Alrighty! Another fun short.
This should be set during sixth year after winter break during one of the weekends.
As always, neither Arei nor I own HP or Bleach, sad to say.
Chapter 19
Battle of the Bunnies.
Ichigo Kurosaki was very skilled at Transfigurations. Professor McGonagall wanted him as an apprentice after the end of his schooling just as badly as Professor Snape did for potions.
Ichigo was not afraid to admit that he was proud of his skills and that two Masters (Mistress in McGonagall's case) wanted him to study under them professionally. His only problem with his skill at Transfiguration was the shape someone or something was turned into when he wasn't consciously thinking about what he was doing.
Everything had a horrible habit of turning into rabbits.
Small, fluffy, 'adorable,' teeth that never stop growing, claws as sharp as razor blades barely a day after trimming, beady eyed or *shudder* red-eyed little rodents that needed to be taken care of constantly and that wasn't even counting the potential Vet bills! (Despite others telling him that they didn't really need Vet care...he refused to listen.)
Point in fact, it was because of how difficult they were to take care of and how expensive they could be with health bills that Ichigo disliked the fluffy rodents. His Professors had explained to him that the only reason his subconscious took over in the way it did was, despite his dislike/hate of the critters, that he loved Rukia with all his soul and because she loved the fuzz-balls. They had actually been surprised that his Patronus was not a rabbit, but after explaining that his Inner-Hollow had tried to slip out and he'd had to work with Zangetsu to stop Hichigo in order to force his Patronus into 'Godzilla-shape', they merely advised him to not be surprised if it one day changed to reflect his love of his Midget. A rabbit Patronus? No, oh hell no!
Why was he thinking like this? Why was he so very annoyed?
Rukia had found out about the latest Chappy movie despite all of Ichigo's efforts to keep her focused on the Wizarding world and not events in the Mundane world.
He'd thought he'd been home free at least until the end of the school year but noooo... Rangiku had to text Rukia to ask if she'd gotten tickets for the midnight (in Japan) showing.
Ichigo was glad he was good at playing dumb or he would have gotten a kick to the shin instead of the begging puppy-dog look that he eventually gave in to.
#
Alright, fine. He caved within ten seconds of the look being turned on him...
This led to him standing in line, buying the tickets, buying the drinks and snacks and caving to buy her a souvenir plushie. As he waited for the drinks he thought back to the last movie she'd dragged him to see.
Chappy interacted with a lot of other cartoon characters up to and including humans or humanoids. 'Humanoids' as the last 'big adventure' had involved a human-looking 'Doctor' who had two hearts and travelled through time. Chappy had actually been kidnapped by some sort of evil time traveler along with the Doctor in order to prevent the two from 'saving the universe as they knew it'. A scientist was going to make a well-meaning mistake that Chappy was supposed to stop without realizing it. It seemed silly to him but Rukia had laughed, cried and overall enjoyed herself.
Supplies in hand Ichigo found himself dragged to front row seats as the opening sequence loaded. And was then promptly confused.
There was a cat-ish... rabbit-ish... creature, running away from a teenager who was trying to murder it with magical blasts. The critter actually looked like a cross between a rabbit, a fox and a cat. Its main body was cat like with a fox-like tail and while it had cat ears, said cat ears had rabbit-ear like protrusions that ended with pink ear-tips and had gold rings floating mid-way on said rabbit-ear protrusions. The critter had bright red eyes and a red ring on its back.
The creature managed to leap into the arms of a young girl, Madoka, and the attacking Teenager stopped and fled the scene.
The scene changed and again Ichigo was surprised that Chappy still hadn't made an appearance, and he quickly checked his watch to see the time; usually the overly cheery rabbit had made an appearance by now. The creature, after being healed, told the girl that his name was Kyubey and that he was an – Incubator? An Incubator being an alien race of beings who dedicated their entire existence towards counteracting the effects of (and possibly negating if they got enough energy) the force known as Entropy. Entropy was the principle that energy output is always less than energy input, a fact that is presently causing the universe to slowly die out.
In order to achieve this (and save the universe itself), Kyubey and the other members of his species collected raw energy from a source that seemed to be exempted from Entropy; the emotions of girls in their second growth stage (14-18). In order to harvest this energy, Kyubey formed contracts with these girls: the exchange of a wish for absolutely anything, for the servitude as a Puella Magi, magical girls who use their powers to defeat Witches who then drop grief seeds which would then be converted into the energy needed to fight Entropy and keep the universe alive.
#
Did Madoka want to make a wish?
Rukia tensed and clenched his hand so tightly he winced.
She couldn't think of anything...
Ichigo felt Rukia's grip slacken and heard her let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't quite sure why but even he felt that if she'd made a wish, bad things would have happened. But why?
The scene switched and finally there was Chappy. Just back from his trip with the Doctor and happy that everything had gone well. The happy rabbit came across a crying girl and immediately went over to talk to her and try to cheer her up as was his nature.
"... Well," she said tearfully as she looked at the talking rabbit. "I've never run into you before now... things change every time don't they?"
"Change?" Chappy blinked, puzzled.
The girl, Homura, explained after some cajoling that she was a Puella Magi and her powers had manifested in time manipulation. She could rewind time and replay, even change, events around her. That threw poor Chappy for a loop considering what he'd learned about time from the Doctor, but she said her powers were 'beyond even Time Lords due to the Power of a Wish.'
She was trying to prevent the destruction of the Earth.
But she kept failing...
She'd lost track of how many times she'd tried to save them all...
Chappy learned that Puella Magi, when they gave into despair after years and years of fighting or a Wish gone wrong, they became that which they fought. Witches.
The Puella Magi fed the fight against Entropy with their very souls.
Chappy was horrified. The audience was horrified. Rukia was crying as she held his hand tight.
Homura would become a dear friend of Madoka. And Madoka would become the strongest Puella Magi that had ever existed on Earth...
Thus...
Madoka would become the strongest Witch and would destroy the Earth itself in the process.
Kyubey himself, or a future version of himself, would/did tell Homura that only a Puella Magi from another world would be able to defeat Madoka the Witch and the power from that Grief Seed would do much to aid the fight against Entropy.
Ichigo winced at that even as Homura explained that Kyubey's species, unlike the fictional Vulcans in the Star Trek series who buried their emotions, literally could not feel anything but faint satisfaction at a problem solved or faint annoyance at a solution that failed. They didn't understand emotion the way some species could and while they could convert (somehow) the energies of Grief into a force to continue their battle, they couldn't know the emotion themselves.
It explained Kyubey's actions well enough. It was logical, Cold and Cruel logic.
At the cost of every living thing on Earth...
The Universe itself could be saved.
Rukia growled at his side in anger and he unconsciously reached over to pull her into a hug to prevent her from yelling at the screen...
Kyubey though, was required to provide a Wish to someone he had deemed worthy and when Madoka had made her own wish the first time through, Homura had made her own wish 'Let me go back! Again and again and again if I must, but give me the power to go back and change this!'
But Madoka's wish...
Just kept getting worse with each Time Jump Homura made.
With the latest Wish even Kyubey had outright ordered Homura to Time Jump, as Madoka's wish had been to 'Take in all the Grief and Despair of Magical Girls everywhere so that they might not become Witches'. This Wish would have been so strong as to endanger the very universe the Incubators were struggling to save.
Once time reset Homura had gone into a rage and targeted Kyubey, wanting to kill him before he could reach Madoka with a fervor she'd never known before.
Rukia was in tears against Ichigo's arm and he had to refrain from rolling his eyes. He had to admit though that this was the darkest any of the Chappy movies had ever been. It had him wondering if there was a new team involved with his story development. Chappy movies were usually sickeningly cheery.
On screen, Chappy admired the girl's determination, but could feel that she was close to giving up Hope and falling to Grief and Despair herself.
"We won't let that happen," Chappy said firmly as he patted one soft paw against the girl's hand.
"We?" came the whispered query.
"We," Chappy responded firmly. "I'll help you. You said it yourself, this is the first time we've met out of all the times you've done this. Maybe this time, together, we can change things for the better."
Homura had nodded tearfully, hope regained thanks to the friendly and helpful rabbit.
Rukia nuzzled close to Ichigo's side as the pair worked together to save the lives of her fellow Puella Magi, managing by the skin of their teeth in some cases to save the girls in question. Chappy was a fluffy beacon of light for the girls, so full of Hope himself as to help them push back the Grief and Pain in their own hearts. But no matter how much they tried they could not turn Madoka away from Kyubey's side, she could not, would not, believe that Kyubey was evil. In truth... he wasn't. He fought for a Greater Good.
Ichigo twitched at that, reminded of Dumbledore and his refusal to let Orihime heal him. The old man had cited a plan that was 'for the Greater Good'. Ichigo was starting to hate that phrase.
This time Rukia squeezed Ichigo's hand to calm him down as she sensed his reaction...
Twice in the movie, Chappy and Kyubey confronted each other.
The first time was just to talk.
"Do you understand? This must be done. Existence itself needs this sacrifice to fight against Entropy," the red-eyed Kyubey said coldly.
"I understand that what you're trying to do is to save lives all across our universe," Chappy responded, ears, tail and nose all twitching cutely in agitation. "But I cannot approve of it. There has to be another choice that doesn't cause the extinction of all the many different species on this planet! I won't accept that as an answer!"
"There are other ways to get the energy we need," Kyubey admitted with a shrug. "The power of Hope turned to Grief is normally not an extreme thing but for a Human Magical Girl to turn her powers upon others out of Grief and Pain? The power is immense, the output optimal. The Human species is unique in that sense as other species do not feel hope or grief to such an extreme. The power gained by sacrificing the Earth will surpass the power gained by simply drawing on Human energies until their species dies out. Thus it is the optimal choice."
"No, it's not. I'll stop this. I won't let you do this," Chappy said firmly before walking away.
The second time was to fight as the girls battled a strong Witch and Madoka watched on with worried and fear filled eyes.
Tooth and nail the two 'rabbits' fought, Kyubey using magical attacks and Chappy pulling out random items like a mallet or a water hose (how the thing actually spat out water was up in the air). Finally though, as Chappy and Kyubey got more and more beat up looking and Homura and the other girls fell to the side injured, Madoka had enough and picked up both 'rabbits' by the backs of their necks and drew them into a tight hug.
"Stop it," she said softly at first and then again more firmly, "Stop it!"
Surprisingly, everything stilled as Madoka looked on at the giant and powerful Witch they were fighting. Tears fell from her eyes.
"It's not fair..." She said softly to the moaning creature. "You shouldn't have to be in such pain..."
"No!" Homura cried out tearfully from where she lay wounded.
"Madoka?" Chappy asked in a shaky voice. "Please... think about this..."
"I have..." Madoka said softly, "I've thought so hard about this..."
She kissed both Chappy and Kyubey on the head before handing the bewildered bunnies to Homura. She straightened up then, patting the skirt of her dress and nodding to herself.
"Thank you both, you've both been trying to do what's right, protecting the 'big picture' and the 'little picture', but it's my turn to help," she smiled a beatific smile. "Kyubey?"
"Yes, Madoka?" came the subdued response.
"I want to make my Wish now," Madoka said with a nod. "I wish to erase all witches from existence before they're even born. Every witch in the universe, from the past and the future, with my own hands."
Everyone's' expression was pricelessly dumbfounded.
Kyubey started to glow but gained a panicked look. A plan gone horribly wrong from what Ichigo could tell. "This will change the fabric of reality as we know it! What have you done?!"
Kyubey struggled harder than Chappy had ever seen before, struggling to not cast Madoka's Wish. Chappy lunged for him, concerned for his not-quite friend, not-quite enemy. The glow somehow extended from Kyubey, who had started to looked drained as if he was dying, to Chappy. The combined energies from two very special rabbits allowed the Wish to be granted.
The scene changed then to show Madoka turning aside the change of Puella Magi into Witch, even her own monstrously altered form of herself giving into grief was stopped... the girl became a transcendent being with just one, pure, incorruptible Wish.
Ichigo's brows flew up when Rukia shifted herself abruptly into his lap, cuddling close and tucking her head under his chin. He could feel her tremors as she cried as the scene changed to the two girls' final goodbye.
They stayed for after the credits, Rukia had heard that the U.S. was making a big thing out of after-credit scenes and wanted to wait to see if Chappy had one.
To Ichigo's lack of disappointment, she remained in her cuddling position during the credits.
The after scene actually made him chuckle. Puella Magi were still called upon by Kyubey and his kind but instead of fighting Witches they fought the manifest forms of negative emotions. Ichigo raised a brow as he realized that Chappy and Kyubey stood side by side watching over the new Puella Magi together. Each raised an ear and did a bunny style fist-bump.
Rukia burst into teary laughter and cuddled even more against him. He chuckled and kissed the top of her head.
"Enjoy yourself, My Midget?" he whispered softly.
"Yes," she turned her head upwards and kissed his cheek. "Thank you. I love you."
"Love you too, koibito," he responded as he nuzzled her cheek.
He really hated rabbits...
But he loved Rukia more...
Author's Notes:
Koibito = lover. Japanese only say this to a girlfriend/boyfriend if you truly mean that they are your love.