeah, good luck with that! Well, if Leiko just wants to cut us off there's not much we can do about it. We still have access to Kay Sakura's email, and Leiko assured us that it can't be traced back to us… Something about encryptions or something, I don't really know, but I guess we don't really need her anymore anyway.'
Madoka stared at her phone for a while, with her fingers resting on the tiny keyboard. This thing they had themselves caught up in felt so surreal. She was so afraid for Homura, but she didn't want to see anything bad happen to Kyoko either. Eventually, without thinking about it, her fingers started moving 'Sayaka, I'm scared.'
There was at least a two minute delay before the next message came through 'I know, me too. I'll keep you updated.'
Kaiji left his house early that morning, before even eating breakfast. He made the excuse that it was something work related that had come up, which was partially true since Homura Akemi was his work, and this Kyoko Sakura had some connection to her.
He didn't know how Kay tied in, if at all. Kaiji was at least fairly certain that Homura must have met this Kyoko girl before. Perhaps the similarities of Dr. Sakura and Kyoko's names are what caused Homura to slip and say her name… although, even that didn't seem quite right… but, that's just how things have been for him lately. He had plenty of theories, but none of them seemed quite right. Hopefully, there was something in Kazamino waiting for him that would help clear things up.
He was lucky that he arrived at the bus station just as the bus was arriving, so he didn't have to wait long before getting on. The ride itself was also fairly short, as it was a sunday morning and there was very little traffic traveling between the two neighboring cities. Kazamino didn't really compare to Mitakihara in terms of size, Mitakihara being the biggest city in the region, but he was going to the more rural area on the outside of Kazamino anyway. That's where the Sakura church was located, as well as the residence of the family who once owned it.
There was a light rainfall, more like mist. The sun was covered by light gray clouds that seemed to fill the entire sky, and the rain had dampened the entire town, giving everything from the roadways to the the green of the trees a dark tint.
From where the bus let him off, it was a short walk to the church, which he decided would be his first stop. The sidewalks were completely deserted, and it was only on occasion that a car would pass by on the roadway. For the most part the traffic lights would turn from red to green without actually having any traffic to direct.
He looked through the windows of the small shops that lined the road as he passed by. A lot of them were closed, which wasn't too peculiar for a sunday, but he also noticed a good number were completely empty and had out of business signs posted on their front doors.
When he saw a diner that was open, he decided to drop in for a quick breakfast. He also thought it might be a chance to pick some of the local's brains for information.
Inside was almost as deserted as the rest of the town seemed. There were a few customers, but there were far more empty seats than full ones. Kaiji took a seat at the bar and a moment later the server, a large balding man wearing an apron, set a menu down in front of him "Coffee?" he asked.
"Sure that sounds good." Kaiji said as he opened the menu.
The server went to pour a cup, when he returned he set the full cup in front of Kaiji and asked "So, you from out of town?"
"Yes, I'm from Mitakihara."
"Thought so, we usually don't see too many new faces around this part if town… Not anymore anyway. So, what brings you here?"
"Business." Kaiji said simply, then added "Actually, more like an investigation."
"Investigation? Are you a cop or something?"
Kaiji laughed "No, not exactly, although I do have family in law enforcement." He took a sip of coffee "I'm actually going over to the Sakura church." The servers face shrunk down into a frown. There was a moment of silence, and Kaiji suddenly felt as though he had said something wrong. He asked "It's close to here isn't it?"
"Yes… just down the street, past the graveyard." His tone had suddenly gone rather dark. "You know, normally when we get an out of town visit to the Sakura church it causes nothing but problems." He looked at Kaiji very seriously for a moment, but then his face lifted back into a more friendly expression "I'm talking about vandals. Idiot kids with too much free times on their hands and an unhealthy interest in the occult. You obviously don't fit that profile, though." He laughed "So, what is it? You're a reporter aren't you? Well, if that's the case I'm just going to say don't waste your time. There's nothing to find there that hasn't already had more than it's fair share of coverage over the years… you know, after… that, happened."
Kaiji shrugged "Nope, not a reporter either."
"Well what then?"
"It's actually a little more personal than that… do you know much about the family?"
At first it seemed the server wouldn't answer, but he eventually did "Yes, I've lived here my whole life, pretty much everyone around here knew the Sakura family. They actually use to come eat here at this diner quite often." He sighed "Anyway, you still haven't really explained yourself. What business is it to you?"
"Well, it's to my understanding the older daughter had gone missing. It's a bit difficult to explain the reason, but it's actually very important that I find her. That's why I'm here, I'm looking for a clue as to where she could have gone."
"She's been back a few times." The server said, and when he did Kaiji nearly jumped out of his seat.
"She has?"
"Well, as far as I know it's just a rumor. Some people around town claimed to have seen her. When she does show up, she doesn't stay long, and she never talks to anyone. She usually just goes to the graveyard, drops a few flowers by her family's graves, and then disappears again. That's the rumor anyway."
"I see… any idea where she's been staying these last few years? Any rumors on that?"
The waiter shook his head "Nothing like that, all I can say is there's some people around town who claimed to have seen her. After that night at the church, she ran from police custody and has been off the radar ever since." He shook his head "It was such a tragedy, I don't think this town ever fully recovered from it. Probably never will. Something like that; it's like a black cloud that just won't go away. I imagine no matter how much time passes, there are always going to be whispers about the Sakura Cult." He gestured around the diner. A few seats were taken, but for the most part it was completely empty "A few years ago, around this time of day, I wouldn't be able to be standing here talking to you like this. It would be too busy. Those days are over. A lot of people moved away after that night, most of them were his followers.
The church itself had been condemned ever since. It's a good sound structure, needs a few repairs, but you'd think someone might have some use for it. But nope, no one wants anything to do with it, and I don't blame them. There's evil surrounding that place, and I'm not normally a superstitious man myself, but I'm telling you what happened at that church wasn't natural."
An old man sitting further down the bar cleared his throat, then spoke with a raspy voice "I can't say where she might be now, but I can at least say the rumor about her visiting the graveyard is true." Kaiji took a look at him. There were a few scraggly white hairs on top of his otherwise completely bald head. His face was wrinkled, and his skin seemed loose. "I should know. I've seen her."
"You have?" Kaiji asked.
The old man nodded "I'm a caretaker at the funeral home. It's right outside the graveyard, I get a good view of the comings and goings every day. Besides, I once knew her family quite well. Her father and I knew each other through our professions. I have to ask though, why is it you are looking for Kyoko Sakura?"
Kaiji quickly thought of something, and when he did the lie slipped off his tongue perfectly "My fiancé actually happens to be Kyoko's aunt. Her name is Kay Sakura. She lived in Tokyo until moving to Mitakihara recently. She desperately wants to get in contact with her niece, and make sure that she is alright." The other purpose for this lie would be to find out if the name Kay Sakura was known. If he could learn that she was indeed related to Kyoko then he would finally have a connection between the two.
The old caretaker seemed to think about this for a moment before saying "I don't recall there ever being an aunt, and the name Kay sure isn't familiar…"
"Apparently she never had much contact with that side of her family in the past. Actually, I didn't even know she was related to the Sakura Church incident until quite recently… I think she wanted to keep it a secret from me, but…" Kaiji shrugged sadly "Anyway, it's been weighing on her mind lately, and I think if I can help her find her niece it would make things better. So please, if there's anything you know."
The caretaker seemed satisfied with Kaiji's story "I saw her a couple times down there by the graves, but she always managed to disappear again before I could even make it outside. Sorry, but that's all I know."
"You're sure it was her though?" Kaiji asked.
"Yes, there's no mistaking that crimson red hair, same color her mother and little sister had. She had it tied back in a ponytail, just like she always did, even when she was little."
Kaiji was going to take another sip of his coffee, but set the mug right back down when he heard that "Crimson red hair? And it's kept in a ponytail?" He asked. The old man raised an eyebrow at him, and nodded.
It could just be another coincidence, but that description of her hair sounded exactly like Kay Sakura's.
"Homura, we've noticed you have not yet eaten anything today." Came that monotone voice from over the intercom "Are you feeling well?"
'What do you think, asshole?' Homura thought, then she said "I feel just fine… I just haven't been very hungry yet today." She was sitting at her table, working on a drawing; trying to keep her mind occupied. She had already finished the outlines of the spider lily she was drawing and it was now time to color it. She looked amongst her box of colored pencils; it was a set of three hundred, which gave her complete freedom with colors.
She looked amongst the shades of red, picked one out, and tested it on a piece of scrap paper. It was too bright, she wanted a darker color. She returned the pencil and pulled out another one, and when she tested it on the scrap paper it was a beautifully dark shade of red. She looked at the word printed at the bottom of the pencil: Blood Red.
Her eye's lazily traced the lines of the lily as she held the pencil over it. A grin forced itself onto her face and she whispered "Blood Lily.", which gave her that subtle urge to start laughing.
The drug must still be affecting her, she thought, as she touched the pen down and started coloring. That, and she actually was quite hungry, but afraid to eat any of the food that was waiting in the refrigerator for her. Therefore her hunger was also making her a bit delirious. On top of that, her SoulGem was in really bad shaped. She took a look at it when she went to the bathroom earlier this morning and saw that it was reaching a dangerous level of impurity. At least Kyoko would be coming for another visit today, hopefully she would bring a GreifSeed, and even more hopefully, maybe her friends had finally put together a halfway decent escape plan.
"Homura, you need to eat." Dr. Mono's voice said from over the intercom "Considering you got sick yesterday and lost most of your lunch, it's been twenty four hours since you had a decent meal. It's important for us that you keep your health up, so if you would, please go into the kitchen and make something for yourself."
"I'm not hungry…" She said in a slow, distracted tone of voice. She was more focused on her drawing. Her pencil scratch back and forth along the lily, slowly filling in the blood red color. She became fascinated as she stared at her work, and it had an odd feeling of distracting her from her other problems. She suddenly didn't notice her hunger as much, or how thirsty she was. The thirst was the worst of it, her throat had felt dry ever since waking up, and it was a torture to know there was an endless supply of water within her reach, but she was too suspicious to take a chance with it. As she focused on the red spider lily, however, and colored it in, these things seemed to bother her less and less.
"It's important for us that you keep your health up. If you are shown to not be responsible for yourself, we will have to take other measures to insure you are getting the proper nutrients."
Homura's hand tensed, and the scratching with her pencil became harder. She had been carefully shading the red, but the new lines came out darker and darker as she pressed down harder.
Her hand stopped when she heard a familiar hissing sound. She looked up at the walls and saw those small panels that lined the top corners had opened up and started pouring gas into the room. "What are you doing!" She screamed as she stood up; her chair slid out from under her and fell over. She quickly ran over to the camera, "Stop it! I've been cooperating havn't I? So STOP!"
"You haven't been cooperating, Homura. Yesterday you may have gone to the test rooms peacefully, but even so, you still haven't followed all of our instructions. This isn't about that anyway, we simply can't allow you to be a danger to yourself. If you won't eat, we will have to take other methods to ensure you get your… nutrients…" He said the word nutrients with a sarcastic tone of voice. She knew what he meant, and he wanted her to know he knew she knew. She was quickly coming to realize that this was a sadistic man she was dealing with. It wasn't just for the sake of science or whatever the hell reason she was locked up down here, he actually enjoyed messing with her.
"Ok stop it! Stop! I'll eat, ok?" She pulled her shirt up over her mouth as the gas started to get more dense "I'll eat! So stop it! Please stop!" Suddenly, the hissing stopped, and the panels slid closed again. She still stared at the camera, her breathing was heavy and her heart was racing. Air vents on the ceiling kicked on, and the light fog of the gas started to lift from the room and lose its density.
The intercom buzzed on "Go and eat now." Homura lowered her shirt from over her mouth and continued to stare at the camera. Her eyes were wide and accusing. "If you don't, we will turn the gas back on, and if we do we will not be giving you another chance." Homura nodded slowly, then turned around to walk towards the kitchen. "Don't be angry, we are only doing this for your own good, Homura." Her fist tensed at those words, but she kept herself calm, and opened the refrigerator door.
She looked among all her choices. She knew some things were drugged, but perhaps not everything was. She wasn't going to try the iced tea or the cold cuts again, since she knew for a fact at least one of the two had been altered. She needed to pick something else... Her eyes instantly went to the eggs. She picked one out of the carton and examined its smooth white surface. Surely an egg would be ok to eat, right? It's contents were in a natural casing, and it would be impossible to inject anything without either cracking the shell, or leaving some kind of a mark. After she finished looking it over and was satisfied that it looked like an ordinary egg, she put it back and took the entire carton over to the stove. Then she searched the cabinets for a frying pan.
"You need fluids, Homura. You haven't had anything to drink since yesterday either." Homura cracked an egg open and let it's contents spill out onto the frying pan with a hiss. When the intercom buzzed on again, there was a somewhat playful tone to Dr. Mono's voice "How about the ice tea?" Yeah, the tea was definitely drugged, and this asshole knew she knew.
She walked over to the fridge and took the pitcher out, then let it slip out of her hand and drop on the floor. The light brown liquid splashed out and created a large puddle in the middle of the kitchen. "Ah, damn it!" She cursed, then looked towards the nearest camera with narrow eyes and a smug curl to her lips "How clumsy of me." She then grabbed some paper towels off the counter top and started cleaning it up. Dr. Mono didn't seem to have anything else to say for the moment.
The truth was she was even more thirsty than she was hungry, and the smell of the frying eggs was increasing her appetite. She decided she would eat as little as possible for now though, just enough to hold herself over and satisfy her enemy so they wouldn't try to gas her again.
As for something to drink, she wouldn't take water from the sink because she didn't know where it was coming from. If it was city water it would probably be fine, but if she had been drinking from her own personal supply these last few weeks it would be easy enough for them to contaminate it. She also couldn't drink from anything that had been opened already. Thus, her best option would be to go for something in a bottle.
She picked up a two leader of cola and checked it's seal. It hadn't been opened, but even so, something like this wasn't as secure as an egg shell. She would just have to try and drink very little of it and see if she noticed anything strange. If she could deam the cola was safe, then she would finally have a way to properly quench her thirst. If not, well, she didn't fully know the rules to this game she was being forced to play with them, but she did know getting gassed would cause her to lose that game. Therefore, if she was being threatened with the gas she had to give into those threats and do whatever they say… for now.
She just hoped that when Kyoko got here later today they would have a way to communicate some kind of escape plan to each other. Homura knew her time was running out, and she needed to get out of here NOW.
Nearly every one of the large stained glass windows on the outer walls of the church had boards over them. A few of the windows had been broken, and their colorful glass lay scattered about on the yard nearby. Kaiji didn't know what he honestly expected to find here, but he didn't have anything else to go off of.
He approached the door, not expecting to actually be able to get in that way, but it turned out it was going to be easier than he thought. All he did was lightly push on the door and it creaked open. He noted some splintered wood around the handle; it seemed someone else had broken in not too long ago.
He took a quick look around to make sure he wasn't being watched. A few houses were on the other side of the street that ran in front of the churches large unkempt yard. Most of the houses were also boarded up, but there were a couple that looked as though they might still be occupied. He didn't see anyone, though, so he entered the church.
Small colored rays of sunlight came in between the boards of a window on the far wall, in which there danced small particles of dust. The rows of seating also had thin layers of gray dust covering their brown finished wood.
Kaiji looked ahead to the altar at the front. There was a statue of the virgin son nailed to the cross, a melancholy expression upon his thorn crowned face, and the stained glass windows that hadn't been broken depicted his story. At his feet, there was charred wood from where there must have been a fire.
Kaiji's footsteps echoed as he walked towards the front. As he glanced around, he noticed a withered chewed up apple core that had been tossed into a corner.
So, this was the church of the mad prophet. The father of Kyoko Sakura. A name that had been whispered to him by some unknown force, but he was far past convincing himself that he had just imagined it. Still, he didn't know what it is he was suppose to find here. He wanted to find her, but he had no leads to go off of. Apparently she would come visit the graves of her family members occasionally, but today wasn't one of those days.
He had looked over the graveyard on the way to the church, and there was absolutely no one in sight. It would have been nice to see a crimson haired girl kneeling in front of a gravestone, and put an end to his search, but that didn't happen. So what now?
There was a door to the left of the alter. He walked through it, into a dark room. He tried the lightswitch, but of course there was no power in this building anymore. He pulled a flashlight out of his coat pocket and turned it on. As he ran it's beam around this dark room, his mouth dropped open. He saw writing on the wall in what he first took to be brown paint. It said: 'God forgive me for what I've done.'
It took him only a moment to realise the brown paint was actually dried blood. He ran the beam across the floor, and saw another brown stain right in the center of the room. It was darker, and fully absorbed into the wood. He felt a cold shiver go down his back and he quickly turned out of the room.
It was the same cold feeling he felt two days ago when stayed late at the lab. He hoped it was just his mind playing tricks on him this time, and he walked with quick echoing footsteps as he walked back down the center aisle towards the exit. The cold feeling hit him even harder, and it forced him to turn around. "Is someone there?" He called out, part of him still didn't want to acknowledge that cold shiver, and the mysterious voice along with the other strange things that had come along with it.
He heard a tapping sound from somewhere near the front of the altar, and he searched out what could have been making it. He realized that an old rotten apple core was rolling across the floor as if it had just been thrown. He swallowed, and walked towards it. It spun around for a few seconds before it came to a stop, and Kaiji was instantly reminded of the keyboard that had magically been thrown across a room last time he got this cold feeling. Part of him didn't want to admit that there was any reality to this phantom's existence, or whatever you could call it, but the more present part of himself gave up on denying it's existence.
He walked towards the apple core, and looked down at it, then realized there were more discarded apple cores on the other side of the alter. A few of them rolled, as if pushed by something, and he felt that cold chill go down his back. He walked over with slow steps, part of him wanted to turn and hightail it out of the church, but he knew he had been led here for a reason, and there might be something he was suppose to find.
A paper bag blew out from under the nearby seating as if it had been blown by some powerful gust of wind. It landed by Kaiji's feet, and Kaiji took a step back and just stared at it. It looked like an ordinary brown grocery bag. The cold chill crawled up his spine, and he heard the voice whisper into his ear, 'look'.
He jumped back, and started to look around "Who's there?" He said, his voice echoing through the church. He swallowed, feeling a certain barrier in his own mind breaking down as he came to accept the voice he had been hearing wasn't just his imagination after all. That voice had led him to discovering Kyoko's Sakura's name, and it was the reason he was here in the first place. "What do you want?"
The paperbag lifted off the ground and floated towards him as if carried by a gust of wind. He snatched it out of the air and stared at it. It was crumpled up, so he started straightening it out, and when he was done he could see there was a logo printed on it: Espior Produce. Then the voice whispered in his ear once again. 'go'.
"Look… this is crazy." He said, talking partly to himself. Then he felt the chill tear through him more powerfully than it ever had before, it felt as though it reach all the way down to his bones, and he stumbled to the side as if something had hit him. The bag blew out of his hands and the voice shouted into his ear 'GO NOW!'.
Kaiji started backing away from the altar, looking around, still hoping for some rational explanation to what's been happening to him, but ultimately his steps got faster, and he ended up running out of the church.
Once outside, he was breathing heavily as he looked around. The cold chill he had been feeling was completely gone now, and it was a strange relief to find the clouds had parted overhead and he was being hit by direct sunlight. He pulled out his cellphone and typed the store's name into a search engine, it only took a moment to find it's location: It was all the way back in Mitakihara Town, just a few blocks away from the school which Homura attended.
He flipped the phone closed and returned it to his pocket. Then started making his way back to the bus stop.
Kyoko reached into the bag and pulled out another apple, there were already three discarded cores sitting atop the glass. As she crunched down into the unscathed surface of the fruit, she noticed Mami giving her a look from over the top of the psychology book she was holding in her hands. "Want one?" Kyoko asked as she chewed, spitting out tiny chunks of apple.
Mami sighed and said "Would you please concentrate on this?"
"What? I need to eat! How am I supposed to think straight if I'm all fatigued from hunger? Besides, it kind of feels like we are wasting time learning all this psychology mumbo jumbo. I haven't had one conversation about cerebellums or anything yet. Which by the way…" She snapped her fingers and with a quick flash of light she seemed to have grown a few inches taller and her face matured. She changed the tone of her voice, and factually stated "Is the section of the brain which coordinates and regulates muscle activity." She snapped her fingers again and another flash of light returned her to her normal self "See? I got it, so just chill out."
"Moreover…" Mami continued, eyeing the bag suspiciously "You didn't happen to steal those did you?"
Kyoko suddenly flinched back and started waving her hands "No! They're paid for!"
"It was to my understanding you had been banned from that store. So how exactly did you get those? If I may ask."
"Sayaka bought them for me. Geeze, suspicious much?" Then she scratched her nose and under her breath she said "Well, I guess it's true I don't exactly have the best track record but still… I promised Sayaka I'd quit stealing so I don't steal anymore, ok?" Then Sayaka came out of the bathroom, rubbing a towel against her wet hair. "There, Sayaka can vouch for me."
"Hm? Yeah, I bought them." She said as she joined the two of them at the table. "I don't know why you're so specific about getting them from that specific store anyway. There are other stores that sell apples you know. Why don't you just get them from the supermarket? It's cheaper there anyway."
"Hey, let me explain something." Kyoko said, holding up her apple as if it were some rare artifact "Good produce is not something to be taken lightly! Supermarket produce gets sprayed with all kinds of pesticides and junk, and who knows how long it could have been sitting in storage! Espoir Produce gets all their stuff delivered fresh from local farmers, so you know you're always going to get the best quality!"
Sayaka sighed "If only she could direct that kind of passion towards something more practical."
"Anyway…" Kyoko said as she stood up and stretched "I guess I'd better get ready to go."
Mami seemed like there was a lot weighing on her mind, but she kept quiet.
"I'll come with you this time." Sayaka said "We can pick a rendezvous spot outside the lab to meet up, once…"
"No." Kyoko said "Just stay here with Mami."
"What? But you always go with someone."
"This time is different, I mean, on the off chance there are any problems, I would feel more comfortable if you guys were far away from that place. Since we don't have Leiko to keep tabs on things, I think it's better I go alone this time."
"Kyoko, you don't have to do this." Mami said, as Kyoko walked towards the bedroom.
"Just try and stop me." She said with a wink before closing the door.
"Is this a bad idea?" Sayaka quietly asked Mami.
Mami shrugged her shoulders "It's as you said, we aren't going to have another chance, so we don't have no choice. Besides, it's ultimately up to her, and if she wants to go we can't stop her."
A few minutes later Kyoko walked out of the bedroom, now fully in the appearance of Kay Sakura, complete with glasses and a white lab coat. "Alright," She put a thumb up and grinned, the action looked really strange coming from the conservative scientist she otherwise appeared to be "Wish me luck!"
Sorry this chapter ended up taking a while to release, there were two reasons for that. First, the holidays (ironically) took away from my writing time. Second, this chapter ended up being extremely long at just over 9k words! (My longest chapter ever so far)
I think chapter 13 shouldn't take as long to come out, but that partly depends on what the word count ends up being. This chapter was mostly set up, and I have a lot planned for next chapter. My goal will be to release it within 2 weeks from today, but we will see if I actually manage to pull it off or not. All I can say is right now Test Subject One has my full attention so it will be getting the most updates, and I think the next few chapters are going to be really exciting!
-Atomyst
