"Listen," Madoka said to Sayaka, who led the way through an alley dressed in her full Magical Girl uniform. "I know Homura can be hard to understand sometimes, and she can be a little extreme… but… you really do have the wrong idea about her."
Sayaka had been keeping herself close to Madoka over the last few days, and therefore Homura had been forced to keep her distance. Sayaka was out hunting familiars right now, and Madoka took 'wanting to tag along' as a chance to talk to her in private. She wanted to discuss Homura and hopefully bring Sayaka around to being a little nicer to her. She wasn't mad at Sayaka for feeling the way she did, she understood that Sayaka was just trying to look out for her, but Madoka knew she was mistaken about Homura and was hoping to clear the air a little.
"So you are just ok with the fact that she was stalking you?"
"She wasn't stalking me!" Madoka insisted, "She just didn't want me to end up making a contract with Kyubey."
"And why exactly is that her call?" Sayaka asked, as they reached a fork in the alleyway. Sayaka touched a finger to the SoulGem around her navel, and it let out a soft glow in response. After a moment of consideration, she opted for the left path. "Don't take this the wrong way..." Sayaka frowned, thinking over how to put it and realizing there really was no light way to put it after all. "Don't you think that seems a little controlling?"
As expected, those words managed to turn Madoka's face hot. Sayaka was her best friend though, and she knew she was just trying to be protective, so coming from her it wasn't quite enough to unleash MADoka. From anyone else, including Mami who she respected very much, Madoka wouldn't have accepted those words. "She's not controlling at all. You really are are wrong about that…"
"Besides all that, she's dangerous. Just because Mami trusts her doesn't mean I have to. Normal people don't just make light of bombing buildings, you know?"
"She did it to protect people from the witch, and you know the bomb didn't do much damage… I saw on the news that the kind of bomb she used wasn't even capable of actually demolishing anything, it just makes more smoke than anything else which is why it looked so bad at first."
Sayaka grunted and turned around to face her. "Madoka, what do you think your mom would say about you being with someone who, number one: stalked you, number two: committed an act of terrorism, and number three: lied to you about both of those things, and who knows what else?"
Madoka thought about it… what would her mom say? Madoka didn't tell her parents about Homura yet, but it's not like they had been going out for that long. It's not like she was trying to hide her from them or anything either. Actually, she probably would have already made the introduction, but the issue with Sayaka had been slowing her down. They were practically sisters after all, and Madoka didn't wanted to flat out ignor her concerns, even though Sayaka's opinions about Homura were all wrong.
"Did you even tell your mom about her at all yet?" Sayaka asked, as if reading her thoughts.
"I-I um…" Madoka hadn't figured out what she wanted to say yet, and stammered over her words.
Sayaka clicked her teeth, and with a dismissive tone of voice she said, "Yeah, that's what I thought."
Madoka's hands clenched into little fists at her sides, and she watched the back of Sayaka's white cape as the taller girl continued to lead the way. Madoka suddenly couldn't ignore a certain burning inside her chest. What Sayaka just said, or rather, the way she said it was… really hurtful.
"I-I think…" Madoka glanced down, and then back up to meet Sayaka's eyes when she turned to look at her. "I think my mom would actually trust my judgement! And even if she thought I might have been making a mistake, she would actually try to listen to what I had to say! Sh-she wouldn't just be imposing her own view on me the way YOU are doing right now! Especially when you don't even know the first thing about Homura!"
Madoka realized, the fact that Sayaka had even brought her mom into this in the first place was making her angry. It was as if Sayaka thought she had some kind of authority. She always did tend to have a dominating personality, but it was usually in a good way. However, ever since becoming a Magical Girl, Sayaka had changed.
After saying what she had to say, Madoka hoped Sayaka would get one of those guilty looks on her face, and apologize. As she and Sayaka stared eachother down, that's what Madoka was anticipating. However, when it didn't come, and Sayaka continued with that condescending expression, Madoka felt her anger rising even further, to the point that the hotness on her face was starting to make her eyes tear up.
Then, they heard a high pitched giggling sound which echoed through the high walls of the alley way. Sayaka's frown deepened as she glanced behind herself. "I don't have time for this." She said, brushing her cape to the side and turning toward the sound of the familiar. "I've got work to do."
Madoka didn't want to just stop the argument there, and although Sayaka was upsetting her, she didn't want her to be distracted while she fought the familiar and end up getting hurt.
After turning another corner in the alleyways, they saw it.
The familiar looked like it could have been derived from a child's crayon drawing. It stuck to the wall, an image of a little stick person drawn with chalk. It had a big head and a smiling face, sitting inside a boat. It's little stick arms held an ore and motioned as if it were rowing. With each pass of it's ore, blue crayon drawn ripples appeared under the boat for water. All the while, occasional bursts of high pitched laughter erupted from the tiny sailor. If it were not for the disturbing sound of it's laughter, Madoka thought it might look kind of cute.
Sayaka slashed her hand to the side, and with a flash of blue light a sword appeared suspended in the air beside her. She grabbed onto it, then drew back in a spinning maneuver, and lunged the blade at the familiar. The blade flew cleanly, whizzing through the air, and it looked as if she were going to impale her target with a single strike. However, not even a second before the attack would have landed, the familiar flinched out of the way at a speed it previously hadn't hinted at possessing, and avoided the blow.
It's little stick arms rowed even more furiously as it started making circles around the blade, and it started laughing wildly, clearly amused by it's own antics.
Sayaka grinned as she summoned two more blades on either side of her and grabbed a hold of them. "Alright… you wanna play games, huh?"
She jumped up in the air, and spun as she tossed one blade and then the other. The familiar seemed to take these attacks a little more seriously and quickly started rowing away, just barely missing each. Sayaka summoned another sword, and another, tossing them as quickly as she was able to summon them, sticking a trail of swords into the wall behind the tiny sailor as it vigorously rowed across the walls.
Sayaka chased after it, and Madoka followed behind as best she could. She kept throwing blades at it, until finally she had the idea to cut it off. She tossed a blade further up it's path, and it stuck into the wall right in front of the familiar. The creature shuffled back and forth for a moment while it thought where to go next. It opted for moving up the wall instead of across it now, but Sayaka went with the same method, forcing it to move down again, and then back the way it originally came.
Sayaka tossed out one more blade, surrounding the familiar with four, each one pinned as the corner to a square. The sailor simply rowed around in circles between them for a moment, before deciding to go between the first two.
"I don't think so!" Sayaka shouted, and thrusted her hand forward. The four blades emitted a blue hue, and the familiar stopped as if it had run into a solid wall. Madoka looked closely, and she could see translucent threads of light weaving between the four blades, creating a box and trapping the familiar inside.
It's laughter became more panicked as it rowed to one side of the box to the other, trying to find an exit.
"What's the matter?" Sayaka asked, chuckling lightly as she summoned one last sword into her grasp. "Got nowhere to run to now?" The tiny sailor's ore rowed furiously, it's laughter suddenly starting to sound more like screaming as it continued to bounce from one side of the box to another. "Don't worry, I'll make this quick!" Sayaka raised her sword high in the air and prepared to strike.
"Hasn't anyone ever taught you not to play with your food?"
"Huh?" Sayaka stopped. At first she thought Madoka had said it, but that thought only lasted a moment because it clearly was not Madoka's voice. When she glanced back to Madoka, Madoka looked equally confused, and they both glanced around, trying to figure out where it came from, until Madoka thought to look up.
"Look, up there!" She said, as she pointed.
Sayaka glanced up. Standing on a fire escape, there was a girl with long crimson red hair, wearing a tunic of a slightly darker red color and a pink skirt underneath, along with a pair of bejeweled combat boots. The girl had one hand resting behind her head as she leaned against the wall, and the other hand held a taiyaki with half of it's head missing. She chewed, presumably, on the other half of the fish cake's missing head.
Sayaka took particular notice of the red gem stitched into the tunic, right at the center of her chest, and grinned. "So, there are other Magical Girls around here after all. Give me a second to finish things off, then we can talk." Then she stepped towards the familiar who was still panicking inside the box, her sword at the ready.
The girl stuffed the last of her snack into her mouth, then somersaulted over the railing of the fire escape. She glided downward and landed between Sayaka and the familiar, then raised her hand. With a flash of red, a spear appeared in her grasp.
"Huh?" Sayaka flinched back, and her sword lowered in confusion.
The girl put her other hand on the spear, then spun around and slashed at the familiar. Or, that's what Sayaka thought she was doing, but she actually slashed at Sayaka's miniature barrier, breaking the seal, and the familiar that was trapped inside quickly started rowing to freedom.
"What are you doing!" Sayaka shouted, and ran past the girl, trying to chase after the tiny sailor that was now zipping down the alleyways once again. It's laughter returned to the more amused variety.
Sayaka only made it a few meters down the alleyway, before getting stopped dead in her tracks when she collided with an invisible wall. She paced backwards, and looked up as a web of glowing red chains formed over the passageway, blocking her progress. The familiar's echoing laughter petered out as it rowed it's way to safety, far into the depths of the city's alleyways.
Sayaka quickly turned around, poising her sword as she stared down the Magical Girl, who had already produced another taiyaki from somewhere and started munching on its head. "What the hell was that all about! Why did you let it go?" Sayaka demanded.
The girl sighed, and lifted her spear up, placing its wooden bar to rest over her shoulder. "That ain't no witch, it's a familiar." The girl explained, "It's not going to have any GriefSeeds on it."
"Yeah! I know that, but it still needs to be taken out! It could end up hurting someone!" Sayaka shouted, gritting her teeth.
"Don't you know?" The girl's eyes narrowed, and the corners of her mouth raised into a wicked smile. She stepped towards Sayaka, her facial expression becoming incredibly dark. "That's exactly what you should want to happen. Actually, you want that little familiar over there to kill at least three or four people. That way, it's guaranteed to turn into a witch, and then it will actually be worth hunting it down."
"W-what?" Sayaka started backing away from the girl, her eyes growing wide.
"I can see you are new to this whole Magical Girl thing, so there's a little tip for ya', rookie."
Sayaka's back hit the girls barrier, and her hands instinctively raised her sword. "So you are saying you would put innocent people at risk for a reason like that?"
The girl used two fingers to push the tail of her taiyaki the rest of the way into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, all the while with a bored expression on her face as her spear remained balanced over her shoulder. "Aw come on, don't tell me you are one of those fighting for justice types." She let out a long sigh, "That figures."
"So what if I am!" Sayaka shouted, positioning her feet into a more attack ready position. "You got a problem with that?"
"W-wait!" Madoka said, stepping forward. Until now, she had been looking back and forth between the two girls anxiously, but she could see tensions were rising and she thought she should try to calm them down. "Y-you're both Magical Girls, right? So you shouldn't fight, ok?"
The red girl lifted her hand towards Madoka, and with a snap of her fingers another barrier appeared, separating Madoka from the two of them and also cutting off Sayaka's only escape route. "Stay out of this, pinky. This is between Magical Girls."
"B-but! Why do you have to fight?" Madoka shouted, her hands against the barrier as she peered through its chain links.
"Because." The red haired girl glanced over her shoulder, a sharp fang poked out of the corner of her mouth. "I'm taking this city for myself. It's way too great of a piece of territory to be run by girls who don't even understand the most basic principle of being a Magical Girl."
Sayaka grimaced, "So, you're the type that's just all about territory. You don't care about helping people at all, do you? That means you're the one who doesn't understand the first thing about being a Magical Girl! Someone who uses their magic selfishly has no right to call themselves one!"
The red girl burst into laugher, leaning down as she clenched her stomach, and clearly not the least bit worried about Sayaka's aggressive stance. "Seriously, not even a full week on the job and you already think you got it all figured out." She raised back up, "Let me give you some advice. You already wasted your wish on something useless, right? Then at least make some good use out of your magic, and stop with all this helping people crap." Her lips parted and her teeth bared in a malicious grin. "If you want, you can join me… Just help me take out Mami Tomoe, and I'm sure sharing this territory won't be a problem. That is, if you can understand the value of prioritizing GreifSeeds."
"What the hell are you saying?" Sayaka suddenly charged forward. "There's no way I'd do something like that!"
Sayaka jumped up and bore her blade down upon the Magical Girl, using both hands to swing with all her might. The red girl simply lifted her spear and blocked with the wooden pole, only needing one hand and not seeming to put much effort behind it. Sayaka's eyes were fierce, but her opponent's expression just seemed vaguely amused as Sayaka grunted and tried to overpower her.
"Alright, just thought I'd ask. Guess instead I'll have to show you what a real Magical Girl can do!" Her other hand grabbed the spear, and her crimson hair bounced up as she released a strong pulse of magic. Her strength increased exponentially and she used her spear to fling Sayaka away from her.
Sayaka screamed as she tumbled through the air. Her flight came to a stop when her back slammed into the brick wall of the alley. She fell to the ground, and quickly got back to her feet, but couldn't ignore the shaking of her legs as she stood with her sword in a defensive posture.
The red girl walked towards her slowly, the tip of her spear scraping the ground and letting out sparks as it bounced over the tiny bumps of the concrete floor. Her hair and clothing waved from the force of her magic, and her eyes glowed crimson behind the shade of the alleyways.
"Wait!" Madoka screamed from the sidelines, helpless to do anything to stop them. "Please stop!"
They just had to say they thought they heard a gunshot, Ishida thought to himself, feeling rather unenthused about his current assignment. It was possible, he supposed, but rather unlikely in this part of the city. What was even more unlikely was figuring out which of these apartments the supposed gunshot had actually come from. It was a thirteen story complex, composed of at least a couple hundred single apartments..
It felt like busy work to him, and he doubted anything would come of it, but he supposed he'd do his due diligence, knock on a few doors, and give an inconclusive report. He obviously wouldn't question the whole building, unless something came up from one of the rooms he did knock on. Otherwise, he would just do enough to give an acceptable report, then be on his way.
If there was a similar complaint, or reports of two or more shots, he might take it more seriously. However, if the police force bent over backwards every time an old lady thought she heard something suspicious, their numbers would be spread pretty thin throughout the city, so sometimes they had to be a little picky about which calls they prioritized. That's just how it was.
There were bigger things he'd rather be working on right now. He was a detective and this grunt work was below him. However, a 'shots fired' report was still well within his pay-grade, so whether he believed it was legitimate or not, he happened to be the most appropriately ranked officer closest to the area of the report...
…Lucky me.
The first door he knocked on was the old woman in question who called it in. He asked if there had been any arguing prior to the noise, she said not that she could hear. He then asked if there were any suspicious characters around recently. According to her, there were a lot of them.
When he finished with his questions, he thanked her for her time then moved on to the apartment two doors down. Got no answer there, then tried the next door. He decided he wouldn't mention the word gunshot, and simply ask if a noise was heard. That way he could let people come to the conclusion it was a gunshot on their own, and he could be more sure if that were really the case or not.
After a few more doors, as he expected, no one could say for sure if it was a gunshot, but indeed everyone he had talked to said they heard a bang. Good enough, he figured, as he approach the final door he planned on knocking on. This would be plenty for his report, and then he could get back to the station and spend his time more prominently.
He could hear talking inside this door, but not clear enough to make out any words. He went ahead and knocked, not wanting to eavesdrop on a private residence that had no real need for suspicion. The talking stopped, he heard footsteps, and notice the peephole discolor as someone looked through on the other side. Then the door opened to a girl who he guessed was in middle school, or maybe early high school.
"Good morning miss, sorry for disturbing you so early." He said, holding up his badge. "I'm Detective Ishida Tashikowara, and I'm investigating a… noise complaint…"
He looked past the girl, saw the living room was littered with broken glass, and took note of the four other girls looking his way. His voice became more serious. "Would you mind if I come in for a moment, and ask you a few questions?" And he returned his badge to the inside pocket of his jacket.
Looks like I'm not getting off so easily after all, he thought to himself.
"Oh… well sure, that isn't a problem." The girl said with a smile, then stepped to the side and gestured him in. "Um… just watch your step, we had a little bit of an accident here."
Ishida regarded her suspiciously, but smiled as he stepped in. "What kind of accident exact-" He stopped mid sentence when he took a closer look at the other four girls in the room, specifically, the one's with pink hair and blue hair. He allowed himself to drop the interrogator persona, and grinned. "Well, look at this. Small world, huh?"
It took the blue haired girl a moment, but after looking at him more closely she got it. "Oh!" She said. The pink haired girl still seemed confused, and looked up at her taller friend, obviously not remembering. "From the mall? Right?"
"That's right." Ishida said, "You and that other black-haired friend of yours had the idea to bust out a window."
The bluenette laughed and scratched the back of her head. The pink girl tried to smile, but it's at that moment Ishida took note of the fact the pink girl seemed rather upset. "Oh yeah." The blue one said with a smile, "Eh… sooo, h-how's the investigation going? Did the person who did it ever get caught?"
"No." Ishida admitted, "There really isn't much to go on, but we are investigating the possibility it's related to the bombing at the shelter, from a few days before the storm." It was fine to tell them this much, he was just repeating what was already given away to local news stations anyway. In reality, the relation to the shelter bombings were only a vague suspicion which the media decided to blow a tad out of proportion. They had a way of doing that.
"Anyway…" Ishida continued, shifting back into his detective role. "There were reports of a possible gunshot in the area. Did any of you hear or see anything?" He glanced over all the other girls. The red-haired one seemed the least affected by his presence. He found that people tended to be at least a little on their guards around police no matter what, but the red girl didn't seem to care at all. When his eye's set on the white-haired girl in the black hoodie however, he couldn't help noticing the shifting of her eyes.
"A gunshot?" The blonde girl answered, diverting his attention away from the small, darkly dressed girl who stood away from the rest of the group. "Well… we did hear… something, I can't say for sure if was a gunshot but it's actually what led us to having this accident…" Her explanation was cut off when a sudden high pitched whistle came from the kitchen. "Oh! That's the tea… sorry, just one mo-"
"I'll get it!" The white haired girl quickly interrupted, then started walked towards the kitchen. Ishida couldn't help stroking his beard suspiciously as he watched her… his instincts were telling him something was going on here, but he didn't know what five regular (well, mostly regular) high school girls would want to hide. He certainly didn't think one of them had a gun in the house, or anything like that.
"Oh… Leiko-san." The blonde said, "You don't have to trouble yourself."
"It's alright!" The small girl called back from the kitchen. "I got it."
"Um…" The blonde looked back to Ishida and smiled. "A-anyway, as I was saying… We actually just pulled an all night studying session, that's why we are all here so early in the morning. We were just about to wrap things up, and I was gathering the books, when we heard that bang. It startled me enough to drop the books… eh… right through the center of my table." She pointed at the mess with a doleful frown… Ishida didn't earn his detective's badge just through longevity, and therefore knew a forced expression when he saw one.
"I see…" He said, with a bit of an interrogative tone, and looked over the mess. Then he switched to a more friendly tone, "What were you studying?" He asked, just to fill the silence while he looked over the mess.
"Psychology."
He supposed dropping a stack of textbooks through the table could cause it to break. However, he could see the faint glint of some more glass shards on the other side of the living room. If it had actually been broken in the manner she claimed, all the shards would have fallen directly downward, instead of spraying outward.
Then, he saw a small tear in the carpet about a meter away from the empty frame of the broken table in question. He kneeled down, carefully pushed some glass to the side as he examined the tear, then asked. "How did this happen?"
The blonde kneeled down to look closer. "Th-that tear? Um… well…" A delayed response… his suspicions were rising. "A-actually, I can't quite remember. It's been there for a while, you see." And that was all he needed.
Looking at the tear, he could tell it was a fresh cut. If it had been there for a while, as she claimed, the fibers would have been frayed, but that was not the case. The fibers of the broken threads all ended in neat points, proving that it was a fresh cut. "I see." He stood back up, and glanced over each of the girls expressions. What were they hiding?
They lied about how the table had been broken, there was no doubt about that, and therefore they also lied about it being caused in reaction to this mysterious bang. Then that meant… they actually were responsible for the bang? He still doubted these girls had a gun… but, there was something going on here.
To add to things, the pink-haired girl seemed rather upset, and the one with white hair was also acting strangely, and seemed rather anxious to leave the room when he got here.
"Ok, mind if I just take a quick look around?" Ishida asked, addressing the blonde, as it seemed this was her house.
"Oh… ok, I don't see why not." she said.
With that, Ishida went to walking through the apartment, opening doors and just doing a quick three-sixty of each room. Since a gunshot is the only explanation he had to go with, however much he doubted it, the simplest way to prove it would be to find a bullet hole, and the simplest way to disprove it would be the lack of one. The tear in the carpet that he has been pondering certainly wasn't a bullet hole, however.
The first room he checked was the master bedroom, nothing out of the ordinary there. Then the second room was a guest room. No bullet holes, but the floor was littered with several articles of clothing, and the bed was unmade, making this room a sharp contrast to the neat and tidy master bedroom.
Then, when he entered the third room he saw a massive computer terminal. He couldn't help stopping and staring at it… it must have been worth at least half a million yen. There was a sheet of computer paper hung on the wall next to it with big bold print saying 'DON'T TOUCH', and someone had used a pink marker to draw an angry little emoticon at the bottom right corner of the sign.
As he turned out of the computer room, he couldn't help being a bit lost in thought. He had never seen a terminal quite like it… why would something like that be here in this house? Well, there were no bullet holes anywhere that he could see, and legally he really couldn't take this investigation any further. In theory, he could get a warrant and search the house more thoroughly, but there simply wasn't enough to call for that. He didn't even know what he was looking for. He supposed, there was something these girls wanted to hide, but whatever it was he would have to let it go.
Still, he couldn't help asking about the computer. "That's a pretty impressive setup you've got in there." He said to the blonde, "Where did you get it?"
"Actually it's not mine it's…"
"Touch my computer and I'll sue!" The white-haired girl shouted from the kitchen.
Ishida raised an eyebrow in the direction of her voice. The blonde shrugged. "Sorry, Leiko's a bit touchy about who goes near her stuff. She's a tad paranoid."
"I heard that!" The girl shouted again. "Seriously, I don't want it broken. I had some of it's components custom built. It's not cheap to replace that kind of stuff!"
Ishida laughed, "Ok then… well, it is pretty impressive anyway." He then sighed, figuring there was no longer any reason for him to stay. He didn't have any evidence to investigate these girls further, so whatever it was they were hiding they could keep their secret. "Well, I guess that wraps things up here. Thank you all for your time." And he turned towards the front door.
"Ok, have a good day." The yellow girl said with a smile.
"Have a good day." The blue and pink ones chimed simultaneously.
The red one maintained her bored expression until the blue girl nudged her on the shoulder, "Kyoko." She whispered.
"Huh? Oh right, have a good day." Kyoko said, with a slight bow.
Ishida stopped, halfway out the door… Kyoko?
It was a bit of a stretch, but he couldn't ignore the thought that had just hit him. The files Kaiji asked him to retrieve revealed that a certain Kyoko Sakura's name had been altered on all their data networks. It wasn't the most common name, but at the same time it wasn't incredibly uncommon either. He may not have thought anything of it if it were not for that elaborate computer terminal, and the fact he suspected they were hiding something in the first place.
He glanced back at Kyoko, but not too intently, to avoid letting them catch on to his suspicions. "Sorry." He said, addressing the blonde girl instead. "I almost forgot, there is just one more thing." He reached inside his coat and retrieved a small note pad with a pen fastened into it's metal spiral. "I just need to take your names. Since you heard the bang there is an off chance I might need to note you as witnesses. It's just procedure." He assured them with a smile as he clicked the pen open.
The white-haired girl was now coming out of the kitchen, balancing five tea cups in her arms.
"Ok, I'm Mami Tomoe."
"Sayaka Miki."
"Um… Madoka Kaname."
Ishida looked over to Kyoko and smiled, not giving anything away. "And you?"
"Hm? I'm Kyoko Sa-"
Suddenly, the white haired girl somehow managed to trip over her own feet, and the cups of tea she was carrying went flying."Waaaaahhh!" She screamed.
Kyoko turned, and tried to put her arms up to defend herself against the hot beverages, but of course simply putting her arms up did no good against the liquid. "Aaah! Geeze!" She screamed, rubbing her arms where she had been splashed. "What the hell is wrong with you! That's freaking HOT!"
"Ah-ah-ah!" The white girl stammered, quickly getting up and using the sleeves of her black hoodie to try and wipe off Kyoko's arms.
"What the hell, Leiko? Get off'a me!" Kyoko said, barring her teeth and trying to push the girl away.
"I-I'm so sorry Subaru-San!" Leiko said, "It was an accident!"
"Subaru-san?" Kyoko scoffed, "What the hells-"
Leiko stopped trying to wipe her off and instead bowed before her. "Please forgive me, Subaru-san!"
"Eh-eh… um…" Kyoko's eye widened, and then her lip twitched as she forced a smile. "Hey, I thought I told you to just call me by my personal name, Kyoko. You don't need to call me by my last name, Subaru. Heh." She laughed awkwardly… "Eh… anyway, don't worry about it, it's fine."
Clever… Ishida thought, narrowing his eyes. She didn't say Sakura, but she didn't need to. That little stunt just strengthened his suspicions even more, in fact, it told him even more than if Kyoko was simply allowed to give her real last name. It told him that of all these girls, this Leiko character was the only one who knew who he was. Since it was her computer, she also was likely the one who hacked into their systems to change Kyoko's name to 'Misato'. "So, it's Kyoko Subaru is it?" Ishida said casually, as he wrote it down. "And you Miss? Leiko…"
"Leiko Ayayami." Leiko said, glancing over to him and readjusting her glasses which had nearly fallen off her face in the fall. Any trace of that apparently clumsy girl from a moment ago had vanished. Of course, he already knew that whole thing was just an act.
"Alright, that about does it then." Ishida said, returning the pen to the spiral at the top of the notebook. "Enjoy the rest of your day, ladies." He then turned and walked out of the apartment.
He glanced back to confirm the apartment door had been shut, then went right for his cellphone and dialed Kaiji's number. After a few moments of ringing he caught the voicemail. 'You've reached Dr. Kaiji Tashikowara. Sorry I can't answer the phone at the moment, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.'
Ishida canceled the call, then phoned Kaiji's wife, his sister in law, instead.
After a moment of ringing. "Hello Ishida." She said.
"Hey Aoi. I'm trying to get in contact with Kaiji, did he leave for work already?"
"Oh, actually, I got a text message from him this morning. He stayed at the lab overnight, and apparently won't be making it back today." She laughed, "You know how it is with him sometimes. That man is a real workaholic."
Ishida grunted a less enthused laugh. "Heh, yeah tell me about it… Well, can you give me his work number?"
"Well… I have a number I can call in case of an emergency, but as you know it's pretty hard to get ahold of him while he is at work…" She trailed off for a moment then asked, "Is everything alright, Ishida? You sound a little tense."
"Oh, yes. Yes. Everything's fine… And don't worry about that emergency number, I've already got it. Well, I'll just leave him a message on his cell anyway. He can just call me back whenever he gets it."
"Oh, well alright then." She said, "As long as everything's alright."
"Yeah, it's all good. Well, I'm a little busy myself at the moment…"
"Oh alright, see you later then, Ishida."
"Yup, see you later." He said, and then they both hung up.
Ishida called Kaiji's number again, once again he got the voicemail, but this time he left a message. "Kaiji, call me back when you get this." He paused, thought for a moment, then added, "It's about that thing you asked me to do a little while ago… Anyway, just make sure you call me back. See you."
He returned his phone to his pocket, and glanced back to the apartment door once more.
What now? He thought.
He got the impression Kaiji was investigating this Kyoko Sakura in secrecy, and if that were the case it really limited his own options. He could bring Kyoko Sakura into the station if he wanted to, because if she was indeed Kyoko Sakura then that means she is a missing person, and he would have every right to bring her into custody. However, he didn't know what this girl meant to Kaiji yet, so he wanted to talk with him before making any moves.
Was she really the daughter of the mad preacher? If so, what was she doing here, and what exact interest did Kaiji have in her? He didn't know, but he knew he couldn't lose track of her.
He walked down the outdoor stairwell to the bottom of the complex, and got back to his squad car. He got into the driver seat and picked up his radio. "Unit 242, Ishida Tashikowara. I'm following a possible lead on gang activity and performing a stake out. Over."
'Ten-Four Tashikowara, will you need back up? Over.'
"Negative, just going to be keeping an eye on something for the next few hours. Over."
Then he clipped the radio to it's holder, and started driving around the block. He lied about what exactly he was staking out, just to keep things simple, but that would keep him from being dispatched on anything else for the next few hours.
He found a spot to park where he could keep an eye on the apartment complex. Mami Tomoe's apartment was up on the fifth floor, but he could still see the top half of her doorway from where he was parked. Like this, he would be able to keep track of Kyoko if she went anywhere, and hopefully Kaiji would get back to him soon.
Kaiji listened closely. At least two of his captors were talking to each other, but despite the echo in the room, their voices were still too low for him to pick up every word. Footsteps echoed too… he was in a large room, maybe a warehouse.
They had him sit on a chair, and his hands were cuffed to it's back. They let him spit the gag out a while ago, but left the black bag over his head, and refused to answer any of his questions, or explain themselves.
His head felt fuzzy. That was natural considering he had now been awake for well over twentyfour hours without sleep, and he hadn't been sleeping well over the last few days in the first place. Worse than that, his throat was completely parched, and the black bag over his head made it a little hard to breath.
"Hey!" He called out. He didn't know how many people were around him, but the two people talking ignored him. One of the voices was female… he was sure of that at least.
Who were they? Yakuza is one possibility that entered his mind, this is how they tended to operate after all. A while ago he helped his brother out by altering some evidence that allowed him to arrest a known gang member. If the Yakuza figured out it was Kaiji who altered that evidence, then it would be perfectly in their nature to try something like this.
However, Kaiji rather doubted that possibility for the simple fact they abducted him in sight of several military vehicles. The Yakuza tended to get spooked pretty easily, and would opt for a better time to make their move.
So… who was left?
The girls that he spoke to before… Homura's friends. Kyoko Sakura was one of them, then there was Leiko, Madoka Kaname, and the mysterious and threatening voice of 'Saki'. Since his video tape of Kyoko Sakura was missing, they were very likely suspects. He knew nearly nothing about them, but suppose it's possible they were part of an organization. The people who abducted him were regular adult men.
There was a third possibility. Endou. Endou seemed pretty anxious for Kaiji to go home, but when Kaiji denied this order, and said he would just go out to his car, Endou seemed to have completely dropped his complaints. Perhaps all Endou really wanted was for Kaiji to leave the lab so that these people could grab him? Kaiji had been at odds with Endou lately, but he didn't think Endou would take things this far… he wasn't even sure if Endou had the power to arrange something like this.
"Hey!" Kaiji shouted again, "If you are not going to tell me anything, can I at least have a glass of water?"
The voices paused. Then went right back to talking, completely ignoring him.
"God damn it!" Kaiji screamed, "Would someone answer me already!"
He heard a sigh, and then footsteps. "Hey you, go fetch a litre of water."
Alright, definitely not Yakuza, otherwise they wouldn't care if he just died of dehydration.
The footsteps got closer, until he could feel a presence upon him. Then, the bag lifted off of his head, and he was instantly blinded by a bright light. His eyes squinted, and turned away from the spotlight that was focused on him.
He looked around as best as he could. High ceilings, cement floors, boarded up windows. He was in an old abandoned warehouse. On the other side of the warehouse, by a large steel door, there stood two large men in black suits. About ten meters away from where Kaiji sat, he saw a woman sitting at a computer terminal with her back turned in his direction. He squinted to try and see the screen.
"Hey, eyes over here." Said the man who had removed the bag from his head. He sat on the opposite side of the metal table that was in front of Kaiji, then pushed the spotlight to the side so it was no longer directly in Kaiji's eyes.
Kaiji stared at him, his face covered in sweat, and his eyes heavy. The man across from him had jet black hair, small narrow eyes, darkly tanned skin, and wearing a black suit. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties. There was an old TV set on a stand behind him.
He smiled as he reached under his jacket, and removed a pack of cigarettes. "Smoke?" He asked.
"No…" Kaiji answered in a rough voice. His throat was quite dry, so a cigarette would be the last thing he would want right now, even if he was a smoker.
The man shrugged, lit his cigarette, then blew a puff of smoke into Kaiji's face, causing him to start on a minor coughing fit.
"Soooo…" The man started, leaning over the table and resting his hands under his chin. Two fingers extended to hold out the cigarette. "Why are you here?"
Kaiji scoffed, and shook his head. "That's what I would like to know."
The man frowned, "Surely you have at least some idea?"
"Why don't we just skip the games, and you tell me what you want?" Kaiji said.
"Hm, that's no fun." The man sighed, and leaned back in his chair. One hand raised to his mouth so he could take another drag of his cigarette, his other hand tapped his fingernails against the metal table. "Alright, let's make it a game then. You have until I finish this cigarette to tell me why you are here, or the bag goes back on your head and we can try again in a couple of hours. How does that sound?"
"That sounds like a shit deal." Kaiji said, dryly.
"Yeah, that's the breaks when you're holding a shit hand." The man grinned, "Right now no one knows where you are, and we hold all the cards. So how about a little cooperation? Trust me, whatever we want, we are going to get out of you one way or another. Our methods of doing so become increasingly unbeneficial to your health the longer you hold out, so I'd recommend not forcing our hands."
Kaiji sighed. "So you want me to guess why I'm here." The man nodded. "Alright… Well if I'm playing a game with you, can I at least know your name?"
"You can call me Takashi. It's an alias, but it'll work for now."
Kaiji thought he understood the point of this. The truth is, there was a lot that they didn't know, but they at least knew some things. He wanted Kaiji to 'guess' why he was here, and hopefully accidentally give away something that they don't already know. He supposed, that from his side his goal should be to give away as little as possible. Well, not that there was actually much to give away in the first place. He wondered, what exactly did they want from him?
"Alright… Takashi… Can I assume you are the one's who took the videotape from my car?"
Takashi nodded.
"So, I can assume that the contents of the video led to you wanting to abduct me?" Another nod. "So then…" Either they were with Kyoko/Kay Sakura, or they were not. Either way, it was clear what this was about. "This has to do with Kay Sakura, doesn't it?"
"See? That wasn't so hard. Now, how much do you know about Kay Sakura?" Takashi asked.
Kaiji shook his head. "I know that she is a psychologist… or at the very least she is claiming to be one."
"So, I take it you suspect she is not all she appears to be?"
"It's a possibility."
Takashi's already small eyes narrowed even further. "Then why did you let her leave the lab?" Kaiji was quiet, not sure how to answer. "You realize something like that could be considered treason? I'm sure at the very least you would lose your job, if you don't in fact end up in jail. Either way, say goodbye to your nice lifestyle, and your beautiful house… Oh, it was a really nice place, by the way."
Kaiji suddenly felt his heart race at the mention of his house. "Is that a threat?" He said, scowling at the man who sat across from him.
"Just stating…"
"Takashi." Said the woman on the other side of the room as she got up and started walking over to him.
"Errr…. Facts…" He shot her an annoyed expression. "You're really interrupting my flow here, Aida."
Aida clearly wasn't Japanese, she had soft blue eyes, blonde hair, and her skin was white, but her cheeks had a bit of rosiness to them.
She walked over to the TV set, and adjusted its position a bit so Kaiji could see it. Then she kneeled down and grabbed a folder from underneath it, and dropped it on the table. "This folder was retrieved from your residence. In the night." She spoke with a deep, rough accent, but pronounced the words cleanly, though the pace at which she spoke them was not as fluid as a native Japanese speaker. Was she Russian? Maybe German.
When she saw Kaiji's eyes widened as he looked over the folder, she added; "Don't worry, our team was quick, and your family never knew we were there. Despite what threats Takashi plans to make, the truth is we have no intention of harming your family."
"That's not necessarily true!" Takashi added, pointing at Kaiji with his eyebrows curved down into a serious expression. "But if you work with us, you won't have to worry about that one way or the other, got it?"
Kaiji shook his head, "What is this? Are you guys trying to play good cop, bad cop here?"
Aida shrugged, "More like idiot cop, practical cop."
Takashi sighed with annoyance, leaned his head on one hand and rolled his eyes. "Either way, we definitely are not cops."
"Let's just get to the bottom of this already." Aida then turned around, and started pressing buttons on the VCR stationed under the TV set. Kaiji looked at the folder more closely; indeed it was the files he asked Ishida to bring to him, from the Sakura Cult case. When the TV turned on, he saw the security footage from the produce store. Kyoko Sakura was just walking through the front door when it started.
The tape was on fast forward as Kyoko walked up the isles, sneaking a couple snacks into her pockets, and then slowed to a normal pace when the clerk confronted her. She pushed past him, knocked over a shelf, then turned to shout something.
Aida paused the video with Kyoko's face clearly visible to the camera. Aida then took a phone out of her pocket and swiped her fingers across it for a moment. She pulled up a picture of Kay Sakura and held it right next to Kyoko on the TV screen. "Striking resemblance, wouldn't you say?"
"I thought so." Kaiji agreed. It looked like the picture of Kay had been taken from the lab security footage. How could they possibly have gotten their hands on it, though? Not even official lab members like himself were allowed to re-record anything like that.
"So, who is she?" Takashi asked.
"Which one?" Kaiji decided he would continue testing the waters, and figure out what they know without giving them any new information. For now at least. "Well, I suspect the girl is Kyoko Sakura, daughter of Father Sakura, the mad preacher of Kazamino. I'm not sure of her relation to Kay, but as you said the resemblance is indeed striking." Of course, he actually did know that they were the same person, and somehow Kyoko could change her appearance.
"It's more than that." Aida said, returning her phone to her pocket. "I have a contact who is expert in facial analysis. I sent the two images to him, and you want to know what he tells me? He said that this video must be fifteen years older than the picture of Kay I sent him, and they are indeed the same person. When I told him images were from mere months apart, he doesn't believe me. He said that even if they were mother and daughter, that could not account for how similar they are. You see, if the analysis is thorough, a person's facial structure is almost as unique as a fingerprint. It's impossible for two people to be exactly the same, with the only exception being identical twins."
"Clearly they are not the same person, though." Kaiji said, "Nor could they be twins considering Kay is nearly twice the other girls age."
"I know…" Aida said, "So that's when our theories got a little more creative. One theory that I came up with is that this teenage girl could have been cloned from Kay, which would essentially make them identical twins but also account for the age gap. However, as far as I or anyone else is officially aware, there has never been successful human cloning. Still, it was the only explanation that made sense."
"You don't seem to believe that though, do you?" Kaiji asked.
Takashi cleared his throat. "Just a heads up, this whole kidnapping situation is going to become much more comfortable for you if you are able to help us out. So… if you are able to shed light on this little mystery of ours…"
"I honestly don't know what you want from me." Kaiji said.
"Simple. Tell us Kyoko Sakura's relation to Kay Sakura." Takashi said.
"I told you I don't know."
"Then at least tell us why you let her leave the lab, after clearly having suspicions about her." Takashi took another drag of his smoke, but at least had the decency to blow it to the side this time, instead of directly into Kaiji's face.
How could he answer? She used some kind of hypnosis on him, but in all honesty he didn't think that really mattered. It didn't seem to hold it's effect for long, and even before that, he had been on the fence about his allegiances ever since discovering Homura's cat drawing at Madoka's house and verifying Kay as a double agent. "I…" He thought a moment before answering. "I don't know who you people are, or how you know anything about something that happened in the lab in the first place, but can I assume you know what we are studying there?"
"Homura Akemi." Aida answered, "Otherwise known as Test Subject One."
"Can I ask another question, and can I trust that you will answer honestly?"
"Shoot." Takashi said, "Can't guarantee the honesty part if it's the wrong kind of question, though."
"Fair enough… Is your organisation with the government? I mean, is anything I say here going to end up biting me and causing me legal problems?"
"No." Aida said, "This is not that kind of interrogation. We are not investigating you, we are investigating Homura Akemi, and Kay and Kyoko Sakura."
"Yeah," Takashi agreed, "We could really give a damn about what does or doesn't happen to you." He laughed, "And we are definitely not with the government either."
"Alright then. The reason I let Kay go, is because I thought she might be able to help Homura. It's as simple as that. As far as who Kay really is… I'm afraid I don't have any answers for you there."
Takashi glanced over to Aida, and they seemed to be conferring a thought. "I'll believe the part about you wanting to help Homura. I still think you know something about Kay that you don't want to spill." Takashi said. "Anyway, we don't get all the juicy details about what goes on in that lab, but we get enough to know that Dr. Endou is pretty twisted. It's inconsequential to us, though. We don't really care what does or doesn't happen to Homura either. All we really care about is what she can do."
"And." Aida added, "What Kay Sakura here can do. Or should I just be calling her Kyoko?" She shot Kaiji a look, then smiled when Kaiji's face gave away what he had been hiding. "So it's true then?"
"I don't…"
Takashi leaned forward. "Remember what I said about us getting what we want out of you one way or another? Something you should understand about me, although I just called Dr. Endou twisted, I say it with a level of admiration. You see, I'm pretty twisted myself. Next time we ask you something, answer honestly, and you won't need to meet that twisted side. Alright?"
"You think that Kay and Kyoko are the same person?" Kaiji said with a laugh, "Clearly that is impossible."
Takashi rubbed his temples and sighed. "I swear, this guy just doesn't seem to get his situation at all. Does he?"
Aida smiled, "Dr. Kaiji. That was a rather surprised look you got from my simply suggesting they are the same person. Please don't lie to us anymore."
"Isn't it natural to be surprised? What you just suggested didn't make any sense."
"Yet they have identical facial structures, and furthermore, we happen to know for a fact that at least one of the two of them is fake."
"Fake meaning a forged identity." Takashi said, "Wanna take a guess which of the two it is?"
"Well… I suppose Kay would be the obvious answer, since she is the one who would benefit from a fake identity." Kaiji said, "But if you are suggesting Kyoko was able to change her appearance that significantly… You do realize that's impossible, right?"
"Not necessarily." Aida said, then her eyes sharpened and a grin came over her face. "That is, if we are assuming Kyoko Sakura is a Puella Magi."
Homura walked through the park, her hair caught on the wind. So far, everything was going according to plan. There was a small hiccup at school where Sayaka had publicly told her to stay away from Madoka, which caused her and Madoka some mild embarrassment and surely sparked rumors, but in the grand scheme of things it was an inconsequential event, one that could be dealt with after Walpurgis Night.
She heard a scuffling noise behind her, and didn't have to turn around to know who it was. "You did well, Mami Tomoe."
"Thank you for sending me that text, Homura, although I do wonder why you didn't try to separate them yourself?"
Homura turned to face her. "I'm sure you have heard Sayaka's complaints about me. Everything I do, that girl manages to twist into some kind of devious plan. If I revealed that I had been following them, I never would have heard the end of it."
"Well, You never did explain why you were following them in the first place."
"Sayaka should not be taking Madoka along with her, especially while she is still so inexperienced herself. Call me overprotective if you want, but I was concerned about Madoka's safety. Anyway, when this… Kyouko... showed up, I called you right away." Homura spoke Kyoko's name as if it were unfamiliar to her, and she was unsure of how to pronounce it.
In reality, Homura had a secret alliance with Kyoko (at least as far as Kyoko knew) and she was in fact the one who sent Kyoko to the alley to confront Sayaka in the first place. Then, she also sent Mami to their location to break them up.
"Well, whatever the case, I'm glad you did." Mami smiled, "It's just lucky I happened to be nearby."
"Indeed it was." Homura said, thinking back on how she snuck into Mami's apartment while time was stopped earlier that day, to steal her sugar. Doing that made Mami go out to the store, and brought her close enough to Sayaka and Kyoko that she would be able to get there and stop the confrontation before things went too far. Homura even texted her before Kyoko actually revealed herself, but there is no way Mami would notice this discrepancy in the timing. "I'm glad you got there so fast, otherwise I may have had to step in. Luckily, I managed to get away with just observing, but I want you to know I wouldn't have let Sayaka get hurt."
"Hm. So what did you observe before I intervened?"
Homura spoke bluntly. "You're too soft on her. Miki's technique is sloppy, she doesn't block when she should, and wastes far too much magic on healing."
"She's still new at this, she needs time. She certainly wasn't ready for a confrontation with someone like Kyoko."
Homura nodded. "Well if you care about Sayaka's safety I'd recommend you either step up her training, or teach her not to be so reckless. She wasted far too much magic to take down a simple familiar, before Kyoko even showed up. You know my feelings on going after familiars in the first place… The purpose is honorable, but it can put far too much strain on a Magical Girl's SoulGem to constantly go into battle and obtain no rewards. Especially for Sayaka who seems to think her magic is endless."
Although Mami considered Homura an ally, and could take some of her bluntness, she wasn't always entirely accepting of her harsh words, and this was clear on her face at that moment. "Well, someone has to look out for others. If all Magical Girls thought the way you did, I worry what condition this city might be in." She folded her arms in a posture that showed she would not be moved on this issue.
Silence filled the conversation. Far away, Homura could see some teenagers slinking through the shadowy depths created by the trees, off about to do something that may ruin their future. At least in this timeline, the witch that was suppose to ambush them was already in Homura's pocket, dormant and unable to hurt a soul.
Finally, Homura spoke, but decided to move away from the direction the conversation was heading in. "Before the exchange got violent, Kyoko Sakura tried to convince Miki to join her against you. Therefore, this encounter was planned, rather than chance."
"I see…" Mami looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn't figure out the right words.
Homura sighed. "I could see from the way Kyoko spoke that you two have a shared history. Is any of it relevant?"
Mami paused for a second, surprised, then shook her head. "We were a team once, but we parted ways a long time go. Things… ended badly between us."
"So possible revenge, or just a plain takeover." Homura said. "I'll tail her a bit, see what she's up to. Maybe I'll be able to discern her motivation."
Silence went between them again. This time it was Mami who broke it. "You… don't want to know why me and Kyoko parted? Or the nature of our partnership?"
"That's your business. I frankly don't care about what happened in the past. Right now, my only concern is the present and the future." Homura didn't add that she already knew the whole story, how it was the death of Kyoko's family and a conflict of ideals that led to the violent end of their relationship.
"Anyway." Homura said. "I have things to do, so if you'll excuse me." She began to walk away.
"Homura?" Mami said. Homura stopped. "Sayaka is wrong about you. I don't know what Madoka did to gain your friendship, but it's clear to me that she is very important to you, and you would do anything to protect her. Even prevent her from making a contract."
Homura didn't turn to face her. "This life is a living nightmare, Mami Tomoe, despite what your experiences may be. No matter what, I will shield her from this fate, at any cost."
"Well, I can't argue with that kind of dedication." Mami said, probably smiling again. "As much as I'd like to have two new Kohais, I guess I'll have to concede defeat on that front."
Homura didn't respond, not until she froze time. Then she moved across the city towards Kyoko's location.
It took her bit of time to locate Kyoko. She finally pinpointed her ally eating an apple, perched on top of a crane in the industrial district, her cheek puffed up in mid-chew. Homura cleared her throat, and unfroze time.
"I got another apple for you." Kyoko quickly said, before Homura could speak first. "Want it?"
"No thank you." Homura replied, with one of her half-smiles.
Kyoko stood up, her hair and clothes blowing in the wind as she stood atop the crane, with the city walls and setting sun laid out on the horizon before her. Her left hand held a half eaten apple, and her right hand reached through the chest of her hoodie to produce another unscathed apple. She held it up, staring at it with an unreadable expression, before suddenly turning and throwing at Homura with a considerable level of force.
Homura raised one hand and caught the apple in front of her face. Her palm stung, and one foot was forced to step back. She looked back to Kyoko with a questioning eyebrow.
"Seriously!" Kyoko said, her eyes intense, and her fang protruding past an angry grimace. "Take it! And you better not waste it either!"
Homura raised a questioning eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"
Kyoko's knees bent down, then she jumped up from her place atop the crane. She glided back down, and landed softly in front of Homura. "So what's your deal anyway? Are you actually serious about all of this, or are you just pulling my leg?"
"I don't follow." Homura said, not flinching at all despite Kyoko puffing up her chest and giving a mean stare.
"You could have helped me, y'know. Together we could have taken them!"
"And we could have just as easily been beaten." The wind blew against Homura's silky hair, while her eye's remained cool. "I don't join fights that I can't be sure I'll win, and a 2v2 battle contains too many variables to predict the outcome." Homura's phone buzzed inside her pocket. She pulled it out and flipped it open. She smiled at the screen, then seeming to have forgotten Kyoko's presence, started typing out a message with her thumbs. Kyoko's eyes narrowed, and she took a hard bite out of her apple, clearly irritated about Homura messing with her phone at a time like this.
After a moment, Homura finished her message and continued. "Besides, Mami still thinks I'm on her side. Since we no longer have surprise on our side, my betrayal is our sole trump card."
"I guess that makes sense…" Kyoko became even more agitated when Homura's phone buzzed again, and she once again flipped it open and started typing out another message. Kyoko gritted her teeth. "It's still weird Mami showed up like that, ya' know? I was just about to finish that rookie off before she Tiro Finale'd my barrier down."
"She must have been keeping near her new trainee to keep an eye on her. That familiar fleeing and Sayaka not following probably tipped her off that something was amiss."
"Hm… guess I should have just left it in that cage the newbie made..." Kyoko took one last bite from her apple and tossed the core over the buildings edge.
"I do have some good news for you." Homura said, her phone buzzing again, and again smiling as she took it out and started with her reply. "In two days, just after sunset, Sayaka Miki will be outside the Kamijo household in the residential district, about half a kilometre from the river, alone. The boy inside the house is the one Miki wished to heal."
"I getcha." Kyoko said, a sardonic smile on her face. "I assume I can goad that rookie into a fight she isn't prepared for just by threatening the boy, huh?"
"That is correct."
"Perfect." Kyoko gave Homura a look. "So, how'd you know that?"
"That's my business." Homura replied, looking down at her phone once again, and preparing to start another message.
Suddenly, Kyoko flung out her arm and snatched the phone from her grip. "Hey!"
"What's so special about this thing, anyway?" Kyoko said, holding it with two fingers. Then she read the screen, and her playful smile became serious, then a smirk. "So that's what's going on. Taking things to the next level, huh?"
Homura froze time, grabbed the phone from Kyoko's hands, and moved back to her earlier position before twisting the shield back and resuming time. Kyoko blinked as she stared at her empty hand, then shook her head.
"It's nothing that serious." Homura replied, returning the phone to her pocket.
"Come on, spill, what's ya' strategy? Rush in, hit em hard, leave them reeling?" Kyoko burst out laughing as Homura rolled her eyes.
"I assure you, this isn't as hard as you think." 'I've done it more times than you'd know' Homura thought to herself.
"Well, anyway." Kyoko said. "You've got to get to the otherside of town. Better leave now before you miss your window of opportunity."
Homura nodded. "Remember, stick to the plan."
"Gotcha. Oh, and good luck, ally." Kyoko gave a little mock salute, grinning widely.
"Same to you." Homura froze time, and began the long climb down the ladder.
It took her only a fraction of the remaining time to get to her destination. She took a quick look around to make sure no one would see her randomly appear out of thin air, then resumed time. Once at the top of the street, she could see Madoka sitting on the front steps waiting for her.
Madoka's head lifted up when she saw Homura coming towards her, then she waved her hand high in the air and got up. They met with each other at the foot of the driveway, and Madoka wrapped her arms around Homura as soon as she could. Homura smiled and returned the hug, "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
"Um… I'm sorry I haven't been spending too much time with you the last few days. I was just trying to respect Sayaka's feelings too… but…" Madoka separated herself enough to look up at her and smile. "You're my girlfriend, so that's not right… and... I decided I shouldn't let Sayaka's disapproval come between us."
Homura returned the smile. "I'm sure Miki has good intentions. It's a shame we don't seem to get along, but I'm sure we'll be able to find common ground soon. And of course I don't blame you, she's a good friend of yours after all. I wouldn't want to come between that either."
Madoka nodded, "Thanks for being so understanding… um…" She glanced over to her front door. "So, ready for this?"
"Of course."
"Sure you're not nervous?"
Homura shrugged, "Maybe a little, but also excited."
Madoka giggled, she loved the way Homura could state her emotions so plainly without actually showing any of them. Something about it was just really sweet. She wished it was easier for Sayaka to see these good sides of Homura too, then maybe they could get along better.
They walked hand in hand, and Madoka led her into the house. As soon as they walked through the door they were greeted by a garlicky smell coming from the kitchen, and the sizzling of a frying pan.
"Mom, dad, I'm home!"
"Welcome back!" Her father called back from the kitchen.
"Um… can you both come into the livingroom? There's someone I want you to meet."
Her father was the first to come out of the kitchen, and then her mother poked her head out of another door on the other side of the living room.
"Oh, hello." Her father said, giving the girl a smile.
Junko came out and went over to stand by her husband. "Hello, is this a friend from school?" She seemed to notice them standing hand in hand, but apparently didn't fully register what that meant right away.
"Not exactly… um, her name is Homura and…" Madoka pulled closer to Homura and let a bright expression come over her face. "She's my girlfriend!"
"It is a pleasure to meet you." Homura bowed, deciding to pretend not to notice their surprised reactions, instead gripping the hand of the one she loved tighter.
They clearly didn't know how to respond at first, and there was a bit of an awkward silence. This didn't last long, though, and soon Junko was the one to break it when she came across the room. "Madoka! I had no idea you were seeing anyone!" She ended up putting her hands on Homura's shoulder and almost acted as if she were examining an item at a store, Homura's stoic face suddenly turned bright red. "So cute too!" Junko said with a wink.
Madoka could only laugh.
"So Homura, I was just about finished with dinner. Are you going to be staying for a little while?" Her father asked.
"Um… yes, thank you." Homura said with a smile, then when she looked over to Madoka and saw her cheery expression, Homura herself just felt incredibly happy. For the first time in a long time, she felt as though things were finally going to work out in the end.
"Look at you, disguising yourself as a normal person." The witch laughed as the clouds overhead moved together, and cast a gloomy shadow over the red field once again. Homura blinked, watching the distant hills of spider lilies ripple under a slight breeze.
For a while, it felt as though she had gone somewhere else, to a much happier reality, but then this reality came back around, and she was once again sitting next to the hateful creature that wore her face.
The witch sat atop a chair, Homura was on the ground amongst the flowers. It's head turned, and looked down at her, and it's wooden jaw opened slightly to create that odd grinning effect on it's otherwise emotionless face. "Do you think they would be so accepting of you if they knew what you really were? And of the kinds of things you've done?"
Homura closed her eyes, and tried to stop herself from looking down at her missing arm, or paying too much attention the witches words. She wanted to sink away from this reality again, and retreat back to one of her happier memories. Perhaps that's why the witch had pulled her away, because it only wanted her to think about despair.
"I have made some hard choices, sometimes hurting the people who are closest to me… but it was always for her. I have gotten to know Junko very well, and I think she would always understand my loyalty for Madoka."
"Loyalty? Is that what you call it?" The witch started making that cackling sound with the squeaky hinges of it's jaw. Homura kept her eyes closed, and refused to look at it. "The truth is you want Madoka all for yourself. I'm afraid I can't completely comprehend something like love in it's entirety, but there is one aspect of it I know quite well, and that's the desire that comes along with it. Having Madoka is something of a personal gain, and that is the truth behind your hard choices."
"I said it before, a creature like you could never understand. You are twisting my feelings, and the things you say hold no truth."
More cackling, "A creature like me? But I am you, Homura. As for the truth, do you deny that you have any desire to keep Madoka close to you?"
"You're twisting it!" Homura said, finally opening her eyes again. "Of course you would want to be close to someone you care about."
The Clara dolls finished their march across the red plains, and were now at the foot of the hill Homura and the witch sat upon. Homura's hand tightened on her shoulder as she stared down at the dolls.
"Whatever the case…" The witch spoke in it's slow hypnotic voice. "The time has just about arrived, hasn't it?"
All fourteen of the dolls had a crooked smile upon their painted faces. Their clothing had a victorian style, mostly black, but with some variations of darkly hued colors. Whenever she would make eye contact with one, it would cringe with disgust, as if it thought she were some disgusting thing to look at.
They carried a large oaken coffin, dark brown wood, and the image of a spider lily was burned into its lid, along with some runic lettering in a language she did not understand, but has seen inside labyrinths many times before.
Through her peripheral vision, Homura could see the witch's head turn, and she could feel it's eyes and twisted face staring at her. "Are you ready to be born?"
Thanks to everyone for reading!
An even bigger thanks going out to Axius27, because I honestly don't do it enough, for his awesome work beta reading for me. He also partially ghost wrote a couple parts in this chapter (because he got bored of waiting for me to keep going), so deserves some credit for that as well (although I guess technically giving credit doesn't make it ghostwriting anymore… *shrug*)(also he threatened a lawsuit)
He is also working on yet another TSO spinoff, based on a bit of a silly premise but it's coming out quite good so far. Hopefully it will be finished and we will see it soon, and hopefully my mentioning it here will pressure him into doing so :P You can also check out his other stories posted through his profile, including the previous spinoff TSO: Ransom. And, if you want, you can harass him on his twitter Axius27
Thanks again for reading!
-Atomyst
