"So… You're the people that Mami said she was bringing to see me, huh?" Sakura Kyouko stared hard at the three of them. A pink girl, a cute blue girl, and a frankly terrifying giant. She wasn't gonna let on that she was scared, obviously. She was gonna eat her apple and some Rocky and give them all a death glare. She took a bite of her apple. "You're the ones that need my help figuring out what's going on with Jotaro-kun here?"
"Pretty much, yeah." Pink Madoka, the friendliest-looking and probably sanest of all of them, nodded. "We don't have much to go on, but maybe you know something."
"Hmm." It was true, the big guy didn't really look like he belonged here, and Kyouko had a feeling there was a reason for that, but… "It's tricky. I may dabble in Tarot and such, but I'm not all-knowing." She looked around at the shopping mall, still busy even though it was getting towards closing time. It was probably safe enough to talk about this kind of shit here. "Can you tell me more about that Homura girl? The one you codenamed [DIO]? Describe her."
"Crazy." That was a bit much, coming from Mr. Insane Muscles Delinquent, but she let it slide. "With some sort of teleportation or illusion Stand."
"I mean –" another careful bite of the apple – "how she looks. Hair and stuff."
Madoka seemed to think about it for a moment. Did she know the girl or not? "She has purple eyes, black hair, she's about my size. Very serious when she's not being… double minded."
"Hmm." She shook her head. "Then I've met her, I think. A few days ago. She wanted me to join her or something. Seemed sane enough then."
"Maybe she's been fighting so long she went crazy?"
The big guy pulled down the brim of his cap. He did that a lot, for some reason. "She seemed different yesterday, though. More focused, like she'd remembered something in the middle of her fight."
Now that was interesting: Kyouko leaned forward onto the table, putting the tips of her fingers together. "It sounds like something I've had a suspicion of for a while now: using our magic brings back our memories somehow, just a little bit. A while ago, I forgot to cleanse my gem, and I remembered that my background isn't in the Church but in fortune-telling. That's just an example. I still don't know how I could have forgotten such a large part of my identity, but… concerning Homura, perhaps her subconscious rebelled against the lack of memory, and split her up so she seemed insane. Then after she used her magic once again, she remembered something about who she really is."
"That's true." Big Jotaro tapped his fingers against the table, and Kyouko had to restrain herself from trying to see if it made any dents. "She suddenly remembered she was our enemy."
"I see."
"That still doesn't solve the case of how Jotaro-kun got here or anything," pouted Madoka. "Unless he deliberately uses magic to get his memory back."
"Yeah, no, that's not a good idea." She knew that. For a fact. "Fighting witches or even other magical people is dangerous. I mean, look at what I did to… Sayaka-chan, was it?" She gestured to where the cute girl was sitting.
Had been sitting.
Fuck. "Wait, where'd she go?"
"Oh, no…"
"Good grief."
She can't have gone far, thought the girl called Sakura Kyouko. Stay in touch with telepathy.
They had split up, each taking a different direction, and Jotaro sighed. He'd barely known these girls for, what, a couple of days? And he'd only just met Kyouko. To be running around after them like this…
He looked back down at his ring. It really felt… wrong that Stands had to be controlled in this way. But then… what was right? Was it brooches? Magic wands? Fucking pens or some shit?
He transformed the ring into its soul gem form. That, at least, was easy after the first time.
It was purple: the same shade as Homura's eyes. What was her codename again? DIO? That didn't sit well; Jotaro had a feeling he should be fighting her rather than chasing after Sayaka.
He noticed it had a few little shadows, just around the edges. Was that all there was from transforming it twice? At this rate it would take him weeks to regain all of his memory…. Dammit. He knew, somehow, that time was limited. The only problem was, he couldn't remember his actual objective – whether he had even had an objective in this godforsaken city. Was he even supposed to be here?
Madoka-chan, Jotaro-kun, come quickly. I found her.
He rolled his eyes and turned back again, breaking into a jog. Madoka's voice echoed in his head in response to the call:
Where are you?
He felt – and saw – his soul gem begin to pulse with light as he ran in the direction that Kyouko had gone. It didn't sound good on her end. (But why was he doing this? They were strangers.)
Cairo Street. Hurry. She's – Sayaka, no! Kyouko's thoughts changed suddenly, targeted now towards the presumably confused Sayaka. (That place name. He knew it was significant, but how?)
I… don' wanna… remember anymore… Lost, cold, hollow thoughts, like someone at the very edge of despair. Kyouko began to sound more frantic.
Don't use another grief seed! You've used them too much already!
A flicker of something showed in the soul gem. He sped up, feeling the magical pulse from Sayaka start to change.
I'm sorry, Avdol.
There was an extra-large pulse on the soul gem. Jotaro shuddered instinctively, just as he rounded the corner onto Cairo Street. He slowed down and looked around. There was an old public building, some sort of bus station, at the end of the road; the two girls were nowhere to be seen.
Sayaka-chan, no…
He heard panting behind him. Madoka had managed to catch up, her face flushed the same colour as her hair.
"Where is she?"
"I don't know." Jotaro indicated the bus station and frowned. "I think the signal's coming from inside that building."
"You're… using your magic!" She sounded out of breath, and as if she wasn't sure whether to be happy or upset. "Well, never mind. I don't want Sayaka-chan to get hurt."
He nodded, once; they set off together, towards the building. A menacing aura filled the air.
Kyouko-chan, where are you?
A small witch's barrier appeared, opening up on the wall of the building. In here. Madoka, if you come quick we might be able to remind her of who she really is.
Jotaro blinked. What happened?
Sayaka-chan… There was a pause from Kyouko's end, as if she'd sighed aloud. She's turned into a witch.
